When I Failed Pride As An Anime Fan
The best idea I ever came up with as an anime blogger was never completed…
It was a year-long adventure of publishing reviews centered around LGBTQ+ anime once a month. I called it Progressive Plots, as I couldn’t come up with anything better at the beginning of 2017. I wanted to push myself to be a more consistent writer and reviewer. I’d never done a schedule before, and I realized that I could vastly improve my sense of discipline if I pulled it off. My 10’s of readers seemed to dig what I wrote.
But then, abruptly, I stopped midway through the year.
For those unfamiliar with the wide world of anime, you should know that there is a large amount of content on gay (yaoi) or lesbian (yuri) relationships. I’m not going to pretend that it’s all good. Nor can I admit that it’s truly progressive. I had no shortage of anime to work with, easily finding more than 12 series/movies I’d seen or wanted to watch for my blog. By the end of the year I only made it through 5…
By the time I posted my final review, I had just moved back to my hometown from my first college and was in a very weird headspace. I stopped actively watching anime as much as I did when I started the blog. Watching, thinking and writing about anime felt like a wierd clash between my new and old self. My writing fire was fading, and it was gone until very recently. Still, looking back on this period, my circumstances are set aside and I can comfortably critique my writing from then. If I were to do something similar these days, I would defintely make changes.
Before then, a quick apology…
The first big one is a word change. These articles I wrote Back in 2017 I used the word trap for trans or crossdressing characters. Which I now know is harmful slur. I deeply apologize for my poor word choice and will not do that again. My review of Himegoto used the term a lot. There are so many other unoffensive terms I could have used. I didn’t realize how harmful the term is for transgendered people, and the harmful discourse around it. The show used it in it’s most harmful and stigmatized way. It seemed uninterested in doing something progressive with it.
I otherwise stand by my thoughts about the show. It is not very entertaining. Honestly, one could make a point about how the series mistreats gender identity for comedy, but I wasn’t able to do it then. The show didn’t want to go deeper in it’s short episodes, and I in 2017 had no idea how to address them.
I’m still not hugely educated on LGTBQ+ concerns in the media. It’s not helped by these posts. Most of what I had to say was review material, focusing on how the show was physically crafted. There was little in terms of analyzing the writing because it wasn’t trying to be great. I stand by most of my analysis, but don’t have enough depth of the progressive issues. I should have made an effort to understand how these anime portrayals effect progressive discourse, especially because there is so much of it in American animation these days.
Some of my problem was spotlighting shows that, (as far as I know), do nothing for queer identities. Himegoto has a crossdressing character that is the butt of jokes. Sakura Trick has the girls kiss each other, but has nothing else standing out from yuri. I wanted to review Ranma 1/2, which had the main character changing gender every time water dropped on them. The series plays around with the differences in Ranma’s gender to mixed success. I would’ve loved to finish the show because of its colorful characters, but I got lost in the series right as I moved back home and left writing. I haven’t been back yet, but I’m not opposed.
If any of the series stands true, it’s my thoughts on Hourou Musuko/Wandering Son. It is, by a very large margin, the best anime I watched for the reviews. It is also one of the absolute best animated shows I have ever seen. I noticed that, after watching Wandering Son, no anime experience felt the same. Maybe I had no idea how I was supposed to continue a series about LGBTQ+ anime when I felt very confidently that I’d already seen the best series I planned on watching. It’s possible that another show of the same quality, but I wasn’t counting on it.
In my short time looking at yuri and yaoi anime I saw a lot of material that seemed uncomfortable moving forward. Few anime addressed the love between characters and less showed an on-screen kiss. For what it’s worth, many hetero anime romances also had these problems, which made it harder for me to talk about them without getting salty about it. Still, seeing queer representation in anime was fun to watch when I was an active fan. I think the industry has a long way to go in terms of fairly treating progressive fans and stories. I would recommend Wandering Son to everyone currently reading this article, with any other recommendations running secondary.
I wasn’t ready for a commitment of dedicated writing and reviewing. I could have analyzed queer themes through anime, which I also wasn’t prepared for. It’s unfortunate that June, the month of Pride, is where I fell through. This month I wasn’t able to do anything due to other writing activities outside of the Pride community. But now that the month is over, I want to reflect on my lack of activity, and how much worse I was. For next year, I want to be prepared. Not just to contribute to Pride discourse during June, but to keep up with the community before and after. If anything, it’s high time to keep up with the LGBTQIA+ community even though Pride month is over.
I failed my support of Pride a few years ago, and I don’t want to do that again.
