#y!oi

I understand that they think he's being sexualized. I get where they’re coming from, because I've talked about Sarada being sexualized in Boruto recently(which is a bit different in regards to target audience since the series is over 15 years old and she only 12) so it's a fair assessment I think. But, mostly if you’re an adult. That’s important. Because, adult fans of Y!OI need to understand that this show is not for them. It’s aimed mostly at Japanese teenagers, not white American adults(this matters and I’ll come back to it), who are the majority of people complaining about it. Yuri being “sexy” is for the target audience of other teens his age and himself; not adults.

Now, you may believe “It’s still not okay for an adult staff to portray him that way”. Well, let’s talk about that. Adult writers are having him do this as a way of expressing his canon character. Yuri is 15, almost 16, and just won a gold medal as a professional athlete. The only authority figures we see are his grandpa and coaches. He goes off on his own regularly. He even hopped on a plane to Japan of his own accord to get Viktor back for Pete’s sake. Yuri isn’t an adult, but he’s not a little kid. He does what he wants and no one can tell him ‘no’. This program is him being a piss ant of a teenager who wants to be cool and sexual despite whether or not adults will find it appropriate. A lot of teenagers want to grown up faster than they need to and Yuri already has, so he sees no issue here. This is portraying how Yuri sees himself and is part of his story. It’s not meant for adult sexual consumption.

You probably still think it’s not okay for the staff to portray Yuri this way, huh? Let’s talk about western shows then. Because as I mentioned previously, it’s western people complaining mostly, which is hilarious, because western shows do the same thing. Are you a fan of shows like Shameless or Skins? All of those shows have teenagers in much more explicitly sexual contexts than Yuri is ever shown in. And all of them have adults staffs. Adults are able to watch those and not be upset, because they recognize that they personally should not be seeing these teenagers sexually. Those scenes are aimed AT OTHER TEENAGERS. 

If this show were aimed at adults, I could see the issue, but market wise, it’s not. Especially not for white American adults. I bring this up again, because many of the people I see complaining are not long time anime/manga fans. (Y!OI in general has an abundance of non-anime fans coming in, because of the healthy portrayal of a same sex couple, which is great, but leads to some misunderstandings) This matters, because they may not understand the nuances to Japanese culture that are exemplified in the anime or anime tropes in general. I’m not talking about the imagery and blatant expression of culture, but how the characters interact and how they are portrayed on a metaphorical level. Even myself, who has consumed Japanese media, including anime and manga from the youngest age will not fully understand it ,as I am not from that culture.

I’m not using culture as an excuse to sexualize teenagers. I’m saying that western media is the same exact way(and it’s okay, because it’s for other teenagers), and many of the people complaining can’t see that, because they see Y!OI as this angelic, sweet, perfect, innocent thing. Which is often a view of white westerners on things from Japan. The desexualization/infatilization of Asian people and their media is creepy and fetishsizing in and of its own. They may not think they’re doing that, but they do. Y!OI isn’t innocent. It deals with complex issues. It has blatant expressions of sexuality and emotion. The only reason it’s as tame as it is, is because of them dealing with censorship laws in Japan.

To act like it’s some heinous crime for a show you like to have done this is very full of yourself and self serving, because the show isn’t for you.

As for those thinking it’s inappropriate for Otabek to be there? It’s not a shipping thing on the staff’s part. He’s canonically a delinquent teenager as well. And him and Yuri are friends. They both wanna be shit heads and do what they want and be super cool in their own eyes. It’s a big f-you to those who don’t take Yuri seriously and to the judges for Otabek getting 4th. They’re teenagers. Let them be jackasses. Everyone has their time.