(no subject)

[esmenet]

This is my impression of Loveless, written months after having read it. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm giving the mangaka too much credit, maybe it's been too long since the read and I'm imagining depth that's not there. But to all of you who see this post, who have always thought Loveless was just that pervert manga with the twelve-year-old boy in cat ears, here is the heart of what I think it really is, the most basic statement I can make. I have so much more to say about this manga and its anime, but these are the words that really matter.


Loveless is, really, a Dealing With Characters' Issues story.

And that's why I like it, because these issues are complicated, not to be resolved with a quick "It was all a misunderstanding!" or the complete reversal of someone's personal ideology. There is no fast solution. They are all bound up with love and pain and perceived duty, family and upbringing and the wish for an easy way out, the desire not to make anyone overly concerned.

Wanting things you can't have. Like happiness.

Small cruelties and large ones. Being cruel because it's easy, because it's fun, because you feel you have no other choice. Being cruel to the people you love, because they need it (you're sure they do).

Lying about little things and big things, because it's the only way to get love or trust or left in peace. Not-quite-lying, playing up the good things because you don't want to think too hard about the bad ones.

Anger, because you're finally comfortable enough to let yourself be angry.

Honesty, because they've earned it.

Comments

[branewurms]

Oh, I don't think you're imagining it at all! I think that while the plot of Loveless is kind of random and all over the place and doesn't do enough with its awesome word-battle premise, it has some truly amazing characterization going on. I haven't read any of it in a while (I keep meaning to catch up...) but while I was reading it, I was constantly surprised and delighted by the depth of the characters and their relationships.

[eisen]

I don't think you're imagining things at all; everything you've just said is one of the main draws of the manga, for me, and always will be - the depth to all its characters is kind of astounding. Nobody does anything for simple or easily-reversed reasons; everything is complicated, even - especially - the easy stuff.

Not to mention I relate to several characters far too well for my liking.

[littlebutfierce]

I like this post cuz I've been thinking about reading Loveless for a while but wondered if it was just, well, what it looks like. (which wouldn't be a bad thing, necessarily!)

[esmenet]

Nobody does anything for simple or easily-reversed reasons; everything is complicated, even - especially - the easy stuff.

Yessss. And if anything seems like it's simple, well, that's because someone is lying.

Which ones? *curious*

[esmenet]

It is kind of what it looks like—cute boys with cat ears, handsome and mysterious older men*, hurt/comfort but with less of the 'comfort', age-difference romance, magic spell battles—but then again it's a bunch of other stuff too. I mean, those surface traits are all there, and the story is kind of about them, but what it's actually engaging with is kind of separate from all that.


*Older than Ritsuka, that is. I just realized that Soubi is roughly in my age bracket. SO WEIRD, after getting into Loveless at Ritsuka's age.

[esmenet]

I was too! I mean, I watched the anime when I was, like, twelve. And then I read the manga last year, afraid it would be terribly skeevy now that I was older, and was absolutely amazed at all the substance lurking under the veneer of magic spells and fluffy cat ears.

[aquila_black]

No, it's all there. Deliberately. And this is one of the best short summaries of Loveless that I've read. There's just so much there, and it gets so ... "this charcter's feelings do not run in the direction that you'd expect" that people get all caught up in the specifics of what's happening, but you managed to bring out the universal traits. They're pretty much all going through what you mentioned, in different ways, which is part of why the characters are so three-dimensional and compelling.

//Relates so hard to this story, and loves it so much.