finally!… the thread we've all been waiting for but have been too cowardly to make…
fujiyoshi harumi
i think i fell for her around when i learned about the concept of waifus and decided that i needed to have one too. and since i was watching zetsubou sensei at the time, well, i guess i minds well pick someone from that show, huh? but i do really like her, though perhaps less as a dream girl so much as a very realistic romance option. for some reason i wrote a bunch about this back in 2016, when i was listening to
her song in the zetsubou sensei character song album.
i think the thing which separates me from actual real-deal otaku is that the only anime character i would be willing and ready to immediately take as waifu is harumi fujiyoshi. i think i took the bait.
because, like, you can tell that kumeta really wanted people to go in on harumi. when she isn't nerding out she's one of the few voices of reason on this show (abiru might be in the same boat here), and her teacher crush has low valence and is only actualized either a) in plot-mandated moments where everyone loves sensei or b) when showing off her kinkiness (make nozomu wear the ears!). she's really athletic and i think p attractive and i don't think she really has faults apart from the yaoi thing. in terms of background characterization i think she might be one of the most developed of all of them; we know that she was an accident and is living with the weight of two successful siblings under her and all. we even spend an entire episode with her, just her, barely dressed! just us and her in the everyday.
so i think the first part of it is that he didn't want to shame her since to shame her would be to shame himself—she draws doujinshi, he draws gag manga, neither are existentially better really. but then he goes the extra mile to hammer home the point that she is actually sexually viable with the special episode. it's fanservice, but it's unrestricted and mundane fanservice. for the next ten minutes you can see as much of her as you want, and i doubt she really minds (because you're living alongside her and spending your everyday with her, right?).
this is unusual because generally fanservice is something which is exposed, often not consensually, which places the control over sexualizing the character in the (prob male) viewer's hands. alternatively, there's the beach/onsen episode, yet still that cordons sexual possibility off into specific locales, and even then i think it requires viewer activation. here it's framed banally etc etc.
(i think there's an onsen episode gag where the wall between the male/female side breaks down and only nozomu cares)
so her sins are twofold: first, she's a fujoshi, but i think that's mostly a sin of association. but that builds into her second one, which is that her sexuality is an active and independent force which'll go on with or without you, and will attach itself to objects beyond you whether you want it to or not. and i think the possibility of that kind of woman is repulsive to the type of men who do waifus. she's already defiled, and i think if someone is pure before you then in your mind she will be pure after you because she is only yours. otherwise she is never yours?
(it's late i might not buy that logic later) but the point is that this logic is super sexist and covers up the fact that the women who make and consume yaoi are generally pretty normal and they actually have sexualities which manifest in unique ways independent of you and to deny that fact is chou-sexist.
anyway i think the main reason i love harumi and would want to love her forever is because of that whole everyday aspect really. my dream would basically involve skipping everything romantic and her setting up a desk beside mine. we both work alongside each other and maybe cuddle each other every so often and we spend our everydays with each other and it's just nice! i could admire her for her artistic talent and support and encourage her as she keeps improving. i dunno why she would like me. maybe she'd tell me that i did a really great job writing a thousand words about anime characters.
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rikku
i don't remember when i first played ffx, but i think i must've been somewhere between 10 and 13 because i knew that rikku (15) was a few years older than me, and i took that to mean that i "must just have a thing for older women."
but she really was my comfort character for a good while. she was the pillow that i hugged, and i wanted to be with her and live with her. and every so often i would develop a crush on another girl i knew, but after that one inevitably faded with nothing to show for it, i'd come back to rikku, and i think it went on like that until i began to out-age her.
i ended up replaying ffx a few years ago and, well… i could see the girl who charmed me back then (and still kinda does), but i can also easily see just how immature she is too. really, everyone in that game is
so young… they all are awkwardly trying to step into adult roles that are too big for them to fill, if only because they feel like they
have to be a certain kind of person, or because they have some standard that they feel like they
have to live up to.
even though i loved her then, i'm not sure if i could love her now that i've grown older. after i finished replaying ffx, i played x-2 to see whether she had developed in the couple years afterward.
…i'm not sure if i really got a clear answer to that, or maybe i received the best answer i could possibly get. perhaps the truth was staring me in the face this whole time: that rikku is rikku is rikku. she's an excitable puppy of a girl who would brighten your days for as long as you can stand it, and then her immaturity would start to wear on you.
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(artwork by kuroimori, source page deleted?)
arima ayumi
throwing in one last one because, even if she likely doesn't have the sticking power to be an actual waifu to me (maybe?), her arc absolutely fried my neural circuitry when i played yu-no this year. though i
want to say that i love her independent of the reasons that are the intended appeal of her arc. for me, personally, i love her because she's a scatterbrained wreck thrust into a position of authority that she obviously doesn't want to be in – she can barely keep her own life together, let alone her kid's, let alone an entire company project too – but she sure tries her damnedest anyway. that's relatable to me! i've known more than a few people in my life like that, and i admire them for their persistence. i think that's really the only reason why ayumi makes my heart flutter.
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yeah, the only one
i really hope this thread takes off since there are plenty more that i could talk about, because my heart is pliable and my morals loose. but i think this is a good start for now.
as for your request…
musicvivireal wrote: Tue Jul 23, 2024 8:52 pm
i REALLY like femme girls that are pursuers/tops and total charmers, yet fun and not stuck up or serious...
i do really like this archetype, and i definitely feel like i've seen girls like this before in media. maybe harumi
kinda fits, though she doesn't have a strong person that she desires throughout. yandere types could also maybe fit? though your mileage may vary as to whether you find them to be charming. but outside of those there's uh…
oh…
oh no…
is this why i'm so goddamn down bad for amy rose?!