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« Otakon 2008 ikimasu wa yo~ (also, some business)

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Jul 16
2008

How Aria Ruined Subtext

lolikitsune crafted this last love song.
It's categorized as Anime, Commentary, meta anibloggery.
It's tagged over nine thousand things, including: abuse of abbreviation tags • air • animesuki.com • aria • baka-raptor • defiance • erica friedman • history • icystorm • kannazuki no miko • kanon • lesbians • lovelykitsune.com • lulz • mai-hime • majime na lolikit • maria-sama ga miteru • minimum tempo • nanoha • negima • okazu • romantic friendship • serious business • shoujo ai • shoujo sect • shoujoai.com • Strawberry Panic • talk-a-raptor • the animation • the natural • the origination • tv tropes • yuri • yuri goggles. What a slut.
At least it only has 33 comments and 3,216 views.

The following post reflects on how beautiful Aria is, how much I’ve changed over the course of the last two and a half years, and how pointlessly dumb Erica Friedman is. (jkjk!) Now that I’ve given an overview that includes a completely uncalled-for insult of a well-loved person, let’s take the plunge!

Majime na Lolikit
How Aria Ruined Subtext, or Why Yuri Isn’t Funny Anymore

In early 2005, I finished watching AIR. At the time, I was active on the AnimeSuki.com forums (handle: Broken), and was active in discussing the episodes as they were aired and fansubbed. In the AIR episode 12 thread, someone linked to lovelykitsune.com’s special feature. LK had written Misuzu’s final diary entry for her. I laughed my ass off and proceeded to read through the rest of his archives. I gobbled up his Maria-sama ga Miteru reviews like candy. It was, as he himself put it, a writer’s gold mine.

Amazed at how humorous this Maria-sama show appeared to be, I downloaded it (along with Negima and Kanon, some of the first anime I consumed after my introduction to the medium via Naruto) and watched it.

I laughed at the subtext and the ridiculous premise (it’s a lesbian Catholic school lolol) but the show simply wasn’t as funny as Lovely Kitsune had portrayed it. Saddened, I groped for a new angle from which to enjoy it, and eventually I found it: I could amuse myself by looking too far into possible subtext and then laughing at how gay everyone was (it’s a lesbian Catholic school lolol). It wasn’t that I was homophobic (those were turbulent times, and I was seriously considering the possibility that I myself was gay—actually, I still don’t have an answer O_o), but the overabundance of this otherness was more than enough to make me chuckle.

After reading Pretty Face (“Become my onee-sama #2!”) and watching such blockbusters as Mai-HiME (ShizNat) and Kannazuki no Miko (best confession scene ever), I found that I liked this ’shoujo ai’ business quite a bit. They were so cute, and in a lot of cases they were facing adversity in order to stay true to themselves and their hearts.

A lot of the lulz went away, but the yuri goggles remained.

(What am I talking about? The lulz was as strong as ever. I lurked the shoujoai.com forums for a while and witnessed the first ever declaration of YFR—the hilarious forum interchange that led to me creating kyousora.com and infecting the minds of several other anibloggers.)

Eventually I came upon Strawberry Panic. It made me laugh at the yuri because it was laughable. I blame this entirely upon premise and script. Oh, and the over-dramatization of everything. Around the same time, I was just a fledgling aniblogger. I discovered danbooru. I discovered various other things… like Shoujo Sect… long and short of it is that I came to this revelation: yuri is hot!!

Subtext became even more awesome as I tread into the world of AWESOME Nanoha.

Desires were fulfilled as Kyoushiro to Towa no Sora ended.

And after some time, I saw Aria.

You say good things sometimes, Alice!

Aria’s an odd cookie. Almost entirely female cast, lots of deep caring and emotion, and yet not once—not once did I find a hint of girls’ love, subtextual or otherwise. I found sisterly doting, I found friendship, I found admiration.

Please direct your attention, for a moment, toward this post of Erica Friedman’s: Yuri Anime: Aria OAV Arietta (Thanks to icystorm over at Miminum Tempo for the heads’ up.)

I’ve never been a huge fan of Friedman’s. I know she’s done some great work, etc., but one day I stumbled across some Noir review of hers and it made me cringe. Noir wasn’t yuri as far as I could tell. I recall thinking to myself—is friendship such an impossible thing?

This is, for the record, the same reaction several of my classmates had in Bible as Literature when my teacher presented unto them the theory that David and Jonathan were “romantic friends.” So maybe I just had a preconception of Noir since I’d seen it before and might find the romance between Kirika and Mireille if I were to go into the show with Friedman’s review in mind… but there’s still a distinction, I feel, even between:

- romantic friendship

and

- sexuality

I can’t really imagine David and Jonathan going for that hawt hawt butthsekcz. They definitely did seem like more than (contemporary definition of) friends to me, though. The characters in Noir share an incredibly powerful bond; does that mean that they are a yuri couple? I don’t recall any indications that the two of them felt ANY attraction toward each other, physical or mental or otherwise. I was under the impression that they were brought together by the past, or fate, or something dumb like that, and that perhaps the “odd bedfellows” saying applies.

