Archive for the History of Yuri Category


Queerness in Sailor Moon: Is It Progressive or is it Just Progress?

September 2nd, 2019

Inspired by my current reading material, Volume 5 of Sailor Moon, Eternal Edition, I have been thinking about the concept of “queerness” in Sailor Moon. This essay has no thesis – that is to say, I am not trying to prove a point, or make any conclusions, I’m simply musing on a topic that has fascinated me for many years. Our ideas of, ideals of, and language about gender and sexuality have altered tremendously in the last 25 years. I’m not the first, nor will I be the last to discuss Sailor Moon as an iconic | series for queer | fans. I encourage you all to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments. All respectful comments will be welcome – even and especially, those that disagree with any of my thoughts. As I say, I’m not making a point here, I’m merely thinking out loud in text. ^_^

To begin with, I’m going to write up the list of characters in the original anime or manga (thus, Crystal) that I consider overtly queer. You may not agree, and you may also not consider this list comprehensive. This is what I consider to be a survey of the as-explicitly-as-we got queer characters. I’m leaving out common fan pairings, like Rei’s obvious feelings for Usagi (which was surfaced in her song during Sailor Moon Super Live,) Hotaru and Chibi-Usa, Ami and Makoto, because while they are all a totally valid way to interpret the characters and their dynamics, they were not created with explicit intent to be seen as what we now think of as “queer.”

Part 1: Queer Characters in Sailor Moon

Season 1: Sailor Moon / Dark Kingdom

Zoisite and Kunzite – Two of the four generals of the Dark Kingdom, serving under Queen Beryl, Zoisite and Kunzite are explicitly written as lovers in the first season of the original anime. Zoisite’s death in Kunzite’s arms is the motivation for a desperate attempt to defeat Sailor Moon which amounts to a suicide by the final general. They are portrayed very much as a Kabuki pair, with Zoisite playing the part of the onnagata, the actor who plays women’s roles.

 

Season 2: Sailor Moon R / Black Moon

Fiore – In the Sailor Moon R movie, Fiore’s story reads as a love story gone bitter, a kind of gender switch Kijo (which matches with Mamoru’s gender switched role as “damsel” in the series.) Fiore’s resentment of not being Mamoru’s beloved turns him into an avenging alien/demon set on the destruction of Earth and Sailor Moon.

 

Season 3: Sailor Moon Super / Death Busters

Haruka and Michiru – This perfect couple can be seen in multiple ways. Takeuchi famously declared them lesbian lovers in several interviews, and she also mentioned that Haruka was originally meant to be a Takarazuka performer. In the text of the manga, Michiru declares Haruka to be a man and a woman, which was understood by Japanese fans to refer to Ribon no Kishi‘s double-hearted lead, Sapphire. In 21st century terms, Haruka is genderfluid and can be seen wearing both women’s and men’s clothes in artbooks.

Haruka and Michiru are consistently portrayed as a couple, in all versions of the series. Never as openly as we might hope, perhaps, but the Sailor Moon musicals now have a long tradition of playing up their flirtation, their bickering and their innuendo, as well as having them launch across the stage to die in each other’s arms in seasons where that is relevant. ^_^

In Sailor Moon Super S Special and Sailor Moon Stars, their relationship is surfaced in scenes where Michiru proclaims that she has no interest in saving a world without Haruka, and the two tease each other in intimate terms. A quarter of a century after they first appeared, there’s still a lot to say about them.

 

Season 4: Sailor Moon SuperS / Dead Moon Circus

Fisheye – One of the Dead Moon Circus’s Amazon Trio, Fisheye is not human, but in human form, is assigned male at creation. The entirety of Fisheye’s arc is, however, testament that this is incorrect. Fisheye primarily presents as female in human guise and has a clear preference for men, making her a fairly strong transgender character. (Stronger, I would argue, than the Starlights, who were not originally intended to be men.)

