They've eaten my soul!
So I keep on saying that I'm gonna make it, I'm gonna do it, so here it is!
♥ THE MARUBARU POST OF DOOM LOVE! ♥
This is going to be VERY image heavy and fangirl squealing heavy, but please don't let pesky things like that stop you from clicking below and placing yourself in awe of how absolutely amazing this pairing is *__*
To be honest I'm surprised I'm even awake right now considering that it's not a work day, so excuse me ahead of time if things come out sounding weird or if my squeeing dissolves into bad typos that just look like keyboard smashes.
Alright everyone, let's say hi to the pairing of the hour! Shibutani Subaru (Baru) and Maruyama Ryuhei (Maru) -
That ain't no manip people, and yes you really are seeing some hand-to-hand action going on there. This scan came out of a magazine from last year and was in fact one of the rare (if not only) times they've had a photoshoot done with only the two of them. That they took the opportunity to have a picture taken of themselves that smacks of an established relationship doesn't surprise me in the least XD
So let's go back to the beginning and retrace my steps getting into this pair, as well as their own progression from being best friends to being something a lot more. I'm going to have to say boyfriends because, well... as you'll see later, there's really no other word to describe them *__*
My exposure to Kanjani8 as a whole started through zukkii and her obsession with watching their Spirits! concert on constant repeat in her bedroom. Every time I walked in there I'd see the concert on TV, and I will admit that more often than not I ended up sitting down and staying to watch until the end again and again. I already knew and liked some of the songs and I'd just finally started finding out who these guys were, matching names to voices and everything. I didn't have any clear favorites then, but I definitely thought Okura was adorable and Hina had the worst teeth on the planet.
The Spirits! concert for Kanjani8 took place in July of 2005 when the group still didn't have an album out yet, but did have enough singles to make up half a concert, the rest of which was filled in with cover songs from prior Johnny's groups and two lengthy MC segments. During the longer of the two MC talks I'd noticed from the beginning that two of the guys, Subaru and Maru, had a great repitoire going on and seemed to be close friends.
I remembered pointing out to Ci early on after seeing this for a few times that their type of behavior is the kind of stuff that pairing basis are built on XD
I was saying it a bit sacastically at the time, since I was thinking that the JE fandom is just filled with girls who slash men for standing in the same room together (which is true, but that's besides the point). That stuff aside these guys were funny to watch, and I wasn't really aiming to slash them anyway.
Even if what they were doing seemed borderline flirting at times, and I counted Subaru blushing three separate times during their little two-man bits they did together apart from everyone else on stage during the MC talk.
That was summer of 2005 and I'm going to guesstimate and say that at this time the two of them weren't together yet. There was flirting going on and close body contact, blushing and finishing each other's sentences, but to my eye they looked more like two people crushing and testing the waters before diving in to attempt anything.
I admit, the more I watch it, the more I see two guys who really like each other and have obviously developed a close and fun friendship in a short amount of time, but aren't quite sure if turning it into something more is the direction they're ready to go in. To give a little explanation about each of the guys we'll start off with Maru because he's the least complicated of the two. Maru is probably the sweetest and funniest guy in the entire group, or at least able to act the craziest at times. He's sort of like a big kid, all smiles and gangly limbs, plus can be a bit absentminded in that adorable, headscratching way. He's also a very talented musican and plays the bass guitar extremely well, has a wonderful singing voice, and the outgoing personality more befit a lead singer in a rockband than being a part of an 8 man pop/dance group. He's also loveable and has a heart of gold and is probably one of the few people who has the ability to make Subaru genuinely feel safe and loved.
