Hoppe ni Himawari
- Thread starter MangaDex
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Mixed feelings about this.
Arai is kind of insensitive. Only kind of—not to the point of being a strongly dislikable character—but he definitely says and does insensitive stuff, one gets the feeling he's not really the most thoughtful person in the world. Mainly the only positive and sympathetic thing portrayed about him is that he's earnestly in love, and I can't help but think that Yone could do better, but it sort of feels like implicitly we're not supposed to think that because he's fat and will probably have to settle for the fact that someone loves him at all.
That's possibly me just reading too much into it, but for me it's hanging in the air a bit here.
It likewise bothers me a twinge that Yone is portrayed as the "dumb little fat kid, with a good personality"—a bit slow, naive, and internally tolerant of abuse, kind and sweet, reasonably adorable and lovable—it reeks to me a bit of "fat kids can't be smart, or if they are, they'd definitely be unattractive and unworthy of our attention because they should know better. But if they're helplessly dumb we can forgive them. Only if they're extra nice, of course."
On the other hand, neither of these problems are necessarily as bad I'm making them out to be.
On the other other hand, there's nothing complicating this otherwise-simple-and-generic romance plot other than the fact that Yone is fat, so when, for instance, the closing line is Arai saying "maybe you should lose some weight after all" (supposedly humorous though the context may be), I really do start to feel like the author really just gives in to every preconception about fat people and just did this as a variety piece, which kinda pisses me off... Hmm.
TL;DR: The only redeeming quality of this is that Yone is a sweetheart, and the more I think about it the more I find this subtly offensive. I'm probably tilting at windmills here but whatever.
Arai is kind of insensitive. Only kind of—not to the point of being a strongly dislikable character—but he definitely says and does insensitive stuff, one gets the feeling he's not really the most thoughtful person in the world. Mainly the only positive and sympathetic thing portrayed about him is that he's earnestly in love, and I can't help but think that Yone could do better, but it sort of feels like implicitly we're not supposed to think that because he's fat and will probably have to settle for the fact that someone loves him at all.
That's possibly me just reading too much into it, but for me it's hanging in the air a bit here.
It likewise bothers me a twinge that Yone is portrayed as the "dumb little fat kid, with a good personality"—a bit slow, naive, and internally tolerant of abuse, kind and sweet, reasonably adorable and lovable—it reeks to me a bit of "fat kids can't be smart, or if they are, they'd definitely be unattractive and unworthy of our attention because they should know better. But if they're helplessly dumb we can forgive them. Only if they're extra nice, of course."
On the other hand, neither of these problems are necessarily as bad I'm making them out to be.
On the other other hand, there's nothing complicating this otherwise-simple-and-generic romance plot other than the fact that Yone is fat, so when, for instance, the closing line is Arai saying "maybe you should lose some weight after all" (supposedly humorous though the context may be), I really do start to feel like the author really just gives in to every preconception about fat people and just did this as a variety piece, which kinda pisses me off... Hmm.
TL;DR: The only redeeming quality of this is that Yone is a sweetheart, and the more I think about it the more I find this subtly offensive. I'm probably tilting at windmills here but whatever.
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i dont really like this lol,, their whole relationship is kinda worrying
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