Anime Cons When You’re 25+ (Part 2)

May 2, 2019May 3, 2019 ~ giginorez ~ Leave a comment

Per my last post I covered the beginning basics of attending Anime Conventions when you’re Over the Hill. It’s time for us to continue. Please insert coins.

Quick Eats:

You now know how to deal with friends and make sure you get paid for the room. Your next step is to figure out a food budget for the weekend. It’s difficult but not entirely impossible to eat well during a con and hopefully I can help you figure out how to do so. You may be tempted to hit up cafes or local restaurants in order to soothe the rumblies…until you realize the prices are jacked up everywhere you go and EVERYONE HAD THE SAME IDEA AS YOU.

giphy-3 — And before you know it, you crave hands.

Con food is expensive and I say that with full confidence. It doesn’t even taste that great nor is it that filling. My first trip to Anime Central left me feeling empty from the lackluster food choices they had for catering. That and every restaurant in a 5 mile radius will inevitably be full of people in costumes clamoring for calories and I bet you don’t want to deal with that slaughterhouse. So to avoid all this we need to find some alternatives:

Ramen

The easiest to get a hold of and easiest to fix. Most hotel rooms have a microwave and using reusable bowls ensure there’s little trash left over. They come in a variety of flavors and there are different kinds of pre-packaged noodles you can purchase.

Apples and Oranges and Bananas

These fruits travel well and can be eaten quickly on the go. They’re a perfect pick-me-up when you’re out and about and are super nutritious.

Oatmeal

Pre-packaged oatmeal can make a nice breakfast. They usually come in portioned out packets that can either me heated up in the microwave or have hot water poured over them. Having a portable kettle is helpful for this one.

PB&J

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are a surprisingly satisfying meal on their own. The peanut butter gives you protein and the jelly adds some sweetness. Sandwiches are a gift to starving con attendees.

Protein Bars/Trail Mix/Popcorn

Snacking in between meals is IMPORTANT. Always have a power bar or a bag of trail mix on your person. The last thing you’ll want to do is leave a panel early because you’re feeling like you’ll pass out. If possible eat a snack every hour and set a reminder on your phone to remind yourself to stay well-fed.

Potatoes!

You might need to hold onto your seats for this one: potatoes are a good option. If you like baked potatoes and aren’t afraid to bring them to your hotel room you can make some baked potatoes in the microwave. If you want a recipe, click here.

If you want to eat a little fancier there are other options, just make sure you have a surge protector:

Using a pressure cooker/crockpot to make foods like chili, soups, stews, and taco meat. You can click here for some ideas. You can also bring a rice cooker.
If you have a mini fridge you might be able to get some sandwich supplies in there (meat, veggies, cheese).
potato chips and dip
canned soup/pasta

Make sure you’re following hotel room protocol and clean up after yourself. Organize your meal times around your expected con schedule to make sure everyone is well fed. To keep costs down everyone should contribute equally to the food selections. I also suggest bringing reusable bowls and utensils to cut down on waste. Bring dish soap and a sponge to clean bowls afterwards.

Drinking Rules

Drinking happens at cons. Room parties get started and the booze flows like the Nile river. So if you plan on drinking at all you’ve got to prepare yourself to deal with drunk people and being drunk yourself. I’ll lay out a few ground rules for drinkers of all levels and then specific tips for those levels individually.

All Levels

Make sure you eat before and while you’re drinking.
Always hold onto your drink. Don’t give it to anyone. If you don’t feel like drinking anymore, pour it out.
Stay with friends and avoid drinking alone. Make sure everyone has everyone’s phone numbers and phones are charged.
Never let anyone leave alone with anyone.
Avoid mixing alcohol and drugs.
If you’re underage, don’t drink. It will cause problems.
Don’t pressure others to drink if they don’t want to.
If you don’t want to drink, DON’T DRINK. If you’re feeling pressure, it’s okay to leave those people and go elsewhere.
KNOW YOUR LIMITS! If you’re not sure what they are, A CONVENTION IS NOT THE PLACE TO TEST THEM.
DRINK WATER!
Always know where the toilet is.
If someone is making your friend feel uncomfortable, HELP THEM OUT AND INTERVENE. Leave together or (if you’re hosting in your room) kick the perp out. If you’re at a party, tell the host who the creep is before you leave. Hopefully they’ll listen and kick them out.
Don’t let minors drink.

