waaty:

eendroid:

if you’re interested in a Japanese perspective on LGBT issues in Crybaby, I found this article by a trans blogger. here are the main points in it:

• the sabbath has couples of the same
  gender and different gender, which normalizes the former.
• Koda is a devilman and gay, but not a
  devilman because he is gay since others are possessed too. his sex scene is also normalized, not a stereotype or a joke.
• demon/devilman hunting resembles
  anti-gay persecution (sodomy laws, gay allegations, AIDS crisis, etc), especially
  because gay people are historically associated with demons.
• Crybaby uses apocalyptic imagery from
  the Bible and the Christian Makimuras are portrayed respectfully.
• Ryo televising Akira’s devilman
  transformation resembles outing.
• admittedly “maybe I’m reading too
  much into it” and “of course, this is a high-handed explanation.
  I think so too.”
• referring to the demons as “ancient
  people” brings in colonialism, which also caused anti-gay
  persecution.
• Netflix’s English subtitles using
  “foreigner” and “mix” instead of “gaijin” and “haafu”
  changes the nuance of Japanese xenophobia.
• Miki K’s last stand is more an act of
  unarmed neutrality than one of suicide, because after she was able to
  confess her love to Miki M she doesn’t kill anymore.
• “calling [Miki K’s confession]
  ‘gay’ may be an exaggeration, but something like
  ‘friendship’ isn’t enough either. I feel it is ‘love.‘”
• empathy is acquired through love in
  Crybaby, such as through love symbolized in the baton pass.
• perhaps gods and holy figures (in this
  case angels like Satan) are often depicted as androgynous to connect
  to any mortal.
• Ryo’s ultimate form looks like a woman
  but Ryo and Akira are also men (like gachimuchi, a genre of gay art). the question of if they depict “love”
  or “gay” or “straight” doesn’t have a
  definitive answer because they have surpassed the gender binary and
  biological sex. anyone (man, woman, gay, straight, trans, etc.) can
  empathize with the final scene because of that.
• Akira didn’t lose his empathy or love
  for Miki M even after becoming non-human, and Miki K regained her
  humanity after confessing her love.
• the time of anti-gay persecution is not
  over.
• “thank you, Devilman! thank you,
  Crybaby! good job!”

feel free to tell me any constructive corrections or anything important I missed. but please don’t respond to this post as if these are my opinions, since they’re not and I just want to share them.

thank you so much for summarizing this article!

for context, yuasa actually retweeted this article yesterday on 1/20/18.

#Netflix 「 #DEVILMAN Crybaby 」における「同性愛」と「排外主義」 – レインボーフラッグは誰のもの