Demi-chan wa Kataritai – 07
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It’s totally a bear! |
Life Around Demi-chans
Some conversations you have to have over cigarettes
Sometimes it’s hard to remember that the world of high school is pretty insulated from the rest of the world. Yes, there are some students and teachers who interact more or less with the rest of the world, through jobs or spouses or families, but for the most part, it’s a world where the participants are frequently less aware of what’s going on around them. So this week, when Police Detective Ugaki pays a more-or-less surreptitious visit to the school, there’s that chance for the knowledge about that outside world to creep in to our viewing. And we learn some things about their world that I like to hear, and that make me really hope for that kind of world for us.
Detective Ugaki is also a bit of a jerk, but not too much of one
Detective Ugaki is in the Demi-human Division of the police force, and is tasked with investigating issues that arise from the public acceptance of demi-humans in general society. But what’s good about what he does is that he makes it pretty clear that since the government has officially recognized them, and people have gotten more used to them, there really aren’t any issues like there had been in the past, when demis were not welcome in society and had to deal with their social outcast status on their own, leading to both acting out and discrimination. Now that that’s mostly gone away, most of the demis are no problem whatsoever, with the only exception being the possibility that succubi, who seem like they might be one of the more populous types of demis, can have run-ins with people leading to things like molestation.
Yuki’s not buying it
Unfortunately this is sometimes because the succubus has used her aphrodisiac effect to maliciously goad a man into doing something. But how do you determine if that was what happened, or it was just something that happened because the guy was doing a bad thing? That’s where the police come in, and there’s really no way to investigate that. The only thing that they can do is really get to know the succubi individually and try to determine whether they’re the type of person who would do that. This isn’t particularly easy for the police, since they have to treat all the succubi as potential problems, and from a young age. So it’s easy to see why Sakie is not particularly happy to see Detective Ugaki.
Father Figure
Let’s ignore this useless kid
But even if Sakie isn’t pleased to see Detective Ugaki, when it’s clear that he’s not there to specifically check up on her (although her interaction with Kurtz, a useless character in my estimation, is referenced as important to the Detective), they’re able to have a little better conversation. Sakie is rather rare among succubi, for trying so hard to be a normal member of society, but then again maybe that’s just the way progress works, and she’s not really rare, she’s just early. But even more surprising is that she’s actually interested in someone, that someone being Tetsuo. She’s brushed off the idea of being interested in someone before, with the worry we saw earlier in the series about whether she could ever really trust that someone was interested in her personally, or just attracted to her because she’s a succubus (of course, given that she as a person and she as a succubus are one and the same, I still think that her concerns are overblown here, and it’s more that she’s insecure about her own self).
Cross Sakie
Unimpressed Sakie
Caught in Love Sakie
Ugaki does puncture her idea that Tetsuo’s not affected by touching her, or turned on by her presence / actions. But he makes the reasonable point that if she thinks it’s ok to use her effects on him, then maybe her feelings for him are real. Unfortunately for right now, Sakie gets a little trapped in her loop of “I liked him because he wasn’t affected, but finding out that he was affected makes me a bit happy and more interested, but does that invalidate it?” It’s definitely a step towards her coming to terms with herself, I think. And as I’ve said before, we’ll (hopefully) see what she thinks of him if she can tell him that it’s ok to be more attracted to him. Now that she knows that he’s not unaffected, and that he’s been trying to be considerate of her by not reacting, I want to see more of how she thinks through the issue. I also think that someone was a fan of K-on, getting Youko Hikasa to do this again…
OMG so moe Sakie!!!!
I can believe that this is one of the bigger things to be a problem with succubi, considering a society where molestation on trains is a significant enough problem to be talked about, likely because a large number of people use mass transit, as opposed to North America, where a far lower percentage of people use transit, although it seems there’s far too frequent instances of it (an unacceptable number is “Anything above zero”, and given the propensity for too many US cops to prejudge reports of actual rape as fabricated, I’d worry about the chances for any sort of serious consideration / investigation of claims of “mere” harassment or molestation on trains). There are also some times where harsher punishments, or even rewards for turning in molesters, can induce more reports, so you can see where someone with a vindictive personality might be interested in trying to set up some men. But personally coming from a society where the police run “stings” on prostitution and other things that are of dubious criminal nature, it’s hard for me to not feel a little tetchy at the idea that “she was coming on to me” is ever an acceptable excuse for molestation of a stranger in a public place, no matter how much she was actually coming on to him.
