「And I’m grateful you gave me the chance, but maybe I’d feel better had you never had. 」
Hisui Kanon Superfan.
Ocean worshipper.
PFP/Header:
@No_42street
2024 Books and Manga thread
This will include all the books I read, be it political, fiction, manga etc. Might include anime too, who knows.
I'm currently reading Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Land, re-reading PJO, and started Hall of Smoke.
Here's to a fresh year.
Since Magnus started the conversation, I think it's time to dive into one of the most divisive characters in Ranger.
Sesera Sakurama, the Pink Keeper, and elder sister to Hibiki Sakurama.
Let's talk about the big picture, and her broader part in the story.
the shoujo community has been plagued for years by lack of consistent scans and lack of quality scans so lovesick was a godsend. losing such a huge entity like that is devastating. feels like a whole chunk came loose and we are teetering.
when you look at the design of hestia in Danmachi, you cannot tell she is the goddess of the hearth. There is no uniqueness, she is just a short stack anime girl with large breasts. Hestia in Hades looks like someone who attends a hearth and spends her life around ash and smoke.
@kyoruyeye
given the rest of the thread is essentially him going "no, women should be treated as sexual objects for our gratification" i think you proved your point without even needing to argue tbh
I always think about the very first chapter where Frieren was just torn asunder by emotions that she hadn't ever really had to handle before. The way she reacts to losing Himmel, to realising that she didn't value what little time they had together enough.
The impetus of it all.
your opinion is wrong, as usual.
the reason we have those categories and demographics for awards is so we can highlight the stars of those spaces rather than just having it end up with the same popular shounen series bc they have higher readership.
Interesting thing to note: Starting this year the Shogakukan Manga Awards have abolished Categories/Demographics!
Previously the winners were put in 4 Categories for Boys, Girls, Children and the General Category. But readership nowadays is much more widespread across genders &
Like I'm sorry but WHAT this is stunning, it's pulling me in by the throat, it's like watching each artisan crafter show their individual approach and based on historical methods and just. Oh my god.
A lot of people believe the issue with modern shoujo lies in the overusing of love triangles and settings like highschools, but I feel like the fundamental underlying issue is that the writers are not giving us deeper characters, fleshed out plotlines and overall good writing.
Drake is a pedophile
Kendrick is a wife-beater
Ye is a Nazi
J. Cole is ass
Lets face it at the end of the day the fate of hip-hop lies in the hands of Mori Calliope
i want kids
i want to be a dad
but some people dont want kids, and that's fair. what's selfish is forcing that onto people who have never wanted kids and arent equipped to be parents. thats how we end up with abused kids, distant parents, and failing families.
Why does it seem our culture glorifies not having children nowadays? And I'm genuinely not trying to judge anyone who choose not to, but in my opinion, if you're a capable adult and you don't want kids, that's a selfish decision
I think there's a really common misunderstanding with people about Ranger Reject/Sentai Daishikkaku.
It's not a "sentai show", not a "power rangers" story - it's a story with sentai concepts taken, but builds an entirely different story. Different power system, different lore.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Hollow pointed it out in the server BUT D SAW EMEMATAI DIE RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM AT LESS THAN A YEAR OLD AAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I really don't want you defending AI garbage by cynically claiming that those with disabilities can't be artists, when they are and have done so for as long as ther has been art.
Many of the artists on here have demonstrated their dedication to keeping marginalized folks (including those with disabilities) out of their community and the marketplace.
Gen AI says "fuck that." Those barriers come down now, and I'm here for it.
so it's not *quite* a goldfish story but my family had a little pond that i loved more than life itself and one time i was fishing for tadpoles and dumped a bunch in there. unfortunately, birds ate them all.
OR SO I THOUGHT
Never once is Sesera's actions presented as "okay" or "normal" by Haruba. They're always presented as negative social interactions, uncomfortable, or disquieting (and yes, comedic), but this is not Oshi No Ko. This isn't presented as a valid thing.
And now she lies bedridden, assumed to be little more than dead.
Here lies Sesera, seen as a cheap character, but representative of the bigger, deeper world that the series holds.
And like the series, she is oft misunderstood because of this.
I was trying to find a panel of D talking about how humans are still fighting, and then I came across this panel of Angel and like.......
Negi.
Was this foreshadowing too?
Before I go any further, SPOILERS WILL BE UNTAGGED, so walk away now.
Sesera is first introduced as the Pink Keeper, and immediately distinguishes herself as having a more calculating attitude compared to the squabbling of the others, even remembering D between fights.
For a limited time, you can get Volumes 1-3 of Go! Go! Loser Ranger! for FREE by signing up for a free account on the Kodansha Reader Portal
For details, visit our Kodansha Reader benefits page:
So. As promise.
I'm so sick of the American-manga Industries treatment of non-USA'ian English-Speaking regions. As an Australian, we pay out the arse for manga, we get less choice most of the time and then simulpub services wipe out scanlators and then we can't access them!
i've been saying ranger reject since day one but i'm laughing at the idea of *you* centring yourself in the community. you aren't our leader or a representative of us. stop acting like it.
