#mogumo sakura

[gaystims]

Sakura Mogumo

⚽ 🩹 ⚽ | 🩹 ⚽ 🩹 | ⚽ 🩹 ⚽

With soccer, hair cutting and bandages

[coffee-ouji]

MOGUMO SAKURA, LITTLE SISTERS REIGN

Won't tag bc im lazy, thanks for the tag machi

Feel free to join

You’re stuck in a room with the last character in your gallery. How safe are you?

Thanks for tagging me @artsy-girl-76 @schnarfer @oonajaeadira @jeewrites (I’m so sorry if I missed anyone!)

Does this guy count?

YOU GUYS. It told me the gif was “too big”…. I’m not safe AT ALL 😅

Tagging @burntheedges @grogusmum @perfectly-imperfect-me23 @ishabull @davnittbraes

[resident-normal-person]

Sakura Mogumo's eating disorder

Spoilers ahead!

Soon after Sakura appears in Fukaboku, there is a shot of her throwing up in a public restroom not long after eating, implying an eating disorder.

In addition to that scene, there are several instances of her avoiding eating, to emphasize this.

Exhibit 1: at Café Question in Ch. 18

Exhibit 2: at the mall in Ch. 19

Exhibit 3: at home in Ch. 21

She eats leaves her food unfinished or doesn't get much in the first place. This combined with her home situation leaves her susceptible to fatigue, which I imagine is very taxing on her.

In Chapter 24, the most recent one, her recovery is shown via her patronage at Café Question.

She finishes her entire meal and enjoys it!

And she even willing goes for dessert afterwards:

I'm glad

[frostops]

Mogumo Family Analysis

We’ve now see all of Mogumo’s family, and now Sakura’s relationships with Mogu makes much more sense.

Sakura did at one point realize that Mogu wasn’t her sister or her brother, and while she never fully understood, she still did her best to be accepting and loving of them. And, from Sakura’s perspective at least, she had a good relationship with both of her parents. It’s very likely that Mogu however did not. Previous chapters had already shown Mogu’s mom trying to write off Mogu’s gender and presentation as just a phase, which was it clearly isn’t, and this chapter gives us enough about their father to say that relationship was likely even worse, but Sakura looks back on those days much more fondly.

Now that Mogu is gone, the dynamic of the family has changed greatly for Sakura. Mom doesn’t leave the house, barely eats, needs to be reminded to bathe, and doesn’t do anything around the house. Dad already spent most of his time working and never helped around the house, so Sakura is left to do the shopping, cooking, and cleaning, as well as looking after her mom.

This has more or less consumed her life at this point, and has some pretty harsh effects on her. The first of which we saw a hint of last chapter. Sakura also doesn’t eat enough. She’s not only eating less than her mother at meals, but we also saw that she threw up what little of the meal she had with Testu and Mogu. Sakura is also quitting the soccer team, at the request of her father. She’s trying to rationalize it as her own choice, but it’s just not true. It so clearly pains her to do, and to fully under stand why, we need to talk about her father.

The only time where Dad smiles is while telling his daughter that she’ll make a “good wife.” I don’t think this unrelated to the fact that Sakura has taken on the role of looking after the house from her mom, HIS wife. He’s slotted his daughter into his wife’s position, and doesn’t really seem to care. The house is taken care of either way. He’s usually quick to anger, and takes it out on Sakura. He offers no help in looking after Mom, and doesn’t seem to care what happens to her, as he didn’t bothe to look for her when she suddenly left the house.

His belief of “men should act like men” and “women should act like women” is at the forefront of all of his actions. Sakura short hair and playing soccer are deemed too masculine, despite neither of them being particularly masculine. Dad’s perceived “failure” in making Mogu a man has lead to his paranoia in forcing Sakura to be a “proper” woman.

It also explains why he doesn’t care about Mom and why he is fine with Mogu not coming home. In his mind, women are supposed to be wives and cook and clean, and Mom isn’t doing that anymore. Mogu clearly has no interest in being any kind of man, much less Dad’s image of one.

So Dad focuses all of that on Sakura. He forces her to do the job of a housewife, and takes out his anger on her perceived transgressions of gender roles.

