What do Shinji from Evangelion and Parn from Record of Lodoss War have to do with each other? Not much, but I just finished the first graphic novels of both, and I will now be defending them at the same time. Or at least explaining why I like them.
ParnParn is a hero. ANd that's not a bad thing. He's not holier-than-thou or gary-stuish, but
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It's vitally important to the theme of the story that he fail utterly and vitally important to the mechanics of the story that he force himself to be distant from other people.
--GF
The gulf between man and woman is as deep as the ocean and twice as wide, after all.
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I dislike Parn inside the OVA. A lot. Is quite irrational, I know.
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Now, I absolutely adore Shinji in the anime, and hate to see him reduced to either a one-note whiner or an innocent victim. He's a fascinatingly complex anti-hero with a good side.
In the manga, well, there's that, but Sadamoto tones Shinji down too much. He seems too "normal", his angst too restrained. His attitude is different, with cold apathy being primary instead of just a part of larger experessions. I just don't like him in the manga, though everyone else seems to.
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Um...what does that have to do with Manga-Shinji vs. Anime-Shinji?
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Personally, I really liked him, and I commend the creator of the series for daring to create such a unique and unexpected "hero."
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But they are another bad cliché: the Grr!Power girl. Honestly, you can be weak in body and a damsel and kick ass like Mina Murray in Dracula and her later role in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (comics, don't confuse with horrible film). She could teach Anita Blake or Buffy a lesson or two about being a good character without speeshful powers.
Makoto is a good example of good character (even if she's inside Sailor Moon), has a deeply female side but with strengh.
All stereotypes could be well written: Grr!Power girl and damsel in distress became one in the person of Sister Yumiko/Yumie Takagi, a nun from Hellsing that has slip personality. Everything will end up being a cliché, either way.
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Indeed. I really liked Mina Murray in the orignal graphic novel; she worked realistically within the social confines of her time, but still managed to kick ass verbally.
Makoto is a good example of good character (even if she's inside Sailor Moon), has a deeply female side but with strengh.
I don't know...I'd be cautious about equating a "deeply female" side with not being an imperviously macho character. I don't think it's a matter of gender, but of allowing heroes of both sexes to have emotional lives.
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