it’s the middle of the night so i’m thinking about opm again. loveeeee love love how all the characters are unlikable to some degree but still have humanizing traits or redeeming qualities and that no one is really written as “good” or “evil” they’re all just people with their own motivations and varying levels of insufferability.
obsessed with that "boil a frog and it wont notice until its too late" thing opm does with its audience introducing serious ass concepts in a funny way and then not expanding on how dead serious they are until way later.
like with genos's backstory getting played off for laughs because he monologues vs now seeing how his obsession with revenge makes him equate his self worth with power/he struggles to understand himself as a human instead of a commodity
or sonic's backstory about the ninja village getting comedically introduced with him bragging about his skills and then immediately getting punched in the balls vs now it going into the trauma and betrayal related to his past and that his upbringing didn't teach him any normal useful skills thus setting him up for failure
the story acts like it doesnt really matter or that it wont get brought up again initially, but as everything progresses and slowly gets worse and worse at some point the reader is like "oh fuck"
((it can probably be credited to the way the audience sees everything from saitama's eyes at first (since he tends to be a bit dense and apathetic) until it focuses on other characters and their individual arcs more but yeah))
good stuff good stuff
I thought about reviewing the chapters 195-202 (fan numbering), but summarising the action was annoying me, so let's just skip to the good stuff! This arc has been a grower: what it lacks in up-front showiness it makes up for in depth once you take the time to reread and think about it. I'm just going to pick up on a few things.
I have been thinking a lot about how much what we make of the information we receive depends on what we already understand [1]. I've written a bit about ONE's use of salience within the story. This arc though, I'm going to talk about recontextualisation and how important it is to be able to look back and understand events and even people anew in the light of new information.
This has been a huge thing for Flashy Flash. Many years ago, he and Sonic sneaked into a forbidden section of their village and saw many strange things that made no sense to them at the time. It's only very recently, after hearing about the enemy that is 'God' and Blast's efforts to counter him (chapter 173) that things started to make sense to him.
It's only after seeing Gale Wind and Hellfire Flame, not as monsters, but as the former security guards who had trounced them for trespassing that 'where' he'd seen the cube before came back to Flashy Flash, as did the significance of the sights they'd seen. And then it all started to fall into place, reinforced by his going back to the Village to find it destroyed in what he had now come to recognise as Blast's signature attack pattern.
Of course, Flashy Flash has terminal Main Character Syndrome, so he's tried to organise things so that he's the one who takes down Empty Void and reaps the accolades. It's kinda backfired but we'll come back to that in a bit.
There's another bit of recontextualisation that is not so explicit but I think is just as important. It's clear that the Tenninto were no match for Flash and that he could have killed them any time. It's also been established that Flash has never hesitated to kill anyone who came after him. It's been his policy after all. So what gives in his sudden rush to mercy?
As the chapters have gone on, it's become clear that Flashy Flash has come to see the Tenninto as fellow victims of Evil Void's dehumanising process intended to turn them into potential vessels for 'God'. Something else that Flashy Flash is probably responding to is that rehabilitating Village members was once Sonic's dream, and there's a part of him that would love nothing more than to help make it happen. Of course, if you point that out to him he'll tell you to stop being stupid.
It's amazing but Flash is outraged at the way he and his fellow victims are seen as things to be used, abused, and discarded as Void pleases, and he's looking to get justice for all of them.
Ah yes, Sonic. It's been clear that Sonic has been a much better friend to Flash than he has to Sonic, and yet, yet it would seem that Sonic is the one person he cares most deeply about: anything bad happening to Sonic would devastate him. He just has a funny way of showing it.
An irresistible vision. To think that in his heart, this is what Flashy Flash most wants.
We hope he comes to do better.
Let's talk about Sonic now. For many years now I have been hoping that something would happen to shock Sonic out of his futile rounds of attacking Saitama, being beaten by Saitama, training maniacally, attacking Saitama... his world has become very small and circular, like a round circle.
I had fantasised about maybe Genos grabbing him mid-attack and stuffing him into a narratively-convenient bin without so much as breaking stride. Something so outrageous that he could no longer ignore the need for him to change. The webcomic has sidestepped solving this problem by gifting Sonic some magic scrolls and a sword and just not having him cross paths with Saitama again. The manga is tackling the problem head-on.
Something I have loved, loved, loved about ONE is that he hasn't hesitated to give characters what they've earned. There's been enough morons bellyaching about the two not being neck-and-neck in skill like they were in the webcomic. Sonic's not weak in the manga -- Flashy Flash has experienced more battles and has had to struggle and learn more and so he's been able to progress to the point that he's left his friend in the dust.
Translation: The Back Of A Friend I Once Stood Shoulder-to-Shoulder With. There'd have been a lot less bellyaching if the translators had translated this bit.
That's the shock Sonic needed to open his eyes to the stupidity of his actions. More than that shock, seeing what Flashy Flash has been able to achieve has given Sonic the inspiration to strive for, achieve, and surpass what Flash has accomplished. His fire is back in a good way.
More than that though, the disrespectful way in which Sonic was offered more monster cells rather than a more interesting vision peaks to two things, external and internal.
