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I finished to watch BNA some days ago and I LOVED it. My hopes for a season 2 or a manga won’t die so easily!  However I wanted to write this post to talk about ships, one in particular: Michiru x Shirou or ShiroMichi.

Let’s start from the base: I don’t like to talk badly about ships, even the ones I don’t like. The only ones I really find uncomfortable for me are incest or pedophilia ones but I don’t have problem as I just ignore them and people who post about them. I just concentrate of what I like, I don’t attack others for fictional characters.

But back to BNA, being in this anime’s mood I searched some fanarts and posts both here and on other art sites and I saw A LOT of negativity towards people who ship Shirou and Michiru. I read about people insulting or trying to make people feel ashamed for shipping them. And besides the fact that I don’t think it’s right to shame on people for this, where is the problem really about shipping them? There are various factors to keep on mind:

1) SHIROU Shirou became an ageless and immortal god, who stopped aging after his death, probably between his 20s (He looks relatively young, in many subs he is called “guy” or “teen”. Also in the concept arts, with the author’s style he definitely look a teenager). And I personally perceive him as what he probably is: an immortal late teenager.  Some people may see him more as a older man for the wrinkles under his eyes, but that is a trait many characters has in anime even being young. In the concept art he definitely seems a teen, what people want to see then it’s perception. 

2) MICHIRU Nothing much to say here. She is 18. Okay, she just had her birthday but she still is 18 and legal (Some may debate that 18 is not the legal age in Japan, but it will be soon as they are changing this too). Also if he really stopped into his 20s and we see him as teen I don’t see such an age gap. 3) “HE IS IMMORTAL AND +1000″ I would like to remember that of course being immortal he is +1000. But he probably has a different perception of aging too. More than immortal I would consider him “ageless”.  Also, is this really the first ship between a teen/young adult and an immortal being who lived hundreds or thousands years? No. Some examples that people often ignore and they even like? Greg x Pink Diamond (Steven Universe) Inuyasha x Kagome (Inuyasha) Yato x Hiyori (Noragami) Fluttershy x Discord (My little pony). All these cases present a god/demon/magic creature, who is immortal and lived hundreds or thousands years, and a teen or young human. Inuyasha in the movies is stated to be 200 (who don’t believe it canon can still though know he is older than 50 and immortal), looks a teen and has a romantic relationship with Kagome who is 15 at the start of the story. Never seen many people complaining.  Greg is into his 20s and Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz is thousands years (6000+). They had a kid who is the protagonist.  Yato is +1000, is a god and canonly is in love (reciprocated) with Hiyori who is 16.  ecc…ecc…

And I never saw many people complaining, besides who supports rival ships.  Why Shirou and Michiru should be any different?

4) CONCEPT OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP Yoshinari states that they are equal and that their relationship is inspired on Ryo and Kaori from City Hunter (Tho, they really are almost the same XD), who are romantically involved in the anime/manga.

In some concept arts of the show which were posted on the official page on twitter (besides the ones where Shirou looks as uoung as Michiru or really really closer… probably it’s a matter of drawing style…) we see a scene of interaction between Shirou and Michiru. She is seen making an extremely cute face and he looking her from above while she is sitting on the ground. He stares at her and then looks away (classic shojo situation between a tsundere boy and a cute girl).

Happiness

⚠️BNA: zero (novel) and Anime spoilers!⚠️ Soooo I sketched another comic! I heard that in the novel Natalia asked Shirou what is happiness for him and he answered he forgot a long while ago what it felt like… Well, we finally saw that it’s never too late ❤️

Shiro: what’s a baseball

Michiru: playing baseball is the only thing that’s made me happy ever since I become a beastman

This fabulous bitch

She makes a shit ton of poses (like 16,000 or some crazy nonsense).  I used this lovely lady to draw so much as a teen.  Whether it was some nerdy pose for my Mary Sue as fuck OCs

or for full on fight sequences

or for tragic deaths of my OCs in the arms of a totally OOC main protagonist.  

this bitch hooked me up.  

And with the wildest, craziest stuff that you could see in your head but had no way or resources to reasonably draw like

or this

or this

DUDE!  INASNE SHIT!!  So I was using her for a pose reference and decided, you know what, I owe this bitch some cash.  Lemme dole it out for her.  BUT then, I looked and saw she only has 286 fucking patrons!!  This chick gives out free shit and spends countless hours arranging these shoots and setting this stuff up.  

