Are Yuta and Reo aware of Sebaciel?
The phenomenon of Sebaciel is very hard to miss for anyone who knows the franchise at least a little.
Accordingly, both Furukawa and Reo were harassed about Sebaciel to the extent that the staff decided to screen every single fan-letter and message Reo would get from fans, because sending a child messages with sexual implications - implicit or explicit - is ILLEGAL.
Reo once shared in an interview that when he was scared to sleep alone while the Kuromyu troupe was touring the country, he would stay with Furukawa instead, because he would play games with him and tell him stories to ease the boy’s mind.
This innocent retelling of events however, got(’wilfully’, I dare say) entirely misconstrued by shippers, and what the child had supposedly told in confidence ended up biting him in his under-age behind. The shippers who sent the messages did not think about the implication of their actions; they used an innocent child, who deeply loves his new brother-figure, as their live vehicle for their own hedonistic fantasies.
The shipping put Furukawa in a very awkward if not dangerous position. As Sebastian’s actor, he had to be extra cautious of any interaction with Reo that ‘could be seen as shippable’. Gossip about celebrity is common in Japan too, and we all know that once something spreads, it will be impossible to stop it from spreading like wildfire. The phenomenon of Sebaciel threatened to poison Furukawa’s bond with Reo, because should any false rumours be spread, Furukawa could legally be thrown into prison on charge of paedophilia.
For Lycoris that Blazes the Earth, the makers finally made the decision to cut out the notorious/famous corset scene, because the implications of a real adult and a real child re-enacting the scene were just … no.
The dance duet scene in Tango on the Campania however was especially tricky, and Furukawa and Reo had to come up with a way to keep the implications to a minimum.
In the end Furukawa settled with making Sebastian approach his master clinically, then suddenly remember “oh right, smile, not smiling is rude to humans,” before resuming his stoic expression again.
Still, he knew this was not waterproof.
So more explicitly, Furukawa sacrificed his professionalism as a skilled Waltz dancer, and kept Reo at arm’s length - LITERALLY. Some dancers have pointed out that Sebastian should probably know about the intimate body contact required for proper Waltz, and called this arm’s-length Waltz inaccurate. But honestly, Furukawa has got nothing to prove as TOHO’s professional dancer - so accuracy be screwed.
Furukawa cannot say too much about Sebaciel, but in this interview he makes clear that he does not play Sebas as someone who is in love with his master.
There are endless discussions about the appropriateness of this phenomenon in fiction, and I do not wish to be hurled into this war. But when it comes to Furukawa and Reo, it is different; these two are an actual human man and an actual human child.
In a nutshell: Anyone who has or plans to, please do NOT write to or about actors of Sebastian and Ciel about Sebaciel.
Furukawa Yuta is a public figure known for his immense love for children and never having dated anyone. Any Sebaciel related rumours spread about him might really, HONESTLY, get him into jail for no valid reason!
More on canon stances about this phenomenon here and here.
