Manga Rant: Ran to Haiiro no Sekai by Irie Aki

Ran to Haiiro no Sekai by Irie Aki could have been one of my most favorite mangas, if only it hadn’t carried one of the creepiest love interests I have ever come across. Kudos to the manga for adding another annoying character to my currently deficient roster of manga characters I hate the most.

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            Truth be told, I like this manga a lot. It’s a fantasy story about this strange family and the shenanigans some of the family members—mostly the youngest daughter—get themselves into. I found out about it after I finished Gunjou Gakusha, a collection of short stories by the same author that definitely made its way to my list of favorites. Ran to Haiiro no Sekai has this Studio Ghibli vibe going for it, from the art style to the magic and medley of unique characters. While the magic is mostly left unexplained, it feels like it doesn’t need to be.

             But this is more of a rant and less of a review. While the free-spirited all-powerful mother is interesting to read about and the older brother Jin is adorable trying to be sensible and protective, this piece is not about them. It’s not about the wonderfully brave Hibi who perseveres even in his very human state or Sango, who is deeply besotted with Jin. Nope, it’s not about the characters that make you stay to read this manga.

            It’s the characters that make you leave—and barf—or both at the same time.

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            I personally didn’t like Ran, the youngest of the brood and also the main character, but I didn’t dislike her either. She’s eight or ten years old, so I have to give her free pass for all the vexatious actions she commits. She’s naïve and gullible, but that’s to be expected. She’s a child.

            Outarou, on the other hand, is thirty-freaking-years-old.

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            So we first get to meet Outarou as this naked dude casually strolling to his penthouse apartment after a failed rendezvous, I’m assuming. We’re told—and shown—that he’s a rich playboy; and by George, there was “bad news” written all over him from the very beginning. Ran, you see, can transform into a beautiful teenager whenever she wears her special rubber shoes. I hope you can tell where this is going.

            Spoiler Alert: Ran tries to fly and ends up in Outarou’s garden. Outarou, being the fuckboy that he is, is alerted to her physical attractiveness. She, on the other hand, is only looking for a friend. He gets touchy-feely and perverted, which she doesn’t seem to take notice to. Because newsflash: she’s a kid; and also, she’s the biggest blockhead—as most of the characters remark—you’ll ever meet.

            You know what? I didn’t think we’d be seeing much of Outarou, or at least, I wasn’t hoping to see him anytime soon. In fact, I was glad when he almost died because his creepiness was downright disturbing. The author, however, decided to keep him for a while; and never have I wanted for a character to just die.

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             I really did love the manga but then there came what I will call the Outarou arc, which I honestly just skipped. Outarou is possessed and Ran stops at nothing to help him, even at the cost of many lives, from what I’ve gathered. They even kissed very deeply just where he was finally dying and I was so grossed out. Judging from the reviews, he even said something along the lines of “I love you even if you’re ten.”

            E-eh-excuse me?

            A commenter was so enamored by this confession and even called his love unconditional.

            You see, where I’m from, we just call it sick.

            Half of the comments love their relationship while the other hand is just plain sickened. I’ll let you guess which side I’m on.

            Some say that their age gap isn’t such a bad thing—that in ten years, where she’s twenty and he’s forty, it wouldn’t matter. I would like to argue by saying that, no, she’s not twenty and therefore she’s not legal. He’s an adult and she’s a freaking minor. He’s in a position of power and she’s a child by every sense of the word.

            Second, even when he found out she’s still actually a kid; he has no qualms making out with her. That’s right—kissing and touching a ten-year-old child. And yet, some people still found this disgusting relationship “romantic.”

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            The thing is, even as a teenager, she’s still remarkably younger than him. But did that stop him from pursuing a teenage girl? Absolutely not.

            Another matter I’d like to point out is that even if she wasn’t a kid, his actions are problematic AF. He’s a philanderer who doesn’t know how to take “no” for an answer. She constantly tells him not to touch her and he reacts by manipulating her into holding his hand. There’s even a scene where she tries to console him in his dream, obviously wearing her teenage body. Because he can control his dream, Outarou (that sick, twisted piece of shi—) imagines her without clothes, practically stripping her. Even when it’s obvious that she doesn’t want to be stripped.

