Rant/psa About Mitsuba's Name Because I Desperately Need To Get This Off My Chest:

rant/psa about mitsuba's name because i desperately need to get this off my chest:

i've noticed this trend in the english speaking jshk fandom, specifically on tiktok & tw*tt*r, where fans will take the "sousuke/mitsuba" distinction (in which the original mitsuba is referred to as "sousuke" to differentiate the two) too far and *exclusively* acknowledge sousuke by his first name and act like "mitsuba" is solely no.3tsuba's name, completely ignoring the fact that THEY'RE BOTH NAMED MITSUBA. people will go "the original is sousuke and the new one is mitsuba" and it pisses me off because **they're both mitsuba**!!!!!

regarding sousuke mitsuba: he was introduced into the series as mitsuba, his initial chapters are literally named "mitsuba," his name is sousuke mitsuba, he is mitsuba. it is his name just as much as it's no.3tsuba's name. the only difference between the two is that no.3tsuba doesn't get the luxury of a full name like sousuke and is *only* referred to as mitsuba. so why are you behaving otherwise?

i understand wanting to make a distinction between the two when necessary, but acting like you can't refer to the original as mitsuba no matter what because "he's sousuke, the other one is mitsuba" is dumb as fuck in my opinion and blatantly ignores the precedent set by the series, in which they're both equally referred to as mitsuba, just in different contexts. they're both mitsuba and it won't kill you to use his last name as it's used in the series

anyway yea this is just a reminder that this exaggerated distinction between the two of them is not based in canon and in fact a mere fabrication of the english speaking fandom because we can't differentiate using kanji & katakana like how it's done in the original japanese text. they're both called mitsuba, not just the supernatural. don't give into mass fandom hallucinations. have a good night

(and just as a reminder, in the original japanese text, sousuke mitsuba is referred to as 三葉 (kanji) and no.3tsuba is referred to as ミツバ (katakana). the distinction between the two already exists in japanese)