Boat lights and Mysterious Waifs
Oct. 30th, 2009 12:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grimorieNaNoWriMo's fast approaching and I am in despair!
Well, not really but I am wondering if there's a point in joining, all the times I've joined I've never really completed it. I wonder if its because fanfiction spoiled me? I mean, in fanfic I wouldn't need to think about worldbuilding because the world is already built but an original story means a new world to create and think about which is really far more difficult than I thought it would be!
--
It seems like every time I visit TV Tropes I emerge with a new fandom and this time is no different. I've been doing an Archive Trawl of Mahou Sensei Negima (Magical Teacher Negi) which of course led to an Archive Binge.
It took me a long time to get into this series when I first tried it out I was really, really put off by the fanservice. (Un)Fortunately TV Tropes was very convincing. It wasn't the fan service nor the prospect of finding out who Negi ends up with that caught my interest; actually my interest in Unwanted Harem series are almost nil, the only series I love that had an element of that trope was Ranma 1/2.
The story in a nutshell started out as Harry Potter meets Unwanted Harem and midway through the third volume of the series it shifts to Harry Potter meets Dragon Ball. With a lot of Clothing Damage. A LOT.
It's the clothing damage that kept me away for a long time.
And then I read a paragraph about Evangeline and Asuna that had me reassessing my stance on the series.
On the surface these two couldn't be more different:
Evangeline A.K. McDowell is an ancient vampire with an evil reputation stuck in the body of a 10 year old and cursed to remain in school for the last 15(?) years. Asuna Kagurazaka is the rough around the edges high school student who seemed to, despite having no family, lead a charmed life.
Eva is always quick to point out their differences and is always annoyed whenever Asuna tries to treat her like they were equals. As far as Eva was concerned they weren't equals and for the first few volumes Eva is miffed at how Asuna is able to breach her magical defenses. After a couple more volumes Eva finally reveals a bit of her history.
Eva didn't start out as a vampire nor was she turned into one by choice, she was an ordinary ten year old girl during the middle ages (during the time of War of the Roses to be exact) and on the day of her tenth birthday Evangeline wakes up to find herself no longer human and as hinted by the manga panel below, quite possibly the cause of her family's death.
<-------read left to right<-------
It was Evangeline's simple 'things got easier' by the end of the panel that got to me.
Because to me it didn't seem like 'things got easier' for Evangeline, things got easier because she resigned herself to being called a monster or a demon and started to act accordingly telling herself she was exactly what the people thought she was and excelling at their expectations a little too well.
It was something Asuna pointed out at the end of her narrative but Evangeline only ended up disdaining. A part of what Asuna said was true but I think Evangeline was aware that a large part of what she did was also by choice.
However the thing that really pushed me into giving the series another chance was reading the paragraph about Asuna in the following entries: It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time and I Just Want to Be Normal.
From there I decided to read the chapters that were Asuna and Evangeline-centric (something not so easy to do when the manga has over 200 chapters under its belt) and I was blown away. They seemed so different at first but as their past slowly unveiled we soon realize they're more similar than they'd care to admit.
Asuna is an ordinary high school student with only her different colored eyes and freakish strength as indicators of her difference and for the first part of the manga she seemed to just be an ordinary student except Negi's spells always seem to go awry whenever she is involved. We soon get hints that Asuna may not be as ordinary as we thought.
It turns out plain ol' fifteen year old Asuna Kagurazaka is actually Asuna Vesperina Theotanasia Entheofushia or simply the Imperial Princess of Twilight. She is a person of mass destruction capable of ending a world powered by magic because of her rare ability: Magic Cancel. In fact, we learn that Asuna was the cause of the downfall of the majestic Vespertatia kingdom. Asuna was only 6 (or perhaps older) when she was used to bring about the destruction of Vesperatia and in response she voluntarily erased her own memories and (maybe) suppress her age.
Unfortunately with Negi's arrival in her school (BTW, Negi Springfield is the 10 year old genius wizard teacher in her school) it seemed her Laser guided Amnesia is slowly unraveling added to that her protective instincts towards Negi is actually propelling her towards the very past she had voluntarily forgotten and left behind.
