While anime has existed for decades and spans various genres, the genre of queer anime remains a rather untouched area. As anime has continued to grow it has explored various notions and themes of gender relations, but very few anime have expanded into the full spectrum of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender, as well as other gender identities. In media, around the world queer stories are usually depicted as tragedies with very few happy or good parts. As queer anime continues to grow as a genre and tell queer stories, representation and acceptance of queer people will grow.
A spectrum of sexualities and gender identities existed throughout Japanese history. Unlike many Western nations, Japan had no religious or moral offense to homosexual relationships. However, there was one thing that Japan continues to have is the belief that one has a duty to their family and society to follow the rules and later create their own family. This belief has permeated Japanese society, not only forcing LGBTIA people into conforming in the culture, but also forcing any relationship against that belief as taboo. As time has continued that idea has loosened, but it continues to color the relationships of many people in Japan.
Gender expression has existed in Japan for centuries, mostly in the realms of the arts. In Kabuki theater, historically women have been barred from participating, thus making all the roles, male and female, played by men. On the other side, since women were barred from Kabuki and other traditional theater, Takarazuka was formed in the early 20th century. Takarazuka featured women playing all the roles, both male and female. These two forms of entertainment have inspired decades of media including anime. Some people who have participated in either Kabuki or Takarazuka have been LGBTIA, some have not, but both allow for a amount of gender expression that is not wide spread in Japanese society. These art forms may have influenced how people think about gender and gender performance for many other things. Kabuki and Takarazuka aid in creating characters that are not bound by their circumstance, but through talent.
The beginnings of LGBTIA themes may have risen with the popularity of Class S literature. Class S was literature style the at was based on the importance of female-female relationships. Class S rose out of the rise of all girls schools during the Meiji and Taisho eras. The rise of these schools was an product of vast, rapid modernization that Japan underwent to repel the colonization that it saw its neighboring nations undergo. Thus to prepare its young women for the world, many upper class parents sent their daughters to all girls school to train them to the perfect wives and mothers. At this point, the idea of school girl was beginning to develop culturally. However, while in these schools, most girls did not concern themselves with romantic relationships with boys or men. These girls were to married in arranged marriages to men they had never met. Thus in many girls magazines encouraged young girls to see the value in their friendship with each other. These strong, passionate friendships could have been seen as romantic, but not by society. These relationships were to enjoyed in youth and eventually grown out by the time of marriage. The literature based on these friendships and relationships between girls was predecessor to yuri manga and anime.
Yuri and yaoi are two genres of anime and manga that have gained popularity in the last few decades. Yuri is defined as genre of anime and manga that explore the relationships between two female characters. This genre has grown to be very popular among many different audiences. Yaoi is genre that explores relationships between tow male characters. Yaoi is usually enjoyed by a female audience, but it does have fans across various spectrums. While yuri and yaoi both show homosexual relationships, they are not usually made for or enjoyed by homosexual audiences. There is a sub-genre of gay manga that is made for gay men, that is different from yaoi. Yaoi usually features characters that are slender, somewhat waif-like, these character design may be to popular to attract a female audience. Also, one critique about yaoi about is the power dynamic between characters. In some, there are power dynamics based on a age or seniority that are rather damaging to watch or read. However, the story may the aspect that leads many people to read it. Though it could be difficult to see yuri and yaoi as progressive representation since many use comedy to ridicule relationships or the fetishization of homosexual relationships.
One of the first yuri anime as “Maria-sama ga miteru” or The Virgin Mary is watching over us. The anime explored the close friendships and romantic relationships between a group of school girls at all girls school. This series seems to span from the Class S genre and the other anime and manga that came before it. However, this may be considered the first modern yuri anime. The genre of shojo manga has influenced by yuri and yaoi to foster them into the genres that they are today. The Rose of Versailles, which the story of young woman who dresses like a man to be royal guard, may have infleuenced the yuri genre. While the main character, lives as man, while being a woman, many other female characters pin over Oscar. This drama and relationships may have helped the expansion of the yuri genre and possibly queer anime in general, since Oscar is believed to be bisexual.
While homosexual relationships appear in yuri and yaoi, it can be difficult to see gender identity in anime. In the past, a few gender variant anime characters have appeared. Takahashi Rumiko’s Ranma 1/2 has the character Ranma who switches genders when drenched in either cold or hot water. Also in Takeuchi Naoko’s Sailor Moon, the Sailor Starlights, are male when in disguise on Earth, when they transform, they return to their female form. Sailor Moon is also famous for having a lesbian couple, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. This relationship was later erased when the Sailor Moon was brought to America. These are two of the most mainstream anime to showcase LGBTIA characters in their narratives. Another company that added more about queer couples is CLAMP, who made the Cardcaptor Sakura manga and anime. In Cardcaptor Sakura, the main character’ s older brother has a strong friendship with a classmate. Throughout the series, the two always answer that they have someone that they already like, with many people assuming that the two are a couple. While this relationship is left somewhat ambiguous in the anime and manga, there is the belief that two are a romantic couple. While there have been some mainstream characters that were LGBTIA, many times that fact is never said out loud but rather thought by fans or hinted at by the creator of the series.
However, in the recent year, new anime and manga that discuss queer issues have been gaining popularity. Shimura Takako’s work’s of Aoi Hana or Blue Flower and Hourou Musuko or Wandering Son both explore queer stories and queer characters. Shimura’s works have explored yuri relationships in Aoi Hana and the struggle of transgender children in Hourou Musuko. While Shimura’s work can be stereotypical of how LGBTIA live their lives, it does offer an amount of representation that is somewhat unheard of in most anime.
Aoi Hana is the story of two girls who were friends in elementary school, and eventually meet again in high school. One of the main characters, Fumi is a lesbian, while her childhood best friend, Akira, eventually comes out. The story is based in a all girls school with the friendship of Fumi and Akira taking the center. Eventually through their friendship and relationships with other people, they end up together. The anime tells a good coming-of-age story for any person, but for especially for lesbians. The show is rather honest about it’s feelings and the portrayal of Fumi and Akira is not based on stereotypes, but allows the characters to grow with the story.
Shimura’s other work, Hourou Musuko is about two children in elementary. Nitori Shuichi wants to be girl, while Takatsuki Yoshino feels that he is boy in a girls body. Their friendship and story beings in elementary, but story moves into middle school. The anime begins in middle school with the characters , starting to truly feel the harsh gender roles fall upon them. The boys and girls now have uniforms, which now further complicate the feelings that Shuichi and Yoshino have about their gender identities. Throughout the series, many other characters appear such as such as other trans children, a transwoman who acts a mentor to the main characters, and many others. The characters endure many of the struggles that all adolescents must deal with. The story looks a the internal struggle of the characters and yet how they interact with their adolescence, their friends, and their family. This anime explores the struggles of growing up and being pushed further away from the things that one may want most in life. However, the anime does fall in tropes that many other media that depicted LGBTIA characters has, which is never ending struggle and a very depressing life. The struggle that the characters endure never seems to end, sometimes a good thing will occur, but soon after the another bad thing will occur.
Since there is a large amount of gender performance in Japan, where does cross-dressing and androgyny appear in Japan? Androgyny and cross-dressing do appear quite a bit in anime and manga, however it is speculative over whether it should be included in queer or LGBTIA anime and manga. The cross-dressing and androgyny could be performative and part of any gender identity, but it is unclear if it is part of the LGBTIA anime or not. However, the fact that many anime explore the worlds of androgyny and cross-dressing may allow for more discussion about gender identity and gender performance. While that sentiment is hopeful, many anime use gender perform, such as cross-dressing as a comedic device to ridicule or critique the rigid gender roles in society. This fact could make more discussion or make the notion of gender performance and androgyny as a joke to be laughed at. Androgyny can occur in different gender expressions and performance, but it is debatable about whether it is needs to be characterized as LGBTIA anime. This is question that could be debated for a many years, so it will be interesting to continue to observe how anime use gender performance and androgyny.
While there have been new developments in representation for queer anime, it is still lacking. However, it should be known that anime and manga seem to be a safer place for queer characters and the their presence in society. The advancements in representation are slowly arriving, but it is important to remember that one should not only look forward, but also look back. Part of the academic theory of queer studies to look back at the past and reclaim the forgotten aspects of queerness or LGBTIA that was erased or fell behind. Thus looking back, one could see how Takahashi Rumiko’s Ranma 1/2 may have influenced other animators and mangaka to create interesting stories about gender variant people. It is also important to look how some anime tackle the problems that many people still deal with day to day, such as Hourou Musuko. It is now an interesting time to look at the future of anime and see if more representation is created and awarded. While many times in the media, queer or LGBTIA people may be mocked, anime is possibly one of the places where people will learn about ideas that they have never heard of before. Thus hopefully more stories will be made and more stories with a happy endings rather than tragedy and acceptance rather than ridicule. With anime, the possibilities are already endless, which means that anything is possible, which allows for new perspectives and ideas to be released.
References
http://hesomagazine.com/2009/01/the-second-coming-of-shojo/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_S_(genre)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takarazuka_Revue
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria-sama_ga_Miteru
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