Weekly Round-Up, 13-19 2022: Dub Acting Pay Scales, Disability in Visual Novels, and Remembering ICO
AniFem Round-Up SHINEPOST – Episode 1 A solid start for fans of the idol genre. 2022 Summer Premiere Digest All our summer premieres with content warnings and notes. Post-Roe v. Wade Resources While an executive order is a temporary band-aid, it’s not a law; so we’re continuing to highlight grassroots health care initiatives for those […]
Jul 20, 2022 • Subscribe
More like this


Weekly Round-Up, 13-19 April 2022: Gunbuster Influences, Marriage Equality Film Festival, and Nintendo Labor Complaint
AniFem Round-Up 2022 Spring Premiere Digest All of this season’s premieres, listed with content warnings. Chatty AF 160: Dear Brother Watchalong – Episodes 16-23 The classic shoujo retrospective…


Weekly Round-Up, 2-8 June 2021: Immigration in MEGALOBOX 2, LGBTQ+ Visual Novels, and the Best Sailor Moon
AniFem Round-Up My Fave is Problematic: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Bella Lara Blondeau revisits the 00s megahit to celebrate its highs and grapple with its casual attitude…


Weekly Round-Up, 9-15 2024: Disability Studies, Hot Gimmick, and Horror Otome
AniFem Round-Up Nina the Starry Bride – Episode 1 An intriguing start for a josei fantasy about a princess’ forced body double. HAIGAKURA – Episode 1 This show…


Weekly Round-Up, 13-19 November 2024: Sony Buying Kadokawa, Autistic Anime Fandom, and Tokyopop
AniFem Round-Up Porygon Was Innocent: An epileptic perspective on Pokémon’s “Electric Soldier Porygon” Everyone knows the urban legends about the seizure-inducing banned episode of Pokemon. But the facts…


Weekly Round-Up, 13-19 September 2023: Women in Politics, LGBTQ+ Communities in Hiroshima, and New Seven Seas Publisher
AniFem Round-Up BL Manga Artist Aiba Kyoko on Industry Demands, Artistic Growth, and Writing About Young Carers We talked with Aiba-sensei about her influences, observations of changes in…


Weekly Round-Up, 19-25 January 2022: Girls’ Baseball Teams, Nezuko’s Transformation, and Protest History
AniFem Round-Up An Analysis of Magical Sex-Change (TSF) Manga With not one but THREE anime this season featuring TSF elements, Chiaki explores how this enduring subgenre can be…


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, 13-19 December 2023: More Classic Shoujo, Splatoon 3 Accessibility, and Infrastructure Failures
AniFem Round-Up The wasted potential of Death Note’s women Written by an author who’s notably sexist even by the standards of Shonen Jump, Death Note’s ladies are full…
Weekly Round-Up, 13-19 May 2020: Sailor J, the Colonization of Hokkaido, and Shoujo Isekai
AniFem Round-Up Perfect World, Disability Narratives, and Writing Outside Your Experience Zahra Ymer explores this josei romance and the pros and cons of disability representation as written by…


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…


Weekly Round-Up, 13-19 October 2021: Butch Yuri, TMS’s First Female Producer, and Belladonna of Sadness
AniFem Round-Up Deep Insanity THE LOST CHILD – Episode 1 There’s some interesting worldbuilding ideas buried deep down in there but boy does it look BAD. Ranking of…
Deep Insanity THE LOST CHILD, Ranking of Kings, Belladonna of Sadness


Weekly Round-Up, 13-19 March 2024: Stolen Ryukyu Artifacts, Adult Content Creators, and Union Wage Wins
AniFem Round-Up Curses and True Forms: Reading Fruits Basket as a lesbian The manga’s take on textual queerness is messy at best, but its broader metaphors about being…


Weekly Round-Up, 5-11 April 2023: Shoujo Boys, Pokémon GO Accessibility, and TMS Pay Raise
AniFem Round-Up KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World – Episode 1 Downright mesmerizing in its badness. The Legendary Hero is Dead! – Episode 1 Saddled with…
KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World, Pokémon, The Legendary Hero is Dead!, Yuri Is My Job!


Visual Novels: Completion And Internalization
Firstly, I’d like to credit the blog Intermittent Mechanism. I was perusing the WordPress Reader this month looking for interesting articles and lo and behold, I saw an…
Weekly Round-Up, 25 November – 1 December 2020: Quinton Flynn Updates, Disability in Manga, and Heart of the Woods
AniFem Round-Up The Fractured and Famous: Celebrity culture and control in Perfect Blue Priya Sridhar explores how Perfect Blue’s depiction of toxic fan culture and industry abuse still…


Weekly Round-Up, 8-14 February 2023: PreCure Novels, Obligation Chocolate, and Capitalist Hell in Yakuza 0
AniFem Round-Up Remixing Expectations: Queer representation and gender euphoria in D4DJ Groovy Mix Brock K. notes how the series has raised the bar for other idol gacha titles,…