Sometime around volume 12 Evangeline is informed of Asuna's past and her attitude towards Asuna takes a new turn. The parallel between her life and Asuna's past is not lost on her it doesn't take long for the ancient vampire to become angry with Asuna-- Asuna, who manages the one thing Evangeline can never have, a normal life. The manga even shows it during the chapters before Asuna, Negi and the gang head for the magical world.
Evangeline puts Asuna through the ringer partly because she is annoyed that Asuna would voluntarily run head long into her forgotten old life and at the same time Evangeline is also trying to give Asuna an 'out' but the current 'normal student' Asuna is much too determined to be swayed off her path.
<-------read left to right<-------
Eva eventually resigns herself to Asuna's journey citing this as another example of Asuna's 'idiocy'.
Then from that arc I paused reading and started reading from the beginning of the Negima series. It helped I knew about Evangeline and Asuna's story it enabled me to power through the fanservice-y chapters. Reading the first volumes through Asuna and Evangeline's eyes was an interesting experience. It makes noticing Asuna's reactions to everyone even more interesting. Her reactions to the people around her makes a lot of sense in the context of the past she's forgotten.
Somewhere in her past Asuna has taken some lessons to heart and enabled her to see through Evangeline's claim about being absolute evil. Because we learn she was used to destroy a continent against her will Asuna's angry reaction during the Kyoto Arc at the people trying to enslave Konoka and use her as a tool to bring about destruction suddenly takes on another layer of meaning.
Since Nagi (Negi's father) rescued Asuna I think its safe to say Asuna hero worshipped Nagi and quite possibly unconsciously took in Nagi's attitudes to heart particularly his disdain for stupid self-sacrificing heroic acts. Evangeline even mentioned how Nagi and Asuna are more alike than Negi and Nagi.
The scene where Asuna cheers up Ayaka's depression at losing her brother (kicking Ayaka on the head and telling her to cheer-up) seemed pure Negi.
Seeing everything through those lenses I have a newfound respect for Akamatsu... I just wish he'd really tone down on the fan service and well... I hope he threads carefully about Negi's increasing powers. Its a slippery slope there and suddenly Negi will find himself in the same god modding sue as Ichigo (Bleach) or Goku (Dragon Ball).
I really liked how it used to be Asuna or Setsuna saving Negi with the way Negi is going I don't know if Asuna or Setsuna could pull anymore Big Damn Hero moments.
--
For a Harem series of course a good deal of fan focus is devoted to shipping Negi but I'm actually less interested in that aspect of the series. I really don't care who Negi ends up with and other than the cuteness of Setsuna/Konoka I'm also less interested with the current generation.
The first generation interests me more. The Ala Rubra and their adventures in the magical world. I like how the adventures of the Ala Rubra seems to be a deconstruction of the heroic Shonen series we have Jack Rakan bluntly disparaging Nagi's status as a hero citing how Nagi failed to save Ostia and caused more trouble for the magical world with the fall of the old Vespertatia kingdom.
Akamatsu even deliberately paid homage to the end of the first Star Wars (not the prequel, the first one) with the whole world mounting a glorious ceremony celebrating the heroes success in defeating the bad guys only for things to go straight to hell afterwards.
But most of all I love the first generation because it gave us Princess Arika. She isn't a shrinking violet nor a coward, she rises to the occasion and becomes the leader of Nagi's aimless ragtag band. Arika turns Nagi's group into a formidable fighting force, leading from the front and saving the entire Magical World. If there is anyone I ship in the series its Arika/Nagi.
(Not least because both of them are older than ten years old.)
Actually, I lump Asuna in with the first generation cast because she was there 20 years ago. She was part, if not one of the central figures during the war.
The class doesn't really measure up when we take everything Ala Rubra did and accomplished into account. The first generation was epic and larger than life but at the same time also fundamentally flawed and human. None of them perfect but all of them fighting for a larger goal. I don't know how Akamatsu can make going back to Mahora interesting after the events in the magical world but I'm eager to find out.
