Everyone is expecting the yuri that will never come…
Ran can be totally gay even without any Yuri happening =D
Exactly! And I'd still be happy with that, because at least you'd actually have a queer character in a category inundated with high school girls and their (probably short-lived) crushes. There's a severe dearth of adult LGBT characters in yuri, which is partly why I appreciate series like "Ohana Holoholo" and Nishi UKO and Takemiya Jin's works (though Jin's characters aren't always adults, they definitely come off as being more LGBT than the pure-love-yuri type). If "Stretch" was added to that very short list, it'd be really awesome.
as these Yuri/Shoujo Ai themed publications get folded into the more mainstream outlets, do you think we'll see more or less adult LGBT characters? Also, do you think we'll be inundated with "flavor of the month" serials and one shots and/or see more releases that get watered down to the point they should not be considered subtext? I ask this question in particular because on this reader, Stretch has considerable popularity, and I'm curious if its success could be seen as a template that is copied by other mangaka.
"Stretch" doesn't seem all that popular in Japan, despite its following on this reader, so I doubt that it would serve as a model for other series even if it does turn yuri or reveal that Ran is a lesbian.
However, as you pointed out, it is a fact that yuri is seeping into mainstream publications - see the shoujo (I am aware that it runs in a seinen magazine, but it reads like shoujo) manga "Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha" which is generally very straight but has a canon, if minor, yuri pairing - so the question still stands. In my opinion, there will probably be little change in the number of adult LGBT characters - there aren't very many adult characters in anime and manga, anyway! - but if there was a change, it'd probably be a decrease. The reason why adult yuri even exists is probably due to the creators' personal preferences (I'm looking at you, Nishi) rather than editorial guidance - Chisako, whose work has run in Yuri-hime, suggested that there ought to be a magazine like Yuri-hime but only with adult characters, like the various adult spinoffs of shoujo magazines e.g. AneLaLa and AneCan, and others mangaka seemed to welcome the idea, including Nishi UKO and Amano Shuninta, who was so enthusiastic she actually drafted a cover illustration for it. (I personally love the idea and wish that such a magazine would really come into existence.) In other words, they probably want to have more adult yuri, but are being held back by their editors or by the readers. And this is already in a category where the base requirement is yuri.
Can you imagine how that would be in a mainstream series? Making the main or frequently recurring characters queer in a work aimed at the masses would already be very unusual, especially if they had a role beyond that of titillation - often even the validity of the term "queer" or LGBT is called into question with mainstream series, let alone their ages.There are exceptions - Golondrina and Gunjou come to mind - but they are few and far between, and in the former, the main character's sexuality is incidental so any issues in connection with it are more or less side-stepped. No, we will have to continue relying on specifically yuri works to find the representation we want for a while: if Yuri-hime disappeared, I would be greatly concerned for the future of yuri/lesbian manga, because it is within this genre that creators have the freedom to write realistic stories about realistic adult characters without worrying about how the audience will take the LGBT elements.
:-) tho I wish her characters were older. heck, I wish all the mangaka would write more stories where the characters were not high school/college aged. I'd love to see their perspective on older adult lesbians.
Even more college stuff would be step in the right direction. Get out of the girls' schools, into a setting where it's a bit tougher to find a partner and it's a bit more than a crush!
meh, the way the authors portray the characters is still too high schoolish. need more stories like those written by Nishi Uko IMO.
College is on the whole still better than the schoolgirl stuff, though. Small steps, small steps.
