just Makimodoshi things haha
Oct. 27th, 2023 08:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wakujournalI’ve been thinking about Unmei No Makimodoshi for a couple or so months now. If you have no idea what that manga is, it’s an untranslated manga currently running in CoroCoro Comic magazine, about the lives and missions of those working in the Space-Time Police Force (for you ACAB people, they’re a lot closer to the Men In Black than actual police lmao), known as Rewinders. They have a time machine in their right eye, called a “Retry-Eye”, that they use to travel back in time and save a Target from their original fate (pretty much always a gruesome death). On the other side of the spectrum, we have the Clockhands, nebulous beings who aim to prevent the Rewinders from doing their jobs for unknown reasons.
Now that I’ve got that out of the way, why am I so suddenly obsessed with this lately? It’s…because I have a really weird (and most likely subjective) feeling that this series feels a little…restricted.
Now, it’s not like it wasn’t already dark, especially when it comes to the stories of our protagonists. Chrono joined the Rewinders because his sister Tokine died via truck crash (long story there), Akaba’s original death was from drowning because of a literal sinking ship when he was small, Lemon had to watch Yuki die thousands of times, and Shirai’s original death was from falling from the school rooftop, which may or may not have been suicide before everyone, Mai-sensei included, interfered with the timeline (I think Chrono said he doesn’t believe Shirai could even do that, but denial’s a bitch). I seriously think they all have it rougher than Homura Akemi at this point.
It’s just that the darkness I’ve already seen makes me wonder why the mangaka isn’t going any further with it. I don’t mean making everything gorier (the violence is okay-levels of brutal anyway), but I kinda expected the series to delve into the more uncomfortable parts and questions of their setting.
For example: this might seem very nitpicky and I’m definitely overthinking it, but the whole child soldiers part of the system. Chrono and Akaba are 14 years old, and adults like Shirai (22 years) and Captain Rewinder Gorou (unknown but most likely 30s-40s, if not even older) seem to be completely fine with this. Adding on to this, the implication that once you join, you seem to lose contact with your old life. You can't go back. And the possible reasons as to why the Clockhands are doing what they’re doing (my first thought was that they were trying to prevent a potentially universe-breaking time paradox, even if they’ll happily kill innocents to do so).
I’m sure you know by now that I’m a cynical, overthinking, and paranoid motherfucker if you took the time to read all of that. Bokurano has permanently changed how I view media with child protagonists. But despite my complaining, I wouldn’t be mad at the mangaka (uldorafu on Twitter for those curious) if he decided to not go any deeper after all if he’s not comfortable. I just like speculating about this kind of thing.
Now that I’ve got that out of the way, why am I so suddenly obsessed with this lately? It’s…because I have a really weird (and most likely subjective) feeling that this series feels a little…restricted.
Now, it’s not like it wasn’t already dark, especially when it comes to the stories of our protagonists. Chrono joined the Rewinders because his sister Tokine died via truck crash (long story there), Akaba’s original death was from drowning because of a literal sinking ship when he was small, Lemon had to watch Yuki die thousands of times, and Shirai’s original death was from falling from the school rooftop, which may or may not have been suicide before everyone, Mai-sensei included, interfered with the timeline (I think Chrono said he doesn’t believe Shirai could even do that, but denial’s a bitch). I seriously think they all have it rougher than Homura Akemi at this point.
It’s just that the darkness I’ve already seen makes me wonder why the mangaka isn’t going any further with it. I don’t mean making everything gorier (the violence is okay-levels of brutal anyway), but I kinda expected the series to delve into the more uncomfortable parts and questions of their setting.
For example: this might seem very nitpicky and I’m definitely overthinking it, but the whole child soldiers part of the system. Chrono and Akaba are 14 years old, and adults like Shirai (22 years) and Captain Rewinder Gorou (unknown but most likely 30s-40s, if not even older) seem to be completely fine with this. Adding on to this, the implication that once you join, you seem to lose contact with your old life. You can't go back. And the possible reasons as to why the Clockhands are doing what they’re doing (my first thought was that they were trying to prevent a potentially universe-breaking time paradox, even if they’ll happily kill innocents to do so).
I’m sure you know by now that I’m a cynical, overthinking, and paranoid motherfucker if you took the time to read all of that. Bokurano has permanently changed how I view media with child protagonists. But despite my complaining, I wouldn’t be mad at the mangaka (uldorafu on Twitter for those curious) if he decided to not go any deeper after all if he’s not comfortable. I just like speculating about this kind of thing.
