AniFem Round-Up The View from the Sidecar: How Kamen Rider fails its women A throwback piece for all you tokusatsu fans! Haru details the disappointing treatment of female characters in Kamen Rider overall and a few of the notable exceptions. “I Am Not a Doll”: Rei Ayanami, escapism, and objectified images of desire Today’s classic …
Sep 29, 2021 • Subscribe
More like this
Rune Factory 5
Some technical issues aside, the latest installment in the village-making RPG brings it all together in the end. What will you do with your time in Rigbarth?
Weekly Round-Up, 15-21 September 2021: Shojo Beat’s Anniversary, Yuri Game Publishing, and Prime Minister Candidates
AniFem Round-Up Portrayals of Black Masculinity in Carole & Tuesday Katherine Mussellam looks at how the writing of characters like Ezekial and Skip swings back and forth between…
Weekly Round-Up, 28 April – 4 May 2021: Yoko Taro Interview, Class S Yuri, and Yasuke
AniFem Round-Up Yasuke – Episode 1 A compact, engaging historical title (with fantasy elements) about the first Black samurai. Anime Feminist Recommendations of Winter 2021 The team shares…
Rune Factory 3 Special
After the disappointment that was Rune Factory 5, I was very ready to dive back into the gameplay that made me fall in love with the series with…
Weekly Round-Up, 22-28 July 2020: Ghost of Tsushima, Euthanasia Investigation, and Kurly in Kansai
AniFem Round-Up Magical Girls as Metaphor: Why coded queer narratives still have value Sara Khan on why pushing for more explicit representation doesn’t mean that queer-coded narratives aren’t…
XSEED adds gay marriage to the localization of Rune Factory 5
Rune Factory 5 takes a huge leap forward thanks to the hard work of XSEED Games Forgive the fourth wall break, but I had to take last week…
Weekly Round-Up, 22-28 June 2022: Queer Games Bundle, Boys Run the Riot Interview, and Pro-Trans Rally in Japan
AniFem Round-Up Site Update: Patreon Tier Perk Changes Beginning in July Some news about site funding and some shuffling we’ll be doing of Patreon rewards starting next month.…
Weekly Round-Up, 28 September – 4 October 2022: Ladies on Top, Women in FromSoftware Games, and NANA Retrospective
AniFem Round-Up My Master Has No Tail – Episode 1 A cute-as-heck hobby anime with rakugo and tanuki. Raven of the Inner Palace – Episode 1 Wobbly in…
Raven of the Inner Palace, Beast Tamer, My Master Has No Tail
Weekly Chapter Update: July 22, 2021
We’ve got an action-packed update this week with some wild catalog titles and great simulpubs! Action, Horror, and Pro Wrestling?! Air Gear: Ikki is determined to use Air…
Weekly Round-Up, 29 September – 5 October 2021: Zombie Land Saga Interview, Beastars Metaphors, and Living as a Foreigner in Japan
AniFem Round-Up Waccha PriMagi! – Episode 1 Colorful magical girl idol show by big name Sato Junichi. Selection Project – Episode 1 Idol competition title worth it for…
Colorful, Selection Project, The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window, Waccha PriMagi!, ZOMBIE LAND SAGA
Rune Factory 3 Special Review
Longtime fans will undoubtedly appreciate that Rune Factory 3 Special gives us all a second chance at a forgotten entry to the series
Checking Out Rune Factory 5
I loved Rune Factory 4 Special, much more than I thought I would going into it just a few months ago. So of course, Rune Factory 5 was…
Review: Death Stranding (2023)
Death Stranding 困兽 China/Hong Kong, 2023, colour, 2.35:1, 96 mins. Director: Peng Fa 彭发 [Danny Pang]. Rating: 5/10. Generic, Hong Kong-style crime drama is poorly scripted, but watchable…
Weekly Round-Up, 22-28 April 2020: KAIBA Retrospective, Tokyo Rainbow Pride Online, and Workplace Sexism
AniFem Round-Up Joy in the Apocalypse: Ruminations driving through desolation Chiaki meditates on post-apocalyptic fiction and how stories of living with devastation might now offer some comfort. Disability…
Summer 2021 First Impressions – Kageki Shojo!!
