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tsunflowers · 12 days

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list of which precures I think are lesbians

nagisa: we see her suffering from terrible comphet. one day she will see herself as bi honoka: lesbian hikari: I don't know her :(

saki: doesn't know she's bi yet. probably will swing more towards girls once she figures out mai: lesbian michiru: I think she would go on a date with a boy to gather intel and feel nothing but if she went on a date with a girl she would feel something kaoru: I can't imagine her crushing on anyone but maybe that'll change

I feel like I still don't know the yespre girls well enough but I do think karen and milk are both lesbians

love: bi but completely oblivious to romantic overtures from any gender miki: I could see her dating another girl one time but she's mostly straight inori: ally setsuna: lesbian

tsubomi: probably bi or lesbian but the idea of romance in real life is still kinda scary erika: girl who calls her friends her girlfriends and it makes tsubomi uncomfortable for reasons she doesn't understand yet itsuki: bi but around the end of the series and immediately after she'll explore her interest in boys more bc she never thought she could express that before yuri: lesbian

hibiki: lesbian bc if she dated a boy she'd be letting us girls down kanade: bi ellen: I just can't imagine ellen having a crush on anyone bc it's been so long since I watched the show ako: still too young to be interested and also the examples of romance she's seen are hibikana and whatever her parents have going on so she's sort of down on the whole concept

miyuki: well her crush is peter pan. I think she's not interested in romance in real life. maybe she will be someday, maybe not akane: I remember shipping her with nao but somehow it's funny to me to say she's straight. she did have a crush on brian yayoi: like miyuki she's more interested in fictional romance. if she dated someone she would expect it to be like in anime nao: bi. she's like makoto sailor jupiter where she thinks boys dont like her bc she's too tall so she has to date girls reika: lesbian

mana: canonically straight rikka: canonically into mana. lesbian alice: I think she's still working on developing her own self-image outside the expectations of her family, who would certainly want her to marry a man makopi: disease where instead of brain you have princess marie-ange. lesbian aguri: still at the age where she thinks romance is something that happens in a movie where a prince rides in on a white horse

megumi, hime, yuuko, iona: bi

haruka: lesbian minami: lesbian kirara: bi towa: bi

mirai and riko: lesbian kotoha: I don't see her ever being interested in romance due to her whole thing

ichika: bi himari, aoi, yukari, akira, ciel: lesbian ciel flirts with guys but it's like when a gay man jokingly flirts with a woman. no real interest

hana: I don't have a strong feeling for her. wait she was into homare that one time. bi saaya: I don't have a strong feeling for her either homare: I think homare's straight actually emiru: lesbian lulu: no interest in boys, ever. lesbian

hikaru, lala, elena, madoka, yuni: lesbian I don't know if they have lesbians on lala's planet though

nodoka: I think for most of her life she was like "romance is something that happens to other people" so she hasn't spent time figuring it out yet chiyu: bi hinata: bi asumi: doesn't have those feelings which is good bc can you imagine asumi trying to date

manatsu, sango, minori, asuka, laura: lesbian

yui: bi but oblivious, like love kokone: lesbian ran: bi amane: lesbian

sora: lesbian. replace every time she says hero with lesbian mashiro: she definitely thinks she likes boys but I'm not sure if she does tsubasa: his curse is that if he hangs out with anyone his own age ageha will keep elbowing him and raising her eyebrows and he has to be like "it's not like that!!" so he doesn't know what it is like yet ageha: I feel like she does kind of have straight girl who calls her friends girlfriend energy elle: I dont know what to say about elle due to her situation

komugi: lesbian in dog years iroha: I think bi but hasn't explored it at all bc she's told herself it's not important yuki: lesbian cat mayu: lesbian human

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vital-information · 3 months

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“Early Summer is about the difference between the married and the unmarried, how the married try to persuade or (worse) coerce the unmarried into getting married, and how maybe that isn’t always such a good idea. This theme is explicitly called out more than once in the film.

Early Summer further implies that there may be a good reason why some unmarried people, including Noriko (but not just Noriko), don't want to marry: they may be “that type of person,” as the young lesbian Fumi described herself in Takako Shimura's manga Aoi hana. This subtext rises briefly to the level of text at least once before being ambiguously dismissed.

Both Ozu and Hara remained unmarried until their deaths, and to my knowledge neither were ever credibly reported as having a romantic relationship with anyone. Per Donald Richie’s commentary on the Criterion release (referenced in the next post), Ozu was reported to become angry at any talk of his marrying. Meanwhile Hara, though termed “the eternal virgin” by a film producer for her film image, in real life had close friendships with many women, including a hair and makeup artist whose friendship with Hara began early on and continued after Hara retired into obscurity at the height of her career.

In modern terms we could therefore hypothesize Early Summer as a queer film subtly but firmly protesting compulsory heterosexuality, made by a (possibly) queer director and starring a (possibly) queer actor.

…

Early Summer opens with three establishing shots: first a shot of a dog walking freely on the beach with the ocean in the background, then a shot of a single bird in a cage outside, and then a final shot of birds in cages inside a house. This is the house in the oceanside town of Kamakura in which Noriko (Setsuko Hara’s character) lives, along with her brother Kōichi (Chishū Ryū), his wife Fumiko (Kuniko Miyake), Noriko and Koichi’s father (Ichiro Sugai) and mother (Chieko Higashiyama), and Kōichi and Fumiko’s two young boys.

If we wish, we can interpret the first and third shots as showing a strong contrast between freedom in nature on the one hand, and the restrictions imposed by society and the Japanese family system on the other. In this interpretation the second shot represents Noriko, who has a degree of independence that her mother and Fumiko do not have, but is still constrained by the bonds of family and society.

In the following scenes Kōichi takes an early train to his job as a physician, while Noriko goes to the Kita-Kamakura station to catch a later one. There she meets Kenkichi, another physician who works with Kōichi and who (along with his mother) is the family’s next-door neighbor. Kenkichi tells her that he’s been reading a book, implied to have been recommended by Noriko. The Criterion release describes it only as “this book,” but the BFI release names it as Les Thibaults.

Les Thibaults (published in Japanese as Chibō-ka no hitobito, and apparently relatively popular in Japan at the time) is a multi-volume French novel that begins as one of its protagonists is discovered writing passionate messages to a fellow schoolboy — something Ozu himself was apparently falsely accused of — and is then separated from his friend. Later volumes describe their diverging paths in life. Why might have Noriko recommended this particular novel to Kenkichi? Hold that thought.

We then see Noriko at work, as a secretary and executive assistant to the head of a small firm (Shūji Sano). As she talks with her boss regarding café recommendations, her best friend Aya (Chikage Awashima) arrives, there to collect payment for the boss’s spending at the restaurant her mother owns. Noriko’s boss wonders when they’ll both get married, and refers to them as “old maids.”

(Before becoming a movie actress, Chikage Awashima was a musumeyaku top star in the Takarazuka Revue and occasionally played “pants roles,” i.e., as a female character dressing as a man for plot reasons. Osamu Tezuka was a fan of hers, and she supposedly inspired the main character Sapphire, “born ... with a blue heart of a boy and a pink heart of a girl,” in his manga Princess Knight. Why might this be relevant to Early Summer? Again, hold that thought.)

After work, Noriko meets Kōichi and Fumiko for dinner. While they eat, Kōichi complains about post-war women (“[They’ve] become so forward.”) and Noriko corrects him: “We've just taken our natural place.” Kōichi then claims that’s why Noriko can’t get married, and she rebukes him: “It’s not that I can’t. I could in a minute if I wanted to.” (Note: a bit of foreshadowing here.)

Next occur the two key events that set the main plot in motion. First, Noriko’s great-uncle (Seiji Miyaguchi) arrives for a visit. He wonders why she isn't married yet. “Some women don't want to get married,” he tells her. “Are you one of them?” Noriko laughs and leaves the room, but the seed has been planted in the minds of her family.

Noriko’s boss also thinks it's time for her to get married, and he has just the man for her: “He’s never been married. Not sure if he's still a virgin.” Her boss has photographs to show her, and won’t leave her leave without taking them.

Meanwhile Noriko and Aya mercilessly tease one of their married friends, and after attending another friend’s wedding have dinner with that friend and another married friend, with a side dish of sexual innuendo. One of the married friends brags about how she spent a rained-out honeymoon playing with a “spinning top”: “My husband is very good at it.” Her friend cautions her: “You shouldn't flaunt it in front of the single girls.”

However, Aya is not impressed with the implied amazingness of heterosexual intercourse: “Silly! We don’t play with tops, do we?” Noriko enthusiastically agrees with her: “That’s for children, isn’t it?” The debate between the married and the unmarried continues, after which Noriko goes home, where Kōichi and Fumiko are scheming regarding the marital candidate proposed by Noriko’s boss.

Kenkichi’s mother then visits Noriko’s mother, and tells her that a man from a detective agency has been asking about Noriko: “I realized it was about her marriage.” We also learn that Kenkichi’s wife died two years ago (leaving him with a young daughter), and that he's not interested in remarrying: “All he does since his wife died is read books” (like Les Thibaults). Finally, we learn that Kenkichi’s best friend, Noriko’s brother Shoji, went missing in the war.

