The circular shape of the duelling arena makes sense stylistically, as it matches the shape of the rose crest, but it is very different from the typical rectangular fencing piste. However, I realised the other day that the Orchestra space in an Ancient Greek theatre has an identical shape. Theatre is of course a huge theme in and influence on Utena, and in this respect the duelling arena is the ultimate reprisentation of this: an artificially constructed space where backdrops (the castle) and scenery (the desks, the cars) come and go to influence and/or reprisent the characters’ motivations and emotions.
The duelling arena is the place where the artificial identities which the cast embody or strive for are performed (especially in Utena’s case - she literally plays the role of prince in the arena as if it is a theatre), since the duels display the culmination of each duellist’s motivation and psyche.
However, most of the duellists are not even aware that they are actors, and their play has a definite purpose, likening it more to Greek theatre’s origins in religious ritual. Dyonisus (the god of theatre to whom dramatic festivals were dedicated) was sometimes worshipped as a god who dies and is reborn, from which a comparison can be drawn to the figure of the prince in Utena.
The Orchestra space itself is not, however, where the principal players would have acted out the plot: it is where the chorus would have stood and sung, commenting on the story and interacting with the other characters (in tragedy at least). I’m not sure how well this metaphor extends to Utena - possibly, Akio sees himself as the actor on the main stage and the rest of the duellists (especially those who aren’t the engaged) as a chorus - vital to the story/the achievement of his ends, but ultimately detatched from his main plot.
(screencap from empty movement, picture of epidaurus is mine)
I’d just like to add this: who do we always see before going to the arena, before Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku plays as Utena dons her magical girl costume as the prince?
The Shadow Girls. While the Shadow Girls, IIRC, have a great deal of influence from old Russian animation, in the theater analogue they could be similar to the Greek chorus, giving narrative context to the story, if in an unorthodox and kooky way.
I never understood why BL writers, both Asian and Western, tend to write worlds completely devoid of female characters, even in settings where it doesn’t make sense. Are they afraid talking to a woman will turn their characters straight? Because that would be pretty homophobic an excuse.
Sometimes it’s that they want to write their homosexual fantasy and that women aren’t necessary for them to do that; you can argue their stories are weaker as a result, but we aren’t necessarily reading yaoi because it’s realistic either. lol
Sometimes, though, it’s another example of misogyny in yaoi. When female characters are entirely devoid from a work, it can be hard to gauge whether it’s misogyny or not, but if it’s a work of fan fiction where the female character SHOULD somehow logically be involved it’s more misogynistic; sometimes a little bit, and sometimes a ton. I think a lot of the time the misogyny in yaoi works (not fandom, that’s a different beast) comes out most clearly when there ARE female characters in the work and they’re handled poorly by the artists and writers.
Hi, after a long absence due to real life, I'm coming back.
Two announcements...
1) Animpressions isn't happening anymore; I just don't have the time compared to how much good I think I does; ANN (Anime News Network) has a half dozen people or so giving impressions on pilots of seasons though, so that's an alternative. I may occasionally recommend anime I think are truly great works of fiction.
2) I'll try to post critical thinking once a month; maybe more, if I have the time and something really is on my mind. I am interested in people’s suggestions for articles too btw.
As for my coming back, well, I'd been thinking about it for a while, with a number of topics I've wanted to cover, but right now was something I really felt compelled to write about about. This ‘scandal’ that shouldn’t be a scandal basically compelled me to come out of retirement.
This is Nitta Emi, the voice actress of idol anime Love Live's center, Honoka...
This early April of 2016, Nitta Emi is currently embroiled in a scandal, having been accused of performing in an adult video. She and her agency have denied these accusations, but their denial has in no way put to rest the controversy.
There has been a lot of discussion in Japanese on 2chan and twitter about this. As of my writing this, there have been over 16,000 tweets with #えみつんAV (EmitsunAV, AV being short for adult video); the Japanese are talking about this, and, unsurprisingly, there was, at the very least, a rather long thread on 4chan about this as well.
Fans are pissed about this. Japanese fans have destroyed Blu-rays, and in case you don’t know, Blu-rays in Japan regularly cost at least $100.
I will not mince words. The discussions have been rampant with misogyny.Unfortunately, this is not the first time something like this has happened, and I am sad to know that it will not be the last time, but right now, this time, I feel compelled to expound upon the issue of otaku culture's relationship with 'pure' girls.
This post will be not only be long, but unpleasant, and uncomfortable for some people to read because it will not only address but feature quotes from misogynist fans (mostly taken from 4chan). Furthermore, there will be uncomfortable, objectifying photos of women, and though I will not post any explicit, pornographic images in the post itself, I am going to link to websites featuring pornographic doujin works, sexualized photos of cosplayers, and gravure idols. If you are not of legal age in your country to view pornography, do not click those links. They will be marked "(NSFW)" . Pornographic websites will be further marked “(Explicit)” .
Not to kink shame, but I will keep the porn to being vanilla; the advertisements and other works on those sites, however, may be less than vanilla. Also, many sexualized anime characters and idols are below the age of 18, and therefore I am obligated to point out that though this piece is not about the sexualization of minors, it is related to it. This post is not explicit, but it is not safe for work either.
SO YES, TRIGGER WARNING:
MISOGYNY
SEXUALIZATION OF MINORS
But hey, I promise at the end of this I will share a video of two polar bears becoming friends.
So fans have been discussing whether Emi Nitta actually performed in a porn video. They've done comparison shots featuring images of the porn actress in question along side images Nitta, analyzing down to comparing the placement of her moles and specifics of the crook of her teeth.
People are trying so hard to figure out or prove that she performed in an AV. These are images I found on 2ch and 4ch; people, both speakers of English and of Japanese, have been criticizing her, denouncing her lack of purity, saying misogynistic, sexist remarks.
In turn, others have come to the defense of Nitta’s purity.
Some come to the defense of the purity of the characters she's voiced, at times going so far as to scapegoat Nitta herself.
These two topics are not the ones that fandom needs to be having. The conversations fandom needs to be having are these:
- There should be no scandal here. There is nothing wrong with women who have sex.
- Fandom's obsession with purity is misogynistic and hypocritical.
