This week I’m extremely eager to write about an extraordinary manga called Aria by a Japanese woman manga artist Kozue Amano. I’m wholeheartedly proud to admit that this manga that appears very shoujo and feminine is one of my all time favorite and very significant to my perspective and way of life.
Aria is an essentially wabi-sabi slices of life story about an adolescent girl Akari who pursue her dream to become an Undine, a gondola rider tour guide on planet Aqua(future terraformed Mars). The story evolves around Akari and her friends daily life which tends to be filled with presumably female world views. This work of art, however, successfully express the height of beauty of those visions to the point that a male audience like myself could feel completely immersed into. I found an experience perceiving wisdom through female protagonist point of view very different and very effective. Deep down under the surface, the story of Aria is very human and female perspective is one of many routes that can bring us to understand it deeper.
The way the story of Aria progress is very gentle and very intuitive. Every obstacles throughout the story has been overcome very gently and carefully with an eye for self-balancing and maturity. Instead of a generic male-hero journey style battle that tend to be fierce against the world, characters in Aria are very acceptance and try to look for the best way to work with the flow. This manga proves that literature based on pursuing dream and fulfilling life can function without neither violent or sex or romance centric protagonist(although these elements are inevitable to life).
I still couldn’t find the answer whether I would do well writing stories through female point of view but at this point I know that whichever route I take to tell story, I want them to ultimately lead to wisdom that is universal to all genders. From reading stories through female perspectives I’ve learned something uniquely to all as an individual and has successfully adapted to the personal way of life. Now I think it is entirely possible to create an efficient male hero who can carry the story to the final destination without clashing fiercely with things and with absolute gentleness.
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