Weekly Round-Up, 12-18 March 2025: Silent Hill f, Crime Thriller Otome, and Living Nonbinary

AniFem Round-Up

Love, Agency, and Androids: A Chobits Retrospective

CLAMP’s post-humanist story asks questions about gender roles in relationships, agency, and how those perceived as female can be literally objectified. But it also undercuts itself in its search for answers.

You Don’t Have to Kick Ass to Be Kickass: Shoujo fantasy and the value of the noncombatant hero

Strong Female Characters are often measured by their fighting ability, but there are many equally valuable ways to write cool, active women even if they’re not on the battlefield.

What series do you wish there was more merch for?

Here’s one for all you obscure title fans.

Beyond AniFem

Saudi Arabia Buys Pokémon Go, and Probably All of Your Location Data (404Media, Jason Koebler)

This progresses from previous news that Niantic was exploring scraping the game for geographical data.

What is happening here is that an already very complicated and vast location data ecosystem that was previously controlled by only one American company (Niantic) has now become a far more complicated location data ecosystem controlled Scopely, an American company that is wholly owned by a Saudi Arabian conglomerate whose largest shareholder is the Saudi Arabian government. Pokémon Go and all of the games Niantic is selling to Scopely require a player’s location in order to work at all, and Pokémon Go is partially monetized with in-game, location-targeted ads. 

There is no world in which Scopely does not collect players’ locations as part of Pokémon Go. But what remains unclear is what is going to happen with location data moving forward and what is going to happen with historic location data. 

None of this is explained to users in any of the many blog posts about this deal, but Ed Wu, who leads the Pokémon Go team, called it a “partnership” with Scopely, and Scopely’s blog post says they are “teaming up” with Niantic. It remains very unclear whether there will be any ongoing relationship between Scopely and Niantic and whether it includes any data sharing, what will happen to data that Scopely collects, how it will be monetized, and how and if it will flow to Savvy Games or the Public Investment Fund. 

Despera Drops Interview – Localization Team Pulls Back the Curtain on the Latest Otome from Aksys Games (Blerdy Otome, Naja)

The game recently came out in English for the Nintendo Switch.

Over the years Aksys Games has been dedicated to bringing more great otome titles to international fans. And the latest title from your team Despera Drops definitely stands out as a unique otome title. How would you describe the plot of Despera Drops?

Zihan: Hmm, I’d describe it as a story of character growth, found family, and learning to reconcile differences. At the core, it’s a mystery thriller adventure on the run that explores the morally gray area of our society and the different forms love can take, especially with people that have been worn down by our flawed world. But well, that’s something a lot of otome explores, so I’ll focus on what I think makes it unique!

I personally feel that Despera Drops places a heavy focus on modern and realistic issues within our society that impact us on a personal level. I don’t want to spoil too much, but it even brings up themes like student protests, which I was honestly surprised to come across in a otome game. Above all else, traveling from place to place in Europe during a short time frame was definitely a fun experience!

teiko: Well, if it were a light novel title: MAMMA MIKA! Framed & Blamed On My Study Abroad, I’m Now On the Run With Studs and a Broad?!

Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system. Fundamentally, I’d say DD is about a ragtag group of unlikely heroes on the run—either from something, toward something, or somewhere in between—with police and politicians, mysterious actors, and ghosts of the past hot on their heels every step of the way. Our lovable crew is up against some real powerhouses, and the only way they’ll come out on top is by finding strength within themselves—and in each other.

Silent Hill f writer says many of the franchise’s female characters experience “a great deal of suffering,” so he wants his protagonist “to be able to make her own decisions, for better or for worse” (GamesRadar, Ashley Bardhan)

The game is currently listed on storefronts but doesn’t have a definitive release date.

Women in Silent Hill are smothered to death, bleeding from the waist down, and tortured by their fathers. It’s not my idea of the perfect spring break, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. So Silent Hill f, the newest title in Konami‘s survival horror series, won’t make life any easier for its female protagonist, but writer Ryukishi07 at least vows to empower her.

“Up until now, I have played every Silent Hill game,” says Ryukishi07, the mythic creator behind the When They Cry visual novels, in Konami’s recent Silent Hill transmission. “One thing I noticed is that many of the female characters are put through a great deal of suffering throughout their lives, which is why I thought, if this game is going to have a female protagonist, then I want her to be able to make her own decisions. For better or for worse amid her struggles.”

