What Kazuma really represents

[Forestknight25]

I understand many people love Kazuma, and that he's extremely popular, but I just can't bring myself to like him. In fact, I hate him. He's in fact my least favorite fictional character ever. And here I'll show you why.

First off, he kidnapped Mimori. "Kidnapping the princess" is an archetypal villain thing to do. That doesn't bother me as much as what he did after Kimishima got killed though.

Kazuma catches up to Scheris, who first off does not have an alter designed for fighting, and who never personally did anything to harm Kazuma. She gets scared and sends Dars to attack Kazuma. Kazuma shakes them off and stands in front of Scheris, physically intimidating her. He then picks her up, holds her down and beats her, presumably raping her as well. What's most disgusting is that Kazuma ultimately ends up winning against HOLY in the last episode. It would have been better if him and Scheris fought a fair battle, him going easy on her because she doesn't have the fighting alter Kazuma has. Instead, he found Scheris, who was relatively helpless at the moment, and used his raw male strength to take his anger out on and dominate someone physically smaller and presumably weaker than himself. Is this really the kind of hero we look up to in the 2000s? Is this the kind of male role model today's teens and young adults look up to? If so, then something has got to change.

I find this action against the prettier, more innocent, softer people within any given "evil empire" (in this case HOLY) to be despicable. Sure, most people say "well they started it so they're worse." True, but I always hated "justified brutality" against people, especially women and children of the "evil empire," especially because these actions, no matter how heinous, are done by the "good guy," so that apparently means it's good that he did that. I have posted rallying calls against Kazuma and his actions on anime websites and found nothing but replies rationalizing and justifying his actions, as well as criticizing me of wanting “everyone else” to think exactly like me. I now know that if my forum thread had been about one of the more widely-disliked characters in the world of anime, such as Sakura from Naruto, Flay from Gundam, or even Scheris herself (a few people love to watch Kazuma abuse her because they themselves hate her.) I have noticed that the overwhelming majority of widely-bashed characters are female. The angry, the young and the stupid value brutality, misogyny and misguided, vigilante justice, and piss on reasoning, kindness, chivalry and discipline.

What I have come to realize is that the creation of such characters as Kazuma, the anger found in such music as gangsta rap and nu-metal, the self-righteous, wrathful preachings of fundamentalist religion, the heartlessness, sarcasm, "biting wit" and "brutal honesty" of internet forum users, and the overall brutal image of what's generally considered "cool" for males...all those things are part of the same system: the system of a patriarchal society that values punishment and abuse, and ridicules kindness and honor. If we let it continue, then this society will continue to devolve, young people like you and me continuing to be brainwashed by such characters as Kazuma (or even Jack Bauer or The Punisher, though I don't mind them as much.) If we do not set an example of honor, chivalry, discipline, respect, self-defense and fighting spirit, then we can kiss our ideals goodbye, because nobody will listen or care...we'll be met with laughter and ridicule by the denizens of the system.

I had a dream a month ago, set 20 years in the future. In it, I dreamed the patriarchal system of abuse had grown so bloated and full of itself that characters such as Kazuma were everywhere, and his behavior was now considered the new heroic standard. The internet was controlled by an elite who "pwned n00bs" all the time, making ANY online community as corrupt as Newgrounds. Crime was way higher because criminals felt justified in attacking the innocent "because the innocent had it way better than them," and police brutality had reached an all-time high, because the police felt justified in attacking anyone labeled as a criminal...a 15-year-old white girl from a rich niehborhood (in other words not "suspicious" by most law enforcement standards,) commited a somewhat minor crime (I forget what it was) and was beaten and almost raped by an angry officer in the same manner as Scheris was attacked by Kazuma.

In the dream I held my hand out and yelled STOP! Time stopped and I yelled GUN! and an MP5 submachine gun appeared in my hands...it was really weird, like straight out of The Matrix, which is apt, since I liken this system to the computer-generated reality of the machines. I killed the officer and several more shot at me, but I held out my hands and yelled STOP again. I then yelled EVOLVE! and the people around me followed my lead and we all formed a militia to destroy this system. It was a good dream.

I imagine the future will not be as dramatic as my dream, but things will be similar. Justified brutality cannot last forever in a world where people will ultimately get sick of being pissed on. Eventually, sooner or later, someone is going to put a stop to it, and that someone may be me. Or you.

[Asuka Was Here]

Now, see, that's the sort of analysis I wish the s-CRY-ed community as a whole would take part in more often. By the way, you mind if I snag that and stick it in the Other Writing/Essays section of the site? I'd credit it however you like, of course. And I'd stick back a link to this thread at the end for anyone who wants to reply.

