A good common ground.
It depends on the moral and the worldview of the people watching. The LGBT viewers, for example would appreciate and rejoice. The Christian viewers, on the other hand would probably object more. Most irreligious, would not. The reaction and the judgement of the consumers on the media would also depend on their worldview and personal beliefs.
Note, that I never made this comment in regards to Love Live!, I made this comment in regards to creative and fictional works in general.
This is not to say that artistic and creative license trumps out insensitive positive depiction of sin, but the goal of artistic license and creativity naturally contradicts the strict and austere depiction of Christian values, therefore the line is blurry between creativity, and depiction of moral content. For example is C.S Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien, who were able to make frequent use of magical and fantasy in their works to Christian allegory and themes despite ire from Christian fundamentalists that such is “occult” and “pagan”. Another example is nudity in Christian Renaissance paintings, though no one would consider them “*****” today.
The gist is, when you’re some Christian doing creative art like Lewis, Tolkien or some Christian renaissance painter, sometimes, you naturally contradict values in art due to artistic license.
First, fandom is separate from canon work. Anyone can just do whatever they like as fanmade to a franchise, however sinful it is regardless of the intention of the authors or the canon developers. An example is the Vocaloid fandom.
Second, yes, there are things that are minor parts of a franchise, but sometimes, these niche aspects do not really occupy the whole aspect of the franchise as a whole, so there are certain aspects that are objectionable but not the whole franchise. Also, sometimes it depends on the scope and size of the franchise in question.
Well, I believe we are confused on how we define “explicit”. I believe the reason it is implicit is there is no direct reference to lesbian relationships or lesbian couples. Only “teasing” or joke, but not direct, unlike direct lesbian and gay couples that we see in American media today -
infoplease.com/entertainment/gays-in-pop-culture-timeline.html. Again, there are far worse positive portrayal of lesbianism in Japanese pop culture, like yuri ***** hentai, which would be “really explicit”.
You are starting to impress me with your Japanese pop culture knowledge. Kiniro Mosaic! is a manga turned into anime about some 3 Japanese high school girls and 2 British girls in a yuri love triangle and centers on their daily lives. The anime is renowned, aside from the yuri, for the proficient English by the voice actresses in British accent. The yuri in Kinmoza is 1000x more explicit than Love Live!, if you are truly looking for “explicit” yuri.
God Bless.