Subaru on the other hand is a bit of a wild child, but has been getting better over time and thanks to Maru's influence in his life. Subaru has a bit of a dark history with his career, which was marred by a scandal when he was 15 and caught smoking, something strictly prohibited by Johnny's for its members. For breaking the rules he was suspended from many appearances and activities for several months, which basically put him out of work and put him at the bottom of the ladder for working his way back to being in the management's good favor. Subaru didn't respond well to the punishment and rebelled like a lot of teens would, grew sullen and quiet and dark and got a large tattoo of a skull on the back of his right hand, another thing that is completely prohibited by Johnny's. So if you guys ever notice the perpetual presence of a glove on his right hand, it's to cover up the tattoo that the world knows is there but will never see (unless you're lucky and have good eyes). Even when Kanjani8 started up and Subaru was 20 he was still very reclusive and unhappy with life, and it shows when you watch anything of Kanjani8 between 2002 and 2004. Subaru's known for his antics during shows, which usually involves either flipping off cameras during national TV broadcasting, or pulling ridiculous faces and refusing to do the dance moves along with everyone else. On top of his general unhappy attitude it's also pretty clear that he's trying to send a silent message with the way he dresses and acts, like wearing skirts and nailpolish and growing out his hair and basically looking like the poster child for a gay or bisexual young adult, even to present day.
With all that said, after I'd seen a few pictures courtesy of Ci's forrays into the fandom, I was pretty well convinced that Subaru had to be gay, or at least bi, and was doing his best to let the world know without words where his preferences lay. It wasn't hopeful imagining on my part at the time since I'd yet to see everything that's going to come later, just a guy who seemed to be dealing with life who'd had a few bumps along the way and who was trying to live as an individual in an unfortunately very conformist society that doesn't take kindly to people trying to express themselves when it goes against the grain. However once Maru enters Subaru's life, which even though they knew each other for two years prior we don't see any kind of lasting interaction between them until 05, and as far as I've been able to search the Spirits! concert is the first time their new friendship showed itself so strongly, we can see from that point on that there's been a drastic change in Subaru as a person, going from the bitter man he was and has turned into someoone much happier and optimistic and well-centered in himself and who he is. It's been amazing to watch, and to be honest once you start compariing footage between then and now the transformation looks so obvious. Subaru's gone from a guy who faced his duties as a Johnny's member reluctantly to a man who loves to sing, loves to be on stage, loves to be with his group, and who loves his boyfriend and looks to him constantly for support and the kind of emotional dependability that only Maru can give him.
Okay that's enough analytical talking, time for the fangirling XD
First we have this video I found which is from Sept 16th, 2005, just a few months after the Spirits! concert and the screencaps above. I can't say from watching this whether the two of them are going out or an official item yet, but Subaru is definitely laying on the PDA to a surprising degree considering that they're being interviewed for TV, and as far as I can see Maru has no problem with it either XD For reference, Maru is wearing the pink pullover and Subaru is on his right wearing the white jacket and black hat.
So is your brain a puddle of happy goo yet? I hope not, cause oh lordy is there more to come :D
A month later an episode of Honjani, one of their many TV programs, aired on Oct 25th, 2005, which featured the guys going to a farm out in the country and doing various things like digging up sweet potatoes and harvesting peanuts and chestnuts. During the ENTIRE segment Subaru and Maru are glued at the hip together. This would have been enough for me, except that they decided to make my brain explode about 8 minutes in *____*
Yes, that is them on the far left end, and yeah, they're holding hands *___*
But not only are they holding hands, THEY'RE PLAYING "BEST FIT" WITH THEIR FINGERS asjdkajdkada
And because I can't just let that kind of thing go with only screencaps, have a .gif of it in action XDD
IS THAT NOT THE CUTEST THING YOU'VE EVER SEEN? And if you think there's a bit of nipple grabbing at the end there, you wouldn't be mistaken *coughs*
When the camera cuts back to them Maru has a VERY interesting expression on his face, which I can only assume is being caused by Subaru grabbing something below he probably shouldn't be grabbing lol.
If that bit of few second finger foreplay wasn't enough, they continue holding hands all through the farmer explaining how to pull up the peanut plants at their feet, and we get a beaitful shot of some double-hand holding *___*
Maru decides to be the first one to volunteer to pull up a plant, and Subaru has to reluctantly let go of his boyfriend's hand XD
A bit later they set out for another farm that has chestnut trees, and we get this lovely back shot when clearly neither were aware that the camera was following behind their backs.
