#soukou

[ingridgh0st]

They'll be foud like this probably

in case the chapter didn’t already run the salt in the wound, these two sunshines are down in that well with those bodies and they’re never gna be as happy as in those panels ever again

[xsommeee]

Asagiri you fucking genius

guys I take back every bad thing I've said about him, he's crazy good

[astrocket]

Now we can be together forever!

[poh4k03e]

based on this post lmfao

[musicalmoritz]

I’m going insane over Sousuke remembering this moment. The moment when Mitsuba was scared and hurt and Kou showed up and looked at him like they were already friends, treating Mitsuba like he was something to be handled with care. They are making me lose my mind

[chuuyafucks]

"INTERESTING.." as if he isnt smiling through the jealous rage

[sleepyjuice-juice]

//TBHK 114 SPOILERS

okay okay imagine

this is kou's perfect tl, right? His family is together, his mom is alive, and not only is Sousuke alive and well, but they are close. First name basis. Sousuke knows that Kou is an exorcist even though he keeps that a secret from his other living friends, Yokoo and Satou. They share some sort of exclusive relationship.

And then... Nene, Akane, possibly Teru (Teru is a wildcard atp - Minamoto mom in the mix complicates his motives), possibly others are trying to revert the timeline, back to the one where absolutely nothing is working out for him. Dysfunctional family, loved ones dying, weight of the world on his shoulders all over again.

I mean, one part of this to analyze is how this affects Kou's character development. In the og tl, he's in a very tough spot in his character development, in which he still feels responsible for everyone else's happiness, always putting others first, always at his own expense. He feels weak and unreliable, but holds himself to such a high standard, because otherwise he doesn't know how to hope. He's barely voiced his insecurities to anyone, besides Mitsuba, and also Teru when they fought during the severance arc.

We don't know how much Kou remembers now, nor the rate he'll remember things, nor how adjusted he really is to this new tl. Because Nene, even though she initially struggled to remember the old tl, she also was foggy on some details about the current tl. And Kou set a table for three instead of 5. So, the question this begs is how displaced is Kou's memory atp?

Alright. Moving on. Depending on these factors... how is his development affected by this? He is in an environment that is fulfilling for him in every way, but it is being threatened to be taken away by people he may or may not remember (doesn't remember Nene yet, status with Akane not confirmed, Teru's motives still in question)

And even if he does remember, how will he react? He has everything he's ever wanted, and it's real this time, unlike in picture perfect. Will he finally put his own wishes first, or will he relinquish a life that's better for him, his family, Sousuke, and so many more? And would that really be selfish of him to decide, if this timeline is objectively healthier?

It's suggested that one of the Yugi twins even grew up to be one of Tsuchigomori's colleagues, likely Amane. If he thought about it, Kou could argue that if Nene loves Hanako/Amane, she would choose the world that he got to grow up in instead of the one where he dies prematurely. It's even hinted that Aoi still likes Akane despite her engagement to Teru, so, logically he'd have a really good argument against everyone opposing the new tl, right?

But... it's not his story. We know he's more than likely going to have to lose this life. Lose his loved ones all over again

And of course... to choose Sousuke Mitsuba, he has to unchoose Mitsuba No. 3. Which is another ooooof biiiig storm coming

It's gonna hurt me, I know. I'm just SO goddamn invested in how this is going to play out

[comicxzzsalt]

2021 vs 2023!!

[ reblogs & likes appreciated ]

[whateveranimex]

Chuuya: Look me straight in the eyes and tell me the truth, Dazai! Dazai: You can't expect me to look into your eyes and be straight.

[okamiz36]

MORI IS NOT A PEDO. DAZAI IS NOT A WOMANIZER OR 2D. A rant about the BSD universe, characters, and fanfic writers and how people mischaracterize the MCs

SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK NO LONGER HUMAN

Ok so, for those of who don't know in BUNGOSTRAYDOGS ANIME each main character was based off an actual writer and the character's came to be a blend of the universe/anime mixed with the novelist's books. For example, Dazai Osmau wrote the book No Longer Human which explains the tale of a man who had been acting his entire life, struggles with depression, fitting into society and eventually at the end comes out as gay (shoutout to the soukou shippers because this practically confirms the ship is canon). It shows how Dazai is more then a womenizer and comedian whereas in the anime we just take the character at surface level.