- The fact that fandom's culture harbors misogyny is a problem that needs to be addressed.
I also want to make this clear. This blog is about Japanese media like anime, manga, and sometimes idols by proxy, but this post is about examples of misogyny and is still relevant to comics, video games, traditional games, etc, where misogyny is also a problem in their respective fan communities. Also, you know, relevant to... life and society. So without further ado...
I am glad to see some people coming to Nitta's aid. She is an excellent voice actor whose career is in jeopardy over this. No doubt she is going through a lot of stress she does not deserve to suffer. There are fans defending her purity, and under the circumstances of idol culture that is the best way to defend her.
It really is... but it shouldn't be. I don't often speak in absolutes, but I'm going to do it a lot in this piece. People shouldn't be debating whether she did it or not at all, because the truth is that no one should be persecuted for performing in an adult video.
All the people who appear in adult videos are actors and sex workers. As a culture, we wrongly stigmatize sex workers. They're treated as corrupt in every sense of the word: dirty and contagious, morally bankrupt. Women, even those who aren't prostitutes, are insulted, branded as whores.
The person who posted that by and large meant well, and yet still called a woman a whore.
This is wrong. It is hurtful. There is no good reason to treat a person this way. The prohibition of prostitution enables people to exploit prostitutes. Porn actors, prostitutes, camgirls, strippers, all kinds of sex workers no more sell their time or bodies than other socially acceptable professionals. Models sell their bodies. Laborers sell their bodies. Athletes sell their bodies. Many professions involve selling your body. The stigma surrounding sex work is the product of sexism and misogyny.
This stigma about sex workers extends to womens' sexuality in general; a sexually active woman is branded promiscuous and impure. Otaku attacking and defending Nitta both idolize the idea of purity in a woman, and let's be real, when they say pure, they really mean virginal.
“You’re hearing a voice that tasted semen.” Are you kidding me? As a writer, I think I’d find it pretty hard for my creative mind to come up with something this stupidly sexist. How long would it take me? I have no idea. The kind of misogyny people spout so easily would be so much work for me to come up with.
Let's take any of these statements and as we read them replace pure with virginal.
“Who cares. Honk is still virginal”
“It’s fake
Emi is virginal
Stop spreading lies”
“There’s no way someone that hot is still a virgin.”
This one really gets to the ugly truth of it; the ugly truth is that idols are expected to be virginal, not “get paid for fucking like any filthy whore.” I need to point out, a lot of idols are legal minors. Although Emi Nitta is a legal adult, the character Honoka is a 16 year old high school girl. These statements aren’t just debating the virginity of women or valuing them based on their virginity; this is a group of people who are, statistically? Probably adult men talking about the virginal purity, or lack there of, of a 16 year old high school girl, and even though in this instance it’s an anime character? A real, living breathing girl would receive just as little respect.
And you know what? It doesn't even have to be an adult video to harm the career of a VA or an idol. It could just be her having sex at all.
This is voice actress and (mostly former) singer Aya Hirano. She used to do a fair deal of work in the music biz after she got famous for doing such prominent voice acting roles as Misa Amane (Death Note) and Haruhi Suzumiya (The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya). Her music career took a dive when she was let go of by Lantis, a music company known for its involvement in anime and video games. They got rid of her because of a sex scandal in 2011; she was having sex with several of her band members.
When her fans found out about this, they denounced her. They destroyed their Blu-rays. Sound familiar? This is a thing that happens when these ‘scandals’ crop up. This video is an angry fan on youtube destroying his DVD of Aya Hirano in response to this:
He talks about how it’s an old DVD that he hasn’t even finished. Between 0:24 and 1:10 he says, “Can I break it by hand? With my hands? It doesn't, doesn't... doesn't break. All I did was fold it. Ah, wait, YEAH! Got there! Woo! Yep, broke it. I broke it. Look, it's broken. I broke that shitty bitch. That shitty bitch. That shitty bitch is broken. That shit will never be on my TV again."
Aya Hirano’s most famous song was probably the j-rock anison “God Knows,” from Haruhi Suzumiya, so we can say that she, the lead singer of a rock band, had her singing career devastated by having sex with her band members. Japanese and western culture are different and distinct, but related, especially in terms of pop and rock music. Rock, in the music of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, her career was devastated by having sex.
Even the suspicion that an idol is sleeping with a man can be devastating for her career. Dating a man is enough. When two members of the idol group Aoyama Saint Hachamecha High School were caught dating people they were let go of; their agency, MovingFactory, went so far as to sue for 8.2 million yen in damages because they violated the no-dating clause of their contract and over profit losses due to the idols dating people. That lawsuit was filed in 2014. This only came to a conclusion this January of 2016 when Judge Katsuya Hara ruled that the contract, “ “significantly restricts the freedom to pursue happiness” and that whether to go out on a date falls under “the right to self-determination,” which is equal to “living in a way one wants to.” “ This is the same court (albeit under Judge Akitomo Kojima) that this last September of 2015 ruled against a different teen group member, saying she had to pay compensation for her dating people, because “the dating ban clause was “necessary for idols to win the support of male fans.” “ This is an active battle over the rights of women in Japan.
Fans aren’t bothered by VA and singer Nana Mizuki’s gravure model photo shoots. (NSFW) (Explicit) In fact, if we look at the market and what products people buy, as a demographic these fans don’t care about purity or virginity as much as they act like they do...
Fans buy gravure photo books of idols. (NSFW)
Fans buy DVDs for sexually titillating, erotic, ecchi series like To-Love Ru.
Fans buy eroge and hentai doujinshi.
Fans create and buy pornography of the characters they are so obsessed with. Here is some of Honoka. (NSFW) (Explicit) Here is some cosplay porn of Love Live’s Tojo Nozomi. (NSFW) (Explicit) The very adult video that Emi Nitta allegedly performed in? No one cared about it before now, but it’s the number one adult video being bought on online store DMM right now. (NSFW) (Explicit)
Furthermore, many famous voice actresses in prominent roles have done voice acting for hentai anime and games. Itou Shizuka, voice of Aino Minako in Sailor Moon Crystal? Also was behind one of the female leads in the hentai anime Bakunyuu Shimai (Invasion of the Booby Snatchers). Sakurai Harumi, famous as Yuri from Angel Beats? Has performed for numerous hentai anime. Asakawa Yuu, the voice of Rider from Fate/Stay Night? Played the leading female villain of the hentai anime Angel Blade. I could keep going.
