#gouen

GouEn is the first ship I ever shipped in Inazuma Eleven, and whether or not you see them as an OTP, more of a BROTP, or even a NOTP (that would be real hard but to each his own), you can’t really deny how important they are to each other and Endou’s role in Gouenji’s character arc.

I’m no master analyst and I really can’t form coherent thoughts worth a damn, but I just really wanted to write this and get my feelings out about them so here we go!

In the beginning of the series, Endou’s primary reason for interacting with new people is recruiting people for the soccer club. Raimon’s future looks bleak and Endou won’t let it just fall to pieces, so he’s aggressively recruiting anyone he can to fill their roster. Soccer is something that Endou loves, and ultimately he’s trying to find people he can play and enjoy soccer with, but there’s some desperation to his recruitment too. He really doesn’t care how interested someone is, or how much they’ve actually played soccer, they just need to be there as a warm body and he’ll make them like soccer and things will work out somehow.

Then, Gouenji comes in.

Forewarning, I’m trying to only put observations of canon in to this, but I have some headcanons about Gouenji and his mental state so bear with me.

Gouenji, I’d say, is a loner by nature. It’s not that he doesn’t like having friends or doesn’t want to make them, he just doesn’t actively push for it. He’s a man of few words and only speaks when he feels necessary. However, on his introduction, he seems pretty closed off from interacting with Endou, and pretty much everybody. It’s mostly Endou’s mention of soccer that tips Gouenji off, but I think context is important here. Gouenji’s a teenage boy who’s experienced the passing of his mother, believes that he’s guilty of putting his sister in an indefinite coma, and gets little emotional support from his increasingly distant father. He has very little in terms of a support system (thank God for Fuku-san), and has just abandoned his team in one of the biggest matches of the season, while moving to a new town where he knows no one. On top of all this, most of these events happen within what has to be a few months of each other, and Gouenji’s made to deal with it pretty much all by himself.

Soccer should be an emotional outlet and a way to have fun, but for Gouenji in the first part of season 1, it’s something that causes him to feel guilt. It’s his fault that Yuuka’s in a coma. He left Kidokawa for no good reason without telling anyone, so it’s his fault they lost. So, Gouenji decides to punish himself, and stop playing soccer. Why should he be able to have fun and play soccer while Yuuka suffers?

Gouenji’s depressed, and he internalizes a lot of negative emotions. He’s prickly, not willing to open up to people or make friends, and isolates himself on purpose. He has a thing for punishing himself, and as we see later, he doesn’t have the wherewithal to come to his own defense, not necessarily because he doesn’t care what people say, but because he doesn’t think they’re wrong.

Okay, so back to Endou. Endou meets Gouenji, and while Endou is a friendly person and genuinely cares about people, I daresay he doesn’t really act very empathetic towards Gouenji, at least initially. This is definitely not on purpose, more of a result of Endou’s one-track mind and general tactlessness in the beginning of season 1. Endou goes on and on trying to bring Gouenji back in to playing soccer, because if he can kick a ball like that, of course he should be playing, despite Gouenji being standoffish and uncomfortable. He doesn’t know anything about him, and ends up treating Gouenji like a phenomenon, some dude who’s going to come in and help solve the soccer team’s problems. This is quickly subverted when Endou and Gouenji start to see each other differently.

Gouenji see’s Endou as less of a nuisance and more a guy with a lot of passion and a good heart. He sees what he loves about soccer, and someone who enjoys it to the fullest, and it’s hard to keep denying himself. Endou accepts that Gouenji has his reasons for not playing and starts to see that Gouenji is a good guy that deserves to be left alone when he says he wants to be, but he wants to understand Gouenji and help him where he can. The key here is that Endou knows Gouenji isn’t happy not playing soccer, so while he doesn’t try to recruit him, he still tries to nudge Gouenji back towards it.

And that’s the beautiful thing. Because of Endou bringing soccer back in to Gouenji’s life, and giving Gouenji someone to lean on, Gouenji finally begins to lift a lot of those burdens off his being. He makes friends in Raimon, smiles a lot more, and opens up to others a lot more. Gouenji starts to feel happy again, and it’s because Endou is willing and ready to care about him.

(I almost damn cried when I saw this opening again and caught this, because it’s Gouenji and Endou and it’s Endou’s casual kindness that pulls Gouenji up and starts all this waaaahhhhhhh)

It’s this emotional investment in each other that grows in to a deep friendship built on trust and care. Later on in the series, Gouenji gets confronted with being pulled away from soccer again and again, and each time we see that it tears him up inside. He doesn’t let anyone know what’s really bothering him, except for one person: Endou. During Aliea, Gouenji can’t tell Endou what’s up, but he feels bad enough that he’s leaving again that he says sorry, and even tears up. None the less, Endou hides his sadness and tries to cheer Gouenji up, because he trusts that he’ll come back no matter what. Gouenji trusts the others to carry on and keep winning until he comes back, and he trusts he’ll have a place to come back to.

