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Yes, I DO like that character I had a terrible first impression of!
BEYOND THIS POINT LIES DANGANRONPA V3 SPOILERS
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
-------------
I have found it.
Something I have been searching for since the beginning of my adolescence.
I have found it.
It exists.
It's as canon as it can ever be!
It's the closest its ever been.
Many times I would rant about something like Pinkie and Fluttershy not being as close as I hoped. The idea that an extrovert and an introvert could not only be friends, but beyond was a dream I thought not possible until recently. An extrovert that drives the introvert to improve themselves and the introvert teaching the extrovert how to treat and act to those of the same... a pipe dream you might say. It's also probably the most self-indulgent kind of ship I could ever yearn for, being an introvert who one day wishes to find the kind of friend like that (at least at first being able to TOLERATE the kind of person like that, and then slowly growing closer over time as we improve ourselves and complete one another) and so anything I find with such potential to be something like that I cling to with all the power I can wield.
Oftentimes I compared my frustrations with PinkieShy with a far darker and also probably less healthy relationship between two Danganronpa characters, Ibuki and Mikan. Unfortunately for those two, there are lots of extenuating circumstances that affect such a potential ship greatly. Let me be frank, I do not like unhealthy relationships. Any ship with any underlying toxic kind of atmosphere puts me off immediately. This is why I have a hard time shipping anything at all in Danganronpa because most if not all characters are fucked up beyond belief in one way or another. Mikan is one of those characters, and an especially extreme kind of example as well. No matter how much I love Ibuki I truly in my heart cannot see her having the ability to be one-half of Mikan, to be strong enough to support Mikan as she fights her infinite demons. Ibuki is not free of demons herself of course, but what backstory is provided for Ibuki is a farcry from how much we know of Mikan. It's simply not on equal standing. There's too much on the scale that weighs one over the other, one who needs so much more than the other and the other who has to give so much more than they can possibly provide.
Don't get me wrong though, all the art and AUs and headcanons of them are cute! But in the end for something to truly be an OTP, that is the kind of obstacle it must overcome. It's why I love Monochrome from RWBY so much. Their backstories are intertwined and the both of them can improve the other just by being together. It's such a thematically good ship (not to mention aesthetically pleasing) and should any ship among the main four come true, in terms of narrative and story purposes it makes the most sense and is the most rewarding for the story, as well as enriching for both characters. That kind of balance, that kind of give-and-take that makes a relationship work is what's ideal in my kind of ship. It may seem vanilla and boring on the surface, but maybe I just like boring and vanilla. Maybe I want that.
So it is of course to my surprise that Danganronpa's third installment, third maingame series provides just that.
When I first went through V3, I was shocked like the masses at the aftermath of chapter one. It took a long time for me to pick myself up and continue, to pay attention to the story and realize "Oh yeah, there are still fourteen other characters to care about". That's the kind of thing you recover from slowly as you trudge through the rest of the game. Still, I managed to develop another favourite despite how foolish that is, as all my favourites to this point had died horribly in this series. I knew the moment I grew attached. the moment I liked a character that character was doomed. They were dead. They would cease to be in a pile of pepto bismol and misery. And I would continue to doom characters over and over again no matter what, despite its affect on my heart.
But Himiko Yumeno, the next character I latched onto had a guardian angel. A character who basically made sure that Himiko would not suffer the same fate as all the others I had grown to love. And just like Himiko, I too found this guardian angel a bit too... forward. Annoying, so to say. Creepy even. Stalkery. Tenko Chabashira. My first reaction, my liveblog (and I've liveblogged every game so far somehow o_o) I commented about Himiko's weird, unhealthy psychopath friends. I was mostly referring to Angie when I brought that up, but Tenko was part of that description for a long time too. I was so convinced Himiko would bite the dust that I never really paid attention to the small details, only vaguely the big picture with tunnel vision strictly stuck on Himiko. She was dead, I was convinced. This next victim would be her. A small redheaded child will be laying on the ground in a pool of blood soon, or she'd be the next murderer and be executed in spectacular and elaborate fashion. I was convinced.
But Tenko, Tenko made sure that was not to be.
It wasn't until Tenko died that I, like Himiko, finally realized how much she mattered, how great she was. It would not be a lie to say that I strongly relate to Himiko. Himiko hits all three bullet points of being an excellent character Spotto would no doubt love. She was adorable, quotable, and relatable. Thankfully she wasn't particularly useful during trials or especially plot relevant near the end or else she'd be a mary-sue. She was hitting all the marks. But yes, these types of characters like Himiko traditionally were most in danger by the time chapter three rolled around. I was dreading Himiko's death. She was getting more and more relevant to the current chapter, and no doubt she'd croak and I had doomed her once more.
