Initially, I never really liked Chihiro. I don’t dislike her so to speak, just that as far as the girls of TWGOK are concerned she is bland and not as interesting as the other girls (my personal favourite being Shiori). After all, isn’t that the point? She is supposed to be a normal girl, the sort that are, as Keima puts it “usually delegated to the background or nothing more than the lead heroine’s friend at best”, a support character to put it simply. She deals with ‘real’ mundane problems unlike the extravagant scenarios that the other capture targets faced e.g. heir to the dojo, the shy introvert librarian, the yamato nadeshiko and other ‘standard’ archetypes in anime.
However, while she as a character is not one of my favourite, her story arc is certainly one of the more notable ones. Keima’s interactions with the other girls are pretty much just parody and references to galge conventions whereas his interactions with Chihiro serve provide the main bulk of development in the series, such as how she was the first person to throw Keima off his game. Simply because she is a normal girl, the sort that Keima has absolutely no idea on how to deal with. Sure, her personality may not be as unique as the other girls. She may not have any notably quirk or eccentricity. But that does not mean that she s bland or boring. Props to the author for actually being able to make her side of the story stand out.
Furthermore, the dynamics between both of them got even more engaging during the Goddess arc, where once again, Chihiro was the only girl to mess up his tempo. At that time, I predicted Chihiro to be the only girl to not have a Goddess, by virtue of being the only normal girl and really, the pic of the concert sums it all up.
So now, with the end of the Goddess arc, here’s a post of appreciation to the normal girl, the individual that is often overshadowed in fiction, who nonetheless deserves to have her own spotlight and attention.
水曜日 Wednesdays' Wanderings 