Hi Lunar I'm curious what you think
In canon Danganronpa, do you ever think there was even some sort of reciprocated feelings from Shuichi's side towards Kokichi? (hypothetically if he truly did have a crush on the detective, in this argument I will consider it true), or was it very much one-sided on Kokichi's side?
It's been a while since I've played DRV3 all the way through so forgive me, but I am... not the best at genuinely gauging character's relationships ^^" I'm the type of person who didn't catch on to Maki's feelings for Kaito early game. I didnt catch on to KAEDE AND SHUICHIS feelings for each other T_T i only realized they liked each other when maki confessed (which had be extremely confused) and when I looked into the fandom and realized huh. hey wait is that how best friends act to each other.?
tldr im not very bright when it comes to romance @w@;...
That being said, when considering this I'm going to exclude the dating events during Salmon Mode and the love hotels since i think those are meant to be romantic (though i have a LOT to say about kokichis love hotel, i think it's one of the most truthful and telling parts about him we see ingame)
So with all that in mind: I dont think Shuichi reciprocated Kokichis feelings ingame . qwq
I enjoy them a lot as a ship and whenever shuichi says some gay shit like this
i'll laugh at him a Lot (and i have a lot to say about shuichi being a bisexual wreck but thats for another lunarleonardo medicore overanalyze session). But no, I dont think Shuichi felt the same way. I do think that Kokichi did have a bit of a crush on Shuichi-- looking past the english localization fuckups and also the many instances of him straight up just going Im in love with you (something i also missed on my first playthrough. @_@.) But on the other end, yeah I dont think there was much on Shuichis side
I am the unrequited love trope's #1 hater of all time dont get me wrong, but i also like to think I have at least decent media literacy. Aside from Kaede, Shuichi never really showed romantic interest towards anyo-- what was that
anyways as i was saying I think it's hard to tell what Shuichi felt towards him. Because of the role Kokichi put himself into during the killing game and Shuichi's very recent trauma of watching the first girl to be nice to him in 12 years(/j) being brutally murdered in front of him after using his plan to kill someone else, it's a little difficult to discern what they could've had. Ingame, during the time that Kokichi isn't leaning into an antagonistic role, I think Shuichi was interested in him, but not romantically. He just wanted to know what this guys deal was
Now thats not to say I dont think it couldve grown into something romantic!! I think if Shuichi was allowed to indulge in his intrigue and if Kokichi wasn't becoming the most paranoid person in the game, there could have been sparks between them. From what we saw, they had a good dynamic, and we can see how fun and smart Kokichi finds Shuichi, and how interesting and fascinating Shuichi finds Kokichi. They could have been good friends and more, if just really weird ones. but lets be honest no one in that game is normal so you just kinda have to accept it ( ´-ω-)
They're like magnets, I think. They attract each other a little from a distance, but if they were pushed closer together, they'd connect ^.^