I'm a fanfic reader, I enjoy alot of different stories and right now I'm reading StrayBoundIsakai on AO3, amazing fanfic to some extent. I love it and whatnot but they included some notes on NaomiXTanizaki, and like a true fan I've done a bit of reasearch on the books written by the characters (I read crime and punishment+No longer human because those are my favs plus another Dostoyevsky book I can't remember the name of) So y'know it annoyed me to see people claiming that Tanizaki and Naomi are an actual incest couple because they are not. Here's my theory, Tanizaki n Naomi arent real siblings, in the book Naomi by Tanizaki two lovers have to pretend to be siblings to hide from a man who I'm pretty sure forced Naomi into a relationship with him, ill read the book prob tmrw if i got time, and its a common theroy that Naomi in bsd isnt even real, shes a hallucination ofa dead girl made by light snow ability. So one or the other.

We don't have any confirmation as to pretty much any of the BSD characters so we don't know the details between Tanizaki and Naomi as they've been kept secret. BSD is an odd anime because it goes from silly detective to vampire outbreak, to Fyodor is god, but within layers there are so many hidden clues on what the real story is.

Dazai is a tricky one for me because i've read so many theories on him but my favorite is why he abuses Akutagawa. Dazai is abusive to Akutagawa bc if he isnt and praises aku then aku loses his reason to lvie and be better then he alreayd is, akutagawa needs to be told he's a failure, dazais nice to atsushi bc atsushi is already so far broken if he doesn't get praise he'll go insane and suicide or smth similar. Dazai's character and entire personality is within the book no longer human (amazing read would recommend but it will mess you up) people often call him a womanizer but it's him simply trying to fake a personality as to what he deems is the most likeable persona or sterotypical persona. He's not annoying, his entire personality is a facade in which he's just trying to be likeable because he has no clue how he's suppose to act. In the PM/dark era/15 dazai he acted cold and ruthless because that was what was to be expected of him. Dazai has no personality, he's a pathological manipulator, YALL PLEASE READ NO LONGER HUMAN IF YOU ARE A DAZAI FAN.

And then Mori... PEOPLE PLEASE STOP SAYING HE'S A PEDOFILE. I'm going to take context from a reddit thread and the link will be posted because the post I'm quoting omg is amazing helped me so much, "Elise is the character of a short story by Mori, "The Dancing Girl" [a japanese student in Germany falls in love with a 17yo local girl who was poor and danced for a living, they have a complicated relationship until the guy chooses Japanese Moral Integrity over Love and goes back home. The girl realizes she was pregnant and goes mad, the student finds out and has painful regrets because he wanted a child/family and truly loved the girl" "In "The Dancing Girl", in the end the girl was pregnant with the student's child. Could BSD Elise herself be that child? Well, I don't very much believe this actually (imo BSD Mori and Elise don't have a father-daughter kind of relationship, I will elaborate), but anyway it's something that popped up in my mind. 2) I'm sure I read this somewhere, though I can't remember the source rn, that RL Mori himself said that his sexuality is "like that of a child", meaning that he does not really feel sexual attraction but he understands love and affection, and he stated that he loved his wife and children. So, my personal opinion is that Elise could be just that part of him. That's why it's shaped like a child. (+ Little side note idk if it's something worth mentioning but Elise has blue eyes, blonde hair, western outfit... Is she European? Given RL Mori's literary tastes I mentioned at the start, Asagiri might have chosen this specific design on purpose?).  Anyway that brings me to my next point: What is Mori and Elise's relationship in BSD? Like I was saying, Elise is literally a part of Mori, so she is Mori himself, his preferences, the influences he had, etc. He loves and cares for her because he loves and cares for himself. After all, Mori is not shown being "affectionate" towards other kids: there were Q and Kyōka right there but Mori never showed interest in them if not to exploit their abilities. So is BSD Mori a pedo yes or no?? Here we are. I think BSD Mori might be asexual (as for RL Mori, he probably was, but we'll never really know, also who knew about asexuality in 1800-1900s lol). That said, the character is never shown feeling sexual attraction (and reminder that pedophile means sexually attracted to children, y'all say this word so lightly smh). But Mori really says a lot of inappropriate stuff, doesn't he? Fukuzawa was shocked and Elise picks on him. But what if the shtick is that he just doesn't realize that he appears sus to others, exactly because anything he does isn't intended as sexual in his pov? He's a criminal mastermind but he also probably thinks dressing up Elise is like dressing up a doll and saying she's his wife is like playing house."

