The other cats find the extent of his admiration odd later on, but if Chobi is meant to be humorous, it doesn’t come across that way, at least initially. 12-13), ‘I felt her slim fingers touching my fur’ (p. ‘I liked watching her reflection as she stood in front of the mirror, putting on her make-up…I really loved watching her tie up her long black hair…I listened to the sound of her heels clacking pleasantly…The smell of her perfume still hung in the air’ (pp. In fact, the way that Chobi falls in love with her at first sight and refers to her as his ‘girlfriend’ saturates descriptions of her with some sort of uncomfortable male (albeit, cat) gaze. It’s fine to have ordinary characters, but Miyu is ordinary in an unremarkable way. We are told that Miyu is ‘beautiful, and kind’ and that ‘er movements’ are ‘relaxed and graceful’ (p.10) from Chobi’s perspective, but we don’t really learn anything profound. These can be expressed in prose, too, but without dynamism, characters can fall flat. Perhaps Shinkai is more used to films, where one can infuse personality through visuals: a neat hairstyle, a loosened tie, a bold tone of voice, a certain glimmer in one’s eye.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |