You wouldn’t think so, but no... and also not yet.
Before anyone gets upset, I actually like this comic quite a bit. It has a lot of positive messages about bullying and dealing with mental health issues, and self esteem. The main character is sweet, and he has a pet cat. These are all good things.
However, like a lot of modern comics from Japan that I have enjoyed (one punch man, why?), queer characters are used as an acceptable target. If you’re thinking of reading the comic for the first time, I think that’s worth knowing.
In chapter four we’re introduced to this guy:
Plus side, he ain’t dead yet. Negative side... I’m fairly sure he’s supposed to be a gay stereotype, in part because of:
Yes, the first canonically queer character we meet is someone who is dead, and simultaneously refers to themselves as having “a girl’s heart” and as being a transvestite (which is a term I don’t hear people using these days). This character has no name, and while their gender identity is not clear, they’re about the worst transphobic trope you can think of. I won’t include more images, but a grown adult chases and attempts to/succeeds at kissing teenage boys. Queer person as predator.
There is no indication the character’s death was violent, merely that they were left with regret afterwards, but that’s not a silver lining. This all occurs in chapter 40, which is for the large part skippable.
I was recently recommended the webcomic Daughter of the Lilies because it has a charming protagonist and beautiful line and color work, and I’d been told there would be queer characters in it. The story seemed to have a subversive slant to it, which I liked, so I gave it a shot.
However, in this comic, does the queer character live?
No. God, no. No he doesn’t and it’s awful, frankly.
I really like web comics. I tend to assume they’ll be more broadly informed about the world, since people who spend time on the web interact with views they’re unfamiliar with as almost par for the course, and queer people are well represented in the art world. This comic... doesn’t seem to get it.
Let’s lay it down.
There is one gay character in this comic. He’s called Jamie, and before you meet him, you learn he is already dead.
Yikes.
The rest of the next chapter is dedicated to his dad being possessed, and encouraged to forgive himself for the responsibility he feels over Jamie’s suicide. Jamie’s narrative purpose is his father’s emotional arc. This is... not good. It’s not good writing, and honestly it made me feel a little physically ill. Jamie is a set piece in this story. In his first appearance he is a corpse.
That’s him, in the white suit. It is at this point that you learn that Jamie is a young Black man.
I had wondered how this would play out, and in the end, Jamie possibly forgives his abusive father and disappears.
Which is a very magnanimous ending for the author (who expresses no minority identity, I checked) to express.
This, in and of itself is well-intentioned but tired writing. The part that really kicked me in the teeth was this:
And on the author’s tumblr...
... excuse me.
The gay character... the only gay character, and first important person of color... is dead... and his death is... fabulous.
After this his father ascends to heaven and possibly is eaten by a dragon, but I stopped reading.
When I reviewed Blue Exorcist they had some very nasty tropes as well, but I felt that maybe people could read that comic and enjoy it if they skipped the chapter in question. You can’t skip this arc because it covers two and a bit chapters, and there’s a lot of plot heavy writing going on. I would say, if you plan on reading this, you need to examine whether this will be a dealbreaker for you or not. For some people it won’t be. I did not appreciate the author’s flippant approach to Jamie’s death outside the comic, and I was bothered by seeing the first character with known intersecting minority identities being treated this way, so I won’t be reading any further.
There are a few other things to be aware of. The comic is good at having a generally diverse supporting cast, while the main cast includes a character who is mixed race (in the fantasy sense), a white elf, an orc, and the main character, who hides her face. However, there are drow in the first chapter of the comic, who are matriarchal cannibals with dark brown skin, tattoos and loincloths. This is another example of writing (and character design) which falls into distasteful tropes at best and racism at worst (the face tattoos in particular remind me of Maori Ta Moko, which is distressing). I was uncomfortable at that point but I know for some PoC this would be an immediate cause for closing the tab. I kept reading for the purpose of this blog, but perhaps I shouldn’t have?
The art for this comic is lovely and polished, but the story doesn’t give much thought to how its art and writing choices tie into negative/unpleasant tropes about people of color, First Nations or queer people. I, personally, would not recommend it.
I haven’t written one of these in a while after stalling on a trend I’ve noticed in a few indie comics, so, this particular entry will be short and not comprehensive.
The creators of Voltron made a very big deal about the fact that one of the main characters in the show was a gay man, who had a partner that he had broken up with. There was the implication you’d get to meet the partner, and see whether the two of them reconciled.
Instead of doing so, this character was killed shortly after introduction.
In a very out of character digression on my part, I haven’t actually seen this episode. It got spoiled for me, and I was glad, because I was very upset to find out this had happened. I can’t help but feel there was a sort of purposeful nature to this narrative choice, and cynically I suspect it has something to do with foreign markets, and how it’s much easier to edit out a queer relationship if it exists in a short timespan and you kill one of the characters off.
The ‘kill your gays’ trope is an old, tired one, and I honestly thought we all knew better by now. I’m too tired of seeing my own people suffer (in a professional capacity and otherwise) to endure it in a show which, despite more regular dramatic moments than it once had, is a relatively deathless series.
The fact that the man who dies is also a person of colour adds to the sting, frankly. I don’t like the idea that a bunch of young queer people were buoyed up with the false flag of representation only to be shown our true place in the narrative, once again.
If this gets picked up by anyone who doesn’t want to see a show they like criticised, I would request they keep that opinion away from this post. Steven Universe has had the guts to show an actual wedding between two non-binary, female-identified (according to word of god?) characters. Voltron was purposely misleading. They’re entitled to make that choice, and I’m entitled to criticise it within a broader context.
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