there was a post about daiba nana as a body snatcher horror from junna’s pov and it has me in a fucking chokehold.
imagine being roommates with somebody you haven’t gotten to know yet, and it’s a little awkward but you’re both polite and she seems like a nice girl. she’s kind and open and warm, ready with a helping hand or a listening ear, beloved quickly by your classmates in a way you never quite managed to convince people to love you. you could be friends with her, given time. you think she might want to be friends with you, too.
you go to sleep as hoshimi-san and wake as hoshimi-san and walk to school as hoshimi-san, but, without warning, you cross the threshold of the classroom and suddenly you’re junna-chan.
suddenly, the friendly interest in daiba-san’s eyes has deepened with an intensity that unnerves you, even when it manifests in entirely benign ways—an uncanny familiarity with your schedule, a fond glimmer for your quotations, an offering of your favourite snack food with a side of dishonesty in the way she claims it was a lucky guess.
you feel seen. the way prey does when a predator reveals itself upwind. exposed and unprotected.
but daiba-san is easy to like, easy to love, easy to forgive. you forget your unease in the face of her sincerity. she takes care of everybody as though it were her sole purpose on this earth, so you take care of her.
when daiba-san becomes nana and you become junna-chan, willingly this time, you wonder if you imagined the anticipatory gleam in her eyes when you served her your first name, as though it were a favourite dish she’d long been craving.
thinking about how utena only wears feminine clothes when she’s at her absolute lowest makes me insane ESPECIALLY when thinking about how often “tomboy tries on a dress for the first time and suddenly everyone can see how beautiful she really is ✨” is framed as empowering or a positive development