Edens Zero – Episode 1
An extremely by the numbers shounen, from orphan boy heroes to played-for-comedy groping.
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Jujutsu Kaisen star Anne Yatco on the fight for casting equity and what shounen can learn from Nobara
Anne Yatco is a longtime actor with a varied and fascinating career. She entered the world of acting after spending four years as a full-time forensic scientist, worked with the all-WOC sketch group BAE*GENCY, and co-starred on the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff Station 19. She’s recently pivoted primarily to working in voiceover, where she’s best known for playing Nobara in the English Jujutsu Kaisen dub.
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Is it Hot in Here? Consent, communication, and boundaries in Sweat and Soap
Even with a hefty dose of olfactophilia, Sweat and Soap is as heart-warming and nourishing as it gets. In a genre rife with toxic relationships and uncomfortable relationship dynamics, Sweat and Soap takes what seems like a fetishistic premise and turns it into a story about the growth of a healthy relationship. Throughout the story, we see Natori and Asako set boundaries, communicate clearly, and, most of all, grow as individual people.
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The Always Smiling Girl: How Tohru critiques toxic positivity
The narrative takes care to demonstrate that Tohru has her own issues, and highlights that her relentlessly positive attitude and her devotion to putting others before herself is not healthy. Ultimately, Fruits Basket explores and unpacks the harmful side of her relentless positivity as one of many healing stories across the series.
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Suzie Yeung, FF7 Remake actor, discusses recording during the pandemic, her dream anime role, and voicing Koito
Vrai sat down with Suzie at Otakon 2021 to talk about working during the pandemic and her recent roles, including the much-maligned Koito of Wonder Egg Priority.
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Chatty AF 145: 2021 Summer Mid-Season Check-in (WITH TRANSCRIPT)
Vrai, Mercedez, and Peter dig deep to find the winners of a somewhat sparse season.
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Fena: Pirate Princess – Episode 1
Fena has the potential to be a really fun action-adventure protagonist in a really fun action-adventure show. Fingers crossed she retains her agency and gets to really grow and shine across whatever zany treasure hunt she’s about to embark upon.
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Cannon Busters: Black representation beyond social issue dramas
Anime with multiple Black leads, though not unheard of, were rare. I had to know if this was a fluke, or an elaborate marketing ploy to bait viewers like me, who eagerly soaked up every ounce of non-stereotyped diversity they could get their hands on. What I discovered was so much more than that. The fun of Cannon Busters isn’t just its inclusiveness, but in the way it doesn’t take itself too seriously.
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Convenient Monsters: The problem with Frill and Wonder Egg Priority’s take on trauma
Just as the dreamscape Wonder Killers provide a convenient and killable representation of the issues that harm young people, the writers of the show invent a convenient “monster” and pin the blame for those very issues on her. As a result, a lot of the nuance in the series’ treatment of trauma and suicide is lost.
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Shaman King – Episode 1
A fast-paced premiere can be attention-grabbing and entertaining, but this episode felt like it was desperate to keep its audience around so they decided to throw an introductory narrative out the window in favor of just letting the plot happen. This show definitely feels like an early 2000s show, but instead of feeling nostalgic, I’m left wondering who all these characters are and why should I care.
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When the Most Precious Diamond is Not a Piece of Jewelry: MAJOR 2ND and female baseball players’ struggles in a male-dominated sport
Although Daigo’s teammates and rivals are mainly male in the beginning of the series, as time goes on, the female cast becomes increasingly robust, to the point that Daigo’s middle school team is majoritively formed by girls. This is big for the sport anime genre as a whole, as it represents an important step towards gender equality and the media visibility of women in sports.
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2021 Summer Three-Episode Check-In
The deluge of spring left us with a light summer, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t gems worth keeping.
