Good question resop!
What makes me suspect that they're a couple? A number of things. I shall have to use examples liberally.
While hotness plays a visual part to the whole shipping process (that much I admit
), from what I can tell it's usually through their interactions that I decide that yes, so-and-so could be a couple and it'd be awesome. There are several dynamics of course.
The best-friend-turned couple type: Most popular among people around here. See TakaGaki, KameShige etc. In a way, it's easy because bonds of trust and friendship can possibly blur into love and romance depending on how "friendly" the girls are with each other.
Especially for TakaGaki as mentioned by the above posters, their long years of friendship and the obvious trust in each other can lead to speculation when yuri goggles are engaged.
I do not personally favour this pairing type (not anymore, lol), but I don't deny the potency.
The rivalry based type: This one is tricky. Usually works only when there's a mutual respect built up from the rivalry. Hate does not equal love, so yeah, not easy to play with this dynamic. I favour it myself mostly due to my own competitive nature, and that's probably why I favour ReinAi. They are rivals in a sense, but that's a deep respect between the two at the same time, and a very strong bond of trust knowing that your partner won't let you down and is an equal to you. I enjoy that dynamic and so...yeah. I tend to prefer understated bonds rather than public displays of affection (not that those are a bad thing!), because I always inwardly suspect that PDA is fanservice and should be taken with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, this dynamic only really works with a very selected few and it's too easy to throw any "opposites attract" pairing type into this format. FYI, I'm not always into opposites attract either. Very picky person here.
Ok other than dynamic, there's also how much they talk about each other, how they talk about each other, and lastly, of course, what they say. I find that the how is more important than the what, usually. My new H!P OTP atm is Harunan x Dawa (Wada Ayaka
) because of how hilariously adorable they are, how Harunan finds it impossible not to blog about Dawa every other day (actually, all her posts in the last week inevitably mention Dawa
). Their interests match, they enjoy each other's company, when they see something completely unrelated, the first thought is to tell the other person. It's puppy love at this stage, and I find it adorable.
Are they a couple? Not yet. Too soon, too dense, too...lol. I shall enjoy the bestie dynamic for now.
Then again, every couple (or potential couple
) is inevitably different. There's no real one size fits all rule that lets me conclude that a pair can be a couple. I can see the same interactions between a different pair and not conclude that they're a couple. See Maachan and Ayumi from 10th gen
Maachan literally runs first thing to Ayumi to tell her anything and everything, and only makes phone calls to her about random stuff. I don't see them as a couple....more like mother/daughter.
I guess chemistry also plays a part, and also the character of the person in question. Everyone expresses affection differently, so it has different meaning that way.
Also, regarding the body language thing, I think that's a big tell too, though I usually ignore hugging (that's normal...unless shown that under stress they always run to the same person, then yes, that's something
). Kissing ala Ai/Sayu is amusing, though I don't usually attach much deeper meaning behind it. They're obviously playing, although the fact that they're close enough to play like that says a bit about them.
Thinking "why" a person chooses to do something and "who" they do it to is like a science for me.
But then again I'm pretty big on the whole character study thing nowadays so I don't tend to throw people into pairings as wildly as I used to (unless crack. crack is ok.)
But yup.
Some day I shall analyze pairings when I have the time and motivation to do so.