This week: fears about support among aging members of Japan’s LGBT community, Gengoroh Tagame mourns the death of Gay Adult Magazines, and the serious issue of stalking at conventions.
AniFem Round-Up
[Review] WATATEN!: an Angel Flew Down to Me – Episode 1
A lesbian pedophile anime, because that’s a subgenre now. It sucks.
[Review] The Promised Neverland – Episode 1
A thriller best experienced with as little knowledge as possible going in. The season’s biggest standout.
[Review] kemurikusa. – Episode 1
The Kemon Friends team does a post-apocalyptic survival series that makes interesting use of its limited visuals.
[Review] Girly Air Force – Episode 1
An uncomfortable love letter to the JSDF where most of the female cast are literal objects in need of male handlers.
[Review] Dimension High School – Episode 1
A cheap-looking mixed media series that requires a basic grasp of Japanese to even enjoy the puzzle solving.
[Review] My Roommate is a Cat – Episode 1
The protagonist starts out kind of a jerk but the cat is beyond adorable, and the tone is sweet.
[Review] Meiji Tokyo Renka – Episode 1
Middle-of-the-road otome with a gimmick based around reimagining Meiji-era artists as handsome boys.
[Review] The Quintessential Quintuplets – Episode 1
Bog-standard harem fanservice with an exceptionally unlikable main character.
[Review] Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka – Episode 1
A grimdark magical girl series that’s more campy than meanspirited.
[Review] Bermuda Triangle ~ Colorful Pastrale – Episode 1
Archetypal characters and a meandering, unfocused story.
[Review] Domestic Girlfriend – Episode 1
A sexy melodrama with likable characters and a major red flag at the end of the episode.
[Review] The Magnificent KOTOBUKI – Episode 1
A high-flying adventure series by the SHIROBAKO writing/directing team. Fun characters and slightly awkward CG/line-art melding.
[Review] Grimms Notes the Animation – Episode 1
Has interesting ideas but so far executes them in an uninspired way.
[Review] Kaguya-sama: Love is War – Episode 1
A rom-com that succeeds by putting its two childish, manipulative leads on equal footing and conveying their underlying humanity.
[AniFemTalk] What are your favorite anime and manga rom-coms?
We’ve got one solid-looking rom-com premiere this season. What’re some of your older faves?
Beyond AniFem
Outrage erupts online in Japan after assaulted NGT48 pop idol apologizes for ‘causing trouble’ (The Japan Times, Chisato Tanaka)
Maho Yamaguchi was stalked by two male fans who broke into her home and grabbed her, and her management failed to do anything when she reported the incident.
Natsuko Yokosawa, also a female comedian, voiced her concern over the agency’s handling of the incident during a Fuji TV show on Thursday.
“I wonder if it was possible for her to discuss it with the agency in a proper manner,” she said, “since the only protection (a celebrity) has is from their agency.
“They have an obligation to provide good protection.”
The two men who assaulted Yamaguchi were arrested but were subsequently released without charge.
Car set on fire at ALA by obsessed stalker (GoFundMe)
A cosplayer’s car was burned by an assailant who is now in custody. Multiple vehicles were damaged in the attack.
While I was attending Anime Los Angeles, my car was targeted and set on fire by an obsessed stalker who specifically set my car on fire. I only had liability insurance, so my insurance will not cover me and I got it for $27,000. It was a really good working 2015 Subaru Outback. I appreciate everyone who has helped be here for me during this ordeal, and thank you all for encouraging me to go through with starting a go fund me. I can’t say thank you enough for the cosplay community being so supportive and helpful to me in just every way. Thank you everyone, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
More people identify as LGBT as social awareness grows in Japan: study (The Mainichi)
The number of surveyed people who were aware of the term LGBT nearly doubled from the prior study in 2015. One in eleven identified as LGBT.
“More people may have started to think about their sexuality as information about LGBT people has increased in the last few years,” a Dentsu official in charge of the survey said.
Almost 80 percent of respondents said they wanted a deeper understanding of the LGBT community to ensure that they would not make LGBT individuals feel uncomfortable instead of just knowing the acronym.
Of the LGBT respondents, 65.1 percent said they had not told anyone about their sexuality, indicating the difficulty of coming out in Japan.
Regarding same-sex marriages, recognized in some Western countries, 78.4 percent responded that they approved or were likely to approve.
The Rising of the Shield Hero: The Author’s Gender is Officially Not Your Business (Fantastic Memes, Frog-kun)
Assertions that the author’s feminine penname indicate that they’re female have no proof behind them; regardless, the author’s gender does not impact criticism of the text, as women are also capable of misogyny.
Long story short, hardly anything about Aneko Yusagi is actually known. Not their age, occupation, or even their gender. This is clearly the author’s wish, so it would be unfair to assume anything about their identity.
Some have asked, “Why do they use such a feminine-sounding pen name?” There could be any number of reasons for this. For example, Natsume Akatsuki once said that the “Akatsuki” part of his pen name comes from Kancolle, which he was really into at the time. The reasoning could be as innocuous as that. It is not in itself a statement of gender identity.
