#taitake

lowk ancient tr art of mine!! (taitake + inutake)

@taichiyagamiweek Day 4, July 10th 2024: Taichi & Takeru

Send me two names among the following 12 and I’ll write a short analysis post about them:

Taichi Yagami | Yamato Ishida | Sora Takenouchi | Koushirou Izumi | Mimi Tachikawa | Jyou Kidou | Takeru Takaishi | Hikari Yagami | Daisuke Motomiya | Miyako Inoue | Iori Hida | Ken Ichijouji

Disclaimer: I won’t claim this to be a conclusive/definitive analysis of all of the ship’s aspects. Ship dynamics vary depending on which parts of the series/timeline or media types you are looking at. So this is going to be my personal take on it and just a personal interpretation of how I perceive them.

Whether canon provides input on them or not.

Taichi and Takeru's relationship is primarily based on a very basic premise in Adventure: You have the hands-on protagonist who has a huge soft spot for taking care of kids that are younger than him, as he is a big brother himself - and you have the youngest member of the group, who wants nothing more than to be an equal part of the team and while his own brother usually acts somewhat overly protective of him, the protagonist treats him with trust and a positive attitude. Whether it's about encouraging him to get up after falling down, warning him of harmful food - or entrusting him to take care of his own sister, offering him the chance to take responsibility "like the older kids do" (and thus he proooobably caused a protective complex in the long run, but I'm quite certain that was fueled by Yamato's behavior towards him as well).

Is it a surprise that Takeru looks up to, admires and idolizes Taichi, even to a point where he wishes he could be his big brother instead of Yamato? Probably not. While the relationship between Yamato and Takeru is not always the easiest (and even though Yamato tended to see Taichi as a serious threat of being a better brother than him), Taichi always tries to mediate, reassuring Takeru that Yamato would never leave him behind on purpose. He ALWAYS treats Takeru with kindness.

Inspite of all that: Is it a shame that, after Adventure ends, the relationship between Taichi and Takeru gets shoved into a teeny tiny niche in the background? Very much so. We don't see them interact on their own terms - or even talk to each other - a lot, neither in 02 nor Tri nor Kizuna onwards, as both of them have very different interaction partners throughout all these years. The France episode is the only significant instance that shows them still being on friendly terms - as Takeru was previously very busy trying to encourage Hikari not to rely so much on Taichi anymore, very obviously projecting onto her in the process, as he is basically dreading to rely on either Yamato or Taichi for help himself. On the other hand... The France episode also shows Takeru to be quite in sync with Taichi, he's actually displaying several mannerisms and reactions in the same way - which does leave room to speculate on the idea that the admiration he used to have for Taichi never truly vanished... And that, in Tri onwards, he absolutely adapted to Taichi's way of teasing and trolling Yamato, basically perfecting the art of doing that.

Long story short - there is quite a bit of subtext, at least on Takeru's behalf. It's a little bit like - and this is where all the speculation comes in - Takeru, our future novelist, always kinda observed Taichi from the shadows, which is not unlikely, as Takeru spends A LOT of time with Hikari, Koushirou and Yamato... All people who also share significant bonds with Taichi themselves. And thus, him having quite a steadfast opinion on Taichi ("That's not like him at all!") and making him the heroic main character of his Evangelion fanfiction... Definitely gives you the impression that he never stopped looking up to him. Unfortunately, Taichi's current stance on Takeru is a bit harder to estimate, but I think we have some groundwork here.

Whether I think why and how they’d work.

The most obvious trope I can see working for them is: Takeru's brotherly admiration for Taichi growing to have a romantic twist as he grows older. It's very easy to imagine that he started crushing on him at some point, but kept it rather low-key throughout all this time - hence him just observing him from afar. And even that makes perfect sense! Taikeru used to have quite a niche in tumblr's and also Twitter's English-speaking spheres - and I can't really blame people for that: Taichi is usually primarily shipped with Takeru's brother, whereas Takeru is primarily shipped with Taichi's sister... That set-up alone is intriguing enough to write a whole essay on the similar dynamics between the sibling relationships. And then you have the whole potential subtext that goes as follows: Takeru is struggling with black-and-white thinking as a young teenager and may or may not feel like he has to conform to heteronormativity because of that - hence why he may be so angry at Hikari for relying on Taichi instead of himself? Angry at Hikari for being as dependent as he used to be, angry at Hikari because he himself has these weird feelings for Taichi, even though he should like Hikari instead? And he DOES, but not in that way. And then there's his brother, who OBVIOUSLY has feelings for Taichi as well, so he could never get in between that, jeopardizing a potential happy relationship for Yamato, which would result in a much better outcome for all them...

In general, I can see Takeru sacrificing his own happiness for the sake of the people he loves as long as THEY are happy, because that, in return, should be enough to make HIM happy as well... Right? It's also one of the many reasons why I believe he encourages Iori so much, tries to protect Hikari and grows closer to Koushirou... Because he feels Iori and Hikari can do a lot better when he's just there for them and Koushirou is great company to be around with, who he just vibes with, while he can (hope to) watch Taichi's and Yamato's relationship bloom (while also developing a tendency to live out his caring attitude towards Koushirou a little). He grows up to be more accepting of his own preferences and orientation (and it may look to others like he's just dating people left and right, even though he is literally just spending time with them because he enjoys positive company - at least in MY opinion).

Alright, that was a lot of blabbering for a rather unfulfilled, one-sided crush... So what if they DO find a way to be together? I feel like Taichi would still struggle a little bit with it himself as well - again, Takeru is super close to Hikari AND Yamato's brother, so getting close to him may feel like he'd have to ask for permission... Not to mention that there are instances where Takeru reminds him of Yamato, hence there still being a looooot of conflicting feelings (especially the idea I saw in fandom once, where Taichi had to convince Takeru that "I like you because you're you, not because you remind me of Yamato!" and I think that would apply wonderfully the other way round as well: "I like you because you're you, not because you're a male version of Hikari!"). But once we've overcome all that trauma and complex complications ... I believe they could be a good match. They're both incredibly protective of others - and would be of each other as well. They also need someone to lean and allow themselves to rely on - which both of them struggle with, so there'd be a lot of talking required to let loose and be vulnerable around each other.

But I also feel like their relationship could get Taichi to become more social and outgoing again, spending more time with everyone and becoming more of his shiny self in the process again. And if Taichi managed to make himself be vulnerable around Takeru - I feel like Takeru would be the happiest bean. Realizing that he can be supportive of and needed by that, in his eyes, amazing person who always supported him in return as well. When I think about them, I think about sunshine fighting through a big wall of clouds - and about them teasing Yamato to hell and back, but that is just a very self-indulgent headcanon.

Whether I’d prefer them as platonic or romantic ship.