Aki-chan's Life
|
A visit to the Grandparents - "This is where Mama came from?" - 196
|
|
|
|
|
Well, this has been coming for a while. Already since T2t, I kinda went against the trend when it came to Asuka's relation with her step-mom in particular, for a simple reason:
Up to this day, the "Evil Step-parent/sibling"-trope still seems to be very much the norm in media (outside a certain field which we will definitely not get into here >_>).
And frankly, I'm pretty sick and tired of it. In this day and age, given how normal it is by now, you'd think it'd be better represented, but no. Only a few years ago, there was a game that irked me quite a bit in this regard, were I found myself thinking, "oh hey, a nice step-sibling character for a change" - only for that character to stab you in the back later on... :/
And I'm not even from a blended(?) family (I'm more familiar with "Patchwork Familie", but seems like with "Handy", that's more of a German re-invention of an English term). I don't even want to imagine what it must be like for actual step-parents/children who very much love their non-biological children/parents as much as if they were their biological ones to constantly be represented like this.
So yeah, definitely didn't want to just jump onto that train myself.
From Asuka's side of things, I think there are some reasonable arguments for it even (I'll get to that next time ;) ). For "Anja", I knew it be a bit more of a stretch, but still possible - until early in the chapter, I wanted to check up on something and stumbled over this "I don't like her"-line. So I tried to frame it that it's essentially something that slipped out as she was stressed and overwhelmed, simply not being able to get through to Asuka, cause - yeah, being and I think it kinda works in the typical Eva-fashion of "miscommunication" between to people making it impossible to connect for them, no matter how much they'd both want to.
However, as much as I try to stay "canon-compliant" with this, I'm very much aware that it is quite a stretch in this case. She certainly doesn't sound stressed out in that conversation, in fact, it comes across pretty casual. So yeah, the intend might indeed have been to have her as just the stereotypical - well, maybe not "evil", but still snotty and uncaring step-mother beyond the formalities or perhaps beyond how it reflects on her. But yeah, not going with that here.
(Also, I'm aware that there are different translation takes to that line, which essentially goes "I just don't know how to deal with her/that child" - since I don't know Japanese, I can't say which is more accurate, and since I had to pick, I went with the "worst case", even if the other might have fitted my interpretation even better).
On a more technical side, I found myself wishing for more and less space at the same time. On one hand, I struggled a bit with what to portrait at all (I did consider something with Anja snapping more firmly (perhaps even hitting Asuka out of desperation, instead of just Asuka being the aggressor while Anja still puts herself down over it), but that might have been counter-productive for the next one). Yet for some of these, I kinda would have liked to show more.
Did a bit of a (not quite) last-minute change with Anja's hair; initially had it like it is now, but then I figured, this is ten-ish years earlier, she might have worn it a bit different. So off went the ponytail. :P
|
|
|
|
