/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>46252717
Personal preference mainly, but it's also just a really well written chapter, and I enjoy all the Umineko parallels, Shion as a character is very similair to Ange. >>46155439

The chapter is all about the struggles of growing up and the reality that your parents or guardians may not always love you back the way you love them. Children innately yearn for the love of their parents but that love can only be there if the parent reciprocates it, without it you end up with someone like Shion, who's traumatized and wholly believes she's subhuman due to how her family has treated her all her life. Shion in Meakashi is kind of like Keiichi in Onikakushi except more rooted in reality. She clings to Satoshi so hard because he's the only stranger that's ever shown her unconditional love right from the start, something her family has never done, and I don't understand how some people call her love for Satoshi forced or weird because if you take Shion's character into account, it's very human. Of course she's going to cling to him with the live she's lived. And then she starts using him as a scapegoat once he dissapears and she snaps and begins executing her revenge in his name. A lot of Shion's dialogue where she muses about Satoshi during the latter end is really just Shion talking about herself and she knows this, she just doesn't admit it until the very end where she admits she knew Satoshi would've never wanted any of this killing. It was all for her, and while her actions in Meakashi are tragic, you can't deny it's satisfying seeing her rightfully get back at the world that's wronged her so much.

But I really love Shion because later on, her character grows past this. Instead of going down the path she did in Meakashi, in a better world she finds a place within the club and her love for Satoshi becomes fuel not for her to become a villain but for her to become a protector. Her love for Satoshi is never frames as a bad thing by the narrative; Instead, she learns to forgive herself and move froward with her love, giving it to Satoko instead and holding hope in her heart that Satoshi might return someday, but even if he doesn't, that doesn't mean she can't live happily with the people she cares about (The whole theme of romantic love not being any more or less important or powerful than platonic love is all over WTC). Shion embodies themes of forgiveness love and empathy and it's incredibly heartwarming to me, seeing her go from what she was to what she eventually became. I'm a sucker for heartwarming stuff like this, but it's different in 07th works because Ryukishi's characters feel so incredibly human; Say what you want about his other qualities as a writer but it's hard to say he doesn't understand how people feel and act incredibly well. All WTC installments are stories about humans, not heroes or villains. You can really tell his time as a social worker from his writing.