Comic Thoughts: Flavor Girls by Loïc Locatelli-Kournwsky and Angel De Santiago
I picked this up at my library because, when I see a magical girl thing that doesn't look like absolute dogshit at first glance, I check it out. Well, chat, it wasn't dogshit but it wasn't good, either.
I think the primary value in this comic is that it has let me pinpoint things I definitely never want to do in my own comics, so it's a learning experience in that way. Thanks, I guess.
Writing Complaints
The cover had the Japanese girl in the middle and even opens with her story but the comic ACTUALLY follows the white French girl who is blonde. Uhhh. This is Pacific Rim all over again. BOO. I'm throwing tomatoes at the lame ass bait and switch.
This is only ever made all the more annoying by the fact that the their mentor is also Japanese and is clearly paying homage to the fact that magical girls as a trope are Japanese to begin with. So you're telling me, if this story continues, an Asian girl will teach a white girl to be better than her, and it will be the white girl who saves the day. The white girl will either suddenly level up far beyond her teachers, or she'll be so incompetent that she'll stumble into the solution. Either route is bad. The protagonist of this comic should've literally been anyone but the white girl.
Characteristics of the Asian girl: calm, responsible leader who was an honor student and the first "Flavor Girl." She is blue.
Characteristics of the Black girl: laid-back, hungry, friendly, slept through all her classes, can do any sport. She is red. HM.
Chat, these tropes are racist.
Characteristics of the blonde, very special, protagonist French girl: studious, but she's a total clutz and needs everyone to save her. Doesn't do sports at all (neither did the Asian girl, but the Asian girl was so perfect that she fought fine her first time regardless #MODELMINORITY). She is what I can only assume, yellow, but if they randomly coded her as pink like they do in Sailor Moon (her outfit even shares similar colors as Usagi), I would not be surprised. She's also so special that she gets the most colors on her outfit.
Characteristics of the Latina girl: le angry and stronk and drinks a lot of alcohol (but is never drunk). This is half of the Spicy Latina trope, but, luckily, she's not a seductress. Regardless, the angry Latina is also overdone and likely racist taken together with the other characters' tropes. She is green, which is the most neglected color of all magical girls other than orange, so she gets to be the catchall "whatever the hell we couldn't fit on another girl."
Literally saying that the Black girl (Camille) is good in every sport while she slept through all her classes is like auuuughhhh!!! the racism! the asian girl being listed as basically having no flaws and yet she's not the protagonist and therefore less special than the incompetent whitey. Rolling in pain. I know they're trying to add people of color as background characters and having a lot of interracial couples and families, but that doesn't excuse the main characters being painfully tropific (Asian = smart, Black = dumb). The characters also do not inspire me into thinking they have much depth at all that would excuse these choices. These are not real characters. ...I guess I should be glad there isn't a pink.
Where are my sensitivity readers at.
They didn't give Sara enough time to really mull over the ramifications of consenting to becoming a Flavor Girl, which is annoying considering that it's her life on the line. They're all like, make a decision right now but btw it's okay if you say no but BTW if you do say no, it's not like the Earth will be safe for that much longer probably anyway, tee hee. What about her family etc. What about any of their families. Do they know what job they're doing? This comic could not care less about pretending these characters actually have backstories that aren't just tragique "when the
Fire NationAliens attacked."
BTW "Flavor Girl" isn't their actual squad name and they don't like it and think it's childish. Yet they don't propose anything different, and the book is called Flavor Girls. Literally why are you pointing out that something is dumb and then going with it anyway. Just accept that you wanted them to be fruit (+1 veggie because... Artichoke?) and you wanted to imply eating them or whatever which is like. totally not awkward in the slightest. The fact that the first transformation happened essentially in some kind of "got eaten by a fruit and then I was drowned in some special liquid like I was supposed to be piloting an Eva except it made me transform" only makes my "sus" meter hover ever more slightly away from, "They just did that to be cute."
Has trope of leg amputee having robot leg that's as good as a real leg and is shaped as one. yawn
World tree that supports all of Earth is being targeted by aliens that don't know where it is. The tree chooses its warriors, but has run out of juice at the trivial number of 4. The protagonist is the weakest one of them yet. Is this Heartcatch Precure? The similarities are astounding but I don't see any other Precure signs in this comic.
No explanation about languages. Did the tree only care about choosing warriors from the English-speaking world? (Really bad implications about who's worthy enough to be a warrior if so.) Naoko is from Japan, why is she speaking English? Is the tree translating? Why are the aliens capable of speaking English? I guess we're supposed to assume that the evil translator figured out how to make them speak English? Can someone please explain this to me. In the actual story.
