Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

[leahandillyana]

I decided I wanted to post at least one comic during the pride month, and I’d like to close it with one I have very mixed feelings about – though unlike other stories I regard as such, my opinion on the story itself differs greatly on my opinion on circumstances surrounding it. Trigger warning for mental health issues, body dysmorphia, eating disorders and self harming in particular.

 

Firstly, the story. Heartstopper is a slow burn slice of life romance between two British schoolboys, Nick and Charlie. Neither story nor art are that remarkable, and honestly while I understand the appeal of the never-ending fluff, in my opinion it would have greatly improve the narration to cut it into a single, circa 200 pages long tankobon focused around Charlie’s issues. What I appreciate is the author introducing the issue of eating disorders in volume four, with Charlie facing such a problem and spending some time in a mental hospital because of it. It’s something I’ve never seen realistically portrayed in a comic before, and the information presented in the comic would be very helpful to readers facing similar issues. The pages presented below are from chapter six, featuring Nick’s POV on Charlie’s struggles.

 

Now, why is my opinion mixed? I have the following issues surrounding the comic:

 

-my issue with the author, who dismisses the BL wholesalely as supposedly fetishizing, as if her comic wouldn’t fit perfectly amongst BL manga (and its Japanese edition is sold as a BL manga), as well as the fact that the designs of the protagonists were adapted from a popular non-canonical couple from a certain cartoon – only both boys in Heartstopper are white, while the characters in the cartoon were not.

 

-my issue with Netflix, having chosen an unremarkable gay romance comic with white leads while ignoring more complex and original gay romance comics published on the same platforms but with leads of colour. The comic was barely a thing when it was picked by Netflix for adaptation, as opposed for similar webcomics that have been running for years (Starfighter might be too pricy AND spicy to adapt, but… man, Starfighter. And honestly, Boyfriends is right here! And speaking of Boyfriends…)!

 

-my issue with the fandom, which taken as a whole developed a MASSIVE grudge against the creator of Boyfriends, despite refreinbow being much less priviledged than Alice Oseman, being a transgender gay man living in Indonesia. The abuse of online mob refreinbow suffers from is sickening, and many of those vultures at the same time praise Heartstopper. While it’s by no means the creator’s fault, it left a bad aftertaste.

 

Nonetheless, I recommend the webcomic for those into slow burn and chaste teen romances.

Comments

[dianakingston]

While I get the desire for a gay romance story with some teeth to it, as opposed to bland mindless positivity... Starfighter doesn't exactly disprove the argument that BL is fetishizing. In its own way it plays to as many cliches and tropes as Heartstopper.

[leahandillyana]

For the purpose of this particular wank, tropes used in a work don't really matter, the only two things that matter are whether the work was created by a cis gay man and whether it contains sexual content, the explicitness of which also doesn't matter.

[shadowpsykie]

I tend to never hold a story/franchise to it's fandom (hell, some of my favorite stuff has highly toxic fandoms)....

I can understand her dislike of the term BL in particular because while the style is based on manga, it is not. as Manga is exclusively Japanese. BL in Japan is different from BL here in the united states... BL in the united states is term used for pro-pederasty groups.

While i honestly believe they could have cast poc IN the main roles, i also do love the other queer and poc characters in the series.

i like the comic, and show. it's f

[leahandillyana]

It's not a dislike of the term but the genre on part of the creator though.

[shadowpsykie]

i mean... i tend to not LOVE that genre either... it tends to be more sexual than i like... and always this tone of passivity and dominance that also tends to bother me.... some are very tasteful (i don't mind sexuality in YA stuff, but there is a difference between sexual and exploitative and maybe it's just the stuff i have seen BL stuff tends to have more of the second). for ME this uses manga/anime style to tell a queer YA romance. Maybe i have not been exposed to the right kind of BL... but i can't blame the writer for not liking it based on what I know of it...

[icon_uk]

Yeah, I can't blame a creator or their work for the vagaries of their fandom unless they do something to encourage it, so that seems a slightly unfair criticism.

I'd also query it not being a thing pre-Netflix, it was mostly a webcomic, but the print volumes have done extremely well (partly based on the author's reputation as a novelist) running to four volumes before Netflix were on the horizon.

[leahandillyana]

Series deal was made in 2019, early into publication and before print release.

[redmagpie]

This has no bearing on anything but can you please tell me the cartoon the characters were originally derived from. Please.

[leahandillyana]

Keith and Shiro from Voltron: Legendary Defender. The characters also embody certain stylistics popular in BL manga, but given that the creator dislikes BL, the design inspirations are likely Keith and Shiro, as the pairing was popular in American fandom when the show was airing.

[icon_uk]

Has she said that, or is that your reading of it? I ask especially because V:LD ran from 2016 to 2018, NIck debuted in the novel Solitaire in 2014 and Nick and Charlie as a couple got a novella in 2015 before the webseries even started so their looks, whilst not seen, are described.

Plus you reference American fandom specifically, and Alice Oseman isn't American, she's British.

So "Taller more confident broad shouldered blond" and "Shorter, more intense, dark haired" pairing sounds more like Arthur and Merlin in BBC's "Merlin" (2008 to 2012) to me.

(Or even to Makoto and Haruka in "Free! Iwatobi Swim Club" if we follow the BL approach)

[leahandillyana]

That's my observation based on character designs (especially later on when Charlie grows his hair into Keith's characteristic hairstyle) and characterisation (closely resembling popular fandom interpretation of sheith). I wasn't aware of the novella, what is its title? And that said, in current era English language fandom is massively dominated by American media, so it would be impossible for a British fandomgoer to be unfamiliar with American media popular online. I wouldn't take it against the comic if it were just the designs (arguable, as you said), fandom and Netflix (not author's fault, as you said), but Alice Oseman's comments on BL being fetishization of gay romance come from a dangerous mindset her own story breaks, reak of "white man's burden", and are awfully racist. I tend to enjoy works outside of what the author might have said or done, but in this case there are too many negative aspects for me to enjoy this objectively nice story.

[lissa_quon]

I dont like Boyfriends but it has nothing to do with the creator. (I've heard they did some *daduh* BAD THINGS - but it sounds like "young artist did some stupid young people stuff" which I'm not going to throw stones at.)

I just don't like the candy colored tone of the series. It reminds me of the shallow sort of stories I used to read in fanfics - as a 14 yr old girl.

It comes off as pandering and shallow. Which just isn't a flavor I want in my stories even BL ones. But I am not going to start insulting a creator because of that.

[leahandillyana]

That's fair - it IS a shallow story after all.