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Do you like Yamada? [from B Gata H Kei]




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HaruhiToy



Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 4118
PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 1:00 pm Reply with quote
I am referring of course to B Gata H Kei's heroine. I am more interested in the character than the anime.

I got this a couple of weeks back and have been watching it off an on (two episodes to go) and have been entertained somewhat. It has been a bit uneven but my real problem is I don't really like "romances" where sooooo much screen time is devoted to the characters being completely unable to take action at critical moments. (stutter stutter gag tremble blue) Since that describes most anime romances and BGHK is no different so I live with it.

Maybe the thing I like about her the most is that she a pretty goofball while being susceptible of being so fixated on a goal that she forgets what she is doing most of the the time and gets in her own way. She is also nowhere near as "perverted" as she thinks she is but that is of course the whole story. (that would be a spoiler if it weren't so obvious.)

On the other hand she comes off as conceited and self absorbed. If you met a real girl like her in high school, how would you react?

[EDIT: Made your thread title more specific. -TK]
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EricJ



Joined: 03 Sep 2009
Posts: 876
PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 1:33 pm Reply with quote
HaruhiToy wrote:
I am referring of course to B Gata H Kei's heroine.


Oh. Confused
For a second, I didn't know whether you'd misspelled "Yamato", or were asking about My Neighbors, the Yamadas.
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TitanXL



Joined: 08 Jun 2010
Posts: 4036
PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:56 pm Reply with quote
One of my favorite girls of 2010 for sure.
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HaruhiToy



Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 4118
PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 7:48 pm Reply with quote
Maybe I should refine my question a bit.

I find myself sometimes turned off by her, then another moment engaged. If a character generates that kind of ambivalence, it's a sign of (but not proof of) a worthwhile character. It could be just bad writing, and although BGHK is somewhat mundane it isn't badly written.

So how do you call it: is Yamada cute or annoying? Or both?
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Splitter



Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 1276
Location: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 8:19 pm Reply with quote
She makes me want to see Yukari Tamura voice more tsundere characters.
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Kruszer



Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 8016
Location: Minnesota, USA
PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 8:26 pm Reply with quote
She is highly amusing and that's all that really counts in a comedy. More so in English, with the expanded vocabulary of crude insults and euphemisms for sex. Whether or not I like the character is rendered null and void in a comedy personally as bad characters can still be funny and whether or not I laugh at a comedy is all that matters to me when I watch it.
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ArsenicSteel



Joined: 12 Jan 2010
Posts: 2370
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:13 am Reply with quote
Quote:
More so in English, with the expanded vocabulary of crude insults and euphemisms for sex.


The Japanese track lacked vocabulary? Please tell me how limited her vernacular for sexual act was.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15891
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 5:18 am Reply with quote
Well she was kind of an oddity, some people found her to be a good break away from the standard and showing that girls could be just as interested in sex as guys. Personally, to be honest, I found her to be too much of a vehicle to push the concept, although somewhat refreshing. I did have a particular fondness foe some of her acts, like stopping to poke a stick at a dirty magazine.

I also thought quite highly of her friend's character, openly being stated to having had sex with her boyfriend, but being rather mature about it.
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HaruhiToy



Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 4118
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 10:55 am Reply with quote
DuskyPredator wrote:
I also thought quite highly of her friend's character, openly being stated to having had sex with her boyfriend, but being rather mature about it.


Voiced perfectly by Cherami Leigh, who also is outstanding in Sekirei and Fairy Tail.

Also noteworthy is the little sister, providing a second straight-man at need.

Neither of the side-kick characters could carry a show on their own, and Yamada couldn't carry a show on her own. Yet I wanted to see more of little sister and Takeshita when Yamada was giving me a headache.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4287
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 11:14 am Reply with quote
ArsenicSteel wrote:
Quote:
More so in English, with the expanded vocabulary of crude insults and euphemisms for sex.


The Japanese track lacked vocabulary? Please tell me how limited her vernacular for sexual act was.


I'll just say that the Japanese track didn't use its language selection as one of the main sources of humor and move along.

Did I like the character Yamada? Yes and I knew girls like her in high school. She's got the lead role in a romance for guys where the girl on the outset is as perverted as many guys but when pushed, even by herself, she becomes more conservative and shy in thought and action. I wouldn't describe her as tsundere; Her conflict isn't between love and dislike but rather extreme lust and pure love. But I do love Tamura's work in the role as well.

She's definitely a jerk at the start but even as she stalks the nobody Kosuda with her hands in the obvious "sneaking" gesture, I find it hard to hate her for it. "If it wasn't for the last part{flashing Kosuda}, she'd just be an obnoxious girl." Yes, that's who she was.

I guess the closest I can get to describing why and how I like her is to compare her to Wile E Coyote, the classic villain comedy protagonist. We like to see him fail, we like to see how he fails through his own ineptitude and bad luck but there's a small bit of something in us that would like to see him catch the Road Runner in order to satisfy his own desires. Of course, when that happens, the series is over.

Yes, she's a stalker and an attempted rapist but this is a comedy and she fails utterly. Even in understanding her own desires and wants.
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