Thanks!

Ruki has strong wlw vibes to me, I don’t know why - so I actually may have to take back Ruki with both Takato and Kenta. I think I just prefer her with one of them over Ryo lol.

Ruki is just too darn cool; I wouldn’t be surprised she eventually married some edgy guy or chick who is more like her in terms of personality; someome who grows up to become a chill person with badass interests like motocross and harvey davidsons and listens to heavy metal and has no issues bluntly telling you whatever is on their mind. xD

Ruki is hella gay and her first love was Renamon. @digijosify has receipts from the show.

Oh boy, an excuse to talk about this again! :D

So if you watch Tamers with a mind open to the possibility of Ruki being in love with Renamon, you’ll notice a substantial amount of subtext speaking to exactly that, from little things like the way they hold each other in their arms, to less subtle things like the way Ruki gives Renamon an energy drink in a textbook-tsundere manner. Frankly, by the end of the series it becomes pretty difficult to ignore.

Beyond those subtextual hints, however, there are other things to look to as well. In the Best Tamers: Makino Ruki & Renamon album, Renamon sings about how everything she does is for Ruki’s sake, evoking more than a few Wesley/Princess Buttercup vibes. They also share a duet in which they refer to each other as their “Last Piece”, essentially declaring that they complete each other in no uncertain terms. And then there’s the Drama CDs, and…listen, I have LOTS to say about the Drama CDs but. Just, go find a translated script. Just do it.

Of course, if in-canon subtext and outside-canon content aren’t enough to convince you, there was also that time that Ruki deadass told Renamon she loved her.

Alright, bear with me, this one takes some explainin’.

In the late 19th century there lived the popular and influential Japanese novelist Natsume Soseki, whose works are still referenced in modern Japanese literature to this day. Not satisfied with merely writing his own novels, and being a passionate scholar of British literature, he was also responsible for adapting many works of Western literature for Japanese audiences. Now, Soseki lived in the Meiji period, which was reputedly on par with the Victorian era in terms of cultural consensus regarding sexuality and sensuality; which is to say, “repressed as all hell”. So Soseki is translating all these English novels and he notes that British authors say “I love you” way too freely to be appropriate for a Japanese readership. So he takes it upon himself to translate the phrase “I love you” to “tsuki ga kirei”, which literally means “the moon is beautiful”. Soseki thinks that phrasing the idea in such an indirect way still conveys the necessary emotion to the reader without having to be so direct and impolite about it, perfectly befitting literature of the Meiji period. And as Soseki’s adaptations become more popular, saying “the moon is beautiful” to mean “I love you” catches on in popular Japanese parlance.

Which brings me to this scene from Episode 18:

Boom.

“well that’s a stretch” you might think, but hear me out: Translation between Japanese and English is not exactly a precise science. Certain linguistic conventions simply don’t carry over from one language to the other. A relevant example is the use of personal pronouns “you” and “I”; in conversational Japanese, it’s uncommon for either to be used unless absolutely necessary, as generally speaking the subject and/or object of the sentence is understood through context to be either the speaker or the person being spoken to. And this screenshot comes from an unofficial fansub, people who might be forgiven for not being familiar with classical Japanese literary idioms, and thus misinterpreting the meaning behind the lack of personal pronouns in a sentence that includes “the moon” and “beautiful”.

PLUS, it fits Ruki’s characterization to a T. In the original, she’s written to be significantly more emotionally mature than the other kids on the team, reflected in part by her more adult speech patterns and vocabulary. This is the real reason she doesn’t like being called “Ruki-chan” by Takato (or Juri, for that matter): she’s uncomfortable with people being overly direct or familiar with her, and bristles at it. Thus, it makes perfect sense that she’d invoke an antiquated, emotionally indirect phrase to express her affections for Renamon.

In conclusion, Ruki is a furry and a lesbian, Renaruki is canon, I will die on this hill, happy Pride, and thank you for coming to my ted talk.

I’m going to explain this as simply as I can.

Digimon have genders - they can mentally identify themselves as guys or as girls, but this doesn’t map to their physical appearance, even when they’re explicitly female-coded or male-coded.

Example:

• One of the World games has an Ophanimon dude, and that one wasn’t modded by his gender into not having the boobs and bared mid-riff.
  
• The Savers: Another Mission game has a Lilithmon dude who evolved from a Renamon dude, both looking normal for the species.
  

What they don’t have is - is sexual-reproduction anatomy. This is what Renamon means (”by nature, Digimon isn’t divided by gender”) in Tamers, and the Story games include a statement to the same effect.

The Xros Wars series allowing for sexual reproduction and nuclear families is just part of it being wildly different from the rest of the franchise as it is in other ways like the Digital World preceding earth or Digivolution being aging. The Dark Ocean episode of 02 includes the idea as part of the Lovecraft reference, not because it’s something Digimon are automatically capable of there.

I’m going to assume that most people have seen this by now, and if you haven’t, well, here it is. I will be addressing this video very specifically at some point, but not now. For now, just keep it in your brain pocket for later.