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REVIEW: Escape Journey GN 3

Your note on the “rare topic” and some thoughts by Erica Friedman made me think that the rare LGBTQ manga and anime really speak directly about qeer people. Of course, we still have a lot of characters who openly talk about their preference for people of the same gender, or characters with a trans gender identity, but it's hard for me to recall characters who used words like “gay” or "lesbian". When Zombieland Saga openly called their character a trance girl, many people even thought at first that it was some kind of interference from the localizers.

Of course, characters like Yuri and Victor will still remain so, even if the authors don't use the words “bisexual” and “gay,” but it’s still interesting why Japanese media avoid links to LGBTQ culture.

#HayamiLover wrote:

Your note on the “rare topic” and some thoughts by Erica Friedman made me think that the rare LGBTQ manga and anime really speak directly about qeer people. Of course, we still have a lot of characters who openly talk about their preference for people of the same gender, or characters with a trans gender identity, but it's hard for me to recall characters who used words like “gay” or "lesbian". When Zombieland Saga openly called their character a trance girl, many people even thought at first that it was some kind of interference from the localizers. Of course, characters like Yuri and Victor will still remain so, even if the authors don't use the words “bisexual” and “gay,” but it’s still interesting why Japanese media avoid links to LGBTQ culture.

That's a good point, and it did strike me that even during the scene where Naoto comes out to his family, he doesn't say to his brother "If I told you I'm gay" he says "If I told you I was like that." I remember waaay back when in Tokyopop's translation of Fake one of the characters said he was bisexual, but I'd be hesitant to say that was in the original Japanese. (And I could be remembering wrong...anyone know?)

In some ways it reminds me of the scene(s) in O Maidens in Your Savage Season where Sonezaki is uncomfortable with the word "sex" and so tries to get everyone to find a way to avoid saying it.