The arms stay there even when they're in the grove getting the how-to on knocking chestnut pods from the tree, which is just freakin adorable *___*
If anyone needs to take a breather or a smoke, now would be the time to do it :D
Two months later we have Christmas of '05 and another bit of precious video footage I found on YouTube. The good stuff doesn't start until two and a half minutes in for those who might want to fast forward past the advirtising.
Not only do we have more blatant hand holding, we also have Maru revealing a moment of embarrassment over showing their joined hands to the camera, plus an interesting Q&A where Subaru and Maru reveal that each of them wish more than anything to spend Christmas with each other. Awwwwwww ♥ If your ears are keen you also might hear the shout of "カプルセーフ！" being shouted by Yasu once they get their signs pointed out by the interviewer XDDD
I'm still working my way through video footage of these guys during 2006 and to be honest I've barely scratched the surface of the number of TV show appearances and variety shows and their own personal programs they've been in for the last two years or more. On one hand it means that I've got huge gaps missing in the timeline, but on the other hand it means that I've still got lots more left to discover *____*
In 2006 Kanjani8 appeared on Idol Pose during what's being called Subaru's hair-extensions period (as you'll see in the picture). If the boy wasn't flaming before I'd say it was pretty obvious now where his preferences lie XD
After the opening intro the boys stand in a line on stage with Subaru and Maru, once again, taking up their own happy little corner on the end, except this time we have some serious, major snuggling going on in the middle of national television *____*
Yeah I didn't think there needed to be any commentary going on between those shots XD
But hey why just look at screencaps when you could WATCH IT HAPPEN -
My serious, favorite thing about all of this is that even with how obvious and couply and so friggen in love these two guys are, NO ONE TALKS ABOUT IT, lol. The group members never do, or if they do it's more like a slip-up said spur of the moment. But for the most part no one says anything, not even hosts or people interviewing them, and I wonder if as long as the members don't call attention to their two cozy partners it can basically be looked over and ignored O_o
So besides all this wonderful on camera groping we have going on here, Subaru and Maru have also developed an adorable tradition between them since around the end of 2005. During the song "Sukiyanen Oosaka" there's a bit at the end where the line, "yappa sukiyanen" (I really love it) is repeated three times and sung by three different guys in the group, Hina, Okura, and Maru in that order. Starting in late '05 Subaru and Maru had a habit of coming together at the end of the song during Maru's line and standing there with their arms around each other, or a simple arm-on-shoulder pose, and usually Subaru would pull a weird face or some crazy expression for the camera he knew was trained on them. But over time the nature of their pose changed and got more intimate, and pretty soon it was just outright hugging, or curling up together, or putting their lips a hair's width apart behind the mic to give the appearance of them kissing while Maru sings the last line *_________*
Hopefully a few screencaps will give you the right idea :D
\
And of course I made a gif out of it XDDDD
;ajsdkakldjaskdadas BUH *________*
And that's just ONE performance but I swear that these two guys never fail to do something during that last line no matter where they are. As proof here's a clip from a fancam video that was taken during their most recent concert in May of this year. They suck for focusing on Ryo's performance rather than the VERY blantant smooching going on behind him, but I never did say that Japaense fangirls were very smart >_<
Another gem from that capped performance with the sparkly silver coats came afte the song ended and Maru and Subaru were once more getting cozy on their side of the stage. The gif is low quality since the camera was taking a full shot of the stage, but you can see that Maru has a hand on Subaru's waist and yanks the boy back flush against his chest just a second before the camera switched frames and went to another shot. Bastards.
