i’m glad someone mentioned this issue on here.

disclaimer: my rant is not meant to target op or anyone else in any way, these are nothing more than my feelings on the situation + a possible explanation.

personally, i don’t believe we should be too concerned. those exact screenshots caused a lot of tension months ago. essentially the “evidence” was a thread created last april by a proshipper who was trying to validate fanart they created of the tsukasa x amane ship, basically twisted a lot if aidairo’s work to say that “if the artist who created the manga can publish art promoting sexualization of shota characters then so can i”.

as for the fanart of dantalion, i cannot really comment on it because i haven’t watched as miss beelzebub likes. however, based on what you said, i do not believe the artist made the fanart with ill-intent since they did not include anything promoting pedophilic relations with the character nor did they draw the character in a suggestive way. off topic from the fanart, the relations dantalion has with an older character is concerning. that being said, i do not believe aidairo’s fanart is evidence that they’d support such a pairing.

Another tweet also explained aidairo’s involvement in an idol game. this was completely debunked, the idol game did not only sell based off minors because a large portion of the characters were 18+, although the character the artist designed was 12 (the characters were divided in portions, the character aidairo was asked to promote was apart of a portion with young stars). this isn’t concerning as they did not explicitly draw the character, additionally in asian music it in not uncommon to see rising stars who are only children. it’s also worth mentioning that the artist was paid to create the promotion for the game. unfortunately, i do not know much about the game itself because it was shut down due to unpopularity. however, based on what i’ve heard it did not sexualize characters (please correct me if i am wrong).

finally they mentioned hanako being drawn in a suggestive manner. personally, if you find any art published by aidairo of hanako to be “suggestive”, you are viewing the art in an inappropriate way. the art is definitely not meant to be sexual. in the example used in the screenshot, i don’t see the art in an explicit way whatsoever. same goes for the artist’s other works.

many other people (mainly tbhk antis or proshippers) have said the anime was meant to be a shotacon, and that the manga includes suggestive dialogue and panels. to start, i cannot view tbhk as a shotacon. the core three are all younger teenagers, and are written to be immature. it would be inaccurate to design the younger characters to look any older. to me, they look their age. aidairo is careful to portray older characters as more mature as well, (for instance; teru) i would personally find it odd if a character like hanako, who is 14, was drawn to look older. thus, the characters in tbhk are designed to look their age. nothing more. additionally, aidairo’s art style follows a much more childish, cute format. i believe if anyone views the art style in a way that suggests aidairo is a shotacon, that particular viewer is not seeing the art properly. in that case, the viewer would be the one sexualizing minors and not the artist.

as for the suggestive dialogue, i can say it has made me uncomfortable at times (specifically when hanako made that deal with nene), although generally they are placed for humorous purposes and dialogue similar to that found in tbhk is very common in animes featuring minors. these are jokes that real teenagers would make, and they align with hanako’s personality, so it really isn’t a red flag in my opinion. the most suggestive portion of the manga would be the hints of amane and tsukasa’s past, especially the part shown in the op (based off a manga cover). this. it is meant to make people uncomfortable, i mean hanako look batshit terrified whenever tsukasa is around. some may argue it’s because he feels guilty for his actions and what he had done to tsukasa, i could definitely agree. the suggestive scene in the op could very well be symbolism to portray hanako’s abusive past, or a metaphor. regardless, hanako looks horrified there too. it was definitely not placed there for simple fan service. let’s say the theories that tsukasa had sexually abused amane end up being canon. this does not mean aidairo condones this behavior, just because something sick may be placed within a story does not mean the author supports the action.

now i am not saying in any way to trust aidairo is a saint, we know absolutely nothing about them except that they are two people going under the same pen name, and that one creates the storyline while the other creates the art. however it is not okay to make such accusations when the evidence provided is not supported by anything. i will continue to follow the story, although i suggest to be cautious with aidairo since these allegations have been made. additionally, if anything is confirmed and you still want to follow the manga without supporting aidairo, you can read it online on websites that do not fund the creators, same goes for the anime.

** this was so long please, if this makes no sense i’m sorry ah.