#Hanako kun of magic au

[cherrypicked-pearls]

Teru “school prince” Minamoto canonically being a fast food worker in the HKOM au will never not be funny to me

[auxji]

"mags"

[dailysakunene]

witches loving witches

[mari-lair]

age swap AU

[valorianknights]

Kounene is one of my rairpair drugs tbh.

[musicalmoritz]

Uhh kinda stupid question from someone who's technically new to the fandom despite following the manga for a while, where do ya'll find the official au's and their art? Like the Monster nursery one, I've seen them a lot but where does one find the originals?

There are many places to find the AUs!! Fair warning, some of them like Monster Nursery and Ghost Hotel have multiple parts but they’re still easy to find

The easiest place to find them is through the wiki page. Just google the name of the au + “wiki” like I did in the image above, and the first link should take you to a page with the full au.

There’s dialogue and images that will take you through a Choose Your Own Adventure type story, only the options have already been chosen for you. This is probably my favorite place to read them just because it’s all very easy to follow

The next place to check is the @dbs-scans account here on Tumblr! They post all the official art and aus, and I think they might even post the chapters. To find the au you want you could simply Google the name of it and their account should pop up, or you could search their account directly through Tumblr by clicking on their archive or using the search bar feature on their blog

They include all the images from the au with the text that correlates with them translated below. I believe they usually do the aus in full, which is very helpful if you’re trying to find an au like Ghost Hotel with multiple parts. If they don’t have all the parts tho, you can always refer back to the wiki or go to the next source I’m about to show you

Our next resource is the hanakokun.officialarts account on TikTok. Beware, I don’t think they have all the aus, but I know they’ve posted some of them. They get their translations from the aforementioned dbs-scans account which kind of brings this response full circle lol, it’s a small fandom. They’ll post the images with the dialogue in the captions, and you should be able to find them in order all grouped together. You might have to scroll a bit to find some of the older aus. This is one of my favorite resources for keeping up with official TBHK content tho bcuz they post the new chapters in full and it’s an easy way to find official art

You might also be able to read the aus on Twitter if they’re still up but I don’t have Twitter so I couldn’t tell you for sure. At one point I was trying to find the last part of Ghost Hotel and I deadass had to refer to Google Images, sometimes you gotta scrounge around for yourself. But that shouldn’t happen too often because the resources I gave are very reliable!!

Thank you for this ask, and it’s not stupid at all!! I had to ask my TikTok followers where to find the HKOTO au a few months ago when I got a fic request for it. It took me a minute to figure out where to find all the content, which is standard for joining any fandom that has as wide a range for content as TBHK does. I’ve seen BSD fans have similar issues. And by asking that you probably saved a lot of people’s asses who were too embarrassed to ask the same question

[amyyythestarry]

She’s so fruit cake.

[artistint3lligence]

Welcome to my art café!! Where the art is great and creative♡

I draw almost anything except animals and realism, I'm not really good at it. I like to experiment au's with my oc's, so if you have any recommendations, please give me some in the ask.

STUFF I'LL POST

I will post a lot of different art topics like fanart, art of my oc's, fandom art, speed paints, comics, arts and crafts, and maybe oc lore.

Do not interact if you are...

Homophobic

Racist

Tranphobic

Ableist

A proshipper

A zoophile

FANDOMS I'M IN

Bungou stray dogs

Sonic the hedgehog

Vocaloid

Jujitsu Kaisen

Demon slayer

Toilet bound hanako kun

Cookie run kingdom

Puella Magi Madoka Magic

Soul eater

Undertale

Deltarune(barely)

Sally face

Madness combat

South Park(kinda)

Alice and wonderland

Ena

Omori

Hello kitty and friends

Fnaf

Mlp

Pokémon(kinda)

Alien stage

×Please don't repost or redraw my art without permission×

[thelunarfairy]

I've been rereading the "Hanako of Magic" AU from the Halloween special and I honestly didn't understand it. Can you explain? If possible, can you explain in detail about Tsukasa and Hanako in this AU, what I understand is that Tsukasa is a wizard (quite strong) and Hanako seems normal, what do you think? It's just that I didn't understand the final fight scene between Tsukasa against Yashiro and Aoi, that drone appears and it's Amane's and it just ends. Honestly these Aus are very short 😢

In short Nene and Aoi are magicians, Tsukasa taught them a spell to create sweets, and they used it, but they didn't know that this spell turns people into sweets.

