[Links] 28 November – 4 December 2018: the First Male PreCure, Casting for POCCON, and the Importance of Lily Hoshikawa

By: Anime Feminist December 4, 20180 Comments

This week: the first male PreCure, casting for the short film POCCON, and the importance of Lily Hoshikawa as a trans character.

AniFem Round-Up

[Feature] The Queer Fudanshi’s Starter Guide to BL Manga

Devin Randall lists ten series with various levels of explicitness and content warnings for readers curious about BL.

[Editorial] How much money are we aiming to crowdfund?

Amelia breaks down the crowdfunding milestones and what they entail, as well as our stretch goals.

[Feature] Love & Lies: Case Closed and the normalization of gaslighting in fiction

Assad Abderemane looks at the often taken for granted trope of “lying to loved ones to protect them” and the darker implications of it for Case Closed’s main couple.

[Editorial] Crowdfunding campaign live update post

We met our goal in less than 48 hours! Keep up with this post for updates about our stretch goals—remember, the campaign is on til the end of the month!

[AniFemTalk] What western media would you like to see get an anime adaptation?

There are plenty of American versions of anime coming out, but what about the other way around?

 

Beyond AniFem

To Zombie Land Saga’s Lily Hoshikawa, The Best Trans Girl I’ve Seen In Anime (Crunchyroll, Carlos Cadorniga)

A personal letter touching on Lily’s relatable personal journey.

But what truly tugged at my heart was how strongly I could empathize with your trans experience. You were born as Masao Go and assigned male at birth. When you became a star, you changed your name and were more comfortable identifying as Lily the actress. Becoming a man terrified you, and you even died over finding a small stub of peach fuzz on your face. As a zombie, you can remain who you are as Lily and you even scold others who dare to use your deadname, the name you discarded after your transition. I was so moved by your firmness in your gender identity. I certainly could’ve used someone like you as a role model when I was a kid.

The Japan Times sold to Tokyo-based PR company (Nikkei Asian Review, Kentaro Iwamoto)

The paper was purchased by Nifco in 1996, who decided to sell it following Nifco president Ogasawara’s death in 2016. Despite claims of continued editorial independence, the sale is already seeming to show unsettling effects on the paper’s content.

Despite the razor-thin margins, Nifco held onto the company for as long as it did out of respect for its founder. But Ogasawara’s death at age 85 in November 2016 opened the door to a sale, which the official said the company had been considering even before the founder passed away.

News2u said it will maintain the paper’s editorial independence, as well as its editorial policies and payroll.

The company runs an online platform that provides corporate news releases. An official told the Nikkei Asian Review that it sees the potential for synergy in digital businesses, such as The Japan Time using News2u’s digital information platform.

LDP Inada Tomomi – “LGBT policy is a human rights issue.” (Nijiiro News)

Inada previously submitted this law only to be shot down, but hopes to present it for consideration again.

The reason why the bill was crushed was due to a lack of understanding within the LDP and among the older generation. The vast majority of people think “Isn’t that a hobby?”, “Isn’t that a mental illness?”, or “Won’t the declining birth rate worsen?”.

Unnecessary hardship is placed on LGBT people. The difficulty that young people face when trying to make their parents understand their identity is a human rights issue. Children are being bullied in elementary school, and some troubled children commit suicide, so I think that it is of utmost importance that we properly educate students about these issues in schools.

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Director: Sunrise Works Production Assistant 60 Hours in 4 Days (Anime News Network, Lynzee Loveridge)

Fukuda tweeted his frustrations with the treatment of an unnamed female production assistant, which he stated to be an ordinary occurrence.

Fukuda’s wrote that the assistant began her work week on Monday at 10:30 a.m. and did not return home until Tuesday at 6:00 a.m. She then slept until about noon before returning to work again until 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday. She was then able to sleep approximately four hours before she had to return to work again at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday and did not return home again until 11:00 a.m. on Thursday. She said she’d leave a note for herself to wake up after only an hour of rest.

In a follow-up tweet, Fukuda wrote that at the rate the schedule is going, it won’t be long before the assistant falls victim to some kind of accident. He went on to say that he used to be able to work under this kind of schedule in the past but now he feels it has to change, even if it’s dangerous for him to talk about it.

Uniqlo operator to offer same-sex couple workers equal perks (The Asahi Shimbun, Satsuki Tanahashi)

These employees will now have access to the same housing and benefits as heterosexual couples.

Among the 60,000 regular employees of Fast Retailing and its affiliates in Japan, those in same-sex relationships will be eligible to use the system as early as December.

