thought i should leave this extra up here

tokinaga and orokapi relationship feels like a love letter to aspec people from sumi eno, in my humble opinion. generally there’s a fear for loads of aroace people that no matter how close you are to someone, their romantic partner will always take precedence over you. for me personally, i’ve always had the feeling that unless i get into a qpr i will always be number two in someone’s life but tokinaga?? isnt?? all their interactions feel so full of care because orokapi prioritises him and his safety and his happiness above other people, even though they’re not romantically involved. even when he’s in the body of someone so deeply in love with yoriko (so much that he feels a instinct to protect her that overpowers his desire to reclaim his tail), a mention of hurting tokinagas feelings is enough for him to transform back into obikawa, if only for a moment. even when he knows he’s in active danger and will put himself at risk by going to his apartment, he wants to tell him his name, wants to be known by him. even when he disregards tokinagas feelings and decides to eat him, it’s so he can be with him forever— so they can be close forever. in the end of vol 4 extras orokapi— a notoriously selfish character who only concerned with what’s fun for him— gives the blanket he’s using to tokinaga cus he’s cold.

what really stuck out to me was the moment when orokapi just repeated ‘i wouldn’t mind’, even when faced with the possibility that he’d never really known ‘who’ tokinaga was— he didn’t mind. in a world where romantic relationships are valued so much more that platonic ones, the way sumi eno wrote these two just means a lot to me. it feels like she’s saying that you can be loved and you can be the most important person in someone’s life, even if you are someone who’s aroace. orokapi loves him unconditionally whether it’s platonic or romantic, even though he’s so selfish. tokinaga isn’t second place.

yes im ranting about it again. sorry..

I noticed that of our main three couples (wakashion, tobikawa, yoriko&minami) only one has a defined label for their relationship.

wakashion are unarguably in love, but their love is left up to interpretation. shion calls waka ‘the girl i like’ but what kind of ‘like’ is it? is it romantic? platonic? something else? does it even matter?? this is what i like so much about Sumi Eno’s depiction of love— it doesn’t matter that you label it. shion and waka are each others world and isnt that really all that matters? you can’t question whether they loved each other because it’s obvious that they did and we don’t need to know in what way because them loving each other is enough for them and so too should be for us.

tobikawa is similar in that they are completely undefined. it is easy to look at them and see they have a greater significance in each others lives than other people do (obikawa says that he prefers tokinaga who he’s know for a FEW YEARS to vollof his best friend of centuries) but we aren’t explicitly told what they are to each other. tokinaga, as an aroace man (!!!!!!!!), is in a unique position when it comes to love but their relationship isn’t even?? questioned??? everybody can see that they mean to much to each other and their type of love isnt ridiculed or investigated it just is. as my wonderful mutual pointed out, they are directly paralleled to an engaged couple— their love is as deep and respected as partners that are engaged.

yoriko and minami (GIVE THEM A SHIP NAME PLLEASSEE) are labelled as engaged but we don’t know for how long they’ve been dating, for how long they’ve been engaged, we don’t even know when they’re planning to actually get married. existing in this kind of limbo perhaps opens their relationship to speculation— why arent they married? do they really love each other?? but, again, their devotion is clear to see. not only through yoriko putting herself through virtual torture to confirm her hypothesis and then think up the solution all whilst still reeling from her lost pregnancy, but also through minami saying that even though he’s basically dead, has had his body consumed by an eldritch horror who then lived out his dreams with his fiancée all while he doesn’t know how long he’ll remain functionally alive for— orokapi may actually be a wish granter? despite all he’s gone through, since obikawa allowed him to have his honeymoon and speak to yoriko without his mouth tape thing, his wish has been granted and it might not be all that bad? they aren’t in a limbo for any reason other than that they aren’t rushed to get married, they love each other deeply and isn’t that all that matters?

^this after god fanfic be so good! Highly recommended reading it! It gets the tone of After God well and it explores Waka as a character from the limited view of Tokinaga via multiple time loops!

it's beautiful !