We celebrated Pride Month here at Girltaku earlier this year, and it allowed me to reflect on the many queer characters, relationships, and overall queer representation in anime & manga.
Through the years, I have seen myself in many characters; either as a headcanon, or being confirmed by the mangaka. The anime world has been fortunate enough to have many characters across the spectrum be featured and represented adequately.
Alluka Zoldyk from Hunter x Hunter is confirmed trans in the show. Although her entire family doesn't accept her gender or even her status as a human being, Killua’s acceptance of her identity is the kind of support that the community should have to everyone.
Yamato, from One Piece, despite his outwardly feminine appearance, also falls under the trans umbrella. Yamato uses he/him pronouns, but is still constantly misgendered by fans regardless of Oda confirming his identity several times. If the giant Yonko Kaido can recognize Yamato as his son, we all should!
The manga Blue Flag focuses on a love triangle featuring gay and WLW romances. While I personally thought it was good bisexual representation, many were unsatisfied with the ending. Many readers were left split on if it was good representation or not.
The LGBT spectrum is massive, and mangaka have been working to create more queer representation. Sometimes however, things that seem clearly LGBTQ are not confirmed.
The same is said with Nana, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and Revolutionary Girl Utena; the queerness is heavily implied, but it is never confirmed on screen. The lack of confirmation causes many to believe that a show is queerbaiting, making the show seem as though it will highlight LGBTQ+ characters but will never touch on it or solidify it. Queerbaiting is a common problem in all forms of media, with anime being no exception. However, it’s important to recognize that gay marriage and protective rights are still not set in Japan. Although, it is becoming commonly accepted. While frustrating at times, these implied romances are still an important part of representation in Anime.
When we can’t decide if the representation is good, or if the implication just isn’t enough: we turn to headcanons. Headcanons have been the anime community’s way of creating representation across the spectrum. It’s important to recognize that while not official, they can be a key piece of queer representation for those who need them. Some of my personal headcanons are nonbinary Envy from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Nami x Vivi from One Piece, and bisexual Nana Komatsu from Nana.
Bashing someone because they ship Naruto and Sasukue, or choosing to believe that Luffy is ace (asexual) isn’t fair. They are simply trying to create the queer representation that is missing. It is important to note that there are times when these headcanons can turn into fetishization or are based entirely on negative stereotypes, but that will be a conversation for later.
The LGBTQ+ members of the anime community need to have representation. Whether it’s through headcanons, or the words of the mangaka themselves. Remember to be a good human and help support and listen to those across the spectrum! For more LGBTQ+ recommendations check out Girltaku’s LGBTQ+ list on our social media!
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