After the people were transformed, the girls received help from Natsuhiko (the assistant) to eat the sweets and transform the people back to normal. When an apprentice wizard eats a sweet, the human transforms back to normal, but temporarily falls in love with the person who ate it.

The effect lasts until Halloween.

Nene ate: Teru and Akane Aoi ate: Mei and Amane

Tsukasa is the full wizard, he was the one who taught the girls this magic, he ate the sweet that became Mitsuba. He is a full wizard, because of this, eating a human who has become sweet makes the human become his familiar (and not fall in love with the person who ate the sweet).

Mitsuba became Tsukasa's familiar, which is why he grew wings and horns.

Natsuhiko ate the sweet that would be Kou, Tsukasa made Natsuhiko eat it. Natsuhiko is an assistant, and not a wizard, the side effect is that the human who is eaten by an assistant becomes a wizard.

Kou became a wizard and joined Nene and Aoi.

Wizards hide their identity, that is, only those who are said to be wizards are. So apparently Amane isn't one.

After all, the girls were looking for a sweet that disappeared (the sweet that Tsukasa ate, Mitsuba). Nene found out it was Tsukasa, and asked for him back. Tsukasa said he would only hand over Mitsuba if one of them went with him.

They refused, so Tsukasa was going to "fight" them, when Amane called him for something through that drone. Tsukasa simply listened to Amane and left, but Mitsuba returned and is no longer Tsukasa's Familiar.

In an even greater summary, Tsukasa taught them this spell without talking about its effects, he had fun, ate a sweet, temporarily gained a Familiar, and then, at Amane's request, he left Mitsuba and the girls alone.

The girls tried to make everything normal again, but Kou was the only one who really transformed definitively in the end, becoming a wizard.

It was all a prank by Tsukasa.

[h0neybane]

evelyn's to-do list!

HIIII im writing my to-do list for real!!! this will consist of all my oc/au/series/story/etc ideas and will constantly be updated as i start finishing things up and coming up with new ideas! FEEL FREE TO DISCUSS ANY OF THESE W/ ME I'D BE HAPPY TO TALK ABT THEM cw for: death, alcohol, addiction, rabies

Stories/Series Concepts:

╰┈➤ NRC School Myths: A series of stories about school myths at Night Raven College, their origins, and truths, told in second-person point of view where you are Yuu. A mystery/drama/horror series, a bit similar to Jibaku Shounen Hanako Kun. ⊹₊ ⋆╰┈┈➤ 1. The Ghosts of the Woods: In 1953, two best friends of the Ramshackle Dorm, one human and one dog beastman, have a falling out in the midst of november of their second year. The dog beastman contracted rabies from a bat while on a walk, his behavior escalating in aggression in the coming days. In their most explosive argument in the woods behind NRC, the dog beastman bit the human. In a moment of clarity, the dog beastman cried out in remorse, and the two wept as they held their final converastion. They both died in the woods that day. With a story told through the form of tall tales and dusty photographs in the attic of Ramshackle, it's up to Yuu to find out what really happened all those years ago. ╰┈➤ Whalefall (also an AU kinda): In which whales have magic imbued in them, and the eradication of them on earth through whaling begins to cause environmental catastrophy. When Yuuki, a young girl who was adopted into a family living in a coastal town, gets suddenly transported to Twisted Wonderland, she begins to learn that she's not as normal as she thinks— and not as human either. With the help of the Octotrio and some other mer at NRC, Yuuki finds out exactly what she is, and exactly why her home-world is doomed. A mystery/drama series. ╰┈➤ Bent on Bitterness: In which an NRC professor and the RSA librarian find companionship in each other through a shared love (read: addiction) of alcohol, first finding each other in a dingy bar in the port town of Sage Island. A bittersweet (unrequited?) romance series.

OCs:

╰┈➤ Salmon/Tuna Mermaids: Inspired by that one drawing: a salmon mermaid and a tuna mermaid who fall in love with each other, just to be ripped apart by the salmon mermaid's nature.