But a yuri couple?

And I say that same thing to Aria, only a million times over.

Creating something, together—possibly the height of human existence.

When I first watched Aria episode two or whichever, the one where Akari sleeps over in Aika’s room, I probably thought something like, “oooo yuri action oh yeah.” I guarantee that by the time I finished season one, such vulgar thoughts had been completely dispelled. When I say vulgar, I am not incriminating yuri—I am incriminating subtext. Sure, it’s there, and I’m sure people can find it (after all, Erica Friedman did!), but what does it add, other than cheap giggles? If it’s not solid, if it’s not canon, it’s only speculation.

Speculation is something that you get fans to do when you try to entice them with fluff (see: Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu). Did Kozue Amano want use to try to figure out which of the Aria girls were getting off on which others’ fingers? For some reason, I doubt it. Did Mag Garden? Please. It’s there, but only if you’ve trained yourself to find it anywhere can you find it in Aria. Subtext can literally be found in everything if you’re well enough trained.

It’s like over-analyzing things.

I’m not trying to be a deconstructionist, I’m just trying to rationalize—what benefit does Aria gain from lesbianism? I found it quite reassuringly non-retarded that the work just about never touched on sexuality (we know Akatsuki is crushing on Akari and that Aika and Harry Potter get together, but even that doesn’t tell us that much) because, from my point of view, sexuality is a fairly boring topic (though this does not mean that I intentionally ignore it). It’s much more interesting for me to focus on the scenery or the messages or the character drama than the possibilities of who’s attracted to whom. Yes, believe it or not, you can have character drama without romance! Alicia and Akari’s tearful hug in Origination 13 was not the culmination of their lust and sexual tension.

gomenasi, for everything gomenasai

Before you say “but it could be!” let me point you to a very similar scene, both in direction and character action: AIR episode 6; Tohno Minagi returns to her mother’s home and the two share a tearful embrace.

The writer(s) behind AIR had serious mom issues, methinks—there’s a bit of a trend here.

(I refuse to believe that Minagi was hot for her mom. If you think that this is a bad comparison becaue she was hot for her mom, please explain to me why and how she is hot for her mom.)

And because there is nothing explicitly stated in Aria, and because I see no sexuality implied in it, I don’t find any lesbians. Whether the characters ARE gay, or straight, or bi, or what have you, is a pointless question: none of the characters are in yuri relationships. You can spend a lifetime speculating about sexuality if you have no solid cues.

The idea of Aria porn makes me uneasy.

The show is too pure for that. Too innocent. Too much about living a certain way. Not at all about whom to do or why.

Similarly, the idea of pairing Aria characters and doing anything in the vein of fanporn unsettles me, be it fanfic or fanart or so much as discussing one’s support for a coupling. Much as Neo-Venezia is a world beyond disease and homicide, it is a world beyond sex. Such thoughts simply don’t exist in Aria. There was never anything about dating or societal pressures to fulfill gender roles and get into certain relationships or making babies or not making babies or defying a conservative society or taking advantage of a liberal one. None of these topics are touched upon, thus furthering the detachment from sexuality.

And with all the unbridled potential for yuri (a full cast of females at the extremes of hot or cute in terms of both appearance and personality), combined with this total absence of sexuality, I have completely lost my drive to examine subtext or find lesbians in anime.

I don’t see the point anymore.

Why seek cheap laughs or pursue fetishes when something so perfect, so pure, so devoid of questions exists? Aria is the end-all be-all of my anime experience, and it has vanquished my love for yuri. It has vanquished my love for giggling childishly at possibilities.

Aria killed subtext.

And one last note, in case any staunch Aria yuri fans are reading this:

If Akari and Alicia were in a lesbian relationship, would Alicia have left to go get married to some other person? Alicia is mature. She doesn’t need to graduate schoolgirl lesbianism.

« Otakon 2008 ikimasu wa yo~ (also, some business)

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Well worth the wait =]

ARIA hasn’t killed my drive to find lesbians in anime (yet) or to examine subtext (not that I ever did, really), and I wouldn’t mind if there was any. I’m sure that opinion will change when I’m finished with the series though @_@

You know, I don’t know what to say beyond “awesome post.”
Reply

IcyStorm — 7/16/08 @ 6:25 pm | #Link
GOD THANK YOU FOR ENLIGHTENING LOLIKIT!

SRS BLOGGERS + 1.
Reply

Michael — 7/16/08 @ 7:01 pm | #Link
whud?

