AniFem Round-Up
Anime Feminist Recommendations of Spring 2025
Spring brought us rebellious teens, simmering adult dramas, and existential robots.
2025 Summer Anime Three-Episode Check-In
This is a summer of horror and romance–sometimes at the same time!
What Summer 2025 anime are you most invested in?
We’re almost halfway through on some shows!
Beyond AniFem
Visa and Mastercard pressuring Itch.io and Valve does ‘nothing to protect’ women, and shock games will just be ‘side-stepping the ban entirely’, say affected indie devs (PC Gamer, Harvey Randall)
Over the past week, Steam and itch.io have deindexed huge swathes of adult and NSFW games.
But what, if anything, can be done from here?
“Individual developers don’t have a lot of recourse,” Hsia/Thomson write, “especially since we basically never deal with payment processors directly. Even platform holders don’t seem to have a lot of recourse given the way they’re responding to pressure.
“Right now it seems like the most immediate course of action is to get as many people as possible to complain to the payment processors.”
Both Yang, Hsia, and Thomson highlighted the aptly-named site yellat.money as a place to start, alongside an ACLU petition that’s nearing its goal of 150,000 signatures. Yang also noted that “if Collective Shout is going to wage culture war against LGBTQ people and ‘obscene’ women, perhaps it should drop its fake charity status.”
Australian charity law is a little complex when it comes to a group like Collective Shout, but to be a charity, you must be operating for the public benefit and have a charitable purpose—qualifiers Yang and his contemporaries argue aren’t being fulfilled. Charities advocating for specific political parties are forbidden, but those with specific political aims aren’t. Regardless, anyone can complain to the ACNC if they so wish.
Hsia/Thomson hope that, “given that Collective Shout was allegedly able to spur this action with only 1000 people, it stands to reason that a much larger group of people issuing sustained complaints might elicit at least some response.”
Aoi Yuki (Maomao) & Asami Seto (Shisui) Talk The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 (Anime Corner, Jay Gibbs)
The interview includes some spoilers for season 2.
Q: Seto-san, how did you approach Shisui and Maomao’s relationship?
Seto-san: Going into acting for Shisui, I know that Shisui had something to hide from the very beginning, so I had to channel that into my acting. Sometimes I found it a little bit difficult because as Maomao and Shisui grew closer throughout the series, there were so many moments where I wanted to express a little more familiarity or just kind of fast-forward the progress of their relationship, but there were moments that I had to hold back, and there were also moments of unexpected opening up that she did throughout the series. And I think working with Aoi was a very comfortable experience. And through our characters, I know Shisui is more upbeat and Maomao is a little bit more connected, but it’s really interesting to see how such diverse and polar characters have connected inside the series.
Q: Yuki-san, what is your overall impression of Maomao’s relationship with Jinshi and how has it evolved over the course of the series?
Yuki-san: Maomao and her distance toward Jinshi haven’t changed a bit throughout the entire series. It’s Jinshi who is trying to close in on his own. With that said, going back to Maomao thinking like a cat, she’ll show kindness or affection to her owner or whoever throws her food when she’s hungry. So whenever there’s a benefit for her, she’ll be a little bit more nice. But with that said, I think there have been many times where Jinshi comes to her rescue and where Maomao comes to Jinshi’s rescue throughout all the crazy episodes that they’ve been through together. The most beautiful thing is, I think, with all of that, they somehow can reset back to being completely normal as they were.
Tokyo police settle lawsuit on ‘mishandled’ stalking case (The Asahi Shimbun, Ryujiro Komatsu)
The woman, a musician, was stabbed by a fan after police declined to take action regarding his previous stalking behavior.
In 2019, Tomita and her mother filed a lawsuit seeking approximately 76 million yen ($514,500) in damages.
They argued that they had consulted with the Musashino Police Station about the man following Tomita before the incident occurred, but the police failed to take action to protect her.
In response, the Tokyo police argued that Tomita’s situation had not appeared life-threatening at the time of the consultation and that the case was handled appropriately.
According to Tomita’s lawyer, a settlement was reached after the police agreed to make a consolation payment to her.
The specific amount of the payment has not been disclosed, however.
Tomita’s lawyer said, “It exceeds the usual amount, and we take this as a de facto acknowledgment by the police of the inadequacy of their response at the time.”
In the lawsuit, Tomita’s side pointed out the chief of Musashino station issued an apology about seven months after the incident.
They argued that “there was a failure in the police response and the chief acknowledged it.”
In court last October, Tomita testified, “I felt betrayed when I found out after the incident that the police hadn’t done anything despite my prior consultation.”
VIDEO: Vtuber Iron Mouse’s fanbase has raised $1.3 million for the Immune Deficiency Foundation.
VIDEO: On the targeting of manga in recent book bans.
VIDEO: Analyzing the power dynamics and context of MaoMao and Jinshi’s relationship.
VIDEO: Baking through the recipes of Kitchen Princess.
VIDEO: Accessibility review of Donkey Kong Bananza.
VIDEO: The various anime projects based on fashion doll Licca.
SKEET: Tactical RPG The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily is now available in English.
The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily is out! And our Dragons localized it into EN, ZH-CN, ZH-TW, and KO so everyone can experience: ⚔️ Tactical warfare 💅 Petty revenge 💘 Sapphic yearning 🔪 Aaand the moral option to just murder literally everyone! We love this game so much it hurts. Go play it. 🫵🏻
— Dragonbaby Localization (@dragonbaby.bsky.social) July 29, 2025 at 6:46 AM
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AniFem Community
Is it almost time for the midseason already?
Secrets of the Silent Witch! So fun seeing a female protagonist be so passionate about math😊
— samoyedloverforev.bsky.social (@samoyedloverforev.bsky.social) July 28, 2025 at 11:30 PM
I went in only planning to keep up with The Summer Hikaru Died and picked up CITY on a lark, and… it’s genuinely difficult to say
— Tobi @ Nonbinary Precure Fairy Lesbianism (@revieloutionne.bsky.social) July 29, 2025 at 1:27 AM
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See You Later At The Food Court is an anime that bets literally everything on one single character dynamic and is winning big.
— Spiritus Nox (@spiritusnox.bsky.social) July 28, 2025 at 11:14 PM
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