╰┈➤ Parapuzosia Seppenradensis Merman: A merman of an ancient, now extinct species of Nautilus. Cursed all the way back in the age of gods, he wakes up in modern-day Twisted Wonderland, having to face the fact that he is the last left of not only his family, but his entire species.

╰┈➤ Eastern Red Bat Beastman: i just wanted to make another cute dessert oc LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

╰┈➤ Mosquito Vampire Fairy: A diurnal fairy (the small kind) that "works" (read: messes around) inside the botanical gardens at NRC. Mischevious and sarcastic, she's Aprilla Belrose's rival and eventual love interest.

AUs:

╰┈➤ TWST Kuutei Dragons AU (with Evleo!!): Based on the manga 'Kuutei Dragons' or 'Drifting Dragons,' a crew of drakers (dragon hunters) take to the skies in their air ship, explore the world, and make some delicious food. At the center of this story is the Night Raven Draking ship, captained by run-away prince Leona Kingscholar and sponsored and named after Night Raven University. Evelyn, newly-graduated from NRU and a dragon biologist, joins the crew of the Night Raven Draking Ship after Crowley, headmaster of NCU, finally gets off his ass for once and does something productive, reccomending her to Leona. This AU will be open to other peoples OCs!! It will also include every single TWST character possible!

thats all for now!! going to update this whenever i need to

@taruruchi @honeyedpearcrushh @teighveepao @boopshoops @scint1llat3

@h2llish @viperbunnies @buttholesparkles @oya-oya-okay @cheerleaderman

@qsoap @angelwishess @gimmeurmoneyagh

[makshu]

Since you’re a Tsukasa liker what’s your opinion pin on those aus that make Tsukasa be friendly or nice. Dont they mischaracterize him because he’s not nice or friendly or a good person. He’s just a demonic abuser

Okay... I'm gonna go slow with this one.

First of all, Tsukasa is not a "demonic abuser", that's a wrong view of the character, that is a mischaracterization. Yes, Tsukasa is an antagonist and does bad things, but who doesn't in this manga? In JSHK the concept of "good or bad" does not exist, but rather people with flaws.

Tsukasa is a very mysterious figure to this day, but we have already managed to decipher a bit of his personality, but first we need to understand his relationship with the entity. I won't go into too much detail (since there are more in-depth analyses than mine), but basically Tsukasa and the entity have a relationship of companionship and share the same body. Both have control over the actions of their body, the entity is mainly responsible for the bad actions he does, but it's still part of Tsukasa (but not all the evil is his fault).

Tsukasa is someone altruistic, caring and kind, of course, in his own way, but he's not someone seeking evil. Remember that Baby Tsukasa who was with Kou and Nene in the Red House was already with the entity, so we have proof that he's not evil. Many of his behaviors need to be analyzed together with Amane/Hanako, so I will not go into too much detail.

And if you want to see Tsukasa's calmer side, just read chapters 106 to 108, they show a calmer and more relaxed Tsukasa (at least in some parts) and none of that was an act, since he never saw the need to lie. So much so that Hanako trusts him (take as an example the moment when he throws Baby Yashiro to Tsukasa).

And about him being an abuser, I reject that theory, and it shocks me to see people saying things like that about a 13-year-old boy. Tsukasa doesn't understand matters related to love, and he doesn't know about more sexual matters, so it would be practically impossible for him to do something like that.

Discussing AUs now

Tsukasa being nice and friendly in the AUs is just him being himself, I believe that because it's an alternate universe where he has no relation to the entity, so he just acts like Tsukasa. Of course he's not someone with super common actions, but he's not a monster.

Tsukasa acts playful, mischievous, he's also very curious and this is a hallmark of him, besides he's very intelligent. Entity or not, this is part of who he is, and this continues to the AUs as well (along with his relationship with Amane). So when he's presented like this, it's just him being himself, and of course some personalities can change for the sake of each AU and that's okay, it's AidaIro themselves who create the AUs so they have the right to do whatever they want with their character.

Because Tsukasa is an antagonist they play with that, like in "Hanako-kun of Magic" where he has antagonistic actions, and in others like "Bakeneko Ryokan Hanakotei" where he just acts like the boy we see in the canon story.

