Hmm, I can buy into that. Maybe she just didn't like making romance stories (because reasons), especially for works like Shiki. Though... Creating a character like Seishin, I'm sure she knew what she was doing. What if Seishin's actually intended to be gay, only that she didn't feel like stating that in the story. It'll not interfere with the plot as well (though it certainly can explain some things about him which may make the readers understand him more - so it'll not be compeletely irrelevant to the story I'd say)
Though, yeah it's still quite unbecoming for the villagers to not have the word 'gay' come to their mind when spreading the rumors. Seishin being actually gay or not doesn't matter here. They even have the word 'delicate', why not go all out, that's what gossipers do. Ono made a story like this, villagers gossiping about Seishin being gay shouldn't be a great deal I think. It will not make us automatically think that Seishin's canonically gay anyway. Though yeah, the things a fandom can do...
Though... One thing which would make people ultimately think that Seishin might be gay is if he continued to 'intimately' interact with Toshio. I'd like to see where it goes, when Seishin keeps his certain habits up...
8D
Though, yeah it's still quite unbecoming for the villagers to not have the word 'gay' come to their mind when spreading the rumors. Seishin being actually gay or not doesn't matter here. They even have the word 'delicate', why not go all out, that's what gossipers do. Ono made a story like this, villagers gossiping about Seishin being gay shouldn't be a great deal I think. It will not make us automatically think that Seishin's canonically gay anyway. Though yeah, the things a fandom can do...
Though... One thing which would make people ultimately think that Seishin might be gay is if he continued to 'intimately' interact with Toshio. I'd like to see where it goes, when Seishin keeps his certain habits up...