Do you find it important to celebrate LGBTQ characters in anime, manga and movies?

[Wingstofly]

Do you find it important to celebrate LGBTQ characters like Haku from Naruto and Nanashi from Samurai 8 ..... I'm asking this to see how important representation is to you.

[BlairFujin]

Haku was queer? Genuinely asking, it's been almost 20 years at this point since I watched the part of Naruto he was in 'xD

I don't know if it's important to "celebrate" them but I appreciate them when they're there, especially when they querness can't be denied (for example in Sarazanmai)

[LunarScyphozoa]

Queer representation is pretty damn important, but I don’t know if celebrating means being excited the character is queer or praising the author for daring make the bold choice of adding a queer character, so I won’t say anything until I know which one is meant by celebrating

[IndigoShirtProd]

Haku was queer?

Yes (I think). Yes, because it's implied that Haku is in love with Zabuza. But then it's not confirmed that the love between them is romantic, at least from what I remember, from Zabuza's side.

But other than that, Haku was just a feminine presenting man (boy, teenager, idk) which doesn't automatically mean they're gay or any other type of queer.

Lastly, queer representation is important in all types of media with all forms of intersectionality whether that be race or disability or class.

[darthmongoose]

I guess whether Haku counts as LGBTQ+ depends heavily on whether you interpret the character as a male who cross-dresses, possibly for personal gain (and by extension whether you think cross-dressers belong under the queer umbrella) or a genderfluid individual... and/or whether Haku's flirtation with Naruto and Sasuke is genuine attraction or manipulation or the relationship with Zabuza is romantic or just a very deep friendship or like a family-type bond.

Generally though, yes, it's important to me.Tomoyo from Cardcaptor Sakura was a character who helped me come to terms with being gay, because back in the 90s, most lesbian characters were very butch and it was played as a joke, or very sexualised and male gaze-y, and I didn't really see myself in any of them. Tomoyo meanwhile is a sweet, feminine, creative girl with a massive crush on her best friend. I've been there!

The problem is, a lot of LGBTQ+ rep in anime and manga is... kinda bad? Some of it is good, but some of it leans heavily into stereotypes, like the creepy gay man who makes unwanted advances on straight men comes up more than it should, and then there's that whole concept of "traps", as gay men who dress like women with the deliberate intention of fooling people... which can have really negative consequences for the trans community. It's similar to the issues with Naoto in Persona 4, who seems to be trans-masc or nonbinary, or at least maybe a gender nonconforming butch, but then Naoto's dungeon and romance plot seem to frame it like Naoto is somehow mentally ill or traumatised and can only be fixed by coming to terms with being feminine and heterosexual (eughhh....). There's a lot of stuff like that.

A lot of Yuri is disappointingly made by cishet men and focused on like... teenage girls (aaagh. I'm too old to read that without feeling like a creeper) so I rarely find lesbian-themed manga I can really enjoy.

I want LGBTQ+ rep in manga, but it so often feels 10+ years behind stuff from Korea, the US or Europe that it's hard to find really good stuff.

[Iris-Grimoire]

It's important to celebrate the well known examples, at least. We're WELL past the bare minumum like just mentioning it, "oh they crossdress", or background character even among background characters.

Best example is Bridget and Testament from Guilty Gear - that's a creator that started out with problematic/ stereotypical characters respectively, but put in the research as the terminology became more common, and stuck to his guns to represent them as trans and agender when he had a chance to reintroduce them to the story. Much better than a lot of competitives games where there's mention of a same-sex partner in a one-off comic and that's kind of it.

[GodbreakerComic]

Hugely important for me. I'm glad its becoming much more common place and normalized in recent years.

They're people after all, like anyone else. They have unique challenges but also the same ones we all do. Queer characters can be super relatable even to those who arent LGBTQ when written with care.

[Stargazer31]

I think that it's super important to represent LGBTQ+ people in stories, and I love to do so myself in my comics

[NickRowler]

I feel like Haku is not the best when it comes to representation. Mostly because he is set up as the villain, which is a trope that pops up a lot in Japanese media. Evil men are sometimes shown as being hyperfeminine. When Haku is given some sympathy, it definitely felt like Zabuza groomed him.

I feel like in Boruto, they are trying to set Orochimaru up as being nonbinary. Which is cool but also sort of weird. Just remembering how creepy Orochimaru was in Naruto and quite predatory towards Sasuke.

In Rock Lee spin off, there were a lot more jokes that involved depicting characters as queer or bi-curios but I don't think that is canon.

When I think of rep done better. Maybe Read Or Die, which has the female lead have a female love interest. In the Black Jack manga, there is a transman who I think was done quite well. Black Jack's former lover transitions and Black Jack seems very supportive. Patalliro is interesting for gay rep but gets a little weird in the manga...OK really weird. Princess Jellyfish is good. And then there is Ramna 1/2 which is just genderbending the anime.

