#the actual gay people of shonen in question…

[gvnchyno2]

⚾️❣️

[neonscandal]

9 Anime to Watch to Feel Like This 👇🏾

I love how long it's been since I've done any rec's lists before pushing two new ones out. Since my blog tends to have a bit of a reputation, this one felt necessary. In no way is this an exhaustive list, but if you're looking for some LGBTQIA+ representation this month, consider tuning into any of the below. While shonen ai and yuri will of course have representation, I tried to focus on mainstream stories where possible with characters that tackle their identity or where it's not necessarily a plot point but simply a recognized component of who they are. Bonus manga recommendations at the end! Happy Pride, beloveds. ✨

Zombieland Saga (series) - Something, something about stars burning brightest not lasting as long. This is the story of an idol group of zombies who were inexplicably resurrected to bring attention and culture back to the Saga prefecture. Enter Franchouchou forged by starlets who'd died far too young, seeming victims of some unspoken curse. Follow along as each of the girls reconcile the loose ends of their human lives while making the best of their second chance at stardom. ✨

Sub/Dub | Crunchyroll

Blue Period (series) - Who you are isn't something that's readily apparent especially in your teenage years. For Yaguchi, he starts a bit behind the curve realizing in his junior year that he wants to pursue art. While the story centers around his journey to catch up with his peers, there's an element of self exploration and vulnerability that he can't quite tackle alone.

Sub/Dub | Netflix

Komi Can't Communicate (series) - Arguably the first slice of life romance to hit the list but the character who inspires the series' inclusion is not involved. This is the story of a girl trying to overcome crippling social anxiety and the boy who patiently helps to expand her social circle (even though the girl's actually really popular??). Yea, it's one of those shows. While I haven't specifically tried to out characters in describing recommendations, I included this show specifically for Najimi Osana who, while their sexuality is not particularly explored, still has very Be Gay, Do Crime energy with the way they are always looking for an ever so slightly sheisty angle. Like, good for you. The fact that they are also extremely popular and accepted by their millions of friends is just another reason to adore them.

Sub/Dub | Netflix

Ouran High School Host Club (series) - This particular throwback is a dicier inclusion than the last, namely because of the antiquated (and, at times, offensive) language that doesn't particularly hold up in a rewatch today. The show centers around a group of affluent "boys" who cater to the whims and fantasies of well connected girls at their high school. This frequently involves a bit of overdone fetishization of their own questionable sexualities and, while most of the gang is referred to as the "homosexual supporting cast", I can't dismiss the feeling that there is some earnest representation specifically with the lead that most of the hosts have a romantic soft spot for. It's a cult classic but undeniably outdated; however, I think, in the representation it does well, there is diversity. In what the series does poorly, it opens up dialogue especially for conversations people simply weren't having back when the show dropped.

Sub/Dub | Crunchyroll, Hulu

Sailor Moon (series) - Can't forget the OG. I think what, inherently, inspires the inclusion of Sailor Moon and OHSHC above is the fact that, even then, there were small rays of hope in media. How well or poorly it was executed goes to show the evolution of that representation. Spoilers but, for context, in the US, the couple above was censored and portrayed as unusually close cousins rather than romantic partners. Granted, there were a lot of other choices that were made back in the 90's that have since been corrected as the series has been remastered.

Sub/Dub | Hulu, Prime Video, Pluto TV

Ranma 1/2 (series + movies) - OKAY, I know I called Sailor Moon the OG but.. for all intents and purposes. Ranma 1/2 precedes even Sailor Moon. I would say the series, at times, may teeter a bit on whether the representation is positive or not but, I maintain that a significant portion of the cast is queer as hell. The series follows eponymous person of legend, Ranma Saotome, in a quest to become a "man amongst men" as though their life depends on it.

Sub/Dub | Hulu, Prime Video, Tubi

Stars Align (series) - While I think most of the above can be considered positive or negative representation, they are at least not trauma porn in nature. Enter: Stars Align, a moody coming of age story set as an underdog tennis club tries to defy all odds and avoid being disbanded. While I wouldn't classify this as trauma porn either, it does delve into some viscerally heavy topics while also tackling the act of Becoming for a group of young boys and what that can mean with a support system of unlikely peers.

Sub/Dub | Hulu, Crunchyroll

Wonder Egg Priority (series) - As we've departed to delve into darker themes, the premise of this show centers around teens who have dealt with instances of suicide and, subsequently, learning to stand up for themselves in real life (while violently battling it out in a dream world).

Sub/Dub | Crunchyroll

Jujutsu Kaisen (series + movie) - wholesome inclusion to remind you that you should never let your sexuality nor your gender identity stop you from pursuing world domination. Representation is equal opportunity and of little consequence to this story and, yet, considerably diverse for a shonen series. Don't get me wrong, it's a battle horror anime where kids are battling curses and plot armor is hard to come by so prepare to get your heart broken.

Sasaki and Miyano (series and movie) - There will never come a time where I don't recommend watching this series. Actually wholesome romcom wherein there's a patient level of acceptance and support as Miyano navigates the confusion of his feelings for a clingy senpai. Because there should be more unproblematic love stories in the world. 💕

Sub/Dub | Crunchryoll

BONUS MANGA

Is Love The Answer? by Uta Isaki, completed

While the main story focuses on a character navigating their way under the Ace Umbrella, the story features additional characters on their own journey of self discovery with resources for Questioning readers sprinkled throughout. It's also a great example of how broadening your media intake can create a better sense of understanding with who you are and how you identify with grace so you don't have to be so quick to label yourself.

The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't a Guy At All by Sumiko Arai, ongoing

Adorable story of opposites that find a middle ground together which drives home the idea that you should never judge a book by it's cover.

[bidonica]

If MGS is here to stay, can I propose an introductory post/meta for the uninitiated? It's not like this bbkaz or vquiet don't have the potential for mass appeal...

Well anon, this ask gave me some trouble because every time I tried to answer I went off on a tangent because how do you explain the brainworms? The thing about Metal Gear is that it is a complex piece of media that deals with pretty heavy themes, such as the reasons and consequences of war, colonialism, the military industrial complex; existential questions like finding purpose in one’s life vs what has been allegedly predetermined by genetics and whatever path higher powers have carved for you, confronting your own mortality, the realities of aging and disability. It does things with video games as a medium that feel innovative to this day.

It is also, in many ways, a shonen anime, meant to be enjoyed and digested by teenage boys, so it actually has a lot of genuinely funny moments and some downright juvenile humor, and its treatment of women is… let’s say there is vast room for improvement (this is one of those tangents I could go on). Some writing choices are frustrating, because big character moments and plot points are tucked away in optional strands of the game you need to unlock, and not in the main storyline; sometimes they are downright hidden (Ocelot’s parentage!!!). Or they are brought up once and never addressed again (Otacon’s family trauma from MGS2). Whatever Naomi's deal was in MGS4. MGSV being unfinished! There are a lot of things that make it an objectively good piece of media and justify its place among the undisputed videogame classics, but there are also several things to criticize; I’m not going to pretend it’s perfect.

Still. It bewitched me body and soul and I think the reason is simply the characters, alongside the engrossing gaming experience (even if it was a bit of a struggle at first, MGS1’s commands are nightmarish if you are used to modern games). Never mind that the execution can be clunky at times, these characters just… strike a chord, design and personality wise, and inevitably make an impression. I mentioned design because, as an artist, that’s kind of important to me; one of the reasons I realized pretty early on that I was getting into some long term commitment with this series was that I wanted to draw those pixel guys all the time, and it hasn’t happened to me since… well, getting into asoiaf way back in the day. Let's not even begin with the amount of fic writing I've done alongside the fanart

Shipping talk behind the cut.

So: the high grade yaoi cocaine. Anon, if you’ve been following me for some time you might have probably noticed that I wasn't always about the fujo life. I understood it intellectually but I also spent about two decades in fandom feeling immune to that specific kind of brainrot. Then I played the computer room scene in MGS1 and hearing Gray Fox wantonly ask Snake to hurt him was my MK Ultra activation code, I guess. This is another part where I could go off on a tangent on just how gay these games are (starting from like. Canon queer characters) but I’ll keep it short. Let’s say that every time I heard people talking about how gay a certain thing in the games was I was like “okay, these are the fujo goggles speaking”. Then I actually played/watched/listened to the thing (two words: sauna tape) and yeah. It was ALWAYS gayer than I imagined.

(reddit bros will tell you that many of those instances are meant to be jokes, but truly they pile up so much that they start sounding like the “hahaha… unless???” kind of joke. And there IS a mission where the literal objective is to make Big Boss woo his second in command so he can have gay sex with him. I’m not exaggerating.)

