In Your Eyes

Ok, this is going to be about perspective, and it's probably going to get me a ton of hate comments or something, but I've just got to say it. I hate Red String. I hate it with a passion. I read a lot of webcomics, and I have for years. My first foray into webcomics was Sluggy Freelance which still has a fond place in my heart even if the plot moves slower than molasses on a glacier and I haven't checked it in months. I like webcomics because they're free, they're ubiquitous, and as a rule they can be much more creative than printed comics. Of course, this means that there are a lot of unbalanced comics out there. Comics with great plot and characters but horrible art. Good art but horrible writing. Terrible writing, terrible art, and an incredible fan following for some reason (I'm looking at you, XKCD). Now, if I was just reviewing Red String for its writing and art it would fail right there, of course. Red String dialogue is stilted and unnatural. Multiple panels in any given update are wasted on pointless reaction shots that only serve to take up space. It's like a laugh track for a comic! Look, they're laughing, this means something funny or awkward happened! The timing is awkward where cliffhangers are abrupt scene changes that don't invite curiosity so much as they read like the author ran into a wall and shouted "look over there at that other thing while I figure this out!" There are way too many storylines running in any given chapter meaning hardly any plot movement happens and the focus is weak. The art, well, ugh. Let's just say that apparently everyone in Japan walks around looking sheepish with their hands welded to the back of their necks. Proportions are kind of screwed up (gigantic chins!) and poses are awkward, but most of my issues with the art beyond that are how badly the art connects with the dialogue. Facial expressions very rarely seem to be at all related to whatever the character is supposed to be feeling.

What really drives me nuts about Red String, besides all of the above, is the picture it paints of Japan and how it glorifies Nice Guys™. It's hard to explain. Red String paints a picture where arranged marriages happen like clockwork between high school students and being out as a lesbian is easier than being overweight. While arranged marriages do still happen in Japan, they pretty much exclusively happen between consenting adults going through a matchmaking agency. Gay people may not be as actively persecuted here, but it's not nearly as easy as the Red String universe portrays. In Japan you are pretty much forced into the closet. Don't talk about it, don't show it to us. I am terrified for the students who don't appear to be fitting into the accepted gender norms. Some of them are starting to act out and be violent. Some of them are shutting down and going completely internal. The sunniest one, who is still in elementary school, will be going to one of the most conservative junior high schools on the island soon. The teachers at that school are actively homophobic, call effeminate boys girly-men and berate tomboy girls for not being feminine enough in front of their classmates. The pressure to be "normal" here is insane. A closeted coworker had to leave work indefinitely due to stress from coworkers to follow the accepted script, get married, have children, etc. To have that whitewashed is frustrating to me, and I'm not even gay.

The Nice Guys™ thing almost goes without saying. Glorifying the kind of unhealthy relationship where one person sacrifices all for the other person, where people don't take charge of their own lives and then whine about it, where it's a good thing for a guy to pine after a girl while pretending to be her friend just hoping that eventually she'll date him. Where friendship and "niceness" is a coin that can be exchanged for a relationship upgrade. Yuck yuck yuck.

Contrast this with the relatively new comic, Fried Chicken and Sushi. Dynamic, clean art, that sets the tone for the comic. A look at Japan that doesn't put everything behind rose colored glasses, but still makes positive observations. Even if FC&S wasn't a semi-autobiographical tale from a former ALT it would be obvious which author has actually lived and worked in Japan and which author has read copious amounts of manga. I heartily recommend Fried Chicken and Sushi. Go read it!

PS: Check out today's page in Red String as an example. Hand glued to the back of the neck? Check. Screwy proportions (super long torso in panel 2, head vs. neck size in panel 3, wonky eyes in panel 4)? Check. Really obvious cliffhanger? Check. I called this about a month ago. I am 99.9% sure that Kazuo has committed suicide/is in the process of attempting suicide. .01% is leftover as a possible psychotic break leaving him senseless. Shoujo manga (girly manga) 101.