#im mad ok. a romance WASNT NECESARRY. LIKE AT ALL.

[shizekarnstein]

Late night musings bc I can't sleep. Read at your own risk lmao it's past 3 am and i really should be sleeping instead of typing... this.

I spend a lot of time procrastinating my uni work and obligations daydreaming about how I would tackle my let's say least favorite relationships in furuba and I always arrive at the conclusion Kureno and Arisa are a lost cause.

Shigure and Akito are toxic as a polluted river but at least have history together and I can work with that. Kyoko and Katsuya are more or less the same. BUT Kureno and Arisa??? They met like twice, suddenly obsess over each other and... that's all. After Kureno appears all Arisa's character is about is pinning and getting emotional and mad over this weird Tohru alterego she met while working and serving as the driving force to make the Tohru and Kureno meetings possible. She only resurfaces a little as her own woman at the end, when she teams up with Saki to take care of Tohru.

Kureno... is basically the same. He went for a walk, met Arisa, fell in love and suddenly his terrible life choices come crushing down bc of those... meaningless interactions. And he's right they are meaningless. But somehow I am supposed to believe those sudden and brief encounters evolve into an intense love that's strong and important enough to finally make Kureno WAKE UP and realise his inaction has serious consequences and that he has the power and ability to change things for the better in his weird cult like family. I'm sorry but... I don't buy it.

I tried multiple combinations (besides working around the uncomfortable power dynamics tied to the age gaps that's a given and not what I'm taking about here) for Arisa and Kureno. Maybe they could be two strangers than met and after a series of coincidences end up becoming friends? Arisa can see him as a weird guy whos totally lost and sad without any kind of proper... romantic feelings. Kureno could see her as an endearing young girl who kind of baffles him bc she's so different to everyone he knows (Akito) and being awed at how put together she is despite being so young (like Tohru). Idk I guess they COULD BE friends. I could dig it with a lot of work. The problem with this scenario is how close this hypothetical friendship and sharing over coffees could bring Arisa to the whole Sohma mess. She would eventually get mixed up in it, especially after talking to Tohru and realising her weird buddy is someone Tohru knows. This could go anywhere from that point.

The only thing I can say is that Kureno and Arisa as a romantic pairing just... kinda suck. Particulary bc they have like zero MEANINGFULL interactions and development, and the few encounters they have are not only bland af but awfully creepy. And for me it's such a shame. Arisa at least had her moments to shine before meeting him, but Kureno is all about interesting story bad foundation and even worse driving force. If Takaya wanted him to meet Tohru there were other ways than having Kureno fall in love with her classmate. Again why did she did that 😩