Okay wow, I was meaning to come back to this post since I saw it and now I've submitted my last assignment for the week and I have time so HERE WE GO!
Akashi/Mibuchi, platonically or romantically, is CRIMINALLY underrated and under-discussed and I don't know why. Like you said, it is literally the only queer ship where it is canon that one person likes the other, but there's so much more to their dynamic that I feel like I need to talk about before I explode.
First up, let's talk about the nickname "Sei-chan". There are so many layers to this nickname. In both the manga and the anime, Akashi is portrayed as this final boss character, very godlike and untouchable. So, for someone like Mibuchi to call him something as cute as "Sei-chan" seems insane.
Akashi had a couple nicknames in Teiko like "Akashicchi" and "Aka-chin" (brought to you by Kise and Murasakibara, respectively), but 1) those were nicknames given out to all the miracles + Kuroko and Momoi, so Akashi wasn't a special case. 2) both nicknames used his family name, Akashi. There is still a level of formality that both of them keep by doing that. 3) both of those nicknames were given to Akashi before he switched personalities.
Fast-forward to high school, Akashi has long switched to his other personality which is known to be colder and more tyrannical. And yet, despite all of that, Mibuchi met Akashi for the first time and was basically like "Yeah, that looks like a Sei-chan to me." Mibuchi sped-ran through all the levels of formality and went straight to closeness by using Akashi's given name, Seijuro. Mind you, Midorima, the miracle Akashi has gone on record saying he gets along with the most, calls him "Akashi". Even Momoi, a.k.a. the queen of giving the cutest nicknames to all the miracles, simply addresses Akashi as "Akashi-kun". None of Akashi's friends had ever used his given name until Mibuchi came along. And, honestly, Mibuchi is kind of iconic for that.
And, for someone as high and mighty as Akashi seemed to be, you'd think that he wouldn't stand for such a cutesy nickname. But Akashi has zero problem with it. He is supremely unbothered by the fact that this person who he just met is not only calling him by his given name but tacking on the -chan suffix, something Mibuchi doesn't do for anyone else on the team but Akashi. Say it with me now: SPECIAL 👏🏿 TREATMENT 👏🏿.
Moving past my unnecessarily long rant about Akashi's nickname, if you pay attention during the anime/manga, you'll notice that Mibuchi is the one who accompanies Akashi to most places. For example, Mibuchi and Akashi work out together.
And (even though this is a special episode that is full of 4th wall breaks) Mibuchi accompanied Akashi to Maji Burger in the 3rd KNB fan disc. Keep in mind that both Mibuchi and Akashi go to school in Kyoto, which means Mibuchi braved a 4 or 5-hour round trip just to see Akashi meet up with and chat with his friends from Teiko.
Speaking of that fan disc, the part that barely anyone talks about but is so integral to MibuAka potentially being a ship that has a two-way attraction, this part where they're discussing Valentine's Day chocolates and Mibuchi straight-up asks Akashi if he would accept chocolates if he made them.
And what does Akashi say in response to this???
"Yes, of course. I'm looking forward to it." HELLOOOOOOOOOO
And Akashi is not stupid or oblivious. In the Replace Plus chapters, he tells Nijimura that he already knew about Momoi liking Kuroko, and it's Midorima who is shown to be the oblivious one out of all the miracles.
And you can argue that of course he knew because Momoi was being obvious about it with her behavior, but I would argue that Mibuchi is also not very subtle either. Calling Akashi (and only Akashi) by a pet name, accompanying Akashi to all these places even when he doesn't have to, and on top of that, wanting to make Akashi Valentine's Day chocolates after hearing that Momoi also wanted to make Kuroko Valentine's Day chocolates? Yeahhhhh Mibuchi you're not fooling anyone with that, I'm sawry.
Akashi is incredibly observant and it's a running joke in the anime/manga that he practically reads other people's minds because he seems to always know what other people are thinking. There's just no way he's not aware of the optics of a boy giving another boy homemade chocolates on Valentine's Day. Let's not be silly here! Akashi knows exactly what Mibuchi is doing with that gesture and he's perfectly okay with it and even encourages Mibuchi to do it!
And even if Akashi is somehow not romantically attracted to Mibuchi, it doesn't change the fact that Akashi is still very much Mibuchi's baby. Case in point:
I don't even think I need to explain this photo. Look at how excited Mibuchi is to make sweets for Akashi, although poor Akashi is probably sitting there wondering how on earth he's supposed to eat all of this. (As a side note, I will never get over how adorable Akashi's face is in this photo. His owlish expression is so precious and makes him look like a middle-schooler again. 🥺)
Also in the Zero Step video, remember when Rakuzan went to a photo booth to take pics together? Notice how Mibuchi is the only one actually touching Akashi. If you watch the clip in full, Akashi even leans into Mibuchi a little. Mibuchi deffo has some sort of privileges that the rest of the team doesn't. The only person who ever got close to Akashi like that is Nijimura, but I'll explore the NijiAka dynamic another time.
But yeah, you can see Mibuchi likes going out of his way for Akashi, taking care of him, fussing over him, and worrying about him in general. Like in the KNB drama CD season 3 vol 9 and also in the Replace Plus novels, when Mibuchi thinks that the other two Uncrowned Kings are bothering Akashi too much, he'll scold them for doing so. It's giving "Don't worry your pretty little head over it, I'll handle it".
*looks at notes* okay, I think I've said enough, so I'll just wrap up this post with some final words. I really love the Akashi/Mibuchi dynamic. Even if it ends up being one-sided attraction/infatuation, their interactions with each other are still super wholesome. Honestly, I would have liked to see more of that in the anime/manga because with all the responsibilities Akashi has to shoulder, it's good he can have someone to lean on when it gets too much. Mibuchi kinda functions like Nijimura in that sense (before he made Akashi captain, that is). But at the same time, it's also different. There's this nurturing side of Mibuchi, and Akashi just brings it out of him. And the reason why Akashi doesn't push him away is because, deep down, he needs someone like Mibuchi in his life.
So many people saw Akashi as unapproachable, and yet, Mibuchi didn't care about all that. To him, Sei-chan is Sei-chan and nothing will change that. But yeah, I have said all I can, so imma just leave it there.
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