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REVIEW: Love Me for Who I Am Volume 1

DuskyPredator wrote:

We also need shows like Yuru Yuri and stuff that can normalise characters being LGBT.

If your choice of "LGBT normalization" is lolicon teasing stuff that's fine, but while I think lolicon is harmless in and of itself it wouldn't exactly be my personal choice for making homosexuality look normal to hetero people. Look at all the stir the moe otaku-targeted ads in mainstream spaces caused during the past year.

Yes I know the author is a non hetero woman but c'mon, they do look like kids.

Hellsoldier wrote:

About the criticism against Maid Dragon: I love Bloom Into You as much as the next one, but does every LGBT story have to be a serious tale of self discovery? Does every trans-related story have to be like Wandering Son? You mentioned that is okay and that surely there are LGBT folk who enjoy their fetish material,but that just sounded so judgmental. I actually think Maid Dragon is heartwarming, and I clearly don't think everything has to be a gender-relations essay like Utena (I love Utena, before anything).

Utena does have heavy gender themes but is far from just an "essay on gender". Ikuhara literally said he doesn't identify as a feminist and isn't that interested in it at one point on Twitter - sadly he deleted every tweet he ever made with the word "feminist" likely to avoid e-drama, but I got a Discord cap and if you want further proof the discussion happened you can search "ikuni_noise" and the Japanese words for feminist/feminism and find multiple tweets in response to his comments on the subject.



Ikuhara's stuff is philosophical and serious in a variety of ways but also fetishy as hell; maybe it's self-projection but he comes off as a horny-ass bisexual to me. A big part of why Yuri Kuma exists was a discussion he had about boob mouse pads. That said, there's a difference between the characters Ikuhara sexualizes and the lead character THIS manga sexualizes.

It's only natural that a manga with overt themes of LGBT gender identity is going to offend a lot of people, given a massive segment of the LGBT community is staunchly anti-loli/shota.

Misrepresentation is obviously one potential outcome of cultural appropriation, but other bad consequences are "crowding out" of culturally appropriate creators. For example, let's say a Latina author comes forward with a proposal that involves Mexican undocumented people entering the US illegally... the fact that American Dirt covered that ground makes it harder for that author to get their project off the ground because "its already been done."

Blood- wrote:

Yeah, let's have more stories about black people from white creators! Let's have more stories about the Idigenous experience from people who have never lived one second of that life. Let's have more stories about LGBTQ+ people by cisgenders who did that good ole Google research!

I mean... sure, why not? I can think of a few examples of situations you listed with some really popular, well regarded situations. Black Panther and Golden Kamuy, for example. I think it's a bit close minded to think someone can't write a story about something they're not self-inserting as. Do you hold that line of thinking to other areas as well? Are Hiromu Arakawa and Kazue Kato out of line for writing shounen stories starring male characters since they're women? What about men writing shoujo manga, or female-led series? I'm willing to bet most people on this forum are not Japanese, and yet we're enjoying a medium made by Japanese people, so that already should show topics and writing can cross barriers.

I would have to agree with littlegreenwolf that it sounds like the reviewer didn't like it simply because their own life experiences weren't being reflected in it. To some people, that is a big deal, but it's not a fault or requirement for a series, it just means it's for other people and audiences and the reviewer would prefer another title that does focus on it. There's no such thing as a wrong or right way to write a story or topic, just different ways. I can see why some people may not like this series and I can see why others would.

I think the issue is that labeling something as LGBT has certain connotations associated with it: accepting, progressive, liberal, normalized, non-sexualized. So when you see something like Seikon no Qwaser labeled as LGBT, it's technically correct if you just mean it has gay, bisexual, and lesbian elements in it since the characters are performing sexual acts on each other all the time, but it's for fanservice and titillation. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to someone if they asked me for a LGBT series to watch because I know what they meant by that request.

I think most people who use LGBT, especially in regards to labeling media as such, do so with the intention that it has certain predisposed traits or elements to it. Most American works labeled as LGBT tend to have a variety of characters with different physical appearances and body types. Larger characters, darker skin characters, butch characters, piercings, tattoos, masculine traits, and generally are not designed to what society has deemed conventionally attractive, often times purposely done so for body diversity and for it to be non-fetishy. To borrow another example DuskyPredator mentioned, no one is going to mistake She-Ra for Precure. Precure has always had yuri undertones to it, but it plays them up in a cute, fetishy, pure way for the otaku audience. She-Ra was specifically designed and made to not appeal to those kinds of people and thus when the She-Ra reboot was initially shown it drew a lot of scorn for its designs and characters not being attractive from fans of the older show. There's a reason why you never see the same type of complaints about these elements in anime and manga as you do American works. Those people complain about She-Ra and Steven Universe, they don't complain about Madoka Magica, or Sound Euphorium, or Pretty Cure.

I was unaware of Ikuhara's discussion on the subject... Though I'd be weary of taking anything Ikuhara says seriously. I mean... He's a god damn troll. He loves messing with his audience. I never heard of him having a serious discussion on anything. However, it could just be that I don't know enough about Ikuhara. Love his work anyways. I appreciate this bit of info though.

A large part of the LGBT community is anti-Loli/Shota, understandably. Loli and Shota cause a natural discomfort on most people. I will point out however that loli works have been published on Comic Yuri Hime, the most published yuri manga magazine in Japan, with 70%n of its sales attributed to women. The ones that come to my head are Wataten! An Angel Flew Down to Me and Joshikousei to Ouji-chan. So, it seems that, at least in Japan, there's a sizable loli fandom among Lesbian and Bisexual Women.

kakugo complete wrote:

Not sure what you mean, because to me "queer" is a very politically loaded term, especially in anime fan circles. If you're saying various Kyoani employees are openly some form of "non-hetero" then... duh? At this point I'm more surprised if someone involved with otaku culture has NO form of open same-sex attraction. It's normal for female otaku to love GL stuff and for male otaku to like male x male stuff.