We now come to the climax of the first half of the movie. As Noriko’s nephews and their friends play with their model train set downstairs (one nephew asking if their father will buy them more train track), Aya visits Noriko and they talk in her room upstairs. Their married friends have made various excuses for why they couldn’t also visit; Noriko recalls how close they were at school and laments their drifting apart.

Throughout the first half of Early Summer Noriko and Aya are shown as mirroring each other’s gestures and speech. That mirroring continues in this scene (for example, they sit down next to each other at the exact same time and in the exact same manner), and then a very interesting thing happens. Ozu’s typical modus operandi is to continue a shot until someone stops speaking or moving, or even until they leave the room. But here he cuts immediately from Noriko and Aya simultaneously raising their glasses to drink, to Noriko’s father and mother simultaneously bringing food to their lips, as they relax sitting on a street curb in town.

If I were to speculate about what this juxtaposition might mean, if anything, I’d speculate as follows: that Ozu intended to show that, whatever Aya and Noriko might be to each other, they are as close, secure, and happy in their relationship as Noriko’s mother and father are in theirs — as much a couple as any other in the film, but not formally recognized as such.

Noriko’s father tells his wife, “This may be the happiest time for our family,” although he’s sad at the thought of Noriko leaving. They continue their conversation, and then are interrupted by the site of a balloon rising into the sky. “Some child must be crying,” Noriko’s father remarks. “Remember how Kōichi cried when he lost his balloon?”

…

The good times continue as Noriko brings home a cake to eat with her sister-in-law Fumiko, and their neighbor Kenkichi drops in unexpectedly and is invited to share it with them. The scene re-introduces Kenkichi and brings up the subject of his remarrying — something he doesn’t want, but his mother (played by Haruko Sugimura) does.

…

In the meantime Noriko’s brother Kōichi has been pursuing the idea of a marriage between Noriko and an unseen bachelor first suggested by Noriko’s boss, including asking his friends and associates for more information on the proposed groom. The results are “very promising”: “He’s in the social register, and seems to be a fine businessman.” “How nice,” replies his mother, but, “how old is he?”

…

Then Noriko’s boss asks a few questions that we’ve been asking ourselves. While Noriko is away from work, Aya stops by, and the boss questions Aya on whether Noriko will go through with the match or not: “I don't understand her ... Is she interested in men?” Aya at first demurs: “What do you think?” Noriko’s boss has seen indications both ways, and presses the question: “Has she always been like that?” Aya responds in the affirmative. The questioning goes on. Aya tells him that Noriko’s apparently never been in love, “but she has an album of ... Hepburn photos this thick,” holding her thumb and forefinger about 4 centimeters apart.

Here we have the first of two translation issues. Aya actually refers to “Hepburn” without mentioning a given name. The Criterion subtitles — by Donald Richie, who should have known better — make this a reference to Audrey Hepburn, who’d had only small roles by then. It’s almost certain that this is instead a reference to Katherine Hepburn, who was a major star by the time Noriko would have entered middle school. Was the teenaged Noriko besotted by the androgynous beauty of Katharine Hepburn (who would have made a stunning otokoyaku)? It sure looks like it.

The subtext now threatens to become text, as Noriko’s boss learns that “Hepburn” refers to an American actress, and asks the obvious follow-up question about Noriko. In the Criterion subtitles it’s translated as “So she goes for women?” The BFI translation puts it more bluntly: “Is she queer?” What is Noriko’s boss really asking? Japanese speakers can correct me here, but I believe his actual question uses the term “hentai.”

Western fans are used to thinking of “hentai” as referring to pornography. However, my understanding is that at the time of the film “hentai” in colloquial Japanese would have referred specifically to sexual behavior that was considered abnormal. So if Noriko’s boss did use the term, another possible translation might have been “Is she a pervert?” Both the Criterion and BFI translations soften the question; in particular BFI’s “is she queer?”, while defensible, risks projecting our current ideas about “queer” (including its positive connotations) onto a film created in a different time.

In any case, Aya is determined to shut down any discussion of Noriko’s proclivities. “No!” she firmly replies. Noriko’s boss is apparently unconvinced: “You can never know. She’s very strange, in any case.” His prurient instincts aroused, Noriko’s boss then envisions another solution to the problem of Noriko, and queries Aya about it: “Why don’t you teach her?” “About what?” “Everything.” “What do you mean, everything?” He pats her shoulder and admonishes her: “Don’t try to be coy,” as we viewers pause to consider the implications of what he’s asking her to do.

Aya rejects this line of inquiry as well: “Don’t talk to me like that! That was rude!” Noriko's boss laughs, offers a half-hearted apology, and then (after telling Aya that Noriko won’t be back that day) invites her to lunch and quizzes her on her preferences in sushi: “Tuna” she says. He continues, “How about an open clam?” (which Donald Richie's commentary helpfully informs us is a euphemism for the vagina). “Sure,” she replies. “And a nice long rice roll?” “No, thank you!” His final words are, “You’re strange too,” and again I think I hear the word “hentai” enter the conversation.

…

Recall that Kenkichi decided to accept an offer as a department head in a hospital in Akita, several hundred kilometers north of Tokyo and on the opposite coast. Noriko meets him in a café before her brother Kōichi is to host him at a farewell dinner party, and they talk about Shoji, Noriko’s other brother who went missing in action during the war. Kenkichi recalls how he and Shoji were best friends in school, often eating at this very café, indeed at this very table. Kenkichi tells Noriko that he still keeps a letter that Shoji sent him, with a stalk of wheat enclosed (probably indicating that Shoji was deployed in northern China). Noriko asks if she can have the letter, and Kenkichi agrees.

Afterward Noriko visits Kenkichi’s mother, while Kenkichi himself is still at his farewell party. Kenkichi's mother tells Noriko her secret dream (“please don’t tell Kenkichi”): “I just wish Kenkichi had gotten remarried to someone like you.” She apologizes and asks Noriko not to be angry (“It’s just a wish in my heart”), but Noriko stares at her with an intense expression (her usual smile absent), and asks her, “Do you mean it? ... Do you really feel that way about me?” Kenkichi’s mother apologizes again, but Noriko presses on: “You wouldn’t mind an old maid like me?” Then before Kenkichi’s mother can respond, Noriko speaks: “Then I accept.”

Kenkichi’s mother is incredulous. She asks Noriko several times to confirm what she’s saying, thanks Noriko effusively and weeps tears of joy at her good fortune, but continues to question Noriko about her decision even as Noriko leaves to go home. (Incidentally, this scene features a bravura performance by Haruko Sugimura.)

After she leaves the house, Noriko encounters Kenkichi, just returned from his farewell party. Noriko exchanges some small talk with him, but says absolutely nothing about what she just told his mother.

Noriko's decision then plays out across multiple scenes:

At first Kenkichi doesn’t understand what his mother is trying to tell him (“She accepted.” “Accepted what?”). When he finally gets the message (“She agreed to marry you. To become your wife!” “My wife?” “Yes. Isn’t it wonderful?”), he looks absolutely gobsmacked. His mother breaks down in tears again telling him how happy she is, and how happy he should be. He tries to play along (glumly echoing, “Yes, I’m happy”), but he looks for all the world like a man who would sooner eat nails than enter into another marriage.

Kenkichi’s mother doesn't understand why he’s not happy. She concludes, “What an odd boy you are.” The Japanese word here appears to be “hen,” which I understand to be a softer adjective than “hentai,” and not sexual in nature. But note that Kenkichi is now the third person after Noriko and Aya to be referred to as not normal in some way.

Meanwhile Noriko is interrogated about her decision by her family, especially by Kōichi, in a beautifully framed and shot scene — Noriko in white, her head bowed, her brother in black, barking questions like a prosecutor cross-examining a criminal. Noriko is unrepentant: “When his mother talked to me, I didn’t feel a moment’s hesitation. I suddenly felt I’d be happy with him.” Her parents retire upstairs to chew on their disappointment — Noriko walking silently past them on her way to her room — while Kōichi tells Fumiko, “What could we do now? She’s made up her mind. You know how she is.”

…

Meanwhile Noriko and Aya have their last scene together. It starts by echoing and completing the action at the end of their previous scene: then they raised their glasses together to drink, now they lower their glasses in a simultaneous gesture. Aya tells Noriko that she can’t believe Noriko would ever end up like this: she thought Noriko would be a modern woman living “Western-style, with a flower garden, listening to Chopin,” “wearing a white sweater, with a terrier in tow,” and greeting Aya in English — “Hello, how are you?”

Instead Aya now imagines Noriko wearing farmers clothes in rural Japan, speaking the local dialect. She playfully imitates country speech, and Noriko responds in kind: “Ya don’t look it, but ya talk like the locals.” “I figure to live in Akita when me and my man get hitched.” The subtext here I read as follows: Noriko knows how to pretend to be something she is not — a conventional heterosexual woman in a conventional heterosexual marriage — and she will accept doing so in her self-imposed exile from Tokyo, the price she must pay for avoiding what she considered to be a worse fate.