This is far from the first time anime fans have made assumptions about an author’s identity. In the case of Natsume Akatsuki, fans speculated for years that he was a woman. It was only when he was interviewed by The Anime Man was it clear that he was a man (even if his face was covered during the interview).
Moon accuses Japan of politicizing wartime labor issue (The Mainichi)
South Korea is continuing to seek damages for the surviving men who were made to do forced labor during Japan’s colonial control of the Korean Peninsula.
As to the steps South Korea is considering to address the situation, Moon indicated that it might take time to come up with a decision given that authorities are investigating the allegation that the judiciary delayed ruling on wartime labor cases under the previous administration led by President Park Geun Hye.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that the government will consider the Japanese request for talks but did not say how it intends to respond.
It said South Korea intends to come up with measures that will help victims of forced labor recover from their damaging experiences while taking into consideration future-oriented ties with Japan.
Foreigners make up 45% of new adults in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward (The Asahi Shimbun)
A recent coming-of-age ceremony in Shinjuku boasted participants from many different countries.
Their presence shows that the myth of a “homogenous” Japan no longer applies, at least to Shinjuku Ward, where one in every two new adults is a foreign national.
“I am very excited,” an American woman and her female friend from Mexico, both decked out in “furisode” long-sleeved kimono, said at once.
Ami Tanaka, born in Shinjuku to a Filipino mother, said, “I want to go back to the Philippines to tell my grandmother there that I turned 20.”
Some 4,109 new adults reside in Shinjuku Ward, of which 1,868, or about 45 percent, are foreign nationals, according to the ward office.
Students translate booklet on ‘Pikadon Sensei’ A-bomb survivor’s experience (The Mainichi)
Sunao Tsuboi is an iconic lecturer whose name refers to the “flash” of the atomic bomb. The first-person booklet by Tsuboi is being translated into English.
As Tsuboi’s statements in Japanese are written in his Hiroshima dialect, it is difficult to express the underlying emotions in English. Participants also discussed about how to translate and add annotations of the term Pikadon, if they should explain in detail about Tsuboi’s marriage that he hesitated to talk about, and where to draw the line on depicting discrimination against A-bomb survivors.
NET-GTAS members advised students to “conduct another interview with Tsuboi to understand his deep feelings” and that “trying to stand close to” Tsuboi enables translation that is easier to understand.
“Although the end result is important in translation, there’s also meaning in its process,” said 24-year-old Takahiro Abiru, a supporter of NET-GTAS. The fourth-year student at KUFS added, “I also want to stand close to Tsuboi’s feelings.”
LGBTs in Japan fear growing old in society where they feel alone (The Asahi Shimbun, Daisaku Takahashi)
There are still rampant issues, including trans individuals being denied health insurance because of surgical histories or hormone usage, and queer couples being denied rights as their partner’s guarantor in the event of serious illness or death.
“I want to be buried in the same grave with my partner who passed away,” said a lesbian in her 50s.
A gay man in his 60s said: “When my partner suffered from aggravated pneumonia and went to the hospital, we were told he could not be admitted unless he has a guarantor. Since I am not his family member in the eyes of the law, I could not be his guarantor. It was difficult to get him admitted to the hospital.”
In many cases, a same-sex couple, no matter how long they have lived together, are not considered “family.”
Sometimes, they are even not allowed to be by their loved one’s side at the final moment. At other times, they are not allowed to inherit the money and property that the couple have accumulated together.
Eisner Winning Manga Creator Gengoroh Tagame Laments End of Adult Gay Manga Mags (Anime News Network, Lynzee Loveridge)
Tagame’s switch to more all-ages comics has been largely prompted by the closure of many adult gay magazines.
However, it looks like erotic manga will no longer be Tagame’s livelihood and fans of his adult works will need to check dōjin events and underground publications to find it. This isn’t the result of a deliberate choice by Tagame himself–gay adult manga magazines were a dying breed and with the final issue of Badi magazine on January 25, there will be only one left.
Tagame wrote on his blog January 1 that all the magazines that featured his work over the last 30 years are gone, including Sabu, G-men, Badi, SM-Z, Kinniku-otoko, and Nikutai-ha. Tagame describes the remaining magazine, Samson, as one that targets “fat and old men only in Japan.” He went on to say, “I’m feeling like I’m watching the end of the era of Japanese gay magazines.”
Thread: On the experience of being stalked at cons due to being popular enough to be noticed but not enough to have any security
lrt: this is what i say a lot about the danger of being "micro-celebrity", or even just known enough to be obsessed over by one person. all the danger of a crazy fan with none of the security apparatus of a "normal" celebrity
— Dave@For Megadrivers Custom (@sasuraiger) January 14, 2019
AniFem Community
A really good rom-com can be hard to find, but that just makes the gems all the sweeter.
My Love Story!
I'm revisiting it now for the first time since it aired initially, and I love it just as much as I did on first viewing. It's just so delightfully pro-communication. Also real cute. pic.twitter.com/tFh41j3t0K
— Emily (@hearmesnark) January 15, 2019
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