TsubaMaki

TsubaMaki is the femslash ship between Tsubasa Kira and Maki Nishikino from the Love Live! fandom.

Canon
In the Love Live! movie, A-RISE teams up with μ's in order to prepare for the massive school idol event being hosted by μ's. Tsubasa stays in the Music Room with Maki to help her with composing. Tsubasa compliments Maki's song so far, and Maki tells Tsubasa if she has any ideas, she's all open to them and she'll try to work them in. Tsubasa then walks over to Maki and gets close to her. Tsubasa says, "how about this?" and then a small gliss plays. It is unknown whether Tsubasa actually played this on the piano or if it was simply part of the background music. Then Maki is seen, whose face is blushing and a bit surprised.

In canon, Maki and Tsubasa only have one interaction just the two of them, mentioned above, and it is only about 15 seconds long. Other than that, they two only interact generally as rivals and then friends as a part of μ's and A-RISE respectively.

Fanon
TsubaMaki sailed from their very short scene together. Since they share such little time together, the ship is very minor, especially since some have never even seen the movie at all. Further, Tsubasa is a supporting character and Maki has much more popular ships, most notably HonoMaki, RinMaki, and NicoMaki especially. As well, TsubaHono is Tsubasa's much more popular rival ship. Despite this, the ship has a decent following, as their clip together was evidently enough to fuel the pairing. The two's contrasting personalities and characters are an attractive point of the ship.

While the meaning of the scene between the two is up for interpretation, most take it as a romantic one, as if Tsubasa is attempting to flirt or advance on Maki. This is strengthened by Maki's reaction and the general tone of the interaction, although brief. Nico's reaction to the two also fortifies this. Nico, who was watching them with her face pressed to the door's window, seems to come off as jealous, especially when Nozomi catches her. Many believe that whatever Maki and Tsubasa were doing, Nico did not like it, fueling the TsubaMaki ship, and also NicoMaki.

Some joke that Tsubasa is going around to all the girls to captivate them, usually in the case of Maki and/or Honoka, but also others like Umi. In fanworks, Tsubasa is often portrayed as the more forthcoming one, as in the scene Tsubasa is the one who approached Maki. Tsubasa is usually incredibly charming and mature, as she is in the anime. In typical Maki-fashion, Maki acts somewhat like a tsundere and hides her feelings. The ship-starting scene from the movie is often referenced.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

TUMBLR

Trivia

 * Both have the attribute "Cool".
 * In the manga, Maki wanted to attend UTX, where Tsubasa attends. This could be explored as a bonding point.
 * One of Tsubasa's charm points is her short stature, and Maki is the second tallest in μ's, making for an attractive height difference.