Seimaden Vol 3

[meganbmoore]

I must confess, I don't know that I like Laures that much.  The incredibly popular "manslut because of angst" trope has absolutely zero mileage with me (I think the only character ever where it didn't cause my opinion of them to drop is Gojyo) and it loses even more ground when it's because of romantic angst.  Still, he seems to be laying off that.  My main use for him, though, is saving Hilda and angsting over her and doing dramatic things there.  He does those in ways my inner 13-year-old likes.

This is Higuri You manga.  Like Kaori Yuki manga I have nothing but spoilery exclamations:

LAURES BECOMING THE COUNT'S SLAVE TO SAVE HILDA!  
LAURES IN A CAGE!  
ZADEI BRINGING HILDA TO LAURES IN HIS CAGE!  
HUGGING THROUGH CAGE!  
KISSING THROUGH CAGE!  
LAURES ENTERING INTO DEMON GLADIATOR FIGHTS FOR HILDA!
DRAMATIC CONFESSIONS OF LOVE!

There's also Roddrick and Hilda's whole "I am the hero and you are the heroine and we were meant to be from birth and destroy the demon lord except you are the reincarnation of the demon lord's True Love and so you love him and I must accept it and I will always protect you even though I'm off to kill your True Love now!"  aaaaaaaannnnnggggggsssssttttt.  It kinda makes me feel guilty that I'm not a fan of Roddrick, what with his being the good guy and all, but he's just kinda...dull, next to everyone else.

Tetius and Zadei are like an extreme "nice girl/violent bad boy and the nice girl is hung up on the other bad boy" shoujo cliche only as slash.  Which, as the main thing, would alienate me like nobodies business for my usual reasons, but as a side pairing in a gothic shoujo crack manga I read primarily to satisfy the dark urges of my inner 13-year-old who likes gothic shoujo cheese in spite of the adult's opinions.

Cheryl and Tetius are a mass collision of cute.  I'm sure any fandom this has hates her for distracting Tetius from the angsty evil demon lords.  (I don't get the impression they like each other that way anyway, though Tetius would probably be much better off redirecting his attentions to a nice girl like her.  Or boy.  Whatever.)

And Hilda goes around bashing windows in the duke's castle, looking for a way to escape  I love you Hilda.

And finally:  ROOM OF STUFFED CORPSES!  HILDA BEING TOLD HOW SHE'LL BE POSED WHEN SHE'S ONE!  lAURES!  RODDRICK!  THAT WAS YOUR CUE!

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we "know" he does it, but we don't actually see it much. I think the only confirmation in the first few volumes is when he's about to hit on that one girl big time early on, then finds out that she has a boyfriend and backs off(though it's debatable whether or not he would have backed of that fast if he hadn't thought she was Doku's girlfriend), and then the chick who ended up being a youkai, but, IIRC, he already knew she was a youkai assassin before letting her in.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I think he probably would have backed off -- continued flirting, but not really *serious* flirting -- even if he didn't think her missing boyfriend might be Jien. There's another scene, I forget just where in the manga, where he's hitting on some girl at the front desk of an inn, and when he finds out she's married he keeps up with the flirty chatter but it's all couched in teasing tones of how nice girls like her need to watch out for guys like him; it winds up coming across like "you're cute and sweet and way too good for me, and I don't expect I'd have a snowflake's chance, I'm just flirting because it's the only way I know how to pay compliments..."

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't think it was have been quite the near-screeching halt "possible future sister-in-law" caused, but it would have ended any thoughts of doing more than making a pretty girl blush and giggle.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

*nods* Various levels of flirty-teasing just seems to be pretty much one of his default conversational modes with any female who's not trying to kill him, including small children and ladies old enough be his grandma. (And occasionally even with women who *are* trying to kill him, and even some guys, much to Sanzo's discomfiture.)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I always kind of thought making Sanzo annoyed/uncomfortable was the main point, really.