MOGAI Anime Fandom
Top 10 MOGAI pairings and why MOGAI Individuals are seen as “Entertainment” in Anime
Warning –This Story Contains Literal and Graphic depiction of Indifferent Inhumane Cruelties Targeting those Neurodivergent and Non-Binary
(Trigger Warning & Content Warning // mentions of cultural infanticide against intersex infants, a transmisic, enbymisic and/or intersexmisic slur used in anime fandoms, mentions of homomisia/lesbomisia along with misogynistic attitudes from a Japanese political lawmaker who legit has NO business and NO say in who someone loves, anime poking fun and making light of serious issues that harmfully impact people in reality, again, spoilers of some anime plots, etc…)
Have y’all ever wondered about why MOGAI anime pairings aren’t so accurately depicted?
Let’s dive right in to this article!
First and foremost, I would like to start with how exactly LGBTQ+ (or MOGAI as I will use this acronym more) characters are being portrayed in anime. Before I get to it though… I want to give some background knowledge since I CANNOT (keyword: CANNOT) speak for other cultures because I don’t really belong in them (nor will I ever do, but then again, each culture has good, bad, and neutral sides that we just have to understand at the same time, and change is coming for some societies around the world who are willing to change how they treat marginalised communities), but I am only providing what I know or remember from my late high school years and I would like to diverge from the main topic before we fully get to it and the list of MOGAI pairings in anime…
Typically, there are a lack of accurate depictions about MOGAI individuals in anime, but they typically receive the short end of the stick and are the “butts” of jokes due to them being perceived as “forms of entertainment” and also as supposedly comedic “punchlines” by Japanese media, when in reality, many MOGAI individuals in Japan (and other countries where being MOGAI is “illegal”, even in societies that have liberal stances towards MOGAI individuals) are often invisible and they can be ostracised in society (bullied, discriminated against, disowned by unsupportive families, etc…) and even misgendered in the cases of trans, gender-modal, non-binary, along with intersex individuals who are also gender-modal, trans, and/or non-binary. Japan is mostly tolerant towards MOGAI individuals in terms of MOGAI pride parades, along with them being members of society (yes there is a district in Japan known as “Nichome” or “2-chome”, and I can’t really speak about it, but I can recommend going there [only after the COVID-19 pandemic is over that is]). However, Japanese society can also have conservative stances towards people who are MOGAI (or LGBTQIAP2S+), and also has socially conservative values towards people whose sexuality isn’t inherently heterosexual or allosexual (describes someone being sexually attracted to someone, regardless of their gender), whose gender identity isn’t cisgender, nor whose biological sex is non-intersex (or perisex/endosex which is defined as a term that refers to people who aren’t born intersex). In the toxic trashfire known as the anime fandom, there are always people who will refer trans, non-binary and gender-modal individuals as the “tr*p” slur (unfortunately I see it on the internet and yes, dudebros, gender and sex binarists, and toxic/misogynistic fans literally ruin everything they touch, such as anime, but let’s not get to that). The slur is often made for some supposed “laughs”, while in the real world, trans, non-binary, gender-modal, and intersex individuals are often murdered in hate crimes in transmisic, enbymisic and intersexmisic societies, especially when some intersex individuals are the murdered victims of infanticide in some cases. In some societies, intersex infants are perceived as a “curse” or as a “punishment from God” because of how their external genitalia looks, or that they are perceived by birth attendants and/or cultural doctors as thir respective “ancestors” being “angry” with their people (which are cultural beliefs about intersex individuals that some societies can have about intersex people). Intersex infants are seen as an “omen” when in reality, they are human beings just like everyone else is and their genitalia is also natural like everyone else’s is. If intersex individuals are born in other countries that have seldom human rights for intersex people along with a lack of support towards them, they can be abandoned to die, drowned, having their skulls crushed or their necks twisted, disowned, and/or locked up due to families’ fear of ostracisation in some cultures who have a very binaristic outlook on a person’s genitalia, especially towards intersex individuals, their families, and/or infants. In Japan and everywhere else (except for Malta that since it banned Intersex Genitalia Mutilation surgeries, which the entire world should follow suit, but the perisex and allocishet bourgeoisie in power aren’t ready for this conversation yet…), however, intersex individuals are still operated on (can and will cause medical trauma and harm for them, along with a loss of sexual feeling, feelings of isolation, etc…) and they are still discriminated against and are also ostracised and bullied just because of who they naturally are as human beings) and are often the victims and/or survivors of bullying, of abuse by their unsupportive families, along with being isolated by society because of them being MOGAI.
