oh no she's making another post gushing over argp writing everyone run
so last night I went on a mental tangent that I've gone on many times before but somehow never mentioned here so it's time to finally talk about it ..... I love love love LOVE the big age range in ARGONAVIS and how they work it into the characters and their dynamics. I absolutely adore it. it puts so many things in perspective
we have the uni students who are all on their own level of maturity, but are generally well-enough adjusted and deal with things in a productive way. but they also still have a lot of things to work past and simply lack experience at parts
we have Fantôme Iris, who are all fully formed people who have found their place in life, and whose conflict primarily comes from being IN that stable position despite not wanting to be. case in point, TOMORU'S ARC IS SO GOOD. IT'S SO GOOD YOU GUYS. it's all about him wanting to follow his dreams (music) but not being able to quit his job because, well, he literally needs it to survive ... it's SUCH a realistic conflict to be having at this period in life
and then there's epsiphi, most of all Shuu. Shuu is 12/13 (depending on where we're at ...). he's very smart and cunning, sure, but he is a child. and the child of parents who evidently don't care about him very much. I think he doesn't even rly know the consequences of his actions cause he doesn't see people as people, more like ... as NPCs ... as toys
so all of those give us different levels to work with, but where it really shines is when you put them TOGETHER.
in the main story, Shuu messes with a lot of stuff because he's Shuu and he wants an interesting playground with interesting toys. but while there's characters that handle it in different ways, of course, Felix so far has been the only one to see Shuu's actions for what they are: harmful, sure, but in the end just the pranks of a lonely child. it helps that they've known each other for a while, but most importantly Felix is the one who rly understands Shuu for what he is because he's just. so much more experienced. and so much older.
most of these idol-adjacent (as I like to call them) franchises have their main characters somewhat in the same age group; sometimes some are a bit older and some a bit younger, but not by this amount, outside of some side characters that may act as a guide of some sort. by giving us an age group this wide, argp has the opportunity to show a big range of maturity levels without falling into the trap of making all the adults have everything figured out. their conflicts are just different and show themselves differently constrasting with the younger characters, who themselves are also all at different levels contrasting each other, and then Shuu as the absolute youngest, surrounded by other high schoolers ...
heck, age and maturity is even sort of a theme in Mezame no Ouja, where Miyuki points out that yea Nayuta may be a genius but he's still (at that point) 17, he still has a whole lot of room to grow into the person he's meant to be ...
it's a really effective and clever way to handle diversity in personalities & backgrounds & how they deal with different situations and I LOVE IT.
okay that's all bye