The tone then turns serious. Aya recalls meeting Kenkichi when they were in school, on a hiking trip with Noriko and her brother Shoji, and presses Noriko about her choice: “Did you already love him then?” “No, I had no particular feeling for him. ... I never imagined myself marrying him.” Noriko evades Aya’s questions about how she came to love Kenkichi, refusing time after time to acknowledge her feelings for him as those of love. Instead she insists, “No, I just feel I could trust him with all my heart and be happy.”

But trust Kenkichi for what? we want to ask Noriko. To respect her for who and what she is? To not want a conventional relationship with her? To not press her for sex or for children (after all, he already has one)? To keep her secrets, as she might keep any secret of his?

…

The family then gathers for one last commemorative photo. Without Noriko's salary they can no longer afford the house in Kamakura, so they break up: the parents to live with the great-uncle; Noriko to Akita with Kenkichi, his mother, and his daughter; and Kōichi, Fumiko, and their sons to some other less-expensive dwelling (perhaps an apartment in the Tokyo suburbs).

The parents recall when they moved into the house: “It was spring and Noriko had just turned 12.” Kōichi remembers that time as well: "She used to wear a ribbon in her hair, and she was always singing." But “children grow up so quickly,” her parents remark, and living together forever, "that's impossible."

Her usual smile nowhere in evidence, Noriko takes it all upon herself: “I’m sorry, I’ve broken up the family.” Despite reassurances from her father (“It’s not your fault. It was inevitable.”) she flees from the room, goes upstairs to her own room, and cries her heart out, distraught about the turn that her and their lives have taken.

The final scene shows Noriko’s parents at the great-uncle’s house, far from the sea. They glance at a wedding procession walking through the fields (“Look there. A bride is passing by. I wonder what sort of family she’s marrying into?”), think of Noriko, and resign themselves to the family's fate: “We shouldn’t ask for too much.” “We've been really happy.”

— Frank Hecker, “Ozu’s Early Summer Seems Pretty Darn Queer to Me”

#yasujiro ozu #ozu #queer history #setsuko hara #early summer #film criticism #queer film #gay subtext #queer coding #long post

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floatingcatacombs · 5 months

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Bandai Taketh Away

12 Days of Aniblogging 2023, Day 1

Last year I wrote a post extolling the virtues of Birdie Wing, 2022’s breakthrough “how the fuck did this get made” mafia golf campfest. It’s the little show that could, animated on a shoestring budget to an audience of maybe two dozen extremely online yuri fans who tried their hardest to get literally anyone else to watch it.

It was almost certainly a financial failure for Bandai Namco, whose hopes for kicking off a VR-focused franchise fizzled in real time during season 1. But the resulting anime was a blast, a shoujo sports melodrama where literally anything could happen.

Birdie Wing took a few seasons off between its cours, during which Bandai Namco’s second lesbian anime of the year began airing: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. My jaw dropped as I watched the first episode recreate Utena’s setup beat for beat, including the female main character taking another girl as her fiancé. It’s a gutsy move which set my expectations high. G-Witch was my introduction to Gundam, and the highs of the first season were amazing. Even if I had some occasional complaints with the pacing, the cliffhanger ending and narrative ambition left me very excited for more.

Season 2 of Birdie Wing was set to fill the gap between cours of G-Witch, but ~something~ happened behind the scenes. It ended up being delayed to Spring 2023, where the two shows would air together. Great! That means double the lesbians. Or��zero?

Fair warning: From here on out I will be both a hater, and a spoiler.

Both seasons start without a hitch. G-Witch finally pops the safety bubble of its setting, with a terrorist attack on the academy followed up by an episode from the viewpoint of Dawn of Fold soldiers trying to survive a retaliatory crackdown from the Spacians. It pulled no punches with its violence and war orphans and trauma, a good sign for the struggles that awaited the main cast. Meanwhile, Birdie Wing continued to pay tribute to old-school Class S after its boarding school arc by involving its cast in a nightmare incest soap opera concerning Eve and Aoi’s parentage and the sins of the previous generation. Both are great developments for their respective shows, suggesting plenty of good stuff ahead.

Unfortunately, this is when both of these shows begin to fall apart. Eve and Aoi manage to beat the incest allegations, but afterwards their relationship just…stops. Their chemistry all but dissipates, the homoerotic rivalry giving way to their personal relationships with golf instead of with each other. The plot keeps the two of them apart as much as possible, devoid of the angsty longing from season 1, as the girls each succumb to a different form of golf cancer (even without the gay-baiting, at least Birdie Wing is still insane).

For G-Witch, a much more ambitious anime, this decline manifests as a creeping realization that they’re simply going to drop most of the open plot threads. The show takes its sweet time, even as it becomes clear that it’s barreling towards a finale at 24 episodes. The long-awaited plot twists are handled fine, I guess. But any sense that the show is aiming for greatness fades away, as it simply tries to drag itself to the finish line, buckling under its own weight. What we see on screen is what we get, and you’ll have to fill in the blanks yourself to really be happy. The Earthian-Spacian conflict ends up as mere set-dressing, and characters who clearly had intertwined backstories never even get the chance to interact. The obvious examples are the man who killed Suletta’s dad in the prologue resurfacing and that never really coming up, and everything to do with Chuchu and Nika’s backstories. I’m not here to nitpick, but it’s a shame that everyone’s characterization is left so thin. G-Witch really feels like it was meant to be a full 50-episode series, and I’m led to believe that this trimming down happened during production, as there’s just no other reason to set so much up without resolving it.

At last we reach each show's conclusion. Birdie Wing is saddled with a final arc full of professional tournaments, which is always going to be weaker than the dirty mafia golf on a conceptual level. The timeline begins to rapidly accelerate and suddenly we’re skipping ahead months, and then entire years. We don’t get to see most of Eve and Aoi’s final game, or even the period of time where they reconcile. An enduring friendship and rivalry is implied at the end, but it’s nowhere near the mutual obsession that the prior season depicted. Not an ounce of queerbait remains, even for the terminally yurigoggled such as myself.

Meanwhile, G-Witch dedicates some of its precious final minutes to a fight with Lauda (Jesus Christ is the Schwartzette is wasted on him), and just like Birdie Wing the two girls at the heart of the show barely get any time together as the end draws near. They ultimately opt for a Macross-Symphogear ending in which Suletta pilots a Gundam that shoots gay rainbow lasers and defeats her mom with the power of love and friendship. That’s fine! But that’s the ending for a show that didn’t happen! In its last act G-Witch retreats into its shell, unable to commit to the moral weight of the world it had built up. Laughably, the epilogue time-skips to a neoliberal utopia where Miorine solves the earth-space conflict through her sheer girlboss acumen. Suletta and Miorine’s gay wedding is implied at best, and an after-credits message states that this is the conclusion of The Witch from Mercury as a story, prematurely killing any potential follow-up.

The rest is history. Kadokawa redacts an interview to remove references to Suletta and Miorine being married, Bandai releases a statement that their status at the end of the show should be left up to interpretation, and everyone is mad forever.

What happened? Both of these shows fell apart at the same time, and both in a manner that defused their implicit queerness. Birdie Wing was always a bit of a trainwreck even at its best, so in a vacuum I would have just concluded that the production ran out of steam, unable to live up to its earlier writing. But the timing of Season 2’s delay, combined with the corporate meddling that affected G-Witch, makes me downright conspiratorial. Something went down at Bandai Namco, and it led to them ordering their productions be revised halfway through to scrub out all the gay shit and play things safe. I wouldn’t be surprised if this occurred at the same time as G-Witch was trimmed down from its initial 50 to 24 episodes with no chance of a continuation. It’s also not too much of a stretch to imagine Birdie Wing receiving a “stick to sports" mandate and Yosuke Kuroda subsequently phoning it in. I don't know how else to say it: there's no reason to do an incest fakeout if you're not even going to follow up on it afterwards once you've gone through the difficult work of exonerating them.

Witch from Mercury was a commercial success (it sold a shitton of gunpla, at least!) so it seems like a surprise that Bandai Namco would clamp down creatively in such a destructive way. Or maybe not. This may be the first female-led Gundam, but in a lot of other ways it’s fairly restrained as far as Gundams go. Perhaps BN decided that G-Witch had to be a balancing act to please everyone, preventing the creative staff from truly swinging for the fences in the end. Of course, that backfired horribly and they ended up pissing off himejoshis and regular mecha fans alike. I know it’s something of a fool’s errand to expect undeniable LGBT representation from anime, but when you begin with an explicit Utena homage, I expect better.

This has all been a bit of a downer, so I wanted to end things by sharing the anime I watched this year that actually gave me what I wanted out of those two shows.

