9 replies to this topic

[Cʜɪʟʟɪɴ_Pᴀɴᴅᴀ]

As title said this is latest chapter discussion thread . I thougth it is needed and opened so here you go! Tell your thoughts about it and please be gentle to eachother.

[Jim Eisenberg]

Baaaaah!! Rant time, I hate this manga terribly. I enjoy reading it, but I don't understand how anyone can write a manga with such a worthless main character! I mean, not only does she cry every time something happens, but she's so weak! every time anyone says anything, she stops believing in herself and in everything she thinks about! Seriously, the entire thing is retarded. And after all their problems, she still hides stuff from her husband "because she wants to keep this happiness" i mean wake the fuck up idiot. If they changed genres into tragedy and it's discovered she had a mental illness all along, I wouldn't be surprised! it's always the same and she never grows up, stop milking your ugly, half-dead, contagious cow already please enjou maki.
... /rant over
I do enjoy reading the manga tho for some reason :S

[pandaranda]

Woah that's a bit harsh. ^^;; I for one quite like Chiwa, though it's true there are many times she does aggravating things, I don't find her any more annoying than your usual run-of-the-mill shojo lead. That said, this is josei so she probably shouldn't be on the same level as shojo characters...anyway, I digress. I do enjoy that she has the guts to stand up against Hokuto and doesn't just do whatever he says all the time, and that she goes out of her way to be as independent as possible (even if she is doing it to help alleviate Hokuto's burdens). And even if she has her whiny crybaby moments, at least she isn't insipid or overly nice/kind and lacking passion/spirit. :3 She has a bit of bite in her, but not overbearingly so, which is nice in female leads.

I remember after reading Hapi Mari through the first time, I set out to look for other marriage-related josei/shojo series, but each time I was sorely disappointed by the lack of man in the male leads and lack of charm in the female leads (Hadashi de Bara wo Fume and Faster Than a Kiss comes to mind). x3 That said, does anyone have any good recs for Hapi Mari lovers? XD I'm sort of over my initial 'Hapi Mari marathon' phase so am likely to be way more receptive to new series of a similar genre!

Edited by pandaranda, 20 May 2012 - 12:36 PM.

[Comadrin]

Well, I thought the latest chapter showed some decent development in the story. We're out of the "old love seeking revenge on Chiwa" arc, and back to what is actually happening in the family. I have to say that we have been seeing some character development in Chiwa, as well as Hokuto. I think it is moving somewhat like a Josei comic should, slowly and more realistically than a one-shot or a shoujo comic, where personal epiphanies can happen in milliseconds. I still want to find out who was behind the murder of Hokuto's mother (while attempting to murder Haruto). I also hope to see something happen between Hokuto and his father, not overly sentimental, but some decent sort of understanding.

Edited by Comadrin, 12 October 2012 - 01:57 AM.

[Comadrin]

Dang, another cliff hanger! Oh well, that is the nature of the beast when it comes to monthly series. But now I have a whole month to wonder about what is in the letter to Chiwa. I did enjoy the chapter, as it gave both Hokuto and his father some closure, and knocked at least some of the scales from Hokuto's eyes, so to speak.

By the way, I did figure out earlier than Chiwa that Hokuto was the target and not his mother.

[Purple Library Guy]

Pandaranda: I can't actually think of much where the marriage comes in at the beginning like this. I mean, there are a few around but ones I've seen didn't look very interesting and I didn't read them.
Kimi wa Pet is a really good josei that involves long term cohabitation, but it totally breaks the josei stereotypes for what the leading role people are supposed to be like, so you might find a distinct "lack of man" in the male protagonist. And I mean the female lead is probably about 6 ft tall, aggressively competent at work, and a kick-ass martial artist, so while she's actually quite vulnerable underneath some might think she lacked charm. My other favourite josei, Nodame Cantabile, is even farther off. On the other hand, they're both amazing classic manga where for my money Hapi Mari is decent but not seriously memorable, so I certainly think they're worth a look.
. . . I know a yuri where the "marriage" came in at the beginning, but it's a light slice-of-life comedy (called "Wife and wife" IIRC). Fun, but not really what you're looking for I'd think.

As to the characterization in Hapi Mari, I like Chiwawa OK. She's an awful lot like a lot of typical shoujo heroines, but I like shoujo so it's cool, and she has a bit of something to her. But the guy annoys me . . . he is absolutely the walking josei hero stereotype in every way I can think of, from his height and his haircut to his forcefulness, wealth, arrogance and hypercompetence, right down to the way it took our heroine to awaken him gradually to Lurve and a Softer Side . . . his type is one of the reasons I often don't like josei much. Josei tends to a very "Harlequin" type of hero, where the girl goes "Oooh! Aaah!" as the guy sweeps her off her feet and forcefully has his way with her throbbing bosom and the implicit fantasy being sold to the women is "You will meet a tall dark stranger and he will take care of you and you will never have to work again as long as you subordinate your will to his and it won't be your fault because he's a big strong man and you're just a small weak woman who instinctively bla bla". And aside from the sexism of it all I've always found it pretty boring as a rule.

