Oh no, not again

[moonwise]

Or, the Cranky Rant about Canonical Sex.



So. fadingembers introduced me to Amalgam, which is a Samurai Champloo fansite. It's a well-done site, with interesting bits of history, character profiles, episode guides, all that good stuff.

Whilst reading the character profile for Jin, the webmistress has this to say about his liaison with Shino: "He has no spontaneous responses; he doesn't trust words; when anyone touches him he locks down; even when Shino kisses him we don't see him so much as blink. (And say what you like, I don't think it's at all clear what happens that night.)

And my first thought after reading that was: "Aw fuck, here we go again."

Consider. In my beloved Trigun fandom, there has been a considerable amount of nonsense over whether Milly and Wolfwood actually slept together, despite that 1. she's sleeping in his bed and 2. Wolfwood stands by the window half-naked and smoking a cigarette. Kids, I don't care what you tell me, with that kind of an aftermath, they weren't playing Uno all night, okay? But still, there's a fair number of fangirls in denial. What difference does it make? Having Wolfwood and Milly engage in what amounts to a comfort fuck hardly gets in the way of any other pairing with Wolfwood.

But I digress.

OK, SC friends, listen very closely: Jin and Shino had sex. I do not think there is a whole lot of question about that. Jin has no spontaneous responses? ...Except for swiping Mugen's money, getting laid, smacking her husband around, and ditching his companions to help her run away? Um, hello? Jin looks down when anyone touches him? Okay, let's not even consider that the Japanese consider touching someone else to be a bigger deal than we touchy-feely Americans do, and let's conveniently forget about Shino patting him on the face and Jin letting Fuu lean on him when she's sad.

It's not clear what happens that night? Clear as day to me. Let's review. Jin pays a whopping sum to spend the evening with Shino, tells her she doesn't have to screw him if she doesn't want to. Shino obviously wants to, or she wouldn't have kissed him (a kiss was considered to be highly erotic b/c it was a novel concept in Japan.) Jin doesn't bat en eyelash? How do you figure there? The animation doesn't even show up big enough to tell! What would be preferable, full-on snogging up close and personal?

Next shot we see is of ButtNekkid!Jin lying on her futon, glasses off. So, unless Jin and Shino were playing Strip Uno, and he was really bad at it, it's quite reasonable to assume that there was a good reason to be getting naked. Shino's hair is down, which means either Jin is an amateur hairdresser or (gasp!) he pulled it loose during sex. While Shino is sitting at her mirror combing her hair, Jin comes over, still undressed, and it appears to me that he's about to kiss her on the back of the neck (again, an erotic spot,) which says to me that he's angling for seconds before she tells him to stop. How can one suggest with a straight face that they didn't have sex?

(Never mind how many times the boys seem to end up in the red-light district. Mugen gets Yatsuha, but Mugen also wins the toss.)

Is the denial concerning canonical hetsex a matter of it interfering with slash? Doesn't appear to have bothered the V/W writers much. Certainly as a samurai Jin is probably not unacquainted with the m/m relationships common to the samurai of the era, so he's still slashable. (Though probably not with Mugen - the boy probably has "Exit Only" tattooed on his ass.)

I don't buy the characterization of Jin as cold. I do buy that he's repressed. I do think he's lonely, even if he doesn't know he's lonely. One of the best parts about Jin is watching that exterior crack from time to time, to show that he's as human as everyone else (trying to catch a fish, reading one of Mugen's porny books, throwing his back out, getting mad over being called a "dork with glasses" among other funny moments.) His exterior cracks bigtime for Shino - who could forget the sweet smile he gives her? Is it so hard to believe that they slept together?

I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, but I had to get that out of my system. -_-;

Comments

more thought

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Hm... I read the character profiles on that site. I don't really think I agree with her characterization of Jin as internally frail and "sio horribly damaged." I'm sure my opinion now is altered by the last 9 episodes, but even before then I didn't look at him that way. If anything, I had thought Mugen might be hiding a bigger amount inner trauma and always compensating for it. Of course, I wouldn't say THAT now either, given what we know through the end of the series. Both Jin and Mugen have forceful personalities and are the classic "survivor" type... they started the series that way and finished it that way, not something
"damaged" or "delicate". I think the fact that we got so little of their backstories for so long speaks to the fact that, while both were to varrying degrees angry/unhappy about their pasts, both were also readily dealing with it or had convinced themselves it was done and delt with. Jin's cool reaction to his former fellow student speaks to that. I think the characterization of Jin as she has it on the website smacks of that "I must take care of my woobie angsty male character"/"his angst is so tragic!" mothering. And while I'm down with the woobie love... I actually don't consider either Jin or Mugen woobies. Not like Vash is a woobie or Edward Elric is a woobie.

I do think Jin was cold in the beginning of the series. I define "very, very reserved" as one of the main acceptable definitions of a cold personality. Obviously, though all three loosened up around each other over the course of the series. Jin got-- how to say it... not less formal, but more comfortable and less rigid. And Mugen got a little less guarded and constantly expected/inviting of attack.

Re: more thought

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Word to that - neither of the boys are woobies. They've had angst in their lives, and they push on in spite of it and don't spend monologues wibbling about their angst. It's more "shit happens" than "woe is me!"

Still, the concept of having a friend is novel to both Mugen and Jin. When they do decide that having a friend is a good thing, they might have realize that they were hurting all that time, but I don't see it as a "zomg must angst about this" reaction, but a "shit, that sucked!
happier now!" thing.

"Damaged and delicate?" Tell Mugen that and he'll pick his nose. Tell Jin that and he'll lift an eyebrow and give you his best "wtf." And, no one does wtf like Jin. :D

Re: more thought

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Still, the concept of having a friend is novel to both Mugen and Jin. When they do decide that having a friend is a good thing, they might have realize that they were hurting all that time, but I don't see it as a "zomg must angst about this" reaction, but a "shit, that sucked! happier now!" thing

Exactly. I agree.


And, no one does wtf like Jin.

He can manage that special WTF face, that "I'm superior to whatever the fuck it is you're on about, WTF that may be because, dude, WTF" face.

Re: more thought

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

>^..^

Re: more thought

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

That's awesome. I'm gonna use that.

Re: more thought

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

interesting... that has to be a gif file, but my comp just wants to save it as a bmp file. So I could load it onto my icon cue, but I can't save it.

Re: more thought

[jaina.livejournal.com]

That's a known IE problem. I forget what the solution is, something with cookies or settings or whatnot. My personal solution is Firefox.

Re: more thought

[arafel.livejournal.com]

*giggle* I lurve.