Masaya from Tokyo Mew Mew: far from perfect
(What, no Tokyo Mew Mew tags? No one else has defended one of the many bashed characters from it? Aww...)
(Also, a majority of the rant/defense below comes from my argument defending Aoyama at a Mew-themed forum.)
Alright kiddies, listen up. I know you don't like Masaya. You say he's "perfect." Are we even reading the same series or are you blind?
The common argument is that he's a Gary Stu, and perfect. For some reason, though people claim to have seen/read the whole series, they have apparently missed the parts(s) where it's mentioned/explained that Masaya felt he had to be perfect.
Starting in book 6, page 90*, the "perfect" is explained. Living in an orphanage is my first real memory...I never knew my real parents. My adoptive parents came to the orphanage looking for a bright kid, and I decided that being good was my survival tactic.
I lived up to my parents' expectations by being a perfect child.
But it was just for survival.
Then other people came into my life. The all had such high expectations for me...But there was no genuine motivation inside me. Underneath my smile, I was sick of humans and their disregard for the environment.
I do not understand Masaya bashing at all. The main source of the complaints against him is clearly explained right there, though I cannot remember any anime explanation (then again, I haven't watched the series in over a year).
I know that a lot of people bash him because he gets in the way of IchigoxKisshu or IchigoxShirogane. If you really like (or "love") the series so much, then wouldn't it make sense to show respect to it and find a reasonable way for your favorite characters to be paired together? If you think it out clearly - mainly talking fanfiction here - then anything is possible. I've even read a believable PurinxZakuro fanfic, so if that can be pulled off without changing anyone canon-wise, then you can definitely pair Ichigo with someone else because you already have a believable foundation. (I argue this a lot - being a supporter of KisshuxMinto, KisshuxRingo, and KisshuxKanna, I do have to find good reasons and a believable story to pair them together).
Mainly, though, it *mostly* seems to boil down to the fact that fangirls like the rabidmentallyderangedstalker Kisshu and the oftencoldandbossy Shirogane** better.
Also, people need to remember that most of the time, Masaya Aoyama is seen from Ichigo's point of view. She doesn't focus on his flaws, she really only sees his good side, and then it is magnified in her vision. And also, I'll bet that Aoyama was more likely to be nice to and around her. Look:(Quoted from book 6, pg 92-94) But...Ichigo was different. She's cheerful, though she's a crybaby at times. Still, just being with her made me happy. She's a wonderful girl. I felt like a real human being around her. We were so much in love.
You can read that right there, he enjoyed being around her. When you enjoy something, you are obviously going to be feeling cheerful, and it will show in your actions, so if you combine the fact that Aoyama is going to be in a good mood and being nice, plus the fact that it's a shoujo story mainly Ichigo's point of view, there's definitely going to be a bit of a distortion around his *real* character.
Also, I want to direct your attention to that sentence right before the one I bolded, "I felt like a real human being around her." This implies that he felt alien around other people - more evidence for the case of anti-social Aoyama, and it ties in to what I've been saying: like all people, he acted differently in the company of strangers and in the company of close friends. But even so, it would've been hard for him to do so. After all, here's a boy who really hasn't trusted anyone in his entire life and has essentially been playing a character to hide his real personality. He's not going to just break that down in a matter of days; it's going to take him a long while.
A horridly common argument is that he "has no flaws." Masaya has a rather big flaw in that he feels he has to be perfect. I pointed out that he felt he had to be perfect in order to survive, so it's something he obviously had to work at. He strikes me as the type of person who would punish himself if he got, say, a "B" or did not do well in Kendo, seeing it as something less-than-perfect that was not allowed to be in his life. He seems...almost paranoid in that sense. And then, you have to feel that he was lonely. I don't recall seeing him with friends, though he's often surrounded by fangirls, who would've added to the feeling that he had to be perfect because they only liked him because he was *perfect.*
I mean, if anything, it's easy to pity him. Whether they pushed him to be "perfect," or whether he misinterpreted something his parents said, he seemed to feel that he himself had no redeeming qualities if he couldn't do everything *right.*
Sometimes, I also think he's lacking a bit in the social skills department. I mean, look where he took Ichigo for their first date! He didn't really take into consideration what she wanted to do like he does later in the series (e-Jump, anyone?).
Poor Aoyama. Surrounded by people but he doesn't seem to have any real friends. He's an orphan, and doesn't seem to have a good relationship with his adoptive parents. His girlfriend is being actively pursued by an alien, he's anti-social, and he's got an insane alter-ego. Does this sound "perfect" to you?
*I can't remember the anime episode where we learn his past, but I think someone mentioned it *might* be episode 38.
**Yes, I know that they're the two most popular boys of the series. But people write them so OOC, they forget that these two are not all kittens and fluff.
