My own view on whether Promare is a LGBTQ content
In answering to a question from Felix&Spice (@Felix_and_Spice), I'm explaining my own view on symbols in Promare and tradition of Shonen-ai Genre
@kia_prma
This is in response to a question from Felix&Spice (@Felix_and_Spice), their question being “Is Promare widely seen in Japan as intentional LGBT content or is that niche fan interpretation?”
I and Noah happened to have a conversation on a similar topic, so in answering their question I am presenting my personal view on the topic and its surroundings with additional explanations I can offer to the best of my knowledge and personal perception.
Please keep this in mind, these opinions expressed below are only my personal take on the topic, and do not represent anybody else’s view or stand point, especially Trigger’s. I am not representing the Japanese fandom either. This is only my personal insights.
Here are the Contents:
1) Symbols that Appear in Promare—Intended or Coincidence?
2) Shonen-ai Genre—Queer-Baiting or Japanese Aesthetics?
3) Beauty of Ambiguity—Japanese aesthetics on keeping things ‘vague’
Before going through all of these I present my conclusion: I believe, from what I have read from previous interviews and articles by Trigger and from my understanding of the context of the movie itself, Trigger had no intention of making reference to the LGBTQ society. It was never intended to be a queer-baiting neither, they just never knew about any of these symbols they happened to use in the movie.
So, does that mean there is absolutely no romance intended in the film? My answer is no, there still is a subtle romance implied in the film, in the context of Shonen-ai Genre—ancestor to the BL Genre today, which has decades of history as a subgenre in Shojo-Manga genre. What is the differences between LGBTQ contents and Shonen-ai Genre—I would say, forgive me if I word this wrongly, LGBTQ contents represents themselves as encouragement for the LGBTQ society, while Shonen-ai contents are another form of ‘beauty’ or aesthetics appreciated by all societies.
1) Symbols that Appear in Promare—Intended or Coincidence?
As far as I have heard, in the Western world there are two symbols appear in the film which are said to be representing LGBTQ references: the pink triangle and Galo’s debut scene.
As far as I have read from the Japanese publications, the pink triangle in Promare is actually coming from their idea of representing the main characters in symbols △( Lio and burnish, stands for rebel and defiance because of the pointy figure) and □(for Galo and Kray, stands for the government and system, for its stable figure), and after Lio and Galo meets the two symbols merge into one and everything (from sunlight to the fire effect Lio gives out) turns into 〇, representing harmony. Trigger said they got this idea from Zen. On the other hand, pink comes mainly from color design purposes, Koyama and Kakita wanted to use unworldly colors for the burnish flames; burnish pink comes in pair with green. Pink + triangle =Burnish. It was all coincidence, and that was why they got caught off guard when they were asked about it.
Likewise for Galo's rainbow/out of closet debut scene, in Japanese context it has far more stronger references to Kabuki, a form of Japanese traditional theater, which Galo's speech and poses are all based on. I believe in the dub version all of this is lost in translation, when I saw the preview I noticed Galo's speech entirely lost his strong reference to Kabuki actors. The rainbow-colored confetti and especially the ‘box’ Galo is in, has reference to Seri—stage equipment in Kabuki theaters which essentially are lifts installed on the stage which lifts Kabuki actors up and down.
2) Shonen-ai Genre—Queer-Baiting or Japanese Aesthetics?
I believe Lio at least has strong references to Shonen-ai heritage, Koyama's comment on Lio in the movie pamphlet says that Lio’s character design comes from Koyama's roots in growing up reading Shojo-manga including famous Shonen-ai author Moto Hagio (I’m a big fan too). There are many aged male (most likely cis) creators who worship Hagio’s work and other Shonen-ai genre because of its beauty and perfection as literature.
As having Lio as (for convenience) 'damsel in distress', I conclude that the entire movie can be interpreted in the context of Shonen-ai literature.