The real kicker is in season 3, when things get so much sweeter. Gouenji’s almost ripped away from soccer one more time, and we see how much this means to Endou. Gouenji hides his emotions because he doesn’t want to make anyone worry, but Endou’s so in tune by now that he notices something’s up, and Gouenji almost leaves without telling him anything, but he just can’t lie, not to Endou.

Now, we see Endou emotionally distraught, for a lot of reasons, and I kind of want to compare this to when Kazemaru left in season 2. During Aliea, Endou gets monumentally depressed because not only does Kazemaru leave, but Kazemaru leaves of his own accord, and Endou’s questioning his ability as a friend and as a captain. This, a long with the pressure, breaks him down and leaves him without direction. Here, instead we see that it’s clear Gouenji doesn’t want to leave, and that he’s trying to convince himself and everyone else that this is okay, but it’s not, not to Gouenji and not to Endou. Here, Endou is sad, but he’s frustrated on his and Gouenji’s behalf, and this has less to do with leaving Inazuma Japan, but more the fact he’s leaving Endou and soccer behind while trying to act like it’s not hurting him.

Endou goes as far as trying to appeal to Gouenji’s father, and it’s heartbreaking to hear Endou’s voice crack while he struggles not to cry, and this is the only time something like this happens in the series. What’s important is that while he’s talking, Endou doesn’t bring up how much Inazuma Japan needs him, but how happy soccer makes Gouenji and how he can’t take him away from the thing he literally lives for. Endou wants Gouenji to be happy, and he wants him there when they take on the world. So, it’s not a one-way street, and you can see that they appreciate and rely on each other through the rest of the season.

Gouenji goes through a journey from season 1 to season 3 of opening himself back up to people and soccer, and Endou is the catalyst for it. You can see how Gouenji becomes more talkative and expressive as the series goes on, and we have Endou to thank for it. This isn’t to deprive Gouenji of agency in his own mental affairs, but to emphasize how important Endou was in helping Gouenji start this process of healing.

It’s also why I think we see Gouenji play such a big role in helping others solve their problems. Gouenji by himself is really observant and cares about others, but he notes that it’s because of Endou that he makes it a point to look in to others issues. With Fubuki in season 2, his and Gouenji’s talk really says a lot. Gouenji flat out says he’s scared and imperfect; he lives with the fear of not being enough and hurting others along the way, and even though it’s something he can’t get over super quickly, he knows Endou and the team will have a place for him, no matter how many times he’s abandoned them or not been enough. And in season 3 when Gouenji gets all prickly again and starts not being himself, falling back down in to the Gouenji rabbit hole? It’s Endou who notices what’s up and decides to confront him. Gouenji learns from Endou’s habits, and he becomes someone who speaks up to help his team.

“You’re the one who taught me that.” - Gouenji being sweet as hell

Just in general, GouEn moments in season 3 are really sweet. The fist bumps get real emotional, and Gouenji starts initiating emotional GouEn moments a lot more as the episodes go by, which just rips me apart internally. In season 3 especially you see a lot of Inazuma Japan trying to help Endou block the goal and carry some of that burden, and Gouenji, more than once, tells Endou he’ll score goals to do just that. It’s not just to help them win, it’s to make sure he helps Endou carry that responsibility. He could have just not said anything, as we know Gouenji’s a man of few words, and could’ve just let the goals speak for themselves, but he chose to say it out loud and reassure Endou, so you know to Gouenji it means something more.

I think it’s easy here to say Endou is Gouenji’s rock, but I think Gouenji is more Endou’s rock. Gouenji is someone who brings Endou back to earth (the irony) when Endou starts thinking too deep and not being himself, and is the constant Endou relies on to keep going in a lot of aspects.  I’d rather call Endou Gouenji’s buoy. Throughout the series, Gouenji threatens to and does slip off the edge back in to deep water, his guilt, his shame, and his tendency for self-punishment, but Endou is always there to pull him back up and keep him afloat and let him breathe new air.

Anyway, I think I’ve done enough rambling about things everyone already knows. I won’t go in to Go but long story short, it’s another situation of Gouenji punishing himself to set things right his own way, but trusting Endou (and the others) enough to hold down the fort, and no matter how guilty Gouenji feels after all is said and done, Endou welcomes him back immediately with open arms.