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Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Senpai is an Otokonoko
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dm
 Subscriber Posts: 1460 |
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This is, indeed a very sweet show with a dark undercurrent of the traditional attitudes surrounding the main character(s).
When Makoto’s father first brought up his friend who was headmaster of a private school, I was relieved to see that Makoto had at least some support from their family (it also answered a question about the logistics of Makoto’s school day and situation). When Saki traded clothes with Makoto my first thought was about fit — they’re significantly different sizes — but also thought it was a very sweet scene. But Nick is right — Saki is not yet well fleshed-out as a character. It could be that she ends up just being a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, but I kind of doubt it, the way this series is subtly approaching the interiority of its characters and the situation they face. It makes me miss Wandering Son, however. |
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ChirashiD
 Posts: 186 Location: WA |
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Could you please add the link to the article? I actually go to the forum first to browse articles so I can check updates to comments at the same time. Loved the first episode btw.
[EDIT: This problem has since been fixed. - Key] |
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ktarf
Posts: 28 |
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Episode 3's drama felt a bit forced, and Makoto's mother isn't a character so far but just a mash of society's bad influences to make a point. The show could use more subtlety, but I really liked the final scene. Makoto is a great character in general, he feels real and believable in his quest of accepting himself. Can't say the same about the other two for now, as they're still both only defined by their crush on Makoto.
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John the Dark Lord
Posts: 263 |
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That's interesting. The Brazilian Portuguese subtitles on Crunchyroll had Saki and Ryouji consistently address Makoto with female pronouns in the first two episodes (making the scenes where Ryouji denies having a crush on Makoto because they are both dudes pretty awkward, I might add). They do switch to male pronouns in the third, but that was probably because of what was going on in the episode, rather than being a "correction" of the subtitles. |
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killjoy_the
 Posts: 2474 |
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Which part specifically do you mean? If it was Makoto finally snapping back into it or the run towards the garbage truck then maybe, but I felt that Makoto deciding "I'm done" after witnessing their mother almost having a breakdown again is fairly believable. Especially because she's not aggressive about this, angry at him or anything, the one time she found out about his time she broke down and just cried and couldn't stop. Makoto was desperate when talking to their dad later, after almost by accident having their mother go back to that, deciding to maybe give up on the whole thing to not run the risk of hurting her feels like an entirely believable and even respectable - if wrong - choice |
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ktarf
Posts: 28 |
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The truck thing was far fetched, yes, but mainly I was referring to his mother and how she's very one-dimensional and just clearly designed as a personification of the negative influences of society the story is about. I totally agree that Makoto's actions were perfectly believable. He's definetly the best part of the show. |
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Eilavel
Posts: 134 |
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She is that- but there are a (minority) or parents who react in an extremely negative and coercive way to sex and gender non-conformity, and thats probably moreso in Japan. Within the show she is merely an obstacle, but she's not a totally unrealistic one. Should the show explore her inner world more? I mean, I presume it will. For me, the issue in realisation there is having such a negative presence and having an accepting but totally passive father is a stretch as a dynamic. But perhaps this is a cultural gap. Makoto is indeed holding the whole show on their shoulders. |
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trilaan
 Posts: 1071 Location: Texas |
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Same! I'm still upset Fantagraphics never finished the English-language release of the manga, those hardbacks were sweet! I'm loving this show for the most part. Minor annoyances are mom's apparent psychosis(no subtlety to the character) and typical anime use of things that are supposedly cute but really are not. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 13642 |
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Makoto is someone who deserves to live how he wants to live and dress how he wants to dress and looks amazing in a wig and heels.
Saki is an adorable gremlin who is true to her feelings and herself no matter what, whether it be her love, horniness, or desire for honesty from others. Ryuji is a great bro who supports his bro even while denying he's in love with said bro. Makoto's dad and Makoto's mom are both on the complete opposite ends of being parents to queer youth.
