IT WAS SUPER EFFECTIVE, BITCHES
Oct. 16th, 2009 01:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elementalheroOkay. I was supposed to be writing a paper tonight, but ended up finishing the GSC arc of Pokemon Special. (Doing the paper over break now, I guess. :/ I knew this would happen.)
Basically, this manga is everything that any manga should ever be in terms of awesomeness and plot twists and cuteness and GENDER DYNAMICS and SHIPPING and HDKJSHDSJKFSHJAKF HOLY GOD WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE--
Okay, so HAVE SOME MOAR LANCE AND SILVER INTERACTING AND BEING THE SEXY GODS OF AWESOME THAT THEY ARE DFSJFKLSJKLFJSKFL. This also functions as a flashback to when Silver first meets Lance and Lance (Lance! The giant prick! Now former giant prick, but still!) gives him advice on having a Heel Face Turn and making his Pokemon happy. djskdfs Silver you adorable woobie~ OH AND MORE DRAMATIC CAPING FROM LANCE ♥ ♥ ♥
And here's Lance reading Silver's Sneasel's memories and looking kind of cute when he isn't being a crazy megalomaniac or random user of Dramatic Cape no Jutsu. We also get the first of many, many, many, many shippy Blue/Silver panels~~~~ BTW, all these scans are flipped and use the silly Blue/Green name switch that was a function of the American manga. Bah. We'll just have to ignore it.
OMG LANCE BEING ALL "HOLY SHIT HOLY CRAP I HAVE AWESOME HAIR" and Silver being like "I AM IN TOTAL SHOCK, LOOK AT MY ONE SHOCKED EYE! I HAVE EMO HAIR THAT IS ALSO AWESOME." Also, YELLOW! LOOK AT YELLOW, LOOK HOW CUTE YELLOW IS!
And then in between this cluster of plot and the next cluster, I have to begin remarks on Pokemon's gender politics. Up until this point, it's basically average. The first arc, the Red/Green/Blue arc does nothing special, making Red and Green the stars of the show but allowing Blue to be awesome when she's onscreen but not actually make it to the Final Battle due to being beaten by Professor Oak, who uses her psychologically scarring, crippling phobia of birds against her. :/
Then the Yellow Arc comes along, and we spend the entire arc thinking Yellow's an atypically moe but still somewhat standard Magical Shounen Boy protag until we find out SHE WAS A GIRL THE WHOLE TIME! What begins to be noticeable here, though, is that even after the revelation, Yellow puts her hat back on and nothing, I repeat, nothing is changed about the way her character is presented. Not one thing. If you skipped that panel, you wouldn't even know. Not only that, Lance doesn't even find out! The Final Battle goes on as planned! IT'S NOT SOME HORRIBLY IMPORTANT PLOT POINT. Curiouser and curiouser.
With that said, we meet up with Blue in the Ilex Forest, being attacked by Karen and Will, who use Lugia and Ho-oh, the giant bird Legendaries, to torment her. We find out that this is because Blue and Silver share the same tragic past, that they were both kidnapped as children by Ho-oh (which causes Blue's phobia) and forcibly trained for years under the villain. Blue's glad she sent Silver away so that Karen and Will (two other recruited children who work for Mask of Ice) won't torment him with this same old shit, and it turns out Silver's already been captured! We than have this (oh god so sad and shippy) exchange:
OH MY GOD. JUST. THE HUGGING AND THE AKLASJKASLDA--Anyway.
BLUE IS THE STAR HERE, LADIES AND GENTS. NOT SILVER. BLUE. THE ENTIRE GENDER DYNAMIC HERE IS SWAPPED. SILVER'S THE DAMSEL, AND BLUE IS THE WEAKENED HERO WHO CALLS ON HER RESERVES OF STRENGTH AND WILLPOWER TO DO:
THIS. THIS. THIS. THIS. THIS.
