[Work in Progress]

Last Defense Academy 1st Scenario

Coming-of Age

Retsnom

Cult of Takumi

V'exhness

Last Defense Academy 2nd Scenario

Reset

Goodbye Eito

Rebellion

Eva

Multiple Eitos

Serial Battles

Conspiracy

Casual

like there's so much to think about when it comes to exploring this specific kind of story and i think it would be really interesting to really stab at it. not to say plenty of other works don't, i just don't think they want to pierce through the veil so to speak. like i think an earnest attempt at 'I Was An Orphan, But Now I'm the Princess' seems like it wouldn't all that interesting, and that's kind of the point behind the 'real' story being 'The Reformation of The Orphan Princess' Bully', but still. there's plenty of good stories where a fish-out-of-water charms the people around them through good character so it can be done.

honestly it might come back to the madonna-whore complex, wherein the roles between the heroine and the villainess are typically reversed inside this dynamic but they aren't really allowed to break free from it. like the imagined source material for so many of these works elevate the purity of the main character while making the villainess one-dimensionally evil, yet when the roles reverse feel a compulsion to turn the original lead into that same kind of villain.

i think it's just misguided attempt at writing conflict inside this world while believing wholeheartedly that the main character must always be a paragon of virtue. it is interesting to challenge that idea with the 'second' work, to point out that there must be some invisible force at play within or without the main character that causes them to exude this pure aura, because nobody is that perfect.

like ive been thinking about this IRT 'Fiancee Observation Log' as it's been airing and the conflict being that Heroina is also a reincarnator that is desperately trying to adhere to the original script because it promises her happiness, avoids the whatever bad end is waiting for them, and also she can't help it because she exudes charm magic unwittingly. this has interesting implications, but ultimately it makes me feel like the genre itself is incapable of really stepping outside of the bounds of 'one of these girls is fundamentally evil because that's just how it is'. and that's kind of sad.

a lot of these works talk about fate, about fated ones, about what fate the girls have divined is waiting for them, about how to break away from the ugly fates they have already endured. and part of why it's so powerful is that girls feel pieces of that throughout their lives, the pressure to marry and have children, the idea that one day their prince will come and save them from their mundane life. i think there's many other reasons these stories have caught on but that is probably the second biggest.

biggest is of course the 'power fantasy' of being rich and smart and successful and comfortable in your own skin. everyone defines those things differently and so you see slight variations to those things, but by and large all of those idea are necessary to creating this specific fantasy.