#my hunt for good lgbt manga continues...

[landlordevil]

like metatextually there's some beautiful moments. how yamashina wants to start his own lgbt publishing company so we can live freely (i am confused on how they said he was attracted to boys though. he was found in tokyo drawing a saint sebastian type figure who, while "boyish", is very much a man like akira is, though he looks young because he's trans. i'm uncomfortable w the correlation between akira and yamashina's boyhood crush but I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt and have yamashina not to be implied a pedophile. cause they don't deserve rights. or maybe i'm just wishing too much because lgbt manga is so hard to come by on websites overrun by fujoshi nonsense) anyways. also, taichi mentions that his love stories never end successfully because they don't have anything to overcome once the story ends. their love cannot grow. but the love between him and akira is real. because akira is trans, and taichi's gender expressions shifts through crossdressing. because they still a fight to fight as he said so himself? which is a nice thought. and that, though he always felt lonely when those stories ended, he was unfulfilled. But now he's happy! especially since their stories are so linked with ruikou's/satoko's mother's stories. they literally see themselves in fiction word for word. that even a monster like marube can be redeemed through story, the happy ending she never received? Although she isn't deserving, there's a positive correlation between seeing oneself and the ability to have your own happy ending. Still. I was disgusted by the amount of fetishization of akira that took place (cover art, the fact that yamashina was attracted to his boyish youthfulness as a result of only beginning T, etc) and that marube was not only a sexual predator and incestuous but a murderer who also happened to be a trans woman. although akira is never seen as a predator, neither taichi or yamashina, it's still telling that SHE is the one likened to a monster. anyways stan love my life by yamaji ebine

[amaya-chwan]

Takeaways from Therapy Game: Restart Chapter 07

HELLO EVERYONE! Gosh, how have you all been?!?!?! Two months flew by just like that, and with it, the next chapter of TGR with our favourite adorkable couple, Shizuma and Minato, has arrived! 🥰❤️💛

I would’ve written my takeaways as soon as I got the manga a couple of days ago, but it’s my bday week and I’ve also been distracted by CQL/MDZS these past 2 months sooo... FORGIVE ME 😭 I still love them, I really do!

Anyway, let’s get to it! In this chapter:

THEY’RE REALLY DOMESTIC NOW and looking at houses! 😍

Minato really is experienced in house hunting and knows what he wants. 👏

Shizuma really loves Minato and doesn’t care much about the place they’ll be living in, so long as they’re together! 💕😭💕

SHIZUMA LEGIT HAS AMAZING BOYFRIEND SENSORS! 🥰😇

They really don’t get to see each other much these days because of their schedules, so they really try to cherish the time they have together!

Their communication during misunderstandings is amazing... it’s actually goals! 👏 👏

MAMA IS FXXKING HILARIOUS! 🤣

These domestic dorks... I LOVE THEM SO MUCH! They’re so sneaky and know how to have a little fun (albeit at Mama’s expense)! 🤣😍

This adorkable couple will seriously be the end of me! 🤣😍🥰😘❤️💛

For a more detailed breakdown/summary of this chapter, please continue after the cut! I promise there is a surpise at the end!  😉✨

Minato and Shizuma sit down and talk about house hunting a little more seriously. Minato really is an experienced senpai in this field. He lays down some ground rules with Shizuma before they go through Shizuma’s list of potential homes.

MINATO IS ONE PICKY DUDE! 😂 He shuts down each and every one of the houses on the list, each for different reasons. Shizuma, on the other hand, looks at the silver linings in each of the houses’ shortcomings, leaving Minato to fantasize about a domestic Shizuma, i.e. asking Minato to help him cook, and even taking a bath together! 👀😍

Minato realises Shizuma is enjoying house hunting but hasn’t said what he’s looking for in a house, so he asks. While listing that his only concerns are the neighbourhood and finances, Shizuma blurts out potentially building a house for themselves one day, only to hold himself back from finishing his sentence since Tatsumi told him he’s being too forward/pushy (see Takeaways from Chapter 5 and 6).

Minato catches on about what Shizuma is thinking of saying, and starts to think about how ‘secure’ their relationship is and what ‘proof’ they have (of being a couple). While he ponders this, the ‘security/proof’ he is thinking of appears in the window in the form of a happy husband and wife with their young children as well as another male and female couple looking at a brochure.

SHIZUMA LEGIT HAS AMAZING BOYFRIEND SENSORS since he unconciously holds Minato’s hand once he gets a little insecure. They happily continue looking at houses and then walk around the shopping complex.

Their date is cut short as Minato has a client meeting afterwards, and they are both a little upset that they hardly have the time to see each other. Minato gets distracted by a cute and quite-detailed elephant lamp (which he buys) in the display window of a furniture store and proceeds to enter, telling Shizuma his client won’t mind if he’s late.

