By Crimson Jordan
Over the past few decades, anime—a medium of Japanese animation for film and television—has gained a growing popularity here in the United States. The art form’s stories are larger than life. Tales of spikey-haired protagonists collecting mystical balls to save the universe, rivaling ninja villages, pocket–sized monster battles, space pirates, regular pirates, and countless other adventures have set the mainstream standard for American audiences ever since Speed Racer debuted in the late 1960s. But today’s anime isn’t your dad’s anime. It isn’t just action anymore—it’s mystery, it’s coming-of-age, it’s romance. And it’s not just straight characters, not just heteronormative stories, either. It’s more than that—because its following demands more.
Anime has reached millions, regardless of ethnicity, language, or identity. The fanbase is just as diverse as the stories that are now being told through the ever-expanding medium (walk into any Japanese festival or anime convention and see for yourself). These stories include queer narratives, as well as queer content creators who are making sure these stories are being told and being told the right way. It is vital for queer viewers to see themselves in these shows—so that they can feel validated in their identities, love their authentic selves, and know that they are not alone in their experiences.
This is the mission of Houston-based anime veteran David Wald. Wald, an openly gay man, is known for his voicework in titles like Halo Legends, Fairy Tail, Attack on Titan, Akame ga Kill!, Street Fighter V, and countless other anime shows and videogames. When he’s not voicing our favorite characters, he’s creating content in other ways—like directing, co-writing, and voice acting for the English adaptation of Hitorijime My Hero (which translates to “My Very Own Hero”), an anime about the ups, downs, and in-betweens of gay love that is scheduled for release on October 30, 2018.
As anime’s international fanbase continues to grow, more and more of its films and shows are being dubbed in English—meaning the show or movie is rewritten in English, English–speaking voice actors are cast, and the project’s overall content is adapted to appeal to English-speaking audiences, while still preserving the Japanese intent. This is Wald’s mission for Hitorijime My Hero. “When talking about this to the powers that be at Sentai Filmworks, we agreed that it was important that I take this [project] on because it was important to have a queer voice at the helm,” he says.
Wald explains that, while working on this project, he imagined the show’s intended audience to be a younger version of himself. Growing up gay in the ‘70s and ‘80s, Wald shares that LGBTQ representation in television and film was scarce—the only examples of queer people in the media at the time were problematic at best. As he grew older, Wald became tired of the stereotypically ditsy and flamboyant, the inevitably tragic, and the deranged and sick gay characters perpetuated time and time again in Western media—images that led to nearly irreparable stigma and dehumanization over the course of time. He aims to rectify this inaccurate past by telling genuine, relatable, and authentic stories that resonate with audiences, both queer and not, so that they can watch and engage with something beyond the mass-produced tropes that are (and always have been) nearly impossible to identify and empathize with.
Wald confirms that the English adaptation of Hitorijime has been tailored to make its gay characters and their issues the focal points of the story. “Hitorijime My Hero is going to give us a deep look at relationships that we don’t often see depicted very well in American media,” Wald says. “This is essentially a story of two pairs of boys or young men in love with one another. None of them will be used as a vehicle to make a narrative nod to the abstract agony of being homosexual. The gay characters in this story are not narrative tools. They are the story. And if that’s the kind of story that you appreciate as a viewer, you can be assured that we’re going to bring you more.”
Jessica Portillo, the digital marketing specialist for Hitorijime My Hero, says that, although she is not a part of the queer community, as a Hispanic woman, she knows the importance of representation in the media. “Stories make up the human experience,” she says. “They allow us to express ourselves, as well as learn about others and empathize with them. The lack of representation in the stories we tell and in the stories we listen to makes our world smaller, less colorful, one dimensional. People don’t realize the power their stories have to affect not just societal change, but change the way a person sees themselves.”
One of the advertising campaigns for the English adaptation of Hitorijime My Hero features several stills from the show with the caption: “Sometimes, love looks like this.” Wald and Portillo explain that the tagline was chosen because love is impossible to confine to a singular experience. “We see a lot of love in Hitorijime My Hero,” says Wald. “There’s platonic love, straight love, gay love, and none of it is simple. The images from the ‘Sometimes, love looks like this’ series are meant to depict the many kinds of love we see in this story, however unconventional, dysfunctional, or sublime, and to demonstrate that, for each of these characters, love is as complicated as it is essential—no matter what kind of love it is.”
“There’s beauty in that complexity,” Portillo adds. “And even if a form of that expression is unknown to us personally, it doesn’t make that love any less powerful.”
These ideas about love are ever-present in Hitorijime, capturing experiences that many queer people know all too well. The show deals with unrequited love, internalized homophobia, falling in love with a childhood friend and becoming distant because of one’s identity, falling in love with an older man and not being sure if you want to be like him or be with him, and many more of the complexities of being young, gay, and in love.
On a personal note, the first line of the first episode of Hitorijime My Hero is one that especially resonated with me (and one I suspect will connect with other queer folks as well). “No matter how much trouble you’re in, there’s never going to be a hero to show up to your rescue. My whole life, I believed that.” It is my hope, however, that, just like the main character of the show, we learn that none of us are alone in this world, that we are resilient beings, and that sometimes, love looks like the last thing we expected.
Hitorijime My Hero is now available for pre-order from Sentai Filmworks.
