The Limerrrrr

👩‍🏫

What I truly love about Nagi and Reo’s relationship is that even if it’s not canonically a romantic one, it’s still massively stimulating.

They can be in a romantic relationship (or at least Reo can be in love with Nagi), because I don’t see anything in the canon that forbids it or explicitly dismisses that interpretation. Reo is possessive, jealous, desperate, he feels rejected and fights to retreave Nagi’s consideration. On his side, Nagi is harder to read as we don’t have much information about his thoughts; that why he’s so attractive as a character. But we do see in later chapters (at time of recording, last chapter is 351) that he misses Reo and certainly realizes what he feels for him, now that they’re apart and Reo is growing without him. All of that can be seen as a romantic plot.

They can be only friends and experience all the feelings you can get from an intense friendship, especially in your teen years and early 20’s. And i say only just to state that it’s not romantic, but jeez, that kind of friendship can be as devastating as a love relationship.

When you’re young, you grow so fast and your feelings are so violent, that someone you randomly encounter can become overnight a life-time partner in your mind.

I see Nagi and Reo as soulmates in this platonic way. They found each other and lived side-by-side as if they will never be apart in the future. But when you’re young, you also change so fast that one true friend can suddently become a dead weight if they don’t get along with your new perspectives in life. I see that in Nagi, who experiences new thrills and doesn’t feel excited anymore with Reo when he encounters Isagi. That’s what happens when a new friendship shifts the way you used to think and see the world.

And that’s a friendship break up, and it’s emotionally damaging (some of you can relate ; I clearly do). It’s clearly happening in the manga : new thrills, being bored with your old friend, realizing you could be much more with another person, realizing that your interests are not align anymore (in second selection arc). That’s heartbreaking, especially from the point of view of the one left behind (Reo, in that case). Reo sees that Nagi is evolving and he can't even bring himself to be happy for him because he senses that he’s going to lose him. His ego is damaged at that point of the story.

But the beautiful thing is that he can finally accept Nagi’s changes after a while, when he comes at peace with who he is and what kind of friend he wants to be for Nagi. That’s what happens in the beginning of U20 arc (or end of epinagi).

And they can also be in between all of that : sometimes you love someone so bad you don’t really know if it’s love or frienship, and truth is friendship is love, so there’s no need to label things eventually. Sometimes you feel attracted in a romantic and an erotic way to a friend (more in the early stages of the friendship I think, when we’re in the « seductive » phase) because your feelings are so intense your brain can’t make the difference anymore. You want to be with the person, you want to be valued by that person, you want to make them laugh, you want to make projects… and that’s exactly what happens in a more classic romantic relationship anyways.

I feel that Reo and Nagi (because, yes, I’m still ranting about these fictional characters) can be in that in-between. Again, I see Reo more attracted to Nagi than the other way around (here this is just headcanons) because I picture Nagi being asexual, or to phrase it with less fixed labels, he’s just not into it (but he may be into it later in his life, with Reo or anyone, really (I’m violently honest here, against my own interest, because I love the romantic ship between them sooo bad)).

This frienship-but-maybe-romantic-attraction-but-in-the-end-we-don’t-give-a-damn-thing reminds me of Shinji and Kaworu from Neon Genesis Evangelion (but I’m not going there or I’ll cry on my laptop).

There’s also this metaphorical link between soccer (yes, it’s still about that I guess) and sex-drive. Why ? I think Shidou explicitly manifests the link (he’s the true philosopher of the team ok). In fact it’s not about soccer, but about any sport ; and it’s not about sport, but about any human activity. We want to improve, we experience failure, we’re high when we succeed, because any activity that is your own (when you’re really active in that thing) makes you feel kind of horny. Horny in a sense that you WANT to possess new skills, to WANT to conquer new fields, you are horny and frustrated, frustrated and horny in the search of that thing that makes you feel alive.

This theme is particulary present in sports mangas, but it can be seen in other genres. In Bllk, the metaphoric sex-drive (Freud would say libido, the natural impulse to go foward) is clearly expressed.

I could write more about metaphorical sex-drive in shonen manga but I’ll stop there, I’m getting off track.

Long story short, this trope can also explain why we don't have to push too far to see Nagi and Reo’s relationship as… a ship.

Conclusion ! Their relationship can escape labels, and that’s why it’s so stimulating for us readers. This is the blanks, and the tensions, and all the implicit thoughts and feelings that we’re rewriting in our mind that makes for a successful character dynamic. It allows many interpretations, each one of them being something that enriches the dynamic.

Okay, I’m finished now. I could write an entire essay about these non-existing boys, because at the end of the day, this is not about them, but about what we feel about them, right ? Like in every fiction.

***

Okay it’s 3 AM, but I had this thing on my mind and this place is the only one where I can let it out. Sorry if I made weird english sentences ; I did my best. PLEASE talk to me about this if you want to. I'm EAGER.

Of course!!! Decided to draw them in a band together!!! thank you so much!! :)