The so-called CPR scene, how Galo devotes himself in saving Lio, how Galo gets fascinated by Lio, these are all in the context of Shonen-ai-ish representation I personally believe. Unnamed love between two boys. Some Japanese fans insist that these are all Trigger's way of portraying love between their heroes and heroines (they often bring up the names of Simon/Nia and Nova/Luluco). This, referring back to how spiritual (rather than being physical) their heroes and heroines bonds were, still stays within the range of Shojo-manga/Shonen-ai context, or maybe Shonen-manga.
Shonen-ai is a big genre in Japanese subculture which has a very long history and commonly in Shonen-ai the boys are rather unisex and possibly asexual, which are similar, but different than LGBTQ literature. They are portrayed as ‘boys’ to often represent gender-free human beings; free of gender restrictions and inherent preferences.
The kind of ‘love’ represented in each work is all on spectrum. (nowadays fujoshi love to use the word ‘クソデカ感情’ (fucking big emotion) to describe these unnamed love, or any type of feelings between the two subjects, and they came to consensus that whatever the type of the emotion or feelings between the two it’s a BL—oh I’m referring to BL here but again Shonen-ai is the ancestor to the BL genre, and again this is all scattered on spectrum. They can be from romantic (pure love, sexual love) to bromantic, to aromantic, possibly nothing to do with romance just there is this ‘fucking big emotion’ attending. This is all up to each interpretation. Back to Promare, some fans want to consider them being in romantic relationship with no sexual activity, or maybe they are just having fucking big emotion for each other but not in a romantic way, or they fuck each other every night and day (excuse my language, this part was just intended to be texted to Noah only and I honestly did not choose my words).
Some of course may wish them to be officially gays, but it is not (or I should say ‘never’ since the population is relatively small) a consensus among the Japanese fandom.
I noticed that bromance and Shonen-ai tend to be considered as queer-baiting in the Western world these days, but this is really saddening for me, because who loves Shonen-ai loves Shonen-ai for what it is. That’s what their aesthetics most craves for. Same for Trigger I believe. I believe they still know that Galo and Lio are in romance in their own way and there is no intention of baiting or denying the LGBTQ community. It’s just their own taste, or aesthetics.
But Trigger repeatedly tells their fans that it’s all up to each fans how to interpret the relationship between the two. So there are no right or wrongs. It’s just that since Japanese fandom roots back from Shonen-ai culture and BL culture, they tend to fond the official to stay vague.
This is a bit off topic, but I was very worried how some Western media was accusing Trigger for not testifying that they made that movie to support LGBTQ community. However from my (and possibly most of the Japanese fandom) point of view it’s far more rude and guiltier to force creators to do or say something they don’t possibly believe in. Japanese fans tend to despise to ask creators to create what they want them to create. The fans tend to wish them to create what the creators want to create. (…because they know too well the output would really suck if the creators do make things they don’t want to make)
(Here I had trouble wording (too many theys/thems)) let me rephrase it, Japanese fans hate to force creators into making what the fans want the creators to create. Japanese fans want the creators to create what the creators want to create. …wording!
3) Beauty of Ambiguity—Japanese aesthetics on keeping things ‘vague’
Japan does have culture of adoring the vagueness/ambiguity. Thus, making something obvious and clear is sometimes already against their own aesthetics.
This ambiguity also allows multiple and diverse interpretation on their work by observers, in other words audience and fans. Interpreting Promare as a LGBTQ content? I believe you are more than welcomed. It has been never clarified as for or against. It is in the embrace of free and diverse interpretations, just like any other interpretation each and all of us fans hold in our hearts. Even if it was coincidence that all these symbols happened to be in the film, maybe the coincidence itself already has its meaning. You just have to know that likewise your interpretation is your truth, someone else has another ‘truth,’ and they are to be all equally valued.
I hope I explained my view clear enough, but if there are still questions regarding my own view (again this is all my personal view and perceptions even if I am referring to Trigger and other people this is all my personal guess), please feel free to ask me. Thank you.