Archive for the Now This Is Only My Opinion Category


Kabi Nagata: Opening Doors at an Intersection

February 16th, 2020

Students of literature or art often find themselves reading analysis of an author’s work long past the author’s own lifetime, whether it be Edgar Allen Poe or Murasaki Shikibu. Manga and anime studies are not that old and, as a result, when one begins to study manga and anime in earnest, one sometimes encounters an unusual phenomenon – the subject of one’s research is often alive and still creating. Sure you might read about Tezuka Osamu, but you might also find yourself reading works by or about Riyoko Ikeda.

A few years ago, I reviewed a manga that had been getting a lot of buzz in Japan. Based on an online diary, Sabishi-sugi Rezu Fuzoku ni Ikimashita Report (さびしすぎてレズ風俗に行きましたレポ) was breaking barriers and breaking sales records. The story itself – a manga autobiography of living with crushing depression and an eating disorder – was, I thought, unlikely to get an English translation. While diary comics had been published in translation previously, they were usually the work of well-established “elder” artists, such as Yoshihiro Tatsumi‘s A Drifting Life. Looking back at our own life in retrospect is, to some extent, the function of autobiography. So, even though we, as readers, have become more accustomed to the idea of the “real-time” diaries of social media as a way to understand our worlds in the form of blogs and social media posts, we don’t automatically assign that kind of communication a “literary” status until they become retrospective. Kabi Nagata changed that, in actual real time, while we watched.

By using social tools like Pixiv, and Twitter, Nagata gathered a global following with her diary – which was published in English in 2017 as best-selling manga My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness, proving me happily wrong.

It’s not often that we are able to see as an entire industry makes a shift into new territory right in front of us. It’s much more common that we only notice that change as we look back and learn about an artist’s contributions to their oeuvre after they are gone, like Julius Eastman‘s foundational work in downtown music. And so, I want to take a moment today to acknowledge what Kabi Nagata has done for manga, before she’s even had a chance to finish doing it.

 

Comic Essay

In the 2000s when I first started picking up Feel Young and other Josei magazines, among the manga included was a daily diary by well-known manga artist Erica Sakurazawa. She drew about her family and the kinds of typical situations in which an adult woman might find herself. This was my first encounter with what would soon become known as the “Comic Essay” genre. Common in magazines for woman, these comic essays by women gave the readers the sense that they were seen – that their lives were understood. Sakurazawa has continued to put out diary-style manga, as well as fiction and currently publishes comics on her blog as well as in print.

As the 2000s progressed, the “Comic Essay” section of Japanese bookstores grew in size. More artists contributed tales of child-bearing and child-raising. By the 2010s some of the top names in Jousei manga were drawing daily life comic essays.  Comic essays are not only for or about women, consider Junji Ito’s Cat Diary, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that autobiographical comics resonate very strongly for women. Where men’s autobiographies tend to be bildungsroman about their adolescent development into adulthood, women’s autobiographies often center their ordinary lives, giving visibility to what remains invisible. Moyoco Anno’s manga about her life with her husband, celebrated anime director Hideaki Anno, Insufficient Direction, is a comedic essay about the ordinariness of two extraordinary people’s lives together. Comic essays remain a popular format for the display of women’s inner lives. Princess Jellyfish creator Akiko Higashimura has found a whole new kind of success with her autobiographical essay series Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist’s Journey.

In the west, the artist who has seen the greatest commercial success with comic essays of her own life, is Raina Telegemeier, whose Smile, Sisters, and Guts gave voice to tween and teen girls worldwide. (Middle-grade readers are traditionally ignored by superhero comics companies but, are in actual fact, one of the top market for comics.) The editorial copy for Guts is telling, “Raina Telegemeier once again brings us a thoughtful, charming, and funny true story about growing up and gathering the courage to face — and conquer — her fears.” This is exactly the function of comic essays – uncovering those inner demons;low self-esteem, illness, even boredom and complacency in a relationship, and normalizing them. This is my life, comic essays say, this is your life.

