#but lanzhu already bought a house for everybody to live in after graduation so that's okay

[taperwolf]

opinions on nijigaku polycule? this is like the third time i've came to your blog to fetch the group pic from guren no genki (blessed image, it's been my browser bg for a while, i realise i could've just screenshotted it while typing this out) and i soo agree but ive never seen you talk about it specifically (ig i aven't been here for long anyway) i joked about how "nijigasaki is basically the polyamory manifesto" to a girl the other day and we found it funny but then i realised no, that's real

I will talk about 'the great Nijigasaki polycule' occasionally — usually in tags, admittedly — and I guess the best way to describe my feelings about it is that they're about three clicks more serious than "ha ha they should all just date".

Part of it is that I am naturally a multishipper and polyshipper to begin with. Part of it is the way that Nijigasaki's stated theme of "friends but rivals; rivals but also friends" expresses itself most clearly in DiverDiva's ethos of making each other better through serious but good-natured competition. Part of it is the way that the jokes about "your"/Yu's harem and "Hitori dake nante erabenai yo!" are taken almost seriously. And part is the way that, as a parayuri series, the official stories can't or won't commit to specific couples and instead have spent years scattering breadcrumbs widely across many, many pairings.

But there's stuff like — okay, even for Ayumu, the most obviously possessive one? There's a SIFAS bond chapter where she resorts to following "you" out of jealousy because "you" have been going off to meet with some unknown person When she finally bursts in, her accusation isn't about romance or about her — she's worrying that "you" are cheating on everybody with a new school idol. (The punchline, of course, is that it's the head of Ayumu's fan club and they're planning a surprise for her.) Or over in Shioriko's bond story, when Ayumu comes across "you" and Shioriko out together, the conversation basically goes that she's not sure if she wants to steal "you" from Shioriko, or Shioriko from "you"; Shioriko admits she likes both Ayumu and "you", and "you" say "I'll have to adore you both".

Or there's a single main story chapter where Lanzhu insists that everyone has an open relationship — Shioriko tries to correct her that she means the relationship has open communication — and Kasumi insists that there's an agreement in place that nobody gets ahead of anybody else. (The conversation somehow leads to those two cuddling and Mia dismissing "those lovebirds".) So, like, the implications are there!

My basic thought — in my headcanon gestalt of all the sources — is that it's not a flat and completely equal relationship, but a set of interlocking (and somewhat fluid) subgroups, founded in two directions at once: everybody loves Yu while Hitori dake nante erabenai yo, and Lanzhu obviously adores everybody. But while, say, it's obvious that everyone likes Emma, I'm not sure it's all in the same way or degree, and vice versa — you can see in the Nijigasaki dorm bits in the Daily Theatre that while Emma helps everyone get up, Karin gets an extra dose of indulgence and care. Nonetheless, the lines get a little blurry, between "rivals who are obviously about to kiss", "friends who are all snuggly", and "Kanata wants to sleep with everyone".

So that was a long way around to answer the question, and I'm not sure if I actually did! I'm open to any followups.