Quote:
Originally Posted by Guernsey
To be fair, some shonen heroes and/or heroines are idealistic to a fault and Medaka is no exception. In the real world, their decisions would had gotten them killed ten times over however surreal gag manga or otherwise, it is still a action shonen series where the heroes are more or less rewarded for their idealism.
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Haha, this actually gets into the nature of Medaka Box as an innovative series/piece of literature in my opinion. I mean, you're completely right: in
tons of normal shounens, the main characters are completely unbelievably idealistic but somehow (actually, pretty much precisely because "it's a shounen") they manage to get away with it. Somehow the hero/heroine gets the power to make their dreams reality, to prove their ideals, etc. etc. and save the day. That's the power/nature of fiction. That's the kind of story you want to be telling kids of the shounen demographic age group (i.e. ~6-14 yr olds. Of course, that's not to say that other people (girls, older people like ourselves, etc.) don't read them too).
The first major innovation Medaka Box brings into this picture (which, I suppose to be clear, doesn't necessarily make Medaka Box a better
shounen series; it simply makes Medaka Box unique, and thereby, fairly interesting to me as an older reader), is that this idealistic/unbelievable "make the Main Character's always win" concept is an actual FORCE in Medaka Box's story. That is to say, we all know why Medaka gets away with her stupid idealism, don't we? It's because of the cheap asspulls which come from her being a Main Character. Even Zenkichi used to say, "Medaka is
always right; even when her decisions are irrational or make no sense". It is pretty much implied directly in the story how Medaka's ridiculous luck/abilities are responsible for why Medaka has always managed to keep on winning/standing over other people
despite her many retarded/ridiculous idealisms.
In most shounen stories, the hero holds onto ideals like "hard work" or "friendship" or "no one is useless" or other such archetypical "morals" and overcomes impossible/ridiculous odds in order to somehow achieve victory. As impressionable young readers, we are supposed to take that victory and think "wow, hard work/friendship/believing in people/etc. are awesome!" and take away some optimistic feeling towards the world from the story. What Medaka Box does, however, is switch things around. Rather than trying to sell us some idealistic moral, Medaka Box tells us straight up that "the most important thing in shounen manga is just power/winning", and also that the only thing which controls that is the arbitrary will of the author. It doesn't matter what ideals, what "moral", whatever are being presented in the story; the truth is simply that in fiction, whatever the author wants to happen--happens.
However the NEXT aspect, the second one, is actually more important/valuable IMO. It's also the basis of
good narratives/fiction in general, without which Medaka Box, even with it's "uniqueness", would be worthless. That is the fact that, even though arbitrary authorial conveniences like Medaka's "Main Character" powers or Kumagawa's "Eternal Loser" status run amok everywhere--the characters actually still grow, are relatable, and can be seen as human. Even though Medaka starts off with
TONS of bullshit illogical idealisms and retarded "shounen MC" ideas (i.e. never let anybody get hurt, don't dodge, try to help everybody), she actually grows and learns and becomes a more relatable character. And this basically goes for any of the other characters as well, although Medaka is mostly the only one who is blatantly flawed with ridiculous shounen ideologies; all of the cast are human, believable characters, who go through a process of making mistakes, learning from them, and becoming stronger. The point is that,
even though in the end this entire story is just arbitrary authorial bullshit written the way Nishio wanted it (like any other work of fiction), the ultimate messages/characterizations Nishio writes into his story ARE believable and meaningful and human.
I mean, to use some examples not involving Medaka: Zenkichi's arc was basically all about proving he wasn't born just to be a worthless sacrifice to Medaka. He wasn't born just to struggle pointlessly for her sake, and then be thrown away because he isn't "special". He wasn't born just to forever worship Medaka because of
her "specialness", while never amounting to anything or receiving anything on his own. That struggle was human.
Kumagawa's arc as well: it's
also true that Kumagawa wasn't born just to be a loser, living an entire life just to suffer and bring suffering to others. It is
true that Kumagawa wasn't born just to believe that for him, ever winning was an impossibility, something he should not even bother desiring or hoping for. Kumagawa's failures and desire to win, that was human.
In the same way, Medaka wasn't born just to devote herself to living selflessly/impartially in order to help others. And Ajimu wasn't born just to accomplish anything easily, living emptily in an artificial, meaningless reality. The core parts, the characterization in Medaka Box's story, is filled with meaningful stuff that any human could understand (i.e. "find realistic") and relate to. These is the
real ideas/feelings that Nishio is trying to communicate through his story, not any of the cheap "idealism" of a normal shounen.
In this clear way, then, that's why I think "bullshit Main Character idealism" is one of the major concepts Nishio is opposing with this story. And that's why it's pretty obvious to me that Medaka's irrationality in this chapter is not really something to get worried/angry over. Even if Medaka gets away with her reckless course of action due to authorial bullshit, I'm sure in the end she will probably learn something and come closer to recognizing how to properly interact with reality.