It drives me kind of nuts that the popular reception of these two is ‘they used to be lesbians and now they’re an mlm couple’ because that’s so exactly NOT what is going on. Word of God says they’d planned to become a heterosexual couple initially but miscommunicated and both became men - this is crucial because the Anubituf and Guragief we see in the series are NOT dating.
Simoun is very clear that couples who wish to remain together into adulthood should have one of them become a woman and one of them a man ‘for each other’. Heteronormativity is rampant in Simoun universe exactly because of the gender-choosing process!! Gender roles are MORE defined due to it!
Anubituf and Guragief broke up due to this pressure.
We see it in their eye-catchers. They’re close and romantic as sybilllae, distant and conflicted as adults. We see it ON THE SHOW. Their kiss is not an act of established relationship. Their kiss is Anubituf making a transgression because deep down he has not given up on his feelings for Guragief, who has accepted the norm and confoms to it. That’s why Guragief’s reaction to the kiss is stunned surprise, that’s why Anubituf is so melancholy here.
These characters are an exploration of how much the world of Simoun is NOT an LGBT paradise and it’s tremendously important to the worldbuilding.
