(L) Majo no Tabitabi (The Journey of Elaina)

[mangamuscle]

Originally Posted by Endscape

You can when the other party is a super powerful witch.

Would you you say that if an adult, that by going to the gym and becoming ten times as strong, would increase the possibility of him hurting the people around him would also increase? I would venture to say that you do not think so (otherwise Gyms would be held liable if one of their present or past members committed a crime).

This scenario is no different, adults are taught to restrain themselves, you might be 100x times stronger than a toddler, but any human being injuring such an infant (for whatever reason, the most common being "because they didn't stopped crying") is held as a monster by society at large.

It is clear to anyone seeing the ending that Milarose went insane, without reason to restrain she commuted an act that most criminals would find abhorrent (or at the very least, stupid).

[Kazu-kun]

Yeah. Despite being incredible powerful, witches are clearly taught not to use their power to antagonize authority. Otherwise there would be war between witches and normal people no doubt.

The king, being the representation of authority in his country, most likely never expected what happened. Milarose was a very special case since she lost her mind and went insane.

[HandofFate]

I don't see a problem with Elaina's code of conduct. She's not trying to be a hero of justice, and she is a witch, but she's still a newbie traveling witch. She can still be killed, she doesn't have to risk her life. And her helping after being given a place to rest and food at least shows she's grateful.

I think people are just a bit more critical of Elaina just because she has some magic power.
People don't give Kino any shade because she's just some rando traveler that's good with shooting a gun a bit for self-defense and doesn't really have any big say in any country she goes to.

[mangamuscle]

Originally Posted by HandofFate

I think people are just a bit more critical of Elaina just because she has some magic power.
People don't give Kino any shade because she's just some rando traveler that's good with shooting a gun a bit for self-defense and doesn't really have any big say in any country she goes to.

I have a different opinion. Granted, back in the day I didn't watched Kino's Journey (but now really does not scratch at itch, specially when I have a backlog that includes Baccano). But I think that if Kino and this series magically switched release dates, then Kino would be given flack and Elaina would had been received just fine. The difference being the present expectations of some viewers. Now a female main character that wields power (no matter how inadequate might be for getting names and kicking ass on a regular basis) can't be anything but a heroine, there is this rampant jealousy of so many shonen heroic figures and many people feel betrayed because there is no anime equivalent of marvel's cinematic universe miss marvel.

Granted, I feel betrayed by anime because they don't fulfill my fetish, but I do not bash a series or fictional characters because of that.

[Endscape]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

But he's a king. A king would be convinced of his own authority, even when dealing with witches. After all, If witches didn't obey governmental authority, they would be seen as revels. Contrary to that, the treatment they receive suggests they usually don't use their powers to go against the law.

He probably never even thought about the possibility of this witch (who also happened to be his daughter) reveling against him. That might seem irrational to us, but from the point of view of a medieval king who is totally convinced he's the one who calls the shots, it's perfectly understandable.

The problem with this viewpoint is that this isn't our medieval history.

There can't be people with superpowers around and kings behave exactly the same as they did in our history. Besides, who is to say the reason witches receive good treatment isn't because people are frightened of them, not bcause they avoid breaking the law?

It's easier to accept if you believe the king didn't believe his daughter would harm him over a fling with a commoner, thugh that just makes him really stupid.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Endscape

who is to say the reason witches receive good treatment isn't because people are frightened of them, not bcause they avoid breaking the law?

If you're curious about that you can go read the novel. It goes much more in-depth about the witches' place in this world and all that.

Though, even in the anime you already can tell people aren't particularly afraid of witches despite how powerful they are.

[Wandering Soul]

I mean even if you accept that the King for whatever reason believed his daughter wouldn't hurt him, there's still the question of why she didn't just run away with the cook or retaliate when the cook was still alive or something.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Wandering Soul

I mean even if you accept that the King for whatever reason believed his daughter wouldn't hurt him, there's still the question of why she didn't just run away with the cook or retaliate when the cook was still alive or something.

For all we know her father sent her somewhere and when she came back the dude was dead. I mean, the point I'm trying to make is that this isn't the kind of show where you get all the details and everything clearly explained. Remember these stories are supposed to be what Elaine wrote in her diary, and Elaina is not privy to all the details herself. She only can tell what she saw herself or what she was told. The result is a story that it's very spotty and vague by design.

[Marcus H.]

a story that it's very spotty and vague by design

^ And for that reason, the manga is a BAD place to start if you want to know more. A lot of details intentionally left vague by the narrative in the LN (like Nino's fate in Bottled Happiness) were illustrated in detail in the manga. It somehow compels the reader to believe that it likely is what happened when Elaina outright said that she doesn't know and doesn't want to know.

[Blueknight78]

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

^ And for that reason, the manga is a BAD place to start if you want to know more. A lot of details intentionally left vague by the narrative in the LN (like Nino's fate in Bottled Happiness) were illustrated in detail in the manga. It somehow compels the reader to believe that it likely is what happened when Elaina outright said that she doesn't know and doesn't want to know.

well i read both novel and manga and don't feel like "manga is making things "too clear" as you are saying, nino fate is pretty vague in manga, we don't know what happened with her, they just illustrade the "tale" which elaine told, which was the same as the novel.

if things is about "being vague" then the anime wins hands down, since it cute a lot of info which was in both manga and novel.

[mangamuscle]

Originally Posted by Wandering Soul

I mean even if you accept that the King for whatever reason believed his daughter wouldn't hurt him, there's still the question of why she didn't just run away with the cook or retaliate when the cook was still alive or something.

