Ask John: Why is There so Much Homosexuality in Anime?

Question:
I’m a huge anime fan, but over half the anime I find includes homosexual scenarios, not that I’m complaining. But what is with that?

Answer:
What constitutes “homosexual scenarios” varies from viewer to viewer, and countless fans have a tendency to interpret dramatic character revelations from very ambiguous nuances. In fact, excluding pornographic hentai anime and homosexual themed anime titles, there are relatively few overtly homosexual characters in “mainstream” anime relative to the total number of major anime characters in the history of anime. There are numerous examples of same sex attraction, and numerous examples of male characters with pronounced feminine characteristics, but taken in context, these examples do not reflect homosexual personalities.

Because Japan is an island nation surrounded by salt water, fresh water has always been a commodity in Japan. Thus Japan has an ancient history of communal bathing. Anime titles including Love Hina, Photon, Megazone 23 Part 2, eX-D and Mahoromatic include sequences of female anime characters in a shared bath comparing breast size. However, taking into account Japan’s frank openness regarding sexuality and the natural human condition, scenes like this do not and are not intended to represent homosexuality. These instances are examples of teasing and playful jealousy, not sexual desire or physical attraction. Likewise, Tina Foster of Ai Yori Aoshi, for example, shows a marked attraction to females and female anatomy; however, Tina is not overtly homosexual. Characters like Tina are attracted to the physical beauty of the female form but seemingly have no interest in actual lesbian romantic relationships. This sort of attraction is similar to the “idol worship” seen in titles like Card Captor Sakura, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Brother Dear Brother, and Azumanga Daioh. Characters like Tomoyo Daidouji and Kaorin from Azumanga Daioh idolize the qualities of fellow female classmates, but this “hero worship” doesn’t involve actual sexual desire. It’s easy for fans to interpret characters like Tomoyo as being gay, but the actual animation itself provides no evidence of this conclusion.

In a similar fashion, numerous Western fans frequently confuse the concept of “bishonen” beautiful and effeminate men, and cross-dressing male characters, as homosexuals when such a link is not always justified or even accurate. For example, the male Ladios Sopp of Five Star Stories is frequently mistaken for being a woman, however, in a famous sequence from the F.S.S. manga that was somewhat marginalized in the motion picture, Sopp unmistakably clarifies that although he may dress and look like a woman, he is totally heterosexual. Likewise, although Maron Glaces of Bakuretsu Hunter is very effeminate, he is never shown expressing any attraction to another male in any of the Bakuretsu Hunter animation, although he does develop an mutual attraction to a pretty young woman in the TV series. Bishonen characters are often more uninhibited about their personalities, but being expressive doesn’t make one homosexual.

If we exclude adult anime titles and series like Fake, Nagekino Kenko Yuroji (F3), Kizuna, Zetsuai 1989, Gravitation, and Yami no Matsui, there simply aren’t that many overtly homosexual anime characters. My list will be incomplete, but at only little more than a half dozen titles, the number of overtly homosexual characters I can think of accounts for only a fraction of a percent of all anime characters.

Hanagata of Saber Marionette J
Fatora, and Alielle of El Hazard
Aburatsubo of Maho Tsukai Tai
Daley Wong of the Bubblegum Crisis OAV series
Zoecite & Malachite, and Michiru Kaiou (Sailor Neptune) & Haruka Tenou (Sailor Uranus) of Sailormoon
Sepia & Cobalt of Iczer-One
The bi-sexual Milphey Yu of Bakuretsu Hunter OAV 2
(Griffith of Berserk seems to have no personal sexual preference, instead being bi-sexual only as a means to an ends)

Simply given the sheer amount of anime that exists, and its cinematic diversity, the rule of percentages necessitates the existence of homosexual anime characters. And while same-sex teasing or innocent “homosexual scenarios” may occur frequently in anime, they do not reflect examples of actual homosexuality. These occasional sex jokes or character types are a subtle example of Japanese culture within anime. These instances are a reflection of Japan’s open, humanistic acceptance of sexuality, which stands in contrast to America’s largely puritanical subjection of natural sexuality. Most anime fans that think little of same sex dalliances, or ambiguous sexuality in anime do so as a result of their own amicability. Especially experienced fans often take no special notice of same sex actions or ambiguously sexual characters because years of viewing experience has placed these elements in relative context as a natural part of anime, no more unusual than any other aspect of anime. I can only suggest to viewers who find themselves offended by this content, either accept it as an element of Japanese culture within imported Japanese animated film, or simply refrain from watching imported Japanese animated film.