2025 Fall Anime Three-Episode Check-In
It’s a little bit more like a four- or five-episode check-in this go round, but that just means bonus chat!
Feature Category
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2025 Fall Premiere Digest
Fall is shaping up to be good eating for fans of shoujo and josei! Here’s hoping that trend continues.
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2025 Fall Premiere Reviews
All the fall premiere reviews in one easy-to-find place. We’ll update the chart as new series become available, so be sure to check back in the coming days for more!
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Maebashi Witches sets a new standard for tackling fatphobia
Writer Erika Yoshida’s talents shine in Maebashi, which isn’t so much about revolutionizing the world as imagining achievable ways that everyday girls can make the world a better place. And nowhere is the show stronger than in its exploration of fatphobia.
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From the Verdigris House to the Rear Palace: Sex workers’ perspective on The Apothecary Diaries
As a sex worker, however, my favorite aspect of The Apothecary Diaries is the nuanced depiction of sex work. From the Verdigris House women to the royal concubines, the series treats the characters engaged in sex work with care, subverting many of the harmful tropes and expectations that other popular media from around the world often fall into.
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2025 Summer Anime Three-Episode Check-In
This is a summer of horror and romance–sometimes at the same time!
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2025 Summer Premiere Digest
A summer marked by technical and ethical streaming issues is still home to some incredible shows.
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2025 Summer Premiere Reviews
All the summer premiere reviews in one easy-to-find place. We’ll update the chart as new series become available, so be sure to check back in the coming days for more!
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Dweebs, Dorks, and Dictators: El-Hazard’s prescient political commentary
El-Hazard’s depiction of its own petulant villain provides some eerily relevant commentary that resonates outside of the show’s original context, and makes revisiting the series particularly powerful.
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In Sailor Moon S and Revolutionary Girl Utena, butchness is vital fluidity
Utena and Haruka are butch female characters who are treated positively and hold center stage in their narratives, making them noteworthy even after all this time.
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The Real Indians of Victorian Britain: Black Butler and the representation of South Asian histories
The depiction of Soma and Agni is significant, as it reflects the presence of Indian culture in 1880s Britain, representing historical reality that is often overlooked in popular culture. However, as in anime media more generally, it’s worth unpacking whether these two stand as strong examples of Indian representation or instead easy background gag characters.
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No Gunpla Girls Allowed: How Gundam Build Fighters fails its female cast
In a world where high-tech Gunpla battles reign supreme, anyone can build a Gunpla model kit and become a Gundam Battle champion… in theory. In practice, Build Fighters and its sequel end up undermining that message through the treatment of their female cast, and accidentally saying a lot about trends in shounen and the Gundam franchise in the process.
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Supporting Women’s Wrongs (Just Not Like That): Fandom misogyny and the flawed women of NANA
The need for well-written female characters is supposedly understood and advocated for in fandom spaces, but the moment these female characters show any unfavorable attributes or make mistakes, they are rarely given the same grace as male characters. The complicated women of NANA prove that there’s a limit to how flawed a female character can be before she’s no longer palatable to readers.
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BanG Dream! It’s MyGo!!!!!, Ave Mujica, and the Doll in Asian Feminism
Bang Dream: It’s My Go!!!!! and Ave Mujica challenge overly simple distinctions between fake and real that imagine Asian girls as doll-like constructs of femininity and marginalize trans women.
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2025 Spring Anime Three-Episode Check-In
Spring has brought us some powerful stories about girls growing up and compelling-but-fraught speculative fiction about decaying systems.
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How Ascendance of a Bookworm depicts the challenges and triumphs of chronic illness
Ascendence of a Bookworm depicts both the societal forces shaping the lives of people with chronic illness and how accessible community can help ameliorate them.
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2025 Spring Premiere Digest
Spring brings a crop of nostalgic revivals, from aesthetic throwbacks to reinventions of classic franchises.
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2025 Spring Premiere Reviews
All the spring premiere reviews in one easy-to-find place. We’ll update the chart as new series become available, so be sure to check back in the coming days for more!
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Folktales, gender and transformation in Where the Wild Ladies Are
Aoko Matsuda’s award-winning folklore collection, Where the Wild Ladies Are, is a feminist retelling of traditional Japanese ghost stories. Transformation is key throughout the collection, both to the characters’ journeys and to Aoko’s commentary on ancient and modern gender expectations.
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How women in The Apothecary Diaries navigate patriarchy and class
While some women do their best to play by the rules, others find loopholes in social customs through which they can enact a semblance of autonomy. However, doing so is extremely risky, especially for those lower on the social ladder.