Watching through the original Mobile Suit Gundam made me realize just how conservative G-Witch is in a lot of its storytelling. 0079 is a deeply radical show for its time, and still would be if you made it today. The unhesitating depiction of war and death through the aesthetics of a 70’s children’s show is particularly bold, and even the parts of the anime notorious for being overlong successfully reinforce the overall mood of the work. Amuro’s transformation from innocent child to unrelenting psychic soldier is as inevitable and upsetting as it should be, and even with all the “filler” the script feels much tighter than the G-Witch, which ambles around with side stories that don’t resolve and characters that don’t go anywhere. Imminently watchable. I love that the mommy issues in Gundam go all the way back, and I'm also starting to understand why you fuckers have been arguing about Char Aznable for 40 years.

you.

I also watched Kakegurui this year, which served as a great alternative to Birdie Wing. It doubles down on the best parts of that show – mostly-female cast, high stakes gambling, dubious lesbian rep – with an all-consuming sleaze to it. Grab some friends who aren't easily scandalized and try not to worry too hard about gaze or the intended audience, and it will be a hoot. The production values are great, even if most of it inevitably goes to girls making upsetting faces. The first opening in particular is an animation highlight. Of course, this is a MAPPA production, so they’re far too busy flaying their workers alive in the pits of hell to ever get around to another season. May their company unionize or perish.

#12 days of anime #gundam #birdie wing #gundam the witch from mercury #kakegurui

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koryokuu · 6 months

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Celestia Ludenburg Headcanons

-If you hear her real laugh she does a little snort.

-Once at a casino and got drunk, and that was her first loss.

-She collects multiple forms of cards (pokemon,baseball,valuables,etc.).

-Asexual Lesbian.

-She dislikes manga.

-Her favourite letter is 'M'.

-Always corrects Naegi and Aoi when they call white or black a colour (it's a shade you uncultured swine).

-The beginning of her addiction began because she won a bet and got 400 yen.

-She uses very good grammer when texting.

-Very bad at understanding jokes.

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pinkarachnia · 11 months

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Lesbian Anime Review #9 - Birdie Wing Golf Girls' Story Season 2

The world is a miserable place and I hope we all die.

So I just finished the last episode of Birdie Wing and I feel very differently about season 2 compared to how I felt about the first half. I'm going to spoil what does and, more critically, what doesn't happen in this show in this review, so read on at your own peril.

I am so fucking disappointed.

When I saw the first season of Birdie Wing I thought it was exceptional. The yuri force was so strong with that show that I was out here thinking it was the chosen one. But I digress, rather than vent about how sad I am, I should actually try to write a proper review to some level.

Season 2 of Birdie Wing is about Eve and Aoi playing golf in different tournaments across the world while they aim for the pro tour so that they can fulfill their promise of golfing against each other. They barely get to see each other for the whole show. There's a lot of them playing against other characters who don't matter, inevitably winning and then thinking about how great it will eventually be when they see each other.

Sidebar 1 - fuck yearning

I'm sick of this shit. The most common yuri trope is yearning and it seems like this defines some people's interpretations of how yuri is supposed to be. I think there's an issue with anime in general where characters entering into a relationship is considered "endgame", so you'll often see those plotlines get dragged out needlessly to keep characters from getting together, but it feels particularly egregious here in Birdie Wing season 2.

Season 1 of Birdie Wing ended with Eve and Aoi winning a doubles tournament together. Eve had promised to kiss Aoi if they won. This is never brought up for the entirety of season 2. They launch into season 2 with a secret parents plot, which I actually enjoyed.

(Damn I went looking for a gif and I think this is the only time Eve touches Aoi's face in season 2. Ladies, I'm at my limit.)

Eve has had amnesia for all of the first season and she gets her memories back suddenly and remembers who her dad is. It's Aoi's dad! That sucks for her. They briefly have an "oh shit are we related" moment, but then Aoi learns that her dad might not be her real dad because her mother had an affair with the guy who has been coaching her for her whole life. So both the main characters get a secret parents plot, and I kind of love this. It's so absurd but it feels just right for this show, which seems to relish in its own absurdity. I get that the parent stuff would have fully distracted the girls from their season 1 yuri promise, but once they've figured this out, nothing seems to change.

Season 2 feels weighed down by the way it splits its focus between the two main characters. Both Eve and Aoi go through their own separate stories independent of each other where they both learn about their secret parents, both learn new golfing techniques and both go through physical struggles in order to play golf. Aoi has a disease that she inherited from her dad that gives her headaches and makes her pass out if she exerts herself, and Eve's golfing style is so physically demanding that she breaks all her bones or something. She has to go through a training montage where she works out until the following tournament after she creates her signature shot, Rainbow Bullet Burst. This specific part is something I like, but that's because I still think Eve is the best anime protagonist maybe ever.

Season 2 is 12 episodes long, and after Eve and Aoi go their separate ways in episode 4, they don't see each other again until around the end of episode 10, and even then they barely interact with each other. Season 1 had enough gay subtext that I was genuinely impressed, but that was nowhere in season 2. There was one episode that covered the backstory of Aoi's caddy, and they put all their romantic analogues in that episode and then have her say "no homo" at the end. I wasn't really bothered at the time because I was never that invested in those two having anything, but now that the season has ended, I can see that on reflection, that was the episode with the strongest romantic themes, and that feels like a punch in the gut.

The golf was also more boring in season 2 compared to season 1. In season 1, Eve used a series of colour-themed golf swings which she would reveal throughout the season, but in season 2, she only really needs to use the rainbow bullet and then rainbow bullet burst. These shots are too good and she never needs to use any of her previous swings any more. It seemed to me that there were a lot of reused animations in season 2. I got so sick of seeing the exact same animation for one of Eve's opponents who does a run-up swing with a cannon motif because I saw it over and over. It's a 12 episode show, but that didn't stop them from recycling these same shots all the time. At least if the main characters got more unique moves it might have been more forgivable, but it didn't impress me like the first season did.

Sidebar 2 - season 1 is still good

The thing that's hitting me the hardest when I think about season 2 of Birdie Wing is that the first season was incredible. In terms of the sports setpieces, the characters that I loved and the yuri content, season 1 was masterful. Season 2 seems to be making some attempt to recapture that, but it doesn't seem to have any new ideas. The stakes in season 1 feel huge because Eve has to play golf against the mafia to defend the home of her loved ones or play for her own life. Season 2 has the British Open. They include some of these elements in season 2, but they're brief and only appear to tie up loose ends. Eve has one match in the mafia setting so some golfer can job to her and it's over in an episode and then she never has to deal with them again. The official tournament setting means they don't get to do anything zany with the courses, it's just regular golf. The coolest parts of season 1 feel watered down in season 2. Season 1 had Rose in it. No character has ever been as sick as her.

Season 1 had this in it

I need a stiff drink, fuck.

I've been slowly working through a bottle of The Shin, it's a Japanese blended whiskey. It's alright, but for a similar pricepoint I think Suntory Toki tastes better. The other day I treated myself to some Yamazaki 12 at a whiskey bar and for a while I was thinking that I just can't taste why it's so much more expensive than other whiskeys. On reflection and after having a few others for comparison, I think I can appreciate the quality a bit more, but it's still way out of my price range. Give me a Macallan 12 any day.

Anyway what else can I even say about this show

Look, it's complicated because season 1 did not feel like yuri bait. Look at that gif! It haunts me! I'm in pain writing this.

Season 2 however, is 100% unequivocally yuri bait. They don't kiss. I'm sorry. I feel betrayed. When I finished the episode, the first thing I did was go to MAL to look at the staff credits for these shows because it made me think that surely season 2 was written by someone else and that's why it ended like this. From what I can tell, it's the same staff. I would love to be proven wrong on this; please if you know better, prove me wrong. It's insane to me that the same people who made Birdie Wing season 1 would choose to end the show in this way. Season 1 gave me hope, but season 2 has eroded the good faith that season 1 built up in me. I'm a husk of a woman. Birdie Wing season 2 might be the reason I read Berserk.

I'm not giving this show a review score because it doesn't feel like I can sum up these feelings with a number like that.

I'll never forget season 1 of Birdie Wing.

I'll never forget Evangeline Burton.

She shot right through me with her rainbow bullet.

