Women in KHR, a rant

I kind of wish there weren’t any. See, KHR is that unfortunately common kind of shounen in which all women are useless frills, even the strong ones.

Incidentally, there will be spoilers here.

The romantic interests don’t fight. They cook. They get dragged into the future and have to be rescued and, upon witnessing the boys’ determination to grow in strength and get everyone home and safe, they exclaim that they have to do their best too–to the kitchen! That is the actual line; they want to do their best too, so come on to the kitchen and let’s cook meals for the boys while they train to become stronger fighters and more mature people. *spits*

The women who do fight, at least on the good guys’ side, consist of a dying girl who only ever wins when she lets herself be possessed by (I’m sure you guessed it) one of the male fighters, the anti-cook whose “fighting ability”, as preserved from the initial gag-manga story, is a joke, and a young woman who was “saved” from the curse involved in being one of the strongest so that she could live a more ladylike life. Again, this is the actual line. Only, of course, she’s not entirely saved, so she’s a good fighter but winds up being comparatively weak and useless. On top of that, she’s billed as a great trainer but totally fails in training Tsuna (where Reborn, of course, succeeds with one sentence). *spits again*

This is why I wish there just weren’t any women along to the KHR action at all. When it’s something like Rurouni Kenshin, and Kaoru is excluded when things heat up, at least I can imagine her having kickass adventures of her own back home! (Okay, in between the soppy pining, but still.) KHR doesn’t let that space open. No, the women have to be there, they have to be present, so it can be palpably demonstrated that they are not as good as the men. *downright froths*

The only time women get a fair shake at competence in this series is when they are the villains, and not just normal villains but all the way over to the “disgusting sociopath” end of the spectrum.

This is a shounen mode that annoys the everliving fuck out of me. The fact that the mangaka is a woman disgusts me; it doesn’t entirely surprise me, mind, but it definitely disgusts me. This is the one thing that will probably keep some distance between me and KHR, despite how much I like the not-women character development and dynamics. I can engage with a series that leaves the women out, but I can’t fully engage when women are so explicitly positioned as inferior.

On this score, fannon is the only thing that might save the day.

[Fic] Rain on the Mountain

Cross-post from my archive.

Fandom/Arc: Katekyou Hitman Reborn, Standalone
Characters/Pairings: Hibari Kyouya, Hibari/Yamamoto, Yamamoto Takeshi
Summary: TYL Hibari and Yamamoto in a tranquil moment.
Meta: Kind-of Romance, I-3
Wordcount: 235

Feet move softly over the mats of his private rooms, and he listens to them come, leaning in the open screens and looking out onto his small, private garden.

( Rain on the Mountain )