By the 2010s, artists all over the globe were using social communities to draw their comic and manga essays. So when Nagata began her comic diary on art platform Pixiv, she was joining a tradition of great artists before her and bringing the format to a whole new generation of people. With My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness, Nagata, like Telegemeier, stood at the intersection of life and health and threw the door open.

 

Graphic Medicine Manga

Among things that are universally “not to be discussed at the dinner table” universe, mental health and illness are right up there among the top, along with sex and politics. Humans are still unsure of how to deal with mental health, both medically and socially.  For anyone in any media to admit to depression is still considered a form of “coming out” – an act of making public what is treated as a private burden.

In her first book, Nagata-sensei took her depression, the physical manifestations of that depression, and how it created an inability to form intimate relationships, into the public eye for people to see and comment on. Even behind a mask of pseudonymity, this was an act of bravery. And it was an act that changed people’s lives, as readers online thanked her and started sharing their own stories in her comments. What had been a purely private issue, something to not-be-discussed, was being uncovered and talked about.

While in the west comics creators were birthing a new graphic medicine genre with works like Jennifer Hayden’s The Story of My Tits, Nagata-sensei had opened the door to real stories of real people dealing with mental health issues in manga form.

Following the success of her first book, she continued her comic diary online. While working through her physical ailments, she started to have energy to address her relationship with her family and her desire and inability to build connections with other people. These became her series Hitori Koukan Nikki (一人交換日記), which were published in English as My Solo Exchange Diary,  Volume 1 and Volume 2.

In the meantime, other manga artists had taken the opportunity to “come out” about mental health, as well. Akiko Morishima drew a lovely comic essay about living with ADHD in Otona no Hattatsu Shougai Kamoshirenai!? (おとなの発達障害かもしれない! ?). Morishima is known as a long-time Yuri artist with a very cute style of art. Her gentle art style doesn’t make the story any less powerful as she searches for ways to move forward with her new understanding, in a similar-yet-different path to Nagata’s own quest.

Yet another door has been opened, and I don’t think we’re likely to see it shut again. As mental health becomes increasingly de-stigmatized by those artists speaking up in public and normalizing mental health issues as just another kind of medical issue, it is likely to become more common, not less, to see more graphic medicine manga.

 

Queer Narrative

In western comics, the coming out narrative is so common, so expected, that even now I find myself surprised when I read a book or comic that doesn’t have at least a scene dedicated to the big reveal…even if, ultimately, that isn’t a thing for the other characters in a book. If there’s a defining quality to “coming out” in novels here in the USA in 2020, it’s that…it’s not a thing at all. Bye-bye coming out as trauma, we won’t miss you!

But manga is not science fiction, or YA, manga is another medium from a country that is slowly and steadily working towards LGBTQ equality, but is not there, not yet. Nonetheless, even in an industry as frequently heteronormative and conservative as manga publishing, queer-facing comics (as opposed to straight-facing comics about being sexual and gender minorities, like Gengoroh Tagame’s mainstream men’s manga My Brother’s Husband or Chii’s transgender life comic essay, The Bride Was a Boy,) are creeping in; artistic wildflowers growing up in the midst of a paved walkway. Takemiya Jin is one of the handful of out lesbian manga artists in Japan; her series Itoshi Koishi is an unusual Yuri manga that shows a young lesbian’s life as a wholly positive experience. Her older lover is kind and supportive and never pressures her in any way to do anything; her friends adore her and yet, when she feels that she wants to come out to them, she still feels stress. Coming out, which until recently was a hand-of-god narrative complication, resulting in loss of family, friends, and jobs, is less likely to be so dramatic these days, but it’s never easy.

One of the  – even fewer –  comic essays written by and about a woman in a relationship with another woman is in the same magazine that carried Itoshi Koishi, Comic Yuri Hime, a monthly Yuri manga magazine. Notice I don’t say it is a “lesbian comic”, or even a comic essay about lesbian life. For a monthly magazine that prints Yuri manga, there have been few lesbians in the 15 years of the magazine’s run.

