the most good and pure man in anime history
So this kind of dialogue from Rei really put me off when these chapters first came out. But it's significantly less jarring after the later context and after just gaining more life experience.
The Hellish Todoroki Family Subplot can be viewed as an allegory for the different responses to abuse. For that allegory to be complete, someone had to stay with/prop up Enji because some victims of domestic violence choose not to leave even when given a real opportunity to do so.
And though it seems counterintuitive, it actually makes the most sense for Rei to fulfill this role than any of the Todoroki children. Look, I've met more domestic violence survivors than most people. It's an unfortunate trend but from observation, the most severely abused are the ones more likely to return to their abusers.
However, it's still annoying that Rei's portion of the narrative is primarily covering for Endeavor. Rei making bad life decisions isn't the problem. The issue is there needed to be more from Rei to make this not feel like abuse apologia.
There were plot points from canon to work with to accomplish that. Rei was raised by a clan that was eugenicist and was selling off its members including herself to maintain its lifestyle. Did Rei grow up in an abusive household making it difficult for her to grapple with the severity of Enji's actions? Was she numb to Enji's quirk marriage scheme because everyone in her family was involved in quirk eugenics? Enji visited Rei and left flowers but there was nothing to indicate that any of the Himuras visited. Does she lean on Enji because the Himuras abandoned her?
Having the domestic abuse victim who was still hospitalized from that abuse say everyone should give Endeavor a chance actually without more context just feels gross. The dialogue itself isn't the problem. Given the sensitivity needed to properly handle an issue like domestic violence, more was needed to show that what Rei said here shouldn't be taken at face value.
me: because you have this story set in this superhero world, but like, the horrors of modern Japanese society are still very much present
me: (like why the hell would a highly individualized quirk society still be using family registration and koseki? the reason is because Horikoshi is Japanese and didn't think that was weird, much like when Americans toss around their Imperial measuring system willy-nilly, but it says something about BNHA as a window to modern Japan)
me: Mental illness is seen as something shameful and to hide away from
me: I mean, it's crazy that Todo's mom was in that hospital for 10 years. like most modern psychiatric facilities would promote rehabilitating a patient back into their life way earlier
me: the fact that Todoroki implies that he has to save her from the hospital says A LOT about her situation. she's probably been totally abandoned by her family thanks to the mental health stigma/the fact Endeavor managed to charm them into making her marry him to begin with
me: (also how wealthy Endeavor is to be able to fund her permanent stay and yet how empty and cold her room is)
me: (even terminally ill people don't stay in the hospital that long, it's so expensive and no hospice wants to tear someone totally out of their normal life)
me: (so like I said, honestly terrifying)
me: (like Endeavor is the worst but also, fuck Todomama's family. They clearly didn't do shit for their daughter.)
me: It's still a shonen and they don't criticize society so much as the individual but the implications are so important and it becomes fascinating to pull apart because there's so much of the modern Japanese fantasy and reality mixed up in this superhero world
me: like the hero culture in HeroAca has startling parallels to the horrifically exploitative idol culture in Japan
me: kind of the hyper commercialization of personalities and the idea of rankings being some be all, end all
which paired with, instead of a sexualized consumption, but a consumption of violence, is kind of startling
me: (well there's still sexualized consumption because the treatment of women as sexual objects is rampant even here)
me:in some ways, it's almost hunger games esque, this commercialization of violence and the audience participation in this act
more flocking sketches! Fukuisaurus, Cartorhynchus, Nanuqsaurus and Stethacanthus
#1 bird boy 10/10
Friends lift each other up!! In this case physically as well as emotionally!~
🔹 Saying that it's okay to write or read about dark and taboo topics but only when they're portrayed in a certain way is still censorship.
🔹 Wanting to ban or forbid media that you believe portrays a negative topic in a positive light, by glorifying, romanticizing, or fetishizing it is still censorship.
🔹 There is no objective metric to decide if a story is portraying a negative topic the 'right' way.
🔹 Just because a piece of fiction doesn't explicitly condemn or portray an evil action in a bad light in the text doesn't mean the author thinks its good or is trying to persuade the audience that it is good.
🔹 Survivors of trauma will not always write fiction about their trauma in a way that seems 'right' or 'normal' to you.
🔹 Banning fiction because it portrays dark, taboo topics in a way you consider gross or disgusting is still censorship.
the kaminari and mina friendship is underutilized and i think we need to change that
This sequence of panels reads like a daytime tv drama.
Inasa (glaring dramatically): I'll despise you to the end of days. You have the cold eyes of your father.
Shouto: (*404 error noises*)
Izuku (playing the role of Shouto's MPDG): Oh no Todoroki-kun do you want to talk about your feelings?
Toga (as Camie): Hey ~~
Izuku: (*terrified bluescreen noises*)
Ochako (in ten layers of denial): Am I jealous she was flirting with my hetero not-crush or because she reminds my girl not-crush?