Tsukasa is not a bad person with a bad nature and evil goals, he just fulfills goals that are asked of him (like Sakura and Amane) and is supernaturally modified, I recommend reading analyses of the story to understand his actions better, I'm sure it will help.

[yume-fanfare]

mitsuba's deaths and almost deaths: my ranking!

he has died 3 times in canon, and has had some other close calls in both canon and aus, so it's ranking time! this will of course contain several spoilers under the cut!

CANON DEATHS

number 3: his severance death

this one has a LOT of potential! it had been a while since his last death! he broke into pieces right in front of kou, and just as he was having the most peaceful cutest sleep! was vanishing physically painful? who was more emotionally hurt by it, kou or mitsuba? how did it feel Falling Apart into pieces later? i need to know! but unfortunately we haven't yet gotten an actual severance chapter from their pov, only vague flashbacks. we don't even quite know what natsuhiko told kou and it's haunting me. can we go back to the kou becoming a supernatural plotline please. but anyways yeah this is why it is the worst (in terms of thematic importance and story focus) death to me. need those extra details

number 2: his first death

car accident. when he was buying potatoes. on his mom's birthday. when curry doesn't even actually need potatoes. need i say more. there's even the extra irony in the fact that kou's earring, which he so hates, says "traffic safety" in it. it's simply so perfect. it aligns so well. it's an everyday tragedy, yet it somehow is the cause behind the plot of the entire manga. has led to some of the most heartbreaking official art. like the one where baby kou is holdin g an empty uniform whose owner has vanished into a pile of flower petals. fucked up.

number 1: the death of m1tsuba

PERFECT. SHOWSTOPPING. HE DIED IN KOU'S ARMS!!!

the scene that actually got me Invested in this manga. ive watched it around three hundred times, in the anime, the manga and the musical and it can still bring me to tears. while death number 2 hangs heavier, this one ranks higher for me because it is. a cataclysm. this event seriously changed the trajectory of kou's life forever. HAS THE "this... this isn't you, mitsuba! the mitsuba i know i-is... sassy. girly. sarcastic. selfish. and... and his voice was annoying. obsessed with cameras. went emo sometimes and was only fake-nice. and... and he was my friend!" LINE AND and it cut to the shot of their first meeting as first years but with mitsuba getting up and leaving and! man. it is so good. i wouldn't change a single detail. something important to me... maybe

ALMOST DEATHS (CANON AND NON-CANON)

only the ones i remember off the top of my head and wanted to talk about sowwy

if you have not read any of the aus i mentioned you Definitely should check them out they are SO good!

honorary mention: the times he's (almost) been turned into a mokke

didn't know whether to count this one but i really like it it's so funny. his pyon pyon pink bunny era. the most mokke-coded character. i did cringe a little in that christmas event where his gift was being turned into a mokke because come on. horrors for him again? on christmas? but no one had that great of a time then so ill forgive it

number 5: his transformation into a familiar in hanako-kun of magic

he didn't die at all in this one, yes, but it's supposed to parallel his becoming a supernatural, so it's going into the ranking. it was kind of lame though 😭 ik it was public voting yadda yadda but like it only happened like that to fill aidairo's monthly quota of bad things happening to mitsuba. the alicorn concept and clothes were cute though ill give them that. can we get a colored front-facing ref

number 4: his almost-death in chapter 98

it sucked so bad. like ok. when i was reading the chapter i was not surprised by it at all. this is a horror manga so something bad Had to happen, and like hell he was actually going to die Again in that moment. and it was executed in a really cool way! kou's single page that only had a "SQUELCH" speech bubble was bone-chilling and there is almost a eurydice flavor to the whole fleeing and turning around to see the ghost of the person you love and finding that you're holding Only their hand.

but as much as ive joked about this manga inventing a new level of bury your gays, there Are some unfortunate implications to two boys having a cute date and then immediately almost-killing one off them. (this could indeed also be applied to mitsuba's death in a way too). im usually not too harsh w this stuff because even if the implications are there i have faith that this wasn't quite meant like that.