Beginners

Whether you just turned 21 or don’t drink regularly there’s a few rules to help you navigate the world of drinking at cons. I mostly dislike being sloppy drunk and not being in control of myself so I have to limit my alcohol intake regularly.

Hang out with likeminded people. If you don’t drink a lot or just have a few for social reasons, it’s always great to be around people who have similar interests. If a glass of wine will do it for you and a group of friends, great! Drinking isn’t a personality trait and hangovers aren’t fun.
Decide what kind of drinks you want ahead of time. If you only want a rum and coke, don’t do shots. If there’s a party bartender, let them know how much alcohol you want in your drink. They’re usually pretty nice about this, especially if you tip them a dollar.
Have a bottle of water handy. Alcohol dehydrates you and waking up with cotton mouth is gross. If you only have a few (1-2) drinks you might not have to worry about this much.
You have the option to not drink at all. Not drinking is a valid choice.
If you’re not comfortable drinking in large groups you can just have an intimate pajama party with friends in the hotel room and drink there. You’re with people you know, you know where the bathroom is, and there’s no pressure.

Intermediate

If you’re about that age where you can’t drink like you used to, or know your way around a bar you might be intermediate. Many of the rules from beginners applies here as well. You’re probably familiar with hangovers and have a few stories to tell about wild things that happen. Some rules that apply to your level are:

Know your limits but don’t (try to) surpass them.
Look out for your inexperienced friends.
Make sure you all go in with a plan and stick to it. Nobody gets left behind!
If one friend overdoes it, party is over. Everyone leaves and friend gets taken care of. This sounds harsh and a bit of a downer, but it really means a whole lot when everyone gathers around to help a fallen friend.

Expert

If you’re an expert drinker you’ve probably seen/done it all. From throwing up to stumbling home you’ve covered a fair number of bases and probably have that one brand of alcohol that reminds you of a time you nearly died. Guess what? You’ve got rules too!

If you’re the friend who is well-known for getting wasted, this is not exactly a good thing. I’ll let you in on a secret: nobody likes you when you’re sloppy drunk and need a babysitter. Even if you can take care of yourself you’re a liability to others. Moderate yourself.
Don’t start fights! If you know you’re getting drunk under the table and you’re not exactly sure what’s going on, the last thing you need is to fight somebody. If you know you’re prone to do this, moderate yourself.
Don’t try to fuck anyone. If you’ve been drinking and feel like hooking up with someone, wait until you’re sober.
If you know you tend to get loose lips when you’ve been drinking, you may want to rethink your entire strategy or avoid drinking altogether. Like the Beginner Drinker you may want to stick to just drinking with friends or not drinking at all. Drinking is not a personality trait. The last thing you need to do is have drama erupt over something “Drunk You” said. Believe it or not Drunk You and Sober You are the same person and you’re responsible for them.

Hooking Up

Believe it or not some people attend cons just to get laid. I remember a guy asking me if I knew any single girls he could hook up with for the night. Yeah…that actually happened. That said if you’re a grown and responsible adult we should get around to tackling the subject of hooking up at conventions, because lets face it: that stuff happens.

