Initial D (頭文字D) - Shuichi Shigeno
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Initial D (頭文字D) - Shuichi Shigeno
“My Dress Up Darling” is one of the best examples of how perspective is important to character development and the story. Because if you think about it, MDUD is a love story between two protagonists. Both Marin and Gojo fulfill the role of the “average” MC and the person who is out of the MC’s league. It’s like this:
From Gojo’s POV, he’s the social outcast loser who fell hard for the gorgeous, popular, cool girl at school. He can’t fathom why this super cool girl wants to hang out with him, but he’s willing to do whatever it takes to keep their friendship going. Even though he’s crushing hard on her, he thinks he doesn’t have a chance with her, thus his focus is just to maintain their friendship.
From Marin’s POV, she’s the weird, lovable nerd who is a klutz and constantly embarrasses herself. She then falls hard for this sensitive, handsome artist who takes care of her needs (like cooking her delicious, healthy meals). The artist also agrees to make her dreams come true - cosplaying - by designing clothes for her FOR FREE, which makes her fall even harder for the artist.
This is also why I believe the story really gets going after the Shizuka arc. Once you start seeing the story more from Marin’s POV, Marin starts coming off as more of the “average” person while Gojo becomes more of the dreamboat. It’s fascinating because both perspectives work. Marin IS super cool and a klutz. Gojo IS a social outcast and a handsome, sensitive artist. It makes for a fun dynamic, especially when the story switches POVs.
Also, this helps flesh the characters out. I feel like MDUD would not be anywhere near as successful if it didn’t do the switches to Marin’s POV. If the story didn’t, then Marin would just be another manic pixie dream girl there for Gojo’s development, which would be lame. Ironically, Marin’s character becomes more lovable and interesting when the story starts letting her be more flawed, accident-prone and flustered.
Gojo’s character also becomes more lovable because making him the out-of-their-league person from Marin’s perspective feels like a natural progression. I mean…he’s a handsome artist who is an amazing cook, designs 5-star level cosplays for free, and is a subconscious smooth talker (the “beautiful” line). In any other story, he’d be the object of affection.
Anyways, I recommend My Dress Up Darling.
Just finished watching the ending to An observation Log today. As a manga reader, I have to say this was really well done and I had a lot of fun watching it. It is kinda disappointing that we didn't get to see their son and daughter get animated as well, though.
As a side note, the two of them look so good together! *cough cough, clears throat* Ahem, Cecil already looked so much like his dad, but as an adult, he is basically a copy and paste version of the king.
You like RoR ? Come read Tenkaichi.
We have :
• Non-binary homosexual Kojiro
• 8ft tall murderous cutie pie with mommy issues
• First historical black fighter in a tournament manga
• Twink Musashi
• Goofy-ass ninja dilf
• "FUCK IT WE BALL" the character
• Pink-haired Hulk
• Muscle mommy on steroids
• An egg (he's 11yo)
Black Lagoon
Gotta say one of the things I love most about Atelier of Witch Hat besides the storytelling and the wonderfully engaging world-building is the fact that this manga does such a good job at doing Black characters. Really just look at these amazing character designs and such a great showcasing of melanined goodness.
Seriously, as I've been reading this series and just finding nicely drawn black characters within it, even as simple background characters has been quite the awesome surprise.
Mainly because I still notice that you still got some mangaka artists out here as well as some anime creators that still for the life of me can't seems to properly draw black people even within this modern day & age.
Although I'm starting to see it less sometimes, due having seen a good number of some anime shows or notching more newer anime series that have black characters in them that have much better designs than before.
Especially when it comes to not making said black characters still look like something out of a 1930s /1950s racist caricatures cartoon. But! Sometimes when it comes to manga series I still tend to notice how you still have certain mangaka artists that still have this highly outdated way of drawing black people or black features that still reminds me of old racist cartoons from the 40s.
So seeing Shirahama Kamome lovely artsy and the way she's amazingly does black characters designs or other characters with varying body types and skin-tones just makes me so freaking happy to see in a manga.