This is not about purity or virginity. It is about the accessibility and availability of women. It is about who owns their sexuality. The market is fine with their sexuality so long as it’s available to be purchased by men. The moment that her sexuality is perceived as belonging to her herself, or as some men see it belonging to some other man, that is when these misogynist fans get outraged. This is especially true of idols, whose fans feel entitled to the virginity and availability of these women.
Idols, unfortunately, are paid to be “pure.” They’re paid to sing and dance, and to be “pure.” This unreasonable expectation is the norm.
What right does this demographic have to demand such virginal behavior from anyone when they are buying all of this pornography? We all know they’re masturbating to it. There’s nothing wrong with masturbating, but there is something wrong with the misogynistic double standard of people demanding women be pure and virginal when they themselves are consuming media in the pursuit of sexual gratification.
I need to be clear about this: A woman who is pure of heart and innocent is no less pure for having romantic or sexual experience. Impurity is not a measure of how likely a woman is to have touched a man's penis. (My apologies for being super hetero-normative in that last sentence.)
And look at the language that came out during these discussions. That fandom harbors this kind of misogyny is deplorable. I recognize that #notallmen think or say these sexist things, but I find #notallmen as a movement fails to understand one key factor about the misogyny that exists in fandom: complicity. Even if someone is not sexist, if they fail to oppose the sexism happening in front of them they are complicit. That complicity plays a part in the harboring of misogyny in fandom. Misogynists feel comfortable saying hateful, hurtful things in mixed company in fandom. So long as people can say things like this...
... without meeting resistance we will never have a social environment that is welcoming to women. We should not be prioritizing the comfort of misogynists over the comfort of women, but that is what fandom is doing when misogyny in fandom is met with so little opposition.
Law and punishment have conditioned us to believe that violence is an intentional, direct action, and in turn we have come to believe that hate is the harboring of ill will toward others in ones heart and mind. There’s truth in that, but as you look at the bigger picture, hate is not something that only exists in individuals; hate is a process, an ever-going cycle. Every time that somebody says or does something sexist, misogynist, homophobic, etc and that instance of hate is not disapproved of it is approved of silently, tacitly. They feel as if they can say these things and it’s OK, and so the on-going cyclical process of hate speech and silence continues. Silence in the face of hate is complicity.
You can make a difference. Even if it’s just re-blogging things like this, though I must say, it doesn’t matter if people read these kinds of pieces on social justice so long as we as a community are complicit with hate. We have to make an effort to disapprove of hate in people when we see it. And I mean all of us. People all across the gender spectrum.
I realize it's hard to stand up to people. I realize that for some of you I may be asking you to say something that could start a fight between you and your friends. I understand that none of us always have the energy to deal with this, but I have to ask for this: if you see misogyny transpiring before your eyes, denounce it. Please. It is hard to do, but important, and worthwhile. It is the right thing to do.
Edit: Oh, I’m sorry, I was writing so long that I forgot. Here are your polar bears.
Makura no Danshi: What If the Female Gaze Didn’t Celebrate Male Power?
A while back I talked about the female gaze and one of the points I touched upon was that although the female gaze caters to a female audience, it actually still equates masculinity with strength and power, affirming the patriarchy. That’s how things are right now ... but there are always some exceptions, and at the end of this season, I wanted to bring up an exception I found especially interesting: Makura no Danshi.
Literally translating to ‘Pillow Boys’ Makura no Danshi was short, composed of a dozen five minute episodes that have been coming out week after week this season. Each episode features a different man lovingly addressing the viewer. Despite it’s small budget, I actually would recommend it to anyone who enjoys fanservicey men and a little bit of cheesy humor.
So what about Makura no Danshi did I find so interesting? It was the cross section of two major factors...
1) It really was about women gazing upon men. The camera is always focused upon a man, usually from the perspective of the (presumed to be) female viewer. It’s mostly Point of View shots, the film equivalent to 2nd Person, and there’s never a woman on screen the entire time. It was 100% about watching a man...
2) ... and the man being watched was there to be a fantasy for a female viewer. Despite being an idealized object of desire, the men in Makura no Danshi showed vulnerability, and were frequently trying to be supportive of the viewer, subservient and enticing to her. That there? Is what the male gaze does to female characters, and Makura no Danshi is one of the few times I’ve seen that done to men. I think everyone should watch 2 episodes (10 minutes) of it just to see what it looks like when turned around. Even I, who identifies as a lesbian, I watched all 12 episodes. Seriously, they were some quality 2D men who were fascinating from the perspective of media analysis. Look at this.
I could give more examples, but just go over to Crunchyroll and watch 10 minutes of this show. Go do it, and try to keep these thoughts in mind when you do. I think you’ll see what I’m talking about.
I received an interesting question today which I’ve paraphrased below...
Will there ever be enough LGBT representation? Has discrimination within the LGBT community ever been portrayed in Japanese media? How do you think the anime industry could stand to improve it’s representation of LGBT characters and culture?
If there’s anything that I think the industry could stand to improve, it’s the wages of their animators... but to be on topic, I won’t say how I would rather their representation of LGBT characters look. I will say that for LGBT representation to improve in media, more LGBT artists will have to be accepted into the industry. We get the best representation when we have queer artists making queer media.
By large, representation of LGBT people in media (Japanese or otherwise) isn’t as enlightened as it should be, and we shouldn’t be satisfied with the way it is now... but we shouldn’t let that keep us or others from enjoying tasteful media either.
To those people who are offended by shows that poorly handle LGBT characters in media, I just always tell them that I understand why they’re upset, but also urge them to consider that 20 years ago there wasn’t ANY LGBT content in mainstream media AT ALL, and that the frequently poorly handled representation we experience right now is a phase we will go through in order achieve exposure and normalcy in culture.
Honestly, I don’t know how to quantify what ‘enough’ representation would be. It’s not about how much representation we have as it is how much people accept us.
