#evershipping

More sketches from Gege for the movie release of Hidden Inventory and Premature Death.

1. Gojo and Geto seeing Shoko smoke for the first time.

2. Shoko doesn’t like standing next to Gojo and Geto because they’re too tall (Shoko is tall as well)

3. Gojo: Can I ride it?

Geto: You have a license?

Gojo: Nah but it’s personal property so it’s good.

Shoko: Yeah that’s a lie.

I was looking at the art references of the new JJK opening, and I wanted take a closer look at this one.

The site where I got this clean image described the people in it as Yuta and Rika. Guys, these are Sukuna and Megumi 😅

There are obvious, less obvious and ghostly queer characters in JJK, and I thought of writing them down in order of textual presence.

(Text, subtext and interpretation, are not interchangeable concepts.)

Text: trans, genderqueer, genderfluid

Even though Kirara is neither called trans nor does she call herself that, the manga (a shonen title in Weekly Shonen Jump, that's why the word trans doesn't appear) couldn't be more explicit that she transitioned from male to female. Gege achieves this with contrast: Kirara couldn't look and act more feminine while Panda confirms to Megumi that she's male.

Some might argue that Uraume is also trans but I'd say they're presented to be a mixture of genderqueer, non-binary and bigender. Eg. the first mention of them explicitly says they're androgynous. The manga then makes sure that we never get a clear explanation of their gender, neither with characters talking about them, nor with a drawn panel of their body, nor a difference in their appearance in the present and the past.

The later reveal from Gege that Uraume was originally male and was then reincarnated into a female body should, in my opinion, not be understood as a starting and endpoint of a transition, but as a timeless "inhabiting both a male and female body".

Kenjaku doesn't need much of an explanation as he (or she or they) has no problem inhabiting male and female bodies. He jumps wherever he wants to go, but unlike Uruame, he isn't androgynous about it; he clearly presents as male or female. He also never comments on changing his gender so genderfluid is the best description for him.

Subtext: bisexual

I have seen many, many people not understanding what subtext is, so here is an explanation for that first, taken from Wikipedia:

Subtext is "the underlying or implicit meaning that, while not explicitly stated, is understood by an audience."

Is Kirara being trans subtext? No, because the contrast that Gege uses for her reveal is too heavy for that and straight up slaps you in the face. But Megumi's first interaction with Todo and subsequent implications aren't.

Todo asks Megumi what type of woman he likes. Then he adds that he can also like men.

In Japanese, it's common to either omit gendered pronouns or use words for "person" that don't have a gender marker either. This does not mean that everyone talks queer with each other. In context, everyone knows about who or which gender someone talks about, and in 99.9% of the time, heterosexuality is the underlining assumptions and reality everyone brings to the table for those conversations.

Todo, however, expands that context into gay territory and that for the only time in the entire manga. Answering without gender markers now is an explicit acknowledgement of that new context. In this case: that Megumi is interested in both men and women.

Subtext, baby.

(Additional subtext here is that Megumi has a one-sided crush on Yuji. This comes from his answer to Todo about liking people who are like his sister. And who is someone he constantly compares to his sister? Yuji.)

Interpretation and Metatext: gay couple

Satosugu is probably the one where opinions vary the most, and as I don't care in any way about this ship, I can't make a comprehensive list of canon interactions and themes about them being (spiritually) together. From what I've seen talked about, some basic facts have to be laid out first.

Canonically these two are not a couple nor are they portrayed as gay in a textual way. Geto and Gojo have room for queer readings of course, especially in relation to each other, but any subtext you might see for them can also be interpreted differently. What these two have between each other is something we've seen in countless other explicitliy heterosexual manga as well.

But here comes the big But (from someone who is bored to tears by stsg): Unlike other shonen best buddies turned enemies, there is a solid foundation for a gay interpretation. A metaphorical groundwork for Gojo and Geto being star-crossed lovers who couldn't be together/get together just to end in tragedy with one of them having to kill the other.

What's unique with these two and with JJK overall, is that the author, Akutami Gege, is also a fan of gay stories. That man is a fudanshi and has listed BL titles as his favourites. The metaphorical groundwork for satosugu is in how they're portrayed in the manga, coupled with how Gege could write them like that intentionally.

(Really often, anti ship people will say things like "the mangaka would never write them like that, he would never want them together, it's illogical to push a queer agenda onto an author who has nothing to do with queer things." Well, Gege has sth to do with queer things. He reads and likes them and is open about it, too.)

As a reminder: Japanese society is rather conservative especially when it comes to demographics that WSJ aimes their titles at. If Gege wanted to write a battle shonen with an explicitly gay protagonist, WSJ would gently push him towards another publication or make him change his mind. Outside of a little bit of subtext, they would also never allow a male protagonist to be queer in any way.

On a metatextual level, Gege would be open to write a tragic gay love story but the place he could write it in wouldn't allow for it. This gives weight to any gay interpretation of satosugu that other pairs like them don't get because their creators aren't known for being open to queer writing.

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That got rambly at the end but when it comes to stsg my thoughts aren't that concrete because I simply don't think about them that much. But as a quick recap this late into the night: Kirara, Uraume and Kenjaku are textually queer (canon). Megumi is subtextually queer (canon). Satosugu is widely open for a queer interpretation (non-canon).