I find it pretty interesting that Hinata is perceptive enough to somehow
sense that Ko’s chilled, laid-back and easy-going attitude in the face
of the exceedingly bizarre situation they were thrown into, by some
ridiculous rabbit mascot, on their supposed first day at Hope’s
Peak, was a result of some past trauma and, while that reading might
seem entirely correct upon a first glimpse, I don’t think that was all
there is to it, as this barely touches the surface and there is a lot
more nuance to how he acts in the beginning, specifically in the
prologue and the first chapter.
We do know from Ko’s Island Mode interactions, particularly one of the amusement park ones, that he is always afraid, that he is always
anxious, giving him no compelling reason to enter a haunted house to
feel fear, as this is just the norm for him and is the daily life he has
been used to since long ago. With that being said, his response
to Monomi, right after she informed everyone that the island they have
been mysteriously transported to is an uninhabited one, was to
frighteningly ask if she brought them there to forcibly make them kill each other.
As far as I know, many people are dismissive of that line, thinking
it is a little bit suspicious at first glance that he is seemingly
vaguely aware of the premise, then they forget about it altogether and
deem it irrelevant, undeserving of being remembered, when it is an
important bit of characterization as well as an integral piece of the
puzzle that reveals why exactly Ko was acting the way he was.
The way I see it, it is evidence that he was indeed afraid and he did find their absurd circumstances rather worrying, perhaps to a greater extent than anyone else. Ko is a fundamentally honest person and had absolutely
no reason whatsoever to fake a reaction there, as it would not achieve
anything and is not aimed at accomplishing any goal, so we can safely
take that as an objective truth and his genuine initial reaction.
This is precisely where his first FTE comes in to re-contextualize his
behavior throughout the prologue and first chapter and offer a new
interpretation. When trying to help Hinata remember the talent he
purportedly possesses but completely forgot about for unknown reasons,
Ko assigns him with, before anything else, the “Ultimate Serenity”
title and, when asked by Hinata about the part of him he looked at to
come up with such a thing, Ko’s answer was that it is his ability to bring tranquility to others and that, in of itself, is an amazing talent brimming with hope.
Behind this veil of casualness, a hidden message begins to reveal itself
in retrospect. Hinata’s sheer presence was enough for Ko to remain
optimistic to such a degree and continuously reassure Hinata that
everything will be alright in return, by calming him down when he is
getting too panicky and providing some sensible explanation to any
seemingly unrealistic events that kept occurring, such as Monomi turning
a chicken into a moo-cow. The fact that Hinata was there, around him
and by his side, just being who he is, helped curb his constant anxiety
and aided him in not thinking too badly of the situation at hand. This
was definitely not a one-sided sentiment, as Ko’s carefree and charming
laugh was plenty enough to deflect Hinata’s worries and concerns. A
truly befitting birth of an inseparable bond formed between twoUltimate Serenities.
There is another exchange that
backs up everything I have explained above. The morning after the
revelation of the first motive, we see that Ko was down, but a chit-chat
with Hinata is simply enough to make him feel self-assured once again.
I definitely do think that Ko was the most affected by the first motive
out of his peers (which is one of the many Sayaka parallels with the
exception that Ko was more subtle about it and didn’t have an anxiety
attack before Hinata), because it would not make sense to show his reaction to it before anyone else’s otherwise.
It is important to keep in mind that Ko is terminally ill and according to
the diagnosis he received right before he got accepted into Hope’s
Peak, he was told that he only has between half a year to a year left to
live and knowing that he has lost his school memories complicated that a
whole lot, as he no longer had any idea how much time he had left
before he is a corpse. He wanted to influence the world for the better
and he does not want to die a meaningless death. When you consider the
situation he was in - stuck in a remote island without any means for
help and no way to tell when he will drop dead, he felt compelled to do
what he did, enacting a suicidal plan to manipulate Teruteru into
murdering him so two hopes can clash with one another, which would
either save one person or help make the rest of the ultimates stronger.
There were many factors at play here, but I think the lost memories
motive was ultimately the trigger, or the straw that broke the camel’s
back, if you will. I have already mentioned this earlier and I will
repeat it one more time: Ko is an honest person who only lies when
necessary. He only came up with his plan the night after the motive was
given. It was an impulsive action. Ko did not endorse the killing game
and was not planning anything before that point. This is also proven by what he told Fuyuhiko and everyone else in response to Fuyuhiko that he’s capable of killing someone.