I JUST
I CAN'T EVEN
DKJSLAJFSAKLFJSAKLFJKSALFJSKFLAK
and then and then and then
SHE KICKS ASS (which I don't have most of this because it's too many things to copypasta)
Then we have this exchange which makes me ship Koga and Bruno really hard, which is kind of creepy but also awesome:
I mean, d'aaw. Koga has his Heel Face Turn and Bruno is just love and they're both like WE SHALL FOLLOW OUR OWN DESTINIES and PARTNERS, NOT MASTER/SERVANT, and akdlsaj two grown men shouldn't be this goddamn cute together *A*
BUT ANYWAY BACK TO BLUE
DKSLFJKDSLFJAL Notice how she's the important person and Red and Green are the support. dskldfsklfkls
And then we have Silver fighting Will (who btw is totally second in command to Karen, who fights head to head with Blue as TAG TEAM BADASS LADIES while Will gets to be Silver's backstory bitch), and after he finds out Will and Karen aren't being controlled by Mask, but are in this for the lulz, he's like HEY GUESS WHAT? I WAS HOLDING BACK BECAUSE I THOUGHT YOU WERE A WOOBIE LIKE ME. GUESS IT'S TIME TO KICK YOUR HARLEQUIN ASS, THEN! and then ridiculous levels of awesome happen~
AND THEN.
AND THEN.
THE BEST PART.
Because of course, Gold is the official star of this arc and no matter how much Badass Lady time Blue gets, the sad fact is that this is not called the Blue Arc (EVEN THOUGH IT SHOULD BE).
In this scene, Gold is having a Heroic BSOD and critical confidence failure because Oak just sent him a letter detailing all the special "talents" of the other six protagonists--Red/Fighter, Green/Trainer, Yellow/Healer, Blue/Evolver, Crystal/Capturer (oh, I will flail about Crystal in a few paragraphs, hold on), and Silver/Exchanger. Gold's name isn't on the list at all. Gold has just been pwned by the Mask of Ice and with this revelation on its heels, is totally shattered, thinking it's Oak's way of telling him, "SORRY FORGOT TO TELL YOU YOU SUCK TOO MUCH TO BE OF ANY REAL USE."
AND THEN
AND THEN
GOLD'S SPECIAL TALENT IS BREEDING. NURTURING. PROTECTING. CARING. LOVING.
That's not Yellow's special ability. It isn't Green's. Nor Crystal's.
It's Gold's. The rash, impulsive, dorky male protagonist.
Dear Tite Kubo, THAT IS HOW YOU FUCKING DO IT.
AND THEN GOLD SHOOTS UP INTO THE TIME VORTEX BY VAULTING ON HIS POOL CUE OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS MANGA SO GODDAMN MUCH I MIGHT CRY.
Everyone gets an amazing, life-affirming moment at the end of the GSC Arc. Everyone. EVEN LAMO-SCIENTIST BILL AND THE ANNOYING RADIO GUY.
I just I just I just dklsjfkalfjskalfjsklafjksalf
Look at that bottom panel. Three girls. Three guys. All of them, every single one, given equal importance as protagonists, secondary protagonists and rivals over the course of about 175 chapters or so. Granted, Gold's not there, but we just established he's a subversion of shounen norms anyway, so EXCUSED. (Also, there are seven protags at this point in the series, so it would have been uneven anyway.)
And that's all for the pictures I bothered to save, but Crystal. Crystal's arms were both broken when she was a child, so she learned to throw Pokeballs WITH HER LEGS. We get about a third of an arc watching her run around Johto capturing Pokemon like wildfire and chasing Suicune around with Eusine (EUSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE). Then she has a Heroic BSOD, loses her confidence, goes to Mt. Mortar to retrain after being shouted at and slapped by her mother (which is not played for laughs and in fact is used to intimate that their relationship is fragged up and that's why Kris is always so serious about everything she does--even though they can't really show a protag having a fragged-up familial relationship because that's just not done in kids' manga :/), regains her ability after some backstory flashbacks, and then goes out to kick more ass. I wish I had some pages of her capturing Pokemon, because she's incredibly, incredibly awesome.