I'd be careful about making too many assumptions in that direction. While the anime fan community has long been more inclusive than most, there's a big difference between tolerating something's existence and liking it. For instance, I am a male otaku who tolerates BL because hey, different stroke for different folks, right? I've got my own predilections, you've got yours, we've both got titles focused on our respective tastes, so everyone's happy. I'll even give BL titles a fair evaluation in Preview Guide entries. That should not, however, be interpreted as me liking BL in the slightest. I am certain that I am far from alone in this sentiment, too.

Its ok bro no ones gonna think you're gay if you give a show with cute boys 3 stars on a preview guide lmao. Men always get so defensive/insecure about this stuff I have no idea why. We all understand you can't like media featuring sexualized men because it makes you uncomfortable- we've read your reviews. Tbh, I don't even know why you preview those shows in the first place because I can't imagine anyone who would potentionally be interested in watching the show finding them useful. (And I feel similarly for other reviewers who continue to review things they know they can't really review in a useful way. It just wastes everyones time. And I don't mean that you have to be a huge fan of the genre to review it, just that if its really not your thing, you should just not participate. There are plenty of cishet straight male reviewers here on ann that don't have the same ...hangups with male sexuality as you, or at least they don't come through to their work as clearly, and I find their reviews very useful even if it isn't their genre)

Samiamiam wrote:

Its ok bro no ones gonna think you're gay if you give a show with cute boys 3 stars on a preview guide lmao. Men always get so defensive/insecure about this stuff I have no idea why. We all understand you can't like media featuring sexualized men because it makes you uncomfortable- we've read your reviews. Tbh, I don't even know why you preview those shows in the first place because I can't imagine anyone who would potentionally be interested in watching the show finding them useful. (And I feel similarly for other reviewers who continue to review things they know they can't really review in a useful way. It just wastes everyones time. And I don't mean that you have to be a huge fan of the genre to review it, just that if its really not your thing, you should just not participate. There are plenty of cishet straight male reviewers here on ann that don't have the same ...hangups with male sexuality as you, or at least they don't come through to their work as clearly, and I find their reviews very useful even if it isn't their genre)

I flatly disagree with the bolded attitude, as I find it valuable to know whether or not someone who doesn't normally like the genre/content can still find it tolerable or even interesting. Comments in response threads over the years have indicated that a significant number of our review's readers agree on this. That's why we "waste our time" on them.

Hellsoldier wrote:

I was unaware of Ikuhara's discussion on the subject... Though I'd be weary of taking anything Ikuhara says seriously. I mean... He's a god damn troll. He loves messing with his audience. I never heard of him having a serious discussion on anything. However, it could just be that I don't know enough about Ikuhara. Love his work anyways. I appreciate this bit of info though. A large part of the LGBT community is anti-Loli/Shota, understandably. Loli and Shota cause a natural discomfort on most people. I will point out however that loli works have been published on Comic Yuri Hime, the most published yuri manga magazine in Japan, with 70%n of its sales attributed to women. The ones that come to my head are Wataten! An Angel Flew Down to Me and Joshikousei to Ouji-chan. So, it seems that, at least in Japan, there's a sizable loli fandom among Lesbian and Bisexual Women.

I'd say Ikuhara can be pretty honest; was super-serious about some kind of ideological affiliation, chances are he wouldn't troll about it. He can talk honestly, and he he made his views on arbitrary societal gender roles pretty clear in the past when he said he doesn't think Utena at the start of the movie has "male clothing" - it's just "Utena's clothing". He obviously has progressive beliefs but doesn't strike me as invested in spreading a specific sociopolitical ideology as much as just... his ideology.

Yuri Hime was 70% female all the way back in 2008; now it's around 50/50. Not to say women into yuri never like loli, because quite a few of 'em do, but I doubt Takano Saku would consider her occasional loli manga to be "So Important LGBT representation".

Some them are just equal-opportunity horny and draw both hardcore yaoi porn and hardcore yuri porn. And some people calling them "openly, socially queer" would be technically accurate but also funny because of the social implications of the wording.

2) Regarding the bit about the ‘google search’: I’m uncomfortable with the subtext there too (and think people are right to call me out on that). To understand the particulars of that line in the review, here’s the panel in question, the one the sentence is referring to:

https://imgur.com/Trq3Yko

When I read this, in the heat of the moment, in context of a manga I wasn’t enjoying, it read to me like the author was casually deploying nonbinary identities for their story in a very token, insensitive way (which was also related to their presumed cisness, which I also regret), without a real depth of research (which was also an unfair assumption).

Yeah that's exactly what makes it so funny, because these labels mean something in a US social context. Same reason said the word "queer" has political ideological connotations. No one would call the yaoi hentai anime where a dude penetrates another dude with a piece of corn "queer" even though it's possible for a gay dude to like it.

Can I just say I really hate the cover? It makes it look like lolicon fetish porn, genuinely makes me feel uncomfortable, and now this review has kind of confirmed my squicky feelings. If I do buy this series it's going to be digitally so I don't have to look at it on my shelf.

Can I just say I really hate the cover? It makes it look like lolicon fetish porn, genuinely makes me feel uncomfortable, and now this review has kind of confirmed my squicky feelings. If I do buy this series it's going to be digitally so I don't have to look at it on my shelf.

I think we are headed to a point in the West where if a story is substantially set in a certain culture, publishers, studios, broadcasters, etc simply will refuse to have anything to do with the work if it is not written by somebody from that culture, which I fully support.