History of LGBTQ characters in animated series
Gender has always been a component of animation, with scholars Harry Benshoff and Sean Griffin writing that animation has always "hint at the performative nature of gender." They specifically cite the example of Bugs Bunny wearing a wig and a dress, acting as a female rabbit in drag. Building off the early years of anime, from 1917 to the 1950s, starting in the 1960s, LGBTQ+ characters in animated series came to prominence first through Japanese anime and manga. For managa, this manifested in the yaoi genre that focuses on same-sex male relationships, and yuri, that focuses on relationships between women, with wide-ranging representation of gay, lesbian, and gender non-conforming characters and related themes. Some LGBTQ+ characters in animation are derived from graphic art works and video games. At the same time, some argued that the Walt Disney Company played with gender stereotypes in the past, featuring effeminate or "sissy" characters, or those coded as gay, which occurred while the characters were comedic and kept at arms length. From the 1960s to the 1980s, LGBTQ+ representation was mainly confined to Japanese animations. In the 1990s, Japanese anime favorites, like Revolutionary Girl Utena and Sailor Moon premiered while gay characters appeared in Western animations such as South Park, The Simpsons, and a few others. In the early 2000s, LGBTQ+ representation remained steady in anime, but increased in Western animation, culminating in GLAAD's "Where We Are in TV" report in 2005, even as representation in such animation was scattered and disparate. It would not be until the advent of shows like Steven Universe and Adventure Time in the 2010s, that LGBTQ+ characters in animation would gain more of a prominent role, leading to shows such as Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. This page will show this progress by building off the lists of animated series which contain these characters.
For fictional characters in other parts of the LGBTQ+ community, see the lists of lesbian, gay, trans, bisexual, non-binary, pansexual, asexual, and intersex characters.
The early years: 1917-1950s
Japanese animation is generally recognized as beginning in 1917, with the release of Namakura Gatana. This was three years after U.S. and European cartoons were introduced to Japan, inspiring Japanese creators like Junichi Kouchi and Seitaro Kitayama, both of whom were considered the "fathers of anime." Many early animated Japanese films were lost after the 1923 Tokyo earthquake, with artists trying to incorporate traditional motifs and stories into a new form. While Japanese anime was costly to produce, Disney Cartoons overshadowed it and influenced future animations. In 1919, Nobuko Yoshiya wrote Yaneura no nishojo, a semi-autobiographical lesbian fiction, and fictions she wrote following it, popularizing many of the ideas and tropes which drove yuri manga for years to come.Through the Second World War, Japanese artists created animations for the Imperial Japanese Army, such as Maysuyo Seo's film, Momotarō: Umi no Shinpei or Momotarō’s Divine Sea Warriors which focused on Japanese occupation of Asia. In the post-war years, Japanese media was often influenced by the United States, leading some to define anime as any animation emanating from Japan after 1945. While anime and manga began to flourish in the 1940s and 1950s, with foreign films, influencing people such as Osamu Tezuka, on July 27, 1940, Bugs Bunny premiered in the Warner Brothers Cartoon, A Wild Hare. Bugs Bunny would later be described as the "first animated drag queen" due to the character's propensity to cross-dress in women's clothing in at least 40 cartoons. The creators thought the cross-dressing was "funny," with the cross-dressing positively received by audiences.
In the 1950s, anime studios began appearing across Japan. Hiroshi Takahata bought a studio named Japan Animated Films in 1948, renaming it Tōei Dōga, with an ambition to become "the Disney of the East." While there, Takahata met other animators such as Yasuji Mori, who directed Doodling Kitty, in May 1957. However, for the Japanese public, it wasn't until the release of Panda and the Magic Serpent in October 1958 that Japan fully entered into world of professional animation. While animators began to experiment with their own styles, using Western techniques, Tezuka Osamu began drawing shonen manga like Rob no Kishi, which later became Princess Knight, trying to appeal to female readers, while also pioneering shoujo manga. Around the same time, Japan had a so-called "gay boom" with the appearance of magazines such as Amatoria which focused on homosexuality.