Minato asks Shizuma what he’d do with his current furniture, potentially purchasing new ones, and the topic of beds come up. Shizuma says a large bed would be good to get. Minato, the cute tsundere he is, says this bed would be for Shizuma. Shizuma says such sweeeeeeet words, like they’d sleep together in that big bed every night so he had to ask Minato what he’d prefer. Just before Minato can confess his true feelings about this topic, Shizuma brushes this comment aside, angering Minato.

THEIR COMMUNICATION IS AMAZING! 🥰💖 Minato actually tells Shizuma to tell him if there’s anything wrong because it’s worrying him. Shizuma tells Minato what happened with Tatsumi, and of course Minato just laughs, knowing that Shizuma has been that way (i.e. very forward) before house hunting, and even long before they got together--telling his coworkers about Minato being his boyfriend, looking for Minato’s hometown before they officially got together, reading up on LGBT life planning. Minato assuaged Shizuma’s concerns, saying he’s the only one who can accept/take on Shizuma’s straightforwardness and to never forget it. And in a very cute and somewhat teasingly seductive way. Shizuma blushes a little--he listens to Minato’s words but is left a little unsatisfied with how this went down/Minato’s response.

Minato teases Shizuma a little more, suggesting they go to a hotel since he doesn’t want to work anymore. When Shizuma reminds him his client is waiting for him, he pulls Shizuma behind what looks like a room divider. He asks Shizuma to kidnap him so they can just have time togeher. Just as things begin to get a little heated, a PA announcement in the shopping complex calls for Minato. Who would that be? Well, of course it’s Mama.

Mama is annoyed at Minato since he had to go to such an extreme length to find him, but Minato can’t believe Mama called him over the PA. They both talk about the project they’re working on for the bar, with Shizuma still tagging along. They all enter the lift, with both Minato and Shizuma a bit down that their little ‘date’ is over. The lift stops at the level Mama and Minato are supposed to get off on, but Minato is held back by Shizuma and Mama walks out alone... and is infuriated!

Shizuma and Minato laugh it off and proceed to kiss in the lift*, knowing full well how sneaky and somewhat naughty they were to do that to Mama. Deep in an embrace, Shizuma asks Minato again what time he would finish, only to hear that he would finish well into the night. He continues to say that it’s hard for them to see each other since their schedules are so off. Minato, looking as though he’s a little deep in thought, tells Shizuma they should buy one large bed since “there’d be no meaning in us living together if I don’t get to sleep with you every night.“ 😘😘😘

Minato then tells Shizuma he is really, really looking forward to them living together now, so Shizuma’d better find a good place for them!

And that’s the end of this chapter! I hope you like the little takeaways and detailed summary being separated. And for reading this far, please enjoy this little snippet of them in the lift*! 🥰😍😘💖💛❤️

THANK YOU AGAIN FOR READING! 💜 It’s always fun sharing this with you all until we can get our hands on the official tanks! 🥰

📢  As always, please support Hinohara-sensei by purchasing her books and CDs! 📢

I’ll see you all next month for our takeaways where Hinohara-sensei is featured in the August edition of Dear+ and has a colour spread!!!! 🥳🎉

As always, stay safe during these turbulent times and look out for each other and for your loved ones! 💜

[aroacepositivityplace]

Hey, do you have any LGBT books/movies/music to recommend? Thank you!

Hi! I do have some things that I can recommend that I’ve enjoyed. I’ll provide a brief synopses and content warnings (although it’s been a while since I’ve read/seen a lot of this so please don’t consider my lists of content warnings to be complete).

Books

-Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. I love this book a lot. It takes place in the 80′s if I’m remember correctly and is about two high school aged boys who navigate cultural identity, family mystery, and their own mental health and relationships. I’m not a YA fan for the most part, but I make an exception for this book. Content warnings for mentions of homophobic violence, mentions of transphobic violence.

-Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. This was required reading for me, but it’s an interesting and partly autobiographical story. I think it takes place in the seventies or so and is about an adopted girl navigating her extremely religious upbringing as she comes to terms with being a lesbian. Content warnings for homophobia.

-No. 6. This is a manga (and anime) about a boy (Shion) who grows up in what is considered to be the perfect city. Then one night, an injured boy (Rat) shows up at his door, a fugitive from the city. When it is discovered that Shion harbored a fugitive, all of his special privileges in the city are stripped away. Years later, people begin to mysteriously die and when the deaths are pinned on Shion. Rat rescues him and smuggles him out of the city, whereupon Shion begins to learn just what the city he grew up in is really like and what they’re planning. The manga makes a lot more sense than the anime to me, but they both the one dystopian story that I’ve continued to enjoy. The main characters are both mlm and another character isn’t cis. Content warnings for violence, attempted sexual assault.

-The Captive Prince Series. So tumblr really loves to drag the living hell out of these books, but I love them to death. They do deal with some really sensitive subjects, although not in a way that ever minimizes or ignores the issues. In Damen’s kingdom, there’s a coup and he’s sent to a rival kingdom as a slave under an assumed name. More specifically, he’s sent to Prince Laurent, whose brother he killed years earlier. Damen quickly realizes that if he ever wants to return to his home, he’ll have to join forces with Laurent, who is locked in a power struggle with his uncle, the regent. There are next to no straight characters in this series. Content warnings for mentions of sexual assault, mentions of pedophilia, attempted sexual assault, violence.

