Queer themes have quietly thrived in anime for decades — sometimes hidden in subtext, other times loud and proud. Even in the 1960s, Japanese creators pushed boundaries. Osamu Tezuka’s “Princess Knight” introduced a princess raised as a boy, making her a genderqueer hero long before the term existed. These early pioneers opened the door for anime to explore same-sex attraction and fluid identities, often through metaphors or historical settings. When these shows reached Western audiences, they hinted at possibilities that American cartoons wouldn’t dare to touch.
Now, the anime world openly embraces queer stories and LGBTQIA+ characters. Here’s a look back at how inclusion evolved.
The first queer anime characters appeared in the 1980s.
By the early 1980s, anime introduced its first openly gay lead characters. The 1982 comedy series “Patalliro!” is often cited as the first anime to feature a prominent same-sex romance, effectively debuting the shounen-ai, or boys’ love, genre on television according to Pilleater. The show followed a mischievous boy king and his dashing male bodyguard who fall in love amid cross-dressing gags and outrageous villains. Needless to say, “Patalliro!” never aired on Saturday morning American TV. But in Japan, it proved there was an audience for queer humor and romance — even if Western fans wouldn’t discover it until decades later.
The 1990s blew the closet doors wide open. Popular shows such as “Sailor Moon” and “Revolutionary Girl Utena” openly featured queer characters and relationships, though Western localizers often tried to minimize that representation. Nowhere was this more infamous than with “Sailor Moon.” In Japan, Sailor Uranus (Haruka) and Sailor Neptune (Michiru) are an unapologetic lesbian power couple. According to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, the 1990s English dub awkwardly rebranded them as cousins. Another “Sailor Moon” villain, Zoisite — a gay man in the original — was gender-swapped into a woman in the U.S. version to erase his romance with another male character.
Meanwhile, the 1997 surreal masterpiece “Revolutionary Girl Utena” centered on a princely girl and her mysterious female love interest in a symbol-laden saga. Utena never received a child-friendly dub; it aired later in the U.S. with subtitles, allowing its lesbian themes to stay intact.
Anime became even more inclusive in the 2000s.
In the 2000s, anime with explicitly queer storylines finally reached Western audiences. The rise of direct-to-DVD releases and later streaming platforms meant shows no longer had to meet Saturday morning broadcast standards. Love stories like “Strawberry Panic!” and “Sweet Blue Flowers” found loyal fans through boutique publishers and online communities. These shows never aired on Cartoon Network — you had to hunt them down at Suncoast Video or, later, on Crunchyroll.
But if earlier decades often tiptoed around queer content, the 2010s charged in with skates on — literally — with “Yuri!!! on Ice.” The 2016 figure-skating anime became a global phenomenon. Other hits followed its lead. “Banana Fish” delivered an intense, tragic gay romance adapted from a classic 1980s manga, while “Given” told a moving love story between bandmates.
How do you feel about Western censorship of queer content in anime back in the day? Comment below!
