An Otaku’s Sympathy

Baka-Sama (AKA Fatesmon)

               My name’s Mike Garret--”Makoro” on the Net.  I’m sixteen, and I live in the United States.

               My online friend told me about this new anime coming to us from overseas just last year during the summer.  He went on and on about how it was taken up by a good dubbing company, him being one of the more uptight anime fans.  Doesn’t matter much to me, so long as I can understand what they’re saying.  It’s on every Saturday now at four-thirty PM on Anime City, like most animes have been since 2005.

               It’s called Heart Interface.  It’s another typical space anime.  Wacky crew, a ship in space, mechas and aliens, the usual fare.  It’s not the greatest show I’ve seen, but it ranks pretty high up there.  The main character is eighteen-year-old Zaka Amakarasu, pilot of the sniper mecha “Infi-Pistol” (and the only one who’s last name is known).  There’s the wise but usually drunk captain of the Ark, Mikey; the sword otaku and navigator “Musashi” (real name Marie, an unfitting male name); the sleepy teen technician Barenhein; the seductive doctor with an eye for Mikey, Maize; first mate and avid graphic novel reader, Gunjirou; other numerous minor or reoccurring gag characters; and last but not least the two love interests of Zaka and co-main characters.

               First there’s Bellandy, the current victor in the love triangle and the clumsy “Grav-Wizard” pilot.  You’d think there’s rarely a stereotype in anime with the three-dimensional character fundamental, but nowadays if you’re careful enough you can spot some.  She’s one without a doubt, fanservice through and through:  long blond hair, a fantastical bust, unrealistically slender figure, and a face so cute it gags you.  Overly energetic and bubbly, always trying to bring everyone else up with her limitless optimism, annoyingly naive...I cannot go further.  She was picked up in the second episode from an attacked colony in the Asteroid Belt.  She looks human, but there are hints that she might be a Malukiian (the evil alien race and main antagonists).

               And then there’s Nahomi.

               Nahomi was Zaka’s childhood friend, who also enlisted herself in the Space Discovery Plan of the United Solar Systems and now pilots the unbelievably fast “Cele-Slasher”.  She’s slightly above average in looks:  somewhat long brown hair, blue eyes, healthy complexion, slightly curved, around five foot eight.  She comes off as a gentle person, with a strong sense of right and wrong and a habit of feeling concerned about things.  Yet she’s also very shy, withdrawing herself from the others when she’s in doubt about something; she believes she needs to get the strength from within by herself.

               Nahomi’s had an eye for Zaka since sixth grade...and yet he just doesn’t notice.  Nahomi gathers enough courage sometimes to try and admit her feelings to him, but there’s always, always something stopping her.  The Malukiians are attacking!  Musashi’s on a slashing frenzy again!  Zaka needs to go to the bathroom all of a sudden!  Bellandy tripped!  It’s insane!  And worse of all, Nahomi makes herself suffer for it, thinking she approached Zaka the wrong way or at the wrong time, or that she did something wrong to make him go to the obnoxious Malukiian.  And I can’t ever forget when she cried about it once...

               The shocking thing is, Nahomi’s the most human anime character I’ve seen in my entire life.  I’ve seen plenty of characters similar to her, in either personality or closeness to reality, but she’s the only one to succeed in my mind.  Anyone with a decent human heart can sympathize with the unfortunate young woman.  Her emotions are like any human I’d see walking in the streets.  She doesn’t have a general feeling, she experiences all of them at given times while most anime characters seem to obsess on one unless the plot asks for a change.  Forget the superb animators and writers, she could be real without them.  Every time I see her doubting herself...I feel a sharp pain in my heart or a fresh tear down my cheek.

               The more I see the main couple, the more I despise Bellandy.  Nahomi knew Zaka much longer than a few months, but who gets Zaka’s heart?  The bubbly blonde took one episode and immediately knew how to work her mecha, but suddenly becomes a screw-up and completely forgets something she “knew” how to do when the need for comic relief arises.  Nahomi took eight episodes and has gotten the hang of it, but she makes mistakes whether she’s unfamiliar with something or it’s just human error.  And Bellandy has to be a damsel in distress, always needing a hand to hold her for even for the simplest of things.  Zaka is obsessed with protecting the blonde eye candy, sometimes to the point that he’ll follow her around the ship.  Nahomi at least tries to be strong and independent, but isn’t blind to aid when she needs it.  Sure, I could possibly go out with someone like the Malukiian woman, she being every man’s wet dream...but then I’d regret it for the REST OF MY LIFE.

               It’s not just that Nahomi’s the obvious loser in the love triangle, but the folks who made the show obsess with hiding her from the audience once every few episodes.  The crew seems oblivious to her emotional struggles sometimes, almost as if she didn’t exist at all.  (One time Mikey saw her run out of the room with the corner of his eye, but he just shrugged, yet in the previous episode he asked how she was feeling under all the recent stress.)  And even if Nahomi doesn’t tell them out loud, there are hints during these unfair moments that they ignore for some reason, almost like they were heartless monsters when they are not.

               The writers must know she’s too genuine, so they try to drive away from her and keep Heart Interface a fantasy...and I think I know why.  Jim Maruzei was a Japanese-American otaku who committed suicide after his favorite series ended, around March of last year; the media blew it out of proportion.  It wasn’t a huge blow to anime fandom in the States, but it did raise the anime-hating populous a little.  The paranoia of another Jim Maruzei has to be the reason.  I know I’m too bright enough to do such a thing and am aware of the consequences to I and my loved ones, but for others...I don’t know what happens in their heads.  I guess the writers are right in preventing such a thing to happen, but still...

               And therein lies the few problems I have with the writers.

               The least they could do is make a character that gives a damn about Nahomi, and I mean all the time.  Maybe even her own boyfriend!  Her own boyfriend...

               I admit I’m going to start sounding like an otaku, but beyond my moments of being caught up in Nahomi’s down times I start to...feel something.  I’ve seen plenty of characters, male or female, with whom I’ve taken a shine to because of their own dark pasts or current nightmares.  Yet Nahomi’s far from being as tragic as they were, and I feel something beyond sympathy.  She’s not the cutest or sexiest femme I’ve seen either.  I can’t describe it...  Is it...?

               *AHEM*  But in any case, what a complete waste of a good character.

               ...A really good character...