Week 5: Romance

   Mars was a really different piece to look at. While at first it seemed like the classic reversal of the manic pixie dream girl trope, (where a seemingly normal boring girl's life changes when she meets an outrageous and alternative boy who challenges her way of life), this proved to not be the case. I found myself comparing it to the breakfast club, specifically between the princess and the criminal. Both works forge the main relationships between the character's hidden similarities that society forces them to hide away. In short, the pieces show that these two stark role-fitting characters are people just like anyone else- and are more similar than their roles would allow.
    I acknowledge that Kira is quiet- however I expected her to be the main character, while the story seems to heavily center around Rei. (*To be fair I'm on volume 5 of 15 currently) I can appreciate that Rei sharing his emotions is harder and more tedious because he was raised as a male- and he even says that he thinks he would be like Kira if he were born a girl. However, Rei is still focused on more than Kira- to a point where I'm more interested in her and a little bored with Rei's story. Sure, its dramatisized and my personal taste may be playing into my opinion here- but Rei is the solution and the cause for most problems that occur. While Kira being passive is certainly intentional and works to further her backstory, her participation is still unsatisfactory. For example, Rei's passion is delved much more deeply into- his racing is very fleshed out in-world and even works to introduce other characters, backstory, and complications. Kira's art serves as a catalyst for their relationship and introduces a single other character momentarily but is otherwise not-fleshed out and does not seem to impact her life, have started in any meaningful way, or being delved into to further her character.
   I also don't appreciate that several of the girls like this boy to the extent that they do- and how difficult they find it to stop. Viscously bullying the main character, attempting suicide, black lighting, guilt tripping, etc. Even Kira, after having interacted with him a few times and having judged him to not be a good person, states that she can't bring herself to hate him. It could be a culture difference or the raging feminist in me, but I find this entirely impossible to relate to, and so expected and "blah" to read that it made me want to stop if this was the kind of story this was going to be. However, I don't mind the turn around the villain-to-best-friends girl. I found this much more relatable and plausible (even though this is also a trope), because she goes through enough change to appreciate Kira and want to have her back. I find it a believable arc.
   One other thing I have to say before I go- I cannot get enough of how the characters deal with emotional expression and intelligence. They call Sei a very strong moral person, but whenever they back this up its always with a story if his emotional intelligence and awareness, something that Rei does not possess as strongly. I really appreciate the emotional problems as well as physical ones because I find them much more rare in all kinds of works- as well as the realistic way in which the characters deal with them.  From Rei's realization that he's running away from a problem by ignoring Satori- to Kira realizing that simply going along with whatever Rei wants is not fulfilling her half of the relationship. Its an excellent insight into the relationship of two teenagers, forced into very adult situations, but still being able to experience and live their lives.


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