Anime comes into its own: 1960s-1970s
In the 1960s, the unique style of Japanese anime began forming, with large eyed, big mouthed, and large headed characters. At the same time, manga began creating fantasy worlds where characters of the other sex were "completely removed from reality," a trend continued in later years. At the same time, Astro Boy, created by Osamu Tezuka, premiered on Fuji TV on January 1, 1963. It became the first anime shown widely to Western audiences, especially to those in the United States, becoming relatively popular and influencing U.S. popular culture, with American companies acquiring various titles from Japanese producers. While Tezuka released many other animated shows, like Jungle Emperor Leo, anime took off, studios saw it as a commercial success, even though no new programs from Japan were shown on major U.S. broadcast media from the later 1960s to late 1970s.By the time Princess Knight premiered, black and white anime had begun to ebb while color productions had swept in. This anime, which began airing in April 1967, wasn't meant to be revolutionary but influenced other works such as The Rose of Versailles, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Sword of Paros, and Sailor Moon. This anime followed the introduction of comic magazines aimed at girls beginning in the early 1960s, with many women artists entering the field.
By the 1970s, censored Japanese animation were shown on U.S. television. One example of this censorship was transgender characters in Gatchaman. Although the LGBTQ+ movement began to gain supporters and followers, LGBTQ+ characters largely appeared as stereotypes on U.S. television shows. This was because the Hollywood Production Code and the Code of Practices for Television Broadcasters indirectly discouraged depictions of homosexuality. In the 1970s and 1980s, some shows began to show gay characters in a more positive light, although often only for a single episode. In Japan, yuri manga first began appearing, but due to the fact that pornographers used the term, Japanese lesbians rarely used it. In 1972, Ikeda Riyoko began writing Rose of Versailles which would later become a popular manga and anime. In the late 1970s, yaoi, also known as boy's love, an offshoot of shojo, manga was published by young female illustrators, cementing themselves in the manga industry, with this genre later becoming "a transnational subculture."
While anime increased its popularity, especially outside of Japan, new animations focused on science fiction after the release of Star Wars in 1977. Even with the new animations and toy promotions attached to animated shows, the anime industry came to a standstill. Those who watched hentai, and cartoon violence within the shows themselves, had given anime a bad name, leading to censorship in the United States and Western countries. In this environment, Rose of Versailles aired on Nippon TV and Animax from October 10, 1979 to September 3, 1980. This anime was an account of the French Revolution from a young woman, raised as a soldier, who dresses and behaves as a man, named Oscar François de Jarjayes. The series enjoyed success among many female fans who noted the "slippage" between sex and gender, whil often depicting "same-sex romantic feelings." This anime influenced American anime fans, although it was unavailable in English for years, and throughout Europe, giving "more strength and equality to women" than shows like Princess Knight, in the view of some critics.
Anime renewal and U.S. television in the 1980s
In the 1980s, anime started to go through a "visual quality renewal" thanks to new directors like Hayao Miyazaki, who founded Studio Ghibli in 1985, Isao Takahata and Katsuhiro Ōtomo. Anime began to deal with more nuanced and complex stories, while Boy's Love continued to impact cultural norms, taking root across East Asia, as countries such as South Korea, Thailand, and China ingested these Japanese pop culture exports.This period, often called the "Golden Age of Anime," brought about various famous productions. Shows were shifting from a focus on superheroes to robots and space operas, with original video animation coming onto the market in 1984, with a range in length. Home videos opened up the floodgates, introducing viewers, especially those in the West, to anime films. Although anime was widely distributed through international piracy in the 1980s and 1990s, before the days of online piracy, it continued to survive. Anime recovered in the U.S., becoming more of Japan's television exports as the country became the "world's leading authority" in entertainment. While Masters of the Universe aired in the U.S., having characters like Prince Adam/He-Man that some speculated were asexual, shows such as Fight! Iczer One and Bubblegum Crisis had openly LGBTQ+ characters. Both series entered the Japanese market as OVAs. There were a number of shows shows aired on Japanese television with LGBTQ+ characters. For example, Stop!! Hibari-kun! had outwardly transgender characters while Patalliro! had a gay and genderqueer character. One series, Ranma 1/2 featured a trans girl as the protagonist who is attracted to Akane Tendo in the anime, despite a rocky start to their relationship. She is also attracted to Akane in the manga the series was based on. Akane also rejects advances by Ryoga, a rival of Ranma. Another series, Urusei Yatsura featured Ryūnosuke Fujinami, a tomboyish girl and protagonist who she goes out on a date with an alien girl Ran, who thinks that Ryūnosuke is a lesbian after she says she has no interest in boys, is backmailed into going on a date with Shinobu, and becomes good friends with Benten, who acknowledges her femininity without making a joke. In the OVA, Nagisa Shiowatari becomes her fiance, a guy who was raised as a girl, meaning he behaves and crossdresses as a girl, implying that she may be bisexual.