Edited by Purple Library Guy, 12 October 2012 - 06:29 PM.

[Comadrin]

Your depiction of the "Harlequin type of hero" hits it right on the button. My favorite type (for the author's unwitting humor, that is) is when the typical hero you described is involved with a highly educated, powerful, CEO type of woman, who clawed her way up from poverty to establish a fortune 500 company. After a few half-hearted snubs (with all the "doki, doki" heartbeats threatening to crack her ribcage), she is rolled up, horse, foot, and guns, by this sneering neanderthal playboy, and turned into a total "M" sex toy, until her unearthly purity turns him into a plaster saint. I know manga (and Harlequin) is fiction, but the suspension of mental process required to actually believe a woman like this exists is mind boggling.

Yet, the Harlequin and like genre of romance novels still sell like hotcakes in the US (just look in used paperback stores), breeding generation after generation of women (luckily, only a percentage of the reading population) who look for this kind of relationship. This often turns them into serial victims in terms of relationships. I have also read (usually only the beginning portions) of "romantic" manga where the male lead is essentially a rapist, the girl is an innocent flower, and they end up living happily ever after in an abusive relationship. Barf, barf, barf. Gimme Kimi ni Todoki any day.

Back to Hapi Mari: Yeah, it has a lot of these flaws, but at least it has a plot, and Hokuto wasn't a total cad at the get-go, as so many of them are. I do find the plot interesting, as his family reminds me of several English books from the 1920's and 1930's about arrogant, snotty families, the crimes they commit, and the messes they cause. The only one I can remember the title of offhand is "Penhallow," by Georgette Heyer (a writer of comedies of manners, rather than sappy romance, although she had her failures). My point being that this manga is a story like those, where one does not necessarily have to like the characters very much. It says to me that Hokuto is somewhat of an arrogant jerk (with some redeeming qualities, even from the beginning), but he is that way for a reason, and it isn't necessarily good for him to be a jerk.

The forgoing is kind of muddled, but I got drawn more into the actual plot of the story much more than into the romance part.

[AndTheHawk]

Hahaha, I just wanted to say that on this page: http://vatoto.com/read/_/143650/hapi-mari_v9_ch36_by_aerandria-scans/28 I laughed out loud at Chiwa's expression and response (..Your own wife?;; ) xD

Edited by AndTheHawk, 29 November 2012 - 10:26 PM.

[Comadrin]

Well damn, with chapter 36 out,the drama and action are starting up again. We still don't know who it is behind all this murderous rampaging. I'm wondering if it isn't the nice cousin's father, or something like that, as we haven't seen much of the elder generation, except for the snotty b***h of an aunt and the little bit of the eldest uncle with the moustache (the guy running the meeting). I get a real kick out of the snotty, nuveau riche attitude of the family toward Chiwa, when they have to know that the Grandfather is paying back a debt to Chiwa's grandmother, who was a noblewoman, and he was a servant. A bit of a sarcastic comment on money and breeding and how they don't necessarily correlate.

Edited: I got to thinking more about it, and started wondering who in the family setup could be behind it so that knowledge of it would hurt Haruto so much. The only two I could think of were the Grandfather and Souma-San the secretary, but then Chiwa wouldn't have been looking around the family meeting so carefully and wondering who the person was and if they were there. This lead me to believe that the shocking revelation in the letter was more than just someone Haruto's father suspected of the attempt on Haruto's life. And with this cliffhanger, we don't even know who got stabbed, although I suspect it was Chiwa, since she saw the attacker first, and is the type to throw herself in to protect Haruto. Damn, we have to wait a month or so to find out.

Edited by Comadrin, 30 November 2012 - 06:17 AM.

[Comadrin]

Well, that was quite a, er, surprise development, to say the least. I think the last four or five chapters after this one are going to be interesting from the plot point of view. I don't see the grandfather, Souma, or the decent cousin going along with the scum in the family, especially when the truth comes out, as it must, unless Haruto and Chiwa are going to spend the rest of their lives looking over their shoulders, even if they move to the ends of the earth. Also, aside from the grandfather, Haruto and the decent cousin are the only two competent businessmen in the bunch since Seiji died. The rest are pretty much hangers-on, and the companies are likely to go down the tubes under their management.

While I tend to agree with PLG about "hyper-competent and arrogant" male mc's and teary-eyed victim-type female mc's, I think the character growth of both and the intricate plot development by the mangaka definitely overshadow those characteristics in this story. I'm really looking forward to the coming chapters.

Edited by Comadrin, 24 December 2012 - 07:37 AM.