Weekly Round-Up, 15-21 January 2025: Super Robot Ban, Sailor Moon Musical US Tour, and Mignogna Documentary

By: Anime Feminist January 21, 20250 Comments
Uka falls asleep at her desk

AniFem Round-Up

2025 Winter Premiere Digest

All of the seasonal premieres in one place with content warnings, plus some updates on subsequent episodes.

Anime Feminist Recommendations of Fall 2024

Our favorite shows from the last season of 2024, from yakuza thrillers and fake marriages to fishing stories.

What anime gets you through hard times?

We’ve been in them for a while, and they’re getting worse.

Beyond AniFem

Castlevania: Nocturne Writers Talk Religion, Revolution, and Black Representation (Gizmodo, Isaiah Colbert)

How the series interweaves its fantastical elements with Haitian history.

While fans have come to expect Eurocentric historical events like the French Revolution to coincide with a fantastical story like Nocturne‘s, the show surprised folks the world over by focusing on Black revolutions as well. What inspired the idea of adding that element to Nocturne‘s story?

Clive Bradley: Once we had the setting of the French Revolution (which came from Rondo of Blood being set in 1792), it was vital, I think, to find some way to include the Haitian Revolution. The most radical thing the French Revolution did was abolish slavery, but the fundamental reason for that was that enslaved people were abolishing it themselves in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (later Haiti). Of course, then, you need characters to dramatize this. And having a relationship between one of these characters and the “hero” of the game, Richter, seemed an obvious choice.

Of course, the next step was to build a writers’ room with writers who could help flesh this out. I’m so honored to have found Testament, Zodwa, and Temi [Oh], who did such a marvelous job.

Nyoni: What I found interesting was that conversation about where the line between fiction and reality is. I’m a history buff. I love politics and research, so I loved the idea of leaning in on the work that I already do as an academic or as a writer in theater or screen, but also meeting the world of Castlevania. Myself, Temi, and Testament came on board to realize this vision that allowed us to not only bring ourselves and our cultural backgrounds to it [but also] open up the space for more research.

Testament: What I like about working with Zodwa and Temi is that certain go-to cliches have been used in portrayals of global majority heritage characters, and we wanted to be real. We’ve seen those hairstyles a bunch, and they’re not historically accurate. We can be fresh with that and keep it in history. The Haitian Revolution, again, [had] famous women who were generals, leaders, and warriors like Marie-Jeanne Lamartinière, Victoria Montou (aka Toya), and Suzanne Bélair. It’s just history.

How a super robot anime became a revolutionary icon for Filipinos (Polygon, Gab Hernandez)

The show became deeply tied to the brutal regime of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

[Professor] Chua points to commentary from two key figures that inform the discussion. The first is Filipino voice actress Celina Cristobal, who appeared in the localized Filipino dubs of Tōshō Daimos, Mekanda Robot, and Voltes V. Under one of Chua’s Facebook posts in 2012, Cristobal mentioned the government alone was not to blame for Voltes V’s ban, but that religious organizations, such as the Catholic Women’s League, pressured the president to ban violent anime.

In past interviews with ABS-CBN and Manila Bulletin, current president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. — yes, Marcos Sr.’s son — and senator Imee Marcos have shared similar comments, noting that multiple private groups pressured Marcos Sr. toward the ban.

Imee Marcos even mentioned in her interview with Manila Bulletin that she was a fan of Voltes V, yet she rationalized her father’s decision, stating it was a case of “political rectitude” to prevent children from hurting each other.

The second piece of commentary Chua points to is from a now-deleted thread from a vocal Voltes V Facebook group. In the thread, Francis Ibanez, a veteran of the Filipino localization scene, claimed to have spoken with Larry Chan, founder of Questor (now Telesuccess Productions), the license holder of Voltes V in the Philippines. Ibanez alleged that in 1999, Chan shared a more sinister angle of the ban with him, saying Marcos Sr. banned super robot shows, including Voltes V, to sabotage the primetime ratings and media presence of GMA Network, the only large TV station nearby not under the government’s control. This plays into Marcos Sr.’s long history of silencing the media, with hundreds of journalists arrested for daring to speak against his regime.

We may never know the complete story behind the ban, but in a February 2024 interview with Business Mirror, Chan was asked point-blank about it. He smiled and said, “You know, the story of Voltes V is about a revolution.”

The Shōjo Anime Renaissance (Anime News Network, Rebecca Silverman)

An overview of the promising uptick in shoujo anime adaptations over the past few years.

Anime is not always there for shōjo fans. Not that there isn’t any in a given season, but at times it can feel like every other show that comes out is either an adaptation of a Shonen Jump property, a male power fantasy light novel, or something else that isn’t all that concerned with attracting a different viewership. It’s easy to look back at 1995, when Fushigi Yugi, Nurse Angel Ririka SOS, Neighborhood Story, Magic Knight Rayearth, and Saint Tail all aired, and feel like the anime industry has been doing shōjo fans dirty lately.

