This Week in Anime

Rainbow Days

Chris
You know, I presumed that Pride Month was over when June ended and all the corporate social media accounts took the rainbows out of their icons. But if the ongoing summer anime season has anything to say about it, the season of declaring that you're here and queer has continued through July and is now marching into August!

That is, summer's anime seems extra gay this season. Dang if I don't think we needed it, too.

Anime, of course, is no stranger to queer characters and storytelling. Even just as far as the medium's popularity in the West, a big part of that was from kids growing up learning things about themselves, and seeing aspects of that reflected, whether in Ranma 1/2's gender-bending shenanigans or Haruka and Michiru's relationship in Sailor Moon. 90s-dub cousin-lovin' notwithstanding.

But this season in particular seems to have stepped on the gay gas. You and I already touched on this a bit, rounding up the three(!) yuri shows included in this season's rom-coms. But it's turned out there's even more where that came from!

If I could be so presumptuous, Call of the Night was always at least thematically queer. It's about people on the outside fringes of society, with Ko pursuing an atypical relationship and seeking to change his body to something he'll be more comfortable with. Plus, you know, everything about Hatsuka. The read was there.

Season 2, however, lets you know right from its new OP that the yuri dial is getting cranked way up.

Everyone in this series is an icon in their own way.

There were a lot of loaded questions from that aforementioned OP to Kabura's behavior as this arc got underway. The way Call of the Night dragged them out was pretty ingenious, pointedly playing off what audiences thought they'd figured out about Nazuna and Kabura's relationship...by having Ko and Nazuna make the same presumptions.

And I like how the actual reveals about Kabura play back with Call of the Night's themes of finding yourself outside of society's guidelines. Kabura's story is pointedly similar to Ko's arc, codifying the inherent queerness of the whole setup.

Can see where Nazuna gets her appealing moxie from.

Call of the Night understands the weightiness of the queer experience as it details Kabura's story. The catharsis is palpable in her confession to Haru on the roof, contrasted with the unencumbered joy she's shown feeling with her crush once she's out.

Also, of the multiple vampire-turning scenes that Call of the Night's done, the ecstatic liberation felt in Kabura's makes it an instant stand-out.

Isn't it sad, Kabura?

Kabura hadn't been much of a stand-out to me in Call of the Night's first season, so she had a lot of room for her stock to shoot up with this arc. She now really embodies the messy emotions that are so good, both in this anime and in queer romance in general.

And as an advancement of Call of the Night's themes and indication of its direction, it gears me up to wonder where else it'll go this season. Don't think I haven't noticed all the past/present pairing contrast of Nazuna and Anko in that new OP!

The emergence of queer characters and ideas in Call of the Night comes in parallel to other cases this season in shows where they might not have been entirely telegraphed. Like yeah, My Dress-Up Darling has broached the topic of crossplay before, but I wasn't wholly expecting them to dedicate a couple of episodes this season to crossdressing, gender nonconformity, and the emotional struggles therein.

Gojo is discovering whole new worlds to experience.

It was always going to be a slippery slope after Marin bought that strap. In hindsight, Amane's story is a perfect one for My Dress-Up Darling to do. It fits right alongside Gojo's anxieties about his gender-nonconforming hobbies and how he's just starting to get over that. Plus, there's a natural line to be drawn from Marin's regular euphoria at her cosplays coming together to Amane's kind of euphoria upon getting to try feminine presentation.

It's one of the main messages that My Dress-Up Darling has been driving at this season: that one intolerant person in your past doesn't need to define your worries about being accepted by others.

And if so, you can just dump them like the queen you are.

Also, you gotta love Marin and Gojo openly thirsting after both girl mode and boy mode Amane.

There is, understandably, a lot of queer angst in these anime this season. But this kind of uncompromised queer joy is a heartening message, I think a lot of folks could use in these times.

It's wholesome, it's nutritious, it's even more of that sicko shit I love.