So, when Nagata writes about herself in her first book, “By the way– when it comes to free hugs, gender doesn’t matter to me. But for anything more that that, I’d only want to purse it with a woman.” she joined that handful of out lesbian manga artists. That her narrative is not about being gay, but about her relationship with her body, with how she relates to (or doesn’t relate to) the world, does not change that her entire story is a queer woman’s story. And with that, Nagata flung open a third door in which a creator can relate with honesty, their sexuality and their relationship to their body.

 

Not “The End” 

Nagata’s story is not over. This article is not a retrospective of an influential artist’s life and work after their death. Nagata is creating new work, even as we speak. She has fiction manga coming out shortly in an anthology and her own collection. She’s doing cover illustration and, while all of that is happening, she’s still telling her readers the stories about her life, her health, her trials and tribulations.

Like other comic essayists, Nagata has already given voice and visibility to people whose stories have been obscured. Here at the intersection, she’s laid groundwork for people to discuss their mental health and for queer folks to speak of their lives matter-of-factly.

In her most recent book, Genjitsu Touhishitetara Boroboro ni Natta Hanashi (現実逃避してたらボロボロになった話), Nagata chronicles even more serious physical ailments, this time pancreatitis as a side effect of alcohol abuse. We ride along as she once again pulls herself out of a  deep well made in conjunction with the imbalanced chemical cocktail of her brain and body. It’s a testament to her strength of will (and a functional national healthcare system) that she is still capable of healing.

More importantly, as we read about her desire to create new, non-essay work, it’s a testament to her creative drive, her artistic and narrative abilities, that from inside all of these mental and physical health crises, there is a talented and unique voice who wants to be seen and heard. Perhaps then, she has more doors to blast through, as she gives voice to creatives  whose work, rendered obscure by illness, poverty, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, skin color, ability or other forms of marginalization, find something in her story to resonate to.

Nagata has already changed what we read and how we read it, so it seems very fitting to also let her be the person who changes how we recognize that kind of paradigm shift, as well. Her body of work is notable enough that it’s worth noting now, during her life. I hope this will inspire other people to do more analysis of her work while she is still creating it and change the way literary critics will have to approach literary criticism for some time to come. ^_^





Yuri Manga and “Problematic” Art

January 19th, 2020

I was all geared up today to write a review of Otherside Picnic, Volume 2, but there has been a lot of Twitter conversation that has dovetailed and I kind of want to put it all together in one place to point to later. I’m finishing up Comic Yuri Hime, February 2020 and I found myself torn between disgust and laughter at the the chapter of Ogino Jun’s “semelparous.” Both art and story are open to criticism, but the art is instantly deserving of mockery. There have been a number of conversations recently on Twitter about liking or being offended by art and I want to also add some very sincere – hopefully thought-provoking – thoughts about liking “problematic” art.

Let me start with liking “problematic” things. Lynzee Loveridge posted this tweet:


Yes, it is absolutely okay to like problematic things. But equally super important is recognizing that to other people that “problematic” thing might feel like an assault on their existence, so their *completely valid* reaction is strongly negative. For instance, when I write below about the ridiculous way in which women’s breasts were being depicted by a manga creator, I understand that there are people who enjoy that aesthetic. I do not feel attacked by absurdly drawn breasts, but I *understand* from many years experience, that the men who defend and demand that kind of art are exactly the kind of men who blame women for their own failures and who aggressively deny misogyny. As a result I do not believe that art deserves a place in Yuri Manga, a point I will get to.

So, let’s talk about tits. Tits do function a bit like water balloons, this is completely true. BUT WE HAVE UNDERWEAR. Women’s bras are specifically designed to offer support – which is to say, minimizing jiggling. Not to rob men of the pleasure of looking, but because breasts bouncing up and down hurt. Large breasts hurt more. They pull on back and chest muscles. Women with large chests need more support, more minimizing of movement. Active wear for women is specifically designed with this in mind. (In relevant news, the three women who invented the sports bra are being inducted into the Inventor’s Hall of Fame.)

