Thread:Shanethefilmmaker/@comment-397235-20140904033414/@comment-397235-20141228053921

Oh, I'm not defending Salinger; Catcher in the Rye was horrible (it's not the worst thing we read in high school; that honor belongs to The House on Mango Street which is the Hispanic immigrant version and on top of that can't even manage to consistently convey the same narrative style). I'd honestly be disgusted if I met Holden Cauffield in real life. I know I'd be disgusted if I met Mei, because I have.

I don't know how she's handled in the novel because, thanks to Christmas and working six twelve hour days a week I've had very little time for anything. I liked her in the manga, and considering she actually manages to protect Kouichi at one point in the movie, that version is my favorite; she was just about my least favorite character in the anime the more I thought about her (after Tomohiko and Chibiki, but before Yuuya, who I rank on about the same level).

Mei is written as an emotional ploy, not as an actual character: she's meant to illicit sympathy in the viewer, and she does...provided the viewer hasn't seen the results of someone acting like her in real life. At the end of the day, she reminds me of a cuckoo or some other sort of parasite: she acts weak and helpless so someone else will take care of her and she'll never actually have to do anything for herself.

I think I'm just extremely angry right now. -_-