We be bloggin'

It’s officially Niji Nights Day 6! If you read day three, then you’ve already been introduced to our Queer Coded blog series where we talk about anime that are written in ways that make…well for lack of better terms–bait us. Anime, for example, where two same-sex characters seem to be in love and yet are never confirmed canonically as so. And honestly? Star and I are kind of sick of it. So here we are to fight back against the canon and give our two cents on why these relationships are real to us at least. The next show we’re talking about? Sabikui Bisco.

Sabikui Bisco is a really interesting anime about…well, about mushrooms. But what’s more important than the plot are the two lead characters: Bisco and Milo. When they first meet, their relationship is kind of common. It’s very friendly banter and friendly arguing. But getting into the middle chunk of the season, Star and I started to see little threads of affection between the two characters. Subtle sure. But definitely there. We started noticing it in the fondness between them when Milo was trying his best to ride Bisco’s crab. Even then we were like–ah yeah that’s sus but it’s just blatant bait. Except they grew closer…and then episode seven happened. In episode seven we see Bisco being heavily injured but deadset on helping Milo save Pawoo and Jabi, but Milo doesn’t want him to. He tells him how he shouldn’t because of how injured he is–it’s a moment where we were like “aw” they really looking out for each other. And then shit gets real.

The next few episodes feature Milo and Bisco closer than ever. When Milo goes off on his own to fight Kurokawa, he gets heavily injured and Bisco, despite his own condition, shows up to save Milo. The two then retreat to a cave where Bisco is now taking care of Milo who is blind and fatally infected with rust. It’s in this moment that Milo and Bisco share a very tender sequence in which Milo needs comfort and Bisco gives him that. He tells Milo to rest and that he’ll be right there when he wakes up. But, instead, Bisco gives Milo medicine that was intended for Bisco himself to cure him of rust. The entire cave scene changed everything for us. Instead of just seeing hints at what could be between them, the tenderness within the cave was so undeniably in a romantic lens. We were honestly like…okay. This cave scene really drilled it into us that Milo and Bisco could be more than friends and actually be love interests. They were protective of each other, risked their lives for each other, and cared so intensely for each other over everyone else. Still, we didn’t get our hopes up…

Until episode nine. Where we got a tragic “I Love You” from Milo. That’s right — this anime gave us an I love you spoken from one male character to the other. And it wasn’t a “suki” (I like you) in Japanese or even a “daisuki” (I really like you). It was an “aishiteru”, which is a much deeper romantic love. We thought this was a shoe-in for a relationship; we celebrated, we were so shocked that we got this same-sex love from a shounen action anime. But then in the last episode–a female character kissed Bisco–even though it was then implied Milo and Bisco traveled together forever from that point on. So we were confused. Was the show trying to back out of the earlier “I love you?” We had celebrated the canonically gay relationship only to be taken aback. So I tried to do research on the light novels, and people seemed pretty divided on if Bisco and Milo were a thing. Some people said that they even end up with a daughter later on—and others say Bisco and Pawoo become a thing instead. It’s all levels of confusing. Star and I didn’t understand why the anime would make the trajectory look to Bisco x Milo only to not fully fulfill it. It wasn’t like Wandering Paladin that I talked about previously where you could argue either side…this one had a super clear moment of I love you. An I love you that didn’t seem like it was brotherly, or as a companion. A TRUE romantic one. Backing out of it was just…nah not it. At the end of the day, if you subbed Milo out for the hetero-normative heroine, Bisco and Milo would’ve been a true romantic pairing. That’s why Star and I believe that canonically, Bisco and Milo are in love with each other and likely a couple.

All is to say, the question of if Bisco and Milo are a couple MAY still not explicitly stated, but it’s absolutely a queer-coded relationship. So to us? They are together. Bisco x Milo forever.

xoxo

Luna