There's a larger and longer clip of this that's 11megs here if you want to see the lead in to the hip grabbing XDDD
So have I broken your brains yet? Made you total fangirls? MADE YOU SEE THE LOVE OF MARUBARU? Or at least completely convinced you that these two guys are a steady item and have been going out seriously for nearly the last two years? *___*
In parting, I shall leave you with the original image that my icon comes from. And yeah, it's Maru and Subaru :D ♥
♥ THE MARUBARU POST OF DOOM LOVE! ♥
This is going to be VERY image heavy and fangirl squealing heavy, but please don't let pesky things like that stop you from clicking below and placing yourself in awe of how absolutely amazing this pairing is *__*
To be honest I'm surprised I'm even awake right now considering that it's not a work day, so excuse me ahead of time if things come out sounding weird or if my squeeing dissolves into bad typos that just look like keyboard smashes.
Alright everyone, let's say hi to the pairing of the hour! Shibutani Subaru (Baru) and Maruyama Ryuhei (Maru) -
That ain't no manip people, and yes you really are seeing some hand-to-hand action going on there. This scan came out of a magazine from last year and was in fact one of the rare (if not only) times they've had a photoshoot done with only the two of them. That they took the opportunity to have a picture taken of themselves that smacks of an established relationship doesn't surprise me in the least XD
So let's go back to the beginning and retrace my steps getting into this pair, as well as their own progression from being best friends to being something a lot more. I'm going to have to say boyfriends because, well... as you'll see later, there's really no other word to describe them *__*
My exposure to Kanjani8 as a whole started through zukkii and her obsession with watching their Spirits! concert on constant repeat in her bedroom. Every time I walked in there I'd see the concert on TV, and I will admit that more often than not I ended up sitting down and staying to watch until the end again and again. I already knew and liked some of the songs and I'd just finally started finding out who these guys were, matching names to voices and everything. I didn't have any clear favorites then, but I definitely thought Okura was adorable and Hina had the worst teeth on the planet.
The Spirits! concert for Kanjani8 took place in July of 2005 when the group still didn't have an album out yet, but did have enough singles to make up half a concert, the rest of which was filled in with cover songs from prior Johnny's groups and two lengthy MC segments. During the longer of the two MC talks I'd noticed from the beginning that two of the guys, Subaru and Maru, had a great repitoire going on and seemed to be close friends.
I remembered pointing out to Ci early on after seeing this for a few times that their type of behavior is the kind of stuff that pairing basis are built on XD
I was saying it a bit sacastically at the time, since I was thinking that the JE fandom is just filled with girls who slash men for standing in the same room together (which is true, but that's besides the point). That stuff aside these guys were funny to watch, and I wasn't really aiming to slash them anyway.
Even if what they were doing seemed borderline flirting at times, and I counted Subaru blushing three separate times during their little two-man bits they did together apart from everyone else on stage during the MC talk.
That was summer of 2005 and I'm going to guesstimate and say that at this time the two of them weren't together yet. There was flirting going on and close body contact, blushing and finishing each other's sentences, but to my eye they looked more like two people crushing and testing the waters before diving in to attempt anything.
I admit, the more I watch it, the more I see two guys who really like each other and have obviously developed a close and fun friendship in a short amount of time, but aren't quite sure if turning it into something more is the direction they're ready to go in. To give a little explanation about each of the guys we'll start off with Maru because he's the least complicated of the two. Maru is probably the sweetest and funniest guy in the entire group, or at least able to act the craziest at times. He's sort of like a big kid, all smiles and gangly limbs, plus can be a bit absentminded in that adorable, headscratching way. He's also a very talented musican and plays the bass guitar extremely well, has a wonderful singing voice, and the outgoing personality more befit a lead singer in a rockband than being a part of an 8 man pop/dance group. He's also loveable and has a heart of gold and is probably one of the few people who has the ability to make Subaru genuinely feel safe and loved.