Weekly Round-Up, 19-25 October 2022: Magical Girl Otome Game, Shoujo Romance, and Idolmaster Composer Arrested
Content warning: Multiple articles this week include discussion of sexual assault AniFem Round-Up Exception – Episode 1 A decent concept and writer can’t overcome hideous art and bad…


Weekly Round-Up, 1-7 June 2022: LGBTQ+ Game Dev Interviews, Women Directors in Japanese Cinema, and a Musical Visual Novel
AniFem Round-Up Parasociality Killed the VTuber Star LM Marie looks back at Kiryu Coco’s graduation in 2020 and patterns of fan harassment in VTuber spaces, as well as…


Weekly Round-Up, 3-9 November 2021: Revisiting Utena, Anti-Immigrant Attack Ad, and Netflix Pay Rates
AniFem Round-Up Site Update: New Patreon perks, manga recommendation pages, and more We’ve added new pages to the site, new patron tiers, and new rewards that will keep…


Weekly Round-Up, 30 August – 5 September 2023: Gundam Doujinshi, Police Body Cameras, and Gender Pay Gap
AniFem Round-Up Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou and Transgender Cyborgs’ Experience of the Apocalypse The 90s manga’s tale of rebuilding and self-discovery after the end has only become more relatable…
Weekly Round-Up, 18-24 November 2020: Rose of Versailles Plagiarism, Villainess Light Novels, and Orientalism in Cyberpunk
AniFem Round-Up Beyond the Bear Storm: Morishima Akiko, yuri mangaka Ariel ‘Solowi’ Nakandakare explores the career of one of yuri’s most beloved queer creators. The “Heart” of This…


Weekly Round-Up, 19-25 May 2021: Miura Memorials, Toxic Nostalgia, and Queer Demons
AniFem Round-Up Idols Gone Viral: How Hololive VTubers both subvert and reinforce expectations of idol femininity Katie Gill explores the freedom the VTuber space provides for weirdness and…


Weekly Round-Up, 4-10 December 2024: Disability in Witch Hat Atelier, Kodansha Print-on-Demand, and Manga Erotics F Relaunch
Content Warning: This week’s links deal quite extensively with racism and racism-motivated hate crimes AniFem Round-Up Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko! and the toxic workplace This office…


Weekly Round-Up, 7-13 June 2023: Pride Recommendations, CBR Layoffs, and Abuse Investigation
Content Warning: Excerpts included in this post discuss police brutality/racial profiling and suicidal ideation/planning. AniFem Round-Up Akane-Banashi: Writing women protagonists using Battle Shounen tropes The series not only…


Book Round-Up: August 13, 2019
Another book round-up! We’ve been super busy handling some work-related drama, so there hasn’t been a lot of time to blog between resting and just all of the…


Weekly Round-Up, 27 March – 2 April 2024: A Sign of Affection Production Process, Disability Accommodations, and Sega’s Union
AniFem Round-Up Who is Granted Personhood? Frieren’s demons and the trouble with the “inherently evil race” trope The quiet, meditative fantasy series has one major bump: its demons,…


Weekly Round-Up, 29 March – 4 April 2023: Feminist Scholar Ueno Chizuko, Good Smile’s Right-Wing Connections, and Disability in Sports Manga
AniFem Round-Up My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999 – Episode 1 Most of the episode rushes through establishing the premise, but there are some very promising names…
Hell’s Paradise, My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999, The Dangers in My Heart


Weekly Round-Up, 19-25 June 2024: Dyslexia-Friendly Fonts, Yuri Autofiction, and Omegaverse Chat
AniFem Round-Up How racial inequality in From the New World mirrors the Black American struggle The series achieves deeper nuance than many fantasy metaphors, and isn’t afraid to…


Summer 2022 Anime (and Manga) Round-Up Post
Yes, there’s yet another manga review tacked onto this anime round-up review…
The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting, SHADOWS HOUSE, YUREI DECO
Weekly Round-Up, 20-26 May 2020: In Memoriam
AniFem Round-Up Beyond UNIQLO: Tips for supporting Japan’s indie fashion designers Daz Skubich provides a primer on the world of street fashion and how enthusiasts the world over…


Weekly Round-Up, 14-20 June 2023: #VotetoEndOTWRacism, Remembering Kimi no Todoke, and FeMC Excluded from Persona 3 Remake
AniFem Round-Up Lum Through the Years: Urusei Yatsura’s gender roles, then and now The image of Lum is far better known than the series she comes from; but…


Weekly Round-Up, 6-12 July 2022: Abe Shinzo’s Legacy, Masculinity in Yakuza, and Blue Reflection Ray
AniFem Round-Up Vermeil in Gold – Episode 1 Skeezy ecchi about an adult woman hitting on a teenage boy. Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World – Episode…
Blue Reflection Ray, Chimimo, Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World, Vermeil in Gold