For example, Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Mio Sugita falsely depicts MOGAI individuals as “unproductive” and even written a rather homomisic/lesbomisic column in Japan’s Shincho (a conservative magazine/journal that she was a part of… In the column, she was recalling her entire childhood or adolescence there in an all-girls school where she describes that it was “typical” to “fantasize” about becoming romantically involved with each other [tl;dr (too long didn’t read) she was basically shitting on sapphic women, even though perisex and cisgender women were mostly mentioned, not sapphic individuals] by saying that they would soon “outgrow” their so-called “phase” and move on to have “‘normal’’’ lives by marrying “husbands” [which is also one example of lesbomisia in Japanese media, yet there are more examples of it in media from other societies, not just in Japanese media]) and also stated, in her words that a “society deprived of ‘common sense’ and ‘normalcy’ is destined to lose ‘order’ and eventually collapse…” (yeah, I was cringing in disgust when I typed her words) which is outright disgusting of her to say shit like that about MOGAI individuals. But then again, she also said something else that was rather misogynistic when she appeared in a BBC documentary (which the main topic of it is examining the high-profile case of Shiori Ito [a journalist who was allegedly raped]) by blaming Ms. Ito for making “clear errors as a woman” (which, again, is rather misogynistic of her to say while also resorting to have victim-blaming attitudes towards Ms. Ito) by “drinking too much in the presence of a man” (Ms. Sugita basically sounds like some pick-me conservative Karen who has a load of internalised misogyny and MOGAI-misia at this point… Remember folx, expose a MOGAI-misic person, you’ll find a misogynist). Unfortunately, she wasn’t even criticised for her misogynistic behaviour nor for her MOGAI-misic behaviour by the Liberal Democratic Party’s Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai (however he stressed the imperative fact that it is imporant to be able to realise a society where diversity is accepted, yet in Japan, there still is a lack of ‘legality’ towards marriage equity for MOGAI couples (nor is there marriage equity for polyamorous throuples due to how strictly monogamous Japanese society [along with many other societies around the world] is…) and there is also a lack of safety and support for trans, non-binary, gender-modal and intersex individuals… It is a long way for safety and marriage equity to become a reality for MOGAI folx, but it is still changing slowly in Japan).
I am going to change the subject since I have spoken too much and getting off-track about it (the subject of Japan’s conservative stance on MOGAI individuals might OR might not be discussed in another article, depending if any of y’all are interested or not about it), I will focus more on how MOGAI characters are depicted in anime along with the top ten MOGAI pairings in anime.
One example of how MOGAI individuals are negatively portrayed in anime’s history would be a various plethora of moments where there is queerbaiting (defined as a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which creators hint at, but it doesn’t accurately depict nor does it realistically represent MOGAI romance or other MOGAI representation in terms of gender expression, gender identity, or towards one’s romantic orientation, and yes it can also intersect with tokenism, which is the practice of making a performative effort to do a certain thing or act, especially when recruiting a smaller number of people from more underrepresented social groups in order to provide appearance of sexual or racial (etc…) equity) in animes such as Yuri!!! on Ice, Citrus (a Girls’ Love manga adapted into an anime, but the more fetishising terms for the genres Girls’ Love and Boys’ Love are “Yuri” and “Yaoi”), Neon Genesis Evangelion, Naruto, Bleach, Cardcaptor Sakura, Sailor Moon, and more.
In Citrus, the lighthearted usage or depiction of sexual assault is made entirely for the purpose of drama and shock value. However, it is given how sexual assault is actually quite prevalent within the MOGAI community and it is still stigmatised by both society and the media. It was rather insensitive of the anime to use it as a lighthearted way to make it seem more “shocking” and more “dramatic” because it’s already making it even worse by contributing even more stigma towards survivors of sexual assault who are MOGAI (that also includes survivors of sexual assault who aren’t MOGAI).
