I have been down the Polcasan rabbit hole and one thing that really sells the whole this-is-Tay-and-New's-child is that the boys are constantly petting and hugging Polcasan when they are around him. they genuinely treat San as their kid. it's so obvious they adore their baby and let us and San know that. also San knows a lot about Tay and New and their habits and talks like they are actually raising him. In an interview with just San today, he talked about how PhorPhor New is the one to take him to school because Papa Tay sleeps in and New is an early riser. Like that is such good world building and props to the actor for knowing their character and knowing stuff about their "dads". I do wonder how that works behind the scenes. Like does the actor just watch a lot of TayNew stuff or have they had a conversation with them about their lives and what it would look like if they were actually raising this mascot? Either way the actor better be getting paid very well because they deserve it.
not fkt related but tawan posting that photo of his child squashed against the glass door is peak parenthood and yk actually now i think of khaotung calling yuzumumu a gas tank so...
Look at the adorable squashed face hehehe
Say what you want about GMMTV mascots, but this whole thing is a marketing genius. Polcasan is so popular that he is having his own fanmeet 😅 with Porpor and Papa.
And even with our beloved FKT, the banter between Mu and his Pa and Nood are just heartwarming (it holds true with other CPs as well! I see Avocean cheekily tweet he can now be naughty again cause Daddy Jimmy’s birthday is over!)
My personal opinion is that not every actor pairing should automatically get a live mascot they should actually only be assigned to people who are fully committed to getting weird with it. Yes I am talking about Tay and New.
Everyone adores San and sure it’s 50% because he’s adorable but I think the other 50% is that Tay and New are incapable of being normal about it.
They have entire cohesive storylines about how they parent. They’ve shared his birth story. They’ve shared the story of his conception. They talk about this guy constantly- even when he’s not there. They wear his merch. They discuss his inheritance. They physically can not stop petting him.
It all works because regardless of how weird the concept of live actor mascots may seem to some people, it pales in comparison to whatever bit Tay and New have going on at any given moment
From the moment a teddy bear with an orca showed up in Dark Blue Kiss, it was clear that TayNew were ready to turn any plushie or mascot into their child, their family —something born from both of them, just like their fandom.
Then came the drawings: they argued because they didn’t want him to look “too chubby,” Tay obsessing over the little details while New proudly gave him his name. When they finally got the plushie, they were just as involved: the hat had to be removable, there had to be different versions (with fins, with a fish…), everything carefully thought out. Tay would kiss and “feed” him like a real baby, while New couldn’t stop squishing him because just seeing that plushie gave him a full-on cuteness attack.
And then came the day they met Polcasan “alive.” Both of them screamed like proud parents, overjoyed at how cute, lively, and full of energy their “son” was. That’s when you realize why TayNew and Polcasan work so well —he matches their crazy energy perfectly.
Over time, they kept proving it. TayNew promoted their child, saved the fan-taken photos of him, spoke about him with pride, and even encouraged him to talk. At first Yaisan didn’t speak, but Tay and New teased him so much (classic them!) that he ended up chatting and becoming more active. And guess what? It worked. Total success.
That’s why they feel like the perfect family. Because even if it’s unusual, you can see something genuinely real in it. Sure, it’s a mascot costume. Yes, it’s technically a plushie. But Tay and New make it all so believable that they pull us into their fairy tale and make us believe every single story.
And here we are, part of this fairy tale written by TayNewSan. It works, and I’ll happily stick around to see how far it goes. Hopefully, it never ends.
Tay and Newwiee said they love Yaisan (Polcasan) for his endless energy, a bit clumsy like Tay but sweet and playful like New. To them, he’s their everything, their pride, their little world.
Incredibly messy list of reasons why Saiteru is real and why I ship them (with occasional examples)
(and a little fan art to draw the attention)
Disclaimer: I did not read the manga, I watched anime and then searched for examples in manga as in supreme source
A little introduction.
There's a two things about Saiki K. that I need to mention before I will try to prove that Saiki actually likes Teruhashi back.