So… yeah. There are actually a lot of ships to choose from (or not choose and live that multiship life), and the unevenness in writing that I pointed at is exactly the right amount to make these games a fertile fandom sandbox. And to answer your question, personally I go hard for bbkaz because Kaz has quickly become my favorite character in the series, but there’s no Kaz without his relationship with Big Boss. The tragedy of their enemies (very briefly, but they literally meet with an attempt at murder-suicide) to lovers to enemies again arc is very compelling to me; the mutual betrayals; the unstoppable force (Kaz) vs immovable object (BB) of it all; and yes even the aesthetics of it (shiny well groomed hypersexual extroverted beach Barbie coded in yellow and gold vs hairy weathered gruff jungle man who’s all greens and dark tones). I just think that’s neat!

Vquiet is a bit more difficult to explain because they literally never talk. Quiet is canonically mute save for two isolated instances and Venom barely talks because Kiefer Sutherland was too expensive to hire for more line readings (but honestly it’s one of those contingent things that ends up being consistent with who Venom is). Also, on paper, Quiet would be the epitome of this franchise’s worst tendencies when it comes to female characters: she doesn’t talk, she’s mostly naked and posing sexily a lot of the time, she gets subjected pretty gratuitously to sexual violence at the end of her arc. But the stars aligned so that she has a charisma and gravitas about her that, combined with her backstory, elevate her to a very compelling character TO ME. She and V get romantically coded scenes like BRIDAL CARRY and PLAYING TOGETHER IN THE RAIN WITH ROMANTIC MUSIC and she gifts him the cigars Kaz won’t let him smoke for his BIRTHDAY like… I think she and V are effectively written as aggressively yearning for each other, and I like the reading that Kaz is so immediately hostile to her also because he’s jealous and he doesn’t know that SPOILER BIG SPOILER JUMP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH AFTER THE PICTURES IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED FOR THE BIG TWIST OF PHANTOM PAIN Venom isn’t the real Big Boss.

Plus they’re just sexy together I think 

[fireemblems24]

Chapter 8 of Scarlet Blaze

Spoilers for up to Ch 8 beneath the cut. This chapter fucking sucked.

Also, I know I tagged this as SB, but be warned this was pretty critical of it. If anyone is actually still browsing tag and thinks I should remove it, I will.

STORY

Hell, yeah, Dimitri was taking names.

This plot is . . . kinda stupid. I feel like Edelgard is just running back and forth the whole time, accomplishing nothing.

LAMO, Omg, she just straight-up blamed all the deaths from the previous battle on . . . Claude 😂

Edelgard really be like "Why did Claude make me hit him!"

I'm pretty sure the writers didn't intend for SB to read like a Monty Python skit, but Edelgard has less self-awareness than Sir Lancelot when he kept apologizing for slaughtering the wedding party because at least that he was aware enough to apologize.

Oh, Randolph. So how many times does he die this time?

So, like, does Shez want people to get executed if they flip sides? He's like, geeze, how dare Claude and Dimitri forgive people.

Shez is like "I don't understand a word you say Edelgard, but I'm helping you slaughter your way across Fodlan because you may rub off on me!" More "SB is a comedy in disguise" fuel.

I wish I picked F!Shez for every route. I like her VA a lot more. Plus, I've seen this personality on a male character in the countless number of shonen anime and manga I've watched/read, but not as much in a woman. And unlike M!Byleth who's gorgeous, M!Shez is alright, but not super hot or anything.

So Lindhart mentioned that the Kingdom and Alliance can rally against the Empire because of the relics and crests. And like, I don't see how killing Rhea will make that power vanish and people not desperately want it. I feel like so much of Edelgard's spiel is an edgelord's power fantasy with no basis in reality.

This soldier is like "Dimitri labeled everyone who sided with his uncle as guilty in the tragedy of Duscur!" Lamo. Except it's true. Would've been interesting if it wasn't and see how Dimitri handled that. I sometimes wish he got more grey situations bc the writing in Hopes so far he's just . . . the good guy. Like straight-up the hero, no questions. Which, I love because at heart that's what Dimitri is, but I wish the writing would corner him anyways.

Oh, fuck. It's Sylvain. Oh fuck. I don't want to fight him. That sucked.

Count Rowe is being a backstabbing moron. I love how it's always the evil ones that side with Edelgard. It's an underrated thing no one talks about.

And now I have to fight Rodrigue :( Feels bad, killing Blue Lions+ members for the crime of defending themselves.

Ok. It's an unquestionable fact that when you find yourself fighting Annette, you are the villain. This is just truth.

Pretty sure this is heading to a temporary truce between Claude and Edelgard. Which, Claude's (and the Alliance's) funeral, I guess, lamo.

SHEZ & PETRA B SUPPORT

Petra's asking Shez about mercenaries. Questions if Shez would work for the enemy if they offered more money. Aww, damn. You don't have an option to say yes. :(

At least it's somewhat based in trust on their employer (and to get future ones) and not just mindless fangasming. I wouldn't want that in GW or AG either.

DOROTHEA & HUBERT B SUPPORT

This is their only support.

Hubert has a letter from the opera company and wanted to talk to Dorothea, so he's giving it to her in person.

Ohhh, he's bringing up how Dorothea hates violence, but stays and fights in the war rather than returning to the opera.

Glad this is finally getting addressed. Letting Dorothea talk.

It's part wanting to fight alongside her friends and part wanting to represent commoners in Edelgard's army. But also to score a rich husband.

Honestly, much better than whatever the fuck their Houses final support was.

HUBERT & FERDINAND B SUPPORT

So other popular ships got amped up (Dimilix, Dimidue, Marihilda - strangely not Sylvix though). So did the gay get turned up here?

Ferdinand is up late and Hubert wonders why. Ferdinand is studying the law to try and get his father arrested.

Oh, Ferdinand brought up the fact Hubert's father died. Putting Hubert to the question about executing his own father and mad he didn't judge his father in public

Hubert argues that his father would never have been found guilty.

God, that was SOOOOO much meatier than "I wanna serve Edelgard the best!" "No I wanna!!!!"

Monica took over the "pathetic Edelgard simp" to Hubert's "competent Edelgard simp" so Ferdinand could finally fucking get to run.

Ferdinand so far is 10000% the best part of SB (I'd say Petra competes, but I like her better in AG so far).

SHEZ & FERDINAND B SUPPORT

Shez thinks Ferdinand is faking enthusiasm. Not like that. Lamo. He's just overcompensating for his father's failure.

Ferdinand feels powerless and useless. I wish he was the MC.

Shez just wants to help Ferdinand feel better.

Ferdinand wants to surpass his father.

It's a repeat of his stuff with Edelgard and Hubert, but it's by far the most compelling part of SB.

PETRA & HUBERT B SUPPORT

Hubert is checking on Petra to make sure she feels comfortable and temps her with staying in the Empire, but Petra's like "naw."

Worth noting that Brigid is still under the thumb of the Empire. So Petra's a hostage basically forced into this war in order to secure the freedom of her country.

And they can't even go public yet, fearing the citizens get pissed off. Man, the Empire must be full of bloodthirsty land grabbers.

Go Petra! She low-key threatens Hubert and forces them to uphold their promises. Nice seeing her have a backbone.

PETRA & FERDINAND B SUPPORT

Ferdinand sung to Petra to ask her to spar. It's really cringe. Like, realllllly cringe. I would've been embarrassed if I wasn't playing alone.

He thinks this is some Brigid custom, but song and dance is only involved with religious ceremonies. Petra calls him out for finding her country so silly.

It's a mistranslation

Petra owned Ferdinand in this support and we are here for it.

FERDINAND & LYSITHEA C SUPPORT

Talking tea. Can relate.

Lysithea was ready to eat the food and bail. Nice.

But Ferdinand wanted to ask her about joining the commoner class. Lysithea insists she's fine with it and wants to.

Ferdinand doesn't know any de-nobled nobles who are happy. Lysithea know he only knows ones who got kicked out, he's not wrong.

Then he's like, you can't join them! Then you can't change anything anymore. But like what is he fighting on Edelgard's side for?

She, of course, doesn't have a future.

MONICA & BERNIE PARALOGUE

Bernie's enjoying her socially isolated life when Monica needs her help with something because there's no one else around.

You can have Shez agree she shouldn't come, and he says he'll slow them down, lamo. Bernie is offended.

They need to rid bandits out of a cave.

