#kenrisa

first, may i introduce you to the goddess of our world, takamizawa arisa

recognize her? if youre completely new, you might not, she did only appear for like 3 seconds in the first episode and like a few frames in the op

so, who is she? she’s voiced by Nao Toyama! she's currently a second year at sakuragaoka high school, part of the same friend group as hina, kotaro, koudai, and ken! (you might recognize them all if you’ve watched the ima suki ni naru movie~) she has a pretty concrete backstory! in middle school, she spoke up against bullies and in turn became the new bully target (and the original girl being bullied turned on her...) this can be seen in detail in Heart No Shuchou and the Heart No Shuchou novel.

This is very summarized, but basically, she knows A LOT about faking feelings and being someone that you aren't, having had to suppress a lot of her likes in order to fit in with the bully group.

Now bring in ken. (Voiced by Takuya Eguchi! )  Ken plays around with girls, not taking love seriouslly. He does it all to escape his home and the sullen atmosphere there is, rarely coming home ( and leaving aizou all alone ): ) (( and yes. shibasaki ken IS shibasaki aizou's actual older brother. yall clowns that dont believe it are so funny im dying)) Ken was interested a little in arisa since middle school, but since they weren't in the same class he didnt really step forward to do anything much, instead telling kotaro to watch arisa for him :)

So when they enter Sakuragaoka, they both are in the same class. Ken takes that opportunity to introduce himself, and slowly they become friends (with a little rough bumps along the way. You can see this in Ijiwaru na deai (sana version, i cant find the seiyuu version :( ) and the Ijiwaru Na deai novel. Also, Ken adopts his and Aizou’s cat, Kuro, because of Arisa :))) It leads to Ken falling truly in love with Arisa and confessing, and Arisa eventually accepting after first being friends (and going on a few dates :) (namaiki honey (ken pov)and Namaiki honey: another story(arisa pov)) (please watch them theyre so cute sobbign crying arisa saying that she’ll be the one confessing and ken being like i’ll wait forever for you crying sobbing they are EVERYTHING)

Besides those couple songs and novels, there isn’t much other content out there for them. Well, besides the honeyworks premium live events and POSSIBLY herotaru crumbs :’) BUT!! Shito has teased that there could POSSIBLY be a new shibarisa song !!!!!!!!!! (Remember Kuro? Kuro is often seen as a big part of their relationship, being in namaiki honey and also being a big part of their story. Who else could the black cat emoji be for?)

Anyways, honeyworks premium live (hanipre, honeyworks’ official mobile rhythm game) there are some REALLY CUTE shibarisa events, like one where Ken and Aizou lose Kuro and Arisa comes to help them, and one where its ken and arisa’s first anniversary and ken secretly takes a part time job so that he could buy arisa a gift :)))))) theyre literally so cute they are my everything

So, why did I spend time to introduce you to one of literally the best couples of haniwa? Well because thats what they deserve (ken is so whipped. Arisa is also but shes good at hiding it. ken doesnt hide it at all, whipped as fuck) They are just SO important. Like just the dynamic of two people with hard pasts finding each other and changing for each other. As shown in samishigariya (a must watch. i demand you go watch it right now. /srs)

So now I hope you love them too. They literally deserve their own show crying sobbing haniwa why

From this point on I will now introduce you to another aspect of them. If you don’t like aiyuu/ don’t ship it (aizou/yuujiro) feel free to ignore this because I’m now going to ramble SO MUCH about the CANON shibarisa/ aiyuu parallels and why they work so well (and also promote me and lisi’s roleswap AU :))) )

So. A big part of this comes from samishigariya so if you haven’t already, go watch it. Basically, it shows how Ken and Aizou used to be close, but as they grew and their family fell apart, their bond broke too. Eventually, both meet their most important person, quote on quote, the only one that found them (For Ken, that being Arisa (which if obviously romantic) and for Aizou... his unit mate, Yujiro.) Both are compared to moody kittens, sometimes there, yet quick to flee, but always there when their Shibasaki needs them. (Also. Aizou and Ken are canonically wearing a black dog hat and a shiba inu hoodie. You really can’t make this up, the cat/dog parallels are real.)

There’s even more things about the two that parallel each other besides those shown in the MV. Some can be seen as coincidences, but honestly there’s way too many that I’m thinking it’s got to be on purpose:

Both Arisa and Yujiro are from traditional families. Arisa’s family runs a shrine, while Yujiro’s family are Kabuki performers.

Both Arisa and Yujiro like sweets. This is more of an educated observation, though we know that Yujiro definitely likes sweets. It’s just, Arisa and ken go to crepe stands a lot and that one 3 star in hanipre with her eating a crepe makes me think she’d love sweets.

Both arisa and yujiro are tsunderes. (and both shibasakis are often more earnest and outgoing!! im looking @ u aizou, saying that you were glad that you went on the kyoto trip with yujiro even while yujiro refused to say that aloud )

BOTH COUPLES HAVE THE SAME SECRET SPOT: The spot where the beginning of namaiki honey happens/ where arisa agrees to be friends first is the SAME SPOT as the place that aizou drags yujiro to whenever they need a heart-to-heart in private. i literally cannot make this shit up

and the most important: both couples are pairs where 2 people, broken and hurting/ with a rough backstory, finding each other and helping each other grow.

like, these two pairs are SO SIMILAR you can come up with any scenario for either of them, and it’d PROBABLY work for the other. Literally. Just try it. In fact, this is exactly why our roleswap AU works so well. It literally fits both couples so perfectly (and you should check it out!!!!!!!!!!!! lisi’s writing for it is absolutely FANTASTIC)

Also. One more thing Not to forget. The latest Hanipre Valentines event: Yujiro seeing Ken and Arisa arguing in front of him, but then making up and having a heart to heart, agreeing to talk to each other clearly. And then Yujiro admitting that that was the kind of relationship he wanted. AND THEN YUJIRO THINKING ABOUT HOW KEN (who he didnt know was aizou’s brother) REALLY REMINDED HIM OF AIZOU. just some. food for thought

if you want to read more about the parallels, lisi has a really good post here!

ANyways yeah. Stan shibarisa. and maybe aiyuu i guess idk just know that the shibarisa/aiyuu parallels are very real and so important

also praying for more arisa and aizou interactions, its so wholesome, aizou accepts his future sister in law sobbigngn and she doesnt treat him like a celebrity or anything, she just treats him as shibasaki’s little brother, like family

and also praying for yujiro and ken interactions pls im beggind theyd be so funny

and maybe yujiro and arisa bonding over how dumb their shibasakis are

ahgfhjkjhdf just all of them together theyd make such a good family. real true shibasaki family.(yuko does not count. she remarried, shes basically not a shibasaki anymore) Kuro is also a very important member of this family. THE most important