Barddoniaeth posted:
Well yes, Hanigare was used to promote Nagahama tourism, high school's campaign (this won an award), and mentioned in local NHK twice or thrice. The town is literally nowhere in Japan, so the people might be not as open minded about homosexual relationship as people that comes from, let's say, Tokyo. Imagine if you find out that someone used your town as a setting of a story that might upset you...
Also, Hanigare always put Nagahama High School Aquarium Club in every chapter as Information Aid, and I don't think they'd be happy if they're helping a blatant gay manga.
Hagino-sensei only wrote the gayest thing possible without upsetting those people.
This was a super interesting comment, thank you for making it.
BeanBeanKingdom posted:
I wish I had the energy to rebuke some of these silly if not malicious assumptions, but it's been like talking to a wall the last few times so I'll just leave people to their own devices, unfortunate as they might be.
Thanks. That said, I do have something to say.
There's some stuff in this comment section that rings rather false to me, so I'd like to share a bit about Makoto Hagino that others here may not know. Hagino made her way drawing explicitly homosexual doujinshi for years prior to this being published. She has in the past repeatedly expressed joy and feelings of fulfillment at having drawn GL. She is (or was?) a well-known yuri fan. She's been very consistent that their relationship is not meant to be one so easily-read, and that she is drawing the exact story that she wants to. If this story was "supposed" to be about explicit GL, I firmly believe that she would've done an excellent job making that a reality.
Something that fewer people will know is that she has also given great insight within the past few years, in since-removed YT videos (wonder why those were removed?), of her own feelings of loneliness and alienation from city life. She's spoken of the difficulties of moving to a new place. Of not forming close bonds with other people. Of missing opportunities long-since passed and people she's not ever likely to connect with again. There's a line in one of those videos that goes something like, "No matter where I go I never stand out much, and I always end up alone."
I feel like some of us are jumping to come up with explanations as to why it wasn't the Yuri story we wanted. Maybe what she wanted to draw was a manga that reflected her life experiences, and perhaps depicted the relationship - of whatever form you wish to perceive this as - that she always wanted? Yeah, as mentioned, there actually are plenty of women who for whatever reason find their soulmate to simply be what the outside world would call "a friend." A lot of those relationships probably do read as romance to outsiders. (Note this down doubly for Japan, where very strong / "romantic" friendships between women are a known phenomenon.)
I don't know what manga Hagino wanted to draw, but I find a lot of the doubts expressed throughout the entire thread to be really concerning. I don't believe it should be so hard to imagine that other people might see the world differently, and want different things out of it, than we might. Of course it should be obvious I am a fan of hers and this is someone I'm willing to go bat for. I certainly view this story with added context that others may not have. Still, I don't think one should require extra context to simply accept and believe what's being presented as it is.
Blastaar posted:
We seem to have lost one of the best posts I've ever read in this forum thread.
Very sorry to see it gone.
If you meant mine, thanks, I'm flattered. It was too confrontational before, bad habit of posting before settling a bit.
last edited at Mar 29, 2021 9:46PM