And then there's Janine, who has a screwed-up relationship with her absent father, Koga (Red, this is your thing! You'd love Janine!), because she's looking for a master (because he taught her that ninja live to serve their masters SHE'S AN AWESOME NINJA, GUYS, SHE'S AMAZING) but what she's really looking for is his guidance because he left her and now she has to take over his Gym and just dkfsljkl she's such a silent woobie underneath her badassness, but you have to dig to find it. She ends up being one of the few (few! Maybe the only one!) female-by-male defeats in the Gym Leader Tournament, but only because she ditches the fight to look for Koga in the stands because she thought she saw him. And then she and Falkner (the guy she lost to) have a heartfelt moment, because like THEY ARE BOTH CHASING THE SHADOWS OF THEIR FATHERS and just fdkslfjdsklfjsklfdsklfjskl
AND THEN THERE'S JASMINE, WHO KICKS BROCK'S ASS. LIKE SERIOUSLY, IT TOOK LIKE TWO SECONDS, and she's like all meek and demure, all, "I hadn't wanted to use Steelix because it's so powerful, it would just be unfair," and then walks away.
AND THEN. THERE'S ERIKA. ERIKA WHO TAKES "YAMATO NADESHIKO" AND TURNS IT ON ITS HEAD BY BEING RIDICULOUSLY, RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME. She basically takes turns with Blaine leading all the Gym Leaders of Kanto, and she catches Pokemon with archery, and is ridiculously badass in her fight, with her whole, "In fighting, as in ikebana, indifference is the key~" Sadly, she gets beaten by Pryce, but he turns out to be the villain later, and so it's not so bad.
And then. There's Misty. Full stop.
This manga is intended for consumption by young kids. Probably primarily boys, who were the original demographic.
You can't tell me that you can't put great gender dynamics and plot twists that make sense into manga aimed at young boys. You can't. I can't believe you anymore. Not after this. This is a demographic aimed a few years younger than Shounen Jump, the formative years.
If Pokemon can do it, you can do it.
Your move, Jump artists.
Basically, this manga is everything that any manga should ever be in terms of awesomeness and plot twists and cuteness and GENDER DYNAMICS and SHIPPING and HDKJSHDSJKFSHJAKF HOLY GOD WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE--
Okay, so HAVE SOME MOAR LANCE AND SILVER INTERACTING AND BEING THE SEXY GODS OF AWESOME THAT THEY ARE DFSJFKLSJKLFJSKFL. This also functions as a flashback to when Silver first meets Lance and Lance (Lance! The giant prick! Now former giant prick, but still!) gives him advice on having a Heel Face Turn and making his Pokemon happy. djskdfs Silver you adorable woobie~ OH AND MORE DRAMATIC CAPING FROM LANCE ♥ ♥ ♥
And here's Lance reading Silver's Sneasel's memories and looking kind of cute when he isn't being a crazy megalomaniac or random user of Dramatic Cape no Jutsu. We also get the first of many, many, many, many shippy Blue/Silver panels~~~~ BTW, all these scans are flipped and use the silly Blue/Green name switch that was a function of the American manga. Bah. We'll just have to ignore it.
OMG LANCE BEING ALL "HOLY SHIT HOLY CRAP I HAVE AWESOME HAIR" and Silver being like "I AM IN TOTAL SHOCK, LOOK AT MY ONE SHOCKED EYE! I HAVE EMO HAIR THAT IS ALSO AWESOME." Also, YELLOW! LOOK AT YELLOW, LOOK HOW CUTE YELLOW IS!