There's a scene of Saki in her room looking sad with her whale plushies in OP so I think they're going to get more into her character eventually. |
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FishLion
 Posts: 218 |
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About the parents' inner world spoiler[ they do get into why she has such an intense reaction and it isn't just "she really hates boys who act girly" or something like that. As for the Dad, he seems to want Makoto to make his own decisions and not push him into something that that is very difficult rather than passive towards his wife. I hope that reassures people it's going somewhere but didn't spoil too much.] As for pronouns, I wonder if this is a feature of the translation. -Chan and -kun do have gendered connotations, but they are not set in stone, and if you aren't friends or the speaker is formal you may go with the completely gender neutral -san suffix to address someone. This can lead to a situation where "he or she" is not descriptive enough, as a tomboy might be called -kun despite the fact that in English a tomboy would still use She/Her and a boy who people consider cutesy may be called -chan despite still completely seeing themselves as a boy. Then you have the variations of "I/Me", the most common of which are boku which reads as a little informal and masculine or watashi which reads as very formal and somewhat feminine in non formal situations, but neither is completely restricted in gender. For example, there may be a girl that says boku to imply she sees herself with a bit of boyishness, but it isn't the same as meaning "I am a boy" or asking to be addressed as male. That means that while you can't write a natural sounding English script without choosing He or She for Makoto, it is very possible that they avoided gendering Makoto directly in the original Japanese (at least in terms of personal addresses) so that the author was able to neither set a gender nor misgender them so to speak. I would also love to know if Makoto uses watashi, I feel like it could be a way to express more femininely by coming off as formal but not having the same obvious intent as asking people to refer to you with She/Her. This is one reason I miss the style of leaving suffixes and translation notes in the subtitles, I know some people say that means it's not a complete translation, but the way people address each other and the type of I/Me pronoun they use is often extremely informative to their character and I hate that there is no easy way to share that information as deftly as the Japanese script. If anyone has insights on the original Japanese and especially what forms of address and personal pronouns were used, it would be greatly appreciated if you shared. This is where I learned about types of personal pronouns, in case y'all were interested, and I want to add a disclaimer that everything I say about this is referring to use cases in media, I am not trying to claim to understand how these things work when employed in reality. https://legendsoflocalization.com/personal-pronouns-in-japanese/ |
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 1440 |
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I haven't been paying too close attention to be sure, but I believe Makoto has exclusively used "boku" when self-referencing so far. As for honorifics, that hasn't come into play with anyone who's close to Makoto so far. Ryuji doesn't use honorifics since they're long-time friends, and Saki calls Makoto "Senpai" pretty much exclusively.
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q_3
Posts: 165 |
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I think Makoto uses "watashi" at the end of ep 1 when saying farewell to their girl mode.
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FishLion
Posts: 218 |
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Thank you! I just realized I could have also listened to the audio to figure that out lol, sometimes I get tunnel vision cause I am focusing on the part I am reading and forget that I can find those things myself even if they aren't written out. That does track for me though, the people close to him seem to sidestep even implicitly gendering Makoto and saying boku while dressed femininely would kind of show wanting to express masculinely to some degree despite all the cute stuff, Makoto definitely isn't trying to blend in as one of the girls even though he is very attached to some traditionally feminine modes of expression. I am interested to see if and how this develops, I was always curious reading the manga (possibly why I didn't think of the new medium letting me hear these things) |
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 3028 Location: Email for assistance only |
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This is correct, although I believe it was "atashi," which is considered more feminine than "watashi." AFAIK "watashi" is closer to a gender-neutral pronoun while "atashi" would be considered feminine and "boku" masculine. However, there have been a fair amount of female characters in anime that also use "boku" if they're more of a "tomboy" type. |
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Kiskaloo
 Subscriber Posts: 85 Location: Seattle |
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Fair or not, I went into this show hoping to find Wandering Son, which deeply affected me and remains a cherished show. The first two episodes did not generate those feelings and I was considering dropping it, but seeing Makoto's mother at the end of Episode 2 encouraged me to stick around for Episode 3 and I was very glad I did. This show is a different one fromWandering Son, but Episode 3 made me feel enough of what I cared for from Wandering Son that I intend to keep watching it. |
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