8 replies to this topic

[Trepur]

Having only read the first 2 chapters, this may be premature and should their be any surprising developments in the future I may rewrite this. However, I wanted to compare this manga with Freezing as well as express some of my concerns about the manga:

Being a huge fan of Freezing, I decided to start reading First Chronicle. Makes sense as its more or less the same characters with more background into the seniors, mainly Chiffon, which my patriotism approves of the greatest living pandora being a fellow Canadian. (even if she had to be a Québécois).

The manga shows the seniors of Freezing in their freshman year at west genetics, however not all characters are present (most surprising thus far has been the absence of Ingrid, who I would have expected to see in the opening carnival scene, as Marin, Ingrids best friend, is depicted allied with Attia Symmons, a surprise given the differences in their personalities).

Overall the manga shows similar themes as Freezing, and not surprisingly demonstrated an increased emphasis on the echhi fanservice and in both cases the art is excellent. The plot line of freezing is without a doubt superior to that of FC, but that is justified given its length and purpose. Freezing actually depicts the war between the Nova and Earth, allowing for exciting battle scenes, lots of subplots and fanservice, FC only depicts the freshman year of a military college. First Chronicles fits its purpose well, as it give significant fan service and does give extra character development to the seniors, most of whom we know little about from the original manga.

However this brings me to my main concern of the manga. The character development:

The main character is Chiffon Fairchild and most of the manga thus far as revolved around her relationship with Ticy Phenyl. My biggest problem with the manga is that Chiffon seems to be, in every sense of the term, a Mary Sue (hence the title).

For those that don't know, the prototypical Mary Sue is an original female character in a fanfic who obviously serves as an idealized version of the author mainly for the purpose of Wish Fulfillment. She's exotically beautiful, often having an unusual hair or eye color, and has a similarly cool and exotic name. She's exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting. She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are obviously meant to be endearing.


Does Chiffon fit the description?
Invincible in battle (as seen in the opening scene, she amassed 35,000 points in 2 carnivals for first place compared to second place Elizabeth who scored 6000 points in 3 carnivals)
Intelligent/observant of surroundings (notice of the hidden camera)
Calm (until the other pandora kill a turtle, and even so she doesn't take her anger out until a carnival)
Kind (the only one who pities Ticy).

Chiffon is perfect in almost every way imaginable and has no character flaws that are present in the other characters of the manga.

A character doesn't need to be perfect to be considered great. There are many characters in Freezing that are great, memorable characters, but none of them have over the top unjustified qualities. In freezing I didn't peg Chiffon as a Mary Sue, mainly because of how rarely she has appeared (as of Chapter 68).

The main reason why this is a concern is because First Chronicles has the same author as Freezing. This means that if she does remain a Mary Sue in First Chronicles she will likely become one in Freezing. It is possible that this isn't the case, as First Chronicles appears to be more of the fan service side of Freezing and so may have just depicted Chiffon as a Mary Sue as the audience wanted a character to fantasize about.

I understand that many manga fans are fans of Mary Sue's. They appear in dreams and everyone fantasizes about them. However I want them to stay in dreams, as humans are not perfect and thats the way I like it.

So does anyone else think Chiffon is Mary Sue, and if yes do they approve of Lim Dall-Young deciding to depict her in this fashion?

[Arcenciel]

Yes, this review is premature. Chiffon isn't perfect.

Spoiler

She's a sadistic psychopath trying to control herself. Just give her a really good excuse... One dead turtle isn't good enough to justify her need to kill and maim.

Edited by Arcenciel, 06 April 2012 - 02:25 AM.

[Shakom]

Yes, this review is premature. Chiffon isn't perfect.

Spoiler

She's a sadistic psychopath trying to control herself. Just give her a really good excuse... One dead turtle isn't good enough to justify her need to kill and maim.

I'm not up to date with the original Manga (Freezing), but now that I've read your post, that would explain Ticy Phenyls actions so far for me.

