i feel like the obsession with a shonen protagonist like chihiro having a romance plotline is indicative of the amatonormativity and misogyny permeating fandom as well associety. chihiro cant have a happy ending WITHOUT a heterosexual romance, because the world has built up this idea that to be leading a life worth living, you eventually MUST have this specific romantic relationship, get married and then have children... personally, i read to chihiro to be aroace because although it might simply be a symptom of kagurabachi not being a manga to touch on romance in the first place (the only expection being kuniaki which i already have my gripes with), chihiro does not display any romantic intentions or feelings towards women at all. I feel like considering chihiro's past, his isolation + feelings of disconnect from his age peers, and emotionally incestous relationship with his father to the point that almost all that motivates chihiro to keep on living IS his father, it would be far more poignant for the happy ending that chihiro achieves at kagurabachi's end to be one with an emphasis on deep platonic emotional connections with the people around him that are his age, like hakuri and iori for example, both abused by society and familial structure in similar ways to chihiro, finally allowed to exist as the children they should have been, without violence. discussing the misogyny part i mentioned in the beggining, i say that the discourse about this is prety misogynistic because the people who talk about chihiro having a female love interest are not sincerely interested in having a female character in the story whom chihiro actually loves and devotes himself to, and she to him. i doubt they even read romance manga at all. they wouldnt want the female character to be fleshed out, or for the romance to be geniune, passionate or real in many ways. and i doubt theyve stopped to consider what romance would look like for someone so traumatized and steadfast in a lifestyle like chihiro. they just want him to "get the girl" so to speak. sorry about the wall of text, i just have my gripes with the kagurabachi fandom in many ways. It’s funny how its considered progressive when in so many ways it's exactly like other fandoms in it's misogyny and generic opinions on where the story will go—everyone wants to think theyre better than everyone else i guess.