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I feel the need to write my thoughts down on the whole “it’s just a bromance”/“why people always try to make everything gay?”argument because I’ve seen multiple comments like this on YouTube and Instagram and it really frustrates me. This is an anime not real life, it is an audiovisual medium used to tell a story. Nothing is left to chance the story must have its themes or a message that it wants to convey (like every film and TV series) and there are people who actively decide how to put everything into action. Two friend skating together, there are many ways they could make a story like that with them just being bros and yet they decided to make it in the most romantic way possible. A lot of people say them liking each other romantically would come off as random but have ever you considered: The way Reki looked at Langa in episode one, his expression, the close up to his eye with Langa’s reflection in it? This scene is identical to that scene in Banana fish which is not exactly the most heterosexual anime out there and has a lot of gay subtext. But let’s go on. Langa talking about “feelings”, touching his chest saying his heart races only when Reki is with him? The dramatic slow motion when their eyes met while Langa was skating against Joe? The scene with Langa’s mother asking him if he likes “that” person (he was talking about Reki but she was referring to a girl) and Langa having an exaggerated reaction and replying with “yes” while blushing? The whole reconciliation under the stars in last episode when they said “I want to skate with you forever”? The way they blushed and giggled? The dramatic fight under the rain which is a common scenario you can see in romantic movies when the couple momentarily breaks up? The fact that this week a drama cd called “Cindereki” is going to drop where Reki is basically Cinderella and Langa is the prince? The fondness with which they look at each other? Reki being super touchy with Langa and throwing himself at him every time he has the chance to? Of course it doesn’t have to mean anything but in Japan people are usually represented as reserved and respectful, they don’t invade other people’s personal space often but Reki felt immediately comfortable with Langa despite knowing him for a short time. I could go on and also talk about the other characters having the same homoromantic tension like Joe and Cherry/ Adam and Tadashi but I think I made it clear(spoiler: I’m gonna talk about it anyway). It’s not about what is showed but how it is showed. Of course in real life two guys can be bros and affectionate with each other without having to be gay but in anime every scene is planned and the way they decided to portray relationships is very ambiguous. They made decisions on how the characters behave around each other, on how they talk, the words they use , the metaphors of the show and the parallelisms so I really am convinced that this is another case of a sport anime having romantic subtext between its characters without making it canon(look at Free! for example, it was directed by the same person who directed this anime and Banana fish so they know what they are doing and how). Don’t forget about the whole metaphor with Adam, Eve and Snake. Skateboarding in this anime is seen as a way to express love. While Adam has a very twisted idea of love because of how he was raised(he hurts and humiliates people) Langa and Reki represent the exact opposite of toxic love, supporting each other and having fun, being what Tadashi and Adam couldn’t be. Those two also have an ambiguous relationship. The first things that come to my mind is how aggressively and sexually Adam talks to Tadashi (“obey your master”, “you have been a good boy”, “you are a dog”, “I’ll illustrate that to your body”) and the intertwined hearts they caved in the empty pool they used as a ramp when they where kids. Adam is probably the most queer coded character out of all since he always explicitly flirts with Langa, he compared them skating against each other to a date, he literally calls him his Eve, he gave him flowers that mean “passionate love”, he’s obsessed with him, he stalks him and watches him in his room full of screens and now he’s jealous of Reki. Let’s not forget the way he danced with Langa during the race, dude was all over him. He also said “I’m always in love with my skating partner” who are always men apparently, but he also flirted with the FBI lady so he showed to be attracted to both genders. Cherry and Joe? Another romantic coded relationship. They always bicker and fight but the real subtext is in their past. They were friends and one day they met Adam. Cherry was obviously infatuated with him: the way he looked at him and that scene where Adam grabbed him to prevent his fall make me think that. That pose had no business being that seductive yet they decided to draw it like that. This scene is also identical to the scene where Langa catches Reki while falling, having their faces being that close and them looking at each other that way was also a specific choice. Many people think that Joe loved Cherry but Cherry never noticed since his attention was on Adam. Yes they always argue but they never say anything that would actually hurt the other person, they spend a lot of time together and they always arrive at S together. Joe cares a lot about Cherry, he was worried about him going against Adam, he carried him bridal style and brought him to the hospital after he was smacked in the face. In the beach episode Miya refers to them as “dad” and “mom” (I wonder why🙄) and Joe blushes a lot while looking at Cherry indicating that he can be physically attracted to him. Even tho this scene was used as a comic relief and played off as a joke I still think these kind of scenes have their reason to exist and only reinforce the romantic subtext. That scene where Cherry was explaining the love hug to the group and ended up being 1 millimeter away from Joe’s face? Like if the characters are supposed to be just friends why the sexual tension? Finally what about the way Joe looked at him when he passed out in his restaurant? That felt so romantic and tender. So skate the Infinity is already full of relationships and metaphors that are ambiguous af, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume the main characters also have something going on even if they won’t confirm it explicitly. That’s how this kind of anime works after all, they want to have a male audience so no gay relationship is going to be canon but they also know that Bl attracts a wide female audience so the gay subtext will be heavily implied. It’s a win win for them and I’m so tired of it. That’s why yes, you can see their relationship as bromance but the way it’s written and presented makes it very easy to see it in a romantic way too. This process of thought applies to other anime as well, people often ship two male characters because they see the potential and the subtext between them. Most of the time they aren’t even trying to “fetishize” gay people and their ship often makes sense if you analyze the undertones. So basically stop harassing people who ship Langa and Reki/ Joe and Cherry(but also other mlm ships)because they have every right to see their relationship as romantic since the anime implies it so many times. It’s not us who make everything gay, the anime is already doing it by itself. Here comes the classic phrase: if one of them was a girl I’m sure everyone would agree on shipping them and would see the romantic undertones so why is it different when it comes to two guys?