Yotsuba&!

[Probably_wont_log_in_again]

Just like 'Lolita', this is extremely embarrassing to read. I dont expect nineteenth century continental realism level depth of characterization from a serialized commercial product, but Yotsuba has literally nothing in common with how actual, real life children think or behave (even with the more special, non-neurotypical kind). Shes a cartoon, through and through, designed to appease (self-described) 'quirky' older adults with either no kids of their own, or with already out-of-the-house children living on their own that have no interest in procreating.

I realize that good fiction always mixes truths, lies, approximations and borrowed experiences to various degrees, but this garbage is just too much. Its unbearable how artificial everything comes off as here. Four point nine out of ten, wouldve been two if not for the art.

 

[fhq]

@Probably_wont_log_in_again Well... the manga is aimed at a wide range of adults and it's not fair to generalize any form of art to a specific group of characteristics or people condescendingly because you'll end up marginalizing the artist, the general art form, and its readers. Regardless, you're constructing a false equivalency. I believe your contentions aren't actually with the character of Yotsuba but the unrealistic perception of adult- and parent-hood. Sure, Koiwai doesn't seem have to deal with the difficult and taxing responsibilities and obstacles of having to care for a young child and that doesn't really matter. It's a slice-of-life manga intended to make its reader happy. What you're describing, or want to describe but lack the knowledge to, is hyper-reality.

Yes, Yotsuba is an idyllic caricature of a young girl but that's not the point nor do I think you understand anything about culture or literature. Everything you take in through media is a hyper-realized iteration of reality; Post-modernism's hyper-reality makes it so that our experiences are mediated. Yes, real parents have to clean up their children's shits or deliver visceral punishment when they do dubious things but we lose some of the reality of these things when we rarefy them like through the manga and the events that occur in Yotsuba's life. It's very simple; we have this idea of childhood, a fantasy childhood, and we buy more into this fantasy childhood world than we do our real childhood.

Or perhaps, this is a harem constructed for Koiwai. He exhibits essential elements of the harem shell in his meager affects onto the world. He doesn't have the responsibilities of an actual parent (that is seemingly forced onto the Ayases) nor the pressures of maintaining a happy marriage/relationship with a significant other (Yotsuba's creation story is almost mythic, virtually appearing from thin air with no contingencies or hindrances) but reaps the rewards of the affections of a young girl. And as such, all the events of Yotsuba revolve around Koiwai by proxy. It's not a romantic harem but a "platonic love" harem where all the characters adore Yotsuba and, by proxy, Koiwai. Again, this ends up being a hyper-realized experience of community.

And I'll stop there. We can analyze the constructs and constituents of this manga from character ideations to its fine pencil strokes and it'll do us no good because you've missed the point. Not every manga has to be guro, vore, scat, psychological thriller, nihilistic, or whatever is aggressively and violently progressive for it to be intriguing, novel, and valuable (in the context of anthropological media). It doesn't make you self-aware to be needlessly crass and cynical; in fact, it makes you seem (or just are) un-self-aware because you're judging this manga beyond its phenomenological reach.

 

[Probably_wont_log_in_again]

@fhq Okay chief, whatever you say. You havent written anything that I handnt though (even if youd like to believe otherwise), just put it in post-1950s context and reframed all the problems that I have with this piece of garbage in a positive light. So let me spell it in a compact way that youll bother to take at face value, without cheap 101 psychology gimmicks: even if you do like lazy masturbatory pieces that were designed specifically as lazy masturbatory pieces, that still doesnt make them good. Utilitarian perspective based on a notion that 'it does what it has to do' (conjure or remind the consumer about specific emotions) is perfectly valid, but it isnt what I was getting at here. Cheap 'phenomenological reach' is still a cheap 'phenomenological reach', and cutting the analysis of experience it provides off from broader context wont make it valuable. I'll admit that you can make it palatable - junk food is still technically food, it provides calories, yay, so I can sing praises to it if its tasty, but I'll have to able to digest it in the first place - theres an art to cooking, and throwing uncontrolled quantities of sugar to a pot isnt the way to go (not to mention that by doing it you risk making the dish taste unrecognizable, if not boring). And thats what my contention was motly about - the execution.

