kirin85 | 30 Days of Women: Day One (Reply)

In an attempt to actually live up to my resolution to use my livejournal more than once a month, I've decided to cross-post my responses to this meme. All of these posts are staying public because pretty much everyone can see them on my Tumblr anyway.

Day One: Favourite lead female character

Asano Rin (Blade of the Immortal)

rin

This was a tough one (I love a lot of female leads) but in the end I decided to go with the lady in my icon. Although the title refers to Manji (Rin’s immortal bodyguard) Rin is arguably the most pivotal character in the entire series. Every major character has at least some form of connection to her and it’s her family history, and the actions she takes a result of that history that drive most of the narrative.

Why do I love her so much? Well, the things that impress the most about Rin are her humanity and her sheer determination. Despite how OTT BoTI can get at times, she’s always been a very believable character, imho. At the beginning of the series she’s still quite naive and immature in many ways. She’s also struggling with an enormous amount of self-doubt and conflicted emotions. She still doesn’t really know if she’s doing the right thing or even if revenge is what she truly wants.

Yet at the same time, it’s already clear that Rin has an incredible amount of determination. She may spend a lot of time being hurt and upset and confused but she always manages to pick herself back up and carry on. She never truly gives up, regardless of who or what is standing in her way, be it Anotsu Kageshisa, Makie, Shira or even the entire forces of Edo castle.For example, two days after seeing her father’s brutal murder and her mother’s even more brutal rape and subsequent kidnapping, she goes to the magistrates to have the matter investigated. At the age of fourteen. As far as I’m concerned, she’s the strongest-willed character in the manga.

Furthermore, although Rin lacks the physical ability to become anything better than a mediocre fighter (by BoTI standards – I really wouldn’t want to get in a fist fight with her after seeing what she did to Dr Burando ^^; ), she excels at using her wits to her advantage when muscle power isn’t enough to see her through. Without giving too much away, she even finds a way to make her infamous “Flight of the Golden Wasps” attack extremely useful. Don’t get me wrong – I love action girls – but it’s characters like Rin who show that being physically strong isn’t the only way to kick ass.