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

[notowned.livejournal.com]

Not to mention that most of them are (a) virgins and (b) never heard of bisexuals and (c) closet phobes anyway half the time. Every survey of gay men show that most of them have had at least one sexual encounter with the opposite sex in their lives, and any number of gay men are actually married with children - while still self-identifying as *gay*, not even bisexual (which strikes me as being a tad in denial but what would I know).

Wolfwood has sex with Milly. Wolfwood has sex with Milly. WOLFWOOD has SEX with MILLY. They need to get over it. The *sex* is important in this because MIlly cuddles any number of people - she has sex with exactly one. And in anime canon, she's the only one Wolfwood can allow to see him so vulnerable - but only because he knows he's about to get himself killed. Taking the sex out of that encounter reduces the significance, and really denying it means you want Milly to be a child. The *point* of this is that she's childlike - but no child. I'm sure she was a virgin - I'm sure Wolfwood knew that. I'm also sure he gave her the most tender, beautiful night as a final gift to her, and to all the innocents he's tried to save. It is a last expression of the desire to live by a dyning man - and he knows it. So does she.

As for the Jin/Shino thing - oy vey. The whole *point* about him having sex is that it *is* such a big deal in his lonely repressed existence, and pretty much splits it wide open (and breaks his heart while doing it). I thought it was a perfect bit of showing just enough detail to make it erotic and romantic, withouth getting into the bump and grind stuff. SC is very largely about Jin finally learning to be in touch with real existence and human emotions - and love and sex are part of that. All he can learn from Mugen is more of what he already *knows*. Shino exposes him to a whole new worlds of pain and pleasure.

[/rant] :)

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Can I just say a great big 'Yay' to all of the above, and to your lovely way of expressing the meaning of it all.

[notowned.livejournal.com]

well, thank you :)

They teach this stuff at University, don'tcha know ;p

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Oh, if only, given how many of the stupid bints I know claim to have been educated....

[arafel.livejournal.com]

I'm echoing Tiggy's yay. Milly and Wolfwood's liaison mostly about him looking for some kind of salvation, some kind of justification for his life and his action. Milly comes to him, with all the sweetness and love in her personality, and says "you are still a person worth loving even though you have made some bad decisions in your life." In an odd way, it's a parallel to Meryl saving Vash at the end of Live Through, in that both men find some kind of reconciliation. Wolfwood's is incomplete - he dies regretting - but he realizes, at the last, that there is another way.

Jin and Shino's encounter has to be one of the most gently handled love scenes I've seen... period. It was absolutely unnecessary to get into the humpa-humpa stuff - there is more than enough evidence in the aftermath to suggest that a good time was had by all. It was also yet another example of how SC consistently took the viewer's expectation and turned it on its ear. Who would have thought Jin to be the one to fall hard (or, in my case, to be interested in women? Given 1. that he's a samurai and 2. that he's quite pretty, I was NOT expecting that.)

Certainly, as you say, SC is about Jin learning to get in touch with real existence, and I'd definitely extend that to all three of them. They never drop character to do it, either. We don't suddenly have Mugen bursting into tears at the revelation that he doesn't want to kill Jin any more. It's a show that has a lot of the reality of the human heart woven into it, presented in a realistic manner despite all the silliness.

[skurtchasor.livejournal.com]

As I do my best to keep a safe distance from RepressedYaoiFangurlz(tm), I'm a little curious about point (c). Not that I'm trying to refute what you're saying, but these people are often homophobic? *head spins around*

On second thought, maybe this does make a bit of sense. After all, the sterotypical homophobic male still digs girl-on-girl action, if only because he can imagine himself in the scene and suddenly there are two former lesbians. There are also studies that suggest a guy will be less upset if his girlfriend or wife cheats on him with another woman than if she cheats with another guy. So if we swap genders in the above observations, hmmm....

Regarding Jin/Shino (and this probably applies to Wolfwood/Milly also, though I've seen only one episode of Trigun and that wasn't it): I can understand why a virginal RepressedYaoiFangurl might believe that they was no bump and grind, simply because she's never experienced (maybe not even seen) the act herself. Male/Male doujinshi doesn't count. Of course, the rest of us know what really went on, squeak squeak ;). This isn't even the point--Jin gave himself to a woman, so the physical details aren't important. I don't think the fangurlz would be any happier if you claimed they did 69 or some other sexual act. Those of us who have done the deed know by now that penetration shouldn't be considered the dividing line anyway, but I guess we can thank (at least) the Catholic Church for that.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

I'm not a repressed fangirl, to be sure, but if my husband cheated on me with anyone, male or female, I would beat the living shit out of him.

There's probably some truth in the virginity argument, esp for the teenies who are interested in sex but are somewhat afraid of it. Two men getting involved are hot without her having to worry about being a part of it.

Of course, the rest of us know what really went on, squeak squeak ;)

Or thump thump, considering the tatami mats.

Happily, the yaoi fans on my list here have considered their preference beyond "lolz! omg teh ghei is my otp!!!" Being secure in your preferences and understanding why they are that way means that you don't feel threatened when someone else presents an alternative point of view.