No. Taken independently, any one trait can of course be found in men and women, we're a big rainbow. I never said she couldn't or shouldn't be any of the things that she is. But the more things that stack up away from relatable behaviors/traits for women, the less relevant it becomes outside of sexual characteristics that she is a woman. This isn't an argument I'm making, I'm just referencing a common feminist criticism of entertainment media.
Sorry but that's irrelevant, a character don't need to be relatable, much less relatable for their gender, people are more than their genders you know, so we can relate with a character independent of their gender.
Kuroko has no real-life analogue. If any of you know someone like Kuroko... um... run?
Wrong, Kuroko has lot's of real life analogue, because she's not just a serial killer, she's not that much one-dimensional that her only characteristic is being a murderer, not to mention that, it's completely irrelevant to her sexuality, she's one of the rare cases where being a lesbian and a psycho are separate, she's not a psycho lesbian, she's not psycho for being a lesbian or lesbian for being a psycho, so we can easily find real life lesbians that are like her, not to mention that, the manga more than showed us that being a serial killer is just one of her traits and there's a lot more in her than just that.
"Flirting" is a very generous way of characterizing how Kuroko acts toward women. And of course she's not the first character to act that way - that's why there's a whole body of thought around the ways that women are characterized in male-oriented movies/tv/comics.
I used Haruka from Sailor Moon as example, the only difference she have with Kuroko in how she acts is that she doesn't sleep around with other girls, besides that she's actually even more masculine than Kuroko, so much that in the manga she was called more than one time as being Michiru boyfriend, and Sailor Moon is obviously female-oriented, and again by your logic, she would be nothing more than a man with boobs, which is pretty offensive as there's a lot of lesbians in real life that act the same way or worse than Kuroko and Haruka.
No one's saying she "is a man," and it has nothing to do with being masculine or butch, it's about the author either not being able to write women very well, or choosing a rather pandering approach to writing a woman. I'm not sure it matters as more than an intellectual exercise here - it's not that she should be a man or that it's bad that she's a woman, just that when you examine it it's not really relevant to the story.
I completely disagree, the manga is full of female characters, way more than male and they're more fleshed out too, in my opinion they're all are well written, also, this of being a man or woman is not relevant for the story, I do agree to a certain extent as that is true for a good part of fiction, a lot of characters and their love interest, if we inverted their genders would not change much of the story, but Kuroko in my opinion was clearly made to be female, just because she don't act in a more cliche or "conventional" way most woman are portrayed in fiction that doesn't make her any less female or change the fact that the story was made with a female protagonist in mind.
Again, it's not about whether it's bad or good. The author is free to create whatever kind of character he wants, and if in his story he wants to write about a 6'3" I-cup woman who has remorselessly killed hundreds of people, is utterly emotionless and unflappable in every circumstance, and perceives all beautiful women as sex objects to be lusted after and conquered... well, that's his right. Is that character even remotely realistic? No. I don't personally care, I like the story anyway, it is viscerally satisfying to some very base instincts and is a fun change of pace from standard yuri tropes.
Sorry but the story also showed a lot that she's not emotionless, as for being unflappable, that is realistic, a lot of people that have experience with combat, life threatening or stressful situations are capable to be like that, as for seeing woman or man as lust object to be conquered, again, that is realistic to a certain extent, there's a lot of people who have that midnset, both man and woman, straight and gay, but Kuroko also made clear that is not just for sex and that she do loves woman that much, her relationship with the female characters made that clear, and she has a girlfriend, which is rare since most people with this mentallity she people as nothing more than object, but we know that she do loves Chiyo, as for her looks, this is a manga, it's obvious she and other characters will be beautiful, it's not uncommon at all for mangas to have inhumanly beautiful characters.
Some said that if she was a man only the Virginal Rose arc would be different, I completely disagree with that, if she was a man she would not be so fun, funny, and goofy as she is, all she do, her reactions, the way she acts, everything, would not be as funny or as interesting if she was a man, not to mention that very rarely a male character is like that, when they're a killer like Kuroko they're pretty much always cool and stoic, use sarcasm, or other types of actions to be funny, a good example is Alucard, he's not that much different from Kuroko except for the fact that she tries to sleep with lots of woman and is goofy, if she was also a man she would not be full of things to give to girls, one of them being the dildo she used to destroy that camera, it would not be a knife if she was a man cause she don't walk around armed.
Also, in case some of you didn't notice, the mangaka is a woman, so you can't really use much the argument that they don't know how woman are, since you know, the author is one.
For me it's pretty clear that all this whining is biased opinions because of double standards, the way Kuruko is badass and fight, it's not uncommon in manga for woman to be that badass and violent, you can't really compare to real life, as how she acts toward woman, not only what some of you say is sexist but is also machist, because it's basic double standard that it's normal for man be violent and so real woman are not, or that it's normal and sometimes even expected that some man will try to sleep with countless girls and are even praised for doing that sometimes, but if a woman do that, not only she's not seeing as being a "real woman", but she's also seeing as a slut or whore and as bein easy to get, but there is a lot of straight and lesbian woman who flirt and sleep around a lot, so I don't see what's the problem with Kuroko being like that.
One last thing, as for how woman is portrayed in male-oriented media, I don't think it apply to Murcielago, because most mangas that are male-oriented not only don't use female as main character, it's always a guy getting all the girls, they're also full of fanservice, but not only Murcielago is not really a harem, but it barely has fanservice, it's even being some time since we saw Kuroko having sex, now if you want manga obviously made to pander guys, go read Sekirei, not only the girls are nothing special, it's full of fanservice, and something that most people don't know, it's made by a woman, Bayonetta suffered the same thing, how a lot said it can only be made by a man, but her character design is also made by a woman.
last edited at Apr 27, 2016 9:04AM
