This is the next level of yuri-bait: make an entire show with openly gay characters that get married but clarify afterwards "no they were just friends".
This is one of the genuinely most baffling things I've ever seen.
Some people on
think it is for the Chinese market which first of all, didn't even air on the mainland, and also just standard Sinophobic stuff (yes China seems to have very mixed record in regards to queer rep, I'm probably wrong). I'm glad that there is some pushback of people saying Japanese people can be homophobic. I just kinda think the suits at top flipped and cracked down on this.For over 40 years Gundam has had straight white male protags, heaven forbid it be a gay woman we must not upset the precious otaku who buys our injection mold plastic gunpla kits.
For over 40 years Gundam has had straight white male protags
Hey, to be fair, Yoshiyuki Tomino has frequently credited the fujoshi contingent for helping Gundam get off the ground at the beginning, even more than the gunpla fans.>
first queer woman of color as a gundam protag was in 1999
(i am only half joking here)
i genuinely think loran has some gender going on, but because it's the early 20th century he doesn't have any of the language to express it, and so it just manifests as him being completely fine with dressing up as laura from time to time
The deep lore is that Loran was Tomino's 2nd attempt at a girl protagonist and the suits deep-sixed that idea again. What we ended up with's probably better tho.
I was going to steal this Loran concept art from a Moon's Cocoon post (Spoiler Warning - all of Turn A Gundam for that site), but then I started thinking "Damn, what if Loran was originally a girl disguised as a guy in an early draft
":Show
I like how the one in the bottom-right looks like Sochie.
Anyways, the goofing with gender stuff was definitely planned from the start in Turn A. Such a fantastic show!
Then how do they explain them wearing wedding rings in the last ep
they were friendship rings. the real question is how eri and miorine are sisters in law
It's actually a misinterpretation. You see, they're uhhhhh step-sisters. Right, so, Prospera and Delling got married.
This is such a ridiculous thing I can't even be mad. It's just so silly! Like Elon Musk calling himself a communist. Sure thing Bandai, your animators never put rings on them. They're just friends, that's right. Let's get you back to bed.
Another piece of evidence for my "execs canceled the second season halfway through production" theory.
From what I can see with the google translated replies, there are at least Japanese people roasting them
This feels like more corporate conservatism, definitely something typical of the old male corporate leadership, the fucking 80 dinosaurs that just wont retire trying to think more about the long term future of the franchise and being scared about being at the front of a "social issue" even though for the target audience here, gay relationships are definitely not taboo in any way in media, though it may not be their preference.
With regards to China I do think it is possible that these out of touch execs are self-censoring because they think it will be easier to avoid problems in the future, i.e their own misguided and false perception of China(let alone the west and even JP itself) makes them believe self-censorship will be beneficial.
Also this is not about male otaku pressure at all, yuri fandom is very much male gaze oriented like it or not so if they were male partners, yeah maybe. But even then I think Yuri on Ice and Free are like a decade old now even mainstream yaoi is not taboo to anyone in JP so yeah its very much likely male cowardice BS. Maybe if someone can go and look at 2ch reaction but I very very much doubt anyone is supporting them.
if they only bang each other then we guys have no chance with them. which is a crime. all women have to be bisexual.
Maybe they just got rings for fun
Maybe they're friend rings
Maybe Miorine called Prospera her mother in law as like, a joke
Yep it's all very unclear, I guess it's all up to Interpretation™
spoiler
I wouldn't put too much weight on what some corporate exec that probably had minimal involvement in the actual show says.