Ryukishi07 continues: “I don’t want her to just be pulled along by the story, but to find her own answers. That was the kind of protagonist – or, at least, the kind of story – that I wanted to create.”

Japan schools’ ‘neutrality’ revictimizing kids enduring sexual violence by fellow students (The Mainichi, Haruka Ito)

This article includes anonymized but detailed discussion of child sexual abuse cases.

According to National Police Agency (NPA) statistics, the number of boys (those under 20) arrested for sex crimes including sexual intercourse or indecent acts without consent increased from 431 in 2014 to a record high 540 in 2023. These figures, however, exclude elementary school students. Because sexual violence goes beyond the scope of sex crimes defined by the law, there are more victims in a broader age range than the numbers show.

There are no national statistics regarding sex crimes in which perpetrator and victim are children. But Hisako Ura, director of the Fukuoka Victim Support Center, a public interest incorporated foundation involved in governmental efforts to research support measures for sex crime victims, noted, “It’s clear the number of incidents has gone up in recent years.”

Ura said that the main cause is an epidemic of misguided conceptions on sexual matters that children pick up online. She noted her impression that the coronavirus pandemic made things worse as children spent more unsupervised time on the internet.

Woman raised in facilities holds Tokyo event bringing social care issue closer to home (The Mainichi, Eri Misono)

The first event was a success, and the organizers hope to hold a second one in future.

“People raised in children’s care facilities are a minority, so many others don’t usually interact with them. By sharing the problems we face, we hope to create a platform to address these as social issues,” said Ayaka Kishimoto, the 23-year-old organizer of the event.

Kishimoto’s parents divorced shortly after her birth, and she was raised in locations including a home for infants and a children’s care facility. Although she briefly returned to her original home, she became a “young carer” for her younger sibling and was unable to attend elementary school.

Facing poverty and malnutrition, she reentered a facility, but it didn’t work out, so she went back home, while continuing to search for a place to belong. “Deep down, I loved my mom and didn’t want to be abandoned. I wanted to live with her,” Kishimoto said.

Confronting social issues

Kishimoto started living by herself at the age of 18, but her days of loneliness continued. It was Masako Yamamoto, 31, who supports individuals from social care backgrounds, who reached out to her at that time.

Kishimoto got to know Yamamoto through an acquaintance in 2020, during the proliferation of COVID-19. Kishimoto participated in Yamamoto’s efforts during the pandemic to create online spaces for young people who had been in social care or experienced abuse, while also receiving food support.

Kishimoto was also introduced to “efude,” a service that gives companies opportunities to engage with those coming from social care backgrounds in the form of employee training and workshops, and took part in the program.

“Hunchback” by Saou Ichikawa (Asian Review of Books, Mahika Dhar)

The novella was published in Japan in 2023.

Incurable and rare, Shaka’s myotubular myopathy is a background hum on lucky days, and a fight for what she calls “survival” the rest of the time. Like Shaka, the novella’s author, Ichikawa, also has myopathy. After years of research around the representation of literary characters with disabilities, she grew frustrated at the lack of sexual pleasure and lust in fiction about those characters. And so, she created Shaka.

The only moments when Shaka isn’t thinking about desire—or writing sex scenes—are when the logistics of her body occupy her: suctioning mucus out of her tracheostomy tube, being bathed, and contorting her legs in different angles to reduce the painful pressure of a collapsing spine.

When Shaka isn’t reading erotica, she’s writing it. Her extensive use of Twitter, in particular, is a highlight of the story: “In another life, I’d like to work as a high-class prostitute” and “I want to do the job in swingers’ clubs where you get to scatter condoms from the ceiling.” Meanwhile, in her serialised fiction, she thinks of the different ways to write the sound of a female orgasm before finally settling on,, “Ah, aah, mmm!” Yet the tweet that shifts the course of her life comes in the form of a recurring thought that had, until now, been stored in her notes app: “I want to get pregnant, then have an abortion.”