            Oh yeah, he also angrily screams, “Ran is mine and she’ll always be mine!”

            How romantic.

            Let’s be honest here. If she didn’t look gorgeous as a young woman, would he ever actually go for her? Like her for who she is? The way I see it, it’s 99 percent lust and 1 percent delusion.

Vs. Otoyomegatari

I’ve noticed that Mori Kaoru and Ran to Haiiro no Sekai’s Irie Aki have similar art style. Mori Kaoru just happens to be the mangaka of my most favorite manga of all time, Otoyomegatari. This manga is about the tales of brides in Central Asia in the 1800s, and—wouldn’t you know it?—also includes a couple with a glaring age difference. There’s this 20-year-old young woman in an arranged marriage with a 12-year-old boy. To be fair, the first bride isn’t exactly my most favorite character in the manga, and I’m not the biggest fan of this relationship.

            However, the 20-year-old “wife” has never, in any way, shape, matter, or form, abused her power over her young “husband.” She wasn’t handsy with him like Outarou was with Ran. She wasn’t selfish or manipulative like Outarou. She didn’t claim him to be hers and only hers. She didn’t force him to do anything he wasn’t comfortable with. In other words, their relationship had, like Aretha Franklin said, “R-E-S-P-E-C-T.”

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            I would like to reiterate that I really liked Gunjou Gakusha by Irie Aki, but it was also clear that her love interests are somewhat problematic. There’s this thief who kidnaps a princess, throws her in a cell, and spies on her while she’s bathing. Now if you think she’ll kick him where it hurts and bid him good riddance, then you’d be wrong. In the end, she escaped captivity and got married to the guy who put her in a sack. 

Mori Kaoru’s love interests, on the other hand, are nothing short of understanding, patient, and sweet.    Seriously, I’d be happy to take Umar, Joruk, and Sahman from the brides’ hands if ever they decide to leave them.

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Favorite Booksale Purchases

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A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

No one can say I didn't try.
I'm not one to board the hype train. Speaking from personal experience, I find that I usually don't like popular 5-star books and yet books that sometimes get poor reviews, I dig. At some point, you'd think I'd learn. But no; no, I don't.
So A Court of Thorns and Roses or ACOTAR is hugely popular e'rywhere; there was all this talk about Rhysand, how freaking badass the main character is, and all that shiznit. Safe to say, I was definitely intrigued.
You see, there are two types of Books I Want to Love: Books I Want to Love But Don't and Books I Want to Love and Did. The Harry Potter series, thank God, did not fail me and I ended up really liking the books; it successfully was categorized with the latter. With ACOTAR, however, I had that feeling at the pit of my stomach that I wasn't going to like the book. But I released all those inhibitions *cue Pantene commercial* and deluded myself into thinking that this book would be golden. I mean, everyone loves it, right?

I was so desperate to adore the book, but it sucked so bad.
Disclaimer: I DNFed the book, so make of that what you will.
First, we have the huntress Feyre. Just with that description, I already knew where the story was heading. She's the cardboard cutout of the supposedly "strong female character." You know the type: the special snowflake who DGAF but cares enough at the same time, preferably wields a bow and arrow, is not like everybody else, secretly pretty, and is the only girl with actual spunk and spirit. While every other girl mull about boys and clothes, she hunts and does all the dirty work. She's practical and fierce, and is basically the poster girl for kickass. Now that I'm writing this, I find that type of character very familiar (ahem, Katniss, ahem).
I never liked those types of characters; they're perfect and unreachable. But I digress. For me, they are always exceptions to the rule. Cat Royal from Julia Golding's Cat Royal series is equal parts brave, wise, witty, and loyal. Even so, she was relatable. Feyre, on the other hand, came off as a little hollow and one-dimensional. It was as if her single purpose in life, which was to protect and provide for her family, was all that she was. She was the protector, the savior, and that was it.
I pushed through still and let that thought go.
And then came the unbelievable, unrealistic beginning.
So Feyre killed a faerie in basically cold blood. What may you ask is her punishment for murdering one of the faerie-kinds, you may ask? Oh, I don't know, how about live your life in luxury, eating good food, being clothed with only the finest fabrics, living in a palace with servants waiting on you hand and foot where you're free to roam around and do whatever you want?

