By Natalie Smith
The soft mutual
You could imagine them in a field wearing a flower crown. Their profile pic and header probably have pastel colors or if they are a weeb, cherry blossoms. They use lots of heart emojis and smiley faces in their tweets, and they tend to reply to others with them as well. Also hug gifs. A lot of hug gifs. Their favorite anime is probably Ouran Highschool Host Club, Yuri On Ice, or some other wholesome anime. An anime where nobody dies, an anime with a bright or pastel color palette, an anime where the biggest conflict does not put the protagonist in danger but they just want to live and succeed. Soft mutuals make you feel happy when they reply to you.
The edgy mutual
Their favorite anime is probably Code Geass, Death Note, Devilman Crybaby, Tokyo Ghoul, or something else that can be seen as dark, sometimes gory. The kind of anime where the plot question morals, the protagonist is the villain, and lots of death is involved. The edgy mutual has probably tweeted before about wanting to die. But to be honest, that happens a lot on twitter, so that isn’t exactly exclusive to just edgy mutuals. The edgy ones tend to have profile pics and headers in darker colors. Black and red is a typical combination. Sometimes you don’t know whether to be concerned for them or not. Even though they can seem tough and intimidating, when you get to know them, they can be chill sometimes. Either that, or you’ve just gotten used to their edginess.
The popular mutual
You don’t know why they followed you back. They have so many more followers than you (They have 1000 followers at the least) and they get many more likes per tweet. Their selfies will even get retweeted, giving them even more likes. They are definitely pretty, so those likes are well-deserved, at least. And they likely have a good sense of humor, because, well, humor is often what causes tweets to go viral and thrive. Even if they follow you, they may not interact with you much. When they do end up in your notifications, it can be a bit shocking. Man, if only they would retweet your good tweets. Their favorite anime is probably Hunter x Hunter or Haikyuu or something else that has been around for a while. How else were they going to build up that many followers? The longer the anime, the more time it has to accumulate fans while still being relevant. The more popular the anime, the more followers that they can get by tweeting about it.
The loyal mutual
They are always in your notifications. Even when nobody else likes or retweets what you do, they will. You gotta give it to them for always being there. You can count on them to make you feel seen in the huge void that is twitter. They are probably a retweet-heavy account. Not a lot of original tweets. But they show themselves through what they retweet and the few times that they actually tweet themselves. They are clearly passionate about their interests enough to retweet a lot about them, but you may speculate that they are quiet in real life, given their lack of actually using the platform for their own words. If you see one of their original tweets on your timeline, you better like and/or reply to that. If they make you feel seen, you better do the same for them. Their favorite anime is probably the same as yours, because of course you share the same interests if they retweet the most out of everyone.
The activist mutual
Although they may be an anime fan at heart, their account now hosts a lot of political and activist tweets. They no longer care about staying in just the anime and fandom world, but into the real world as well. They’ve probably retweeted a lot of petitions to sign, gofundmes for people in need, political tweets, and more. They really hate Trump, which is understandable, of course. They might start to lose followers as their account turns from mostly anime to mostly activism. Their favorite anime could be anything, honestly. That’s right, this can happen to anyone.
The sudden k-pop stan mutual
Overnight, they changed their username, their display name, their profile pic, their header, and their bio to reflect their new obsession with k-pop. If they don’t have their actual name in their bio or on a linked carrd and you don’t have any existing DMs to identify them by, you likely have no idea who they were beforehand. They usually start out as a BTS stan and then start to expand their horizons. Some just go straight for girl groups, like Blackpink. This is not the first time this has happened to a mutual and it is not the last time that it will happen. Sometimes you wonder if it will happen to you and your account. What was their favorite anime again?
The screaming mutual
They always type in all caps. They use keyboard smashing a lot. They’re just really excited, okay? They usually scream about their ships or when a new episode comes out and something happens. You feel obligated to scream back when you reply to them. It’s not a bad screaming; it’s a good screaming. An excited screaming. A really passionate screaming. They’re probably also LGBTQ+ and will say “i’M GAY” when they find a character they find attractive or just really like. Their favorite anime probably changes with what is coming out at that time. In order to scream about the newest episodes and content, there has to be new content coming out in the first place.
The dead anime mutual
Their favorite anime is probably limited to one season, whether a second season was promised by the creators or not. These are the mutuals that still want a second season of Ouran Highschool Host Club, even though it’s been almost fifteen years since the first season by now. They probably read and write a lot of fanfiction, because if there isn’t going to be official content, they need to feed themselves with fan content. Some dead anime mutuals are just waiting, like the Yuri On Ice stans. They will tweet about missing Yuri On Ice every once in a while, even if they are watching other anime and shows right now. The Yuri On Ice stans still follow each other from 2016…they are waiting. They had a movie poster, after all. Kubo promised them a movie and then season two, after all. When will the wait end?
The fanart mutual
They post art and that’s why you followed them. You may have followed them for one anime, but as their art changed fandoms, you were convinced to change fandoms over time too. Their art is just that appealing. Sometimes they will post a lot of content, and other times, none at all. They might be in art school or had gone to art school. Sometimes they collaborate with fanfiction writers. Sometimes they have merch shops. You want to support them and their art however you can.
Natalie Smith 