AniFem Round-Up
The Quiet Revolutions of Contemporary Japanese Queer Novels
A celebration of literary stories about enduring when one cannot be out as a queer Asian.
Decade Apart, Miles Ahead: Lady action heroes in Bubblegum Crisis and Tokyo 2040
A comparison of the ladies sci-fi action show from the original OVA and its 90s reboot.
The Surprisingly Queer-Friendly Narrative of Cybersix
The marriage of Argentine and Japanese artistry created a unique series that created a memorable gender presentation-shifting protagonist.
Chatty AF 237: NANA Watchalong – Episodes 1-7
Vrai, Tony, and special guest, the Getting Animated podcast’s Destiny-Senpai, close out the 25th anniversary of a classic with a newbie-friendly watchalong.
What’s your favorite fantasy shoujo?
Since we’re entering the true end of an era.
What anime did you watch in theaters this year?
There was a healthy selection of both new and classic titles going around in 2025.
Beyond AniFem
Yona of the Dawn Gets Sequel Anime (Anime News Network, Joanna Cayanan)
The completed fantasy shoujo epic looks as though it will be 47 volumes.
The second 2026 issue of Hakusensha‘s Hana to Yume magazine announced on Friday that a sequel anime is in the works for the anime adaptation of Mizuho Kusanagi‘s Yona of the Dawn (Akatsuki no Yona) manga. The magazine published the manga’s final chapter on Friday, and also announced that it will get an extra chapter and supplementary fan book in the magazine’s sixth issue, which will ship on February 20.
The Yona of the Dawn television anime premiered in 2014 and aired for 24 episodes. The manga also inspired three original anime DVDs in 2015 and 2016. Funimation released the television anime on home video.
Viz Media licensed the manga and describes the first volume:
A red-haired princess loses her family and her kingdom… Now she must rise and fight for her throne!
Princess Yona lives an ideal life as the only princess of her kingdom. Doted on by her father, the king, and protected by her faithful guard Hak, she cherishes the time spent with the man she loves, Su-won. But everything changes on her 16th birthday when tragedy strikes her family!
Silent Hill f writer knows you don’t really want to see “a happily ever after,” and the game’s horrific portrayal of young womanhood makes it my GOTY (Games Radar, Ashley Bardhan)
The article’s discussion of the game does include spoilers.
A month after first meeting with Okamoto to discuss Silent Hill f, Silent Hill f scriptwriter Ryukishi07 had started planning the game’s concept: a woman challenging the exhausting expectations for her gender in 1960s Japan.
With help from illustrator kera and developer NeoBards, this woman became Hinako, who’s trying not to think about a few different things. She doesn’t want to think about dolls, for example. Love is also a touchy subject. Thank you, but she’d rather not consider the possibility that a girl dressed neatly in her school uniform is only practicing to be a wife, wrapped like hard candy in her shiromuku wedding kimono.
Her friends and family punish her for resisting their expectations. This is bigger than thought, this is reality, they try to remind her – but then their placid mountain town Ebisugaoka starts to change. It’s inexplicably overtaken by Silent Hill’s characteristic fog, scarred monsters, and red spider lilies, and it seems Hinako is better off learning how to carry a steel pipe rather than kiss her drunk husband.
But by the end of Silent Hill f, I realize nothing really changes for Hinako. Every pregnant enemy and crazed note found in nightmare Ebisugaoka pursues the same ancient question: where is a woman’s place? The question has just stretched and mutilated, which is how Ryukishi07 shows women like me he loves them.
I do feel it, despite the gore of Ebisugaoka. Ryukishi07 himself acknowledges that his emotions are complex, telling me that, “to this day, I have penned severed stories that fall under the horror umbrella, but not one would I have been able to complete without the existence of women.”
“I respect, revere, befriend, and fear” women – they are “something that I am enamored with, forever scared of, yet fascinated by,” he adds. “Working on themes based around women is, to me, the greatest act of respect that I can dedicate to them.”
Same-sex couples appeal to Supreme Court to overturn marriage ban ruling (The Mainichi)
The most recent ruling was handed down last month.
The move came after the Tokyo High Court concluded that the current civil law provisions disallowing same-sex marriage are still reasonable under the current circumstances, making it the only high court ruling to uphold the state’s position among six rulings on similar lawsuits filed nationwide.
The Supreme Court is expected to issue a single ruling that applies across all related cases next year at the earliest.
At a press conference in Tokyo, Takako Uesugi, the lawyer representing the eight plaintiffs, criticized the latest ruling, saying it was “extremely different” from the five earlier rulings that deemed the ban incompatible with the Constitution.
“That’s something we can never accept,” she said about the Nov. 28 ruling, adding, “We will urge the Supreme Court, the guardian of the Constitution, to make a clear decision that the ban is unconstitutional.”
