Thermae Romae Novae – Episode 1
If it can get back to business and commit to being silly, Novae might hit its stride. But aside from offering me an artistic glimpse into the ancient world, this premiere hasn’t done much.
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Love All Play – Episode 1
A moment of silence for Love All Play, which has started airing just in time to be The Other Badminton Anime. There’s really nothing wrong with it if you’re a dedicated sports anime fan, but there’s not a lot unique to recommend it to anyone but genre diehards.
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Aharen-san wa Hakarenai – Episode 1
When they go to a games arcade after school and Aharen smushes her chubby cheeks up against the glass of a crane game machine, it looks more like Raido is babysitting a young relative rather than… setting up the initial character beats of a rom-com. I hope I don’t have to explain why that’s an issue!
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The Executioner and Her Way of Life – Episode 1
A yuri fantasy series that looks like a gem and is well worth going into unspoiled.
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Ya Boy Kongming! – Episode 1
Come for the plot, and absolutely stay for the plot because Ya Boy Kongming is one part humor, one part historic isekai, and all around heartwarming and fun.
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Chatty AF 159: Dear Brother Watchalong – Episodes 8-15 (WITH TRANSCRIPT)
Vrai, Mercedez, Chiaki, and special guest Diana continue their watchalong with episodes 8-15 of the quintessential anime melodrama, Dear Brother!
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Unsung Heroes: The women of The Heike Story
The creators of The Heike Story go a step further beyond tribute with the character of Biwa: by presenting her as the epic’s original author-performer, the anime adaptation places the theme of female agency front and center in what is otherwise a male-centric work.
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In the Name of Art: Academic burnout in Blue Period
The detrimental effect of academic burnout can be easy to overlook. While the media has had a hand in normalizing these behaviors, stories are starting to crop up that examine the issue critically. Blue Period is an excellent study in the behavior that leads to burnout and the consequences that follow.
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Kotaro Lives Alone – Episode 1
As an initial vibe check, I’d describe Kotaro Lives Alone as “deeply odd, but potentially (???) charming”.
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Love, Agency, and Androids: A Chobits Retrospective
Chobits uses its post-humanist storytelling to ask questions about the highly personal relationships that humans can develop with something that looks human or shares human qualities, but can never exactly be human. Because the persocoms are almost all built to look like young women, it also creates a space to ask questions about gender roles in relationships and how those perceived as female can be literally objectified. At times, Chobits presents a very compelling and empowering narrative around love, personal choice, and sacrifice. Yet, simultaneously, Chobits fails to reckon with the very questions it raises.
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The real-life adventures of teen racer Noda Juju adapted by manga creator Inuwashi
Noda Juju is a prodigy in the racing circuit and has gained an immense following over the years due to her popularity as a race car driver in Japan. She started to drive small cars when she was 3-years old and gradually began competing against adults in tournaments. When she met manga creator, Inuwashi in 2021, she was excited at the idea of adapting her story into a manga series on YouTube.
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Chatty AF 158: Dear Brother Watchalong – Episodes 1-7 (WITH TRANSCRIPT)
Vrai, Mercedez, Chiaki, and special guest Diana begin their watchalong of the quintessential anime melodrama, Dear Brother!
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Clothes Make the Guardian: Fashion and femininity in the Sailor Moon franchise
The silhouettes and clothing styles from the original 1990s Sailor Moon anime, as well as the manga, are consistent and intentional. What is feminine becomes something powerful. Unfortunately, this idea doesn’t carry through to much of modern Sailor Moon media. The new adaptations betray the purposeful fashion of the original series in a way that undermines the story’s overall gender commentary.
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Mirror, Mirror: Ouran High School Host Club and reflections of twin identity
One of the most clever anime/manga series of the 2000s, Ouran High School Host Club is best known for the gently satirical way it engages with classic shoujo tropes, with its characters performing and overexaggerating certain traits for an audience of squealing female clients. It examines twin tropes through Hikaru and Kaoru, playing up certain stereotypes while dismantling others, and creates a more human portrayal of twin identity than most of the media it parodies.
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All My Darling Daughters and the need for working women’s success and failure stories
Just as inspirational stories of women who achieve their goals are necessary, stories of those who are forced to relinquish them are equally important. Success stories are empowering, but in a vacuum they may unintentionally insinuate that failure also rests entirely on effort, laying the blame on women themselves rather than the disadvantages they face as a result of gender inequality.
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I Like Your Style: How The Prince of Tennis helped me shape my butch fashion sense
I studied storefront displays too, the Aeropostale mannequin sporting the same dress as my lab partner. What did my peers see in these clothes that I couldn’t? I didn’t know, but I hated it: clothes, fashion, school, my classmates, all of it. I was better than the other girls. Fashion was shallow. I’d stick to tennis and The Prince of Tennis instead.
Toxic thinking? Absolutely. But in 2006 I didn’t know better. -
Chatty AF 157: 2022 Winter Mid-Season Check-in (WITH TRANSCRIPT)
Dee, Mercedez, and Peter check in on the high highs and low lows of the Winter season!
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The Orbital Children’s Rejection of Ecofascist Ideas
The Orbital Children rejects the ecofascist idea that humans need to be controlled and culled in the name of someone’s idea of “humanity” and demands we imagine a better future that everyone gets to be a part of.
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Choosing to “Remain Strong” Against Female Criticism: The vindictive storytelling of Oda Eiichiro
While One Piece looms large in the present and past, conversations about how Oda treats women have often taken place on a surface level. Oda started his career by including women in prominent and active roles in his stories. But as time went on, he began responding to criticism by taking it out on his female characters and fans alike, undoing the good work he had done in the series’ early days.
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Reconsidering Belladonna of Sadness: Still powerful after almost 50 years
1973’s Belladonna of Sadness combines a 19th century work’s vision of the liberated witch with second-wave feminist ideology to create a flawed but fascinating work that invites revisiting even all these years later.
