ikuhara does nothing but the gayest shit imaginable. you watch utena because of its historical significance and because hexbear user cromalin says it’s the greatest tv show of all time (which i believe and will always stand by) and think “wow! that was incredibly gay! not a single major character could reasonably be read as straight! no way he ever tops this!” and then he does yurikuma arashi (which has just straight up softcore lesbian porn in several different episodes) and sarazanmai (a coming of age story about gay boys learning to stick things up peoples asses and communicate with each other)

also all 3 have an incredible amount of metaphorical and symbolic analysis of societal attitudes towards queer people and are really fascinating works that have a lot to say. yurikuma arashi is the most flawed for sure, but i can’t get angry at a show as unsubtle and pissed about shit as it is, while sarazanmai could potentially have overthrown utena if i wasn’t a massive lesbian. all 3 are worth watching as strong contributions from ikuhara, one of the most consistently queer figure in anime*

*in addition to the anime i talked about above which came out over the course of 2 decades, he directed the gayest seasons of sailor moon, the sailor moon movie about tuxedo mask’s boyfriend, and was the inspiration for kaworu (shinji’s queer awakening in neon genesis evangelion)

Konohana Kitan is cute but there’s not really a payoff to the gay stuff. All the girls just exist in a permanent state of crushing on each other and not really acknowledging it.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is absolutely charged with homoerotic energy