The take Mikey cheated on Renet needs to stop.
Y’all keep saying it’s completely out of character for Mikey to do that, and it is, but it’s not even something he does. Mikey and Renet never officially get together. Her agreeing to go out with Mikey “someday” isn’t the equivalent of “okay we’re dating now.” And even after that, in the next episode when Mikey asks her if they’ll ever see each other again, her response is legit, “Maybe someday.” And again that is not the equivalent “yes we are dating from this point forward.”
Agreeing to one date (with no real confirmation cuz “maybe someday” isn’t rlly a yes) does not equal dating.
While I definitely agree Mikey later having a crush on Shinigami was dumb and rlly useless, it’s not cheating, like at all. Teenagers go through multiple crushes. It happens. Also, Renet is from the future, her having a relationship with Mikey isn’t rlly practical when you really think about it. Don’t get me wrong, I love Mikey and Renet’s dynamic but I also don’t see a real scenario of them being able to date because of the future aspect of Renet’s character, I’m pretty sure that would mess up the flow of the timeline, but that isn’t my point. My point is that it’s possible Mikey looked at Shini as a more practical chance and that’s part of why he yearns after her. That’s all speculation though because the show never gives an actual in canon reason for Mikey having feelings for Shini despite him previous liking Renet.
Then upon entering season 5, any attraction Mikey had for Shini is shown in like one episode and then it’s gone for the rest of the season. Once Renet comes back, ya Mikey’s whole crush resurfaces and the writers act like they didn’t give Mikey a whole other love interest but that’s bad on the writers part, not Mikey. Mikey isn’t a real thinking, breathing person, he cannot really control his actions because he just does whatever the writers want him to do. That’s the only reason this whole situation plays out like this, because the writers handled it poorly.
Whether Mikey and Renet get together after the Halloween arc is up for interpretation though. When Worlds Collide, which is the next episode after the Halloween Arc according to production codes, has Mikey and Renet talking through a communication device she gave him and he asks her if they’re in a long distance relationship but we never get to hear a response from Renet afterwards. So it’s left ambiguous. If you wanna headcanon they’re dating, then they are, if wanna headcanon they’re just friends and Mikey was just playfully flirting, then that’s what happened. It’s still not concrete evidence that they’re dating.
2012 rlly mishandled a lot of their romances but sometimes y’all are adding problems they didn’t even have.
