This one is going to be about the "canon" couples of V3: Saimatsu (Shuichi Saihara x Kaede Akamatsu) and Kaimaki (Kaito Momota x Maki Harukawa). Now, please do not take this to say that I hate them, in fact, I love these 2 couples, but I do have a few issues with them.
First, let us look at Kaimaki. We have Kaito Momota, the Ultimate Astronaut, and Maki Harukawa, the Ultimate Assassin. Now, both of these characters have very different and conflicting personalities. Momota is very passionate and overly trusting of people, where HaruMaki is very cold and reserved and just a general hardass. In my opinion, both of these personalities actually contrast each other in a very nice way, hence why I like ships like Naegiri and 2B x 9S. And I think that if it was handled well in V3, it would have made for a very endearing and healthy relationship. Now, we're going to get into my problems with how it was handled in the game.
First of all, this has to do with how the game itself acknowledges that their romance is a steaming pile of bullshit. And I do have to agree on that. It basically consists of Momota being the "fixer" of sorts (Saihara and HaruMaki are sort of his projects what with the nightly training), and HaruMaki is this totally emotionally wrecked person who sacrificed her humanity to protect her friend. I think it started off okay, with Momota trying to believe that HaruMaki is still a person despite having made a career of killing people, and I like that. My problem is that HaruMaki's entire character arc revolves around being "fixed" by Momota. Guess what, Kodaka? That's not how overcoming trauma works! You can't just start off as a fucked up human being only to fall in love with some guy and immediately become nice.
Secondly, I can't help but notice when HaruMaki says "...but this is the first time I've fought to protect someone!" And I look back and realize...wait, what about THE WHOLE DAMN REASON YOU CHOSE TO BECOME AN ASSASSIN IN THE FIRST PLACE?! Didn't you go in place of your friend so she wouldn't die during training?!
Thirdly, ever notice that in chapter 1, Momota's like "you look like you can fight", but then in the next chapter he calls her weak, and in another chapter he says that weapons aren't suited to cute girls? Basically, he becomes a sexist jerk whose character flaws are highlighted and looked at as admirable traits. He never once takes her abilities into consideration when judging her, it's all about her appearance.
Alrighty, now let's talk about Saimatsu.
So, I liked where it could have gone: Saihara foolishly choosing to make a good friend out of Akamatsu (who ended up manipulating and betraying him, if you REALLY think about it), and having conflicted feelings of guilt for getting her executed when she just wanted to end the game, and feeling betrayed because Akamatsu, well, betrayed him, and feeling self loathing because he thought that all of this was his fault. That was actually a realistic and interesting thing the game could have done with Saihara's character. But what happened instead? Saihara's just sad because Akamatsu died, and the game makes it look like Akamatsu was his Lost Lenore even though they only knew each other for a few days.
And then in the last trial, she's painted as this pure, perfect, cinnamon roll angel who did nothing wrong. I mean, don't get me wrong, I was salty as HELL when it was revealed that she wasn't the true culprit, yet she got that horrendously fucked up execution anyway. However, she still tried to MURDER the mastermind. She was still flawed, the extreme lengths she was willing to go to in order to end the killing game became her downfall. But guess what? The game ignores that and instead chooses to shine a light on how sad Saihara is because his crush dies.
And another thing: Akamatsu became nothing but a motivational prop for Saihara instead of focusing on her true goal--which was, to kill the mastermind. Does that remind you of another female character who served the same purpose? (coughcoughalmosteveryimportantfemaleintheseriescoughcough) But in all seriousness, we see this with Yukizome, Nanami (although her case was better handled imo), and even Kirigiri. Almost no female character in the series has any importance other than either dying, being a background character, or revolving around a man. The only exception is probably the Despair Sisters, and even then, Mukuro in IF, while given the development she needed, did revolve around Naegi to a certain extent because of said development, which leads to the stupid conclusion that a boy she somehow fell in love with just because he smiled at her, was more important to her than her own sister, no matter how abusive she is?! Fuck off. And FYI, her motivation in IF wasn't to save Naegi or the other students, it was to make her sister happy by bringing her despair.
And in Zero, Matsuda somehow becomes not just an important person in Junko's life, but the MOST IMPORTANT person to her, even more important than motherfucking Mukuro. Naekusaba and Junko/Matsuda have two things in common: they both dismiss Mukuro and Junko's relationship as "evil despair bitch abuses soldier chick and soldier chick enjoys it", all while having their emotional development revolve around two men.
And, may I talk about that horribly sexist bad ending in DR1 where Asahina gets fucked by all the guys and has their kids? Bleh, that ending can go rot in hell. And the fact that Fukawa presumably committed suicide just because the guy she was infatuated with stuck his dick into the only other woman present and said woman became the mother of his child?! Gods, both Fukawa and Asahina deserved better.
Now, I'm not saying that these female characters SHOULDN'T become romantically involved with men. These ladies can go do whatever the fuck they want while still being the characters that they were before.
Rant done. For now.