About Highway
Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
As expected Sakie was a very cute schoolgirl.
I wonder if we’re going to learn more about Sakie’s background, such as her relationship with her father. And how was it that she came to regard Ugaki as something of a father figure? As for Ugaki himself, is he one of those who isn’t effected by a succubus’s nature? You’d think he’d have to be in order to be assigned to monitor succubi. Maybe he’s gay?
It’ll be interesting to see how the relationship between Sakie and Tetsuo develops now that she knows she does affect him, but he’s doing his best not to show it out of consideration for her. I have to agree that she’s overthinking the matter. Any attractive woman (and she’s attractive even without her succubus nature) is going to draw at least passing interest from men. And when two people are drawn to one another there’s clearly an attraction between them. It’s just that Sakie has that in spades. Perhaps settling down in a relationship will moderate the effect she has on other men.
So far Kurtz is a useless character. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of Ugaki, but if we have to see more of Kurtz I hope there’s a reason for him to be in the story.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Kurtz really did feel like an interruption most of the time. So much was talked about in-universe with his character, and it had little payoff? Other than remonstrating the demi’s boy classmates?
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
And that could have been done by anyone. Even Satake’s unnamed friend has been telling him the whole time that he’s being a bit of a creeper about it. In fact, I think it would have been better if it had been someone in the school correcting Satake, since Kurtz comes off as some dude who comes in mansplaining. I think it would have had more impact if it was someone in the school, who is defending Sakie and the other Demis, from a “we have already accepted them, don’t treat them differently” standpoint, like Hikari did in confronting the two backstabbing girls. It’s not about demis, it’s about decency.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I think more about Sakie’s past is kind of a different show. For me, it’d be enough if this show was about the characters that we have now going forward.
I’ve been arguing that Sakie isn’t that much different from anyone else the whole time, just that she might be attractive at short range a little bit out of proportion to her looks (and if I’m being honest, that look of hers in the OP (that she’s trying to hide) isn’t amazingly beautiful, even if it is sexy). But I’ve known both women and men who are like that to some degree, whether it’s “charisma” or “comfort” or whatever.
And I note that even Ugaki didn’t have any issues with Sakie using her effects on someone that she is genuinely interested in, more that he thought it was finally a rite of passage for her to think it was acceptable. As for Ugaki himself, I definitely don’t think there’s anything special about him. He just understands succubi, so he knows the “dangers” of interacting with them. Much like Yuki was more interested in knowing what her strength was than not having it at all, there’s a consistent message that knowledge is power in this show, which I like.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Oh, I’m not hoping for an entire episode about Sakie’s past. Just a few short flashbacks interspersed in other episodes will do. Something like the conversation Sakie and Ugaki have when he approached her when she was a schoolgirl. It’s possible that conversation is what made her so afraid that her succubus nature could unfairly (for want of being able to think of a better word right now) attract a man to her and cause a problem.
And why does she think Ugaki is more of a father to her than her actual father?
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
This was the thematic point the whole episode turned on, and I think you covered at least a branch of those sorts of presumed uniformed thoughts in your closing statement. We can only really make competent descions based on what we know, and any process that over-depends on what you fear is going to be fraught with to many problems. For Sakie, she has more to go on in concern with Tetsuo, and she can balance that information going forward.
Honestly she, like the other demi (and this is the point of the whole show in some respect) shouldn’t Harrison Bergeron herself…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
She definitely shouldn’t “balance” herself that way, because that’s not how to make herself happy. But I don’t know if she’s been overdoing it the way she has, giving herself hardships to not be a bother to others, and also to spare herself accusations and attention. It’s certainly gotten her some admiration from Ugaki, and I really do think that she could be a good model for succubi in the future to follow.