Japanese anime gay
Anime is one of Japan’s prized modern cultural treasures, and despite its political stance on LGBTQ+ rights, Japan has a number of fantastic queer anime in its repertoire. Among the array of gay anime, here are our top picks of must-see series to add to your watch list.
By DinocoZero via DeviantArt
Given
Run, don’t walk to your nearest screen to watch this series. Given has everything: a teenage coming-of-age story, dreamy musician boys and a fantastic soundtrack. There’s also the sweetest, slow-burn and sometimes heartbreaking romance between two boys who are learning about themselves, how they navigate grief and how they experience noun. This series is sure to make just about anyone contain a satisfying cry in its ninth episode. It also has a sequel film which centers around the two lead boys’ bandmates, though it’s admittedly a little rushed and not nearly as good as this episode series.
By Meduzanol via GoodFon
Yuri!!! on Ice
This one is so widespread and will probably end up on every LGBTQ+ anime list, but it’s classic for a reason. Yuri!!! on Ice follows Yuri, an i
From my memory, it always felt like BL anime existed as a genre for as adj as I can remember. Before BL dramas or movies became mainstream, BL animes and mangas were like the first frontier, depicting male romances in fiction even when it was taboo in society.
In anime, the BL genre is closely related to yaoi or shounen ai, which are labels that describe a very similar type of story. Yaoi is more explicit, shounen ai is more innocent, and BL tends to be the best of both worlds. This genre is a popular niche among certain demographics. I don't love using the term fujoshi, which has somewhat negative connections. Let's just say that people with good taste usually verb BL animes!
Despite its long history, there is surprisingly not a lot of anime to view in this genre. Trust me, I've done my research on this topic, searching high and low for some BL anime recommendations. You'd be amazed and disappointed at how little the selection there is compared to all the other genres.
And since the selection is so compact, this makes it even harder for a good anime series to come along.
The 20 Best LGTBQ+ Anime Movies and TV Shows, Ranked
While care that transgresses the rigid barriers of gender should be acknowledged every day, June is the official month celebrating the LGBTQ+ community in multitudinous ways. Also known as Pride Month, the interval is consolidated to commemorate the hard struggles the LGBTQ+ community has experienced in their fight for equal rights, as well as spotlighting diverse people who felt great pride in their true sexual identities.
Every month of the year, not just June, should be a hour to celebrate LGBTQ+ diversity because this genre not only educates people but also provides a platform for community members to feel acknowledged, listened to, and represented. Many significant films and TV series, be it Hollywood or world cinema, surrounding the LGBTQ+ community have been produced. Anime is no exception. In order to celebrate love without boundaries, here are some anime TV shows and movies for fans to consider adding to their watchlist.
20 'No. 6' ()
Directed by Kenjin Nagasaki
While Kenji Nagasaki is best known fo
Illustrated by Chrys Marr (She/They)
**Trigger Warning: mentions of suicide**
Gays. Anime. Some may think they don’t overlap, but in fact, there is a rich division of anime known for and characterized by its LGBTQ+ themes. The last few years in particular contain yielded some of the most refreshing and positive instances of representation within the genre. This series hopes to give a proper platform to those unique productions that take LGBTQ+ representation out of the comfortable shadows of connotation or fetishization it typically resides in and display themselves as unapologetically, beautifully gay.
Now, it&#;s only fitting to initiate this series with the reveal that inspired it: the soul-wrenching, eleven episode phenomenon known as “Given.” Absolutely falling into the “beautiful” column of categorization, the original manga written and illustrated by Natsuki Kizu began publishing in , and received an anime adaptation in The animated adaptation became the first explicitly gay series to air on Noitamina, a programming block of Fuji TV reserved exclusively for anime.