There is some rough news in the links this week, and some bad behavior to boot. But also a Sayo Yamamoto interview to soothe your nerves.
AniFem Round-Up
[Fan vs Service] WorldEnd vs Hajime no Ippo
You can definitely show a massage scene without framing it in a creepy, inappropriately sexualized way. Here, WorldEnd crew, Dee has an example of how to do it better.
[Feature] Creator Spotlight: Tiv, Korean-Born Manga Artist
Racial tensions can make it difficult for non-Japanese manga artists to succeed, and pressure to conform is high. All the more reason to highlight those artists’ efforts.
[Podcast] Chatty AF 6: Team Q&A part 1
In celebration of the site’s six monthaversary, a few members of the crew talked about how the site came to be, and answered some reader questions.
Beyond AniFem
RAWNESS OF WOMEN: AN INTERVIEW WITH SAYO YAMAMOTO (Wave Motion Cannon)
A translation of a 2008 interview with director Yamamoto, just before the premiere of Michiko & Hatchin.
—In your case, what is it that you want to express that makes you create anime?
Yamamoto: Right now, it’s women. Their idiocy, the vague relationships between them that aren’t quite friendship or romantic love… I’m making anime because I want to depict these facets of women that I’ve personally felt. I suspect that the highlights of Michiko & Hatchin will come from this focus as well.
The Japanese manga comic helping Syrian refugee children dream (BBC News)
In order to provide hope to children in his embattled home country, college student Obada Kassoumah began translating Captain Tsubasa into Arabic.
Through co-operation with a number of international NGOs and Unicef, the books are now being distributed to young Syrian children in camps across Europe, Turkey and the Middle East who have escaped the terror and trauma of the civil war ravaging their home country.
“It is very far from the reality they know,” Prof Naito explains. “But for kids it is very important to be able to escape from reality for a while. And these books can also give them some hope for their own future.”
How Oreimo Made Little Sisters a Big Deal (Anime News Network)
Wanna know why we’ve been cursed with yet another anime about a dude who wants to fuck his sister? Here’s a history of how we got here.
Editorial intervention may have influenced Fushimi’s branding as the “little sister” author, but according to Fushimi himself, the controversial ending of Oreimo was something he had decided on from the beginning. What solidified his decision to end the light novels with incest between blood-related siblings was his experience writing the script of the spinoff PSP game. According to him, none of the various endings in the game fully conveyed Kirino’s feelings for her brother. Considering that many of the endings were explicitly romantic—much more so than the light novel itself—one can only assume that Fushimi’s dissatisfaction arose from the fact that Kyousuke is revealed to be adopted in the game.
A FIGURE SKATING FAN TALKS YURI!!! ON ICE (AND THE FILM SEQUEL!) (Wave Motion Cannon)
An opinion piece on how YOI pays homage to the real world skating community and its focus on widening acceptable gender roles.
What’s important about this is that no one complains that his programs are “too girly.” Not Yurio, even if he initially declared that he hates “this innocence crap” and would later replace a similar exhibition program with “the madness.” Not the fans or commentators, the latter of whom simply marveled at how he easily jumped his quads and triples with one hand raised over his head.[4] And not the judges who rewarded his performances with astronomically high scores. The sole exception is JJ, who teases him about this feminine image with a “ladies first” in episode 8. This little swipe suggests that Yamamoto and Kubo have not forgotten that expectations associated with a skater’s gender remain a serious issue in the real world of figure skating.
Overwatch Incest ‘Shipping Tests The Limits Of What’s Permissible In Fandom (Kotaku)
A vertical slice of sorts of the kind of fandom shipping battles that are going on constantly, including right now as you read it, breaking down the dynamic for an outside eye.
The brunt of that impact is people losing enthusiasm for the fandom. Both Genji and Hanzo are involved in other, less controversial ships on Tumblr, but if you’re invested in the characters, chances are you’ll run abreast of the unpleasant Shimadacest shipwar at some point. If patterns from other fandoms hold true for Overwatch, people will just silently leave the fandom rather than face the animosity from either side of the conversation.
