Week Six Feb. 20: Shojo, 



            Maid Sama, the ideal girl.

            In this class, I was surprised. Talking about the “ideal girl” I expected romance and a perfect girl that acts like a fragile doll. This is one of the last things that interests me. I don’t really watch the “girly” or books growing up. In high school, I hung out with the guys playing sports and video games with them. Some girls told me the guys like me, but they didn’t get it. The guys literally told me “You’re such a guy.” It was a joke, but being a girl, at times it hurt. I liked being friends with the guys, and many of them told me to my face they were scared of me. My problem was that it reached the point that I couldn’t really act like a girl. On the rarer event I wore a dress or makeup, the guys looked at me like an alien. I think that is what attracted me to Maid Sama. 
            I didn’t watch the anime, or read the manga till this semester. I will say that the anime did explain better why she had the job as a maid. The anime said she chose to work as a maid because it paid more, while the manga said that it was because she didn’t have the energy for hard labor jobs. With how strong and tuff she is, it doesn’t make sense that she couldn’t keep up with a hard labor job. 
            I can say that I could relate with the protagonist though. After watching it for a bit, it was obvious she actually liked her job as a maid. She liked being a maid and pretending to be a different person. She was still the tuff girl all the guys knew at school. She would still fight anyone that got in her way, but sometimes it’s nice to dress up and act super girly. I really liked both sides of the character here. 
            I also enjoyed the way the romance worked. It was interesting to hear people talk about her common traits with the “ideal girl” in sojo, mostly because I wasn’t used to hearing these traits. The traits I mostly took note of were that the girl would be strong, loyal, and help others. I also liked that the protagonist in Maid Sama was a little too abrasive, and stubborn to a fault. She cared, but didn’t know how to show it sometimes. My favorite part is that in the anime, she showed she cared through her actions. She wouldn’t tell someone that things would work out, instead she went out of her way to do everything possible to help those she cared about. 
            One of my favorite things in Maid Sama was that in the anime at least, the romance actually worked. The two main characters balanced each other out. She would give to everyone, and he would take care of her when everyone else thought she was invincible. He was not the only one giving in the relationship. When he got sick, she went to take care of him. The two of them would fight and keep each other on their toes, but those fights helped challenge the other. They weren’t beating the other down, each helped the other become a better person. As far as I’m concerned, that is the ideal relationship. A perfect romance isn’t falling into happily ever after in someone’s arms who will give you everything. the perfect romance is where both sides help the other become better.
            I really liked the anime, and the characters. Being who I am, I never expected to enjoy a shojo anime. I am seriously considering hunting down the rest of the manga over break. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anime Class 5 Manga Romance week Manga and government  Questions on weather Manga is good. Concern by parents on the effect of cartoons. At first there was “good” war propaganda. Then there was fear of what kids take in.  Similar to the ideas in America that cartoons and comics have a bad effect on youth. Every time there is a new media to children, parents have a meltdown.  Most Japanese companies have lineages and kinships. It takes years to start working with Japanese, because you need to be part of their family to work with them. It is all personal in business to them. Everything is family. They have magazines for every age so you never grow out of them; instead you just grow into the next issue.  Early 20 th century they nationalized the language. They reorganized it so everyone can read around the country.  A lot of publishing houses published to help with pronunciations and helping show what is said. The government was invo...
Read more
Week Seven Feb. 27: Shonen and Seinen.              Boys Manga             Before this class, I read 20 th Century Boys. I didn’t understand that it was jumping between past present and future till class. the manga really confused me. I feel as though I would have needed to see the end to understand the beginning. The more I read, the more confused I was. I was sad when I found out about the death of the man that was remembered as the little kid with snot running down his nose. The way he was made fun of, but still saved them made him super likeable. This kind. of makes me think of how we also talked about FMA. In that show Hews dies. He was an innocent and likeable character as well. Is there a thing where the innocent guy must die in boy’s manga?             I will say that FMA is probably th...
Read more
Week Ten March 26: Isekai:              Leveling up             Dragon ball, another anime I actually know. My ex really liked this show, so I actually knew a lot about it before the class. Surprisingly, I also really like the reincarnation as a slime story. This whole concept of leveling up makes me wonder if they are talking about life or a videogame.              In reincarnated as a slime, it really did give me a video game vibe. He got past the early levels, beat some little bosses, acquired his kingdom, acquired a metal worker… all things that could count for a video games. I’ve never been a big fan of games where you create your own kingdom. When it comes to that, I would rather write a book or draw out the world than spend so much time on side levels working my way up. The gamepl...
Read more