#Tagura Tohru

[lemonidae]

Yamato & Yuiji | Koimonogatari by Tagura Tohru

[esther-emerald]

I don't understand Mike at all. He's homophobic but he wants to get up in Yamato's love life for some reason. I think it's rude of him to act so familiar with Yamato after he ghosted him in middle school.

[tomoyoo]

Koimonogatari ♡

[kaoruko-han]

It's a start but from the beginning you see him going to "he's probably gay... Idc tho" "now I don't like how he see my friend" to basically slowly stop and recognize he's being homophobic even if not as bad as extreme homophobe

And he become his friend and a real protector gradually

[allthefujoshiunite]

Hi, I hope you're okay.... Please just answer my ask whenever you're free....I just read your blog about BL manga koimonogatari, and really loved your writing....also I agree with you, I wish yuiji and yamato just end up as friends...But I think it will end up with yuiji x yamato (based on the mangaka's author note in vol 2)? It is the first manga where I want the mc and male lead not end up romantically (even though I know it's BL)...Do you think it's weird? Have you ever read a BL manga where you don't ship the mc with male lead?

I hope you're safe and sound with your loved one....

Hello, thank you for the message. I and my loved ones are safe, but being okay is a different matter because the situation somehow keeps getting worse.

About my post on Koimonogatari. It was a post that I forgot about until I received two hostile comments under it in 2021. Back in 2015, my level of English proficiency was much lower than it is today, and rereading it now, there are two points that I don't agree with my past self, and some other parts I still think the same, but I'd make sure to word my opinions much differently. After those comments, I decided to write another post on this topic but I didn't have the time. So thank you for asking about it and giving me the chance to go back.

One opinion I'd word better now is that even though my blog is my own space and I'm free to voice my personal opinions however I wish as long as I maintain a respectful tone, the line between something being wrong and something that doesn't appeal to me seems blurry in the post.

I have to emphasize that the creator(s) is the sole person who's in charge of their creation. If they themselves search for reader comments/reactions and change the course of the story of their own accord, fine. But readers should never tag the artists or comment under their tweets when their work is not going the way they personally want. You can read more on Japanese fandom policy "don't like/don't read" here.

I keep saying this like a broken record, but I CRAVE for variety. Commercial BL is highly satisfactory when it comes to tropes or settings, but I still feel like there's a lack of experimentation when it comes to interpersonal relationships, specifically romance. If I were to lay it out more openly, even though two BL titles can focus on completely different settings (let's say one is a yakuza and the other is a high school BL) and the intricacies of the plot would progress differently, the relationship still goes from point A to B and then to C, or start from B, go back to A and arrive at C. This is not me boasting or being full of myself, but it's very rare for a BL title to truly impress me with its plot structure, the way it deals with the age-old tropes, or introduce a nuanced look into relationships. This holds true regarding friendship/allyship as well. Now, it's a no-brainer that by definition, BL is a genre that focuses on male/male romantic and/or sexual relationships. So at first, it seems contradictory to expect a story to focus on the friendship between a straight-identifying and an LGBTQ+ person.

Why should this be considered "contradictory", though? Why can't friendship between a straight-identifying and an LGBTQ+ person be worthy enough to study both queer and non-queer relationships in fiction? Back when I first read Koimonogatari's first volume in 2015, I was SO mesmerized by the way Yuiji and Yamato were introduced, the way they, just by being themselves, were holding mirrors to each other, the way Yamato gained strength just by being accepted and heard and in contrast, Yuiji questioned his own stance on romantic love because, in the heteronormative world he lives in, he never suspected the typical flow of his relationship with his girlfriend before.

