AniFem Round-Up
In Sailor Moon S and Revolutionary Girl Utena, butchness is vital fluidity
Haruka and Utena are positive sapphic butches who are central in their narratives, something that can still be frustratingly even uncommon today.
Orb: On the Movements of the Earth and imagining radical futures
Orb’s story about the long struggle standing against oppressive, hierarchical and anti-science regimes resonates especially strongly in the current moment.
What was your first BL or yuri series?
Especially the ones that were published in “BL” and “yuri” magazines.
Beyond AniFem
Guide: Where to read manga online LEGALLY? (Comics Beat, Matias De la Piedra)
An exhaustive list of legal reading platforms.
I’ll be blunt: This list is long, and it took me ages to put together. But if it helps you find a convenient manga reading site you can actually use, then it was all worth it. So please, USE this guide. I’m begging you.
Here, you’ll find over 60 platforms where you can read manga online. Whether you prefer reading on your phone or computer, in English, French, Thai, or another language, or prefer free access, subscriptions, virtual currency systems, or just buying digital volumes outright, this guide covers it all. Hopefully, you’ll find a platform that truly fits your reading style.
Note: Yes, I used “manga” in the title, but this guide also contains sites where you can read manhwa/webtoons, manhua, and light novels, so dig in!
Manga to Show Your Pride (Anime News Network, Lucas DeRuyter and Steve Jones)
Chat about various queer manga from across decades and genres to try out.
Steve: There will always be salient arguments about what constitutes “good” representation, but I like messy stuff. After loving the anime adaptation, I just caught up with the Onimai manga. While I agree the anime makes a lot of smart changes, I also don’t think you can get away from the fact that Onimai is, in its own gently perverse way, a fundamentally compassionate examination of the benefits of socially transitioning.
Lucas: That’s great to hear about Onimai! I was a little worried it might be in a nebulous spot after Reddit more or less adopted the series after the anime was released. You’re completely right! Queer stories don’t have to be “realistic” or even feature “positive representation” for the work to be impactful.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure introduced an explicitly gender non-conforming protagonist in Part 9‘s Dragona. Despite this, the manga is a tentpole in the queer anime community and was partially responsible for me figuring out my relationship with attraction and gender expression.
Steve: I have seen people online get really upset at the implication that JoJo‘s is anything but the straightest of straight manga, and that is the funniest hill to die on.
Lucas: If you’re reading this and you think JoJo is straight in the year 2025, I don’t know what to tell ya, bud! Araki dropped a Dua Lipa shoutout within the first couple of pages of this latest part, and I’d be SHOCKED if it ended without at least one Stand named 「Pink Pony Club」. Queer fans were instrumental in getting the JJBA fandom off the ground internationally, and we’ll never cede the series to meme lords who refuse to check out anything past Part 4.
Steve: One of my all-time favorite mangaka is Shūzō Oshimi, both because he is a master of his craft and because his works often dive into uncomfortably confessional and muddled depths regarding gender and identity. Ironically, I think that makes him refreshingly frank about his anxieties. Welcome Back, Alice in particular feels like sticking your eyeball into someone’s open wound—nothing else like it.
Record 99 women run for Tokyo assembly race, making up 34% of all candidates (The Mainichi, Kazuo Yanagisawa)
A total of 295 candidates will be running.
Of the 99 female candidates, seven are backed by the Liberal Democratic Party, 14 by the regional party Tomin First no Kai, six by Komeito, 17 by the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), five by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, one by Nippon Ishin (the Japan Innovation Party), three by the Tokyo Seikatsusha Network, six by the Democratic Party for the People, one by Reiwa Shinsengumi, two by Sanseito, one by the Social Democratic Party (SDP), seven by The Path to Rebirth and two by other groups, while 27 are independents. The Conservative Party of Japan did not field any female candidates.
The proportion of women among each party’s candidates reached 100% for the SDP and Tokyo Seikatsusha Network, 71% for the JCP and 50% for Sanseito, while 49% of independent candidates are also female.
The number of female candidates in the metropolitan assembly election has been on the rise. While the figure stood at 44 for the 2001 poll, it shot up to 65 in the 2017 race when Tomin First no Kai fielded many women, and further rose this election.
Japan continues to rank among lowest for gender equality (The Asahi Shimbun, Kazuo Teranishi)
Their rank remains 118th out of 148.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s Cabinet, which was formed in October last year, has only two female members, while the Cabinet of previous Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had five women.
In the Lower House election held in October last year, a record high number of women were elected, but the ratio of women among all lawmakers in Japan is still only about 16 percent.
Meanwhile, Japan’s equality score for the economy, which reflects women’s representation among managers or directors at companies, rose to 61.3 percent this year, up from 56.8 percent the previous year.
The global overall gender equality score was 68.8 percent, up 0.3 percent from the previous year.
