She doesn't think it is normal, because she is the only girl that wasn't affected by miracle magic, so she still is straight and doesn't understand why everyone is suddenly openly gay. She has nothing against being gay, it just wasn't something she saw everyday from every angle, so what felt "normal" to her yesterday, suddenly is not normal anymore. Also challenging her perception of normal seems to be kinda the premise this manga as she is the only straight girl left in yuri paradise.
well, the thing is... it might be the translation, so it's hard to say for sure, but the way some of her internal monologue is worded makes it sound less like it's her who's not used to seeing gay people, and more like it's the author themselves who thinks that homosexuality is abnormal? stuff like
"I, Uruuno Marika, fall in love just like any normal person."
"To live normally. To fall in love normally. To have a normal wedding, build a normal family, and die a normal death."
these lines use 'normal' as a shorthand for 'straight', which... well, it's literally what heteronormativity is. but what makes it feel like it's coming from the author and not her is how it doesn't feel the need to specify that for her, 'falling in love normally' means 'falling in love with a boy'. it just... says it and expects the audience to be on the same page? which says a whole lot about where the author's coming from. and while we're at it...
Yep, nothing abnormal about a world made up entirely of lesbians. Nothing at all.
i thought that the way the classroom scene was presented made it pretty clear that 'there are more lesbians than usual' is not the reason she thought the situation was abnormal...
on top of that, the fact that she's the protagonist gives her 'normal' a greater weight than anyone else's. you might've heard of protagonist-centered morality, and this is a similar thing; so when she says "this isn't normal", unless the work goes out of its way challenges that (and it doesn't), we're implicitly expected to agree with her.
also "not having anything against gay people" really does not mean much at all, especially when one of her lines in the classroom ("There can't possibly be any abnormalities in my normal life") is awfully close to 'i'm ok with gay people, as long as they're not gay near me'
...don't get me wrong, i'm aware that this is just chapter 0, and that things could (and probably will) change as the series progresses. and it'd be great if i turned out to be wrong and this series ended up being social commentary that challenges conceptions of 'normal'! but i won't be surprised if that doesn't happen, since, as i said, the not-really-serious framing and paneling aren't pointing towards that being a thing the series is interested in doing.
last edited at Dec 29, 2018 9:54PM