but ultimately this scene was there only for shock value to end the chapter in a cliffhanger so! not ranked very high

number 4: his afterlife as a mummy in the ghost hotel café

ok we barely have anything on his death here so it's not too high but just those four lines are so funny. guy who owns the land but is too scared to act out on it. is secretly planning on taking over the hotel. has cried when kou bit him. is his pastissier apprentice. i hope he's better at baking than mit2uba is at cooking. the idea of them having a silly afterlife baking together and chasing after each other is so funny i love them

number 3: his youkai transformation in the bakeneko ryokan hanakotei

his most recent almost-death! we don't know much about it yet but it is such a cute concept!!! he turned into a kitty youkai and now works at the hot springs! it's just like spirited away!!!! super invested on this one i want more so badly

number 2: the time he got poisoned in hanako of the opera

chef's kiss! this one is Almost perfect, if only because the number 1 spot is my favorite scene in any manga ever. mitsuba drinks poisoned peach juice and thanks to the subsequent investigation and hanako's intervention, he is able to escape from the oppressive opera environment with kou! but here is the catch: every night, natsuhiko left a glass of juice for him, and mitsuba never once drank it. what changed this time? why did he drink it? well, the one who left the juice and poisoned him was not natsuhiko, but kou. did mitsuba know? kou. poisoned mitsuba, who in this au is his Childhood Friend. to see if, by taking him out of the opera, he'd be able to help him regain his love of music. and mitsuba willingly drank the poison. probably knowingly. he trusted kou not to kill him. and then they elope. there are sooo many levels to this one i love it

number 1: chapter 48, picture perfect arc

EVERYONE GIVE IT UP FOR THE BEST ROMANCE EVER!!! SHOWSTOPPING!!!! BREATHTAKING!!! NO ONE DOES IT LIKE THEM!!!

it's so perfect. the way the the page where kou jumps off the building is angled and composed so that the panels themselves are falling with them too. kou's promise. the way he literally jumped off a building just to have a chance to understand mitsuba better. and then they'd work their way back to life together! it gets me every time. no one does it like them. i love them so much. <333

and that is all, thanks for sticking by!

but how about YOU guys? what is Your favorite mitsuba death? how would you change my ranking? im always up for talking about mitsuba!

[scar-eyejolteon14]

Hanakou Familiar AU

So in this AU the idea of a Familiar is a supernatural being in a partnership with someone as in bounding their souls, not only do they share each other power but also their emotions and memories but that part isn’t controlled but yes also in a common definition of familiar in magic is a supernatural guiding and serving the person

My idea on this is kou come across this somewhere when reading some scrolls on exorcism and using it to save hanako in some extremely dire situation. soooo after that they tried to figure how this is going to work for now on. And also bunch of shenanigans in or even outside of school and the slow building of romance between the two.

Inspired by

[nex-u]

Realizing that there are many Enstars AUs you can make by throwing Enstars characters into other media

[AUs undercut]

✅: Roles done

(🖼️: No.): Edits made and how many

❎: Roles WIP

🎨: Edits WIP

📝: Story WIP

❓: Considering turning into an AU

Ensemble Stars characters in:

The World Ends with You [❎📝]

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun [❎📝]

MILGRAM [✅ (🖼️: 4 ((I made 1, 3 are made by a friend)) 📝]

Alien Stage [✅🎨]

Saint Spell's Love Guide to the Magical Student's Spellbook [❓]

Persona 5 [❓]

Epithet Erased

takt.Op Destiny [❓] (Actually kinda like this idea)

OMORI

I also have a MILGRAM and Alien Stage Enstars AU (I have 5 edits made with the MILGRAM characters), but there's not enough characters combined to replace all the Enstars idols so it's either I add more music related fandoms or just leave the Enstars characters that haven't been replaced

There's probably more but those are just the ones off the top of my head

[mari-lair]

I HAVE BEEN TOLD AOI AND AKANE ARE ALSO CHILDHOOD FRIENDS IN THE HANAKO-KUN OF MAGIC AU

AND THE  KNOWLADGE MAKES THIS IMAGE EVEN MORE CUTE

Aoi, Akane, you two know each other for ages, why are you acting like this is a meet cute of a teen romance movie??

The fuzzy feelings really prevailed through the years in this AU

[musicalmoritz]

this gonna be a weird question but ever since i have know Aoinene. I have always found a consistent theme of Aoi being a lesbian. While it cool, interesting and all, it hard to found anything canonically to use to prove the interpretation beyond "it just a vibe" . It doesnt interfer with the shipping experience but it still an interesting HC that i would love to found some canon material to build on.

