what's different about Hatano, part 3
This really took a while to get out—sorry for the wait, y'all. Part 1 is here and part 2 is here. Part 4 will follow very soon is here.
All gifs are by the inimitable @my-rose-tinted-glasses. Thank you, Rose!
I wrote in part 1 about how Hatano cuts to the chase and immediately confesses to Mob, cutting out the usual preliminaries that Mob uses as warning signs that show he needs to escape a situation. In part 2, I talked about how Hatano sometimes seems to have some awareness of the side of Mob that directly addresses the audience and describes his experiences via voiceover. I also talked about the significance of Mob’s relationship with the audience and how Hatano relates to that.
There are some other big ways in which Hatano differs from other people who have pursued Mob. First, a couple of short but crucial ones.
This is related to my part 1 thing about how Hatano isn’t fucking around. Not only does he come out guns blazing right away, but he keeps at it. Lots of dudes make some kind of play for Mob, but no matter how tricky it is to evade the flags they raise, if he does so, that’s it. They’re done.
I will hand it to Kikuchi, he also hangs in there pretty well. He does tend to back off fairly readily. The time when he did the best job of roping Mob in was actually when he wrote him a goodbye letter because he was backing off so much he was moving to another country, and I don’t believe for a second that it was a ploy given how surprised he was to see Mob at the airport. So he definitely has that backing off tendency, but so far he has eventually come back every time. He’s intermittently persistent.
Hatano just keeps coming back, relentlessly. He’s like the Terminator of BL boys. He does make one big backing off gesture when he says he wants to (temporarily) rescind his confession and promises to come back in three years and make it again as an adult. But after only three weeks, he’s shooting a BL at the university Mob attends and seeking him out after seeing his name on the call sheet. (It’s interesting, actually–we may not know Mob’s name, but apparently Hatano does.)
There are even more examples of this in the manga, such as the time Mob had a "jumpscare" encounter with Hatano at a restaurant.
But there’s one respect in which Hatano really wins first prize in the sticking with Mob category. Hatano sets his sights on Mob in season 3 and doesn’t let up. But his devotion goes back much further than that. He has liked Mob for eight years, since he was only nine years old, and never forgot him. You can’t write off that kind of dedication.
It might seem contradictory given the way he keeps coming for Mob, but another helpful habit Hatano has is running away. Specifically, running away after making some kind of overture toward Mob. He does it after his first confession and he does it after his “three years” declaration. Both times, he robs Mob of a chance to try to put him off. You could even argue that his swift exit after Kikuchi shows up in the season 3 finale is a variation on the same strategy.
It makes sense when you think about it. Mob spends a lot of time in his voiceovers asking “What do I do?” or some variation thereof. It’s a standard part of the show’s, and the manga’s, formula. A story trap appears, Mob panics, but then he has an idea and is able to evade it. So an obvious strategy for a pursuer would be to create a story trap, then hightail it out of there before Mob has some kind of brainstorm. Of course, not all story traps are effective if you don’t remain in Mob’s presence. But Hatano uses methods that continue to matter even after he skedaddles.
Now for a difference that's a smidge more complex.
The age gap between Mob and Hatano creates specific, complex challenges that Mob can’t evade as easily as he does other flags.
When it comes to the age gap between Mob and Hatano, there’s a bit of seemingly good news for Mob: the age gap serves to keep him and Hatano apart, at least for a time. Of course, this is of dubious benefit since it simply puts off the day of reckoning instead of canceling it. And the fact that nothing is supposed to happen in the present anyway actually makes it more difficult for Mob to counteract the forces pulling them closer. Hatano isn’t waiting for an answer from Mob about how he feels because he can’t act on his feelings for Mob anytime soon regardless. So that eliminates opportunities for Mob to reject him.
At the same time, as Mob recognizes immediately after Hatano first confesses to him, there’s no relationship he can have with a teenage boy that won’t seem to implicate him in some degree of inappropriate closeness or have the potential to be interpreted by Hatano as encouragement. This rules out, as Mob notes, doing something to get Hatano to hate him. It rules out anything else that would involve initiating contact, too, so he doesn't pursue any strategies in that vein.
But it isn’t entirely up to Mob. Hatano keeps putting him in the position of talking with him alone, which sometimes creates the impression they’re acquainted in the eyes of others (like when Ayato sees them together when Hatano confesses and asks Mob where he knows Hatano from) and potentially in Hatano’s eyes as well. In the end, even if he tries to keep his contact with Hatano to a minimum, he can’t seem to avoid being implicated in some kind of relationship or potential relationship. Meanwhile, Hatano’s attempt to wait for Mob rules out most opportunities to reject him and just leaves the prospect hanging over Mob's head.
This particular age gap factor (one in which the other party is too young for Mob) is one that Hatano doesn’t seem to share with any of the other Bs who’ve tried to L Mob. But that could change at any time. Just because he’s the first to pose a real challenge to Mob in that way doesn’t mean he'll be the last. But Hatano has other things up his sleeve that can help him compete with any rivals his age. In other words, he combines his age gap advantage with other unique attributes.
Which I'll talk about in part 4, which really will be up soon which is here.
Looking for a fansub for Zettai BL 3? Check out this masterpost by @ikeoji-subs.
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