Weekly Round-Up, 25-31 January 2023: Elderly Yuri, Magical Girl Trivia, and Assault Lawsuit Rulings

By: Anime Feminist January 31, 20230 Comments
Sanae looks anxious; a chibi Michi pokes her cheek

AniFem Round-Up

The Powerful Women of Trigun

With Milly nowhere to be seen in TRIGUN STAMPEDE, it’s a good time to look back at how the original manga handled its female characters.

My Fave Is Problematic: Scum’s Wish

While the series has some excellent moments of capturing the ugly and uncomfortable moments of adolescence, its heights are matched by some rough lows.

Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre – Episode 1

Enjoyable enough for longtime fans, but not likely to entice any newcomers.

What shoujo/josei anime do you want to see licensed or rescued?

Because there are too many unrecognized titles out there.

Beyond AniFem

How to Address the Racism at the Heart of Japan-South Korea Tensions (United Institute of Peace, Sayaka Chatani)

A brief history of anti-Korean racism in Japan, the US’s part in it, and how to move forward in the present. Chatani also discussed some cut content in a separate post.

In the 2000s, a new type of anti-Koreanism emerged in Japan. Many elements contributed to it, including the largely unregulated internet, a sense of disfranchisement due to long-term economic stagnation, South Korea’s rise as a new economic giant and North Korea’s aggressiveness — expressed through repeated missile launches, its nuclear weapon development and the late Kim Jong-il’s admission of the abductions of Japanese citizens. Also, the Shinzo Abe administrations (2006-07 and 2012-20), which espoused historical revisionism, fanned the flames of anti-Korean sentiment to rally mass support. Abe’s followers celebrated his censorship of the media and school textbooks, turning historical denialism of “comfort women” into mainstream thinking.

The Koreas and Koreans, particularly Zainichi Koreans, became the target of renewed racism. Hate speech spread and Korean school students were harassed and traumatized. In 2021, a man set fire to an office of an ethnic Korean organization, a Korean school and residences in a historically Korean district known as Utoro.

In Japan’s 2022 national election, the founder of a far-right anti-Korean group ran for office, shouting slurs against Koreans during his campaign. The fact that many people in Japan were keen to find out whether the suspect in Abe’s July 2022 assassination was a Zainichi Korean (he is not) shows how intense the tensions have become.

1st oral abortion pill steps closer to approval in Japan (The Mainichi)

The pill is reportedly effective for up to 63 days into gestation.

A pharmaceutical advisory body for Japan’s health ministry on Friday expressed no objection to the manufacturing and marketing of an abortion pill, bringing the medication a step closer to becoming the first of its kind to gain approval in the country.

Abortions in early stages of pregnancies in Japan are currently limited to surgical procedures, and the oral pill, if approved, is seen as a new option that could lighten both physical and mental stress on women.

The health ministry said it would gather public opinion and debate the matter further with its pharmaceutical subcommittee as the abortion pill had garnered “deep societal interest and necessitates careful discussion.”

Alice 19th (with Chika and Giana from Shoujo Sundae) (Shojo & Tell)

Podcast discussion of the entire Watase Yu series.

Sisters Alice Seno and Mayura Seno end up falling for the same handsome boy, Kyo, and their fight for his affection threatens to destroy the whole world. That’s a bit of an oversimplification, but the general gist of Watase’s ALICE 19TH. Chika and Giana from the podcast Shoujo Sundae join Shojo and Tell host Ashley to talk about the battle between the Lotis Masters and Maram Masters, where words are turned into magical but very deadly violence. We discuss the influences of September 11, 2001, on the story, Watase’s efforts at diversity and inclusion, whether we consider Alice a magical girl or not, and more.

AND THEN THE SEAGULLS FOUND ME (DEEP HELL)

Reflecting on the increasingly gutted state of game journalism through the medium of an old MMO.

LAUNCHER is gone and I know people are hurting about it. Not just the ones who lost their jobs, but when a place like LAUNCHER goes under the beet-red faced of angry staff will turn calm through times of letting go. They’re losing coworkers, friends, weird little work place communities that pop up in the mad dash to push out words for the front page.

If you listen to the news, every town is burning buildings and rioting gangs. Listen to the news and get told every town is burning buildings and rioting gangs. Listen to the hearts and the minds of people that live there, know how everything is really just getting cut apart and sold up river so an army of yuppies have places to take instagram photos in. Choked freeways in a work from home economy that could make sense.

Listen, now I’ve gotta pull you close. Every time some big website gets shuttered, the staff cut and clothed and sent out into the rain, it makes all of the little websites wonder what the point of doing it is. If we could see each other, there would be a lot of nervous glancing around the room to see who’s gonna be the first one to leave. I see a lot of journalists just saying fuck it – i’m gonna go do PR for somebody because if there’s no market for – in their own words, scrutinizing power and empowering readers.