In the words of Olive Penderghast: "You have got to be shitting me, woman." Wow, who knew living the good life would be that easy, amirite?
But because I desperately, desperately wanted to love the book, I pushed through again. You know what, I've read unrealistic stories before; I can totally handle this one.
Then I was slapped with the realization that she was going to end up with Tamlin (view spoiler)[ for this book, anyway (hide spoiler)], the first fae she meets (and doesn't kill). You know, that transcendently beautiful brooding man with a surprisingly forgiving heart. Can't say I didn't see that one coming.

What made me really give up, the final nail in that coffin, was the writing.

Don't get me wrong; the writing was good. But when you've read Clare B. Dunkle's The Hollow Kingdom, Anne Elisabeth Stengl's Heartless, and Yangsze Choo's The Ghost Bride, I expect a whole lot more from a fantasy novel. I need that spark; I desire that wit. I lust over Natalie Babbitt's descriptive writing in Tuck Everlasting, the banter and action in Julia Golding's Cat Royal series, and the wondrous way Eva Ibbotson could describe a mere curtsy in A Countess Below Stairs. The writing in this book was OK, but it could not hook me in.
As for Tamlin and Rhysand, I've seen so many animes and read so many mangas (and a lot of them are shoujo, so I hope you get what I mean). That type of cool, brooding, enigmatic, hot AF male characters, I felt like I've seen them all. So it takes more than a pretty face, rows of abs, and a secret heart of gold for me to actually care about the love interest.

I heard the second book was going to be better, but I tried reading the first chapter, and like I said, it just wasn't doing it for me.

View all my reviews

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Confessions of a Possible, Kind-of, Sort-of Shopaholic (Very Original, I Know)

I have become a woman obsessed—a woman scorned…by clothes she cannot buy but desires so. As much as I would like to trace back my steps to how or when I’ve become this way, clear as day it is painted across my mind as I lay back in bed enjoying and cursing my currently NEET life that I desperately need an intervention. Or a detoxification, whichever is more viable.

            When I was but a mere lonely highschooler, I prided myself for choosing books over clothes and cannot seem to understand what the big deal is about shopping. In college, I saw the allure of fast fashion and by the end of my school years, I began online shopping. But no, I have never dipped my toes in the world of Instagram shops at this point—not yet.

            But alas, I did and never have I felt more possessed by Becky Bloomwood than when I am scrolling down my feed and lusting over the vintage dresses, band jackets, and sailor blouses the shops have to offer. In some warped déjà vu moment, I recall the time when I was a sophomore in high school, throwing the last of my savings for the third book in a series I loved. I had been dreadfully, irrevocably, stupidly broke. And because I am apparently bad at learning lessons, I am—at the moment—close to being broke.

            You can’t get everything you want, but there are things that are within reach. And if they were, would it be so wrong to reach them? Is it so sinful to stuff the hole in my heart with material objects? This is the distorted line of thinking that at night, I like to philosophically indulge in. There’s pure bliss and satisfaction in being able to get something you yearn for. But as I would like to remind myself in my chronic overthinking moments: the elation is only temporary.

            Although slight doses of euphoria (the figurative kind) never harmed anybody, my shopping habits are gradually emptying my wallet—or coin purse, if we’re trying to be really particular. As lost and hollow as I seldom feel, I reckon having an equally empty coin purse won’t do me any good either.

There isn’t a surefire solution for anything. It’s always a constant battle within yourself, at least that’s the way with me. If it helps, maybe we’re in the same boat. Here’s hoping we know how to swim.