This contrasted with Western animation. On December 17, 1989, the first episode of The Simpsons featured a gay character, Waylon Smithers, named after openly gay puppeteer Wayland Flowers, would appear on a U.S. animated show. However, like other shows at the time, The Simpsons approached the subject gingerly, not drawing much attention to the sexuality of Smithers, as he remained in the closet, officially, until 2016.
Entering the 1990s
In the 1990s, more LGBTQ characters began to be depicted in animated series. While some Western animation like Futurama, South Park, and The Simpsons would include such characters, a few anime stood above the rest in terms of their representation: Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Revolutionary Girl Utena. The latter anime, one of the most important anime of the decade, would have a lasting influence for years to come, even influencing Rebecca Sugar, who later became a storyboarder for Cartoon Network's Adventure Time in the 2010s and the creator of the series Steven Universe.Into a new decade: the 2000s
Anime and Western animated shows built upon the representation of LGBTQ characters in the previous decade. The 2000s brought with it Queer Duck, the first animated TV series on U.S. television which featured homosexuality as a major theme, an alien named Roger in American Dad who had an ambiguous sexuality, and an assortment of other shows. This included the yuri-focused Simoun and Strawberry Panic.The promise of the 2010s
The 2010s were a decade which would change LGBTQ representation in animation going forward in a significant way, especially in Western animation. Most prominently, the show Steven Universe, created by Rebecca Sugar, began airing on Cartoon Network in 2013, building upon her work on Adventure Time in the years prior. Apart from Steven Universe, the well-regarded Wandering Son, with an assortment of transgender characters, would air on Japanese television, while LGBTQ characters would be prominently featured in Stars Align and Yuri on Ice. GLAAD highlighted LGBTQ+ characters in shows such as Archer, Allen Gregory, South Park, BoJack Horseman, DreamWorks Dragons, and Venture Bros. in their yearly "Where We Are in TV" reports. 2018 and 2019 would be particularly significant for LGBTQ+ representation. For example, the series finale of Adventure Time featured a kiss between two female characters, the premiere of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power which includes various characters which could be read as "fluidly on the gender and sexuality spectrum, and the wedding between Ruby and Sapphire in Steven Universe.Increased representation in the 2020s
Building on the progress in, and anytime before, the 2020s held the promise of changing LGBTQ representation in animation in a significant way, especially when it came to Western animation. This went far and beyond anything in the or in the. In 2020 alone, the Steven Universe came to an end with the final episodes of Steven Universe Future, as did She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, with its final season bringing the slow-burn lesbian romance of Catra and Adora full circle with their kiss saving the world from destruction. At the same time, shows such as Castlevania, The Hollow, DuckTales, The Loud House,Harley Quinn, and Cleopatra in Space featured LGBTQ+ characters while Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts premiered with a canon gay character named Benson. In anime, Asteroid in Love, ', and Interspecies Reviewers included LGBTQ+ characters in their animations, as did ' and Adachi to Shimamura.