And then in between this cluster of plot and the next cluster, I have to begin remarks on Pokemon's gender politics. Up until this point, it's basically average. The first arc, the Red/Green/Blue arc does nothing special, making Red and Green the stars of the show but allowing Blue to be awesome when she's onscreen but not actually make it to the Final Battle due to being beaten by Professor Oak, who uses her psychologically scarring, crippling phobia of birds against her. :/
Then the Yellow Arc comes along, and we spend the entire arc thinking Yellow's an atypically moe but still somewhat standard Magical Shounen Boy protag until we find out SHE WAS A GIRL THE WHOLE TIME! What begins to be noticeable here, though, is that even after the revelation, Yellow puts her hat back on and nothing, I repeat, nothing is changed about the way her character is presented. Not one thing. If you skipped that panel, you wouldn't even know. Not only that, Lance doesn't even find out! The Final Battle goes on as planned! IT'S NOT SOME HORRIBLY IMPORTANT PLOT POINT. Curiouser and curiouser.
With that said, we meet up with Blue in the Ilex Forest, being attacked by Karen and Will, who use Lugia and Ho-oh, the giant bird Legendaries, to torment her. We find out that this is because Blue and Silver share the same tragic past, that they were both kidnapped as children by Ho-oh (which causes Blue's phobia) and forcibly trained for years under the villain. Blue's glad she sent Silver away so that Karen and Will (two other recruited children who work for Mask of Ice) won't torment him with this same old shit, and it turns out Silver's already been captured! We than have this (oh god so sad and shippy) exchange:
OH MY GOD. JUST. THE HUGGING AND THE AKLASJKASLDA--Anyway.
BLUE IS THE STAR HERE, LADIES AND GENTS. NOT SILVER. BLUE. THE ENTIRE GENDER DYNAMIC HERE IS SWAPPED. SILVER'S THE DAMSEL, AND BLUE IS THE WEAKENED HERO WHO CALLS ON HER RESERVES OF STRENGTH AND WILLPOWER TO DO:
THIS. THIS. THIS. THIS. THIS.
I JUST
I CAN'T EVEN
DKJSLAJFSAKLFJSAKLFJKSALFJSKFLAK
and then and then and then
SHE KICKS ASS (which I don't have most of this because it's too many things to copypasta)
Then we have this exchange which makes me ship Koga and Bruno really hard, which is kind of creepy but also awesome:
I mean, d'aaw. Koga has his Heel Face Turn and Bruno is just love and they're both like WE SHALL FOLLOW OUR OWN DESTINIES and PARTNERS, NOT MASTER/SERVANT, and akdlsaj two grown men shouldn't be this goddamn cute together *A*
BUT ANYWAY BACK TO BLUE
DKSLFJKDSLFJAL Notice how she's the important person and Red and Green are the support. dskldfsklfkls
And then we have Silver fighting Will (who btw is totally second in command to Karen, who fights head to head with Blue as TAG TEAM BADASS LADIES while Will gets to be Silver's backstory bitch), and after he finds out Will and Karen aren't being controlled by Mask, but are in this for the lulz, he's like HEY GUESS WHAT? I WAS HOLDING BACK BECAUSE I THOUGHT YOU WERE A WOOBIE LIKE ME. GUESS IT'S TIME TO KICK YOUR HARLEQUIN ASS, THEN! and then ridiculous levels of awesome happen~
AND THEN.
AND THEN.
THE BEST PART.
Because of course, Gold is the official star of this arc and no matter how much Badass Lady time Blue gets, the sad fact is that this is not called the Blue Arc (EVEN THOUGH IT SHOULD BE).
In this scene, Gold is having a Heroic BSOD and critical confidence failure because Oak just sent him a letter detailing all the special "talents" of the other six protagonists--Red/Fighter, Green/Trainer, Yellow/Healer, Blue/Evolver, Crystal/Capturer (oh, I will flail about Crystal in a few paragraphs, hold on), and Silver/Exchanger. Gold's name isn't on the list at all. Gold has just been pwned by the Mask of Ice and with this revelation on its heels, is totally shattered, thinking it's Oak's way of telling him, "SORRY FORGOT TO TELL YOU YOU SUCK TOO MUCH TO BE OF ANY REAL USE."
AND THEN
AND THEN
GOLD'S SPECIAL TALENT IS BREEDING. NURTURING. PROTECTING. CARING. LOVING.