If you and someone plan on hooking up it’s best to be prepared so I have a checklist you’ll want to cover:

Make sure the person you’re banging wants to bang you and they’re in your age range. This goes without saying. Consent is just the standard. Minors cannot consent. End of story.
What are the room rules? If the room says no hooking up, don’t do it. The last thing you want is to deal with a friend getting mad at you for not following the rules.
Do you have protection? Always use protection peeps. If the person you want to bang doesn’t want to use protection, let them go. They aren’t worth the risk.
Know your status.
Don’t feel pressured to put out if you don’t want to. Make sure you’re with people who respect your decision.
Keep it private. Exhibitionism is a kink that can get you registered as a sex offender.
Do communicate properly to all parties involved. Do not do anything not already agreed upon.
Make sure to take precautions to avoid injury and damage to yourself, your parter(s), and any objects in the room you don’t want damaged. Don’t damage or use items that are not yours.
Make sure to enjoy yourself. If things don’t go according to plan, it’s okay!
Don’t cheat on your SO(‘s).

I didn’t have as much to say about this because it all speaks for itself. You know what the rules are, follow them! Hooking up isn’t necessary to have a good time, but hey–whatever rocks your boat.

I’m going to have to make a separate post for cosplay meltdowns and how to take care of your hotel room because it would take up way too much space here. Plus this post isn’t embellished enough. I’m going to have to fix that one.

If you like what I’m writing please consider buying me a ko-fi sometime!

Conventions When You’re 25+ (Part 1)

May 2, 2019May 2, 2019 ~ giginorez ~ Leave a comment

Since my last draft got deleted through a stupid error I am forced to sit up here and re-type as much as I can from memory with (hopefully) better embellishments and new quips. Unfortunately my cat got in my notecards and I’m too lazy to pick them up…

Here goes.

So you want to got to X Convention?

Most times cons are the most fun when you’re young because everything is new and fresh and exciting and you’re just diving in to experience everything. If this isn’t your first time on the block you can start experiencing con burnout. This usually starts to set in around the age of 22. 21 is when you can drink legally and after the novelty wears off you begin to get a little jaded. And I’m sorry to say, it all goes downhill from there.

If you want to go to a con you need to have a plan in place, a sturdy one at that. If you don’t go in with a plan, things can go horribly wrong and good luck trying to get things back on track after that because OOF you’re going to have trouble fixing that one. You can start by asking yourself a few good questions:

What convention do you want to go to? The US has a TON of cons you can attend during just about any time of the year. You can find an extensive list here.
What is your budget? Factor everything from hotel prices to badge prices to the cost of food and travel. Leave no details out.
How many people do you want to go with you? Going to cons with friends can lighten the burden of finances.
Do you plan on buying/making cosplays?

With these questions answered you are well on your way to having a great convention experience. Believe it or not, you can still have fun at cons when you’re 25-plus sun rotations into your lifetime; you just need to factor some variables in.

Golden Rules and CON-Mandments

Conventions can be fun. They can also be taxing and stressful. This can do a massive number on you if you don’t prepare properly. If you’re not careful, you can end up with LOADS of drama and bad memories that you can’t drink away, that an paragraphs long Facebook posts and pics you won’t ever be able to get rid of.

Always Take Your Payment Upfront!

I put this rule at the top because hoo boy I can tell you plenty of stories about people who failed to pay their dues and it did not end well for either party involved. If the hotel is booked in your name–especially if it’s booked in your name, take your payments as soon as possible! This is NOT AN OPTION. The absolute last thing you want to do is show up at your hotel only to learn that so-and-so friend didn’t pay up and now you’re short on money.

Don’t accept “pay later” friends either. Chances are they actually have the money and are just hiding it in order to spend on merch and food. They rarely pay you back in a timely manner and you will be on edge the whole weekend because you had to pay some of your money forward to cover for them. This will create tension in your room that will not go away.

This brings me to my next point…

Make Sure Everyone Has Multiple Methods of Payment!

Be it Cashapp, Paypal, Google Dollar, Venmo, or Square; make sure you are prepared to take payments in ANY form. There are zero excuses for this. If your crew doesn’t have at least 2 of these apps on their phone, they can’t be trusted. Have that money in your account ahead of time. Make sure everyone pays. Anybody who doesn’t pay gets left behind.

