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Introduction to Copaganda in Anime and Manga
Media from all over the globe contains an abundance of pro-law enforcement storylines and themes. Anime and manga are not exempt from this, with some of the most successful franchises in both mediums espousing dangerous, pro-cop social politics. That’s why this piece aims to introduce new and old anime fans to the concept of copaganda, highlight some of the most popular ways the practice appears so that it can be regularly identified, and offer some direction on how fans can still enjoy the mediums in spite of these prevalent themes.

Historyby Lucas DeRuyter September 17, 20210 Comments
Portrayals of Black Masculinity in Carole & Tuesday
Despite its social justice-minded storytelling, Carole & Tuesday can be a frustrating watch as it swings back and forth between exploring these characters as nuanced individuals and perpetuating harmful stereotypes of Black masculinity.

Featureby Katharine Mussellam September 15, 20210 Comments
Jujutsu Kaisen star Anne Yatco on the fight for casting equity and what shounen can learn from Nobara
Anne Yatco is a longtime actor with a varied and fascinating career. She entered the world of acting after spending four years as a full-time forensic scientist, worked with the all-WOC sketch group BAE*GENCY, and co-starred on the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff Station 19. She’s recently pivoted primarily to working in voiceover, where she’s best known for playing Nobara in the English Jujutsu Kaisen dub.

Interviewby Vrai Kaiser August 27, 20210 Comments
Cannon Busters: Black representation beyond social issue dramas
Anime with multiple Black leads, though not unheard of, were rare. I had to know if this was a fluke, or an elaborate marketing ploy to bait viewers like me, who eagerly soaked up every ounce of non-stereotyped diversity they could get their hands on. What I discovered was so much more than that. The fun of Cannon Busters isn’t just its inclusiveness, but in the way it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Featureby Nubia Jade Brice August 13, 20210 Comments
“Serves You Right”: The abolitionist condemnation of retributive justice in Akudama Drive
With a cast mostly of “dangerous criminals” identified by the crimes they’ve committed instead of their names, I assumed Akudama Drive’s dystopian setting would act as little more than set dressing in a story that ultimately reinforces, rather than challenges, the stigmatization of criminalized people. I have rarely been happier to be proven wrong. Echoing the calls of the prison abolition movement, Akudama Drive delivers a powerful and subversive statement against the criminal legal system, one that goes beyond slogans like All Cops Are Bastards and questions the basis of our conception of justice.

Featureby Inkie June 16, 20210 Comments
Race, power dynamics, and the missed opportunities of Great Pretender
The initial premise promised colorful heists alongside an interesting story, but it ultimately failed its characters of color.

Featureby Beata June 11, 20210 Comments
The Feminist Potential of the Lolita Fashion Subculture
While it may appear on the surface to be an overtly feminine, traditional fashion, Lolita’s history and present iteration are rooted in rejection of the male gaze and societal expectations for women, as well as the building of women-centric community spaces. Of course, these things don’t make it feminist outright, but the result is a subculture well-positioned for the potential to embrace feminist ideals of choice, self-empowerment, and autonomy.

Featureby Sarah Alexander May 12, 20210 Comments
How racial inequality in From the New World mirrors the Black American struggle
When your cries are constantly dismissed under thinly veiled apologies, it can be hard to feel seen or heard, but that is exactly what happened when I stumbled upon From the New World, the anime adaptation of Kishi Yusuke’s novel by the same name. I ventured into the series expecting a casual sci-fi horror but was instead met with a much deeper allegory for discrimination that paralleled my feelings of being a minority in America.

Historyby Nubia Jade Brice March 19, 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
“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 Tony 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