Re: Favorite girl.
Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 1:22 am
Hmmm... I'm actually considering starting a thread just as a "review" of the first act, as this whole thing only came to my attention a couple weeks ago (looking for translated Touhou mangas on Danbooru), just to give a general point-by-point reaction, but I think I'll restrict myself down to this thread for now...
I guess, if I'm talking about which girl/path I liked the most, I should start with myself, and my own tastes, since that obviously colors the reactions more than any other factor. My favorite female characters ever are Patchouli Knowledge of Touhou, and her psuedo-estranged-twin sister, Yue Ayase from Negima (the manga, not the animes). Basically, the traits I find most attractive are intelligent, strong-willed, introspective deep thinkers, especially when they have a clear devotion to their friends.
I also think I might be a bit odd in this, because I try to look at them through the lens of the people I know from real life, and not just "moe anime".
---
While it might be somewhat odd, it follows from there that the only two girls I think I would be romantically interested in would be Shizune and Hanako, for completely different reasons.
Shizune may be lacking in introspection, but she has what I would call a refreshingly honest streak of manipulation and aggression, which I assume I find comfortable only because basically all the women in my life, including my family, are like that, so it doesn't even bother me anymore. Plus, there's a sort of tomboyish appeal to the sort of girl who not only openly declares she will kick your butt in some sort of game, and takes crazy risks doing so, but just the ability to know that you don't really have to pull punches, and reading through her lines, I found myself wanting to give responses that I know would probably send me down the "bad paths" of a VN if I were actually able to give them.
(Oh, and the fact that I find the short hair/glasses combo extremely hot certainly helps...)
One of the downsides of her path, though, (which I assume will get play later in the story,) is that basically everyone else in the story besides Misha hates her. While it's not too bad when Lilly and Shizune fight, since Lilly can basically handle herself, although I do see it clearly as being Shizune being unfairly aggressive in that exchange, and the same can go for Rin and Emi, as well, but the problem comes when she stares down Hanako just for being Lilly's friend (the scene after the decision in the "Cold War" segment). Strong will is admirable, but just as strength and athleticism isn't admirable when you use it to punch a random person in the face, someone who uses their strong will to essentially bully a helpless girl is flat-out unattractive, and would make me want to interrupt and side against Shizune at that point.
Maybe this belongs more in the "What WOULD you like to happen..." thread, but playing her path, the thing I would most like to see is a chance to make some wager with Shizune where if you win, you get her to basically play nice or make up with some of these characters, especially Hanako, although I know having those two get along would be an extreme longshot. (I know that in these sorts of games, you're supposed to focus only on one girl, and that it's somehow grounds for getting the game to accuse you of "trying for a harem" if you try to be nice to more than one girl, but especially in games where the girls can be seriously hurt or even die if you don't take their paths, it's very jarring to have the game assume that the only reason you would want to save someone's life is because you hope to get sex in return, even IF it is this type of game...)
Still, for all that, I just generally liked the "everyday life" that Hisao had with Shizune and Misha, playing games and doing student council junk. I did, however, feel jarred by how Hisao kept complaining about being roped into having a free lunch with two girls when he expressly wanted to spend time with them in the first place, and continuing to argue only to back down then mope about it again later. (Don't you know that backing down from an argument is only interpreted as weakness in the eyes of girls like Shizune?! If you aren't ready to fight about it, don't complain! If you are ready to fight about it, don't stop until you at least get some kind of compromise to at least save face, this isn't war, it's a relationship, and you have to never give up ground without a fight, or you're inviting the enemy woman to take more!)
---
Hanako, meanwhile, is in many ways the total opposite. Ironically, while most of the women I know have Shizune-like personalities, most of the girls I actually dated had Hanako-like personalities (where getting information out of them was like trying to solve a puzzle game where the slightest over-application of pressure would shatter the whole thing), and so did a few of my friends-who-are-female. In a way, it's fairly comforting as a change, because the tension of having to respond to the competitiveness and manipulation of the Shizune-like women can be tiring, and I generally like quiet alone time afterwards, and I can generally enjoy myself with the people I know with Hanako-like personalities just reading books in the same room for a few hours straight.
The greatest positive I can say to Hanako is that I enjoy the utter lack of social pressure she applies, and it really helps me to relax, and feel like I don't have to keep up the constant tug-of-war sort of relationship I have with the Shizune-like personalities. I think Hanako's is actually the sort of personality I fit in with more by nature, but nurture has developed me to fit in with Shizune's as a matter of survival, but even then, I can't keep up with it for long. Someone I can just sit and read books with, and occasionally try to talk about the deeper themes of a book, and how they relate to an underlying understanding of the world around me is probably the best sort of socializing for which I would hope.
Of course, there's also that sort of voice from the primitive masculine side of the mind that says "Oh, yeah, I'm the big hero who rescues the helpless damsel," theme to helping out the quiet girl who worries about being bullied all the time, but the problem is that there's the other side of that coin...
