Kannazuki No Miko: It's A Class Thing

Before I continue, a little bit of background information. I am a former communist. Well versed in the ideology and the dogma, and, although I know identify at the opposite end of the political spectrum (vote Ron Paul in 2012) I still see some truth in the percursors to the conclusion. For that reason, some of the terminology in this post will be borrowed from Communist thought.

That's right, although the story seems to imply, and the fandom seems to think that the thing keeping Himeko and Chikane's love forbidden is their mutual sex, it's really not. In the KannaMiko world, sex isn't the issue. It's a class thing, pure and simple, and I intend to prove it.  I intend to cite both the anime and the manga together, because what is true in one is probably not far off in the other. Where conflict exists, I will assume the anime to be the case, it came after, so is therefore the revised version.

I shall first address the obvious retort, which relates to Chikane's unwillingness to convey her feelings to Himeko. Her inability, or at least aversion, to doing so, cited reasoning of them both being girls, as well as her apparent guilt over her sexual attraction to the girl, demonstrates that she has been raised in an anti-gay environment. That might not be how most would word it, but I think it catches the spirit of the reply adequately.

I would have to disagree. Up until the end, Chikane was operating under the assumption that Himeko was a heterosexual. What this meant is that her love could never be requited, simply because the object of her affection didn't swing that way. So, not actually insane enough to believe that what would wind up happening could ever happen (anime)/never imagining that her beloved was the Solar Priestess (manga), and, being the social creature that she was, understanding how unbelievably awkward the situation, not to mention how heavy the burden, would be for Himeko if she knew, kept her mouth shut. As for the issue of sexuality, I just assume that she understood the inherent paradox in loving somebody for their innocence while simultaneously wanting to tap dat ass.

Furthermore, the locals don't seem to take issue with homosexuality. It's outright stated that Chikane is courted regularly both high class individuals of both sexes. No one seems to mind that, either. From that we can assume that her deciding on one of the wealthy women who seek her hand wouldn't cause an uproar among the villagers. My understanding is that homosexuality has some level of acceptance in Japan, a girl having at least one same sex relationship in her adolescence is apparently considered the norm. Although the relationship is expected to end in favour of heterosexual pursuits once a girl begins to mature, and trying to maintain the relationship is considered a sign of immaturity.

As a side note, I'd like to explain why that social norm bothers me. No, it's not homophobia you fucking hippy. My understanding is that twenty percent of the world is gay. This means one in five men, and one in five women. Logically, the partner who starts to notice boys first is the one that generally breaks off the relationship, while the other is at an age where she is starting to really notice girls. Imagine a real lesbian who's in one of these "Schoolgirl relationships", considers herself quite in love and quite happy with her girlfriend. Now imagine that her girlfriend decides it's time to move on because she has a thing for that guy who punctuates every sentence with the word "fuck" (we all know one of those, and they always have a girlfriend). As they part, the harpy assures her jilted former lover that "she'll start to understand when it happens for her". It never does. She doesn't care for studs the other girls find so hot, the captain of the cheerleading squad, on the other hand... That bitterness, compounded by the fact that everyone finds her immature for her sexual preferences, stays. And this happens for one out of five girls who get into a such a relationship. That's a lot of (rightfully) pissed off lesbians. The whole setup just seems like it's begging for trouble. Then again, it's Japan. It wouldn't be right if they weren't at least a little bit crazy.

So, no, it's not an issue of sex. The issue would be the same if Chikane were the prince of her academy, or if Himeko was a him. The issue is quite simply class based. For the purposes of this discourse, everyone gets divided into Bourgoise and Proletariot, with there being levels within each division. Bourgoise is the upperclass. The landowners, the captains of industry, the nobility, the rich, and so on. The Proletariot are, for my purposes, everyone else. That's not quite faithful to the original definitions but it's along the same lines. With those lines drawn, it becomes a bit clearer where I'm going with this.

Chikane and her family are basically the epitome of Japanese Bourgoise. She's the prodigal daughter of an incredibly wealthy, thousand year old family. That in and of itself is a dead giveaway. I personally can only trace my family back as far as Prussia in the second half of the nineteenth century. The Himemiya clan appears to own much of the land in Mahoroba, and in the manga at least appears to be the village's de facto governance. Probably the kind of family that is descended from a minor Daimyo or other feudal land owner. They pre-date the Tokugawa Shogunate, and even the Sengoku period. They are among Japan's nobility. Presumably they control considerable industrial and/or business assets (dare I say, the means of production) to maintain and expand their wealth. Chikane is considerd a "princess" for a reason.

