fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2476 ]

[ SECRET POST #2476 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2476 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 048 secrets from Secret Submission Post #354.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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05. http://i.imgur.com/hXWRoXu.png

That looks like CLAMP art, and the girl looks a lot younger than the guy. Is this the same teacher/student pairing we had a secret about a few weeks ago?

No, the image comes from the bl/shoujo manga & anime Loveless by Yun Koga.

They are both boys and the Ritsuka is WAY younger than Soubi and they have a very messed up relationship with each other. (I can't believe I remember all of this! I haven't read the manga in years.)

What's the screwed-up relationship like? I have a friend who liked this manga but I've never looked at it.

I need to do some deep brain digging. I've only seen the anime and read the first few volumes years ago.

From what I remember: Soubi is rather forward with his affection to Ritsuka, even making Ritsuka uncomfortable at the beginning. Soubi always tells Ritsuka he loves him and they have to kiss before they go into battle (in this world, there are Fighter Units and Sacrifices who compete in spell battles. Sacrifices must kiss their FU so they can fight whoever). Rituska does seem to admire Soubi and they haven't done anything too sketchy (I do remember an ear piercing scene between them tho)... but the whole moral issue comes from the fact that Ritsuka is 12 and Soubi is in his 20s.

Oh and there is also this whole messed up relationship between Soubi, Ritsuka, and Ritsuka's brother Seimei which makes things more twisted.

I hope that helps. I also hope I've remembered things correctly, haha.

Edited (seimei added) 2013-10-13 21:36 (UTC)

Ritsuka's 12 and Soubi on his 20's.

Needs a lot more cat-eye to resemble CLAMP art

Don't be ashamed, everyone knows that Loveless is shit.

I was really into this series when it was first being printed in the US. I wish it hadn't stalled out for so long. Did it ever end up being finished?

Nope. Google tells me the last update was in 2012.

A lot of people liked embarrassing stuff when they were younger. I remember shipping that main pairing from Gravitation. God.

No, the embarrassing ship is Tatsuha/Ryuichi. I will never understand how that was the second most popular pairing around.

I loved Tatsuya/Ryuichi so hard as a teen. I am afriad to rewatch the anime and reread the manga. I have a feeling I'll be side-eyeing my younger self a lot.

Nah, neither anime nor manga is even close to as bad as you'd think from all the people on the internet who went through their yaoi fangirl phase with it before they "grew out of it". I think most of them got their impression of the series from the fandom, and the Gravi fandom ran on fanon more than canon. (as the rampant popularity of the Tatsuha/Ryuichi ship should make clear. Finding IC fanfic was like looking for the proverbial needle)

I always thought of Gravi as a comedy, but there were a lot of people around who watched/read the entire thing and still managed to see Yuki and Shuichi as romantic instead of hilarious. That should speak for the emotional maturity of most of the fandom.

.............. Was it? I can't remember any fic for them :o But back then I only read fics in Spanish.

Wow. I'm really surprised now.

As I recall they were a fairly standard beta pairing in the English fandom, at least in the early days.

I looked up this series on wikipedia and was just like "what..."

Don't be so hard on yourself. Of course it didn't seem sketchy when you were 14-15: You were at most three years away from Ritsuka's age, and a lot of people feel identified by Ritsuka (or empatize with him), and I remember being a teenager and thinking older guys were ~soooo cool~. Why would you think anything was wrong?

... Also, IDK if is societal conditioning or something, but a lot of us plain don't saw back then the more terrible Unfortunate Implications of their relationship, and how damaged Soubi is outside of making him a woobie. And then, we only realized in recent chapters how, uh, conditional was Soubi's love for Ritsuka.

Edited 2013-10-13 21:50 (UTC)

recent chapters? So is it still going on?

As far as I know: It's not finished, it's currently on a cliffhanger even, but it hasn't had any updates since 2012. Though... it's not FOREVER SHELVED either - only on hiatus. It seems Kouga Yun has terrible health and every time she tries to pick it up again, something happens to her. Or at least that's the official excuse.

... Loveless is still being published monthly as of this fall. You may be confusing Kouga Yun with any of several other mangaka in poor health? Minekura Kazuya maybe?

(no subject)

lynx - 2013-10-14 07:00 (UTC) - Expand

Oh, man, Loveless.

Don't worry, and don't judge yourself for it. If it doesn't come up, don't mention it, and if it does, just laugh it off as a guilty pleasure (if you still like it) or a "man I had lousy taste X years ago, but didn't we all?" (if you don't).

...you were thinking what a jillion fans of this series were also thinking? Not something that should inspire shame, is what I'm saying.

It doesn't have to be embarrassing, anon. (Although of course our tastes change over the years and you can dislike whatever you dislike for whatever reason at all.) Plenty of us picked up or stayed interested in Loveless fully cognizant of-- or even because of-- the problematic elements of Ritsuka/Soubi as adults, who understand fiction != reality; depiction != endorsement; abuse and its aftermath are fair ground for fandom to explore; and relationships don't have to be safe, healthy, entirely consensual, or between characters who know how to articulate and safeguard their boundaries or what they want to be fascinating to us as fans. And who aren't all into shota, as much as the covers like to make people think so.

Maybe younger you thought it was the fluffiest and cutest romance, and that's cool, my favorite part of aging is getting to realize new shit and reinterpreting your experiences and discovering you don't have to admit anything you don't want to. But maybe younger you also felt something in the undercurrents was dark and strange and compelling. It'd be kind of sad to me if you pretended that never happened just because other people want to judge you over a manga they probably didn't even read themselves.

/slinks back into lurker hole

Wow, I love you...couldn't have said it better.

A+

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