ibo has several gay characters but they aren’t the most foregrounded (though they’re important and treated well by the narrative, as well as textually gay on screen which is always nice. the show ends with one couple gay married, like 7 years before gwitch did). it has some real cool ladies but they aren’t all treated amazingly, which is a shame. the show is fairly horny and though it does interesting things with it the whole turbines situation is still kinda iffy. the ladies who get to be cool are consistently cool though, and julieta is one of my faves. the dudes are definitely supposed to be the main draw of ibo though

in contrast, the main character of turn a is pretty fem. i mean, most of the time they’re not really fem, wearing work clothes from their job at the mine, but they spends a good chunk of the series in fancy ballgowns. loran’s gender stuff is really compelling and a big part of why i love turn a so much. there’s even a chaser after them! though the show itself presents them as a man it’s hard to walk away without thinking they’re nonbinary, agender, or a closeted trans woman (i go with the latter, but i could see arguments for other reads)

also most of the major non-loran characters are women (as is loran if you watch the show with love in your heart) and dianna and kihel and sochie and lily are all amazing and i love them so much. the show avoids the pitfall of gender essentialism and misogyny that a lot of old gundam falls into and instead has a lot of really good subtle commentary on the gender roles of the nobility many of the main characters belong to and how class plays into them

(pictures of loran, in casual wear and then fancy outfits)