As for Japanese media regarding discrimination and LGBT communities, I can’t think of an anime that deeply delves into that topic, let alone in any realistic manner. Yuri Kuma Arashi is about discrimination, but it’s more about the masses discriminating against minorities than conflict among a minority. Onii-sama e is a little closer to that, but it’s dramatized and from the ‘70s. It’s also mostly lesbian subtext and is more about bullying among school girls than lesbians discriminating against lesbians.
The manga Claudine...! (1978) by Riyoko Ikeda shows the difficulties of an AFAB character, and if you already have a nuanced understanding of the issues you can recognize that people around him almost never really understand him, but it’s not about discrimination inside LGBT culture either, let alone explaining to people who don’t already have some understanding.
To anyone interested in learning something genuine about transmen in Japan, I highly recommend you search for Shinjuku Boys on Youtube. Really, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Does anyone who follows me know any anime, manga or visual novels dealing with discrimination inside of the LGBT community?
Fan Service For Thought, pt. 3: Why Aren’t We Just Watching Porn?
Previously in Fan Service For Thought I touched upon this point ...
“ Male gazey fan service is frequently shoveled into places it doesn’t need to be. Images like this can’t strengthen a film’s narrative. “
Gratuitous fan service doesn’t just present problematic images, in most cases it’s actually problematic for the audience on a narrative and directorial level. Why?
1) It’s insulting to the viewer.
2) It distracts the viewer.
3) It limits a work’s potential target audience.
Let’s use the the action anime Black Lagoon as an example.
Okajima Rokuro is a Japanese businessman in a town full of Japanese businessmen. His normal day consists of social drinking with clients and being kicked around by his bosses. He finally gets a break though, as he's sent by his company to the tropical seas of Eastern China to deliver a disc. But his boat gets hijacked by a band of mercenaries hired to retrieve the disc. Rock (as he is newly dubbed by his captors) catches the interest of the only female merc Revy as she thinks he's worth a ransom, taking him hostage. However, the disc that was stolen has a terrible secret that's unknown to Rock, which causes massive confusion and chaos for both him and his kidnappers.
( Summary lifted from MyAnimeList )
With its interesting concept, well developed characters, and intense action scenes, Black Lagoon could have stood on its own without fan service, and I know people who won’t watch it because they’re turned off by the fan service.
This was series with this in it...
But it thought you wouldn’t stick around to watch it unless it had this in it:
Women lacking of pants doesn’t add anything to Black Lagoon except either a cheap sexual thrill or nagging thought that a real person went into combat they’d probably want some real clothes.
At best Black Lagoon improved its experience for viewers who wanted fan service while alienating those who were put off by it, and at worst it thinks a portion of its viewers at so sex crazed they won’t stick around for a good show unless it and some T&A in it.
But...
... Is there such a thing as non-gratuitous, sexually titillating fan service?
Yes, there is. To go to the absolute extreme, the sexual content of pornography isn’t unnecessary and gratuitous, it’s the key focus. As sexual themes become more central, sexual content become less gratuitous by definition. Sure, a non-pornographic creative work with sexual themes as its focus might be tasteless, but that also might be the value judgment of a prudish, puritan society.
Let’s consider this question: If the point is the sexual content, why aren’t we just watching porn?
I pose this answer: because is it possible for sexual content to constructively add to a non-pornographic narrative.Sexual content can add elements of emotional intimacy or sexual comedy.
Let’s take the visual novel genre, for instance.
The visual novel is a Japanese medium using music, pictures, and text on a computer to tell a story, usually a choose your own adventure story.
JRPGs often incorporate visual novel elements; the Persona team (Persona 3, Persona 4, and Catherine) makes games with a strong visual novel component.
Most visual novels have romance plot (these are called dating sims). They also usually have explicit sexual content (a dating sim with such content would also be an eroge, or erotic game). Many erotic dating sims have rich stories that could be divorced from their porn and leave the story almost entirely intact. There’s a lot of TV anime that was adapted from eroge, and honestly? I think they’re worse for not having the sex.
Sex is an emotionally charged subject matter, a very intimate act. In dating sims, through the perspective character, the reader meets people, gets to know them, comes like them, sees them falling in love, and by employing the act, be it explicitly or implied, the act of sex can further that emotional experience and dramatic narrative. Through employing sexual content the author can tap into the feelings we have about sex.
This isn’t limited to only tasteful works about sex, either. Take the video game Catherine as an example. It’s an incredibly gazey, sexualized work of art.
The plot revolves around a man, Vincent, caught in a torrid love triangle; while black out drunk he cheated on his girlfriend, Katherine (top) , with a seductress by the name of... Catherine (mid) . His sex life is at the center of it... his continued sexual encounters with Catherine, and finding out his girlfriend might be pregnant all add to the tension and momentum of the drama.
Catherine’s dramatic story is one that shows a conceivably objectionable and problematic image of female sexuality as dangerous, yes. It’s a story dominated by the male gaze, but it uses these tropes and images to tell an enthralling and well written story.
It’s just not a story for everyone.
To use another example, the sexually titillating yuri manga Citrus...
... uses the on-going ‘will they, won’t they’ sexual tension between its characters as the engine that drives the entire plot.
Do you want a shoujo manga example? Best selling shoujo manga author Ai Yazawa tapped into sex to move her stories forward too.
So what about sex comedies?
Dirty jokes have been around for ages. It’s no surprise that people are writing shows entirely about dirty jokes. Either you like them or you don’t, but ... the male gaze has gotten so ridiculous that we’re downright able to parody it.
Shows like Shimoseka, To Love-Ru or Monster Musume, with things like this in it...
It’s sexually titillating, sure, but it’s so over the top it’s a form of comedy. It’s like the anime equivalent of the Chinese take out sexy halloween costume.
So ultimately why is that an action show, something that doesn’t strictly need sexual content to work on a narrative level, can end up looking like this... ?
... Elements of sexual comedy aside, this is the kind of trashy, indulgent guilty pleasure that a person wants sometimes... and why aren’t we just watching porn instead? A lot of us are watching porn in addition. A show like this (It’s Ikkitousen, by the way) probably should have porn in it at this point, but if Ikkitousen was a hentai, they probably wouldn’t have bothered putting as much effort into the fights.
