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This week's Tsubasa - Chapter 195
Okay, um... You know how sometimes I go all feminist-ranty about the comics I read, and sometimes I go all bad-writing-ranty about Tsubasa, and normally I try to keep the two separate, but... This week, I can't. I just can't. Because there's a big huge HELLO STRAW, MEET CAMEL'S BACK moment right in the beginning of this chapter, and just... well. Er. You've been warned.
Spoilers and venomous spite, behind the cut.
The chapter opens with Syaoran and Sakura in the ruins, on the last day of the purification ceremony. Syaoran is sitting on some steps, silently watching Sakura as she kneels in the pools and prays. Sakura is actually going all super-Saiyan with her powers, emitting a faint glow, and causing the water in a circle around her to slowly rise into the air. Watching this, Syaoran reflects silently, This place... and Sakura's power... It's amazing.
Flashback to earlier that morning! Sakura is preparing to leave for the ruins. She turns to Syaoran, startled. "You're coming too?"
"Just to watch. The king and queen gave me permission."
"That's great, but... why?"
Syaoran realizes, She must not remember anything that she saw in her dream last night. So Syaoran decides not to tell her - rather, he makes a lie of omission instead. "They said that the water permits my presence." Again, that's not a lie, per se. But it might as well be.
Sakura smiles. "Oh, okay. So the water likes you a lot, too!"
" 'Too'?"
Cue lots of blushing and adorable gibberish stammering from Sakura.
Whoa, whoa, wait, back up. Full stop.
Syaoran. decides. not. to. tell. Sakura. about. her. own. vision.
He. decides. not. to. tell. her.
Let's pause for a moment to review the facts here:
Who's the one who's about to be in terrible danger? Sakura.
Who's the one who had a warning vision about herself being in terrible danger? Sakura.
Who's the one who's undergoing this purification ceremony in order to become the next priestess because she supposedly has the strongest magical powers in all of Clow Country? Sakura.
Fuck you, Syaoran. I THINK SHE DESERVES TO FREAKIN' KNOW ABOUT HER OWN FREAKIN' VISION. This patronizing, infantilizing, dumbass backwards sexist bullshit has got to stop.
Look, okay, I've had this beef against Tsubasa from the very beginning. I've always hated how CLAMP took Sakura (Sakura!!), the incredibly awesome, competent, powerful, and all-around amazing heroine from Cardcaptor Sakura, and turned her into an utterly helpless, useless damsel in distress, who basically acts not so much as a character in her own right as she is a prop for Syaoran. She's the one who's the source of Syaoran's courage and also the source of his wangst. She's the one who's always getting kidnapped/fainted/soul-sucked into Subaru's vampire cocoon/whatever, thus necessitating Syaoran doing something heroic to Save the Freakin' Day. Other than that, she never does anything, except sometimes smile and look cute. Or at least she didn't, not until the Piffle arc. In Piffle, and in Tokyo, and finally in Infinity, at least she did things. She made decisions. She showed depth of personality. She was no longer just a prop in the story. But then came the end of the Infinity arc, it was right back to being helpless/endangered/shishkabobed/killed, all over again. Sakura went from being a heroine right back to being a passive prop, this time literally as she was actually a corpse during the Celes arc.
This is so clichéd. So tiresome. It's the exact same kind of stupid, unimaginative, tried-and-true passive "heroine" role that gets repeated over and over again, in comics and books and TV and movies and stories all over the big wide stupid world. Sakura has SUPER AWESOME MAGICAL POWERS but oh wait she can't actually control her powers and they're totally passive anyway. She's really BRAVE AND PURE-HEARTED but the only time she ever gets to display her bravery is when she's in danger and needs Syaoran to rescue her. She's THE HEROINE OF THE STORY but until Piffle she never actually did anything heroic. She doesn't DO things, but things happen TO her. Do you see where this is going?
Should I expect any better from a shounen manga, though? Actually, yes, I should - the idea that boy manga readers only care about boy heroes, or don't want to see girl characters being active and heroic, has been disproven again and again and again (most recently, see: Soul Eater and Claymore). And I would definitely expect better from CLAMP. They gave us Cardcaptor Sakura, after all, so we KNOW that they're capable of writing a Sakura that doesn't suck.
Anyway, yes, okay, back to the story. Syaoran being a patronizing asshole and deciding to keep Sakura in the dark about her own vision, for her own good, apparently, because as a seven-year-old boy he is totally adult enough to make that decision for her. Hah, camel's back, meet straw. Hence my rant in the preceding paragraphs.
But wait, you guys. It's about to get worse.
Back to the present. Syaoran is still watching Sakura pray, and inner-monologuing his little brains out. Today is my last day in this world, he helpfully reminds readers. The person that my mother saw in her dream, the person who is waiting for me... I really hope it's Sakura. No matter what happens, I want to protect her.
