analysis

How Aggretsuko Tackles Multiple Important Subjects

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

As you may guess, I’ve been analyzing  Aggretsuko lately.  I just ran a marathon of the series for a different group of friends.  This dark office comedy from Sanrio bears multiple viewings because it’s a well-crafted show.  It just happens to look cute until you realize what’s going on.

Having seen it again with another group of people, many more insights came to mind.  These provide good advice to writers, but also are an example of another point – good media is worthy of a repeat performance so you can learn from it.

As the rewatch progressed, several major traits of the show became apparent. Let’s discuss them first.

By the way SPOILERS.

Let’s talk the women of Aggretsuko.

  • First, it’s about the rage and anger women feel – and often sit on.  Though the main character is clearly filled with rage, other women in her sphere have dealt with problems as well.  They all coped with it their own way – while admitting it’s awful.
  • The show is also about strong and positive female friendships and mentorships.  The women help each other out, and there’s little of the stereotypical catty infighting female characters are often saddled with.  The relationships among everyone aren’t always healthy (indeed that’s true of the entire show), but there’s a lot of positive female-female interactions.  It was delightful.
  • Retsuko is a great and flawed main character.  Totally understandable, obviously making mistakes, forging ahead.  We’ve all known people like her and probably been her.
  • Many ways to be female.  Aggretsuko, in the character of Gori (one of my favorite characters), takes on common tropes about women.  Gori is portrayed as a large and strong gorilla – in fact she tries to increase her strength.  However, though there’s humor in how she shows off her muscles, she’s not portrayed as un-femminine but actually very feminine.  Gori in fact seems to delight in being “girly,” fashionable, talking relationships and more – and of course perfecting her perfect walk so she and her friend Washimi appear utterly badass.
  • Washimi, Gori’s partner in adventure, is a supportive mentor figure.  She’s honest about the problems of the world, but is also supportive of her fellow women.  Strong and capable, she’s also very caring – strength does not mean cruelty or ego to her.  Washimi is another character we need more about.
  • Finally, consummate butt-kisser Tsunoda turns out to know exactly what she’s doing, manipulating the ego of her manager.  It may not be admirable, but she knows what she’s doing, she has the power, and she’s making people’s lives easier.

I can’t explain how much of the show is a delight because of these female characters.  This weekend I and my co-author spoke on our book on Sailor Moon, Her Eternal Moonlight – and much like that series, it has a diverse cast of great female characters.  There’s no “designated girl” – there’s just women.

Now let’s talk the male characters.

  • Haida, the Internet’s New Boyfriend, is a great example of a nice guy who doesn’t become a Nice Guy.  He’s a decent person, not perfect, but a reliable person.  He screws up by not being able to express his feelings – and everyone pays for it, as often happens in real life.
  • Retsuke, Retsuko’s love interest is fascinating.  He honestly comes off as autistic or otherwise not neurotypical, and considering the work that went into the show, I assume this is intentional.  He’s clearly kind but also terribly unaware of what he’s doing.  I actually hope we get to understand him more – because as noted, I think his portrayal is more than “spacey” and a lot could be done here to understand people.
  • The Yoga Instructor, a big stereotypical monosyllabic jock – actually cares about his charges and helps advance relationships.  Sure he’s kind of a plot device but he’s a well-meaning one.
  • Manumaru the big, feline bro-buddy to Retsuke is a great example of someone a mix of both good traits and toxic masculinity.  He’s clearly fun to be with, boisterous, likeable, and cares about Retsuke.  He’s also pushy, doesn’t help Retsuke understand emotional issues, and can ignore the feelings of others.  He’s another one I’d like to see more of because such a character with good or bad traits could be fascinating to explore – and clearly hit it off with Fenneko.
  • Mister Ton.  The literal sexist pig of the series could have been a one-shot no personality villain; he’s a stew of toxic masculinity.  As it goes on we find there are different sides to him – and while many of those sides are still “jerk” not all of them are.  Most importantly he does seem to have some respect for Aggretsuko – he thinks SHE will be the boss one day, and its clear he remembers their musical battle when he councils her on her relationship.  Most interesting to me is how he rallies his team to help with a deadline and becomes a different person – I’ve met people like this who’s best sides come out in a crisis and fade when the crisis is gone.

Aggretsuko shows us plenty of positive women, exploring character types and ideas we just don’t get enough of.  On top of that, it even gives us some look at the different men in the character’s lives and their own flaws.  Of course many of the flaws of the male characters make the lives of the women around them worse – and they don’t realize it – which is a good point to remember.

