Forum - View topicDo Americans confused implied gay themes in Anime?
|
Goto page 1, 2 Next |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
dannavy85
 Posts: 114 |
|
|||
My question is...do many American Anime fans make the mistake of tagging some events, emotions and behaviors in anime as being gay period? One example of this can be in the Gatchaman realm where many fans I have come in contact with have written fan fics or made supositions that the leader of the Kagaku Ninja-tai (Ken) is secretly in a gay relationship with Condor no Joe simply by "hints" they get off watching the show. Same per say for Captain Tita the pet hunter who befriends elise and sleeps in bed with her or takes a bath with her in the same pool. First crack I hear from some mouths in an anime showing..." Oh look! Lesbian scene!" My guess is this can be contributed to just a misunderstanding of the Animaic/Manga culture coupled with traditional western style concepts of homosexuality. |
||||
|
||||
|
jmays
ANN Past Staff
 Posts: 1390 Location: St. Louis, MO |
|
|||
|
Certainly. Take Michiru/Haruka in Sailor Moon.
|
||||
|
||||
Empyrical
 Posts: 84 Location: Everywhere you're not |
|
|||
|
hmm.. Well, if you take GetBackers for instance, the third ending has some images that many people will consider g@y, or strange. Part of that is that the one guy (Kazuki) is a cross dresser, and *appears* to be in love with the man who has sworn to protect her.. I mean, him. (Jubei). The pic i am referring to shows them in bathrobes, in a somewhat intimate hug. Then there is a picture at the end w/ Ban w/ his arm over Ginji's shoulder, and Ban is looking at him somewhat googly-eyed
 .
the relationship between Kazuki and Jubei is making many people think that they are a g@y couple, and that may be, but we will see. Ginji even refers to them in ep. 26 "To any ordinary person, it looks like an encounter between a newly married couple." thus, this suggests they are just really close (i mean CLOSE) friends. The other issue, which is somewhat more obvious, is the relationship between Shinji and Kaoru at the end of the EVA TV series. This issue, more specificaly the Bath House encounter, has been bugging everyone i know since it came out. What did Shinji do w/ Kaoru at his house, and WHY would he sleep at another guy's house, after that guy has just confessed his love to Shinji? it doesn't make sense. Although, despite this obviously *g@y* scene, EVA was still able to sell RIDICULOUS amounts of DVD's, and became so popular, they are making a live action movie. EVA is also considered by some to be the best anime ever made. Was that because of the g@yness in the end? I don't know, but I do know some EVA fangirls who love to write fanfics about S/K pairings, so maybe g@yness does make some women watch anime, but if there is going to be g@yness, put it in something Shoujo, like Fushigi Yuugi, not something Shounen like GB or EVA. As for Le$b!anism (is that a word?), most of that is Hentai. And as far as that goes, I do believe it sells good enough to make a profit 
|
||||
|
||||
Emerje
 Posts: 7432 Location: Maine |
|
|||
|
Yes, gay/lesbian situations do exist in mainstream anime. People do exaggurate things a tad (hence all the yaoi fan fics out there), but they are real. Miagi's sailor moon example is probably the best, there are several other though like in Sorcerer Hunters, Maze, Saber marionette, Steel Angle Karumi, and Magic users Club just to name a few. Hell, even Dragonball has had gay characters (Commander Blue was it?).
Emerje |
||||
|
||||
|
DevilMan
Posts: 57 Location: MN |
|
|||
|
Only those who are real stupid. So yes.
|
||||
|
||||
v1cious
 Posts: 6241 Location: Houston, TX |
|
|||
|
Utena, nuff said
|
||||
|
||||
Tenchi
 Posts: 4558 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
|
|||
|
I'm not naming names or series here, but a lot of what I take to be normal childhood "latency"-period same sex idol worship, exaggerated to the Nth degree because it's a cartoon and meant to be funny, other people tag as shounen/shoujo-ai. I don't deny that, say, Haruka x Michiru or Touya x Yukito are legit same sex relationships, but I don't like tagging any and all displays of same sex affection with the "homosexuality" label.
