All Articles
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Subverting masculine expectations and complicating the male gaze in My Dress-Up Darling
While still tangled in fan service and horny comedy, My Dress-Up Darling’s depictions of masculinity and the sexualization of its female characters are typically leaps and bounds above many of its genre counterparts.
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How Otherside Picnic masterfully uses horror to explore abuse and show healing queer love
Otherside Picnic makes a wonderful addition to the canon by centering queer love and examining how survivors of abusive relationships can heal from their pain and trauma in order to move onto healthier relationships.
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Chatty AF 180: 2023 Winter Mid-Season Check-In (WITH TRANSCRIPT)
Cy, Caitlin, and Peter check-in on a season with way too many messy shows to wade into.
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Ai Yori Aoshi at 20: The harem anime that almost broke the mold
Ai Yori Aoshi in many ways feels distinct from the tropes established in titles like Love Hina, despite being a contemporary of it. When revisiting it twenty years later, is this some diamond in the rough, or a relic of an era long past?
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Airborne Onnagata: Viewing Macross Frontier’s protagonist through a genderqueer lens
After an initial viewing of Macross Frontier, most viewers would comment on a handful of topics. Not limited to, but including: the series’ back-to-basics approach reminiscent of the original 1982 Macross, its tendency to adhere a bit too closely to then-current trends, and unending talk of how awful Alto is. However, on a recent rewatch, a new thought clicked with me: what if Alto was fighting with some intense dysphoria?
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Two Clever Princesses, Two Feminist Fairy Tales: The Clever Princess vs Princess Arete
Both interpretations of Arete’s tale are valuable works rich with feminist themes, and looking at the different ways the different versions play them out gives insight into the potential strengths that different tones and narrative structures can hold.
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The Transient Queerness of Fruits Basket
This show makes me laugh, it makes me cry, but more than anything, it makes me hope. It makes me hope that no matter how bad things get, there will always be a second chance waiting just around the corner. Even two decades after the original manga began publishing, it shines just as brightly. But I’m not here to talk about how much I love Fruits Basket. Today, I’m here to explore one of its most under-discussed problems: its portrayal of queerness.
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Black Creators and Journalists in Anime/Manga Fandom
A few years ago we put out a holiday gift guide with some of our favorite indie storefronts, including a big list of Black-owned kawaii and goth/punk brands. This time around we’re spotlighting Black writers, artists, and media outlets that cover or create art inspired by Japanese pop culture. They’re all making wonderful work — […]
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Chatty AF 179: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Part 1 Retrospective (WITH TRANSCRIPT)
Vrai calls in Gundam experts Maddie and Megan to discuss the very ambitious and very queer first cour of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury!
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Voice Actress Ise Mariya on her iconic roles, voice actors pressured to be idols, and #MeToo in Japan
We sat down with Ise at Otakon 2022 for a wide-ranging conversation. In the process, she touched on the increased pressure for voice actresses to be idols—an issue that also affects women in other public-facing professions—and how the slow change post-#MeToo (as well as #KuToo, a Japan-specific movement) has given more people space to come forward with their stories.
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Everybody Loves Bridget: The origins of otokonoko and birth of a trans icon
Amidst of a lot of bad news in summer 2022, one thing trans people found to celebrate was the transition of Brisket—or rather Bridget, an iconic video game character with a fraught history (in the games and in the real world) who came out as trans. But there’s a lot more to this story than many are fully aware of, and the character who defined an archetype so powerful it became a gender identity deserves to have her whole story told.
