[Working Title: Kaoru] [BxB] [Romance] [Drama]

[Ash The Ryousei]

I notice that surprisingly there are deconstructions for every genre of anime except for Yaoi. The closest I can think of is Bokura no Hentai and even then it's not really the main focus. At first this was a Boku no Pico Deconstruction Fic (please don't kill me). But the more and more I thought about it, the more I realize this is probably better as an original property. Not helped by the confused reactions on why I chose to deconstruct Boku no Pico in particular.

So here's my propsal: A Boys Love Visual Novel that deconstructs various common tropes to shed light on what it's like to be a LGBTQ person in Japan. Although as Ill explain below, it's more like an LGBTQ-themed dating sim since not everyone is necessarily a gay or bisexual male. The game will have you play as a second year high school student who one summer meets Kaoru. He thinks he's a girl at first , but since this is a more realistic story is squicked out at first due to usually being straight. But he finds himself questioning his sexuality as he finds himself still attracted to Kaoru as well as several other boys at school, including Kaoru's friends. You then have the option to date (but not have sex since I want it to be safe for work) the following:

[*]Kaoru: a standard gay guy with effeminate interests
[*]Yuki: A genderfluid cross dresser who feels like he is a girl at times
[*]Jun: A Token Mini Moē that's a child genius in college
[*]Madoka: A transgender girl with a disapproving family
[*]And Kensuke: A very effeminate Bishounen that seems like a nice guy, except he's a homophobe

All of them have emotional baggage of some kind ,but I don't want to resort of Gayngst since I know it's a Pet a Peeve Trope with unfortunate implications. I also plan on having a lesbian and a non-dateable gay teacher as supporting characthers with the latter serving as a mentor role and the former serving to provide a halfway decent female character, which you rarely see in Yaoi.

So that's my propsal, what do you guys think? Do you have a any suggestions? I especially recommend suggestions if you're LGBTQ since the last thing I want to do is piss people off. Not helped by the fact that (although I consider myself genderfluid) I only know one gay person in real life. Replies really are appreciated, thanks

[Ash The Ryousei]

And I just realized I posted it in the wrong forum. Shit. Although to be fair I do have assists at home, I'm just stuck in Peru right now and I don't have my computer with me.

[sicklesium]

1. How much knowledge of Japanese LGBT scene do you have? It ISN'T just Western LGBT. For instance, there is really no "genderfluid", but there IS X-Gender. They say MTF, FTM, FTX, MTX. There are tons of different lesbian-oriented words (ボイ、タチ、etc). I would highly suggest doing as much research as possible. Please tread carefully as this can be a sensitive topic.

2. I would much prefer if it wasn't a discovery story, especially so late in life. I've grown tired of the "man thought he was straight but he's actually gay" trope because it is so, so commonly used and butchered. Even bisexual people who are, so to say, "late bloomers" find out earlier in life that they are at least attracted to the opposite sex, even if they don't quite understand what it means. Perhaps MC is already curious but he's scared, or he's already bi/panseku and knows that he is. Especially since you said he is suddenly finding other boys at school attractive, like Kaoru gave him a wake up call lol. He would perhaps already have that attraction prior to meeting Kaoru. Then again, my hatred for this trope is my own opinion and you can write whatever you want. YMMV.

[Ash The Ryousei]

To be fair, I hate the "straight turned gay" trope too. I was intending to deconstruct the trope by having him go back and forth ,but Iguess there was a miscommunication. Although to be fair....you might be right about the first thing. I did some research on the subject ,but not much. Besides maybe I can prevent accusations of cultural appopriation by setting it in America. Either way thanks for the advice.

[EJ107]

Not sure to what extent this idea is still in development, but I thought I'd chip in.

First, as somebody who is fed up with the representation of same gender couples and bisexual/homosexual characters in most anime and Japanese visual novels I appreciate the concept of deconstructing some of the more annoying tropes. That said, you need to tread carefully. First of all, setting it in Japan is probably not a good idea unless you do a lot of research, as was previously mentioned. One option might be to leave the setting vague, or to use a fictional setting. Also, remember that there is a fine line between deconstructing a trope and simply using it but being tongue-in-cheek about it. The latter only really perpetuates the problem.

Second, I'm not sure that having all of your male characters be effeminate is a good idea if you're trying to deconstruct standard yaoi tropes. Background and supporting characters could help here.

As a final note, there are some pieces of work from Japan that actually do treat LGBT subject matter reasonably well. If you haven't seen it, Wandering Son is an anime that handles transgender issues with surprising finesse. It's definitely worth a watch.