Subaru on the other hand is a bit of a wild child, but has been getting better over time and thanks to Maru's influence in his life. Subaru has a bit of a dark history with his career, which was marred by a scandal when he was 15 and caught smoking, something strictly prohibited by Johnny's for its members. For breaking the rules he was suspended from many appearances and activities for several months, which basically put him out of work and put him at the bottom of the ladder for working his way back to being in the management's good favor. Subaru didn't respond well to the punishment and rebelled like a lot of teens would, grew sullen and quiet and dark and got a large tattoo of a skull on the back of his right hand, another thing that is completely prohibited by Johnny's. So if you guys ever notice the perpetual presence of a glove on his right hand, it's to cover up the tattoo that the world knows is there but will never see (unless you're lucky and have good eyes). Even when Kanjani8 started up and Subaru was 20 he was still very reclusive and unhappy with life, and it shows when you watch anything of Kanjani8 between 2002 and 2004. Subaru's known for his antics during shows, which usually involves either flipping off cameras during national TV broadcasting, or pulling ridiculous faces and refusing to do the dance moves along with everyone else. On top of his general unhappy attitude it's also pretty clear that he's trying to send a silent message with the way he dresses and acts, like wearing skirts and nailpolish and growing out his hair and basically looking like the poster child for a gay or bisexual young adult, even to present day.
With all that said, after I'd seen a few pictures courtesy of Ci's forrays into the fandom, I was pretty well convinced that Subaru had to be gay, or at least bi, and was doing his best to let the world know without words where his preferences lay. It wasn't hopeful imagining on my part at the time since I'd yet to see everything that's going to come later, just a guy who seemed to be dealing with life who'd had a few bumps along the way and who was trying to live as an individual in an unfortunately very conformist society that doesn't take kindly to people trying to express themselves when it goes against the grain. However once Maru enters Subaru's life, which even though they knew each other for two years prior we don't see any kind of lasting interaction between them until 05, and as far as I've been able to search the Spirits! concert is the first time their new friendship showed itself so strongly, we can see from that point on that there's been a drastic change in Subaru as a person, going from the bitter man he was and has turned into someoone much happier and optimistic and well-centered in himself and who he is. It's been amazing to watch, and to be honest once you start compariing footage between then and now the transformation looks so obvious. Subaru's gone from a guy who faced his duties as a Johnny's member reluctantly to a man who loves to sing, loves to be on stage, loves to be with his group, and who loves his boyfriend and looks to him constantly for support and the kind of emotional dependability that only Maru can give him.
Okay that's enough analytical talking, time for the fangirling XD
First we have this video I found which is from Sept 16th, 2005, just a few months after the Spirits! concert and the screencaps above. I can't say from watching this whether the two of them are going out or an official item yet, but Subaru is definitely laying on the PDA to a surprising degree considering that they're being interviewed for TV, and as far as I can see Maru has no problem with it either XD For reference, Maru is wearing the pink pullover and Subaru is on his right wearing the white jacket and black hat.
Click to viewSo is your brain a puddle of happy goo yet? I hope not, cause oh lordy is there more to come :D
A month later an episode of Honjani, one of their many TV programs, aired on Oct 25th, 2005, which featured the guys going to a farm out in the country and doing various things like digging up sweet potatoes and harvesting peanuts and chestnuts. During the ENTIRE segment Subaru and Maru are glued at the hip together. This would have been enough for me, except that they decided to make my brain explode about 8 minutes in *____*
Yes, that is them on the far left end, and yeah, they're holding hands *___*
But not only are they holding hands, THEY'RE PLAYING "BEST FIT" WITH THEIR FINGERS asjdkajdkada
And because I can't just let that kind of thing go with only screencaps, have a .gif of it in action XDD
IS THAT NOT THE CUTEST THING YOU'VE EVER SEEN? And if you think there's a bit of nipple grabbing at the end there, you wouldn't be mistaken *coughs*
When the camera cuts back to them Maru has a VERY interesting expression on his face, which I can only assume is being caused by Subaru grabbing something below he probably shouldn't be grabbing lol.
If that bit of few second finger foreplay wasn't enough, they continue holding hands all through the farmer explaining how to pull up the peanut plants at their feet, and we get a beaitful shot of some double-hand holding *___*
Maru decides to be the first one to volunteer to pull up a plant, and Subaru has to reluctantly let go of his boyfriend's hand XD
A bit later they set out for another farm that has chestnut trees, and we get this lovely back shot when clearly neither were aware that the camera was following behind their backs.
