Crying Lesbians
The Island of Lesbos is full of Lesbians. And they are crying foul because of the homosexual agenda.
Originally I just wanted to make a point that Author was misleading about the episode/disc count on the DVD you can’t buy Marimite as singles, so only Netflix tards care about how many episodes are on each DVD. And to be honest why the hell are you not buying it? I boughtpreordered it as soon as it came up for preorders, it must be good! [As a note, yes, Marimite does have a female audience (scroll down to the comments to realize the girls are the fans; the dad is just the gateway)]
Joking aside, I am going to address the greater problem Author casually referenced. There are actually very few anime out there that explores the whole homosexual thing, and somehow the few good ones that even dabble in that grey, ambiguous area of interpersonal drama get trumped up to be some dogmatic gospel for yuri or yaoi people. For better or worse, it causes an undesirable effect for other folks who do not want to associate themselves with it, or worse, become mislead.
I’m looking at you, Simoun. (Don’t I always?) For what it is worth, you ought to watch it regardless how you feel about yuri, if you are an anime fan with a knack for drama. Because that’s what is good about it. In fact, by the end of the series people generally wouldn’t care about who pairs up with who at all. And it’s a tragedy (although in this case not the fault of anyone else but the show’s creators) that most people will not be able to see past the yurilicious covers and the squad of pretty girls going to war in throes of angst and lust?
I don’t think the same can be said of Marimite exactly, but it’s the same microscopic interpersonal drama + moe elements with a yuri shell that is the core driving force behind its plot, charm, and popularity. I remember an interview (or was at a con?) with Ikuhara about Utena years ago, and he pretty much used the whole homosexual angle to illustrate the deeper theme about conforming to societal norms and not to make a comment about homosexuality. That attitude is still quite prevalent in the mainstream, and that includes far majority (99%?) of anime out there. It’s just a hook, guys.
Still, for fans I think that’s fair game. And just about everything is fair game for fans, I concede. But I don’t think everything is fair game in marketing and reviews. I’m tired of this sort of panning. The whole “judge a book by its cover” nonsense. Actually I take that back–it’s worse: “judge a book by its genre.” Or is it even genre? More like what tropes it reminds you of?
The silver lining is that we’re not at the “judge a person by her sexual preferences” level yet. Seiyuu maniacs excluded.
And this “judging a book by its genre” doesn’t even apply to just “yuri” shows. Like how people avoid shounen like the plague because it’s “stupid and pointless” (okay, I’m guilty for that), and so on.
I have little care for lesbians, yet all the love for drama. That’s why Marimite is one of my favorite series (franchises?). The yuri is certainly a hook and nothing more.
I would be flat-out lying if I said I didn’t love yuri, but it has little to do with why I like Marimite and Simoun and, if my string of extremely angry posts weren’t indication enough, I’m disgusted that people can mention Marimite and Simoun in the same breath as Strawberry Panic and Kannazuki no Miko. Completely fucking missing what’s important.
Before Maria-sama, I’d never seen a “yuri” anime that left a good taste in my mouth. Wow, that’s an interesting visual … Marimite made me cry in that good way that feels so terrible at the time. XD The art style … it was so visually stunning that I can’t even find words to describe it.
What I find interesting about Utena is the homosexual themes presented in the show are the *least* disturbing ones. XD I don’t see Utena as yuri, but then again I’m crazy. The message I took away from Utena was a bittersweet but very positive. ^^;
Still, as good as Marimite and Utena are … they don’t deal with a lot of the knotty issues that plague homosexuals in the real world. Yaoi anime has the same problem, in fact … I think it’s worse with yaoi, actually. Sigh…