Asagiri prob just made him seem creepy because guess what HE'S A MAFIA BOSS LIKE WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?! Link is here please read: reddit.com/r/BungouStrayDogs/comments/17zes5z/vita_sexualis/

Reading or watching videos of recaps on the BSD writers made me hate so many fanfics honestly.... I shared all of these thoughts with my friend @kreepyveebs because they wanted to makea Ranpo fanfic and I figured I should also make a post on this.

I'm going to link a channel who made videos on Dostoyevsky's books just because it helps clearify what Fyodor is even talking about/explaining in the books, it's also a psychology channel so I recommend just binge watchin this guy https://www.youtube.com/@unsolicitedadvice9198

Can writers and theorists also please start figuring out what made Kunikida have his ideals, or made Ranpo the way he is? Ranpo wrote black lizards so me and Kreepy have made the theory of he had mafia parents or somehting similar, maybe related to Hiroshi? (im pretty sure i got his name wrong- ack), stop focusing on just the mains, like jeez.

SHOUTOUT TO @kreepyveebs (second ping mwahhaha) THEYRE AN AMAZING ARTIST AND WRITER AND YOU SHOULD 100% FOLLOW THEM IF YOU SEE THIS POST.

oh yeah @unknowntalesbymiles you should enjoy this post so ping for you!

[bonxichi]

⌇﹒✶﹐Mitsuba Sousuke + kou ! ╰╮graphic

F2u w/cred , reblog appreciated !

[mysteriousmissme]

at least they're happy in this universe...

[xsommeee]

Dazai*dreamily*: I want my life to be like Chuuya.

Yosano: Cute, beautiful, powerful, pretty?

Ranpo *laughing*: Short!

[mary-dreamy]

SSK Hunger Games AU

So, I wanted to rant more about this AU so bear with me

Chuuya and Dazai are both District 12, duh

Chuuya's older brother, Verlaine, is the district's only victor. His games changed him completely. He started speding all his time in the Capitol and barely coming back to 12 apart from the days before the reaping, to get the tributes he would have to mentor.

In his absence, Chuuya uses the money and privilege to help out the Sheep, the local gang of orphans.

That is until Chuuya is 15 and the 43th Hunger Games start.

Shirase is reaped and, of course, Chuuya volunteers for him.

Dazai is the other tribute.

Chuuya doesn't know Dazai but Dazai didn know of Chuuya because of his brother.

Now, Verlaine is furious with Chuuya for volunteering and a lot of conflict ensues because now he's gonna have to mentor him.

Chuuya and him have a huge fight because demands no special treatment from his brother here, it wouldn't be fair if he won just because Dazai didn't get enough training.

This puts the boys againts each other, because Dazai doesn't needs anyone's pity.

Also, Kouyou is Effie here, forgot to mention (i think both chuuya's sibling figures should get to mentor him sdfsd)

Anyway, they arrive to the Capitol and the shit show begins.

Mori is President Snow, duh, and I think Seneca Crane should be Sigma hehehe

I'm also thinking that the Flags are in this games, as well as oda, because I want both of them to suffer

Anyway, we get to the interview and Dazai delivers the crush bomb and Chuuya is so pissed at him!!!! Like, until this point, they have barely interacted with each other and they don't get on well so, what the hell? And Dazai is mad too because he just did Chuuya a huge favour, making him desirable despite all his anger issues, he should thank him for it!