[tarraxahum]

I am heavily drawn to LGBTQ characters 'cause yeah while all stories can be good, sometimes you just want to see a glimpse of something that resonates with you personally. That's also why 99.9% of the cast in my characters is at least somewhere on the rainbow.

I don't really trust Naruto or similar shonens with LGBTQ representation, to be honest (many of them can't even do right by their cishet women), and while there was something genuinely touching about Haku... I do prefer my LGBTQ representation to not die immediately as the arc ends ^^"

In terms of anime, I think my favorite representation will always be the OGs:

(Haruka and Michiru/Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune from Sailor Moon, if they need any introduction)

[VersusVII]

My answer might be cintroversial, but I'll explain my point of view.
I think it's important to represent the LGBT+ community in every medium, but I hate when in a comics for example every character is queer and cis eteros are a minority or nowhere to be seen. Ok, I get for people from the LGBT it's important to see characters like themselves, but sometimes I feel like authors put them just to get more readers or that it's impossible that in a school and/or group of friends everybody it's queer at the end of the day.

Maybe my opinion is because I'm demisexual and I can't quite get bisexual and pans in general, so when I see all the charaters be in that spectrum I feel out of target for the comic. I can't find stories with eteros couples that don't end up in the Harmony section or be silly shojos where the protagonists take forever just to confess and than walk hand in the hand is the maximum aspiration...

[LunarScyphozoa]

I feel like stories where most (if not every) character is queer are fine and a bit more realistic than “this is a huge group of straight people and their one (1) queer friend” in all honesty.

[tarraxahum]

I have three different group of friends, something around 20 people in total maybe, and like... maybe two of us are cishet. We call them the token straights (lovingly).

Not trying to invalidate your feelings (hey, you're looking for a story that will make you feel the target demographic, that's only fair!), just saying, while the whole school is not very realistic, sure, a group of friends absolutely can be all LGBTQ x) Very, very often are, actually.

Just putting in my two cents as an author of one of those 'every character is queer' stories.

I hope you eventually find many stories that won't alienate you and be likeable to you at the same time tho :3

[NickRowler]

it's impossible that in a school and/or group of friends everybody it's queer at the end of the day.

Queer kids often like to hang out with other queer kids. Usually because there is less awkwardness about being LGBTQ. Like a transperson is probably going to get along better with another transperson where they don't have to constantly explain trans issues to them.

As for schools. There was an alternative school which was around when I was a teen that used to only accept LGBTQ kids. Most of the kids who went there were bullied at their old school. This was also in early 2000s and transkids would attend the school because it was probably one of the few places that was OK with transpeople at the time. I think there were some threats targeted at the school so I don't know if it is still around.

EDIT: I found it

Harvey Milk High School

[VersusVII]

I think some stories are getting to the point of "a group of queer characters and their straight friend". Ok, as @tarraxahum says in a group of friends it can happen, but I find difficult to believe in a group of 10 people, each of them represents a different aspect of the rainbow. That's it.

[Wingstofly]

Praising the author for making the bold move of adding queer character, you got it.

[tarraxahum]

Genuine question: do you find it more realistic if, while everyone in the group is queer, they don't all represent different aspects of the rainbow, but rather the same/neighboring ones?

('Cause let's be honest, that's kinda how those friend groups often gather together)

[allatonce]

I dunno! I think a story can be perfectly fine without gay characters. I think a story can be perfectly fine without straight characters! I think it's really up to the artist or author or whatever, if they think a gay character is good for their story or wants to have a gay character in their story, that's great, go for it! However, I don't think gay characters are something that NEED to be there, or that should be added solely because "oh no my comic doesn't have gay! have to add gay!" Theres a difference between wanting to add a lgbtq character because I WANT TO LMAO, and adding one because it needs to be there for the audience.
So no, it's not important. But I sure do enjoy when it happens!

[LunarScyphozoa]

I don’t know how to tell you, but I’ve known groups of people far bigger than 10 with 0-2 cishet

[RedLenai]

To me personally, I don't "celebrate" characters being LGBTQ or even ethnic. I would consider it cool? Yes, but that's it.
A lot of time I see big companies, franchises, media and news make a big fuss about these so called LGBTQ characters and that leads to a lot of controversy as well, but at the end when you actually engage with the media it ends up being... a character that barely appears, a character who is only to be the token rep and nothing more and similar situations that honestly... kind of hard could count as proper representation than LGBTQ content created by LGBTQ people.

To me is a bit of a weird situation, in one hand is good to celebrate it because people identify with them, love them and such. In the other stating that "omg this character is LGBTQ and they can prove they can do X!" kind of indicates that the space wasn't meant for them or that their presence is something very unique, instead of naturalizing the situation and provide a more natural reaction instead of the two extremes: Great disgust or great praise and those two being translated into the public.

Honestly, I would prefer a comic to simply be it's own thing than trying to pay some kind of imaginary fee about including LGBTQ characters, like, don't do it if making them LGBTQ is going to be their sole personality or you won't do shit with them and is just there like decoration lol