I still love you, oh poor Hot Gimmick

[dangermousie]

They are bashing Hot Gimmick on the Hanadan comm (someone brought up a comparison between the two) and this is making me cry big elephant sized tears.

I love Hot Gimmick. Yeah, yeah, it might set a bad example for tweenie girls trying to find themselves or what not and give them wrong expectations about relationships and what not, but I don’t caaaaare. (What are impressionable minds doing, reading manga with almost gang rape in it anyway?) It’s my delicious guilty pleasure.

And for the record? I am a Ryoku fan. Yeah, yeah, the boy is a poorly socialized jerk but I don’t have to date him. He amuses me. I don’t care if Hatsumi is sort of compliant and not Tsukushi-like bulldozer. And yeah, Ryoku doesn’t have the character growth Domyouji does. So what? If they were like that, it would be Hanadan 2.

I did write a Ryoku apologia here so all I am going to say is, hey, whether he is bossy and she is weak or not, outwardly, it’s pretty clear who has the emotional whip-hand in that relationship. After all, she could totally leave him and break up with him and he was the one unable to let go. And he was the one going ‘you slept with your brother, I don’t care, I love you, come back to me anyway.’ (Yeah. Adopted brother. Still). He might be all about being in control about little things but only because she lets him :D It’s pretty clear who is more invested in the ‘ship.

Yes, of course I prefer Hanadan. Doesn’t mean Hot Gimmick is bad.

P.S. Now Asuza? The one responsible for the almost-gang-rape? Yeah, fine, brickbats. Ugh.

Comments

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

Hatsumi could totally bring Ryoku to his knees in the long run. He might be a jerk, but I think they both know who's very in control of that relationship. Ryoku's got to have something to control, so Hatsumi lets him obsess over smaller stuff. In the big picture, she makes the puppet dance.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Exactly. He might be bossy over all sorts of little things but it's in the nature of 'see, see, see, I am so not whipped.' Because, come on. During their break-up he is all 'please please please come back to me beg beg beg beg beg, I will totally hug you and tell you I don't care if you lost your virginity to the guy I am most jealous of in the world and pleaaaaaase.' She was sad about the break-up but functional, and she is the one who dumped him. I am a bit woozy on sequence of stuff in HG because it's been a while since I read it, but didn't he also get sick as a result? Heh. So whipped. If she wanted to, she could so make him do anything.

He is so not someone I would date. But then, I am not Hatsumi.

P.S. This is so their future married life. Yeah, yeah, we know you really like it, Ryo, so give it up :D

[tatterpunk.livejournal.com]

See, this is why we're friends. Because we're smart like this, and we know how to enjoy the freakin' manga storyline which, hey, depends on a doormat heroine, but they can't all be shining examples of feminist literature, okay? They're MANGA.

i agree 100% with everything you said, if you can't tell.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Exactly :P

I mean, it's manga. If I started counting the ways manga doesn't reflect real life, I'd run out of fingers and toes. Give me a fun story with some tension and I am set.

Btw, have you gotten your hands on ep 4 of Hanadan yet? And hope you are feeling better!

[tatterpunk.livejournal.com]

Seriously. If I want real life, I will participate in real life. But I wish to cut back on my real life. As far as I am concerned, there is an over-abundance of real life. Give me hot guys in boarding school uniforms who all crush on the same girl any day.

Noooooo, no Handan four, yet. *sob* For some reason I can't torrent it off the website. I am content to wait, however, and tide myself over with HanaKim. (Saw Ep 2. OMG. When she decides they're going to brush their teach together. The look on his face. And then when she bashfully swipes some smutz off his face with a towel. I think I broke something I was laughing so hard. SO HARD.)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

For Hanadan 4 if you can dl from megaupload or sendspace go to bittersweet_bun's lj and she has them in that format (I assume you have HJSplit to join the parts).

Oh, and since I know you are a fellow Mars-o-holic, I did a huge Mars meta here (http://dangermousie.livejournal.com/688455.html) *toots own horn*

Btw, Hot Gimmick S has been licensed in the US. I am sort of dreading it. Hate alternate endings.