In both Yuri!!! on Ice and Naruto, there is a large amount of queer subtext because it hasn’t been confirmed if Yuri Katsuki (‘Katsuki Yuri’) and Victor Nikiforov are actually MOGAI, and there has been some discussion around whether or not both main characters are the ones queerbaiting fans or entire fandoms, which is actually up to how fans define “queerness” or being MOGAI. It hasn’t been even confirmed in the Naruto fandom either if Sasuke Uchiha (or “Uchiha Sasuke”) is actually MOGAI or if he isn’t, because shonen series like Naruto shy away from accurate representations of both MOGAI and BIPOC characters even though Killer B and his older brother, The Raikage (along with his citizens) are Black (there are seldom BIPOC characters for BIPOC indiviudals to relate to, disabled characters for disabled fans to relate to, and there is also a lack of neurodiverse/divergent characters for neurodivergent, neurodiverse, and autistic fans to relate to), and the amount of toxicity in the Naruto fandom towards representation of realistic characters (such as Sakura Haruno [‘Haruno Sakura’], who is constantly bashed for her appearance and “fangirl-like” behaviour towards Sasuke (she also has internalised homomisia/lesbomisia, and yes she was literally a child that toxic Naruto fans still bash her over for), her performing the act of “punching” Naruto even though that is one way of her to show her concern about Naruto’s well-being unlike with Sasuke himself and it is utilised as a comedy punchline in the series, relatable character, along with being a realistic character with flaws that make her human) that are MOGAI, disabled, BIPOC, neurodiverse/divergent and/or autistic, and women (etc…) is astronomical in the worst way. The entire Naruto series shies away from the topic of being MOGAI since it was done by an author who doesn’t know how to actually write female characters accurately, yet he wrote loads of queer subtext between both Naruto and Sasuke (the majority of fans in the toxic Naruto fandom [isn’t every anime fandom toxic?] are mostly perisex, allocishet, abled, white or Eurocentric, privileged and/or neurotypical, so they would most likely see SasuNaruSasu as “brothers”… and the both of them with any perisex and allocishet woman as “romantic”, and they would most likely see the Anbu [think of the anime versions of police] and Kages (think about the anime versions of the bootlicking, capitalist, and classist bourgeoisie) as “good” while seeing the “villains” as bad, even though said villains have their own traumas, but that shouldn’t give them “excuses” to be “selfish” [it’s the perisexnormativity and allocisheteronormativity that’s unconsciously corrupting anime fans as a result of the majority normalising “perisexness”, “allocishet-ness” instead of actively being anti-homomisia (and so forth) and instead of calling out any bigotry in daily language and media when it is seen]), which is both ironic and hypocritical in both Kishimoto’s actions and words.
In the Netflix straightwashing of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Netflix itself has been accused of changing a scene in which a boy named Kaworu Nagisa (‘Nagisa Kaworu’) confesses his love for Shinji Ikari (‘Ikari Shinji”) until it was changed by Netflix, in which it straightwashed (also referred to as ‘hetwashing’; portrays MOGAI individuals as straight or heterosexual, making them appear this way) the scene, which upsetted fans of the anime, and in the famous Sailor Moon franchise, two of the main characters Sailor Neptune and Uranus were made to be as “cousins” when the dubbed version of the anime came to North America, but in the original Japanese dub or sub, they were actually lovers.
Another example of the inaccurate depiction of MOGAI characters in anime is often the fact that there are some anime characters that do not have a confirmed “gender” are typically given gendered female/male pronouns (because Japanese is also a heavily gendered language in terms of ways of speaking along with a seldom amount of unisex pronouns, even though every gendered language is different, but also has some similarities in terms of having mostly gendered pronouns in conversation, such as Russian [very gendered but doesn’t have a singular “they” pronoun], Hebrew, Korean, French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Romanian, Portuguese, and so forth). However, there are animes, such as the Land of the Lustrous are now beginning to break a “taboo” of using gender-neutral or unisex pronouns for characters who have no “confirmed” gender or are just gender-modal in their own right.
At the end of the day, MOGAI-related anime can also be a breath of fresh air if MOGAI characters are accurately portrayed, but with Japan’s lack of real-life comprehension around MOGAI individuals (I blame Christian/Xtian, Eurocentric, perisex and allocishetero colonialism on this one), a change of attitudes is seemingly a far away dream since MOGAI-related animes can also be one of those “problematic” favourites plenty of people have. Inaccurate stereotypes along with subtext around those stereotypes can sometimes feel like that MOGAI fans of anime “has to” settle for entertainment that isn’t exactly the best, but it is a bit better (keyword: bit) than not having any entertainment, because the more stereotypes and inaccurate depictions of MOGAI individuals in anime are critiqued (along with how people of all intersectionalities are depicted), the more likely there will be a chance of MOGAI-relevant anime changing for the better.
Now, onto the pairings y’all!
