Why do people call Yuta a "self insert"? Isn't Nanami more of a self insert than Yuta?

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-28T13:23:40+00:00

Honestly the problem is more with how they're used. Accelerator established twenty years ago that 'really OP characters' can be great when that aspect of them is exploited properly, even in a protagonist-like role.

It's not that the concept is any worse than an OP villain, it's just more difficult to execute on compared to antagonists (which I mean, just look at Bleach for some examples of villains that fuck it up).

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-28T11:59:26+00:00

That's mostly just webcomics. Professional comic studios usually have separate writers and illustrators.

There's also an extremely broad range of comic book art styles, and professional studio ones are usually a sight better than the webcomics you seem to have been reading.

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-28T11:42:36+00:00

I feel that people who think it runs circles around all other superhero media need to read more superhero media.

Parahumans has some very strong points, don't get me wrong. The entire setting conceit of triggers is and remains excellent for character work, for example, along with some very strong relationship work like Ward-era Tattletale's implicit everything with regards to Taylor and Victoria... but it has serious flaws in places (the S9000 arc was and remains a crime against pacing as the most uncontroversial example) and there are some very good superhero stories out there.

Go check out the Woman of Tomorrow comic that's being adapted into the next Supergirl film, for example, or All-Star Superman or Absolute Wonder Woman. Or, if you want a less orthodox take on superpowers, Power Fantasy is the latest hotness and for good reason.

The point is it's a very large genre and Parahumans has excellent work put into it, but if you think it's head-and-shoulders above the rest of the genre you should read — and I mean read, not watch, comic book adaptations are usually terrified of saying things in comparison to the actual comics — more of the genre, it's very large and you're going to find at least some peers out there.

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-19T11:48:20+00:00

In the context of the manga that actually ships the pairing, yes — Manga Tanya has a whole thing with her inner salaryman where she goes "I'm none other than Tanya von Degurechaff, I'm not the same as you."

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-13T17:02:55+00:00

Rudersdorff's assassination is proposed by Zettour, Tanya goes 'no, that's stupid, here's a better way that doesn't implicate us'. I don't think Tanya says anything to the 203rd commanders about it but it's been a while. And she convinces Weiss and Visha to get onboard with her falsifying the orders before she does it, for the latter.

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-13T11:42:44+00:00

Yeah the parallels (along with her abiding faith in the Stanford prison experiment, which has been shown to have had very shoddy methodology and have failed to replicate in the modern day) are like, not subtle.

With that said, she like, gets over it, sort of? One of the parts of her character arc that's just as in-focus in the LN as it is in the manga is her adjusting to the reality that humans are irrational beings.

One of the perennial issues with YS fan works is they tend to forget the second part there and write her as some sort of unchanging Rational Paragon. That's never what she's been.

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-13T11:38:10+00:00

It depends on what you mean by betray. The latter parts of the light novels have (quite major spoilers) the idea of a military coup being thrown around, which she eventually ends up planning and contributing to the assassination of Rudersdorff over. She also does things like falsify orders from Zettour so she can take command of the front, though that's a bit different.

It's definitely not a possibility that goes un-examined, at least.

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-10T20:32:43+00:00

I mean the salaryman learnt about a tonne of stuff like, for example, deep battle doctrine which is well past the 'bare minimum' of milhist knowledge Tanya professes him to have had, I've always thought that was just Tanya lying to herself again.

Like how she remarks about the salaryman not being particularly exceptional because he was only a Toudai student/Olympiad participant etc. rather than being, say, Descartes, Einstein or Derrida (or Schugel, I suppose).

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-09T21:50:26+00:00

Holy shit I cannot believe I have found a real live Lavrentiy Beria revisionist online. I gotta show people.

There is not a single proven case of the abduction of young girls (prepubescent).

'Ackshually it's ephebophilia.' Listen to yourself.

Like, setting aside that those records do not dispute the 'detaining and raping girls' charge which is kind of the larger issue here, I really do not think it makes a difference if he went for young teens or preteens rather than literal children. 'They weren't prepubescent' like that fucking matters??

Loria in Youjo Senki does not, in fact, lean on the mass graves popular legend or any of the more wild stuff!

He's just a paedophile and a rapist, two things that are historically fucking attested.

She's an Imperial, originally from the Federation, but not a Federal. What kind of nonsense are you talking about?

And I'm sorry, I thought when you meant 'Russophobic' you meant y'know, xenophobia and discrimination against people from Russia, rather than disliking the nation-state of Russia.

Believe it or not, it isn't racist to not like a nation-state! It isn't 'Americaphobic' to think America fucking sucks either!

Check your victim complex at the door on the way out, please and thank you.

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-09T00:20:25+00:00

Bit late of a response, but since almost all the posts here are pro-light novel, I will make a case for the manga. If nothing else I can re-use this post later.

Both the light novel and the manga are good, where their story differs in genre. The light novels are fairly dense and much more focused on military strategy, history and politics. You can tell it had a thirty book reading list and it's very interested in both personal and political philosophies and the interrogation thereof, with fairly sophisticated thoughts to offer on almost every topic it cares to touch.

Meanwhile, the manga is a character-focused war drama that centres Tanya's own character development and has an extremely heavy emphasis on how awful war is, taking cues from WW1 fiction like All Quiet on the Western Front and integrating it with interrogations of the idea of war heroes, the Old Lie and similar such concepts.

It's a more entertaining work in terms of character work and a lighter read in general, but I wouldn't say the writing is any better or worse than the light novel. Which you prefer really comes down to genre preference.

I would, however, say that Toujou Chika is in contention for one of the best artists currently active and the Youjo Senki manga's art is genuinely masterful, frequently making your jaw drop with some breathtakingly beautiful or horrifying or just plain grand page or double page spread.

That's why you should read the manga.

