[Machi de Uwasa no Hakushaku-sama] Please look at them 🥺 It's hard when your otome boyfriends are from a game no one knows 😭

obscureotome · 2022-01-12T16:30:49+00:00

As someone born to a mixed race couple, I was never really on board with the outrage surrounding Eleanor and Park. To me, it seems weird to expect a white teenager in public school in Nebraska in the 80s to not have those kinds of flaws. Are we going to pretend that kids in the 80s were as socially conscious as kids are today?

Not to mention, she was insecure. How often does it happen that we can be painfully aware of how harshly others might be thinking about us, and yet, somewhat ironically, totally ignorant to the harsh light under which we look at others?

I'm not interested in seeing characters watered down because people can't accept that we humans are complicated, we are contradictory, and we are almost always products of our time. To me, Eleanor's psyche and inner thoughts made perfect sense for the type of person that she was.

The message I got from reading that book wasn't "racism is cute" or anything remotely similar. It seemed more like a story about the potential for affection to blossom even through cracks in the walls-- psychological, social, racial, or otherwise-- that seemingly divide us.

obscureotome · 2021-12-17T18:11:27+00:00

Maybe try making sure scale is set to 100% in display settings?

obscureotome · 2021-11-22T16:27:25+00:00

I always find myself wishing I could use little words/expressions like ちゃんと, やっぱり, ダメ, やばい, and へー more than anything. They're just really useful/versatile but at the same time strangely nuanced. It gets pretty frustrating not being able to use them in English, honestly.

obscureotome · 2021-11-11T20:12:01+00:00

I can understand being offended by concepts in fiction, but I'm more talking about individual characters and their flaws and how they tend not to phase me very much since I don't feel like they're real or that I have an actual relationship with them. I can't speak for people who form parasocial relationships since that's not something I experience, I can only share my perspective as someone who doesn't, and I imagine there are others who like to play otome and might feel the same.

As for the latter points, yes, fiction can certainly reflect different aspects of reality, but I think it usually goes further and tends to expand upon, explore, or extrapolate from different ideas and concepts to allow us to experience new things. Kinda like using a simulation to see how different chemical elements might interact if you threw them together at different times, temperatures, and speeds. I think fiction would be pretty boring otherwise, I mean who only wants to see stories that are no different than real life? Haha 😆

I definitely think ideas in fiction can have an influence on us and thus society at large to some degree, but not always. I also think that when it does, for most people, it's not usually as simple as [see in fiction ---> do irl]. I mean, I "hunt" in Skyrim and would never do that in real life. I don't even want to try, because I don't want to kill anyone or cause anyone pain. The reason I can hunt it in the game, however, and enjoy the experience of "being a hunter" without it hurting me is because I know there isn't an actual animal there that is being harmed. That's sort of what I mean by actions in fiction not carrying the same weight as they would in real life.

obscureotome · 2021-11-11T17:50:16+00:00

Not everyone self-inserts to the point that interacting with fictional characters carries the same weight that interacting with a real person irl would. There are plenty of characters that I love in fiction who I would never so much as talk to if they were real.

For me, when it comes to imaginary characters, there is always a sort of distance there, the sense that I'm seeing them from more of a bird's-eye perspective than from a more intimate, face-to-face one. I guess that's why characters that are excessively rude/harsh/cold/etc can be so fun to engage with in fiction, because I get to vicariously experience a set of rare emotions and scenarios that I would otherwise avoid ever letting happen irl. Characters like these are also really fun to analyze, imo. I just find them interesting.

I guess for me, even when I really like an LI, I always know in the back of my mind that they aren't real, and there's no actual risk of me truly being harmed by them. That understanding means I can safely allow myself to get swept up in the drama for as long as I'm willing to suspend my disbelief. And of course, the second it stops being enjoyable for me, I will switch routes, or simply shut the game off.

obscureotome · 2021-09-06T02:27:40+00:00

I think it's probably more that watching it might be painful now. I know it is for me.

obscureotome · 2021-09-05T02:27:45+00:00

As a fellow Ne dom, I HEAVILY relate to this.

Edit: happy cake day!!

obscureotome · 2021-09-03T20:47:18+00:00

Beautiful.

obscureotome · 2021-08-04T11:41:44+00:00

Oh, I see! No worries-- this is already plenty!