Know Your Friends

I’m all for having friends come with me to cons. It’s fun. You all know each other. Memories will be made. But guess what happens? There’s such thing as bringing the wrong friends to the con. It happens, has happened. Be careful of:

Don’t bring broke friends. These are people who can’t pay for anything (food, badge, room).
Don’t bring frienemies. Frienamies aren’t actually fun to be around and will ruin your weekend. Got beef with someone? Don’t bring them. The tension will come to a head and you all will be sorry.
Friends who don’t agree to the rules laid down. If you have rules in place (as you should!) and people don’t agree to abide by them? Ditch them. It’ll become a problem later.
Know everyone who goes in the room. Don’t allow anyone you aren’t close with to be in the room. No friends of friends, no family of friends (unless you now them!), and ABSOLUTELY no one that only ONE person knows. Problems WILL arise from this.

In case you might be wondering why I’m being so harsh, there’s an entire Tumblr dedicated to these kinds of Convention Horror Stories. It speaks for itself.

Set Room Rules

You have to have boundaries. I can’t stress this enough. When you’ve got a limited number of key cards and are running on little sleep, you’re going to hope everyone has your back. SET UP RULES FOR YOUR ROOM! I can’t pound this into the ground any harder than if I had Mjolnir on loan from Thor himself. If you don’t set up rules, things will go South faster than Wile E Coyote discovering gravity.

Don’t know what kind of rules to enforce? I’ll give you a few of my own that I enforce on the regular.

Nobody is allowed in the room who isn’t on the room roster. People have sticky fingers. Incredibly sticky fingers. Things go missing at an alarming rate. And if you have 6+ people going in and out of your room, you will discover your inventory gets cleared out faster than a death in Majora’s Mask.
Sleep times must be arranged and respected. I normally wouldn’t put people in my room who don’t have the same sleep schedule as me, but it does happen sometimes. Make sure you know what times everyone will be in and out and make sure you don’t make too much noise for those who need a little more sleep. If you all are getting up there in age, this shouldn’t be too hard as most of you might make it to bed by 11pm.
No room parties. I don’t host those anymore. They aren’t fun when you’re the one hosting and you can’t make people leave fast enough.
Make proper sleeping arrangements. If you don’t have enough beds/blankets/pillows, you’d better make sure everyone else brings spares because you’re going to lose your shit when people get pissed over not having the hotel bed. I promise you the hotel will NOT have any spare blankets or pillows for anyone. Everyone is going to want a good sleep and having some air mattresses and comforters will make everyone’s stay a little bit happier.

Stay tuned for part 2 where I’ll be tackling:

grocery lists
drinking rules
hooking up
cosplay meltdowns

If you like what I post, please consider buying me a ko-fi sometime.

The Problem With Overwatch (hint: it’s black women)

April 18, 2019April 18, 2019 ~ giginorez ~ Leave a comment

Ever since Overwatch launched in 2016 I was rather interested in the FPS game, which was odd considering I can’t play a FPS to save my life. As I looked at the roster of characters from around the globe and their various abilities I couldn’t help but notice a rather glaring detail missing: nowhere to be seen was an unambiguously black woman from any of the 22 countries mentioned in game.

This made me pause for a second but I continued trying to figure out if I could ever get away with playing Widowmaker on King’s Row when there was already a Hanzo (newsflash: I couldn’t). But as hero reveal begat hero reveal I could feel my heart getting slowly crushed as I realized that nowhere to be found was a hero that looked like me. But where were the dark skinned women?

Ana arrived, then came Sombra, Orisa, and Doomfist. Still no black women. I was confused, Overwatch was an organization of freedom fighters from around the world…why weren’t any black women on the roster? What was Blizzard’s excuse? Well…they kept silent for a while with various teases:

Amazing things you see teased that didn’t make it into game.