He's bashed so much, I felt the need to defend him in art as well by joining in the Character Is project. Without further ado, I present Masaya Is...
(Also, a majority of the rant/defense below comes from my argument defending Aoyama at a Mew-themed forum.)
Alright kiddies, listen up. I know you don't like Masaya. You say he's "perfect." Are we even reading the same series or are you blind?
The common argument is that he's a Gary Stu, and perfect. For some reason, though people claim to have seen/read the whole series, they have apparently missed the parts(s) where it's mentioned/explained that Masaya felt he had to be perfect.
Starting in book 6, page 90*, the "perfect" is explained. Living in an orphanage is my first real memory...I never knew my real parents. My adoptive parents came to the orphanage looking for a bright kid, and I decided that being good was my survival tactic.
I lived up to my parents' expectations by being a perfect child.
But it was just for survival.
Then other people came into my life. The all had such high expectations for me...But there was no genuine motivation inside me. Underneath my smile, I was sick of humans and their disregard for the environment.
I do not understand Masaya bashing at all. The main source of the complaints against him is clearly explained right there, though I cannot remember any anime explanation (then again, I haven't watched the series in over a year).
I know that a lot of people bash him because he gets in the way of IchigoxKisshu or IchigoxShirogane. If you really like (or "love") the series so much, then wouldn't it make sense to show respect to it and find a reasonable way for your favorite characters to be paired together? If you think it out clearly - mainly talking fanfiction here - then anything is possible. I've even read a believable PurinxZakuro fanfic, so if that can be pulled off without changing anyone canon-wise, then you can definitely pair Ichigo with someone else because you already have a believable foundation. (I argue this a lot - being a supporter of KisshuxMinto, KisshuxRingo, and KisshuxKanna, I do have to find good reasons and a believable story to pair them together).
Mainly, though, it *mostly* seems to boil down to the fact that fangirls like the rabidmentallyderangedstalker Kisshu and the oftencoldandbossy Shirogane** better.
Also, people need to remember that most of the time, Masaya Aoyama is seen from Ichigo's point of view. She doesn't focus on his flaws, she really only sees his good side, and then it is magnified in her vision. And also, I'll bet that Aoyama was more likely to be nice to and around her. Look:(Quoted from book 6, pg 92-94) But...Ichigo was different. She's cheerful, though she's a crybaby at times. Still, just being with her made me happy. She's a wonderful girl. I felt like a real human being around her. We were so much in love.
You can read that right there, he enjoyed being around her. When you enjoy something, you are obviously going to be feeling cheerful, and it will show in your actions, so if you combine the fact that Aoyama is going to be in a good mood and being nice, plus the fact that it's a shoujo story mainly Ichigo's point of view, there's definitely going to be a bit of a distortion around his *real* character.
Also, I want to direct your attention to that sentence right before the one I bolded, "I felt like a real human being around her." This implies that he felt alien around other people - more evidence for the case of anti-social Aoyama, and it ties in to what I've been saying: like all people, he acted differently in the company of strangers and in the company of close friends. But even so, it would've been hard for him to do so. After all, here's a boy who really hasn't trusted anyone in his entire life and has essentially been playing a character to hide his real personality. He's not going to just break that down in a matter of days; it's going to take him a long while.
A horridly common argument is that he "has no flaws." Masaya has a rather big flaw in that he feels he has to be perfect. I pointed out that he felt he had to be perfect in order to survive, so it's something he obviously had to work at. He strikes me as the type of person who would punish himself if he got, say, a "B" or did not do well in Kendo, seeing it as something less-than-perfect that was not allowed to be in his life. He seems...almost paranoid in that sense. And then, you have to feel that he was lonely. I don't recall seeing him with friends, though he's often surrounded by fangirls, who would've added to the feeling that he had to be perfect because they only liked him because he was *perfect.*
I mean, if anything, it's easy to pity him. Whether they pushed him to be "perfect," or whether he misinterpreted something his parents said, he seemed to feel that he himself had no redeeming qualities if he couldn't do everything *right.*
Sometimes, I also think he's lacking a bit in the social skills department. I mean, look where he took Ichigo for their first date! He didn't really take into consideration what she wanted to do like he does later in the series (e-Jump, anyone?).
Poor Aoyama. Surrounded by people but he doesn't seem to have any real friends. He's an orphan, and doesn't seem to have a good relationship with his adoptive parents. His girlfriend is being actively pursued by an alien, he's anti-social, and he's got an insane alter-ego. Does this sound "perfect" to you?
*I can't remember the anime episode where we learn his past, but I think someone mentioned it *might* be episode 38.
**Yes, I know that they're the two most popular boys of the series. But people write them so OOC, they forget that these two are not all kittens and fluff.
He's bashed so much, I felt the need to defend him in art as well by joining in the Character Is project. Without further ado, I present Masaya Is...