I really, really love this about DR and FTEs. So much depth can be
unlocked when you go back to certain scenes after going through FTEs and
gaining a better understanding of the characters as a result. This just
so happens to be one of my favorite examples that I wanted to talk
about thoroughly, but there are definitely others, such as Twogami’s
stance towards the killing game and Mahiru teaching Hiyoko how to tie
her own kimono, which led to the formation of their bond. It simply
resonates with me so much, and, as someone who struggles with anxiety
issues, it was one of the first few reasons that made me fall in love
with Komaeda (and by extension Komahina). DR2’s prologue holds the most
value to me out of any of the main games’ prologues, it’s so endearing
and re-visiting it is enough to make me feel at peace.
I know its a big debate but I am not a dudebro for thinking killua and gon are platonic. I have no problem with people who do at all, but I honestly just think they have a strong friendship, and I am for encouraging boys to have these types of bonds with each other ~screw toxic masculinity~ I like following your blog btw
Answer:
Hi ! First of all, thank you for liking my blog! I’m glad you’re enjoying my content even though I’m killugon trash HAHAH
Oh lord, it really is a big debate. I’m not calling everyone who doesnt like a romantic reading of killugon a dudebro, only the people who are vehemently against it because they say people are projecting and that there is no basis to our claims that hxh is queer work.
This is gonna be me ranting for a bit because it’s a subject that’s very dear to me so i’m very sorry in advance, it’s not against you, just a general statement !
I totally agree that fuck toxic masculinity. It’s so fucking toxic and men should be allowed to show emotions, affection and care openly without fearing for repercussions. And having portrayals of friendships where the characters are not afraid of sharing their love with the other in a totally platonic way is amazing.
However.
There’s been countless representations of this type of relationship in media over the years. In every media, not only anime. I always cite the same example, but take Naruto who is the example that speaks to me the most. (ive never seen it so dont flame me if i say dumb shit). But from my understanding, Naruto and Sasuke’s relationship was a full on middle finger in the face of toxic masculinity. They shared a deep bond, pretty much like Killua and Gon’s. I know a lot of people shipped them because their relationship was borderline homoerotic, but in the end it was just a beautiful representation of a very deep platonic friendship.
And when you’re queer, it’s heartbreaking. Because you’ve been projecting this entire time, for the work to tease you, to literally bait you into showing you inherent queer behavior only for it to say “haha lol jk” at the end is fucking rough. Especially when you’re young and questioning your sexuality, looking at relationships between two best friends and thinking “oh, this feels like I feel when I’m with my best friend, is this romantic love?” and then the work saying nope haha its purely platonic ! its rough. trust me.
The community doesn’t have a lot of positive, healthy queer relationships to identify with. Especially in anime. Most queer relationships are labeled under the special genres “shounen ai” and “yuri” (both of these categories painting queer relationships in the worst possible ways ever btw, but thats a whole other subject). But it’s fucking sad. Because we deserve to see queer representation in works that are not classified as those genre. We shouldn’t have to dig into a particular genre to identify with characters : there should be queer representation no matter the genre, whether it be a shoujo, a seinen, or for example, a shounen battle manga.
And that’s why HxH is so important to the queer community. Because it displays just that. That you can have good queer representation in non shounen-ai genres. That queer relationships are normal and should not have to be classified under a certain category.
A lot of queer people identify and recognize HxH as queer work, because of a few reasons. Togashi has always been interested in queer representation, having put queer characters in every single one of his works. There was a trans girl in YYH, a trans man in Level E, Alluka in HxH. Togashi also wrote several gay characters in both of these works. I always repeat myself on this, but Togashi also wanted to write a gay sports manga, but was turned down. His favorite manga when he was younger was a shounen-ai. So yes, Togashi has deep history and is very involved in queer representation.
Togashi is also very fucking smart. Just look at all the metas people are producing every day about hxh and understand how much effort togashi has put into his work : he’s a smart man, who makes conscious choices about everything he puts in his manga. So when you see the way he portrayed Killua and Gon’s relationship, and for now most importantly Killua, you know it’s not accidental. Togashi has put SO much subtext in his work about Killua in general, from his birthday being Tanabata to him wanting to commit a lovers’ suicide with Gon, and Togashi KNOWS how it comes across, he’s not dumb. He knows what those things mean, he knows that a shinjuu is a heavily connotated word, and that people, ESPECIALLY JAPANESE PEOPLE who have the cultural context, are gonna think “oh, maybe Killua is gay”. Because that subtext is intentional. And there’s a lot of it. If you haven’t read my post on the subtext of HxH, I invite you to do so because there’s a LOT of it.
