Wakana Chans: First Sex 190201no Watermark Fixed
Before we can discuss Wakana’s first relationship with Marin, we must examine his "first relationship" with his peers. In elementary school, a young Wakana experienced a traumatic event that would define his social anxiety for nearly a decade. He excitedly showed a friend his meticulously painted Hina-doll face, only to be met with disgust. The friend called it "creepy" and "gross," a rejection so profound that Wakana internalized a single, devastating belief: His passion makes him repulsive.
For years, this became his romantic baseline. He didn't seek love because he believed he was unworthy of it. His "first relationship" was with isolation. He watched his classmates from the back of the classroom, a wallflower convinced that his intricate world of dolls and craftsmanship was a barrier, not a bridge.
This pre-story wound is crucial. Unlike a typical rom-com lead who is dense or feigning ignorance, Wakana’s hesitancy is born of genuine trauma. His first relationship with a potential love interest was a phantom—a future he had already canceled.
Before we can discuss Gojo’s first love, we must discuss his first heartbreak.
In flashbacks, we see a young Wakana, round-cheeked and earnest, excitedly showing a girl his prized hina doll. His grandmother, his only emotional anchor, had nurtured this love. But the girl’s reaction is visceral disgust: “That’s creepy.” The other children join in. In that single moment, Gojo learns a devastating lesson: The things you love make you a target.
His first "relationship" with a peer was not romance; it was rejection of his core self. For the next decade, Gojo operates under a self-imposed curse. He withdraws into the atelier, studying the faces of hina dolls—perfect, porcelain, silent, and safe. Real girls, with their unpredictable emotions and social codes, become terrifying alien creatures.
This backstory is crucial because it subverts the typical "shy boy" trope. Gojo isn’t shy; he is a prisoner of PTSD. His first storyline is not about winning a girl, but about surviving proximity to one. wakana chans first sex 190201no watermark fixed
Enter Marin Kitagawa: a gyaru, a fashionista, and a hardcore otaku for risqué video game heroines. On paper, she is everything Gojo fears—loud, social, and part of the "popular" world that once burned him. Yet, Marin is the narrative’s ultimate irony. She does the exact opposite of his childhood tormentor.
When Gojo reveals his sewing skills and his knowledge of costumes, Marin doesn’t laugh. She looks at him with awe. Her eyes sparkle. In the series' pivotal early chapter, she declares, "You’re so cool!"—not in spite of his weird hobby, but because of it.
This is Gojo’s first true, positive relationship with a peer. It is not romantic yet; it is professional and collaborative. Marin hires him to make cosplay costumes. This transactional foundation is crucial. It gives Gojo a safe mask (the craftsman) to wear while he learns to navigate human interaction.
Wakana’s first legitimate romantic relationship—though it develops slowly—is with Marin Kitagawa, a first-year high school student and gyaru.
The Inciting Incident The relationship begins when their worlds collide in the school dress-making room. Marin discovers Wakana’s sewing skills and, instead of mocking him, is enraptured. She asks him to make a costume for her favorite anime character, Slippery Girls 2’s Shizuku-tan. This marks the first time anyone has validated Wakana’s skills in a social context.
The Dynamic The relationship is built on the concept of omotenashi (hospitality/wholeheartedness). Before we can discuss Wakana’s first relationship with
The inciting incident of the series is not a confession, but a sewing machine. When the effervescent, gyaru-fashionista Marin Kitagawa discovers that the quiet boy in her class can sew, she bulldozes into his life with a singular request: help her cosplay as a erotic video game character, Shion Tyun.
This is where Wakana’s first real romantic storyline begins—not with a crush, but with a transaction.
What makes the Wakana-Marin dynamic so refreshing is the premise of "doing." Wakana does not know how to flirt; he knows how to craft. His love language is touch, but not the romantic kind—the artisan kind. In the first arc, as he takes Marin’s measurements, he treats her body not as an object of desire, but as a mannequin. He is clinical, professional, and trembling. Marin, conversely, is oblivious to his internal panic.
Enter Marin Kitagawa: a gyaru sunbeam who cosplays eroge characters and has the emotional intelligence of a therapist disguised as a chaos gremlin.
Their first relationship is not romantic. It is functional and transactional. When Marin sees Gojo using a sewing machine in the home ec room, she doesn’t mock him. She is awed. She aggressively recruits him to make the costume of Shion-tan, a character from a violent, lewd game.
For Gojo, this is the first shard of light. Marin sees his skill—his art—before she sees his awkwardness. Their initial bond is built on a foundation of mutual respect for craft. Gojo learns how to measure a bust, how to drape fabric, how to airbrush skin textures. Marin learns patience, the horror of glue guns, and the vulnerability of being seen without makeup. Enter Marin Kitagawa: a gyaru, a fashionista, and
But the romantic storyline begins to germinate in the silences. Gojo starts noticing things he shouldn’t:
His first romantic arc is defined by denial. He constantly tells himself, “She belongs to the shiny, normal world. I belong to the dusty atelier.” He mistakes his growing love for anxiety. This is textbook for a trauma survivor: re-labeling affection as fear.
The narrative progression of their relationship follows a "friends-to-lovers" arc, though Wakana is largely unaware of the romantic nature of their bond for a significant portion of the story.
Phase I: The Transactional Partnership Initially, Wakana views their dynamic as purely transactional: he sews, she models. However, he begins to experience emotions he doesn't recognize—nervousness, a racing heart, and a desire to see her smile. He mistakes these for the excitement of craftsmanship, showcasing his romantic naivety.
Phase II: Realization and Denial The turning point occurs during the Shizuku-tan cosplay event and subsequent outings (such as the beach episode and the summer festival).
Phase III: The "Love" Confession (Ambiguous) Wakana eventually realizes he is in love. However, a running theme of the series is miscommunication born from insecurity. Wakana believes he is unworthy of a "main character" girl like Marin. He interprets her kindness as mere gratitude for the costumes, leading to a poignant narrative tension where the audience knows he loves her, and she (eventually) realizes she loves him, but their respective insecurities keep them in a state of "will they/won't they."
Wakana’s first romantic storyline cannot be analyzed in a vacuum. His relationships with side characters serve as mirrors and obstacles.