Having read ARIA manga before touching the series, I realized yuri was never “in” the picture. Aria is ethereal, simply, and probably the closest thing to some sort of heaven where gender is still defined…

genderless lub, wth
Reply

RyanA — 7/16/08 @ 7:10 pm | #Link
@RyanA: coming up next, the amazing similarities between Aria and Simoun!
Reply

lolikitsune — 7/16/08 @ 7:14 pm | #Link
I’m reminded of an episdoe when Aika and Al were about to climb up a ladder. Al asked why he had to climb up first, and Aika replied Al might see her panties if she went up first. I was shocked at how dirty that felt.
Reply

Baka-Raptor — 7/16/08 @ 7:53 pm | #Link
I’m not super familiar with Erika Friedman’s posts, but I thought that part of her reasoning on the appeal of yuri is Adrienne Rich’s concept of the lesbian continuum. I will now copy and paste what that means, both so you can understand what the hell I am talking about and so I can look cooler for bandying around these highfalutin concepts:

“Rich objects to the term lesbianism, which she sees as a stigmatized clinical term, instead advocating the terms lesbian existence for the historical and contemporary presence of lesbian creation and lesbian continuum to include the entire range of a woman-identified experience; she feels that new understanding and language must be created to counter the limited and clinical terms that society has historically used to describe those it views as deviant. Rich claims that once women see lesbian existence as more than mere sexuality, it is more likely that more forms of “primary intensity” between and among women will be embraced.”

Yeah.
Reply

jpmeyer — 7/16/08 @ 8:08 pm | #Link
You may have lost your love of yuri, but I sure haven’t!
Reply

Alar — 7/16/08 @ 8:35 pm | #Link
@Baka-Raptor: “Aika’s panties” don’t really exist. Think about that one for a while.

@japes: That all sounds terrific‚Äîand idealistic and impractical. We need to have “clinical” terms in order to discuss things without resorting to philosophy. As for stigmatization, well, that’s a bitch. Thankfully, it’s a bitch that I’ve easily ignored my whole life. The simple solution to a lot of things is desensitization.

(Next up after “the amazing similarities between Aria and Simoun” we will have a stunning post on The Sexuality Instrumentality Project.)
Reply

lolikitsune — 7/16/08 @ 8:42 pm | #Link
Ahh, and thus Aria, the Light and Beacon of Middle-Earth, shining against the backdrop of the massive cesspool of fandom, corrupted by The Dark Lord to imbue sexuality topics over the most innocent of shows.

Layman terms: finally a show that doesn’t let its audiences talk about sexual deviancy within it.
Reply

TP — 7/16/08 @ 10:57 pm | #Link
Um, I really couldn’t comment as seriously as I want to because I haven’t watched Aria yet, but … d(‘_’)b

I’m looking forward to your more serious posts.
Reply

Michael — 7/17/08 @ 1:18 am | #Link
Yeah, yeah, Michael. You want serious? Go read Owen’s site. Seriously derelict.
Reply

lolikitsune — 7/17/08 @ 6:08 am | #Link
Michael should watch ARIA before I lose some respect for him. jk

I’m always of the opinion that “If you want to see it, it’s there”. It’s not on the forefront of my mind when I watch ARIA because there’s so much more going are, but there are some moments where I briefly thing “yuri subtext”, and nothing more than that. ARIA is relaxing and fun, and you can do whatever you want with that.

It’s good to see how much ARIA has affected you personally in your actions and in your writings. :3
Reply

TheBigN — 7/17/08 @ 3:40 pm | #Link
Yupe seeing yet another aniblogger that stops his everyday trolling faggerism and makes a half-assed attempt at trying to look more intelligent than he should be when it comes to Aria, just further consolidates my undying love for the show and outright justifies it being my most favorite TV series (heard this shit zillions of times already, yeah)

“How Aria Ruined Subtext, or Why Yuri Isn‚Äôt Funny Anymore”
I ain’t trying to be funny, but wtf is gonna happen to loliyuri-ism? How am I gonna use google to reach your blog now?
Reply

Frankeinstein — 7/18/08 @ 7:31 am | #Link
If Aria is Yuri, that’d make Star Trek gayer than gay.
Reply

omo — 7/18/08 @ 9:07 pm | #Link
OK, if you see yuri in Aria then you are a dumb ass. And it really shows where your mind is as well.

You are definitely over-analyzing Aria if you see yuri. And it shows how you really missed the boat when it comes to Aria and other slice-of-life series. You don’t analyze these types of series. It is what it is, nothing more.

Erica Friedman is a dumb ass. Yuri in Aria is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Her post is actually disrespectful to Aria. And it actually pisses me off. Man, I hate stupid people.
Reply

scottfrye — 7/18/08 @ 10:05 pm | #Link
@Frankeinstein: it seems I have fans like these, too, sometimes.