 

Season 5: Sailor Moon Stars / Galaxia

Sailor Lead Crow and Sailor Aluminum Seiren – As Animamates, Crow and Seiren do not get a lot of screen time in the original anime, but the time they do get is memorable. When they encounter Haruka and Michiru, they are the only ones in the entire series to comment on the rose petals which accompany them. (In my head canon this is their gaydar.) They bicker often and Crow appears to have little respect for Seiren, but as their arc goes on, it becomes clear that they can be seen as a romantic couple.

Sailor Stars – In the Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon Volume V Original Picture Collection, Takeuchi says that she was “shocked” to learn they’d be men before transformation in the anime, which indicates that the manga Starlights are all women passing as men. Nonetheless, in the original anime, the Sailor Starlights are gender variant, which opened up a whole new way for the audience to experience and identify with the characters.

 

Part 2: Is Queerness in Sailor Moon Progressive?

On Twitter, as I was pondering the place of Queerness in Sailor Moon, specifically, I saw a post on Twitter by E. Simins talking about anime being progressive, generally. This tweet got me thinking – in a good way. And here are some of the fruits of that thought. One of the series tweeted about was Sailor Moon because it has such positive representation of what-we-now-call-queer characters.  I wanted to expand on the general idea.

In thinking about the idea that anime is “progressive” I have to say that to be progressive, I require an anime to have more than just positive representation in the narrative (or, more realistically, accidental positive representation,) I would expect to see call to action. So much of what people see as progressive thought in past anime series is either a misinterpretation (willful or misguided) about intent or origin. So if we talk about Haruka and Michiru as a “Takarazuka couple” in which Haruka is otokoyaku and Michiru is musumeyaku, we’re sort of handwaving the queerness, because Takarazuka can be interpreted as queer, but is not inherently meant to be seen that way. We’re supposed to see a man and a woman in a heterosexual partnership in a Takarazuka show. On the other hand, we know that we are supposed to see Haruka and Michiru as two women in love. Are we supposed to we think of their relationship as a positive representation of an inherent butch/femme dynamic, as genderfluid/femme couple or as a stereotype of hetero-normative male/female dynamics?

If we really want to talk about Sailor Moon being progressive in 2019, we kind of have to look at progress across time as well as geographically.

Looking at older series in which queering them makes them queer, or the queerness can be interpreted differently, is too much like saying fanon is more important than canon (which can be valid, don’t get me wrong!)  It certainly was more overtly progressive than American animation in the mid-1990s. But would that make it “progressive”? Compared with something like the predatory lesbian of 1985’s Patriot Games, yes, clearly. But is that a reasonable comparison? I don’t think so. So…let’s not compare it to western media at all. Apples to apples.

So, to discuss whether anime in general or Sailor Moon in particular is progressive, let’s look at something that is not a 25-year old series. How about Asagao to Kase-san /Kase-san and Morning Glories?  Both manga and anime are very positive representation of two young women falling in love. The anime was explicitly handled in a way to show “love is love.” High marks on positive representation. 10/10 for that.

Let’s compare Kase-san to Sailor Moon. Haruka and Michiru are represented as a queer couple. They were *intended* as a positive representation of two women in love. So are Kase-san and Yamada. So, relatively equivalent. Now…here’s the major question. Is there any progress between the mid-1990’s portrayal and the late 2010’s one?

Sort of.

Kase-san and Yamada are explicitly more a “couple.” So that’s one more step for representation.

How about social or political “progress”?

Not so far.

Kase-san and Yamada have discussed living together, but there has been no discussion of real-world challenges; of talking about their relationship to family, to government, to anyone. No concerns about health or finances (okay, legitimately, they are in college, so that’s not a super important priority, but…)

What I am saying is that I see Kase-san as a positive representation – with intent – which is a form of progress, but not “progressive” in the sense of calling for social or political change. Give us Kase-san and Yamada at a Rainbow Pride parade……where an older couple of a famous race car driver and violinist come out and make rousing speeches for social progress and *then* I’ll be like, “Yes, this is progressive!” ^_^ (Which calls to mind the live action 2008 Japanese drama Last Friends, which did star a non-binary motocross rider Ruka and her beloved musician friend Michiru and it did explore issues of gender and sexuality, at least a little.)

