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WMMAP is a shounen/seinen isekai and Plutus is a man.

I’m not talking about the manhwa—I’m talking about the webnovel. We know for sure WMMAP is a rofan. But there’s actually quite a bit of rofan intended for men. And some of the writing choices oddly make sense.

For example—Lee Jihye is constantly talking about how beautiful girls are. Now I know, Lee Jihye has that weird period where she keeps calling her dad hot and etc while taking weirdly common notice of his body, but she doesn’t really seem that perceptive of,,, anyone else??? Like even Lucas, the male lead—I can’t really recall any time where she is drawn to him or makes a point on how physically attractive he is except when she first meets him—where she then talks about how she thought he was a girl at first. In fact, she rarely perceives him at all I feel??? Or makes a move on him??? How are people calling this superior due to the romance when she rarely, if she ever, initiates it. Even with Ijekiel, who she confirms she had a crush on and had to actively squash it and put distance between them to forget, she only talks about how princely he is. Not his actual characteristic or physical features, and the princely stuff comes from her parroting his vibes from the novel more than her heart. Even when she finally gets to do girl talk (and they talk,,, about boys), she’s out of it and uncomfortable when the girls start fawning over men. Meanwhile, every chance she gets with the most insignificant women who she doesn’t even know or bother to find out their names, she’s constantly making note of how gorgeous and beautiful and flower-like they are. I’m pretty sure she’s internally complimented and been awe’d over Jen more than anytime she’s made a footnote about Lucas and Ijekiel’s appearances. (Like how the whole thing with Harry Potter and shipping him with Draco was because the author kept describing how handsome and gorgeous Draco was while,,, in Harry Potter’s POV? Apparently? Because the author is a straight woman attracted to men, but because it was in the POV of a man it comes off a certain way instead. Basically I’m trying to say that Plutus is a man who can’t help but rattle on how attractive women are but fails to remember they’re supposed to be writing in the perspective of an apparently straight woman.)

This could also point to lesbian Athy. But this is a rofan remember? Lesbians don’t exist. Especially as protagonists. (Unfortunately.) (but also the toxic wmmap readers would never allow it.)

Speaking of Jen, we’re circling back to how Athy makes no effort to pursue the men around her and it’s constantly the men pursuing her while she simply stands and reacts—but you know who she actively moves around and goes out of her way for occasionally? The only other age-appropriate girl in the story that the author has named. She goes out of her way to spy on Jen and Ijekiel when they come to meet Cabel because she hasn’t seen Jen in a while. She ditches her amnesiac dad to meet up with Jennette before the time skip, yet I don’t ever recall Athy ever initiating a date with Lucas or Ijekiel—it’s always been them initiating it with her. Athy’s weird relationships also make sense if you consider the author has no idea how girls relationships actually work and they’re just winging the tropes they think they know—why the father-daughter dates are more date-like than any of the few excursion or encounters she has with Lucas and Ijekiel, why when they do happen they’re lokey awkward and often one sided (because of the expectation of it has to be the men initiating dates with women), how her healthiest and most natural male relationship is with Felix because that’s how little the author is trying to actively write him (which is why all the attempts to try and write relationships with Lee Jihye feel awkward and kinda forced).

And also like. My discussion partner brought this concept up—that Athy is written like the female love interest to the male MC of a shounen/seinen. And I think I sobbed when I started to see it.

Think about it—Athy is supposedly a magic genius, but her achievements and skills are almost always outdone by the man, and not just any man, but her male lead—Lucas. She’s strong, but the male lead still has to be stronger because he has to be able to help and protect her—hell, that’s what people who love the novel keep on saying, that Lucas and the romance is better there because he does everything for her. When she’s in actual peril that actually affects the story or the central conflict, she calls Lucas/the responsibility falls onto Lucas to fix it and help her. Lee Jihye is strong but practically only in name when pit against the male MC.

And usually when this happens in shoujo or rofans, the female MC balances it by at least being equal to or one-upping the supposedly lesser male lead in some department—appealing to others emotionally with emotional intelligence, being more savvy intelligence wise or technologically, some sort of secret skill or smarts that puts her on some sort of equal ground.

Except.

Lee Jihye doesn’t really have any of that. Because she doesn’t really pursue or desire anything. Her flaw that causes problems in the story (not addressed enough) is her lack of emotional intelligence and clear interest, she’s not especially smart or responsible really since the narrative moreso explains that the current era of wizards are just really dumb and clumsy because they’re relying on the teachings and magic of a fraud. Her social life is about the same as Lucas being that she’s around groups of people decently often but she doesn’t actually care about them.

The only silver lining she has above Lucas and Claude is that she supposedly has morals and doesn’t want to kill people—and even that falls apart lokey by the end because she gets tired of stopping her dad from killing her best friend. She’s allowed to be skilled, but only if it doesn’t actively affect the story or plot, and when she’s supposed to have a moment it goes to the male MC to boost the male MC’s status and prestige instead.

And how she’s lokey there more to. Cause the men to develop (for better or worse), while her development is miniscule. And how little of the actual worldly/story plot revolves around or is related to her—like the whole thing with Jen, she was having feels over Athy but her main trigger in the end was Ijekiel (a man) and at the delegation send off party her final straw is Claude (a man), and the conditions that led to these triggers was Carax/Caracks (a man) magic drugging and messing her up, who is only doing this because of Lucas (a man). And the whole runaway arc was because Claude (a man) was actively doing things (attempted murder, cough) which pushed Athy away, and her coming back and the reconciliation (sorta) happened because of Claude and Felix (men) using Lily (a woman) as bait. And the whole thing with Ijekiel is him constantly initiating things with Athy and Athy just kinda letting it happen and then being surprised when something happens.

If you really think about it, everything revolves around a man in the story, with the girls just being victims to or reacting to it. And that lokey makes sense if we’re suddenly hit with the theory that wmmap was written for men and possibly by a man. I’ve even heard people say that Lucas is more of novel wmmap’s main character than Athy, which is ridiculous but also,,, when you think about it, too many relevant things point to him and boost him up while the only time Athy shines is when it’s unimportant sobs.

And it’s not like shounen and seinen’s can’t have female leads or follow a girl’s journey and development. Hell—Apothecary Diaries, Frieren, and Witch Hat Atelier are popular now with their lovable female MCs, and all three are seinen, yet they have as many if not more female fans than male fans I feel. So wmmap’s novel being a seinen wouldn’t be impossible. Like push Spoon’s very shoujo inspired art out of your mind for just a moment, and think about the events of the novel altogether in general. I kinda almost relate it to Horimiya and Skip and Loafer—romantic comedy-esque slice of life stories that deal with tropes/social expectation and relationships, that people associate as shoujo just because they’re romantic comedies when they’re actually a shounen and seinen. And it being a rofan doesn’t mean it’s a shoujo either—I actually used to read quite a bit of rofan manga many years ago that were shounen/intended for men. The way that wmmap is written, the pacing, the subject matters and when you think of the possibility of unconscious perception and bias within the author who could be a man themself (as their identity is completely anonymous as well as their gender afaik),,,

Leviathan WIP/rough sketch

Will probably finish this weekend

SCREW exams I'd rather draw these two

I just wanted to be nice to you. I don't know why.