The Summer Hikaru Died is a modern boys-love body-horror classic that many people I know have been singing the praises of for a while now, and I've been elated at how the anime adaptation has been knocking it out of the unsettling, unnerving park.

Fellas, is it gay to reach into your homie's chest and feel around inside of him?

I can confess that my partner keeps affectionately razzing me over how into the inside-fondling scenes I get when watching the series, but I don't care. The Summer Hikaru Died really is living (and dying) at the intersection of embracing the taboo, the nominally repulsive, in coming to terms with one's outside sexuality. This is another tone that has decades of history in storytelling, and here it's also mixed up with grief and guilt, the known and the unknown.

It is rich is what I'm saying, and I'm thriving off of it.

He is also, pointedly, a stupid baby, which makes him more attractive overall.

This is a story that could really only be done with that queer textuality to it, as Yoshiki's guilt is tied up in his worries that he didn't know the real Hikaru as well as he'd hoped, and now can't know him further to confirm or deny how he'd react to Yoshiki's crystalizing awareness of his own queerness.

That also enhances the horror atmosphere with the correct depiction of those small-town vibes: bigoted, intolerant, constraining. Boys, get out, please.

It so appropriately shows how and why someone would seek love and validation from an outside individual, even one labeled a "monster," after feeling rejection from all other facets of their life.

It's not just "showing" either, I have to praise the sound design in this adaptation. The discordant noise levels sell the oppressive atmosphere of the town in this fateful summer.

It also speaks to the overall smorgasbord of queer anime on display this season that those two nickels are both airing at the same time! Like we said at the start, there's a surprising amount of variety and inclusions popping up where we might not have expected. Even horny satire Nukitashi has a lesbian character, and this week's CITY just revealed that Niikura was keeping a locket with a picture of her crush/roommate in it.

This kind of inclusion was already significantly more than I would have expected from a series like Nukitashi, so it's heartening to know it maintained that quality. While still being (appropriately enough) extremely true to its whole raison d'être. Live your truth.

Similarly, and on the complete opposite side of the target age demographics, I was also alerted by someone else, our editor Rebecca, who's kept up with Pretty Cure, that the latest entry, You and Idol Precure♪, had introduced its own queer elements this season.

Now, Pretty Cure is no stranger to queer overtones. Still, it is amusing in its own way to see the trademark marketable fairies of the franchise engaging in a jealous all-girl love triangle involving the lead heroine. Also, not for nothing, but Cure Kiss and Cure Zukyoon's transformed attacks embody the yuri-baiting on-stage chemistry I've come to expect from my idol media.

Gay animals are a surprising recurrence in the franchise, yeah.

A finger on the pulse of queer little furries everywhere, no wonder it's endured.

Now, the other series this season I'd heard tell from others of queer theming before going through it for this column was Studio Orange's Leviathan anime. Being able to binge the whole thing helped in this case to see how that bore out, but honestly, I don't know if it was all the way there?

I will say that Sharp's story is still dipping its toes into the gender of it all, but it never gets as far as, say, straight-boy lead Alek wondering about his attraction to the character regardless of gender. Though it admittedly does play with the presentation in other ways.

And there are gestures at what Sharp may be feeling, presentation-wise, in the last arc, including a pretty great moment where they opt for a suit instead of a dress when they need to infiltrate a banquet.

I put this one in the "questioning" column, which, to be clear, is still absolutely valid, just not quite as gay as advertised to me, especially compared to the rest of this season's rainbow of offerings.

Sharp's no Loran/Laura, but they were still my favorite part of Leviathan anyway.

Gay mascots aplenty in this column, the season really is covering all the bases!

Agreed! It can feel like a scary time for queer people of all stripes in the real world nowadays. So it's important to see stories that don't just reflect and validate the worry of that experience, but also celebrate their joy. And even the simple, petty silliness of their everydays.

Or to put it in another parlance, fans of queer anime are eating good this season!