Cue a bunch of panels of Syaoran looking vaguely heroic and determined, while Sakura looks pretty and cute.
Suddenly! Rippling vibrations in the water. Holy crap there's a T-Rex coming!!!
Oh no wait it's just a prelude to a HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE EARTHQUAKE.
The ruins start crumbling all around Syaoran. He tries to run to Sakura, but - oh, crap.
It's a repeat of what happened the previous night. The sound of bells. Sakura's eyes going wide and blank. Sakura tilts her head up, then begins to float into the air. Just like what happened last night!! Syaoran thought-bubbles, apparently for the benefit of our younger and slower readers. But this time, there's a twist - a split in THE VERY FABRIC OF SPACE-TIME ITSELF (dun dun dunnnnnnn!) opens inside the ruins, and Sakura floats straight toward it.
Holy crap. There's somebody visible on the other side of the wormhole.
Holy crap. It's FWR.
Holy crap. FWR points his finger and sends inky black tentacles of what I can only assume is the very essence of pure evil itself straight toward Sakura.
ZOMG! Syaoran makes the ZOMG face!!! ZOMG!!! "SAKURA WAKE UP!!" he screams. When that obviously doesn't work, he prepares to summon his father's sword---
Suddenly the water rises up and wraps itself around Sakura, repelling FWR's tentacle-thingies.
AH HA HA HA HA HA. Syaoran is totally useless. Syaoran is totally pwned by a bunch of inanimate water. Way to fail at shounen heroics, Syaoran. (The look on his face when the water rises up and beats him to the punch is priceless, though.)
Syaoran again provides the helpful thought bubbles for the benefit of the particularly dense reader: The water is protecting her!
FWR, who only has one word bubble in this entire chapter and therefore MUST spend it on fulfilling his quota of Obligatory Clichéd Manga Villain Catchphrases, tsks and says "Orokana." Then he just goes ahead and unleashes more tentacles, which I guess are more powerful than his previous batch of tentacles, because they swallow up Sakura right away.
Syaoran is still screaming at Sakura, even as she's completely engulfed by evil black gooey tentacles of evil black doom-goo. "WAKE UP, SAKURA!! SAKURAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!"
The chapter ends.
Okay, kids, point of order - if Sakura has such uber-awesome magical powers, then why does she go completely comatose and helpless every time those powers are activated? And what's with her Pavlovian response to that recurring bell sound? Why is it that every time she hears the bells, she instantly drops in a Mystical Coma and starts floating around like some sort of human dream-seeing balloon?
But oh wait. It's Sakura. Of course her own UBER-AWESOME MAGICAL POWERS would actually render her zonked-out and helpless every single time. Of course. Because Heaven forbid that Sakura should ever have any actual useful, proactive magical powers. What do you think this is, Cardcaptor Sakura?
Why do I keep reading this crap every week, again?
Oh right. For Fay and Kurogane. God I hope they show up again sometime soon.
Spoilers and venomous spite, behind the cut.
The chapter opens with Syaoran and Sakura in the ruins, on the last day of the purification ceremony. Syaoran is sitting on some steps, silently watching Sakura as she kneels in the pools and prays. Sakura is actually going all super-Saiyan with her powers, emitting a faint glow, and causing the water in a circle around her to slowly rise into the air. Watching this, Syaoran reflects silently, This place... and Sakura's power... It's amazing.
Flashback to earlier that morning! Sakura is preparing to leave for the ruins. She turns to Syaoran, startled. "You're coming too?"
"Just to watch. The king and queen gave me permission."
"That's great, but... why?"
Syaoran realizes, She must not remember anything that she saw in her dream last night. So Syaoran decides not to tell her - rather, he makes a lie of omission instead. "They said that the water permits my presence." Again, that's not a lie, per se. But it might as well be.
Sakura smiles. "Oh, okay. So the water likes you a lot, too!"
" 'Too'?"
Cue lots of blushing and adorable gibberish stammering from Sakura.
Whoa, whoa, wait, back up. Full stop.
Syaoran. decides. not. to. tell. Sakura. about. her. own. vision.
He. decides. not. to. tell. her.
Let's pause for a moment to review the facts here:
Who's the one who's about to be in terrible danger? Sakura.
Who's the one who had a warning vision about herself being in terrible danger? Sakura.
Who's the one who's undergoing this purification ceremony in order to become the next priestess because she supposedly has the strongest magical powers in all of Clow Country? Sakura.
Fuck you, Syaoran. I THINK SHE DESERVES TO FREAKIN' KNOW ABOUT HER OWN FREAKIN' VISION. This patronizing, infantilizing, dumbass backwards sexist bullshit has got to stop.