Consecutively - fine, we can narrow it down to how much lying a consumer is able to withstand in their stories. Or to how much layers you want to shave off an underlying metatheme, because yeah, at the end of the day most children do love most parents unconditionally. Reading about raw biological truths doesnt make those truths interesting. Just commercially viable.

Other than that, you talking about self un-awareness while creating several false constructs of your own about myself is just so...expected. If not in a sense that youre not aware what youre doing, then at least in conviction that you can get away with it.

Same goes for that passive aggressive im-so-smrt cuntiness.

>Or perhaps, this is a harem constructed for Koiwai
Yeah. To cite someone that I dont particularly care about anymore: 'just because there are infinite possible interpretations to a story doesnt mean theyre all equally valid'. But I guess empty people will always want to be seen as poignant, so I wont dwell on that.

----------------
>Well... the manga is aimed at a wide range of adults and it's not fair to generalize any form of art to a specific group of characteristics or people condescendingly because you'll end up marginalizing the artist, the general art form, and its readers.
I just hate-love this, because the language is so obvious and predictable. Which one of the diploma mills did you tumbled out of? Cause that specific line in general, along with lack of personalized vocabulary and insistence on using singular optics suggests precisely what youre accusing me of - lack of understanding on yout part. Unless internalized set of ideas expressed verbatim counts as comprehension for you.

 

[fhq]

@Probably_wont_log_in_again Okay. You still aren't actually saying anything of value. You critique the criticism's style as opposed to the content. Like a fool, you're latching onto the diction and rhetoric as if there's something wrong with being coherent. You missed the ENTIRE point i was making about hyper-reality and its features. I don't think you're disagreeing with me but the conclusion you've reached is so ... valueless. Simply, it's "commercially viable" and that makes it bad or silly; similarly, you wouldn't be reading any manga at all or experiencing any sort of culture and media if it wasn't commercially viable. So, transitively, you don't like anything in media because its fucking dumb to like things that are popular and light-hearted. Yeah, I guess there's no graphic depiction of Yotsuba taking a megashit in a Japanese squat toilet after eating some bad curry.

You aren't as smart or self-aware as you think you are. You're just being a monkey, parroting a 4chan's Lurker "le epic pessimist mindset". Try to think critically instead of getting unnecessarily butthurt at people challenging you. In any case, I'm done replying to this because i have no doubt you'll be butthurt at the comment's words as opposed to the content. "ohboy he used the word diction and rhetoric. Better call him a brainless sheep cause I assert that he must have gone through post-secondary education". Okay.

 

[Probably_wont_log_in_again]

@fhq Okay chief. You either dont understand what Im saying, or intentionally misconstrue what Im trying to say. Enough with false constructs, putting words in my mouth or building strawmen.

>You critique the criticism's style as opposed to the content. Like a fool, you're latching onto the diction [...]
I believe that was only one or two paragraphs. Youve been so deliciously molded that I just couldnt help myself. Sue me, you dont have the exclusivity rights to being a cunt, even if it perfectly fits with the persona that somehow became your personality. So confident, so smug, yet so predictable and boring. Standing on the shoulders of giants.
>[...]and rhetoric as if there's something wrong with being coherent.
'Latching' to other partys rhetoric, if one deems it incorrect or insufficient is the fundamental component of a 'discussion' - I understand you may be unaccustomed to it, but bitching wont make your saltiness 'right', 'correct', or 'justified'.

Bolded part is a strawman.

>You missed the ENTIRE point i was making about hyper-reality and its features.
I absolutely did not. In my second post, I even referenced it indirectly ('not by name'), attacked the shortcuts that author took, and asked after how many degrees of separation from objective reality the picture painted by a 'product of culture' becomes 'unviable' (time-wise only, if youre not willing to consider other angles like for example real life consequences derived from improbable expectations sourced from said 'products of culture'). But then again, youd have to read or understand what I wrote. Or ironically, not be so in-love-with-yourself to actually consider that someone had 'challenged' you already.
>but the conclusion you've reached is so ... valueless.
That's an opinion, and even if it could be viewed as 'correct', at least I did it on my own instead of forcefully expressing myself through forms pre-installed either through post secondary- institutional or just self-education. 'Wink-wink'.

>Simply, it's "commercially viable" and that makes it bad or silly; similarly, you wouldn't be reading any manga at all or experiencing any sort of culture and media if it wasn't commercially viable. So, transitively, you don't like anything in media because its fucking dumb to like things that are popular and light-hearted.
Im really starting to worry about your cognition - not only the 'critical' part, but also the 'passive' ability to comprehend or even register things being thrown your way.

