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Orb: On the Movements of the Earth and imagining radical futures
As I watched Orb’s various protagonists stake their lives against a violently oppressive religious institution, my real-life government grew alarmingly hostile toward my existence and those of my ilk. Watching Orb became an acutely personal experience, demonstrating the force with which established power structures will suppress truths that threaten their authority and how hope for radical change can be found through community and collective action.

Perspectivesby S. Chang June 13, 20250 Comments
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.

Featureby Naina Singh May 28, 20250 Comments
Gigi Murakami demonstrates how horror manga can channel Black girl nightmares
The Ignatz Award-nominated Murakami draws influence from manga, vintage grindhouse picture posters, and pulp comics, breathing fresh air into the horror genre while approaching the fearful experiences of descendants of the African diaspora and, most significantly, the fears and nightmares of dark-skinned women.

Interviewby Gabriel Leão May 14, 20250 Comments
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.

Featureby Tony Sun Prickett May 7, 20250 Comments
Long Live the Queen: How gender defines the antagonist of Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail
Sphene thematically reflects previous antagonists, but the additional context of the setting’s gender roles (and the player’s own presumed awareness of gendered roles in real history) reframe her character and refresh the villain formula.

Featureby Lance January 29, 20250 Comments
Social Commentary, Horror Manga and the Left: From Ero-Guro to Junji Ito
Communism is when I write horror manga. This fact has generally been unrecognized in discussions on the subject.

Historyby Julian Jefko August 23, 20240 Comments
The Villain Edit: Dissecting how Oshi no Ko evokes real-life tragedy in its depictions of harassment and reality TV culture
Oshi no Ko spends a few episodes examining the harsh way that people who participate on reality TV can be treated, especially online. In this way, it shines a light on an issue that people who don’t watch much (if any) reality TV have probably ever considered. But what does the way it goes about this mean for its overall message?

Featureby Kennedy May 29, 20240 Comments
Who is Granted Personhood? Frieren’s demons and the trouble with the “inherently evil race” trope
This story about immortality, grief, and the importance of emotional connections is interrupted by the presence of blunt, strawman villains who exist not as characters but as plot devices to show the “humanity” of the protagonists.

Featureby Cress March 27, 20240 Comments
Roland Kelts on Blade Runner: Black Lotus, the influence of shoujo, and 18 years of Japanamerica
Writer Roland Kelts opened up about his early childhood relationship with anime and manga, the status that Japanamerica holds today, cross cultural influence in media, female characters in manga and anime, and his work on The Art of Blade Runner: Black Lotus.

Interviewby Gabriel Leão February 23, 20240 Comments
Giant Robots Against Colonialism: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury’s Shakespearean roots
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is a show that does not just wear its inspirations on its sleeve but builds on them. One such reference point is William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, from which G-Witch borrows three characters: Prospero, Ariel, and Caliban. In doing so, G-Witch spotlights colonialist readings of the play, envisioning a world where the colonized can break away and heal from oppression by joining together.

Featureby S. Chang November 29, 20230 Comments
My Fave Is Problematic: Stop!! Hibari-Kun!
The dichotomy of Hibari as both a progressive trans narrative and an ignorant product of its time showcases Japan’s complicated relationship with trans women and other marginalized groups.

My Fave is Problematicby Gab Hernandez September 8, 20230 Comments
Therapy and Hope in the Wake of Disaster: An interview with ‘Tsunami Girl’ creators Kutsuwada Chie and Julian Sedgwick
In an exclusive interview with Anime Feminist, Sedgwick and Kutsuwada spoke about the process to create this project, how they approached diversity considering gender and racial themes, the sensibility of portraying real life trauma, and how their work has been a healing experience to both and readers alike.

Interviewby Gabriel Leão May 12, 20230 Comments
The World is Our Egg: Understanding Adultification through Anthy Himemiya
Adultification not only works against Black and Brown women and AFAB folks in our society today but also contextualizes aspects of Anthy’s story more clearly.

Featureby Khadija Evans November 23, 20220 Comments
My Fave is Problematic: Bleach
Bleach means quite a lot to me. It’s the foundation for so much of my work as an artist and writer that breaking it down into its smaller parts would be very difficult. Reading it carried me through high school as a deeply insecure, deeply in-the-closet teenager, and even through early college when the series ended in 2015.

My Fave is Problematicby E.B. Hutchins November 9, 20220 Comments
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure actor Tiana Camacho discusses her favorite shoujo and systemic casting hurdles for actors of color
Vrai sat down with Camacho at Otakon 2022 to ask her about her influences, her dream role, and the expectation put on marginalized public figures to act as educators.

Interviewby Vrai Kaiser September 7, 20220 Comments
Carole & Tuesday director Hori Motonobu on the series’ writing process and trans characters
The series saw praise for its well-characterized Black heroine, optimistic outlook and its swing-for-the-fences tale of pushing back against injustice (including a spot in our 2019 recs list). At the same time, it’s received its share of criticism for the way that core optimism lends itself toward over-simplification of fraught issues, as well as its stumbles in portraying Black masculinity and queer and trans characters.

Interviewby Vrai Kaiser August 24, 20220 Comments
Zeno Robinson, My Hero Academia star, talks favorite roles, fighting harassment, and voice actor unionization
Discussion about wages and working conditions have exploded to the surface of the anime industry over the past few years. Anime Feminist had a chance to talk with Zeno Robinson, acclaimed actor and vocal supporter of the unionization movement, at Otakon 2022.

Interviewby Vrai Kaiser August 12, 20220 Comments
Framing the Model Minority Myth with Neo Cat
Hi, it’s me, Chiaki, once again thinking too hard about cats in media. Today I’m here to tell you that Aoka’s Neo Cat conveys how being celebrated doesn’t necessarily exempt you from racism.

Featureby Chiaki Mitama May 25, 20220 Comments
Moriarty the Patriot’s class war is far from history in the UK
In the anime, Moriarty’s seamless assimilation into British high society makes an inadvertent mockery of the idea that you can simply be born “better” than others. The reality is anyone could get into Moriarty’s position with the right opportunities, but not everyone would choose to share the resources they gained to support those they left behind. It’s no exaggeration to say that to many, classism still feels so deeply ingrained in the UK it seems like the country would collapse without it.
This begs the question: how effective is Moriarty’s plan to burn everything to the ground, and what does the UK (both in fiction and reality) need to do in order to destroy class inequality for good?

Featureby Hannah Collins May 13, 20220 Comments
Brazilian mangaka Marina de Melo do Nascimento broke the internet and the rules to make her way to Japan
Nascimento studied the work of one of Japan’s famous feminist scholars, Kishida Toshiko (1864 – 1901), and her place of study is especially meaningful given that Tohoku University was the first university to accept women as students back in the early 1900’s. Nascimento is also known as Mmyoi and is the creator of The Bride of the Fox.

Interviewby Gabriel Leão November 26, 20210 Comments