Noca Scans
joined May 29, 2015
Kawauchi is one of the most "progressive" Japanese yuri authors out there at the moment. There are still some works from her that we haven't got around to translating, but I only have respect for her work knowing that she has the ability to take what people would usually call "trite" tropes in yuri and subverting them. You can say that you dislike her work and you find the themes she used disagreeable, but to say that she "did not think about the implications" is very callous of you, to be honest. Japan is a very different country from the US and others, and I'd appreciate it if people stop demanding that Japanese people adhere to their own personal beliefs. That is all.
As much as I admire your impassioned defense of the author, I'd advise you to look through the comments here once again. There are comments that call it a trainwreck, comments that say it's badly written, and comments that call it a gag manga that you aren't supposed to take seriously. Not one of them has mentioned anything 'progressive' about the story. So unless we're all idiots here, I'd say the author's progressive tendencies haven't made their way into this particular work. Perhaps there'll come a story by Kawauchi in the future that makes me revere her as a genius, and in that case, I'll sing her praises from the rooftops. But this definitely won't be it.
Your point about the Japanese way of life is also hilariously shallow, because you haven't provided any context that would recontextualize this story from a Japanese perspective and rid us of our stereotypes. Instead, you've made a blanket statement that typecasts everyone who dislikes the story as an insensitive foreigner forcing their ideas onto a local work. If you were to provide something more than the broadest of strokes, I'd defer to your expertise as the scanlator. But all I'm finding right now are unfounded generalizations.
Note that I put "progressive" in quotes here because what you westerners consider progressive and what the Japanese think is progressive are very different. This work is created by a Japanese person for a Japanese audience, so it's part of someone who's not familiar with how Japanese hierarchical culture works to do their due diligence to get a better understanding of the nuances involved in works like these. As some comments already pointed out, ONLY HERE in Dynasty do you get so many mean-spirited comments towards the work or even the author herself. In Japan, or heck, most of Asia, minor power play like this is often seen as a turn-on by a lot of people due to this hierarchical societal structure, hence the "Top Energy" part. You see this trope everywhere - manga, K-Dramas and even telenovelas in my own country. You demanding that I provide context for you to understand a story that you are responsible for reacting to is honestly insulting, but here you go.
And besides, the rich girl isn't even demanding that the maid go out with her, just to answer her confession. You have no way of knowing how said rich girl would react upon rejection of the request. I also would like to note that you only noted comments that fit your argument in your response, ignoring all the others that call you out on what they perceive as your lack of cultural sensibility. Again, I'd like to say, I'd appreciate it if you don't demand people from other cultures to adhere to your value system. I hope that's clear enough for everyone here.