Find a show that has a compelling plot, engaging characters, epic fight scenes, AND is a hentai, and the people who would watch something like the image above will watch this hypothetical super-porn as well, but the porn industry doesn’t deliver that... outside of some hentai visual novels.
The History of Yuri, Part 3: The Early Yuri Manga Of the Year 24 Group
The Year 24 Group isn’t an organization but the name referring to a group of mangaka whose ‘60s and ‘70s works have influenced shoujo manga to the extent that their work is historically relevant to the art. Named for many of their members being born in 1949, the 24th year of the Shouwa period, the Year 24 Group doesn’t really have an official membership, though a lot of people will agree that certain artists definitely counted among them.
In regards to yuri, the most relevant members of The Year 24 Group are Ryouko Yamagishi and Riyoko Ikeda. I highly recommend reading the following works, if you can stomach the downer endings. Let me tell you of their work.
I don’t see why Thomas no Shinzou is referenced with “yuri” when it’s a shonen-ai centric story. Far as I’ve read in Eroica, it was also was about the interactions between Dorian and Klauz, so two males.
I was largely just recommending works of the Year 24 Group at that point, but yaoi is related to the history of yuri in two respects:
1) The early works of yaoi were influenced somewhat still by Class-S fiction, and the idea of the bishounen in manga is definitely influenced by Takarazuka, both of which were discussed in earlier parts of the History of Yuri.
2) Yuri began with Class-S fiction, a queer coded genre of literature written by women, for women. Even if it’s about men, yaoi is gay fiction largely written by women, for women. It was essentially the only form of female written queer fiction between the ‘70s and the year 2000, when the yuri genre began to bloom once more.
... I’ve met a lot of other lesbians who are into yaoi.
Fan Service For Thought, pt. 2: Liking Sometimes Problematic Things
Last time I illustrated how the images above can be problematic, despite the existence of images like these...
... This time I’m going to explain why I still think it CAN be okay to like problematic things, even when they’re as bad as, well... trigger warning, below the cut we’re going to talk about an image depicting a rape fantasy.
That scandalous image is promotional art for Queen’s Blade, an exploitative fantasy series that I, as a lesbian into femmes, enjoyed. It is my go to show whenever I need proof that I am trash, put me in the can where I belong I actively enjoy the things I’m saying are problematic.
Seriously, that image is extra problematic. it’s clearly a rape fantasy. I want to be clear. There’s WAY TOO MUCH rape fantasy going on in media, no creative work that indulges rape fantasy is in good taste, and rape culture is a horrible thing. If this image upsets you, you are justified, because mass media crams this stuff down your throat like it’s normal. That is messed up. Right now, it’s hard to ACTIVELY AVOID it. It should be the other way around: if you want to see it, you should have to go to it yourself.
... You see, I think it’s fine for a person to have a fantasy so long as it stays in the realm of fantasy. If we gutted the tasteless fan service from all the shows that don’t need it and if all the offensive anime advertisements were rounded up together and published only in some kind of Playboy Magazine equivalent to Monthly Newtype, I think things would be more or less fine.
Why I like things like this sometimes? It’s poorly written, tasteless, so dumb it’s hilarious, and so offensive that I personally can’t take it seriously enough to be offended any more. It’s got action, and it’s sexually gratifying. I do not recommend anyone watch Queen’s Blade. The kind of people who want to watch Queen’s Blade can tell on their own.
For it’s audience, Queen’s Blade and its fan servicey, male gazey ilk are indulgent, guilty pleasures. It’s the media equivalent of a Twinkie casserole: it’s terrible, but boy are some people really, really going to enjoy it.
( You can find more unnecessarily indulgent foods at This Is Why You’re Fat. )
Rape and ravishment fantasies that many women enjoy can often be seen in bodice rippers, or yaoi.
( Since this is supposed to be a relatively work safe blog, I’ve taken the liberty of censoring this image. )
But getting back to gaze as a whole... Remember that gaze is a thing that indulges the target audience. It’s the ultimate in making something FOR your target audience, and while it can be taken to the point of pandering, some people really enjoy that. I don’t really want to rob people of their joyful fantasies.
Consider the reaction many women had to Free! and Jupiter Ascending.
The people who enjoyed these works were so joyous when they came out. They were all saying things like, “I feel like they really made something for ME,” or, “Oh my god, is this what straight dudes feel like all the time?” and... though I doubt straight men feel that way all the time (they’re used to being catered to by the media) I am certain they still love it.
... Ultimately, I can’t bring myself to truly denounce gaze itself because it’s thing that brings about a lot of happiness. One of the draws of film is that it can create an escapist fantasy unlike anything that happens in our real world. It may be problematic in ways, but that excitement is worth something. Gaze isn’t all bad.
If anything the problems are fourfold.
1) We’ve gotta remember one thing above all others: the images and ideas presented to the male or female gaze are a fantasy. When people start confusing fantasy with reality, or basing their views of the world on the fantasies presented to them in gazey media, that’s a problem. Those people need a reality check.
2) There are plenty of men who want this...
... but DON’T want this:
People don’t always want certain kinds of gaze in certain kinds of shows, but gratuitous fan service is rampant. Male gazey fan service is frequently shoveled into places it doesn’t need to be. Images like this can’t strengthen a film’s narrative.
These kinds of images make a work more enjoyable for people a certain demographic, and less enjoyable for everyone else. If you don’t like it, you at best overlook it. It’s distracting from the work as a whole. We don’t need to stop having fan service entirely, we need to have works that don’t indulge gratuitous sexual desire at all, and more fan service for women in general.
Basically what I’m saying is too many shows have rape fantasies and panty shots to their own detriment.
Too many shows whose main draw isn’t sex appeal do things like this:
Seriously guys, just put the camera on her face when she’s talking.
3) Things are entirely out of balance. There’s too much media that caters to the male gaze and not enough that caters to the female gaze. I understand why there’s not as much media that caters to the gaze of minorities, but while women are half the population we’re also getting maybe a sixth of the gazey media produced.
4) The male gaze is so over represented you can’t avoid it if you even wanted to.
Perhaps this a bit of off topic, but while there’s plenty of demand for strong female characters (and yet not enough of them) maybe we can get some more sensitive men in media. Shinji Ikari was a more relatable and compelling character because we saw his weaknesses, and Kinomoto Fujitaka (below) was a cool dude. Cake is awesome. What’s so bad about dads frosting cakes?
