Given the recent discussions in Saezuru Fandom, I’d like to bring some points about:
a. Yoneda-sensei as a creator;
b. us as readers;
c. the fandom.
did say that she is concerned about making her story appeal close to reality, and this one of the reasons she does not explore much of high-school environment in her works (frequently explored in BL). As an argument, she mentioned that adults have a way more complex baggage that she finds interesting to explore.
also said that she had no plans to represent a critical portrayal of society and only finds complex characters and a shadowing past easier to create.
mentioned that the storyboard, emotional development and change of characters are a priority for her, in terms of how they would think and act.
answered in an interview that her idea for Yashiro came by exclusively with the intent of creating a character that represented contradictions. It took her almost 2 years to effectively develop Saezuru plot (after Tadayoedo), because she could not think of a character that could disrupt and change someone like him, up until she had the idea of an impotent Doumeki.
once twitted (to justify Amou/Hirata relationship with Misumi) that she sees sexual desire and love as completely distinctive and that the sad part about it is that both can't be an indicator of love and obsession (obsession to Hirata; fraternal love to Amou).
mentioned that she used to be interested in psychology, but never studied it or read anything substantial about the subject.
does a ton of research, but also gets inspiration watching movies to create her characters in Saezuru.
finds the dynamic master & servant an appealing and exiting scenario and refers to herself as a fushoji (she had her debut after her Reborn! doujinshis became famous).
used to livestream her creation process of Saezuru but stopped a bit after chapters 24-25 were published. She got a bit of harassment from fans from outside of Japan there. It was also around that time that she created her Twitter account separately from the Saezuru comic account, and when she progressively stopped posting in her blog (now deleted).
stated that reading and writing are very different things and, as such, cause different and stronger impact on readers.
will have a different and biased understanding of both the text and its interpretation.
should not see words or other means of communication as objective. A small example is that the phrase "The door is open" can mean: "come in", "leave", "you forgot it open", etc... depending on the nuance, context, and intention. And this coming from a literal-based language, such as English. The lexical semantics in communication is not rigid ー and I am not even entering the cognitive aspects of it, that should be applied not to oversimplify the complexity of human interactions.
need to read the text in Saezuru considering that there are 5 layers beneath it: 1) Yoneda-sensei’s intention on what she wanted her characters to say; 2) what it gets transmitted to readers who understand Japanese; 3) what is translated from their understanding to another language; 4) our semantical reading of the text; 5) our interpretation.
need to consider that translations are not flawless and things will be lost, no matter how capable a professional is.
should be humble to accept that Japanese readers do not, I repeat, do not get the same understanding of the text as we do as westerns. This is not even only connected to language, but with cultural differences, beliefs, nuances. An example I can give is on chapter one: when Yashiro is comparing himself to Kuga saying that he is shadow while Kuga is light, he is actually singing. The English translation does not expose this nuance because the dash (ー) was not considered as a prolonged sound. We can listen to Shingaki-san sing these words it in the drama CD and it refers to a song from The Rose of Versailles that transmits quite well Yashiro’s feelings and comparison with Kuga at that moment.
can acknowledged that BL media is walking in baby steps regarding misrepresentation, but also acknowledge that BL is an easy target for criticism, if compared to way more problematic medias out there ー that are well protected by white cis men and will continue to be disseminated without the same level of discussion.
if aware of this stigmatisation and still consuming BL media, can make use of this distress to do something to change the scenario in the real word. Engage in Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, volunteer to have a chat about consent with teenagers, gather with gender alliance in your community, you name it…
need to read Saezuru as an entertainment media that is created by Yoneda-sensei to pay bills. It’s her job, and she does create it around the premise of moe consumption prominent in Japan, you like it or not. This does not remove the merit of her work being magnificent compared to others in the same genre (or others), but it is pointless to idealise Sensei as politically engaged in societal critics because Saezuru reflects it independently of her intentions. This is our reading from this.
has always been complicated, but it became a huge pain during the past 8 ish years because people became more intolerant and disrespectful to the slightest disagreement they came across with. Tumblr in particular lost tons of its users since the change in guidelines, but a lot of lovely people left because they got feed up about the wave of arguments and frequent attacks. In Saezuru fandom, I especially feel for @domeyashiro, @lustfulcat, and the hilarious @saezurushitpost (to name a few) that used to be active.
should be aware that they lose a lot replicating this type of arrogant, patronising and self-righteous exchange. People that used to share interview translations, fanfics, fanarts, references, all sort of material… they get tired and stop helping. Some possibly even stop enjoying the media, because all they can see is a flood of metas where people are more concerned about proving themselves right than celebrating plot development, character development, etc.
bends too much in labelling characters with (sometimes simplified views) about trauma, diagnosis, personality disorder, gender identity, discrimination… Yes, Saezuru represents reality, but Saezuru is not reality. It is much more a reflection of Yoneda as a creator and our projected reading. Yashiro trauma is a narrative tool used by Yoneda-sensei to reflect Yashiro’s contradictions; Doumeki’s actions are used as a trigger to change it. People are free to agree or disagree with her approach about it; what people cannot do is downplaying her or others as dumb, ignorant or discriminatory for not seeing things the same way. Especially the Japanese audience.
can have its own interpretation, based on the creator's premise above. What the fandom should not do is being disrespectful or derogatory with people that do not share the same views. And I guess I'm starting to sound a bit repetitive at this point, so I will stop right here.
Chapter 61 of Saezuru will be released in a few days. Can we please enjoy it without more of these? Most of the audience in Tumblr is composed of social minorities (myself included), and we should be each other's allies instead of using each other as a platform for self-affirmation.