Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury is pretty gay and while this revelation may have been a cause for some celebration, it's also not the most surprising discovery. Ever since Char and Amuro's time, the franchise's melodramatic writing has produced scenes that, on a subtextual level, feel heavily queer, but few are as direct and bold as this premiere.
At the end of Witch From Mercury's first episode, Suletta Mercury defeated Guel in a duel for the sake of Miorine's honor, who had been bound by the school's rules to be Guel's husband. After the duel, Miorine revealed that by defeating Guel, Suletta had inadvertently just become her new groom.
"But I- I'm A Woman"
The reactions to this exciting premiere have been thankfully positive for the most part, with many in the fandom drawing comparisons between Witch From Mercury and Revolutionary Girl Utena. Granted, that is a bold comparison that feels like setting one’s self up for failure, but it's quite an apropos description of the vibes it gives off.
It’s also such an in-your-face reveal that there’s no getting around how gay the series is making itself appear. They even spell it out with Suletta telling Miorine that she’s a woman in the biggest display of ignorance of the basics of human sexuality since Shinji from Evangelion responded “I’m a boy” to Kaji.
It isn't even as if the moment is presented as comedic or even an inconvenience for the characters in question. Miorine's attitude suggests it's wildly more preferable than her previous arrangement, though that admittedly doesn't say much. But she goes out of the way to suppose Mercury must be more conservative, citing the obvious fact that same-sex pairing is common, effectively saying "gay people exist Suletta..."
The treatment of the scene is undeniably romantic and thus the gayness that is often subtextual is now textual. That fact alone is exciting to fans who have been eager for more direct representation that doesn't leave room to be contradicted as is often the case with other media with queer readings.
What Is A "Queer Reading"
A "reading" of a text suggests a particular way of assigning meaning to it based on an overall assessment of the work as a whole, including various other recurring themes. These aren't necessarily always canon, but part of the fun of media analysis is looking at things through different lenses to see how the meanings change.
One big component of the analysis is about looking at subtext, which refers to the subconscious messaging within a work of art (see our analysis of FLCL's storytelling for more). If one reads a book or watches a film and wonders "is this gay?" it's probably the sum total of the film's subtext that registered that reaction.
Ben From Canada on YouTube made a video about 2 Fast 2 Furious in which a long-standing queer reading of the film was explored in great detail, effectively calling the film a bisexual love story. In it, Ben elaborates that the point of contention with regard to subtext is whether the viewer was looking for subtext and projected meaning or whether the film earnestly created that reaction.
A lot of queerness in media that isn't canonized through blatant confession or a kiss can be dismissed as just "fans shipping." Depending on the circle, shipping is either the most fun thing to do or the root of all evil. Sure the culture isn't perfect, but the mere assumption that queer readings are just the ramblings of shippers can make it difficult to get analysis in that realm to be taken seriously.
In the case of anime, it's also just rare to see lots of gay representation. But is it rare just because Japan isn't totally comfortable with queerness yet? Or, is it because there are enough vocal folks in fandoms who will decry any notion of LGBTQ+ inclusiveness?
A Brief History Of Denial
Back in 2016, when Yuri on Ice came out, there was a lot of heated debate early on about whether it was actually gay or just queerbaiting. Looking back, it should have been obvious from the first episode alone, but so many anime have queerbaited fans that audiences had grown accustomed to disappointment.
Frankly, the early episodes don't get the credit they deserve for being so bold. The first episode even went out of its way to remove any doubt by having the cute female friend of Yuri be revealed to already have a husband and kids, effectively eliminating her as a love interest.
All that was left was Victor, and by episode 3, Yuri had directly found the inspiration he needed to perform at his best, tapping into his "eros" and his feelings for Victor. Even with all that, there were still plenty of people who were insistent that it wasn't canon. Yuri and Victor went on to kiss and then get engaged to be married in as direct a manner as possible without being censored on Japanese television.
We've gone from a comically obvious wedding proposal without saying the word wedding to the Gundam protagonists getting hitched in episode 1. Progress can be slow and for a lot of fans, this will elicit anything from excitement to a simple "huh, neat" but for some fans, it can be really gratifying when there's often so much pushback at the littlest representation.
Guilty Gear Strive released a DLC this past summer including Bridget, a fan-favorite character from the series, who was confirmed to be transgender and identifying as a girl. For years, she had convoluted lore reasons for being a female-presenting male and everyone loved her, and now she's exactly the same but identifies as a female, which upset some people.
The internet couldn't wait to pull out a plethora of common excuses like it being a mistranslation by the localization team in the west. Tons of people attempted to invalidate her coming out through the "Japanese perspective" and others claimed she only came out during the "bad" ending (which frankly is woefully telling of those that shared that lie).
The point was mute anyway because Arc System Works confirmed that she is in fact trans and that was that. Hopefully, this explains the kind of pushback members of the queer community are used to seeing whenever something gay happens or when a character turns out to be trans.
We've received many inquiries about Bridget's gender. After the events of Bridget's story in Arcade Mode, she self-identifies as a woman. So, as to whether "he" or "she" would be the correct pronoun for Bridget, the answer would be "she."
- Daisuke Ishiwatari, September 14, 2022
In Conclusion
As previously mentioned above with Yuri on Ice, there's plenty of internal trepidation and worries that the show could screw it up or not commit or that the show itself might end up underwhelming. Just last year, Wonder Egg Priority got a lot of notice for its storytelling, but the conclusion and some questionable writing choices almost sullied it for those that stuck with it.
Still, Gundam coming out swinging in its first episode by having its two leads stuck together through an arranged marriage in the most gorgeous and sapphic closing shot was pretty satisfying. And thankfully, a lot of Gundam fans seem to "get it" considering the franchise's history and how awesome the community is as a whole.
This was never meant as a PSA for the fandom to do better and frankly, any homophobic remarks wouldn't have warranted a response in an article such as this. This was just an opportunity to explain why little things like this can make a lot of members of the fandom, be it Gundam or anime in general, very happy.
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury is available for streaming on Crunchyroll.
Source:Ben From Canada/ YouTube / GuiltyGear.com