I don’t want to win at male protag bingo all the time.
As A Yuri Fan, I Loved Euphonium, But the Last Thing I Want Is A Second Season
First things first, there’s a spoiler for the later Hibike! Euphonium novels in this post. Now with that out of the way...
This is over due. I have to get this off my chest. It’s kind of hard, because, well...
Writing for tumblr presents an interesting problem. People find your content largely by searching for tags related to it, and people mostly search for things they like. That’s why I try so hard to be positive when writing for Ani-Mentation, and why I want to stress that I really enjoyed and liked Hibike! Euphonium. It was beautifully animated, populated with charming characters in a very heartfelt narrative. The series is a lovely slice of life work of art and I highly recommend it...
You’d think I’d want a second season of a show I adore so much, but for a yuri fan Euphonium had an unusual and unique sort of drama: the looming fear that our ship, Reina/Kumiko, was going to sink. The two girls had so much chemistry and tension between them. They’re an incredible couple. Reina finds support and validation from Kumiko, and Kumiko finds a source of inspiration and passion in Reina, not to mention mention a girl who understands her better than she might understand herself at times.
Which only made it all the more gut wrenching to worry that Reina’s crush on their male music teacher, or Kumiko’s male childhood friend who was totally into her, might sink our ship. The yuri fans of the series were pretty flighty about how upsetting it would be if heteronormativity sunk Reina/Kumiko.
By the way, yes, I am aware this is such a first world problem.
The ship survived the first season, though. It was such a delightful relief for me... but... well...
Yuri fans, our worries weren’t just paranoia. They don’t end up together. Later in the books, Kumiko settles for her childhood friend, Shuuichi.
I’m honestly a little surprised how much that bothers me, but hear me out. The story having Kumiko and Shuuichi get together is fine... it’s perfectly realistic. Too realistic... and too typical.
Yuri fans get really invested in their ships. People into romance stories get invested in ships a lot, but for yuri fans it’s a little different. There’s just so much less lesbianism than there is hetero romance in fiction. We have so little and heterosexuals have so much. We’re defensive of our canonical ships because we get so few. This is why things like Korra/Asami or Stephen Universe are such a huge deal. Canonical lesbians who are happy together at the end of their stories are like unicorns.
Shout out to yaoi fans. You guys know what I’m talking about too.
I don’t want to watch a second season of Euphonium because I don’t want to see my unicorns die... but it’s more than that. If that was all it was, I wouldn’t wish to deny non-yuri fans of Euphonium the pleasure of a second season for that alone...
... I don’t want a second season of Euphonium on principle.
I love Class-S fiction, but there are parts of it that I am utterly sick of. We have plenty of stories where queer girls grow out it and end up with men. That journey doesn’t need to be promoted by media. We need more stories that affirm queer identities and challenge the Class-S relationship notion that two young women who don’t grow out of their ‘training wheel relationship’ are immature.
Sometimes I just feel like I’m in a world of toxic heteronormativity.
Animpressions: First Impressions of Sore ga Seiyuu
That was genuinely delightful; Sore ga Seiyuu is a cute, fluffy slice of life show about seiyuu, voice actors and actresses. Centering at first on the sincere if insecure one, Futaba, it quickly inserts a variety of charming girls, all of whom are voice actresses.
Sore ga Seiyuu, however, is remarkable as a look into voice work in Japan. The show is almost educational... no, it is educational, if only about a subject we really have no need to know about. The pilot displays the characters going through a day in their work, and you can really get an idea of what it might be like. The OP even shows one of the girls working a day job, a common part of voice actor and actress life in Japan from what I've heard.
In the pilot, Sore ga Seiyuu was charming, sincere, almost soothing really, if a bit inconsequential, and that's fine. It's easily my favorite moe show this season, and as a peek into the lives of voice actors and actresses, it's rose tinted seeming, but seems relatively accurate.
Animpressions: First Impressions of Joukamachi no Dandelion
Joukamachi no Dandelion is a light hearted comedy about the everyday lives of nine super powered siblings and heirs to the throne... a birth right enabling them to be elected to be the next monarch. The show largely centers on one sister, Akane, the most flighty of them.
... 'Slice of Life' has gotten to be a pretty weird genre at times. Joukamachi no Dandelion bills itself as a slice of life anime, and for something where its main characters all have a different super power, it's certainly not an action show, treating its subject matter in a remarkably ordinary if silly way, but I'm still raising my eyebrow at the idea it is slice of life.
As a show about the royal family, the subject matter is sort of like following the surprisingly everyday lives of a group of fictional celebrities, but it doesn't feel that different from most other comedic super powered teenage students anime. In that respect, this season it's impossible to not compare Joukamachi no Dandelion to another show running this season, Charlotte. Charlotte might have done it for me more personally, but then again Charlotte's male lead can be a deal breaker for some people, even if it made fun of him. If Charlotte just didn't work for you, Joukamachi no Dandelion could be a better match.
If light hearted shows about super powered students are your jam, it's worth a look. The premise is certainly something I haven't seen before.
Animpressions: First Impressions of Ranpo Kitan: Game of LaPlace
That was a sweet pilot. It immediately grabs the audience with excellent composition: beautiful visual arrangement accompanied with appropriate music that enhances without distracting... and after piquing my interest, Ranpo Kitan follows up.
Ranpo Kitan is a murder mystery series based on the works of Edogawa Ranpo, a famous author from the first half of the 20th century. Centering on a genius 17 year old detective, Akechi, and a middle school boy caught up in a murder investigation, Kobayashi, Ranpo Kitan stands out as a promising murder mystery.
There's some definite parallels to Silence of the Lambs, what with the artistic yet gruesome presentation of the murders in the first episodes. Silence of the Lambs has a man making skin suits; Ranpo Kitan has a man who made furniture out of humans.
The influence of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is evident in Ranpo Kitan; genius detective, Akechi, is an exceptional young man of privilege who is bored with the world as a whole, dispassionate and cold in his affect, pragmatic, and he pops pills... although in some ways in this anime Akechi might more resemble the modern day reinvention of Holmes than the original character.