So his Duke is part of it. And he's had problems finding the Fetters of Dromini because of a TWSITD spy. It's also related to whoever kidnapped Monica.

So all I get is Shez, Monica, and Bernie. Only Shez has even looked at a battlefield and the other two are level 1 an 2. I can make 1 an adjunct, but not both. Ugh. Gotta go level at least one up.

Oh, hey, Myson.

I forgot how good of a unit Shez is lol.

Seems like Bernie actually has a decent mom. Bernie just wants to hide in the caves though. Monica advises against it.

DOROTHEA & MANUELA PARALOGUE

This one is easier since they're both leveled up already.

Everyone is fangirling over them. Dorothea assures Manuela that time hasn't tarnished her beauty, but she doesn't buy it.

They wanted Shez as a bodyguard because he's not a crazed fan. I wish real life celebrities would just whip out daggers on ridiculous fans.

This one's more entertaining than the last one. Random thieves are fans and if you defeat them with whoever they're a fan of (Dorothea or Manuela) they join you, lamo. Good both of them are already leveled up too.

Aww, Hanneman showed up to rescue Manuela.

The bandits were swarming the town because of the war. It's nice to see more acknowledgement of how Edelgard's war is screwing over the common folk.

Glad to see Hanneman get a nice little shout out despite getting demoted to NPC. Dorothea and Shez basically told them to get a room, lamo.

STORY/MAIN FIGHT

Edelgard is the least effective conquer I've seen in fiction.

"Defeat Dimitri" - How about, no.

I see "persuade Mercedes." Does that mean I need to bring Jeritza? Because it's not like Hubert or Edelgard are masters of persuasion.

"Defeat Dedue." I hate this. Monica's like, "If Dedue's here, then Dimitri is too." Even SB ships them.

Haha, they flipped sides to Dimitri after he was like "I don't want to kill you, please fight for me instead." And like, no shit?

Aw, shit. Now I have to fight Dimitri.

Oh, now I get to fight Ingrid too. Guys, I'm having so much fun right now. It doesn't help at all that SB is boring as fuck.

Oh, shit. Fuck. What the fuck. Ingrid just died. 😭😭😭😭😭😭

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Oh shut the fuck up, Edelgard. "Oh, this is so painful." IDK maybe stop trying to conquer everyone who doesn't kiss your ass. You too, Monica. "Oh, she was loyal to the end."

I'm beginning to remember why I hated Edelgard so much in CF. She's such a self-righteous idiot incapable of taking responsibility for her shitty actions AND has no sense of self-awareness.

Dimitri and Dedue sound so sad 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Dedue and Dimitri both taking the credit, meanwhile prissy ass is like "oh, wow, so sad these people died. No idea why."

Shit, Dimitri just mentioned Glenn. He sounds so broken up. Glad Dedue is giving Ingrid the credit for her own choices and actions.

She died defending everyone she loved.

I bet Edelgard will find a way to blame Rhea for Ingrid's death rather than take any responsibility for all the death she causes.

Only Dorothea fucking cares about Ingrid.

"We are nowhere near achieving our goals in the Alliance or in the Kingdom." - Edelgard. I can't fucking understand how some people argue she's isn't an Imperialist.

At least she's admitting she's fucking stupid with her army leadership inabilities.

I'd tell Edelgard to go fuck herself, but that implies a level of pleasure she doesn't deserve. #JusticeforIngrid #StoptheImperalists

xxxx

[nadziejastar]

Absolutely love your akusai analysis stuff its so good omg.

Do you have any more thoughts on them?

Thank you for the kind words, I really appreciate it! As for my thoughts on Akusai, well, after beating Fire Emblem Three Houses recently, I do have a few thoughts. I know, I'm late to the party on 3H. (I actually loved 3H and would love to write metas about those ships lol). But anyways, regarding Akusai. It's a bit of a rant and there's minor spoilers for FE3H, so I'll put it under the cut.

Okay, so Sylvix felt like it was everything Akusai was supposed to be. It touched on all the same themes, too. In 3H, you've got a childhood friend trio. The standard two males and a female. On the surface it seems like the girl and the outgoing redhead goofball are a thing. But they treat each other more like bros. He and the quiet blue-haired sword guy had a much more intimate bond with each other, complete with a special promise™ to always be together and redhead being protective of blue. The redhead never wants to grow up and change because he doesn't wanna fulfill the heteronormative life script of getting married and having kids.

He is longing to go back to his childhood days but is sad at how much blue has changed since they were kids and has apparently outgrown their closeness. He hides his angst behind a smile and womanizing. Blue was once a meek clingy crybaby but now he is surly and obsessed with growing stronger. Deep down he is still an uke who secretly longs to be redhead's waifu. But he has a lot of shame related to his sensitivity and gender nonconformity. He distances himself from others, but boy does he get irritated if redhead flirts with anyone else.

I do wish the game would have just come right out and tell you that they're gay for each other (and so does this gaming site). I get why it didn't. Still, it didn't really hide it too much. They have a paired ending where they spend their whole lives playfully teasing each other like just when they were kids, never get married, and die together in each other's arms. It's the most romantic ending in the whole game, if you ask me. And Sylvix is SUPER popular and well received by the fandom. Both in Japan and the West. They have soooo much fan content. There are still some dudes who say they're just friends because ew icky gay. But most people in the fandom are able to tell they're queer-coded and are fine with it. In fact, the fandom was so fine with it that they released an overtly queer dude in the DLC, strictly due to popular demand.

3H is not a slam dunk with gay romance since much of it (particularly MLM) relies on subtext. But it still had more balls than most JRPG series and it definitely was a step in the right direction. We all know that Soriku is the most popular ship. The end of KH2 was total fujoshi fuel. But Soriku never had any chance in hell of being canon. KH is a video game shonen anime. Sora/Riku bromance is "safe". They can capitalize on shipteasing them to their female fans, but they won't alienate their male fans because Kairi is still very obviously the love interest for Sora. I found Akusai to be a lot more compelling because it was legitimately queer-coded.

Axel was queer-coded from the very beginning. His close friendship with Roxas in KH2 made people question his sexuality all the way back in 2006 and Akuroku rivaled Soriku for a time. And I do think that Axel always meant to be queer. Although personally, I did not get the impression that he was in love with Roxas. I got the sense that he probably had a best friend back when he was a human. And it was this dead best friend that he truly yearned for. The sweet and innocent Roxas reminded Axel of his human best friend and he latched onto him to help him forget the memories of days long past. That was my headcanon back in 2006 when KH2 first came out.

So, I was really happy when Days/BBS came out and it basically confirmed my theory that Axel was truly hung up on his human best friend and saw Roxas as a kind of replacement for him. And Isa was also very queer-coded. BBS!Isa has a more distinctly feminine design than any other boy in the series. He had very girlsh eyes and lips, small hands, long hair. And Saix's Mystery Gear is very cutesy-looking. Traditionally, the moon is viewed as a feminine symbol. And Saix's weapons in 358/2 Days were named after moon goddesses. They could have easily picked male moon gods, but they chose female goddesses like Selene and Artemis. It signifies to the player that, "Hey, this character does not follow the conventional gender stereotypes."

When you play 358/2 Days, and you get to the part where Axel is talking about love, you realize he's talking about his most precious memories from his human life, just like with all the other stuff like summer vacation and the red sunset. Akusai was not just superficial fujobait. Even if it was all subtext, it was a genuine depiction of two queer male characters who loved each other romantically. Axel is not straight. That’s a big reason why I was so mad that KH3 pushed their relationship off to the side and treated saving Isa as so much less important compared to saving Roxas. And it was so annoying how Saix had to mention Subject X whenever he might have seemed a little too obsessed with Axel otherwise.

Last year, Nomura said that he intended to show more of Lea and Isa's backstory in the future, so I've just been waiting for more content. I hope that we can get their story without Subject X overshadowing them like she did in KH3. I'm...cautiously optimistic. I expect this subplot to be included in Missing Link, since it is quite literally a missing link of the story. Axel is super popular and a queer-coded backstory with his childhood best friend would be very well received by the modern KH fandom, IMO. People are a LOT more accepting of gay content than they were in 2006. We've come a long way. And personally, I just love the idea that the tough cold asshole Saix's human self was actually a super sweet cutie who was in love with Lea. I really think the KH fandom would love that idea, too, if the writers were ever allowed to actually explore it. And a niche mobile game is probably a safer medium for that type of content than a mainline console game overseen by Disney, I guess. At the very least, if they ever put an Isa figurine into ML, I will whale for it if I have to. 