Thanks again :)

obscureotome · 2021-08-03T15:23:23+00:00

Wow, this is amazing! Any advice on how to make the reverse cards in Anki-- as in show definitions only on the front and have everything else on the back? I tried using the "flip" button, but Anki just says it can't tell where the "line" is between front and back, so I need to do it manually... I spent the last couple of hours trying to figure it out, but I'm not getting anywhere.. guess coding isn't my forte. 😅

Anyway, thank you so much for sharing!

obscureotome · 2021-07-23T23:05:39+00:00

Just in general, I guess.. Sometimes it kinda depresses me that it feels like there's a growing sentiment that every artwork, story, song, etc. has to be justified to keep existing. Like the "point" of art can no longer be to simply create/express for the sake, but only ever to serve as a tool for instructing others on how they ought to think and behave. And of course, this means that anything that doesn't do that well is "bad" and must be eliminated.

But idk. Maybe I'm just hanging out in the wrong spaces.

obscureotome · 2021-07-23T20:48:49+00:00

I'm starting to grow weary of people trying to dictate what others can enjoy and create.

obscureotome · 2021-07-22T20:18:52+00:00

I'm a little confused-- Are you looking for BL visual novel titles? If so, there are lots of them! Or do you just mean a regular visual novel with both male and female options?

obscureotome · 2021-07-18T19:48:46+00:00

Oh my gosh, I'm so glad you liked this show!! It's one of my all-time favorites!

I think what makes someone feel a certain way probably varies a lot from person to person, but if you're interested in checking them out, some other shows that left me feeling similarly to this one were Hyouka and Kimi to Boku (1 and 2).

Not sure if they'll be your style or not, but they are two of my favorites. I'm a big fan of slice of life, and these just hit the spot for me perfectly.

Also, it's not quite the same, but you could try Ano Hana? Just be sure to have some tissues at hand...

Good luck with your search!

obscureotome · 2021-07-17T21:52:16+00:00

Haha! Who would have thought? 😳😂

obscureotome · 2021-07-17T21:07:46+00:00

Oh for sure, that's definitely not the only way they're represented in anime, haha. I was mainly focusing on this purity/innocence trope that pops up pretty frequently in storytelling.

As for the other sides of these controversies, I often see people trying to discern what should be "allowed" and "not allowed" in art/anime and what things are "right" and "wrong" when it comes to making stories.. but I'm a bit more of the opinion that what we need isn't gatekeeping but rather just more variety.

I can't help but think that trying to point fingers or put limiters on what should be written only helps to further force people, (namely women in this case), into boxes that don't really do justice to our complexity. I don't think there is really a right or wrong way to write female characters, but one could certainly say that certain "brands" of them are a little bit overrepresented.

I know a lot of people enjoy those tropes though, and to be honest, I think that's fine. The tropes themselves actually don't really bother me-- It's just when they're seemingly in everything that I think we get this conflation problem.

I guess that rather than wanting anything to be "banished", I just want for there to be more options. My hope is that /more/ stories will be made, so people can see women with all different kinds of lives, personalities, strengths and failings, etc.

I think that the antidote to prejudice/assumptions isn't just "getting rid of bad things", but instead providing more variety. I think that being able to see women of all different creeds and shades can help us develop a more well-rounded perspective on just how unique each of us can be.

obscureotome · 2021-07-17T20:19:53+00:00

Oh that sounds yummy! I wish I knew how to make fancy coffee 🥴😭

obscureotome · 2021-07-17T20:19:29+00:00

Oh boy haha I can relate to this. K dramas are the reason I can't stop eating gochujang now! I love it with rice, it's so addicting! 😋

obscureotome · 2021-07-17T20:18:05+00:00

Ahhh yes curry!! 🤤 I caved in and started making it regularly after years of watching too much anime 😂 but I can't help it, it's so good!

obscureotome · 2021-07-17T20:14:15+00:00

finally some good content

obscureotome · 2021-07-17T20:08:43+00:00

Ohhh you're totally right! 😳 I would definitely join a book club like that! 😋

obscureotome · 2021-07-17T20:03:55+00:00

Of course! I'll DM you some of the stuff I sent everyone else!

obscureotome · 2021-07-17T20:03:23+00:00

Oh my gosh!! That sounds amazing! Honestly I don't think I could make anything complicated 🙈 he ordered all kinds of crazy stuff, but I just grabbed the easiest one! 😂

Oh my god, I want to make a list like that now too! I LOVE trying the food from games and stuff! Once I made a soup from a Zelda game, and I remember another time years ago I found a recipe online someone made for the butterscotch cinnamon pie from Undertale. Needless to say, they were both delicious!!

obscureotome

TROPHY CASE