Taro Hanazawa vs Kiku Mori!

[anbyrobanby]

DRAMAZ!

Does Taro Hanazawa kill/wound/fail on Kiku Mori?

The vote was instigated here; the time is 00:11am GMT, and comments are screened.

24 hours to cast your votes. Good luck to Shaun and Laura!

Comments

Kill

[izunami]

Starting with Taro here. He's been a pretty solid character up until this point. I really do think that his interaction with the current group has actually hurt his character more than it's helped him. Taro until that point had been portrayed as a nice yet troubled guy and now he's essentially turned into a giant douchebag. Now...I can handle this in other people's posts but when some of it starts seeping into Shaun's posts...that's where the trouble starts.

Writing style is good. Shaun's posts are easy to read, flow well, and are interesting for the most part. He does a really good job tying in present situations with the past ones and reminding people that there's a journey involved with his characters and that reminiscence from one post to the next really helps you stay on top of what's going on with Taro without getting board. This isn't the first time I've noticed Shaun doing this and I think he does is very well.

PC control...is fine. There are things that don't work for me because those things usually end up in other people's posts before they end up in Shaun's so I've got to assume that the fault doesn't really lie with him.

Onto Kiku.

First off, there's nothing really wrong with Laura's writing. I think she's a good solid writer. There are a few mistakes here and there but not enough to actually effect the flow of the posts. I just don't enjoy reading Kiku as much as I do other characters but that's purely because of her characterization.

I'm sorry...but to me Kiku is the definition of a 'Mary Sue'. She's got this horrible family life, she's knocked up (which I don't buy her 1. still staying in a public school and 2. everyone being so completely alright about it), and she's slept with three guys in the same class at this point and yet we're still supposed to believe she's this absolutely happy, perky, friendly, optimistic character and we're supposed to love her. The problem is that I don't. I find her to be completely selfish, whiny, and manipulative...none of which is even hinted at in her profile. We're supposed to believe that she's so nice and kind and yet there she is completely abusing Mitch's feelings towards her to get what she wants...her baby. Then she doesn't even care if said baby endagers the life of the people that are trying to help her.

Then we have what I like to call the 'bastardization of Taro'. Somehow between Kana leaving Taro and Taro finding this other group...he turned into an inconsiderate asshole without really any explanation. He gives into Kiku's wishes to stick around while she pops out the kid and somehow he's still portrayed as an asshole. This really doesn't fit for me at all.

Other than that...PC control has been fine if a little awkward.

I'm not trying to say Laura is a bad writer. I've enjoyed other characters that she's come up with but I think Kiku was just poor from conception. In order for a character to be likeable and relatable...there have to be flaws. No character can be perfect with only a few minor physical issues as their weak points.

Well...Stephanie Meyers begs to differ with me at least.

I'm giving Taro a kill on this one. I think Shaun has slightly stronger writing but his characterization is stronger, and up until this group...I think he did better with PC and NPC control.

So yeah...

kill