“Spring Castle” by Michiko Ishimure (Asian Review of Books, Stuart Lloyd)
The book is a fictionalized account of the Shimabara Rebellion, in which 37,000 adults and children were killed by the shogunate.
Ishimure’s depiction of the massacre is faithful to history: there are no survivors. The Tokugawa overlords wanted to make an example of this rebellion, and they certainly did. But Ishimure’s achievement is to make the reader feel the lives that were lost, to hear their voices, and to honour their dignity.
In its evocation of suspicion toward foreign faiths, the massacre at Hara Castle foreshadows the insularity of Japan’s sakoku (self-imposed isolation) era. In its portrayal of merciless obedience, it hints at and echoes events that would resurface centuries later in wartime atrocities. But at its heart, it is about humanity and compassion: the will to live, and the will to love.
Although not a page-turner, Spring Castle is ambitious and unforgettable. Ishimure devoted half a century to it; Allen has carried her devotion across languages. Together, they have given readers a requiem for the 37,000 nameless—and a reminder that even in silence, the flower clock continues to tick.
Document reveals how Japanese women were duped into postwar sex work (The Mainichi, Mahya Ishiguro)
Because prices for these “comfort stations” were so high, it’s likely that low-income soldiers simply resorted to other means of sexual violence.
On August 18, 1945 — just three days after Japan’s surrender — the former Ministry of Home Affairs issued a nationwide notice calling for the establishment of “comfort stations” to serve the Allied occupation forces.
According to the Niigata Prefectural Policy Department’s historical records, 151 such facilities were set up in Niigata Prefecture alone.
A report based on telephone instructions from the prefectural police chief to the head of the Tsugawa police station reveals the brothels’ urgent efforts to recruit comfort women.
It also records the central government’s request that police stamp out provocative newspaper advertisements designed to attract recruits. Officials were instructed to deal with agents who embellished the appeal of the work or hid the true nature and location of the jobs on offer.
“The agents tried to lure impoverished women by promising good clothing, food, and housing in various regions, including Niigata,” said Hideaki Shibata, author of “Sexual Violence in the Occupation Era.”
“In reality, the work at these brothels was effectively compulsory for women who had no other means of survival.”
Shibata added that it was doubtful whether government orders to crack down on such recruitment practices were enforced effectively. “The police were responsible for both issuing business permits to comfort stations and supervising them,” he noted, so there was an inherent conflict of interest.
As Japan’s Muslim population surges, how can friction be avoided? (The Mainichi, Masanori Hirakawa)
Xenophobia has increasingly been reported on in Japan this past year; plans for a burial center for Muslim residents was recently scrapped due to such sentiments.
According to a study on the Muslim population in Japan conducted by Waseda University Professor Emeritus Hirofumi Tanada and others, there were approximately 420,000 Muslims in the country as of the end of 2024, accounting for about 0.3% of Japan’s total population. The figure marked an increase of some 70,000 people from the previous year and a 3.8-fold rise compared to roughly 20 years before. Factors behind this include a rising number of technical intern trainees under the government’s policy of accepting foreigners to address labor shortages.
By country and region of origin, Indonesians make up the largest group with about 200,000 people, followed by approximately 35,000 from Bangladesh, some 30,000 from Pakistan, roughly 12,000 from Malaysia and around 8,000 from Turkey. The number of mosques is also increasing, with about 160 locations nationwide as of July 2025.
As the domestic Muslim population could further increase, Tanada states, “They will undoubtedly become a more familiar presence.”
Regarding the turmoil in Fukuoka, Tanada notes, “Even if Muslims and local residents communicate and build relationships, there are cases where people from distant areas may not understand Muslims well.” He points to the need for Muslims to actively share information to dispel misunderstandings and anxiety, with government bodies also providing cooperation.
He also emphasizes, “Foreigners are not a mere labor force but are residents with diverse backgrounds such as religion and culture.” Considering that many people are unfamiliar with Muslims, Tanada argues, “The national government should strengthen policies to accept them as residents to prevent frictions in local communities.”
Concept Artists Say Generative AI References Only Make Their Jobs Harder (This Week in Video Games, Edmond Tran)
A series of interviews with concept artists who work in varying capacities.
Indeed, the few early and mid-career artists we spoke to suspected that generative AI was reducing the demand for their skillsets.
One mid-career artist, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of increased difficulty in finding employment, had a portfolio which included a significant amount of work for one of the most popular videogames of the last decade, after initially working in traditional graphic design and illustration.
Regarding their attempts to find further employment in the videogame industry, they said “I was sure my career was going to get easier. That’s a big name game! It did not go that way.”
They believe that generative AI has only compounded other difficulties facing professional artists, including a perceived industry shift to preferring artists specialising in certain areas, and companies outsourcing work to more affordable regions, like Southeast Asia.