[theclearblue]

Love you blog, thanks for your posts. I'm kinda tired with "war-fandom", where each side like "Mine are better, yours are suck" (especially in twitter). Like, when I said that now I love JJK, some of my anime/manga moots like, "Why love that? One Piece & Hunter x Hunter are waayyy better?" or "CSM > JJK" And I was "Why can't I love all of them? All things have strength and weakness...." (in the end I block them). And don't get me started with shounen vs shoujo fandom, like why people love to spread hate just to say what they like are better.....

Sorry for my rant, just want to say, love your blog.... 🤩

Also, what are your opinions about shipping in fandom (especially shounen & seinen)? I don't really have a shipper heart, but even I get it (the power of bromance)....And yes, I'm so happy about Kenjaku/Takaba, I'm surprised that even in the end, Kenjaku did not blame Takaba.....

Thank you anon this message is so nice, I'm happy you enjoy my dumb ramblings here🤧 And yeah I get what you mean with this competitive nature in constantly comparing shonen, which on one hand I get and I do to a certain extent as well, these series are in the same genre and can share a lot of similarities. And I think each series can have different strengths and weaknesses while still being good (an example being if I were to compare JJK and One Piece, generally I think JJK has way better fights while I think One Piece is a little bit more consistent in fully fleshing out most/all characters we see. I still like both a lot). I think it's partly facilitated by the this culture of having a "big three" shonen series, both in the fighting of what's better between naruto one piece and bleach but also where a lot of people are trying to create a new big three with recent shonen. Which. It's fine but ultimately a little silly in my opinion lmao. Unfortunately being a fan of a lot of different shonen, at some point you kinda just have to accept the people who treat the genre as a dick measuring contest and not much more. And oof don't get me started on shonen vs. shojo (which as a big fan of both...let's just say it's not typically the shojo fans who are being terrible...).

And oh, what an interesting question about shipping, I guess I hadn't thought about it too much before but I'm quickly realizing I have Opinions on the matter the more I think on it lmao. Generally I'm pretty positive on shipping, where I don't think it's the end all be all in any series, but it is a tool one can use to put a new lens on character dynamics, and I think that's fun and interesting! Taking a pair like Takaba and Kenjaku, I think this is a really good pair to look at because it's clear they have a connection, right? They fundamentally understand each other at a level nobody has, maybe ever (and isn't that insane on Kenjaku's part?! He's been alive for a 1000 years!) And I think you can color the dynamic in different ways and get really interesting yet different results, are they like brothers? friends? lovers? soulmates? Is their connection platonic, sexual, or an actual love? It's up to you! This kind of analysis has been done since literally ancient times (Greek concepts of love with Eros, Agape, and Philia), so I guess I get a little confused when shonen fans are against shipping entirely?

A series that features Big Fight with BIG Punch can still have layered and complex characters that hold love for each other, and people interpreting it as romantic is not weird or gross or even fetishizing in my opinion (that's a whole can of worms that might warrant an entirely new post lmao). I think a good example is Satosugu. They certainly aren't explicitly romantic, but there is a lot of subtext within JJK that imply they might have romantic feelings for each other. But some JJK fans are just so weirdly disgusted by this concept of...gay people existing in their media? That they SCREAM from the rooftops that "they're like brothers! 100% straight!" And it's like...we could have a good conversation here! Interpreting them as brothers is just as valid I think as shipping them, but you gotta explain why. And I've seen some fans say "Hey their relationship reminds me of my relationship with my brother/best friend or there's Scene A and B that makes me think they're platonic and that's how i interpret it, with no romance." And as long as they aren't shitting on people who ship Satosugu, this is completely respectable to me. But I'm going to respect a shipper who just thinks they're both hot when they stand next to each other way more over someone who clearly is just uncomfortable with the idea of two fictional men or women being interpreted as having a romantic relationship lmao.

Shipping culture is certainly not perfect, but generally I think it's just a harmless fun hobby that can inspire people to make really cool art in all different forms, and, speaking as someone currently studying history, shipping has probably been going on since at least 4000 years ago when the Epic of Gilgamesh dropped in ancient Mesopotamia with Gilgamesh/Enkidu so I just think people, particularly shonen fans, are wasting their breath throwing a fit about it and acting as if shipping is this new evil gay phenomena that's poisoning their battle action series.

[clovercalloway]

We Best Love: Episode 1 [BLIND REACTION]

So, I have a girl friend who is fan of this show and finally convinced me to watch it. Did I make a mistake? Who knows.

But I collected my thoughts and decided to do this. Well, this is gonna be long so get ready. I'll edit with my afterthoughts (note, EAW means Edited After Watching [the episode]) once I'm finished with season 1, or maybe before. We'll see.

Ok, let's begin!

Welp, he's dead, Great start!

You sure this is a romance? This looks more like an intervention.

So, Zhau Shu Yi. I'll guess he's the main character or one of the main characters. I'll try to remember his name [furiously takes notes]

The one gremlin with No Name is asking Zhau why they think it's important for him to win. As a Bakugou fan, I'm excited to hear his answer.

"I push myself forward, so that you can see me." Just one minute and it's already too ‎fluffy for my heart

So, they're fighting underwater. They saw too much anime, istg. Anygays, that tells me these are actual kids (well, the actors may be older, but I'll suppose they're interpreting kids. I bet they're highschoolers).

"LESSON 1: LET'S SUFFOCATE." Okay, wow, great title. So maybe my joke about him being dead wasn't that far off.

Chilhood friends to lovers is such a nice trope, oml, go for it, boy. Be a man and go get your man!

Fang Zhen Wen and Jiang Yu Xin. Hope I remember that. Are those the other two friends?

Me, trying to be smooth

He has a fan club

You gals are fans of a swimmer. What did you expect? You were gonna run out of things to offer him eventually.

So he's Zhou Shu Yi. [keeps taking notes] I'll try to remember that.

Bro, how did he fell? You're supposed to be a pro, Zhou, your gals will be dissapointed.

He sounds way to chill for someone who's almost drowning.

NO YOU'RE NOT????

"How are they talking underwater?" "It's the rainbow connection, don't question it."

My Shojo Academia

Gao Shi De is me receiving gifts (socks and a mug) on Christmas

Anygays, Gao Shi De and Zhou Shu Yi seem to have this kind of rivalry since they were basically on diapers. They came out of the womb wanting to throw hands with each other.

But Gao Shi De seems to be the naturally gifted, always on top, and so Zhou Shu Yi developed some sort of inferiority complex, or so it looks like. (Wow, this reminds me of yet ANOTHER story and ️‍🌈 ship that started in a similar way -if you know, you know-)

"Why did you fall-" THAT'S WHAT I'M SAYING, LIKE, WHY

Are you telling me that the actual reason he fell was because of the big gay panic- I mean, rivalry, that he has against Shi De?

OMG HE CUT HIS FINGER! I've seen enough shojo (and shonen) to know what this means. Where's Shi De to kiss it better?

You're not Shi De.

"I'm not crying." He's so Bakugou, istg

Now he's blaming his misfortunes on Gao Shi De. Bruh, the only thing he did was exist.

Oh, so they're in university? Nice to know.

His friends are trying to understand his language, I feel them, literally had no idea what he was talking about other than "Gao Shi De".

I was gonna say they seem like good kids and very supportive friends. The latter is truth. The former...

This poor unfortunate soul keeps falling for their tricks. Gao Shi De it's not that dumb, tho.

Oh gods, he plays the piano, he knows what them girls (and boys) like.

So after having a whole ass "Corpse Bride" moment they went back to bickering

They should make out, ngl. [EAW: Bruh...]

Gay people can't just ask someone out, they have to be very extra about it. Shu Yi is an example of that.

He's been bullying Shi De since they were kids, he's oblivious af.

Boy, just confess, it'll save you and your friends' time.

I want to know his name, he's such a mood.

While Shu Yi can't stop thinking about Shi De, important things are happening.

That girl from the beginning [EAW: Yu Xin, her name is Yu Xin, you big disaster] is asking Fang Zhen Wen out and he's all (,,>﹏<,,)

At least she's honest, nothing more important than THAT.

Shu Yi heard about the proposal and went all fake-smile on them and then left.

"Is Shu Yi OK?" Idk, girl, you tell me, I thought you three were friends.

They're telling him is dangerous to run down the stairs. I think he'll live, but I won't forgive him for dropping his backpack on the floor. Bro, get your stuff.

He's gonna start singing Beat on It.

Annnnnd he went back to the pool. Man, this is were it all started. The flashbacks from episode 1- oh wait.