So here are some Top Ten MOGAI Pairings in anime!
- Haruka and Michiru (Sailor Moon)
This lovely couple has been in a relationship since 1994, but there are some people that may be unfamiliar with Haruka’s gender nonconformity as there isn’t a logical reason in which a person “must” pick a gender (because no one ever can…. no one…), but Haruka literally doesn’t care nor would she ever will… In the English dub of Sailor Moon, their relationship status changed to that of “cousins” (which was a huge dick move of the dubbers). Luckily, the revamped version of Sailor Moon (which is Sailor Moon Crystal) is doing Haruka and Michiru justice along with the large amount of MOGAI portrayal that makes it a classic among MOGAI anime fans (including animes such as [but not limited to] Revolutionary Girl Utena, Paradise Kiss, Wandering Son (or Houro Musuko) and more).
I can see how popular it is amongst many other potential pairings (such as Haruka and Usagi [also known as Serena]), but they are one of the most memorable pairings in the Sailor Moon fandom that fans love.
2. Ushio Kazama and Sumika Murasame (Whispered Words)
Sumika Murasame is a young high school girl who is in love with her best friend Ushio Kazama, but she has a difficult time with how she feels as Ushio only prefers girls that she deems as “cute” and “small”, whereas Sumika is quite “tall” and “athletic”.
(a bit of a spoiler alert if you have not watched this anime!)
Ushio starts to realise later on in the series that she may have romantic feelings for Sumika after Sumika vents out her pent-up feelings of distraught and anger of not being able to fit Ushio’s narrow type of a girlfriend (meaning that they “have to” be, by Ushio’s standards, “small, gentle, and cute”), and she begins to worry that Sumika would stop being her friend.
Even though this can be similar to a slow-burn F/F fanfic, it is a good kind of it, without too much fetishisation of mainly sapphic women, but with unfortunately a bit of the misogyny to keep in mind about (since Ushio prefers girls who are literally shorter than her and are more “petite”).
I never really watched this anime since when I have looked it up on Wikipedia, it is part of the adult anime genre known as Seinen. But then again, that shouldn’t stop anyone from watching this anime. Since it looks promising to watch, I would be excited to see the anime whenever I have some free time to watch it.
3. Yoruichi Shihouin and Soi-Fon or Sui-Feng (Bleach)
Soi-Fon spent hundred years of her entire life convincing herself that she doesn’t really love Yoruichi [if there are any MOGAI fans of Bleach who would like to share any ideas of their pairings that they think would be good for MOGAI pairings, OT3s, OT4s, and more in the comments, please do so]. It might have never been seen as a “romantic” love, but it was love in the end. In Yoruichi’s perspective, however, she was shown to always care very deeply about Soi-Fon’s well-being and was possibly the only person who had concern for Soi-Fon during a separation that lasted for one hundred years.
Fortunately, both Soi-Fon and Yoruichi reconciled over Yoruichi’s fake “disloyalty” towards a society that doesn’t give a single shit about homeless people who are suffering in the Rukongai (a place in the capitalist and deeply fucked up Soul Society where people are in poverty while they are suffering and they do not receive any humanitarian care from the Soul Society whatsoever, nor do they receive any help from it at all). There is a possibility that an actual foundation for a romantic relationship would possibly develop between both Yoruichi and Soi-Fon if Bleach wasn’t inherently made in a perisex and allocishet-centered perspective.
I can see how much Soi-Fon is infatuated with Yoruichi since she met her as a young child, but they would make another excellent pairing with realistic ups and downs, while also collaborating together to protect their loved ones (like Ichigo does, but they are their own persons, and so is Ichigo because he is also his own person as well).
4. Anthy Himemiya and Utena Tenjou (Revolutionary Girl Utena)
This couple is one of the most prominent MOGAI couples in anime history… Utena has a strong sense of both morality and of chivalry, which shows during times that she (a bit of a spoiler alert) sees Anthy being treated badly in any way and intervenes to protect her. The “friendship” between the two women are implied to be romantic, but they also give off huge sapphic vibes.
The best thing about this loving relationship is that it is more like a realistic creation for both women to keep developing their own individual personalities (i.e., their strengths and weaknesses, admitting their mistakes, accepting their own flaws as humans, etc…), along with the anime’s message of growing up to become a strong person and its focus on identity.
This pairing is a rather memorable pairing that is extremely popular for Utena fans to enjoy, love, cry with, and to learn from because if any pairing has a strong will and resilience (which positively contributes to each other as people), it would be them.
