Quote:
Originally Posted by jtstellar
... what is particularly interesting about her, what does anyone see and want to imitate, if at all, about this character saki that can be just about anyone else randomly pulled off from the street. i mean, she is that generic. and she doesn't seem to develop.. granted this story is more about suspense than character development.
|
Thanks for your interesting posts. I think shounen/adventure shows tend to be about
imitating some character and what he does, but shoujo/romance shows (and josei and seinen shows, perhaps) are maybe less didactic and more about
identifying with a character and what happens to her. Saki is the heart of the show because I see the world from her perspective while I am watching, whether she is always doing the best thing or not.
I find her very real and sympathetic. It's less that she is developing than that we are gradually discovering who she really is: her despair and uncertainty, but also her determination. She's hardly generic. Who is likely to give their coat to a naked guy on the street? She was the real animating force behind the Eden of the East group, as far as I can tell. She refused a job offer because it didn't feel right, despite being a company she thought she wanted to join.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jtstellar
i know you were responding to someone else, but what does 'the only person who wants her is a dork' mean.. is that some sort of pyramidal rating system? it seems like every character in the series including takizawa tries to please her but if your analysis was correct, she feels she has a plain life because the quality of her pursuers weren't as high as she wants, and the company she applies to (which she missed an interview for) denied her? i mean sorry, i just don't understand how a female's mind works perhaps because it's so out of touch with reality. sorry in advance for my lack of humor and imagination.
|
As far as I can tell, I wasn't establishing any "pyramidal rating system." This is a simple matter. Her devoted admirer, Oosugi, is not someone she herself is attracted to. He is a very uncool, rather slavish and blind person, too conservative for her, despite his virtues. I myself don't hate him and think he is justified in what he is doing now, whatever his motives. But the fact remains that she doesn't like him in a romantic way, and the anime has been at pains to paint him as a bit of a buffoon.
Why shouldn't she feel her life is unsatisfactory? She has no boyfriend (not even Akira, as yet). Her chosen publishing company turned out to seem as if it was going to exploit her, so she refused its offer (that was before the missed appointment with the construction? company). Now she thinks maybe she should have accepted, but still knows she didn't want to. She is not some little mouse, but demands more than a mouse-like conventional life as a wage-slave and eventual wife of someone she doesn't love. She even wants to improve the world, as evidenced by the recycling club. I guess all this is a bit "out of touch with reality," but maybe it's also having some real ambition for her life, and a bit of independence and spirit, despite her mild nature. If she settles for less, she'll never have more. She had the good judgment to realize that this Akira guy was actually not just a freak, but someone special. And I expect she will be crucial in the final development of the story, maybe even in ep11. In any case, it seems pretty likely that she will someday speak the epilogue, as she did the prologue. The story is told through her, I think.
Artist