But Tenko. Tenko was there.
The moment Tenko introduced herself she launched into a foray of how much girls were great and men were terrible, evil beings that all had to die. A tad extreme. Well, okay not just a 'tad', but that kind of excessive hatred was a bit jarring and irritating over time. Then she had her little fussy obsession with Himiko. The slow, young sleepy girl was somehow the girl of Tenko's dreams. I still find that endlessly amusing and maybe even realistic. Normally when someone mentions the person of their dreams, it's an image of someone absolutely perfect, a person so beautiful and charismatic it wasn't possible for such a person to exist, yet Tenko's ideal girl was... Himiko. Yes, Himiko, a character Kokichi called ugly more than once (though he's quite the liar so who knows) and someone Miu insulted more than once (but Miu insults everyone, so.... both these characters' opinions MUST be taken with a grain of salt) yet Tenko sees Himiko as... perfect.
At first this seemed like a very superficial shallow kind of crush that Tenko had. Similar to Souda's one-sided love for Sonia in SDR2, I assumed like Souda, Tenko only cared for Himiko's very adorable appearance and very little else. And yes while it was rather apparent that she was smitten with Himiko's cute looks, over time Tenko began caring about Himiko beyond her surface. She tried to give Himiko drive. She tried to improve Himiko as a person. She could read Himiko, and realize that Himiko was hiding her emotions, was keeping herself locked within, and was coping with the killing game rather poorly, using escapism as a measure to ignore reality. When Tenko was concerned about these aspects of Himiko, it was clear then that Tenko had fallen for Himiko beyond just as a girl who was pretty, but for Himiko's virtues AND faults. Unlike so many other crushes portrayed in the media, Tenko's crush had actual substance. She wasn't just pining for Himiko for selfish reasons, but also FOR Himiko as well! She cared about Himiko as a person, and even though she held her on a pedestal for a good chunk of the beginning of the game, she eventually came to become the most supportive person possible to Himiko, the kind of person, the exact kind of friend you would want in a killing game.
And then she died.
Because it's Danganronpa and we can't have nice things.
Now this might seem like an all give and all take kind of relationship. It does seem pretty clearly that Tenko was ALL give to Himiko, and Himiko provided very little back. But I think what I really love about this ship is how both characters start off clearly flawed, one too lazy and too uncaring to bother doing anything, and one too overexcited and energetic to stop bothering others. Tenko did slowly improve over time in terms of her overly forward attitude. When she infiltrated the cult for instance, instead of just impulsively running up trying to drag Himiko out by force like her martial art of choice seems to encourage, she instead lays low and keeps watch to make sure Himiko is doing alright. It is only when it seems nothing else can be done that Tenko outright tries to shake Himiko out of her stupor, to get her to stop being brainwashed. This seems like a stark contrast to the sputtering Tenko of chapter one who can't keep her mouth shut about her fantasies with Himiko or her assumptions of how Himiko is feeling, and in return Himiko is now willingly hanging out with Tenko! And as much as Himiko is the character I love the most in this game, I can't help but be most intrigued with Tenko's backstory and how she came to be.
Tenko apparently used to be a very rowdy child, I think even angry. (I don't remember exactly, so this could be wrong) so she was tossed into a temple to calm this side of her personality down. Even though Tenko is still quite emotive, this is apparently the most stable she's ever been in her life, so that Aikido must be doing something. She then has one SINGLE line in the entire game, a throwaway line you might not even pay attention to in the trials (that was somewhat mistranslated from the original Japanese) about the ramblings of a drunk father. Of course not knowing Japanese I can't confirm this, but some people have said the localization for whatever reason changed Tenko's words of "my drunk father" to "a drunk father" leaving it ambiguous in the dub if she's just referring to drunken people in general or a personal experience. This line is so important because Tenko's FTEs don't really reveal much about her family life, and only reveal that her master is a troll and Tenko is a gullible idiot who does whatever master says even if he's clearly bullshitting. I mean it's an amusing explanation for her misandry but I find the stereotypical angsty version a little more sympathetic. If you combine them both it gives Tenko even more depth.
