Is it just me or was this anime sorta queerbaitng? Like I swear to god I thought there would be at least some handholding or a kiss on the cheek by the end.
My reply is a bit late since I only just finished the anime yesterday, but I would say there was no queerbaiting at all. Chisato's side of things was always quite clear to me, and Takina expressed her feelings in a way I thought was perfect for her.
They never did anything as obvious as kissing, but I honestly think the show was better for it. I wouldn't have minded a kiss or anything, but it wasn't necessary at all. Sometimes you can show feelings a lot better if you don't make them so obvious, and I believe that was the case here.
Like when they were being teased for "flirting" by some girls passing by because Chisato had hugged Takina to comfort her, and she just doubled down on it in front of them as if to say "You're goddamn right I'm flirting. Got a problem with that?" (which simultaneously conveys Chisato's outgoing attitude as well as how much Chisato cares about Takina, appearances and reputation be damned.)
Besides which, and I know this isn't what a lot of people here might have been most interested in, there was Mika and Yoshimatsu, whose relationship couldn't be called queerbaiting by any stretch of the imagination. (And when Takina expressed surprise, Chisato said that "love comes in many forms".)
Oh, and Chisato literally said that she thought of them as her dads.
So yeah, I don't think it would be fair to say there was queerbaiting. Perhaps it was most prominent in subtext, but that subtext wasn't covered in a heap of "plausible deniability" like we're used to (and are hypersensitive to). You didn't have to do any mental gymnastics to put it together. I was actually impressed with how graceful it was.
I would compare it to Caitlyn and Vi in Arcane. They never kissed or had sex or anything else so blatant, even though the prominent straight couple did. No one would deny that they're in love though. In fact, their relationship felt so much deeper to me, especially after that scene on Cait's bed, where they hardly even touched. If you compare that to Lycoris Recoil while factoring in differences in culture regarding expression of strong emotions, I think it's very plain to see that Chisato and Takina were very much in love.
Anyways, that's just my two cents (and one essay :P).
last edited at May 8, 2023 7:44PM
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