@Thearpox
I just love how you underlined this idea of an immature industry. I so hope you are right. I admit I do not trust Chinese capitalism and their industrialism. Sometimes China reminds me of Industrial England. A Valley of Tears. And we must not forget that this type of predatory capitalism, bordering on libertarianism, not only transcends the world of art, the world of entertainment, but seeps into everyday life. And eventually causes revolutions. All revolutions had one thing in common, exploited and hungry people marching at the forefront to feed themselves.
While we are waiting for the Chinese middle class youngsters to develop a taste in a job well-done, thousands of talented artists are being eaten up alive by this frightening profit monster.
But I wonder whether the Japanese manga is not a show that the death knell has been rang for the Chinese webcomic. When I was a child, I used to watch "Attack No. 1" and "Rose of Versailles". Both were shojo. In fact, "Rose of Versailles" is in the top 20 of most influential manga of all times. "Attack No. 1" was about a young girl who wanted to become the best Volleyball player of the world. And all her hardships. Made in 1969. It was neither soft, neither cute. I don't even think there was a romance story in it. It was quite realistic. At some point, I think the main lead went through depression, even. Then, at age 5, living in refugee camps and being of the wrong religion and ethnicity (or rather, being a mixed child, of parents with different ethnicities and religions) while an ethnic war was raging in my country, I discovered "Rose of Versailles", the story of the French Revolution lived through a young aristocratic woman who was raised as a man and was stuck always questioning her own gender and whether she was to live as a man or a woman. Whether she was to be a royalist soldier, oppressing the hungry people but protecting the royal ideal, or to become a revolutionary. I was watching that on this tiny TV and then, I discovered Maximilien Robespierre, the French Revolutionary. In that anime, he was an important character and some of his discourses were faithfully reproduced. It is a freakin' shojo manga that convinced me that I was worthy when the world was telling me I should die, erase me as an incongruity that proved the lies about ethnic oppression were less viable than what they implied. One would think that a 5-year old doesn't understand. You would be surprised. Maximilien Robespierre still today is a guiding light for me, in a way. Had it not been for "Rose of Versailles", I might never have discovered such a powerful historical figure.
But what are contemporary shojo manga about?! A sort of high school life that has nothing to do with reality, based on bland characters with no actual interests, actual abilities (EVERYONE has an ability that is special to him as an individual) or ideals. And these plotlines are repeated
ad nauseam. To the point we are unable to even enjoy anything besides them. I am trying to think of a shojo manga that does not revolve around relationships between men and women in whatever setting they choose and where the male and female characters have actual dreams that transcend couple life.
To me, "The Queen" was the last show of life of a dying concept. I admit that the only reason I translated it was Aluoye Saya. Aluoye Saya was to me a great criticism of political hypocrisy. To the Humans, the fact she fought against imperialism and ethnical cleansing with the tools she had at hand was an aberration. She was the copy paste of an actual extended ancestor family member of mine who is infamous for what the Western world calls a terrorist attack that precipitated one of the greatest wars in history (think back in the 1900s, not in contemporary history). But to us, he is a hero who took it upon himself to do the unforgivable for us to finally liberate ourselves from hundreds of years under various empires (Western empires, thank you - and it is not like we didn't warn the world this would happen if they didn't give us our autonomy). From the Human perspective, Aluoye Saya was a murderer. From the Mirage perspective, Aluoye Saya was a hero and a martyr. TUTU pulled that contradiction off masterfully. In fact, "The Queen" pulled me right back into the comic world after I had been quite absent for a few years. It made me relive those same emotions I had when I was 5 and watching "Rose of Versailles".
So the idea that something so beautiful, something so transcending, something that TUTU definitely meant to be deeper (the way she had to twist her own plot or just simply disregard much she wrote about in Season 1 and contradict it openly and totally proves it - she goes as far as making the characters say things when we know they said the complete opposite in Season 1) would be wrecked hurt. Hurt bad. And I am sure it hurt TUTU millions of times more than it would ever hurt me. One week ago, she wrote a post trying to explain what art meant to artists and how it shouldn't be viewed with disrespect. She called it her lover, her child, hundreds of sleepless nights and deep pain. I don't know whether she wanted to send out a message of help to the world (if that is the case, her readers didn't get it) to make us understand that she was forced to do what she was doing because she was coerced by someone who disrespected her art.