Streaming: Funimation Episodes: 13 Source: Manga Episode Summary: The Kouka Revue was created in the Taisho era, and featured unmarried actresses in all theatrical roles. The otokoyaku (male…
Weekly Round-Up, 9-15 September 2020: Deca-Dence Interview, Women-Only Train Cars, and White Fragility in Fandom
AniFem Round-Up Discordant Tones: Oversimplifying Music as Resistance in Carole & Tuesday Lizzie connects Watanabe Shinichiro’s latest series back to music’s importance in activism, and the places where…
Omonomono Newsletter, September 22 Update
I have to say, it was a bit refreshing to not have to write this on a weekly basis. At the same time I think it does serve…
Weekly Round-Up, 17-23 March 2021: Rap in Japan, Villainess Light Novel, and Marriage Equality Update
AniFem Round-Up Non-Binary Orochimaru and the homophobic legacy of queer-coded villainy Danny McLaren unpacks the troubling implications behind the fact that the Naruto universe’s first confirmed LGBTQ+ character…
Rune Factory 5 Earthmate Edition Review
Rune Factory 5 has finally arrived! In this post, I will discuss the collector’s edition, the Earthmate Edition. These are my own photos, so please excuse the quality…
Rory Muses About Rune Factory 5
You know what? I want to talk about Rune Factory 5. Specifically, I want to share my thoughts on the bachelorettes of the game, and maybe take a…
Pre-Ordered Rune Factory 3 Special
I decided to buckle down and pre-order the limited edition version of Rune Factory 3 Special.
Rune Factory 4 Special (Quick Review)
I was a bit iffy going into this one. Harvest Moon type games have always been a bit hit or miss for me and I had never tried…
Firechick's Game Reviews: Rune Factory 3
Rating : 77/100 Man, the 2020s have been a great time to be a Rune Factory fan. Rune Factory 4 got a Switch port, Rune Factory 5 finally…
Rune Factory 3 Special Game Preview
Rune Factory 3 Special looks about as good as it ever will. The character models look far better on PC than they ever did on the DS, with…
Firechick's Game Reviews: Rune Factory 4
Rating : 77/100 After getting hooked into Rune Factory 5 , I decided to try my hand into the game that came out before it, Rune Factory 4…
Weekly Round-Up, 16-22 September 2020: Adorned by Chi, Mine-kun is Asexual, and Clickbait Listicles
AniFem Round-Up From Tsunade to Mereoleona: Looking for Shonen Jump’s Lady Mentors Ivy Rose looks back on Naruto’s influence in expanding the roles of women in Shonen Jump…
Weekly Round-Up, 22-28 February 2023: Protest for Higher Wages, Sci-Fi Yuri, and Steamy Otome
AniFem Round-Up The Transient Queerness of Fruits Basket For all the series does well, it also treats gender nonconformity and queerness as passing phases its characters discard by…
Weekly Round-Up, 22-28 November 2023: Conditions at MAPPA, Neko Can Dream, and New Inori Novel
AniFem Round-Up Escape from Yuri Hell: FLIP FLAPPERS’ critique of the Class S genre This underrated queer magical girl show used its surreal setting to create a boarding…
Weekly Round-Up, 22-28 March 2023: Age of Consent Raised, Josei Recommendations, and Japanese Novel Translations
AniFem Round-Up The Infantilization and Sexualization of Inoue Orihime in Bleach A case study in how an increasing amount of fanservice affected the quality of Orihime’s character arc.…
Weekly Round-Up, 24-30 March 2021: Nagabe Interview, Gendered Activism Issues, and Otherside Picnic
AniFem Round-Up Chatty AF 136: Angelic Layer Watchalong – Episodes 1-7 Caitlin, Dee, and Mercedez check out the 2001 adaptation of CLAMP’s battle shounen series. Koikimo – Episode…
JORAN THE PRINCESS OF SNOW AND BLOOD, Koikimo, Otherside Picnic
Weekly Round-Up, 12-18 May 2021: MAPPA Animator Conditions, Intersectionality, and Nagata Kabi Interview
AniFem Round-Up The Feminist Potential of the Lolita Fashion Subculture Sarah Alexander explores the history of lolita fashion as a rebellious outlet and highlights marginalized voices in the…
Weekly Round-Up, 16-22 June 2021: Olympics Protests, Gundam Wing, and Digital Shoujo Manga
AniFem Round-Up “Serves You Right”: The abolitionist condemnation of retributive justice in Akudama Drive Inkie remembers the cult hit of 2020 and its powerful critiques of criminalization and…
Weekly Round-Up, 28 July – 3 August 2021: Pokemon Unite’s Predatory Monetization, Anime Licensing Fees, and COVID in Japan
AniFem Round-Up How fan service can attract or repel an audience, and how to tell the difference In this blast from the AniFem past, Lauren Orsini offers her…
After the Rain and Kageki Shojo
AEW Dynamite started while I podcasted and continued as I edited, and I just keep thinking about...