I believe that at 16 years-old Haruka has never really thought about her gender or sexual identity, because she’s worried about the end of the world and more concerned with her identity as a Senshi. But ….after Stars, after dying twice, after building a family with Michiru, Setsuna and Hotaru…a few years later at, say 20, what is she thinking? How is she identifying herself? We can’t know with certainty, because the story will never tell us. We have the original anime, the anime adaptation of the manga, and the manga, but we don’t have the “25 years have passed and *we* understand gender and sexuality differently” version.

What happens in that version, when Hawkeye tells Fisheye, “We’re all boys here.”? What if Fisheye turns to Hawkeye and says, “No. We’re not. You two are boys. I am not.”

What happens in that version when Minako asks Haruka “are you two lovers?” or Usagi asks Haruka “are you a man or a woman?”

We can conjecture what those things might look if they were created now…but we have to accept that they might not be all that fundamentally different. It might not ever be “progressive.”

Fans of anime, despite watching media that does have positive queer representation don’t always themselves translate that into real-world progress. Although that is changing for the better in most cases, *.*gate notwithstanding. If anything, the reactive, reductive, anti-progress factions’ existence argues that progress has happened. Fans, like all humans, tend to view their entertainment through the lens of their experience. ^_^

Representation might be critical to progress, but by itself it is not “progressive.”I can acknowledge that Sailor Moon was inclusive/diverse for the time in which it was created, having been part of progress without it having been progressive . And I can accept that anime or manga I want to see pushing that needle forward might never actually go where I want it to go. ^_^

So…what is a good example of a manga that is overtly”progressive”? Shimanami Tasogare is a manga by and about sexual and gender minorities. So that stands out as a manga that is asking for genuine social change.

Whether Sailor Moon is “progressive” is open for discussion, but Shimanami Tasogare clearly asks us to move forward. And that’s progress.

 





100 Years of Yuri at Toronto Comic Arts Festival

May 2nd, 2019

Please join us at Toronto Comic Arts Festival, May 11-12, 2019 in Toronto, ON for a celebration of 100 Years of Yuri!

We’ll be kicking off with a look at 100 Years of Yuri at Toronto Reference Library Learning Centre, 1st Floor, at 10:00 AM on Saturday, May 11.

This will be followed by an Interview with and Signing session by Takashima Hiromi, creator of the Kase-san series, repeatedly one of the top series of the past decade here on Okazu. You will need to register for this event to be able to attend, but there is no admission. fee. This event is being held at the The Japan Foundation, 2 Bloor Street East, Toronto at 12:00 – 2:45 PM.

Drop by Page & Panel, the TCAF shop in the Toronto Reference Library to pick up some excellent Yuri manga and take a look at the 100 Years of Yuri Exhibit in the exhibit space just outside the store in the library.

And while you’re enjoying TCAF on Sunday do please drop by the Marriott High Park Ballroom 2 & 3 at 12:00 PM for Creator Spotlight with Emily Carroll and her new lesbian horror comic When I arrived at the Castle.

TCAF is one of the most queer-friendly events and I recommend you take a look at the TCAF 2019 program for loads of great queer-friendly content for fans of all ages!





100 Years of the Yuri Genre Anniversary Kickoff!

February 8th, 2019

 

The end of last month, we officially kicked off our 100th Anniversary of the Yuri Genre series with what I hope will be a saturation of articles, interviews and podcasts. 

Thanks to the folks at Proyecto Sugoi for the chance to talk about Yuri in the first of my 100th Anniversary of Yuri interviews!

Also many thanks to Anime Herald, for letting me write a post about this anniversary for them. Yuri-1919-2019, Then and Now.

Don’t miss our once-in-a-lifetime 100th Anniversary Japan Tour. Seriously, this is the coolest thing we have ever done. Okazu Patrons get a discounted deposit fee. 

Speaking of the perqs of patronage, Okazu Patrons have been given an exclusive sneak peak of a new chapter for the Big Book ‘o Yuri (still not its official name, but it makes me laugh). Become an Okazu Patron and get a look at Yuri Magazines and Anthologies, Part 1.

And check out our new headline banner here on Okazu. How spiffy is that? Thanks to our brilliant designer and web guru Lissa for this lovely anniversary rendition of our Okazu mascots. 

