#ryoko ikeda was genuinely groundbreaking for the period she was writing in

[holmsister]

The comparison with Chilchuck straight up getting sucked thru a straw the next panel over kills me. Like there's nothing explicit but the reciprocal positions of his legs and her head + the noises??? They are NOT kissing on the lips even if that's what it will look like later. He's getting top like there's no tomorrow.

A side note that maybe only I find interesting is that the elf aesthetic Marcellina seems to like takes directly from a certain type of old fashioned shojo manga. Like we are talking from the 70s. Im gonna talk rose of versailles because i love rose of versailles. Bit of a rant under cut.

the sparkly eyes and the flowers in the background, the uniform, the over the top-ness, princesses and knights and generals, the long hair, everyone being impossibly androgynous and beautiful... its an aesthetic that is very recognizable. Ryoko Kui uses it as a visual joke several times in the manga (elf senshi is probably my fave example).

It's an aesthetic that is comparable with the romantic novel covers you talk about but it has none of the raunchiness. Sex is mentioned very rarely and only in very flowery and euphemistic terms.

A typical element of shojo manga of this period are the very intense stories of intimate female friendship and admiration that can be read as romantic. There is never explicitly acknowledged lesbian romance and the main heroine always ends up with a male hero, but there's also often an element of genderbending that allows for 'misunderstandings' with girls falling in love with other girls (in Rose of Versailles the protagonist is a woman being raised as a man) or often the setting is an all-female social situation which naturally centers intense female relationships (like an all-girls school... like the one falin and marcille apparently went to). In any case, same sex relationships end up taking up as much space if not often more than the "official" male love interest. Later media that works to reinterpret and remix this tradition often makes the subtextual lesbian relationships explicit (see revolutionary girl utena).

Also, the element of genderbending - not only the women are often dressed as men and covering manly roles, but the men are often given very long hair, long lashes, beautiful big eyes, slender bodies, etc. Much has been said about making men more feminine in media aimed at young girls to make them less menacing but here it also definitely serves the purpose of adding to the visual appeal of a world in which everyone just looks a lil girly.

(This image is so intensely 70s holy shit they could be led zeppelin)

In other words, I think going off the aesthetic elements of the design of this dude whose name I will never remember its fair to say that we are meant to read him as the product of the unrealistic, naive fantasies of a young, very sheltered woman... who might or might not have come to terms with her own lesbian subtext.

i struggle to read marcilles succubus as a sexual fantasy

i feel that chilchuck is the only one who gets a clear cut sex fantasy presented to him bc hes the only member of the party with the kind of sexual experience that would make him let his guard down that way. hes been married his entire adult life, was sexually active since he was a teenager, hes the only one who makes sex jokes (which dont land, see that extra on tentacles), and we know hes been faithful to the wife he has not seen in years. that is a very long time to be dry

while its certainly possible to read marcilles fantasy as a virgin maidens desired seduction, its also very chaste even for that. her knight is covered head to toe, and looks like an overdesigned fantasy character, with no sexual appeal. hes posed on a horse, but in such a way that specifically covers his groin. there isnt a physicality to him that kui uses often to draw the eyes to a sensual nature--compare that pose to how the winged lion poses (for laios, not marcille, he ALSO is posed less sexually when with marcille, though i could be forgetting a pose here or there) to highlight his seductive nature.

even in swinging down from his horse, theres just no carnality. hes stiff legged, body turned away from the camera.

its all very romantic in a courtly fashion. i.e. the fantasy is a lot more about this decorated man telling her shes a princess who belongs in a castle. its a 12yos dream boyfriend made real.

marcille isnt comfortable enough with herself as a potentially sexual being to get even close to what works on chilchuck--she seems almost afraid of recognizing peer-to-peer relationships, and that deeply impacts her ability to engage with sex. look back at how she engages with falins shows of intimacy in the bath scene and the bed scene after: when falin engages as an equal, as an adult, marcille panics, and pushes her back into a childs role. she starts lecturing falin when she tries to return mana, not listening to her say she has a well of it right now. when falin comments that shes grown tall and strong and may not fit in a single bed with marcille anymore, marcille dismisses her with "you'll always be a kid to me!"

while marcille is not a child, she straight up is not ready for sex yet bc of that resistance to having peer relationships