I specifically looked for larger wetsuit sizes, so you could see how breasts are compressed more during activity, so they aren’t just banging around painfully. This is a 2X wetsuit.

In “semelparous” Ogino Jun draws women with exceedingly large breasts, that apparently have clothes sprayed on, without any underwear.


I can absolutely attest from personal experience with a large chest that this would be painful.

Immediately some people attempted to shame me for my mockery, as if art criticism doesn’t exist as a thing. ^_^ Of course what they were angry about was me not respecting their fetish. Sorry guys. I don’t. And I’ll tell you why in a second. But first, let’s review how breasts and clothes work:

This image is used with permission. The artist has specifically asked to remain uncredited.

So, when I was reading “semelparous,” Chapter 2 and saw these, I boggled (in a bad way.)

 

Now, here’s where I’m getting salty. Don’t bother complaining to me about it. You’re reading my blog. ^_^

The problematic part here is not that the artist likes large tits. It’s that he is uninterested in portraying tits correctly. Why is that problematic? That (and everything else about this story) indicates two clear and important points:

1) Women are basically tits and crotches with faces attached
2) Actual women’s bodies aren’t interesting to the creator.

Still, why is that problematic? you might reasonably ask me.

It is problematic because this comic runs in Comic Yuri Hime.

Comic Yuri Hime is a magazine with a majority female readership. This comic is insulting, to be honest, to women. It prioritizes their tits over everything and anything. Women, generally, are not made comfortable by that kind of fetishization.

Comic Yuri Hime is a magazine about Yuri, which ought, IMHO, to prioritize the interior lives of women and their experiences, showing them as fully formed individuals, rather than as tits with legs. Women shown existing for their own sake, not for men’s viewing pleasure. 

“semelparous” is presumably meant to attract men to the readership of Comic Yuri Hime. I would be deeply offended at the presumption that only the hyper-sexualization of women’s bodies will attract me to enjoy a comic, if I were a man.

As a woman who actually enjoys women’s actual real-world bodies, I find this art deserving of no respect. I know no one on the editorial staff at Comic Yuri Hime cares what I think, or what any lesbian thinks, but I’m strongly put off by this (and a few other editorial choices, which are clearly pandering to not “to men” but to extreme fetishists among men…an audience I never think is worth courting.) I understand that this art takes skill to draw, which is why it seems intentionally insulting to women. The editorial staff could have said, “Well, yeah, we want to attract guys, but the majority readership is women, so let’s back off a bit on these tits.” They didn’t, which indicates that they don’t care if current subscribers are put off. That is an intentional transaction. “So what if we lose female readers or make them feel uncomfortable?” And that is, frankly, insulting.

In a world where women are mobilizing globally to make men aware of systemic misogyny and the impact on their lives, this kind of decision is troubling. One might have hoped that in the light of #KuToo, the editorial staff of the only monthly Yuri magazine might have decided that this kind of intentionally demeaning art was not a good choice. That they didn’t…is exactly the problem #KuToo is meant to highlight.

Misogyny does not belong in Yuri. I reject it. I hope you will too. I will be following this post up with a polite, but firm, letter to Comic Yuri Hime expressing my opinion. Feel free to write them and let them know you are not okay with this. Remember to be polite.

My point is…it’s up to us to think about the “problematic.” When we like a thing because it’s problematic – are we, in actual fact, just ignoring that it indicates attitudes and behaviors that are harmful to someone *else*? Because then the problematic thing…is us. Are you processing your own trauma, or exploiting someone else’s?

So go ahead and like your problematic thing, but consider thinking about why its problematic and what it says about you as a person. And don’t get all offended when someone calls you out. Your “problematic” may be their actual real-world problem.