Look, okay, I've had this beef against Tsubasa from the very beginning. I've always hated how CLAMP took Sakura (Sakura!!), the incredibly awesome, competent, powerful, and all-around amazing heroine from Cardcaptor Sakura, and turned her into an utterly helpless, useless damsel in distress, who basically acts not so much as a character in her own right as she is a prop for Syaoran. She's the one who's the source of Syaoran's courage and also the source of his wangst. She's the one who's always getting kidnapped/fainted/soul-sucked into Subaru's vampire cocoon/whatever, thus necessitating Syaoran doing something heroic to Save the Freakin' Day. Other than that, she never does anything, except sometimes smile and look cute. Or at least she didn't, not until the Piffle arc. In Piffle, and in Tokyo, and finally in Infinity, at least she did things. She made decisions. She showed depth of personality. She was no longer just a prop in the story. But then came the end of the Infinity arc, it was right back to being helpless/endangered/shishkabobed/killed, all over again. Sakura went from being a heroine right back to being a passive prop, this time literally as she was actually a corpse during the Celes arc.
This is so clichéd. So tiresome. It's the exact same kind of stupid, unimaginative, tried-and-true passive "heroine" role that gets repeated over and over again, in comics and books and TV and movies and stories all over the big wide stupid world. Sakura has SUPER AWESOME MAGICAL POWERS but oh wait she can't actually control her powers and they're totally passive anyway. She's really BRAVE AND PURE-HEARTED but the only time she ever gets to display her bravery is when she's in danger and needs Syaoran to rescue her. She's THE HEROINE OF THE STORY but until Piffle she never actually did anything heroic. She doesn't DO things, but things happen TO her. Do you see where this is going?
Should I expect any better from a shounen manga, though? Actually, yes, I should - the idea that boy manga readers only care about boy heroes, or don't want to see girl characters being active and heroic, has been disproven again and again and again (most recently, see: Soul Eater and Claymore). And I would definitely expect better from CLAMP. They gave us Cardcaptor Sakura, after all, so we KNOW that they're capable of writing a Sakura that doesn't suck.
Anyway, yes, okay, back to the story. Syaoran being a patronizing asshole and deciding to keep Sakura in the dark about her own vision, for her own good, apparently, because as a seven-year-old boy he is totally adult enough to make that decision for her. Hah, camel's back, meet straw. Hence my rant in the preceding paragraphs.
But wait, you guys. It's about to get worse.
Back to the present. Syaoran is still watching Sakura pray, and inner-monologuing his little brains out. Today is my last day in this world, he helpfully reminds readers. The person that my mother saw in her dream, the person who is waiting for me... I really hope it's Sakura. No matter what happens, I want to protect her.
Cue a bunch of panels of Syaoran looking vaguely heroic and determined, while Sakura looks pretty and cute.
Suddenly! Rippling vibrations in the water. Holy crap there's a T-Rex coming!!!
Oh no wait it's just a prelude to a HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE EARTHQUAKE.
The ruins start crumbling all around Syaoran. He tries to run to Sakura, but - oh, crap.
It's a repeat of what happened the previous night. The sound of bells. Sakura's eyes going wide and blank. Sakura tilts her head up, then begins to float into the air. Just like what happened last night!! Syaoran thought-bubbles, apparently for the benefit of our younger and slower readers. But this time, there's a twist - a split in THE VERY FABRIC OF SPACE-TIME ITSELF (dun dun dunnnnnnn!) opens inside the ruins, and Sakura floats straight toward it.
Holy crap. There's somebody visible on the other side of the wormhole.
Holy crap. It's FWR.
Holy crap. FWR points his finger and sends inky black tentacles of what I can only assume is the very essence of pure evil itself straight toward Sakura.
ZOMG! Syaoran makes the ZOMG face!!! ZOMG!!! "SAKURA WAKE UP!!" he screams. When that obviously doesn't work, he prepares to summon his father's sword---
Suddenly the water rises up and wraps itself around Sakura, repelling FWR's tentacle-thingies.
AH HA HA HA HA HA. Syaoran is totally useless. Syaoran is totally pwned by a bunch of inanimate water. Way to fail at shounen heroics, Syaoran. (The look on his face when the water rises up and beats him to the punch is priceless, though.)
Syaoran again provides the helpful thought bubbles for the benefit of the particularly dense reader: The water is protecting her!
FWR, who only has one word bubble in this entire chapter and therefore MUST spend it on fulfilling his quota of Obligatory Clichéd Manga Villain Catchphrases, tsks and says "Orokana." Then he just goes ahead and unleashes more tentacles, which I guess are more powerful than his previous batch of tentacles, because they swallow up Sakura right away.
Syaoran is still screaming at Sakura, even as she's completely engulfed by evil black gooey tentacles of evil black doom-goo. "WAKE UP, SAKURA!! SAKURAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!"
