What I hope isn't trolling

I'm not saying you're wrong, but could you give me examples of what you think would be pairings done right? I just wanna know your perspective

 

Read/watch better shounens.
Also don't mistake battle shounens(Medaka Box, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, HunterxHunter, Ultimo)
for just shounens(Aku no Hana, Gurren Lagann, Ruroni Kenshin, Evangelion, Attack on Titan)

 

Yeah, I figured that about me. I'm a bit picky. I like something to have a beginning, middle, and an end. I'm a fan of The Hero's Journey, and if something doesn't have an end, or ends because it just simply has to, it doesn't feel right for me.[DOUBLEPOST=1371183140][/DOUBLEPOST]

From my perspective, one I believe is done right is Romeo x Juliet. Yes, the two of them fall in love at first site, but their relationship isn't simply defined on that. Their romance becomes gradual, to which it actually does become an actual love instead of puppy love. Romeo and Juliet were also able to function as actual people when they weren't around each other. Kirito and Asuna simply shut down as people since one didn't have the other, which is something that does annoy me.

 

Wouldn't that just mean they can't live without eachother?

 

To me, no. It just doesn't mean that they understand what love really is. To me, love is beyond being able to not live without the other. You can have a strong connection with someone significant, but that doesn't have to rule who you are.

Again, this is just opinion.

 

You can expect something to cater to your idea of love is or isn't
In this case the characters are ideal for eachother
There is no living without them
The point is to show that things like friends, family and anything involving the outside world is completely irrelevant to the affection that the two feel.
It's the ultimate form of unconditional love and it's a very classic romanticist view used in plenty of literature
SAO is still bad of course

 

...color me shocked to hear you say that.

If anything, to me Romeo and Juliet isn't close to romance done well or effectively (in my opinion), but that's not a bad thing really. They're more so an examination of the concept of young affection being shot down by people outside of the relationship, leading both characters to be unable to actually examine more so how they share likes and dislikes, along with similarities outside of both of their families not liking their relationship. They could have become a good relationship with actual deep love, but they never got that chance, so what they ended up as before their departure was a couple of people who think they're totally right for each other, without much development to really reach such a conclusion, but conclude it in their own minds due to the situations they're forced into by the people around them.

And yeah, you could argue it's "unconditional love" but I just can't connect the relationship between Romeo and Juliet as love exactly. Not yet, and not with my own (and probably many others') understanding of love.

Doug Walker did a good video explaining his thoughts on the matter, if you'd care to hear another viewpoint.

 

I wonder if you wouldn't mind Rosario+Vampire. It's hard for me to find something that follows the hero's journey, but I don't look for that in most books. I just read them and deal with what I like and don't like.

 

I've actually read through Rosario Vampire. I actually do enjoy it. I guess the hero's journey is the wrong term (although most stories seem to follow it); I'm looking more for structure, that the creator has an end point and is working towards it. I loved the first season of the manga, but the second season seemed to focus more on fan service than the first season. Yes, the first season had fan service, but it wasn't as in your face as the second season.

 

Don't forget that the second season also is more focused towards the actual fights than the drama building, because of all the crap that's going on in it. Not saying that as a bad thing, there's just seriously a huge amount of crap that it's hard to remember what's going on when they take forever to update.

 

Yeah, that's also true. The first season had lots of fights too,, but it seems like there was more build up, meaning more of a pay off as well.