Read on Twitter
there is a hot take (tm) out in the world right now that Free! is “good but problematic” and it highlights how popular ideas about good vs bad representation limit the conversation about how we watch and enjoy anime
you can go find the article and read it if you like but it’s not anything different from the things said a million times before about series aimed at women: that the sexy dude fan service is off putting (to straight men?) and the show is “queerbaiting”
I’m subtweeting it like this because I think all these arguments about anime aimed at women have missed an important point about these series, which I am going to state provocatively as: men do not matter
Free! keeps its queer attachments subtextual on screen, but the fans recognize them and watch for those moments. The series is designed with space for female fans to see those moments and fill in the gaps with fanfic, fanart, doujinshi, twitter threads, cosplay, other(?)
Free! as a series cannot be understand separately from its fandom, where its characters exist in endless queer permutations, beyond the confines of “queer representation” as usually defined by English-language fandom
And that’s where we get to the real queerness of Free! and other series aimed at women: it creates a community of women who together express their romantic, sexual, or just imaginative desires, to connect with each other outside of “correct” ideas of women’s gender expression
the queerness of a text like Free! is in the experience of the people who watch it and come together around it. the subtextual queerness of Free! is an open space for girls to play with sexuality and their own understanding of human connection
there are some other issues and caveats with this, (1) obviously not everyone in joseimuke fandoms is a woman but it’s a default women’s space and that’s powerful for everyone who might join it
(2) free! season 1 also happens to have a powerful main storyline about overcoming toxic masculinity which I think is pretty clearly queer; Rin doesn’t have to announce “I’m gay and depressed” for us to understand what is happening, please use your interpretive powers for good
(3) I feel like Eng-lang casual/general anime fans think Free! is some weird little series that somehow keeps getting made & it needs to be “defended” as “more than just fan service.” In fact, anglophone anime fandom is just more misogynist than the actual Japanese market rn
and subjects joseimuke anime to a much higher level of scrutiny than it does other series. In the actual context for which Free! was made, it makes bonkers cash and no one questions why it’s full of shirtless dude: because hot dudes appeal to about 50% of the population.
finally, I’ll say that I think it’s always good to analyze media, but, in my own work, I always want to struggle to say something new and true rather than apply ad hoc the same critiques blindly and out of context. so I’d like to challenge us anitwitterers to do the same.
