Kiyo in Kyoto: From the Maiko House - Vol. 12 Ch. 122 - The Shining Beyond

[MangaDex]

 

[SuperOniichan]

Rainbow in the context of a straight ship. What an irony.

 

[johnhang123]

Aww goddamit, ma yuri ship

 

[ElBichoRaro]

Don't worry... We all know that ship's engine never worked from the very beginning. Kiyo and Sumire are inseparable.

 

[SuperOniichan]

@ElBichoRaro I love that shippers ignore the concept of friendship so much that they think the two will be separated if either of them finds a boyfriend.

 

[nareswaridiana]

Is that why suu-chan's parents never appear? The kind of "cold and strict family" set up?

 

[flameshadowwolf]

@elbichoraro I mean usually a couple in a 3 person friend group usually doesn't end well

 

[SuperOniichan]

@nareswaridiana Perhaps this was simply not the intention of the author and they were not interested. There are still too few details to dig deep.

@flameshadowwolf He is their childhood friend, but he is not their "third friend". Suu and Kiyo fall under the "these two girls" trope pretty much.

 

[miyako19]

@SuperOniichan I swear a couple of decades back rainbow has the meaning of hope and a better future. Most of us, Asians, still use it with the old meaning. Heck, if you mentioned rainbow of the symbol for LGBT, my parents along with older generations in my country don't even know that. The LGBT community in my country doesn't even use it. The younger generations only know that because we use the Internet to watch Western media. I feel like the LGBT rainbow is just a Western thing.

@flameshadowwolf When you read the chapters where Kenta visiting Kyoto, you can see that they care about each other a lot to the point they can sacrifice their own happiness so why won't it work out? They have been friend since they were children so it would be strange if they stopped being friends.

@ElBichoRaro Can Yuri shippers stop and see that friendship exist? Girls can have boyfriend or get married and still be close to each other. Also, sooner or later, Kiyo would have to leave that place especially when Sumire becomes a Geiko. She can't stay at the manor forever. She has to think about her own future.

 

[Nintendocat]

Suu-chan's character is in the 'I want my beloved to be happy' category (you can read examples of others on tvtropes) though it's definitely on both ends instead of one end. Meaning simply that, she does love both Kiyo and Kenta very much but it's more important for them to be happy than to force her own feelings in and risk their happiness. Kenta clearly has feelings for Kiyo so she's shown supporting him from the sidelines. Kiyo is the typical oblivious type so she sees both of them as her dear friends and doesn't consider romance at all yet.

@miyako19 The rainbow has only recently been used for LGBT stuff and is usually reversed colors compared to the normal rainbow. However, some people often attribute all rainbows to LGBT even though the rainbow as a symbol has been used for other stuff for hundreds of years such as your example and in Christianity.

 

[SuperOniichan]

@miyako19 Hah, Westerners usually just don't care about Asian culture that much, although they often like to talk hypocritically about cultural appropriation or insensitivity. It reminds me of the story of the fire sticker in Liz and Blue Bird, which people have interpreted as a reference to the pink triangle, lol. Although what are we talking about, if modern shippers tend to see evidence of gay tension even when characters are listening to music together, sharing selfies, or celebrating each other's birthdays?

Nah, this is useless. For the last 2-3 years I can consistently predict that if female lead has BFF and male love interest, then by the end of the manga at least some of the readers will still argue that her BFF is "a better choice than boyfriend". With the growing popularity of MHA among the BL community, this has shifted to male-focused titles as well, for example, many people argue that BakuDeku has more development than Deku's relationship with Ochako.

@Nintendocat Again, this is useless. Think of holding hands and interlocking fingers. Many eastern or near-eastern cultures (like my Russian, for example) did not consider this to be purely romantic, but since the Western world has heavily fetishized it after the Victorian era, now any hand holding will be perceived as a fetish. I'm not even talking about the fact that people in many cultures have become afraid to say "I love you" outside the romantic context, because it has become strongly associated with romance.

 

[ElBichoRaro]

To all you people dissing me for my comment... I know that it's strictly friendship. I've never been a shipper, and never will be, but I was just consoling some of the fudanshi/fujoshi in the comments.

 

[flameshadowwolf]

@miyako19 There's quite a few instances where childhood friends drift apart, and the dynamic DOES change if there's a couple in the group, that doesn't mean they're not still friends but it does change

 

[SuperOniichan]

@ElBichoRaro It's up to you lol. But the phrase like "None of them will become a couple with Kenta because they are inseparable" really sounded very ambiguous and strange.

 

[chusetto]

Suu-chan has the maiko thing... Kiyo willhave Kenta, or vice versa

 

[shiyu]

my girl really just fell in love with a boy because he stepped in gasoline LMAO

 

[jonnywarlock]

Sometimes, it really doesn't take much. I once fell in love with a girl while I was watching her eat a footlong hotdog.