Worldwide, politics (equality score 22.9 percent) and the economy (equality score 61.0 percent) have large gender disparities, but both areas saw improvements in 2025.
However, the report estimates that achieving complete global gender equality at the current pace of improvement would take 123 years. The WEF emphasized that the lack of political participation for women is the greatest obstacle to global gender equality.
Meanwhile, movements against diversity have been growing around the world.
Japanese Female TV Host Says Station Turned Her Sexual Harassment Into Content (Unseen Japan, Saki Toi)
This article includes explicit discussion of sexual harassment and assault.
In recent months, disturbing cases of sexual harassment have surfaced in Japan’s television industry. For years, many have viewed TV stations as exploitative workplaces ruled by rigid hierarchies and outdated corporate values. Japanese people I’ve spoken to often view them as exploitative companies (ブラック企業; burakku kigyō). The term refers to workplaces with harsh conditions and top-down power structures where obedience is valued over basic rights.
I previously worked full-time at one of Japan’s major TV stations as a journalist. I saw firsthand how accurate these perceptions were. Those in higher positions often lacked awareness of wrongdoing and expected silence, even when misconduct was obvious. This oppressive culture distorts power dynamics and exposes vulnerable workers to abuse. The system not only overlooks harm—it enables it.
These recent revelations may only scratch the surface of deeper, systemic problems in Japan’s television industry. It’s an institution that should reflect society’s best values, but instead seems to do the opposite.
Half of women in Japan local assemblies have been harassed: study (The Mainichi)
The survey analyzed data from more than 5000 respondents.
A Cabinet Office survey released June 6 found that 53.8 percent of assemblywomen reported experiencing harassment, ranging from humiliation to physical encounters, more than twice the 23.6 percent of assemblymen who said the same.
While the share of assemblywomen has been rising, they made up just 14.6 percent of prefectural assemblies and 19.5 percent of city councils, with 21.2 percent of town and village assemblies having no female members as of December 2024, according to the Cabinet Office.
In a multiple-response question asking assemblywomen to identify their harassers, 65.7 percent selected “other candidates, their supporters, or fellow assembly members,” followed by 64.0 percent who cited “voters,” according to the study.
Of the types of harassment experienced, “degrading attitudes or remarks stemming from unconscious gender bias,” “physical encounters or stalking, including touching and hugging,” and “sexual comments” were reported at higher rates by women than men.
Yes, It Was Worth It: An Argument For Quality Porn Games (Adult Analysis Anthology 3, Zoquete)
An adult game creator reflects on the potential of the genre.
Anything creative has a piece of its creator inside of it2. That goes double for projects made solo, without a significant financial incentive, or following a creator’s personal vision. As we’ve discussed, NSFW games are commonly all of these things at the same time. Even more factors force authenticity in kink and fetish work. There can be no screens or pretenses when venturing into territory that’s not socially acceptable in the public sphere; everything is on display, the way the author wants it to be, self-censorship or decency be damned. And that results in fascinating – if not always pleasant – insight into the creators’ inner world.
I consider myself somewhat jaded to awful things on the internet, but frankly a lot of what I find in the adult games sphere is still pretty revolting to me. I’m not talking about kinks or fetishes; I mean projects expressing regressive views of identity, utterly unoriginal power fantasies, or flagrant use of generative AI to pump out cash-grab content. In the context of that unavoidable creative honesty, I find all of it deeply unsettling. Even worse, I know plenty of people would judge my work exactly the same for including adult content at all.
So why bother putting effort into a project that’s destined to fall into the ‘adult’ category, joining this sordid company and tarnishing your reputation by association? One very good reason: the depths to which the medium can sink are a reflection of how high it can soar when executed with passion, dedication and intentionality.
VIDEO: How Victoria L. Johnson Created the Sailor Moon Day Party.
VIDEO: Route playthrough of yuri VN Love Curse Find Your Soulmate.
VIDEO: Switch 2 early accessibility impressions.
AniFem Community
Lots of familiar names in the comments!
Rewired my brain at age 10
— lewinwing (@lewiru.bsky.social) June 17, 2025 at 9:56 PM
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Somehow it seems like every Anime Feminist question, I can answer with Cantarella 😅
— Laura Egan ローラ・イーガン (@lme5081.bsky.social) June 16, 2025 at 10:05 PM
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Gravitation was my first BL (and I imagine the first for many English readers/viewers around y2k) Utena was my first wlw series, although I don't know if I'd class that as yuri.
— JenAtWork (@jenatwork.bsky.social) June 17, 2025 at 7:22 AM
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I actually rewatched KnM earlier this year and it is a complete mess of a show but the OP/ED are such bangers and also I guess it changed my life or something
— LiquidEther (@liquidether.bsky.social) June 17, 2025 at 10:57 PM
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