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May 2019

I know that different people think about it differently, and what is "mawkish" for one person, can be "cute" for another.
What do you think? How do you draw this line?

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    May '19
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    Jun '19
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Oooohhhh that thing! Yeah, I won't be able to help you there XD I get nauseous because of romance very easily, and that's usually considered cute

Me too, mostly. But not always. Some romantic pieces I perceive like "cute" for some reason.
For example:

But I still struggle to explain, what's the exact difference between "cute" and "eww" romance for me. \ (- _ -)/

The only observation here so far: 99% of popular romance stories are "eww" for me. While a bunch of indie stories on this topic don't cause me disgust. :thinking:

Good question. I LOVE cute, but there's a point where it's freaky to me.
I also never heard of the word "mawkish," so thanks for expanding my vocabulary. XD

To me, this kind of thing is so mawkish I want to puke:

It just... it burns my soul on a primal level :scream:

And on the other hand, this is so cute to me I could actually die:


I really don't know where the definitive line is for me, haha. Too many lens flairs and hearts might be too much for me, but then I do love hearts, stars, saturated colors, chibis, and eyes that take up half the head. I think my own art is probably pretty mawkish to some. D;

I'm not sure as it's hard to explain, but usually things that doesn't meant to be an obvious attempt to be cute and solely being cute are alright to me :smile: Something the "mawkishness" comes because for me the thing perceived as shallow, or forcing to be cute. Example below is perhaps biased because my overall uninterested attitude towards romance:

Maybe it's because I hate PDA so much; but there is one kind of romance, BL, and GL covers which nauseates me so much. It's the one which focus are the two main couples kissing/ almost kissing. Or they can be cuddling/ leaning towards each others, especially the one with that flushing face and "pleasured" expression :rolling_eyes:. This type is especially prevalent with BL and any NSFW romance (should've used ahegao, then you got my attention)


This kind of thing, I cringed when sketching this.

Maybe it's cute and hawt for the creator and intended target, but it just annoys me to the point I'd think twice before clicking the story with such cover :sweat:. For me it's just a display of "this people are over each others. They're cute/hot, go like them!" in my face and lacks appeal.

I'd rather see cover of couple actually doing things as a couple. It looks more natural and we can also see what kind of character they are. Reading together? Cute. A couple eating pizza? Sweet. A lovers tending animals? Adorable. It's also easier that way to explore their character and relationship by seeing them in action. Now that's cute, and something I'd actually click.

I was trying to understand what too cute it makes you want to puke looked like, but you found a perfect example.

I really feel like the poses and outfits and girls themselves are fine, but all those extra hearts and sparkles and bubbles just pushes this piece overboard XD I mean it's just so busy.

For me, all is about context and realism. I can tolerate even mawkish if it's not all the time and if it comes when appropriate.

Drawing/writing that is 'cute' when the context is not appropriate annoys me a lot; it's immersion-breaking and the overall feeling it gives me is second-hand embarrasment (if I know the creator and usually like their works) or even irritation.
Same when it's completely out of character and nothing explains it (I'm aware that darker stories, as well as more dignified characters, may have their cute moments from time to time.. with a reason!)

As a creator, I must say it is something that bother me, writing scenes that could go too mawkish. I have two scenes further in my comic that I still don't know if I wrote properly on that aspect; a romance scene and a son/father figure discussion. My main character is very extraverted and I'm the conplete contrary, so I can't use myself at his age as a reference, and I'm not sure I'm at the right spot, emotional but not mawkish.

anything that makes big sad eyes to get it's own way (such a puss from shrek) is manipulating you and should be stopped immediately! if my sidekick tries this he gets a quick clip around the lung hole. cuteness is another king of evil that masks true intentions and is often use with love as a weapon.

so in short ... if they try Mawk make them squawk!

A lot of shoujo manga titles are just mawkish to the point that I quit reading manga at all and switched to webcomics. I love romance stories, but what shoujo does (and shoujo inspired comics) is more than enough. Especially overexagerating already exagerated proportions, too much special effects, too much forced sweet comedy, dramatic-and-so-romantic poses with normal dayly events (for example bumping into someone, accidentaly touching each other etc.)...
As @vothnthorvaldson said, mawkishness has its own purpose and time to be good, but really, romance titles (in general), really often cannot come up with good balance.

For me, mawkish aspect is worse when it comes with storytelling. Most of the cliches in romance are used so wrong. For example: there is this love triangle for the sake of being love triangle, childhood friend who is secretly in love with main character, the main character unnecessarily becoming too bashful around his/her love interest, the pacing of the story being too fast, the main heroine who used to be kind of badass and then losing her personality when loving someone ("Watashi ni xx shinasai" being one of the titles that infuriated me the most with some of those cliches).
But what's the most important - there have to be balance! Even cliche may be good.

This is why I love those funny talks in Nier:Automata between 2B and 9S (there's a lot of drama, so the conversationd makes you think: "Aww, they're so cute together!", eg, when 2B called his partner "Nines" in the castle).
This is why I don't like Cloud x Tifa shipping (because I read too many stories with childhood friend cliche for my own sake)

(sorry about video game references, that was first that came to mind)

Ewww. :confounded: Fully agree, this is the worst. :unamused:

I grew up in a household where love was not verbal, it was usually shown by service (such as cooking a favorite meal, or cleaning your room without being asked.) So, when people go on and on about “ my love burns for you like a thousand suns!” I want to puke, and so I don’t usually read anything with the main plot being romance. Though if they are heartfelt and conversations I’m ok with that, I come of as a cold psychologist every time I talk about my emotions so a bunch of over the top mushie speech is not for me.

On the other hand, I love cute things like Hello Kitty, and all the fluffy animals of the world! I go to the zoo as a grown women and no one can stop me! I will also watch Disney movies in the theaters and I don’t care! Love cute stuff like that, so glad the princess movies are stepping it up in the independent female category.

I like couples in fiction, who are able to act like they were just two normal people interacting with each other, so for me mawkish would be any couple that's over the top romantic all the time.

Maybe because my household shows affection through hugs, tickles, kisses, doin shit for each other, but I'm real tolerant of mushy stuff. Hell, cute hs romances are fun sometimes. Unnecessary drama is what drives me up a wall tho lol
tho I've never hear of "mawkish" before ngl

It means sickeningly sentimental, often in a deliberately manipulative way. Think images of big-eyed, sad, deprived but photogenic children like you see in charity adverts.

I suppose I find most of 70's shoujo mawkish? Like The Rose of Versailles

I am actually not against shoujo or anything cute at all, but this is just a little... too much for me =) Maybe if it were 1 or 2 characters like that, but definitely not all of them altogether.