That's not Yellow's special ability. It isn't Green's. Nor Crystal's.
It's Gold's. The rash, impulsive, dorky male protagonist.
Dear Tite Kubo, THAT IS HOW YOU FUCKING DO IT.
AND THEN GOLD SHOOTS UP INTO THE TIME VORTEX BY VAULTING ON HIS POOL CUE OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS MANGA SO GODDAMN MUCH I MIGHT CRY.
Everyone gets an amazing, life-affirming moment at the end of the GSC Arc. Everyone. EVEN LAMO-SCIENTIST BILL AND THE ANNOYING RADIO GUY.
I just I just I just dklsjfkalfjskalfjsklafjksalf
Look at that bottom panel. Three girls. Three guys. All of them, every single one, given equal importance as protagonists, secondary protagonists and rivals over the course of about 175 chapters or so. Granted, Gold's not there, but we just established he's a subversion of shounen norms anyway, so EXCUSED. (Also, there are seven protags at this point in the series, so it would have been uneven anyway.)
And that's all for the pictures I bothered to save, but Crystal. Crystal's arms were both broken when she was a child, so she learned to throw Pokeballs WITH HER LEGS. We get about a third of an arc watching her run around Johto capturing Pokemon like wildfire and chasing Suicune around with Eusine (EUSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE). Then she has a Heroic BSOD, loses her confidence, goes to Mt. Mortar to retrain after being shouted at and slapped by her mother (which is not played for laughs and in fact is used to intimate that their relationship is fragged up and that's why Kris is always so serious about everything she does--even though they can't really show a protag having a fragged-up familial relationship because that's just not done in kids' manga :/), regains her ability after some backstory flashbacks, and then goes out to kick more ass. I wish I had some pages of her capturing Pokemon, because she's incredibly, incredibly awesome.
And then there's Janine, who has a screwed-up relationship with her absent father, Koga (Red, this is your thing! You'd love Janine!), because she's looking for a master (because he taught her that ninja live to serve their masters SHE'S AN AWESOME NINJA, GUYS, SHE'S AMAZING) but what she's really looking for is his guidance because he left her and now she has to take over his Gym and just dkfsljkl she's such a silent woobie underneath her badassness, but you have to dig to find it. She ends up being one of the few (few! Maybe the only one!) female-by-male defeats in the Gym Leader Tournament, but only because she ditches the fight to look for Koga in the stands because she thought she saw him. And then she and Falkner (the guy she lost to) have a heartfelt moment, because like THEY ARE BOTH CHASING THE SHADOWS OF THEIR FATHERS and just fdkslfjdsklfjsklfdsklfjskl
AND THEN THERE'S JASMINE, WHO KICKS BROCK'S ASS. LIKE SERIOUSLY, IT TOOK LIKE TWO SECONDS, and she's like all meek and demure, all, "I hadn't wanted to use Steelix because it's so powerful, it would just be unfair," and then walks away.
AND THEN. THERE'S ERIKA. ERIKA WHO TAKES "YAMATO NADESHIKO" AND TURNS IT ON ITS HEAD BY BEING RIDICULOUSLY, RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME. She basically takes turns with Blaine leading all the Gym Leaders of Kanto, and she catches Pokemon with archery, and is ridiculously badass in her fight, with her whole, "In fighting, as in ikebana, indifference is the key~" Sadly, she gets beaten by Pryce, but he turns out to be the villain later, and so it's not so bad.
And then. There's Misty. Full stop.
This manga is intended for consumption by young kids. Probably primarily boys, who were the original demographic.
You can't tell me that you can't put great gender dynamics and plot twists that make sense into manga aimed at young boys. You can't. I can't believe you anymore. Not after this. This is a demographic aimed a few years younger than Shounen Jump, the formative years.
If Pokemon can do it, you can do it.
Your move, Jump artists.