In contrast while Himiko's FTEs revealed a great deal about her own master and her superiority inferiority complex, it didn't really give much information as to why Himiko was... Himiko. Maybe there's something I'm missing. Still the game itself does well to give Himiko development, and since I had to pick apart random lines and Tenko's FTEs to find anything due to Tenko's tragically shortened life, it makes sense how everything went down.
If there's anything about this game and Danganronpa in general I do have a bit of a tiff with, it's how they deal with LGBT characters. Yes most characters DO die, but any time a character shows interest in the same gender they usually die, and the subject of their interest usually lives. And it's always up to interpretation whether or not the living character had interest in return, like an obviously gay character isn't allowed to live or something. While I am glad Tenmiko is like, at least half-canon I can't one hundred percent say it's ENTIRELY canon since Himiko's feelings in return, though are at least at friendship levels and SUPER REGRET levels I cannot with certainty say are at romantic levels. Sure Himiko has expressed interest in men, but she ALSO has the bisexual haircut! And she MIGHT reciprocate her feelings to Tenko! She always mentions Tenko, and if she does mention Angie Tenko's name is always first, and if Kaito or Kaede is brought up, Himiko brings up Tenko too when the other two are obvious lost loves of the other survivors. But I still can't find anything concrete to back it up. It's all just implied or interpretation. I would love nothing more than even a SIDE thing confirming how Himiko felt, but until that comes out or happens I just can't say for sure. ):
I was THIS close to a canon FxF pair too. LET MY TOKEN LESBIANS BE CANON! I say token because just like with SDR2 and Komaeda it seems like 75% of all artwork I find of V3 is Kokichixsomebody. Yes, I also like Kokichi but I don't like him enough to be 75% of my V3 content, especially when I'm so attached to these token lesbians. At least the official anthology that is approved by the creators has some nice Tenmiko content where even Himiko seems to like Tenko back, but it's not CANON TO THE SERIES so I still can't say with ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY!! Ah well, still the most official anything I've ever shipped has ever been, so that's something. And Danganronpa also provided me with IBUKI, the CANON BI/ACE/NOT!STRAIGHT AT LEAST character who also happens to be my favourite and that very fact makes me all the more overjoyed that Ibuki exists. There are more than a handful of confirmed LGBT characters in the Danganronpa franchise, so I'm happy they're fine with making them all canon and such.
BUT MAYBE STOP MAKING THEM ALL TRAGICALLY GAY. I mean there was Teruteru who was bi, but he expressed his sexual orientation very openly and inappropriately, and also died. Then Mahiru probably had that gay friend Sato but she also became a lesbian murderer... and then there was Mikan who loved Junko but because Junko is ultimate despair Mikan is clearly fucked in the head... and also became a murderer... and then there was Juzo with his one-sided crush on Munakata, but he did lots of shitty things and died a tragic and heroic third wheel whose feelings would never be returned not only because Munakata was officially with Chisa but because Munakata fucking stabbed him, and then we have Tenko... WHY. WHY DANGANRONPA. LET AT LEAST ONE LIVE!!!
This isn't even getting to like, Komaeda and Kokichi and their implied feelings. WHO KNOWS. THEY DIED ANYWAY, SO WHATEVER.
But if you CONFIRM IT on Himiko there will AT LEAST BE ONE, and I will be satisfied with ONE. That's how low my expectations are. I don't think Shuichi counts because all his non-straight interactions are in bonus side games and were never relevant to the plot, which kind of sucks. It's great it exists though and probably does mean he's bi, but it's not shown whatsoever in the main story that he has attraction to men at any point. Maybe Kaito? idk
It's still better than literally every other media I've consumed that's all about queerbaiting but not actually having a single queer character or maybe it's GUEST CHARACTER OF THE DAY WHO IS GAY, or IRRELEVANT MINOR CHARACTER IS GAY or whatever. Nooo, never an IMPORTANT character or anything... >_>
I dunno if the Ultra Despair Girls count because nothing is outright mentioned or whatever. It could still be interpreted as a beautiful friendship, and because of how hetero-normative society is, unless it's spelled OUTRIGHT for the audience and SMASHED into their faces, the majority will never adopt a common belief that so-and-so character is not straight. IMPOSSIBIRU they'd say. Straight is the DEFAULT, they'd think. Blah. BLAH TO THEM!
Anyway I dunno why I needed so much text to spell out Tenko is the dog to Himiko's cat and I love dog/cat ships. At least I finally ship something in Danganronpa. I finally have an OTP. An OTP I can be proud of. YAY!
