Hoo boy. Looks like I triggered an explosion of personal hate. Go me.
Gotoh wrote: ↑Fri Mar 23, 2018 6:49 pm
Vitocap wrote: ↑Fri Mar 23, 2018 6:16 pm
Well,
of course adults are nowhere around. Duh. It's the long, time-honored tradition of Japanese manga:
I already said that. If you're going to try to be snide, at least read far enough back in the discussion so your response doesn't repeat what was already stated.
From my point of view, dear, it seemed like you needed a stark reminder.
And there's no need for gratuitous name-calling. Try to keep it polite.
Gotoh wrote: ↑Fri Mar 23, 2018 6:49 pm
Vitocap wrote: ↑Fri Mar 23, 2018 6:16 pm
The fans want to read about the cool adventures of the main characters;
they don't give a damn about the dumb, stuffy, dopey adults.
Speak for yourself.
There are many stories where the younger main characters can benefit from the advice of their parents, teachers, etc. and still remain interesting.
I speak for pretty much every manga/anime fan out there.
There are many, many genres in manga and anime. What we're talking about here is a subgenre of shounen stories where the male teen hero suddenly becomes able to do things no normal teenager can do -- or would be allowed by his parents to do. Like, say, acquire superpowers, learn forbidden ninja skills, travel to other worlds, summon demons, fight in deadly martial arts tournaments, bring a harem of buxom beauties to live with him. The point of reading this sort of stories is to identify with the main hero and share vicariously his exciting experiences. The presence of nagging, bossy adults in such a setting would be insufferable -- that's why, as a general rule, either they aren't there or they appear as opponents.
Gotoh wrote: ↑Fri Mar 23, 2018 6:49 pm
EC is proof enough, so is
'Spinnerette' which has two teen heroines (including the protagonist herself) being mentored by a responsible adult hero (and an adult anti-villain). Keeping things interesting depends on the skill of the writer.
Parents in EC appeared in about 5% of the strips. They were there for the fun and jokes. They never played an important role in the resolution of any of the climactic crises.
Spinnerette has two college students as heroines. There are no teens in the comic. And, frankly, the story is crapola -- a contrived collage of politically correct clichés with little or no entertainment value.
Those are really bad examples. Miyazaki anime is Disney-style anime, with all the tropes of Western literature. Summer Wars was made for export in a deal with Warner. El Hazard was dumb and tedious, and never was a big hit.
dmra wrote: ↑Fri Mar 23, 2018 7:04 pm
And it's not as though parents don't appear in a lot of manga where children live alone. Usually in an arc where they visit to either give advice or more humorously to cause the protagonists grief. And often in the manga/anime I've read or seen there's an adult who acts as a parent substitute normally a friendly teacher or a neighbour.
So Lance flying in wasn't exactly unexpected or out of the conventions but let's not let facts get in the way of trying to score cheap points.
Such hostility. Such aggressivity. I take it you still haven't regained your cool after FGF taught you a lesson about child sexuality?
Your post is a mess, but I'll try to reply anyway. First of all, what's this about Lance? When did I say anything about Lance? Can you point us to any post of mine with the word 'Lance' in it? Standing up a straw man and then attacking it isn't proper debate etiquette, you know. What I
did say was that teens living by themselves while the parents live elsewhere is a common Japanese manga trope -- and guess what? that's exactly what Lance does:
live elsewhere, letting Teddy and Abby take care of themselves. As for visiting (another subject I didn't say anything about), why, yes, it does happen -- coming as a total surprise, resulting in funny hijinks, annoying the kids to no end, and making everyone happy and relieved when it's over... because the story can't continue its normal course until the adult departs. And, again, guess what? this is exactly how Lance's visit goes. The classic pattern of the trope: Lance didn't realize what was going on, didn't help solve anything, and left as oblivious as he had come. And now that his useless ass is gone, Teddy & company can return to life as usual and take care of their own problems -- all by themselves, for good or for bad, just the way they like it. So what cheap points are you talking about?