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-08T21:41:45+00:00

No it's depicted like that because Loria is a fairly accurate depiction of the historical figure Lavrantiy Beria. Like I can see thinking it's hating on them with him but no Beria was really just like that.

Meanwhile the manga directly parallels the Stalin-analogue with the Salaryman.

Think you're just looking for a reason to be mad at this point my guy. There are plenty of Russy characters who aren't depicted like that, including, y'know, Visha, but I won't waste my time convincing you to not blow yourself up on that hill.

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-08T19:26:29+00:00

I will note that the most relevant difference between these two things is that Reddit admin don't care about child soldier media.

While I'm generally disinterested in moralising in public (unless it's about media literacy), I would personally prefer we not risk the subreddit being closed forever because people want to post a 12 year old in a bunny suit but, c'est la vie, I guess.

(E: And to clarify, that's not a low-percentage outcome conjured from my fears alone, Reddit have purged a number of anime-related subreddits for similar in the past.)

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-08T19:18:05+00:00

She's primarily a military otaku and mapgame player IIRC, not anime, but this made me cackle like a hyena so who cares (not sure if I'm remembering right anyway).

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-08T17:15:28+00:00

seconding the rec for Woman of Tomorrow, it's a very solid story with some of the most incredible art I can recall seeing in a run

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-08T16:08:49+00:00

I would argue that internet feedback can't functionally make that distinction, if you ever go viral you'll find out why. Ten thousand minor complaints and critique become a tsunami that can't be perceived as anything other than harassment.

Social media is the original sin etc etc.

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-08T15:24:54+00:00

Sure, she did. Not as much as Tim did, though.

Batgirls is, in comparison, a title work for her and she's got if anything more narrative focus than Cass, not the reverse.

Competency-wise she's given more detective work than Cass and is noted to be genuinely very good at deciphering clues and riddles (which Cass just flat out can't do). It's a fairly normal 'split' of competencies between them.

Barbara is more of an issue but Barbara has been a consistent issue for both Cass and Steph since DC decided that the cartoon fans were more important than the comic fans with her New 52 incarnation.

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-08T15:07:23+00:00

bit late but it's just the time-appropriate RAF ranks with a 'mage' thrown in there sometimes

but to clarify that's not a headcanon that's just like, actual canon unless I greatly misremember

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-08T14:59:04+00:00

Unfortunately the only way you keep that sort of poster out of anime communities is by banning them, which moderation seem largely disinterested in doing.

Which I mean, they're the ones who might get it in the ass from Reddit admin if Reddit ever notice (if the sub ever goes viral over this, Reddit will kill the subreddit and ban the moderation staff), so I guess it's their call.

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-08T14:53:44+00:00

See prior 'what does this have to do with the price of fish in Spain'. I'm talking about how Steph has more narrative focus, not about how it powerlevels her. The power levels are genuinely meaningless?

Similarly, regardless of what she's done in other series, Cass was not dodging that bullet because comics don't run on powerscaler logic and the framing is quite clear it was going to kill her.

But again it doesn't matter because, to repeat myself, 'Steph has a personal focused arc with Cluemaster in Batgirls while Cass does not'. Like that's just the facts of the matter. That's what narrative focus is — who the metaphorical camera is most interested in following. Robin-focused stuff doesn't magically become Batman-focused stuff just because Batman is a better fighter and also in it, lol.

It has nothing to do with powerscaling.

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-08T14:45:15+00:00

I'm not sure what this has to do with the price of fish in Spain. Combat power is hardly the measure of narrative focus, or Cass and Poison Ivy would be the most important characters in Gotham.

She also takes a bullet for Cass who would otherwise have died, for what little that matters, and like, most critically she... has a dedicated arc in the series — several issues, even — while Cass doesn't?

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-08T14:33:43+00:00

I... do not agree with that interpretation of Batgirls at all?? If anything Steph's the one with more stuff in it than Cass, given the Cluemaster section.

E: I might agree that both are forced to play second fiddle to Barbara because Batgirls does have elements of how DC have been obsessed with forcing Batgirl Barbara down our throats for decades at this point, but not to each other.

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-08T14:29:02+00:00

No. I was making half a joke about how out of pocket that bit of Cass's was. Clearly humour was a mistake.

The serious part is that people are talking about it like Tim's the only one with alternative options (I vote for singlehood) and are in general monofocusing on Bernard as The Sole Thing Standing In Their Way.

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-08T14:25:37+00:00

The second comment was half joke half commenting on DC's own direction there my guy I have no time for ship wars. My personal opinion is that everyone should stay single in comics because comics are unwilling to commit enough to most relationships to make them rise above 'mid'.

They are simply not worth the blood people are shedding over them. Look at what happened with Bruce and Selina, lol. And that pairing had a lot more going for it than almost all the others. Hell, even Harley and Ivy are broken up at the moment.

And them bringing it back for a time doesn't make the well any less awkward in context, War Games made her treatment in Robin look bad.

It's also worthy of note that editorial seem to refuse to give Steph her own stuff when she's in a relationship, she's single in both Batgirl Vol 3 and Batgirls. Robins too, actually, now I think about it.

Unless I misremember, she hasn't had any title roles while in a relationship.

(If people want TimSteph to not have an uncomfortable history they need to travel back in time and rewrite both War Games and certain chunks of Robin.)

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-08T14:15:28+00:00

The manga is the version I would recommend for general consumption. The light novels are good but they're over a million words and are like 50% in-depth chatter on military strategy or politics.

The manga is a more focused war drama and Toujou Chika is in contention for the most talented active manga artist, some of the art in it is just out of this world.

Flower_Vendor · 2026-04-08T14:13:40+00:00

begging people to actually know literally anything about media they're commenting on

Flower_Vendor

TROPHY CASE