@ChibiReviews
I tried getting it changed back to the correct name but Kodansha rejected it (punny)
the ranger reject community hates the kodansha usa name
This is also the genesis of Sesera the "problematic" character, that makes her so divisive.
See, prior to the massacre, we see Sesera challenging her little brother to think for himself, seeing him as essentially walking in step with his father's twisted ideology.
Sesera as Pink Keeper is an interesting case, she's very much one of the true believers, and utterly LOATHES Invaders. This is quickly explained due to her involvement in the Invader Church Massacre which saw her mother and father die, and her permanently disabled from injuries.
And again, when they're dragged into the Invader Church, Sesera continues to try to forcibly disconnect Sakurama from the ideology, even resorting to physical violence in despair, something that you'd expect of a young girl desperately aware of how dangerous the situation is.
And yet, the instant she realises that the severely disfigured boy beside her is Hibiki, she immediately, without hesitation, throws her own life into the void to save his life, at the cost of her own. In her dying moments, she even tells us what draws her to Hibiki.
@shoujocrave
this is one of the most flagrant "i didnt pay attention to the series" shit imaginable.
like Akane is literally traumatised by her ex's cheating and is struggling with that same feeling of insecurity with Yamada. No shit she's going through it.'
Fucking goons.
Eyes that look for justice, pure and fair. An excellent indication of the ideology that Hibiki promotes throughout the series.
And also why someone as fractured as Sesera locked onto her little brother in such an unhealthy way.
Negi hammers it home here. Sesera lost more than just the use of her legs and family. She lost her pride, her future, and her way forward. And when everyone around her screams at her to give up, who saves her?
Hibiki, desperately insisting that she will walk again.
So in conclusion, Sesera is a flawed, uncomfortable character, because she represents the parts we don't like of mental unwellness. The discomforting, disquieting, repulsive aspects that we would rather sanitise and pretend don't exist. And that's hard to reckon with.
/Fin.
Sesera sees Hibiki as the only remnant of purity left in her ruined world. There's nothing left for her but walking a park of muck and pain that the Rangers inflict upon her, but as long as she can see the light within Hibiki, she can bear that weight just a little longer.
@invertedspear22
the ego on people when they think they know more than the author does about their own work is hilariousssss
like it happens sometimes, sure, but chances are you're just wrong lmao??
And that brings us to the present day. Sesera has now grown into a fully fledged Keeper, as well as having developed an equally powerful brother complex.
Sesera's apartment is adorned with Hibiki imagery and body pillows (and regular pillows) and she's prone to outbursts.
In Chapter 112, we build upon this established information, by seeing a 13 year old Sesera attempting to regain the use of her legs, only to be crushed by the person also responsible for saving her (the former Blue Keeper), causing her world once again to fall apart around her.
Sesera seems fully cognizant of the fact that her affections towards her younger brother are entirely inappropriate - she goes as far as she can to make sure he never sees that side of her (although it's somewhat an open secret amongst the Ranger corps).
Sesera's fixation on Invaders (particularly her desire to kill them) is another angle of her PTSD. She has turned herself into something she hates in order to protect people like Hibiki from the darkness that comes with that quest. And she clearly has very low self esteem-
The fixation comes up again during 3WB when rather than help a severely injured Hekiru, Sesera opts to throw down with Hwalipon, prioritising the killing of Invaders over saving a life - until Hibiki (who she is unaware is Hibiki) begs her to.
Question: Is Hakuri one of the most gay characters in all of WSJ history? Because thinking about it, I can barely think of ANYONE who checks all the boxes like he does
She's not so much in love with him as using his image as a way to cope with that weight. Witnessing her parents effective suicide to Peltrola, her own loss of ability, and those around her looking at her with pity, Hibiki never once treated her that way.
Whenever we see Sesera with Dibiki after their first time "meeting", we're usually shown Sesera's inner thoughts and see how she actively tries to stifle this behaviour around her little "brother". And for the most part, it's usually light comedic relief.
I don't like how people look down on the idea of "greyness", but Ranger is a mixed series of tones. You have blacks, you have shining whites, and then deeply muddy greys. Sesera finds herself wading through that, clawing towards that light, but always finding herself stained.
In an undisclosed period after this, Sesera was swept into the Ranger org under unknown circumstances by the Kurokos. From how she's acting in this event, it's unclear what, but she views it as a way to protect him from the darkness of the Ranger organisation in the future.
When Hibiki can only channel his feelings towards the Ranger to save her, Sesera latches onto him, and in a pattern of behaviour that we'll see (and associate with her PTSD), she begins to see him as an object of worship.
@bluestasis
Since it's buried deep in here now, no one seems to know what I'm talking about when I talk about shoujo fan service... Guys don't sparkle in real life or have roses appear around them, sadly.
Different strokes for different folks, people have different tastes.