I love Bakemonogatari. From the Heavy Crab, through the clever twist to the Lost Snail, the truth behind the Monkey’s Paw and the tension of the Snake Constrictor, it’s a visual treat and provides a metric fucktonne of characterisation and cinematography that I could wax lyrical on for ages. Except I won’t. First, it’s spoilerific. Second, I think I need an entire post just to explain why I find Hitagi Senjougahara to be awesome before even outlining what makes everything else about these episodes so great.
I would hardly dare to argue
Granted, she doesn’t appear much in the middle portion of the series, but trying to make sense of the Senjougahara Fascination phenomenon became a bit more important when I found myself a part of it. What the hell is this? Am I developing a 2D complex? Well, yes. And no. Idle thoughts coming up.
I don’t think less of someone for being a hardcore gamer, a yaoi fan, a furry, a figure collector or lolicon (apart from the last one. Those guys really are weird). I just don’t really get any of it. I don’t understand them because I don’t share their interest; conversely, I doubt everyone can relate to going weak at the knees over the Shinkai and Kon movies, vintage guitar gear or anything Type Moon or Macross-related. I raise a defiant Brofist to those who share my weaknesses for them though.
I certainly thought I was immune to the 2D complex: after all, I’d sooner seek real-life interaction with a female human being than a fictional representation of one, right? We all exhibit an attachment to certain shows and characters to some degree or other though. Rest assured I won’t condemn you for sitting alone in your basement fapping to the product of some overseas comic artist’s pencil and I don’t want those who do to take offence, but I don’t share your penchant for it.
I don’t experience the same empathy and affection for anime characters as I do for real people but I can’t escape the fact that I can still be on the edge of my seat or the verge of Manly Tears when a really emotional moment happens. Some characters stick in my memory: Nausicäa (from the Miyazaki manga), Shiki Ryougi and Saber (from Kara no Kyoukai and Fate/Stay Night respectively) share a special place in my mind, as do Noriko in Battle Royale, Lee Geum-ja in Lady Vengeance or Vivian Sternwood in The Big Sleep. Hitagi Senjougahara is another memorable female lead for me.
Hitagi’s appeal ought to be obvious: her personality is both a knowing take on the tsundere archetype and a source of entertaining one-liners. Placing her character alonside others that are represented by real, flesh-and-blood people rather than animated pictures in their respective stories might be an unfair comparison, but attachment to anime characters and those from live-action movies and books isn’t so different, to me at least.
You do have to think about what makes them appealing though: in my case I happen to consider Aki Maeda to be cute and Lauren Bacall was quite a knockout back in 1946. Personally however it’s not the fact that the image of an anime character is physically attractive: the resulting image of a real person in my imagination is memorable and appealing. This is easier for me to explain in, for example, Vivian Sternwood’s portrayal in Chandler’s novel, or other written, rather than drawn or filmed, characters.
Just as alluring in print? I can’t wait to find out
The circumstances are different but I found myself fascinated by Senjougahara in the same way that I was by Haruki Murakami’s character Sumire in his Sputnik Sweetheart novel. It’s not his best work in my view for reasons I don’t have time to set out here but one thing that stuck in my head was Sumire’s character. Being a novel with no televised or cinematic adaptation I don’t even have a screencap to explain why she’s awesome. A mere description of her is however enough to bring her character to life:
“I can’t cook or clean the house. My room’s a mess and I’m always losing things. I love music, but can’t sing a note. I’m clumsy and can barely sew a stitch. My sense of direction is the pits, and can’t tell right from left half the time…I’m bashful for no reason, and have hardly any friends to speak of.”
Sputnik Sweeheart, © Haruki Murakami, 1999, 2001
What the reader or viewer experiences when they encounter a memorable character is build up a profile, visual or otherwise, and find themselves thinking, how cool would it be if this person really existed? This is Sumire describing herself early on in the novel, and aside from the narrator’s own description of her that’s probably the best indicator of her character. The thing was that after reading this, a vivid and affecting image of a complex and fascinating individual popped into my head and I had a new favourite literary heroine.
Elsewhere Sumire is painted in an unflattering light as far as looks are concerned: even the narrator, who is deeply in love with her, admits she’s skinny, clumsy and not attractive in the conventional sense. She’s just a really unpredictable person, a departure from the usual type of fictional heroine or romantic lead, who shows her unique attractiveness in an unusual way, just like Hitagi does.
So then, if it’s possible to get sentimentally attached to a character who amounts to little more than words on a page, am I really playing devil’s advocate in defending otakus who go misty-eyed over 2D girls? A 2D complex in which the hapless fan dismisses the appeal of real humans in favour of pictures, animated or otherwise, isn’t something I’d call healthy but it’s an extension of the very commonplace experience of empathising with fictional characters. The degree to which this affects their interaction with real people should be the real cause for concern.
Writers do after all intend to create fictional characters that stick in readers’ and viewers’ minds, and more often than not we can identify with them to some degree and muse over how fun and rewarding it would be if we met someone like them. If I were in my local coffee bar or bookshop I’d certainly find it tempting to say hi to the young lady in an ill-fitting coat eyeing up the Kafka paperbacks, even if I was risking getting a stapler shoved in my face. I’m sure it’s a familiar feeling, so if you have some personal not-at-all-real heroines or heroes of your own, ‘fess up in the reply form below.
*BROFIST
Just finished a rewatch of Do You Remember Love? and I can relate to this fascination thing. I’ve had one for Minmay over the past quarter century.
