Is It Love?

Ahhh l’Amour… Love is a many splendored thing and comes in as many flavours as there are people! All of it is wonderful!

For instance, I have been lucky enough to have met both Mel and Zel (sounds like a super cool underground band) in the past year and I luvs them both! We also all love adorable anime couples and although I am a self-declared non shipper, I do very much love to read about other people’s ships and maybe you guys have all influenced me a little bit to let my own romantic imagination wander. I love you all for it.

So on this day when we assign commercial value to Love I am so very happy to join my very lovely friends in celebrating the potential, unspoken and unwritten loves of our favorite shows. 

The idea was that each of us picked a series that we had all seen and create two ships within that series. We would then assign one ship to each of the other two compatriots and we would publish our love (or hate) for our assigned ships! We attempted to pick some more unusual pairings so that we wouldn’t just be rehashing the same old fangirling.

I decided to go with Bungo Stray Dogs because I like my romances a little on the more mature side.

I have atrocious odd tastes so the incredibly weird pairings I came up with are Ranpo x Mori assigned to Mel; and Akiko x Fukuzawa for Zel. Best of luck to them both!

These aren’t completely random and I do have a certain method to my madness. I can’t wait to see if the girls picked up on it!

As for the ships that sailed my way:

 Mel picked Haikyuu (a good choice – my Haikyuu OTP : Shimizu x Takeda) and Zel had dibs od Free!!! (even though I preferred 50% off, I was reminded through this post how impressively pretty a series Free!! is)

Tsukishima x Hinata

Mel seemed very happy with herself when she gave me this ship and I must admit I don’t hate it.

Traditional thinking pairs off Hinata with Kageyama. This makes sense as they usually spend the most time with each other and are generally considered the two leads but I’ve never really considered the two to be a good pair. Although they may react very differently, they are in fact very similar, especially in their faults and I don’t see them complimenting each other very well.

Tsuki is in many ways much better suited. He’s more analytical and less prone to mood swings which would help even Hinata out rather than egg him on and help him think through things better. Tsuki is also rather academically gifted and we all know Shoyo could use all the help he can get in that department. On the other hand, Tsuki is almost as much of a sourpuss as Kageyama and the devastatingly optimistic and endlessly energetic Hinata is bound to shake him up a little and help draw some passion out of him. They can both gain a lot from each other’s company. Not to mention that they both have that spiky wavy hair so they can borrow each other’s hair products. It’s a huge plus guys!

But as much as I like these two together I don’t love the pairing. Or rather, there are two drawbacks I just can’t ignore. As a person of modest verticality, I have at times been with people much taller than me. There are certain challenges. The biggest one being that it’s quite literally a pain in the neck. Spending all your time talking with someone that towers over you means that you are constantly looking up. Your head is in that perfect selfie angle for hours on end every single day. Eventually you are going to get that annoying throbbing pain right at the top of your spine that sends a jolt through you whenever you try to move your head. It’s very unpleasant in any circumstance. It must be horrible when you have to play volleyball, especially with the gusto Hinata puts into it.

And then there’s Yamaguchi. I get that Yamaguchi x Tsuki is an uninspired choice. They are almost canon. But Yamaguchi is adorableness made manifest. He is entirely made of sweetness and even eternally dour Tsuki is defenseless against such softness. Why force a kinship when one is already there. Yamaguchi’s softer, gentler manner is perfect to coax out of Tsuki his very best traits. His loyalty and determination. His respectful protectiveness. And Yamaguchi would benefit from being with someone who will push him beyond his comfort zone. Force him to confront his fears and insecurities (something Hinata can aptly handle by himself)

Basically Tsuki and Hinata may be a good pair but Yamaguchi and Tsuki are the perfect two! So there Mel!

 

Full disclosure, Zel first had a different Makoto ship in mind but my personal fangirling over the Mikoshiba brothers (love me a pair of gingers) influenced her final choice. So here we are!

I’m much happier with this pairing. In facts I’m throwing it in the love pile…the cuddle puddle… the delightful handfull…I should stop.

Now I get that there’s one glaring problem here. Both of these fetching young athletes already have shown express interest in someone else. It may never have been said in so many words but as kind and considerate a guy as Makoto is, no one shows as much interest in their buddies as he does with Haruka. Veils that thin aren’t much use. As for Seijuro, he did spell out his affection for Go very openly. But that doesn’t mean it has to be the end of it. Many great love stories start off with destined lovers looking in opposite directions.

Fact is both Haru and Makoto need to learn to get past each other in order to grow. As is, their relationship is already codependent at best and although Makoto may be extremely helpful, he isn’t helping anyone by coddling Haru. Besides, that beautiful crazy ba..swimmer has always had eyes for shark boy and we all know it.

As for Seijuro, to be honest he may make a decent broey boyfriend for Go (am I just going back to his 50% off character?), But the pairing just isn’t that exciting really. Free!! Go is your basic nice sports anime token girl and could fit in fine with anyone since she doesn’t actually have a personality that would get in the way. (50% off Go is a personal hero).

But even though I just handily brushed aside the current ships, what makes me think they would work with each other? Well Seijuro is a happy, enthusiastic lovable lug. You can tell that he was probably a mischievous trouble maker type like his brother but he has taken his captain responsibilities to heart and strives to be dependable even if it doesn’t come naturally. Dependable though might as well be Makoto’s middle name. It will be great for him to be with someone carefree enough to loosen him up a bit but able to be serious once in a while so Makoto doesn’t always have to be.

Finally there’s all those things they have in common. They both have 2 boisterous younger siblings they are close to. They both like kids. They both swim backstroke. The kanji for Makoto’s family name Tachibana (橘) is also the Chinese hanzi character spelling of the word “orange”!!!!! KISMET!

And most importantly: they are a measly 4cm apart in height!

Oh fine…I give….you all win. Shipping is really fun! I’m going to start doing it all the time. All…The…Time!

After all. It’s not as if there’s too much love in the world! I don’t know if these pairs are true love but I do know I loved doing this collab and I want to thank sweeties Mel and Zel for letting me in on the fun.

I gave them some pretty crazy ships so I can’t wait to see what they say about them or the pairs they gave each other. Let’s all go see together! And of course: Happy St Valentine’s day!