As a Sean, reading this was interesting.
Great start to a series though

Progress is never easy, never has and never will. But it is good when change does happen, if slowly.

Lovely! Yay! Happy Yuri!

It's really neat to see a manga that so follows the saga of same sex marriage not only in the US but right here where I live in California. Hell, I even live in LA. ;) I remember so well Prop 8 and how so freaking depressed I felt when it passed. And then how elated I felt when it was soundly defeated in the Supreme Court in 2013. And then of course the big case, Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015. So many Japanese folks, especially mangaka, think they know my country and they usually get it completely wrong. But this artist really understands what it's like to live here and the difficulties of obtaining a permanent visa, especially when part of a same sex couple. I couldn't read much of the last page (given I can only read some kana) but it appeared to be a history of gay marriage in California and the US. I'm definitely going to be paying a lot of attention to this story and I'm curious to see where it goes! It's not often to see a Japanese person really understand my home and relate it back to a Japanese audience!

"America is amazing! Same-sex couples can marry"

And now it's not amazing anymore :( I'm afriad same-sex couples can't marry in the future since the new President of the United States is a homophobia.

Refreshing! This is a set of tags I can get behind.

I can't understand why japanese mangaka constantly refer to the U.S when they want to show a place where same-sex marriage is legal.

The U.S. was really late about this compared to some European countries, like Spain or The Nederlands, or even Canada, in which it has been legal, without much protests, years before the States, where it's been fought teeth and claws by bigots. Even the U.K. legalized it, with a conservative government at the helm.

The U.S. is not the best example of social tolerance in the world. Even less now, where these rights are going to be attacked with renewed hate.

If the mangaka wants to be accurate, she should make the Westboro Baptist Church picket their marriage with signs "God hates you".

last edited at Nov 26, 2016 5:30AM

Finally. I've been waiting for this.

I can't understand why japanese mangaka constantly refer to the U.S when they want to show a place where same-sex marriage is legal.

The U.S. was really late about this compared to some European countries, like Spain or The Nederlands, or even Canada, in which it has been legal, without much protests, years before the States, where it's been fought teeth and claws by bigots. Even the U.K. legalized it, with a conservative government at the helm.

The U.S. is not the best example of social tolerance in the world. Even less now, where these rights are going to be attacked with renewed hate.

If the mangaka wants to be accurate, she should make the Westboro Baptist Church picket their marriage with signs "God hates you".

This has been on my mind as well. There's so many other countries out there that did it way earlier.

Lesbian Japanese couple living next door to a gay single father in LA and getting married. Gotta love this!

This literally gives me life. Thank you Kumashika Ruri.

Probably easier for a Japanese person to get a visa and work in the US than in the Netherlands, Spain, etc, though, right? Also I think the mangaka wasn't centering the explanation of gay marriage in the US entirely on their characters' experiences with it; they specifically showed couples that had been together for ages finally being able to get married. That should be able to be celebrated on its own. The Westboro Baptist Church is not a fact of life for any gay person in America. They can and should avoid them.

We have same sex couples all over the world just going to the Netherlands to get married.
At instances like this, I'm proud to be a Dutchie for being the first country to legalise same sex marriage.

even the highly conservative parties cheered it on because most same sex couples are highly educated, free minded people which our country trives on.

last edited at Nov 26, 2016 6:08AM

Lesbian Japanese couple living next door to a gay single father in LA and getting married.

I think this sentence would make Donald Trump's head explode.

There are a lot of good things that would make Donald Trump's head explode, but I doubt he actually gives a damn about teh gay; he has that Pence asshole to give lip service to the fundies precisely because he's so lousy at it.

Juice posted:

Probably easier for a Japanese person to get a visa and work in the US than in the Netherlands, Spain, etc, though, right?

Err... no?

Europeans countries are generally very much welcoming of people coming from other rich developed countries.

I can't understand why japanese mangaka constantly refer to the U.S when they want to show a place where same-sex marriage is legal.

The U.S. was really late about this compared to some European countries, like Spain or The Nederlands, or even Canada, in which it has been legal, without much protests, years before the States, where it's been fought teeth and claws by bigots. Even the U.K. legalized it, with a conservative government at the helm.

As a Canadian I would be proud of this except that it was never legislated. Our politicians kind of knew we had to do something about it for years but were too gutless, so finally it got taken to court and the Supremes said the Constitution implies gays have equal rights like everyone else, so they get to marry. And the politicians were sort of "Thank God, it happened without us having to take any principled stands on anything."
I am kind of pleased by the way even the jerks who had been so OMG Da Institiooshun of Marridge!!!1! seem to have realized fairly fast once it started happening that the sky hadn't fallen in and stopped caring. We really haven't seen any kind of rearguard action trying to rewind history on this, not like with abortion say.

I can't understand why japanese mangaka constantly refer to the U.S when they want to show a place where same-sex marriage is legal.

They're just misinformed about the world in general and only know of the U.S. superficially because... well it's the number one superpower.

Yaoi manga has it right from what I've seen...I'm not the most avid reader of Yaoi but Canada seems well represented from married couple(s) to exchange student/worker love interests. It was pretty funny to see my country so prevalent like that. We're usually left behind by our southern neighbor when it comes to being mentioned by mangakas. It's either the U.S. or an European country, but rarely Canada.

As a Canadian I would be proud of this except that it was never legislated. Our politicians kind of knew we had to do something about it for years but were too gutless, so finally it got taken to court and the Supremes said the Constitution implies gays have equal rights like everyone else, so they get to marry. And the politicians were sort of "Thank God, it happened without us having to take any principled stands on anything."

