I Messed Up And Imprinted On A Disappointing Manga
Sex Appeal, Or the Lack Thereof
I would self describe myself as some level of lesbian pervert in most safe settings. My credentials include having an unironic love of smut, lewd wall scrolls and figures, and a distinct preference for being around women who smell like they just finished sweating. My various machines typically have some form of anime nudity as wallpaper and it's very rare that I bother to change it when company is coming over. I've had several multi-week periods where I put mid-2000's echii slop on as background noise so I could look up on occasion and see sexual hijinks ensue.
I do have taste. I have preferences. I have things that make my legs tremble, and others which make my eyes roll so far back into my head that I can see my own illness and PTSD scarred brain curves. Machimaho never hits those levels of extreme personal annoyance, but it still managed to ick me enough to make my perceiving globes roll slightly.
Machimaho (or MCHMHO for short (or MCHO for even shorter)) is a series about a girl, Majiba Kayo, who invokes many cliches associated with Japanese punk students. She barely goes to class, she chain smokes, she gets in fights, and her sleeping arrangement puts Goro Majima to shame.
"in some ways I can respect their dedication to minimalism..(ovo' ') "
Given the design of her magical girl outfit on the cover I wasn't exactly horrified to see that the main character was going to be sexualized, but what struck me is how…uninteresting it is. When I think of other character's that fit into similar punk archetypes, I often think about toned or muscular bodies. Scars from the various fights they've been in. These characters typically come with their own extreme shadows and effects to emphasize their total control over the vibe when they enter a room. They have 'Aura' as the kids say now. MCHO even goes so far as to include many of these traits for it's men characters, and Kayo often has her own exaggerated expressions and effects too…
"honestly i kinda need to have a one night stand with a woman who looks at me this way (oxe ) "
As a result!! I find it EXTREMELY disappointing that when she gets sexualized it tends to be…boring. Her body type is extremely slender and pretty with barely any marks, and the way the pages depict her tend to be very uninteresting with full body spreads with boring composition or a focus on her underwear. I find it extremely telling that when a 'rival' character is introduced later, she gets sexualized in extremely similar ways despite her personality being entirely different. And like, MAN, it's just boring.
I am GAY, I might even classify as a 'gooner' of some sort, I LOVE women's bodies. But waiter, I still want my steak to be juicy. If a woman like Kayo was going to be ogled by the page, then I think she deserves ogling that emphasizes her character traits better. Where's the angles that emphasis her in a place of power over the viewer, shadows and effects that could let her feel empowered, or god forbid even a shred of muscle on the girl or a beauty mark somewhere. You mean to tell me a girl who chain smokes and gets in fights cares enough to have a regular intensive skin care routine??
But I personally think it'd be hotter if she had some grime to her, some beauty marks and scares. This emphasis on a very generic sexualization even persists into other parts of the manga.
Short Skirts On A Windy Day
Aside from being a lesbian pervert, I've also read a lot of battle slop. Like, a lot. Nana is my favorite story of all time, but shounen is definitely my most read manga genre for some reason. For some reason I LOVE watching fights. My experience with magical girl specific series is limited in comparison, but many of the fights and compositions within MCHO felt very reminiscent of similar scenes and battles I've seen before; With one key difference.
The. Fucking. Panty Shots.
"both of these are nicely drawn punches, but one of them pulls away from the action so that panties can be on display..."
I feel weirdly prudish for even drawing attention to this as a criticism but within the first 30 or so chapters I read the frequency of underwear getting flashed quickly lost it's appeal and instead became more of an annoyance. So many fight scenes sneak in a panty shot in every panel whenever it's possible, to the point of forcing compositions and poses to enable it, and it quickly became hard to have much tension. This feels compounded by the problem I brought up before.
Kayo's sex appeal is often portrayed as flawless, her skin is smooth, her underwear is picturesque, the appeal of her body is on a pedestal that can't be marred by the violence or lifestyle she lives. This results in a clash, where she can be in a particularly action filled scene but her legs and panties are completely flawless. From a pure composition perspective it draws focus to her body and away from any of the action that is meant to be on display.
When compared to other fan service filled series that I'm reading now called “Yakuza Girl,” even though nudity and fan service exists the women's bodies are still allowed to be marred with injuries, blood, and they even have muscle definition to emphasize scenes.
If we go to a more fan service oriented series such as To-Love Ru, then the fan service often has more creativity and more interesting compositions.
"my issue isn't fan service, it's the level of awkwardness in posing and composition that MCHO goes through JUST to show a woman's ass ( >v>)"
MCHO's reliance on constant flashing and nudity quickly turns these scenes into a mundane mush that clogs up any of the action or slice of life scenes. I feel like they work against the main character in some unique ways that ruin the selling point of the manga.
