From Crusader:
Like war for the shoujo heroine there is no substitute for victory in her love life and in her struggles all is fair, though not all is right. To form a coherent doctrine she has to break things down into strategy (over all vision of how to achieve her goals), operational art (amassing the resources she needs where and when she needs them), and tactics (what she does in every date/meeting). It is no simple task and while there are preferred doctrines proper execution and the will to win remain key to a decisive victory.
Having always delighted in brilliant flanking maneuvers and offensive-defensive formations in anime love battles, I found Crusader’s analysis of love-battle doctrines to be a fascinating read. In fact, winners in anime love-battles often follow strategic plans for success.
Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.
You don’t always know everything about your rival, but you should have a good knowledge of your goal and your battlefield. Is there any wonder why childhood friends typically enjoy such a high success rate in anime? Of course just knowing where to be is not always enough. In Ranka’s sudden concert on Gallia-4, she was able to hijack Sheryl’s carefully orchestrated plans by bypassing the fold-dislocation barrier.
Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.
This one goes out to Ai from True Tears, who managed to somehow make both mistakes. By not capitalizing on Shinnichiro before Noe arrived on the scene, Ai missed a chance to grab rooster-boy before Hiromi had marshalled her own forces. Incredibly, Ai’s ill-advised kiss was just the kind of stupid haste that gets love rivals written out of shows, which is pretty much what happened to poor Ai. Timing is very important, and it is hard to be the front-runner for the entire series (similar to being the front-runner in biking).
Can we even really consider girls like Tessa (FMP) or Kazumi (Shakugan no Shana) love rivals? I don’t even think Sousuke knows that Tessa likes him, and Kazumi didn’t confess until the end of season 2. You have to play to win!
In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good.
This piece of advice is directed at Kotonoha. Maybe making out with Makoto in front of Sekai wasn’t such a good idea after all… I guess technically Kotonoha won, but really only Makoto came out ahead. Having a rival go yandere is never good for anyone (except maybe the viewers).
Hence, though an obstinate fight may be made by a small force, in the end it must be captured by the larger force.
Allies are important, which is why the loner girl rarely ever wins. Suzuka’s got her ninja-buddy Miki helping her out, but Honoka’s too busy living the idol life to marshall a large group of friends.
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12 Comments
Oh Crusader. It is how he phrases things that makes it so brilliant. Not to forget that tinge of madness.
Kazumi isn’t in a war. She’s just playing Risk. She’s that guy who has no sense of strategy, but always manages to roll the dice well for some reason, and stays in the game based on no merits of his own, despite always taking on the Russian army with 3 guys from Obscuristan. Sadly, in Risk there is no honorable Samurai defeat option, and she has yet to off herself.
…
Hehe I agree with points 1-3, and 5. However I think that Kotonoha was correct in using area denial on Makoto. He was after all a habitual cheater, so now in his beheaded form he can no longer cheat. Also after the butchered body policy none of her rivals can ever hope to make a claim on her conquered territory. It was not a Pyrrhic Victory in the true sense as Katsura could still enjoy Itou’s head other ways…
What you know Katsura didn’t just take Itou’s head as a trophy didn’t ya?
I knew Crusader was smart
“Is there any wonder why childhood friends typically enjoy such a high success rate in anime?”
Imagine the kind of intel an imouto would have. No wonder they are a fierce contender in any battle of hearts… well, almost always anyway
Yeah, but that intel comes with the blood-related penalty (except in very convenient cases).
This needs to be compiled and updated from time to time.
I imagine it could be like the box score from chess matches where you have each character’s move and next to crappy moves you have a ? and next to awesome moves you have a ! =D.
Example of Love Match:
Kotonoha vs. Sekai 2007
01. K ShareTrain M
02. S Guide M!
03. K Block M
04. S Bang M
05. K Textx100 M?
06. S EmoFunk?
07. K Nuts!!
08. S Pregnant??
09. K French M
10. S Stab M?
11. K TravelSize M
12. S RoofMeeting K?
13. K SliceDice S#
1-0
…………………
:<
@Stripey: Imagine the kind of intel an imouto would have.
But imouto-types lack Onee command authority! :P