Love that Girl: Houki Shinonono

Love that girl is a column by the mangatron where he talks about all the things he likes about a particular girl. Infinite Stratos' Houki gets looked at in this interview of the mangatron.

Happy birthday, Houki! From mangatron, your one and only
 

Q: Well what have we here?

A: It's no secret I'm a big fan of Houki, but my love for her isn't so shallow just because she's a lead girl, or a ponytail, or a tsundere. There's more to her, and this probably isn't just about her, but her character type.

Q: Okay, let's see if we got this right. You like her because she's a ponytail, a tsundere, has a green ribbon early on, and that lovely Voice Actress of hers. Did we miss something?

A: Yeah, apparently this has a lot to do with her tsundere character type. Maybe it's unique to her, but it's undeniable tsundere's are generally like this: they show a lot of emotion. Houki really put it on throughout the series, which was also one of the driving reasons for me to watch that series to the end. I like to call her the "Incomparable girl of I.S.", for a good reason: she quite literally displays nearly all the emotions a human can have. Let me go in-depth. (note: I may have studied human psychology, but I care not to go scientific in terms, but rather call it how you see her)

Happiness: yes, this girl born with a face that she thinks is normal for an irate person, Houki has a smile on her face sometimes.... sadly, it's mostly at the expense of a certain guy. One reason why I wouldn't mind shipping Shirley and the guy, if only so I can have Houki to myself XD

She's happy she has power. Now, she has to watch Captain America come Jully 22nd on why that power is so important...

Sadness: Well, it's fair to say that everyone on planet earth has been sad at least during one point in their life. I'm not going to go into my life, but Houki does get sad too. Sadly enough, it's easy to say she won't show this emotion to anyone else besides that certain guy...

 I wished he hadn't woken up, so that I could have her to myself...

  Anger: Oh this is easy. Occasionally tossed into the "tsun" part of tsundere, Houki seems to get angry quite easily. Of course, it's not so difficult to see who's the source of her anger, most of the time.

   Houki walks in during taping for a hentai anime...

Laughter: Laughter is the best medicine, or however that saying goes. I believe it too, and so does Houki. Well, it wasn't like she was sick or something, but yeah, surprisingly enough, she did laugh at least once (episode 02).

No, she's not using a vibr- *get's kicked in the gut*

Concern: Ah, I love it when a girl is concerned about me. Shows she cares enough to spend her time thinking about the guy, oh no here we go it's that certain guy again...

I love it when a girl plays with her hair.

Embarrassment: I love this part about girls, and maybe that's why a lot of romance stories has the guy "bullying" the girl he likes (some kind of stereotype or something, the same way a girl beats on the guy she likes). I'm not saying I've done that to girls before... er, another nice part of tsundere's of late is that transition of Anger-Embarressment-Violence, something I enjoy seeing, which... probably has a lot to do with my M tendencies...

What is she hiding? I must see it!

 
Tired of Life: I'm probably venturing way off course here, or maybe I've got a screw loose somewhere, but yeah, even Houki has had her moment of despair. That part where Novalogic games had the hilarious suicide notification if a player frags themselves, or something right...

  Houki aint Houki with no ponytail!

Tears of Tia-.. never mind: See, this is why I love tsundere's. Emo much? But that's what makes them so human; the various emotions, if written properly, can give the character a very strong place in the hearts of readers/viewers, and Houki has shed tears. I can see it now, when she and I do it for the first time, and- *gets an Akatsuki blade to the head*

  Cry me a river Houki, if I have hurt thee, allow me to take responsibility...

As you can see, aside from basic stuff of her, like her sharpness of her voice, or surprise, or her cold shoulders, Houki has displayed quite a bit of emotion, making her quite believable in a lot of senses, and probably why the tsundere is so common these days, because really, would a girl like her show these kind of emotions to anyone besides her love interest? We got the picture that Houki was a cold person once Ichi left her life, and she kind of opened up when the guy came back in.

Q: Wow, the reason why other types of girls can't compare to tsundere's, eh?

A: Yes. Say for example the deadpan type of girl. Could you recall a time when they laughed in a non-smirking manner? What about the happy go lucky airhead? Ever seen her get really angry? Or the serious girl, one who hardly moves those facial muscles. Let's look at Cecilia. Can you ever see this girl as angry as Houki? Or Shirley even. Much less Laura, who you won't always see her happy or crying (maybe that's because she so soldier...) This is why I'm not too pleased with some viewers these days who don't like tsundere's, either they've been spoiled or they just can't seem to appreciate what a tsundere brings to the table, this of course supposing the tsundere was written well enough.

Q: Do you think Houki was portrayed well in the Anime?

A: Well, as of this moment I still have not read the novel parts of what the Anime covered, so I cannot give a fair assessment, especially since I consider the novel Houki to be the more accurate portrayal that the author intended. So basing an opinion of her character is something I cannot do 100%, as I may have enjoyed the Anime Houki, but that's only half the story, ja.

Q: So obviously, we covered why you like the tsundere side of Houki: because of her various emotions. That can't be all, right?

A: Sure, there's more. There was something amusing about Houki that some viewers found entertaining, such as Houki's various faces. I may have listed the emotions she employed, but she had the face to go with those emotions too. This is why the tsundere isn't such a one sided character, as they usually have a lot of emotion on their face too.

  Look at those two, they were made for each other, with matching faces and all that!

Q: It's no surprise though, that you're a big fan of her regular face.

A: Oh yeah, I love a scowling girl. It fills my mind with thoughts, you know, like what is she thinking? Is she mad at me? Did I do something wrong? And then there it is, the part about a tsundere that is also enjoyable: seeing her angry or so, is paying the price to finally see that deredere of her. And in my opinion, that's one of the reasons why I love tsundere's; of course, if written properly, going through their tsuntsun and then being rewarded with their deredere, is a really fun experience to me. Of course, I can't say that's something one should do in real life... 

Some examples of scowling girls with tsundere'ish tendencies

Q: You wanted to say something about her hair?

A: Of course, I love ponytails. But Houki's got that, which branches into twintails. The first girl I can remember in a long time that brings the best of both worlds!

Q: We haven't seen you this excited for an Anime girl since Hyakka Ryoran's Naoe Kanetsugu.

A: It's probably not so hard to see, but a lot of my enjoyment of an anime goes into the girls. I don't know what it is, maybe I've gotten to the point where I've seen a lot of types of stories, now I kind of make it a more enjoyable viewing experience to see how a certain character goes with that story. My reasons for watching Anime may not be so noble, but I won't deny it, I watch it for the girls 90% of the time. There's also the part where Houki's VA played another Shino, for Seitokai Yakuindomo, another of my favorite series.

Q: You know, originally you were going to make a wall of text while you went Houki ranting. And then you decided to put it in a podcast. What happened?

A: Well that has a lot to do with my health, actually. Around the time when the series was finishing it's broadcast run, I wanted to do a wall of text of these words on why I love Houki. But then I thought maybe my radio show will pick up steam and I can make it a feature for that. Of course, after the series ended, my run in with second hand smoke eventually shelved the idea due to my affected throat, which is why this blog post was done in an interview style because this is actually a transcript of that proposed podcasty thing.

Q: Oh, so it's not a coincidence you decided to post this on her birthday.

A: You know I hate coincidence. What, are you trying to single me out? Put me on the spot? Are yous makin fun ah me?

Q: No I meant,-

A: You're fired. *bang*

This interview has been prematurely ended due to the deleted host

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