I don't think it's a particularly GREAT show, but the maturity and sensitivity with which it treats the relationship between Yuuri and Viktor is so novel for an anime series that I'm kinda willing to forgive a lot. It's a sweet, sunny show about gays, which is rare even for western, LGBTQ+-made art and media.

There's also the fact that there's already a precendent for same-sex romance in the Persona series. P2: Innocent Sin lets you romance Jun. Granted, yes, this was before romances were heavily developed side-stories, so it's really just like two lines of dialogue, but still, it was there and it was tastefully portrayed.…

Absolutely. That's why I brought up Yuri on Ice—if those people can treat their LGBTQ+ characters and audience with respect, then Atlus damn sure can as well.

I think it's more a reflection on the game's main director than on Japan as a whole.

Yeah, now that you mentioned it. I've heard that the power dynamics can be pretty messed up.

This one does have the black guy in the backstreets who is talking to his cat about how mean Japanese people are to him. Pretty meta and makes it even more shocking how awful it is with its gay characters.

As someone who has consumed his share of Japanese imported content over the years, I get that to an extent, but like..one of the most popular anime series in the world this past year centered around a gay couple that isn't fetishized or made a joke of. So I'm kinda beyond that being an excuse anymore.