#hanzawa masato

For those wondering why this analysis in ch.5+6, it’s because I wanted to analyze Niibashi’s role in the story and I can do that better if I talk about both Niibashi and Kagiura’s conversation over the phone before the Christmas party (ch.5) and their conversation in the sweets cafe (ch.6). I will still come with a ch.6 analysis.

Anyway, I consider Niibashi to be the, mostly romantic, common sense of H&K. Which is sorely needed as our main characters are Hirano I-have-no-idea-how-going-above-and-beyond-for-my-roommate-can-be-seen-as-romantic Taiga and Kagiura I’m-skipping-wanting-to-date-my-roommate-to-wanting-to-marry-him Akira. Though obviously Niibashi is only playing the common sense to Kagiura as he’s Kagiura’s best friend and has barely ever interacted with Hirano.

Before talking about how exactly Niibashi is the romantic common sense, I want to real quick talk about why Hirano doesn’t have a designated romantic common sense. Because Hirano is close with Hanzawa who gave Miyano romantic advice. Two reasons why Hanzawa can’t. Firstly, Hirano barely ever reflects on his own feelings, let alone talk to others about it. Secondly, Hanzawa didn’t get over his “I won’t sabotage it, but I’d rather that my friends NOT be gay” before December in his third year. If we’re lucky Hirano and Hanzawa will talk about kagihira’s romantic entanglements when they’re in their last semester of high school, but until then, Hanzawa won’t be told about the explicitly romantic parts of kagihira’s relationship.

Sasaki just isn’t the type to probe into people’s business unless that person is Miyano.

Anyway, back to Niibashi and the chapter. Niibashi mainly has three jobs as the romantic common sense.

1) Point out the ways kagihira’s relationship isn’t normal

Now, Hirano’s classmates also do this. However, Niibashi is much more privy to what’s going on so he gets to react to pretty much all of it. The fandom is also pretty quick to point out all the ways Hirano acts like more than just a roommate to Kagiura. Still, it’s nice to have the story confirm that Hirano’s actions are unusual.

2) Try to interpret Hirano through common romantic wisdom

Now, I don’t think that Niibashi is always right in his deductions or that the readers should always agree with him - he tells Kagiura that he should rely on Hirano less when we as readers know that Hirano LOVES taking care of Kagiura - since he doesn’t actually know Hirano and mostly just points out the most reasonable explanations based on what most people with some knowledge of romance would come up with.

I do, however, think that there is a point to him pointing these things out. Most people reading H&K will at least have some romance trope knowledge, even if it’s through BL. However, neither Hirano nor Kagiura has any of that. Kagiura would be spending a LONG time wondering about why Hirano doesn’t get his confession without Niibashi giving an explanation. It helps move the plot along in a deliciously frustrating slow burn way rather than an annoying slog by skipping some of the frustrating parts.

3) Prod at Kagiura’s feelings

When I first read ch.6 I thought, “Wait, I thought this was pining x oblivious, but it was actually oblivious x oblivious the whole time?!?” Thanks to Niibashi’s prodding, though, H&K turns into a proper “pining x oblivious” story.

TL;DR, Niibashi is a big part in moving kagihira along by adding a bit of romantic common sense into the mix in various ways.

Happy birthday, Hanzawa!

「半澤先輩ってピアスしてないっすよね」

「してないよ。田代ピアスに興味あるの？」

「前やろうと思ったんすけどなんか痛そうだし手入れ面倒そうだし。一年くらい放置しても塞がんないすか？」

「塞がるかもね」

「え、でも」

「うん？」

「……学校の外でしてる？」

「内緒」

‘20.4.02

田代の報告。

Happy birthday Hanzawa!

I love these boys. each of the glasses they have just fits them all so well. this being such an infrequent release is a shame (totally get it tho, the creator has a lot of projects going on rn)

I just love this screenshot so much. their little faces are everything to me

Yay! I think the new animation is for the OVA! I’m happy!

I’ve already been following the manga before I’ve watched the anime although it only took my interest knowing that this manga would be adapted into anime so I’m glad that it went perfectly well.

Of course, I could relate to Miyano given that he’s a fudanshi and I can understand his confusion when it comes to dealing with his feelings. Like, he feels that his love story is straight out of a BL manga. (I think it happens to me most of the time, too. Lol!) Anyway, I’ve only read up to the second volume of the series so I got a bit surprised about the kiss. I honestly did not expect that at this early stage of this fluff relationship but well…

What I really loved about this is how everyone is supportive of them. I mean, even if it feels ideal at times, the two of them already have a conflict of their own so knowing that the people around them are open about them being together is a relief.

It’s nice for the world to see BL stories like this, once in a while, to somewhat make people think that BL is not always brutal or non-consensual as they always say.

P.S. I’d like to see more of Hirano and Kagiura!