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Top 4 Frustrating Book Characters

Source: pixabay.com. Photo has been modified.

Oh, don’t I wish I were kidding.

To place it in a needlessly grandiloquent manner, one might say it takes an implausibly substantial amount of inane choices and equally senseless actions to drive me to the brink. In other words, I’m a pretty chill person and I don’t easily get frustrated by literary characters. I even scratched Maria Clara off my list as I slowly grasped the fact that she just happened to be a woman of her time, a product of then-societal expectations—to say the least.

Don’t get me wrong: as a self-confessed airhead, I understand that moments of ineptitude and foolishness are inevitable in dire situations. I mean, in a horror movie, I’m probably that useless dummy who keeps tripping on tree roots. But these characters take bad decisions to a whole new level, skedaddling off the face of common sense and courting both danger and irrationality.

So in no particular order, I give you:

1. Tatiana from Wildwood Dancing (Wildwood #1) by Juliet Marillier 

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Tatiana or Tati as she is fondly called is the eldest and fairest sister in this retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. Basically, she seems like Meg from Little Women. But besides being the oldest, prettiest, and most gentle, they have nothing else in common. Because unlike Meg, who places sisters before misters, Tati could care less what happens to her siblings and treats her love interest like he’s the center of her universe and her only reason to live. Quite literally, in fact.

Forget that she’s the eldest and therefore she has a responsibility to take care of her younger siblings. Forget that the main character, Jena the second eldest, has to carry the weight of keeping her family intact on her shoulder alone. Forget that Jena has to protect her sisters and at the same time ward off unwanted advances while the dreamy Tati simply gallivants with the love of her life. No, forget it all. Because for Tati, only the guy she likes matters.

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The saddest and perhaps most infuriating part about her is that she was of no help at all. If anything, she’s the source of most problems. Jena spends her time warning Tati of her otherworldly lover and going through some tough shiznit. It never even entered Tati’s mind that Jena and her sisters need a hand.

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Spoiler: like the smart little dainty teacup that she is, she figured that if she couldn’t be with her lover, she might as well just lie on her bed, refuse to eat, and pretty much waste her life. She drives the plot forward this way as Jena does her darn hardest to save her sister. Ironically, the guy Tati likes is getting beaten black and blue just so he could be with her and she’s just there, throwing her life away. Of course, she hasn’t—and couldn’t, with her puny lovesick brain of hers—realize that all the sacrifices her lover—and her sisters—makes are futile if she dies.



2. Joseph Sandrin from the Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

 

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If it’s possible to have grade-A douchebag as a profession, I’m pretty sure Joseph is at the top of his game. What do you do once you’re reunited with the love of your life who you haven’t seen in five years? If the answer is sleep with a princess, assure your girlfriend you still love her, cheat on her in front of her eyes; then meet Joseph, your new best friend. 

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There is no shortage of lying, cheating scumbags in books, but unlike most of them, Joseph isn’t painted as some no-good philanderer in the first few pages. He was a good guy who did a righteous thing*. But after a fast-paced turn of events, it’s like he just threw his morals out the window once he sees a beautiful princess. I get it, she saved your life. You’re in a dark, cold place somewhere shivering and drenched. But, dude, she’s an (spoiler) elemental—aka almost like an Airbender with a heavy, solid stress on “almost”—who can freaking make fire. On that note, I’m sure there are a whole lot of ways to “warm up.”

The worse thing is he almost seems genuine with his cheating, like “poor little me, conflicted and torn between two strong, beautiful women.” I’m not an advice columnist, but here’s a tip: “Why not be a selfish, horny asshole and pick one?” Just a tip.

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Jules, the girlfriend he’s cheating on, is one of the most badass, independent, awesomely loyal female characters in the book, and it’s maddening to see her dejected because of this guy. Joseph always keeps reassuring her that he loves her but keeps coming back to the princess anyways. Another spoiler: he might have even indirectly caused the deterioration of what little left of the two main character’s familial relationship.

*That I cannot disclose.



