I've been reading this new manga called Kamisama Kazoku, about a boy who is the son of gods and trying to live in the human world. It's all about hijinks about wacky parents and siblings, the expected tsundere-ish childhood friend, and the typical bland male lead. Shit, how many times do you people have to recycle the Tenchi formula, goddamit?! Well, at least it doesn't seem like he's attracting females for no readily apparent reason (at least, not yet anyway).
The thing is, as far as personality-less main characters leads go, this whole setting would actually -work - with Shinji Ikari in there as the protagonist. True, he's still boring and a loser, but we know that instead of a life spent doing nothing really worthwhile (like most of these 'ordinary high school student' leads do) the reader would start off with the knowledge that it's from deep-seated mental trauma. Gendo and Yui already act over-protective or indulgent in some of the AU manga, this is just ramping up how much they can affect things to boy's well-being. The thing is, given that humanity went Tang, there is also additional reinforcement for suspension of disbelief should anyone arbitrarily possess reality-warping powers. In Kamisama no Kazoku, the boy is to become a 'candidate for godhood'. Who judges their worthiness? What tests are there to define being responsible enough to possess such powers? Isn't there any regulating force to keep many gods around from abusing their powers to make 'miracles' as these people seem to do all the time? Transplant the setting into a Post-Impact Instrumentality and again it just -works-, with or without a background. Shinji's sheer blandness would actually turn out to be INTERESTING.
They could be preparing Shinji to accept his new role as humanity's new Adam with or without his knowledge of the fact. Asuka may be that tsundere-ish childhood friend or a competitor. Rei would be an awesome yandere either way.
There are a LOT of possible plot hooks from this setting, and damn they're all being thrown away for more stale and predictable school-life comedy. What about the problem of free will? What about the Antagonist, in that often they drive the plot more than the protagonist does? Why.... -anything-?!
Imagine what it would be like inside his head. He has clear memories that the world has died, and yet all around him is life and laughter. If he -fails- somehow it will never become real again. If it just involved an Evangelion, he could fight, but his task was different. He doesn't have to be a leader, he just has to be -normal-. A good, normal person. Had he ever really considered himself a good person? Life was full of pain, and he had condemned the entire human race into oblivion once before. How can he convince them all to come back?
This is like Haruhi Suzumiya in reverse. He -knows- he's supposed to live as vibrantly as possible, he knows the power that he should have, BUT for all encouragement he just has difficulty feeling anything. I wish there was more of this story, so I can subvert the hell out of it. There are other fanfics around that play around with this possibility, but only to the extent of pulling a harem scenario. Some drive an eldritch undercurrent past veneer of normal life. However, has anyone really considered what it would be like to try and FIX that psychological mess once it's done? Imagine the tremendous GUILT a boy, apparently just any other fifteen-year old high schooler, has to carry with him every single day. Worse yet, no one blames him, for no one remembers. This is a boy who once, for all intents and purposes, committed suicide- but it was the world that died instead. He knows now that hiding won't make it stop hurting. Only by making it -right- again could the pain diminish even a little.
But he's still socially a loser as he'd ever been. His good deeds backfire. Those who are trying to make him happy only mess things up even further.
Even without an obvious antagonist, there could still be tension as per the conflict of Man Against Self. As long as he feels he doesn't deserve to be happy, nothing will change. However, how could he possibly 'redeem' himself while being forced to live out a typical high school student's life with only so much time and opportunities to perform good deeds? Even then, assuming he manages to make other people happy, how could it possibly match up to the massive sin of letting Third Impact happen? He could try being a vigilante at night, but... oh, yeah, he's -scrawny-. A detective like say, Conan Edogawa? Oh, wait, he's no genius either. Those who know the 'real' him say it's perfectly fine to indulge his own desires and reach for his dreams with his own power, but... one) he doesn't really believe that it's -right- and B) what power? .
Strangely enough, he'd be happiest as butler or something. But no. Torturous matriculation for joo, Shinji-kun.
Hmm. In Shinji&WH40k, I've examined what it would be like to have living gods walking around the modern world. Here, there is the opportunity to examine the concept of powerlessness, as like in Paul in Corinthians "When I am weak, I am strong." But how to make it FUNNY? Ah.
Any suggestions?
While I'd like to write this, there are too many other things that need to be done first. Bpen has a sad. ~_~
I wonder what would happen if we substitute other bland harem targets with Shinji Ikari? Most of them are simply too damn oblivious, unable to why anyone would ever like them or incapable of choosing between girls. Shinji Ikari would be the same, but his own feelings of inferiority would lead to freaking the fuck out. Y'know what annoyed me about Skysaber's characters? That they would be pursued by hordes of women and yet run from them because they're just that chaste and pure and perfectly polite that way, the smug self-satisfied assholes fearing intimacy over the more mundane task of fighting supervillains. Within Shinji Ikari in those situations (how about, say, Rosario + Vampire) he has a perfectly legitimate reason to actually be -scared- of female contact. Hell, any human contact.
So... many... potential plotlines. Suggest a harem series and imagine how it would be like if he was the lead. The only real problem would be that Rei and Asuka would have to show up somewhere, somehow. They're linked inextricably, like some form of new trinity.
*Hey, are there any NGE/Fate Stay Night crossovers?
edit:
Oh, there's an anime out of this. Hmm. Is it a bad sign that you've been in the fanfiction scene for too long if you end up buying seemingly crappy anime just for the sake of imagining how fanfiction could make it better? Really, really good stories can encourage (bad) fanfics while others make them unnecessary since the audience feels there's nothing more that can bee added or taken away. Flawed shows are fanfic fodder; as ref the glut of Naruto and Harry Potter fanfics. Before that had Buffy as the 'mainstream fanfic line', and Ranma pushed the fanfic boom in the younger Web, and before that Star Trek and Star Wars.
