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“Black Should Sound Black”: The inherently racist politics of anime dubbing
There are a lot of assumptions packed into the belief that the best voice actor always gets the role. The statement alone implies that we live in a true meritocracy, which is false. FUNimation, easily the biggest producer of English anime dubs, routinely casts from an extremely small and extremely white pool of voice actors. The idea of “casting the right person for the role” is precluded by insidious biases and practices such as lazy casting, where voice directors will rely on a few go-to voice actors they prefer to work with in lieu of seeking out a wider pool of talent.

Featureby Bracy December 23, 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 Anthony Sun Prickett September 25, 20200 Comments
Discordant Tones: Oversimplifying music as resistance in Carole & Tuesday
Carole and Tuesday are just two girls dreaming of becoming musicians. While the series initially follows the girls’ rise to stardom, the focuses shifts to examine how music can fight back against oppression, but leads to a simple and unsatisfying ending.

Featureby ThatNerdyBoliviane September 9, 20200 Comments
My Fave is Problematic: Attack on Titan
As it stands, no matter how Attack on Titan ends, its legacy will be a divisive one: a lauded masterpiece to some and despised propaganda piece to others. However, there is a strong argument to be made that Attack on Titan is a far more nuanced tale than its most vehement critics accuse it of being.

My Fave is Problematicby Hannah Collins August 21, 20200 Comments
How Berserk’s Casca challenges the myth of the “Strong Black Woman”
Black women always have to be strong. Society thinks we have some superhuman ability to withstand trauma. We are depicted this way all over the media to devastating results. I want to talk about Casca, a character who stands as the antithesis to this extremely harmful stereotype.

Perspectivesby Jackson P. Brown August 12, 20200 Comments
Brianna Slaughter on organizing BLM Kansai / インタビュー：BLM関西オーガナイザー、ブリアナ・スローター
A Q-and-A session with the Kyoto-based Afro Lantinx YouTuber who helped organize the BLM Kansai march in early June. (Available in Japanese and English)

Interviewby Chiaki Hirai June 24, 20200 Comments
The Worker’s Nekopara: A call to arms against nekonomic exploitation
Yes, even the horny catgirl anime can be a lesson in real-world inequality.

Featureby Chiaki Hirai June 17, 20200 Comments
Home is Where Your Friend Is: Embracing diverse female friendships in Satoko and Nada
Satoko and Nada’s friendship is a great example of why friendships between women with disparate lives are necessary, as the two embrace their differences despite their vastly different backgrounds, protect each other, and offer one another a semblance of family when they’re far from home.

Perspectivesby Carrie McClain May 1, 20200 Comments
How Kingdom Hearts helped me assert my gender identity
When I played Kingdom Hearts Union X Cross (then called Unchained X) for the first time in 2016, I felt pressured to play as my assigned gender (female), due to the lack of options for both Black female video game characters and non-binary characters. As someone who was still exploring their gender identity and expression, this was extremely stifling.

Perspectivesby Latonya Pennington March 18, 20200 Comments
Power, Oppression, and Victimhood in The Twelve Kingdoms versus The Rising of the Shield Hero
While their first arcs run largely parallel to each other, Shield Hero’s themes of revenge and victimhood undercut any room for growth, while Twelve Kingdoms uses almost identical story elements to explore the nature of power and oppression and push its protagonist towards positive change.

Versusby Caitlin Moore February 26, 20200 Comments
No One is Born to Be a Slave: How The Twelve Kingdoms questions social systems
Fantasy is often described as escapism, but the genre has great potential to expose a reader to different perspectives on their own society while drawing them into an exciting new world. The Twelve Kingdoms novels by Fuyumi Ono truly show this. The world of the Twelve Kingdoms is a masterful example of a fully developed, politically complex, colorful and varied fantasy world.

Featureby Caitlin Donovan November 27, 20190 Comments
Southeast Asians Not Included: Black Lagoon and the invisible civilians
Sayang. It’s a word in Tagalog that expresses light frustration and disappointment at a missed opportunity, a combination of “so close” and “what a shame” in one word.

Historyby Carlo Lopez May 17, 20190 Comments
The Invisible Underdogs: The relationship between Black folks and anime
Black people love anime. This is an undeniable, non-negotiable, indisputable fact. One would think that Black people would have much more of a significant presence in Western anime communities and fandoms. But if you look on any black- or brown-skinned cosplayer’s Instagram posts, you will see loads of positive and encouraging comments, and also a slew of racist ones.

Featureby Channler Twyman February 8, 20190 Comments
The Portrayal of Jewish and Jewish-coded Characters in Anime
When Jewish anime fans search for representation in their favorite medium, they find it between the lines if they do at all. And yet, Judaism is one of the world’s most well-known religions. Why is it so underrepresented in anime?

Featureby Stas Livre November 9, 20180 Comments
Banana Fish and the real-world racial politics of 1980s America
The classic 1980s Banana Fish manga is a painful read because it’s able to capture how pervasive white supremacy is throughout all sectors of society. The series also depicts how that ideology is perpetuated through interpersonal relationships and how it has an influence on real-world policy decisions.

Historyby ThatNerdyBoliviane November 7, 20180 Comments
The Mazinger Problem: On “different times,” “lost in translation,” and the role of translators
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to work on the first full U.S. release of one of my favorite franchises ever: Mazinger Z. But while I was all-in for the cheesiness and monster-of-the-week action, I was caught on the back foot when it came to certain elements of the show.

Featureby Kara Dennison August 31, 20180 Comments
Chatty AF 51: Learning Japanese as WOC (WITH TRANSCRIPT)
Amelia and special guests Lizzie Visitante, Jacqueline-Elizabeth Cottrell, and Minami discuss their experiences with, and provide advice for, learning Japanese as women of color!

Podcastby Anime Feminist April 29, 20180 Comments
Jacque Aye, Adorned by Chi creator, talks anime influences and Black magical girls
When I saw Adorned by Chi, the Black-owned “nerdy lifestyle brand for misfits & magical girls”, had an 80%-funded Kickstarter with a week to go, I had to know more.

Interviewby Amelia Cook April 26, 20180 Comments
My road to finding better Latinx representation in anime
Throughout my ever-growing love for all things manga and anime, there have been a lot of pretty good and some downright horrible portrayals of Latinx people.

Perspectivesby Angely Mercado January 19, 201813 Comments
Achieving Whiteness Through Social Mobility in Gankutsuou
Unlike previous adaptations of The Count of Monte Cristo, which overwhelmingly cast white actors, Gankutsuou makes a point of depicting the main characters as people of color. This is more accurate to the original, and allows the anime to explore the racial elements of Dumas’s story that are often overlooked.

Featureby ThatNerdyBoliviane December 27, 20175 Comments