AniFem Round-Up
Unfortunately, the most interesting character dies before the credits roll.
Bee and PuppyCat (2022) – Episode 1
It’s a co-production with several anime veterans on staff, we’re saying it counts! And it’s a pretty great watch.
I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss – Episode 1
A fantastic fantasy premiere that’s gotten the short end of the production stick.
What was your favorite Summer 2022 anime?
What flowers bloomed in this very barren season?
Patreon Bonus Podcast (with Transcript) 2022 September: Back to School
Chiaki, Meru, and Caitlin shake off summer and recommend a few school-related anime.
Beyond AniFem
Yuu Watase’s Fushigi Yūgi: Byakko Senki Manga Returns in Fall 2023 (Anime News Network, Joanna Cayanan)
The prequel series has been on hold since 2018.
Watase most recently launched the Fushigi Yūgi: Byakko Senki manga in Monthly Flowers in August 2017. The manga went on hiatus in August 2018 due to Watase’s poor physical condition, and it has remained on hiatus. Shogakukan published the manga’s first volume in April 2018. Viz Media licensed the series.
The manga will be the last story in the Fushigi Yūgi’s “Four Gods” storyline. Watase previously explained that she was watching her health and stamina, and added that she would work hard to finish the story.
She previously published a 51-page one-shot manga titled Fushigi Yūgi: Byakko Ibun (Fushigi Yugi: Curious Tales of the Byakko) in Monthly Flowers in February 2015.
Why I canceled my Crunchyroll membership (Otaku Journalist, Lauren Orsini)
Many have been cancelling their accounts in light of Crunchyroll’s refusal to even meet with voice acting union representatives. Protests have begun to coalesce around the hashtag #JustAMeeting.
My relationship with Crunchyroll began when it was a comparably tiny company. In 2013, after Sankaku Complex published the unsourced claim (some things never change) that piracy is preferable to creators over using Crunchyroll, I reached out to then-CEO Kun Gao and he made room on his calendar, the same day, to chat on Skype about how Crunchyroll actually compensates creators. I happened to be in San Francisco for business that same month, and Gao invited me to tour Crunchyroll HQ. From the “Seele” conference room to the geeky furnishings, it felt like a place where people who genuinely love anime work.
But as Crunchyroll grew, things started to change. I first noticed how different the company was after it was acquired by Ellation. I was covering Crunchyroll fairly regularly for my Forbes blog, but I always had to use a PR person as a go-between. Kun was still CEO, but his schedule was much busier and even though I was now working for a far more prestigious site, I couldn’t get an interview with him the way I could when I was just a personal blogger. I saw this as a positive change though, a sign that this company that got its start publishing illegal fansubs was worth taking seriously. As a geek of a certain age, who remembers when being an anime fan labeled you a certified weirdo, I wanted anime to go legit.
But I didn’t think about what the side effects of bigger and bigger companies acquiring Crunchyroll would be. I guess I thought it meant the people who worked there would get rich. I didn’t think that it would mean a less than living wage for the people who sub and dub the actual product. Ninety dollars to sub 450 lines of Japanese? Getting paid $150 to dub a movie that earned $30 million at the box office? All of this and not even being open to meeting the dub actors’ union at the table, instead preferring to recast Mob? It used to be that supporting Crunchyroll was a part of how I expressed my fan identity. Now it feels like I can’t call myself an anime fan in good faith while supporting a company that does so little for them.
Abe damaged Japan’s democracy, left legacy of power abuse, critics say (The Mainichi)
Abe’s state funeral was held this week despite massive outcry from the public.
In 2013, Abe tapped a former diplomat known to support his hawkish security stance to be chief of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau, which examines legislative bills. The bureau is considered the “guardian” of Japan’s war-renouncing Constitution.
With the bureau on his side, Abe achieved his cherished goal in 2015 of enacting constitutionally controversial security bills to expand the role of the Self-Defense Forces abroad, allowing the alliance with the United States to firm further.
Kaoru Takamura, a Japanese novelist critical of Abe, said the former leader “distinguished between like-minded people and the rest,” and his “undemocratic approach” distorted politics, resulting in a lack of diversity.
A Japanese government source said Abe “took control of all personnel affairs, helping him bend bureaucrats and lawmakers to his will. We were not able to defy him as we wanted to avoid conflict with him.”
“Regarding diplomacy, we were unable to voice objections to proposals by the Prime Minister’s Office, even when they were irrational. As a result, tensions between Japan and our neighbors have escalated,” the source said.
While Abe was in office, Japan’s ties with South Korea deteriorated to their worst level in decades over wartime history issues, with disputes also spreading to economic and security matters. A South Korean court ruling in favor of wartime laborers led the Japanese government under Abe to take economic measures in apparent retaliation.
Of single women, only 36% want to have children after marriage (The Asahi Shimbun, Ryuichi Hisanaga)
The numbers fell from 67.4% to 36.6% among women, compared from 2015 to 2021.
Among men, 17.3 percent said they have no intention to get married in their lifetime, up 5.3 percentage points from the previous survey. The corresponding figure for women was 14.6 percent, up 6.6 points.
Fujinami said he believes the survey reflects women’s disappointment in and resentment toward the gender gap as they tend to receive lower wages than men while shouldering a greater burden of housework and child care.
He said the government will be forced to modify its traditional policies to stem the falling birthrates if young people are increasingly negatively viewing getting married and having children.
“Pushing marriages and making more slots available at day care centers do not resonate with those who have no desire to get married (and have children) in the first place,” Fujinami said.
“The survey results should be used as a clue to tackling the problem from new perspectives, such as how the gender gap could be filled and how the wage levels could be raised for young people.”
Ukrainian evacuee in wheelchair dances way to happiness in Japan (The Mainichi, Daisuke Wada)
A mother and daughter evacuated from Kyiv in May of this year but found a supportive community in Shizuoka Prefecture.
A circle of support for them formed across Japan, and Nobuko Yotsumoto, 80, volunteered to be their guarantor. Yotsumoto, who has been promoting wheelchair dancing since the 1990s, had heard from Marta that she, too, dreamed of dancing. While Marta was in Tokyo, Yotsumoto took her to lessons held by Para Dance Creators, a dancing association for people with disabilities.
Marta first encountered wheelchair dancing three years ago, when a younger girl performed at an event in Kyiv attended by children with disabilities. That lit her desire to dance, but there were no wheelchair dancing facilities or events near her home.
So when the September social dancing party rolled around, Marta was ready to grab the opportunity. Her mother Marina said she appreciates the warm welcome Marta received from Japanese people, fulfilling her hope that Marta have the chance to do what she wants.
VIDEO: Discussion of Nintendo’s scrapped plan for a cross-platform accessibility controller.
VIDEO: The history and long-term scars of Japan’s invasion and occupation of the micronation of Nauru.
TWEET: Photos of a Japanese-language book about how to support autistic children that describes them as “like foreigners.”
THREAD: Paralegal’s breakdown of Vic Mignogna’s Motion for Rehearing, because the man will not take a hint.
THREAD: About payment practices at Crunchyroll/Funimation for translators in light of the merger.
AniFem Community
Hopefully y’all got a nice chunk out of your backlog before fall kicks in.
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