And then this showed up:

What you see above is alternate character art for the infamous Nerf or Nothing hero Mercy. My first initial thought was why didn’t they use this? This would’ve been AMAZING! But little did I know that this was little more than epic foreshadowing of the worst varieties.

By the time Moira had been released in November of 2017 I had just had it with the game. When Brigette was released I had stopped playing entirely. I was in disbelief for a while and I stopped entirely. I was no longer surprised and just expected nothing. I was no longer playing the game, it didn’t really matter.

I had almost forgotten about it completely until Ashe showed up. This was by far the most rage-inducing character, not because she was a LoL knockoff.

The real kicker was when I saw her alternative art:

I’d also like to mention alternative character art that got referenced earlier because this was wild. Ashe had alternative character art that depicts a quite clearly dark skinned character that did not get used. Why? Apparently Blizzard had an answer for this here. And upon inspection it appears that they’re answering a question…except they’re not.

They don’t explain why there weren’t any black women heroes in the beginning of the game. They don’t explain why they didn’t use dark skinned character designs and instead opted for a “palpable yet bland” (my words) lighter skinned variety. Why do I say palpable? Well…it seems that Blizzard thinks lighter skinned characters are more relatable/popular with their fanbase and they made three white female heroes in a row—Hamtaro on Steroids notwithstanding. Honestly? What am I supposed to think? Honestly, who cares about McCree’s ex-wife, Great Value Miranda Lambert?

She got the robot in the custody battle.

So here we are, 2019 and three years into a game that takes characters from across the globe…with no unambiguous and unapologetic black women in sight. I should clarify what I mean when I say”unambiguously and unapologetically black”, but all other black nerds out there know exactly what I mean so I won’t waste space here.

And just recently I was stopped by this video by Overwatch’s Twitter which appears to be teasing a black femme character named Sojourn. Turns out a while later that Sojourn is a cannon character. And now many black femme gamers are excited

https://twitter.com/PlayOverwatch/status/1115283271124959233

Too little, too late.

Turns out a while later that Sojourn is a cannon character. And now many black femme gamers are excited at the likelihood that she will be present in game. While I normally would be excited about this I realize that this is coming three years after the game’s release with a company that ultimately decided that black women were an afterthought. We’re talking about a company that somehow decided that League of Legends was their competition and can’t answer their fans questions. They also can’t seem to ban racist people off their platform fast enough:

https://twitter.com/Yes_ItsRose/status/1115816553575010304

Yes this is 2019 on Al Gore’s Borrowed Internet.

Everything about this gets me. Even if they were to come up with a somewhat believable excuse (there isn’t) as to why they can’t have black women in the game yet (i.e. they have a super secret society made up of entirely black women) it still comes off extremely sloppy and poorly handled at best. I brought up that black women should’ve been on the roster from the get-go and I stand by that. We have black women in the forefront leading the way on so many social justice issues already, did Blizzard really just ignore that fact? There’s no excuse for it. There are black women all over the world, Overwatch has characters from all over the globe…what happened?

Blizzard as a company willfully ignored and insulted their fanbase by not adding black women in a game that has so many intersecting identities…and seem like they’re trying to “save the best for last”. But they’re not “saving the best for last”. The best should have been first. The best should have been right there on the original roster of heroes from launch day. I can’t really forget about that nor can I abide by that.

If and when they unveil the black femme hero we’ve all been waiting for I’ll probably applaud from the sidelines; but I’m unlikely to pick up my controller again.

…

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Like artwork? Click here.

Oh Where Have I Been? The Trouble I’ve Seen

April 11, 2019April 11, 2019 ~ giginorez ~ Leave a comment

You wouldn’t want to be bogged down by the sob story I have for why I haven’t been on here. Especially with my enthusiastic post for the beginning of the year promising among other things:

gifs
more anime stories
con plans
possibly artwork

I can’t say that I’ve made any real progress with anything in my life except starting Yu-Yu Hakusho about a week ago. That said, let’s look into the upcoming summer for what we can expect out of this blog.