He's actually making me feel bad, ngl. Maybe it's the acting, or that I understand the whole "why not me" situation. Mitski taught me well.

It's hard. Friendships and relationships are messy, specially when someone is still young. You also have to deal with a lot of feelings being even more irrational than they should, and the inferiority complex definitely doesn't help, making you feel so insecure about yourself, and as if no matter what you're always going to lack something.

I might barely know them but at the end of the day it's no one's fault, really. You can't control how you feel, or how others feel.

MOOOOOVING ON. You know who could help? HEY, SHI DE!

[EAW: He actually came, that mf]

Wait, is he actually? Bruh, did he jumped on the pool?

Why are teens like this. He could've just dropped the collar. Him and his dramatic gay ass.

Speaking of dramatic gay asses.

My guy, this is episode 1, couldn't you just wait until... episode 4, at least?

Dont give me that bs about cpr. The surface was RIGHT THERE!

AND THAT'S THE END OF EPISODE 1. I kinda wanna know if he'll give him the lame excuse about cpr.

I'm dying for more tension, Yu Xin knows what I'm talking about, she also has to finish her thesis.

So, that went quicker than I thought. It was compelling tho. I still need more to form solid opinions, but I´ll bite, I'm interested to know how this develops.

Anyways, whoever reading this (cough cough, bossman), see ya later. I'll watch episode 2 after this.

[ihatedean]

Is jojo's bizarre adventure a good first anime? I've only watched Sailor Moon as a kid and maybe Dragon Ball but the art is so gorgeous I'm kinda curious!

people who aren't fans appreciating the art style give me life omg<33 i agree it's stunning ! ! just look at this ! wow ! !

EDIT: WOW OH MY GOD WE'VE ENTERED YAPPING STATE. SORRY. SHORT ANSWER YES IF YOU LIKE MULTIGENERATIONAL FAMILY SAGAS AND THEMES OF FATE AND BLOOD BUT IT'LL TAKE SOME GETTING USED TO. JOJO IS A WEIRD SHOW. ITS WIDELY KNOWN AS THE GAY ANIME FOR A REASON.

but to answer your question,, i'd say it's 50-50? i know a lot of people that aren't anime fans that LOVE jojo. it's a very unique show that doesn't follow the classic formula that other shonen anime follow like DB does, for example- this is either a huge bonus or it completely ruins the experience, because a lot of people compare it to other shows they're already familiar with. there's no better word for it, it's a BIZARRE series. everything is weird, the dialogue, the characters, the setting, the art. the author's writing style is something everyone sort of had to get used to and we love him for making us go through that.

i actually avoided the anime for years because i thought the characters looked gross and the lack of female characters was kind of an issue for me back then (it gets better it gets a lot better you just have to see it through). but it was my boyfriend's first shonen and he begged me for months to watch it together so i said fuck it- i think i made him watch twilight or play danganronpa in exchange.

.....it might not grip you from the start. part 1 is not a lot of people's favorite part. it wasn't mine- after like four or five episodes (of nine ! it's very short !) of being weirded out by it, i realized that i had to stop seeing it as a shonen anime, and instead began to see it as,,, a play,, of sorts. if you watch the first two parts you'll know what i'm talking about. it's drama. once i changed my perspective on it, i completely fell in love ! ! from part 3 onwards it's a lot more like the usual shonen, and i know it's a lot more enjoyable for the average fan, but the first two parts are charming in their own weird little way :)

looking back on it after watching twin peaks, there are a lot of similarities, with the quirky characters and the themes. i only started twin peaks because of a jjba fic inspired by it. if you like twin peaks, i'm certain you'll like jojo.

but this is my spn blog and i assume you like supernatural so. i'll say: don't expect the same focus on relationships that spn puts on the characters, but know that its present in every interaction. where sam and dean hold each other tenderly and talk about how they're the only thing that matters, in jjba you'll have one character looking at the other in a way that's just drawn differently and the fandom will go insane. the supernatural characters are built very very carefully and have a lot of details that fans memorized- jjba characters are just as good but have a lot more space to play with if you want, regarding headcanons and storylines. their lives and thoughts aren't as well documented as sam and dean's is what i'm trying to say lol you'll know what brand of underwear a character likes most but you won't know his birthday. it happens. yes a lot of the fanfic is ooc because there's barely any character to remain inside of.

last but not least. this is a wincest blog. the first six parts of jojo follow six different generations of the same family. this is not minor. there will be daddy and mommy issues, there will be strange family dynamics. the family tree is FUCKED up and when you learn why you'll either drop the show or become sickeningly obsessed with a certain little guy called DIO. yes like THAT dio. there are a lot of musical references. unlike some characters i know, he's canonically bisexual.

anyways WOW do i like this anime. idk what else to say if you need more convincing this is the opening i guess

[getosugurusbangs]

Just see this in twitter by someone :

"Why do people read shonen for subtextual doomed yaoi click bait when X exists and you don’t have to pretend?"

"I'm starting to think maybe people should read actual BL manga. perhaps considering manga written with actual gay characters in it in addition to shipping m x m from whatever battle shounen you're into."

Like because of those subtext, there can be fanfics and fanarts, right? And then I decided to come to your blog. This has become one of my favorite...

unfortunately, since action shonen series are always gonna be super popular, and be multiplying by the day, it’s generally easier (and in certain ways more rewarding) to get into those, as opposed to actual bl. because honestly, there’s really not a lot of popular bl. (at least ones that are genuinely good and not… questionable in various aspects) i wish there were more popular ones honestly, one thing with liking bl is that after you’ve seen the main popular ones, you have to much more actively search out other good ones to see. in the end though, even if people did find and get into a bl series that has what the popular action shonens do but with actual gay pairings, shipping culture will still exist, people reading into things will still exist, and queer people picking up on potential subtext will still exist. and people should learn to care a bit less about it, and mind their own business more in my opinion.

(i’m glad you enjoy my blog though! it means a lot, honestly)

[ropes3amthoughts]

Guys I still love DunMeshi with all my heart but I’ve recently been getting into JJK (though I’m watching it at a snail’s pace because my brother keeps procrastinating on doing his homework and we can’t watch it until he does his homework and as impatient as I am I’m not an asshole and I won’t watch it without him) and out of curiosity I looked at the fics on AO3 and there are 60k (which are in English bc I can’t read other languages)???? Seeing that after the slowly accumulating 3k English DunMeshi fics (with very few fics I actually like because I’m picky and also I like to see Kabru content and such and he’s only in like 1/6 of the fics and a lot of them he’s a side character or it’s smut which I’m not interested in etc. etc.) and like I’m sure after I sift through the JJK fics there won’t be that many fics I actually want to read but the sheer choice I’m bring given makes me feel like that dog with all the tennis balls dropped around it like holy fucking shit dude. I am a greedy little guy I am gonna have so much content to look at dudeeee

Plus going into JJK I actually ship something? I’m ok with ships in DunMeshi but I never shipped anything in DunMeshi until I interacted with the fandom like that wasn’t of my own ideas or seeing chemistry or anything but this was like a few episodes in I was shipping and I just haven’t done that in like a while? Like some of it it makes sense like stuff like Hollow Knight and Subnautica have very limited shipping options but like I just have not been in a shipping mood for like a years and a half I don’t think bc the last time I was super into a ship was in the summer of 2023 when Across The Spiderverse released and I was one of the like ten people who shipped GayaPav. And not like Hobie x Pavitr x Gayatri I mean like I was a super big fan of just the two of them and I made up so many headcanons for them and started looking at fics when there was only 3 on AO3. I know their official ship name is ChaiModel or whatever but that fucking chai tea joke got on my nerves after it got repeated a billion times and it’s all people reduced Pavitr’s personality down to and I was so damn sick of it no way in hell was I calling him chai in a ship so I made a ship name myself

Ok I’m getting distracted lol. Ok so the ship in JJK I like is Itadori x Fushiguro (sorry SatoSugu fans. I understand the way you think but they have not touched my heart the same way those gay boys did) and I think it’s because they remind me of Killugon. Ough Killua and Gon I love them forever. And while these two don’t mean as much to me yet I feel like they are special to me and I like them. I need to finish the anime before I start trying to poke my nose in fan content or I am going to spoil myself but like man I am excited so many fics and I am having fun. Man I had forgotten the whimsy that comes with shipping.

