#mariya ise ships killugon

[mariposahxh]

it’s been almost a year now but this post still lives in my head rent free

i remember when the vid first came out and the dudebros kept saying “she meant it as brotherly love🤦‍♂️ killugon fans need to leave her alone smh .😴”

but we all eventually became aware of what “aishiteru” meant and that Mariya DID in fact mean it romantically. so then the dudebros changed their narrative to “well she’s just a voice actor it doesn’t mean anything😒”

like… what? OF COURSE IT MEANS SOMETHING.

the “meeting you, I’m the fortunate one” scene, the “you are light” scene, “I want to stay by your side always” , “he is my most precious friend” , “shinjū” , and literally any scene involving jealousy of Palm, Mariya voiced those lines with the intentions of romantic love behind them. those scenes ARE romance. that’s how she interprets Killua’s love for Gon, and she delivered as so.

so everyone, have whatever opinion you want on 1999 anime Killua and manga Killua (though they’re just as gay…), but the adaptation of your favorite dudebro🔥 goated🐐 badass😈 cold🥶 assassin💀 homie💸 character from the 2011 anime is queer and deeply IN love with his best friend. so stop projecting your heterosexuality onto him.

that’s all. i’m going back to bed now.

killugon

Mariya Ise, Killua’s seiyuu in the 2011 anime, answering a question at her panel at Otakon about whether Killua is in love with Gon. 🥰

I didn’t take this video (I sadly wasn’t at Otakon), but it seems like the original person who posted it to Twitter took it down. I’m so glad I downloaded it while I had the chance!

[ohlenore]

estuve buscando en twitter y acá en tumblr, y me di cuenta que nunca me he referido a los chicos como "killugon" porque me carrrrga el nombre, sé que las gringas en el 2020 fueron las que lo popularizaron como el "nombre oficial" del ship y lo odio. Odio que empiece por "Killu" jaja suena a calugon en español en serio lo odio, y se te refieres a ellos como gonkillu te acusan hasta de---- cuando también es un nombre oficial?? y hasta más que el otro... Incluso Mariya Ise lo usa, en fin odio a las gringas-

[recents]

something @pacificpikachu said got me on a train of thought that led to this, but i wanted to sort of sketch this idea out: mariya ise’s confident and casual, immediate confirmation that killua is in love with gon is surprising in one way, but in another, to me, it’s not surprising at all.

hunter x hunter has always been very different from other shonen with queer stuff.

think about how niuya was posting her killugon ship art on twitter openly during production and faced no consequences. the staff has always been open about “shipping” them. it’s no a coincidence. there’s literally a drama cd from 1999 of leopika called moody restaurant that’s literally just leorio and kurapika fucking while roleplaying as a waiter and customer at a restaurant. that’s real.

there’s a huge difference in staff/official attitude toward all of it from something like........ sorry im just trying to think of a random example here not trying to shit on anyone. idk narusasu or something like that. you know? it’s really openly noooot the same thing

and another thing iseven aside from the fact that’s always had lgbt characters in his work, togashi has been open about being a fudanshi since the early 90s, people just didn’t talk about it then. he first cited patalliro as an influence in an author’s note about yyh. he’s cited mineo maya. mineo maya was one of the only male BL authors from the first wave of shoujo BL back in the 1970s. like togashi, he is now happily married and has a biological daughter, but he frequently expresses himself through drag and takes photos, and is open about how much he enjoys exploring gay love and gender nonconformity through fiction. he doesn’t identify as gay, but he sure as fuck isn’t cishet!!

like togashi has always been open about the impression maya’s work made on him and it confuses and shocks western fans because of the cultural difference. western fans approach hxh from a very post-2010s queer rep perspective. but togashi has never included queer characters out of the western conception of representation. he has always included them because he likes writing queer characters and he wants to. that’s it.

and once you realize that, you also realize how a character like hisoka and killua can coexist. if you think that the only reason a writer would include a queer character would be to perform A Social Good, it makes no sense that you can have a character like hisoka, who some fans see as reinforcing negative stereotypes, and this hugely empowering and affirming character like killua at the same time. the answer is simply that togashi wasn’t thinking about only creating positive queer characters when he wrote hisoka, because he wasn’t doing it as a social good or as a chore. he is influenced by old BL and he writes queer men into his work because he likes writing them. that’s it.

god. big fucking rambling post. i guess my point is that hxh has always been an openly queer series and it just doesn’t go about it the same way we expect openly queer series to do today.

[recents]

mariya ise really just. yeah. ive been shipping killugon abd convinced killugon is canon while constantly wondering in the back of my mind if im being baited for. get this. 9 straight years of my life. and the way i get closure is a 1 minute video from otakon 2022. the first time mariya ise is ever asked, and she UNEQUIVOCALLY answers yes. what a way to get closure. what the fuck.