#lesbian anime review #birdie wing #birdie wing spoilers

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yuripoll · 8 months

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making good headway in reading (or rereading) everything for propaganda collection & rec writing, but @whysapphics suggested posting the list of titles for season 3 in case anyone wants to read things beforehand

still subject to change if i end up quibbling over what to include, but here's the current roster (under the cut)

dark forest, white road <- yoshida chiyu (high school drama including a blind girl)

ayaka is in love with hiroko <- sal jiang (silly office romcom)

the moon on a rainy night <- kuzushiro (high school drama including a deaf girl)

serendipity <- mimiyori (webcomic about an overworked magical girl)

handsome girl and sheltered girl <- majoccoid & mocha au lait (silly miscommunication romcom)

aoi hana <- takako shimura (classic schoolgirl yuri)

composing spring in this room where cherry blossoms bloom <- tokuwotsumu (angst. ough.)

makoto no momoka <- sumiko arai (oneshot)

i decided to fake a marriage with my junior to shut my parents up <- kodama naoko (exactly what it says on the tin)

sakura namiki <- takahashi makoto (OLD old. proto-yuri)

i'm not cut out to be a princess, so i'll elope with the villainess <- yamagata atsuka (isekai oneshot)

netsu wo obiru veil <- sakura togane (oneshot about unrequited love)

muted <- miranda mundt (fantasy webcomic)

the girl that can't get a girlfriend <- mieri hiranishi (autobiographical lesbian dramady)

a lady's table <- hwemi (girl dinner <3)

because you are a red rose <- mokuzuko (oneshot about unrequited love... again. im not having issues i prommy)

that time i was blackmailed by the class's green tea bitch <- xian jun (silly high school romcom)

2dk gpen aftertime <- yayoi ohsama (anthology including an epilogue to 2dk gpen alarm clock)

kanojo ni naritai kimi to boku <- takase umi (kind of a stretch to call it yuri (for spoiler reasons) but about a girls crush on her childhood friend who recently came out as trans)

indigo blue <- yamaji ebine (down to earth josei drama about a writer cheating on her bf with a woman)

destroy it all and love me in hell <- kuwabara tamotsu (so THIS is the toxic yuri ive heard so much about)

mahou josei chimaka <- kaiju (webcomic turned real comic about an ex-magical girl who needs to save the world again; no longer available online which unfortunately means i wont be able to read this one at the moment... hmu if anyone knows of an ebook sale for it ToT EDIT: oh im dumbbb i looked at the submission to double check for content warnings and its on IA)

savior <- junqi & jo9 (vampire yuri)

to die in june <- kuragenanami (alternate history where young girls were recruited to the jp army in ww2)

soulmate <- wenzhi lizi & ke ran bing (woman gets bodyswapped with her 17 year old self)

yuki and the authoress <- nagori yu (historical romance)

blooming sequence <- lee eul (college student romance)

you are my angela <- murasakino (short romance about an angel)

maria-sama ga miteru <- konno oyuki & nagasawa satoru (classic schoolgirl yuri)

a kiss and a white lily for her <- canno (modern schoolgirl yuri)

ohana holoholo <- torino shino (gay josei family drama)

kakegurui <- kawamoto homura & naomura tooru (not strictly yuri but, like teppuu, ive been led to believe its homoerotic enough to break that barrier)

#a lot of the things on my list are random oneshots ive read and ive tried. to limit that ksjdj.#i felt like i had put a bunch of them in but writing them all out like this there's less than i feared. phew.#rbs off since some of these i havent read yet and i cant confidently rec #stfu elly

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drippingviolets3 · 2 years

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Trigger warning for Homophobic harassment and bullying

I’m bored so I’m rating danganronpa THH characters based on how I think they’d react to me telling them about the homophobic harassment I got last year :,)

Makoto Naegi: 10/10. He’d be super sweet and comforting. Might try and talk to the students about it and he might get pummeled, but then because of his luck the students would get in trouble

Kyoko Kirigiri: 11/10. She would totally frame those mfs.

Byakuya Togami: -10/10. He himself is probably homophobic, it’s in his capitalist genes. The most he’d do it pat my back with the back of a broom and go “there there you fa-“

Sayaka Maizono: 10/10 She’d post about it for weeks and would donate the revenue from her band to LGBT organizations <3

Toko Fukawa: 5/10. A closeted lesbian. I don’t think she’d even hang out with me but if she did she’d just be watching me sob violently and be like “Bitch there’s people dying.”

Yasuhiro Hagakure: 7/10 he’d tell me he had a premonition where the students get punished by the universe but the most that happened was that their ringleader got in school suspension </3

Junko Enoshima: -100/10 she was most likely IN the group that harassed me

Mukuro Ikusaba: 5/10 Another closeted lesbian, but legally can’t help (Junko wouldn’t allow it)

Leon Kuwata: 3/10 mf thinks he can change a LGBT girl but still claims to be a ally. At least he’d give me fake support

Mondo Owada: 15/10 THIS👏MAN👏RIGHT👏HERE👏 would get his entire fucking gang and would HOUND those bitches.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru: 6/10 he tries 😭 he tries so hard to help 😭 but the best he can do is force them to research LGBT issues and watch a bullying presentation video

Chihiro Fujisaki: 10/10 he’d consider doxxing them but decides to hack the morning announcements to call out the students individually to the whole school through Alter Ego.

Celestia Ludenburg: -1/10: “stop crying on me broke ass bitch.”

Hifumi Yamada: 1/10 he’d try to help but like…..let’s be real he’d get the Sh!t beaten out of him.

Sakura Ogami: 10/10 She’d just try to talk to the students but they’d shit themselves out of fear

Aoi Asahina: 9/10: She gets a high rating not because she’d throw hands or anything, but because she’d bring me comfort food and let me cry.

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harzekeenjoyer · 2 months

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bored so heres some dr hcs :D (THH, SDR2 and NDRV3)

Makoto Naegi: Nobody can convince me he’s not pan, its too obvious.

Kyoko Kirigiri: Asexual, and prolly like bi or omni

Byakuya Togami: BISEXUAL ALERT BISEXUAL ALERT

Toko Fukawa: lesbian lesbian (not for Komaru. /srs)

Aoi Asahina: Im convinced shes pansexual

Yasuhiro Hagakure: the gayness is pure

Sayaka Maizono: Im thinking bi.

Mukuro Ikusaba: unlabed lesbian. im calling it.

Leon Kuwata: Cannot convince me hes not pan. nobody ever will.

Chihiro Fujisaki: Transfem Bisexual i am calling it

Mondo Owada: me sexual (/j) everyone thinks hes bi or gay but i personally think hes omni i swear he told me

Kiyotaka Ishimaru: gay gay homosexual gay

Hifumi Yamada: HES A FICTOROMANTIC.

Celestia Ludenburg: i personally think shes omni (male lean)

Sakura Ogami: lesbian lesbian lesbian lesbiannn

Junko Enoshima: aroace (despairsexual /j)

Hajime Hinata: hes bisexual (female lean)

Kazuichi Souda: erm sir you said the bisexual meter could only go to 100. why is it at 2735286282727? ;-;

Akane Owari: lesbian istg

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu: hes so bi i js know it

Sonia Nevermind: transfem demigirl lesbian ik it

Byakuya Twogami: Aroace.

Teruteru Hanamura: do i rlly need to answer this one..? (bisexual male lean tbh)

Mahiru Koizumi: bisexual. bi bi bothkisser bi

Peko Pekoyama: lesbian i just get that feeling from her

Ibuki Mioda: shes up for anything, omni no pref

Hiyoko Saionji: transfem bisexual

Mikan Tsumiki: lesbiannnn

Nekomaru Nidai: Omni male pref i js know it

Gundham Tanaka: gay trans ftm (i love him)

Nagito Komaeda: Aroace, he thinks hes trash (he is to me)

Chiaki Nanami: I feel like shes pan, idk why she js is

Shuichi Saihara: Aroace, i just get that feeling yk?

Himiko Yumeno: lesbian (y are there so many of them)

Maki Harukawa: again, lesbian.

Rantaro Amami: Transmasc

Kaede Akamatsu: I honestly dont see her looking for a relationship she’s aroace to me

Ryoma Hoshi: bi i’d say

Kirumi Tojo: tbh idfk pan or smth

Angie Yonaga: lesbian or bi i think

Tenko Chabashira: lesbian but i don’t ship her w anyone.

Korekiyo Shinguji: pan and genderfluid!! (totally didnt find this hc on tiktok and immediately admired it)

Miu Iruma: bi. shes angel dust if he was real

Gonta Gokuhara: Pan probably

Kokichi Ouma: bi i think??

Kaito Momota: gay i think

Kiibo/K1-B0: bi or gay (?)

Tsumugi Shirogane: lesbian aroace

A/N: not doing udg bc i dont feel like it

#danganronpahcs #danganronpa #drv2 #sdr2

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historyhermann · 1 year

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Things Get Better?: LGBTQ Representation in Animation in 2022 [Part 1]

Komichi Akebi of Akebi's Sailor Uniform happily welcomes all the LGBTQ animated shows in this article. Logos of my favorite anime with LGBTQ themes which aired throughout 2022 are shown in this graphic which I created

In January 2022, I wrote that there was a possibility that in 2022 things would "get better" in terms of LGBTQ representation, with new fandoms developing from shows which take risks by telling diverse stories. Although 2022, in some regards, more than lived up to this possibility and went beyond, there were challenges.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Maniacs and Wayback Machine. This was the nineteenth article I wrote for Pop Culture Maniacs. This post was originally published on January 16, 2023.

In the world of anime, some series with implied, or directly represented, LGBTQ characters, came to an end. [1] Often times these series had yuri themes. For instance, there were somewhat strong undertones between the protagonist, Komichi Akebi, and her friend, Erika Kizaki, in Akebi's Sailor Uniform, and the protagonists of The Demon Girl Next Door, Yuko Yoshida and Momo Chiyoda, and those of the short-lived, but intriguing, yuri isekai, The Executioner and Her Way of Life. In the latter series, one of the protagonists, Akari Tokitō, has a crush on Menou, a female assassin with a duty to kill her. At the same time, Menou's aide, Momo, has a crush on her and is jealous of how close she is getting to Akari.