After all, Dazai doesn't plan to survive the hunger games, there's nothing for him to come back to. But Dazai sees that Chuuya has his brother and the Sheep and, if someone is gonna survive this, it better be him. So, that's why he delivers the crush bomb on the interview asdfhsdfh

So, we get to the arena, and I'm thinking is a slumb, kinda like Subarachi City

So, they get there, and we have different groups: dazai and chuuya separate. Chuuya joins the Flags and Dazai wanders alone until he teams up with Oda.

You know the rest, more or less, the flags and oda die (oda is so rue coded btw) and dazai and chuuya turn to each other to survive.

I think Dazai injures his eye in the arena, and gets the bandages over the eye, and I think Chuuya should end up deaf on one ear.

Anyway, they reach the end of the games and the berries happen.

I think that Dazai did plan to eat the berries, because he didn't want to go on, especially after oda, but Chuuya stopped him in time.

Sigma doesn't die here though, I think the resistence whisks him away hehehe

sdkjfskfh i'm so obsessed with this au, and i'm already planning a catching fire au someone stop me pls

[sapphickocho]

A western skk au fanfic called The Devil In The West

Summary:

It was supposed to be a normal night in the dimly lit tavern of outback America. Afterall, Chuuya just wanted to sit back, nurse his drink, smoke, pretend to lose at poker once again and of course keep an eye out for his old informant which is the key to infiltrating the local mafia for his gang.

However, an opium-addled boy with too much flamboyance and a death wish comes waltzing in. Just his fucking luck.

[musicalmoritz]

It’s canon Mitsuba’s gay?

I’m gonna use this as an excuse to yap because Mitsuba’s queercoding is either weirdly downplayed by fans or used solely for BL shipping purposes so I want to talk about it through the lens of what it means for his character, role in the story, and relationship with Kou

Yes, Mitsuba is canonically gay

Things don’t have to be explicitly stated in order to be canon, subtext is a major part of media analysis. This is something a lot of fans miss which leads to a misunderstanding of the source material. I do have some credentials for this, I’ve taken two undergrad college literature classes in which the subject of queercoding did come up multiple times. Meaning analyzing queercoding has literally gone towards my degree so I feel like my opinion holds some weight (not as much as that of an actual English major but yk I assume I’ve had more education on it than the general TBHK fandom)

There are multiple ways to queercode a character, sometimes it can be as simple as feminizing a man or masculinizing a woman. Though that method might be a bit outdated nowadays with gender roles becoming less strict, it’s still worth keeping in mind when analyzing queer characters. Another way is through romantically colored scenes with characters of the same sex, or by having them hint at disinterest in the opposite sex. Mitsuba checks off all three of these boxes and then some

First off, Mitsuba is attracted to men. This is made extremely obvious through his relationship with Kou but I’m gonna explain it anyways because unfortunately I’ve seen a lot of fans say they’re just platonic

Mitsuba and Kou went on a date. When this is brought up, fans typically jump to the excuse of “but Kou said it wasn’t a date,” which is where my American Lit class is going to come in handy. One of the major things we learned is that authors have to understand that everything they write has some sort of real world connotation. If you write a scene with a doctor, you have to understand that your readers already have preconceived notions of what doctors represent. You can choose to either lean into that or subvert it, but you have to be aware that as soon as a doctor enters the scene, readers have already made assumptions about that character

The word “date” is clearly being used in a romantic context here. When Kou texts his friends and brother about it, they all assume he’s talking about a romantic date. While in the actual context of the scene, Mitsuba and Kou aren’t quite ready to use such a strong label yet, the romantic wording here is still very intentional. AidaIro would not have labeled this moment as a date if they didn’t want readers to view it in a romantic light, because they understand that their readers are going to associate dates with romance. Japanese censorship is really strict, it’s hard to publish stories with explicitly queer characters unless the series is labeled as a BL or GL. And so Japanese manga writers often have to find roundabout ways to express that characters are gay without outright stating it- such as suggesting that they’re going on a date with a character of the same sex