I’m so glad you asked this, I’ve been trying to find a way to talk about my feelings on the lesbian Aoi headcanon for a while now. I’ve written it in my own fics a lot but I have some issues with the way people treat it so I’d like to make this a more nuanced discussion

First off, where does it come from? To answer that question you have to keep in mind that as the manga chapters were being released, fans had no idea where AidaIro planned to go with Aoi and Akane’s relationship beyond what they could infer. While it seems obvious in hindsight that Aoi always liked Akane, a lot of lesbian readers overlooked those hints because they were able to relate to being pursued by a relentless man that they didn’t want. They found comfort in Aoi’s character because her perceived disinterest in Akane was something they could connect to their own experiences with their male best friends falling for them

Then we have this scene, which is a whole rollercoaster in and of itself. At this point in the manga, fans didn’t know Aoi was faking her personality. She only existed as Nene’s popular best friend, the girl with the rumors. And, of course, the girl who kept rejecting Akane. Aoi and Nene seemed to have a very close friendship, so when this scene came out, many readers jumped to the conclusion that Aoi planned to confess to Nene. This, coupled with her constant rejection of Akane, led many fans to believe Aoi was a lesbian. Not just as a cool headcanon, but as an actual theory. To this day some fans still call her queercoded, and that’s where I have a bit of an issue with the headcanon

Because, despite all of this, Aoi isn’t a lesbian in canon. She’s not even coded to be one. In fact her and Akane’s characters aren’t able to develop without each other. Some fans chalk this up to bad writing or lesbiphobia, stating that Aoi never showed interest in Akane up until chapter 69, but this simply isn’t true. There were numerous hints that Aoi liked Akane back, since his feelings for her were first introduced. She’s shown to be absolutely devastated at the possibility of him dating someone else, and in the Clock Keepers arc we see that she’s been encouraging his pursuit of her this whole time. Fans may not like them, but it’s impossible to deny they’ve been set up since the beginning of the manga- on both sides

However, if you were to call Aoi sapphic coded/bi coded in canon, you wouldn’t be far off. In the Hanako-Kun Of Magic au, Mei fell in love with Aoi through a spell. After the spell wore off, they were confirmed to still hang out. They hang out so frequently, that it makes Mei’s little sister jealous because Aoi is stealing all her attention

It wouldn’t be a reach to assume they’re dating in this au, which would make Aoi bi or bi-coded in canon (though it’s very up to interpretation so I wouldn’t say she’s as strongly bi-coded as Kou or even Nene). It rubs me the wrong way when people discuss her potential queercoding and entirely ignore her feelings for Akane just because they don’t like the ship, it feels biphobic. It’s also been implied that Aoi has liked men (or people in general) other than Akane, he joins school clubs based on whoever her current type is

Canon aside though, I’d like to talk about why people like the lesbian Aoi headcanon. Namely, why I still like it in fanon despite feeling that it has a very weak basis in canon. Because for some fans, Aoi’s true personality reveal only made their love of the lesbian Aoi headcanon stronger

Remember how I said fans overlooked Aoi’s feelings for Akane because they projected onto her? I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with that as long as they aren’t bringing their bias into analyses. I’ve read many Aoi queercoding analyses where the creator completely ignores Aoi’s attraction to men in canon due to their own projection, and I hate to say it but that is a bad way to analyze. I’ve mentioned before that I strongly relate to Nene’s shallow crushes on men because they remind me of my own experiences with comphet, but I would never call Nene lesbian coded because that would ignore her entire arc with Hanako. Project onto characters all you want but leave that out of your analyses

Anyways, the reveal that Aoi had been faking her personality only gave the lesbian Aoi headcanon more fuel. At this point in the manga, fans were already fully convinced that Aoi was a lesbian…so to find out the pretty popular girl was hiding her true self from the world?? I mean that sounds queercoded as hell. And I won’t lie, I relate to that a lot too. The need to hide who you really are is a nearly universal queer experience, so pretty much any character that has that storyline is going to hit home for a lot of queer readers. That same trope also plays into Mitsuba’s queercoding, so yeah. Despite all the romance stuff with Akane that happened in those chapters, the big takeaway for lesbian Aoi truthers was that Aoi had been hiding a part of herself that the world would shame her for