First of all, hope we can all agree on that, Saiki as the protagonist is unreliable narrator. This comes both from a) the form of the series - the fact that we as viewers don't see things the way Saiki does (just like with his X-ray vision, he's unable to see Teruhashi's appearance, but we actually can - so he says she's not that special or pretty while we can appreciate her beauty) and b) his view of relationships he has. He can deny his friendship with Nendou, Kaido and others all he wants, but we, as viewers see in every episode that he loves them dearly. He can say all he wants about how he's not gonna solve other people problems, but he helps every time and so on.
An secondly (kinda follows the last statement) he is tsundere. Not even kinda tsundere - he's hereditary tsundere and takes this after his grandfather.
Those two points I based my proofs on establish one big thesis - we're not gonna get any real straight verbal confirmation from Saiki that he has any feelings towards anyone, especially Teruhashi. So instead we gonna do what shippers do best - thoroughly search for any indirect evidences that something in fact goes on between them.
This list is based purely on objective and subtle changes in Saiki's patterns of behaviour.
So here's reasons why Saiteru is in fact real in no particular order:
Mixer issue.
The thing going on between Saiki and Teruhashi changes after Mixer date (there's also a post here on the subject of how it changes everything which I do not intend to repeat). I just wanna say that there were a million of ways of how it could go with the basically same outcome. But no. From Saiki actually showing up at the mixer to control things like some sort of power broker to the very end of the issue there is:
Kusuo's irritation at those guys generally;
his mentioning that he knows Teruhashi's preferences (like, yeah, he reads people minds, duh, but how much exactly he had to read her mind to know her favourite song or joke? It's not something you think about all the time, you know);
appreciation of her thoughts about him;
smile;
admitting he would/does enjoy this;
and rock-paper-scissors. This just blows my shipper mind - he actually participated in gambling on Teruhashi and actually won the game on purpose just for the sake of it. Of course it played out as a joke, but guys, GUYS! He literally won Kokomi-chan! On purpose! He participated in something this ... morally questionable, even though if he felt indifferent about her he would'd just thought something like "she's not an object to gamble on her")
Saiki usually tries to ignore his friends inviting him to some special events (New Year eve or Kaido's secret base and so on) until it's absolutely rude to decline or there's a chance something will go wrong or his mom is nearby. But these few times Teruhashi didn't even ask him to go somewhere (milkshake incident, mixer) he avoided her asking him but still followed her around.
He did in fact say "of-fu". Out loud. While being completely silent all the time. No more comments (mic drop).
Cultural festival lottery.
This one is tricky and requires analysis. So there's actually two lotteries involving Teruhashi - first one to choose her group for Okinawa trip and second one is cultural festival committee members. Both lotteries is drawn by Teruhashi knowing she will draw Saiki with Kami-sama's help and Saiki knowing she's gonna succeed. But in the Okinawa lottery he overplays her and uses X-ray vision and telekinesis to change her draw.
And in the cultural festival committee member (which happens after mixer) he just...don't.
And it's not even about avoiding Teruhashi personally, this time it's about avoiding huge pain in the ass cultural festival committee member is. As for me, personally, crush or no crush, I would do everything to not have such responsibilities. And he just chooses not to do anything? Even though this time it would be worse than a trip in one group of six, it would require them actually working together, possibly with no one around.
Cultural festival issue #2. Saiki admitted that their superpowers work together perfectly and when combined they are in fact invincible. While doing something so trivial as school play.
Prior to that he worked together with his actual psi-team with some actual superpowers over something not so trivial (stopped train) and even though he admitted he wouldn't do that with such efficiency without them but he didn't say a word about their powers complementing each other, their working together this well or something like this - but he did say something this cheesy to Teruhashi, your usual perfect bishoujo.
Kusuo felt incredibly irritated when his brother bothered her (and kinda proud of her when he paid him back with her powers). Saiki from first chapters would've just use the crowd to teleport (like he actually did with Teruhashi when he didn't say "of-fu" for the first time) and left those two alone. Also, do you see it here? Saiki, you're being a little bit hypocritical, don't you?
