#he tells senku that well we both know the whole cola thing was a ruse

[sengenism]

What's the moment you started shipping Sengen? Mine is definitely when Gen and Senku agreed they'll condemn their soul together to hell, it's small but it's the moment I started loving this ship.

I know there's the Gen asking for cola while injured scene but idk... They condemning their soul together to hell stirred something deep inside my heart...

- 🧅

the "senku ishigami and asagiri gen will be condemning themselves to an eternity of hell" scene is so insane i think about it all the time

funny thing about this scene is that the only other time they used such phrasing was in the light novel, where it narrates homura's loyalty to hyouga

Even then, Homura had no regrets. She had offered her very own future to the other prisoner, Hyouga. Even if the future was pitch black, if it was to fall to hell with him she did not mind in the least.

homura... who is in love with hyouga... hmm interesting

btw loved them ever since the observatory scene in the anime!! the anime, specifically, because i read the manga first. but only when the anime came out in 2019 did i realise how romantic the observatory scene actually was... like... it hit me that this was the most perfect gift one could present to senku then. how much thought gen put behind it all, to the point of manipulating senku into giving him a hint to calculate senku's birthday.

it's such a lovely scene and gen orchestrating the whole thing with the help of the villagers truly speaks volume for his love and care for senku. and i don't necessarily mean love in a romantic way– well, could be– but no matter the form of love the reader interprets this scene as, it's undeniable that gen genuinely loves senku for being senku. it is the purest kind of love, for he admits he likes senku regardless of the gain he gets from it.

and this scene is so so so so gen. there's manipulation, sure, but there is also kindness hidden behind it– that's the core of gen's personality. he is a good man who hides his kindness behind layers of manipulation. similarly, he manipulated chrome into picking the card that would allow chrome to ride the parachute first because he knew how baaaadly chrome wanted to.

and one of the best parts about the observatory scene? inagaki-sensei had revealed in a Q&A session that the saturn that senku saw through the telescope was merely his own mental imagery. with gen's limited science knowledge on making a telescope, the telescope made by him and the villagers wasn't advanced enough to see a planet. which means senku was so touched, he had lied about the telescope being good.

anyways, i've talked about how important gifts are to the ishigamis here and i'd like to point out that this makes the gift mean so much more to senku than a simple (maybe useless) telescope. thanks for coming to my ted talk~