♥ing the heartless
I found myself belatedly developing an interest for and liking of Ryoko Asakura after the initial airing of Haruhi. It had been sparked off by the yuri content of Ryoko's creepy stalker Shizuru-like crush on Yuki in the fourth novel, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya but continued to grow with exposure to Stripey's fanboying.
The critical limit of self-awareness was finally breached when I found myself purchasing a few Ryoko doujins and the Ryoko chara-CD (not to mention browsing of numerous Yuki x Ryoko doujins at ComiKet 72).
I suppose some fans are Ryoko fans because she is seen as yandere and/or psycho-moé. Like lolicon, moé and tsundere, the precise definition of the term yandere would also hotly disputed but my yardstick is still Kaede Fuyou of SHUFFLE! whose aspects of being genuinely lovely as well as insanely insecure and violently jealous are in constant conflict.
Initially I had found Ryoko's cheeriness to be even more chilling precisely because of her veneer of sociability. Her default setting of friendliness with her schoolmates shows just how much appearances and surface impressions can aid one's popularity despite being psychologically pathological inside. But her confrontation with Kyon shows how little she truly understands human emotions or why people fear death. In contrast, beneath her default expressionlessness, Yuki develops and displays her humanity through how she cares about and takes care of her fellow SOS Brigade members (particularly when she saves everyone from killed by the various Mikuru beams during the filming of what becomes Episode 00).
And it was only while viewing Stripey's R3 Haruhi DVDs on his magnificient TV did I realize why I had grown to like Ryoko (aside the yuri). Despite my initial horror at her inhumanity and inability to understand the value of human life, I came to appreciate her 'naughtiness' and this changed the way I interpreted her character and classic utterances like her request to Kyon to die: ???♥ (yes, 'Die' with the little heart in abovementioned R3 DVD chapter titles). She knew that she was being insubordinate towards her oneechan Yuki and the faction of the IDSE that created her but she was sure as hell going to enjoy being a bad, bad girl/organic alien-human interface.
In contrast to Ryoko who has never been organically human, the Abyssal One, Riful of the West, was once human but has long since forgotten it due to time and power overwhelming. Again, how she still retains some surface human mannerisms was quite chilling - her childish entreaties to Clare and co to awaken and join her would have been cute if not the utter incongruence of her mannerism and what she was asking of them.
I still haven't gone over to the Striped Side of Riful fanboydom yet. But still, it would have pretty hilarous if she said something like: 'After you join me, you can call me Oneechan!' And being voiced by Nana Mizuki alway helps. So I can meet Stripey halfway on Riful.
Gretel from the second season of Black Lagoon started out and remains organically human but was dehumanised by the inhumanity of the underworld. Like Rock, I was actually happy for her when she was put out of her misery because what Benny said made complete sense. There's no going back for her, there isn't a road to redemption only perdition. The only way one can fanboy about her is to concentrate on (1) loli, (2) goth-loli, (3) heeds the motto of S.I.S.C.O.N.. Sorry bro, the Oneesama wing can't find any common ground with you here.
And for the most heartless harem lead EVAR, who else but Makoto Itou from School Days? The guy remains a Tin Man until his epiphany under the Christmas tree. He gets my ♥ out of pure envy but mostly because his Bad End allows me to describe his fate as:
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October 10th, 2007 - 02:45
I absolutely agree with you regarding Gretel. Her death put her in a far better place then the one she was in. She finally found the peace that elude her in life in her death.
October 10th, 2007 - 02:48
My motto has always been – If you are cute, pretty or lolicious, I don’t care if you carve me up with a nailcutter, as long as you’re nice about it. Going nii-san is a bonus of course. XD
Great to see we share much love, bro.
October 10th, 2007 - 04:38
I need to get that song from somewhere – that was my favorite part of the episode… especially with the poignancy of the voice.
October 10th, 2007 - 04:56
Dude, Ryoko gives good head :V
October 10th, 2007 - 07:01
^ Stripey
That gave a pretty hilarious image in my mind.
(Imouto chasing Onii-chan)
“Onii-chan! Onii-chan! We’ll always be together… FOREVER!”
*stabs* *stabs* *stabs*”
(Imouto hangs herself and Onii-chan in the same room; their fingers connected by a red string of fate)
~~~~ ~~~~
Strangely though… I can’t think of any psycho-moe-riffic Imoutos with an insane obsession for their elder brothers. Potential untapped market niche here?
Cheers.
October 10th, 2007 - 07:50
Actually, I just happened to have a little discussion with a friend a few days ago over whether the Asakura in Disappearance is ‘really’ Asakura, or just something Yuki made in her image to watch over her little reality, and by extension whether she likes Yuki behind their ideological differences or not.
October 10th, 2007 - 13:20
Xellos-_^, it was really amazing how the end of that arc managed to portray the betrayal of trust and being shot in the head as a good thing. 0_0 That’s the magic of the Black Lagoon universe methinks: a world where all problems can be solved with alcohol and guns.
Bro, I refer to Skane’s comment. Is that moé for you? XD And DrmChsr0’s pointed out a good reason too – don’t always have to be pretty, loli etc., good technique helps too.
Haesslich, it’s not in the anime OST but from the game vocal album.
DrmChsr0, somehow I just have the impression that Ryoko’s technique would be decidedly teethy.
Skane, ROTLMAO!
Frankenstein’s Clare, I guess it depends on your view of whether an alternative universe is canonical too. I bypass that whole debate by just fanboying about the dynamics within the Disappearance universe itself – even if it’s a figment of Yuki’s imagination, that’s some pretty interesting imagining.
October 10th, 2007 - 20:53
Ryoko kinda reminds me of good ole HAL 9000. Kinda hard to blame a computer for trying to faithfully carry out its orders to the best of its ability and with impeccable manners… Although that might change if *you* were the one that got killed in the process, sorry about the inconvenience and have a good day. ^.^
Personally I wasn’t too fond of the “Hansel & Gretel” arc of ‘Lagoon, although that’s just because I found it asked for too much suspension of disbelief in the wrong places. I mean, who the fig was the idiot who decided to arm a scrawny little kid with a ten-kilo BAR automatic rifle…?
October 11th, 2007 - 03:15
Congrulations for finding attractiveness of yandere.>_<
Or (4) psycho-moe. There are people who get exited because of the close to death situations. Know what I mean…XD
October 11th, 2007 - 03:18
Congrulations for finding attractiveness of yandere.^^
<>
Or (4) psycho-moe. There are people who get exited because of the close to death situations. Know what I mean…XD
Sorry about double post….
October 12th, 2007 - 00:02
I can’t really say that I’ve converted to yandere since I still think that:
Asa > Kaede
Yuki > Ryoko
Tessa > Chidori
etc etc.
Having said that, Ryoko is a more interesting character than I initially gave her credit for.
October 13th, 2007 - 21:55
Weirdly, I don’t find most yandere attractive, but Ryoko doesn’t appear to trip off my Very No senses. I suppose this is due in part to the same reason why I don’t like tsundere: I take everything at face value, so I can appreciate Ryoko being all nice and sweet while she hangs me by my figgin.
I suppose this is known as “being shallow”.
I’m trying to figure out where Suigintou (of Rozen Maiden) fits in. Never actually human or organic, was introduced to the viewers already psychotic, but with several oddly softer moments. I wonder if it says something that she’s my favourite RM character, but I wouldn’t have liked that character type in any other setting.