Watched this Ghibli movie called The Ocean Waves and it basically pulled a Naruto in the end
Like it is extremely homoerotic and goes into the specific experience of being gay in a het environment and the confusion that comes with it
It is extremely gay to the point everyone is convinced it is gay. Then they "save face" in the last scene by forcing a relationship with main male character and the female lead. The girl is central to the plot, yes, but as an antagonist, and an excuse to keep the movie het.
The most notable thing here is that there is a climactic scene which comes full circle with the movie's actual Japanese name "Umi ga Kikoeru." [I Can Hear the Sea] This scene is on the sea, shared by the male leads together. With nobody else there and nothing else between them.
This is the scene where you realize they were gay all along and the struggles from before were just struggles of not knowing that they were queer in a het society. This is where the movie SHOULD HAVE wrapped up. This could have been the happiest happily-ever-after for the movie.
But it took a desperate sharp turn in the end and ended up forcing a reunion between the male lead and the female lead, turning the climax scene really the last plausible thing in an otherwise realistic movie. Forced secondhand dialog from the female lead to route the audience back to the hetero world right after the very very convincing gay heart to heart at THE SEA. (Remember the title? "I can hear the SEA") They even made the two male leads talk about how they loved each other, using the female lead as a no-homo proxy.
My theory is that gay series pretending to be het always have 2 endings
1. The real one
2. The massively underwhelming one intended for the hets not to lose their shit
These series always fall short compared to genuinely het movies meant for hets where their hetness makes sense. Take Kimi no Na Wa for example. The male and female leads' involvement never felt forced or abrupt or like it was overcompensating to make sense, like a lie had been exposed somewhere, no.
In conclusion:
Closet gay movies always over-explain their sharp het turn because that turn is a lie~
