I see a lot of people talking about how TSHD isnât a BL (and youâre all absolutely right and should say it. The author themselves is very passionate about this) but in the same breath say thatâs why they canât ever kiss. And while for Yoshikaru specifically I couldnât care less if they actually kiss or not, cause they donât care about that either, I do think itâs important to remember a display of queer affection doesnât automatically make something a BL.
BL is a whole specific gay romance genre. Straight couples kiss in genres outside of romance all the time, and that doesnât automatically change the nature of whatever series it is. It doesnât override the overarching themes or plot. Saying any affectionate interaction between males changes the entire genre of a story feels very limiting, or restrictive.
âYou can have gay characters outside of romance but they can never ever act on being gay without the whole story being shoved into the dedicated gay boxâ see what I mean?
Also itâs just dishonest to say it would change the genre if that happened between Yoshiki and Hikaru. There have been (admittedly few) queer characters that share kisses and affection, outside of BL. In No.6, Nezumi and Shion kissed twice (three times, as of the new novels), and are regularly are physically affectionate in other ways. That series is not and has never been a BL, even if the internet has mislabeled it as one. They are involved but it is not the focus of the story at all. Even Yuri On Ice isnât a BL, and not only have they kissed and cuddled on screen, but they got engaged(promise ringed? Idk). Either way it didnât change the actual genre, only changed how the internet categorizes them. Ironically
Queer people can and should be involved, kiss, and even fuck in media without it immediately being shoved into some dedicated âgay genreâ. I honestly wish more of them would. Because again straight couples are so normalized comparatively that even multiple explicit sex scenes in non-romance doesnât ever make anyone think a show should be labeled differently. People only think like that when itâs between a gay couple. and I really hate it !!!
Iâll be clear I donât think Yoshikaru would kiss/get involved anyway because of how the story is written, so this is less about them, and more just the general âgay=BLâ stuff that comes up so often regarding them. But, even if they did, it wouldnât change much about the themes or characters at all honestly. a kiss doesnât automatically make a pair âtraditionally datingâ and it definitely doesnât magically make someone not ace. If it did, I wouldnât be. But thatâs not how it works lol.
Queer people arenât one-note and showing affection shouldnât be some kind of hard line that needs to be danced around. We shouldnât be so concerned about what specific requirements there are for specific labels. The label obsession is honestly exhausting.
It makes me miss the way No.6 handles queer characters tbh because nothing ever felt like some taboo or big moment at all, it just felt natural for them, and we moved on with the story. They arenât romantic and they arenât platonic but we donât stress on it. They just exist as they are, comfortably. I think thatâs an ideal way of writing queerness. or honestly, any type of human interaction.
