When I was growing up, anime seemed much more progressive then the television shows that originated in America or Europe. Don't get me wrong, shows like W.I.T.C.H., Gargoyles, Code:Lyoko, TMNT, and Winx Club were fun. However as I got older, all of these shows presented a very familiar format of male/female protagonist goes on adventures and over the course of episodes or seasons, falls in love with female/male characters. Possibly with a love triangle to “make things interesting”. As a result, the seemingly queer relationships among anime characters opened up a new world for me. Relationships between characters of the same gender were well represented, but most importantly to me, among school girls.
However once I got older, and learned more about Japan then just anime, I realized that the relationships that had helped me understand myself were less cultural progress, and more cultural misunderstanding. The animes that I had identified with was a specific subset of the Girls Love gene, or Yuri based on real cultural expectations. In Japan, a "romantic friendship” between school girls is considered a normal part of growing up. This allows Japanese girls to have practice relationships while remaining pure for their eventual husbands, and it is always meant to be temporary.
If these romantic friendships continue past school age, women considered immature. In the western world, this type of relationship is closer to the LGBT terms LUG (Lesbian until graduation) or bi-curious. Even then though, that is still a bit wrong. A “romantic friendship” deals with the emotional connection of a relationship, but not the sexual part.
This specific subset of girls love is called “Seinen Yuri” and in Japan it is actually marketed to men, men watch the friendship and fantasize about the girl(s) deep friendship, them growing up and eventually marrying them. However, cultural differences meant that for me growing up, I loved these animes. I would join other western fans of these shows in forums and blogs and speculate about the relationships, without truly understanding that my perspective wasn't the original intent.
I suppose that the. If question is this: does the fact that the animes I watched growing up which helped me develop who I am and accept that being LGBT+ was okay, are actually not that devalue the lessons I learned? You decide.
It is unfortunate to hear about this reality when it comes to what was once presumed as Lesbian relationships, but its not a complete shock, as this reality is highly perpetuated in the boy characters within certain slice of life shows. Anime fans never seeing that side of this reality, due to only seeing these short bursts of romance as their culture reflects on, it means that we're not shown the part of this that entails it's just a phase, the ultimate insult to the LGBT community. I think if this is going to perpetuated further, someone needs to show that later side to this dynamic.
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