I’ve also been (mostly) offline for Lent as a time to sit back and meditate on where I’m headed as an almost 30-something geek and what I really have to add to the subculture. Am I even part of it? I like to think so. So I’m going to keep writing and try to squeeze some blood out of this calcified heart of mine and maybe make this into something.

What the @#$% Have I Done Lately?

Wanted movie quote aside, I’ll just share a few things I’ve been doing in my long stretch of an absence.

I started an art hoe Instagram under the username mrsatrocity. I haven’t posted much as it takes me a long time to churn out any amount of art (no matter how mediocre) as I’m a perfectionist and hate not having something to show my audience. I’m also starting from square 1. I’ve done some artwork in the past but I don’t have anything to show for the present. In a sense I’m starting over a lá Re: Zero style as if I don’t have any experience whatsoever.

I’ve also started writing—GASP—fanfiction. Specifically a Final Fantasy XV one.

I don’t have any explanation with this one. I played Final Fantasy 15 and I liked it so much but hated that I didn’t see any black women in it (sans Sonia who I’m pretty sure was black because she was coded as such) and wanted to write her into the plot. I know some people write VERY good fan fiction and it even shows up on TV Tropes under recommended fan fiction for particular works. I honestly want my work to be featured there and I want people to like what I write. Even if it’s porn with plot…or rather it’s plot with porn. If you are interested in reading Eos: Mirror of Truth, click here.

If you do get around to reading it, please leave a review! This writer loves that shit. I also have polls I put on my Instagram to see what readers want to see next. One of my goals was to become more confident in my artwork and to put more of my heart into it. Art and writing are my two big outlets I’ve used to help me in the past, and I’d like to continue them. I also have a goal of making a portfolio of my work on a separate website. I haven’t put any of my earlier work into any portfolios so I hope I can get around to preserving them.

As far as conventions are concerned I only have 2 that I’ve planned to make appearances at: Colossalcon and Dokidokon. The summer is full of events and those are the only ones I can haul my ass to without putting myself through embarrassing debt and blood-vessel popping stress. The con headaches are real you guys and I want to avoid them like Sephiroth’s Second Coming. I do plan on uploading pics and writing about my experiences and hopefully having a good time.

For now though I’m going to cut this post short and go to bed because I’ll have something better to share later on. Maybe this weekend. I think I’ll have time.

New Year: Blank Slate

January 3, 2019January 3, 2019 ~ giginorez ~ Leave a comment

With the new clone 2019 shoving the old clone 2018 into an incinerator we are now officially ready to start off the New Year right! And it seems we have a lot of things packed within these first few months alone. I’m personally looking forward to a few things:

Kakegurui Season 2- I just want to see gambling games.
Kingdom Hearts 3- Nomura owes us an explanation for all these games! And I ordered the Deluxe Edition!
7 Seeds (anime)- A straight up depressing manga. Now I have to re-read it before the release.
Boku no Hero Academia Season 4- (I gotta catch up with the manga first!)
Fruits Basket (reboot)- Finally we get to see Rin!
My first Colossalcon- Will make a full post detailing my cosplays and people I’ve met!
28 Days of Black Cosplay- You already know that this is about!

Meanwhile I’ll continue trying to find a focus for this blog. I hate that I have so few articles up and I’ve purchased this domain myself! *cries* I’m certainly sure things will get more interesting from here on out.

2018 Highlights

Playing Final Fantasy XV
Watching Laputa: Castle in the Sky
Playing/Beating Bayonetta 2
Playing Smash Bros Ultimate (when I haven’t touched anything SSB related since Brawl)
Watching Castlevania

I honestly wish I had written about all of the above when I had the chance but I didn’t. I’ll make it my personal responsibility to finish what I’ve started.