The negative side of it is that I always have the nagging doubt in the back of my mind that maybe I'm assuming something I shouldn't, or that I'm being too forceful around people like this. It's sort of like being in Lilliputia, you never really know if you accidentally just stepped on a Lilliputian's house, so you have to worry about being very careful in dealing with them, and if you just accidentally offended them, because there's no way you're going to know until things get so bad they just up and run away from you, and they certainly aren't going to tell you, so you try to dance around like a giant trying to avoid stepping on all the fragile little houses underfoot. At least the Shizune-like people will tell you to your face when and why they're mad... It may just be a side-effect of all the Shizune-like people I know, but I just feel guilty for getting my way without a fight, because they'll just go along with the first thing I say to avoid having to argue, and the last thing I want to do is accidentally become someone who bullies the weaker-willed.
(A conversation I remember with a friend-who-is-female... I said, "I'm getting hungry, would you like to go out to eat?" "Umm... I could eat if you're going to eat." "OK, well, what do you feel like having?" "Oh... I don't know... You're the man, you be decisive." "... I have no idea how to even begin responding to that... (My mother is/was a feminist, and I would be lucky just to be slapped for even hinting men should automatically be in charge in male/female relationships) OK, how about this, would you disagree to Burger King?" "Do you want to go there?" "OK, we're going to Burger King.")
---
Continuing in descending order of the girls I would be most interested in, I come to Rin.
Having actually taken plenty of art classes, even being in the art magnet, I have to say that I've never met anyone as much a cloudcuckoolander as Rin. Still, I understand people being weird for the sake of being weird, and there's something comforting in that.
It's just also not terribly romantically attractive. I would probably try to be her friend, but I wouldn't be romantically interested in her.
---
Lilly is much the same. I'd be her friend, but wouldn't be romantically interested.
Yes, she's pretty and kind, but at the same time, the whole reserved nature of her is offsetting for someone who is used to blunt honesty, and it makes her difficult for me to relate to very well, and feel somewhat uncomfortable, since the "I don't know if I just stepped on her house without realizing it" thing applies here, as well.
---
Emi takes last place because, well, energetic optimistic people just wear me out. I prefer relaxing with reading and the ability to have serious, introspective conversation, although I do enjoy direct competition like in games, provided it's somewhat limited, but people like Emi are just too much energy for me to try to keep up with.
---
Ugh, I hope this place doesn't have limits on being too tl;dr...
I guess, if I'm talking about which girl/path I liked the most, I should start with myself, and my own tastes, since that obviously colors the reactions more than any other factor. My favorite female characters ever are Patchouli Knowledge of Touhou, and her psuedo-estranged-twin sister, Yue Ayase from Negima (the manga, not the animes). Basically, the traits I find most attractive are intelligent, strong-willed, introspective deep thinkers, especially when they have a clear devotion to their friends.
I also think I might be a bit odd in this, because I try to look at them through the lens of the people I know from real life, and not just "moe anime".
---
While it might be somewhat odd, it follows from there that the only two girls I think I would be romantically interested in would be Shizune and Hanako, for completely different reasons.
Shizune may be lacking in introspection, but she has what I would call a refreshingly honest streak of manipulation and aggression, which I assume I find comfortable only because basically all the women in my life, including my family, are like that, so it doesn't even bother me anymore. Plus, there's a sort of tomboyish appeal to the sort of girl who not only openly declares she will kick your butt in some sort of game, and takes crazy risks doing so, but just the ability to know that you don't really have to pull punches, and reading through her lines, I found myself wanting to give responses that I know would probably send me down the "bad paths" of a VN if I were actually able to give them.
(Oh, and the fact that I find the short hair/glasses combo extremely hot certainly helps...)
One of the downsides of her path, though, (which I assume will get play later in the story,) is that basically everyone else in the story besides Misha hates her. While it's not too bad when Lilly and Shizune fight, since Lilly can basically handle herself, although I do see it clearly as being Shizune being unfairly aggressive in that exchange, and the same can go for Rin and Emi, as well, but the problem comes when she stares down Hanako just for being Lilly's friend (the scene after the decision in the "Cold War" segment). Strong will is admirable, but just as strength and athleticism isn't admirable when you use it to punch a random person in the face, someone who uses their strong will to essentially bully a helpless girl is flat-out unattractive, and would make me want to interrupt and side against Shizune at that point.
Maybe this belongs more in the "What WOULD you like to happen..." thread, but playing her path, the thing I would most like to see is a chance to make some wager with Shizune where if you win, you get her to basically play nice or make up with some of these characters, especially Hanako, although I know having those two get along would be an extreme longshot. (I know that in these sorts of games, you're supposed to focus only on one girl, and that it's somehow grounds for getting the game to accuse you of "trying for a harem" if you try to be nice to more than one girl, but especially in games where the girls can be seriously hurt or even die if you don't take their paths, it's very jarring to have the game assume that the only reason you would want to save someone's life is because you hope to get sex in return, even IF it is this type of game...)
