Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Sailor Mars: Soldier of badly handled characters.

SPOILERS AHEAD! Along with a big rant. Ye be warned.

For the introduction, I will be fair. This character does have a following all her own, so I will introduce her proper.  We've gone a few episodes in, give or take a few depending on what language your watching, and we've now got two scouts ready to save the day before bedtime(whoops, wrong show!) but some thing's missing. That missing link (I wish I could say literally) turns out to be on the Hikawa shrine. Her name is Rei/Raye Hino, a shrine maiden who regularly keeps the shrine neat and tidy, chants weird prayers over a fire, has a strange sixth sense, and just happens to be stunningly beautiful. Add to that she (isn't the princess, sorry Luna) happens to be Sailor Mars. Because the Japanese word for Mars literally means "fire planet", Sailor Mar's powers circle around tossing fireballs, along with ancient slips of paper that disperse demons, as she is still a priestess of the Shinto religion. Problems? Oh, plenty.

Now before I open the worm can, I'll make myself silver-crystal clear. I know what Rei's character was intended to be, and I intend to cover that very much when I go over the Manga for the series. However, I judged, as a child, by what I saw on the screen. To put it bluntly, I saw a much more aggressive copy of Moonie herself. On the good side, Mars is pragmatic, fiery (pun unfortunately intended) straight-forward and fiercely protective of what friends she has. This is unfortunately hindered by a girl who is boy-crazy, selfish, needlessly cruel and just downright petty. Her character in the anime completely betrays what her other traits should say about her. After all, if one has a politician for a father who pays less than bupkiss attention to you, why the hell would you give any man your attention?

As she stands, Raye periodically flirts with The male lead, and yet ignores the only male in the show, Chad/Yuchiro, who practically falls at her feet. I'm not sure if she's just picky or two-faced, and neither bode well. Beyond that, my annoyance with Mars would usually stem from the arguments she would always get in with Moonie. These arguments were always long, petty and a result of somebody just being downright nasty to someone else, or because Mars has the hotts for Tuxedo mask and just realized she'd never have a chance with him (blame the plot sweetie, not the main character). Then there were moments when she was just straight out cruel, to the point where even the other characters were like "Girl, WTF?"


But hey, I understand that not every character need be best friends with the main character, and I've always said that people who don't like the main character aren't always evil. But rewatching this girl's antics makes me want to just knock her right in the kisser. She's a prima-donna at its finest, when she was supposed to be a mature pragmatist. So now, not only do I hate the character, I hate what they did to the character. I don't mean to sound harsh, but for somebody who claims she should be a better leader she sure has a hard time taking care of the team. Leaders don't pick favorites, and the definitely don't last out emotionally at their teams mates like a five-year old.


But you know what the biggest insult about her? She's a hypocrite. No, seriously.

Her favorite activity is pointing out how irresponsible and selfish Moonie is, and calling her a big immature spoiled brat. And yet, half the time, she and Moonie are swooning over the same guy, getting excited about the same things, and acting just as petty and stupid. It's such a large case of the pot calling the kettle black that it drives me insane. Every time she made a comment on the show, I found myself going "just like you." recently. And it always used to annoy me how she singled out the exact same person each and every F@#ing time...

But you know what? After her character went through such a horrible change, after she's proven to be the worst possible candidate for the leader I could ever see, after she choose to be Moonie's full time trauma inducting harmful friend? I forgive her. I forgave her and still forgive her now. For, despite my rants and constant shouting at the screen when she's talking, there are good things to be had with her. Despite the bullying, she's fiercely protective of her, and has sacrificed herself to save her on so many occasions. And Mars even admits that she's gone several steps too far before as well. So, much like Moonie, Mars comes out of the gauntlet stronger and more mature.



If Moonie can befriend her, so can I. The feisty, independent and straightforward center is there, you just have to chew through some bitter salt first.

But now the bile is done. Next time we look at one of my favorite characters in the series, and why she practically exudes awesome.

Toodles!

No comments:

Post a Comment