Exactly This!!!! Like, I Love Love Love Stories That's Prominent Queer W/o Having It Being The Main Focus;

Exactly this!!!! Like, i love love love stories that's prominent queer w/o having it being the main focus; the way horror, panelling and yoshiki's spiralling is used to represent his internalised homophobia is so well done !!

something i really love abt tshd is how queerness is so intrinsic to the plot without it being the main focus, it’s pretty common in anime/manga where if there are canon queer characters, the word gay or actual queer struggles are never mentioned. but in tshd, yoshiki is very clearly repressed and closeted living in a rural, homophobic town in japan. it’s *suffocating* him, the only person he really had was hikaru but now he’s “gone” but still not quite gone, leaving him tethered back to this town. it’s obviously a super common sentiment among queer people who live in rural areas to want to escape into city.

and i know everyone laughs at this panel for the iconic ell jee bee tea thing. but in context it’s one of the most heartbreaking and relatable scenes in the whole manga imo. the people of this town aren’t just homophobic, but they’re trying to erase the mere existence of gay people as a whole by covering it up. its pretty obvious that yoshiki is depressed, and it’s easy on the surface to think its solely because he literally has a monster possessing his dead childhood friend/crush’s corpse. but its pretty clear that it only strengthened what was already there. (lowkey his themes are very reminiscent of owen in ‘i saw the tv glow’)

it’s hilarious seeing people say “why did they have to make it gay” ever since the anime trailer came out bc truthfully this story would not work nearly as well as it does if it wasn’t just some random ass straight couple. i really hope anime watchers look deeper into the narrative instead of just saying “omg its uwu toxic yaoi” or “it’s a horror anime with forced woke gay ppl in it”