heres something a bit funny: i dont think yuno (hidamari sketch) is a character. yes, OK, technically she has form & presence, within the story. But what i mean is, in my mind, she isnt 'whole', she isnt 'filled'.i think shes abtout as amophrous as a kafka protagonist. rather to be understood as something that experiences the affect of their surroundings, smth that captures the 'mood' more than it acts upon story-moments.
still, what do i think of, when i think of yuno? she is soft-hearted, kind, a little ditzy; hard-working all the same; she is a good friend,a dn exchanges her compassion, in return for compassion; a little anxious at times, a little weird. she acts upon&reacts to story: shes /there/. it would be a bold lie to say that she really, /truly/, is not a character. but i still think of her as such.
it's a bit easier to undderstand with example from elsewhere: mission-chan, from..mission-chan....is much less easy to pin down as a character. she has interests, but they have the story-tendency to get consumed by that which the story, in itss hort span, is trying 2communicate thru metaphor, symbolism, etcera. mission-chan is a vehicle, more than anything, through which to xperience the anxious natures of ""growing-up"", making arts, beaurocratism, day-jobs & /dealing with your depression&melancholies/ <-- mission-chan would not make sense if a material, true character was the recipient of all of that. It would put reader a step farther removed from its actual purpose, which is affect: again, it really is a little kafka-esque.
in that sense, yes, i do think that in hidamari sketch, story is no way actually the to be understood """point""" as well. if we want to solidify why, then it's a reasonable instinct to default to 'iyashikei'. hidamari sketch as iyashikei puts in the forefront immediately, the compassionate, easy-going nature of the..genre. then, same as mission-chan, or as kafka, to reach that essence, we need a character to function as transparant, to be the 'window into', to give us an 'in'. here is then, the point: for me, that is yuno. and, if you feel that another character is more representative of oyur personal 'every-man', then that is OK too: It is a rather subjective matter.
in its wake follows something sligtly annoying. superficially emulating is missing the mark, in my eyes. quite literally copying, emulating, the character yuno, or whatever other character. not just kinning: copying. that behavior is alienating to me, personally, because it is so diametrically opposed to how i understand the show. it is very bizarre. it's weird, it's weird; i don't like it. this is the only time i will say someone is actually, genuineely weird to me.
but yuno is still objectively 'filled'. why then, is she allowed to function as non-character? it's a cultural thing, i think. older folks, not steeped in the itnernet-culture-nature of anime, wouldnt hacve such an easy time to get these characters to function as their window-forms. that nature of anime is, to many of th people i know, an identity glue; a glue that sticks to ur skin,bones,joints&brain-matter. it won't leave you alone anytime soon, maybe not until your deathbed. i sometimes think if it's a modern version of movie-culture. i also sometimes wonder if weh avent passed the point of moe's relevance as such already.
anime-culture explicitly putting focus on self-identification, kinning&such, is not gone, by any means. which is why it still works. but i do wonder if it has receded into the background, whatwith anime (especially shonen) being literally mainstream now. i dont mean this exclutionary, or even exceptionary. i'm sure, though, eventually, culture with revolve&move on. and at that point, what is window-character will change too.
in any case, it is still functional.for me, it is still the moe-character. for me, that is still safe-space. and that's a good thing: when i draw, i draw anonymous character. i draw anonymous character, because drawing real things is scary. drawing myself is scary. and then the 'why' becomes obvious. after all, what is more anonymous than a transparant ghost-natured /something/? thats what i automatically draw, and thats what it will be, until i learnt oa ctually draw fundamentally sound. i won't.
whatever
as an afterhthought: i want to mention quickly, why i dont personaly enjoy bocchi, even though it may seem to be follow what has been laid out. yea, bocchi is similar to template&window, but what is there beyond? comedy mostly, and good style. that's ok. i just dont enjoy eithermuch. and, it should be noted that its humor is relatable-humor, which breaks the illusion: we are forced to re-focus onto the windo w to perceive a joke, and then again what lies beyond to perceive another joke, in a rotating manner. bocchi -> then larger whole, such as style -> then back to bocchi -> then yet back again. in neither perspective, i see particular value for me. that is all.
also, gallery of yunos: link