In short, HxH has the subtext, has the potential and has the one author that is not afraid of putting queer stuff in his work. That’s why Killugon is so important to the community, and that’s why a lot of people, especially queer folks, insist on the romantic reading of their relationship.
Because it’s extremely important to queer people. Positive representation of queer relationships in anime is hard to come by, ESPECIALLY in the shounen genre. And sadly, because our society is drowning in deep internalized homophobia, people easily dismiss queer behavior in media as platonic actions.
How many times have I seen people assess that two people of opposite genders in an anime are in love only because they looked at each other once (take Ponzu and Pokkle for example). Or because they held hands. Our society is so quick to romanticize interactions between two people of different genders, but fail to do the same when it’s same-gender pairings.
Straight people hand holding, kissing, blushing around each other, admitting their love out loud, looking at each other’s eyes deeply are immediately categorized as in love. But when it’s people of the same gender, people immediately say “it can be platonic”. And whether you’re aware of it or not, that’s internalized homophobia.
That’s why it’s infuriating to see people dismiss the subtext that Togashi has tried SO HARD to plant throughout his story. Because it’s there, and if Killua was a girl, there’d be way less people opposed to a romantic reading of their relationship. Because it’d be widely accepted that Togashi is writing them as a developing couple, no questions asked.
Which brings me to my final point (promise, I’ll stop ranting after this). Sadly, the voices of the people who assert a platonic reading of a relationship are often louder than the voices of queer people who identify with the work. When confronted with an ambiguous relationship between a same-gender pairing, people unconsciously tend to choose a platonic reading of the relationship. Which is harmful to the queer community, because the voices of the queer people who identify with the work are silenced.
In conclusion, yes, representations of deep platonic friendships without toxic masculinity are good, and very much encouraged. We’ve just had a shitton of those over the years, and queer people are craving for proper representation. Togashi is deeply invested in positive queer representation, has planted a lot of conscious subtext in HxH, and he’s the one author that would NOT queerbait. So people being insistent that Killua is pretty much canonically gay,and that it’s likely that Killugon will be a romantic pairing is not for the sake of mindless shipping. It’s because there are a lot of reasons to believe that this is Togashi’s intention.
And like I said, sadly, people insisting on a platonic reading of their relationship is unintentionally harmful to the queer community, because people are so quick to dismiss elements that make queer people identify with the work as platonic behavior, dismissing queer people as “wishful shippers”.
There are plenty of reasons to believe that HxH is queer work, and while platonic readings of killugon’s relationship are valid, it sucks that it’s become overbearing in the anime community, to the point where outside of tumblr, people literally bully you for thinking that there’s a possibility Killua might be gay and in love with Gon. (trust me, i’ve faced a lot of people saying that it’s disgusting to label killua as gay)
So yes ! Killugon can be read as platonic. The queer community is just very adamant about people not dismissing Togashi’s subtext because HxH is the healthy, positive representation we need. It’s a beautiful piece of work that has the full potential (and who is most likely headed this way) to display a healthy, loving, positive canon gay relationship between two of its main characters.
Showing that a shounen battle manga can feature a canon gay relationship, showing that you can be young and gay and what you thought was best friend behavior was maybe romantic and that it’s okay because feelings change and are hard to figure out especially when you’re young and queer !!
And most importantly showing that unlike every portrayal of deep male best friends relationships in shounen anime that turn out to be painted as purely platonic, sometimes behaviors that queer people identify with ARE queer behavior, and not just platonic love, but romantic, homosexual love.
pariston says he’s happy when he’s hated when what he thrives off is attention, especially negative attention. he likes pissing people off, getting reactions out of them, living in their head rent free. if any of them actually avoided him or took steps to cut him off—an option simply not on the table for those forced to work with him—he’d probably just wither up. so when pariston finds himself unable to stop thinking about and constantly aggravated by ging, he thinks that’s hatred. but unlike the people he fucks with, he doesn’t resent being in that position. instead he does everything he can to prolong it, because he enjoys contending with ging. and at some point he’s gonna have to reconcile those conflicting feelings.
