Homosexuality in Anime

You've seen it in Western media before; in fact, it has become a significant part of our world's population. What I'm talking about is homosexuality, or the attraction to somebody of your own sex (Male or female). In America alone, 4.1% (10 million) of adults identify as a part of the LGBT+ community, which stands for: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and More. That may not sound like a large number, but the community is indeed ginormous; starting up thousands of rallies, protests, petitions, parties, and even memorials per year. As much as many religious extremists would love to argue about said topic, it appears that the community will not stop growing. So, what does this have to do with Japanese animation (Or anime)?

With the rise in LGBT people in America, it is inevitable for the country of Japan to also receive such. However, Japan—while it does harbour some protective laws for LGBT people when it comes to discrimination— does not openly support LGBT rights. Sexual orientation is yet to be addressed by the National Diet in the country's civil rights code. In fact, it has just become allowed for heterosexual (Or straight) couples to hold hands in public. Many LGBT people that live in Japan tend to conceal themselves; marrying people that they don't even feel attraction towards, and even wearing clothes that do not pertain to their gender. Some Japanese people have come out of the closet (Such as Kanako Otsuji, a lesbian), but thousands tend not to. Transgender students, for example, must be diagnosed as "mentally ill" by a doctor, before being permitted to wear the uniform (Or seifuku) of their preferred gender—It's things like this that severely harm the LGBT population in Japan.

You may be asking yourself: Why is there a problem with Japan and LGBT rights if they already create so many series based around homosexual characters? Well, that's just the problem: Corporate Japan does not care about how accurate the series is, so long as it involves homosexuality somewhere. This is why shows such as Yuri on Ice become popular.

Do I have a problem with Yuri on Ice? Of course not. However, it's because of scenes such as this scene that some shows gain such large masses of fans.

The fans in which I am speaking of are known as fujoshi, or "rotten girls." These fans in particular devastate what little respect the LGBT community has in Japan, and they appear to keep growing in numbers rather than going away. Basically, these are usually-heterosexual females who simply like homosexuality because of it being a kink of theirs; after all, what's hotter than seeing two sexy dudes getting it on? This is an enormous problem, portraying homosexuality as something that should be seen as a kink or a genre of fiction rather than as a real-life thing. While other countries such as France are more likely to connect BL or GL (Boys' Love or Girls' Love) to gay rights; many Japanese artists, authors, and readers or viewers who are a fan of these genres are said to be attracted by the heterosexual fantasies that are expressed through this type of media. However, the problem is that heterosexuality is not the same as homosexuality. You may have noticed that some yaoi or yuri fans assign a "mother" role to one character while assigning the "father" role to the other, which gives them the "subordinate" and "dominant" roles to the "mother" and "father" respectively. For my feminists out there, you may sense how this is not okay.

In another example, one infamous way to draw your ship (Or "pairing") is through wedding-style drawings, which you may already guess commonly portray that "female and male" relationship. While it is perfectly okay for a guy or a girl to wear a wedding outfit that isn't usually tailored for their gender, it's pretty obvious that some of these pieces of artwork assign heterosexual gender roles to their ships.

Things can get even worse once the English-speaking fans get a hold of the series.

Remember Sailor Moon? If you were or are a fan of this popular anime about girl power, then you'd know that there are two characters by the names of Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. However, if you watched the English dub version of the series, chances are that you were or still are unaware of the fact that these two characters are in a lesbian relationship. Why? Because the English dub told its viewers that the two characters were heterosexual cousins— No joke. The dub also proceeded to remove some villains that were known to be genderfluid entirely from the show, as well as show a gay couple as a straight couple and tell its watchers that a villain who dressed up as a girl was just a girl (Rather than a cross dressing dude).

Does this look like something "cousins" would do?

How about this?

See the issue here?

Let's look at one more example. As I previously mentioned, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid took the otaku community by storm— And for a good reason: The anime offers a unique version of a "domestic life" and presents themes that hit a little too close to home (Such as feeling like a foreigner).

What kind of "domestic life" does the anime showcase? Well, a relationship between a female human and a female dragon... That also happens to have two dragon "children."

Similar to Sailor Moo', the English dub decided to play around with the original source in a way perceived homophobic.

In Episode 1 (The Japanese version), when Tohru confesses her romantic— No, sexual— feelings towards Miss Kobayashi, Miss Kobayashi reacts by saying:

"But I'm a girl."

Does this mean that Miss Kobayashi is heterosexual? Of course not. The reason why she says this is because: She is a human who is not used to emotions and feelings, especially those towards her, due to her rough upbringing; and she is a human who is commonly mistaken for a male. Simple, right?

Now, let's see what Miss Kobayashi says in the English version of the anime:

"I'm not into women or dragons."

Talk about harsh. All of a sudden, all of that background information that we could've inferred about Miss Kobayashi is turned into strong hostility in the English dub.

What's the verdict? It's very simple: Keep homosexuality in anime, and don't let the dubs of said anime erase it!

Albeit homosexuality should be seen in a more accurate light, anime has been improving drastically ever since its conception; and with countries such as America legalizing same-sex marriage, it's possible that Japan will very soon follow suit.

I hope that you all have learned more about the importance of homosexual (And LGBT+ people in general) characters in anime, alongside the importance of making sure that LGBT+ can be protected from discrimination.

Never be afraid to be who you are— Let your colours shine!

About the Author

Shannon is a young writer who strives to answer the many questions that we as a society have about all things science and fiction; including the realms of anime, furries, and video games. She also enjoys writing about animal welfare and animal rights, which both mean a lot to her. Through her works, she would love to spark the interests of geeks, nerds, animal lovers, and science enthusiasts from all over the world. She would like to obtain a PhD in Biology to further progress this goal by becoming a scientist in today's ever-changing world.

Do you have any article suggestions? Feel free to tell me. I am open to anything, so long as I am interested in the subject.