But that seems to be changing. In the past two years, we’ve started to see something of a shōjo anime renaissance, with more titles aimed at a female audience hitting the airwaves. Magical girls, strong princesses, high school and college romances, working women, and new flavors of BL have all debuted, and that’s exciting to see. There’s also more variety than in 1995, which leaned heavily into magical girl territory, so let’s take a look at what’s on offer, either in past or upcoming seasons, because if you’re a fan of shōjo and josei, there are a lot of reasons to be happy.

When I talk to people about shōjo, many instantly think of romance, and that’s in line with general “wisdom” about what ladies like to read – just look at the romance novel industry in the West. But it’s still true that there are a lot of shōjo and josei romances, the equivalent of the young and new adult categories in prose fiction. Naturally, there are a few in this latest batch of adaptations: A Sign of Affection, A Condition Called Love, Honey Lemon Soda, the third season of Kimi ni Todoke – From Me to You, and Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You. These titles are strictly romances, they solely focus on the love story without distractions like fantasy or reincarnation. Of them, the most classic is Honey Lemon Soda.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon The Super Live Launches North American Tour (But Why Tho?, Sarah Musnicky)

The show will be performed in Japanese with English subtitles.

Tickets for the North American tour will go on sale to the general public at 10 am ET on Friday, January 31st. Exclusive presales will be available for Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Super Live in the days leading up to Jan 31st through the show’s Official Fan Group. Ticket access and on-sale timing may differ in some markets, so please visit the venue’s website for exact on-sale information. To sign up for the mailing list, please visit www.sailormoonsuperlive.com.

The show’s North American engagement of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon The Super Live is strictly limited, with previous engagements in New York City and Washington, D.C. selling out in record time. Ticket prices range from $30 to $120 (and will vary from city to city), including a VIP package designed to create enchanting fan experiences.

Japan’s Halal Navi app taps into need among Muslim travelers (The Asahi Shimbun, Shun Suzuki)

The app includes subtitled content and comments/details on locations from users.

Halal Navi is a free app that directs users to restaurants offering halal food, mosques and other prayer rooms.

Users can also contribute by adding details about ingredients and other helpful information.

In Islamic law, halal refers to what is permitted by Allah, while items such as pork and alcohol are considered haram, or forbidden. The concept extends beyond food to include products and services.

The app was developed in 2014 by Ryotaro Ejima, a 48-year-old entrepreneur who had previously operated a restaurant and other businesses in Malaysia.

Currently, Halal Navi has approximately 8,000 registered users across 13 countries, including about 3,000 in Japan.

Hongu joined the app’s operations in the spring of 2023 and turned to social media to revitalize its popularity, which had declined during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The unexpectedly strong response led him to realize, “Information is meaningless if it doesn’t reach those who need it.”

In Unusual Legal Ruling in Japan, After Death of Hearing Impaired Girl, Osaka High Court Finds “Lost Earnings” of Disabled Girl Equal to that of a “Healthy Person” (Barrier Free Japan)

The ruling has to do with theoretical lost wages that might have been earned with the deceased had she lived. Because of her disability, the initial ruling reduced the amount by 15%.

During the appeal hearing, the bereaved family pointed out that the idea that society, not the individual, is the cause of “limitations” has spread, and that laws have been enacted requiring companies and governments to provide “reasonable accommodation” to eliminate such barriers.

Although the lost earnings of disabled children have been reduced to a certain extent, it is unusual for a judicial decision to recognise the same amount. The high court judgement determined that Ayuka Ide ‘was able to work in the same workplace as able-bodied people’.

The high court changed the ruling of the Osaka District Court, which reduced the compensation amount awarded to the parents of Ayuka to 85 percent of the average lifetime pay because her salary would likely have been smaller because of her disability.

Haruna Kubo, a lawyer representing the family who has a severe hearing loss, said during the closing argument, “If reasonable accommodation had been provided, Ayuka could have worked on an equal footing with people who can hear. There is no rationale for reducing the amount below the average, and this is nothing but discrimination by the court.”

Johnny’s victims seek lifting of civil statute on child sex abuse (The Asahi Shimbun, Amane Shimazaki)

Several of the victims were unable to discuss what happened to them openly within the existing statute of limitations.

The group, named “Kodomono Seihigai Jiko ni No!” (No to the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse), was formed in January last year.

The group plans to call on Diet members to work on new legislation to abolish the statute of limitations.

Signatures are being collected on the Change.org website.

Johnny & Associates was renamed Smile-Up Inc. two years ago after the sexual abuse scandal involving Kitagawa, who died in 2019, rocked the entertainment industry.

Smile-Up focuses on providing compensation to former Johnny & Associates members sexually abused by Kitagawa, while another company, Starto Entertainment Inc., was established to take over the talent management business from the agency.

