#no demographic is safe from disgusting tropes btw

[egashira]

While I am for hunting down any mangaka that still (or has ever) promoted student x teacher and age gap ships in general I think the Karuho Shiina approach is objectively way funnier.

Basically Karuho had Ayane and Pin be the leftover main characters among the already established 2 couples. While I cannot say she didn't write some jokes into the manga related to the nature of their relationship, it wasn't until the last few arcs that there was any (strictly one sided from the student's side) romance happening.

You'd have to know that at this point people were so invested in them. The biggest KNT fans posting constant updates, translations and paid content were big Ayane x Pin fans. But in general the fandom was so interested in their development and they were satisfied with even with the tiniest of crumbs. Sawako and Shouta had been dating for a year and Chizuru and Ryu had just resolved their issues and gotten together after so long. Ayane had also just broken up with Kento so naturally the next course of action would be finally setting sail to the 'implied from the start' Pin x Ayane ship.

You know the joke that goes 'x has the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever'?

Well Karuho Shiina had the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever. And she did exactly that.

After years of build up and theorizing from the fandom the teacher x student ended the way any ship of that nature should end: the older teacher rejected the younger student and made it clear that it's impossible for him to view her as anything other than a student, a kid he essentially spent 3 years watching grow into an adult. No 'if i wasn't your teacher' or 'maybe in the future'. Even before that, 27 year old Pin made it clear that he's strictly dating women his age and even a 20 year old is considered too young for him.

I will say I still have my doubts about whether that was Karuho's plan from the start or if it's a decision she came to as she saw the way the series progressed. But considering her old works mostly condemned or damned age gap relationships, it's not impossible that this was her initial plan when she started the series in 2006 (a stance impossible to find in any other manga at the time) and not some grand revelation that came to her while writing in the 2010s.

And to reference my favorite tweet ever @ all age gap mangakas: