Matsugin
the best part of dr. stone
Matsugin feels like the left and right side of my brain ping-ponging off of each other, so they’ve earned the title of Dr. Stone’s Hottest Yaoi Couple. And I want to explain what’s, like, their deal.
I’ll start with Matsukaze, because I’m assuming you have some working knowledge of Dr. Stone. The only people who read this blog are my best friends and if you’re alone with me for longer than 10 minutes I will start talking about Dr. Stone.
Matsukaze is added in chapter 139, and unlike the other native inhabitants of the Stone world, he was born ~700 years before the story begins, got petrified, then gets depetrified in the story’s present. When he’s depetrified, he assumes that Ginro is the reincarnation of his deceased master, so he declares he’s going to be his bodyguard now.
Ginro, who’s a total asshole (I say this endearingly), rolls with it.
It’s worth noting that Matsukaze is the only person in the Dr. Stone cast who was born ~700 years ago— so he’s also a cultural outlier. There’s the pre-stone world cast, (born in the early 2000’s), and the natives to the stone world, (born sometime in the 5700’s). They have a lot of interesting cultural differences, and Matsukaze, being born sometime between the two groups, can relate to neither of them. But that doesn’t matter! There’s 3 things he wants to do:
Orbit Ginro
Work out
Info dump about the Bushido code, which he follows very closely and takes very seriously
Dr. Stone has plenty of little bullshit anime moments to keep the plot going (Byakuya Ishigami just knew Senkuu would need all these rocks! The high priestess has incredible memory! Of course everyone from the Stone World speaks the same Japanese as everyone from the pre-petrified world!) —and, well, the way Matsukaze talks about the noble path of the samurai is one of those bullshit anime moments. Given the nature of their post-apocalyptic society, the concept of a “samurai” existing amongst any stone world natives does not make sense. We’re never explained how he learned this, but that doesn’t matter. I find Matsukaze’s mindset about this special interest absolutely adorable.
Much of Dr. Stone taken as a whole is very autism friendly. The series has that optimistic outlook that everyone can contribute, everyone is worth saving, everyone has value. Even you: the weirdo, the loner, the autist.
And the protagonist, Ishigami Senkuu, has the sort of autism coding that fits naturally when a character flaunts their encyclopedic knowledge and brazenly makes pop culture references that only he understands. He’s an idealized autism fantasy: his special interest is saving the world, and he’s surrounded by friends who love and accept him.
That’s not mentioning the other characters with a heaping of autism coding (such as Chrome/Kuromu and his extensive rock collection). But Matsukaze, being this unique cultural outlier, specifically resonates with me. Because even in this group of outliers, he’s still the weirdo, he’s perpetually the foreigner, he’s the biggest fish-out-of-water timetraveler here.
The Matsukaze and Ginro relationship feeds into another specific fantasy: what if you didn’t have to work to find your soulmate, what if they just… appeared. Because there wasn’t any messy interpersonal work that went into uniting Matsukaze and Ginro, no swiping through Tinder, they just met. There was a few hundred years of waiting for Matsukaze, but it’s not like he was actively seeking Ginro in that time.
The two are together now, and they’re both making the most of it (And like all romances born of wacky circumstances, they did eventually fall in love).
And now to talk about Ginro.
What a douchebag! What a jerk! He barely cares about his job and he’s totally lazy. And, yeah, same here, brother. If you know me from irl you know me because of whatever entry-level job I left because that shit got boring. There’s something about Ginro’s honesty, his constant whining, his devotion to being a slacker that I find so deeply relatable. Total fucking scumbag and I support him fully.
What’s cool is being around Matsukaze leads Ginro to grow up and stop acting so selfishly.
You see the two of them learn from each other and grow and it’s just beautiful. This is what I want to see from a couple: two people who love and support each other and they both learn to be better people by being around each other.
There’s also some distinctly polyamorous vibes here.
With Ginro, I don’t know what’s his deal. When he imagines himself with girls, it’s multiple girls. His fantasies are more about the social status that comes with having women clamoring over you (His fantasies are less about a “cute first date” and more “king reclining and being fed grapes and fanned by his harem”). The way he talks about women doesn’t feel like he’s actually, specifically, into women— but he knows having girls buzzing around you means you’re Important. And being important means you don’t have to work.
Sometimes he’ll say whatever inappropriate horny comment but that all just feels like posturing. It’s the sort of bro-talk that everyone knows you shouldn’t say in mixed company. So just what are you trying to prove, Ginro???
Meanwhile, Matsukaze is so monogamous he loops into polyamory. He’s so devoted to his master that, of course, he’ll also watch over Ginro at all times.
I am convinced of the headcanon that Matsukaze’s previous master was a woman, and Ginro being a man is a non-issue to Matsukaze.
Here’s a comic I made back in 2021 on exactly that topic:
A side note about Matsugin’s popularity: It’s at roughly 0 in the Japanese side of the fandom (As with most fandoms I am actively avoiding the English-speaking side, so who knows how it’s doing over there).
Kinro/Ginro is the main ship for Ginro. And that is not my vibe at all. The incest part doesn’t bother me— it feels obvious that KinGin is made to cater to “forbidden brother love.” You have to accept that’s what they’re doing here.
There was a stage show where Kinro and Ginro’s actors made a heart together and hammed up the fujo appeal. Like, c’mon. Even if I don’t ship it, I know there’s plenty of people officially involved with Dr. Stone that do.
Embarrassingly, I forgot that Kinro and Ginro were supposed to be biological brothers and only had that fun fact re-ignite a few episodes into the anime adaptation. And guess what! I still couldn’t see their appeal as a couple even when I was processing them as two guys hanging out.
Because when you are the Ginro and you are the screwup, there’s no shortage of Kinros in your life who are constantly annoyed at you and pinching their brow and telling you to get it together.
Of course I wouldn’t ship it.
Yeah, I know— Kinro and Girno go a little deeper than that, they do care about each other, but man, Kinro’s overall disapproval of Ginro’s laziness is too big of a hurdle.
One of my favorite fanartists is a KinGin shipper so I’m not really too upset by it. When I started doing my “water color style” digital art, I was actively trying to mimic their style.
But one thing I love about Matsugin is they both accept each other immediately. Of course I’d be drawn to that.
There’s something about their dynamic and the overall concept that’s left me completely enamored.
My first manga oneshot started as a modern day AU of Matsugin. When I figured I’d sell 0 doujinshi, I turned the story into OC’s.
The story is this: Kai (the Matsukaze expy) is a widow and an office worker. Ringo (the Ginro expy) is his new (male, sleazy) coworker looks surprisingly like his deceased wife.
It’s a story about learning to loving life.
And I loved these characters so much, they later got re-rolled into PolyMonFur.
A key difference with PolyMonFur is Kai’s object of devotion is not Ringo. But he’s still grappling with an “expectation vs. reality” shock from meeting your favorite person.
I want to keep playing with these characters forever.
Okay, now for the plot twist.
I still haven’t read the ending of Dr. Stone.
The manga ended about the time Pokemon Legends Arceus came out, and, well.
The progression from “Matsugin shipper” to “Volo worshipper” feels incredibly obvious.
Volo looks like the two of them fused together, canonically he looks like a chick from another time period, and I’m convinced Volo is a time traveler.
I knew right away that Volo is my soulmate and had a real “love at first sight” moment with him, just like Matsukaze did with Ginro. It’s all thanks to Matsugin…. thank you Matsugin.
Thank u for reading <3
