Just in case you thought Lily coming out as trans in episode eight of Zombieland Saga was a coincidence or a Crunchyroll SJW conspiracy, we got this shot of her the very next episode, or do you think that’s coincidence too?
What pisses me off is that there are probably a lot of people who would still believe this rather than admit even Japan has LGBT people or animators clever enough to put together a visual pun like this. Which is a bit strange for people who profess to actually like anime, but this sort of double think is sadly common among the 4-chan crowd. Not uncommon outside it either and if you want to be depressed, take a look at the Zombieland Saga talk page at Wikipedia. Marvel how one stubborn wiki editor just refuses to believe all evidence and insist Lily isn’t trans. And there’s a lot of evidence, as Andrea Ritsu proved with her video:
It all shows that what looked like Lily coming as trans in episode was in fact Lily coming out as trans. What those who deny this are doing is actually what they usually accuse others off: projecting their own bigoted values on anime, desperate as they are for a form of entertainment not ‘spoiled by political correctness’ or whatever. It’s disappointing that this attitude is so prevalent in anime fandom, rather than being happy to finally see some positive trans representation. There was no need for Zombieland Saga to do this, but they did anyway and that means a lot. There have been a lot of could be trans characters in anime — most being the obligatory feminine boy who likes to dress as a girl — but few who actually stated they were trans. Having Lily as an out character, for whom being trans is part of her personality and not a gimmick is a step forward. Trying to deny it with dumb conspiracy theories does nobody any good.
All of this also proves a point I’m trying to make with this series of the 12 days of Anime: that a lot of the more interesting things in anime happen not in what we in the west think of as prestige or core anime series, but in series with less critical attention. Your slice of moe, your pretty boy series, the sort dismissed as trash, or only of interest to hardcore otaku or fujoshi. Here we have a series that nobody really expected anything off, an idol anime even and it has given me at least some of the most emotional stories of the season, if not the year. It’s not just Lily, but also Saki’s lesbian biker past or just having Yugiri as part of the cast, a former courtesan and therefore not likely to still be a virgin, which is a Big Thing for purity obsessed idol fans. Zombieland Saga now has gotten a bit of attention from western fandom, but there have been plenty of series this year which also deserved it but haven’t gotten it. Which is something I hope to remedy a bit with this series.
This is the fifth post in this year’s twelve days of anime challenge. Tomorrow: Himote House, another underrated series of this season.
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