In the printed volume for Vol.20, there’s an editor’s note that mentions that when Kou and Mitsuba are making plans to hang out at the school festival, it holds a romantic implication for the Japanese audience. Cultural differences are important to keep in mind, to western fans this scene might not raise any eyebrows but for its primary audience, it is confirmation that Mitsuba and Kou are romantic. I also find it interesting that the editor felt this context was important enough to warrant clarification

And frankly, their relationship doesn’t make a lot of sense if it’s solely platonic. Male friendship is something TBHK writes very realistically, the male characters aren’t as touchy-feely with their friends as they are with their female love interests. Yokoo and Satou don’t directly ask Kou how he’s feeling when they notice he’s upset, instead they give him a task to distract him- similar to how men in real life cheer their friends up through quality time rather than talking through their emotions like women do (not every man ofc but a good majority of them). When Teru is down, Akane doesn’t hold him and reassure him the way he does with Aoi. There are no grand declarations of ultimate “friendship” the way you see in fan servicy series like Haikyuu. Instead, he used his and Teru’s rivalry to indirectly motivate him to get his head back in the game. When Hanako is sad, Kou cheers him up by making donuts for him and then giving them to Nene so she can pretend she’s the one who made them. This is a very healthy portrayal of male friendship, and Mitsuba and Kou are nothing like this

Mitsuba and Kou both cry and vent to each other multiple times (the Mitsuba Arc, the Picture Perfect Arc, the Nightlife Arc), and instead of comforting each other indirectly they do things like offering to die for each other. You would never see Akane offer to die to make Teru feel better, nor would you Aoi and Nene or Kou and Hanako. It stands out so much from other friendships in the series, even Kou’s friendships with other characters. That is a conscious writing decision, AidaIro make a point to show Mitsuba as an exception for Kou. It’s worth noting that in the same chapter where Yokoo and Satou cheer Kou up indirectly, Mitsuba attempts to directly have him talk about his feelings

They’re also incredibly possessive over one another, in a way friends usually aren’t. When Kou was in the Red House, he was shown his greatest desires, and Mitsuba appeared in one of these. Kou said he knew Mitsuba would appear, which is interesting because at that point he had already picked up on the house showing him what he wanted. But what does he want? He wants Mitsuba to rely on him entirely, to be completely useless without him. He wants Mitsuba to be “no good without him,” to need him so badly that he begs him to die so they can be together. I’m not exaggerating, these are lines pulled straight from the chapter (paraphrased but still). Later on in the Nightlife arc, Kou breaks down when he discovers Mitsuba has been relying on Tsukasa for life-saving help. As for Mitsuba, he wants to die by Kou’s hands. He says it wouldn’t be satisfying if anyone else killed him, and that he would be happy if Kou were to be the last person he spent time with before he died. He tries to trap Kou in a picture perfect world just like Hanako does with Nene, because he wants to live a normal life with him. It’s also shown in one of the extras that Mitsuba cries when Kou ignores him

They’re also drawn very romantically, again we don’t see Teru and Akane this intimate with one another unless they’re fighting. We especially don’t see Kou this intimate with anyone other than Mitsuba, and while Mitsuba is sometimes clingy with Tsukasa we certainly never see him posed romantically with a woman. This comes back to authorial intent and real world connotations, AidaIro know that male friends aren’t typically this close, and therefore casual affection like this will be interpreted in a romantic light. We see them hold hands/wrists multiple times too, Kou gives Mitsuba a piggyback ride in one scene, and in ASHK they had a classic “pinned against the wall” page

I’ll also mention the AUs, because those indicate a lot about the characters as well. In Hanako-Kun of the Opera, Kou poisoned Mitsuba so he could take him away from the opera house and protect him from Tsukasa. He basically kidnapped him. He also stayed with Mitsuba at the opera house for a seemingly long period of time despite hating opera. Aaaaand they’re childhood best friends in this au and Kou took care of Mitsuba while he was sick