Weekly Round-Up, 2-8 August 2023: Shoujo on Manga Planet, Recovered 1953 Hiroshima Film, and Eizouken Author Discussing Disability
AniFem Round-Up You’re Already Doing Your Best: Healin’ Good Pretty Cure and chronic illness While Nodoka’s illness is magical, her story evokes the challenges of managing a chronic…


Weekly Round-Up, 25-31 May 2022: #OurFlagMeansUnion, PIXIV Lawsuit, and Precure’s Tokusatsu Connection
AniFem Round-Up Framing the Model Minority Myth with Neo Cat Chiaki shines a light on this hidden josei gem, and how its surreal story about self-aware humanoid cats…


Weekly Round-Up, 26 January – 1 February 2022: Pokemon Legends, Tokyopop Anniversary, and Penguindrum
AniFem Round-Up Anime Feminist Recommendations of Fall 2021 It’s short but this season also had one of the best anime of the year. Anime Feminist’s Top Picks for…


Weekly Round-Up, 7-13 December 2022: Gekiga Manga, Rankin/Bass Rudolph’s Creation, and Why “Bara” is an Outdated Term
AniFem Round-Up Making Up and Making Waves: How Tropical-Rouge! PreCure rewrote narratives of femininity and fairy tales Magical girls and cosmetic marketing have long been linked; the new…
Weekly Round-Up, 19-25 February 2020: Utena’s Predecessor, Robot Guide Suitcase, and Animator Working Conditions
AniFem Round-Up “Afraid to Grow Up”: Gendered rage in Aggretsuko Megan Navarro Conley focuses in on season 2 and how the show equates new character Anai’s externalized spite…


Autumn 2022 Anime Round-Up Post
If you haven’t yet seen the announcement in Moeronpan’s post (down below), please take a look at that to read about what will be happening to the Moeronpan…
Raven of the Inner Palace, ODDTAXI, Pretty Cure, SPY x FAMILY, Beast Tamer


Spring 2022 Anime Round-Up Post
Kind of a shorter round-up review this time around, as I only kept up with two shows.


Winter 2022 Anime (and Light Novel) Round-Up Post
This is the last time I am keeping up with five shows in a season.
Pretty Cure, Slow Loop, Dororo, Dororo, Restaurant to Another World


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 Round-Up, 16-22 November 2022: Romantic Killer, Shoujo Isekai, and Mental Health in BOCCHI THE ROCK
AniFem Round-Up The trans resonance of Haibane Renmei For its 20th anniversary, Iris Von Gonten shares why the Serial Experiment Lain creator’s third work has extremely trans undercurrents.…
Weekly Round-Up, 7-13 October 2020: Ikuhara Interview, More LDP Homophobia, and Japanese Hip-Hop
AniFem Round-Up Ikebukuro West Gate Park – Episode 1 A stiff, awkward-looking moral panic detective show. Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World – Episode…
Ikebukuro West Gate Park, Juliet, Noblesse, Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, Gate


Weekly Round-Up, 6-12 April 2022: Ryukyuan Tattoos, Etsy Strike, and Voice Actor Rights
AniFem Round-Up BIRDIE WING – Golf Girls Story – Episode 1 It hits the ground running and just never stops. The Greatest Demon Lord is Reborn as a…


Weekly Round-Up, 3-9 August 2022: Uchikoshi Tweets, Vanishing Shoujo Anime, and RightStuf Buyout
AniFem Round-Up Ribbons for the Win: Battling internalized misogyny with Pokemon Diamond & Pearl Julianne Estur looks back on her younger days and how her love of Dawn…


Weekly Round-Up, 5-11 January 2022: Winter Premieres, Animator Unionization, and New Higashimura Manga
AniFem Round-Up Tokyo 24th Ward – Episode 1 An ambitious, intriguing bit of spec-fic from the Steins;Gate author that’s already facing down production issues. Orient – Episode 1…


Weekly Round-Up, 11-17 May 2022: Evolution of BL, Neurodiverse Manga, and Okinawa Protests
AniFem Round-Up Reading The Duke of Death and His Maid as disability allegory Borealis Capps digs deeper into this story about a couple who can’t touch one another…


Weekly Round-Up, 5-11 October 2022: How Jump+ Artists are Paid, Sexism in Gundam, and Paternity Leave in Japan
AniFem Round-Up Do It Yourself!! – Episode 1 The most promising hobby anime of the season. Shinobi no Ittoki – Episode 1 Dull, derivative, and kind of sleazy.…
Do It Yourself!!, Reincarnated as a Sword, Shinobi no Ittoki, VAZZROCK THE ANIMATION


Weekly Round-Up, 12-18 January 2022: Ranking of Kings Chat, Cyberpunk in Psycho-Pass, and Racial Profiling in Japan
Content Warning: This week’s round-up touches includes articles touching on multiple sensitive topics including pedophilia, sexual harassment, slurs, racist harassment and profiling. Please proceed with care. AniFem Round-Up…
The Origins of Visual Novels
Last year I wrote a blog post about the origins of visual novels and how I believe the term is often misused in the West to classify games…