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
-------------
I have found it.
Something I have been searching for since the beginning of my adolescence.
I have found it.
It exists.
It's as canon as it can ever be!
It's the closest its ever been.
Many times I would rant about something like Pinkie and Fluttershy not being as close as I hoped. The idea that an extrovert and an introvert could not only be friends, but beyond was a dream I thought not possible until recently. An extrovert that drives the introvert to improve themselves and the introvert teaching the extrovert how to treat and act to those of the same... a pipe dream you might say. It's also probably the most self-indulgent kind of ship I could ever yearn for, being an introvert who one day wishes to find the kind of friend like that (at least at first being able to TOLERATE the kind of person like that, and then slowly growing closer over time as we improve ourselves and complete one another) and so anything I find with such potential to be something like that I cling to with all the power I can wield.
Oftentimes I compared my frustrations with PinkieShy with a far darker and also probably less healthy relationship between two Danganronpa characters, Ibuki and Mikan. Unfortunately for those two, there are lots of extenuating circumstances that affect such a potential ship greatly. Let me be frank, I do not like unhealthy relationships. Any ship with any underlying toxic kind of atmosphere puts me off immediately. This is why I have a hard time shipping anything at all in Danganronpa because most if not all characters are fucked up beyond belief in one way or another. Mikan is one of those characters, and an especially extreme kind of example as well. No matter how much I love Ibuki I truly in my heart cannot see her having the ability to be one-half of Mikan, to be strong enough to support Mikan as she fights her infinite demons. Ibuki is not free of demons herself of course, but what backstory is provided for Ibuki is a farcry from how much we know of Mikan. It's simply not on equal standing. There's too much on the scale that weighs one over the other, one who needs so much more than the other and the other who has to give so much more than they can possibly provide.
Don't get me wrong though, all the art and AUs and headcanons of them are cute! But in the end for something to truly be an OTP, that is the kind of obstacle it must overcome. It's why I love Monochrome from RWBY so much. Their backstories are intertwined and the both of them can improve the other just by being together. It's such a thematically good ship (not to mention aesthetically pleasing) and should any ship among the main four come true, in terms of narrative and story purposes it makes the most sense and is the most rewarding for the story, as well as enriching for both characters. That kind of balance, that kind of give-and-take that makes a relationship work is what's ideal in my kind of ship. It may seem vanilla and boring on the surface, but maybe I just like boring and vanilla. Maybe I want that.
So it is of course to my surprise that Danganronpa's third installment, third maingame series provides just that.
When I first went through V3, I was shocked like the masses at the aftermath of chapter one. It took a long time for me to pick myself up and continue, to pay attention to the story and realize "Oh yeah, there are still fourteen other characters to care about". That's the kind of thing you recover from slowly as you trudge through the rest of the game. Still, I managed to develop another favourite despite how foolish that is, as all my favourites to this point had died horribly in this series. I knew the moment I grew attached. the moment I liked a character that character was doomed. They were dead. They would cease to be in a pile of pepto bismol and misery. And I would continue to doom characters over and over again no matter what, despite its affect on my heart.
But Himiko Yumeno, the next character I latched onto had a guardian angel. A character who basically made sure that Himiko would not suffer the same fate as all the others I had grown to love. And just like Himiko, I too found this guardian angel a bit too... forward. Annoying, so to say. Creepy even. Stalkery. Tenko Chabashira. My first reaction, my liveblog (and I've liveblogged every game so far somehow o_o) I commented about Himiko's weird, unhealthy psychopath friends. I was mostly referring to Angie when I brought that up, but Tenko was part of that description for a long time too. I was so convinced Himiko would bite the dust that I never really paid attention to the small details, only vaguely the big picture with tunnel vision strictly stuck on Himiko. She was dead, I was convinced. This next victim would be her. A small redheaded child will be laying on the ground in a pool of blood soon, or she'd be the next murderer and be executed in spectacular and elaborate fashion. I was convinced.
But Tenko, Tenko made sure that was not to be.
It wasn't until Tenko died that I, like Himiko, finally realized how much she mattered, how great she was. It would not be a lie to say that I strongly relate to Himiko. Himiko hits all three bullet points of being an excellent character Spotto would no doubt love. She was adorable, quotable, and relatable. Thankfully she wasn't particularly useful during trials or especially plot relevant near the end or else she'd be a mary-sue. She was hitting all the marks. But yes, these types of characters like Himiko traditionally were most in danger by the time chapter three rolled around. I was dreading Himiko's death. She was getting more and more relevant to the current chapter, and no doubt she'd croak and I had doomed her once more.
