This face intentionally left blank
Mar. 12th, 2013 05:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
foxinthestarsSo I'm still watching the Amnesia anime for no good reason. We're past boyfriend #4 --- sadly we didn't get to see her knee him in the groin and call the cops, but at least we're done with the creep --- and into boyfriend #5-and-implicitly-final who actually seems to know what the hell is even going on so we have some chance of actually getting somewhere. Lately, tho, this anime has made me wonder about some things. For example whether I'm the only one who a) thinks the romance in Ikki's arc was basically him talking to himself and b) would like to see his curse rebound directly on him and his fangirls tear him apart in some sort of bacchanalian frenzy (I don't hate him as much as it sounds like, I'm just fascinated by the idea and annoyed by the catfight tropes).
More importantly, though, I'm wondering if the whole idea of "leave this character blank for the audience to self-insert" ever even works. It sure doesn't here, the heroine just comes off as a milquetoast and the only time her lack of personality is at all involving is when it's implied that she wasn't always like that and you can sense what she's lost. The other example I can think of was in a medium where it would seem much more likely to succeed --- in my youth I played Lunar: The Silver Star in the original Sega CD version, and in it, the hero, Alex, was pretty much left as a blank while the rest of the party was given tons of personality, and I remember even at the time it didn't help me become Alex, it just turned him into the least interesting character. Now, I admit, I've never played an otome game (of the kind Amnesia is based on) to say whether it works there, but the visual novels I have played and liked didn't leave the hero as an empty vessel...
Other random things, I watched my monthly back-catalog anime, wanted something relatively short and light this time and picked Otome Youkai Zakuro. It was fun.
Also I've finally finished another pass through Seven Year Promise and updated those posts.
More importantly, though, I'm wondering if the whole idea of "leave this character blank for the audience to self-insert" ever even works. It sure doesn't here, the heroine just comes off as a milquetoast and the only time her lack of personality is at all involving is when it's implied that she wasn't always like that and you can sense what she's lost. The other example I can think of was in a medium where it would seem much more likely to succeed --- in my youth I played Lunar: The Silver Star in the original Sega CD version, and in it, the hero, Alex, was pretty much left as a blank while the rest of the party was given tons of personality, and I remember even at the time it didn't help me become Alex, it just turned him into the least interesting character. Now, I admit, I've never played an otome game (of the kind Amnesia is based on) to say whether it works there, but the visual novels I have played and liked didn't leave the hero as an empty vessel...
Other random things, I watched my monthly back-catalog anime, wanted something relatively short and light this time and picked Otome Youkai Zakuro. It was fun.
Also I've finally finished another pass through Seven Year Promise and updated those posts.