(Bolded part is another false construct. You seem to like those.)

>You aren't as smart or self-aware as you think you are. You're just being a monkey, parroting [...]
Well, best case scenario for you is that were both doing it. Best case.
>Try to think critically instead of [...]
Oh boy, you really are 'self-unaware'. Pity, as I thought youre 'just' an egotist.

 

[Zuhri69]

Reading this manga cleanse my soul.

I wonder if the author has a kid. Yotsuba's reaction and wonders are always the same as my younger cousins whenever I brought them to new places.

 

[CyanHide]

Ah... the mascot of 4chan...

 

[wigjump]

New chapter <3!

 

[fruiteaterz]

@viagra haha gud1.

 

[Tanterei]

Clearly, those that have valuated this manga with a 1-star rating are not mature enough yet to understand its appeal. Good thing they're a minority, so that this gem is still in the "Top 10".

 

[uffefl]

@fhq Why the devil did you engage with an obvious troll? That's loosely a losers losing game! You should know better 😛

^{(Just report and move on...)}

 

[soc11]

this makes me want to have kids

 

[Probably_wont_log_in_again]

@uffefl

Enlighten me, what is there to report you insecure snowflake sperg? Not liking the kind of manure that you do, or using words and phrases beyond your vernacular? Something else?

_{(Grown up and move on...)}

 

[VoidR]

@Probably_wont_log_in_again jesus christ please keep speaking, this is really entertaining to cringe at

 

[Probably_wont_log_in_again]

@VoidR
>jesus christ please keep speaking, this is really entertaining to cringe at

Im not going to take that from you, having already seen the shit that youd left on this site. Talk about embarrassing. Go back to doing the only thing that you do, which is low effort online virtue signalling done through disconnected 'empathizing' with any kind of currently relevant oppression culture darlings exclusively.

tldr: fuck off, your boos mean nothing, Ive seen what makes you cheer.

 

[Zephyrus]

@Probably_wont_log_in_again
Is there something that is physically compelling you to be an absolute ass on the forums?

I tend to stay above the fray when it comes to relatively harmless schoolyard insults but your posts go beyond the pale. Please stop using every opportunity you can to dump on other posters. Dial back the hate. If you can't, I'll dial it back for you.

Thanks,

Zeph

 

[Probably_wont_log_in_again]

@Zephyrus

Again, you and your preferential treatments. How about you start processing reports regarding vulgar insults (over TWO months in pending) directed directly towards me, and THEN start preaching about hate? Cause it's not the first time you "moderate" one of my posts, and ignore worse stuff which is located right next to it.

>relatively harmless schoolyard insults

No, please. Do tell me how this:

Im not going to take that from you, having already seen the shit that youd left on this site. Talk about embarrassing. Go back to doing the only thing that you do, which is low effort online virtue signalling done through disconnected 'empathizing' with any kind of currently relevant oppression culture darlings exclusively.

tldr: fuck off, your boos mean nothing, Ive seen what makes you cheer.

warrants "moderating" more than

jesus christ please keep speaking, this is really entertaining to cringe at

based on "ignore schoolyard insults" logic? Except for the fact that the second one was an unprompted insult, and the first a response to it. You did this two times in a row here, and then you have the audacity to act like I was the one who started this whole thing.

 

[Zephyrus]

@Probably_wont_log_in_again.
Forum moderators have more than enough to do without trawling through an entire comment thread for other comments that might be breaking the rules. Quite frankly, we don't have the time or energy to do that with every single report generated in our queue.

If you believe something breaks the rules, then report it. It's up to each forum moderator's discretion whether or not to take action. If you don't like the action or lack thereof, talk to the mod in question via PM. If that conversation doesn't satisfy you, you're welcome to take it up with the admins.

I would like to remind you that arguing with moderators in thread is against the rules. Please take it to PM.

 

[RedEco]

@Probably_wont_log_in_again Actually, Yotsuba is pretty realistic (yeah, a bit exaggerated, like all stories): my 4 years old is very similar to her.

 

[Kaldrak]

@RedEco Don't bother talking with that guy. You'll only get insulted. Not worth it, tbh.

Though it was pretty entertaining watching him get smacked down by the mod. 😆