So, critics fail to perceive the coherence of the story and the consistency of its characterizations because they’re not Asian, not female, not conservative.
Critics also fail to understand the way the story is deeply rooted in Japanese cultural conventions about arranged marriage even though the resolution of the story is the Aihara family—highly conservative, deeply traditional, so Japanese-that-Western-readers-fail-to-understand-the-story—staging a big full-scale lesbian white wedding which is so far removed from anything in actual Japanese culture as to be beyond fantasy.
Duly noted.
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Citrus. The drama is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of Japanese culture most of the drama will go over a typical reader's head. There's also Mei's cold exterior, which is deftly woven into her characterisation- her personal conflict draws heavily from Japanese literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these things, to realise that they're not just cultural- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Citrus truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the significance in Mei's existential words "...," which itself is a cryptic reference to conservative Asian females. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Saburouta's genius wit unfolds itself on their manga pages. What fools.. how I pity them.
And yes, by the way, i DO have a Citrus tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the conservative Asian ladies' eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid
last edited at Jan 10, 2021 10:24AM