“Big studios only hire leads and seniors and even for concept art… Everything feels extremely impossible – I drew every day of my life and got a BFA in animation, I supported myself with art for a full decade, and these people think this environment-destroying plagiarism machine is better than us?”
“They burned millions but got nothing.” Japanese game font provider’s aggressive price hike could be result of parent company’s alleged AI failure and financial struggle (Automaton, Hideaki Fujiwara)
The licensed font is used in multiple high-profile games, but the company recently ended license renewal and laid off large numbers of staff.
Behind these layoffs, Monotype Imaging appears to have heavily invested in AI technology. The company has repeatedly published research on AI-assisted tools meant for the publishing and design industries, allegedly pouring substantial funds and resources into the effort. But according to testimony relayed by Pahwa, the company “burned millions but got nothing” out of it. The implication is that layoffs were used to compensate for these failures.
In recent years, Monotype Imaging has tended to grow primarily through acquiring font rights, but has struggled to come up with market-leading, original products or services. According to Pahwa, HGGC (the parent company) has attempted to sell Monotype Imaging multiple times. However, prospective buyers saw the company not as a business with growth potential but as a collection of assets (font rights), and talks fell through.
The company’s push for AI appears to have been an attempt to remedy the situation, but that too seems to have failed, leading to the ongoing layoffs. Pahwa reports that within the company, there is a growing sense that management is prioritizing short-term financial merit over long-term strategy or employee well-being. He has continued to report on the situation, including details of the layoffs and concerns within the design community about Monotype Imaging’s near “monopoly” over fonts.
“Tasks that previously took 2-3 hours can now be completed in 10 minutes”: Falcom is the latest developer to buy into the AI hype machine (Eurogamer, Connor Makar)
GenAI proponents continue to try to normalize its usage in creative fields across the world.
As reported by Umisuika on X, attending the shareholders meeting in-person, a Falcom representative stated: “We are proceeding cautiously due to legal issues. We are using AI to brainstorm scenarios and do research. What used to take 2-3 hours can now be completed in 10 minutes. AI is also used to correct typos in the scenario.”
It is worth noting that this is a rough translation from Japanese to English using Google’s in-built browser tools, and therefore the intricacies of this statement could be off. Even so, it is seemingly a confirmation that Falcom is integrating AI into its workflow.
It is no secret that Japanese video game companies have started embracing AI en masse. At Tokyo Game Show this year, over half of polled developers acknowledged that AI has been used in game development. Sega has stated it’ll start using AI “appropriately” in spite of pushback, and Square Enix wants AI to do 70 percent of its QA by 2027.
Japan PM Takaichi meets content creators in bid to boost overseas revenue (The Mainichi, Ryoma Hara)
Given Takaichi’s far-right leanings, it feels particularly worth keeping an eye on the type of material she would wish to promote.
Attendees at the Prime Minister’s Office included musicians Kocchi no Kento and Demon Kakka, anime movie director Mamoru Oshii (known for “Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence”) and others.
The prime minister started proceedings, saying, “Japanese content is valued highly overseas, and the market has a lot of room to grow. I’d like to hear about the challenges we face in overseas deployment.”
On Dec. 4, Takaichi shared her intent to support the entertainment industry on X (formerly Twitter), writing that it is a “strategic industry for Japan with a market size comparable to that of the semiconductor industry.” She pledged to form a private-public cooperative to strengthen support, aiming for 20 trillion yen (about $128 billion) in overseas revenue.
Try Purchasing Tourney of Tyranny, Please (BP Games, Bigg)
Payment processors have continued to make life difficult for erotica artists, particularly those that work with niche kinks (in this case, hypnosis).
Tourney of Tyranny is a much more straightforward exploration of The Kind, though it’s not without its own twist. Namely: Lilith Lacrimosa, main character of Tourney of Tyranny, does not know that she has the powers that she does. Fictionally, Lilith has been injected with an alien implant that, whenever she gets especially horny, causes anyone she makes eye contact with to become insatiably, uncontrollably horny for her. Lilith does not know that this is the case – in much the same way that her sexual partners give themselves post-facto justifications for their uncharacteristic behaviour, so too does Lilith. For me, this is the secret sauce to having a character who IS fundamentally circumventing the ability of her sexual partners to fully consent but who you still want to come across as sympathetic and likeable. In so many other works concerning The Kink, the main characters are aware of their powers, which tends to limit the ways in which they can be characterized – either they don’t care at all about the people they exercise their powers upon (making them sociopaths) or they DO care but have convinced themselves that they know what’s best for everyone (still making them sociopaths, but also naive and condescending). You CAN tell interesting stories with these characters, but the market is pretty saturated and things get boring quick.