If Sakura calls him out on any of this, he brings up that he works to feed her. Deeply ironic, considering she’s the one cooking the food, and she’ barely eating any of it in the first place. But, Dad has no qualms filling his bowl up while his wife and daughter feel to sick to eat. The change in family dynamic has effected him the least.

His control even goes into how Sakura refers to Mogu. She always called them Ryu-Chan, and still does sometimes, but Dad wants Mogu to be a boy, so Sakura must call them “Bro.” His anger at her calling them Ryu-Chan makes Sakura afraid of him

And then there‘s Mom, whom Sakura is looking after. As stated, Dad doesn’t really care one way or the other about her, much to Sakura’s chagrin, and Mom doesn’t seem to enjoy when he and Sakura argue. When she is found by Sakura, she claims she regrets her mistakes, and seems to blame herself for their current situation.

While she may not be free of guilt in how she raised Mogu, it’s quite clear that Dad is the main problem. She wasn’t directly malicious towards Mogu, not that it excuses how she treated them.

Which also begs the question of what she sees as her mistakes. Does she think it was wrong to ignore Mogu’s gender, and wish she had been more accepting? Or does she look back and wish she had pushed Mogu to be masculine harder? It’s clear Dad regrets “indulging” Mogu. Mom does seem to subscribe to gender roles, but she isn’t as hardline. Her reaction to Sakura’s haircut was merely thinking it was too short, which does imply an expectation of women having long hair, but it’s nothing compared to Dad’s “Are you becoming a man” rant.

Mom also seems to see some of the damage of that. When Sakura gave her reason for quitting soccer, that she wanted to work on her feminin charm, Mom seemed to know it was a lie. She sees Sakura going down the path Dad has laid out for her, and she knows what is at the end of it, because she’s lived that path. She was the good housewife, and she knows where it lead her. Her husband doesn’t care about and only cares about her kids so long as they meet his expectations, she feels as though she’s chased away one of her children, and now she sees her daughter going down the same path.

So she shut down. And while Mom gave up, and Dad tried to keep doing business as usual, Sakura feels like she needs to fix the family. And, from her perspective, the problems started when Mogu left, so it MUST be their fault, and the solution MUST be to bring them back home.

Of course, Mogu needed to leave. Their mom was at best apathetic while their dad was outright hostile. And leaving has allowed Mogu to find a better support structure. And while Mogu is finding a better place for themself, Sakura, through quitting the soccer team, is losing her opportunities at a better support structure. Sakura is now starting to experience what Mogu always was. And it’s left her tired and angry and hurt.

She goes from blaming Mogu to thinking that she could of stayed playing soccer if she didn’t get her haircut she could have continued playing soccer back to blaming Mogu. Some part of her knows it’s Dad’s fault, but she can’t do anything about that. She has no power over him. She can do something about herself and Mogu, and she’s already worn herself thin, so she focused her pain on Mogu.

She wants “normal” back, but normal was a living hell for Mogu.

And it hurts to watch, because she and Mogu are clearly capable of getting along, and clearly care about each other. Sakura has made some efforts to be accepting of Mogu, and doesn’t have any issues herself with Mogu’s presentation. She’s just internalized so much of her father’s hate.

And Mogu’s jealousy of how Sakura was treated better when they were younger is another wall between them, but it’s clear that the preferential treatment is no longer there.

These two can form a good relationship as siblings, and potentially even with their mother, if she recovers and makes effort to really love Mogu, but that will never happen if their father gets his way.

[bonni]

[nerdy-nonbinary]

Here is my fukaboku playlist! I would really love any suggestions anyone has to expand it!

[gurikajis]

[yurimother]

LGBTQ+ Series 'Love Me for Who I Am' Vol. 4 Released

On Tuesday, Seven Seas Entertainment released the fourth volume of Kata Konayama's LGBTQ+ series Love Me for Who I Am (Fukakai na Boku no Subete o) in English digitally and in print. It is translated by Amber Tamosaitis with adaptation by C.A. Hawksmoor and lettering by Ray Steeves. The fifth and final volume is scheduled for English release in January.

Love Me For Who I Am follows Mogumo, a non-binary student living on their own who is invited to work at Question!, an otokonko cafe where the servers are men who dress as women. Throughout the story, Mogumo and the rest of the staff at Question! explore their LGBTQ+ identities and what it means to be queer.