Help me celebrate this important anniversary – contact me if you’d like me to speak as part of your event, organization, school or podcast!





Why Is It Always Catholic Schoolgirls in Yuri?

December 16th, 2018
I’ve talked a lot recently about “secret projects.” One of my secret projects was this essay, which was orignally written for the first volume of Yuri is My Job, by Miman, available in English in January 2019 from Kodansha Comics.

***

From the Diary of a Catholic Schoolgirl – “Dear Diary – This morning began with cheerful greetings echoing through the clear blue sky. Today we girls, dressed in our tidy uniforms, passed in ordered lines under the tall gates, greeting Maria-sama as she smiled down upon us.” Or something like that. As manga fans – as Yuri fans – in the west, we surely have asked ourselves “Why is Yuri so often set in a Catholic school? And why “sisters?” surprisingly, there is an answer to this question. Around the time Japan entered the international stage, schooling for adolescents of both sexes was a prominent social cause in the late 19th century. In Japan, just as in America and Europe, it was often religious organizations that oversaw this education. Single-sex schools became popular for children of the growing middle class. In order to curb adolescent passion in these schools, traditions were founded that focused admiration-tinged-with-desire on strictly maintained hierarchies. Influenced by sexology studies in the early part of the century, scientific research delved into the psychology of them same-sex relationships.
“As a result of our studies, we can say that there are two kinds of same-sex love {dousei no ai).The former … is a case in which the females make a vow of sisterhood and promise to be with each other in life or death. This is nothing more than a passionate friendship, and there is nothing in this relationship that is shameful or despicable. Thus, in this case, the love is a mutual love but is no more than an extremely close friendship.”
(Quoted in Yoshikawa Toyoko. 1998, from Suzuki, Michiko (August 2006). “Writing Same-Sex Love: Sexology and Literary Representation in Yoshiya Nobuko’s Early Fiction”. The Journal of Asian Studies. 65 (3): 575) Girls’ literature of the early 20th century in Japan focused on these relationships, presenting them as passionate, yet platonic bonds of sisterhood. Intense emotional relationships between older students and younger were transformed into sisterly feelings. Japanese girl’s magazines were filled with letters and stories of these heart-pounding feelings for older or younger “sisters.” While some Japanese feminist writers were working in the context of social change, in magazines and literary publications, like Seitō (Bluestocking) other feminist writers, such as Yoshiya Nobuko took their work to popular culture outlets including these girls’ magazines, and wrote “Class-S” stories to create a literature by and for women and girls. Yoshiya’s 1920 novel Yaneura no Nishojo established many of the tropes we still see expressed in literature and manga. It takes place in a boarding school, run by a religious organization. The protagonists are sharing an isolated attic room, there is a piano duet, and a moment when they choose to leave that protected world and go “outside.” Other writers pursued the ideal of passionate platonic relationship, focusing on the sisterly aspect. Kawabata Yasunari and Nakazato Tsuneko wrote Otome no Minato, a classic girl’s novel that focused on this “extremely close friendship” of an older girl and younger, modeled on the Japanese sempai-kouhai relationship, but with the added affection of “sisterhood.” In the late 20th century, this foundation of girl’s literature became fixed as Yuri was born amidst the upheavals of the 1970s. Popular literature had detailed these affairs of the heart, mostly set in Catholic schools – so, when girls’ manga later wanted to tell this same story, immediately these tales were given the “exotic” setting of private religious schools. The, arguably, first Yuri manga, Shiroi Heya no Futari by Yamagishi Ryoko, is set in a Catholic school in France. When passions run high, desire is not redirected into sisterly affection…with tragic consequences. At the turn of the 21st century, Konno Oyuki’s novel series Maria-sama ga Miteru (the anime of which made it to English as Maria Watches Over Us) resurrected the concept of the intense platonic connections between “soeur” in a Catholic school. In this series, Konno gave a whole volume to the consequences of romantic love between two girls, placing “love between girls at a Catholic school” among the firmament of Yuri tropes. This launched a renaissance of Yuri at private girls school stories, both serious and parody, from Sweet Blue Flowers, to Strawberry Panic!. In the meantime, in fandom-focused areas of Japan, maid, and then butler, cafes began to spring up. Catering to fans’ desires to be taken care of, these cafes are still a fixture in parts of Tokyo – and at fan events across the globe. Visitors to Akihabara and Ikebukuro will be greeted by cute girls and dashing young men on the street in fantasy-inspired uniforms,  ready to pour tea or decorate pancakes with grace and charm. So it makes perfect sense that Miman-sensei combined the two for a trope-filled Yuri romp in Yuri is My Job!. Welcome to a salon where maidens with pure hearts serve you delicious sweets, admire their “schwestern” and vie to be the Blüme, the most popular girl at the school. Welcome to the salon at Liebe Gakuen, where you will always be greeted with “Gokigenyou” and able to enjoy the sisterly affection of the young women who serve you. *** Publications mentioned: “Suzuki, Michiko (August 2006). “Writing Same-Sex Love: Sexology and Literary Representation in Yoshiya Nobuko’s Early Fiction”. The Journal of Asian Studies. 65 (3): 575 quoting Yoshikawa Toyoko. 1998, ‘Nihonhon no ‘lezubianizumu’: 1910 nendai no shōsetsu ni egakareta lezubiantachi”   [Lesbianism in Modern Japan: Lesbians Depicted in Novels of the 1910s}. In Sei gensō o kataru {Talking about the Myths of Sex/Gender),vol. 2 of Kindai o yomikaeru {Rereading Modernity}, ed. Kondō Kazuko, 75-110. Tokyo: San’ichi shobō. Seitō (Bluestocking). Literary journal. Tokyo, Japan. 1911-16, Seitō-sha. Yaneura no Nishojo. Yoshiya Nobuko,Tokyo, Japan: Kokusho Kankoukai, 2003. Originally published 1920. Otome no Minato. Kawabata Yasunari and Nakazato Tsuneko, Tokyo, Japan. Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha, Ltd. 1938. Shiroi Heya no Futari, Yamagishi Ryoko. Tokyo, Japan. Hana to Yume Comics 1971 Maria-sama ga Miteru, Konno Oyuki. Tokyo, Japan  1994-2012. Shueisha Maria Watches Over Us. Grimes, Iowa, 2008-2010, RightStuf. Sweet Blue Flowers, Shimura Takako. San Francisco, USA, 2017, Viz Media. Strawberry Panic!, Kimino, Sakurako, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2007-8, Seven Seas Entertainment. Strawberry Panic!, New York, NY, USA, 2007-8, Media Blasters.




