Anime Feminist also had the remarkable opportunity to interview Yukimura about Vinland Saga, writing female characters, portraying slavery and the role of Buddhist Philosophy in his work. Our interview with him, which was one of the great honors of my time in anime journalism, is below.
Dan Da Dan is a mess. But it is my mess.
Stunningly animated, with the kind of avant-garde soundtrack you almost never hear in anime, and genuinely stomach churning, if you are any fan of Ito’s style of horror you would do yourself a favor by pausing reading this and watching the show right now.
This show is an example of just how much strong animation and adaptation can elevate even the most banal of premises.
One good scene and pretty visuals can’t make up for clunky fantasy racism and buckets of exposition.
This show is clearly not afraid of moving into the messier, more interesting parts of romance that many slow burn romances little interest in–what happens when you try to break up with somebody and you can’t let go? What happens when your reason for breaking up was fundamentally a bad one, but you still have to live with the consequences?
I would not describe the experience of watching Nokotan in English as it was presented on Crunchyroll as enjoyable. Overwhelming? Yes. Frustrating? Yes. Occasionally funny? Yes. But enjoyable? Absolutely not.
It is hard to know where to start with this amazing, beautiful, labyrinthine, and disturbing premiere
Sumireko is fantastic, but the show is being strangled by obtrusive fanservice.
I would love to be able to recommend this show as a fantasy of domestic life for queer people, but it doesn’t even really function as that. Its portrait of queer domestic life has all of the depth of a Hallmark greeting card.
Everything in Yurikuma Arashi is more symbol than literal representation, and I have often mulled over its meaning as I’ve navigated entering the teaching profession as a nonbinary Chinese person. Like the bears, I’ve often asked myself: what do I sacrifice to be allowed to exist within the school?
It’s somewhat hard to judge the show right now, the author’s previous works suggest that the binary morality of this premiere is likely a facade.
The Demon Prince of Momochi House is largely playing the beats of a fairly familiar genre of shoujo: an orphan teenage girl stumbles into a supernatural world of bishonen hotties and becomes enmeshed in their drama. I just wish that these hotties had a bit more going on.
Shy’s embrace of a Double Empathy Problem framing reveals larger tensions in the struggle for autistic self-determination, both allowing a deeper understanding of the process of Stardust’s self-conception and also revealing the limits of the mainstream culture’s understanding of “empathy.”
If you want shows where characters openly confess their feelings for each other in explicitly romantic ways, you will almost certainly leave frustrated. If you are looking for fodder for your next fic, this might be the show for you.
I was yearning for schlock, but the show utterly fails to live up to the camp it seems to promise.
Good news: it has great animation and mecha designs, and intriguing worldbuilding.
Bad news: All of this is in service of a plot that can only be described as Toxic Masculinity: The Anime.
Dark Gathering is a fun horror comedy show with a lot of potential for creepy shenanigans and a somewhat alienated view of girls
This was a treat–a show with thoughtful worldbuilding, a dose of self-awareness without dipping into edgelord irony, and compelling characters that were a source of great comedy.
Undead Murder Farce is the highlight of the season: a bleakly humorous, action packed period romp with a lot to say about westernization in Meiji Japan featuring two unholy messes in witty repartee.