Once again on a second viewing, I found so much in this show.  I’m sure one day I’ll find even more.

– Steve

Speculation: Living Without Facebook And Twitter?

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

Facebook was used to harvest data by a highly unethical and bizarre campaign firm, Cambridge Analytica, to sway the US elections resulting in a worldwide scandal, with more coming out all the time. Twitter has terrible controls and policing and still seems infested with bots and haters. It’s not looking good for social media out there.

I saw someone post recently (I think, ironically, on Twitter) that the internet becgan being less beneficial with Twitter and Facebook became prominent. That got me thinking as my instinct, as a technophile, is to not believe that any technology is bad. My instinct was there, but it wasn’t defending itself very well.

So I’m going to try a thought experiment – what would happen if I suddenly gave up Facebook and/or Twitter? What if they vanished?Let’s learn from this experiment.

FACEBOOK

OK, so Facebook gives us a massively integrated service. Messaging, posting, building groups, events, and more. it integrated with OTHER services as well. It’s a one-stop shop of things – which of course was part of the problem for data mining, because it’s a great place to get tons of data and influence people.

My intended use for it is:

  • Keep in touch with friends and family.
  • Post about my books and projects and provide a way to be reached.
  • Schedule events without using email or Meetup.com.
  • Find people I forgot about.

In addition I use it for:

  • Reading and posting random funny stuff.
  • Occasional ranting.

Right here I see that one of the big advantages of Facebook is twofold – integrated services and everyone else using it. However it’s the latter that means a lot more to me – Facebook is successful as people are using it. If no one else was using it I wouldn’t care, it’d just be an interesting thing.

So if Facebook vanished then I’d:

  • Keep up with friends and family in other ways. I’d probably use mailing lists and chat programs more.
  • I’d read more friend’s blogs/tumblrs to keep up with them.
  • I’d schedule things via email, meetup.com, or google.
  • I’d get random stuff through tumblr.
  • I’d promote my projects differently and probably focus more on blogs and newsletters.

Hmmm. Sounds like that “integration” and “everyone uses it” thing is a big part of Facebook. Those are things that can be done elsewhere (integration) or change (mass exodus from Facebook).

Let’s try Twitter.

TWITTER

Yes, I know Twitter is a swamp of BS, bots, hate. it’s also a great focused Microblogging service and good for news feeds. I am going to passionately note that the current Twitter could have been something better – a microblogging and news alert system. But I get ahead of myself, though it reveals I probably like Twitter more than Facebook.

So what do I use Twitter for?

  • Screaming into the void.
  • Following friends doing the above or doing something useful.
  • Getting newsfeeds and updates and re-posting them.
  • Sort-of chatting.
  • Microblogging.
  • Promoting my work and networking.
  • Finding and enjoying funny stuff or weird stuff.

I can’t say there’s anything that surprises me. That also tells me I’m kinda more open about my Twitter usage.

So looking at this it tells me my Twitter usage is broader and more passionate. I get updates that are important, post stuff, and communicate. I’m not scheduling events or anything, just communicating, listening, or yelling. Again it makes me appreciate the odd purity of Twitter.

But what if Twitter vanished and there was no replacement? What would I do?

  • Get my news via newsfeeds.
  • I’d probably discuss news more in my blogs.
  • I’d probably join some news discussion groups and sites and use them.
  • I’d focus a lot more on my newsletters for promoting my work.
  • I’d do different marketing for my work.
  • I’d definitely look more to tumblr for weird and silly stuff.

This tells me that, again, I actually like Twitter more than Facebook, which I may have to process for awhile. Also almost everything it does can be done elsewhere, though not as fast. Twitter is a sort of blog/message board/RSS fusion.

WAIT WHAT IF BOTH VANISHED?

OK if Twitter and Facebook both vanished what would I do? I think it’s obvious – everything would be back to blogging, newsletters, meetups, chats, and RSS feeds.

Which tells me, that, yes Twitter and Facebook really changed how we used the internet. If they vanished my life would basically go back to what I did before the service came to be. I’d just have more awareness of the goals, benefits, and disadvantage of integration.

WHAT DID I LEARN?

So thought experiment done. Now what have I learned out of all of this? Here’s what these two social media services give us:

AMPLIFICATION: One reason we love these services is Amplification. They can reach people and reach a TON of people. That’s an obvious answer but it’s very important to understand the power (or illusion of power) Facebook and Twitter give us.

That also means that any potential replacements or new incarnations need to keep this in mind – or we ask if we need it.