Himeko, on the other hand, isn't even considered worthy of a Himemiya's notice. First of all, she's Proletariot, a commoner, although, reasonably a Proletariot can distinguish themselves and even join the Bourgoise, this is in no way something she could aspire to. It's revealed that she's an orphan, her parents are dead. Orphans are not among those we consider to be the desirables of society, not high society anyway. But wait, there's more. She's lived in the village her entire life, even after her parents died. The relatives she was sent to were locals. They were also abusive bastards. She doesn't live with them anymore, of course. Now, when Souma destroyed the girl's dormitory with his giant robot, Chikane takes her in, since Himeko didn't have anywhere else to go. No family she can stay with when she, at one point at least, had relatives living in that same village. Presumably, the abusive ones were her only extended family (if we learn differently from the audio drama, please fill me in, I havn't found it yet). It's quite natural to assume that she's completely estranged from her family. Also, she doesn't appear to have ever been adopted. She's living at a boarding school in the town she grew up in. We have a boarding school in my town, and local students generally don't live in residence. Who arranged that? Orphaned, removed from abusive foster parents and unadopted, Himeko is clearly a ward of the (very lazy) state. Not only is she Proletariot, she's as low as they get without some kind of substance abuse problem.

So, given that Chikane's family probably wants her to keep the blood flowing among them to a certain standard, the prospect of their daughter falling for a ward of the state is a disturbing one indeed. For the villagers, the idea of their beloved Miya-Sama winding up with someone so beneath her is the same way. Them even being on a first name basis boils the local blood. Imagine the response of Chikane's family. Aside from actively keeping the two apart (possibly taking violent measures against Himeko, depending on the level and nature of their power, extra points if they have Yakuza connections) and either trying to get their daughter into boys or, failing that, trying to find a nice, rich girl that suits her fancy. The villagers would deal with Himeko. The audience doesn't even have to imagine what they would do. In both the manga and the anime, they basically just go after her. With Chikane prevented from coming to her defense, she's a lamb to the slaughter.

Now, it's possible that they could overcome this. The Himemiya family might eventually decide that it's easier just to absorb the orphan into their ranks and keep her quiet, it's not like she's going to be tainting the bloodline. The village might get used to the idea, or retreat for fear of their feudal sovreign's displeasure. That, however, misses the point. Essentially, the social strata prohibits a co-mingling of of nobles and commoners, it is awful form for a Bourgoise to fall in love with a Proletariot, who in turn is never to rise above their station, even if lifted by the love of their betters. Such love is forbidden.

I'm Calling You Out, Rika Takahashi

For those who think that I was just calling out some random Japanese man, (woman? It's Japan, do they let women work on anime? In a role as impotant as writing? Maybe, he now officially an "it") I'm not. Takahashi is the credited writer of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, and no, otakus, I'm never actually going to use it's original title on this blog. Any commenter who does without first being actually Japanese, as in born in Japan, will be punished after the revolution. Regardless, for post's sake, we'll assume it wrote Gundam Wing on it's own. Having seen Wing, and considering myself either a current or former (I have yet to decide) fan of, I now call this individual out.

 Out on what? That's going to take some time to explain. I'm nolt calling it out on making it's point through ludicrous wars. Most of the wars fought in Gundam Wing make sense if you think about them, which is more than I can say about Gundam Seed. Whatever wrote that drek decided to make their point by creating two factions and having them enter into what is basically a horribleness contest. It's actually kind of cartoonish, or it would be if the series didn't go about it with such a straight face.

The saddest things is that I am in no way using hyperbole. I'm not, and the approach to warfare in Gundam Wing is comparatively mature (Seed is mature in the same way that Gears of War is mature, so not very), wheras many animes make armies and soldiers out to be monster clubs, you made them human, with everything that entails, good and bad. In a large way, it makes up for what I'm about to complain about.

Nor am I calling it out for it's dialogue choices. The entire world takes issues with some of Relena's more classic lines, but that's for another time.

No, I am calling it out on all those diatribes about what it is to be a soldier.

