Tiana

2008-09-05 23:37:40

"I don't believe it." Why is Yanlin's brother face-palming on page ten? He just came to grips with the chilling realization that his sister is the very embodiment of Mary Sue. Set in ancient China, the main character is a smart-assed feminist who wants to kick ass rather than be a woman like the rest of the characters. Unfortunately, the rest of the characters relatively live in the right era and she gets into trouble with her presented-as-horribly-stiff-and-cruel parents, who appear to be the author attempting to make the character likable. Because, after all, if you give a character horrible family members, you'll pity her, right? But I can't say they're unjustified. Yanlin is the complete polar opposite of what a delicate Oriental girl a thousand years ago should and would have been. In fact, from what I know of my history, I'm fairly sure in that staunch society with their strict rules, she wouldn't have been getting away with screaming at her mother and learning martial arts. I'd be more inclined to think she would've been getting a few manners POUNDED into her. Remember Mulan? Not that that's necessarily historically correct... Yanlin is worse. Inexplicably, she is also blond. I can't call myself a scholar by any means, but Tales of Yanlin seems to disregard historical accuracy in favor of having a Mary Sue main character who kicks arse. Sure, her mother's very distressed by her daughter's behavior, and certainly her father was quite upset by his daughter's behavior, but you're not going to have a fourteen year old smart-ass girl saving people's lives and just in general being that way. As I do enjoy accurate historical fiction, the main character makes me want to gouge my eyes out with a spoon. However, not everyone will find themselves bothered by snarky heroines in a society that dictates they must be quiet, delicate and ladylike. Not everyone's going to be bothered by the fact that 14 year old Yanlin somehow beats people up effortlessly with her mad martial art skills. (How did she get them, anyway? You're not just born that way. And you need, well, self control, for one thing, of which Yanlin greatly lacks...) Not everyone's going to be bothered by the heroine's blatent Mary Sue aspects. With that in mind, the positive: The site is well designed, and easy to navigate, and it's easy on the eyes. The comic is not on the front page, but it's easy to locate. It's a very gentle color scheme and works wonderfully with the comic to serve to present it. (I don't know why Yanlin's brother has red hair, either... they don't even look Chinese, just their parents do. These kids look more Western.) As for the comic's art itself, there's little to say. It's average manga. There's nothing outstanding about it but it's certainly nothing to insult. It flows well, it's easy to look at. The occasional color is beautifully done and it's sad to see she doesn't do more colored pages, like the first page was. The black and white pages look like they came out of a manga. Nice detail in the ink, nice use of the medium. It's nothing abnormally amazing, but it looks good for an online manga, and I'm sure some people will like it just for that. The font is consistant and readable, and it is of a professional quality. But, in Yanlin's words... "Die, scumbags!" Yeah. 1000 years ago in the Middle Kingdom. When a comic has one major character, you have to like that character to like the story, because you can't really like another character, as the main character's almost always there. I can't stand Yanlin. Though The Tale of Yanlin is a well done comic, I don't feel that it was presented in an effective way. I find it difficult to believe that she's not a girl from 2008, because she acts just like my sister, and I'm pretty sure that my sister would've been burned as a witch a thousand years ago. Because women weren't supposed to be smart-assed and tougher than the men. The art is good, the webpage is a great example of a webcomic site, but the story, I feel, is lacking in believability and depth, and doesn't seem to have characters that are much more than the steroetype of 'kick ass female' and 'disappointed and cruel parents' and 'disappointed but vaguely supportive brother because someone has to be'. It's a good shoujo manga, but it wasn't for me. (And I do like how I can click on the comic pages to advance to the next one.)

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