A rant about Sawamura and unfounded fandom perceptions of fictional characters
Sawamura is an...interesting character/antagonist in Hajime no Ippo, if you will. I initially believed no character could top Bryan Hawk’s insanity, but I was dead wrong. Even after finishing the manga, I still believe Sawamura is the most unhinged character in all of HNI, but he is honestly one of my favorite characters, certainly my favorite antagonist in the series. Much like Hawk before him, Sawamura has an abundance of haters for mostly understandable reasons. Even if you have only seen the anime, you’ll know what I’m talking about. However, the keyword is “mostly.”
What I find especially puzzling is how most Sawamura haters mainly despise him for…trying to punch Kumi. NOT for fantasizing about cannibalism. NOT for maiming an opponent and a random thug. NOT for threatening Sendo with strangulation (in the manga). NOT for attempting to murder someone. NOT for anything actually serious, but for assaulting the main character’s love interest. Seriously? That’s like saying Mashiba scaring Ippo is somehow a worse crime than Mashiba stepping on Miyata’s foot during their match. I don’t care if Kumi is a more relevant character with a stronger connection to the audience and the readers alike. Sawamura’s objectively worse atrocities are nowhere near as heinous as his attempted attack on Kumi.
Sure, this is an unusual sentiment, but it became even more perplexing when I compared it to other character sentiments in fandoms from other shows.
Now, I know a lot of you are going to say, “You can’t compare something from HNI with that of a separate series that isn’t also a boxing/sports anime!”
First of all, yes, I can.
And secondly, a character’s atrocities remain real regardless of the medium in which they appear.
That being said, if you hop into the Arcane fandom, for instance, you’ll find no shortage of Jinx and Caitlyn defenders, as well as Vi haters who, even after 5 years, are still saying, “Vi abandoned Powder!” Um, did we watch the same show?
Anyway, please explain to me how someone can throw shade at someone who tried to punch a loveable side character, but the second they turn to a different show, they attempt to justify terrorism and the use of chemical warfare against civilians. Please make it make sense.
“Oh, but Caitlyn was just in a bad mood.”
You want to know who else was in a “bad mood,” a worse one, if I may add? Sawamura. As subjective as this may sound, losing a parent or parental figure to a terrorist attack does not compare to enduring physical child abuse at the hands of your stepfather and being pushed to the point of seriously harming him to protect your mother, only for your mother to straight-up abandon you, thinking you’re a psychopath.
To make matters worse, I’ve seen people try to spin Sawamura’s character on its head by saying he’s malicious for “no reason at all,” as if he doesn’t have an incredibly agonizing backstory explicitly explaining why he is the way he is. And notice how I said “explain,” not “justify” or “excuse.” Does the backstory excuse any of Sawamura’s actions? No, obviously not, but he’s not some one-note archetype who exists purely to act as another unlikeable side character for the main character to beat up in the ring.
This may sound like an odd rant, but I can never stop gawking at the comical trend of people miserably and unsuccessfully attempting to explain why you should never judge their favorite character, or of people who assume nuance is irrelevant in fictional media.
Oh, and here’s some food for thought: Make sure to actually watch/read the medium before jumping to conclusions, and please stop treating characters as though they are some precious gem to protect at all costs from hate comments, even at the expense of your brain cells.