#for example fanfics abour Sarumi and Mikorei

[1-lightofjustice]

You said that you sometimes ship Reisaru, what times do you ship it and what time you don't? Also you dislike Munakata as Fushimi's father figure narrative, so you don't see their relationship as platonic?

At what time I ship it? Obviously when I encounter good fanfics or fanarts that portrayed them in shippy way. For example, my all-time favorite fanfic is Becoming by KittyGetLoose and I pretty much squealed when they finally kissed (and have sex later). I also like Chimera by dehautdesert and I can see them as lovers by the end of that story. I admittedly like some NSFW Reisaru fanarts as long as they don’t have any rape elements. And at what time I don’t ship it when the contents portray them as brothers or family, be it blood-related or adoptive. Like I have a headcanon that Fushimi gets adopted by the Munakata family, he becomes Reisi’s little brother, and he changes his name into Munakata Subaru as per Reisi’s suggestion, but in that headcanon, they don’t end up dating each other. Same rule with other fanfics and fanarts.

About how I see their relationship, platonic or romantic, honestly, I’m not really fixated on just one of them. In general, I don’t really see them as “OMG, they should get married, ASAP”, but also not as “Ew, they’re basically family, they must not kiss each other”. I also don’t mind their power imbalance, because boss-employee romance is one of my favorites prompts and it’s not like Fushimi is completely helpless in front of Munakata, we know that he will not let himself ruled by Munakata if he doesn’t want to. Also, Reisaru for me doesn’t make Munakata a bad boss because the fact that Fushimi is Munakata’s favorite is already well-known, but his subordinates still respect him and acknowledge Fushimi’s capability. I just love the fact that there’s a strong connection between them, they admire each other, they care for each other so much, and their interactions are always interesting for me. But indeed I don’t really like Munakata as Fushimi’s father narrative, especially when others use it to belittle Reisaru as “portray Munakata as a pedophile”. Seriously, how old do you think Munakata is, 5 years age difference is hardly pedophiliac. I also don’t like how fandoms put Munakata as “Niki’s substitute” for Fushimi. Munakata is Fushimi’s dorky annoying but amazing King, not Niki but better. Except for their genius minds, there’s no similarity between Munakata and Niki, and I hate any contents that made Munakata resembles Niki in Fushimi’s eyes except again for their genius minds. And doesn’t Fushimi usually end up as Munakata’s babysitter? Sure we have some moment when Munakata basically dotes Fushimi, but we also have Fushimi indulges on Munakata’s antics, albeit reluctantly. We have moments when Fushimi basically told him to move his ass and works, but also moments when Fushimi disapproves his sleep quantity, his lack of sleep quantity to be exact. 

From the start, I see their relationship as general as mutual admiration and affection. Can’t accept less, won’t refuse more. The reason why I prefer Reisaru than any other major pairings is because it came to me as a surprise and bazookas me right in the heart. Like, before I fell in love with Reisaru, I realized that the anime practically points us to ship Kuroshiro, Sarumi, and Mikorei, and honestly I don’t really hate them. Mikorei is quite a good ship for me before Mikoto practically forces Munakata to kill him (I mean, I enjoy Mikorei on R:B and their drama cd’s are hilarious, but I don’t like Mikorei post-S1 when Munakata broods about Mikoto constantly), Kuroshiro is nice even though I can’t see Kuro topped Adolf, and Sarumi is...not really a fan of psychotic ex narrative but their building is solid. But I’m more intrigued with the fact that Munakata and Fushimi have a secret plan together, a suicidal secret plan together. Then Reisaru came to me at the end of ROK when Fushimi smiled after knowing that Munakata hired someone to save him, like before I only see Fushimi’s sadistic smile, who knows that he can make such a tender smile? And his slow blink resembled a cat who feels content and safe so as a cat lover I saw that scene as an important sign. I read LSW after that and...

Yeah, I’ve fallen into the hell of rarepair ship. But I’m glad that K official contents give us many Reisaru moments despite the fact that it’s a rarepair ship. We have many drama CDs about them together, manga and short stories also acknowledge strong bond between them, and we can find many good official arts about them. But indeed they can’t be compared with the amount of contents of other major ships. Especially when it comes to fanfics and fanarts.

(Little observation, why many of Reisaru fanfics on AO3 are in Chinese? Not that we can’t translate them with Google Translate, but the character’s names are getting translated into Chinese version and make them quite confusing. Especially when Saru is directly translated into ‘Ape’. Like the sentence “Ape looked at Zongxiang solemnly”, it’s kinda awkward. Damn you Fushimi Niki and Kisa, for naming your son as literal monkey. Damn you guys to the deepest hell.)

Conclusion : Platonic or romantic, I don’t care. I’m happy to eat any content about two of them.