2025 Spring Premiere Digest
Spring brings a crop of nostalgic revivals, from aesthetic throwbacks to reinventions of classic franchises.
Feature Category
Results-
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2025 Spring Premiere Reviews
All the spring premiere reviews in one easy-to-find place. We’ll update the chart as new series become available, so be sure to check back in the coming days for more!
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Folktales, gender and transformation in Where the Wild Ladies Are
Aoko Matsuda’s award-winning folklore collection, Where the Wild Ladies Are, is a feminist retelling of traditional Japanese ghost stories. Transformation is key throughout the collection, both to the characters’ journeys and to Aoko’s commentary on ancient and modern gender expectations.
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How women in The Apothecary Diaries navigate patriarchy and class
While some women do their best to play by the rules, others find loopholes in social customs through which they can enact a semblance of autonomy. However, doing so is extremely risky, especially for those lower on the social ladder.
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Girl Power and Guinea Pigs: Pui Pui Molcar through the lens of feminist media tests
Is a children’s TV show about guinea pigs worth delving into for feminist analysis? AJ thinks so.
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Wild Women and Iron Will: The battle for nature in Princess Mononoke
Princess Mononoke, with its focus on women in conflict, winds up reflecting an archetypal struggle between the “civilized” woman and the inner wild self.
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The business and politics of magic in Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc
When money is a key motivation, ethics and the greater good are quickly abandoned. This theme is apparent in Season 1 of the anime, bubbling away ever-present in the background as Kana learns the magical girl trade, but comes to the forefront in subsequent material when the manga really starts to dig into the politics of the magical girl business.
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Reading Violet Evergarden as an autistic woman
While it’s not necessarily overtly intended, one reading of Violet Evergarden is that the series explores the notion that the ways that empathy can be expressed by neurodivergent women are not inferior to those expressed by neurotypical individuals.
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2025 Winter Anime Three-Episode Check-In
Happy new year of anime! The stars of this season are stories about girls and women facing down crushing expectations and refusing to let go.
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Long Live the Queen: How gender defines the antagonist of Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail
Sphene thematically reflects previous antagonists, but the additional context of the setting’s gender roles (and the player’s own presumed awareness of gendered roles in real history) reframe her character and refresh the villain formula.
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2025 Winter Premiere Digest
The new year starts strong with multiple promising shoujo and the return of a beloved (by us) female director.
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2025 Winter Premiere Reviews
All the winter premiere reviews in one easy-to-find place. We’ll update the chart as new series become available, so be sure to check back in the coming days for more!
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Embracing darkness and exploring the female gaze in After God
After God is a wonderful example of how female characters in shounen can go beyond simplistic portrayals of strength and beauty, exploring the darker and more complex aspects of human emotions and identity–without disappearing from the narrative or being made an object.
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Cannibalism, the abject, and queering the narrative in Delicious in Dungeon
The main cast all cross, blur, or sit outside of social norms in some way, engaging in some taboo or another—heroes on the margins who are uniquely placed to engage with the abject horrors of the dungeon and transform them into something else through their unique, outsider perspectives.
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Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko! and the toxic workplace
While toxic workplace culture is originally presented as something that’s keeping the couple apart, ultimately the narrative ends up reinforcing it, asserting that finding happiness in love and expressing your own queer identity are less important than maintaining a conservative, capitalistic status quo.
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Resilience and Resistance: Reimagining marginality and agency in The Apothecary Diaries
The Apothecary Diaries re-imagines the social life of women in its fictional society, showcasing how, despite living in oppressive systems, women continuously negotiate their existence through resilience, intellect, and community.
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Porygon Was Innocent: An epileptic perspective on Pokémon’s “Electric Soldier Porygon”
As an Epileptic, I’ve been very outspoken about my opinions on the increased use of strobe lighting effects in American cartoons. Yet people have accused me of being a hypocrite: why do I continue to love Pokémon? My response often surprises people. That, in my personal opinion, morally speaking, the animators were not responsible for what happened. That Porygon was, in fact, innocent.
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Mental Health Crisis Resources and Advocacy Groups
As most of us are based in the United States, recent electoral news has hit the team hard. We suspect the same is the case for many of you out there. In lieu of posting today’s feature, we wanted to offer a post with resources for those looking for mental health/crisis help or for causes currently seeking donations.
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2024 Fall Three-Episode Check-In
This season is all about the popcorn-munching drama, from erotic thrillers to court drama.
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2024 Fall Premiere Digest
We’re going back to school with lots of magical girls this season!