5. Akira Okudaira and Fumi Manjoume (Sweet Blue Flowers/Aoi Hana)
This pair has a rather complex friendship that eventually blossoms into a romantic relationship. For example, Akira wishes to protect Fumi from any harm that comes near her as she (another spoiler alert if you need to skip) is healing from her past toxic relationship with her ex-datemate, along with any emotional strife that keeps harming her. She also does her best to provide support as Fumi is figuring out her romantic feelings (and eventually does as she realises that Akira has always been there to support her). In the meantime, Fumi is also capable of reciprocating emotional assistance to Akira whenever she needs it to be able to move through life.
I haven’t watched this anime yet, but it sounds like a very promising anime that I plan on watching to be able to see the romance between the young women develop.
6. Shinji Ikari and Kaworu Nagisa (Neon Genesis Evangelion)
Shinji is a young teenage boy who’s dealing with plenty of bullshit in his life (and he shouldn’t have to, but oh well), such as his father giving zero shits about his emotional and mental well-being (aside from him having past trauma) while he is also tasked by his neglectful excuse of a “father” in protecting the world from extraterrestrial beings known as Angels from attacking the entire planet. Kaworu also kept the fact that (another spoiler alert that you need to skip in case if you haven’t seen the anime) he is an Angel. His motives aren’t really explored much, but any MOGAI fan can mostly see how the time they spent together is extremely important for Shinji’s personal well-being.
Kaworu is one person who actually listens to Shinji’s concerns while he talks about the uncertainty and loneliness he has, while demonstrating a genuine amount of understanding and concern for Shinji in a manner that no one else has done for Shinji.
I don’t fully know them well, but there are fans who refuse to see these two as anything but “straight” for both Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley unfortunately…
7. Touya Kinomoto and Yukito Tsukishiro (Cardcaptor Sakura)
This pair is also another popular MOGAI pairing that is instantly memorable for MOGAI fans of Cardcaptor Sakura who love the pairing itself. They both start off as good friends, but they eventually progress to a romantic relationship because they consider each other to be the most important person in the world while they are also attached to the hip. While the Cardcaptor Sakura anime paints their relationship as platonic, the manga actually paints their relationship as a romantic one instead of a platonic one.
I have seen one Anime Music Video (AMV) around this pairing, but I am not particularly a huge fan of it. However, I can see how many CS fans love them because of the large amount of fans who appreciate them.
8. Rihito Sajou and Hikaru Kusakabe (Doukyusei — Classmates)
This anime follows two high school boys who start getting to know each other as people when one of them, Sajou, is asking Kusakabe for help with practicing for their school’s chorus festival. Throughout the duration of preparing for their musical performance at the festival, they start developing a relationship despite their different personalities (in other words, opposites can romantically or sexually [etc…] attract for some situations in real life). Their growing relationship not only is allowing them to know about each other as human beings, but they are also learning how to know themselves a bit better while they are still considering about what they are planning to do with their lives after they finish high school. This is a really interesting romance that has both its angsty moments, but also its light-hearted moments at the same time, which makes it interesting but absolutely amazing for another example of a MOGAI pairing in anime (P.S., Doukyusei actually features a non-binary relationship [if anime fans know where to look or if they observe carefully]….).
I’ve seen this anime for more than one time, and I can clearly see how much Hikaru clearly cares about Rihito’s well-being along with his mental and emotional health. He was even worried one time when (spoiler alert) Rihito didn’t pick up his phone at one point in the movie.
9. Nezumi and Shion (№6) (Spoiler alert!)
Shion comes from a world of privilege and blissful ignorance inside the same village that burned down another village, while Nezumi comes from a world of suffering because he saw his own village burn to the ground (committed by the same village Shion is from [roll credits]) while he barely escaped for his own survival.
While Shion helps Nezumi escape from the recent strife that’s been going on, Shion is stripped of his position in №6 and is nearly captured before Nezumi aids him in return, while preventing him from getting fully captured. At this point in the series, they start to fall for each other despite their different backgrounds. Their differing perspectives on how to handle the current political conflict surrounding them is one thing that they don’t have in common, their deep love they have for each other continues to persist throughout the series.
I don’t really have an opinion about this pairing since I haven’t watched the anime, but I heard that it is also another beloved pairing amongst some anime fans.
10. Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki (Naruto & Naruto Shippuden)
These two are one of the most memorable MOGAI pairings in anime that unfortuantely didn’t come true since perisex and allocishet toxic dudebros and misogynistic fangirls hate anything that isn’t non-intersex, cisgender and heterosexual like they are. It is honestly a tragedy that those two won’t be able to be some of the most prominent MOGAI pairings in anime because shonen dudebros are pretty much toxic assholes who hate people that aren’t like them. Sasuke has been shown to NOT even be interested in women at all, yet the trashfire pairings known as naruHINA and sasuSAKU are some pairings that these toxic fans like while also bashing both Hinata and Sakura at the same time simply because they’re women. The entire Naruto-verse is so perisex-normative and allocisheteronormative that the series doesn’t even show any MOGAI folx but does an extremely poor job of including and accurately depicting more BIPOC characters besides Killer B and the Raikage (along with the Raikage’s citizens).
As for Naruto however, he has internalised a shitload of homomisia because he was unfortunately corrupted and brainwashed by the xenophobic, morally and socially corrupt, bootlicking and fascist excuse of a village (known as Konoha) around him who had given him shit and ostracised him for no actual reason, but simply because he has the Nine-Tailed Fox inside of him (known as Kurama), and it seems like he is trying to convince the mostly narrow-minded audience that he is 100% ‘straight’, but he isn’t since in some scenes of the franchise, he kissed Sasuke TWICE (one time by accident, and another time when he and Sasuke were attached with some plasma[?] but couldn’t fully separate until after a certain filler episode way before the Kage Summit Arc). Hell, he even expressed that he will die with him in one episode where [spoiler alert and SKIP if y’all haven’t watched it yet] Sakura tries to kill Sasuke but it backfires (and Naruto has heard about it and hyperventilated over the thought of Sasuke being a wanted missing ninja and having to kill someone precoius to him). Naruto also talks plenty about Sasuke and even thinks about him a lot while also friendzoning him at the same time when Sasuke shouted at him about why did he go so far for him by saying “Because you’re my friend…” or “Because we’re friends…” when another possible and alternate answer could’ve been him most likely admitting “Because I love you!” (but most of the entire Naruto fandom isn’t ready for this conversation yet).
…and there you have it folx! The Top Ten MOGAI pairings in anime while also giving some background knowledge on how MOGAI people are treated in anime…
If y’all would like to keep learning more about Japan’s socially conservative stances on MOGAI (or LGBTQIAP2S+) rights, then I encourage y’all to keep reading more about it on the internet, and always feel free to share your experiences (if some of you had been to Japan or to a pride parade in Japan, and/or if some of y’all have family in Japan) in the comments section below.
~ from an autistic anime fan who loves their readers ❤
References:
Colleran, M. (2020, June 02). 6 LGBT Friendly Animes to Watch This Pride Month. Retrieved October 25, 2020, from https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2020/06/6-lgbt-friendly-animes-to-watch-this-pride-month.html
Lindwasser, A. (2019, April 23). The 14 Greatest LGBTQ+ Romances In Anime. Retrieved October 24, 2020, from https://www.ranker.com/list/best-lgbt-relationships-in-anime/anna-lindwasser
Necessary, T. (2020, July 07). 9 Queer Anime Couples Everyone Wishes Were Real. Retrieved October 25, 2020, from https://www.pride.com/geek/2020/7/07/9-queer-anime-couples-everyone-wishes-were-real
Osaki, T. (2018, July 24). LDP lawmaker Mio Sugita faces backlash after describing LGBT people as ‘unproductive’. Retrieved October 24, 2020, from https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/07/24/national/politics-diplomacy/ldp-lawmaker-mio-sugita-faces-backlash-describing-lgbt-people-unproductive/
Pennington, L. (2018, March 09). We Need to Talk About the Way Queerness Is Portrayed in Anime. Retrieved October 25, 2020, from https://www.pride.com/geek/2018/3/09/we-need-talk-about-way-queerness-portrayed-anime
TenTen. (2017, March 14). My Top Five Gay Ships in Bleach. Retrieved October 24, 2020, from https://akibento.com/blog/2017/03/14/top-five-gay-bleach-ships/
Villarreal, D. (2019, June 28). Netflix accused of ‘straightwashing’ a gay couple out of its “Neon Genesis Evangelion” re-release. Retrieved October 25, 2020, from https://www.queerty.com/netflix-accused-straightwashing-gay-couple-neon-genesis-evangelion-re-release-20190625
