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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