So, I started following James Somerton because of his video essays about toxic gay relationships in manga, and I stayed because he’s amazing and ever fails to deliver insightful comment on stuff I love. This afternoon I watched this video, and it made me think, specially because today I’ve been watching Devil Judge and Beyond Evil, which are both super gay-baitey.
This is quite a long video essay, but super interesting. I think that the observations about how shipping is a cheaper than kawaii as a way to engage large audiences is especially interesting. Our clicks, and shipping, and fan-art, all that can be monetized, and most of the time fans aren’t aware of that. Also, it’s important to keep in mind that the stuff catered to the female gaze may be taking away true gay representation.
So here it is: https://youtu.be/UiDcQnavKPI