The arms stay there even when they're in the grove getting the how-to on knocking chestnut pods from the tree, which is just freakin adorable *___*
If anyone needs to take a breather or a smoke, now would be the time to do it :D
Two months later we have Christmas of '05 and another bit of precious video footage I found on YouTube. The good stuff doesn't start until two and a half minutes in for those who might want to fast forward past the advirtising.
Not only do we have more blatant hand holding, we also have Maru revealing a moment of embarrassment over showing their joined hands to the camera, plus an interesting Q&A where Subaru and Maru reveal that each of them wish more than anything to spend Christmas with each other. Awwwwwww ♥ If your ears are keen you also might hear the shout of "カプルセーフ！" being shouted by Yasu once they get their signs pointed out by the interviewer XDDD
I'm still working my way through video footage of these guys during 2006 and to be honest I've barely scratched the surface of the number of TV show appearances and variety shows and their own personal programs they've been in for the last two years or more. On one hand it means that I've got huge gaps missing in the timeline, but on the other hand it means that I've still got lots more left to discover *____*
In 2006 Kanjani8 appeared on Idol Pose during what's being called Subaru's hair-extensions period (as you'll see in the picture). If the boy wasn't flaming before I'd say it was pretty obvious now where his preferences lie XD
After the opening intro the boys stand in a line on stage with Subaru and Maru, once again, taking up their own happy little corner on the end, except this time we have some serious, major snuggling going on in the middle of national television *____*
Yeah I didn't think there needed to be any commentary going on between those shots XD
But hey why just look at screencaps when you could WATCH IT HAPPEN -
My serious, favorite thing about all of this is that even with how obvious and couply and so friggen in love these two guys are, NO ONE TALKS ABOUT IT, lol. The group members never do, or if they do it's more like a slip-up said spur of the moment. But for the most part no one says anything, not even hosts or people interviewing them, and I wonder if as long as the members don't call attention to their two cozy partners it can basically be looked over and ignored O_o
So besides all this wonderful on camera groping we have going on here, Subaru and Maru have also developed an adorable tradition between them since around the end of 2005. During the song "Sukiyanen Oosaka" there's a bit at the end where the line, "yappa sukiyanen" (I really love it) is repeated three times and sung by three different guys in the group, Hina, Okura, and Maru in that order. Starting in late '05 Subaru and Maru had a habit of coming together at the end of the song during Maru's line and standing there with their arms around each other, or a simple arm-on-shoulder pose, and usually Subaru would pull a weird face or some crazy expression for the camera he knew was trained on them. But over time the nature of their pose changed and got more intimate, and pretty soon it was just outright hugging, or curling up together, or putting their lips a hair's width apart behind the mic to give the appearance of them kissing while Maru sings the last line *_________*
Hopefully a few screencaps will give you the right idea :D
\
And of course I made a gif out of it XDDDD
;ajsdkakldjaskdadas BUH *________*
And that's just ONE performance but I swear that these two guys never fail to do something during that last line no matter where they are. As proof here's a clip from a fancam video that was taken during their most recent concert in May of this year. They suck for focusing on Ryo's performance rather than the VERY blantant smooching going on behind him, but I never did say that Japaense fangirls were very smart >_<
Another gem from that capped performance with the sparkly silver coats came afte the song ended and Maru and Subaru were once more getting cozy on their side of the stage. The gif is low quality since the camera was taking a full shot of the stage, but you can see that Maru has a hand on Subaru's waist and yanks the boy back flush against his chest just a second before the camera switched frames and went to another shot. Bastards.
There's a larger and longer clip of this that's 11megs here if you want to see the lead in to the hip grabbing XDDD
So have I broken your brains yet? Made you total fangirls? MADE YOU SEE THE LOVE OF MARUBARU? Or at least completely convinced you that these two guys are a steady item and have been going out seriously for nearly the last two years? *___*
In parting, I shall leave you with the original image that my icon comes from. And yeah, it's Maru and Subaru :D ♥