Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Where was lesbian manga when I was young?

strawberry panic

Source: After Ellen



Strawberry Panic! is the story of Aoi Nagisa, a transfer student who comes to Astrea Hill, a campus that houses three elite girls' schools: St. Miator; St. Spica and St. LuLim.

Amid spring sunshine and the cherry blossoms swirling in the wind, Nagisa meets and is seduced by charismatic playgirl Hanazono Shizuma.

Shizuma is the current Etoile ("star") — the elected figurehead of the three schools.

Meanwhile, another transfer student, the angelic Kotohana Hikari, has managed to do what no one else has ever done, by capturing the heart of Ohtori Amane, known as the "Prince" of St. Spica.

In the grand tradition of Japanese Girls Love literature, the students of all three schools are caught up in a dance around these two transfer students as the election for the campus's new Etoile approaches.

The story follows Nagisa as she is captivated, teased by, and ultimately falls in love with Shizuma, who has a reputation for loving and leaving her women. Nagisa struggles with the difficulty of being a transfer student who has gained the attention of the Etoile, trying to avoid becoming the most recent in a long line of hearts that Shizuma has wooed and broken.

.....more



Woo! A lesbian love triangle in high school. That's a bit young to involved in stuff like this no? I always wondered if gay and lesbian issues were taboo in Japan. Seems suitable for kids in Japan to be reading this. I'm not sure a manga/comic like this would be allowed in the US with the looney right wing having as much power as it does.

Strawberry Panic

4 comments:

Roger Williams said...

To answer your question, being gay or lesbian isn't 'taboo' in Japan, but it's not seen as entirely normal, either. Japan lacks the cultural attitudes towards homosexuality seen in the west because of its lack of familiarity with attitudes towards homosexuality inherited from Judaism. Christianity or Islam. With that said, a "real" man is still expected to chase the ladies, settle down, get married, and keep the ancestral line going with a couple of children.

Degenerasian said...

So where does China get it's fear of homosexuality? It doesn't have Judaism, Christianity or Islam either.

I find the Japanese seems quite open to sex in the anime whether it be hentai or suggestive looking girls or lesbianism while the other Asian countries shove it under the carpet. Why is that?

Cliche said...

Wouldn't (fear/hatred of homosexuality) that still fall under the tenet's of Confucianism?

Degenerasian said...

AFAIK, homosexuality is not mentioned at all in the Confucian scriptures.