@Scottfrye: You are the one missing the point of Aria if you are so vulgarly lambasting such a wonderful person as Ms. Friedman. Neo-Venezia is a land of love :3
Reply

lolikitsune — 7/18/08 @ 10:27 pm | #Link
Hey there – Interesting post.

One of the things I comment on a lot at Okazu is that Yuri is the eye of the beholder. And that these are, after all, only cartoons and comics. So getting all caught up in definitions and distinctions seems just this side of insanity. :-)

I don’t think Aria is in any way Yuri – I think *fans* of Aria who think so think so. I’ve constucted the Alicia x Akira relationship in my head because it amuses me and by god I’m sticking with it, even though it is both adbsurd and indefensible. lol I don’t see anything between Alicia and Akari, myself – but many fans do.

As for Noir – I was moderating the Bee Train guest panel at Anime Expo 2002, when they were asked if it was a Yuri series. Their reply is that if you want it to be, it is, if not, not. So, you’re welcome to see Kirika and Mirielle enjoy a deep friendship and I’m free to think that they might be more than that. It’s *not* one or the other in anime. The companies make is as ambiguous as possible so that we ALL can enjoy the series for the things we want to enjoy the series for. :-)

Cheers,

Erica

Hungry for Yuri? Have some Okazu!
http://okazu.blogspot.com
Reply

Erica — 7/19/08 @ 4:14 am | #Link
What yuri?

Alicia got happily married to anonymous
Reply

Loligoth Powered — 7/19/08 @ 10:35 am | #Link
Come, now, it’s easy to see that Alicia went and got married to Granny — she’s the one at the “Alicia Retirement Festival”, and she’s the one we see in Alicia’s company all the time in the “Where are they now?” epilogue.

I never saw an Alicia x Akari relationship, but in the early episodes it seemed like Aika had a bit of a crush on Alicia. And sometimes Alicia and Akira struck me as possibly being at the “old lover” end of the friendship scale.

But, it’s not important, one way or the other. As you say, that’s not what Aria is about, any more than it’s about… food production. Yes, we encounter a cook or two, and a baker and cafe owner. We also encounter a lot of happy couples. All those things are a part of life in Neo-Venezia. If some of the main characters are, or have been, happy couples, too, well, that’s fine, but it’s as off-screen as the baker kneading his bread.
Reply

dm — 7/19/08 @ 8:57 pm | #Link
Yay for a serious post, though I look forward to your next troll.

“The idea of Aria porn makes me uneasy.”
You and me both.
Reply

Zeroblade — 7/20/08 @ 8:21 am | #Link
I don’t really see how anyone can see anything puerile in Aria… Aria is as sexual as a piece of cheese. I mean, jeez, do any of the characters show any sort of sexual attraction beyond perhaps Aika crushing on Al or Akatsuki blushing over Alicia and Akari? At all?
Reply

Nagumo — 7/22/08 @ 10:01 am | #Link
I‚Äôve read Erica Friedman‚Äôs ‚Äúyuri" fiction. Boring! It was all syrupy romance.
Reply

Jojoma — 8/11/08 @ 5:21 pm | #Link
In all honesty, we don’t know who Alicia got married to. It might have been another woman, depending on Aqua’s laws on marriage (It would have been fun if she has introduced Akira as her wife, for instance). I don’t think Alicia and Akari had something going on though, aside from a deeply romantic friendship–which in intensity could easily overshadow any sexual relationships with others they may have. Alicia’s spouse is not to be envied in this regard, since (s)he will likely only play second fiddle to Akari in Alicia’s life.

Aria is not about sex or romance, which is slightly unrealistic since girls as depicted in the show would have quite their share of suitors, male and female alike. But it is this lack of realism that is actually a big part of the charm of the show.

As for Miss Friedman: I find that her reviews are often quite inaccurate, since she misses important plot-details and inserts quite a bit of wishful thinking in her findings. Then again, that makes her blog fun as well.
Reply

motormind — 9/17/08 @ 5:48 am | #Link
wha?! Aria yuri? heh is it some kind of joke? it Hastings crossed my mind even once during all 3 seasons.Oo but when i think about it now.. well akari x alicia.. it’s quite interesting combination xD
but if in Aria really were yuri subtext it wouldn’t be this pure, lovely anime anymore, i guess.
Reply

Alucard — 2/28/09 @ 3:30 am | #Link
Hm, you were trying to find subtext in Aria and because you didn’t get it, you rejected the whole subtext idea, right? lol!
I didn’t try to see serious yuri in Aria (aside from Aika’s crush), I like it for its own beauty, I do respect fantasies of other people. And as far as I remember the mentioned person *claimed* that it’s her own slash fantasies.
But being offended or horrified by the different opinion? Well, I guess everyone has their own major or minor nightmares…
Reply

PonderingAnon — 4/5/09 @ 6:30 am | #Link

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