My Objection to Dramatic Irony… and a bit more about teen pregancy

Funny bit of the day:

“I feel like I’ve leveled up in life…”
*perks up* “In sexual ways?”
*resignedly* “Sadly, I’m still at Level 1 in that regard…”

HA! I liked that bit.

Anyway, I read some manga today and for the first time, I realized what I hated most about some manga: Dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is when something happens and the audience knows it, but some of the characters don’t. An example of this would be when a modern audience reads “Oedipus Rex”. The modern audience already knows that Oedipus is sleeping with his mom (which, by the way, is incredibly fucked up), so they’re basically just waiting for the “big reveal”. The only problem is… THERE IS NO REVEAL. Dramatic irony kills any sort of surprise because in essence, there is no surprise. Not for the audience/reader, anyway. In “Kimi no Iru Machi”, which is one of the manga series I’m currently reading, you already know that this girl is going to fall for this guy, not because there’s any sort of foreshadowing, but because the perspective suddenly shifts from the male protagonist to one of the other female characters. It’s total crap! And I hate it and wish it would go away…

*I DON’T KNOW IF ANYONE IS READING “SUZUKA” BY SEO KOUJI, BUT IF YOU ARE, THERE ARE SPOILERS*

And a separate note, I very much liked Seo Kouji’s previous work, “Suzuka”. I found the teen pregnancy ending to be much… better than that in Juno. It was… I dunno. Both more happy, and less happy. Because… Akitsuki (the male protagonist) and Asahina (female protagonist) do end up married and they have a happy life with each other, but I feel like they gave up on their own potential for the sake of happiness. For example, they both lost their chances of going to university and neither of them ever pursued sports, even though they were clearly very talented in their respective sports.

I feel like… we give up a part of our happiness in order to attain our full human potential, and by potential I suppose I mean societal recognition. Generally, most people are destined to be… little more than cogs in the wheels of civilization. It’s either that or being a huge fucking wrench in the plans. But sometimes, there are innovators. There are geniuses who revolutionize thinking, like Descartes, Edison, Einstein, Newton, and a bunch of other really smart people. A recent Nobel Prize winner (I forgot his name) for some kind of science (I forgot the field too) said something about having to sacrifice having a family and children for the sake of the Project to benefit mankind. When I talked to my Dad about wanting a head a major research project after college, he objected and said that I wouldn’t have any time for myself.

I suppose, to a certain extent, there’s only so much time we can dedicate. We can choose to dedicate time for work, school, careers, and saving the world or we can choose to dedicate time for family, friends, children, and personal happiness. But, we can’t be in two places at once and as such, we can’t do both things at once. Some could argue that saving the world IS satisfying. I would argue that they’re a lying pile of shit. Saving the world and other such altruism is admirable, but you can’t be a full-time hero and have a good family life. Spider-Man taught me that. So, my question is, if you were given the choice between being a great benefactor to the faceless masses of mankind or leading a very happy, fulfilling life with a loving family, which one would you choose if you had to sacrifice the other?

… I think I’ve kinda strayed away from the original topic at hand… again…

Suzuka

So, recently I’ve been reading a manga called “Suzuka”. It’s basically about a high school track student named Akitsuki Yamato (first name: Yamato, last name: Akitsuki) and his high school trials and tribulations, most of which revolves around the significant female characters in his life, his interaction with them, and how track and field affects him and those around him. For the most part, it’s about Akitsuki’s relationship with one girl in particular named Asahina Suzuka (first name: Suzuka, last name: Asahina), who is a national-level high jump athelete.

So, basically how I go about reading manga is that I find a series that’s already finished, find out if I can download all the volumes, and if so, I download all of them. In this way, I can read all of them quickly and I won’t be salivating for weeks over the next volume. I think doing this increases my excitement and connection with the characters… until I forgot some of them names (-_-;)… in which case Wikipedia becomes incredibly helpful! (^_^)

In any case, the story kind of reminded me of a situation high school. Basically, Akitsuki became infatuated with Asahina at the very first moment that he met her. The first time he confessed to her, he got rejected… HARDCORE! Like, the girl (Asahina) was nice about it… but their previously friendly relationship totally fell apart. Which is exactly how it went the first time I got confessed (;_;)… Anyway, so now that I’ve shared that little snippet… LET’S MOVE ON! 速くして。。。

The funny thing is… Akitsuki ends up going out with another girl (Hanako) right afterwards, and they broke up in dramatic fashion since the girl figured out that he was still in love with Asahina (the first girl). This served to illustrate that despite his efforts to be a good boyfriend, Akitsuki was only trying to be a good boyfriend to not hurt Hanako, not because he actually liked her. Anyway. That’s not related to me though.

These last few blog posts have been a bit rambling. Oh well.