Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-206.248.102.212-20130711220058/@comment-76.22.118.226-20141103030306

ehhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrwell Gou's obviously an audience surrogate for me, and she pretty much is what you'd call a flat character. But I don't think she's supposed to be a full fleshed out developed character.

Yeah, she showed up in High Speed, but only for like one page and let's just get this out of the way, all of the female characters that show up in High Speed are flat as hell. Justified for most of them since there aren't a lot of room for female characters in both High Speed and Free but Aki really was just used/being used as a plot device.

Anyway, but because Gou did show up in High Speed and you pretty much know Free is based off of childhood memories of the past and all, she never felt out of place or squeezed in for me.

Gou had a goal that related to all of the guys' goal and they needed a manager who could...do the managing! Another female character who only exists to move on the plot! But the difference between her character and Aki's is that Gou's actions and scenes are enjoyable and her being Rin's sister gives her a bit more intimate purpose. She's quirky and has a lot of good dialogue and funny lines. And that's all she needs to be.

So, while she is a flat character, she's pretty much supposed to be a flat character, which isn't automatically a bad thing. Flat characters are inevitable for stories, there just has to be the right amount of presence you want them to have. Since Aki's dull and generic, I don't want to see her more than the rest of the girls in High Speed. But since Gou's fun to watch with while little but existing depth, I don't mind her.