JSHK Analysis: Food as Sex in AidaIro's Art
Given the themes of sexual agency in JSHK, it's not surprising to see sex referenced by the art. Some of the most obvious ones are a few between Hanako and Nene:
As you can see, these are all dessert, so I initially thought dessert in particular represented sex. However, I couldn't find any AidaIro art of Mitsuba and Kou, another primary couple, sharing dessert. What I did find...
Was art of Mitsuba and Kou sharing Burgers and Fried Octopus Balls (takoyaki). In other words, you could say Mitsuba and Kou like sharing their meat with eachother...
ANYWAY. So the literal yaoi couple share meat with eachother, and the symbolic yuri couple share sweets with eachother. Let's confirm that those sweets also include the candy and fruit that are prevalent in the art:
Nene is wearing lollipops. Hanako is eating a lollipop. Hanako is eating Nene. You get it.
The orange Nene is kissing here straight up looks like a vulva. She's not even holding it right for it to be the lips from a face. Nothing more to say really.
So if sweets are pussy, what's with the ikimen juice stand? Sure, some of the ikimen might be butch lesbians, but I don't think all of them are, and juice is sweet so... oh, oh, I get it now. I think this one is best explained by the fact that I once saw a vibrator marketing itself as a juicer. You could say its a juicing stand.
Some miscellaneous supporting food art including Nene feeding the screen a cookie, Tsukasa looking at a sundae, Aoi and Nene serving cupcakes, Natsuhiko cheering on Sakura serving sweets, and Nene looking lovingly at candy the color of Hanako's eyes. It's always girls who are offering sweets, while others admire it.
While outside of the manga, food often references sex, I don't think that's true within the manga. Instead, some form of cannibalism is often sexualized. There's Hanako eating the mermaid scale, Mitsuba being forcefed, Hakubo eating Sumire. Sex being symbolized by cannibalism is likely because society demonizes sex for women, for queer people, for mixed race couples, especially if you were otherwise supposed to have a pure, sacrificial marriage to god.
If supernaturals represent impure, e.g. queer, people, and cannibalism represents sex, then in a society that views sex as something that taints you, having sex with an impure person turns you impure, or in other words, eating a supernatural turns you into a supernatural... which has pretty much been confirmed by the manga at this point. Maybe it has to be both the flesh and lifeblood, maybe there are even more steps, but it's definitely in line.
Now here are some rough pieces. Tsukasa and Yugi-sensei are both characters known to be affected by the entity, or pit god, that represents lack of sexual agency.
It's been implied several times in the manga that Tsukasa sexually assaulted Hanako, and this goes right along with that. Or, speaking the cannibalism-as-sex language the manga speaks, perhaps Tsukasa forcefed himself to Hanako, which could explain why it took time to get his body working at the beginning of the manga. I think there's also a possibility that Tsukasa represents Hanako's suppressed sexuality, though I don't think he's going to turn out to be like Shijima, because his literal story is also valuable to the themes: the more popular younger sibling with big emotions, both positive and negative, who never learned boundaries, including sexual. In any case, Tsukasa feeding Hanako cake he's clearly reluctant to eat is representative of this.
The bloody-looking dessert serving as a backdrop for Yugi-sensei leading Nene in a dance where she looks dead inside... certainly does a great job of representing lack of sexual agency.
Questions I haven't figured out to my satisfaction:
If cannibalism is sex, doesn't this mean Mitsuba's situation amounts to "fuck or die"?
This could represent sex work, needing to earn a living in order to survive, but that doesn't quite explain the hunger, does it? Sex addiction? Idk, I don't think I'm fully grasping the nuances of what's being symbolized here, feels like it's on the tip of my tongue... Hm, maybe Mitsuba has freaky kinks now and is ashamed? Ashamed of being attracted to Kou and other "pure" non-supernaturals like that. People who are sexually exploited often have that experience.
What's Mitsuba doing in the juice, penetrating fruit with his spear?
Well, maybe sex work, but his facial expression here doesn't seem to match his feelings about that situation. Maybe I'm being too particular about what foods represent what kinds of sex, but besides this the pattern seems very consistent... Comp-het?
P.S. Like I said, I don't think food represents sex within the manga, but this context makes it funny AF for Nene to always be getting cheered up by sweets, lmao. Also, Hanako shyly admitting he likes donuts... getting added to my queer analysis.
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