One series, Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story, blew representation out of the water, with strong romantic themes between Eve and a Japanese girl she plays golf against, Aoi Amawashi. Eve is often unaware of how romantic she is toward Aoi, who has a clear crush on her. Erica Friedman of Okazu, a well-known reviewer who focuses on lesbian themes in anime, even wrote that she may "start measuring other anime based on how amazing this one was". Other series ranged from having implied to more direct themes, including Vampire in the Garden, Do it Yourself!!, Bocchi the Rock!, Healer Girl, Lycoris Recoil, and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury.

There were additional anime with LGBTQ themes or characters. For instance, Life with an Ordinary Guy who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout, which had a three month run from January to March 2022, featured a reincarnated protagonist, Hinata Tachibana, who is heavily implied to be a bisexual trans woman. The spinoff from the popular Rooster Teeth series, RWBY, named RWBY: Ice Queendom, featured a non-binary nightmare hunter, Shion Zaiden. Christine Brent, Senior Brand Director for Rooster Teeth, confirmed this and said she would like to have similar characters in future productions.

Apart from these series, there were implied yuri themes in the ongoing idol series Love Live! Superstar!! and second season of Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club. Such themes were also present in Management of Novice Alchemist, Encouragement of Climb: Next Summit, KanColle: Itsuka Ano Umi de, My Master Has No Tail, Prima Doll, Smile of the Arsnotoria the Animation, Shine Post, and many others, [2] all of which began, and ended, in 2022.

Many of these series are on Crunchyroll, one of the biggest anime streaming services. With its recent merger with Funimation, Crunchyroll now dominates the anime streaming market, and will likely continue crackdowns on pirate sites. Its only real competition is YouTube, smaller sites like HIDIVE (owned by AMC), and streaming services such as Netflix, Tubi, and Hulu.

Notes

[1] Some could say that the final season of Princess Connect! Re:Dive has yuri subtext and point to the second season of Dota: Dragon's Blood featuring an Elven thief named Fymrym, who was once in a polyamorous relationship with a woman and two men, with her partners murdered by Luna, who attacks the Elves who don't worship Selemene. Also, Komi Can't Communicate featured Najimi Osana who has an ambiguous gender and Ren Yamai who is a lesbian, a bisexual man named Apollo in Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, gay characters like Nagi and Soldier in Goblins Cave and Suma in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. Attack on Titan has LGBTQ characters as well, as does One Piece.

[2] Others, as listed on Yuri Anime Reviews, include Teppen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Laughing ‘Til You Cry, League of Nations Air Force Aviation Magic Band Luminous Witches, Kakegurui Twin, Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story Final Season, RPG Real Estate, Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost, Black Rock Shooter: Dawn Fall, Cue!, Slow Loop, and Girls' Frontline.

#lgbtq #animation #anime #akebi's sailor uniform #komichi akebi #akebi chan no sailor fuku #the executioner and her way of life #the demon girl next door #machikado mazoku #birdie wing #yuri #rwby #rwby ice queendom #rooster teeth #crunchyroll #hidive

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monsterwithasweater · 11 months

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Monster Replays The Truthful Route: Prologue

Warning: Spoilers for Digimon Survive under the cut. Read at your own risk.

In case you're not familiar with this blog, I've recently finished the Harmony route of Digimon Survive, meaning that I've played every route. I didn't want my final playthrough to over half the cast dead, so I've decided to replay the Truthful route, fully knowing what happens.

Thoughts:

The art for Gabumon and Renamon's first appearance honestly look very cool, especially Gabumon.

I find it funny how in the flashback, Haru and Miyuki are just referred to as 'Boy' and 'Girl'. With other characters, they either have a '???' or a word that describes them (e.g. 'Spirited Boy'), but with these two, their just 'Boy' and 'Girl', even after they refer to each other as their actual names. LMFAO

I love the animated short at the beginning. If I didn't know any better, I'd think it would be a trailer for an actual anime.

Saki: Wow, you're such a charmer. No wonder all the girls love you.

Ryo: Oh, shut up.

Lmao, I love these two.

Miyuki's singing is very, very pretty.

I'm genuinely curious if the school Takuma and co. camp at is based on a real place.

I imagine Shuuji's lines being dubbed over by SammyClassicSonicFan.

Something I didn't notice before is that Takuma mentions that Shuuji is an alumnus of Aoi's school.

Saki: Clearly you're not the type to be left to your own devices.

If you really think about it, this kinda feels like foreshadowing.

I'll never get tired of Ryo and Saki's dynamic.

Lesbian much, Aoi?

Aoi: All of us need to work together

Me: Okay, as long as you don't try to absorb the entire goddamn planet for the sake of Harmony™.

I love the way Miu's voice actress delivers her lines. It definitely feels like Miu's exaggerating and being super dramatic.

I love how Kaito's description of Miu is just completely inaccurate. At the same time, it also kinda hurts, especially after playing the Harmony route.

*it starts snowing* What is this, Digimon Adventure?

Can't believe there was a period in my life where I thought getting Harmony karma was a GOOD thing.

Minoru: The ones that worship the lewd stuff are the best!

Ah, so it appears that Minoru and I share a braincell *shot*

Honestly, it took me a while to notice that the Professor was wearing glasses in the prologue, but then lost them in the Kemonogami World.

I like how Shuuji's just randomly staring at a stone wall. Not even the mural, just a stone wall.

THE PROFESSOR SAID AGUMON! W00T!

Aoi: A pervert? On a MOUNTAIN?!

Of course, everybody knows that perverts can be found anywhere except in high altitudes!

Ryo's dialogue: Oh jeez, oh boy...

Ryo's voice: uwrraarAH!

The intro is very, very pretty. Plus, it definitely fits the vibe of the game well.

Takuma: *says bingo ONCE*

Me: Miyako Inoue? Is that you?

KOROMON WHY ARE YOU SO PRECIOUS

Takuma: My point is that I'm not a kid!

Koromon: Why not?! You seem to be pretty childish to me!

BUUURRRRRNNN

What's funny about NG+, especially early on in the game is that while most of the enemies are Rookie or Champion level, I can just evolve straight to Mega and oneshot everybody. It's especially funny if it's after the Kemonogami just evolved in the cutscene before the fight lol

I love how Takuma and Agumon share -2 braincells lmao

Takuma says that he and the others probably accidentally broke a seal on the shrine that released the Kemonogami. While that's obviously not what really happened, I still think that'd make for a good premise for a Digimon story, whether an anime or a video game.

This concludes my thoughts on the prologue, and onto Part 1 I go!

#digimon #digimon survive #monster replays the truthful route #monster rambles #digimon survive spoilers

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bibiana112 · 2 years

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Here's a couple top 5s, you don't have to do them all. Favorite fictional characters. Favorite video games. Favorite ship (does not have to be romantic). And let's do a couple non fandom things, favorite desserts. Favorite hobbies and activities (you can include stuff you did in the past but are no longer doing it you want)

I'm going to do most of these!

The fictional characters one is so difficult because there's so many that are important to me and honestly anyone could probably guess these buut

Roxas- Never related more to a character or will again holy shit I don't want to talk about all the reasons but yeah god he's just like me fr

Chara- Well my interest in Undertale in general was probably one of the most influential things in my life for a lotta reasons but especially cause cosplaying them got me to meet my big sister friends :3

Aoi- I don't think I need to elaborate much but this fucker is somehow the very definition of comfort character to me sibling of all time and god how did they fit so much survivor's guilt and gender swag on this one guy

Akane- She's honestly one of the fictional characters of all time for me not even just in the sense that I'm emotionally invested and like to project on what I relate to her in like just literally no one does it like her and it's so fucking awesome how much nuance she has

Mary- From Ib obviously. The concept of a painting come to life is one thing but also matching that with intense loneliness and abandonment issues because the artist was neglectful and the way she doesn't even know what life is like but wants it so bad and how the thing with existing even works in the gallery is just so interesting to me and I never saw the concept done like that again

Ships is interesting because I am not overwhelmed by choice and have few I ever liked lmao

Soriku- I don't wanna make statements on what they have going on exactly but it is some shade of true love and regardless their relationship is just so precious to me like the Disney vibes really make me feel things

Garnet- aka Ruby and Sapphire from Steven universe and that is simply because I remember crying when they came on screen for the first time kissing and being worried for each other and realizing at the tender age of thirteen on the spot that I did have romantic feelings afterall but I just never realized girls were an option

Junepei- These two are so messed up whatever they have going on isn't precious in the wholesome sense at all and I'm living for it they get to be awkward and cute and each other's first real crushes but also horny and terrible for what else they bring to each other's lives and still the only thing to keep each other from giving up on other people altogether and they're liars and manipulators and they never once harm the other out of spite and it's a runaway and a detective and just a caring brave boy who met a lonely smart girl when they were in elementary school and a control freak mastermind that's half dead and waiting for him to save her and a normal spontaneous person who's pulled into all this when she kidnaps him and GOD

Aoilight- They're also complicated but not as much as those other two I'm tired from typing that out and I did already make an essay on these two so I just think them together would be sweet and funny and they'd be more on the same page about healing than junepei if the circumstances were okay

Strelrena- Okay hear me out this rare pair has so much potential because I believe marluxia and larxene to be the gay lesbian solidarity duo and streli is canonically queer for her crush on player and Elrena was the only one she really talked to omg they were party mates and she was along for the ride to help her brother find her from day one and she only avoided the war because streli talked fondly about her enough for lauriam to remember and go to her and her chirity is so funny about teasing her about caring about anyone at all while looking for her and her doing a one eighthy and being bitter and awful at the very notion of having a heart makes sense with this whole thing and in her files she talks about something previous to her but that still gives her mixed feelings and some of those could still end up being about marluxia and I would not like that but for now I can only hope for kh to have a single wlw pairing that works for me

Dessert!

