"Life is Fair" & Twst Anime Season 2
You know, I was thinking about it, and there's a possibility we WILL be saved from the dreaded "Life is Fair" line yet.
Here me out...the Savanclaw manga wrapped in January.
Considering season two is dropping in December, development, storyboarding, scriptwriting, and all of that would've been well underway long before then. That means the last few chapters of the manga probably aren't direct source material for the anime finale.
Now, I'm sure there's communication between the teams, but they're still separate groups, I imagine. It gives me hope that the anime will be even more of an improvement and won't feel obligated to include THE AWFUL Yuuka moment with the "Life is Fair" flip, or that fucking bizarre conversation at the end where she straight-up says this:
Which confuses me to no end because… what the hell does that have to do with anything? Any of the themes? WTF DOES "BEING FRIENDS" HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING AND HOW EXACTLY DOES IT MEAN LIFE IS FAIR BC YOU HAVE A DIVERSE FRIEND GROUP???
If they wanted to do a hard work narrative, like: no matter what your staus or creed is we can all keeping going in this harsh world! I'd understand that. But this feels like toxic positivity nonsense, especially piggybacking off that terrible "Life is Fair" flip.
The lesson Leona has to learn narratively has nothing to do with being friends with others, IMHO. (I mean he could use more friends ig but not the point) Leona already associates himself with a diverse group of people. In fact, he's one of the least discriminatory characters in the cast. He consistently judges people by their talents rather than their status or background. That's why he works with Ruggie.
It would've made so much more sense to double down on the message of, "Yes, life is UNFAIR… but we can't let it beat us."
Diadem is very clear about Savanaclaw being the underdog dorm. That's practically its entire message as a song.
Why would we have THIS powerful of messaging only for our MC to shout "Life is Fair!!" to someone who clearly is suffering.
Besides, Yuuka, by all accounts, is not an underdog. They were setting her up to be this scrappy hardworking character who goes one despite the odds, but...what odds? The only fight we saw was her winning a match, she's a champ who's used to winning. Leona never gets to win.
The only real pushback she ever receives is some disapproval from her parents. And by all accounts she should understand the misogynistic view her parents were pushing on her and it is in fact NOT FAIR. What gives her the right to preach to anyone about life being fair, let alone Leona? And especially someone like Ruggie, who's ACTUALLY had to scrape for everything he's ever had. Was life fair for him that he had to eat out the dump as a kid? Like???
Yuuka was a poor foil to Leona. A character who was more passionate perhaps, or someone like Ruggie would have made more sense.
Besides, Yuuka, by all accounts, is not an underdog. They were setting her up to be this scrappy hardworking character who goes one despite the odds, but...what odds? The only fight we saw was her winning a match, she's a champ who's used to winning. Leona never gets to win. The only real pushback she ever receives is some disapproval from her parents. And by all accounts she should understand the misogynistic view her parents were pushing on her and it is in fact NOT FAIR. What gives her the right to preach to anyone about life being fair, let alone Leona? And especially someone like Ruggie, who's ACTUALLY had to scrape for everything he's ever had.
Was life fair for him that he had to eat out the dump as a kid? Like???
Anyways, y'all know my stance on the manga's weird writing at this point. I'm still holding onto hope that the anime writers go back to Savanaclaw's original message of persevering and continuing to fight in this unfair world despite it being against you! THAT IS SOMETHING ACTUALLY INSPIRING. Instead of trying to replace it with some dumb ass "Life is fair if you work hard enough!!" moral.
It just....rubs me the wrong way. Bc it's nothing but a toxic mindset that shifts all the blame onto the individual while completely ignoring systemic discrimination and unequal opportunities.
Not everyone starts from the same line. Some people have to work twice as hard just to end up in the same place, and pretending otherwise just invalidates the struggles of people who have been fighting uphill their entire lives. Leona needed a reality check by someone struggling more than him perhaps. But, Yuuka was not the right messenger, NOR was the final message delivered in a way that makes sense.
I have no idea why they decided to make "this "Life is Fair" Yuuka's motto when it does such a disservice to her character too by making her seem like some like some one-dimensional "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps" girlboss.
ANyways, MY POINT IS WE HAVE CHANCE for them to fix Yuuka and Savanaclaw's subpar writing.