The Code of Criminal Procedure was revised in 2023 to extend the statute of limitations on nonconsensual sex by five years to 15 years and on indecent assaults, also by five years, to 12 years.

If victims are under 18 years old, the years until they turn 18 are added to the time limits.

Osaka sexual violence support center faces existential threat (The Japan Times, JIJI)

The center opened in 2010 and has since fielded over 50,000 phone calls and conducted over 3,700 medical examinations.

Since March 2024, however, the center has been unable to rely on the hospital’s cooperation due to staffing shortages and financial constraints. Currently, medical examinations have been suspended, and the center only offers telephone consultation services. It has also been asked to leave the hospital premises by the end of March.

A young woman, who was assaulted by a teacher during her elementary school years, received a medical examination at SACHICO. At a news conference following the submission of the petition, her mother stressed the importance of keeping the center open.

“The examination provided at the local hospital was the greatest relief,” she said. Without the center, “I would have had to take my daughter to multiple specialists — gynecologists, psychiatrists and pediatricians — and she would have had to relive the trauma over and over again.”

According to the mother, doctors at the center reassured her daughter, saying, “There is nothing wrong with you. You are not dirty, and you have no disease.”

“I will never forget the look of relief on my daughter’s face as she walked out of the examination room,” she recalled.

SACHICO has been urging the Osaka Prefectural Government to take the lead in establishing a one-stop support center within a public hospital. Although the organization submitted its initial request in July 2023, no specific response had been provided until the signatures were submitted.

Using SACHICO as a model, all prefectural governments in Japan had established support centers for victims of sexual violence by 2018. Only nine of these centers operate within hospitals, as SACHICO does, however, with the remaining centers adopting a collaborative model involving multiple hospitals.

VIDEO: Ultra-long documentary on the sexual harassment claims against Vic Mignogna and the reactionary contingent that rallied around him.

VIDEO: Playthrough of a demo for retro-style otome Snowkissed Romance.

AniFem Community

Take the time you can to support each other with little bits of joy, AniFam. We’ll all need it.

I've been planning to start another watch of Sarazanmai: stay weird and stay yourself, don't trust authority, find the humanity behind the story you're told, connect with each other.
Oddly enough, my first thought was Madoka Magica, because it is about profound despair in an unfair and terrible system, and which wishes can be worth having inside it; and ultimately it is about some sort of desperate, unshakeable hope in spite of all this. Something in that feeling of hope unexplainably pulls me through. It's harsh, though - but somehow through its fictional world it takes my mind off of more... grounded bleak times, if that makes sense. I rewatched it back in November and it kinda helped. (good to see the other comment here so far by Theozilla is also digging into initially counterintuitive ideas)  Hope is a staple of magical girls series, though, and sometimes I find solace in much sweeter stuff that still addresses it, such as Cardcaptor Sakura's slice-of-lifey vibes while still giving off this hopeful feeling to cling to amidst difficult times - I remember it really helping at a difficult time.  Other ideas that come to mind include:  - the serene feeling of a small community from Tonari no Youkai-san (though be wary that there is this underlying thread about death and loss and mourning that takes full center with later episodes; but for most of it, the vibes are really soothing, I think). I'm also currently reading the mangas (which are being released in French, but not in English and honestly that's a shame) which have this similar peaceful vibe, and that really helps.  - the postapocalyptic quietness of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (particularly the '98 OVAs), which I discovered through AniFem's articles during quarantine; I'm also reading the manga and it's really helping these days in seeing an end of the world as something calm and sweet and tinged with some specific feeling of small contentment.  - and when I want to fight back with anger and refuse to compromise while still keeping the hope of one day being understood, Girls Band Cry's protagonist Nina's determination is truly helpful. The series' band, Togenashi Togeari, carried me with its music throughout a lot of 2024 and gosh is this still a strong thing to cling to. Please, please give me more of its songs like Wrong World, Answer to Extreme or Hurtful & Painful. They make me ready to fight.
#unironically nanoha s1 lmfao

mob psycho 100. there is so much gentleness and care in this anime. of course reigen is a dumbbass but he also sincerely loves shigeo. and shigeo is just a kid wanting to be a kid and to be cared for. despite flashy fights, lots of fun, and wonderful animation, mob psycho 100 promotes tenderness.

[image or embed]

— jude st. patrick ✨ mingi enemy #1 (@hunkdisaster.posts.coffee) January 21, 2025 at 2:12 PM

❤️🎣

[image or embed]

— ★ andy ! 🪶 (@h0ney3xdrew.bsky.social) January 21, 2025 at 7:47 PM

We Need Your Help!

We’re dedicated to paying our contributors and staff members fairly for their work—but we can’t do it alone.

You can become a patron for as little as $1 a month, and every single penny goes to the people and services that keep Anime Feminist running. Please help us pay more people to make great content!

Comments are open! Please read our comments policy before joining the conversation and contact us if you have any problems.

%d bloggers like this: