Random Rambling Rants: The definition of "Mansplaining" and "Haruhi Suzumiya's a man's series!"

"And I am a man!" Zeta Gundam jokes (and an appeal to sense and not fostering fear at the end) aside, according to Know Your Meme "Mansplaining" is "An Internet slang term used to describe condescending and inaccurate explanations that are given under the assumption that the audience is entirely ignorant on the subject matter or topic." then again, there's the first posted Urban Dictionary definition which is, "To explain in a patronizing manner, assuming total ignorance on the part of those listening. The mansplainer is often shocked and hurt when their mansplanation is not taken as absolute fact, criticized or even rejected altogether. Named for a behavior commonly exhibited by male newbies on internet forums frequented primarily by women. Often leads to a flounce. Either sex can be guilty of mansplaining." (The bold bits are my emphasis) But it seems that a certain gaming group prefers to use the more "mens rights"-ish definitions from Urban Dictonary.com especially when trying to make a bully's victim look like just as much of a bully. Such as...

"A sexist term used by misandrist women to disrespect, belittle and devalue the opinion of her male peers in an attempt to make herself appear smarter or better in comparison." Dude! WTF!? I'm not misandrist and does not have to do with a insufficient self-image! But this one, unfortunately, describes what happened...

"Originally, this term was used to describe boorish men who felt the need to "correct" what a woman said, even on topics that the man didn't know anything about." Indeed...

"However, the term quickly degenerated into a get-out-of-jail-free card used by angry women when a man dares to point out even the most blatant error." *sigh*

Even women can make manga series that play to certain male fantasies, like for example...

• "DearS" (magical girlfriend series) is created by Peach-Pit, the name for a duo of female manga-ka.
• "Chobits" (another magical girlfriend series) is created by Clamp, the name for a group of FOUR female manga-ka.

Then again, there are other Shounen series (both FullMetal Alchemist and D.Gray-Man) that are made by female manga-ka, and those just happen to be a few of the series I like reading/watching, for one reason or another. Speaking of genres, terms like "Shounen" (teenage boys), "Shoujo" (teenage girls), "Seinen" (young men), or "Jousei" (young women) refer to target demographics, not necessarily to their content. For instance...

• Claymore: A series mostly about an action girl, Clare, who just happens to be one of the eponymous "half-youma youma slayers" (shounen).
• Natsume's Book of Friends: A slice-of-life series following the life of a teenage boy, Takashi Natsume, in which some (okay, a lot) of the (at times life threatening) problems he deals with involves his ability to see youkai...sometimes they're referred to as "ayakashi", oh well... (Shoujo).

And let's not forget a certain series that focuses on the antics of a teenage girl who's always looking for interesting things, and by "interesting" we mean "stuff that's obviously supernatural. And, maybe it's because both Claymore and this series have a male point-of-view character, "Haruhi Suzumiya" is...a seinen series. So, like I said at the beginning, Haruhi Suzumiya is a man's series! (No, I'm not repeating the Zeta Gundam joke!)

*Looks up* Wow, look the number of topic transitions I had to make to go from something that leaves me feeling distressed (the abuses of the aforementioned gaming group) to something I more enjoy talking about (facts and trivia involving the series I love so much)! And I'd rather not turn this blog about something I love into a criticism of an abusive group's sheltering of an asshole (a "hole" that spouts nothing but bullshit and hot air) who's likely to rape someone interfering with something else I love, tabletop role-playing games. But, if that's necessary to prevent someone else from getting hurt as badly or worse, then that's a burden I must shoulder...

Overthinking Things: Painfull Memories - Natsume Yuujincho vs Watamote

As I might've implied in a previous post, I (Like most people nowadays) have some very bad, and yes painful, memories of my middle and high school days. I've only watched the first three episodes of Watamote and I've been reminded of said painful days (as I've typed in the aforementioned post, especially during the first episode of my middle school days). And, although not for the same reasons (obviously), I can sort of understand how Takashi Natsume felt when he remembers his own painful memories of being rejected by his classmates. But still...

Overthinking Things: Natsume Yuujinchou, a partial fanon confirmation (plus a tangent on Homestuck troll shipping).

Friday I finally got my hands on a copy of Volume 14 of Natsume's Book of Friends. And while, yes the first chapter involved about exactly what I thought it did (Takashi literally losing his voice) a bit from one of the other chapters inside was a surprise...and not in the bad way.

Overthinking Things: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and Natsume's Book of Friends.

While, there's a lot I can say about what's different between them...



One's a show about a socially-awkward protagonist who learns how to interact with others and there's strange creatures and magic involved; and in the other, most of the cast are brightly-colored equines.

Yes, I just did a bait-and-switch comparison, but in this case that's not intended to be an insult. I'm a huge fan of both shows, and maybe that's why I can see this similarity between these otherwise different shows from different cultures. And yes, I know Natsume Yuujinchou is available in the States officially in subtitled form while My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is officially available in Japan in dubbed form (under the title "My Little Pony: Tomodachi wa Mahou" no less).

Fan Fiction Spotlight: The Human Mask

"The Human Mask" a Natsume Yuujinchou fan fiction described by author harunekonya as, "An inter-connected vignette series." it's the continuation/sequel to a one-shot called "Worthy of a Name", which can be summed up as "Misuzu tricks Takashi Natsume into becoming someone worthy of holding onto his name, a yokai god."

But Takashi, in either fics, is most certainly NOT a God-Mode Sue. In fact, the reason I'm putting the proverbial spot light on this fic in particular is because aside from the fact that the synopsis becomes "Yokai god and former human learns to both control his new found powers and learn the social rules of the yokai world while keeping up appearances of still being human among humans", the eponymous 'Human Mask' (even though oddly enough he ends up wearing an actual mask...in yokai form), it still feels like something that could come out of the original series itself. To say nothing of (at the time of posting) the (by now fixed) debacle about the first one or two versions of chapter 60. As harunekonya learns the hard way that, and I quote from the authors notes of chapter 61, "never, ever, EVER attempt to write when you're jetlagged [sic]. It is a bad idea."

In other words, it's (maybe) an Elseworld fic that manages to also include the Original Flavour (yes, I know that's British spelling) like the original series, there's no cannon ships anywhere. Even then, I already mentioned the reason why I'm not going to mention any Natsume Yuujinchou fan fic that does include shipping (If you know what I mean, wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say no more, say no more!).

Point is, if you like Natsume Yuujinchou itself, I highly recommend this fan fiction.