#yuu arima

[ode-to-ganimedes]

Suddenly every male character I've ever liked is also on their period

Bleed with me Click, Mithrun, and Bruce Wayne

Do not worry Ganymede and Arima, you are safe ❤️❤️

[analy-sing-stuff]

Hi overthinkers :D

After a really messy gap of three years, I finally red "Boy meets Maria" and I'll never be able to express how much this short story made my heart ache and melt. I can't believe I took so long because it's pure genius how it's written, and it's so SO sad we won't get anymore of it.

Anyways, let me yap a bit about it because I got SO MUCH to say, especially towards Arima's gender. I'll try to be as respectful as I can and use they/them referring to them regardless of the conclusion I take.

⚘️ spoilers ahead ⚘️

Both of the main characters are SO WELL WRITTEN in a way I've rarely seen in media these days!

"Boy meets maria" is a comic novel that makes us question so many things we have barely thought about in modern society, being them specially gender roles and norms, or how abuse comes in all sizes, shapes and colors.

Let's start with Taiga!

In a way, Taiga is the "least complex" character in this mangá. His concept is simple; he lost his mom when he was very young, his dad was irresponsible taking care of a child and drowning on his drinking addiction, and after growing up with all that, Taiga decides he wants to be a hero.

The meaning of a hero to Taiga is, simply explained, to be this great GREAT person. He wants to be a famous actor, succeed in life, and have this beautiful girlfriend to "save".

To be short, Taiga decides he doesn't want to be like his dad. His bright personality is basically his way of getting better, of being happy, and most important of all, of helping people.

I guess we can say Taiga is a very deeply conflicted character. looking for his way to the top on theater, I'd say this is him leaving his past behind and looking ou to show the world he is worth something, looking for something that may bring back to him the feeling of control contrasting how much he couldn't help but just watch his mother slowly die, and how weak he felt not knowing she was already being hurt by his father all along.

Let's say that the reason he's looking for a perfect girl for him to act like this perfect hero also has to do with the passing of his mom and the absence of his father, because to him, this is one unconscious second chance of treating a girl right and having a happy ending.

Then things don't go exactly as planned, and he meets Arima 😍

You see, Arima is a BIG part of Taiga's reality check because boy is completely HEAD OVER HEALS. Mind you, i saw some people saying they kind of cringed because of the way he acted and that he was unrealistic or a "manic pixie boy," and I totally disagree, I disagree even harder because I do know boys like him in real life and I can assure sometimes this big extroverted person is nothing more than a nod to the neglected child they were on the past.

So, yeah, when he chases Arima through the hall, this is basically him saying "don't say no to me, because I need this 😃 um excuse me, 😀 I need to be happy 🙂 dont say no" , and it's so persistent Arima ACTUALLY has to show him their genitals...so...uh...kinda crazy, huh?

But surprisingly, this is not a big deal to them if not for the inconvenience, and I'll say more, They lost all their notion of decency way before their childhood Trauma

Let's talk about Maria...No! Sorry, I mean...

Let's talk about Arima

Arima is a complex character that I appreciate so much due to never seeing a representation like them in media before.

I'd like to say that I'll not get into the sexual abuse too much because this may get too long, and it's sort of a sensitive topic for me, but I might mention it later if I feel like it.

Arima, since very little, was forced to be perceived as a girl by his mom, a type of abuse called forced feminization, where, well, you force a vulnerable individual to use exaggerated accessories that would match better a woman according to the known gender norm.

It was clear, However, that Arima never had a normal childhood being perceived as a girl, since none of what they had was granted because they wished, it was what their mom wished to fullfill HER wishes, and so on Arima felt like a boy but had to keep the image of being a girl solid and intact, after all, it was all they knew.

