When we watch a show or movie we all like to sympathize with a character. Usually that character is the most like us or at least in science fiction, the most human character. Therefore, when we watch superhero movies with protagonists who possess powers which we cannot relate to we feel a little left out or at least slightly less attached. As we mature we of course only notice these things subliminally or only through repeated exposure, and the loss of interest. The need to make a superhero like Batman more believable is to make him more gritty, more relate able to our everyday struggles. He is of course human, and compared to other superheroes the most human, possessing only the powers of insights, James Bond X Q’s intelligence, and simply being quick on his feet. Its difficult to create these kind of situations in movies or shows that are dominated by powerful beings, and its difficult to find an attraction to characters that are weaker than others. Therefore, it seems quite smart to put a character in the show that resembles the viewers. Like adding humans to Transformers, a guy with some overbearing sense of justice, or on the opposite scale a person that would make the same mistakes as the audience helps people relate the movie or show to their own mundane lives.
In the anime, A Certain Scientific Railgun, I find that the addition of a character with no powers, among a group of users with strong powers to weak powers really gives the audience a dimension where they can relate to the characters. We can see the anime from Saten’s position, and she, like us would want to be just like the strongest characters in Railgun (Spinoff) or A Certain Magical Index (original series). Dramas and movies usually throw in a fistful of characters and we try to relate to one or the other, and hope they ask questions we think about or make the same choices we would in that situation. I feel Saten accurately represents the viewers, and like in Index, a person with no power except the ability to cancel powers, was as close as we got. In Railgun it was taken further, except she isn’t the main character, but a side character that throws a bit of reality in a fistful of impossible situations. She isn’t overbearing like the humans are in the recent Transformer movies. In those movies, you start to wonder if the robots are just one dimensional beings, and the humans are the only characters that can change and save the Autobots (good guys). Without characters like Satan to provide a reality check, you could write any unbelievable story and have people either love or hate it. She is a character which aids the main characters without being too annoying or asking too many questions. Her ability is in fact the ability to pull us back from the anime and back into our everyday life, and hopefully her emotions and thoughts will carry over into our daily life. So what if we don’t have powers ourselves? She shows us we share something in common with those who have power. We share similar feelings, we’ll make the same choices under different circumstances, and we’ll explore the possibilities together without being too preachy.
Today’s News: Cleaning, Sushi, Don Kiote and arcade.
