About Yukio, Rin and romance
Or simply my take on why Sensei started the series hinting at Yukio/Shiemi to end up focusing on Rin/Shiemi and possibly Yukio/Shura.
Disclaimer: Ship wars possibly being a thing, I just want to say that while this post is definitely subjective because it’s my opinion, I value canon above everything else and I hope that anyone who might disagree will at least not call me out on being biased, when I only care about interesting developments and no plot hole. x))
Also I caught up around ch34 which means I’ve been following this story monthly for about 6 years now and, if I’m writing this post, it’s because AnE is the only series for which my shipping list changed often, because of what I’m about to say regarding this part of Sensei’s writing.
Right so, starting with Yukio/Shiemi, I totally used to ship them because that’s what the story seemed to initially hint at, Rin being the outsider of the little trio since Yukio and Shiemi had known each other for years when Rin barely knew anything about himself or even his brother to begin with.
Besides, in Shiemi’s own words, she admired him for years and it always showed without a doubt…
…but Yukio’s continuous and unresolved issues are ultimately what doomed the ship, because he and Shiemi ended up growing apart while Rin slowly made his way closer to Shiemi. The trio dynamic isn’t gone mind you, but Rin/Shiemi is now the only possible outcome for it.
Going backwards, the reason the narrative would hint at Yukio/Shiemi from the beginning was rather simple: initially the whole theme to Yukio’s character is that he’s a little kid thrown into the adults’ world.
He is the youngest exorcist ever (low-key surprising development when Shiro hated what Asylum was about but ://), when Shiro died he became responsible for Rin and also a teacher because he’s skilled, then there was the Morinath contract because of Toudou, etc, which has him forced to act and be burdened like an adult when he’s barely 16 years old right now:
Meanwhile Shiemi was the only kid of his age who knew about what his life was like and could provide him with comfort and normal friendship, at least until he started teaching his brother and the other students who were of the same age.
So in that regard, it’s natural that Yukio and Shiemi ended up forging a strong bond, which led to Yukio holding tight onto the most normal part of his life considering how old he is and eventually getting a crush on Shiemi as a result:
However, between Rin’s arrival in the trio and, again, Yukio’s tendency to act alone when it comes to facing problems, it drove him against a wall as far as Shiemi is concerned. Honestly this ship had many occasions to sail, especially considering Yukio’s feelings and Shiemi’s huge admiration towards him…
when Rin was discovered to be Satan’s son, since even Shiemi was mad at him
or during the Kraken arc, because Rin endangered both Shiemi and Yukio by acting rashly
or just before Izumo’s arc, when Shiemi and Yukio spent a lot of time studying together and since Shiemi wanted to go to the dance party with him (in order to cheer him up, of course, but still)
…but unfortunately, Yukio never took the chance due to having a lot on his mind
which in return left room for more interactions between Rin and Shiemi (and Rin never hesitated to go head first and be frank, as we all know).
Finally, the fact that all this time Yukio believed Shiemi had a crush on Rin because he always saw himself as inferior to his older brother…
…is in my opinion what cemented the widening distance between him and Shiemi.
After all, considering that Rin and Shiemi were slowly growing closer, Yukio probably felt he had no other choice but to also directly put some distance with Shiemi in order not to feel too jealous or bitter about himself. He even said as much, by not referring to her as a friend but simply as a student of his:
However this time he was right. Not about Shiemi despising him, obviously she would never, but about needing someone who knows the “real him”.
The most interesting thing (and why I shipped them initially) is that Shiemi was the person who used to understand Yukio the most. Or perhaps, to be more accurate…
Shiemi admiring him for years at least gave Yukio the solace of mattering to someone until even that fully vanished in ch93. I always found interesting that Shiemi was the one he had gone to, crying about being all alone and having no friend when she was still there trying to help him, until the mention of Rin (Rin who’s “the better twin”, Rin who Shiemi is in love with) shattered even that.
Yukio used to be able to rely on Shiemi feeling admiration for him because it gave him self-confidence. Unfortunately as time passed -between the constant pressure on Yukio, Rin getting his own place into the dynamic when Yukio feels inferior to him and even Shiemi herself growing up through experiencing a lot- this ceased to be true and Yukio started to raise walls around himself.
And that, Shiemi herself noticed it way before ch93. For example in ch69…
and that’s why she tried her best to reach out to him as often as possible, even if that hardly worked for now.
When it comes to Yukio’s need to be understood and thus for someone to know “the real him”, once Shiemi was out way before ch93, only Rin and Shura were left to fit the criteria. And out of the two, well, Shura is older, has known Yukio ever since his training days and is generally better at realizing that he hasn’t been doing well since basically the very beginning of the story.
To quote from this post: “actually there was a time in AnE where Yukio was not full of angst (until he meets Toudou), or so you could think because the truth is that he was just better at hiding everything behind his smiles, but anyway it never fooled Shura then…
and it’s still not fooling her.”
So it’s really as Shiemi said: she was the first to be pushed away between her, Shura and Rin, even if Yukio came to her one last time in ch93 in hope to feel better about himself since Shiemi had admired him for so many years.
Then it was Rin who ended up realizing he didn’t understand his little brother anymore, leaving only Shura who couldn’t guess what was wrong exactly with Yukio, but whose interactions with him remained as they always were (until he discovered about Section 13, tried to kill himself, leading to his realization about Satan and his departure for Illuminati).
In conclusion, Yukio/Shiemi was slowly doomed in more ways than one despite being the most likely outcome at the beginning of the story and I really doubt we’ll ever go back to it being a possibility in the narrative. Not now that Rin/Shiemi is a thing but also that Shura finally moved on from Shiro and can make sure to keep her two eyes on Yukio.
(more about Yukio/Shura & Rin/Shiemi under the cut)
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