[Solace]

Originally Posted by FatPianoBoy

Which is good, because it shows them as an entire race of individuals rather than just multiple copies of one stereotypical personality *cough*Star Trek*cough*

Hehe, so very true.

Indeed. Not fined, not arrested - killed. It really accentuates the status of men in this new society, which is nearly on par with some of the most gender-biased societies than humanity has managed to produce.

I agree. I once thought of making an editorial post on how our (generally) male dominated social structures compare to the totally reverse structure of the Arume and the resulting effects of how they clash. Sometimes I think the story is also an allegory of an extreme "what if" situation where women dominated society instead of men. Using science fiction as a backdrop makes it easier to take those ideas to places you couldn't go by simply using "normal" society.

That's an earmark of good writing. Anyone can write a story about a mustache-twirling villain and a knight in shining armor, but it takes sincere effort and planning to write a story using these kinds of characters - especially one with such weird internal conflicts as Kotoko.

The extreme qualities work so well to illustrate the mundane aspects of the characters I think. In that world they aren't quite as shocking. It's hard for someone in our position to understand how someone could possibly think or act in such a way. But then you see them deal with those actions by discussing them, or acting out on them and you see that they struggle just like a real person might if they were in such a situation. It puts them beyond being a characterization or stereotype into feeling like a flesh and blood person. You kind of feel like you know them a little better and because of that they seem more relatable (even if you still don't like them! )