My plan for distribution of ToTP1 had been to offer it directly via Itch, but obviously following the content crackdown that’s no longer feasible. Even if content that directly advertises itself as being related to The Kink wasn’t very likely to get banned, the ongoing delisting of paid adult products would still severely limit its ability to find new audiences. And so, after checking with a friend who works on Itch’s support staff, I arrived at the admittedly-not-ideal compromise of offering an unpaid preview version here that would direct people to the full, paid version available on Subscribestar. More on how that’s worked out below.
Holiday Review #25: STOP!! HIBARI-KUN (Manga Test Drive, Megan D)
Hibari remains an important early trasnfemme icon.
That said, there’s definitely a noticeable shift in tone around the midpoint when Kohsaku joins the boxing club. That’s when the love polygon stuff really falls into place, with him and Hibari caught between Shiina (the class tough guy with the hots for Hibari) and Rie (who is the object of Kohsaku’s affections, much to Hibari’s consternation). Even then, Eguchi keeps things fresh by throwing in some of the other weirdos from the boxing club, lest things get too sentimental. Honestly, the most baffling thing about all this romantic entanglement is why Hibari is so fixated on Kohsaku. Yes, he’s our viewpoint character and lives in her house, but he could not be more ordinary if he tried! The only impression he makes upon the reader is how much his protests of Hibari being a “pervert” is very much a He Doth Protest Too Much sort of situation.
There’s one thing that Hibari-Kun never jokes about, and that’s Hibari herself. She is confident in herself and her presentation, and if anything she is the ones who plays the jokes upon others. She’s got some big Bugs Bunny energy, as she relies mostly upon trickery, deflection, and her own cuteness to get her way. She will occasionally use a bit of violence for those who push too hard or don’t respect her space, but mostly she’s just content to enjoy her life as the cute, popular high school girl she is, the true star of this series.
These days Eguchi is known for his elegant and fashionable illustrations (well…that and his recent plagiarism scandal). At first glance, Hibari-Kun looks very removed from his modern-day look. The characters aren’t quite short and squat enough to be called chibis, but their big heads, big goofy reactions, and compact panel size certain suggest it. Eguchi makes good use of that space when it comes to comedy, filling the panels up with goofy faces or literally having Kohsaku burst out of the frame. Hell, sometimes he’ll even insert himself into the comic as this squashed little gremlin in shades, doing some silly business in the background or commenting on the passage of time.
Fairy Princess Minky Momo Magical Girl Franchise Gets 1st New Anime in 31 Years (Anime News Network, Egan Loo)
The 80s TV anime last had an OVA entry in 1994; admittedly, there is at least one notable reason why it’s difficult to craft new entries in the story’s narrative.
William Winckler Productions launched an Amazon Instant Video release of the 1982-1983 television anime as English-dubbed features in 2015, and it described the story: In Minky Momo, a princess from a magical world is sent to Earth to help people recover their lost hopes and dreams. Using her magic, and with the aid of her magical dog, monkey and bird, Minky – known on Earth as “Gigi” – encounters amazing adventures.
The 1982-1983 series inspired a television series followup in 1991-1992 and several OVAs. Harmony Gold USA released the Fairy Princess Minky Momo: La ronde in my dream OVA in English as Gigi and the Fountain of Youth. Crunchyroll began streaming the original television anime in January 2024.
VIDEO: Interview with influential anime academic Helen McCarthy.
VIDEO: Retrospective on tragic yuri The Summer You Were There.
VIDEO: Celebrating 20 years of Shojo Beat.
VIDEO: Interview with mangaka Fumika Minami; the video has auto-dubbing but no English captions..
VIDEO: Demo playthrough of The Willowmist Emporium of Antiques and Curiosities.
VIDEO: An overview on the increased AI usage in dubbing, subbing, and captioning this year.
VIDEO: Year in review for gaming accessibility issues in 2025.
AniFem Community
Thank you for a wonderful year to all you readers out there. We couldn’t do it without you.
Tomcat's Big Adventure! Got incredibly lucky to see it during its limited showing in Seattle. Truly a treat to see such a masterpiece and obscurity all in one!
— LiteralGrill (@literalgrill.com) December 23, 2025 at 12:21 AM
The Colors Within! I've become a big fan of Naoko Yamada over the past year and have been making my way through her work. I hope A Silent Voice and Liz and the Blue Bird come back to theaters sometime, it would be nice to experience them on the big screen.
— Emily (Stephen) (@stephen28.bsky.social) December 23, 2025 at 1:05 AM
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Only Demon Slayer this time. I try to go whenever I get a chance but unless its mainstream its still harder to find screenings of anime movies in theaters.
— 🦌 Ash Got Run Over By A Reindeer 🦌 (@kingcocoabutter.bsky.social) December 25, 2025 at 4:50 PM
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