Couples with the status will be allowed to rent company-managed apartments for families, receive congratulatory and condolence payments, and take six-day marriage leave.

“As a global company, we want to provide an environment where all employees can work without anxiety over the long-term by recognizing their lifestyle choices,” a company representative said.

Japan firm warned of legal step over Korean forced laborers (The Mainichi)

The attorneys have stated they’re prepared to free the company’s assets in South Korea if they fail to respond but would prefer to simply negotiate reparations for the victims.

South Korea’s Supreme Court last week ordered the second Japanese firm, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, to financially compensate 10 Koreans for forced labor. The rulings are expected to affect similar lawsuits pending in South Korean courts.

The recent rulings in South Korea are threatening to undermine relations with Japan, which has argued that the issue of forced laborers was settled when Tokyo and Seoul signed a treaty in 1965 that restored diplomatic ties and had Japan provide $500 million to South Korea in economic assistance rather than compensation. South Korea says the treaty does not terminate individuals’ right to seek compensation for the inhumane experiences they were forced into.

Japan acknowledged its wartime aggression and apologized to Asian victims in 1995, but has since significantly backpedaled under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s nationalistic government.

A Life Of Helping The Homeless In Sanya, An Obliterated Tokyo District (Savvy Tokyo, Lucy Dayman)

Sanya, an area largely populated with working-class citizens, was “erased” from Tokyo’s maps due to a poor reputation; Mago Yoshihara is part of a community building project meant to help those without homes—both travelers and transients.

While researching community building on Negros Island in the Philippines I learned about the bilateral treaty between Japan and the Philippines. Japan would come and take all the fish from the area, so the local people were very impoverished. It made me think that just because something is legal doesn’t necessarily make it right. I felt like there had to be something I as a Japanese person could do to help make things right.

When I returned to Japan I wanted to go to the countryside, but I came to Sanya as a volunteer with a local food distribution project. From working in the developing countries I noticed a lot of similarities.
Sanya is an interesting place because today it doesn’t technically exist. How did the neighborhood get erased?

The name Sanya was officially erased about 50 years ago. This place used to be called Asakusa Sanya, but there was a lot of trouble with day laborers gathering in the area. There was a lot of violence and unrest, especially during the 1960s, with criminal groups and political extremists getting involved. 
So the name “Sanya” still has a stigma around it.

This area is now split into two: Kiyokawa and Nihonzutsumi. The long-term labors still consider the area Sanya, they refer to it as their community.

Popular Magical Girl Anime Gets A Magical Boy (Kotaku, Brian Ashcraft)

Hugtto PreCure just debuted its first (non-joke) male PreCure. Transformation clip available in the article.

Traditionally, Pretty Cure been aimed at little girls, but like with many anime, its audience is wider than that. Not only girls want to be magical!

Sunday’s episode of Hugtto! PreCure (With a Hug! Pretty Cure) saw the debut of Cure Infini, the “first” male Pretty Cure. As My Game News Flash pointed out, the character was first teased in November.

Via Hachima Kikou, here is Cure Infini’s transformation scene.

Thread: Images from Paralympic Jump Mook, which is being made to promote the 2020 Paralympics

Tweet: A casting call for a short film focusing on bias experienced by marginalized cosplayers, particularly cosplayers of color

BONUS 

Tweet: Announcement that What Did You Eat Yesterday, Fumi Yoshinaga’s slice-of-life cooking manga about a middle-aged gay couple, will be receiving a live-action drama

AniFem Community

Thank you to everyone who’s donated or shared our crowdfunding campaign thus far–we couldn’t have done it without you, and your support means the world! Here’s to meeting those stretch goals.

Now check out these rad could-be anime (that probably won’t happen; but listen, we can dream):

ANIMORPHS!!! Also Harry Potter and Secrets of Droon...

The best anime adaptation from a western media in my point of view was Shōjo Cosette based on The Miserables from Victor Hugo. I mean, not only it beats every movies ever made in term of respecting and honoring the original plot, following the characters, stop cutting important plot points from the original novel, but it had an amazing music, amazing voices, beautiful picture, a lot of really emotional moments (as for the original) and the best adaptation (graphic novels, movies, manga, etc.) that I ever saw, and I try to read and watch them all. It perfectly capture the social aspect of the novel dear to Hugo (on themes like poverty, child abuse, government intervention, caring justice, stopping the horrible detention and torture of convicts, education, social redistribution of wealth, etc.) It's the first anime I saw (I think) but I rarely had this much enjoyment of a TV series in my life. It made me cry so much too. Definitively a must.

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