It used to be the case that if an anime was based on a video game you just assumed it was bad. I'm not quite sure when, but that stopped being the case at some point. I haven't played God Eater, but that only further elevates the fact that the pilot to God Eater was good. Without relying upon familiarity with the source material, the action is exciting, the monsters have awesome designs that look formidable... and even though the first episode didn't wow me with the cast of God Eater, the characters show enough promise that I'm interested in their future potential.
It probably helps that the tone and setting are well timed. There isn't a monster oppressed grim future show that started concurrently with it.
Honestly it looks like it'll go with some standard shounen tropes: a hot blooded man running in half cocked and getting things done is the conflict resolution of the pilot. Who knows, maybe he'll learn some sense.
The giant monster riddled future makes for an interesting take upon typical shounen tropes, and... well, this is something I think only a small group of people will appreciate, but I found the use of CG in God Eater to be really well done and interesting; it looks like they took a lot of models from the game and then improved them for use in the TV anime. If you take joy in just studying animation itself, it's worth a look.
The History Of Yuri, Part 5: The Resurgence Of Yuri
As I said last time on the History Of Yuri, the between mid ‘70s and the mid ‘90s there was almost nothing going on in yuri; Oniisama e got animated, Sailor Moon and Utena happened… but ultimately nothing was trend setting. You could hardly call yuri a ‘genre’ as far as the market was concerned. Nowadays, we can find things with subtext or outright gay content once every other quarter at worst, where as before 2005 we basically scrapped around and found something that barely qualified once every few years.
So what happened? Well, in 1998, a very special and significant series to the yuri genre came out: Maria-sama ga Miteru (The Virgin Mary Is Watching, or in the official English translation, Maria Watches Over Us).
Yes, it is time to talk about MariMite, its inspirations and its influence.
Seriously, this series is the best thing that’s ever happened to yuri. Who knows where the genre would be now without it.
This does not mention “Kannazuki no miko”, first series that was explicitly yuri explicitly for male audiences, but other than that it’s a complete history. As far I am knwledgeable, the only noteworthy yuri and yurish series since 1978′s “Claudine!” were the anime adaptation of “Onii-sama e”, “Sailor Moon” (introducing a canonical lesbian couple in its third season) and “Revolutionary Girl Utena” (about which I am posting on almost daily basis).
You’re right, Kannazuki no Miko slipped my mind. I’ve watched it but I didn’t think of it here.
Kannazuki no Miko was a bit of an oddity, so very much a yuri series, but also a mecha show. I wonder how much of an influence Kannazuki no Miko did have on the genre. I don’t know how financially successful it was. Strawberry Panic, a show whose influence I can see elsewhere in the genre, came out after Kannazuki no Miko, but was that because Kannazuki no Miko proved the viability of male targeted yuri? Or was that based on the popularity of MariMite but trying to target a male demo? Or was it because SutoPani’s novels were selling well?
I wish I could find some records on how much money these series made.
Of interesting note, though whether its target audience was male is debatable, the first yuri anime that probably appealed to a lot of men was Clamp’s Miyuki-chan in Wonderland, in which a bunch of sexy Wonderland analogues/expies flagrantly hit on Alice Miyuki.
Sailor Moon, Utena and Onii-sama e all come up in Part 4, though!
As an Utena fan, you may enjoy this piece I wrote about the Utena movie.
“Kannazuki no Miko” definitelly showed the commercial value of male-oriented yuri series, and definitelly inspired the creation of “Simoun”, taking into account the shared elements of mecha and mysticism. The series had cult status among yuri fans for years after the original air. “Strawberry Panic” anime was made to promote the visual novel of the series, which is why it’s focused more on the visual aspects and yuri fanservice than plot.
I also wouldn’t say that “Miyuki” influenced the developement of yuri genre, because it was only a two episodes long OVA, which by itself made it a very niche series when it was first created. If anything, I’d say “Noir” was of greater importance, as, like modern “Legend of Korra”, it was an action series with plenty of yuri subtexts turned cannonical by the very end.
Miyuki-chan didn’t influence the development of yuri, which is why I never mentioned it in the articles proper. It’s just an interesting bit of trivia.
Noir is definitely influential; it’s part of the entire girls with guns tirlogy, and off the top of my head you can draw parallels with it to Canaan; though Canaan isn’t a yuri series, it definitely shows the influence of Noir. The fact that Noir came out in 2001 is quite remarkable.
Simoun does show the influence of Kannazuki no Miko; Simoun’s release so closely follow Kannazuki that it’s pretty undeniable, but I also feel like the narrative ends there. Maybe in some way it continued. Nanoha StrikerS could be argued to have some influence, but I think its mecha inspiration came largely from Super Robot Wars.
Also, gotta give props to Mai HiME (started airing before Kannazuki by a month and had lesbians in it) and … well, to Iczer, which is male demographic mecha meets lesbians decades before Kannazuki no Miko.
Also, thanks for the info on what got Strawberry Panic animated. Out of curiosity, do you have a source for that? It’s not that I doubt you, but I’d love to have a source in case I need it some time.
It is not based on any physical source, but in Japan it is a common practice to create an anime series which starts airing shortly before the premiere of the game of the same title. Usually the anime is made as cheaply as possible, like in the recent example of “Dramatical Murder”, which finished airing right before the premiere of the game’s PS Vita edition.
I also think that the new road opened by KnM ends with “SImoun”, which is a shame. “Nanoha Strikers” was inspired by “Gundam” franchise, as stated by the authors. I don’t remember where have I read about it though, probably on Okazu. It’s really a shame, because “Simoun” and “Nanoha” were the last yuri series that interested me before yurish “Devil’s Riddle” and then YKA.
Nanoha is clearly influenced by Gundam, but there’s so many SRW original charater references in it too. Fate’s Jet Zanber is a Sanger Zonvolt reference. Signum has a lot of parallels to Lamia Loveless. And then Graf Eisen’s ultimate attack being a Goldion Hammer reference or Subaru Nakajima’s transformation sequence being a GaoGaiGar shout out as well. Nanoha borrowed from a lot of mecha.
