Homosexuality is a common occurrence, even a fairly common theme, in anime. Unfortunately, evidence of this is often restricted to Japanese audiences because anime that deal too explicitly with homosexual love are rarely translated into English because of the Western tendency toward homophobia. Shades of the prevalence of homosexuality can be seen in a variety of anime, from Bubblegum Crisis and Card Captor Sakura to Fake and Kizuna.

Casual Homosexuality
(Stuff That Actually Gets Translated Into English)

In Bubblegum Crisis, the AD policemen, Daley and Leon, seem to be in a homosexual relationship. If nothing else, Daley is flamboyantly gay and delights in teasing his partner about their time alone together. This is not a major issue in the OVA series, rather it's just there, no muss, no fuss. Homosexuality is a casual thing in this anime, as in many others, rather than the political and social issue it becomes in many Western films.

Card Captor Sakura also includes casual homosexuality, though a lot more of it. A young girl--Tomoyo--is in love with Sakura, her best friend, in the same way that Tomoyo's mother Sonomi was in love with Nadesico, Sakura's mother. Sakura's rival, Li, is attracted to Yukito, who is, incidentally, already in a relationship with Touya, Sakura's older brother.

You should know that these two examples are from quite different genres of anime. Bubblegum Crisis is part of the shounen mecha subgenre, which portrays, as a major part of the storyline, human-shaped robots. Card Captor Sakura is an example of shoujo (girls') anime, which is more known for its character development than its props and settings.

Adam and Steve
(Anime About Gay Relationships)

Anime and manga that actually center on people in gay relationships generally fall into a subgenre of shoujo anime called shounen ai (boys' love). This is partly because, being romance-stories, they fit with many of the other stories in shoujo anime, and partly because young women seem to be the target audience, in many cases. (On a side note, there are actually magazines dedicated to this genre of anime and manga, one of which is Be-boy.)

Fake, the OVA release of which was actually released in the United States, is about a pair of detectives in the 27th Precinct of the New York City Police Department. Dee Latener, one of the main characters, is openly bisexual, while his partner (and love interest), Randy "Ryo" McLane is straight.

There is a similar situation in Kizuna. The two main characters, Ranmaru Samejima and Kei Enjoji, are Tokyo college students and lovers. Ranmaru, the more conservative of the two, has trouble reconciling his moral standards with his feelings about Enjoji. Enjoji, on the other hand, has no qualms about his sexuality and, indeed, works part-time as a male escort to support himself.

The Best of Friends
(Lesbian Relationships in Anime)

While depictions of shoujo ai (girls' love) are much less common than portrayals of shounen ai, they can be seen in quite a few popular series. Card Captor Sakura, mentioned above, is one of these. Sailor Moon, though perhaps not in the version released in English, includes a lesbian relationship between the transvestite Sailor Uranus (she is usually seen in men's attire) and her lover Sailor Neptune. American audiences may not notice this relationship because of the editing that occurs between the Japanese and English releases, but in the Japanese version, Neptune and Uranus are obviously lovers. Surprisingly, though Uranus dresses in men's clothing, she is portrayed as uke (submissive) and Neptune as seme (aggressive/dominant).

Pretty, Pretty
(Androgyny and Bishónen)

Beautiful, androgynous young men abound in anime. This can be traced back to the samurai tradition, which viewed homosexual relationships as a vital part of a young man's training. The older samurai would encourage a relationship between himself and the boy he was training, since the support of a loyal lover could often mean the difference between life and death in a battle. As a result of this, samurai literature is filled with beautiful young men, called bishónen, who are both fine swordsmen and fearless warriors. This can be seen in anime, too, such as Rurouni Kenshin (also known as Samurai X), in which Kenshin is a beautiful, highly skilled samurai.

Sweet Transvestite
(Cross-Dressing in Anime and Manga)

Transvestitism is a common plot device in anime. It is often, though not always, used as comic relief. In Ranma 1/2, Delinquent in Drag, and Princess Prince, cross-dressing is a plot device used to create comic relief and romantic angst. In Sailor Moon, though, Sailor Uranus' cross-dressing is simply a facet of her character.

Ranma 1/2 uses the idea of cross-dressing in an interesting way, making the main character, Ranma actually spend about half his time as a girl. This causes confusion among the other characters (and laughter in the audience), as Female-Ranma is found extremely attractive by many of the male characters.

In Princess Prince, Princess Lori is really Prince Lawrence, but must disguise himself as a girl in order to fulfill a prophecy. This makes for a great deal of comedy and a few angst-filled moments. Princess Lori is in love with Jenny, who falls for a mysterious knight-in-shining-armor - the knight is really Princess Lori, but he can't tell Jenny that because of the prophecy.

Delinquent in Drag is about a young boy, Suke Banji, who is forced to dress as a girl at school because of a clerical error. He takes advantage of this, becoming "close friends" with the young girl who sits next to him in class. She, being pretty much a naïve twit, is an easy con. Banji notices this and convinces her that rubbing his groin against her ass and groping her breasts were the only ways he could think of to show that he wanted to be her friend. Note that I don't recommend this OVA, but it is an example of cross-dressing in anime.

Know What You're Watching?
(Terms to Remember)

Here's a quick list of terms you should know when watching the sorts of anime I mentioned above:

Yaoi: This is an acronym, coming from the phrase "yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi", which means "no climax, no point, no meaning." This refers to the fact that many yaoi correspond to the Western fan fiction category of PWP (Plot? What Plot?), with specifically gay male characters. This has changed, over time, until the term "yaoi" has become nearly synonymous with "shounen ai", only a bit more sexually explicit. Oh, there is an alternate (false, but still funny) origin for the term "yaoi", in which it comes from the phrase "yamete oshiri ittai!" which translates to "stop, my ass hurts!" This is somewhat appropriate to the original meaning of yaoi, since often the stories include multiple sex scenes, until the audience begins to wonder how the characters can possibly walk after such escapades.

shounen ai: This is a Japanese phrase meaning "boys' love." This genre is less sexually explicit than yaoi, but is still focused on gay relationships. You could say that yaoi is to shounen ai as the erotic story is to the romance novel.

shoujo ai: This is another Japanese phrase, meaning "girls' love." It is a (fairly rare) subgenre of shoujo anime which centers around a romantic relationship between two women.

Yuri: This is the lesbian equivalent to yaoi. The origin of the term "yuri" is said to be directly related to the prevalence of lesbian characters in anime named Yuri. This subgenre is more sexually explicit than shoujo ai, in the same way that yaoi is more sexually explicit than shounen ai.

Lemon: This is a term taken directly from the world of fan fiction. It refers to the inclusion of graphic sex scenes within the work.

Lime: Yet another term taken from the world of fan fiction. This one means that, though there is a sex scene in the work, it is not as graphic and sexually explicit as something that would be found in a "lemon fic".

-Bonnie Bonifield

References

Antonia Levi, Samurai From Outer Space, Open Court, 1996.
Aestheticism.com (www.aestheticism.com)

Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X)
Fake
Kizuna
Card Captor Sakura
Sailor Moon
Bubblegum Crisis
Delinquent in Drag
Ranma 1/2
Princess Prince