#<- only sharing my wacko rambling with this tag because at least you guys like me a little bit

[aseriesofunfortunatejan]

this is the kodakaverse in me speaking but like. for the danganronpa 3 anime the promotional material was vaguely queerbaity, using komaeda and hinata together despite the fact that those characters barely interacted in said anime.

nothing too egregious, but you would have to be purposefully obtuse to ignore that these images were trying to ride the wave of the popular ship, again, despite the fact that it has no place in the anime whatsoever.

these two characters interact once at the end.

i know this is a lot of komaeda and hinata in a row, but i'm actually here to talk about akudama drive. the promotional material for danganronpa went "hell yeah... komaeda and hinata together... that's what you want to see right? :)" but akudama drive's promotional content largely gave us nothing for brawler and hoodlum.

i don't know how to explain that hoodlum is in love with brawler . like i hate to be that guy and i don't mean to say it in a silly way, i am dead serious: there is no straight interpretation for hoodlum's feelings for brawler. i genuinely think it is meant to be interpreted as homosexual attraction.

of course we don't have a wiki as full of promotional images as the danganronpa wiki (i'd know, i'm the admin) (of the akudama drive wiki) (phew...), so if anyone can think of a queerbaity official image for brawler and hoodlum, i'd genuinely be interested in seeing it. although they're pictured together (in the character mini-album, they even sing together - like two heterosexual bros of course) i don't think i've seen promotional material that pushes it juuuust to the limit, like you might have seen done by using komaeda and hinata together for no reason. like taking advantage of the ship existing.

of course, there's the fact that akudama drive was a new ip. but i think it's noteworthy that brawler and hoodlum didn't get the vaguely-homoerotic treatment that is so common in promotional material.

like, knowing brawler, this doesn't qualify imo:

this is the most brawlhood it gets that i'm aware:

they're not having passionate gay sex but at least it's the two of them together. and i'm not saying i need my fujoshi needs fulfilled here: i'm genuinely surprised that the marketing team didn't try to take advantage of the potential fandom for these two. perhaps because they're not skinny pale twinks.

courier and swindler also have their own image together in the same bonus, because they're the other obvious duo. this is obvious if you watched akudama drive, but in case saying "gay" and "danganronpa" in the same post brought over anyone who thinks i'm insane...

for promotional material, you put 'em together for easy hype and money.

(what? you're so upset the above promo image isn't on the wiki? pwease hewp me 🥺 i havwe so much worwk on that wiki and i'm all alone 🥺)

(lastly, funnily, promotional material would have you think brawler is more interested in hoodlum than hoodlum is interested in brawler. lol.)