 |
| assistant?!? |
| aka the shoonen-ai part of the page. you have been WARNED. |
| first off, I am not a lunatic shoonen-ai/yaoi fangirl who will pair any 2 guys from an anime together b/c they're guys or worse yet, because they simply hang around each other. I'm very picky about my m/m and occasionally f/f couplings. kibito/kaiooshin started off as a joke, BTW, similar to smithers/burns on the simpsons. but then I started re-watching the show and reading the japanese manga and noticed that the two are very close.... |
| in fanfiction kibito tends to be portrayed as cold and distant. this is not the case. he is intelligent, loyal (OK, so loyal's an understatement, as I shall soon point out), and straight-to-the-point. I didn't like him much until I read the manga. Toriyama made him into a very deep character. now, to explain.... Point #1: Mystery Factor. It's not exactly what they say, but what they DON'T say, in the series that intrigues me most. Both are telepathic, and we are usually not shown what they're thinking to each other. Also, they are the sole two survivors of Buu on Kaiooshin-kai. Maybe in the millions of years alone, they have developed a very deep bond of friendship (and on Kibito's part, maybe more). Point #2: Chivalry and Kibito-san's behavior. Proceeding from #1, I assume this is a one-ended ordeal- that Kibito is very much in love with 'Shin, but 'Shin thinks of him as a friend or a colleague. Actually, as the God of Gods I doubt that Kaiooshin would concern himself with many other people and their emotions as much as he would the fate of the Universe (read: he may be celibate, or so goes my theory). Also worthy of note is the way Kibito acts around his boss. You almost never see them more than six feet away from each other (except for in the Budookai fighting stage and during Kibito's death)...most bodyguards will give their charges personal space, AND there are usually more than one of them. *G* Some of the things Kibito does for 'Shin would fall under the word "chivalry" or "courtly love" if 'Shin-sama were female. Two of the best examples I can think of are when Kibito gets killed by Dabura (he seemingly was trying to protect 'Shin and sacrificing his life for his boss') and also when Kibito gets wished back to life by the Dragon Balls. The very first thing he does after this is sense that Kaiooshin is near death, and so he goes out to look for him in order to heal him. *sniff- that scene in #39 made me CRY!!* In other words, Kibito/Kaiooshin is purely platonic...one of the things I like about this. (One of the tendencies for shoonen-ai/yaoi is the basic plot, 'Hey, he's cute, let's screw.' I don't like that much. I like when characters connect on a deeper emotional and spiriual level than that. Same goes for het and yuri.) Point #3- The Tall Red Man and the Green-Eyed Monster. This is an extension of #1 and #2 above. The flip side of loyalty is jealousy, and, if you haven't noticed, Kibito gets jealous of Gohan and mad at 'Shin during the whole situation with the Zet Sword.^^ Think about it- god takes attractive mortal onto his planet (which he has shared with only ONE OTHER PERSON FOR CENTURIES), claiming he is the last hope of the Universe. Assistant to god first tries to divert attention from mortal's appearance by replacing *revealing* black spandex bodysuit with traditional Kaiooshin-kai-jin garb. Backfires. Mortal unwittingly plays into assistant's hand by getting tired wielding Zet Sword, and having assistant hold sword for him. This also backfires...etc. ... My personal opinion is, if they don't fight, they're either just fallen in love or not in love at all. Kibito and Kaiooshin DO appear to have a few lover's spats, wheter telepathic or not.... Point #4- Shoonen-ai as allegory. Toriyama Akira is a literary-level mangaka, and few people realize this. (Much of his satire in DB and Slump remind me of Cervantes and Swift.) Maybe, just MAYBE (OK, more than likely), he put this in on purpose to say something on the relationship between man and God/s, or the hidden homoerotic facets of male-dominated religion...maybe he doesn't call this relationship shoonen-ai at all. Something like "Kaiooshintoo" comes to mind...LOL Just some food for thought. Also, there is a difference b/t Kaiooshin's attitude in the manga and in the anime. In the manga, he often returns Kibito-san's affections (see manga translated section), and towards the Z-senshi displays godly politeness, nothing more. In the anime, the innuendo surrounding Kibito/Shin is lessened, and made up for by innuendo b/t Kaiooshin and other characters (Gohan, Gokuu, Piccolo). I hope everything made sense. And I also hope you're going, "Oh, yeah, why didn't I notice that before?" and not "Ewww! 2 guys together!!!" -Rivka PS Check out Parabol, the web clique to support these two! (run by me, who else!) |
 |