Spoiler

As being the one "to protect the first place" it seems to me now, that she wants to protect other pandoras from chiffons wrath, after witnessing the massacre done by chiffon in chapter 3. Though this might not be the only reason....

[daraghuman]

The timeline is pretty weird. A good possibility on why ingrid was not with marine was because of their rankings. They did state that 8 carnivals +1 (the one before chiffon came in) already occured. The only thing that i can think of to make sense of this is that
1)School wide carnivals occur 4x a year(seasonal) and a global carnival occurs 3x a year.
2)This means that the CH1 carnival was in the beginning of their 2nd year.
3)Marine probably died by the end of their 2nd year (makese sense since ingrid replaced her spot as 7th)
4)This actually gives time for ingrid and marine to become best friends.

In the case of Chiffon, just keep reading. She was never in any sense an actualy main character but more of a moderator (Like asatsuo in necromancer) (Yamamoto in bleach) (Jesus in the bible(yes view it in the literary rather than a religious sense)) and (Kazuha in the original freezing). They are all practically flawless and imbalanced beings and i believe that chiffons role as such works since she is #1 in the world.

[Shinikage]

is not like she became a mary sue on her own, i am pretty sure that the same as all the other high level pandora she has a really messed up childhood where she was forced to go around with a smile and be polite to others to, also the fact she was able to find the camera so fast was most likely because she had to learn at a young age to be wary of her surrounding to avoid embarrasing herself and who knows whatelse, my opinion she is just using the carnival as a way to release her pent up frustration and rage

[Trepur]

So I finished reading FC today (computer broke so was absent for a few weeks).

My initial thoughts more or less stay the same, except yeah, she was a total wacko in that carnival. I should probably take calm of my list of traits for Chiffon, but other then that its still pretty similar.

It was a short manga (only 4 chapters), so I don't want to try to critisize it to much, since any expectations of a great plot given its length would be unrealistic.

[Samhill]

I don't see her as a wish fulfillment/Mary Sue character. These type of perfect people pop up on occasion.

[Valvatorez]

Trepur is pretty much correct in Chifforn being a Mary Sue(an even bigger one then Medaka) as she is seen as the one charcther who is right despite being a mindless bitch who blindly fallows orders, and gets powers other charcthers never had.(flashback charcther getting the same powers makes it worse) Only fanboys would deny that fact that she is one.

Appropriate nicknames are Chiffon Suechild and Sueffon.

Edited by Oolon Colluphid, 19 September 2012 - 04:14 PM.

[vapor]

Trepur is pretty much correct in Chifforn being a Mary Sue(an even bigger one then Medaka) as she is seen as the one charcther who is right despite being a mindless bitch who blindly fallows orders, and gets powers other charcthers never had.(flashback charcther getting the same powers makes it worse) Only fanboys would deny that fact that she is one.

Appropriate nicknames are Chiffon Suechild and Sueffon.

 

Haha man, haven't read this one, but Medaka was the most ridiculous Mary Sue ever. Heck if you renamed it to Medaka it would be quite appropriate, more people would probably know what you meant than calling it Mary Sue. Medaka Box was just utterly unreadable because there was no reason for her being just effortlessly powerful and expertly skilled in absolutely everything with omniscient knowledge. That is truly the only time I have ever thought something was unreadable because of Mary Sue.

 

I'm not sure Chiffon is the same, because Chiffon has genetic reasons, is 60 years old or something, and clearly isn't omniscient. She also doesn't randomly run in and beat everyone at their expertise, like Medaka did. Chiffon can fight, that is her one skill, and that's what she really does. Not 16 year old Medaka who can built an atom bomb out of forks and a cake, compete with world class athletes at their sports, run faster than world class sprinters who have had a huge head start, know what someone is thinking on the other side of the world, all before she can legally drink, and then curing cancer for kicks before lunch time.