In the way of response, though:

I do agree that what Kazuma did to Scheris was not right - crazy and insane though he may have been at the time, it's still not really justified. I still, however, sincerely do not believe he raped her, as I've said before. He just gives no indication that he's sexually violent. Physically violent, yes, of course, but I don't think he has it in him to rape a girl. Also keep in mind that he's supposed to be sixteen - even though he had to grow up fast to survive in the Lost Ground, he's still young and statistically speaking, rapists tend to be older men (this holds true for both the U.S. and Japan - Stateside, the average age of a rapist is some 31 years; I'm not sure of the average age in Japan, but I do know the number of juvenile rape cases over there is very low). Of course, just because statistics say it isn't likely doesn't mean it didn't happen, but again, I just don't get that vibe. Call it a woman's intuition.

Actually, if anybody raped Scheris, I would suspect Kigetsuki did in Episode 16 (you know, the one named after him). Now there's a real psycho - the man spends all his time furthering his capacity to make realistic fake women to use as toys. He had the Tokonatsu sisters knock her out in that episode, and she didn't show up 'til much later, all beaten up and whatnot. That added to Kigetsuki's constant subtle hints that he wants her (at least, that's how I've always interpreted those, "you're just not my kind of woman" comments), his only deterrent being her constant fiestiness, and, well, I can see a much stronger case for Kigetsuki raping Scheris once he had her unconscious and unable to fight back.

But I deviate. What I would like to say is that s-CRY-ed is very much a war story in several aspects, and Kazuma tends to make a mistake that many soldiers - and governments - make in times of war: the guilt-by-association by which all members of a party are perceived as evil based on the actions of some. I should also point out that Scheris was, in a manner of speaking, out on the front lines, so in many ways she was more responsible than, say, some random girl sitting in the middle of the city under HOLY's protection, but Kazuma couldn't have very well known that since he'd never seen her before.

In the interest of being fair, I should also point out that Ryuhou did very much the same thing as Kazuma by threatening a little girl - a child - and destroying her house and everything she owned to get the same information as Kazuma wanted: his enemy's location. That doesn't make either one of them right, but it is a point worth considering. In many ways, it's not justifiable to hate Kazuma and like Ryuhou just because he's the "unfairly-portrayed bad guy" - he committs plenty of wrongs, too.

What it comes down to, though, is the broader issue of war policies - both historical and modern. What is right, in a war? What defines a war crime? Are you aware, for example, that the U.S. has attacked civilian targets in every major war it has ever fought, in the supposed interest of protecting the lives of its own people and soldiers, or those of other countries fighting on the same side? And is that okay, if it saves lives? Many people would say yes - and not just because American society is falling into shambles. It's a very Darwinistic principle - killing them to save us just seems so much better than letting ourselves be killed in order to protect the lives of the people who are killing us - even if every single individual on the other side isn't out there with a gun. He could be making the gun. He coudl be making the food that feeds the guy making the gun. It's how human beings think. It could be argued that it is an inerasable part of human nature. But are there any truly innocent people on either side of a war, really?

It could also be argued that the ideals characters like Kazuma portray have more roots in the past than in current social trends - and any evidence associated with said current social trends is mostly because we still retain much of that past tradition. Actually, in some ways, Kazuma reflects ancient Greek ideals: a hero who is physically powerful, well-built, good-looking, and very, very good at beating up the bad guys, but also a man who has a strong sense of pride, and a sense of justice which also includes a powerful need for vengeance when he - or any member of his family - is wronged. Japan, obviously, is an Eastern nation, but there are many elements of Western tradition in plenty of anime series. For instance, I'm currently enrolled in an English class (one of those core class things you need to take before they'll give you any degree in any major... that sort of thing) and we're reading The Odyssey. Out of curiosity, have you ever read it? Or maybe one of the other Greek epics? If not, go take a look at it - you'll find that the heroes of Greek literature are much the same as Kazuma, and in many cases much worse (to our eyes). The Odyssey, for instance, ends in this huge bloodbath where the heroes run around and kill every one of the bad guys, and then every maid around who slept with the bad guys, and so on, because the bad guys wronged their house and family. And in the mindset of that culture, they were thoroughly justified. It was what was expected. It was what was right. So while in one mindset, such as yours, the actions of Kazuma would seem wrong and brutal and immoral, while in some other culture's view, it's very just. And who's to say who's right? We're as ethnocentric as anyone else: we believe our ideas of a just society are the right ones, we believe our culture is more moral or advanced or whatever, because we're too heavily biased by what we know and ideals were raised with. Right and Wrong are relative terms.