Also shonen anime is so fun lol I know some people don’t like it but I am thrilled every time they use cursed energy or explode something or a curse shows up or there’s some fight scene. It’s so fun. Every time Gojo uses a special skill I start screaming. The power scaling seems kinda busted (like the first years all taking out a special class demon in the last episode of season one and Gojo being like all powerful) but like idrc to be logical I think this is fun and it fucks hard hell yes blow stuff up woohoo yay!!!! I’m also interested in like the lore stuff too and the characters…I feel like I don’t really hate anyone and they all have interesting bits about them and there’s still some questions I have about like Sukuna and cursed energy and especially Shikigami I have so many questions about those and I’m hoping those get answered later bc like I still haven’t finished but like I am enjoying this show and having fun teehee though I think I will still remain a hardcore DunMeshi fan because like my heart is still in that. Oooh I could make like a crossover AU or something. Idk man I am just having fun

[neonscandal]

Just see this in twitter by someone : "I'm starting to think maybe people should read actual BL manga. perhaps considering manga written with actual gay characters in it in addition to shipping m x m from whatever battle shounen you're into."

Like because of those subtext, there can be fanfics and fanarts, right? And then I decided to come here, your blog is really one of my comfort place....

Comfort place!? This makes me want to carve out time to post infinitely more. 🥹 Even though it feels a bit aimless, I’m glad I could cultivate that for you and hope I can continue to do so.

RE: twitter, without context, it's hard to tell whether this person is earnestly recommending people to expand their interests into BL or if they're dumping on people who tend to support and identify queer shipping across other genres.

On the one hand, heavy agree that if you appreciate queer pairings of any kind to absolutely find media and stories that shows healthy (and authentic, if possible!) representation of whatever you're into. I feel like sometimes in BL, specifically, there’s a lot of toxicity or violence passed off as romance which is why I recommend being discerning. Here are some green flag recommendations and I kind of touch on the importance of identity through engaging with queer content by way of BL's featuring fudanshi's there. Isn't always the case, but it's a storyline I appreciate.

If the poster was side eyeing queer ships in "mainstream" or shonen stories... they should grow up. I've been in and out of fandom for like.. 20 years. There have always been people who recognize and popularize queer ships. Back in the day? Characters didn't even have to share the same show, universe or genre to end up in a crossover slash fic on Fanfiction.Net.

Don't get me wrong, I've definitely needlessly explored several crack theories or made off-base assumptions about a story for the sake of trying to guess at where it’s going. But I sometimes question people's competency for reading/watching comprehension when a particularly shitty hottake is making its rounds on social media. Like are we not watching the same thing?

Subtext does exist. I don't know that all authors are as elegant or intentional in its execution but if you're not bothering to consider the possibility, you're potentially missing out on critical pieces of a story you're choosing to invest hours/years of your life into! This isn't simply as it pertains to shipping but also picking up on critical exposition (Attack. On. Titan.) or even questioning whether the information we're getting as the reader or viewer is conveyed with any sort of narrator bias. Yes, this is absolutely a My Hero Academia call out. ✨

Queer coding does exist. Tons of reasons why queer characters aren't always explicitly identified as such. More often than not, there's some form of censorship. Whether at the editing level during manga production or when it comes time for manga/shows to be approved for international distribution (re: information that's lost in translation vs outright decisions to alter the flow of the story). Most glaring example of this that comes to mind is Haruka Tenou or "Sailor Uranus"/Michiru Kaiou or "Sailor Neptune. In addition to gratuitous name changes when Sailor Moon was pushed abroad, several countries would rather portray the two as unusually close relatives despite the clear romantic undertones exhibited whenever they were on screen together. Also, IDK why, but pretty sure I'd seen somewhere that, initially the creator of Naruto did want to canonize Sasuke/Naruto but, truth be told, I've never watched the series and that could have been a fanon theory I'd seen.

Overarching messages exist. Similar to the first point, a story is seldom just a story. More often than not, you're looking at some sort of social critique or opinion that's being expressed or explored through the story. To not bother thinking critically about what you choose to spend time in enjoying is a pretty bland way to miss the point of it.

When all else fails, it's not our fault that the only relationships most shonen mangaka focus on developing is the one between "rivals". That's it. If there were more dynamic characters or literally any consideration toward the depth of intimacy between the main character and whatever tritagonist female lead the male lead inexplicably ends up with (aside from the simple rationale that "she is the girl 🎀"), then maybe fans won't have to hone in on how the only agency, equality and intimacy is between the only two characters of substance. That was a mouthful but so are the overly poetic soliloquies shonen rivals inevitably share about one another.. ✨

I'm guessing this question might be related to the last anon ask about fanfics? I agree regarding the fact that subtext allows for a richer selection of fan art and fics. I think, depending on content, the motivation for reading fics will subsequently differ. For instance, I'm less likely to read fanfics for a romance series even if I sometimes write for them because the source material generally satisfies what I wanted from them. But fix it fics, angst and romance fics for shonen/seinen series'?? I'll definitely pick them up because, 1) there are usually unexplored relationship dynamics in the source material, 2) there are alternative domestic/fluff storylines you'd never see because the genre doesn't allow for it, 3) the canon plot is usually so devastating *cough, JJK, cough* that I need a respite, and/or, 4) the developing plot tends to have a lot of holes that writers can explore to craft uniquely compelling AU's and alternative plotlines that I wouldn't imagine.

Man, it's been a while since I nerded out and really took the time to bang out a rant. I've had so many thoughts bouncing around but just zero time. Thank you for your ask and the reminder that there's someone else out there in the shipping trenches. Stay safe out there, anon!

[erving-goffman]

To answer your question one piece is very gay. A main ally of the straw hats is a guy guy whose best quote is 'queers never die'

There's also a person called ivanov who is dressed like tim curry in rocky horror picture show and they inject people with hormones to trans their gender.

There's more but icba to type. One Piece is openly, canonically gay

aww cute i guess?? yeah i haven't heard this a ton ig like i don't care that much about shonen so if i hear about it it's very surface level/popular discourse. actually i might've heard about the gay island before and forgot. thanks for coming out of your way and educating me i hope the next one piece movie is good

[hxhhasmysoul]

I wanna make it clear that I completely support the lgbtq+ community and that there are definitely animes out there that have underlying queer themeing (which is great), but I very much do not think that this line was implying that for a handful of reasons.

I’ll be real, the moment you wrote that you “want to make your support clear”, I was sure questionable shit would follow and you surely did not disappoint. 

First of all, a common reaction of this scene I've personally seen from the Japanese audience of JJK is that they assumed that Fushiguro is romantically interested in his sister since he has a flashback to Tsumiki. This is definitely a very different interpretation from the western audience.......if the author really wanted something within his story such as sexuality to be clear, then I really think it would have been something that would be universally understood and talked about within the Japanese audience as well (you know..the main audience).

Reading this one could come to the conclusion that there’s some consensus among the Japanese fandom, that Megumi is simply into incest. Which, surprise surprise, is not actually the case. Not only does at least some of the Japanese fandom question Megumi’s sexuality, actually based on this scene. Some of them also question his gender, though according to @/cursedvibes it’s often done in an unpleasant fetishistic way.

But, lo and behold they are not that completely different from the western fandom, as in they are not some homogeneous group with one take on a story and its characters.

Second, I think many people who intake media from the Eastern hemisphere of the world forget the fact that countries like Japan are still quite close-minded and homophobic. Just because BLs and such media exist doesn't mean it is actually accepted in general society.

Oh wow, like your bigotry is just so thinly veiled… Also even if the society is homophobic, which it is like most societies around thee world, in the west as well, it doesn’t mean that queer topics are somehow strictly relegated to media mostly directed towards women like BL or GL or towards gay men like bara. 

Like throughout history all over the world queer themes in media directed at the general population were included even if outing meant for legal consequences for the author, or for their work to be banned. 

Third, JJK is classified as a shonen manga no matter how you look at it. Meaning it is directed towards a teenage boy audience and very action-based (and I don't think the average Japanese teenage boy really consumes queer media 😅). There are definitely queer characters in shonen anime, but with a character archetype such as Fushiguro- it is very unlikely that the author had any intention of making him queer.

Yes, things directed at teen boys would never go too much into the queer shit because we all know that there would be no interest in it. Teen boys are a group where there are never queers, so they’d not care, because all people are exactly the same and are only capable of enjoying stories that strictly represent them... Especially those teen boys who like action, none of them could ever see himself in a queer teen boy among the main cast… 

It’s not HxH is a shounen classic, written by a guy who has always been an outspoken queer ally. Or not like Killua, its secondary protagonist, is a beloved character. Killua whose love, very likely canonically romantic one, for his best friend Gon, the protagonist, has been widely discussed and speculated on by the Japanese fandom and the creators of the HxH anime. 

