Yeah, I agree with you that a certain amount of stupidity is to be expected given the setting - the manga can show stupid stuff without condoning it, of course. I could have also overlooked (or at least silently rolled my eyes at) certain elements individually - of course, Oscar's gonna have a cheering section; of course, there's going to be a moment where the tough instructor has the equivalent of the scene in all teen movies where she takes off the glasses and her hair falls to her shoulders and she gets swept off her feet by Oscar's charm. But then some of the stuff goes over the line - the whole "Anastasia collapses from exhaustion from dueling Oscar" is pretty bad - and the apparent climactic rape deliberation kind of pulls everything together into one pervasive theme. Plus, it makes it looks like the manga is countenancing not only the bad behavior in the climax but, in part, the stupid stuff elsewhere (though the lack of understanding in the bedroom scene is by far the biggest sin).
The kicker is that, as you've discussed, the story would work without anything like the rape consideration - Oscar is a skilled swordsman, but has yet to adapt a knightly code of conduct; he meets the one woman who doesn't instantly fall for him & isn't impressed by him; he redoubles his efforts to become a physical powerhouse and win her over/prove her wrong for taking him lightly; though he succeeds in his physical conditioning, a look into the effort the woman, who takes her job seriously, puts into her work makes him realize what truly makes a knight. Everything works perfectly well without any sort of rape consideration.
Ehhh. Here's hoping the next manga serves Julious better than this did Oscar.
(Ah; I haven't seen the scene you're referencing from the TV anime. I attempted to go through it a few years ago, but there was one scene in about ep. 5 or so where Zephel, Randy, & Marcel were being so badly characterized that it kind of derailed the attempt. I would hope that Retour would aim for better writing than what I've seen of KST, at least.)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2015-03-18 02:41 am (UTC)The kicker is that, as you've discussed, the story would work without anything like the rape consideration - Oscar is a skilled swordsman, but has yet to adapt a knightly code of conduct; he meets the one woman who doesn't instantly fall for him & isn't impressed by him; he redoubles his efforts to become a physical powerhouse and win her over/prove her wrong for taking him lightly; though he succeeds in his physical conditioning, a look into the effort the woman, who takes her job seriously, puts into her work makes him realize what truly makes a knight. Everything works perfectly well without any sort of rape consideration.
Ehhh. Here's hoping the next manga serves Julious better than this did Oscar.
(Ah; I haven't seen the scene you're referencing from the TV anime. I attempted to go through it a few years ago, but there was one scene in about ep. 5 or so where Zephel, Randy, & Marcel were being so badly characterized that it kind of derailed the attempt. I would hope that Retour would aim for better writing than what I've seen of KST, at least.)