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Kingdom Hearts Yaoi

Discussion in 'General Kingdom Hearts' started by xxxJRosesxxx, Dec 30, 2012.

  1. Dec 30, 2012 #1
    xxxJRosesxxx

    xxxJRosesxxx New Member

    There's something about beng a western fan of anime and manga that is really hard not to notice, people (especially girls) love to see their leading straight male protagonists in romantic relationships. Of cours it doesn't help that Japan seems to have a large amount of metrosexual male characters in their works of fiction than here in the west, in fact it's kind of a thing there. Kingdom Hearts being no exception, I've seen sooo much fanart or fanfiction with Riku with Sora, Roxas with Axel, and Cloud with Leon.

    I'm not critizing this, but I find it interesting when you see the contrast of cultures. Being a citizen of the US, it's one of the reasons why anime and manga isn't very popular cause some of my fellow Americans feel their precious masculinity is being threatened. Most people here also don't think you can be a feminite man without being gay, which is absurd. There are plenty of other cultural differences that effect anime and mangas popularity, but that is for another thread.

    So, discussion?:)
     
  2. Dec 30, 2012 #2
    Cameron

    Cameron New Member

    I've always pictured that the animanga culture has a huge fan base in United States. Guess that you can go wrong sometimes.

    But you have an excellent point right there. It's just the same as the concept of bullying in schools. In some point anime and manga were thought as "girlish comics and animations" in the community where I grew up, and I constantly had to hear about it. I've always loved Walt Disney's animations as well, and as they where thought as childish movies and series, so it was the same as the first one. What differs from the usual is usually thought as a taboo of sorts, figures.

    Teenagers and pre-teens go with the rest of the group. If one smokes, eventually they all might be smoking. If one or two think that reading Japanese comics makes you less of a man, the other might think so too. At least this was the case among my friends and the people I hang out with. I went with the rest of the group on most cases but I was, for a long time, the only one who was interested about Japanese pop-culture in general. I kept hearing about it but eventually it stopped as the people who were in the group matured a bit by bit.

    As of the topic in general, I've never really enjoyed even the thought of reading Yaoi comics. Don't get me wrong, I'm not homophobic (I've had friends that are homo- and bisexuals) but I guess I'm kind of a old-fashioned straight guy and the thought of reading a comic where my favorite characters are getting it on just creeps me out.
     
  3. Dec 30, 2012 #3
    Kitty

    Kitty I Survived The BG Massacre Staff Member Administrator

    Well, I'm not into anime and manga, but I'm not sure this is true. Anime and manga is popular enough in the US for people to cosplay and go to conventions and have high school clubs and fansites about it.

    I've personally never heard the opinion that a person was girly or gay for liking anime and manga, though I've heard opinions that certain characters in those anime and manga seemed girly or gay. Mostly, while in high school, I just remember the impression that liking anime or manga was geeky. But I can't say that I was very aware of any of this, because aside from my Sailor Moon phase I went through at one point, I never had any interest in watching/reading/or learning about anime and manga. I geared my geekiness towards other pursuits.

    I don't know how aware someone who isn't really a fan would be about the amount of yaoi out there, so I don't know how much that would prejudice a group of people against checking out anime or manga. I do think there's a difference in attitudes concerning it- I think the US keeps it all much more closeted, and while I'm sure there's discrimination and prejudice in Japan like there is everywhere, from the little bit I've seen, it seems like the Japanese are more open about sexuality in general and homosexuality than the US is. I can think of quite a few characters just from my Sailor Moon days who were openly gay (or lesbian), but were altered in North American dubs to appear otherwise.

    I'm not one to ship things just for the hell of it, and sometimes it seems to me that yaoi ships are just putting two hot guys together, whether or not there's any in-canon basis for it, and I don't have much respect for ships that make no sense. I'm not especially interested in yaoi myself, aside from one pairing in an entirely unrelated fandom (if it's even called that in a non-anime/manga fandom), but as far as Kingdom Hearts goes, I definitely can see evidence in favor of Sora/Riku, and can easily understand why people would ship it. I think there are far more in game examples in support of Sora/Riku than there are for Sora/Kairi, which I'm guessing is the result of complete writing fail on behalf of someone over at S-E. Cloud/Leon just seems like an example of sticking two hot guys together, and I've never understood pairing together any nobodies, because it seems pointless, given that they aren't supposed to have hearts at all, unless that's been retconned.

    So I guess to sum it up, I think it's lame to let labels scare someone away from something they might enjoy, and I think it's also lame if someone lets a fear of yaoi keep them away from a fandom that would otherwise interest them, because it's not like you have to like it.
     
  4. Dec 30, 2012 #4
    EtherealSummoner

    EtherealSummoner Lamentations 3:22-26

    I really do not care right now. Whenever I look through some google pictures, there is sometimes a picture in a row of Kingdom Hearts where there is two men from Kingdom Hearts: hugging each other, kissing or vore and people find it interesting (They do pair up the nobodies of Organization XIII Kitty. Sometimes Saix and Xemnas). The opposite is true for women.

    But other than that, if people think that two characters have a good friendship/bond or whatever, then someone is going to make a picture with the two together of the same sex. Laughs, giggles or whatnot, this will eventually draw the line between those who are ok with it and those who just want to downright protest against such contents such as yaoi.
     
  5. Dec 30, 2012 #5
    xxxJRosesxxx

    xxxJRosesxxx New Member

    I should better explain, anime and manga's popularity has been growing in the US, especially after the release of Spirited Away here. But for the most part it's still overall mostly to yes the more geeky crowd, and geeks are generally not amongest the most popular people outside of their own group. There is also the fact that comics, manga, anime, and animation in general is not nearly as respected as art forms in the West as they are in Japan.

    I brought Kingdom Hearts into the conversation because the main three character designs are done in a very anime style. Generally I've found that most people who like Kingdom Hearts also like anime or manga.

    For the most part it's considered for kids, my own Dad got on my case when I put Princess Mononoke as my second favorite film of all time because "a cartoon can't be a film". :mad:

    When it comes to yaoi, I'm actually quit a fan of it when it's done well but purely in a romantic sense, I appreciate it because there isn't alot of fiction here in the West of LGBT couples as the main characters. Maybe a better way to say is I feel there isn't enough, especially outside of stereotypical depictions that get on my nerves at times. I grew up within the LGBT community, I knew people of the same gender were couples way before I knew the word gay or lesbian. I feel happy when I see people happy with the people they love in a world that doesn't always accept that love.:)

    I probbaly like anime and manga also because I'm attracted to metrosexual men.
     

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