(I apologize for the lack of a blog on Monday. I’m currently fighting off a virus! )

However, I haven’t spent a lot of time on social media lately, until today. Being sick allows me plenty of time to scroll through my feed and see a plethora of shit takes.

More specifically, “We NeEd To GaTeKeEp GuNdAm ”.

No, no you don’t. You don’t own the anime or who can view it. New fans can come and go as they please. Having a tantrum because something happened that you didn’t like won’t change a damn thing.

Secondly, getting upset over the idea of space lesbians is hilarious especially when we look at the fact that Gundam has a severe amount of homoerotic subtext. Actually, most of the mecha genre has homoerotic subtext.

I mean just look at Char and Amuro. Some of the first yaoi fanfiction stemmed from those two in the late 1970s.

Also, let’s just note that Tomino quite literally said that it’s young women who can be credited with being the very first Gundam fans.

“The very first fans of the original Gundam were young women. Definitely not the PlaModel enthusiasts. With both Gundam and Raideen, of the first fans to be active, 90 percent were girls. Among a gathering of 1000 fans, about 100 were boys. Around with the first cour (of the anime) ended, young women began to gather to the after recording studio. It took until much later for male fans to make an uproar, around the time the series got canceled. I thought: ‘You’re late to the party”!”

Tomino

I know someone said that we would be mad if the lesbian characters never got together or commit war crimes.

I hate to inform y’all but a large portion of LGBTQIA+ stories involve something tragic happening that causes them to never get together. As for war crimes, why would we get upset? Gundam is filled with both sides committing massive war crimes. It’s second nature at this point.

Gratuitous Gatekeeping is cringe at best. Gundam is for everyone. I’m actually quite pleased to see the support of the fanbase on dealing with these self-proclaimed “gatekeepers”

So “gatekeepers” can stay mad. You can disagree with a creator’s choice, but guess what? They can do that. So if the Witch from Mercury has lesbians, then it has lesbians in it. Deal with it. I’m actually very happy that it’s a homage to Shoujo Kakumei Utena. It’s one of my earliest anime to have watched. 

(Also, on a small note I find it funny when they pull out Star Trek as an example. Hate it break it to them but Star Trek has always been woke.)

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I hope you found this post enjoyable. Have any questions or opinions? If so share them in the comments.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

-J