real quick thing to add: its one thing if you wanna write kurahi with daddy kink or age play or whatever–its not my thing but u do u as long as its safe sane a nd consensual–but like. specifically forcing someone to fit into a childlike role in order to fulfill a stereotypical and unrealistic (and, arguably, offensive) sexual situation is kind of…

Yes, when choosing between the two, I always prefer feminine Kurama over childish Hiei. Not to say they can’t be done without those – plenty of fics, some doujins, and art exists that portrays them as neither of those things. But there is nothing wrong with being a feminine man, or a woman, and even twisting a character to be more of something isn’t the worst. Neither is necessarily making a character more innocent or young, but it does leave me a bit… more uneasy. If I have to choose between wailing maiden Kurama and literal child Hiei, I’d rather go for Kurama.

Some more tidbits under cut. Long, half formed thoughts regarding Doujinshi, sexual assault, and this whole uke/seme with regards to Hiei and Kurama, and which I prefer based on the fanworks available to us.

Since this blog posts doujinshi, I think it’d be wrong if I didn’t mention the Kurahi trends in those. Fanfiction seems to do this better, but the doujinshi… well, they’re quite full of dubious consent (and some right out sexual assault). Almost all of them focus on Hiei. Another reason perhaps, that I personally seem to favor, if I have to choose, bottom Kurama. 

To reiterate, I do not think characters should be boxed in in either role, nor do I like Kurama bottoming or topping all the time, and neither do I think that penetrative sex is a must in nsfw media. There are plenty of ways to write these scenes and interactions without ever having to resort to such a dynamic. This conversation is more about if we are forced to choose one over the other. 

And this can be perhaps a bit hypocritical of me, as I’ve stated I don’t like today’s fandom having reacting to past Kurama-feminization by going to the other extreme and refusing to let the poor boy have some dick, but again, this is more of a thought experiment on if we have to choose between the two uke/seme dynamics with the current fanworks we have. 

So, that being said… Doujinshi…. Oh, my precious doujinshi. There’s definitely less Kurama uke, but there are some common threads. Yes, he’s always softer and gentler and more feminine in them, but out of all the ones I can remember off the top of my head, essentially all of them are consensual relationships between two people who are on a more or less equal level in physical maturity. I actually can’t think of any “romantic” doujinshi where Kurama is a victim of sexual assault or even finds himself in dubious consent situations. 

Which is sorta the opposite of what Western fandom likes to do to him… but those fics >_> we all know are supposed to be like that. Whereas these doujinshi portray these dubious consent issues as romantic. 

So, in Hiei’s case, there are numerous doujinshi where he is flat out assaulted, mostly by Yoko, but also by redhead Kurama. Arina Toshimi is famous for this. Her works range from sorta dubious, like “Costume Play,”

SFW picture, but the gist is that Kurama pulls Hiei into a bathroom, and while it seems its consensual, Hiei does seem a bit hesitant. That’s the most consensual Arina does, however… Her longest running work, The Cruelest Love in the World, while it does contain one of my favorite Arina panels – this one;

– Also contains a lot of forced sexual encounters. Even the one in the panel above is coerced; Hiei is drugged so that he is experiencing intense sexual desire, something Yoko Kurama did to him (the two are separated in some aspect and Yoko is quite evil), and Kurama, instead of finding a drug to help him or put him to sleep, essentially sleeps with him, knowing Hiei can’t really let himself say no in this position… and this is the “softest” of assaults Kurama commits in this series. 

Even the more innocent “Kiss” from Arina, plays up Hiei’s innocence and is also predatory; Hiei doesn’t know what kissing is, doesn’t understand the romantic and sexual implications, and Kurama, knowing this, kisses him anyway. He even mentions that should Hiei find out what it means, he’d stop letting Kurama kiss him, implying that if Hiei did know it was a romantic/sexual action, he wouldn’t be comfortable with it. 

Then there are ones where either Yoko or Kurama flat out assault him. (examples, 1 2 – in the second one, Kurama, the nice redheaded one we all know to be relatively kind, even admits Hiei will likely want to kill him for this.)

I’m actually having trouble remembering a single Doujinshi where Kurama tops Hiei where there isn’t some dubious consent. Even my favorite, Hiei’s Punishment Arc, has dubious consent. It took me multiple readings to finally come to a decision on where their relationship lies in that one (they are together, but Hiei doesn’t like how forward/needy Yoko is, and seems much less interested in sex than Kurama. So Kurama does all sort of shitty things to get Hiei to have more sex with him, from lying to him, entrapping him in a magical relationship that forces Hiei to return to him, and literally pushing him till Hiei just gives in – all very not cool things). And that’s the best example I can think of…

Whereas Kurama, while more feminine and “wailing maidenly,” always seems to consent and not be as violently upset as Hiei (Hiei often literally runs away, attacks Kurama, or at the very least verbally shows his dislike of what happened).

Kurama will occasionally weakly protest, as in this excerpt , or show surprise at the turn of events, but these protests are usually more of a “not now, not here, slow down, wait, this is sudden” sort of protests not “I don’t like it, I don’t want it, stop it, leave me alone, I’m going to kill you for it.” There is quite a big difference between the two.

Of course, as I said earlier, other fanworks do better. Not everything is doujinshi. But it is a trend found in the Japanese part of the fandom, at least. And, in my opinion, it is a possible consequence of portraying someone as innocent and younger than their partner.

So, as far as most of the Kurahi content out there that falls into these two categories, I prefer bottom Kurama. Of course, my preference would be if neither of these extremes were so prevalent, or if they were thrown out in favor of more nuanced explorations of these characters and their possible sex lives. But if forced to choose between those two extremes, I am more comfortable with Kurama being the wailing maiden. 

– Mod Lola 

EDIT: This isn’t to say dark works are always wrong (I enjoy a darkfic now and then >_>)! But to portray them as romantic is my issue. Wanted to make that clear.