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By: Vrai Kaiser November 16, 20210 Comments

This is a very Your Mileage May Vary question. For example, I noticed Last Exile - Fam the Silver Wing mentioned as an example in the discussion, but I personally adored Fam the Silver Wing. I loved the original Last Exile but always thought it would be better if it had been about lesbians (Note: I think "This would be better if it was about lesbians" about every show that's not about lesbians). Fam the Silver Wing is the lesbian Last Exile my heart desired and I'm so glad it was made, though it got the usual blowback female-centred reboots receive from fandom. Shows that I thought didn't need sequels but got them anyway: Steins;Gate and Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions. The original Steins;Gate charmed me despite the transphobia and frequently obnoxious lead character, Steins;Gate 0 got dismal reviews and immediately fell into a memory hole. Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions' first season told a cute, complete story about the power of imagination and growing up, it really didn't need a sequel. But it got one, and I've seen it described as an "abomination". Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid's S2 was widely loved, but it doubled down on the pedophilia jokes and added some transphobia for good measure. The real nail in the coffin of Kobayashi S2 for me is the fact that, at the end of the day, the show isn't really willing to admit that it's a lesbian romance between two women who love each other. Kobayashi's feelings for Tohru are frozen forever in the realm of plausibly deniable, of queer subtext, and the more episodes the show continues for, the longer that stasis lasts. Perhaps it's best if we fade to black on their relationship for good, so we can be left to imagine their development as a couple even if its creators cannot.

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