Is there any persona 5 fanfics about the other audio that the team got when they tapped akechi’s phone? Like we heard all the evil skeeming with shido but what about his panic attacks, alone in his room, hours of sobbing, mumbling to himself. His self hatred. Nicer moments when he sees a cute photo on his phone and he gasps cutely. Or when hes trying to take a good selfie for his Instagram and mumbles how shit he looks. Phone calls with past foster parents who actually want to try to be in his life but who he blocks out since he thinks hes not worthy. Or simple calls with tech support or on call interviews. Calls from fans who find his number. Theres so much audio from akechi’s life though out that month it was bugged and i feel stolen from.
I never thought about this before but now it’s ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT
Shido before his change of heart @ men in black suits: “Where is Akechi? Where did that useless brat go? When you find him, bring him back here, understand?”
Those men in black suits: *made it clear they would keep doing shady shit even after Shido had a change of heart, tryna keep their image as clean as possible - meaning keeping a close eyes on former pawns too*
Akechi in the end credits, seen closely accompanied by men in black suits:
I promised that I would compile a list of fic recs so here we go.
hungry, thirsty roots by coolkidroland (T) - This is it kids, this is the fic that turned me into a goroboy. Goro has a palace AU, shuake with a side of okujima, and easily my favorite Goro redemption stories. I have reread this at least ten times. I just reread it last week. (Make sure you read all three works in the series.)
l’appel du vide by xov (M) - I didn’t think I would need to list the single most popular shuake fic ever written, but some people I’ve talked to have never heard of it and listen, this fic will change your life. New Game+, Akira has a palace, bigtime slow burn, an Akira who flirts with anything that moves but specifically with Goro any time he moves. I have no idea where the plot is going but it is definitely going PLACES. Xov updates at a glacier’s pace but it is so, so, so beyond worth it.
cover your tracks by prosodiical (T) - What if Akira and Goro had met earlier? Like the first time Goro walks into the Metaverse, for example.
ᚴᚱᚨᚴᚱᚷᚨᛚᛞᚱ (Krákrgaldr) by songofproserpine (M) - Goro has a palace AU, and that palace is dripping with Norse mythology references written with carefully crafted care. A lot of v good literary horror up in this Big Bang Burger tonight.
it takes a village by shouldbeworking (M) - New Game+, but all the phantom thieves are playing and Goro hasn’t got a clue. Their absolute DISASTER Goro is one of my favorites.
false start by xov (M) - Goro is older and married to the man he loves. Just kidding! Haha…unless…? Everything Xov touches is gold.
a study in distress by xov (G) - No powers AU where Akira went to Goro’s high school. Akira is thirsting big time and Goro is very dumb.
start again at your beginning by joisbishmyoga (T) - The kids pull off the long con but have some caveats on the takedown. Sojiro POV.
on the way by chashmish (T) - One of several fics about Akira giving Goro a haircut, because we are simple people with simple wants and like Goro being vulnerable by letting the guy he tried to kill put a blade near his neck.
the level knife by relationshipcrimes (G) - Another fic about Akira giving Goro a haircut, because we are simple people with simple wants.
the pleasure game by relationshipcrimes (T) - We are simple people with simple wants and one of those wants is fics where Akira and Goro are hooking up in game despite knowing it’s a very bad idea (the thirst wants what the thirst wants).
a multitude of deaths, and a world for the two of us alone by deplore (M) - Goro survives, but god, at what cost? A very good breakdown of how actually becoming a murderer in your formative years really fucks you up, doesn’t it. Warnings for dream sequences of intimate partner violence.
the collective by deplore (M) - A series of drabbles, some of which are darker than others. Ch 4 has sexual content.
to err is human by katraa (E) - Akira and Goro flirt-quote philosophy at each other and then have sex. You know, as boys do.
push & pull by aizawashouta (E) - Goro has a lot of emotional hangups and Ren has the patience of a saint, honestly. Get your boy a therapist.
spring cleaning by deplore (G) - Goro waits for Akira to come home. Post-game, Goro lives (obviously).
skeptic by chashmish (G) - Goro has some hot takes about Akira’s personality.
actor out of work by chashmish (T) - Akira is having clandestine makeout sessions with the boy he knows is planning to kill him. It’s fine. Everything is fine.
in average
are photos
are videos
are texts
are gifs
are audio