I have to agree with you entirely; every time he tries to make a political statement, it's always lackluster and is entirely hypocritical.
The biggest issue I have with Tatsuya is the fact that his views of gender-roles are rather one-dimensional; the slut-shaming you've already mentioned, but his concept of strength, as far as people are concerned, is also rather suspect. Evidently, weeping and open displays of sorrowful emotion are nothing more then a display of weakness, rather then a simple part of BEING HUMAN. Yes, becoming emotional while watching some tele-drama isn't exactly ideal, but crying at other's sadness or misfortune is nothing more then an aspect of a caring character.
Frankly, I've never quite disliked any character in this story as much as Glossy. Hell, even Seymour, because he's SUPPOSED to be disliked allows me to give him SOME leeway. Even Lil'E has shown SOME character development.
Glossy, at this point in the story, is a Mary Sue who murdered the only aspect of New-Year to escape Death for ANY length of time. Ishida needs to realize that this extreme protrayal of Feminist isn't actually good; if he wanted to have us sympathize with this irritating thing on a trike, he needs to show her as HUMAN. Not some ubermensch, but as a simple human being, with some weaknesses and some strengths. Hell, even pointing out how stupidly extreme her methods are would be a massive step forward.
Portraying the feminist as perfect isn't a step forward, Tatsuya; it's a step back.
Where I fall ten more shall take my place! And one-hundred each of them! So strike me down! I am the harbinger!"- Ollanius Pius
Rumiko Takahashi said it best.
I think that perfect people are not very interesting. Particularly in the case of a comedy, each person has a flaw and this ties the laughs together or perhapsy draws sympathy from the reader. That's not the reason for this, but most of my characters have a sort of foolish side to them. It could just be a habit of mine.
"This makes his views incredibly hypocritical when he tells us to ignore the government's propaganda despite the fact he makes his own." Not really. Now, if he'd been telling people to ignore the government's propaganda while not ignoring it himself, that would gave been hypocritical, since it'd mean that he wouldn't be doing what he told others to do. To tell people to ignore government propaganda but not ignore his propaganda isn't any more hypocritical than if I were to tell people not to read Dan brown novels and read my novels instead. (Remember, "propaganda" really just means "a text or other work that tries to influence people in a way that makes them support a cause.")
Yeah I can't wait for him to come out of his crazy too. And why is the devil only screwing over chicks now, wasn't he a more abstract concept of evil before? And great idea amnesiaing Lil E, yeah neutered wimp is cooler than funny jerk. Tats, please stop giving in to the Kishin's madness and find your way back to sanity!
I'm just waiting to get to read more of Criminy and Fuschia.
I'd been a fan of the series since the beginning, but after a couple of months of "the Patriarchy" I honestly got tired of being told what a horrible monster I was for being born with an XY chromosone. I'm sure the author would consider that just punishment since being a man means I automatically am guilty of all the negative stereotyping towards women that Ishida tells me all men are responsible for.
^MISANDRY!!!!!
^I choose to believe that was a Shortpacked reference, because that was kinda awesome.
From what I can tell, Ishida suddenly discovered feminism after 10 years or so, but he only read one article on the radical end of the spectrum and took it as gospel. He now think he's the ultimate authority on all of it.
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Incredible storytelling, horrible politics.
Tatsuya Ishida is one of the best creators on the web, especially for the past few years. He knows how to make you laugh, cry and cheer. His art is beautiful, his characters are loveable and I can never wait to see the next part of their story.
Unfortunately, Tat likes to think he's a political cartoonist. Well, propaganda artist would be more accurate.
While, as a progressive thinker myself, I find myself agreeing with Tat's ideas, the way he presents them come off as farcical and naive. This started around the 2008 election in which Tat would present Barrack Obama as the saviour of the people while Sarah Palin was a cross dressing pig. Also, all corporations are represented as being funded by Satan. This makes his views incredibly hypocritical when he tells us to ignore the government's propaganda despite the fact he makes his own.
His latest creation, the feminist biker, is quite possibly the worst of this. A misguided attempt at white-knighting women, Glossy, as fans have dubbed her, is a feminist version of Seymour and Lil'E, but instead we are meant to side with her. Unfortunately she has no character that can be empathised with and is clearly a Mary Sue, as she is the only mortal character who can threaten Satan in a stand up fight. Also, many women would find her offensive as Tat seems to have many issues with sex, portraying women who are open with their sexuality as evil while the good ones are more modest, thereby slut shaming women and proclaiming detractors as being exploitative.
But thankfully this comes and goes. Tat eventually grows tired with politics and returns to the much more enjoyable characters, although it can seem like an eternity for him to do so. I do find these stories to be well worth the wait though and would encourage anyone to check it out.
Four out of five all up.