A Defense of Chisame Hasegawa from Negima!
Chisame is an unpretty girl (and she knows it) in a class of gorgeous ones. She looks at her pretty and exotic and exciting classmates, all the Ku Feis and Fumikas and Akiras, and she feels jealous. After all, she could never be like that. She could never be so lovely and charming and beloved by everyone. Nobody ever tells her that she's cute. She knows what people like, and she knows she's none of that. And so she creates someone she does like and tries to become her-- the gorgeous, energetic and loveable Net-Idol Chiu! Everybody loves Chiu, everybody leaves nice comments and compliments her and tells her how cute she is. And Chisame can feel special, really special about herself for the first time.
The fandom sees this and they think: "Bitch."
I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised-- after all, that other popular fandom about a young wizard from Britain was also rife with character bashing, if I remember correctly. But still, I was shocked when I saw some of the character-hate going on in the Mahou Sensei Negima! fandom.
And one character recieving a lot of undue hatred is one Chisame Hasegawa, AKA Net-Idol Chiu. Yes, according to lots of fans including this rather... interesting... specimen, 3-A's resident fall guy (and my favorite character) is in fact a "rude, ugly, bitchy, stupid, flat chested, big nosed, fat" bitch.
Oh, really? Well, let's go through this young fish's arguments one by one and take them into consideration, shall we?
-1. She's Rude/She Degrades Everyone
It depends on how you look at it. It's true that Chisame doesn't have the greatest opinion of the girls in her class. To put it bluntly, she thinks they're all really weird. Of course, how many times have you been in a class that has contained a ninja, a ghost, an alien, a robot, a vampire, elementary school kids, college grads, samurai, geniuses, idiots and whatever Zazie is, all of them at the same time and not trying that hard to hide themselves? And your teacher is a 10-year-old who the class rep has the hots for? Yes, I thought so.
The thing about Chisame, though, is that even though she has VERY strong opinions about lots and lots of things... rarely does she ever voice them. She has never called her "freakish" classmates out on any of their idiosyncrasies, but just sits there and keeps her opinions to herself. In the eyes of her classmates, in fact, she's just shy. So even if she does think some pretty mean things... she never says them. All sorts of bashers are always talking about how Chisame "makes fun of people", but really, she hardly ever talks to anyone! And in recent chapters, when talking with Chachamaru she's acted nothing but courteous, even though she's mentally freaked out over the robot's existance before.
I mean, I think the person who wrote this refutation of Chisame is stupid, but I'm not telling him about it. I'm just using him as source material here. So give me a Net-Idol alter ego and call me a bitch.
And really-- come on. Who hasn't thought badly of people they don't know very well and who act annoying sometimes? If you're going to hold it against Chisame, you might as well hold it against humanity, too.
-2. She's Ugly/Flat-Chested/Big-Nosed/Fat
And no one is more aware of it than she is. Compared to the rest of her classmates, Chisame is terribly plain, if not unattractive. (I mean, Ayaka and Chizuru could make ANYONE short of CLAMP-girls look ugly by comparison.) She has a boring hairstyle, big glasses, and is prone to acne and dry skin. And Chisame agonizes over it. Why do you think she invented the hyper-gorgeous Net-Idol Chiu, anyway?
But, really, isn't this a stupid reason to hate a character? Especially given that Chisame's relative uncuteness is A HUGE ISSUE FOR THE CHARACTER IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SERIES ITSELF. That's like hating Setsuna for her devotion to Konoka, or Asuna for disliking kids, or Negi's hang-up with his father or Nodoka for being shy. Oh, wait, I forgot, this is Negima! fandom. They already do.
-3. She's Stupid
Yes, so stupid that she went and hacked into the Academy's main computers and outsmarted robot created by a super-genius. Stupid Chisame. What a moron.
-4. She's a Slut/She Dresses Like A Skank
This is often assumed because of the otaku-friendly cosplay that Chiu-Chiu-chan wears on her webpage. Still, how does that equate to "slut"? I mean, the most daring Chisame has ever gotten for Chiu's cosplay is a school swimsuit (in the anime). I certainly can't see her sleeping with her fanboys, anyway. Honestly, get your terminology right.
-5. And I quote, "Chisame... hates everyone. SHE HATES EVERYONE SO QUIT LOVING HER BECAUSE SHE'LL JUST HATE YOU! SHE'S SHALLOW AND FAT AND SHE CARES ONLY ABOUT HERSELF AND HER GAY SPLIT PERSONALITY OF A RETARDED SLUT!"
Which is precisely why she sacrifices her comfort (which she previously stated was the only thing important to her) in order to help Negi and his friends. Twice. And what about her "I feel so empty" line in Chapter 172? And that's without even getting anywhere into her relationship with Negi.
Chisame is not a very black-and-white character who is easy to say "she's good" or "she's bad" about. And she's not even a supervillain or antihero or anything, just a grumpy computer geek who likes to feel pretty! She's a very subtle character. She's complicated, but that doesn't mean that she's a bitch! I personally find her incredibly interesting BECAUSE of her attitude and idiosyncrasies. She strikes a real chord with me... and considering that she's just one character in a 31+ romantic comedy series, that's really saying something.
So stop the bashing, please?
And while I'm at it, if anyone else bashes Asuna and Evangeline for being "child abusers", I'm going to become very cross.