What character archetype is Megumi exactly? One that is forbidden from being queer. Does it have a name?

Also we all know, archetypes are immutable. This is what art is all about, choosing predefined pieces and putting them together exactly as intended, never trying to do anything, sorry for using a vulgar word, creative with them. 

And Megumi isn’t actually even the main target of queer speculations in fandom, the relationship between Gojou and Getou has been heavily speculated on due to some lines in the manga. 

Gege has implied that Mai was queer several times. And has drawn a title card of Maki and Nobara that reads really very not heterosexual. Which is in line with how Nobara seems to have a crush on Maki.

And there are several trans and non binary characters.

But yeah, JJK very strictly toes the line of the conservative and queerphobic part of Japanese society.

The fourth and final and MOST IMPORTANT reason as to why I made this post in the first place...THE LINGUISTICS!

Okay, so there was some bigotry along the way but surely surely the appeal to linguistics, my comfort thing will fix this post… 

…

Okay so the textbook shit about pronoun use in Japanese tracks. Alas that’s just not exactly it.

…

All in all, please believe and consume media the way that you want. If you headcanon that a character is queer, that's completely valid and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.

That’s very benevolent of you. 

What motivated me to make this post is because I somehow ended up on a side of the internet where people very strongly believe that it is canon that Fushiguro is queer and are viciously arguing anybody that disagrees.

I’m sorry fans are shitheads, it does not really excuse this post though.

So, it actually inspired me to make a linguistic post since when I thought more into it- the entire ordeal has a lot to do with linguistics!

It surely does, just not in the way you portray here. 

It's important to remember that TRANSLATION and LITERAL TRANSLATION are very different things. Yes, if you literally translate what Fushiguro says into English it definitely sounds like he has romantic interests in more than just women. But the Crunchyroll subtitles are honestly very good in translation, which is expressing the meaning in one language into another language while being cognizant of the cultures of the 2 languages and with as little discrepancy as possible.

So like the comment on what translation is, is almost correct, but Crunchyrolly did not do it well. 

__________________________________

There’s this joke about linguists:

Q: How many linguists does it take to change the lightbulb? A: Context please. 

(It’s even funnier when you do it with an “I love you” declaration instead of the question… the things that amuse me…sorry)

__________________________________

So the word that is suspiciously absent from your linguistic analysis of this scene is CONTEXT. Which I don’t think is a coincidence because of how you framed it, what video you used. 

Japanese is a pronoun avoidant language because it was created by a high context culture. It means that the communication in that culture is less direct and precise, worded less literally,  and heavily relies on both the cultural context that is known to the speakers and what can be inferred from the flow of the conversation itself. 

So context is extremely important in how the Japanese people communicate and ignoring it is just misleading. It’s also a very important thing for translation. And Crunchyroll, like you op, chose to ignore it.

The video you linked doesn’t include the beginning of the conversation. Doesn’t show the full context. Including the fact that Megumi answers after Toudou already mentioned that it’s okay if Megumi was into guys…

So Megumi chooses not to use a pronoun or any other way to denote the gender of his desired partner after someone implied he might be gay. Sure he might just be polite, but it’s kind of interesting that he doesn’t feel the need to reassert his heterosexuality. Would an author of a shounen manga for teen boys leave that ambiguous? Especially that according to you Megumi is some nebulous but strictly straight archetype and the author is from a conservative country. 

Hmm…

And what do we even know about this author, Gege Akutami? 

We do know that their work, JJK, sure has a left slant politically. It’s not the most progressively enlightened work on Earth or even in Japan, but Japan has a long standing tradition of leftist movements, it also has an active queer movement that’s fighting for its rights, they’ve even had some quite well publicised victories. 

And even if Gege isn’t always the best on the issues, they surely seem  aware of them and try to include them in their work. Also I did not mention Togashi Yoshihiro by accident, Gege’s kinda a big fan and it’s very visible in the way JJK is written that Togashi’s works have been a huge influence.

And actually Gege really consciously uses or avoids pronouns, over and over again. While Crunchyroll and Viz are notorious for needlessly gendering characters whose gender is purposefully ambiguous or unknown at that point in the story. 

There are even 2 specific scenes explicitly addressing gender in JJK. 

First we meet Kirara. Panda and Megumi had known her/them as a guy when Kirara was at school with them. But the moment they see her/them in the present, they instantly change the way they talk about Kirara. It’s clumsy but the intention and context are very clear.

Next we finally meet Tengen, who openly refers to her gender. 

It’s almost like in the CONTEXT of this scene LINGUISTICS isn’t such a mic drop as you suggest it is.

Fushiguro's Japanese Pronoun Avoidance

(disclaimer: this is just an insignificant little thing I wanna talk about that I found quite interesting)

In this scene, Todo tells Fushiguro to tell him what his type of woman is. He replies in Japanese with その人に揺るがない人間性があればそれ以上は何も求めません which literally translates to "If that person has unwavering humanity, I won't ask for anything more." In the Crunchyroll subtitles (shown in the video above) they specify the pronoun of she. In some other subtitle translations, they keep the original "that person" as well as in the English dub.

Now with this scene, I've seen some people criticize the Crunchyroll subtitles for "trying to make it seem that Fushiguro is talking about only women" since there are fans who strongly believe that this specific line was supposed to indicate that Fushiguro is actually queer. In an English context, this analyzation is very plausible and really does make a lot of sense. But remember, JJK is a Japanese work.

I wanna make it clear that I completely support the lgbtq+ community and that there are definitely animes out there that have underlying queer themeing (which is great), but I very much do not think that this line was implying that for a handful of reasons.

First of all, a common reaction of this scene I've personally seen from the Japanese audience of JJK is that they assumed that Fushiguro is romantically interested in his sister since he has a flashback to Tsumiki. This is definitely a very different interpretation from the western audience.......if the author really wanted something within his story such as sexuality to be clear, then I really think it would have been something that would be universally understood and talked about within the Japanese audience as well (you know..the main audience).

Second, I think many people who intake media from the Eastern hemisphere of the world forget the fact that countries like Japan are still quite close-minded and homophobic. Just because BLs and such media exist doesn't mean it is actually accepted in general society.

Third, JJK is classified as a shonen manga no matter how you look at it. Meaning it is directed towards a teenage boy audience and very action-based (and I don't think the average Japanese teenage boy really consumes queer media 😅). There are definitely queer characters in shonen anime, but with a character archetype such as Fushiguro- it is very unlikely that the author had any intention of making him queer.

The fourth and final and MOST IMPORTANT reason as to why I made this post in the first place...THE LINGUISTICS!

English, like many European languages, has an emphasis on using pronouns (you, I, she, him, they, etc). It is linguistically impossible to speak the English language normally without using pronouns.

In a pronoun avoidance language such as Japanese, pronouns are not needed whatsoever to actually complete sentences or make sense. In fact, it's more natural to not use any pronouns when saying any sentence. Usually, if you're using pronouns in a sentence in these pronoun avoidance languages, it's because you are specifying or putting emphasis on the subject of the sentence. Also, the use of pronouns are generally seen as quite rude in certain ways which further explains why pronouns are mostly avoided altogether.

In the literal translation, Fushiguro says その人 (that person) because it is simply more respectful and less crass than saying something like 彼女 (she) or some other female-gendered word to refer to his 'type of women' (which is what Todo's question is). It's also very natural for Fushiguro to say その人 (that person) as it fits into his very polite and respectful character personality. Also, when Todo asks his question, he specifically uses the word 女 onna which is a very rude way of saying "women", so Fushiguro's response may have also been to show contrast in the audacious wording that Todo used compared to the more respectful nature of Fushiguro.

All in all, please believe and consume media the way that you want. If you headcanon that a character is queer, that's completely valid and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.

What motivated me to make this post is because I somehow ended up on a side of the internet where people very strongly believe that it is canon that Fushiguro is queer and are viciously arguing anybody that disagrees.

So, it actually inspired me to make a linguistic post since when I thought more into it- the entire ordeal has a lot to do with linguistics!

It's important to remember that TRANSLATION and LITERAL TRANSLATION are very different things. Yes, if you literally translate what Fushiguro says into English it definitely sounds like he has romantic interests in more than just women. But the Crunchyroll subtitles are honestly very good in translation, which is expressing the meaning in one language into another language while being cognizant of the cultures of the 2 languages and with as little discrepancy as possible.

