#i dont take this all too seriously i am just thinking recreationally

[magicdyke]

I wish that a lot of analysis of teru and mob weren't done within the confines of shipping them together, as it's distracting from the narrative about tsubomi driving mob's motivations overall; in all honesty i find it boring and uncreative to rip these characters of their context and feed a limited analysis of this series for the sake of temporary emotional satisfaction. I find it frustrating, because the entire series is spun around mob's adolescence and ultimately his ability to express and accept himself and his emotions, and overcome the fears he has built up regarding those things. Tsubomi is what sparks his entire character arc-- she's a huge part of the motivation he gets to improve himself every single day. He sees her and trusts her despite her initial impression to most people being that she's a jerk, because he understands and knows in his heart that she's strong-willed and focused. He admires her so greatly for her ability to live exactly as who she is and get what she wants from the world, and she represents every single thing that mob wants to become (something i feel is very transgender of him but i wont go into that right now). Mob's ENTIRE arc is centered around this one massive presence in his life that he's built up so so much, but because tsubomi is a female love interest, she is often disregarded in exchange for the gay ship of the week. She's an endlessly fascinating and unique character, and everything that he does to try and reach her is done of his own volition to better himself. Eventually he learns that pursuing a single person as the sole reason of self improvement isn't good for him, but she is the person that sparks his desire to get better and is the critical motivator of the series. However, I think that a lot of the same things can be said equally about teru. Personally i am of the opinion that teru is equally in love with mob as mob is tsubomi, and their motivations are the exact same. Mob to teru is someone that is unrelentingly kind, loved for who he is, a hard worker, very morally upright, and able to rely on others as they do them. Mob is everything that teru wants to be, and of course he admires that so deeply to the point of close obsession. All of this is so incredibly relatable to the experience of being a middle schooler: first loves (whether romantic or otherwise) are ones that completely change us as people. they form us into the beginning of ourselves, they're our first understandings of our interpersonal relationships and a very big foray into self awareness. Teru is so suddenly captured and affected by mob in a way that rocks him to his core. Of course mob becomes someone for whom he must chase after.

To take either of these ideas and start shipping them together, though, i find it kind of missing the point. romantic love is not always requited, and there's nothing you can really do about that except put in your best effort to be better for yourself and others around you, and keep moving forward with your life. Mob was never supposed to get the girl; it was supposed to show us that, no matter what hardships you will endure in your life interpersonally, there will always be people that love you to help you recover from them. You can always change and grow.