The History Of Yuri, Part 5: The Resurgence Of Yuri
As I said last time on the History Of Yuri, the between mid ‘70s and the mid ‘90s there was almost nothing going on in yuri; Oniisama e got animated, Sailor Moon and Utena happened… but ultimately nothing was trend setting. You could hardly call yuri a ‘genre’ as far as the market was concerned. Nowadays, we can find things with subtext or outright gay content once every other quarter at worst, where as before 2005 we basically scrapped around and found something that barely qualified once every few years.
So what happened? Well, in 1998, a very special and significant series to the yuri genre came out: Maria-sama ga Miteru (The Virgin Mary Is Watching, or in the official English translation, Maria Watches Over Us).
Yes, it is time to talk about MariMite, its inspirations and its influence.
Seriously, this series is the best thing that’s ever happened to yuri. Who knows where the genre would be now without it.
This does not mention “Kannazuki no miko”, first series that was explicitly yuri explicitly for male audiences, but other than that it’s a complete history. As far I am knwledgeable, the only noteworthy yuri and yurish series since 1978′s “Claudine!” were the anime adaptation of “Onii-sama e”, “Sailor Moon” (introducing a canonical lesbian couple in its third season) and “Revolutionary Girl Utena” (about which I am posting on almost daily basis).
You’re right, Kannazuki no Miko slipped my mind. I’ve watched it but I didn’t think of it here.
Kannazuki no Miko was a bit of an oddity, so very much a yuri series, but also a mecha show. I wonder how much of an influence Kannazuki no Miko did have on the genre. I don’t know how financially successful it was. Strawberry Panic, a show whose influence I can see elsewhere in the genre, came out after Kannazuki no Miko, but was that because Kannazuki no Miko proved the viability of male targeted yuri? Or was that based on the popularity of MariMite but trying to target a male demo? Or was it because SutoPani’s novels were selling well?
I wish I could find some records on how much money these series made.
Of interesting note, though whether its target audience was male is debatable, the first yuri anime that probably appealed to a lot of men was Clamp’s Miyuki-chan in Wonderland, in which a bunch of sexy Wonderland analogues/expies flagrantly hit on Alice Miyuki.
Sailor Moon, Utena and Onii-sama e all come up in Part 4, though!
As an Utena fan, you may enjoy this piece I wrote about the Utena movie.
“Kannazuki no Miko” definitelly showed the commercial value of male-oriented yuri series, and definitelly inspired the creation of “Simoun”, taking into account the shared elements of mecha and mysticism. The series had cult status among yuri fans for years after the original air. “Strawberry Panic” anime was made to promote the visual novel of the series, which is why it’s focused more on the visual aspects and yuri fanservice than plot.
I also wouldn’t say that “Miyuki” influenced the developement of yuri genre, because it was only a two episodes long OVA, which by itself made it a very niche series when it was first created. If anything, I’d say “Noir” was of greater importance, as, like modern “Legend of Korra”, it was an action series with plenty of yuri subtexts turned cannonical by the very end.
Miyuki-chan didn’t influence the development of yuri, which is why I never mentioned it in the articles proper. It’s just an interesting bit of trivia.
Noir is definitely influential; it’s part of the entire girls with guns tirlogy, and off the top of my head you can draw parallels with it to Canaan; though Canaan isn’t a yuri series, it definitely shows the influence of Noir. The fact that Noir came out in 2001 is quite remarkable.
Simoun does show the influence of Kannazuki no Miko; Simoun’s release so closely follow Kannazuki that it’s pretty undeniable, but I also feel like the narrative ends there. Maybe in some way it continued. Nanoha StrikerS could be argued to have some influence, but I think its mecha inspiration came largely from Super Robot Wars.
Also, gotta give props to Mai HiME (started airing before Kannazuki by a month and had lesbians in it) and ... well, to Iczer, which is male demographic mecha meets lesbians decades before Kannazuki no Miko.
Also, thanks for the info on what got Strawberry Panic animated. Out of curiosity, do you have a source for that? It’s not that I doubt you, but I’d love to have a source in case I need it some time.
The History Of Yuri, Part 5: The Resurgence Of Yuri
As I said last time on the History Of Yuri, the between mid ‘70s and the mid ‘90s there was almost nothing going on in yuri; Oniisama e got animated, Sailor Moon and Utena happened… but ultimately nothing was trend setting. You could hardly call yuri a ‘genre’ as far as the market was concerned. Nowadays, we can find things with subtext or outright gay content once every other quarter at worst, where as before 2005 we basically scrapped around and found something that barely qualified once every few years.
So what happened? Well, in 1998, a very special and significant series to the yuri genre came out: Maria-sama ga Miteru (The Virgin Mary Is Watching, or in the official English translation, Maria Watches Over Us).
Yes, it is time to talk about MariMite, its inspirations and its influence.
Seriously, this series is the best thing that’s ever happened to yuri. Who knows where the genre would be now without it.
This does not mention “Kannazuki no miko”, first series that was explicitly yuri explicitly for male audiences, but other than that it’s a complete history. As far I am knwledgeable, the only noteworthy yuri and yurish series since 1978′s “Claudine!” were the anime adaptation of “Onii-sama e”, “Sailor Moon” (introducing a canonical lesbian couple in its third season) and “Revolutionary Girl Utena” (about which I am posting on almost daily basis).
You’re right, Kannazuki no Miko slipped my mind. I’ve watched it but I didn’t think of it here.
Kannazuki no Miko was a bit of an oddity, so very much a yuri series, but also a mecha show. I wonder how much of an influence Kannazuki no Miko did have on the genre. I don’t know how financially successful it was. Strawberry Panic, a show whose influence I can see elsewhere in the genre, came out after Kannazuki no Miko, but was that because Kannazuki no Miko proved the viability of male targeted yuri? Or was that based on the popularity of MariMite but trying to target a male demo? Or was it because SutoPani’s novels were selling well?
I wish I could find some records on how much money these series made.
Of interesting note, though whether its target audience was male is debatable, the first yuri anime that probably appealed to a lot of men was Clamp’s Miyuki-chan in Wonderland, in which a bunch of sexy Wonderland analogues/expies flagrantly hit on Alice Miyuki.
Sailor Moon, Utena and Onii-sama e all come up in Part 4, though!
As an Utena fan, you may enjoy this piece I wrote about the Utena movie.