(if you made it here, thanks for reading all of it. i just really wanted to yap about the concept of 'pronoun avoidance' again honestly)

[sueske]

Im gonna ask for some grace in this question because im autistic and I can barely understand social stuff from my culture, none the less Japan's culture. So basically, all the not-het stuff Kishi did is not common in other Shounen? If so, has he ever commented on why he did what he did?

I guess the only two options are he really did this intentionally in the only way he could. I'm not sure how homophobic Japan is, but I assume being overt would've made Naruto a failure of a manga/anime. So he had to be subtle.

Or maybe he is genuinely not a socially aware guy?

Am I understanding the situation here?

Regardless, he must be aware of the loud conversation around SNS. Has he ever acknowledged it at all?

well I’m not Japanese so I can’t really speak on behalf of their culture/fandom, all I can do is give my two cents from an outsider’s perspective, but what I can say from my 20 years of watching/reading anime/manga is that no one does it like sns, especially not in shonen. If I were to list all the reasons this reply would be thousands of words long so I'll redirect you here.

No one’s ever explicitly asked Kishimoto as far as interviews are concerned whether sns are actually gay or not, but the topic of their bond has been discussed. Kishimoto said that he finds their relationship hard to put into words, that he’s not sure if he explained it properly, that sns might look insane to some people, and that people who grew up lonely wrote to him saying how much they identified with the characters (paraphrasing here). The fact that even Kishimoto finds it hard to define their bond using the usual labels is very telling. So we have to read in between the lines cuz the answer lies in the words left unsaid. The words he probably can’t say.

Japan is home to a homophobic society, as is most of the rest of the world, and the fact of the matter is naruto is a shonen manga. How can teenage boys self insert into the main protagonist if he’s overtly gay after all? Kishimoto still wrote a love story though and while it was never explicitly stated in the normal way, ‘I love you!’, it was explicit in all the other ways that truly matter.

Kishimoto 100% wrote sns gay intentionally - reasonings specifically in this ask here. As for whether he’s socially unaware... I’m not sure what you fully mean by this question. As in, he can only write a gay story if he’s socially unaware? That he's socially unaware, so that’s why he just wrote a gay story for the fun of it? Kishimoto is very socially aware, which is why he took such great care in crafting his work in the first place. Also take a look at some of the works that inspired him previously. 

As for whether he acknowledged the speculation around sns, well. If you were a mangaka of one of the most popular series in the world wouldn’t you be curious as to what people were saying about it? So he had to know. He 100% knew what he was doing when writing his work, so I’m sure he also became curious if people actually picked up on it. Not to mention the editors/higher-ups would have brought to his attention certain things the fandom were saying. SJ’s mission is to make money, so giving the people what they want is a sure-fire way to do that, which means listening to what they want (and what they don’t want) and relaying that information to Kishimoto. And, well. That’s how Boruto happened.

[13eyond13]

It's actually pretty interesting that Death Note community consists primarily of lgbtq+ people, although the product itself doesn't have openly queer characters. Why do you think we find DN so comforting?

That's a good question!

I remember the fandom not always being quite so heavily dominated by queer identifying fans in its representation online back in the late 2000s. So I don't know if that's because it's a much older series now? And maybe the people who are still into it are because of having a positive attachment to the characters and ships due to feeling they're somehow a good representation of their own identities, or because the times have changed in general and fans are just a lot more openly accepting about this stuff or what... probably a little bit of both. Back in the 2000s there were a lot of straight cis guys (or so they identified then, who knows how they do now) dominating the fandom and into it in a pretty typical way for a Shonen animanga, though. I think 4chan was pretty into discussing Death Note when it was new for example, and most of the people I could find to talk about it with irl were cishet guys as well. And aside from edgy/homophobic jokes I don't think a lot of time was usually spent reading any of the characters as potentially queer in those kinds of circles. It was mostly just talking a lot about which character was smarter and who you were rooting for to win, and people would sometimes get pretty annoyed and bewildered by anybody seriously reading anything queer into the series at all. There was definitely a lot of fanfic and fanart shipping Lawlight and stuff on fanfiction.net and livejournal and such then too though, so it's always been a big feature of the fandom engagement with the series on some level.

I think something about the characters that resonated with me back in my teens was how repressed and unattached and hopeless and mostly disinterested in serious romance they all seem 😆 In a world where I didn't feel genuinely interested in any of the romantic options I thought I had around me (because I didn't sincerely believe I would be "allowed" to be gay, nor really know any gay girls I was interested in yet) it definitely felt a lot like how the characters act with each other much of the time. And then Light's paranoia about being watched and obsessive energy over L felt immensely similar to how my guilt about hiding my sexuality and my confused subconscious crushes on other girls felt, etc. I don't have as much insight into the other characters or ships in the series myself because Lawlight was the one I personally identified with the most. But I also think this fandom is one where a lot of people first met other queer people they could relate to on a deeper level than they had before in their everyday life sometimes as well. So I think a big part of the attachment and comfort the longterm LGBTQ+ identifying fans find in it also comes from that. It's always been a very friendly and cozy and surprisingly undramatic fandom for me, and my limited experience with it online back in the 2000s felt quite a bit like that as well.

[seeingteacupsindragons]

hello, marr! i was wondering if you could recc any of those queer-character-shounens that you mentioned in passing? i'm sure i will probably have read some of them myself lol but i am always up for new recommendations

(also have you heard of call of the night, by any chance? that's a really fun shounen i've been enjoying recently where one of the central themes is literally the aroace spectrum [and also vampires XD])

Going to address the last question first, because it's quicker: Nope!

As for the other, I'm not going to necessarily going to "rec" them, but I'm going to mention some. Spoilers ahoy!

As for things I'm going to exclude: Any of that "super intense shonen protagonist and their best friend/rival relationship even though one or both has a canon female love interest" because that's extremely common but not what we're talking about. Sorry, Naruto, begone. And I'll also exclude things like GetBackers, because they are canonically interested in women despite being advertised, uh, like this.

I'll probably include some seinen, too, because despite seinen generally getting to cover more series and adult topics because of its older demographic, it's still a male-targeted genre and wowwwww the pin ups in the seinen manga sometimes--people assume it targets a similarly un-queer audience.

And obviously limited to stuff I can think of and know.

Let's get started!

HunterXHunter. Alluka (Killua's younger sister) is a trans girl! Everyone in the family refers to her as a boy or a son or a brother, except...Killua, who is also the only person in the family she gets along with. It's really not subtle. There's also whatever Hisoka is, but. Well. We hate Hisoka on this blog, okay?

Dr. STONE. Look, I just watched this one so I'm thinking of it, but there's basically no way Senku isn't aro ace, and this is actually a really common opinion, given that when someone said they could fall in love with him, his response was, "Please don't." Senku has zero interest in romance or sex or any of it, and just cares intensely for his friends. The aro ace community is claiming him, sorry. I know the anime hasn't covered everything, but I cannot imagine him ever getting a love interest, either. It's been repeated.

Akame ga Kill has a gay man on Night Raid. Spoiler, but everyone on Night Raid dies, so he hardly gets a happy ending, but it's not like that's unique to him.

Nabari no Ou is technically a shonen, having been published in a shonen magazine (that also published things like...well, Black Butler, so annnnnyway), and the detueragonist, Yoite, is intersex and has a...probably homosexual...relationship with the protag. It reads that way, anyway.

Luffy from One Piece is confirmed by the author to be ace, and there's a trans dude introduced lately that everyone's been arguing about, hasn't there? Yamato? (I don't like One Piece)

Soul Eater: Crona is nonbinary

Gurren Lagann: Leeron is gay, and although it's not the most tastefully handled, it's definitely canon. It's seienen or shonen, one of 'em.

Boys Run the Riot is a seinen about a trans boy

The manga adaptation of Tiger & Bunny was actually published in a seinen magazine, and *waves at self-identified okama Nathan Seymour, the most-aggressively-nonbinary-chracter*. Plus I'm not over Kotetsu's joke about how Nathan isn't his type because he's "too tall" and not any...um...gender concerns.

My Brother's Husband is published in a seinen manga, and what do you think it's about, come on here.

So anyway, yeah. There's a list to start, just from my own off-hand knowledge without really looking anything up. I'm sure there's been more scholarly and researched discussions on this.

and the point is really: YuuMori isn't unique in the existence of queer characters, queer themes, an unusually queer or female audience for shonen, or anything. While I love it, it's not the only series that's done it. It's not the first.

I saw someone say it "rewrote the rules" for queer characters in shonen earlier today, which is what that comment earlier was about. No, it didn't. I love it, but it really, truly did not. It's building on a long legacy of characters.