Then there’s the Ghost Hotel, where Kou is a werewolf who takes bites out of mummy Mitsuba during full moons. Despite this, the two appear to be friends and Mitsuba helps Kou out around the kitchen. Cannibalism is consistently tied to romance throughout TBHK, most notably with Hakubo and Sumire but other romantic pairings have cannibalistic moments or official arts. During the zombie mokke chapter, Nene panicked when Akane tries to eat her because she assumed it would put her in a love triangle with Aoi. So yeah, cannibalism in TBHK is directly tied to romance and we see that with Mitsukou both in canon and in this au. Speaking of which, I’m not even gonna get into the symbolism of Kou holding a heart out to Mitsuba. Connect the dots for yourselves

Now that we’ve got Mitsukou out of the way, let’s talk about Mitsuba’s disinterest in women

Remember how I said one of the ways queercoding is done is by having a character hint at disinterest in the opposite sex? Yeah, very rarely are we going to see a queercoded male character outright say “I have no attraction to women.” Instead they say they just never saw the appeal in dating, or that they never had time to settle down. In more obvious cases, we have scenes like Reiner from AOT joking that Ymir isn’t all that into guys

I couldn’t find the second scene but there are TWO extras where the subject of Mitsuba’s disinterest in women comes up. C’mon guys I’m trying not to be mean here but you have to be blind, oblivious, or in denial to not pick up on that. Whyyyyy would they mention Mitsuba not having a crush on any girls twice if it weren’t to suggest something about his preference?? Coupled with his appearance (which I’ll get to later) and relationship with Kou, these scenes carry a lot of weight. Even if those other aspects weren’t included, scenes like this would still indicate he has no interest in women (which would make him gay or aroace, though due to his relationship with Kou the aroace thing is kind of ruled out)

Compare this to a scene where Mitsuba thinks he’s being asked out by a man. He doesn’t say “hmmm nope no guys, I’m cuter than all of them~” he specifically says “I’m not interested in guys with lame earrings.” The way this is worded implies that Mitsuba is discussing a type, though it’s v much a comedic scene and we know from everything else that he absolutely does like guys with lame earrings, it’s still worded in a way that makes him appear queer. If he were straight, they would have had him say he’s not interested in guys at all (like Dazai from Bungou Stray Dogs, John Watson from BBC Sherlock, Finn Hudson from Glee, idk there are a lot of male characters that are explicit straight sorry for the crazy random list). Also note how he teases Kou about it, he knows that Kou is fond of him and doesn’t hesitate to use that against him (like when he was comforting him during the Nightlife arc)

They don’t go overboard with Mitsuba’s disinterest in women because, well, that’s not really necessary. Two scenes is already a lot, and he doesn’t have any romantic relationships with women in canon (even as a crush/a joke scene). It’s rare for TBHK characters to have absolutely no scenes expressing interest in the opposite sex, since the series is partially a romance. But Mitsuba consistently only ever shows interest in one man, and when girls are brought up he’s quick to brush it off. His mom did think Nene was his girlfriend when they met, but this was depicted as a very awkward and comedic scene. Because the premise of Mitsuba having a girlfriend is objectively hilarious

(Due to Sousuke’s young age it’s reasonable to assume he wasn’t out to his mom yet, he’s around the age where most kids are closeted. It’s even possible that Sousuke hadn’t come to terms with his sexuality yet, though it’s still a prevalent part of both his character and No.3’s)

Now let’s move onto appearances. I want to give a quick disclaimer, not all gay men are feminine and not all feminine men are gay. Androgyny is also very common in anime and doesn’t automatically mean a character is gay, but there are cases when it’s used for queercoding. Mitsuba is one of these cases

Mitsuba is a very feminine character, this is addressed as soon as he shows up in the manga. He was bullied for his appearance (and personality), but unlike his personality he never tried to change his feminine appearance. He kept his hair long, continues to wear scarves and cardigans and earrings. No.3 wears these things as well, and I would argue has a more feminine personality since he seems to be more open about his emotions and idk. I struggle to categorize feminine and masculine traits because imo that’s subjective but there are things society deems feminine vs. masculine. The problem is that I really dislike the whole “men are strong and women are emotional” thing but ehhhh I guess I have to talk about it for this. Hmph. But yeah although Mitsuba isn’t exactly the biggest sweetheart ever, he does act somewhat feminine compared to the other male characters (as I’ve said he’s p much the only man in the series who attempts to work through emotional conflicts directly)