But Tenko. Tenko was there.
The moment Tenko introduced herself she launched into a foray of how much girls were great and men were terrible, evil beings that all had to die. A tad extreme. Well, okay not just a 'tad', but that kind of excessive hatred was a bit jarring and irritating over time. Then she had her little fussy obsession with Himiko. The slow, young sleepy girl was somehow the girl of Tenko's dreams. I still find that endlessly amusing and maybe even realistic. Normally when someone mentions the person of their dreams, it's an image of someone absolutely perfect, a person so beautiful and charismatic it wasn't possible for such a person to exist, yet Tenko's ideal girl was... Himiko. Yes, Himiko, a character Kokichi called ugly more than once (though he's quite the liar so who knows) and someone Miu insulted more than once (but Miu insults everyone, so.... both these characters' opinions MUST be taken with a grain of salt) yet Tenko sees Himiko as... perfect.
At first this seemed like a very superficial shallow kind of crush that Tenko had. Similar to Souda's one-sided love for Sonia in SDR2, I assumed like Souda, Tenko only cared for Himiko's very adorable appearance and very little else. And yes while it was rather apparent that she was smitten with Himiko's cute looks, over time Tenko began caring about Himiko beyond her surface. She tried to give Himiko drive. She tried to improve Himiko as a person. She could read Himiko, and realize that Himiko was hiding her emotions, was keeping herself locked within, and was coping with the killing game rather poorly, using escapism as a measure to ignore reality. When Tenko was concerned about these aspects of Himiko, it was clear then that Tenko had fallen for Himiko beyond just as a girl who was pretty, but for Himiko's virtues AND faults. Unlike so many other crushes portrayed in the media, Tenko's crush had actual substance. She wasn't just pining for Himiko for selfish reasons, but also FOR Himiko as well! She cared about Himiko as a person, and even though she held her on a pedestal for a good chunk of the beginning of the game, she eventually came to become the most supportive person possible to Himiko, the kind of person, the exact kind of friend you would want in a killing game.
And then she died.
Because it's Danganronpa and we can't have nice things.
Now this might seem like an all give and all take kind of relationship. It does seem pretty clearly that Tenko was ALL give to Himiko, and Himiko provided very little back. But I think what I really love about this ship is how both characters start off clearly flawed, one too lazy and too uncaring to bother doing anything, and one too overexcited and energetic to stop bothering others. Tenko did slowly improve over time in terms of her overly forward attitude. When she infiltrated the cult for instance, instead of just impulsively running up trying to drag Himiko out by force like her martial art of choice seems to encourage, she instead lays low and keeps watch to make sure Himiko is doing alright. It is only when it seems nothing else can be done that Tenko outright tries to shake Himiko out of her stupor, to get her to stop being brainwashed. This seems like a stark contrast to the sputtering Tenko of chapter one who can't keep her mouth shut about her fantasies with Himiko or her assumptions of how Himiko is feeling, and in return Himiko is now willingly hanging out with Tenko! And as much as Himiko is the character I love the most in this game, I can't help but be most intrigued with Tenko's backstory and how she came to be.
Tenko apparently used to be a very rowdy child, I think even angry. (I don't remember exactly, so this could be wrong) so she was tossed into a temple to calm this side of her personality down. Even though Tenko is still quite emotive, this is apparently the most stable she's ever been in her life, so that Aikido must be doing something. She then has one SINGLE line in the entire game, a throwaway line you might not even pay attention to in the trials (that was somewhat mistranslated from the original Japanese) about the ramblings of a drunk father. Of course not knowing Japanese I can't confirm this, but some people have said the localization for whatever reason changed Tenko's words of "my drunk father" to "a drunk father" leaving it ambiguous in the dub if she's just referring to drunken people in general or a personal experience. This line is so important because Tenko's FTEs don't really reveal much about her family life, and only reveal that her master is a troll and Tenko is a gullible idiot who does whatever master says even if he's clearly bullshitting. I mean it's an amusing explanation for her misandry but I find the stereotypical angsty version a little more sympathetic. If you combine them both it gives Tenko even more depth.
