Weekly Round-Up, 15-21 April 2020: Domestic Abuse Hotline, Anime Affected by COVID-19, and Another Rough News Week

By: Anime Feminist April 21, 20200 Comments
a small blue-haired girl. subtitle: We really do live in a class-based society...

AniFem Round-Up

2020 Spring Premiere Digest

All of this season’s premiere reviews in one place, plus updates on second episodes.

Anime Feminist Recommendations of Winter 2020

A robust season left us with so many faves we almost didn’t have room to recommend them all.

What’s your favorite pre-’90s anime?

New shows are great, but it’s fun to check out the medium’s roots too.

Beyond AniFem

The Slur I Never Expected to Hear in 2020 (The New York Times Magazine, Cathy Park Hong)

On the rise of hate crimes and verbal assault against Asian-Americans during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Asian-Americans have always lived a conditional existence in which belonging is promised as long as we work harder at being good, hamming up acts of courtesy when we help our neighbors, internalizing any racial slights we encounter and always allowing them to go first. The model-minority myth is a lie that silences the structural economic racism Asian-Americans have endured and the intergenerational traumas our families have experienced from years of Western colonialism, wars and invasions. I hated talking about the model-minority myth because it was like being stuck in a feedback loop. After refuting that myth, I was dragged back to refute it again. But when the pandemic struck, I realized how deeply entrenched that myth was in the psyches of not only whites but other people of color.

The coronavirus at least burned away any illusions that East Asians are almost white. Since the first cases were discovered in the U.S., I kept imagining the coronavirus as an irradiating purple light lancing through the cracks of our white-supremacist world. Some of us never noticed these cracks before, but now it is all that we can see. African-Americans and Latinos are dying in higher proportions than anyone else in New York City, perhaps because of their lack of access to health care and because many of them are essential workers and can’t shelter at home. But systemic racism keeps minorities separated.White supremacy ensures that once the pressure of persecution is lifted even a little from one group, that group will then fall upon the newly targeted group out of relief and out of a frustrated misplaced rage that can never touch, let alone topple, the real enemy.

List of Anime & Manga Affected by COVID-19 (Anime News Network, Rafael Antonio Pineda)

Includes tv series, movies, magazines, and studios overall.

Megan Thee Stallion Loves the Bad Boys of Anime (Crunchyroll, Kyle Cardine)

Interview with the rapper and anime fan.

Megan said during the interview she started watching anime with Inuyasha when it aired on Adult Swim, and that Inuyasha himself was her first anime crush. 

“One of the main reasons I really like anime is once the main character has a love interest, they are going so hard. They’ll do anything for their lady!” 

The most recent anime Megan said she finished was JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and is currently watching Blood Lad and Black Butler. Other anime Megan said she would recommend include My Hero AcademiaBlue ExorcistAssassination ClassroomTokyo Ghoul, and Soul Eater.

New hotline to begin for domestic violence victims stuck at home in Japan (The Mainichi)

There will be multilingual support available starting on May 1.

The free hotline, which can be reached on 0120-279-889, will initially be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, but will shift to 24-hour operation from the night of April 29.

Consultations will also be available via email or a members-only social media site, with details to be announced soon on the government’s official website for gender equality.

The bureau’s existing 0570-0-55210 hotline, which connects callers to their closest consultation center, will also remain open.

Women struggle to find place to give birth amid virus outbreak (The Asahi Shimbun, Iki Midori, Saito Hiroko and Ichino Kai)

Tokyo residents have been turned away from hospitals in smaller towns out of concern about virus transmission.

Responding to growing concerns about where to give birth, a number of Tokyo hospitals and medical facilities have begun offering support to pregnant women searching for a place to have their children.

In early April, as an increasing number of women were canceling or giving up on giving birth in their hometowns, the Tokyo Association of Obstetricians & Gynecologists conducted an emergency survey of hospitals in Tokyo and produced a list of 128 that said can accept pregnant women, which it released on its website.

“I hope pregnant women will use the list to consult with their primary care doctor (about where to give birth),” said Akihito Nakai, director of Nippon Medical School Tamanagayama Hospital in Tama, Tokyo, who initiated the list.

Tokyo: Man, 47, not prosecuted over alleged rape of 12-year-old girl (Tokyo Reporter)

Be advised of potentially triggering details in the full article.

Upon his arrest on suspicion of coerced intercourse, Oka admitted to the allegations, the Ikebukuro Police Station said previously.

On Tuesday, prosecutor’s with the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office announced the non-prosecution of Oka. No reason for the non-prosecution was given.

Coronavirus, stay-home request hit teenage girls in Japan with no place to go (The Mainichi)

The closing of public gathering spaces has left many at-risk groups without recourse.

“We see fewer girls in town, but they all have things to worry about,” said Yumeno Nito, 30, who heads Colabo, a group that helps underage girls who have no place to go.

The group has secured rooms in a hotel as a shelter for them and also drives a bus named “Tsubomi Cafe” to Tokyo’s Kabukicho entertainment district to offer free food and consultations inside.

“Recruiting for the sex industry is continuing,” Nito said. “There’s a real need for our work at a time like this.”

VIDEO: Clip of interview with Nigerian-Japanese model Abel Nakao.

THREAD: Reaction to Kawakami Mieko’s recent interview with Murakami Haruki and the discussion surrounding it.

TWEET: Link to the recent dub of Pokémon Twilight Wings episode starring Sword/Shield’s Nessa.

AniFem Community

To everyone who’s been unsure where to start with older anime, we hope you find a few good suggestions here.

Movie: Wings of Honneamise, a truly astounding example of creating a world that is unlike ours.

TV: The Mysterious Cities of Gold, for nostalgia reasons. One of the things that prepared me to be an anime fan before I was really aware that anime was a specific thing to be a fan of.
Probably Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, if only because I'm not super familiar with a lot of pre-90s anime. I liked Gundam: War in the Pocket, but Gundam in general is veeeeeeeeeeery hit/miss for me, even within a single series. I own Patlabor, but I've yet to sit down and actually watch it since I bought it.

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