meganbmoore (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
meganbmoore) wrote2009-04-18 08:58 pm
meganbmoore) wrote2009-04-18 08:58 pm
Speed Grapher ep...17?
So, how did Tsuitengu end up a crime boss who smokes money and runs a club dedicated to sexual deviations, whose inner circle gets to molest a teenaged girl who can give some of them superpowers when they molest her?
His origin, naturally, is sooper dooper extra sad and tragic. When he was 13, his parents committed suicide because of debt, resulting in he and his 5-year-old sister being sold into slavery. After being passed around a bit for torture and bondage and probably rape, he was sold to be a soldier who was part of an experiment. On his last mission (it's always the last mission) everyone in his unit but him (always the last survivor) died. To keep him alive, the scientists went Frankenstein on him and grafted parts of his dead comrades' bodies to him, giving him super powers. Soldiers kill the scientists, he kills the soldiers, and then he sets off to destroy the people who ruined his family. Conveniently, Kagura's family.
He is apparently adamantly opposed to the rape and trafficking of young girls. Except Kagura. Where he's responsible for a good bit of it.
Though at least now I know that he's not her father's zombified body wanting to marry her, and that his staring intently at a little girl and asking her age and then sparing her father wasn't because they realized that they had yet to present small children in a sexual way.
But seriously, does this "here is his angsty backstory and it totally makes him more interesting and sympathetic" thing ever work? Because anime and manga are pretty obsessed with it. And somehow, telling me that I should totally sympathize with people who do that and find them more interesting for the so so sad backstory typically kills my interest. Darcia in Wolf's Rain is a possible exception, though there, we knew from the start that it was because he wanted to save the person he loved, and he was actually portrayed less sympathetically towards the end, not more. Maybe Shuri in Basara, but the good and bad both were on the table there from the start, and it was never and excuse or a justification, just an explanation. And, you know, he probably suffers for his actions more than any other manga character out there.
ETA: Hmm...does Scar in FMA count? It was made pretty clear from the start that his actions were wrong, but his need for vengeance was justified, and in the manga, he all but bluntly states that no, his angsty backstory doesn't make him any better.
Incidentally, this series has now had m/f, f/m, f/f and m/m rape. At least three varieties include pedophilia.
His origin, naturally, is sooper dooper extra sad and tragic. When he was 13, his parents committed suicide because of debt, resulting in he and his 5-year-old sister being sold into slavery. After being passed around a bit for torture and bondage and probably rape, he was sold to be a soldier who was part of an experiment. On his last mission (it's always the last mission) everyone in his unit but him (always the last survivor) died. To keep him alive, the scientists went Frankenstein on him and grafted parts of his dead comrades' bodies to him, giving him super powers. Soldiers kill the scientists, he kills the soldiers, and then he sets off to destroy the people who ruined his family. Conveniently, Kagura's family.
He is apparently adamantly opposed to the rape and trafficking of young girls. Except Kagura. Where he's responsible for a good bit of it.
Though at least now I know that he's not her father's zombified body wanting to marry her, and that his staring intently at a little girl and asking her age and then sparing her father wasn't because they realized that they had yet to present small children in a sexual way.
But seriously, does this "here is his angsty backstory and it totally makes him more interesting and sympathetic" thing ever work? Because anime and manga are pretty obsessed with it. And somehow, telling me that I should totally sympathize with people who do that and find them more interesting for the so so sad backstory typically kills my interest. Darcia in Wolf's Rain is a possible exception, though there, we knew from the start that it was because he wanted to save the person he loved, and he was actually portrayed less sympathetically towards the end, not more. Maybe Shuri in Basara, but the good and bad both were on the table there from the start, and it was never and excuse or a justification, just an explanation. And, you know, he probably suffers for his actions more than any other manga character out there.
ETA: Hmm...does Scar in FMA count? It was made pretty clear from the start that his actions were wrong, but his need for vengeance was justified, and in the manga, he all but bluntly states that no, his angsty backstory doesn't make him any better.
Incidentally, this series has now had m/f, f/m, f/f and m/m rape. At least three varieties include pedophilia.
no subject
no subject
I think it's used as a shortcut to characterization, much like showing that the bad guy's a pedophile or a Nazi or kicks puppies or whatever.
no subject
And boy are both shortcuts to characterization. Like, possibly the most over the top thing in Speed Grapher is the fact that Tsutengu smokes yen notes. I think they're 1000 yen notes, but I'm not sure. Because, you know, otherwise we might miss that he has more money than he could ever spend and no morals and doesn't care about people or society. He gets to have a phallic symbol, a status symbol, and a character type symbol all in one!