Once again we circle back to intent, AidaIro know that a male character dressed in pink with pink eyes and long pink hair is going to raise some eyebrows. Even by androgynous anime standards, it’s a bit much. And good for him, although not all gay men are feminine, some are and that’s also fine. I can’t speak on how well he represents feminine gay men because I’m a lesbian but he does dress similar to some of the feminine gay men I’ve known irl (or slightly less feminine in some cases…I knew this one dude in high school who used to wear corsets to class and he was so badass I hope he’s doing well)

I could get into how Kou is a bit feminized too with the whole housework thing but this ain’t abt him. I will say that Kou is still a very masculine character but despite this his character is feminized in some ways compared to the other men. I’m not really here to discuss whether that’s good or bad, I’m just stating the evidence as it is, you can make your own conclusions as to how you feel about it

So how does being queer impact Mitsuba’s character arc?

When I get around to writing my analyses of all the TBHK characters I WILL be talking more in depth about the queer allegories with Mitsuba’s character but for now I’ll give ya’ll a quick summary. Supernatural characters have been used for years to represent queerness, the same could be said for villains and any character trope that represents a feeling of “otherness.” Sometimes it’s more broad like X-Men, where the superpowered characters are used to represent all types of minorities (though I believe X-Men is more closely tied to race, there are rampant queer themes as well). Then there’s books like Interview with the Vampire that get more specific with it, where Louis denying his “true nature” as a vampire is used as an allegory for him denying his queerness. Well I’m here to tell you that Mitsuba and Louis de Pointe du Lac are in the same boat

Mitsuba differs from the other supernaturals because he desperately tries to hold on to feelings of normalcy. He wants to be a normal human and live a normal human life. He doesn’t want to be othered, to be outcasted from society for something he can’t control. We don’t see Hanako, Tsuchigomori, Mei, or any of the other supernatural characters struggle with this. You could argue that Akane does but his situation is more related to learning to empathize with others than any internal battles within himself. Hanako may have moments of wishing him and Nene could have something more, but that’s more about romance than his identity.

This desire to be “normal” is unique to Mitsuba’s character, and it’s a very queer desire. Being an angsty teenager who hasn’t fully accepted themself yet and hasn’t realized that being queer is not only normal, but a beautiful experience. It’s also so interesting to me that as he’s trying so hard to be normal, it creates a push and pull between him and Kou. He wants to be normal for Kou but he also feels that he’s hurting Kou just by existing, that this could only end bad for him. Oh the inherent guilt of having your first gay crush and feeling like you're corrupting them hist for pining from afar

So, can you ship him with women? Technically you can do anything, shipping isn’t illegal and we all have free will. Should you ship him with women is more subjective, I personally think no!! Queerness is not just a sexuality, it’s an identity that deeply impacts who you are as a person. It shapes your experiences and your view of yourself, and in an allegorical way it has certainly done this for Mitsuba. Yes, bi people are queer as well and this is still true for them, but bisexuality is not Mitsuba’s experience. Mono-attraction exists and that specification is very important to gay men and lesbians. For some people sexuality is fluid and that’s beautiful, but it doesn’t work that way for everyone

Some queer fans don’t care if gay characters are shipped with members of the opposite sex, and they’re entitled to their own opinions. It makes me immensely uncomfortable tho, so please block me if you ship Mitsuba with women. That goes for any ships between canon gay/lesbian characters and the opposite sex. I respect people’s right to have opinions but that doesn’t mean I have to like the opinions themselves, and I don’t have to engage with anything that makes me uneasy. That goes for all of you btw, never let people convince you that you have to put up with shit you hate on the internet lmao, this is not real life babes. Block and move on

TL;DR

Mitsuba is too gay to function