NaNoWriMo 2018

November 9, 2018November 9, 2018 ~ giginorez ~ Leave a comment

I’ve taken (yet another) break from anything resembling semi-regular writing in order to participate in National Novel Writing Month. What’s this all about, you ask? GREAT because I’m going to explain some of this to you.

National Novel Writing Month is held every November from the 1st to the 31st where writers of all ages and skill levels get together and attempt to write a novel from scratch (50,000 words). This usually means no opening paragraphs, excerpts, or dialogue written ahead of time. You can however do world building, writing out character profiles, and research notes/outlines.

I’ve never completed a full 50k novel in a month…or any other manuscript in my time being alive and joining in on this borderline masochistic endeavor. That said, I’m doing my best…sort of. At the end of this month I’ll be writing at least ONE blog post for the end of the year (or so) and start gearing up for the next one. Until then, happy writing!

If you want to read more of my writings you can check out this fan fiction I’ve been writing since 2017 here.

“Dere” to Believe: An honest look at popular anime personalities

August 10, 2018 ~ giginorez ~ 1 Comment

Anime tropes are popular, no bones about it. You’ll often hear your local weeaboo tossing about terms they’ve learned from their favorite series one way or another. These tropes don’t just appear in anime but are standard for fiction writers around the globe. That said, who wants to take a look at popular personality tropes and watch me deconstruct them haphazardly?

No?

I’m so glad you asked!

These tropes are usually represented by female characters, although they are perfectly fine for any and all characters regardless of gender or presentation. For the sake of simplicity we are going to use the pronouns she/her/they if that’s alright with you guys.

shuffles papers and notecards

There are four common “dere” personalities

1371107441-tumblr-m9uwvqss2y1qhzgy1o1-1280 — Clearly not my personal work. Give credit where it’s due.

As you can see; the suffix ‘deredere’(でれでれ) simply means to be loving or sweet towards someone. The prefixes just so happen to describe what kind of love that person encompasses. While on the surface as a flat archetype these descriptors are just regular categories to drop your characters into—which is harmless. They’re just characters.

But what happens when you translate them to real life?

I’m under the impression that people have trouble dividing fantasy and reality because I hear people talking about their favorite personality types (particularly when referring to their favorite characters) and how they’d just LOVEto be with a kuudere. I can’t help but wonder if they’ve really thought it through because these character traits are…concerning to say the least.

Tsundere

(harsh on the outside, sweet on the inside)

The Good

At first glance a hot/cold character seems like an almost ideal type. Harsh until you get to know them—not a bad thing, especially if you start off on the wrong foot. I very well could give this a pass and chalk it up to getting to know someone better over time.

The Bad

Ever notice how tsundere characters tend to get violent with the objects of their affections? Whether it’s full blown arguments or megaton moe punches, the poor person gets their noggins knocked. Then there’s the verbal lashings that border on abuse. I’m usually able to give passes on affectionate nicknames or occasional name-calling but the way Asuka treats Shinji is really unsettling. Since she spends the entire series unable to spit out her feelings and Shinji can’t read minds—it leads to a lot of confusion (the end of Evangelion notwithstanding).

neon_genesis_evangelion_end_of_desktop_2616x2626_hd-wallpaper-1035766 — The view is captivating.

The Ugly

Well, as we all know (or should know), tsundere tropes are usually exaggerated and played (mostly) for laughs because *we all know that kind of erratic behavior is actually abusive and you won’t find love that way*. Right everyone? Of course nobody would ever think such hot and cold behavior would actually be attributed to feelings of love and affection (Italics for sarcasm and emphasis).

I’ve got some bad news for you all…People really think this works!

In real life I see this pop up in a lot of relationships where the idea of being hot/cold is seen as a good thing and is an appropriate way to show you’re interested in someone. Katy Perry songs aside, this hot/cold dynamic sends mixed signals and it’s a GREAT way to cause problems early on and ruin your chances later.

The truth is: tsundere characters treat their love interests like crap and are sending mixed signals that can in no way be interpreted as romantic interest. I’ve got nothing.