This is furthered by her relationship with femininity. Aoi plays the role of the ideal popular girl, a common archetype in media. These girls are feminine, passive, kind, humble, and all the boys love them. That is the image Aoi presents to the rest of the school. However, the real Aoi is nothing like that. I wouldn’t go as far as to call her masculine, but she doesn’t act like the poster child for femininity when she’s being her true self. She’s bitter, arrogant, spiteful, and she only really cares about two people. Lesbians tend to have a very complicated relationship with femininity, because heteronormativity asserts that the defining trait of being a woman is your relationship to a man. As a woman, you are someone’s wife, daughter, mother, sister. So when a woman has no interest in men, she loses a core part of her “femininity.” Some lesbians choose to embrace this, they have no interest in femininity so they perform whatever gender presentation they want. Other lesbians reclaim femininity as something defined by themselves, not society. So when lesbians see a character faking her personality to conform to the societal expectations for her gender…oops she’s one of us now lol. This is also why the transmasc Aoi headcanon is popular, though I won’t be getting into that today

There are more simplistic reasons people like the lesbian Aoi headcanon. It fits a trope, the popular girl who’s pressured to be perfect is secretly a lesbian. Then she falls for her fun and quirky bisexual best friend. Unfortunately this is where the headcanon gets very boiled down, people want Aoi to be something that she’s not in canon. They want her to be a trope rather than her own, unique character. The aesthetic girlboss lesbian. She hates Akane and has a huge crush on Nene, maybe some mommy issues and that’s all there is to her. I don’t like these type of headcanons very much, they reduce queerness to an aesthetic rather than an experience. As I mentioned, the lesbian Aoi headcanon does have potential for fanon content, but some fans sadly reduce it to a stereotype

I’ve written both bisexual and lesbian Aoi, and I think they both have their perks. Lesbian Aoi requires a bit of stretching/rewriting of canon, which can be fun but it has to be handled very carefully. Otherwise you get fics that villainize Akane and ignore Aoi and Nene’s complexities. It’s perfectly fine to project onto a character and headcanon them a certain way for comfort, but in terms of characterization I would recommend people try to look past those biases when they’re writing analyses. Fanfic is a bit different bcuz that depends on whether or not you’re trying to stay in character lol, this might be controversial but some writers just don’t care and that’s fine too. They’re just writing it for fun, it doesn’t have to be that serious. Still, I would like to see more fics that keep Aoi and Nene closer to canon (they absolutely exist dw)

The reason I hesitated for so long to address this headcanon is because I wanted to find a way to talk about it sensitively. Queer fans, especially lesbians, already get a lot of flack for their headcanons and I didn’t want to make it seem like I was invalidating anyone’s experiences. If the lesbian Aoi headcanon brings you comfort then, yes, Aoi can absolutely be a lesbian. Fandom is about fan enjoyment, not authorial intent, so headcanon the characters however you want. Just don’t push those headcanons into others, and try to at least be aware of what’s going on in canon. And again, don’t write an analysis if you’re going to be biased. A better way to do it would be something like “I recognize that AidaIro didn’t go this route but it would’ve been interesting if they made Aoi a lesbian.” An analysis like that might have some weight to it!! Aoi and Akane are a super cute ship, but another straight relationship is nothing revolutionary in fiction. However, canon lesbians in a shonen series?? That’s something you don’t see every day. People have valid reasons for wishing Aoi had been written differently, I just wish they would accept that she didn’t get written that way rather than ignoring canon

Sorry if this isn’t what you were expecting, I hope I explained all sides of the headcanon well enough. Tbh a lot of it is just “vibes” but once you look past the surface, it goes a lot deeper. I also want to clarify that Aoi faking her personality reading as queercoding could absolutely work with her being bi too, bisexuals also have to hide a part of themselves and that’s something other lgbtq+ individuals often overlook. The reason it reads specifically as lesbian coding to some fans is because of her projection of femininity being fake so, by extension, her encouragement of the men who pursue her must be too. That’s obviously not canon but some fans believe it would’ve been a cool route to go. Okay that’s it I think I covered everything lol

Thanks again for the ask, I’m glad I finally got the opportunity to talk abt this <3