It all started with a simple, nostalgic query about an old GBA game, ラブひな (Love Hina). This quickly spiraled into a deeper self-analysis of why I, as a reader and viewer, can no longer stomach certain types of stories. What began as a critique of a single anime became a dissection of fantasy itself, and ultimately, a definition of what “maturity” in art and life really means.

1. The Insult of the “Cheap Fantasy”

I have a fundamental problem with works like ラブひな (Love Hina). This isn’t nostalgia; it’s an intellectual revulsion. The premise is a “cheap fantasy”: a protagonist who is academically a failure, a “loser” by all metrics, yet he is destined to attend Tokyo University (東大) and, most critically, becomes the manager of an all-female dormitory.
This is a classic “wish-fulfillment” product. It’s the narrative equivalent of pornography—specifically, like an AV, it’s a “packaged product”. It’s designed to be “perfect,” “easy,” and “satisfying.” It meticulously hides all the “labor,” the “cost,” the “pain,” and the “reality” that goes into its production. It presents an effortless fantasy.
This is why it feels “insulting to the intelligence.” It avoids all discussion of real human nature. This same rot eventually set in on other great works. Detective Conan (名探偵コナン) and Naruto both had strong, compelling early stages grounded in logic or human struggle. Now, they run on a kind of narrative inertia, a “fantasy” that has become a “habit” which insults the audience by refusing to engage with logic, consequences, or real human growth.

2. The Spectrum of Fantasy: The Good, The Bad, and The Morbid

This doesn’t mean all fantasy is bad. It means I’ve learned to differentiate. My critical “razor” separates fantasy into distinct categories.

The “Mature Fantasy”: オーバーロード (Overlord)

This is why a work like オーバーロード (Overlord) is so endlessly compelling. On the surface, it looks like another wish-fulfillment “isekai.” But it is the complete opposite. It is a story about the “cost of fantasy.”
The protagonist, Ainz Ooal Gown (formerly Suzuki Satoru), is not “enjoying” his godlike power. He is burdened by it. He is a “common man,” a “salaryman,” trapped in the role of a god he doesn’t understand. His humanity isn’t shown through his power; it’s shown through his “Imposter Syndrome.”
He is constantly “anxious,” “faking” his omniscience, and “struggling” to live up to the expectations of his creations. He is not “living a fantasy”; he is “performing” it. This conflict—the “human” mind of Suzuki Satoru fighting against the “undead” impulses of Ainz—is the real, mature, and fascinating core of the story.

The “Morbid Fantasy”: Silent Hill

On the other end of the spectrum is the “morbid” or “sick” fantasy, like Silent Hill or The Evil Within. I have a deep “aversion” to these. If Love Hina “purifies” reality by removing all darkness, Silent Hill “corrupts” it by magnifying only the darkness.
It takes human “trauma,” “guilt,” “lust,” and “fear” and force-feeds them to you as a distorted, “disgusting” reality. It’s not a “problem” to be solved, but a “symptom” to be endured. It’s equally as “dishonest” as the cheap fantasy by presenting an incomplete, pathologized slice of humanity as the whole.

3. The Core Thesis: A Demand for “Complete Humanity”

My journey through this critique led me to a single, unifying thesis: I am no longer interested in “good” or “evil” characters. I am interested in “complete” ones.
A “mature” work, the kind I now crave, must be an “integration” of human contradictions.

  • It must acknowledge that a “morally bad” person can do “good” things.
  • It must, more importantly, acknowledge that a “morally good” person has a “sick” or “ugly” side.

As I articulated, “Only by having everything can it be a complete portrayal of humanity.”
This is, of course, “extremely difficult” to create. Works like Madame Bovary, or the writings of authors like Lu Xun (魯迅) and Natsume Sōseki (夏目漱石), are not “comfort food.” They are not “cheap comfort.” They are “living works” that offer a “diagnosis” of the human condition, not a “placebo.”
This is why, as I concluded, such creators are rare. They almost always must be driven by either an “obsessive pursuit” (偏執, henshitsu) that transcends market needs, or they must “not lack for money,” freeing them from the need to sell cheap comfort to the masses.

4. Applying the Thesis: Deconstructing Gender Fantasies

This critical lens now applies to how I see the world, particularly gender dynamics.
The “Old Fantasy” of Gender: I used to “look down on” (轻视) women. But my definition of this was “to think too much for them,” to give them “preferential treatment,” to “placate” them. I now see this as a “benevolent sexism.” This “chivalry”—and things like the “bride price” (彩礼)—is a deep “insult,” as it’s based on the “cheap fantasy” that women are “weak” and “need protection.”
The “New Reality”: My mature view is that women are not weak. They are “equal competitors in the arena of life” who simply possess a different, and perhaps superior, set_of advantages (a “conservative” and “nurturing” mode of being, high “endurance,” “psychological maturity,” “child-bearing potential”). My respect is now “based on capability,” not “based on a need to protect.”
The “New Fantasy” (The “Waste”): The great irony is that much of modern society and media (what I called “extreme feminism”) traps women in a new fantasy. By telling a woman with a 3-5k/month salary that she “deserves” a 30-40k/month partner with a house and car, it is peddling the exact same illogical “wish-fulfillment” as Love Hina. It’s a “waste” of the very real, very powerful “potential” I’ve come to respect. They are “static,” “waiting” for a fantasy, rather than “growing” into their own power.

5. Case Studies in “Complete” Womanhood

My appreciation is now reserved for characters (and people) who embody this “complete” humanity.
Case Study 1: 女帝道 (Jotei-do)
A film I saw 15 years ago (a JAV by Matsushima Kaede) remains stuck in my mind, not for its sexual content, but for its protagonist.

  • Her “Monster” (Ugly) Side: She faced a sexist workplace and, instead of “waiting,” she “competed.” She used her “body,” “beauty,” and “intellect” as weapons. She “kept evidence” to “blackmail” executives. She was a ruthless, “active” operator.
  • Her “Human” (Beautiful) Side: She was “clear on her goals.” The moment she became president, she didn’t become arrogant. She immediately ran to the man she truly loved, “asked for forgiveness,” and “explained her true feelings.”
    She was both “monster” and “human.” She was “complete.” She refused to be “static,” used all her “advantages” (even “stockings and high heels”), and “created value” for herself. She “lived her own life.”

Case Study 2: The Women of Overlord
This is why I admire the female characters of Nazarick (Albedo, Shalltear). They are “complete.”

  • They “have their own status” and “powerful abilities” independent of anyone.
  • They also “have their own flaws”: they are “jealous,” “cruel,” “obsessive,” and “flawed.”
    They are, as I said, “beautiful and ugly at the same time. Just like men.”

Conclusion: The “Complete” Individual

My journey has led me to a simple conclusion. I am not interested in “cutesy,” “helpless,” or “unaware” people. I am not interested in “passive” individuals who “don’t know how to grow” and simply “fantasize.”
The “real” man, and the “real” woman, are both “beautiful” and “ugly.”
I am no longer interested in “cheap fantasies.” I am interested in “complete” humans—in art, in life, and in myself. The kind who are “active,” “complex,” “flawed,” and “competitive,” and who, above all, are “living their own lives” in the messy, contradictory real world.