Hunchback destabilises the notions of what a disabled body can and cannot do, both socially and for herself. Shaka fleshes the idea out with context from her remote study program, where she learns of the disabled activist Tomoko Yunezu, who had attempted to spray paint the Mona Lisa. In Yunezu’s time, women’s liberation groups in Japan were fighting over disabled abortion rights. Some championed the right to abort disabled fetuses while others thought the act was akin to killing a child solely for disability. The fight ballooned and more voices joined the conversation—garnering significant media attention along the way—and culminated in changes to Japanese legislation on selective abortion. Shaka’s declaration of abortion is squarely in conversation with this history, with an additional revolt against the conventionally held belief that “disabled people were not sexual beings.”

 The Aggressive Commodification of Cosy Asian Fiction (Kill Your Darlings, Nina Cullen)

Regardless of genre, many Japanese authors in translation end up under a very specific market branding of “literary fiction.”

Nowhere is this more evident than in the aesthetic choices that surround these books, which according to Alison Fincher, who runs the Read Japanese Literature website and podcast, are ‘heavily curated’. Think bold colours, clean typography and kitsch covers that sit pretty on an Instagram grid. Quaint settings and minimalism are emphasised, perhaps to align with Western perceptions of ‘authentic’ or ‘cute’ East Asian culture. It’s safe. It’s palatable. It’s homogenising. This risks making East Asian literature seem over-saturated with cats or quirky storefronts—more of the same, rather than the expansive, evolving field it is.

Of course, even the books with ‘soft’ and ‘quirky’ covers have thematic cores that hit hard. Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs, for example, with its various pink covers, is at first glance a quiet portrait of three women in Tokyo. But beneath scenes spent watching TV, snacking on gyoza and drinking canned beer lies a sharp exploration of gender inequality, societal pressure, agency and the intersections of class and identity—fitting for a writer who has directly challenged Japan’s most influential contemporary author on his representation of women.

Similarly, female authors like Sayaka Murata and Hang Kang continue to push the boundaries of genre and tone, reshaping what literature can say and who gets to tell the story. Few do it with as much deadpan subversion as Murata, whose Convenience Store Woman follows Keiko Furukura, a thirty-six-year-old woman who has worked in the same Tokyo convenience store since she was eighteen. To society, she’s an oddity—single, childless and indifferent to climbing any professional ladder. Her family and friends pity her, urging her to fix herself and get married. But Keiko refuses. The store, with its rules and routines, is where her quirks are not just tolerated but valued. Even when she invites a male co-worker to move in, it’s purely practical, though she lets others believe it’s the relationship they’ve been pushing for—for Keiko, he’s more pet than partner. Meanwhile, Kang’s experimental writing interrogates Korea’s history, as outlined by Yung In Chae in the Yale Review, ‘[acting] as a conduit for the memories of generations that suffered state violence’. The Vegetarian, translated by Deborah Smith—the first Korean novel to win the International Man Booker Prize—explores human violence through Yeong-hye, a woman who suddenly decides to stop eating meat after a series of dreams involving animal slaughter. It’s unsettling and surreal, and this story—meditative, centred on the life of one woman—can also be read as a political allegory.

Comedian Yuki Nivez is Not Your Diversity Hire (Unseen Japan, Yuki Nivez)

Reflections from the author about her upcoming show and trying to create a more inclusive space in stand-up.

In March 2022, I launched a project to create a comedy space free from misogyny. I originally wanted to name the show Not Your Diversity Hire, inspired by the countless times I was told, “You only get booked because you’re a woman.” etc.

However, before announcing the show, a male comedian suggested changing the name to Not Just a Diversity Hire to soften it. This didn’t sit right with me, as it felt like I was saying, “Yes, I am a diversity hire, but I’m not just that,” which undermined the show’s message. But in the pressure and chaos of launching the project, I went with the suggestion.

We are conditioned to question ourselves. Anytime women try to carve out a safe space, we tend to over-explain and beg for understanding—despite our real, firsthand experiences that made it necessary in the first place.

We shouldn’t have to be apologetic, and nobody can deny our experiences. Yet in reality, we all struggle to find the balance between standing our ground and protecting our own well-being.

VIDEO: Biman 3: A Sci-Fi Visual Novel About Misogyny, Change, and Hot Robots

THREAD: Takeuchi Kyoko’s research will be published as the book Living Nonbinary: A History of the Categorization of Gender/Sexual Minorities.

AniFem Community

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