We could have had it aaallllll- pet peeve fandoms

This is super late but I just saw this and holy shit. I pretty much suppressed all memories of that manga because the ending was so infuriating, and now it all came flooding back. It was such a try-hard, fake deep twist ending. Literally "but what about the men???"

It's a shame, because there was some real potential.

 

please tell, I need to hear what this stupidity is

 

Wait is that the one where there's a boarding school, and all the girls are basically designated as property for the guys? And each girl can produce a weapon, which is then used by her owner (ugh) to fight to acquire OTHER girls? And then the guys can be as horrible as they want to the girls?

 

that's the one :(

 

It starts off as like "oh this is baby utena!" But then it goes. bad. So bad.

 

revolutionary fuckboy utena

 

FUCK

THAT MANGA

I loved so much of it! The art was so good and there were so many genuinely wonderful moments! BUT THEN

 

Every now and then I remember TOME season 2 happened and I get so mad. The show dropped the ball so hard there that if I hadn't had an irl conversation with the creator about it in between seasons, I wouldn't believe it was written by the same guy. The only parts I acknowledge are the post-credits scene bc its fucking adorable and canon genderweird GC.

 

Let me summarize Shitsurakuen in somewhat chronological order from memory :(

Spoiler: tw for like, everything

Young girl loses her family in horrible (unspecified?? maybe it was a car crash??) accident. Gets adopted by her uncle. Becomes a misanthropist at like, 5, from grief. Decides she hates her uncle, is a genius, takes over his extremely complicated virtual reality coding project after driving him to suicide by bullying before she turns ten.

Meets another little girl that she decides will be her girlfriend and, in a fit of jealousy, pins her down and carves an X into her forehead with a knife to make sure she NEVER LEAVES HER FOR ANYONE ELSE. Second little girl develops amnesia from shock and trauma??? Or just never forms memories of the event.

Goes on to turn virtual reality project (which is honestly indistinguishable from magic, they never explain how it works) into a school where boys get a glove that lets them wield weapons, girl each have a unique weapon and boys fight each other to "own them" (:| :| :|)

Girl with x on her face comes to school to find her girlfriend!! Who she loves!! And totally didn't traumatize her or orchestrate the whole thing! Gets a glove even tho she's not a boy! Goes around rescuing girls who are being treated badly! (heavily implied rape and explicit physical and emotional abuse of girls by boys happens regularly and no one can do shit about it because ????)

Entire weird clusterfuck ends with all the girls the mc rescued going to the boys that abused them (at least one of whom attempted rape on screen) and basically telling them it wasnt their fault, it was the school. Bunch of old men who ran the school get off with no jail time because...??? Original axe-crazy knife girlfriend ends up with mc because it's totally ok, she just didn't want to be alone, how tragic.

It's...I...*points at title of thread*

 

Yeah, but to be fair, that was supposed to be a bad thing, and the MC wanted to free the girls.

The dumb part comes when

Spoiler

it turns out that the MC was invited to the school to see the situation from the perspective of the boys, who DUN DUN DUN were also forced to adhere to the system!
Which actually had potential! Sexism hurts men too, after all. However, the execution slid right into abuse apologism territory. Yes, the system had the girls as objects to be used by the boys, but it didn't make the boys abuse and hurt and torture them. They did that all on their own.
There was that one guy who verbally and physically abused the girl that functioned as his weapon, and at one point tried to straight up rape her before the main character could stop him and beat him in a battle, saving the girl and promising to protect her.
After the whole "having to abuse the girls makes the boys sad, too ;-;" reveal, that same girl goes and apologizes to the guy who abused and tried to rape her, and tells him how it made her feel good that he tried to get her back after the main character saved her from him. It's supposed to be a heartwarming moment.

Oh yeah, and the main character's childhood friend turns out to be a manipulative, possessive yandere all along. She actually snapped and legit had a breakdown when the MC reached out to the boys, because the MC was supposed to protect the girls (particularly the childhood friend).
Basically, the real villain was the straw (wo)man feminist all along.

Edit: @Enzel Ohhhh, that's a way more succinct summary! Bless you!

Spoiler

I totally forgot the amnesia thing. Oh, and back when I read it, it ended without the MC and her childhood friend getting together. I read that the fans of the manga reacted so negatively to the end that an official bonus chapter where they eventually marry was published, but I never got around to reading it :I

 

Yeah, I was so hoping it was going to address how toxic masculinity and patriarchy can hurt men too but....

 

God I loved the battle scenes when she was kicking those fuckers' asses, though.

 

It sucks because it almost got there in a few places. There was one guy who actually started to go "yo this is super fucked up" and began taking responsibility for the awful shit he did, iirc? But...yeah...

 

Why does no one care about the poor boys who are FORCED to do these wretched things and enjoy them so much? :(

 

although, I confess, I was into yandere princess friend. The BIG REVEAL of that was kinda cool, but then I'm into the yandere trope.

Not with a happily ever after, though.........

 

holy the first paragraph of that summary told me I was in for a wild ride.

 

All you have to do is read this chapter and watch the whole fucking thing fall apart.

Like there's so much terrible shit in JUST THIS CHAPTER TO UNPACK. FUCK. Every time I look back at it I find another reason to lineface.

 

Yeah honestly, she had really great villain potential and I actually rped her for a time because it was fun. But the ending...

I will say on some level I can appreciate "interesting concept, godawful execution" because some of my best rp and writing inspiration is driven by spite.

At the same time, AHHHHHHHH.

 

Yeah, after the "the boys are forced to adhere to the system as well" epiphany, instead of focusing on the guys' feelings and having the girls comfort them, why not have the protag be compassionate while still firmly holding them responsible. Maybe explaining that, while she understands that they feel powerless as well, there is no excuse for abusing the system and hurting the girls, and how it's important to intervene whenever they see another student mistreat someone. Knowing that people look out for each other would also allow them to let down their guard a little. They didn't choose the power they have, but they can still try to use it for good.
I also thought that most of the female students were kind of... passive? Something which their status as objects probably reinforced, so I think there was some interesting potential as well. Maybe the protagonist could have realized that instead of trying to protect the girls, she could help them gain more confidence and become more autonomous, so they'll be able to protect themselves, and each other. There's strength in numbers.
Basically encourage the girls realize their own strengths, and encourage the boys to allow each other to have weaknesses.

...me too 6u6;; Honestly, I ship it, but it's definitely not a "and then they got married!" kind of ship. I love me them yanderes, but they're not exactly dream spouse material.
Also, for some reason now I kinda want to draw Undyne and Alphys cosplaying as main character (she even has the red ponytail and shounen protag attitude) and yandere childhood friend (...glasses? And a ~dark secret~, I guess?)

 

Yes, to all that. Everything is yes.

Also don't get me fuckin' started on the stale ass gender role garbage that you'd think the manga would be working to deconstruct but LOL GUESS NOT.