The publisher describes the fourth volume:

Mogumo’s little sister, Sakura, has paid Café Question a totally unexpected visit! Just what is she doing there? And why is Mogumo so unhappy to see her?

Love Me For Who I Am was serialized in Comic MeDu from June 2018 to March 2021. GOT publishes five volumes in Japanese. The series received mixed reviews. I awarded the first volume an 8 out of 10, and Beatrice Viri of CBR praised the LGBTQ characters and reflections on the assumptions about gender. However, Faye Hopper of Anime News Network felt it was more fetishistic and cruel to non-binary characters than accepting and validating.

You can check out Love Me For Who I Am Vol. 4 today digitally and in paperback: https://amzn.to/3jhE2IS

[justmenoworries]

Overall, what would you say are the positives + negatives of fukakai na boku no subete o?

Positives:

good, explicit lgbt+ - representation, no othering, villainizing or baiting. everyone in the cast is non-straight or non-cis in some manner and it's never just left up to interpretation or merely hinted at.

proactive nb-protag who is not in need of "saving" by a straight person, but does have a loving support network

characters have realistic flaws that are addressed and worked through in an empathetic, also realistic manner

actively addresses a lot of the bigoted tropes and "jokes" sadly found in manga/anime to this day, for example slurs and "gay panic"-jokes, as well as the whole "make lgbt+ - people as weird/creepy/ugly as possible"-trope and even discusses why things like that are harmful and need to stop, because they color the perception many a person has on lgbt+ people

very in-depth discussions about gender identity and the topic of being non-binary, as well as why being misgendered is so hurtful and harmful for trans-people and how much it can mentally destroy them to be forced into a gender they're not comfortable with

internalized homophobia is also a topic and holy sh*t is the author good at showing just how much a homophobic, traditionlist environment can f*ck you up if you're lgbt+ yourself

deconstruction of gender norms and how the older generations often struggle with gender-nonconformity, especially if someone they know (like their child) is gender-nonconforming

Negatives:

A really uncomfortable insistence that lgbt+ people have to be understanding and kind to people who abuse them. many arcs that deal with prejuidice are resolved by the perpetrator's hands being held, while the victim gently tells them that "being bigoted bad". which i wouldn't mind if it wasn't the only way conflict is resolved in this series. people are never called out for acting scummy or if they are, they just have to start crying or make a sad face and all is forgiven and forgotten, apparently. i won't lie this gave me SU-flashbacks

the whole mess with kotone's initial behavior. there's a scene in which kotnone physically and verbally assaults tetsu out of jealousy over him dating mogumo, the latter of which she's had a crush on for a long while. the incident obviously leaves a mark on tetsu, to the point where he has flashbacks to it and visibly flinches when he's reminded of the incident or kotone, but it's just... never addressed? the way it played out i thought for sure they would turn this into an arc about how abuse female on male is just a serious as abuse male on female and how the way female abusers are often protrayed as "empowered" is hurting male abuse victims who might be recognizing their own situation. but, nope, no one ever finds out kotone did this and tetsu never tells anybody about the assault. the arc just does a wild swerve to focus on how bad kotone feels instead. it honestly left a really bad taste in my mouth

the final arc about mogumo reconnecting with their abusive family is just... the worst. first we have sakura, mogumo's little sister, who treats them like dirt and regularly guilt-trips and gaslights them about the abuse they suffered at home, because they had the audacity to want to be themselves. she does things like painfully pull mogumo's hairpins out, make them treat her without asking first and show up at their apartment uninvited to ramp up the abuse. as with tetsu and kotone, this is never addressed after the obligatory crocodile tears-scene in which mogumo gets hurt because sakura keeps acting like a ghoul and sakura feels oh-so-sorry because her bullying actually had consequences this time. we have mogumo's father who is just dripping toxic masculinity and tries to force them into conforming without even trying to understand them and is largely responsible for mogumo's body dysphoria. mogumo does call him out, but this is portrayed as "the wrong way" to resolve the issue, with mogumo instead having to explain at length why their father abusing them hurt them and the dad basically going "well i never thought of it that way, i am magically no longer a dick now". and last but not least we have mogumo's mom, who never did sh*t to help her children when her husband tried to force them into roles they were not comfortable with and instead conveniently developed depression, so the manga could have a good excuse for her being a coward and an enabler. mogumo is made to forgive all of them at the end of the manga and they never get a proper apology from them for everything they had to endure. it made me sick seeing this. mogumo's family does not desrve them or any kind of pity

[lgbtqmanga]

New Releases August 24, 2021

Harem Marriage vol. 8 by NON

“Just for today, I don't want you to think of anyone but me." In the one city in Japan where polygamous marriage (AKA: Harem Marriage) is legal, Koharu has long since overcome her initial reluctance and is now happily married to Ryunosuke, Yuzu, and Madoka Date. Now, as the ice around her heart begins to melt and she accepts her love for Ryu, she embarks on a new mission: to overcome her coitophobia, starting with a romantic (and sexy) birthday date!

