My thoughts on the “horse race” mentality in dating sim anime

Warning: this post has Kanon 2006 spoilers.

I think I’d probably surprise a few people after a certain post I made on the ASuki forums, but I actually think the “horse race” mentality in harem/dating-sim anime has its place… sometimes. For those who don’t know what it is (which isn’t a surprise, since I’m almost of the suspicion that it was coined as a response to a post I made), the “horse race” mentality refers to a type of commentary by fans who are following a given anime (usually harem and/or dating-sim types) where multiple potential love interests still exists going into the final few episodes of the series and the majority of interest and discussion surrounding the plot revolves around which potential love interest will eventually be chosen. The “horse race” mentality is the mentality that permeates through such discussions. The problem with the “horse race” mentality is that such anime will tend to divide fans depending on who their favourite girl is, so these discussions usually very quickly devolve into mindless squabbling about trite matters such as which girl is better and why the other girls are back-stabbing bitches, etc, etc. Some people have fun with these discussions. As an outside observer, I can’t help but see them as fanboy-ism on a very low intellectual scale… which is bad since fanboy-ism is unintellectual by its very nature. But, such discussions have their place when talking about series like Shuffle! and Da Capo where that’s the main interest in the plot… usually out of default because the other elements in the plot aren’t very interesting, or in the case of Shuffle!, it’s purposefully orchestrated to be that way on the part of the creators to get people talking. They don’t have their place in discussions on Kanon, where there’s far more to the story than the standard “who-will-he-choose” cliche… well, not to the extent where it’s the determining factor in the audience’s judgement of the series.

My prediction is that there’ll inevitably be a fallout at the end Kanon when the main character, Yuuichi, makes a decision (if he makes one at all… and it wouldn’t be totally out of place if he didn’t) about which girl he will end up with. Which is sad, since the series explores themes far deeper than that and a lot of its strength lies in the fact that its story contains a number of elements more interesting than the question of a romantic pairing. If people are going to get upset about Yuuichi’s choice in the end, which I’d argue is totally beside the point, I think rather than asking questions such as “which girl do I like better” or “in how many ways did the eventual ‘winner’ of the horse race act like a back-stabbing bitch”, people need to ask “was the eventual ‘winner’ the best girl for Yuuichi, and did the series show this enough so the choice was at worst, believable, or at best, inevitable?” I’ll admit the possibility of personal bias here, but if the eventual ‘winner’ is Ayu, then I’d say the answer to both parts of that question is “yes”. Throughout the series, their interactions permeate an obvious chemistry between them and the scene in which (and I hope I’m not spoiling anyone who hasn’t been watching the series, but may in the future) they kiss had them both in a state of emotional vulnerability, such that I found it quite believable that they’d reach to each other romantically, and also to comfort each other. On the other hand, Yuuichi seemed to be emotionally distant from Nayuki for much of the series, seeing her only as a cousin and a housemate and, sometimes a friend, but not all that much more. In recent episodes, they did become somewhat closer, but after Akiko’s accident Nayuki has pushed him away. Sure, Nayuki’s current crisis indicates that she does need him… moreso than Ayu arguably, but from what I’ve seen to date, I’d say Yuuichi wants Ayu more than he wants Nayuki. And, at the end of the day, shouldn’t that be where the decision be made… on the strength of one character rather than the weakness of another. I mean, that’s where Kashimashi went wrong… it’s (first) ending was indicative of a cast of characters that were still weak and hadn’t overcome their various flaws and dependencies.

Sure, I’ll admit some bias, but I’d still accept a Nayuki ending and would hardly dismiss the series if it happened, the way some people are threatening to, and some people did with the first Kanon series. What I won’t accept is an ending that doesn’t tackle the more important issues still posed by the series, or an ending where the characters fail to overcome their various flaws and things are left inconclusively hanging. In other words, I won’t accept a weak ending (like Kashimashi’s, which wasn’t weak because of the choice made itself, but because of the state it left its characters in). I think that probably makes the best analogy for me to draw some sort of conclusion: it’s not the choice that’s important, as far as the quality of the ending is concerned, but the state the series leaves its characters and plot in. A good ending should highlight their development and leave no loose ends. Let’s hope that’s how Kanon’s ending will be.