It is clear to see that unlike Harry Potter of F/SN, in this world mages do not live in a separate secret society with its own rules. They live in the same society and therefore abide by the same rules. Milarose father was not only the patriarch of the family, he was the king, his orders were the law of the land. Running away was not really an option since the king would pay to have them located, back then marriages of interest among nobles was the normal thing to do. Milarose was your average naive princess that saw the world thru pink colored glasses, she had power at her disposal but not a cunning and calculating intellect with a clear plan to achieve her happiness (the polar opposite of Mayne from Ascendance of a Bookworm).

IMO since this story was written by japanese for japanese, it is clear that it is cautionary tale, since in their culture they are taught to endure, that everything will work out in the end if "act like a responsible adult".

[Blueknight78]

others stuffs peoples are forgeting:

before this mess happened and the king killed the guy and made the princess lose her children he was "supposed to be a good king and father", I means, the king was "fair with the kingdom and the peoples", he not was a "full tiranny and all that crap, peoples loved him in the same way he loved the peoples.

the stuff was because the king was "like any noble and aristocrate" from that time and world, he believed which "commoners" are commoners and nobles are nobles and you can't "mix" then, specially in the king case, as it was explainned, if him had allowed she marry the guy it would be troublesome among the nobles which would look down on him without count which he already was making plans to her "marry" someone else and the worst part would be peoples find out about her having a children from a commoner, this is when the "true father and king come".

he believed which her being his "beloved daughter" she could understand what he did and forgive him, which was the opposite he ended breaking her, leading her insane, he indeed was "naive" about it, but normally parents don't expectate they childrens to "do this type of stuff" no matter wha the "parent do.

he think what he did was right, because it was to make sure she will marry someone important and which would be a "good king" as himself and for him a "commoner baker" don't had what was necessary to be a king.

[Magewolf]

This show wants to have super powerful witches but ignores the fact that they are super powerful anytime it interferes with the not very well thought out plots.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Magewolf

This show wants to have super powerful witches but ignores the fact that they are super powerful anytime it interferes with the not very well thought out plots.

The author doesn't have to waste his time explaining why witches don't do whatever they want despite being powerful since anyone could come up with a bunch of plausible explanations anyway. For example, since there is a country for witches (see episode 2) and also a witch association that is in charge of the test to become witch apprentice (see episode 1) we can safely conclude they also have laws that every witch has to abide to. And no doubt whoever lead the witch association knows that if witches did whatever they wanted, that would trigger a war that would probably destroy the world, so they would do all they can to prevent that sort of thing.

I'm sure I could come up with ten more explanations if I actually put some thought into it.

I'm actually glad the author doesn't fill the pages with this kind of crap and just focus on the characters and their immediate situations.

[Marcus H.]

Also, witch powerlevels is outside of the scope of Elaina's journey. Hell, Elaina outright states what she wants and doesn't want to talk about anyway.

[stray]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

The author doesn't have to waste his time explaining why witches don't do whatever they want despite being powerful since anyone could come up with a bunch of plausible explanations anyway. For example, since there is a country for witches (see episode 2) and also a witch association that is in charge of the test to become witch apprentice (see episode 1) we can safely conclude they also have laws that every witch has to abide to. And no doubt whoever lead the witch association knows that if witches did whatever they wanted, that would trigger a war that would probably destroy the world, so they would do all they can to prevent that sort of thing.

The bigger issue is that her being a witch feels irrelevant. She could just as easily be Elaina the Wandering Lion Tamer or something and nothing would fundamentally change. She doesn't work or anything... what are witches even good for in her world and why did Elaina have to become one before hitting the road? The best I can speculate right now is self defense from all the apparent crazies in that world.

[Kazu-kun]

^ Elaina became a witch simply because she likes it. There is no deeper explanation. Nor is any deeper explanation needed anyway. There are shows about witches with even less "witching" than this (see Flying Witch as a prime example). Magic is a conceit to make things more colorful, but it doesn't have to be the main point of the story.

[stray]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

^ Elaina became a witch simply because she likes it. There is no deeper explanation. Nor is any deeper explanation needed anyway.

Except her origin story made it clear that Elaina going on her journey was dependent on becoming a witch first, so now there's a disconnect when she does nothing particularly witching on her travels. It makes even less sense knowing she was a child prodigy... it feels like some kind of important context is missing. In the end it makes it sort of hard to care about Elaina or the world she's traveling in.

[AC-Phoenix]

I wonder how no one has yet suggested that Elaina is actually partially responsible for Slave girl's death, and I'm not even referring to not helping her out of the situation.

Let's all remember: It was Elaina who suggested giving the Slave girl the bottled happiness at the time the Major's son gave it to her...

Originally Posted by stray

Except her origin story made it clear that Elaina going on her journey was dependent on becoming a witch first, so now there's a disconnect when she does nothing particularly witching on her travels. It makes even less sense knowing she was a child prodigy... it feels like some kind of important context is missing. In the end it makes it sort of hard to care about Elaina or the world she's traveling in.

Well we haven't seen a growth in witch powers on her side since a while ago...

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by stray

Except her origin story made it clear that Elaina going on her journey was dependent on becoming a witch first

Not really. She didn't need to become a witch to travel. She became a witch because she wanted to. She liked a book about a traveling witch so she wanted to be a traveling witch too. That's all there is to it.