Probably why we're "respected" a lot on the issue of gay marriage. We were pretty early, and it was pretty low key. The supreme court did it's thing and people just shrugged and continued life as usual. A lot of countries had an impressive amount of bigots come out of the woodwork during the process of same-sex marriage legalization but from my memory this wasn't the case in Canada.

last edited at Nov 26, 2016 7:39AM

I can't understand why japanese mangaka constantly refer to the U.S when they want to show a place where same-sex marriage is legal.

The U.S. was really late about this compared to some European countries, like Spain or The Nederlands, or even Canada, in which it has been legal, without much protests, years before the States, where it's been fought teeth and claws by bigots. Even the U.K. legalized it, with a conservative government at the helm.

I've seen Holland mentioned in a few doujins, and there was that one story where the main couple's childhood friend got engaged to a Canadian girl. So it does pop up here and there, as does a generalized "we can get married in Europe".

I guess to the Japanese, the US is seen as "faraway place where things are different and much more permissive", in the way that China used to be "big place that might have monsters in it" in centuries past.

I suspect it has more to do with familiarity due to cultural exports than anything else. I don't know much about Japanese culture, but I know a lot more about Japanese culture than I do about Vietnamese or Thai culture, because I consume a lot of media which originates in Japan. So if I'm writing a thing set in east Asia, I am much more likely to set it in Japan than I am to set it in Vietnam or Thailand, because I know Japan better. (For some value of "better".) This would be true even if Vietnam or Thailand would be an equally appropriate or even a more appropriate setting for whatever story I have in mind.

So in the same vein, I would imagine that the average Japanese mangaka is more familiar with the US than with Canada or the Netherlands, because the average Japanese is much more likely to have consumed US-produced media than Canadian- or Dutch-produced media.

last edited at Jan 8, 2017 2:29PM

There are earlier yuri manga you can look at that reference same-sex marriage being legal in various European countries, but it's always pointed out kind of wistfully, that some random country far away is more accepting, there's no realistic plan to go there.

But the US isn't just a military superpower, it's a cultural one as well, especially in East Asia. Students study English, pop musicians include English lyrics because they're cool and they export well across the region, American movies and TV shows are watched and enjoyed. America is both cool and familiar.

And really you can look at the evolution of the way that yuri manga talks about sexual identity as tracking a great deal with the growth of gay civil rights in America. Classic yuri often has that star-crossed lovers vibe, that their love is beautiful but inherently tragic, or it goes the other way and just treats it as a childish fancy that will be grown out of eventually. But now magazines like Yuri Hime have stories that are increasingly confident in viewing their characters sexuality as an identity, that they are writing lesbian love stories, and their love is equally valid as a het romance. Even the Japanese term for lesbian is an English loanword.

Asia paid attention to the growing visibility of gay people in the US and the dialogues in the US about gay identity during the gay marriage debate, and when gay marriage was legalized nationwide they really noticed. That's not just some far-away country in Europe they don't know anything about, they're familiar with America! They consume the culture, they travel there, they send the kids to college there. I don't have the link to hand but even in Korea, which is more socially conservative than Japan, the press was interviewing a Korean gay rights activist and he said how important the US legalizing gay marriage was to his own movement. He said that Koreans want to be like the US because the US is cool, so legalizing gay marriage would send a big signal that maybe it's actually OK, especially to younger people.

I've seen Holland mentioned in a few doujins, and there was that one story where the main couple's childhood friend got engaged to a Canadian girl. So it does pop up here and there, as does a generalized "we can get married in Europe".

I was just thinking of that one, vaguely recalled it. Would you remember the title by any chance, the Canadian girl one?

last edited at Nov 26, 2016 3:39PM

I've seen Holland mentioned in a few doujins, and there was that one story where the main couple's childhood friend got engaged to a Canadian girl. So it does pop up here and there, as does a generalized "we can get married in Europe".

I was just thinking of that one, vaguely recalled it. Would you remember the title by any chance, the Canadian girl one?

It's Wonderful Morning by the equally wonderful Morishima Akiko.

I've seen Holland mentioned in a few doujins, and there was that one story where the main couple's childhood friend got engaged to a Canadian girl. So it does pop up here and there, as does a generalized "we can get married in Europe".

I was just thinking of that one, vaguely recalled it. Would you remember the title by any chance, the Canadian girl one?

It's Wonderful Morning by the equally wonderful Morishima Akiko.

Aaah yes, that one ❤ Gosh, it's even fluffier than I remembered, thanks for the reminded Nez

Jeeeez guys, Japan and America have a way larger cultural exchange than Japan and various European countries. You work with what you know, rather than try a slice of life in a country you know nothing about. Which isn't to say you can't write about people and places you don't know, but it would probably feel forced or unbelievable.

God bless America.

I'm very excited to see something like this. Eloping for a same-sex marriage in is brought up fairly often in yuri mangas set in the modern day, but this is the first time I've seen a series actually explore it.

I also think the reason the US was chosen for the story is because the mangaka actually spent time living here. Also, those countries you mentioned are having a similar surge of far right folks with the same bigotry and nonsense that made up the 2016 election of Donald J Trump. I understand some of you are pissed off at my country. Hell, I'm pissed off at it too. But don't think for a second that Europe's any better. Far right candidates are running and are likely to win all over Europe. Poland was just the beginning. France seems to be going this way next. Look at what the UK did to itself with Brexit. You can't really point out any one country or region of the world as being a bastion of perfection. So yeah, I'm fine with the mangaka picking the US. We're not perfect. But we engage with Japan more than most other countries and like it or not, what happens here is oftentimes reported worldwide.