Volume 1 is described as:

The man Koharu loved wasn't cheating on her... he was cheating on his wife with her! And not only that... he was the third guy in a row to do so. Dejected, she leaves Tokyo for her hometown, and rejects a future of love and marriage for a simpler life. But things have changed -- her parents are struggling, the cafê they ran is closed, and a creepy man keeps following her around. She thinks this may be it for her, until she learns that her hometown has allowed polygamous marriage, and she's in that man's sights as his third wife!

I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level vol. 10 (light novel) by Kisetsu Morita, Benio

I’ve been killing slimes for three hundred years-and now Falfa wants us to sell sweets at a festival? She’s a little too excited about this-but I can’t say no to someone so cute. This time, we met a singing fortuneteller, and went on an adventure with a certain girl who loves white. (The Return of Azuzard!) And maybe, just maybe, Flatorte will learn to be good…

Volume 1 is described as:

After living a painful life as an office worker, Azusa ended her short life by dying from overworking. So when she found herself reincarnated as an undying, unaging witch in a new world, she vows to spend her days stress free and as pleasantly as possible. She ekes out a living by hunting down the easiest targets - the slimes! But after centuries of doing this simple job, she's ended up with insane powers...how will she maintain her low key life now?!

Love Me for Who I Am vol. 4 by Kata Konayama

THE SHADOW OF THE PAST

Mogumo’s little sister, Sakura, has paid Café Question a totally unexpected visit! Just what is she doing there? And why is Mogumo so unhappy to see her?

Volume 1 is described as: 

An LGBT+ manga about finding friendship and common ground at an untraditional maid café! Mogumo is a cute but lonely non-binary high school student who just wants a few loving friends. As someone who doesn't identify as a boy or a girl, however, finding people who really understand can be a big challenge. When fellow student Iwaoka Tetsu invites Mogumo to work at an untraditional maid café, Mogumo is hopeful that things are looking up. Will they finally find friends to call their own -- or just more misunderstanding?

[nbphosphophyllite]

yeah I think I hate Sakura.  She’s better than she was in the last issue but the way she treats Mogumo just pisses me off

[gaystims]

Would you be able to do a stimboard for the character Sakura Mogumo from Love Me For Who I Am? Specific imagery I'd like to see would be playing soccer, cutting hair, and bandages/medical gauze.

Posted

Hi anon! This was really fun to make, I'm more than happy to make stimboards for love me for who I am, although I'm not that far into the manga myself.

[asamlambung]

got tagged by @shinylesbeons​!! thank you!!

Name ten favorite characters from ten different things (books, TV, film etc.) then tag someone else.

night in the woods: mae borowski (bea, germ, and lori was so close though...)

danganronpa: gremlinhorsekin kokichi ouma (the rest of the characters would be sonia/gundam/komaeda and sakura oogami unironically)

over the garden wall: wirt (i love the rest of the main cast but i especially love the frog boat and the cloud city cast)

persona 5: akechi goro (yusuke and haru comes to mind as runner ups!!)

beastars: gouhin (...i love all the canine characters. but this is coming from a dog owner)

south park: kenny mccormick (kenny switches with kyle as best kid every single second... i think i’ve spent too much time in this fandom to not like the rest of the kids equally but i miss chef hh)

harukaze no etranger: hashimoto shun (im too tired to remember their names but the wlw couple who were shun&mio’s neighbors reminds me of the wlw couple from shimanami tasogare a bit!!)

fukakai na boku no subete wo: mogumo ryuunosuke (i love mei and suzu too!!)

houseki no kuni: phosphophyllite (previously it was cairngorm but aechma happened)

higurashi no naku koro ni: ryuugu rena (furudo erika is from umineko no naku koro ni but she’s... my first waifu unfortunately)

honorable mention: jinnai enta (sarazanmai), hayasaka amelia kaori (oresama teacher)

im not tagging anyone for now!! i honestly don’t know if i’m going to go back to this post and tag anyone but take it as me saying anyone who wants to do this can do it.

