With each new series that endears itself to me, I always find at least one or two characters I relate to. I’ve had countless experiences where a character will suddenly leap out at me as being “like me”, in one fashion or another. Be it Genshiken, be it CLANNAD, or even the unmeritous Dragonball Z, there’s always been at least one example of an archetype which I can compare and contrast with myself.

The idea of fictional comparison is not unlike the egoistic castle-building that Lewis describes in his Experiment in Criticism. Both the egoistic and disinterested castle-builder can subscribe to this sort of behaviour, but the former is more obnoxious in effect while the latter tends towards reservation. For example, if a friend of yours feels the need to compare every single person he or she knows to Dragonball Z characters and always posits him or herself as Goku or Vegeta (these two being the best known characters), then we can justly call them a variant upon the Mary-Sue and call it a day.

The difference of course is that the Mary-Sue is a self-inserted “original” creation. How much originally actually exists is up for debate, but nonetheless the character is, at the very least, non-canon. While this variant, which may be better termed “egoistic character appropriation” is not perhaps as generally irritating to anyone with a semblance of self-respect and integrity, it is nonetheless the striking mark of a person lacking in reality.

It’s inevitable that a part of our psyche will affiliate us with the hero or heroine of some adventure, but how we choose to express that integration of characters is a more important matter. No one is actually as brave (and witless) as Goku, nor as diabolical (and cynical) as Vegeta. We may come close, but these characters are exaggerations, far beyond the good taste of any hero of genuine literature. For those about to protest, I am not saying that anime is not genuine literature at times. I am however strongly convinced that Dragonball Z is decidedly not.

Egoistic castle-builders will always be like this, either through the Mary-Sue effect or by character appropriation. The disinterested variant will pay the original character more courtesy and only siphon a portion of the experience, without wearing the comparisons too blatantly. In my own experience, I’ve had this done with Genshiken. We pick and choose and pick and choose, but because none of the characters are outstanding winners or losers in the series, it doesn’t goad anyone to say “such and such is me” with any affronting certainty. I know people like Kuchiki or Kugayama, but they are not exactly them, and it’s easy to point that out. This behaviour is somewhat lost on the obnoxious egoistic castle-builder, who may at one moment concede that they are not in fact Goku or Vegeta, but will continue to appropriate the comparison with irritating certainty.

The question appears then as to how much of us are made up of other characters. Characters are, after all, most often the caricatures of real people and their idiosyncrasies. What moments of your life have led you to compare with Kuchiki or Madarame, or to draw conclusions as to being much like Kousaka or Ogiue? Following this sort of thinking, it suddenly becomes a little harder to actually nail down who you are in relation to a single character. It secondly exposes exactly how stupid and insulting character appropriation really is.

What I mean by “insulting” is this: On the one hand, it’s insulting to people around you. We all have it in ourselves to want to compare with the major hero or villain (most often the former), and for someone to blatantly declare “I am so and so” and continue down that road is an affront to us all. It essentially imposes a hierarchy of personal character, especially when said person might compare someone else with an unfavourable character (ie: Who really wants to be Mr. Popo or Puar?). Of course, they might not even do it openly — it can be rather underhanded. I’ve heard it before where one friend got compared to Kugayama from Genshiken, which only sounded plausible because of the weight issue. The two are otherwise largely dissimilar. That’s hardly something you’d say about a friend.

Secondly, the comparison is insulting on a moral level. While it’s true that some characters are based on real people, a wholesale comparison is usually rather greedy. Consider that most characters are based around an archetype. Especially where a main character is concerned, claiming that archetype as your own is a form of egotistical nescience. A person is far more multifaceted than any single archetype, and it can be seen as a sort of psychological security blanket to try and perform this sort of association in order to ignore one’s own flaws. Keep in mind of course, I’m speaking from observation and not through my hat. Yes, this really does go on with some people.

The question remains: If we divest ourselves of the ridiculous notion that any one character might well be us (especially in the case of the primary protagonist or antagonist), how much of us is reflected in other characters? I can see my own indecisive niceness and self-doubt in a character like Sasahara, my own strange flirtatiousness in Kuchiki, and my own crochety old miser in Ogiue. But I can also see my wish for harmony in Sasahara, my wish for acceptance in Kuchiki, and my self-determination in Ogiue. It’s always good to view both sides of the coin. I wonder if the egoistic castle-builder ever has this discussion with themselves. It might be worthwhile.

Addendum: Yes, I’ve updated the lexicon.