-Maurice. This is probably one of my favorite books. It takes place in the early 1900′s where Maurice realizes that he isn’t straight and falls in love. Content warnings for internalized homophobia, homophobia.

-The Jughead Comics (Zkarsky). This is a modern Jughead centric Archie comic. They’re just the wacky adventures of a hungry highschool kid with a big imagination. The main character is aro ace and another prominant character is gay. No major content warnings.

-The Picture of Dorian Gray. This is a classic that I love. I’d recommend reading the original first and then reading the uncensored if you like it because the uncensored cuts out one of the original plotlines. Dorian Gray is a beautiful young man in the late 19th century. After realizing that all other people tend to value in him is his beauty, he desires for an elaborate portrait that was painted of him to age instead of him. His wish comes true, except that along with aging, his portrait also shows every vile act that he commits. All the main men in this story are mlm. Content warnings for suicide mentions, violence.

-Angels in America. This one is a play that has a pretty awesome HBO adaptation. It takes place in the 80′s and deals heavily with the AIDS crisis as different characters navigate their interconnecting lives. One of the main characters has AIDS and has an angel sent to him to tell him that he’s a new prophet, his boyfriend can’t manage taking care of him and leaves, another character is a closeted Mormon who begins to have his first same sex relationship, his significant other is failing to manage her mental illness, Roy Cohn, a real person, is a character. Content warnings for homophobia, internalized homophobia, serophobia, drug abuse.

-A Court of Thorns and Roses series. These books do a fascinating bait and switch with everything that you think might be happening. If I have to point to a feminist romance series, it’s this one. One of the main characters in this book is bi, but it isn’t explicitly talked about until the third and final book. The plot is about a fantasy setting where fae and humans are at an uneasy truce after a long and bloody conflict. After a young woman kills a fae wolf, it is demanded that she give up her life in exchange for her crime. She goes to live in the fae realm, where she begins to learn about the unrest in the fae realm that can easily destroy both the fae and humans. Content warnings for violence, abuse, sexual assault mentions.

-Star Wars: Aftermath series. If you like star wars but want a more diverse case, this is the book series for you. It takes place after episode 6 but before the force awakens and follows almost entirely new characters, one of which is gay. There are also a lot of casual mentions of queer people, including a nonbinary pirate. Plotwise, it’s about how a rebel pilot, an imperial defector, a bounty hunter, the pilot’s son, a reprogrammed battle droid, and an elite soldier form a crack team that hunts down imperial war criminals, one of which is trying to reform the empire. Content warnings for violence.

Movies

-Maurice. This is based on the book mentioned above and has the same plot and content warnings.

-The Birdcage. The title relates to the drag club that the two main characters own and operate. So a Robin William’s character’s son wants to introduce his girlfriend and her parents to his dad. She’s fine with everything, but the issue is that her parents are straight laced repub/////licans. Williams ends up asking his boyfriend to sit out the dinner that they’re having with the girlfriend’s parents. The issue is, he ends up showing up in drag so he can be there. Content warnings for homophobia.

-The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Both the original and the Laverne Cox versions are wonderful, but the Cox version cuts out a lot of the issues with the original that a lot of people today are uncomfortable with. This is a spoof of every horror movie ever and the music is awesome. Janet and Brad are a newly engaged couple. They’re driving to meet with their old high school teacher when their car breaks down. Searching for help, they come across a castle, where inside Dr. Frankenfurter is working on their creation, the perfect man. Content warnings for some outdated language relating to trans people, dubious consent in the original, violence.

-Carol. I saw a highly edited version of this on a plane and it was still lovely. The main character works in a department store in the 50′s. A wealthy woman leaves her gloves in the store and the main character returns them to her, whereupon they begin to grow close and fall in love. Content warnings for homophobia.

-I Love You, Phillip Morris. This is actually based on a true story. Jim Carrey’s character that after accepting that he’s gay becomes a con man to fund an opulent lifestyle. He is arrested and in prison meets Morris. They fall in love and after the two of them are both released from prison, Carry goes back to his deceptions. Despite my description, it’s a pretty lighthearted movie. Content warnings for homophobic language, violence.

-Brokeback Mountain. This one is a classic, although not a happy story. Enis and Jack are assigned to tend sheep together one summer and grow close. One night, after drinking, the two have sex and afterwords are unable to deny what’s between them. The two meet up when they can as they start to life lives that grow further apart with each passing year. Content warnings for homophobia, homophobic violence.

-Pride. This was a good enough movie and based on a true story. A local lgbt group realizes that if they want to make serious change, their best chance is by allying with striking miners. Content warnings for homophobia, homophobic violence. 

Music

Unfortunately, I can’t name any lgbtqiap+ music. :(