Externally, it speaks to the way that we tend to think that people are only what they first show us while we understand ourselves to be complex creatures with many competing moods and wishes. Empty Void had heard that Sonic had once reached for a monster cell and assumed that he knew the sort of guy Sonic was: someone whose inferiority complex was such that he'd reach for any offer of power. But of course, that's not Sonic. Sonic has been the stubbornest person ever, who has been able to keep his sense of self despite the Village's best efforts. He reached for a monster cell because even the strongest person can despair, at least for a while.
Internally, man, the bleakness of Sonic's life is such that he doesn't have anyone to offer him a nice fresh monster cell and the monster cells must perforce cook themselves to offer themselves to him... he looks to no one and believes in none. That's painful to see.
When we think of how close he and Flash used to be, the bitterness of his mocking the prisoners for depending on each other grows sharper every time we learn a bit more about him. I don't know if he'll ever forgive Flash for betraying him.
Yes, there's a betrayal right on screen now: that of Blast by Empty Void. Blast thought they were in the business of putting God out of business but Void was using him to obtain cubes so as to raise an apostle of God.
Longer Blast: I'm not mad. I'm just very, very, very disappointed.
That said, I'm not going to let Blast off the hook entirely. He has some explaining to do!
Blast has a lot of explaining to do. Sure, he's been refreshingly honest about what he's been doing with monster experiments, and his link to 'That Man'.
I have a feeling that Flash has been too quick to absolve Blast of blame.
We know that Blast and Empty Void went back at least 20 years. And yeah, we can just about buy that he didn't know his partner was fixing to betray him. However, given that we know that the Village takes young boys and that there were at least 43 graduating classes before Flashy Flash escaped years ago, that means that the Village had been a thing for at least 50 years. How long has Blast known about Empty Void's activities? Did he turn a blind eye to it? Or was it not a problem until it bit him in the ass? [2] What else is Blast permitting that shouldn't be?
We need answers.
I am very invested in seeing how this arc ends and what else it'll lead to.
[1] A very neat non-fictional example: this man escaping from his pursuers by lying down and thus changing their understanding of him to 'homeless guy'.
[2] A part of me notes that Blast falling out with Empty Void and beating the shit out of him coincides neatly with the time Blast's son was born. Maybe shit became a bit too real for him to ignore.
So, about the dream Sonic got!
Even though it’s mainly comedic relief, I feel like it does a good job at subtly showing his character development and I wanted to talk about it.
His dream wasn’t quite as heart wrenching as Flash’s. God(noID) decided the best way to manipulate him was through his warped perception of power. After all, he took the monster cell before.
The reason he rejected the monster cell is the food poisoning trauma (lmfao) but the dialogue of the scene is focused on power and taking a quick and easy way to the top. It works well keeping a funny tone while still representing a rejection of his previous ideals.
Before he was unable to accept there were people more skilled than him and it ate him up inside. He constantly searched for a chance to prove himself, rather than improve himself. It became a mental barrier.
But he got his ego checked after his fight with Flash and the other ninjas. The way he viewed his power in relation to other peoples’ shifted.
(And what better person to say this than Flash. Flash got as far as he did because he went through the same thing after all. His advice wasn’t conceited and it didn’t come from nowhere.)
His pride held him back, but deep down he is a very headstrong person with a strong sense of identity. Letting some of his arrogance go allowed that to shine through and save both of them. It’s the first step to letting him unlock his true potential.
“Don’t worry, you’ll improve.”
man i’m trying really hard to be happy about opm but the way they did tatsumaki a few chapters ago left a sour taste in my mouth that i can’t seem to get rid of. i cannot believe what they did to her design i STILL feel betrayed it’s ridiculous
i’ve already bitched about this on twitter a while back but i’ve been feeling upset about it the past couple days so i’m gonna complain again.
pictures of the old way she was drawn vs the new way plus my rambling dialogue on the way fanservice changed in opm under the cut
[I don't want to debate either, but this post helped me to release something that I felt stuck in my gut and that I couldn't get out.]
The best thing to do is not to deny the truth…
Tatsumaki's character was destroyed.
And I also feel that it was under the excuse of making her more "attractive"/"ideal" for a wider audience, magnifying certain things and reducing others, if not distorting/removing them completely…
I liked the three points addressed, and would like to complement them if possible:
Tatsumaki's behavior during "Psychic Sisters Arc" was completely OOC. It felt as if her character had been flanderized, infantilized and stripped of all those facets that could be considered uncomfortable, negative or repellent. All for the purpose of "sanitizing" her.
It's like the original Tatsumaki is quickly being discarded in favor of the AI Tatsumaki from the commercial.
Here I may be being a bit more inquisitive, but I feel that Tatsumaki's OOC behavior, along with the narrator's explanations and the text on the cover of chapter 182, had some focus towards self-insertion.
This because it was emphasized many times that Tatsumaki, for no logical reason, was enjoying being with Saitama and the whole situation. And that's already a trigger for some readers to self-insert themselves into Saitama and feel that Tatsumaki "enjoys" being with "him".
(And the fact that Saitama is the main character and, at times, a simpleton doesn't help make this any harder to achieve lol).
