Positive Canon Representation?Can they do that? Are they even allowed?Because they’re doing it

Positive Canon Representation?Can they do that? Are they even allowed?Because they’re doing it no matter what so I hope it is.Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of fun things Yuri!!! on Ice does right that doesn’t have anything to do with how gay the leads are. The characters are pretty easy to latch onto and, like any sports anime worth its cast of attractive young guys obsessed with their sport almost to an unhealthy degree, the competition is genuinely fun to follow (especially with the song choices).But when I heard there was a new anime with a canon gay couple, I knew I had to check it out.Oh Wow That’s so GayBetter explained here, the reason this is so cool is that Yuri (or Yuuri? I keep seeing it spelled both ways so I’m sorry if it bothers you) and Victor’s relationship isn’t just subtext or fetish fuel for a yaoi-loving audience. And, I don’t know about you, but as an ally to the LGBTQ+ community it’s really important for me to be able to tell the difference.But Yuri!!! makes it easy to see. Both Yuri and Victor are well-developed, 3-dimensional characters in their own right, for starters, so we don’t have to suffer through the outdated portrayal (she said hopefully) of “gay” being a personality trait.In fact, Yuri’s exploration of taking a more traditionally feminine role in Eros shows just how much other shows have gotten it wrong. Watching him start to learn that side of himself is a genuine thrill– especially because the show structures it as a high point; it’s a really triumphant moment when it all comes together.Which is how they approach all the sexuality on this show. With the skating programs being an extremely thinly (by which I mean pretty much not at all they literally tell you) veiled metaphor for love, they develop the relationships and the characters’ understandings of whatever love they’re portraying slowly.So instead of these routines just showcasing their bods and whatnot, it’s more about that progression and, well, just celebration of what love and sexuality means to each character.Yuri and Victor’s developing relationship is center-stage (center-ice) in the plot because of it, so it’s given a lot of actual screen-time. It matters, and not in a we-need-to-have-the-characters-say-they’re-gay-because-we’re-treating-it-as-a-Big-Deal kind of way.So What?What’s even cooler than the show itself is what fans hope it may encourage in other anime going forward. I know the market still is what it is, and it’s not like Yuri!!! can change that, but hey, success speaks volumes. Even if you want to be pessimistic and say it could lead to more cheap yaoi cash-ins, you have to admit the presence of a successful positive portrayal of an LGBTQ+ couple is still more likely to do good in the industry (and Japan at large) than if there still none.So, no, Yuri on Ice isn’t another guilty pleasure we desperately cling to in the hopes that we can someday cross out the “baiting” part. And that’s fucking beautiful, because it’s not just beautiful fucking. -- source link

More pics about