Encyclopedia of Manga Tropes: The Tiny Infuriated Bastion of Heteronormativity

[snarp]

Originally published at I Am Completely Serious. You can comment here or there.

(The encyclopedia of manga tropes will totally exist someday when I am not lazy.)

This character type appears most often in shounen manga. The Tiny Infuriated Bastion of Heteronormativity is a young boy - markedly childlike in appearance compared to other male cast members - whom the narrative makes a point of proving “more manly” than the male protagonist. When he is stoic he is more stoic, when he is angry his speeches are more impassioned, when he is in love he is more awkward and monosyllabic, and when he loses a fight his urge for vengeance is greater.

He will frequently attempt to prove himself better and more masculine than the main male character, particularly if said character has taken away the attention of an enemy or love interest on whom he was himself fixated. He will often be sensitive about his height, and there may be non-consensual cross-dressing.

In the sort of ensemble manga in which the hero leads a group of mostly-male fighters, the Bastion almost always begins as an antagonist, usually a subordinate to some enemy of the hero’s. He will usually fight the hero and scorn his “weakness” but eventually be brought around to his side by some revelation of the hero’s “true strength.”

In this situation, the Bastion almost always has some strong emotional attachment which the villain to whom he is subordinate uses to manipulate him. (Sometimes, later, the hero and his compatriates use the same tactic.) Usually this attachment is female: a mother, sister, or grandmother; the hero’s love interest; or the Tiny Adorable Bastion of Heteronormativity, his female counterpart. A feminized younger brother is also an acceptable object of attachment for the Bastion.

The typical Bastion is obsessed with “becoming strong” so that he can better “protect” the object of his affection, a desire that the villain feeds and uses against him. He is often socially awkward with the object of his affection, inadvertently doing things that hurt her/him, or panicking and refusing to spend time with her/him on the grounds that a suggested activity is unsuited to his dignity. The only method he knows of expressing his feelings is defending the object of his affection from attack. She/he can usually see right through this. (Unless she/he is the hero’s love interest, who is required to call him “cute” and be oblivious to his feelings.) There will be a scene in which he overhears her/him praising his “kindness” to someone else, and panics.

-Examples-

Hitsugaya, Bleach (attachments: Hinamori, his grandmother)
Yahiko, Rurouni Kenshin (Tsubame)
Hiei, Yu Yu Hakusho (Yukino)
Elmer, Rondo of Swords (Selmer)
Kaoru, Flame of Recca (Yanagi, Ganko)
Hiro, Fruits Basket (Kisa, his mother)
Wataru, Combat Butler Hayate (Isumi)
Elwood, Zombie Powder (his sister)
Sasuke, Samurai Deeper Kyo (Yuya)

-Near Misses-

Cassian, Godchild (none in particular. Jezebel?)
William’s next-younger brother, Emma (none I can think of)
Ed, Fullmetal Alchemist (Al) - Despite being the protagonist, Ed displays all the classic symptoms. Clearly, there really is an alternative universe in which the series is called The Fire Alchemist.

-Bizarro Universe Examples-

Syaoran, Card Captor Sakura (Sakura, Yukito) - Syaoran is quickly revealed to be bisexual and an excellent cook.
Yasuchika, Ouran High School Host Club (Honey) - Honey’s brother is initially set up to appear to be the sort of character who, due to his own social awkwardness, acts as if he hates his brother while secretly idolizing him. It is eventually revealed that he does, in fact, hate Honey.

(Further examples requested!)

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

HAH! Syaoran is who I was thinking of the whole time I was reading that.

Hmm... I almost want to say Sasuke in Samurai Deeper Kyo and Yahiko in Rurouni Kenshin fit in a way. No forced crossdressing, though. Both are fixated on The Chick in a little brother way(Yahiko in the typical squabbling little brother way, Sasuke in a more protective "I don't know why anyone would want to hurt or date her, but I'll kill anyone who tries either" way-Guys he's always fighting with? The ones open in their adoration of Yuya.) and in Sasuke's case, also his boss/father figure. Neither has most of the extravagant physical and behavioral mannerisms for that or the other traits that the others listed who I know do, but they do have most of the traits.

[snarp]

The conception of the type in my head doesn't require extravagant physical and behavior mannerisms - I think there's sort of a stoic-to-permanent-temper-tantrum continuum here, with Hitsugaya on the far "stoic" end, Hiro and Elwood over on the other side, and Yahiko in the dead center. This is probably, in its turn, somehow determined by the stoic-to-spaz ratio of the male protagonist.

(Sasuke had juuust showed up where I stopped reading Samurai Deeper Kyo. I remember suspecting he was going to follow the type! I should start on that again...)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Sasuke is a doll. When the various people from Kyo's past and Mibu characters show up is when SDK starts to get good. A lot of people think it gets good when Yukimura shows up, but while I like him now (though I find him the least interesting of the main cast) my reaction to him was "Oh no, not one of these!"

Sasuke definitely follows the type. Sasuke is kind of determined to be stoic but it doesn't really work because everyone but Kyo and Yuya tries to shake him out of it and squeeze the stuffing out of him. He likes Kyo because Kyo ignores the fact that Sasuke is half his size and takes him seriously, and he likes Yuya because she also takes him seriously and commendably resists her visible urge to squeeze the stuffing out of him. It is entirely possible she is just the first almost-normal woman he's ever met.

I admit, though, that I wouldn't really consider it reading without Yuya and Kyo/Yuya.

[snarp]

I am not usually enthralled by Yukimura types. They will have to get their own entry in the encyclopedia, and it will probably end up snippier than this one.

I recall that I stopped reading Samurai Deeper Kyo because I was in the middle of binge-reading two or three other series at the time, and thought something like, "Okay, I bet there's going to be a lot of new guys showing up now, and I don't have that kind of space in my brain." As my brain is recently apparently completely empty, it is probably a good time to go back to it.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I can barely tolerate Yukimura's types, especially as most of them are played in (for me) the most irritating way possible. The tee-hee schemer Who Knows Stuff is something that makes me want to tell them to shut up and get to the point. There is a character who's that type played exactly right and thus awesome, but it's a female character, so no one notices or acknowledges it. I also hate the trope of "I became a manslut because of my deep romantic angst which I deal with through a string of meaningless sexual encounters, deliberately choosing people I do not care about and won't want to remember their names." There's something about that trope that's disrespectful to everyone involved-including the dead love-and I hate that and the way it reduces sexual partners to disposable items, but most people just eat it up. And I get really twitchy when people pair them with anyone.

Sorry for the tangent.

(The type also tends to not be well developed past the surface, but everyone looks at the surface and exclaims over how wonderful and complex they are.)

SDK does, indeed, have a lot of characters. Too many for my tastes, actually, but that's rather normal for me and shounen action. At some point, it's "yes, ok, ENOUGH CHARACTERS!" Like Bleach? Kubo really needs to stop with the new characters now...