"…when this newly turned magical girl proves to be a crude delinquent who goes berserk in a conflict, it becomes clear that this may have been a terrible mistake. Now evil—and any innocent bystanders—will face the rage of a magical girl gone wrong!”
This description, paired with the visual of Kayo exhaling a stream of smoke with veins popping under her skin in fury is what pulled my interest whenever I saw MCHO at the bookstore on those humdrum summer days. Especially at the time, I found myself split between two worlds. One of someone trying Ver best to fit in with men because they were the only people around, and another that was trying to scrape out places for my own identity to flourish. It was in this weird ravine of identity that made our frequent bookstore trips complicated. No one would have ever stopped me if I chose to pick up something that was more explicitly “girly,” but there would have been little comments and jabs about it at checkout. Banter that started playfully when we got in the car but escalated into worse extremes as the car ride home progressed.
It was in that place that MCHO managed to slide in as something I could pick up and show interest in. The series struck me at a very specific point in my life and managed to stick in my brain because of it.
When I eventually broke through and started buying explicit Girl's Love and books about Makeup and Fashion those jokes were mild at best and didn't go very far. Maybe because it was always clear that I was “different” from the group in some way that made badgering about my tastes not worth it.
Now that I've finally read the series, the years of emotional brain rent was able to finally collect on missed payments. Unfortunately the bills were far past due and I was left disappointed with the return on investment. Despite Kayo's delinquent nature and her traits which line up with so many more masculine delinquent cliche's, her frequent uninteresting sexualization reduces her to another pretty girl in a comic. She can't just be strong or powerful because her panties need to be on display. She can't just be naked or bathe normally because her elegant form has to be served to the viewer.
"honestly I'm in disbelief at just how much this barely looks like Kayo's usual self"
If Kayo was a character who embraced her sexuality then it could be a level of empowerment for her body to be on constant display, but there's several instances where the idea of being naked or losing her clothes brings her discomfort and vulnerability. As a result, any of the power or agency that she might have as a character who embraces so many delinquent traits are undermined because she's a woman firstly, and women NEED to be ogled first and foremost. One of the most indicative displays of this treatment is when her rival, a woman who's opposite her in many ways, faces the same visual treatment to the point that she and Kayo seem to be wearing the same panties and both get shown wearing them with similar panels. It all leads to this feeling that at the end of the day, being a woman means having your body flaunted and gawked at regardless of who you are or your personal feelings. It… left me feeling a lot more annoyed and gross then most depictions do.
"these are the very normal reactions of a woman who is perfectly fine with being ogled"
A Prison Constructed of Straps and Lace
Kayo's treatment reminds me a lot of the awkwardness I felt a lot when being around my old guy friends before I was fully out. I felt like if I displayed too many feminine traits, then the thin mask of masculinity that allowed me to get along with everyone would vanish and I would be treated even more distantly within the group.
These feelings are something I struggled with for a long time even within other groups. The idea of being pegged as “cute” and “girly” felt like quicksand. Even if I still longed for that, the idea of that I wouldn't be taken seriously anymore or that I'd lose any “cool” factors that I carried was a constant fear. I often think about one of my favorite "Gakuen Idolm@ster" girls, Mao, for this reason. She IS cute, but she's much more then that. Being a woman can feel like you're waiting to get thrown in a jail cell you can never escape from. If you're too much a woman, too attractive, too feminine, then you get treated differently. Your body, the way you can serve other people, becomes more important then “You.”
"Gakum@s is amazing, i love all my idol scrimbos (uwu )
When I see Kayo get treated like just another sexy girl in her own story, it evokes these same feelings. Especially as a person who doesn't identify exclusively as a woman. I consider myself some other third thing most of the time, I am incredibly girly and cute sure, but the idea of being labeled exclusively that way feels way too constricting. Much like Kayo, I love smoking, I love the idea of getting in fights, and I also love doing my makeup and fixing my hair. Kayo has a lot of quotes and faces that I absolutely adore as well. But for me, whenever I see her skirt flipped up to show off her ass when she tries to do something cool it just reminds of the most miserable aspects of being a woman.
MCHO isn't the worst thing I've ever read. Compared to other series', it treats it's characters with a lot more respect. It doesn't even have the grossest depiction of women I've ever seen. But the disappointment I felt due to my personal attachment bit deep and reminded me too much of my own personal struggles with identity. That isn't to say everything is hopeless though. I like to be positive, for every piece of media that causes annoyance there's always something better to read. We live in a time where anyone can make something and share it, and just like with Mao, there's always going to be better depictions of characters.
discoholicmusic
izzy806
romaincrisis
andulkaphoto
jbbartram-illu
yousharknotpass