The thing is, as far as personality-less main characters leads go, this whole setting would actually -work - with Shinji Ikari in there as the protagonist. True, he's still boring and a loser, but we know that instead of a life spent doing nothing really worthwhile (like most of these 'ordinary high school student' leads do) the reader would start off with the knowledge that it's from deep-seated mental trauma. Gendo and Yui already act over-protective or indulgent in some of the AU manga, this is just ramping up how much they can affect things to boy's well-being. The thing is, given that humanity went Tang, there is also additional reinforcement for suspension of disbelief should anyone arbitrarily possess reality-warping powers. In Kamisama no Kazoku, the boy is to become a 'candidate for godhood'. Who judges their worthiness? What tests are there to define being responsible enough to possess such powers? Isn't there any regulating force to keep many gods around from abusing their powers to make 'miracles' as these people seem to do all the time? Transplant the setting into a Post-Impact Instrumentality and again it just -works-, with or without a background. Shinji's sheer blandness would actually turn out to be INTERESTING.
They could be preparing Shinji to accept his new role as humanity's new Adam with or without his knowledge of the fact. Asuka may be that tsundere-ish childhood friend or a competitor. Rei would be an awesome yandere either way.
There are a LOT of possible plot hooks from this setting, and damn they're all being thrown away for more stale and predictable school-life comedy. What about the problem of free will? What about the Antagonist, in that often they drive the plot more than the protagonist does? Why.... -anything-?!
Imagine what it would be like inside his head. He has clear memories that the world has died, and yet all around him is life and laughter. If he -fails- somehow it will never become real again. If it just involved an Evangelion, he could fight, but his task was different. He doesn't have to be a leader, he just has to be -normal-. A good, normal person. Had he ever really considered himself a good person? Life was full of pain, and he had condemned the entire human race into oblivion once before. How can he convince them all to come back?
This is like Haruhi Suzumiya in reverse. He -knows- he's supposed to live as vibrantly as possible, he knows the power that he should have, BUT for all encouragement he just has difficulty feeling anything. I wish there was more of this story, so I can subvert the hell out of it. There are other fanfics around that play around with this possibility, but only to the extent of pulling a harem scenario. Some drive an eldritch undercurrent past veneer of normal life. However, has anyone really considered what it would be like to try and FIX that psychological mess once it's done? Imagine the tremendous GUILT a boy, apparently just any other fifteen-year old high schooler, has to carry with him every single day. Worse yet, no one blames him, for no one remembers. This is a boy who once, for all intents and purposes, committed suicide- but it was the world that died instead. He knows now that hiding won't make it stop hurting. Only by making it -right- again could the pain diminish even a little.
But he's still socially a loser as he'd ever been. His good deeds backfire. Those who are trying to make him happy only mess things up even further.
Even without an obvious antagonist, there could still be tension as per the conflict of Man Against Self. As long as he feels he doesn't deserve to be happy, nothing will change. However, how could he possibly 'redeem' himself while being forced to live out a typical high school student's life with only so much time and opportunities to perform good deeds? Even then, assuming he manages to make other people happy, how could it possibly match up to the massive sin of letting Third Impact happen? He could try being a vigilante at night, but... oh, yeah, he's -scrawny-. A detective like say, Conan Edogawa? Oh, wait, he's no genius either. Those who know the 'real' him say it's perfectly fine to indulge his own desires and reach for his dreams with his own power, but... one) he doesn't really believe that it's -right- and B) what power? .
Strangely enough, he'd be happiest as butler or something. But no. Torturous matriculation for joo, Shinji-kun.
Hmm. In Shinji&WH40k, I've examined what it would be like to have living gods walking around the modern world. Here, there is the opportunity to examine the concept of powerlessness, as like in Paul in Corinthians "When I am weak, I am strong." But how to make it FUNNY? Ah.
Any suggestions?
While I'd like to write this, there are too many other things that need to be done first. Bpen has a sad. ~_~
I wonder what would happen if we substitute other bland harem targets with Shinji Ikari? Most of them are simply too damn oblivious, unable to why anyone would ever like them or incapable of choosing between girls. Shinji Ikari would be the same, but his own feelings of inferiority would lead to freaking the fuck out. Y'know what annoyed me about Skysaber's characters? That they would be pursued by hordes of women and yet run from them because they're just that chaste and pure and perfectly polite that way, the smug self-satisfied assholes fearing intimacy over the more mundane task of fighting supervillains. Within Shinji Ikari in those situations (how about, say, Rosario + Vampire) he has a perfectly legitimate reason to actually be -scared- of female contact. Hell, any human contact.
So... many... potential plotlines. Suggest a harem series and imagine how it would be like if he was the lead. The only real problem would be that Rei and Asuka would have to show up somewhere, somehow. They're linked inextricably, like some form of new trinity.
*Hey, are there any NGE/Fate Stay Night crossovers?
edit:
Oh, there's an anime out of this. Hmm. Is it a bad sign that you've been in the fanfiction scene for too long if you end up buying seemingly crappy anime just for the sake of imagining how fanfiction could make it better? Really, really good stories can encourage (bad) fanfics while others make them unnecessary since the audience feels there's nothing more that can bee added or taken away. Flawed shows are fanfic fodder; as ref the glut of Naruto and Harry Potter fanfics. Before that had Buffy as the 'mainstream fanfic line', and Ranma pushed the fanfic boom in the younger Web, and before that Star Trek and Star Wars.