The chapter ends.
Okay, kids, point of order - if Sakura has such uber-awesome magical powers, then why does she go completely comatose and helpless every time those powers are activated? And what's with her Pavlovian response to that recurring bell sound? Why is it that every time she hears the bells, she instantly drops in a Mystical Coma and starts floating around like some sort of human dream-seeing balloon?
But oh wait. It's Sakura. Of course her own UBER-AWESOME MAGICAL POWERS would actually render her zonked-out and helpless every single time. Of course. Because Heaven forbid that Sakura should ever have any actual useful, proactive magical powers. What do you think this is, Cardcaptor Sakura?
Why do I keep reading this crap every week, again?
no subject
Holy crap. FWR points his finger and sends inky black tentacles of what I can only assume is the very essence of pure evil itself straight toward Sakura.
LOL
Yeah, so... We ever getting out of these flashbacks? Unless they're gonna reveal Watanuki's true identity, I kinda don't care anymore. XD
no subject
It's not just Japan, it's a fairly universal trope. Mmm, I'm sure that TV Tropes has a name for it, but I can't find one right now.
no subject
But who would Syaoran save all the time to keep up his heroic points? He can't save Fai that's Kurogane's job, LULZ.
I hope you hear the sarcasm XD;But really, yeah, the 'helpless but supposedly strong' thing is pretty old and annoying. All whom contributed to it becoming common enough to be cliche should die in a fire.
no subject
True, true. And he's in particular need of more heroic points right now, considering that he was just pwned by a pool of freakin' water.
no subject
no subject
You pretty much nailed why I eventually dropped Tsubasa. Besides toning down one of the best female protagonists in existence, they decide to through good story-telling out the window. For the love of atomic bunnies, I expected a lot better from CLAMP!
no subject
YES, exactly. And I'm still baffled as to why he thought it would be a good idea to not tell her in the first place. I mean, it's Sakura. It's not like she's going to freak out or anything. I think her most likely reaction would be something along the lines of:
(*smile*) (*smile*) (*smile*) "But Syaoran, you're going to be there to protect me! I'm not afraid!"
I mean, that's just the way that Sakura-chan rolls.
no subject
I obviously can't type right these days. >_>
no subject
You pinpoint exactly the reason I couldn't get into Tsubasa: I adore Sakura--and Shaoran, for that matter--and I couldn't stand the idea of seeing them reduced to crappy stereotypes. And these aren't even crappy stereotypes I like.
>>Should I expect any better from a shounen manga, though? Actually, yes, I should - the idea that boy manga readers only care about boy heroes, or don't want to see girl characters being active and heroic, has been disproven again and again and again (most recently, see: Soul Eater).<<
YES TO THIS. (Also, info on Soul Eater, plskthx.)
I really don't get CLAMP these days. And I'm getting more and more irritated by the apparent inability of 90% of the writers/artists out there to write decent, non-passive/stereotypical female characters in manga and comics. I mean, geez, is it really that hard?
no subject
From a feminist perspective, it's not perfect. There's a ton of T&A fanservice, and one of the supporting female cast spends most of the first episode completely naked. But, for me at least, the general awesomeness of it overall - lots of kick-ass women, really great characterization, an overall quirky and offbeat tone, a pitch-perfect balance of humor and darker drama - balances out the (*le sigh*) elements. And they really are (*le sigh*) elements - nothing overtly misogynistic or anger-inducing - just sort of a lot of eyeroll-inducing fanservice.
And a feminist critique could be made out of the power dynamics of the show. Without launching into a detailed explanation, basically, Soul Eater centers around master-servant pairs. The "main" pairing is a female master with a male servant. They are equal in levels of competency and power, although the girl is the one calling the shots in their relationship. The two supporting pairings, however, are both gender-flipped: male masters, female servants. In one case, the female servant is hyper-competent, but her male servant is a thumbsucking idiot, so we get the anime-cliched dynamic of a super-powerful woman being subservient to a much weaker guy. In the second case, we have a hyper-competent male master, paired with two girl servants who are moronic and hysterical, respectively. Yes, that's a cliche too. BUT. The reason that I don't find myself annoyed with either of those relationships is that they're just really, really well-written. Yes, they're cliched, but they're also presented in a really truly funny (and sometimes touching) way. It helps that the male servants are both more frequently the butt of the joke than their female servants are.
So. Er. That's Soul Eater through a feminist lens.
(And the anime is still unlicensed, so, you know, torrents are out there. I recommend Rumbel's fansubs, they really have the best translation out of the many groups working on the series.)
no subject
ANN just described the show (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/the-x-button/2008-07-30) as "a shockingly pretty series that recalls Bleach, Harry Potter, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and other things beloved by young Hot Topic customers." Which is a much better description than the one I came up with. ;)