I understand that this is partially a "me" thing. Friendship is extremely important to me to the point where I may be bold to say it's sacred. That puts shipping in an awkward position for me; on one side I love the dynamic two characters have and I immediately want to ship them, but that also means I love them as friends as well and, as I have said in my old post, why shouldn't two people just get along well? Throughout my adolescent life, I was frustrated with other friends immediately wiggling their eyebrows at me whenever I got close to a guy. Just because I identified as a woman and my friend identified as a man and we stood next to each other and got along meant that something romantic had to develop between us, and that mindset, for me, devalued friendship.

Because of my personal views and values, and the beautiful and delicate approach to Yuiji and Yamato's friendship, Koimonogatari was a very special title for me. That post, although the language sounds brusque, was meant to underline this: friendship is valuable in and of itself and shouldn't be regarded as anything but a stepping stone toward romantic feelings. I couldn't see a romantic relationship blooming between Yuiji and Yamato in such a short span of time, and I had wished for things to stay the way they are. Despite what that commenter thinks, I'm allowed to expect whatever the F I want out of a fictional work. The creator's intentions and my engagement with the said work is a completely different matter.

I've recently reread the first two volumes and admittedly, I can picture budding romantic feelings between the two if the series were to be stretched out to four volumes in total. Another point I disagree with my past self is that, if a fandom readily jumps at the Shippy Bandwagon just because two characters stand next to each other, they can ship them. I was wrong to say fandom shouldn't ship and if something annoys me or makes me uncomfortable, it's my duty to remove myself from the circle and not the fandom's job to comply with my needs/expectations. Other than these two points, I stand by my expectations of Koimonogatari and the questions I asked back then are ideas that I still play around with in my head.

In the end, we are free to expect whatever we want from a story, and the creators are equally free to do whatever they want.

Have you ever read a BL manga where you don't ship the mc with male lead?

To answer your question, there have been such works, yes. This is usually the case when there's a love triangle is introduced, and having a Second Lead Syndrome, I usually ship the MC with the person that comes along to create strain between the MC and his unrequited love. To give an example, this always happens when the MC is childhood friends with the guy whom he has had a giant crush on for years, and one day, the second love interest comes into play. MC's feelings sway but he ends up with the childhood friend in the end. I personally hate this plot structure with every fiber of my being for several reasons, thus I avoid reading series with the love triangle + childhood friends combo. But I won't go into detail here.

Sorry, l rambled too much but as I have said I've been meaning to write about this topic. Koimonogatari will forever be a special series and ever after all these years, I'm looking forward to its completion. And it goes without saying but I fully respect Tagura Tohru's choice of ending.

Have a nice day!

[firstgianteggwobbler]

KOI NEW CHAPTER! ❤️

[laurence0009]

I posted the Koimonogatari chapter 26 raws, look at my pinned post on my page. Youre welcome..

[kimbapisnotsushi]

i’ve got my own bones to pick with koimonogatari but i’ll be damned if sakura and yamato clocking each other as the same within five seconds of meeting wasn’t the funniest shit ever

[hatsumishinogu]

Nomi x Shiba Vol.4

[rosemary80071]

Chapter 26 is out!!

look at this beautiful Yamato x Yuiji art!

[lemonidae]

Yamato & Yuiji (Koimonogatari - Tagura Tohru)

[esther-emerald]

Koimonogatari is going to update when we're rotting away 6 feet under. The drama was getting so good, I can't be patient anymore I want to see what happens next!!

[claricecrimson]

💋💋Indirect kisses💋💋

[kaoruko-han]

Do me a favor and read the first chapter of koimonogatari

[allthefujoshiunite]

REVISITING KOIMONOGATARI AND THE WAYS WE CAN ENGAGE WITH FICTION

Some time ago, I have received a question about one of my super old posts on Tumblr. It was a post I’ve been meaning ro revisit for reasons I’ll talk about below, so I felt like it was a good time to do it. Once again, I decided to cross-post it on my blog after tweaking it a tiny bit to be a better fit for the blog, since that was the original intent. Enjoy ~ That post on Koimonogatari was…

[firstgianteggwobbler]

😣😣❤️❤️❤️