This is really big on their relationship with Taiga, since they basically reverse roles when they mature

This pannel, for example, is screaming gender roles, with Arima being stuck to pink and girl toys while Taiga is surrounded by all types of boy toys. This pannel has, also, big foreshadowing for their image of a hero when they were little. While Taiga thinks he can be this awesome image of a savior he wished to become, Arima holds on to a hero, shyly showing that not only they need to be who they truly are, since this is also the only toy on the picture that they hold on and that they're trully interested, but they also look for a saviour, someone who could take them out of the feeling of not belonging, someone who could understand what they need. The only thing also separating both of them is a flower, which is much symbolical to their different perspective growing up and the curious impact of Taiga's dad in their lives.

The cover for this mangá is the paralel we get from the back, and honestly, it's so beautiful how it doesn't necessarily mean it is about Arima detaching from their feminity, Rather just how much Taiga helped them realize they don't need to look feminine to be accepted and fullfill anyone's wishes.

To me, at the end of chapter 6, it's most likely that yes, Arima might be a boy suffering from detachment of something that they knew since they were very little, the role of a girl; AND HEAR ME OUT! THE THEATHER CONTEXT WAS GENIOUS!!!

Arima, their whole life, were assigned as this little girl, that deep down, was unhappy with their identity.

Then they go through this horrible fucking abuse and they feel vulnerable and weak,and they say, well, I'm a boy. That's it, that's who I always was.

And then, they go to their first play and they play as a boy, and they act (literally) as a boy, but the second their abuser is there to see them, (motherfucker) they lose it.

They lose it because, in the first place, all that happened to them was because of the rumor they weren't really a girl, and concluding that, they run away from their real them to avoid facing their trauma and their identity.

So Arima only acts as a girl on plays (literally) despite acting so well as a male character, hiding their talent and their feelings from everyone.

Until Taiga appears and never give up on them, which is beautiful.

And then, in the end, we understand that maybe they are not a boy, maybe they are not a girl, maybe they are both, maybe they are neither, but;

1. Their gender is not defined by what they look like

2. It's nobody's business

I can't put into words how well written this whole scene is. The way they mimick how the abuse was, the way they're scared of getting attached to someone again, the way they're mentally destroyed by the doubt and the feeling of weakness and how none of this matters because Taiga love's them.

No matter the gender, Taiga fell in love with Yuu.

And then they feel comfortable again, which seals pretty much this comic.

No matter which role (gender or theather lol) Yuu chooses, they'll always be Yuu Arima, and they'll always be special.

THAT'S IT OH MY GOD, I MIGHT HAVE FORGOTTEN SOMETHING, THIS TOOK ME SO LONG, ANYWAYS LOVE THEM SO SAD IT'S NOT A BIG SERIES BECAUSE IT WAS SO GOOD WTFF 🥹

[solunstell]

Taiga Hirasawa x Yuu Arima, Boy Meets Maria, 10-12-25

Commissions open at kofi and artistree

[mar1qa]

I haven't seen anyone post or mention the manga Boy Meets Maria in a while, I just took it off the shelf and I'm gonna reread it. I really like it and the connection, it's not just boy x boy (if i can say it is) manga it's deeper, and this moment what Taiga's dad did when he told him to visit mom by himself 🫢. I feel like my personality for the next week will be based on this manga LMAO. And if you have something similar to recommend, it doesn't matter if it's a movie, series, comic, manga, anime, please give me your recommendations. Open to discussion

[toning-seros]

(TW: csa)

reread boy meets maria for the third time after three years. here are my ramblings.

yup, still my no. 1 all-time favorite manga of all time. I KNOW ITS CONTROVERSIAL AND THE REVIEWS ARE MIXED BUT IT MEANS A LOT TO ME NO OTHER SHONEN AI HAS AFFECTED ME THE WAY BOY MEETS MARIA HAS (well, minus Hidamari Ga Kikoeru/I hear the sunspot BUT STILL)

god taiga and arima are so painfully relatable it actually hurts.