Still, for all that, I just generally liked the "everyday life" that Hisao had with Shizune and Misha, playing games and doing student council junk. I did, however, feel jarred by how Hisao kept complaining about being roped into having a free lunch with two girls when he expressly wanted to spend time with them in the first place, and continuing to argue only to back down then mope about it again later. (Don't you know that backing down from an argument is only interpreted as weakness in the eyes of girls like Shizune?! If you aren't ready to fight about it, don't complain! If you are ready to fight about it, don't stop until you at least get some kind of compromise to at least save face, this isn't war, it's a relationship, and you have to never give up ground without a fight, or you're inviting the enemy woman to take more!)
---
Hanako, meanwhile, is in many ways the total opposite. Ironically, while most of the women I know have Shizune-like personalities, most of the girls I actually dated had Hanako-like personalities (where getting information out of them was like trying to solve a puzzle game where the slightest over-application of pressure would shatter the whole thing), and so did a few of my friends-who-are-female. In a way, it's fairly comforting as a change, because the tension of having to respond to the competitiveness and manipulation of the Shizune-like women can be tiring, and I generally like quiet alone time afterwards, and I can generally enjoy myself with the people I know with Hanako-like personalities just reading books in the same room for a few hours straight.
The greatest positive I can say to Hanako is that I enjoy the utter lack of social pressure she applies, and it really helps me to relax, and feel like I don't have to keep up the constant tug-of-war sort of relationship I have with the Shizune-like personalities. I think Hanako's is actually the sort of personality I fit in with more by nature, but nurture has developed me to fit in with Shizune's as a matter of survival, but even then, I can't keep up with it for long. Someone I can just sit and read books with, and occasionally try to talk about the deeper themes of a book, and how they relate to an underlying understanding of the world around me is probably the best sort of socializing for which I would hope.
Of course, there's also that sort of voice from the primitive masculine side of the mind that says "Oh, yeah, I'm the big hero who rescues the helpless damsel," theme to helping out the quiet girl who worries about being bullied all the time, but the problem is that there's the other side of that coin...
The negative side of it is that I always have the nagging doubt in the back of my mind that maybe I'm assuming something I shouldn't, or that I'm being too forceful around people like this. It's sort of like being in Lilliputia, you never really know if you accidentally just stepped on a Lilliputian's house, so you have to worry about being very careful in dealing with them, and if you just accidentally offended them, because there's no way you're going to know until things get so bad they just up and run away from you, and they certainly aren't going to tell you, so you try to dance around like a giant trying to avoid stepping on all the fragile little houses underfoot. At least the Shizune-like people will tell you to your face when and why they're mad... It may just be a side-effect of all the Shizune-like people I know, but I just feel guilty for getting my way without a fight, because they'll just go along with the first thing I say to avoid having to argue, and the last thing I want to do is accidentally become someone who bullies the weaker-willed.
(A conversation I remember with a friend-who-is-female... I said, "I'm getting hungry, would you like to go out to eat?" "Umm... I could eat if you're going to eat." "OK, well, what do you feel like having?" "Oh... I don't know... You're the man, you be decisive." "... I have no idea how to even begin responding to that... (My mother is/was a feminist, and I would be lucky just to be slapped for even hinting men should automatically be in charge in male/female relationships) OK, how about this, would you disagree to Burger King?" "Do you want to go there?" "OK, we're going to Burger King.")
---
Continuing in descending order of the girls I would be most interested in, I come to Rin.
Having actually taken plenty of art classes, even being in the art magnet, I have to say that I've never met anyone as much a cloudcuckoolander as Rin. Still, I understand people being weird for the sake of being weird, and there's something comforting in that.
It's just also not terribly romantically attractive. I would probably try to be her friend, but I wouldn't be romantically interested in her.
---
Lilly is much the same. I'd be her friend, but wouldn't be romantically interested.
Yes, she's pretty and kind, but at the same time, the whole reserved nature of her is offsetting for someone who is used to blunt honesty, and it makes her difficult for me to relate to very well, and feel somewhat uncomfortable, since the "I don't know if I just stepped on her house without realizing it" thing applies here, as well.
---
Emi takes last place because, well, energetic optimistic people just wear me out. I prefer relaxing with reading and the ability to have serious, introspective conversation, although I do enjoy direct competition like in games, provided it's somewhat limited, but people like Emi are just too much energy for me to try to keep up with.
---
Ugh, I hope this place doesn't have limits on being too tl;dr...
) to least line-up?
With women shape, but acting a bit like a guy, in a suit, or trousers (see: Fujiwara no Mokou). Just... <shivers>