Nagisa Shiota is a character that is mischaracterised so horribly that it makes me sick to my stomach.
Nagisa is not a femboy, nor is he a helpless damsel in distress, but I’ll get to that later. Throughout the show, we see how uncomfortable he is with his femininity, and how he doesn’t like when he’s forced into cross dressing by his class (SOMETHING THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE DONE). We as a fandom looked at a character who has been abused physically and mentally for not being feminine enough and who struggles with his masculinity, and decided to emasculate him even more, not considering the fact that all he wanted was to be seen as “more of a man” no matter how absurd that is when we truly think about how insignificant gender is in the bigger picture and how much it matters. We really went “Hmm.. this character doesn’t want to be seen as feminine and wants to be perceived as masculine.. HES A FEMBOY!”
And I’m not saying that wearing a dress makes you less of a man if that’s what someone takes away from that, all clothing is gender neutral and yall can fight me on that, what I’m talking about is that Nagisa perceives “feminine” clothing as threatening to his masculinity, something he already thinks he lacks, so forcing him into a dress or a skirt is harmful to him when it happens in the show, and it’s also not an accurate depiction of his character when it’s done by the fandom.
Now, moving on to the “damsel in distress” situation, there’s nothing wrong with being a damsel, neither is there something wrong with being in distress, but Nagisa isn’t either of those(at least not simultaneously). I think what we collectively tend to forget is that he is a competent fighter, just as everyone in 3-E is, but not only that, he’s a competent assassin, the best one the class has.
I hate when I see people writing him as weaker or worse than Karma (especially in Karmagisa fics) because if there’s anything the show should have taught us; its that they’re equal, that’s what their whole fight was about. Everyone in 3-E is the best as something, they are a Jack of All Trades, but they are also a master of one or two of them, Nagisa is the best at kissing and killing, and if I see someone make him out to be as unable to beat Karma in an Assasination training exercise of wtv I will start throwing hands.
MY CHILD IS NOT INCOMPETENT.
Let’s also not forget that he’s not an idiot and neither is a bad analysis, that’s kinda his whole shtick, being able to analyse and then build a solid and good plan off of his observations.
I would also like to point out that he’s a teenager who was able to creep up to a trained assassin, touch her, leave, and go unnoticed, and mind you, NO ONE else in 3-E is able to do that or get close to doing that.
Nagisa is sneaky, observant, smart, adaptive, and strong.
I should also probably mention that he canonically can match Karmas bloodlust, which was implied to be the strongest in the class, but something he can do which Karmas can’t; is control that bloodlust and hide it, which gives him another point of advantage as an assassin.
Not to mention, during both fights with Takaoka, he has surprised his mentors with how adaptive and capable he was, he took down a military officer with years of experience behind his back twice, once without having the element of surprise on his side, he did that with pure skill and talent, using a move that he wasn’t able to practice before using and he pulled it off effortlessly. Nagisa is a freaking killing machine, and he was the most capable in his class when the talk got to killing, he could have become the third Reaper if that’s what he wanted to do with his life, and that’s a career choice that was presented to him by his teachers, something that didn’t happen to other kids in 3-E.
I think we keep on forgetting that he is a traumatised teenager with the potential to become a killing machine who kicks ass on the daily, he isn’t a femboy or a damsel in distress, he is more than a love interest or a pretty face.
