Ao No Exorcist: Rin and Izumo
With the new season of Ao no Exorcist out, I will say this because I have been thinking this over for months. I ship Rin and Izumo. It is probably the most obscure ship in the fandom since only manga readers knows how this came to be. I do ship Rin and Shiemi. It’s a very cute ship. However, although Rin and Izumo will probably never become canon, I will say that they are much more suited to each other than Rin and Shiemi. Of course this is just my own opinion. This will contain spoilers for non manga readers.
Most people simply do not understand Rin. Sadly, one of the people who understands Rin the least is Yukio himself. And several people are terrified of Rin. After the Amaimon incident, Rin is ostracized by everyone, even Shiemi, for various reasons. But Izumo just plops down in the seat next to Rin and puts all of his fears to rest. She tells him that she’s not afraid of him. He’s not the only person who’s the descendent of a demon. He’s not alone. She stands up for him and is ready to call others who avoid him fake friends and cowards to their faces. She cares and is a firm support for Rin who often pretends and behaves like he doesn’t need it.
Rin helped Izumo out once and since then, although she is the perfect tsundere, has been being kind to him in her own way.,Coming from Izumo, I feel is a big thing. I applaud Izumo and Shima in the Impure King arc the most. They were able to put aside the fact that Rin was Satan’s son and realize he was just their good old goofy friend. I believe, without this pep talk from Izumo, Rin wouldn’t have been able to stay strong and pick himself up the way that he did. So far in the manga, this has been my second favorite scene.
Shiemi is a wonderful girl and when she does learn what love is, I’m sure she’ll be fabulous with Rin. But…she will never understand the darkness Rin has experienced. A darkness, Izumo knows all too well. I believe, if Rin and Izumo could be together, they would be able to work together to pull the darkness out of each other.
When In the Izumo arc, Izumo asks for help, I was in awe of the look Rin had when he heard it. No doubt this was because Izumo never asked for help before and more like refused help. But why I find this scene so important is because, although Rin had been refusing to destroy the zombies because they were people, even though the zombies had hurt others, he burnt through all of them to reach Izumo after hearing her plea, deciding, there was no other way to save those zombies. It’s as if, Izumo keeps him grounded ans help him understand things about himself and his own beliefs in ways others can’t. Shiemi might be the girl he likes and could probably make him really happy, but a girl like Izumo would really compliment and suit Rin.
The way he stands in front of her absolutely infuriated about the way she has been hurt makes me sigh in happiness. This is my first favorite scene in the manga. And when he says:
Aside from the fact that fire is spewing from his mouth, what he says is pricelesx. It gives me the feeling he implies (although he probably doesn’t cause he isn’t really smart, but hey, Rin is pretty insightful sometimes) that no one has seen that Izumo has always been crying. She was always crying and lonely and she desperately wanted help. Understanding that the other person is hurting or having difficulties in a relationship is important, especially if like Izumo they don’t speak much. I would know…
Rin’s father died protecting him, Izumo’s mother died protecting her. This isn’t a very nice parallel, but the pain and guilt Rin once suffered alone with no one to understand him - not even Yukio - could become a hundred times lighter if he and Izumo tried to elp each other out. Of course, this could have opposite effects. It’s not a very pleasant thing to talk about so I’ll move on.
By reading her actions in the manga, I think Izumo already has a crush on Rin. But seeing how smoothly she handled Rin confessing to Shiemi made me think again. I think she might have a crush on him and not know anything yet.
If we go with the ‘They fill in each others empty spaces’ idea with a couple, Rin and Izumo match a lot. I also like the idea of Rin having a strong girl partner. Not that Shiemi isn’t strong. She’s very strong…just a soft person. I’m not one of those Shiemi haters, I infact like her to a certain extent, but I definitely ship Rin and Izumo more.