New Essay on Yuricon Essays Page!

November 20th, 2017

Last week I had the extraordinary pleasure of lecturing for the Gender and Fandom class at Harvard University. I cannot express what joy I have when I stand up in front of a class and get to expound upon the vagaries of  publishing, sales, communications, queer manga and the role fans have played in the evolution of it all.

I’m always asked if I’ll have a video up and the answer is usually no. It’s still no today, but at least I can share with you the full text of the essay on which this talk is based. 

How Fandom Made Queer Manga Possible is up on the Yuricon Essays Page today. It’s also been added to the Big Book o’Yuri, which is closing in on 2/3 done. ^_^

While I was in the area, I also hit up the Boston Museum of Fine Arts to see the Murakami / Tsuji collaboration, Lineage of Eccentrics exhibition. It was fantastic.  And…it was fanart! Basically they pulled items out of the MFA collection and Murakami did a riff on the item. You can see what I mean a little on this video preview on the MFA’s website.

The MFA also had a delightful “showdown” exhibit, pitting Kuniyoshi’s bright colors and  Shounen Jump-eque heroes against Kunisada’s sophisticated body language and pretty women in Showdown! Kuniyoshi vs Kunisada. It probably comes as no surprise that I favored manga-like Kuniyoshi, but really think Kunisada’s work is stellar.

Thanks to everyone who came to the talk and thanks again to Kerry for the invitation and Jude for junketing us around. It was lovely to see you. (And also Brigid and Kate, who met up with us for dinner the night before.)

I hope you all enjoy the lecture!