After the Rain and Kageki Shojo
AEW Dynamite started while I podcasted and continued as I edited, and I just keep thinking about...
Weekly Round-Up, 13-19 January 2021: Wonder Egg Primer, Otome Heroines, and Otherside Picnic Interview
AniFem Round-Up Redo of Healer – Episode 1 What might be a decent premise about an abuse survivor buried under twenty layers of sleazy rape fetish porn. WONDER…
Weekly Round-Up, 8-14 March 2023: Grown-Up PreCure, Shojo Beat, and Harassment in the Japanese Film Industry
AniFem Round-Up How Otherside Picnic masterfully uses horror to explore abuse and show healing queer love Toriko and Sorawo’s bond gives them the strength to heal from the…
AniFem Round-Up, 22-28 December 2021: Difficulty as Accessibility Issue, Aggretsuko Season 4, and Year-End Lists
AniFem Round-Up Re:Zero’s critique of Nice Guy Subaru and supposedly selfless love Bray Lawrence examines how Subaru’s time loop powers drive him to view Emilia less as a…
Yuri News Update: September 2021
As seems to be the case every few months, this is another “Yuri News Update Lite”, meaning there aren’t a lot of news stories to mention, but we…
First Impression: Kageki Shojo!!
The Red Flower Opera Music School (Kouka for short), trains young women for the all-female acting troupe of the same name, and is auditioning its 100th class. With…
First Look: Kageki Shojo!!
The Red Flower Musical School has trained thousands of young would-be stars over the years to become fixtures of the Red Flower Opera Company – an all-female musical…
Kageki Shojo!! GN 2
If you've ever been involved in the world of theater, or really any performance art, Kageki Shojo!! vol. 2 will likely dredge up some painful memories.
Kageki Shojo!!, Volume 2
If you are a fan of all-female musical theater review troupes, then you really don’t want to miss this series by Kumiko Saiko. I reviewed Kageki Shojo!! The…
Kageki Shojo!! – Episode 1
While this first episode doesn’t make the most dazzling debut, it does have a few glints of what make this story special
Kageki Shojo!! on Funimation
Watanabe Sarasa is a young woman with a dream. She is entering the Kouka School, in hopes of becoming a Kouka Musical Revue Top Star. Exceptionally tall and…
Weekly Round-Up, 1-7 September 2021: Yamada Naoko Leaving KyoAni, Olympia Soiree, and Shortcomings of “Cool Japan”
AniFem Round-Up Queer Subtext and Representation in Kamen Rider Nerissa Mercer traces the long tradition of homoeroticism in the flagship tokusatsu franchise and its comparatively short and bumpy…
Weekly Round-Up, 6-12 September 2023: Japanese Neopronouns, Joseimuke Imprints, and Historical Shoujo
AniFem Round-Up Lilies In Transition: The state of trans representation in yuri The small number of titles has started to grow recently and expand beyond magical transition to…
Weekly Round-Up, 30 September – 6 October 2020: Takarazuka Rule Revisions, Wandering Witch, and Queerness in Nier
AniFem Round-Up Higurashi: When They Cry – NEW – Episode 1 For better or worse, an exactingly faithful remake so far. Assault Lily: Bouquet – Episode 1 Cool…
HYPNOSISMIC -Division Rap Battle- Rhyme Anima, Revisions, When They Cry
Weekly Round-Up, 28 February – 5 March 2024: Black Womanhood in Anime, Animator Wages, and Oni Onsen
AniFem Round-Up Immaturity and Impunity: Performative Masculinity in Baki the Grappler With its hyper-swole dudes and strength-above-all storyline, Baki is a fascinating examination of toxic masculinity. Love Him…
Weekly Round-Up, 7-13 September 2022: BL in Italy, Marriage Equality in Harvest Moon, and Misogyny in Manga Discussion
AniFem Round-Up JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure actor Tiana Camacho discusses her favorite shoujo and systemic casting hurdles for actors of color Vrai sat down with Camacho at Otakon 2022…