Mint chocolate chip ice cream

Brigadeiro/Dois amores

Lemon pie

Churros

Hmm hobbies

Cosplay is definitely the definition of a hobbie I dropped but I owe so much to the time I dabbled in it

Writing I started to do after giving up on taking cosplay seriously

Surfing actually for a short while when I was young but it's cold here so my dad gave up on going to classes during the freezing weekend mornings with me and my brother

Sewing cause my big sis tried teaching me for a couple weeks when I was in highschool I'd go to her place afterwards once or twice for lessons but that didn't last too long for many reasons

Hand making bracelets and necklaces! Wow that one's old I loved to go to the store to buy beads and other accessories for it when I was small but my mom didn't take me often and I'm not sure those stores still exist

#this is old! i completely forgor #but these were super fun to answer still thank u akdhjs #a tag for asks #ask game #I believe this was THE deepest thing on my drafts god only 150 more to go

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vampacidic · 1 year

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ITS LEO hiii sage. using anon bc i dont want my main to be on here u know how it is. sleepover saturday real..... can i make u pick an aoi twin. also grabby hands thoughts on my special guys... mao ibaba tori ... ALSO whos your most brainrotting oc . u can answer all or none of these go wild

yes yes i getcha leo... i acfually have a couple friends named leo so i was like. Which one for a good second... anyway

ohh an aoi twin.... if i had to pick one my favorite is hinata :) it's the older sibling guilt lol... not that i dislike yuta. yuta is also my little guy. but there's something so..... grabby hands about hinata's. i wouldn't say asshole-ry but the way he's so adamant that he knows yuta that he refuses to acknowledge any change in yuta... echoes a lot of problems i have. im excited to see when he realizes that 'protecting' yuta has only been hurting her in the long run... ultimately damaging their relationship. etc. i love guys who are lost in the past

admittedly i don't know much about either ibara or tori... i never watched/read kiseki series lol. i know a speed run of ibara but i wouldn't say i uh. Know her. if you get what i mean... i think she's silly though. definitely a guy i'd pick up by the scruff of the neck if i ever dig in. tori was also a character i wasn't particularly interested in so i never dug in... i remember during my twitter days thinking her fans were annoying. which to be fair i was right but that was less because of tori himself and more Twitter.

mao however? my silly guy. im a big mixed jp/south asian mao enjoyer. which relates not at all to his character but i just can't see him as pale. i see his canon art and go Whete is his pigment. i love his character... his self sacrificing nature. also he's a fuckin LOSER. he's a younger brother 2 me. he is so special. the meow meow est. funny to me that he's the 'normal' guy of trickstar yet also the most popular... i don't talk about him a lot but he's very special to me. one of the first guys i latched onto... i think i cried over him more than once. his cringe tboy gnc swag seduced me

ok on the oc note. this one took me a while bc all my oc art is old LOL but my most specialest little meow meow is maisie

this is recent ^ ANYWAY i made her in freshman year chem so she’s been here for a few years… she’s a vampire lol. and a very transparent self insert LMAO she has a girlfriend luna :] (pictured above). i have an entire story for them lol but i need to sit and write it some time… basically maisie is a sad little bitch who lives alone in the woods and despite the happy demeanour she has Guilt surrounding the fact she’s feeding off her friends (human. who also have designs and are important 2 plot but i can’t be assed to remember their names). until she wanders across a lost wolf and is like ohhh. friend ? and it turns out it’s a werewolf lol. and it’s luna. and luna has amnesia or smthn idfk but what’s important is that they’re in lesbians andn it’s about fuckign. allowing yourself to be close 2 ppl again. i have other ocs lol (honeydew is a slime girl and she has a wife named valkyrie. valkyrie has touch sensitivities and thus they can never hold hands….. and they’re going 2 be short comics :] they’re just silly. no deep plot there. i have june who’s important in luna + maisie universe and she has a design i enjoy drawing. and there’s bea who’s a cow girl. not like a lasso and rides horses. like she has hooves) but maisie is my most beloved little fella who i project every problem onto

#sticking this under a readmore just bc it's long...#long post #ask #anon #ask game #this has been in the drafts for a while LOL im horrible at answering things on time #ya hope you enjoy secret sage ocs. they’re not secret i like talking about them i just get nervous lol #all my ocs are sapphic. btw. not like i think someone’s going to be like ummmmm. straight girl. but they’re all gay and get my gender #problems as a result #sage ocs #did i ever make an oc tag. oops. uh. lets find out!#sage oc’s

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fzzr · 1 year

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Why Do I Only Like Sports Anime When They're Weird?

In general I am not a fan of sports anime. If the show is about getting the team together to show skill matters more than expensive gear, or we're unbeatable if we just work together, etc. I usually don't even bother to sample it anymore. However, my list of anime watched and rated highly is not bereft of things that happen on courses, tracks, and unconventional fields of play. So let's talk about lesbian golfers, horse girls, and beating the shit out of people for discount lunches.

Reviews

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story is a 2022 anime about the most unethical sport that doesn't involve non-human animals. Now, I wouldn't watch golf even if it wasn't boring as shit, just in protest of the amount of land and water it wastes. I will admit that if real golf was like the sport of the same name in Birdie Wing, I would be more sorely tempted. You see, the protagonist of Birdie Wing isn't just a golfer, she's a golfer who plays underground matches for money, and the mob. Yes, in this setting gangsters work out their differences using golf duels (also sometimes regular violence, but golf first). Mobsters not being overburdened with an abundance of principles, they obviously cheat a whole lot, and our protagonist, Eve, just wants a good clean game.

Her world changes when she falls in rivalry with aspiring professional golfer Aoi. From here Eve works to escape from her crime-adjacent life and follow Aoi into the world of "real" golf. Along the way she faces off with such characters as "definitely not a vampire" and "don't worry at all about how mechanically perfect my play is". Birdie Wing has everything you would expect from a sports anime. There are our two leads with their different philosophical approaches to the game as they clash and cooperate. There's the example of how two good players don't just make a good team. There are the characters who will do anything to win, and those who just want to play.

This show has some absolutely wild moments, both of comedy and of emotional impact. Homoeroticism between rivals in a sports anime is by no means innovative, but the way Birdie Wing goes about it is distinct. I don't want to spoil how it happens, but I was so invested in their relationship by episode 4 that a particular moment hit me like a sack of bricks.

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story is 8/10. It's just a little violent and just a little lewd, but there are sports anime that go further. I bet they're not this funny. Give it a try, especially if you want something wacky to watch while a little drunk.

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby is a 2018 anime about an unethical sport that does involve non-human animals. Specifically, each season of Uma Musume follows the actual career of a real life Japanese race horse... except instead of a horse it's about a horse girl with the same name. Also they're idols sometimes. Don't worry about it, it only comes up a few times. Given that it's built on a substrate of real life events, it really is crazy how much they manage to squeeze out of the plotlines. Most of the charm comes from the titular horse girls, of course. They're all fun characters, and even though the themes of hard work and believing in yourself are conventional the execution is solid all around.

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby (both seasons) is 8/10. It's wholesome as hell, pretty much a show for everyone.

Ben-To is a 2011 anime about the highly ethical sport of beating people up in supermarkets. The titular bento are pre-made lunches made and sold daily by markets and convenience stores. Come dinner time, the stores need to clear out stock, so everything goes on sale. As soon as the discount stickers are applied and the staff are safely out of the way, the game starts. The rules are simple: If you get your hands on a bento, it's yours. Take only one. Speed, subterfuge, or brute force - use whatever you want to get that half-price lunch.

Given the... unconventional... premise, it takes a bit of extra work to make it clear that this IS a sports anime. The freeform nature of the brawls means no single collection of sports tropes applies. It's not martial arts, but there is an emphasis on the value of personal excellence and motivation. The protagonists are solo players, "wolves", who fight for honor and always go for the most premium bento on the shelf. There are "dogs" who work as a team, and "boars" who break the social contract, so shifting alliances form even among those who normally square off. There are cross-town rivalries and places where bad blood from past events impacts the tenor of the sport. Retired players give the newcomers advice and instruct them on the philosophy of the game.