Being self employed, not knowing where the future’s gonna take me, at least if a client sent me an email like that I could go and tell them to right get fucked, the only sane response when we step over people to pick up dollars on a daily basis. I know emails like that really well, the same press-release candor that comes when we find out the servers to a long thought dead game is finally going under. When digital software is getting cleaned up off of a storefront. I want to laugh that a magazine called LAUNCHER gets cleaned off the internet the same way a game from Steam or The Epic Games Store or fuck me the Wii Shop will just disappear into the ether. All that work and time meant to vanish.

Warning issued after group home told its residents to get sterilized (The Asahi Shimbun, Yasusaburo Nakamura)

The welfare ministry intends to do further research in 2023 to investigate how they can offer better assistance to disabled couples with children.

Eight couples had undergone sterilization procedures at the recommendation of Asunaro Social Welfare Service Corp., which had recommended sterilizations to its clientele for some two and a half decades.

Welfare minister Katsunobu Kato announced the content of the notice on Jan. 23, which requests authorities to ensure that local services for people with disabilities are appropriate and respect their will and dignity.

The notice, dated Jan. 20, asks local authorities to immediately notify the ministry if they learn of an organization making sterilization a condition for people with disabilities to use its services.

It said people with disabilities are entitled to make their own decisions on marriage, giving birth and raising children.

Why are offensive and malicious ads plaguing online Japan? (The Mainichi, Yusuke Kato)

The answer is a fairly unsurprising, “things that are outrageous generate clicks.”

According to the Japanese subsidiary of Google Inc., which operates YouTube, the company has already strengthened its systems to detect inappropriate ads, and removed approximately 550,000 ads containing exaggerated expressions and sexual descriptions between June 2020 and October 2021 alone.

Most of these online ads are “affiliate advertising.” First, the advertiser requests the advertising company to distribute the ad, and then that company delivers it to the operators of websites or apps. When people click on the ad or purchase a product, the ad company pays the operator a commission. In some cases, a dedicated distribution firm acts as an intermediary between the ad company and the operator.

In May 2021, Tokyo-based PopIn Inc., which distributes ads for some 150 advertising firms, stopped taking cosmetic, health food and other product ads that contained blatant body-shaming. Company employees visually check whether ads contain keywords such as “fat” or unnaturally display skin pores or teeth. One team member said, “Considering the impact on sales, it was a difficult decision to stop (distribution), but we are working on this with the mindset of leading the industry.”

Japan pref. ordered to pay damages to U.S. woman over harassment (Kyodo News)

The complainant will receive 500,000 yen in damages. The article includes descriptions of harassment.

But it did not hold the local government liable, deeming it fulfilled its obligation to take steps over the incident after the vice principal offered an apology and his and her seating arrangements at the school were changed.

Following the ruling, the prefectural government said it will review the ruling and consider its response.

In October, Martin told a press conference that the prefectural board of education had asked her to refrain from going to the police when she lodged her complaint.

Having told the court she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and even thought of committing suicide, Martin said she hopes that her case can serve as an opportunity for Japan to create a safe workspace for foreign women who come to work in the country.

Sexually abused ex-Japan SDF member not planning to settle suit with questions unanswered (The Mainichi, Toshiaki Uchihashi and Kotaro Adachi)

Gonoi initially sought legal consequences because she felt the SDF and her assailants were not remorseful for their actions. The article includes descriptions of sexual assault; includes Gonoi’s video statement.

Rina Gonoi, 23, a former GSDF member at Camp Koriyama in Fukushima Prefecture, filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government and her attackers the same day. At a news conference in Tokyo on Jan. 30, she said she did not plan to move forward with a settlement requested by three former sergeants whose documents were referred to public prosecutors on suspicion of sexual assault. Gonoi has apparently received no answers from them to her question, “How will you face your actions of assault, and in what way will you take responsibility?” The three have already been dismissed on disciplinary grounds.

[…] According to Gonoi’s explanations thus far, the former GSDF members who attacked her requested an out-of-court settlement. However, during this process, there were apparently remarks from a lawyer representing the former sergeants that could be interpreted as belittling the damage.

THREAD: List of production trivia about various magical girl anime.

TWEET: A yuri manga about older women, which the artist hopes will be translated into English; a great chance to champion it to licensors.

AniFem Community

Maybe Discotek will hear us eventually, AniFam.

Kaze to Ki no Uta....I can dream :')
Omoi, Omoware, Furi, Furare pops instantly into my mind. I thought the story was average (suppose that's what happens when an entire manga is crammed into a movie) but the visuals were absolutely lovely, and its source material comes from the mangaka of the popular Blue Spring Ride. A shame that it hasn't been picked up.

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