Yana and Grelle - Owning Up to Mistakes
I have made quite a number of posts on the topic of Grelle’s gender identity so far, but only now did I realise I never addressed a very noteworthy and rare thing.
Fame tends to get to people’s heads, and admitting mistakes becomes seemingly more difficult the greater one’s fame is. We could all agree that Yana achieved considerable fame herself, but something I find admirable about her is that she has always remained very humble and honest. This is a trait that not many famous people are known for. Ughum, *points at a certain author with the initials J.K.R.
When Yana realised that she had fallen into the trap of writing a trope character based on a very harmful stereotype of queer people being uncontrolled psychopaths, she never once attempted to back-peddle, ret-con, or excuse her past decisions. Instead, Yana owned up to her mistakes, and took the time to redo Grelle whatever justice she could within the terrible limitations she had trapped herself in.
Is Grelle a character now entirely free of harmful stereotypes and messages? No, she is not. But has she become a character that is a person, rather than just the embodiment of a list of stereotypes? Yes. Grelle has undergone incredible character growth, and this growth was possible because Yana used a very clever storytelling method. Intermission.
Grelle was introduced in the Jack the Ripper Arc, and left the storyline in chapter 12. It was not until chapter 55 again in the Campania Arc that she returned to us. Grelle’s absence was in-story justified as she was still in disciplinary confinement. After her return, she was a different person. Grelle was still very sexually provoking and all-over-the-place, but there was no doubt that she had become way more professional. Regardless of how much she wanted to appeal to Sebastian for example, she still prioritised her job as a reaper over winning Sebas’ favours.
This is in stark contrast with her previous behaviour in the Jack the Ripper Arc. She had the upper hand during the fight with Sebastian, but because of her vanity and preoccupation with Sebas’ charms, Sebastian found a window of time to defeat her. Grelle’s response to Sebastian being an obstacle in the Campania Arc is unthinkable for her had it been 48 chapters earlier. Through this contrast, we see that Grelle was capable of self-reflection and demonstrated greater level of self-control. As a cherry on top was the introduction of Ronald, a junior reaper who looks up to his senior. Ronald is not shy to compliment Grelle’s talents during their brawl against the Undertaker, and he shows us that Grelle is in fact a respected individual who has a friend.
After the Campania Arc, Grelle remains entirely absent until chapter 102, and does not have anything to do until chapter 125. In chapter 125, Grell is reintroduced again as an even more skillful reaper. Here, we get an even better glimpse on Grelle’s social status through Othello, who is friendly, positive and respectful towards her. Among the reapers who are more familiar with Grelle, we now see that only William is disrespectful towards her. Herewith, we can conclude that the disrespect from this one reaper is more of a personal antagonism, and that overall, Grelle must be decent enough (in the workplace at least) to have earned the respect from at least one junior (Ronald) and one senior (Othello).
Because of the great time intervals between Grelle’s appearances in the manga, we - the audience - can see the enormous growth in Grelle’s character in but a few panels, without it feeling like a sudden character-180 that was shoe-horned in by the author in an attempt to ret-con Grelle’s past problematic behaviour.
In this interview with Editor K in light of the Lycoris that Blazes the Earth 2015 musical, Editor K reveals that Yana originally intended to write Jack the Ripper as a woman in order to challenge the long-standing image of Jack being a man. G Fantasy however, urged Yana to design a male character instead, as it would make the manga more palatable considering the demographics of the magazine’s readers. They insisted on Yana designing a foil to the titular black butler, and specifically “a silver-haired beautiful man with the voice actor Sakurai Takahiro in mind, as such a character would be more popular (laughs)”. (Yes, this is the design origin of the Undertaker.)
Yana however, insisted on keeping the female Jack the Ripper, but also gave G Fantasy (what Yana thought to be at the time) a middle ground. An okama, to be paired up with the female Jack the Ripper.
As I said previously, except for the one time that Yana described Grelle as ‘a man with a maiden’s heart’, she never once referred to her as a male character. The misconception of Grelle being male is purely and solely the result of mistranslation, which was then reinforced ten-fold by the anime by casting Fukuyama Jun as Grelle, with the instructions to play up ‘the flamboyant gay stereotype’. When the anime was produced however, Yana hardly had any say in the matter. We all know how much the anime differs from the original manga. And along with the greater popularity of the anime, Yana’s say over Grelle spiraled out of control. As diplomatic as Yana is however, she of course never conveyed any explicit dismay. But as this post shows, her silence does not equate to her approval.
Yana Admitting Her Limits
Though Yana tried her best to redo Grelle some justice and undo some insult towards any identities represented by Grelle’s character, the harm of writing a queer character as a psychopathic molester and serial killer had already been done. Yana realised that there was nothing she could do within her own power to undo this harm despite being the goddess of her manga universe.
When the musical ‘The Lycoris that Blazes the Earth’ got a rerun, Yana saw a chance to get a few mistakes rectified.
“Ah, but this time after the completion of the script, I had a request to Grell’s actor Mr. Uehara. “Could you please [play her] as a strong woman”, I said (laughs)
In the original comics, Grell does not make an appearance between the Red Butler Arc and the Luxury Liner Arc, and therefore people often think she is useless at her job. So I asked [Mr. Uehara] to please portray her as a career woman in front of her kouhai (younger colleague, aka Ronald)” 【Toboso】
This is but a simple tweet, but it tells us that Yana is aware:
of what people think of Grelle - an incompetent reaper,
that her manga did not manage to adequately portray Grelle as a strong woman,
and that redoing Grelle full justice is beyond her own power.
I personally think it is very admirable how Yana publicly admitted that she made a mistake, and needed a new chance and a new actor to help her in this. And the result is spectacular.
Just by comparing the 2014 and the 2015 runs of the musical, we can clearly see the difference in Uehara’s portrayal of Grelle. While Uehara portrayed Grelle as the psychopathic gay man and the butt of the joke in 2014, in 2015, Uehara!Grelle was largely revamped, and became a troubled woman who went through a lot of psychological pain.
One does not need to like Grelle as either character or person. One does not need to agree with her as representation, let alone feel comfortable being represented by her. But I think it is important to acknowledge that Grelle’s character reflects Yana’s humble attitude and honesty, as well as her personal growth as a person. Grelle‘s journey mirrors Yana’s journey as a mangaka, after all.
For more on Grelle and the misconception that surrounds her, please click 1.here, 2.here, 3.here, 4.here, 5.here and 6.here. I am pretty sure I missed some posts, but if you are interested in more, please use the ‘#Grelle Sutcliffe’ tag on my blog.
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