A Depressing Exercise
I was reading Special A (Jenny, Elizabeth, note that Special A is a cross between KareKano, Ouran, and Lovely Complex and you should therefore read it), and while it is quite good, it suffers from a single noticeable flaw: Hikari, the main female character, starts out as pretty awesome and perfectly capable of taking care of herself, but by the third volume has become distinctly less awesome and finds herself frequently in need of rescuing or playing the stupid ditz. But that's not the [real] depressing part.
The depressing part is, I was trying to think of counter-example wherein the heroine does not become noticeably less awesome upon either a) falling in love with the hero or b) reaching volume three, and found myself with exactly two not-so-stellar examples: Tohru, who starts out Fruits Basket like a rock and, as far as I know, ends it like a rock, and Noriko, who begins in From Far Away as a generic high school girl and ends it by... being pretty much the same, but now with added self-confidence and a hot boyfriend.
In all cases I could think of where the heroine actually starts out with, say, defensive capabilities or fierce wit, however, she is inevitably dumbed down.
Someone please tell me I'm wrong about this so I can feel less bad about my manga habit. Please?
The depressing part is, I was trying to think of counter-example wherein the heroine does not become noticeably less awesome upon either a) falling in love with the hero or b) reaching volume three, and found myself with exactly two not-so-stellar examples: Tohru, who starts out Fruits Basket like a rock and, as far as I know, ends it like a rock, and Noriko, who begins in From Far Away as a generic high school girl and ends it by... being pretty much the same, but now with added self-confidence and a hot boyfriend.
In all cases I could think of where the heroine actually starts out with, say, defensive capabilities or fierce wit, however, she is inevitably dumbed down.
Someone please tell me I'm wrong about this so I can feel less bad about my manga habit. Please?