Does Japan Ever Convict Men for Rape? (The Daily Beast)
Japan’s laws on assault are stacked against the victim, from a 90% male police force to requiring the victim to file any charges. Take care in reading if you’re triggered by discussion of assault.
According to Kunitaka Kasai, a criminal defense lawyer from the Rei Law Office, “When prosecutors drop charges there is no way of knowing whether it is because there wasn’t enough evidence.” Kasai also pointed out, “Most settlements usually have written into the text, ‘I (the victim) do not wish him (the assailant) to face criminal punishment.’ This greatly discourages the police from pursuing the case, even if they could do so without the cooperation of the victim.” Rape cases without bodily injury require the victim to file charges, or there is no crime.
I’m Not a Robot (The Nib)
A moving comic on the importance of representation for young people with autism.
NO GIRLS ALLOWED: THE LASTING RULES OF GAMERGATE AND TOXIC MISOGYNY (Bitch Media)
On how GamerGate burst out from gamer culture, specifically how it continues to manifest in the supposedly inclusive atmosphere of PAX.
Most of the show’s panels that touched on harassment and abuse did so in a way that was only marginally helpful, if at all. The Diverse Gaming Coalition held a panel on stopping online bullying, and concluded that “fixing” people who want to cause harm “is our goal” but is “not realistic,” ending 20 minutes early after focusing primarily on hawking T-shirts and signing up new partners.
The Island Where Dozens of Japanese WWII Holdouts Fought Over One Woman (Atlus Obscura)
A historical tale about a group of shipwreck survivors who lived on a deserted island with a single female ruler in 1944.
In July of 1950 the men determined that Kazuko was more trouble than she was worth and planned to execute her. One of them warned her, she went into hiding, and was rescued when she flagged a U.S. vessel a few weeks later. Upon her return to Japan she toured the cities for a while as a minor celebrity, telling her strange tale of being “The Queen of Anatahan.”
Forced into pornography: Japan moves to stop women being coerced into sex films (The Guardian)
It’s still extremely common for scouts and agents to approach women on the street and entrap them into contracts as porn performers.
When the women object, producers threaten them with fines, sometimes running into millions of yen, or say they will tell their parents, friends or former colleagues abut [sic] their new “career”.
In some instances, women who attempt to flee the set of a film are caught, confined to hotel rooms or taken to remote locations where escape is impossible. “There is rarely any actual violence,” Ito said. “But there are lots of other forms of pressure.
BONUS:
【あさがおと加瀬さん。】 アニメーションクリップ「キミノヒカリ」【Kase-san and Morning Glories】 (YouTube)
An adorable short film based on the GL manga Kase-san.
AniFem Community
Earlier this week, Juné put out a marketing campaign for a line of manga featuring “traps:” a slur that AniFem has discussed before.
Just a reminder that ‘trap’ is a slur and GLAAD lists it as defamatory language. We talked about it in this article: https://t.co/dL93RSWKmx https://t.co/qyUednN5zk
— AniFem (@AnimeFeminist) May 13, 2017
The tweet is no longer available, but the apology left rather a lot to be desired. Much “I’m sorry you got offended.”
Trap is the termed used in the hentai community, where these books are originally licensed under. As the genre does focus on crossdressing/1
— Juné (@junemanga) May 15, 2017
males and females, hentai and yaoi fans usually both find something appealing with them. Just as yaoi is not meant to describe LGBTQ/2
— Juné (@junemanga) May 15, 2017
relationships in real life, neither is trap meant to cause any disrespect towards trans people, but rather a comic book term for those/3
— Juné (@junemanga) May 15, 2017
seeking the genre. We apologize of our use of this term should it have hurt anyone and know we love and respect all genders/4
— Juné (@junemanga) May 15, 2017
Yours truly (Vrai) could spend all day dissecting the layers of side-eye inducement going on this nonpology, but I mostly wanted to preserve the evidence of poor practice. Additionally (and putting aside the fact that it’s a documented slur), there are many terms common in hentai and pornography; however, Juné is a romance marketer of all heat levels per their description. Harlequin might sell explicit romances, but you don’t see them titling their books “Cream Pie Ass Lickers 8.”
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