They're told to take care of their wands but the wands disappear from their hands randomly in battle and then next panel they're holding them again. IDK if we're just supposed to assume hammer space or changing into their magic somehow, but that's what I'm assuming. Except then why would they ever be afraid of not taking care of their wands. Can they not summon it back. Huh. I guess that would be Precure logic. Maybe it's supposed to just be another honor thing.
Waste of a chapter at the end of the book adapting a Japanese movie with the characters instead of making anything original that would help the characters be more than walking tropes. No grounding in fleshing out character upbringings or how they think and communicate. They even put Sara in the bath and had her get attacked there so basically run out naked and then only manage to put on a shirt and undies. Tiresome
Art Complaints
Confusing first pages. First page in particular I super hate flow wise. I was literally thinking Naoko was the same as le evil translator person in the future or something like that because of the setting difference and nothing to ground that it was the exact same day, but this turned out to be wrong later. And I think it was unintentionally confusing, which makes it even worse. (If it was some sort of plot point to make them confusable for each other or something it would make more sense as an art choice even if it would be just as grating to read through the first time.)
No SFX, expects images to carry everything. Clearly drawn by someone who loves illustration for the sake of it. SFX can crowd the page but the thing they really allow for is fast reading and parsing, which is something I didn't quite realize until I read this. I prefer at least some SFX because the higher mental load makes it less enjoyable for me.
Speaking of which, I know someone who says that they find comics hard to read since they can't figure out whether to focus on the images or the words, so it's a lot of info for them. Meanwhile, I read with a narrowed focus that picks up the most important cues and then moves on. Memorizing stuff like character names is inconsequential to me. I guess this is an accessibility thing and about how different people prefer different mediums (in contrast, I find watching TV and movies tiresome if they aren't really good because I feel chained to their time and space when IDGAF)
Tied to the whole "Western comics love pure illustration too much for my tastes" thing, it doesn't lean into the stuff I love from Eastern Comics, such as close shots on the faces and eyes, feeling effects that aren't there in reality (sparkles, etc), more dynamic-shaped page layouts. But well. I wouldn't be complaining much if I actually was enjoying the story.
Just really feeling how my tastes have been trained so thoroughly by manga that reading this kind of style feels minorly grating. (Happens to me with nearly every western comic)
Some of the panels have speech bubbles crossing from one to another for the same character speaking, but it's in a way that doesn't quite match the expression of the character or otherwise completely ruins the natural flow of the eye by confusing you on what to read first. why did they do this
They keep doing these sequences where everything is wordless and they try to merge the past into the present in a way that is utterly confusing to me. Takes forever to parse. Literally this would be better as an actual animation, because these panels do not have enough clues for me esp when you're changing the colors and whatever else. I NEED elements on a character to keep the same relative contrast between them. Even if you're switching the overall scene colors (grayscale, etc). Otherwise I read it as another character and I'm confused. You can't just have a single panel where one character appears multiple times (due to movement) and then make her black hair the same tone as her lighter skin on some of them. After staring bewildered for about 3 minutes I realized that this was meant to convey "distance," but I was legitimately asking, "Who the hell is that character?" You need to prompt people for these kinds of changes and it should not happen in the same damn panel.
Man. do people who read western comics squint at every panel to pick up on whatever detail they need, or do they just do it naturally after having been trained in the cinematography comics style? do they struggle with reading the stuff I read in comparison? I do know I'm contrast-brained so reading comics with low contrast is very hard for me already (including Japanese ones.)
Transformations are too heavily Sailor Moon-inspired and therefore boring. Some of the poses are essentially traced, which is uncreative as hell. Can people who claim to be magical girl fans actually watch something else other than Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura and think of their own damn transformation sequences that aren't generic as hell? Hot damn. The first transformation is also nonconsensual, which is a trope i always hate. Also naked transformations are always bleh
When they take damage, their skin tight clothing rips. Vouyeristic a la Granblue Fantasy style
In the battles when the girls are in danger of dying, they're usually on the floor with both arms pinned on the sides. This is a pose rarely seen for men. Even Precure usually (when it's not being sus) just has them crash into walls or make craters on the ground. Much more preferable than to feel even the barest semblance of a rapey vibe. Happening once is okay if there's no other clothing rips etc. but, like, making a pattern of it? Tsk tsk. Throw them through walls instead. Make them bleed. ETC.
Coloring is otherwise nice. Fits the art style.
For whatever it's worth, I couldn't immediately tell this was made by two men. (I started having my suspicions when Sara was running around in her underwear in the useless extra side story.) So congratulations on not being nearly as exploitative as you could have been (Sailor Moon's anime is far worse in that regard, for instance). Main creator seems white, though. Explains the unawareness about the characters of color.
All in all I would give this like a 5/10, which is a failing grade. But hey, it's not a 4 and below, which would be "actually offensive" grade.