|
||||
|
||||
|
Anlushac11
Posts: 268 Location: Indianapolis, Indiana, USA |
|
|||
I understand that in Eastern culture it is common for men and women to bath together. Not sure how far it goes beyond that as far as expressing emotions and such. Only time I got confused was I was watching first 2 eps of several fansubs trying to find something I liked. I fired up a title called Gravitation and was watching iot for about 10 min wondering where the cute anime girls were. Then one of the guys starts talking about having a crush on one of the other guys and suddenly it was all clear and my response was Ohhhhhhhhh....so thats how it is. No cute anime girls with long hair, big eyes and charismatic personalities? Cya Im out. In fairness Gravitaion looked to have good animation, good music, and a intersting story but its just not for me. I'll stick with my true love's; Otohime, Urd, Belldandy, Escort Ship Haruna |
||||
|
||||
|
Dan42
Chief Encyclopedist
 Posts: 3794 Location: Montreal |
|
|||
|
If you skipped on Gravitation just because it's gay, you missed on some really funny comedy. Does the homosexulity bother you that much? Are you homophobic? Just the other day there was an anime marathon organized by the anime club, and they showed Fake among others. It's very gay, and it's also very funny. Much better than I expected. I dunno... I guess seeing a guy trying to "seduce" another guy (à la Ryo Saeba) has something unorthodox that makes it even funnier.
I also agree with Tenchi that some relationships are misunderstood as homosexual. (e.g. Tomoyo/Sakura) |
||||
|
||||
Lowen Na
 Posts: 61 |
|
|||
|
Well, there ARE anime titles with real gay charaters, such as Sailor Moon, and the orginal Bubblegum Crisis (Daily Wong, NOT the Knight Sabers as some times argued, see below)
And then there are other shows that some fans say that the charaters are gay when there is little to no evindence that they are. In the orginal Bubblegum Crisis, all of the Knight Sabers (except Sylia) have some kind of relationship with a man, or talk about wanting a man at some point. Sylia doesn't seem to be enterested in anyone, however. In the remake (Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040), I could see how you might think that Linna is, at most, bisexual. She seems to have some interest in Priss, but nothing concrete about wanting to feel her up or anything. So does express feelings for a man at one point in the show, as well. In this series, the all of the Knight Sabers have a relationship with a man (or a man shaped robot at the very least) Yaoi Con (Gay and Lesbian anime con) is always being advertised on the old alt.fan.bgcrisis newsgroup. They always have some poll on there website that list one or 2 of the Knight Sabers as Lesbians. Why? I guess that you see what you want to see. Is it posible that I just don't want to see them as gay? I guess it's possible. Honestly, I really don't see much of a reason to belive that any of the female charaters in that show are gay. |
||||
|
||||
|
Coral Skipper
Posts: 223 |
|
|||
|
There is no doubt some of the relationships in anime are confused as gay. Just look at Gundam Wing fanfiction and its hard to find stories that do not pair up the pilots with each other.
|
||||
|
||||
ÄlveKatt
 Posts: 96 Location: Sweden |
|
|||
I don't think that many are confused around this. However, i do think that there are more who know the charchters aren't gay yet like to imagine them so anyway. 
You say it like you think homosexuality is a bad thing. 
|
||||
|
||||
|
Anlushac11
Posts: 268 Location: Indianapolis, Indiana, USA |
|
|||
Just because someone isnt interested in watching anime with homosexual content you automatically assume they are a homophobe? Being a bit judgemental there arent you? One of my all time favorite anime's is VanDread. You have two Gay societies and in one scene the doctor makes a pass at Hibiki. Watching VanDread doesnt make me gay anymore than not watching Gravitation makes me a homophobe. VanDread is still one of my favorite animes. I wasnt interested in watching an anime about a band trying to make it big with gay overtones. If Gravitation had been about race cars, motorcycles or mecha I probably would have watched it. I watch anime for the things that interest me not you. I enjoy watching the cute anime girls and the sometimes funny relationships and if it has mecha so much the better. I might have liked Gravitation but since it doesnt have the two main things I enjoy in anime, the cute girls and mecha, its not for me. |
||||
|
||||
|
Stray Jacket
Posts: 9 Location: PA |
|
|||
|
Definatley...but u have to realize that the culture is much different...In places like spain, poland and other parts of Europe...its ok to give men flowers...
|
||||
|
||||
king_micah
 Posts: 994 Location: OSU |
|
|||
|
Well Vandread is a Shonnen Series. Its aimed at men, thus very delt with the men's society except its, well pretty much Sparta. Now, the women's society has exploration of the lesbian relationships. Male viewers like that, much like female viewers are fans of yaoi. Of course Vandread has the fun bit with a Transgender character, but it also has a jiggly harem.
Now to be honest, the most appealing series have elements often of hetero and homosexual relationships. Ranma and Eva are big examples, but are joined with Naruto, and Get Backers that there are at least gay interperations. I have fangirl friends who do the whole Yaoi fanfic thing. I am not offened , but it can be, well weird. Good series handle it well and don't make a fuss. Eva had its implication about Maya. Get Backers has fun with it, even though much of it is fangirls minds, there is a touch of undertone between the two main characters., and a huge one between two others. |
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group