I too find Senjougahara to be an extremely fascinating character because she’s one of the few, if any, tsundere characters that actually admits to being tsundere. I find her a very interesting mix of strength, resilience, and sexuality offset by equal amounts of vulnerability and naivety.
One of the reasons why I think that she stands out so much as a unique character is because she contrasted by Araragi’s personality. Senjougahara has told Araragi basically that she’s “all in” with her love for him so that makes her the tsundere girl that’s hanging there like “a ripe sweet cherry for the picking” and Araragi too indecisive to pluck that sweet fruit.
Another way to consider it (for me) is: when the series is over, do you worry what happens to the characters afterwards? The only anime shows I’ve seen where I’ve responded like that are Azumanga Daioh and Toradora.
It’s rare that I find an affection for a character if they’re in a series I don’t like. The flip side of that of course is if I like the show the characters are usually well-developed. The exception would be Risa from Lovely Complex. It was a silly show but I found her so adorable I watched the whole thing. And Lovely Complex isn’t really bad, anyway.
As for Senjougahara, she scares me. I couldn’t keep up with her wordplay and I’d wind up with a staple in my gums. I didn’t have the same response to Sumire, either, maybe because I knew going in that she was going to be one of Murakami’s Vanishing Girls.
“Personally however it’s not the fact that the image of an anime character is physically attractive: the resulting image of a real person in my imagination is memorable and appealing.”
Yes. Yes yes YES. That’s EXACTLY it!
This is what I was trying to get across in my own writing on the Senjougahara Fascination Movement. Our imaginative powers create the character we love out of an image on the screen, akin to how lifelike holograms are made out of multiple 2-D projections. At the time I compared it to Freudian id and superego cooperating to produce the ego, but I think the Murakami quote brings the point home much better. Cheers.
What about a yaoi furry figure-collecting hardcore-gaming lolicon?
* defiant Brofist raised *
* defiant Brofist raised *
…
* semi-defiant Brofist marginally raised *
Late reply is late…I’ve been out of town and offline for the past week! Scuse the delay, folks.
@ghostlightning: Minmay is a bit irritating to me, but I’ll have to watch the original Macross (i.e. not rewatching DRL? or Robotech) to see if my opinion changes. Sheryl on the other hand…
@Chris K: Senjougahara has the benefit of balanced writing, but the same can be said of the dynamic between she and Araragi. I want to hug the scriptwriter. Even if the scriptwriter’s male.
@Peter S: I have Azu on my ‘to watch’ shelf actually. I also have the week off work, so will make a start on that in the next few days. Watch this space!
@2DT: if a Senjougahara fascination is 2D complex, is Sumire Fascination…1D complex? [laughs] Damn, there are so many heroines of Murakami’s writing that stick in my memory…I need to write about his stuff more.
@Orion:
I have some interesting friends! I can think of some that fit any one of those, but not one falls in all of the above. None of them are lolicons, fortunately. As far as I know, anyway. ¬_¬
I will usually only watch an anime if I’m impressed with the character design (Range Murata is probably my favorite character designer) something about the way the characters are rendered in Bakemonogatari makes them extra-endearing and intimate, whether its interesting facial or hair features, to creative wardrobe, to the way the camera captures and frames them. I particularly appreciate the detail in the highlights of the face, which bring an extra dimension of vitality and warmth to the characters – especially in the many close-ups.
“The thing was that after reading this, a vivid and affecting image of a complex and fascinating individual popped into my head and I had a new favourite literary heroine.
[...]
more often than not we can identify with them to some degree and muse over how fun and rewarding it would be if we met someone like them.”
I hate to be the guy that offers very little input, but THIS. I feel like you’ve hit the nail on the head. With a stapler, if you so please.
Excellent job in painting that vaguely complex emotion of the otaku, that often gets so overexaggerated (I may take this moment to cough awkwardly) or shoved under the table.
Somehow it seems more sensible to admit it like this, since hiding such an adoration only serves to make it seem more obscene and strange than it actually is. Which it shouldn’t be, since as you mention, for most of us it doesn’t serve as a substitute for three-dimensional affection, but rather as a supplement.
Perhaps a guide, even. It’d be interesting to consider how 2D and 3D crushes have affected each other.
@ByozXXV: I like certain character designs too – the way the eyes are drawn is often an important part of that. In Bakemonogatari‘s case, close-ups of characters’ eyes work wonderfully. Yoshitoshi ABe’s probably my favourite though – his characters have a wonderful haunting, melancholic quality.
@CCY: thanks! I guess what I was trying to say is that unless you go really, really far down the otaku road what you’re experiencing is quite a commonplace feeling shared by film fans, TV addicts and bookworms both within and outside the anime community. Looks like I got my point across okay, anyway!
I gotta agree with you.
I think the fact that they are drawn, and are just one of countless cute/beautiful anime faces, makes the true allure of a 2-D or literary character their personality. Standard “moe” archetypes are getting really beaten to death, and they’re usually pretty shallow characters anyway, so it’s a real treat when a complicated, unpredictable character rolls around.
I guess I am another hapless victim of Senjougahara-tore, but I like to console myself with the notion that she’s in many ways more than a “flat 2D character”. This is a girl that used to be “normal” and “friendly” but after a traumatic incident isolated herself from human contact for two years and has been kind of psycho ever since. Having known people with similar pasts, her personality is at times frighteningly believable. You really get the feeling that her actions, thoughts and attitudes are flowing from her experiences prior to and during the show, rather than from a character archetype. (Incidentally, I love the fact that in the show, they characterize her as a tsundere, but she doesn’t really fit the bill.)
So for now, we’ll just say that we have been momentarily overcome by deft literary artistry.