What causes certain characters to rise above others, completely capturing my imagination, and earning my undying appreciation and love? What is the
it factor to these characters? Why do they shine
so much more brightly than some other characters that, at an analytical level, may seem just as strong if not stronger?
To answer these questions, there is no better character to turn to than
Honoka Kousaka, the lovingly lustrous leader of
μ's. Besides, it is also the perfect time for me to do a write-up on my favorite anime character of all-time.
It's probably safe to say that everybody here in RRRound Table is well-aware of my love for Honoka. After all, it's her image that's the very image for this social group! And many of you I've talked to at length about Honoka. So to keep this fresh, I want to dive deeply down into uncharted territory when it comes to why I like Honoka so much.
One key point stands out in my mind - Much of what I like about Honoka is the same as what I like about
anime in general.
Anime has an amazing ability to take the everyday and make it seem strikingly special, if not glorious. Think of the many
Slice of Life anime shows, as well as "Cute Girls doing Cute Things" shows, where the focus is on fairly ordinary daily living and daily relationships. Anime takes this, and makes it sparkle. School uniforms, and even everyday civilian clothes, no longer seem drab or ordinary. The tiniest hair-piece stands out like a captivating crest, the most commonplace sort of relationship drama becomes exquisitely engaging. How does anime do this? That in itself is a good question! Perhaps worthy of its own RRRound Table post in the future.
So how does this relate to Honoka? Well, anime tends to marry the
normal with the
special. One of the interesting contradictions in life is how people often want to be normal
and special. People may not come out and say it, but you can tell that these twin concerns motivate a lot of people. To clarify, people want to be understood (normal) and valued (special). People want to be accepted (normal) and complimented (special). People want to "fit in" (normal) but also "stand out" (special). People want smooth easygoing daily living (normal) but also want to be remembered (special). Now, I don't want to overstate "normalcy" here, as we thankfully live in a time of relatively high tolerance for differences. Even so, people still don't want to be thought of as "weird" usually. There's a certain comfort in "normal". But there's also something a little boring about "normal" which plays into the desire for "special". Can you have the best of both worlds?
Honoka can! And Honoka does.
When it comes to raw IQ, Honoka seems to be of roughly average intelligence. Her friendships, her favorite foods, her favorite past-times, are mostly very normal. Going to the beach, hanging out with friends, going on vacations, loving food, this is all very normal. Perhaps most importantly, Honoka is comfortable in her own skin, though rarely cocky or domineering. Psychologically, she seems well-adjusted but has typical weak points and questionable habits. When it comes to her appearance, she is very much the "girl next door". In the various
Love Live official measurements, Honoka truly is
the center. Even her hair color and her eye color, pretty as they are, is the very image of normalcy in both real life and anime.
Yet, she stupendously shines. Her dreams are indomitable. Her hopes are chased after with an impressive zeal. Honoka
is talented, as she is gifted with a beautiful voice, but she is not a musical genius. She has good determination and some good ideas, which helps make her a very effective leader, but she also stumbles and falls. Sometimes literally so. She's competent, but not hyper-competent.
So normal, yet so smoothly special. And by being this way, she makes the normal seem so musically miraculously magical. Honoka Kousaka effectively proves Sayaka Miki right.
So Honoka's weaknesses, her flaws, become strengths. They humanize her, they ensure that for all of her admirable strengths she never even comes close to a Mary Sue. For all of her awesome victories, she never once seems too good for her own good.
Honoka's simplicity of thought, a weakness in some contexts, becomes breathlessly beautiful throughout the Love Live narrative. It gives it such pure uncomplicated momentum. Save the school, win Love Live, make great memories with beloved friends, do right by our fans but stay true to our group, these ideas
truly take over, without self-defeating irony and with great earnest. Love Live in general, μ's as a group, and Honoka specifically, all benefit greatly from this. Love Live feels wholesome and whole.
While Honoka personifies anime's frequent strength of marrying normalcy to wonderment, her and her anime also avoid anime's common weakness of excessive ambiguity and indecisive endings. Honoka and μ's make real choices, choices with consequences, choices that reveal character, choices that speak to who these people are.
Honoka truly loves her school, she truly values it. So many "save the school" or "save the club" plots in anime lack energy and vigor because it feels perfunctory. In the case of the original Love Live, and in the case of Honoka, it is not perfunctory. I
feel their desire. I feel the sweet sincere sentimentality that moves Eli, that moves Kotori, that moves Umi, and that moves Honoka. I feel these girls' love for their school, and so I feel very emotionally invested in their attempts to save their school. The same is true for them winning Love Live in Season 2. And the same is true for them leaving a lovely lasting legacy for all school idols, in the Love Live Movie.
Love Live has a
beautiful story,
because of its simplicity. Because of its lack of ambiguity. But that lack of ambiguity is complimented by real hard choices and tough decisions, giving the story a strong sense of weight. I might not always agree with the decisions that Honoka and μ's make, but I always understand them.
Very normal human desires take center stage in Love Live, and in Honoka's heart. They care about the people and places that are close to them, close in every respect. But they also embrace the foreign, and the frenzied faceless fans. They love the near and dear, but they don't lose sight of greater visions of wider horizons.
And so here again, Honoka marries the normal with the special. She loves and values her largely normal teenage life, but she also embraces daring dauntless dreams. In this way, she is a profoundly life-affirming character. Honoka's whole approach to life seems so healthy and uplifting to me.
I can think of no fictional character that does all of this as well as Honoka does. Except, maybe, Clark Kent. That's probably the main reason why Honoka and Superman are my two favorite fictional characters of all-time.
Honoka, and her μ's teammates, wear so many fantastically flashy frilly costumes. Boundless breathtaking beauty, from one costume to the next, and from one simply soaring song to the next. An artistic
Tour de Force, delivered by pretty normal pretty teenage girls, all lead by humble heavenly Honoka. By the end of her story, she is a celebrity and a hero, but she's still the same simple sweet family-girl.
No wonder her father cries tears of joy.
I think I'll end it here. What I love about Honoka is hard to put into words, but I feel I've come close enough with these last few sentences.
I wanted to do this before Honoka and μ's faded too far into the mists of anime history. I wanted to do this before 2016 ended. I hope that it may be persuasive to those who don't like Honoka as much as I do. I may write Honoka in future fanfics, and you will likely see her in future Triple_R avatars and sigs and photoshop works. But I wanted one last tribute to this cathartic cherished character before I move on, like a cowboy riding off to the simple Sunshiny sunset...