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Showing content with the highest reputation on 04/06/2017 in Posts

  1. There are no villains - only victims of circumstance. That's my take on the whole idea of 'villains' in general. So it would only be natural for me to gravitate towards 'villains' who aren't a living, breathing entity. On that note, one of my favorites are Time and Fate in Steins;Gate. Because if given a physical body, these two concepts/entities would be what we would normally consider as a 'villain', as these make up for the root cause for all the suffering the characters go through. Another one of my favorites is Lust in Kuzu no Honkai and School days, as it is undoubtedly the cause for all the depression and emptiness the majority of the casts in these series feel. But it is also this depression and emptiness which creates most of the series' drama and tension, and in general, moves the story forward by way of character development and plot development. Causing the protagonist to change, and moving the plot forward is something that a textbook villain will do - and why I consider these concepts to be 'villains.' But if I were to be normal and actually give you guys an answer you were expecting, I would have gone for Makoto from School Days. This is because he literally is the physical embodiment of the show's main 'villain', which is (in my opinion) Lust. However, Lust has basically assimilated itself into Makoto, leaving us with the a usually intangible entity as a character in an anime. That would be my answer... up until yesterday when I finished Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai. My new favorite villain is presented, purely, as a tragic victim of circumstance. [spoiler=Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai spoilers (skip this if you have either finished the series or don't mind getting spoilers)] Takano Miyo is my favrioute anime villain. Let me be clear, she is brutally cruel and doesn't care for anyone (except for her dear 'grandfather figure type person' [forgot his name lol]) as she is, in fact, the cause of all the accumulated deaths in both seasons of the anime - which is a lot. But she is just such a joy to watch on screen towards the latter half of Kai as we, the audience realize that she is a fundamentally fragile and flawed character. A lot of great villains are flawed. However, Takano still stands out to me because - like i mentioned earlier - she is a prime example of a victim of circumstance. Takano is who she is today because of 3 things - her upbringing in an abusive and traumatic environment, her trauma from loosing her loving and attention-giving parents (which sparked her desire for wanting to be acknowledged and recognized, and to some extent - be the center of attention again), and her obsession for 'avenging' her 'grandfather figure type person' (lol) as he was not acknowledge for his hard work. From this alone we see a clear connection, it may seem like Takano is doing what she does for someone else, but if taken apart, we soon realize that she is just pushing her own ideals/ desires onto others as an excuse to justify doing them. She believes in everyone's right to be acknowledged, and fights for that cause, to justify her own needs. However the show may put it, Takano is basically re-using research to get acknowledgement for herself (although she claims for it not to be). Takano is far from a surface level villain. Through her backstory in which I briefly explained - can we not say that she is a pure victim of circumstance? Furthermore, what adds to her appeal as a character is the way she is presented in the show. When she is revealed to be the main villain of the show in her major uniform, a sense of power and dominance is instilled into the viewer as we slowly come to terms with the fact that all of the killing and death in the prior 30 episodes were a direct cause of her actions. Having seen her succeed so many times further increases our doubts that she Is even a defeat-able villain. The true beauty of Takano starts to unravel itself when we learn more about her. As we learn the fact that she is just as much of a victim as all of the other characters are. And that's why Takano Mito is my favorite anime villain (at time time of this post, at least). tldr; I like deep characters and concepts.
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  2. Haha yeah. That's why I record every single anime I've watched on MyAnimeList, as it makes it much easier to revisit shows that I enjoyed.
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  3. I think your going to let anime or videogames get in the way of a relationship your shouldn't be In one and/or probably dont really want one, if you cant sacrifice these things when they are around, or choose anime over them then that doesnt give them a very high self worth. But they also need to understand people have hobbies and want to do things, it's great to hear people watching and gaming as a couple! But if your worried having a relationship means you wont get to watch anime and you choose anime over someone, then at that point I think your a fool
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