Post by ialda on Apr 8, 2013 9:16:14 GMT -5
So these past months and between the animated series, the PS Vita game (for the first time on an unzoned hardware) and some new chapters of the Guren manga following the release of the second tankoubon, we have had plenty of SK available for the firsts time in a western language. Of course we already had internet info, zorogou's translations or the mangas to have a taste of the plot. Like probably some others fans, I came to the franchise originaly for the pretty ninja girls and the fanservice - But recently with so many new material in so short a time means a lot of information to process and digest, and notably, I have more and more difficulties to accept the dual nature of SK, the cute highschool girls doing cute things (and fanservice) versus the cruel world of ninjas where anybody can die or kill in a blink of an eye. And watching how the franchise keep going from one extreme to the other is beginning to get exhausting.
Facts like :
- the anime, toned down the dark overtones but nonetheless keeped some of them (like what happens to the Hebijou dropouts).
- do the Hanzo girls really killed all those Hebi mooks ? The games seems to generally maintain a relative ambiguity on the subject, the most brutal scene being Yagyuu's solo invasion of Hebijo : she is depicted as berserk and it's suggested she kill those twenty genin who opposed her (with Asuka and co finishing the last one).
- Yumi trying to kill Asuka just to prove a point between their grandfathers seemed ridiculous. And she is supposed to be a good ninja ?
- All these talks from Asuka about being a ninja for justice while never discussing the morality of killing people seems pretty shallow.
- Are all the characters from Hanzo, Gessen and Homura gurentai dead by the end of Hebijou route (vita) ? - pertaining to what I mean about the ambuigity in the series and refusing to commit to either extreme being exhausting.
So my question is : how do you deal personally with the inherent bipolarity of the SK franchise ? Beyond the bouncy fanservice, how are we expected to relate to the SK universe ? How the japanese public reacted to the plot of the games ? How are WE expected to understand the plot of Senran Kagura ? Parody, damn serious... the both of them at the same time ?
(sorry for the 'serious business' talk
)
Facts like :
- the anime, toned down the dark overtones but nonetheless keeped some of them (like what happens to the Hebijou dropouts).
- do the Hanzo girls really killed all those Hebi mooks ? The games seems to generally maintain a relative ambiguity on the subject, the most brutal scene being Yagyuu's solo invasion of Hebijo : she is depicted as berserk and it's suggested she kill those twenty genin who opposed her (with Asuka and co finishing the last one).
- Yumi trying to kill Asuka just to prove a point between their grandfathers seemed ridiculous. And she is supposed to be a good ninja ?
- All these talks from Asuka about being a ninja for justice while never discussing the morality of killing people seems pretty shallow.
- Are all the characters from Hanzo, Gessen and Homura gurentai dead by the end of Hebijou route (vita) ? - pertaining to what I mean about the ambuigity in the series and refusing to commit to either extreme being exhausting.
So my question is : how do you deal personally with the inherent bipolarity of the SK franchise ? Beyond the bouncy fanservice, how are we expected to relate to the SK universe ? How the japanese public reacted to the plot of the games ? How are WE expected to understand the plot of Senran Kagura ? Parody, damn serious... the both of them at the same time ?
(sorry for the 'serious business' talk
)