3. Lucia Damora from the Falling Kingdoms series by Morgan Rhodes  

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To be fair, a little disclaimer: I haven’t read the fifth book and I tend to skip most of her parts.

From simply reading the premise, I deduced I would like Magnus and Lucia better than I would Cleo and Jonas. Lucia’s got powers and she’s not pampered like Cleo, and Magnus’s story, which is à la Game of Thrones *cough* Lannisters *cough,* seems hella interesting from afar. Then I finally delved into the book and boy was I wrong.

Magnus’s brooding was getting on my nerves and Lucia, well, she felt like another bland character whose most striking characteristic is her face and that she’s beautiful and probably doesn’t know it. The only thing was though Cleo was also a transcendently attractive character who has guys practically falling down her feet, except she’s not a Mary Sue and actually does something relevant.

When Lucia finally does something large-scale by the end of the book, it was fatal and destructive. Spoiler: she pretty much caused the death of a lot of people and the invasion of a once-prosperous kingdom.

Magnus easily redeemed himself in the succeeding books, so much that he and Cleo were a few of my most favorite characters in the novels. Lucia, you ask? She’s added to the list of pretty, besotted characters who cares about nothing and no one else except their significant other.

I get that she’s only learning how to use her powers, but I find that there’s something particularly spiteful underneath when she uses them—like there’s some bloodlust crawling below the surface. Strangely enough, she will actually release a bagful of spite later.

In the first few novels, she was just an unbelievably lackluster character I can’t give two cents about. But like I said, the claws came out. And by the end of the third book and the start of the fourth book, she had become so unreasonably antagonistic that my annoyance of her has reached an all-time high. Like just because she lost someone important to her, she thinks she has the right to inflict pain on others as well. And I’m here, like: “Girl, have you even met Cleo?”

Spoiler: Cleo lost her boyfriend, sister, father, her whole kingdom, and her freedom all in basically the same day; but you don’t see her running around summoning a vindictive fire god and killing people, now do you? So I’m sorry I can’t be sympathetic to you, Lucia.

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If she was only willing to take her privileged princess head out of the gutter for one second, she’ll realize that in this fantasy world, a good deal of characters have suffered way more than she did.



4. Liv Silver from Dream A Little Dream by Kirsten Grier

 

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I really wanted to like this book but the main character’s actions made me DNF faster than you can say “Googling basic life skills atm.” Liv is like that main character from this one episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? that I used to like. When I was younger, I thought it was a charming lil’ ghost love story. Then I watched it when I was older and all that Valencia filter dripped away. In other words, the MC was annoyingly half-witted. If you tell her one thing, she’ll do the exact opposite. And as one might expect, it gets her into trouble, which I guess conveniently moves the plot forward.

Liv is exactly like that.

EXACTLY. LIKE. THAT.

The premise of the book just seemed so enticing—four gorgeous guys walking down the hall acting like they own the place. Can I get an “Amen”? It’s so reminiscent of the Hana Yori Dango franchise that I knew I just got to read it. Then I met the character and I gradually noped (I’m making it a verb so sue me*) out of that situation.

Tell her not to do something precarious and she’ll basically swallow a blowtorch because “Why not, right?” While she never actually swallows a blowtorch—again, figurative expression—she does one stupid thing after another nevertheless.

Her stepbrother tells her not to hang around his friends because they’re dangerous, what does she do? Hangs around them and develops a crush on one of the guys. He tells her not to go to the party for her own safety, what does she do? Goes anyway because “ain’t nobody telling me what to do.” He warns her not to go with his friends who she doesn’t exactly know that well down a basement by herself because duh, that’s gravely reckless, and what does she freaking do? Take a wild guess, people.

If this was an episode in one of those crime shows, I’m betting things would go downhill really fast.

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At this point, not even a neon billboard with blinking warning signs will stop this girl from doing something heedless and imbecilic. I dropped the book like a hot potato and saved myself from the tangle of mess this main character will undoubtedly create.

*Just a figure of speech, people.

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