> he's unbelievably socially awkward and not in a way that derives humor from it, but is meant to invoke a sense of relatability
Media does usually exaggerate the traits they're attempting to highlight, whether it's bravery or social anxiety. Most people, even if they are popular and charismatic, still feel awkward and anxious sometimes. As much as we talk about how different people are, in some ways we're all the same.
Yes, but it's still remarkable how common in Japanese fiction the socially awkward, uncomfortable protagonist, meant to be relatable to the audience is.
The protagonist of The 40 Year old Virgin is unique for it, and the series is not meant for 40 year old virgins.
There is a surprisingly high amount of fiction from Japan that follows a formula similar to this:
- The protagonist is socially awkward and nervous, but otherwise has no actual opinions or character traits
- The protagonist starts the story rather lonely
- The protagonist fairly quickly finds friends, lovers, family, who are very devoted to him
- Bonus points for the protagonist being transported to a parallel universe to escape the dreads of social pressure of Japanese office worker life completely — this specific plot device is oddly common.
It feels as if one play a first person corridor shooter with a silent protagonist, but it's a book or television series: the protagonist is dragged along with the plot but somehow does not influence it and barely speaks or has opinions: the point is for the reader to mentally replace the protagonist with himself, and experience the story from his own perspective, so he can feel less lonely, just as such video games have a big element of making the player feel like an action hero, but the power phantasy sold here is simply “no longer being lonely”.
It's really an oddly big market for such a seemingly quite specific thing. Rent-a-Girlfriend consistently ranks within the top 25 of strip volume sales in Japan, and it's plot is really little more than “Lonely, socially awkward young adult is now less lonely.”.
Yes, the strip was popular enough to receive t.v. series adaptation.
I quit the strip in what must be around the same events of the story as the sixth episode — I could not bare with how awkward the protagonist was, and how everyone either really liked him or outright fell in love with him despite being a nervous train wreck who constantly embarrasses himself.
I'm not sure it's “bad”; it's as said quite popular and it's probably very good at what it attempts to do and what I consider flaws are probably features.
Media does usually exaggerate the traits they're attempting to highlight, whether it's bravery or social anxiety. Most people, even if they are popular and charismatic, still feel awkward and anxious sometimes. As much as we talk about how different people are, in some ways we're all the same.