moonwise | Oh no, not again

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. -_-;