LOVE, Kloudiia

Fancy getting married to a comic character that has caused you to lose sleep over him/her? Maybe ROM can erect a new counter catering to this specific group of fanatic fans who would like to go an extra mile and legalise their love relationship with a fictional character.

If people can live fictional lives in another virtual world, then why can’t they bring such a concept to this real world that they exist in?

I say, this is truly getting crazy. Yes, those Japanese who are petitioning for marriage with a fictional comic character to be legalised in their country is, to me, too far-fetched.

The proliferation of the internet and the extent to which it has invaded our lives seem to be getting more and more out of hand. Two cases happening in Japan are the reasons for my concern.

The first one involves a woman being charged for murdering her virtual ex-husband. She was mad that he had divorced her character in the online game Maple Story that she logged in with his username and password, which she had gotten when they were “married” and killed his online character. He was furious when he logged in to discover his online avatar has died, without his consent and prior notification apparently.

Now, another man is petitioning to the government to legalise marriage between him and a manga (Japanese term that means comic) character whom he has fallen hopelessly in love with. In his opinion, having a 2D relationship is much better and easier than handling a real, 3D relationship.

Is this escapism in the highest form? Or is there more to come, something even more bizarre? Seriously, I hope not. I shudder to imagine how will human become when they begin to develop a one-sided affair with an inanimate object/person.

Diving into a make-belief world when one can’t cope with the dynamics of real relationships with real people in this real world doesn’t make the problems go away. In fact, it exacerbates the issue by making this person more miserable from the lack of a real interaction which he/she is craving for yet wasn’t able to get it for whatever reasons. This is not a relationship; it is pure fantasy-gone-too-wild.

Having a relationship means the constant interaction, communication and connection between two and more individuals. There is a sense of fulfillment and meaning attached to those interactions. Even for someone who is technically married isn’t realistically married if he/she doesn’t have a relationship with his/her spouse. That means, there is no longer any communication going on. Nobody is concerned with the other person’s needs, wants or how they are living their lives.

A relationship is a two-way traffic. It takes two to tango, definitely. And an other half who can’t speak, express or convey feelings, emotions, logic? I don’t know how this will turn out to be.