There's also the yaoi (boys love) and yuri (girls love) genres which focus on same-sex relationships, but often in a very unrealistic and fetishized manner. Sometimes these stereotypical characters are written well enough to transcend their problematic origins, other times they can be incredibly offensive (let's never speak of 'Puri Puri Prisoner' from One Punch Man). Because of this, while including queer characters is less taboo, they're often portrayed as jokey stereotypes. While there isn't the same 'think of the children!' panicking as in America, Japan still has a fair deal of cultural stigma around the queer community. There's been anime for adults almost as long as there's been anime, and kids anime have long featured openly queer characters.Īs for the quality of queer representation in anime, it's a mixed bag. In Japan, however, neither of obstacles exist. Thankfully that first obstacle started being challenged in the '90s with shows like The Simpsons and South Park, and the second obstacle's being challenged now thanks to shows like Steven Universe and The Loud House. Until recently, queer representation in American animation has faced two ridiculous obstacles: the idea that cartoons are just for kids, and the idea that it's inappropriate to expose kids to the existence of queer people. In terms of sheer quantity, there are a lot more queer characters in anime than there are in American cartoons.