100 Years of Yuri 2020 Project – Introduction

January 1st, 2020

Happy New Year and welcome to 2020 or, as I like to think of it, the first day of 2CYE (Current Yuri Era.) ^_^

To begin with, thanks to everyone who made 2019 one of the best years of a lifetime, as we celebrated 100 years of the Yuri genre!

In my final list of 2019, I imagined what Yoshiya Nobuko-sensei might have made of this last century and the growth of an entire genre out of her and her peers’ work…and what she might think looking at explicitly queer stories with openly lesbian characters. A hundred years is a long time, and tastes, technology, fashion and the sociopolitical landscape have all changed so radically. Which got me thinking about those years and all those changes. Even in the past 20 years, there have been some remarkable shifts. From a fetish on a long list of fetishes, or a reference to a century-old literary movement to a full-blown genre with recognition by companies and bookstores on both sides of the globe, there have been a lot of changes in Yuri. Yuri has gone from a niche of a niche to a segment of the anime/manga audience that has its own events and visible presence at larger events. And, so, I developed an idea – one last exciting project to cap off this 100 Year Anniversary of the genre. I asked this question:

Could we develop a list of the best, most notable, most representative, Top Yuri titles of the last century?

To help me out with this, I reached out to invite some of my favorite Yuri experts, folks whose opinions I am always interested to hear and whose knowledge about our genre is far-reaching.

Starting tomorrow, over the next several days, you’ll be hearing from Erin Subramanian  Katherine Hanson and Nicki Bauman, all long-time Yuri researchers and bloggers. These are people who I like to consider my peers in the non-academic Yuri research bubble that I have created and which I so cheerfully occupy. ^_^

I’ll be posting 4 different lists from each of these terrific writers and myself on our “Top Yuri of the last 100 Years.” Each one of us had completely different criteria for our choices which means that, even if you see some of the same series represented I ask you to read the entries, because they are on each of our lists for completely different reasons!

Please join me in welcoming all of our our guest writers as we start the 100 Years of Yuri 2020 Project!





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.

 





How Not to Comment Online Revisited – Commenting Etiquette in 2019

June 30th, 2019

Many years ago I wrote an opinion piece on Okazu that went a little viral (at the time, in the pre-Twitter world) about how to and how not to comment on a blog post. A great number of the things that were relevant at the time are not as much relevant now, but there are still so many ways to come across poorly as we do more and more of our communications on social media.

To be clear, this post is not in response to any circumstance or person or specific or general comments here on Okazu, so if you feel attacked personally, I hope you will think about why that might be, rather than assuming that that is my intention. ^_^ It’s just time we revisited commenting etiquette. I did reach out to Twitter to get some feedback as well. Here, in no particular order and with no particular emphasis, are things not to do in blog comments.

The number one thing to not do:

1. If You Are Not The Editor, You Don’t Need To Edit

This is not as simple as it sounds! I love when you tell me I’ve gotten a fact wrong! Did I mention the wrong publisher or platform or mistranslated a word – I totally want to know. Really. But if someone spelled “the” wrong, then you can let that slide, it’s okay. I’m a pretty shitty typist, so I do go back over my posts every once in a while, too, and I’m still finding typos from 10 year old posts. But a good rule of thumb is if you understood it, so does everyone else. ^_^

 

2. We Have Wikipedia Too

Again, if I, personally have fucked up a translation, or have mistranslated a name or something, yes I want to know! But you know, if a blogger is mentioning Rose of Versailles, no one needs to be told that it’s actually called Berusaiyu no Bara. And that’s not even true, honestly, it’s name is ベルサイユのばら. Transliteration and translation are always evolving and are always, always open to interpretation. ^_^ You can share info for other readers too, without assuming the author doesn’t know. There may have been a reason they chose not to share. I have, in actual fact, done that. I curate what I share here, as does every blogger, reviewer and journalist.