Tags:
- a magical thing of hope and wonder,
- asdhjdksl,
- being productive,
- best. destiny. ever.,
- double hell raiser with cheese,
- fandorking,
- fangirling,
- friendship and loyalty dattebayo!,
- look! a distraction!,
- oh my god this,
- pokemon,
- super effective!!!!!!,
- the power of youth explode,
- very awesome want moar,
- yeah feminism yeah!!!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-10-16 02:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-16 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-17 02:09 am (UTC)JOIN USSSS
no subject
Date: 2009-10-17 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-17 02:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-17 04:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-17 04:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-17 04:26 pm (UTC)/dies of pure joy
no subject
Date: 2009-10-17 04:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-18 04:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-20 01:31 am (UTC)AND ALSO.
FRICKING SILVER.
OMG.
/DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED. AT THE END OF FR/LG.
sadly, Silver is unlike Riku in that he can't pull off poofy pants.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-20 10:19 pm (UTC)SDFJKLDSJ I KNOW, SILVER AND EVERYONE AND TURNING TO STONE skdfjlskdfjskldfjskl
I knoooow D:
no subject
Date: 2009-10-21 12:24 am (UTC)Not even the shoulder pads worked! SUPER SADNESS! Although his pose in that scene when he was making his big emo "I CAN'T ESCAPE FROM THE DARKNESS" speech to Sneasel was orgasm-inducing, dklsfjsk SILVER STOP TURNING ME INTO A PEDOPHILE, PLEASE D8 D8 D8
no subject
Date: 2009-10-21 12:31 am (UTC)The shoulder pads made it worse! LOOOOOL and SILVER WHY SO EMO.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-21 12:35 am (UTC)IKR??? He looked way too poofy in that outfit--ALTHOUGH MAYBE IT COULD BE KIND OF SYMBOLIC, because like, it was too big for him, so like HE COULDN'T TAKE ON
THE ROLE FOR HIM
THAT HIS FATHER LEFT BEHIND
or maybe Team Rocket is just fashion-deficient, who knows. :/
THE EMO WAS THE BEST PART 8D
no subject
Date: 2009-10-21 12:39 am (UTC)OMG YOU'RE RIGHT.
AND WAS GIOVANNI A BADASS THAT ARC OR WAS HE A BADASS?
no subject
Date: 2009-10-21 12:47 am (UTC)GIOVANNI WAS HGSDFSFJDKSLJS
HE HELD SILVER OUT OF THE FIRE
WITH ONE ARM
WHILE FLAMES CHEWED HIS GUT TO SHREDS
Oh, man, Giovanni~
OH OH OH AND WHEN HE STRIPPED HIS JACKET OFF DURING THE FIGHT AGAINST RED 8Db
no subject
Date: 2009-10-21 12:48 am (UTC)HE DID. HE DIIIIIIIIIIIID OH MY GOD HE WAS SUCH A BADASS IT WAS AMAZING SDJFKLS GIOVANNI
no subject
Date: 2009-10-21 12:54 am (UTC)WITH
ONE
ARM
WHILE ON FIRE
no subject
Date: 2009-10-21 12:55 am (UTC)ALL FOR HIS SON. JDSFKLSDK GIOVANNI STAY MORALLY AMBIGUOUS FOREVER
no subject
Date: 2009-10-21 01:06 am (UTC)*...Crystal?*
GIOVANNI WILL ALWAYS HAVE MY HEARRRRRRT~
Actually, Team Rocket's always been my favorite, especially since Surge gave the huge WE ARE PROUD WE ARE TEAM ROCKET WE ANSWER TO NO ONE BUT US speech to his men, and like they broke the ice masks with their loyaltyyyyyyyy and ksljfkldsfjksl TEAM ROCKET ♥
no subject
Date: 2009-10-21 01:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-21 12:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-21 01:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-21 01:05 am (UTC)Although the gender relations will make you rage. .__. But it's a lovely story. Also, Atoli *points to icon* can have be lolcrazy and the main character is SUCH A WOOBIE OMG. When he's not LOLIWILLKILLYOUALL.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-21 01:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-21 05:57 pm (UTC)