Hitouji Yuuji/Konjiki Koharu

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Pairing
Pairing: Hitouji Yuuji/Konjiki Koharu
Alternative name(s): YuuKoha, Loveles, Baka Pair
Gender category: m/m
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Canonical?: yes, with caveats
Prevalence: minor
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Hitouji Yuuji/Konjiki Koharu was the first canon M/M couple in sports manga and sports anime. The pair play doubles for Shitenhouji, a team that plays Seigaku in the semi-finals. They rely heavily on disturbing opponents with outlandish behavior, including flirting with each other and anyone else on the court.

Individually

Konjiki Koharu

Koharu is said to have an IQ of 200. He's devoted to manzai comedy and takes nothing seriously, including, reportedly, his relationship with Yuuji. It's unclear how much of his flamboyant behavior is genuine, but it's hinted that at least some of it is deliberate, both because he enjoys getting a reaction and because it throws his opponents off. Koharu is willing to flirt with any boy he considers attractive, and some scenes from Prince of Tennis: Rising Beat imply that he's more interested in personality than in conventional appearance. His behavior often crosses the line into harassment, as no one but Yuuji seems interested in his attentions.

Hitouji Yuuji

Yuuji calls himself "the prince of impressions". His skill is mimicry, which he uses to distract opponents while Koharu observes them. At first he joins Koharu in flirting with their opponents, but after their breakup he reveals a jealous temper and no longer shows interest in any boy but Koharu. He frequently loses his temper at Koharu's fickle behavior, but is easily reassured by the slightest return of affection, and is seemingly unwilling to accept any kind of separation no matter what Koharu's transgression.

Relationship

Canon

Canon-adjacent material like the video games and Prince of Afterschool generally play out the same scenario of Yuuji pining over Koharu while Koharu dodges the chance to return affection or shows interest in other boys. They remain semi-attached romantically, with no decisive conclusion to their relationship in canon. Video games within the franchise that allow for dating sim elements generally dodge around having either Koharu or Yuuji return interest in the female or presumed female avatar, hinting that despite Koharu's unclear motivations, both of them are indeed exclusively attracted to men.

Koharu breaks up with Yuuji after their match against Kaidou and Momoshiro, and an extra reveals that Koharu's school bag now contains a ripped up photo of Yuuji and intact photos of other tennis players he presumably finds attractive. Yuuji is shown to be deeply depressed after the breakup and later follows Koharu to the Under-17 training camp despite not being invited. Koharu joins him in a dramatic reunion, but their relationship remains troubled and it's unclear how officially "together" they are.

Their dynamic following the first match fits into the manzai format of boke and tsukkomi, with tsukkomi Yuuji responding sharply to boke Koharu's outlandish behavior. They also take those roles when performing formal manzai skits. It's therefore difficult to discern how much of their behavior is genuine. A running gag has Koharu openly flirting with other boys and Yuuji responding by threatening to kill him for cheating. However, the Prince of Tennis: Rising Beat mobile game contains scenes where Koharu declares that Yuuji is his only real choice. Also in Rising Beat, they've been seen practicing a routine in which they act out their usual cheating/threatening dynamic, and then happily announce, "It's the cheating skit!" In New Prince of Tennis, Yuuji has angrily shoved Koharu in response to his perceived cheating, causing Koharu to fall off a cliff to his near death. Horrified, Yuuji immediately jumps over after him. Again, the situation is played for comedy.

Reception

Their relationship is generally accepted as canon by fans, but is a less popular subject for fanworks than other ships. Yuuji is often shipped instead with their teammate Zaizen Hikaru, who provides tsukkomi-style reactions to their antics. This is partly due to Zaizen being more conventionally attractive than Koharu, and partly due to Koharu's fickleness and lack of commitment to Yuuji. Some fans express discomfort with Koharu's poor treatment of Yuuji and harassment of characters who are uninterested and even uncomfortable with his advances. However, many Prince of Tennis fans remain proud of the series for being the source of the first explicitly canon gay relationship in sports anime/manga.[1][2][3]

The ship is called Baka Pair by Western fans, and YuuKoha or KohaYuu by Japanese fans. "Loveles", a play on "lovers + doubles", is the non-ship tag for Koharu and Yuuji as a duo, but due to their canon relationship it's essentially another ship tag.

As early as 2010, the ship was regularly depicted as troubled in fanworks, with Koharu's interest in other boys prompting jealousy from Yuuji, but some fanworks also depict them in manzai outfits, showing off and causing chaos, and generally being showy and disruptive, in line with their behavior in their first appearance. Western fans tend to mention the ship more often as a point of pride, but since English-speaking fandom has dwindled over the years, English fanworks produced for the ship are few in number. They're most often seen as a background ship; filtering by "otp:true" on AO3 reduces the number of works by more than half.

While Japanese fans produce more Zaizen/Yuuji overall, YuuKoha art is drawn regularly since Prince of Tennis is still an active canon. Some art is prompted by content from the mobile game Rising Beat, which tries to feature all the teams in most of its monthly events and thus often comes back to Yuuji and Koharu as a source of comedy. For example, an event in which Koharu spent most of his time flirting with other characters and finally reunited with a despairing Yuuji in a field of sunflowers prompted artists on Twitter to draw their own version of the reunion.

Since the Prince of Tennis franchise is highly attuned to the relative popularity of its characters, the number of special SSR units within Rising Beat is a good window into fan reception of Yuuji and Koharu as individuals. As of April 2021, Koharu had 10 cards overall, with 4 SSR cards and 4 SR cards[4], compared to 7 SSRs and 5 SRs out of 14 overall for Yuuji[5]. While most of Yuuji's cards feature him pining for or interacting with Koharu, his popularity as an individual far outstrips Koharu's. In the shitenhoji LiveJournal community, active 2006-2013, they were both among the least tagged characters[6], with Yuuji tagged in 14 public posts and Koharu in 8, showing a similar pattern in English-speaking fandom.

Example Fanworks

Fanfiction

Fanart

Other

Links

References

  1. ^ https://suzukiright.tumblr.com/post/130763527134/reminder-that-koharu-and-yuuji-actually-kissed-in 2015: "Reminder that Koharu and Yuuji actually kissed in Prince of Tennis and are like 10000% actually boyfriends like they are dating like they just tell you that like no “oooo they’re obvs so gay look at all the undertones!” like no they actually flat out say “yo we gay and dating #yolo”
  2. ^ https://thedaijoubu.tumblr.com/post/153321861495/all-of-you-people-saying-yoi-is-the-first-sports 2016: "all of you people saying ‘yoi is the first sports anime to have a canon gay couple’ well i’m sorry you are DING DONG WRONG because prince of tennis got there years ago lmao"
  3. ^ https://imperfekti.tumblr.com/post/112286380860/shisonjun-sportsanimeheadcanons-what-is-it
  4. ^ https://tennis-risingbeat.gamerch.com/%E9%87%91%E8%89%B2%E5%B0%8F%E6%98%A5 Japanese wiki for Rising Beat cards
  5. ^ https://tennis-risingbeat.gamerch.com/%E4%B8%80%E6%B0%8F%E3%83%A6%E3%82%A6%E3%82%B8
  6. ^ https://shitenhoji.livejournal.com/tag/ Shitenhoji community tag list
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