But first I would dearly love it if he'd show us what happened to Asuna already and quit with the hundred page tournaments that really bore me. If I wanted tournaments I'd watch Dragon Ball instead.
Well, not really but I am wondering if there's a point in joining, all the times I've joined I've never really completed it. I wonder if its because fanfiction spoiled me? I mean, in fanfic I wouldn't need to think about worldbuilding because the world is already built but an original story means a new world to create and think about which is really far more difficult than I thought it would be!
--
It seems like every time I visit TV Tropes I emerge with a new fandom and this time is no different. I've been doing an Archive Trawl of Mahou Sensei Negima (Magical Teacher Negi) which of course led to an Archive Binge.
It took me a long time to get into this series when I first tried it out I was really, really put off by the fanservice. (Un)Fortunately TV Tropes was very convincing. It wasn't the fan service nor the prospect of finding out who Negi ends up with that caught my interest; actually my interest in Unwanted Harem series are almost nil, the only series I love that had an element of that trope was Ranma 1/2.
The story in a nutshell started out as Harry Potter meets Unwanted Harem and midway through the third volume of the series it shifts to Harry Potter meets Dragon Ball. With a lot of Clothing Damage. A LOT.
It's the clothing damage that kept me away for a long time.
And then I read a paragraph about Evangeline and Asuna that had me reassessing my stance on the series.
On the surface these two couldn't be more different:
Evangeline A.K. McDowell is an ancient vampire with an evil reputation stuck in the body of a 10 year old and cursed to remain in school for the last 15(?) years. Asuna Kagurazaka is the rough around the edges high school student who seemed to, despite having no family, lead a charmed life.
Eva is always quick to point out their differences and is always annoyed whenever Asuna tries to treat her like they were equals. As far as Eva was concerned they weren't equals and for the first few volumes Eva is miffed at how Asuna is able to breach her magical defenses. After a couple more volumes Eva finally reveals a bit of her history.
Eva didn't start out as a vampire nor was she turned into one by choice, she was an ordinary ten year old girl during the middle ages (during the time of War of the Roses to be exact) and on the day of her tenth birthday Evangeline wakes up to find herself no longer human and as hinted by the manga panel below, quite possibly the cause of her family's death.
It was Evangeline's simple 'things got easier' by the end of the panel that got to me.
Because to me it didn't seem like 'things got easier' for Evangeline, things got easier because she resigned herself to being called a monster or a demon and started to act accordingly telling herself she was exactly what the people thought she was and excelling at their expectations a little too well.
It was something Asuna pointed out at the end of her narrative but Evangeline only ended up disdaining. A part of what Asuna said was true but I think Evangeline was aware that a large part of what she did was also by choice.
However the thing that really pushed me into giving the series another chance was reading the paragraph about Asuna in the following entries: It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time and I Just Want to Be Normal.
From there I decided to read the chapters that were Asuna and Evangeline-centric (something not so easy to do when the manga has over 200 chapters under its belt) and I was blown away. They seemed so different at first but as their past slowly unveiled we soon realize they're more similar than they'd care to admit.
Asuna is an ordinary high school student with only her different colored eyes and freakish strength as indicators of her difference and for the first part of the manga she seemed to just be an ordinary student except Negi's spells always seem to go awry whenever she is involved. We soon get hints that Asuna may not be as ordinary as we thought.
It turns out plain ol' fifteen year old Asuna Kagurazaka is actually Asuna Vesperina Theotanasia Entheofushia or simply the Imperial Princess of Twilight. She is a person of mass destruction capable of ending a world powered by magic because of her rare ability: Magic Cancel. In fact, we learn that Asuna was the cause of the downfall of the majestic Vespertatia kingdom. Asuna was only 6 (or perhaps older) when she was used to bring about the destruction of Vesperatia and in response she voluntarily erased her own memories and (maybe) suppress her age.
Unfortunately with Negi's arrival in her school (BTW, Negi Springfield is the 10 year old genius wizard teacher in her school) it seemed her Laser guided Amnesia is slowly unraveling added to that her protective instincts towards Negi is actually propelling her towards the very past she had voluntarily forgotten and left behind.