Tatsumaki's entire appearance has undergone a transmutation for the sole purpose of increasing her sex appeal, highlighting childish features and simplifying her design.
Physique-wise, the modern Tatsumaki is more in keeping with the more saucy and exaggerated fanarts of her than her original appearance. As if she had been remolded specifically for the purpose of being able to fit them.
As for clothing, Tatsumaki's first outfit was a balance between comfortable and unique. It went perfectly with the "witchy" image that had been ascribed to her, and which she had accepted, without straying into the revealing or the obscene.
But the current attire is only there to increase her sex-object appeal and further abuse the worn-out underwear controversy; in short, it doesn't seem like something she would consciously use.
After all that Tatsumaki has been through throughout her life, why would she wear a dress that would only succeed in getting her objectified and disrespected? Why would she want others to view her as a sex object and not with respect? Why would she want to send an image other than that of someone to be feared and respected?
Also, what was the need to get rid of her iconic hair for a standard one?
I just don't understand the reasoning behind all of this…
oh my god this is lovely!
yeah for #2 i think i was still a tiny bit in denial lololol. not even because they’re my NOTP or whatever but because i didn’t want to get even more frustrated and hurt feelings about how she’s been demolished.
you’re right though
even if he isn’t interested in her himself, her interest and the fact people usually read saitama as boring and simple instead of just bored leads to that
also i seriously appreciate you expanding on my points, you hit the mark really well and elaborated on all the things stuck in my mind but i was way too tired to say.
thank you!!!
man i’m trying really hard to be happy about opm but the way they did tatsumaki a few chapters ago left a sour taste in my mouth that i can’t seem to get rid of. i cannot believe what they did to her design i STILL feel betrayed it’s ridiculous
i’ve already bitched about this on twitter a while back but i’ve been feeling upset about it the past couple days so i’m gonna complain again.
pictures of the old way she was drawn vs the new way plus my rambling dialogue on the way fanservice changed in opm under the cut
Link to original post.
ONE still blows me away by how clearly he differentiates between manga and webcomic. There's a tradeoff that he respects: if the webcomic is short, sharp and to the point, then the characters have limitations in how they can interact, try things out, and grow. Conversely, if the manga is long to the point that it can take a long time for it to get to some sort of point, the characters have more scope to find themselves. He treats both versions with respect and if there's no scope for characters to change themselves, then they don't. Which is why we have two great stories to read! :D
There's no point in Tatsumaki changing in the webcomic because there's no one willing to have her in their lives. She's been so toxic that all Fubuki wants is to be left the hell alone, and even Saitama's gone 'eh, I've lost all interest' after she rebuffs his attempts to reach out very rudely. She notes that she ends up driving everyone away, but she's far from actually accepting that she needs to change. Tatsumaki in the manga has positive reasons to change -- she has a sister who wants to get along better with her. Doing so means accepting both her and the people around her, even if it's difficult and there are legitimate challenges. It's a hard pill to swallow but she's trying.
I really appreciate the difference between regretting the consequences of one's actions and being prepared to change one's actions. So human. If feeling bad about our actions was enough to change them, there'd be no anti-addiction or dieting services, counselling would be rare, and prisons would be all but empty.
In both versions, Genos is the guy who wants ultimate destructive power and is willing to even kill himself if it'll take enemies to Hell with him. However, for a guy who is so committed to destruction, it's striking that he's cut to the quick when Sonic taunts him saying that he can't protect anyone.
There's no scope to explore this seeming contradiction in the webcomic. We need to accept that hey, he has places where he won't go and that's fine. The manga has more space, so ONE can dig into the protect vs. destroy issue and have him have to make decisions about what he actually values. The despair that lanced through him when victory slipped through his grasp when fighting Elder Centipede says so much about what matters:
Something @carma-tjol said in their tags really added a lot to my understanding: they pointed to the link between Genos seeing himself as having value and changing his outlook on heroes from assets to people. It added so much salience to Fubuki refusing to run away and risking her life to save him because she didn't abandon her people. She really challenged his outlook.
I like that he's still wrestling with himself after the fact. Had King not come when he did, it'd have been a lose-lose situation: Tatsumaki would be dead anyway and the monsters would be free to rampage over the land and kill millions. He needed to hear Saitama telling him he'd done right to feel a sense of peace. It's very human -- it's hard not to look back even when we see that we've made the right choice.
Come to that, there was something that we'd (okay me and the small sharing circle of mutuals who talk too much about Genos) had been fearing: that Saitama would just note that Genos was broken again, the way he had in the webcomic. Remember this thread? It very nearly came to pass but for King intervening and vouching for Genos so that Saitama had to change the way he saw his disciple. Thank goodness.
If King hadn't been there, because Genos is actively questioning himself, the outcome of Saitama seeming to be dismissive wouldn't have been mere depression. It'd have been total despair. What Genos would have heard is that he's weak and lacked the guts to follow through on his committment to destroy enemies even if it meant killing himself. Talk about a tragic misunderstanding! Blessedly, ONE meters his angst -- it doesn't do to crush all your character's hope in one go.
