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My Fave is Problematic: Yu Yu Hakusho
The lovable characters have kept me hooked on Yu Yu Hakusho for the past 18 years, in addition to the “fight your enemies head on and defeat them through raw power and sheer force of will” storyline that will always be a guilty pleasure of mine. Although these elements make it worth the rewatch even now, my love for this anime hasn’t completely blinded me to its flaws. Yu Yu Hakusho, unfortunately, overtly and subtly fails its female characters time and again.

My Fave is Problematicby Jessica Justice May 7, 20210 Comments
Non-Binary Orochimaru and the homophobic legacy of queer-coded villainy
From their first appearance disguised as a young woman to their dangly earrings and lilting English dub performance, Orochimaru carries many of the unfortunate hallmarks of a queer-coded antagonist, one whose most terrifying power includes the ability to inhabit the bodies of others in a bid for eternal life. Their portrayal, already mired in queerphobia, is complicated by the franchise’s later decision to portray Orochimaru as a character with a non-binary gender identity, the first canonically LGBTQ+ character in the franchise.

Featureby Danny McLaren March 17, 20210 Comments
Yuri!!! On ICE and the revolutionary portrayal of queer Slavic representation
Of all the amazing things about the show, one of the most striking to me was the revolutionary way it portrayed the intersection of queer and Slavic identity.

Perspectivesby Michele Kirichanskaya March 12, 20210 Comments
We need more licensed doujinshi
I often want to share a cool story after reading it, but, as an avid reader of doujinshi, I find few outlets where I can share that passion. For all the interesting work indie publications can harbor, they are largely inaccessible to non-Japanese markets, making it difficult to share my passion with English fans.

Featureby Chiaki Hirai March 10, 20210 Comments
Reading Code:Realize as Queer Allegory
You wouldn’t expect an otome game like Code:Realize to have themes that resonate so strongly with common queer experiences. In many ways, the game follows genre conventions, with a heterosexual romance story following a singular heroine and a cast of attractive men. Yet it spoke to me, an enby transgender man, by exploring themes of inner discovery, found family, and self-love.

Perspectivesby Naomi "Bez" Norbez March 3, 20210 Comments
How BL and Yuri Helped Me Face My Sexuality
It took years of consuming BL and Yuri to finally face my truth: that I am queer.

Perspectivesby Cynthia Millsap February 17, 20210 Comments
Chatty AF 134: Yuri Manga Variety Hour (WITH TRANSCRIPT)
Vrai, Alex, and Mercedez go over the wealth of yuri being published on the English market and share some of their faves!

Podcastby Anime Feminist February 14, 20210 Comments
Blue Flag vs. Our Dreams at Dusk: A look at LGBTQ+ representation and its audience
Our Dreams at Dusk and Blue Flag are two series about queer characters, but it’s clear that each is aimed at a different target audience.

Versusby Kaye Scheidler February 10, 20210 Comments
My Fave is Problematic: Kakegurui
It soon becomes clear that within Hyakkaou Academy, it’s the women who get shit done. That was where I found what had first caught my interest in the first place: the women of Kakegurui.

My Fave is Problematicby Jordan Mulder February 5, 20210 Comments
The queer blood ties of Vampire Princess Miyu
Miyu is born a vampire, and her bite does not seem to turn her victims into other vampires. In Vampire Princess Miyu, blood bonds become not something that transfers a vampiric condition, but something that creates connection. While in some vampire stories it can also forge mythical bonds, the conventional vampire bite crucially also transfers a condition (vampirism). But here, the connections are not accompanied by transformation. Rather than giving you new traits, its only effect is to create a link between yourself and another person.

Historyby Camellia James January 27, 20210 Comments
The Surprisingly Queer-Friendly Narrative of Cybersix
Japanese animation has found numerous sources of inspiration, from comics and novels to video games and toys, located from both within and outside of its national borders. But when it came to the 90s, few have the unique history, and overwhelming queer vibes , that the anime adaptation of Cybersix does.

Historyby Patricia C. Baxter December 16, 20200 Comments
My Fave is Problematic: Free!
One of the biggest gripes I have now with Free! is the amount of fanservice the show throws at you. While the perfectly sculpted muscles of the main male cast is what led to the show’s boom in popularity, it has also caused harm for the show.
Despite its flaws, Free! remains close to my heart as a show full of relatable and raw emotions. There’s been times where I’ve shed tears along with the characters on screen, and also deeply sympathized with their hardships.

My Fave is Problematicby Tanushri Shah December 11, 20200 Comments
Boys Run the Riot, Visual Kei, and Gender Euphoria Through Fashion
Gender identity, self expression, and ethnicity are so intertwined that it would be hard to discuss one without discussing the others. As a Japanese trans man, all of these things have come into play in relation to my self-expression and identity. One of the things I found solace and euphoria in, as a teenager, was clothing.

Perspectivesby Kazuma Hashimoto December 9, 20200 Comments
Love Me for Who I Am is inclusive, but falls short for some non-binary people
The Love Me for Who I Am manga is educational on how not to treat nonbinary people, but it’s not enough and needs to do better.

Perspectivesby Ghia Vitale November 4, 20200 Comments
Against the World: Madoka Rebellion, saviorism, and abolitionist schooling
As somebody who has witnessed repeatedly the failure of would-be individual saviors to undo entire oppressive systems, I want to try to come to a deeper understanding than what is afforded on the surface by Rebellion’s final twist. What happens when hope is institutionalized? How do oppressive ideologies shape the worlds we can imagine? And the question that has haunted me most: if in the moment we destroyed an oppressive world we were given the full power to create a new one before we had any time to heal, would we like what we make?

Perspectivesby Tony Sun Prickett September 25, 20200 Comments
Katarina of Irodori Comics on translating doujinshi to English
Irodori Comics launched an all-ages online doujinshi store featuring LGBTQ+ works. AniFem asked its editor to talk about the company’s future plans.

Interviewby Chiaki Hirai September 23, 20200 Comments
“Who the Hell Do You Think We Are?” Gurren Lagann’s blunted message of liberation
A distinct antiauthoritarian spirit runs through Imaishi’s works. Yet nowhere is the director’s call for collective action more realized, but most glaringly compromised, than in the show that made him a household name: Gurren Lagann.

Featureby Stephen Hero August 14, 20200 Comments
World-Building a Queer Paradise in My Next Life as a Villainess
So, is the world of Villainess a queer utopia uniquely laid out so that Catarina’s love(s) can bloom? Or is the question of world- and story-building a little more complicated?

Featureby Alex Henderson August 7, 20200 Comments
Magical Girls as Metaphor: Why coded queer narratives still have value
Even now, with the vast increase of explicit queer womxn’s representation on television over the past decade, I still see myself in Sailor Moon and The iDOLM@STER more than I see myself in Orphan Black.

Perspectivesby Sara Khan July 22, 20200 Comments
How Can I Connect to You? Breaking out of toxic masculinity and capitalist ideologies in SARAZANMAI
Both Kazuki and Toi emerge from similar circumstances of capitalism, oppression, and the hypermasculine coping mechanisms they’ve been given to deal with the pain of that oppression. It is only through learning to care for one another—and learning that they can care for one another—that they can both be free.

Featureby Tony Sun Prickett June 19, 20200 Comments