 

3. It’s Opinions All the Way Down

You know the saying about opinions are like assholes, everyone has one? Well that saying has become a little bit more commutative these day. All opinions seem to have assholes, as well. ^_^

Every reader is free to interpret what they read, or watcher what they watch, as they want. Even if you don’t agree. When you are reading a review or commentary or analysis…it is not your job to tell people they are wrong. Unless they are objectively wrong, i.e., Moby Dick is not about a vanilla ice cream cone. And, if the reviewer is saying that it is  – whether they are in an amusingly altered cognitive state or have or have not made a solid case for their point – there’s no reason to become combative if you disagree. You can both be right, and wrong, simultaneously. Creative endeavor is like that. My first point brings me to….

 

4. No, Really, We Get That It’s Problematic

Yurimother knows of what she speaks here. I’m pretty comfortable with my fetishes and my turn-offs. I’m also comfortable surfacing them in turn and leaving it up to you to decide if you’re comfortable with the same things or not. But some folks are not satisfied with that and get super miffed that we’re not just rejecting it outright. We all like problematic things or not-problematic things by problematic creators because we and the creators are all human. Learning to accept that your favoritest series in the world was created by a raging asshole hurts, but learning to accept the parts of that thing that helped you personally grow, can still be important and useful.

 

5. It’s Okay to Say…Nothing

Sooz and Mirielle nail this one. Is it really important that you be “funny” right now? Could that “joke” wait? I bet it could! I bet it could wait forever and pass into the oubliette of never-having-been-said and no one will miss it!  I love writing comments, but there are days when I self-censor the shit out of myself by asking this question. It’s okay…that oubliette is darned big and has plenty of room for things never said outloud. ^_^

 

6. This Blog is Made for You And Me…and That Lady and That Guy, and Those Other People

Mirielle’s point leads me to something I often want to say and can never find a nice way to say it. Bloggers and journalists love readers’ feedback but we’re the ones doing the work. If you are unhappy with a post, an opinion, a conclusion, a choice…then you are always free to start your own site. Being angry with, or even worse, at, the person you’re reading is human. But you don’t have any right to demand anything.

Many of the readers I have on Okazu have become my friends in the real world and I assume that I will meet and befriend many more as I continue to travel and talk and meet people. But I also appreciate it if you don’t presume ownership of this site – or my friendship. I’m not writing that post for you, personally, so if you are unhappy, it’s not critical that I be told. Someone else might have really enjoyed that post. I write a lot of jokes on Okazu for myself (there are several of them in this post) and most of them probably go right over your head. I am not here for you, I am here for me. Just kindly remind yourself of that.

 

7. Don’t be a Dick.

You all remember Penny Arcade’s intro to the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory? If you missed it, here it is.

Well, it turns out that anonymity is not actually the problem. The problem, it turns out is “Normal Person.” People are possessive about a lot of things…including their very individual perspectives about their individual fandoms. And some measurable percentage of these people react to any deviation from their point of view as if that deviation was meant as a personal attack. This is the literal meaning of “/whatever/ destroyed my childhood.” Imagine actually being a person who actually takes a Ghostbuster movie as a personal insult.

There are too many examples of online harassment against people because they were involved with a thing some individual or group objected to, to link to (and many of these have been astroturfed by hate groups, and were never grassroots as they claimed.) But there are still people, as we saw this very week, whose reaction to a translation they don’t like is to start harassing the translator. As I said yesterday, this is not okay.  I can remember each and every death or rape threat I have received. I have nothing but pity for the sad, pathetic fuckwads who thought that that was an appropriate way of addressing anything, of any kind, ever.

There is never any good excuse for being rude, being unkind, being aggressive or aggressively clueless in comments. The blogger does not owe you, personally, any other time than the time they took to write their post.

It shouldn’t have to be said (and, honestly, is not really being said for Okazu commenters – you folks are awesome!) but if you really, really hate a review, definitely do not call people terrible names online. Write a rebuttal or a strongly worded, polite comment, or rant to friends, but don’t be a dick and harass people.

With these basics of etiquette in mind, you’re ready to move the conversation forward, to add unique perspective and insight, offer praise and express enjoyment of your favorite writers!