It also occurs to me that it's seemed to people that the world has been deteriorating socially for thousands of years. It's sort of like language - you know, old people always tell young people that everyone had much better language skills "when we were your age" - but their parents told them the same things when they were kids, and their grandparents said the same thing to their kids and so on. Even in the times of great writers - Shakespeare, for instance - writers were complaining about the deterioration of language. The same seems to hold true for social stability - it's always "falling apart." But it's not so much falling apart as it is changing, often somewhat cyclically, and moving in some direction we can't see because the memory of a single human being is altogether too short to spot such trends. The human race is always moving toward some apocalypse that never quite manages to happen. I sincerely doubt that Kazuma and Jack Bauer indicate much more of a social dilemma in the long run (and I do mean the long run, not what will happen in ten or twenty or even fifty years, but in the general progression of the human race) than Shakespeare's invention of the word "epilepsy" indicated the destruction of the English language. Of course, that's not very reassuring when fifty years is two-thirds of your lifespan, and that time could be fraught with much turbulance and difficulty, but it is nonetheless a likelihood.

I would also like to add that, while I have not watched that much of 24 and as such cannot make a fully informed analysis, Jack Bauer seems like much more of a loose cannon than Kazuma. Just a thought. On the other hand, he has Bauer!shades, so perhaps I am too distracted by those to pay enough attention. Not much one for TV dramas, anyway - I watch all of two of them regularly neither of which is 24.

...hmmm... not sure how much of that was a reply to your ideas so much as it was my own commentary on social issues with the name "Kazuma" plugged in every few dozen words, but whatever. XD Have at it it. Pick it apart, tear it to pieces for the sake of debating and finding a nearer truth, if such a thing exists. Knock yourself out. And I issue that samechallenge to anyone else reading.

[Forestknight25]

Yeah, I'm sick and tired of all the stupid idiots putting me down for it. But also bear in mind Kazuma's not the only s-CRY-ed character I dislike. I REALLY dislike Emargy, that guy's so annoying. But unlike Kazuma, whom I seriously dislike and feel a real animosity towards, I think Emargy's hilarious to make fun of, and seeing Kazuma punch him was perhaps one of the only good things I thought he did.

Kigetsuki. That guy's just not right. I also really dislike most inners...most are thugs. Kinda pathetic for Kazuma to defend peoples' rights to be brutes. And Kanami. She's annoying and too much of a Sue, but I hafta like her at least a little since she's a little kid. Mimori's okay, but I really don't like total-pacifist characters, or Sues, and she's both. The only exception is Lacus. I can tolerate Lacus just fine.

Go ahead and post it in essays and other writing ;D. Also, it was wrong of me to say that "nobody's paying attention to me" since you responded and so did someone else.

Also, if you Google "justified brutality" prepare to be surprised. Somehow, when I googled it, among the first things that turned up was a thread post nearly identical to this one, but with racially intoned sentences added, on a white supremacist website. Someone seemed to have liked what I wrote, modified it, then posted it there replacing "Kazuma" with "blacks," I didn't read the whole thing but I think that's the gist of it. I fear for my reputation now

I'm afraid that overly-PC idiots will read the very similar post to my own, the one on the neo-nazi website, and boycott me because they think I'm a neo-nazi, even spread bad rumors about me. I'm scared.

[Asuka Was Here]

I think Emergy, Kigetsuki, and maybe Tatsunami are the only nearly-universally-hated characters... Mujyou is pretty widely-disliked, but some people feel sorry for the guy. You ever see Kat's series of Mujyou-bashings in illustrations, though? Comic genius, I swear. I also have a soft spot for making fun of Ryuhou just because his hair is the approximate color of mold. ^^'

I have to say I like Scheris and Mimori more than Kanami... Kanami's hair is really fun to draw, though. I think we get a bad portrayal of the Inners from Kazuma's tendency to find all the lowlifes out there, though. I'm willing to bet there are plenty of small, innocent farming communities like the ones Kanami works for at different points in the series. We're just too busy following the main characters through the bad parts of the land to notice them. Every society has its scum. But, like, what about the time HOLD burned up the farm Kanami was working with and rounded up all its residents, then blamed everything on Kazuma? Or that villiage Ryhou freed from slavery and helped rebuild and secure? I think those sorts of people do have rights, and do need to be defended.

Oh.... dear. Ah, well, at least you can just direct anyone complaining to the original here an honestly claim you wrote a very different essay and they stole and adapted it without your permission, right? You're not at fault for things people steal from you - that's their issue.

Thanks a bunch, too - I'll make sure to add it next time I update... which, at the rate my college schedule is functioning, looks like it'll take until sometime in October o.0'