Sometime around volume 12 Evangeline is informed of Asuna's past and her attitude towards Asuna takes a new turn. The parallel between her life and Asuna's past is not lost on her it doesn't take long for the ancient vampire to become angry with Asuna-- Asuna, who manages the one thing Evangeline can never have, a normal life. The manga even shows it during the chapters before Asuna, Negi and the gang head for the magical world.
Evangeline puts Asuna through the ringer partly because she is annoyed that Asuna would voluntarily run head long into her forgotten old life and at the same time Evangeline is also trying to give Asuna an 'out' but the current 'normal student' Asuna is much too determined to be swayed off her path.
Eva eventually resigns herself to Asuna's journey citing this as another example of Asuna's 'idiocy'.
Then from that arc I paused reading and started reading from the beginning of the Negima series. It helped I knew about Evangeline and Asuna's story it enabled me to power through the fanservice-y chapters. Reading the first volumes through Asuna and Evangeline's eyes was an interesting experience. It makes noticing Asuna's reactions to everyone even more interesting. Her reactions to the people around her makes a lot of sense in the context of the past she's forgotten.
Somewhere in her past Asuna has taken some lessons to heart and enabled her to see through Evangeline's claim about being absolute evil. Because we learn she was used to destroy a continent against her will Asuna's angry reaction during the Kyoto Arc at the people trying to enslave Konoka and use her as a tool to bring about destruction suddenly takes on another layer of meaning.
Since Nagi (Negi's father) rescued Asuna I think its safe to say Asuna hero worshipped Nagi and quite possibly unconsciously took in Nagi's attitudes to heart particularly his disdain for stupid self-sacrificing heroic acts. Evangeline even mentioned how Nagi and Asuna are more alike than Negi and Nagi.
The scene where Asuna cheers up Ayaka's depression at losing her brother (kicking Ayaka on the head and telling her to cheer-up) seemed pure Negi.
Seeing everything through those lenses I have a newfound respect for Akamatsu... I just wish he'd really tone down on the fan service and well... I hope he threads carefully about Negi's increasing powers. Its a slippery slope there and suddenly Negi will find himself in the same god modding sue as Ichigo (Bleach) or Goku (Dragon Ball).
I really liked how it used to be Asuna or Setsuna saving Negi with the way Negi is going I don't know if Asuna or Setsuna could pull anymore Big Damn Hero moments.
--
For a Harem series of course a good deal of fan focus is devoted to shipping Negi but I'm actually less interested in that aspect of the series. I really don't care who Negi ends up with and other than the cuteness of Setsuna/Konoka I'm also less interested with the current generation.
The first generation interests me more. The Ala Rubra and their adventures in the magical world. I like how the adventures of the Ala Rubra seems to be a deconstruction of the heroic Shonen series we have Jack Rakan bluntly disparaging Nagi's status as a hero citing how Nagi failed to save Ostia and caused more trouble for the magical world with the fall of the old Vespertatia kingdom.
Akamatsu even deliberately paid homage to the end of the first Star Wars (not the prequel, the first one) with the whole world mounting a glorious ceremony celebrating the heroes success in defeating the bad guys only for things to go straight to hell afterwards.
But most of all I love the first generation because it gave us Princess Arika. She isn't a shrinking violet nor a coward, she rises to the occasion and becomes the leader of Nagi's aimless ragtag band. Arika turns Nagi's group into a formidable fighting force, leading from the front and saving the entire Magical World. If there is anyone I ship in the series its Arika/Nagi.
(Not least because both of them are older than ten years old.)
Actually, I lump Asuna in with the first generation cast because she was there 20 years ago. She was part, if not one of the central figures during the war.
The class doesn't really measure up when we take everything Ala Rubra did and accomplished into account. The first generation was epic and larger than life but at the same time also fundamentally flawed and human. None of them perfect but all of them fighting for a larger goal. I don't know how Akamatsu can make going back to Mahora interesting after the events in the magical world but I'm eager to find out.
But first I would dearly love it if he'd show us what happened to Asuna already and quit with the hundred page tournaments that really bore me. If I wanted tournaments I'd watch Dragon Ball instead.