I’ll fork up the cash, SenshiStock.  You’re worth it.  

These are all based on their in voice lines which can be found in the game or here!:

Barbara and Venti are friends! despite what happened to the holy lyre. Barbara comments that Venti has a really amazing voice while Venti says her voice is really sweet. Implying they either sang together or watched each other perform!

Xiangling used to be part of Beidou’s crew! Beidou and her crew often misses Xiangling’s cooking while Xiangling has nothing but admiration for Beidou. Beidou often gets her fresh seafood ingredients which she experiments on

Razor is a student of Lisa! Lisa thought him how to control his vision and seem to be quite fond of him. They often do combat practice together even though Lisa doesn’t like doing work she puts effort on teaching razor 

Chungyun doesn’t like Xiao that much even though he respects him a lot for what he has done for Liyue. Xiao’s attitude towards mortals puts him off. This also implies that chungyun has at least have either met him or knew him through someone else that had direct contact 

Apparently, a lot of characters have a bad impression of Ningguang, most notably xiangling, xingqui, and keqing. Beidou seems to have a negative impression of her as well but doesn’t really care. This makes her the most disliked playable character in game so far 

 A lot of Knights of Favonius members seems to either be smitten or respect (or both) a future playable character named Albedo (the head alchemist of the knights.) Kaeya and Lisa remarks that he is quite good looking while the rest respects him a lot (Klee remarks that he is her friend). Venti is wary of him though

The character with the most voiced lines about them is Jean! Jean is the most respected character in Mondstadt while Zhongli in Liyue. Funnily enough, characters who have lines about Jean have met her while characters who have lines about Zhongli haven’t or me him at least once 

Xiao is the only character who is mentioned by Qiqi in memory format. Since Qiqi has no memories of her previous life and have trouble remembering things for a long time (even the face of her caretake), this may imply that Xiao might have left a strong impression on Qiqi before she died. 

Venti and Mona know each other! Venti remarks that both have similarities of having jobs that would make a person poor (bard & Fortunetelling). Mona doesn’t dare to read fortune abouts Venti due to a previous incident 

 Additional:  Mona asks the traveler where Paimon comes from and says: I cannot seem to discern a single shred of information regarding this floating fairy’s fate meaning that Paimon most likely isnt from Teyvat 

Noelle loves spending time with Barbara and vice versa! They have tea breaks together sometimes, Barbara usually hums/writes songs while Noelle makes snacks for them. Barbara comments that Noelle is just the cutest! 

Diluc has the most “bad impressions” in mondstadt due to his status of being an ex knight which put a lot of strain on his relationship with most of the characters. Though Barbara thought Diluc might have disliked her performance due to him frowning at her one time 

Kaeya is probably the character with the most suspicion directed at. While he is praised and respected for the skill as a knight, characters like Diluc (obv), Amber and Sucrose are wary of him because of how he acts 

Varka, The grand master of mondstadt seems to be respected a lot by the knights, most notably Jean and Kaeya. Diluc on the other hand seems to dislike him a lot and hinted to be one of the reasons why he left. He was also the one who gave Razor his name 

Xiangling, Chongyun and Xinqui are the only 3 characters that all have each other in their own voice lines with a positive reaction. Xinqui drags Chongyun to eat with him at Xiangling’s resto very often, most likely to poke fun at him for not handling spicy food well.

Barbara is really good friends with Lisa! and says that if Lisa ever becomes a star she’ll support her until her voice turn hoarse.

While Ningguang is currently the most disliked PLAYABLE character the most hated character is actually someone called Hu Tao! Xiangling, Xinqui, Chongyun and Qiqi (especially) despises them for their overall attitude, pranks & jokes. Howeve Xiao seems to think that she is funny.

Ganyu, the secretary of Ningguang has a small assistant named Yaoyao who is a dendro user! Ganyu, Ningguang and Beidou dotes on her a lot (though Ningguang doesnt like to show it). Yaoyao is also a fellow chef and a junior of Xiangling!

Chongyun & Xinqui seem to have a mutual distaste for a character named Xinyan! Nothing on a personal level, it’s just because she plays rock music (which disturbs Xinqui’s reading) and her concerts are filled with flames (which bothers Chongyun). Xiangling likes her though!

Jean: Love is free!

Amber: Adventure is free.

Lisa: Knowledge is free!

Happy Birthday, Kaworu!!