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EP. REVIEW: Yuri!!! on Ice

...the relationship is not really the main focus, but Yuuri is and the sport, and in the end thats what really makes it so great imho.

I was rewatching episode 6 (and enjoying the Maccachin and sushi plushies thrown onto the ice for Yuuri) and I still don't understand Yuuri's reaction after his skate. He blinks and squints at the scores like he doesn't believe them, and that I get, but otherwise he acts like he's either depressed or pissed off. When Victor asks if it felt great, he gives a stock answer with no enthusiasm, and he never smiles. Can someone explain why he was acting that way?

I can't believe the number of people who are all insisting there's no gay. Anybody who didn't see that Yuuri and Victor were an item even before this is five kinds of blind. -_-

On the other hand, anybody claiming that the depiction of their relationship is not BL-influenced is also five kinds of blind. Yes, it's not formally labeled as BL, but in the manga sphere there's a constant trickle of BL-type stuff that is published in shoujo or josei magazines and thus Technically Not BL, despite being indistinguishable from the stuff that does run in BL magazines (for example, Setona Mizuchiro's excellent Cornered Mouse series, which is 100% BL content with explicit sex even, but is Technically Josei).

YOI is the anime equivalent; it's not labeled as BL, but to all intents and purposes it is. You can see it in the character designs, the relationship dynamics, the visual tropes.... Yes, it has more non-romance plot than most BL, which is certainly connected to the fact that it is Technically Not BL and thus not relegated to the BL ghetto and its more restricted budget (No. 6 is another example of this effect). But the people cheering queer representation! are unfortunately celebrating too soon.

if you want to get technical shojo and josei aren't genres. genres describe content, demographics define which groups it's aimed at. shojo and josei can be any genre they want, the only thing actually defining what shojo and josei are is which age group of female readers/viewers their primary target audience is. so technically every single BL series out there is shojo or josei given one of the criteria for the genre is that it's by women and for a female audience.

Weazul-chan wrote:

if you want to get technical shojo and josei aren't genres. genres describe content, demographics define which groups it's aimed at. shojo and josei can be any genre they want, the only thing actually defining what shojo and josei are is which age group of female readers/viewers their primary target audience is. so technically every single BL series out there is shojo or josei given one of the criteria for the genre is that it's by women and for a female audience.

True to an extent, but functionally BL is treated as a separate publishing category. Material officially published as BL is usually shelved separately from shoujo or josei, it's typically not elegible for shoujo/josei awards, and when shoujo or josei are referenced in an industry context (i.e., "shoujo magazines" or "sales of josei manga" etc.), it's not included. A BL-like story published in a shoujo magazine will be officially categorized as shoujo, which has knock-on effects for how it's treated by the industry and by retailers.

Also, there is no requirement that shoujo, josei or BL be by female authors, only that it be for female readers. There are occasional male authors in all three areas.

I never tried to imply that shojo and josei had to be written by women. it is, however, almost(?) always the case that BL is written by women. it's kind of the nature of the beast, in that it's a female wish fulfillment genre that romanticizes what women want to see in a male/male relationship, so a woman would know what that was better than a man. it's kind of like how gei comi/bara is written by gay men for gay men because who knows better what a gay man wants to see in a manga involving a gay relationship than a gay man.

Gina Szanboti wrote:

I was rewatching episode 6 (and enjoying the Maccachin and sushi plushies thrown onto the ice for Yuuri) and I still don't understand Yuuri's reaction after his skate. He blinks and squints at the scores like he doesn't believe them, and that I get, but otherwise he acts like he's either depressed or pissed off. When Victor asks if it felt great, he gives a stock answer with no enthusiasm, and he never smiles. Can someone explain why he was acting that way?

His squint looked to me more like he wasn't wearing his glasses or any contacts and couldn't physically see his score. I laughed out loud at the point cause I look like that all the time and it was a nice little detail. Idk about the rest though.

YOI is the anime equivalent; it's not labeled as BL, but to all intents and purposes it is. You can see it in the character designs, the relationship dynamics, the visual tropes....

Why yes, Jean-Jacques Leroy is voiced by Mamoru Miyano.

Since BL as a whole is generally ruled as "unrealistic," it seems like people are tempted to automatically dismiss anything that has ever happened in a BL-genre work as "unrealistic" without any sort of case-by-case analysis. There's a growing number of works out there that actively work to subvert or deconstruct the usual genre standards, or even address the existence of actual homosexuality, and when done well it ends up quite good. (Umibe no Etranger and it's quarterly-serialized sequel actually made accuracy a selling point.)

That said, I still don't see anything particularly alarming or unsavory about the portrayal of either Victor or Yuri, or their relationship. Is YOI taking advantage of an existing fanbase? Of course, but only because it would be crazy not to. What makes it different from "subtext" or "baiting" or whatever you want to call it is that at this point both parties involved know exactly what they're doing and no longer feel the need to deny it.