Quote:
Originally Posted by Maru
As I think about it, I was exposed to these relationships through Japanese media when I was a pre-teen and I'm 33 now. I don't remember any of the characters getting married though, but I think there was always playful chat about it... a vast majority of bishouju shows/manga were hetero relationships, but that makes sense (majority demographic)... I know yaoi is insanely popular now (even with female readers)...
I remember when anime was just starting to come to the US, was called "japanimation"... it was heavily censored in comparison to how it is now. Including same-sex relationships... I think Cartoon Network started airing on the promise they would no longer censor, but they still had to go with the original DIC(?) license so the original series (US version) is still mostly censored afaik? Anyway, that was the beginning of "Adult Swim" which was pretty much created on top of the rise of anime fandom. Anyway, to censor LGBT relationships, they gave those characters sex changes to "correct" it. For example... these two were cousins in the US version... I don't remember their "new" names, that's how lame and non-believable it was... and really no reason to censor their relationship(s) as it is pretty harmless... it's bishoujo ("pretty girl", a genre) for God sakes so pretty tame by Japanese standards
I'm still bummed we never got Sailor Stars, which was the finale series (and the greatest one imo). I guess because the Starlights went through a magical sex change pretty much everytime they transformed which was from male to female... there's no way they could've shielded us from Stars, as they can't hide that with clever writing as it's tied in pretty heavily into the plot. Also Sailor Moon almost has a lesbian relationship with the leader...
♪ From no boobies to boobies... ♪
Also everyone important is naked in the last episode (for some reason)
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Cardcaptor Sakura is another one that was originally heaped in homo/bisexuality but when they brought it to the West, they cut it all out. The main character (Sakura) and her love interest both had a crush on Sakura's brother's best friend who in turn had feelings for the brother while Sakura's best friend has feelings for her.
Japan's quite odd when it comes to things like that, they portray gay relationships a lot and have done so for years but their overall attitude towards homosexuality is typically a bit archaic although it's getting better. They traditionally portray things like that as a phase that kids have to grow out of, 'you can have your crushes and all that but eventually you have to find a nice wife and settle down!'. It's also quite problematic that a lot of gay characters and relationships are typically played up as fanservice rather than representation.
It's a bizarre dichotomy, really.