taiga always running away from his trauma and thus learned to not think about it at all as a coping mechanism and instead view the world in delusion to feel comfort…

arima unable to feel truly himself with any label given to him and feeling like he has to conform to gender norms so that he could be socially accepted only to realize that he will never fit the standards of what society deems as masculine and feminine…

taiga trying to understand arima and finally did when he faced homophobic comments from his classmates, realizing that arima isn’t happy because the world will only assume you to be what you present yourself as instead of who you really are on the inside…

im such a taiga and arima kinnie, it used to be just taiga but gah now it’s both of them fight me I love them so much

and also I know a whole lot of people really disliked the sa scene for very valid reasons, but personally I felt like having such a horrifying scenario be drawn so vividly and terrifyingly emphasized just how serious arima’s trauma was. the way it was eerily illustrated and distorted reminds you that arima was just a kid when it happened, that it that was the way he experienced it.

it was intense, absolutely, it hurt so much to read, but I felt like having such a scary scene be put in the manga when everything up until that point (minus taiga’s backstory) was very comical sets the shift in tone of the story as well builds up the climax. but yeah I do agree that to some extent it could have also been for shock value.

anywho, as an unlabeled person who resonates with arima and his journey to self discovery and gender identity, I feel like saying he is a representation of trans and non-binary people isn’t doing him or anyone in that community justice.

arima isn’t inherently trans or enby, but he isn’t exactly cis, either. (“you don’t have to be a boy or a girl, you can just be yuu.”) his experience may be relatable to a lot of people, but in the end, he represents the idea of rejecting conformity and labels and instead learning how to be himself, learning to embrace both his feminine and masculine side but not letting that define who he is, he’s just yuu :) and GOD as an androgynous person I FELT that scene.

speaking of that scene, the only chapter that I’m most confused with is chapter 6, especially when arima re-enacts his rape experience with taiga. I’ve been trying to analyze that scene for a while now and while I feel like I understand some bits of it, I still can’t seem to understand the full thing. doesn’t help with the fact that it seems like really nobody talks about that scene.

-> here’s what I got so far, arima became jealous of taiga because he began to view him as a caricature of what a hero is in his eyes, which was exactly what he had been working so hard in his life to try to be and yet failing to because no one truly accepts him the way taiga does, no matter what he tries to conform and be accepted, everyone will always assume this and that about him and his gender.

-> arima has no one, whereas taiga had his friends and other people who supported him and his masculinity. arima resented being seen socially female and thus worked hard to be as masculine as possible, thinking that his femininity is what makes him a half-assed man (when in reality both is what makes him truly his authentic self)

-> thus, he begins to blame his trauma for making him become the way he is. had he not been raised the way he was or raped, would he be struggling as much as he did now? he wondered. That’s why when taiga came to tell arima that he wasn’t alone and that he wants to be like him and cares about him, to arima it felt invalidating because at this point he viewed taiga not as a person but an idea of social success, while he himself was far from it. how could a caricature begin to understand what he had been through when it was perfect, after all?

-> in a fit of rage, arima demonstrated to taiga his sa experience to show him what it was like for him, how his trauma completely changed him for worse. Because taiga spent all his time trying to understand him, maybe this was arima’s way of doing so all the while suffering through a breakdown and ptsd.

-> it was clear arima never wanted to hurt taiga and most likely never planned to, he even profusely apologized after taiga expressed his side of things too. god the panel where arima looks down at taiga who was crying as he said he didn’t need to be a boy or a girl was so heartbreaking, the way he sort of snaps out of his thoughts and sees how he had hurt the person he loved the most, while not exactly doing anything in the end, all the while reminded how he felt when it happened to him. Chills.

my understandings still a complete mess rip it’s so frustrating cuz I want to understand arima, he is such a beautifully complex character, but I’m not analytical enough T-T if anyone has any thoughts about it do share please

Anyway, tl;dr: I fucking love boy meets Maria, it was one of the first shonen ai I ever read and set the bar HIGH for every other shonen ai I consumed ever since.

it’s 2am Goodnight

[adraydoux]

🌼

[jaxieus]

special flower

[baihu-baihu]

man me too