He stops avoiding her or plotting so that she fall out of love with him after mixer issue.
He's incredibly annoyed at her brother but still deals with him instead of just disappearing out of his sight (especially birthday present episode).
I don't actually think that issue with her overwhelming herself fits here. He would do the same for Kaido or anybody of his friends. He's irritated at guys but it kinda rational reaction for him about the cause of someone's suffering. He kinda opposes himself and them, but he has a god complex, he always does this.
He constantly complements her after mixer. Constantly. It's basically praises to her whether they are working together and he complements her superpowers, or he helps her with press club and compliments her anti-stalker skills or her overwhelming herself just to maintain her perfect bishoujo image and he compliments her dedication.
He actually thought that she's pretty at the end of the series. Legitimately. No other comments, just this. Okay, maybe also that I'm happy that he had a chance to look at her without his powers. But also it means that if he really did like her before this, which I think he did, he liked glowing skeleton/humonoid body of muscles. You know, perfect form of liking other person without knowing how they actually look.
Reasons why I personally ship them.
(Obviously) Kami-sama is on Teruhashi's side. No matter what. Like come on guys. Its inevitable at this point. Even Saiki stopped resisting.
Teruhashi feels super comfortable with Saiki's friends - as opposed to literally every other guy in their school when she has to overwhelm herself just to talk to them. On contrary, Nendou, Kaido and Kurosaki usually have no problem hanging out with Teruhashi. Like yeah, they blush sometimes and act like she is blessing them with her presence, but they do not put the same kind of pressure that everybody else does.
They both have super weird (pervert) elder brothers they suffer from.
He sees all her imperfect thoughts and feelings and still choses to respect Teruhashi for both her good qualities and her flaws. (But guys, actually, how great this trope is? Someone knows all your dirtн secrets and bad thoughts and still chooses not only to love you (not talking about Saiki, cause it's debatable, even though I do think he loves her back, but generally speaking) but actually respects you for that?)
Saiki's almost omnipotent powers can't beat Teruhashi's powers of luck and ability to be loved by Kami-sama. And her powers are only powers in the show he has to reckon with constantly and that challenges him on multiple occasions. Not only that - he actually loses to her almost every time. Which is ironic, cause the only time Teruhashi did really lose against him in every possible way - it was the first time she appears in manga, when he didn't say of-fu and she eventually kinda fell in love with him.
This one goes a bit deeper then this post meant to be, but Teruhashi's life is actually terrible. She learned to enjoy it and to get the best out of the situation she's in, but that is truly a nightmare. Her brother is a pervert who is able to give her underwear as a present and wishes he could marry her. All of the boys literally block her way on regular basis. She has a fanclub who can approve or disapprove her social interactions (i don't think she pays much attention to them, but what if she knew they tried to tell her crush not to talk to her?). Press club is constantly after her, trying to take or photoshop embarassing fotos of her (borderline pornography). And every one of them sees her as an object. As a doll. A beautiful picture. So it's only consistent for her as a character to fall for guy who doesn't fall for her act and sees her as she is. It's beautiful. She needs that.
In conclusion (if someone will actually read to this point) I wanna say that for me the best ship is the ship that didn't happen but was implied. Especially with such complicated characters like Saiki K. It gives so much place to debate, to search for subtle evidences that there is some sort of affection or that there's not, to interpret facts and play with them, trying to understand authors intentions and finding some clues and hints...it's just so much more fun that established ships.
So I’ve come to the conclusion that to finally exorcise all of my SaiTeru thoughts, I need to ramble about just what makes them so good together (in my eyes).
This entire post is just my very own personal perspective, of course; so you can pretty much mentally attach an IMHO to everything.
I’ll be using panels from the manga to illustrate my thoughts as well as I can. So if you’re interested in these two, by all means, get ready for an image-heavy post! And link-heavy, too, because I’ll be trying to not repeat too much of the stuff I’ve already mentioned in my SaiTeru posts lol
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