(10-01-2013, 08:26 PM)ryanxwonbin Wrote: Well... In the risk of possibly offending people, Free! isn't gay in the sense that it has actual gay character and BL, but it still definitely panders that message for the audience whom are females. Just like how a lot of cute girls SoL anime these days have female characters who aren't technically yuri for each other, but pander to the male audience because they want it.
I mean, when you have a guy leg locking on to the stomach of another guy, saying things like "I'll show you a sight you've never seen," etc etc, even though that isn't technically BL, it's a bit obvious what the show is trying to do. That said, I thought Free! was still a good show and surprisingly did the swimming sports thing well.
Oh no, I didn't mean to imply that it was! Sorry if it came off as projecting, I know the difference between two. The implications just made me kinda uncomfortable, weird as that is to say. It was just the heavy, foreboding sense of "You really shouldn't be watching this." I suppose it just seemed kinda voyeuristic to me.
That's not to imply it's not good! I'm sure it's fantastic. I've been told the source material is really solid. I just can't get over that 'creepy old guy' feeling watching it though. I've never been that way about any anime before, even other 'high school' settings type ones. I guess because they're young boys who have been sort of gratuitously sexualized and I'm officially in the age bracket where 'boy watching' IRL would get me put in jail for many years.