In contrast while Himiko's FTEs revealed a great deal about her own master and her superiority inferiority complex, it didn't really give much information as to why Himiko was... Himiko. Maybe there's something I'm missing. Still the game itself does well to give Himiko development, and since I had to pick apart random lines and Tenko's FTEs to find anything due to Tenko's tragically shortened life, it makes sense how everything went down.
If there's anything about this game and Danganronpa in general I do have a bit of a tiff with, it's how they deal with LGBT characters. Yes most characters DO die, but any time a character shows interest in the same gender they usually die, and the subject of their interest usually lives. And it's always up to interpretation whether or not the living character had interest in return, like an obviously gay character isn't allowed to live or something. While I am glad Tenmiko is like, at least half-canon I can't one hundred percent say it's ENTIRELY canon since Himiko's feelings in return, though are at least at friendship levels and SUPER REGRET levels I cannot with certainty say are at romantic levels. Sure Himiko has expressed interest in men, but she ALSO has the bisexual haircut! And she MIGHT reciprocate her feelings to Tenko! She always mentions Tenko, and if she does mention Angie Tenko's name is always first, and if Kaito or Kaede is brought up, Himiko brings up Tenko too when the other two are obvious lost loves of the other survivors. But I still can't find anything concrete to back it up. It's all just implied or interpretation. I would love nothing more than even a SIDE thing confirming how Himiko felt, but until that comes out or happens I just can't say for sure. ):
I was THIS close to a canon FxF pair too. LET MY TOKEN LESBIANS BE CANON! I say token because just like with SDR2 and Komaeda it seems like 75% of all artwork I find of V3 is Kokichixsomebody. Yes, I also like Kokichi but I don't like him enough to be 75% of my V3 content, especially when I'm so attached to these token lesbians. At least the official anthology that is approved by the creators has some nice Tenmiko content where even Himiko seems to like Tenko back, but it's not CANON TO THE SERIES so I still can't say with ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY!! Ah well, still the most official anything I've ever shipped has ever been, so that's something. And Danganronpa also provided me with IBUKI, the CANON BI/ACE/NOT!STRAIGHT AT LEAST character who also happens to be my favourite and that very fact makes me all the more overjoyed that Ibuki exists. There are more than a handful of confirmed LGBT characters in the Danganronpa franchise, so I'm happy they're fine with making them all canon and such.
BUT MAYBE STOP MAKING THEM ALL TRAGICALLY GAY. I mean there was Teruteru who was bi, but he expressed his sexual orientation very openly and inappropriately, and also died. Then Mahiru probably had that gay friend Sato but she also became a lesbian murderer... and then there was Mikan who loved Junko but because Junko is ultimate despair Mikan is clearly fucked in the head... and also became a murderer... and then there was Juzo with his one-sided crush on Munakata, but he did lots of shitty things and died a tragic and heroic third wheel whose feelings would never be returned not only because Munakata was officially with Chisa but because Munakata fucking stabbed him, and then we have Tenko... WHY. WHY DANGANRONPA. LET AT LEAST ONE LIVE!!!
This isn't even getting to like, Komaeda and Kokichi and their implied feelings. WHO KNOWS. THEY DIED ANYWAY, SO WHATEVER.
But if you CONFIRM IT on Himiko there will AT LEAST BE ONE, and I will be satisfied with ONE. That's how low my expectations are. I don't think Shuichi counts because all his non-straight interactions are in bonus side games and were never relevant to the plot, which kind of sucks. It's great it exists though and probably does mean he's bi, but it's not shown whatsoever in the main story that he has attraction to men at any point. Maybe Kaito? idk
It's still better than literally every other media I've consumed that's all about queerbaiting but not actually having a single queer character or maybe it's GUEST CHARACTER OF THE DAY WHO IS GAY, or IRRELEVANT MINOR CHARACTER IS GAY or whatever. Nooo, never an IMPORTANT character or anything... >_>
I dunno if the Ultra Despair Girls count because nothing is outright mentioned or whatever. It could still be interpreted as a beautiful friendship, and because of how hetero-normative society is, unless it's spelled OUTRIGHT for the audience and SMASHED into their faces, the majority will never adopt a common belief that so-and-so character is not straight. IMPOSSIBIRU they'd say. Straight is the DEFAULT, they'd think. Blah. BLAH TO THEM!
Anyway I dunno why I needed so much text to spell out Tenko is the dog to Himiko's cat and I love dog/cat ships. At least I finally ship something in Danganronpa. I finally have an OTP. An OTP I can be proud of. YAY!