[resident-normal-person]

Tetsu and Satori's parents are divorced

Their dad no longer lives with them.

It's possible that their dad did not accept Satori and their mom did, so they split up based on that. 

(That might be why Mogumo seems relieved, considering the kind of person their and Sakura’s father is.)

Good thing Tetsu’s parents didn’t split custody :)

I wonder if the manga will shed light on this later...

[frostops]

So, we finally saw Sakura, Mogu’s sister, this chapter. We did see her once before, during Kotone’s flashback. The most noteworthy thing about her then was this:

Sakura seemed to make an attempt to be accepting of Mogu as a child. She doesn’t quite hit the mark, though. She understands that Mogu isn’t a boy, but thinks that means they’re a girl. It seems well intentioned at the time, however, as Sakura is still very young, and Mogu, also being young, seems to struggle to articulate their gender at this point.

However, that seems to have changed.

Sakura now refers to Mogu as “Bro,” so it seems any attempts to be accepting are in the past.

But, what’s more interesting is Mogu’s reaction.

Mogu is horrified by seeing Sakura. It could be in reaction to being called “bro,” but this feels different from their earlier reactions to people getting their gender wrong. Mogu thinks something bad will happen by Sakura showing up to the café. Something happened between them. Kotone seemed surprise by Mogu’s face, so whatever it is, she wasn’t there for it. But, whatever it was, it wasn’t good for Mogu, even if Sakura doesn’t seem to realize it.

[justmenoworries]

genuine thoughts on the fukakai na boku wo subete o finale? i personally disliked it. I felt like it was leaning too hard into a "everybody deserves forgiveness" message, and kind of glossed over the terrible things mogumo's father did, framing as a "mogumo left their family so they're also kind of bad :("

spoilers under cut

same here. Mogumo's whole family treated them like dirt and never supported them or even tried to understand them.

yet somehow, somehow, it's Mogumo's responsibility to forgive them and move back into a household that has made them feel miserable since they were a little kid? nah fam.

What especially bothers me is how the manga handled Mogumo's and Sakura's relationship. Sakura physicially abuses Mogumo, gaslights them about how much they suffered and then the manga suddenly goes "but look, she actually has it worse than Mogumo! feel sorry for her! pity her!" and I'm like "no??? Sakura can fuck off and leave Mogumo alone."

the manga also never has anyone call Sakura out for this behavior? the most we get is Mogumo being kinda stand-offish to Sakura after Sakura forces herself into their life and acts like a complete c*nt, but then here comes Sakura's sob-story and we're just supposed to forget how she tore Mogumo's beloved hair-pins out and called them selfish because Mogumo refused to move back in with their abusive parents.

To be fair, Sakura apologizes once, after her behavior gets Mogumo badly injured, but that's it. no one of Mogumo's found family ever finds out that Sakura treated them like dirt, no one gets to tell Sakura off for being such a rotten sister, not even Mogumo who would have every right to go off on her but doesn't because the manga decided they have to be "the bigger person" and forgive their family absolutely everything, there are just no consequences for Sakura and it pisses me off.

Mogumo's parents are no better. Mogumo's dad tried to force them into heteronormativity and Mogumo's mom is too much of a wet blanket to stand up for her child. and both of them continually dismiss Mogumo's identity as "just a phase" and then act hurt when Mogumo finally puts their foot down and tells them no, it's not, this is who I am.

Mogumo was so miserable in this household they tried to commit suicide, but let's forget about that, look how sad and lonely their parents are because they left./s

Mogumo's dad is revealed to have been abused by his dad in the past, and having rationalized it into believing his dad just wanted the best for him, so he can justify being a dick to Mogumo and Sakura to himself.

and Mogumo's mom conveniently develops depression after Mogumo attempts to kill themself, so the manga won't ever have to hold her responsible for enabling Mogumo's dad's sexist bullcrap.

There's a lot of good things about fukakai na boku no subete wo, but the finale and the resolution to Mogumo's family problems is not one of them.