Cruel Angel Theses

This post was originally supposed to be about how Itazura na Kiss was the Entwicklungsroman of shoujo and a show par excellence through elaboration of how the unique combination of slice-of-life and shoujo produced both escalating conflict and substantial character development at the same time, but I got derailed by the blogosphere’s polarised opinion on it, and decided to go for more standard compare-and-contrast commentary instead.

Having just completed the last 10 episodes in a tea-fuelled binge punctuated by bouts of microblogging (from the MAL blog: episodes 16, 17-18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25), I’ve got to say that jotting down your reactions after an episode while you’re marathoning a series definitely helps keep your thoughts from going astray, especially when you need them to write a blog post.

Even more so when you notice that popular opinion was divided along gender lines.

After completing ItaKiss the first thing I did was to compare opinions, and peer review was, for the most part, positive; a quick peek at the Anime Nano and Wordpress.com series tags demonstrated general approval of the show. Further clicking around made me notice that the difference between opinion was staggering to the point that I was unsure if people were writing about the same show–then I noticed a pattern, and 30+ tabs later, decided to list them out by gender to see if there was a pattern.

Amusingly, my hunch was correct–there was a visible difference in how guys and girls approached the series, and decided to collate as many links as I could in hopes of bringing that disparity to the surface. While looking up links, I assumed bloggers to be male until proven otherwise by means of an About page or its equivalent, including but not limited to covert “I’m a girl!” messages found elsewhere on the blog, comments made by males hitting on presumably female blogger, or sentences which, when read in context, would indicate that the writer was of the female persuasion.

Of course, the following posts are by no means indicative of the entire fandom and should be taken at face value due to the 2:1 ratio of male:female. For obvious reasons, female otaku, usually rare in their own right, are even rarer in the blogosphere, and the sampling bias, aside from it being unforgivably small, also tends towards said blogs posting on Wordpress.com and/or being registered with Anime Nano.

—

(All links open in a new window.)

Most guys enjoyed the show and were positive about the experience, in addition to not associating themselves with the titular male character, Naoki. Dissent among those who viewed it judged its lack of quality to be based on technical grounds such as character development, and not due to vilification of the character of the same gender.

Male assent (8 out of 10):
Anime Under The Sun, rroknedaj: “So, one episode left to blog until I let this great series rest. “
Kurogane’s Anime Blog, Kurogane: “Itazura na Kiss has been a really fun show to watch throughout it’s run… (…)”
anime.banzai, nutcase23: “ItaKISS is probably one of the better shows I’ve watched recently.” / “The roller-coaster dynamic of Kotoko and Irie’s relationship coupled with supporting acts by the other characters makes Itazura na KISS a very enjoyable romantic comedy to watch.”
Tea Shop Beloved, deftoned: “Shows like Itazura na Kiss(…)I wish there were more of them.” / “Itazura na Kiss is easily one of the best romantic series of 2008 not because it was dramatic, intense, gripping, cute, or triumphant. It excelled because it was wholesome, realistic, and touching. Regardless of how you view any of the characters, it’s hard to argue that the story was not genuine. I enjoyed Itazura na Kiss because there were no gimmicks, plot twists, or overly eccentric characters. Furthermore, Itazura na Kiss isn’t just a romance, it’s a story about life starting in adolescence and going through emerging adulthood and young adulthood.”
Omonomono, Omo: “I’m sure people will say what inspire (sic) them, as Itakiss is fundamentally inspirational.”
Xebek’s Blog, Xebek: “Ultimately, I was surprised with how much I liked this show.” / “It wasn’t just a simple boy likes girl, girl likes boy, and they dance around the issue for a dozen episodes before saying what’s obvious, it was different and very interesting.”
hashihime, Hashihime: “I just watched episode 24(…)and ended up with tears rolling down my cheeks.” / “But it was a fine shoujo anime, in the end, with some uniqueness about it, especially in the final few episodes.”
Random Curiosity, divine: “(…)had me on the edge of my seat near the end(…)” / “In short, it really felt like things have come a long way since they started, so I was happy to see things end on such a good note.”

Male dissent (2 out of 10):
Star Crossed Anime Blog, psgels: “The big problem is that the creators are just terrible at creating dramatic climaxes.” / “The characters also hardly develop, due to this shallow drama, and there’s very little that’s actually worth watching.” / “Subtlety is definitely not this series’ greatest point, and it should have focused its time at the slice of life moments, and making the viewer laugh instead of these shallow love triangles. I really liked this series when it first started, but unfortunately, the creators just couldn’t live up to this series’ potential.”
Hanners’ Anime ‘Blog, Hanners: “Yet, after the series proper finished last week, here I am with episode twenty-five to watch. All in all, it’s a bit like receiving a card in the post from an old friend, only to find out that it’s to tell you that he ran over your dog.” / “(…)is a terrible, hateful series, full of characters that you’ll loathe for every single minute they’re on-screen until your blood pressure goes through the ceiling.” / “(…)all I can tell you is that the world they managed to create(…)is vile and loathsome, and I’m glad to be rid of it with the end of this series.”