Ben-To is 8/10. (It would have been 9/10 if it didn't get distracted by anime tiddy for a few episodes). The concept is wild, the action is great, and it's just a fun time all around. It has some parts that require an elevated power level (if you know what a "fujoshi" is you have the prerequisites) so you can't show it to just anyone, but I think almost anyone can have fun with it.

OK but why though

So, why is it that I find the WE GOTTA DO IT FOR THE SENPAIS and IF WE BELIEVE IN EACH OTHER WE CAN BEAT ANYONE of conventional sports anime boring, but these all do it for me? One thing they have in common is that they're not depicting a real game being played in a real way - the unfamiliarity clearly adds something to the experience. I do think each of them shows how to make sports anime good in a different way, though.

Birdie Wing takes golf as a stepping off point, but chooses not to limit itself by the rules of reality. The tools and terms are what you have overheard people talk about when clubball is in the news for some reason, but also Eve calls out special move names and a mob boss spent millions of dollars on a reconfigurable subterranean golf course. In essence, this is a sports anime that chooses to indulge in what you might call "anime bullshit" and does it well.

Uma Musume is about running. It's truly impressive where the strategic complexity is found - different turf, different training patterns - but the sport itself isn't the source of the hyperreality. Instead, it's everything else. The characters use the actual names of the horses they're based on, so you have Special Week looking up to senpai Silence Suzuka. The designs and personalities are strong and distinct. There's nothing revolutionary about wanting to get a sports scholarship to a school in the big city because you want to play, with the school being secondary. It's just that there's this whole unstated bit of worldbuilding where oh yeah, these are horse girls who dream of growing up to be like their role model horse girls and be famous horse girl idols and horse girl champions.

Ben-To is the Chaotic Good of sports anime. It doesn't go off the rails, because it's too busy assuming you understand that of course grocery stores keep first aid stations in the back in case of concussions during the nightly refrigerator section brawls to be on rails in the first place. The freedom granted by the premise lets it pick and choose the best parts of sports anime without being beholden to the mundane things that hold the genre back. It doesn't have to deal with the heartbeat of a school year or tournament season schedule. All it takes to introduce a new twist is to brawl at a different market or have someone new show up to yours.

No seriously, why?

After stepping through all that, I think the answer is simple and a bit unsatisfying. I like weird sports anime because of the weird, not because of the sports. Weird anime are just fun, and taking something I find less fun and weirding it up means I get a bit of extra unfamiliarity from the weirdness.

#uma musume #ben-to #anime #birdie wing #sports anime #maybe if real golf had vampires I would give a shit #honestly the racing in uma musume is kinda unethical too #I can at least sympathize with the willingness to slug someone for that one eel bento #original post

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pinkarachnia · 1 year

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Lesbian Anime Review #7 - Aoi Hana ~ Sweet Blue Flowers

Takako never lets me down.

This is my second attempt at writing this review after I accidentally deleted my draft. It's also the most difficult review I've written so far because I have a lot of feelings about this anime. It's good, but I don't think it's perfect. There are a few things that influence my opinions about Aoi Hana and I'll explain as I go, but to start with I did want to make clear that I haven't read the manga for this yet. I've started collecting the volumes and I'll be getting around to it, but I haven't read it at the time of writing this review. I understand that the manga is generally more well-received than the anime, so I'm looking forward to it.

This anime is about high school girls who were friends as kids but have been separated for years when one of them moved away. Akira Okudaira (left) is positive and headstrong and Fumi Manjoume (right) is more reserved and quick to cry. They're reunited when they start high school and they learn that they go to different schools but they get the same train. But this anime isn't really about these two developing a romantic connection, it's more about Fumi and her character development. I have to assume that something more happens between these two in the manga, but I don't know.

So like I said, this anime is about Fumi and her development. Right out the gates she's gay. Fumi is introduced with the information that she has a crush her cousin, but her cousin is marrying some guy and she's pretty cut up about it. I don't know how that kind of thing is perceived in Japan, but it's legal so make of it what you will. Either way, she has to get over it. Thankfully for her, she's going to lesbian high school where everyone is gay.

Fumi ends up in a relationship with the cool girl at school, Yasuko Sugimoto. She's on the basketball team, she's got the whole "girls school prince" thing going on complete with a legion of fans. About a year back, she changed schools from Akira's school to Fumi's, but the drama club from her old school still gets her to play roles in their performances, which is the backdrop for the whole season. Yasuko is playing Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, which I guess is some kind of yuri anime trope? I've started Yuri Kuma Arashi recently and it's all over that. Regardless, Yasuko already has popularity, and her involvement in the play only makes that more visible, so Fumi has to process how she feels about her new gf getting attention from every girl in two schools. She doesn't seem to like it! Akira is there to be Fumi's ally throughout though and she's great.

That's everything I'll say about the plot without going into spoilers. If you want to stop there, I'll say that I like this anime and I think it's worth a look if you enjoy yuri stuff. It's not just yuri bait, so if you can deal with the high school melodrama you might like it.

Spoilers to follow after these images of Kashima from Gekkan-Shoujo Nozaki-kun.

Second season of that show please.

Fumi's development is really shown in contrast to Yasuko, who has gone through a similar experience to Fumi with unrequited love. She has feelings for a teacher from her old school who is going to be marrying one of her sisters and she hasn't gotten over it, which is what causes the real tension between herself and Fumi. I liked the scene where Fumi meets Yasuko's family. She lives with her three sisters and her mother and they're so fun. These women love to shit talk each other and Yasuko can't keep up with the banter. When she introduces Fumi as her girlfriend, one sister says "oh so you're a lesbian? Sorry, I guess you're bisexual" and I have to give them credit for both actually saying the L word and generally for having any discussion of sexuality in an anime. You'd think it would come up more often within the kinds of shows I've been watching, but they love to not talk about it.

Anyway, so Fumi and Yasuko talk about the teacher thing and Yasuko breaks up with Fumi because she's been acting badly and feels like she can't be a good gf to Fumi while she's still processing her feelings for the teacher guy. Later she tries to reestablish the relationship but Fumi rejects her, saying that she's already over it. I thought their relationship was an effective way to show Fumi's growth; she had managed to get over her feelings for her cousin and move on with this new relationship, but when she saw that Yasuko was dealing with similar feelings but was unable to move on, she could see the difference in maturity between the two of them. I love that for her.

The show wraps up at the end of this relationship arc with Fumi remembering that Akira was really her first love and she seems really happy to have reconnected. I can only assume that they pursue that further in the manga, but the anime ends at episode 11. Unlike the ending to other adaptions I've watched, this didn't leave me feeling like the story was incomplete. Obviously there's more to tell, but the story of Fumi's first real relationship started and finished and I thought it was pretty satisfying. I might come back to this when I finish the manga, but without knowing what's missing, I'm not disappointed.

There are some parts of this anime that I didn't love, but it might just be a me thing. Lately I've been reading some of the work of Takako Shimura, the mangaka behind Aoi Hana. Her latest work, Even Though We're Adults, is a gay romance between two 35-year-old women that deals with issues in a way that feels a lot more grown up than the themes of Aoi Hana. I get that a big part of that is that the characters in this anime are teenagers, but part of me knew while I was watching this show that this woman can write better characters than these. I don't think Aoi Hana does a bad job at characterising necessarily, I think I'm just fatigued with high school characters. It's appropriate for stories like these to be about immature people learning how to navigate situations and not always getting it right, but I just want them to talk it out sometimes. Like I said, it's a me problem, but it's my review so what did you expect?

I almost forgot to talk about this but I liked the animation in this show a lot. JC Staff did a great job with this one. I think the opening theme is animated really beautifully, I never got tired of looking at it. The show is from 2009, which I guess was a magical year for good anime. Honestly I'm not sure what else to say about it but it would have been wrong of me not to mention it.

I want to close this out with some final thoughts but it's not easy to sum up how I feel about Aoi Hana. It was a well-animated show about gay characters, but it somehow felt a bit unrealistic, especially contracted to Takako's newer work. I'm accustomed to her characters feeling like they could be real people, which I still think this achieves, but in this show I struggle to get over this feeling of unreality. I can't accept at face value that there are these two girls schools where so many people are gay and no one is weird about it. Fumi has this moment where she comes out to Akira and feels awkward because she's worried she'll think it's gross, but I don't know who gave her that impression because everyone seems pretty gay here to me. It's that contrast between these realistic characters like Fumi who has anxiety over being out as a lesbian to her best friend and has to deal with being in a relationship with someone who is older than her but emotionally younger, but she's in this idyllic world where no one seems to have any issue with gay relationships and a huge amount of the student body appear to be openly gay. One of the schools has nuns and yet no one is homophobic. It just feels a bit off to me.

In summary, this is a high quality show about good characters in gay relationships, but the relationship issues faced by the characters don't seem to be related to their queerness at all. This is fine really, but I prefer it when a show is in conversation with its own LGBT subject matter and while this one acknowledges it more clearly than most anime do, I think there's still room to grow.

I'm not writing a pros/cons list for this show but I'm not above assigning a number value to shows yet, so I'm giving this one an 8/10.

#lesbian anime review #aoi hana #sweet blue flowers

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