INTEGRATION: Is useful, it’s nice to have, and I think we get used to it. It certainly helps when you use something as primary social tool – but it also brings its own problems of data usage, spamming, or time-wasting.

As social media evolves and changing, we’ll need to rethink Integration. What do we need, how do we do it safely, and how often do we care.

AUDIENCE: Twitter and Facebook wouldn’t matter if they hadn’t built their huge user bases. They’re the result of self-fulfilling prophecy. It may be hard to get people off the platforms, but clearly audience matters.

This also means they’re vulnerable as part of their weight is just weight – we want that audience.

CONNECTION: We want to connect with people. These services give that – or the illusion of that at the very least. We value that.

We might question if we’re actually connecting in a useful or appropriate or healthy way. I’m wondering, as I examine this, if there may be some problems here. It’s not always deep connection.

COMMUNICATION: We want to know what’s up. Obviously. In many ways Social Media isn’t remarkable as there’s just so many ways to do this, Social Media just adds all the above.

I question if we’re communicating that well via social media considering the various joke posts, bot posts, etc. Maybe we’re not really communicating.

In the end, Facebook and Twitter don’t do anything unusual, they integrate things, streamline them, and bring a big audience and access. Ther’es nothing wrong with this of course, it’s just as I step back I see how they built on known services and our desires.

I think they’ve proven to be both problems and benefits. I view them as neutrals-to-sort-of-good – but deeply flawed and manipulated. Sometimes I think they both cause and solve problems, which seems a bit of a wash.

If they vanished, though, or I stopped using them I could live without them. Anyone could, we’d just have to rethink how we interact (which maybe we ought to do anyway). It’d just be back to the earlier internet – but we did learn valuable lessons in what we need and want.

MOVING FORWARD

After this little exercise it’s given me a few things to think about with social media, our dependence, our issues, our mistakes. There’s probably a lot more to come out of this.

I have a few changes I’m making:

  • I’m going to be more thoughtful on my social media and what I use it for.
  • I want to cultivate more intimate discussions through my various media.
  • I don’t want to depend on any one kind of media.
  • It’s pretty clear I use Social Media to waste a lot of time and need to rethink that.

As for the future of Twitter and Facebook? Well in a way they’r enothing specual or unique, and they can’t (and won’t) stay the same forever o rbe forever. Things are changing, how they change – and how others change – is going to be something to watch.

But I can choose what I do.

– Steve

A Writer’s View: A May Roundup

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

I figure with all the writing I do and have planned, it’d be fun, educational, and good experience to reguarly share my findings on writing.  So . . . I am.  Probably about once a week or so I’ll spew forth the latest seltzer water of wisdom I happen to have handy.

Right now most of these insights come from my first public fiction project, “A Bridge To The Quiet Planet.”  I’ve written fiction a lot before, have edited, have consulted, but figured it was time to return to fiction in style – with a novel.  Short summary: science fiction/fantasy fusion combination of road-trip and religious pilgrimage goes dreadfully wrong.

So the insights to share for May – any one of these might become a later column.

  • Agile works really well for writing – the mindset and the methods.
  • Writing is about loops, finding cycles and patterns in your story.  Because of this plotting one idea may lead to changes, expansions, or new ideas.
  • Never assume anything in your story is “true” until it’s written – discovery is part of the process.
  • Look for Congruence – when things “feel” right.  You want this on all levels of your work, and before you move on from one thing (say from a character idea to a character outline) make sure things “feel” right.
  • Your inner voice is probably right.  The voice that comes after that voice and points out all its flaws is probably less reliable.
  • When plotting, your story may become “timey-wimey” – ideas later on may influence earlier sections.  That’s fine.
  • Characters are the true measure of your world and writing – knowing them means you know your world and story.
  • Characters are a great way to discover your world – designing them makes you ask specific questions you may have missed.
  • Think of your audience – keep them in mind in your writing, what you say, what you deliver.
  • Enthusiasm beats self-loathing for a writer every time. Better to succeed by creating better than tearing down.
  • Beware “Big Rock” ideas that you’re so committed too they drag the story and other ideas down.
  • Don’t “commit” too early to ideas, concepts, or scenes.
  • A small change may quickly scale up and affect your story.
  • Give yourself a place to record ideas without commuting to them.
  • Start over as early as possible so you don’t have to later.  My restarting the plotting cost me 4-6 weeks, but I can’t imagine what’d have cost me if I’d rammed through with my lame initial plot.

Hope these give you something to think about!
– Steve