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and by opinion I mean rambling meta on why I think it’d work or wouldn’t work. With the understanding it’s all for fun and not meant to be taken offensively by anyone 🙂
See, I … don’t understand? To me, they are the same person. In a way, to me, it’s almost like asking if Demon Yusuke and Human Yusuke could be a couple.
If they were to somehow separate into Yoko Kurama and Shuichi Minamino the human, I highly doubt there’d be romance between them. Maybe some sick sort of … well, I just don’t see anything healthy there. A person, a new person who was created by combining into two, suddenly being halved. I believe if anything, they’d have more of a sibling relationship.
Anyway, I never saw Yoko and Kurama as separate beings, not completely, so I never even considered it. The few fics or art I’ve seen of this ship have always been more of a some sort of artist thought experiment.
Which means I’ll totally dig the art and fics, when I find good ones, but as a serious couple? Zero chance, in my opinion.
Now, some AU where Shuichi and Yoko are much more divided, and Shuichi retains his long life and his abilities, then maybe, them together coming to terms with their now broken psyche might be interesting. They could learn to heal from it together, and eventually lead to a romance. But in the YYH universe as I see it now? I don’t see it working at all.
Funny enough… I do consider this something of a crack ship as we don’t have that much to go on, but as far as shipping Botan with anyone, I do actually prefer Shizuru. I personally would like Botan to remain single or get together with another reaper, to avoid the whole… “Everyone I love Dies and I am the one who has to take them to the Afterlife” thing. But as far as the characters we know and love, Shizuru is the only person I’d bite for a Botan ship.
My reasoning for why is this, I don’t see her with any of the boys, as she appears more of a sister to them all. And the girls… well, I don’t see anything with Yukina or Keiko. Again, she takes something of a sibling role. It comes off that way partially since she is Yusuke’s aide. But still, she has nothing to offer them and they nothing to offer her. Shizuru, on the other hand…
Remember this scene? And remember who came to talk to her?
Both drink beer here, both are undeniably more mature, than say Keiko, who wouldn’t even touch the stuff, and Yukina, who got all tucked into bed.
And both are badass ladies.
They’ll cut ya.
Shizuru is also more spiritually aware. She likely knew Botan wasn’t human from the start.
So, what do they offer narrative and each other?
Each other; As mentioned, Shizuru is more mature and level-headed, and can offer support to Botan as she did in the show. Since both know more about the supernatural than Keiko, and are both very spirited, unlike Yukina, they have more in common and can get into shenanigans together.
Narrative wise, I don’t see much, but it wouldn’t also be completely insane nor would it get in the way of narrative. As they’re both single, they wouldn’t break up canon couples. They could have some interesting character growth together, and Shizuru could be drawn more into the Supernatural world, not just through her brother, but through Botan.
A slightly ridiculous but narratively interesting point also comes from the fact that Kuwabara did crush on Botan for a bit, and has a thing for blue hair. Shizuru, being his sister… well, that could be an interesting connection.
To sum it up, they have commonalities that would lend to meaningful experiences they could share, have some narrative parallels with Kuwabara and Yukina in the blue hair and gf is not a human and the human is a psychic department, and they’re both better matched maturity wise than any of the other girls in the group.
Now that’s a rather strange one! I personally do not see anything there. They don’t have any meaningful interactions in the show. Nor do they have anything in common besides caring for men who fight. I cannot even imagine how a relationship between these two would come about.
Personality wise, too, I do not see how these two would meld together in any way. With Yusuke, Keiko’s understanding and willingness to accept strange new things allows Yusuke to flourish in this new world and still have a solid, grounded relationship that keeps him human. Yukina and Kuwabara are nicely fitted, even if they’re not the most developed relationship, because Yukina’s culture fear mongers about men and their evils, and Kuwabara is so honest and honorable, that Yukina can easily trust him. The narrative storyline of Kuwabara and Hiei becoming family is also extremely satisfying, as those two argue like brothers or cousins who are placed at odds. (Reminds me of my older brother and my cousin, who would fight like crazy, pulling each others’ hair even, for silly reasons like wanting the same toy.)
Whereas with Yukina and Keiko… Yukina doesn’t repeat her mother’s actions, turning mistake into success, showing the Koorime Hina wasn’t wrong to love a man. Keiko doesn’t help Yukina flourish because Keiko has nothing to offer to teach Yukina that literally any other person couldn’t do, also.
In other words, I don’t see this ship as succeeding, narrative or character wise. They have nothing to offer the story, nor each other.
YYH-Revival 