Perfection in the Imperfect

Author: nova

Usagijen posted a thoughtful entry on bias regarding female characters of some popular shows of recent times. This sparked a short discussion on IRC which in part fueled me to write a little something of my own – with the recent whining all over the net about True Tears and Hiromi vs. Noe acting as a sort of catalyst. NOTE: This post contains some spoilers about True Tears, you have been warned.

Personally my stance in the whole issue about whether Hiromi or Noe is a better girlfriend is somewhat neutral. In True Tears my favorite character happened to Aiko who got played out fairly quickly – not that I was expecting anything, I can recognize a third wheel when I see one. But I do find it amusing and sometimes just plain annoying when people waste their breath repeating the same arguments n^9000 fantards before them.

If I were to choose, however, I would go with Hiromi. This makes a certain group of people complain – obviously Hiromi a flawed character, while Noe’s flaws are at least cute and loveable. And I actually do agree to this, but my choice still stands. Maybe I just represent some freaky niche within the male otakudom, but I am not looking for the perfect girl. But wouldn’t that make me, a person who is known to like such perfect girl/Mary Sue-characters such as Shirakawa Kotori, just a flaming hypocrite who does not live like he preaches?

Indeed I gain fondness to such characters to certain extent, but that is only half of the truth. The other side is that, even though I can find such female character attractive, I feel even stronger attraction towards those that actually display imperfections. Komachi Tsugumi, one of my all-time favorites, is a character with more than just a few personality flaws. Those familiar to Ever17 know of her freaky fits, horrible attitude towards other people for the most of the time and occasional violent outbursts (the hamster scene made me shit bricks…seriously).

In True Tears this tendency puts me in the Aiko-camp. Sure, she is far from a role model. She agrees to date Shin’s friend just to get closer to him and messes many things up when she finally cracks under tension. But that’s mainly why I felt such a strong relation to her. I guess that’s mainly the reason behind my weird addiction to the imperfect – I’m an imperfect person. I am not a knight in a silver armor and I have acknowledged to myself that I don’t need to be. Call it selfwishness if you will, but I’d rather embrace the imperfections, because they are what bring the spice to life – not absolute, ideal form of perfection. What I see in Hiromi that makes her surpass Noe on my list is not her pitiful state that’s supposed to make me ride on the fantasy of being a knight and a hero – but her imperfection as a person.

If you have read my post on the male characters and this knight-complex, you might notice that I’ve already discussed this taste of mine – that I find male leads with flawed character more interesting and solid than the perfect always well-meaning Nice Guy-types that are the industry standard. The same applies here just as well. And so tonight’s rant has been concluded, what a freak of nature I am with this kind of twisted taste of liking rocks more than diamonds.