First of all, Rika Takahashi, there is no way you'd know a damn thing about what it is to be a soldier. Just like a soldier probably isn't in any position to write about what it is to be a cop, or how a cop isn't in a position to write about what it is to be a grocer. You're a writer, from Japan, and even if you'd been a JSDF soldier for any period of time, you never saw combat. It's not an experience you've had, so you don't have anything except your own agenda to draw on. It shows, and not in a good way. I know you were trying to make a point about war and peace, but the Paul Baumer routine didn't work because you never actually fought in a war. You aren't Erich M. Remarque. I'm not saying you have to have been a soldier to write a good story about war. Stephen Crane wasn't a soldier, and his The Red Badge of Courage did just fine. He also never paused in the middle of the action to remind that audience that he's a soldier and to elaborate on what that means. Of course, you may have been limited in what you could have done with the character, Gundam is insanely formulaic, were probably just working with what you had. The problem there is...

 Providing aggravation is your choice to use resident Char clone (I intend to write about his kind later on). I'm not going to cite his assigned villainy as the why for this position. I do take issue with the entire world fawning over the Gundam pilots as they force the opening of new orphanages (the first few "missions" were basically indiscriminate slaughter, and "the real target" being Oz doesn't change that they killed thousands of Alliance personnel for absolutely shitty reasons) but it's a Gundam series, and having the Gundams in an antagonistic role isn't in the formula. Regardless, you picked the antagonistic mask guy to be the mouthpiece for these little speeches. I don't think that he had any real combat experience before Operation Meteor, here's why:

Try to consider what it is that made a mobile suit pilot stand out as elite before there was combat between mobile suits. It's stated that only Romefeller (the Alliance and Oz) has the technology to make the damned things, and people will generally agree that internal warfare is bad for business, so we can assume that no real combat took place between mobile suits pre-series. Wargames, maybe, but you don't earn a reputation as an ace pilot in playfights. Exceptional performance might explain how he made Lieutentant, if he'd displayed strong leadership abilities in said games, but they wouldn't have scored him a reputation as a great soldier. Only real combat can do that. Now, remembering the fun fact from before, and gathering that only his side had the giant robots that rapid fired tank shells, we can conclude that every real fight he's ever been in has been horribly in his favour, like George Foreman fighting a paraplegic. In other words, not real fight. It's like being a UAV operator. You've done some destroying and killing, but you've never actually had to fight your enemies, you aren't a soldier. That's not fully accurate. Zechs is, and he shows over and over again that his moniker "lightning Baron" is deserved, but that doesn't change the one sided nature of his previous engagements, and doesn't make it any less unbelievable.

So, basically, Gundam Wing is filled with higher than thou ideas on what it is to be a soldier delivered by an antagonist who'd never really fought before and written by a wannabe Remarque. It's the type of thing that usually constitutes cringe worthy poetry written by a community college student, but here has become an incredibly successful anime series. It's true that the writer was hemmed in by meta-series convention, every new universe has basically been a re-make of the original Gundam series, and they all follow the same constraints. The problem is that it's never been more obvious, or more painfully awkward than it was in Gundam Wing, the "true soldier" angle really wasn't one that should have been carried so far, those of us who aren't at all into shipping the pilots together couldn't have helped but notice. It worked a bit better when Goto did it in 0083, but that was because he was already an experienced and hardened soldier who had fought the enemy on equal terms. Although Milliardo Peacecraft was an otherwise well written character, that one annoyance is a black stain that can't be removed.

For Future Reference, This Is Who I Think I Am

Greetings, internet, I'm Del-Toro, or as you will soon come to know me, your Lord and Master (note the capitol letters on both Lord and Master). I derive immense pleasure from analysis. Not other people's analysis, good god no, but my own. My mind wanders in places both unknown and familar, and always to things. Things like TV shows (anime included, yippee), music, literature, history, currents events, and so on. Although I honestly find anime to some of the more fertile ground for overthinking. Watch some of the ones I have, you'll come to agree. Now, what I'll be writing here won't be exclusively humourous, and won't be exclusively serious. You might never know when I go from one to another. I might not note going from one to another. Nevertheless, I enjoy doing this on my own time, and now, internet, I pass the benefits on to you. Rejoice, for today is a glorious one.