The girls, however, were evenly split between those who enjoyed it and those who didn’t; regardless of their final verdict, a majority of them chose to identify and associate with the titular female character, Kotoko. Dissent  among those who viewed it judged its quality to be based on personal grounds such as the make of Kotoko’s character and lack of intelligence thereof.

Female assent (2 out of 5; Hinano watched the show like a guy and didn’t identify with Kotoko):
Irreprehensible, amayalee: “Itazura Na Kiss captivated me from the first episode. I was completely thrown by the animation style, it seemed like a combo of new and classic.” / “This anime was good before, but it just got better! I really expected it to lag after the marriage, but was shocked when I found myself even more interested in it than I was before!” / “I love this anime so much because it’s so easy to relate to.”
Citrus and Silk, rinjichan: “I might be biased because I’m a woman, but I could relate to Kotoko in ways that most people might find to be almost too coincidental.” / “The rare moments when they were good to each other seemed like a reward for all the hardships you watched them go through. Just remember, if your husband refuses to bring you flowers during your college graduation ceremony, he’s kind of a dick.”
Ex-Fansubber, Hinano: “It’s been a great ride. :)”

Female dissent (2 out of 5):
hikikomori-chan, biankita: “This is one of the most stupid shows I have ever seen.” / “Kotoko is a brainless, non-progressive character who believes that she will get everything she wants in life if she only wished (sic) hard enough for it. She’s a terrible role model to kids everywhere and you should be at least 18 to watch this because you might end up believing it.”
The Scrumptious Anime Blog, usagijen: “My gripe with ItaKiss(…)is nothing else but Kotoko, the only character in the show with less than 0 development, IMO.” / “My Kotoko hate started with episode 9, if I remember correctly. I hated how she joined the tennis club, just for the shallow reason of wanting to stalk Naoki, spend time with him, and all that~ She’s disillusioned, and that episode clearly shows that.” / “But more than that, I honestly can’t find any substance in Kotoko’s “love” for Naoki.” / “I think I’ve outgrown this kind of enjoyable-but-without-much-substance shoujo stuff.”

—

So what does all of this mean? How does one make sense of it? There’s plenty of hypotheses that I could formulate, ranging from “Hinano must be a man in disguise” to “psgels couldn’t handle ItaKiss raw”, but here’s a more balanced opinion–guys and girls reacted differently to this show by virtue of their gender, and while the guys could enjoy or hate the show by looking at it from a wider perspective, girls, on the other hand, could only enjoy the show by looking at it from the perspective of Kotoko, which in turn fuelled their enjoyment or hatred of it. I suspect that this fundamental difference between the sexes shapes our enjoyment of anime and manga more than we think, but I could be wrong, and this is just the one anime, so I’ll leave it to you to figure that one out.

Personally, I watched the show like any other guy did, and while I could identify with Kotoko, I didn’t just identify with her–I identified with everyone, and appreciated how their respective roles had genuine character development that held the massive cast together like mortar on a brick wall. She was unreasonably jealous, I’d grant you that, but just her jealousy alone wasn’t enough for me to drop the show or continue watching it; what made me complete it was how well the whole thing was written, and the way it balanced madcap humour with tender, heartfelt moments that resulted in me alternating between laughing and crying every episode.

Am I suggesting that there’s a “right” way to watch anime, or that guys are better than girls at watching shoujo, of all things? Definitely not. I am, however, suggesting that objective, enjoyable evaluation would be a lot more easier for all of us if we treated anime characters as though they weren’t Real People That Exist Somewhere; maybe the more you strongly identify or associate with a character, the more you’ll agree or disagree with his or her actions, resulting in you not seeing the rest of the anime for what it’s worth? Like missing the forest for the trees.

I found it ironic that Hinano, whose taste in anime varies greatly from mine, nailed the issue on the head with a simple comment over at usagijen’s post:

I think the problem you are having is you have to kinda step back and be like “lol Naoki’s a fag” and “lol Kotoko’s an idiot” and suddenly everything is funny and the show is awesome! :D

In other words, take your anime seriously, but don’t let it get to you. Why so serious? Life is too short to get so mad over 2D characters, and I mean in that in every way possible.