With KS the most glaring example is that I genuinely feel, not think, that I can relate to Hanako because of my own experiences in high school. This goes beyond her appearance (she certainly has a cute appearance) - it's moreso the fact that there is far less mystery for me about what it's like in her shoes...and because she's moreso relatable that just makes it easier to imagine her as 'one of us'. Same goes for Emi - her appearance is immensely cute, especially with the hair down, but her personality reminds me so much of my brother that well...she's one of us as well. Of course, just because I didn't find them that 'cute' doesn't change the fact that both of them still wound up on my #3 and #2 favourite spots.
Shizune and Lilly's looks are relatively par for the course (well, okay - Lilly's the Western ideal of beauty but I dunno...seen it before I guess is what I'd say in my lame defense) and, at least to me, their personalities are very reflective of the upper and middle classes so again...not that hard to relate to them.
Rin is probably the only one I can find cute on both levels, precisely because relating to that kind of person is probably the hardest. So when you don't have much in your life to compare such a person to...your tendency becomes to exalt them into something more I guess. Is that a good thing? A bad thing? Honestly, it depends how you look upon it. We all need our 'good things' to fight for, our heroes and heroines, even if we know somewhere in the back of our minds that no matter how 'cute' or how 'worth fighting for' something is...we probably assigned a greater value to it than the one it deserved in reality.
And I don't think that's a bad thing at all. In fact it might just be the most awesome part of who we are. Just so long as we remain aware of what it is that we find 'cute' and wether we think it'll serve us and those we care about.
Dang...I sure went all srsfaec for a topic as simple as this, huh?
