Weekly Round-Up, 18-24 December 2024: The Year in Otome Games, Crunchyroll Industry Report, and a Taisho FMV Game

By: Anime Feminist December 24, 20240 Comments
Yoshino swinging a baseball bat

AniFem Round-Up

No One is Born to Be a Slave: How The Twelve Kingdoms questions social systems

The Twelve Kingdoms novels have finally been (re)licensed in English–so it’s a great time to read up on why this fantasy series and its heroine are so beloved by so many.

Airborne Onnagata: Viewing Macross Frontier’s protagonist through a genderqueer lens

Corrine goes to bat for the often-disliked Alto, arguing for his severe case of Gender.

Chatty AF 219: Recovery of an MMO Junkie Retrospective

Anime Herald’s EIC Samantha visits us to discuss a lovely adult romance full of burnout and gender that’s become difficult to discuss in the wake of revelations about the anime’s director.

What’s your favorite romance series about adults?

Sometimes one gets tired of reading about high-schoolers.

Beyond AniFem

Sony’s Crunchyroll Finds Its Early Lead in Anime Under Attack (Bloomberg, Cecilia D’Anastasio and Takashi Mochizuki)

An insider snapshot on business goings-on at Sonyroll that every anime fan should read.

One concern among Crunchyroll employees and licensors is the marketing, overseen by Markus Gerdemann, a senior vice president. He was hired by Funimation after marketing several popular Netflix shows, like Unorthodox, but had little experience with anime. Gerdemann brought in a cadre of former advertising agency colleagues whom Crunchyroll employees came to refer to as the “boys’ club.”

Seven current and former employees said Gerdemann isn’t experienced enough for the role, overseeing changes in strategy that cost the company money.

In the past year, he has angered both Toei and Toho, according to current and former employees. In July, for example, Toei representatives were underwhelmed at a Crunchyroll concert for the anime hit One Piece held on the San Diego Bay during Comic-Con. The signature ship from the program sailed by, but wasn’t lit up, so many of those in attendance couldn’t see it. Gerdemann oversaw the event. Then in October, Gerdemann sent an email to staff, seen by Bloomberg, asking them not to promote the important Toho title Dandadan.

“Due to ongoing acquisition discussions, we decided not to further lean into the promotion of Dandadan,” the email read. The show was also streaming on Netflix, where it debuted as the second-most-viewed non-English show.

Oscar-Shortlisted ‘Black Box Diaries’ To Make Paramount+ With Showtime Debut In January: Compelling Documentary “Unfolds Like A Thriller” (Deadline, Matthew Carey)

Chiaki interviewed Ito about her work earlier this year.

At the IDA Awards in Los Angeles December 5, Itō earned the Emerging Filmmaker Award, recognizing the impact of her film. After winning the award, Itō spoke with Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, describing what it has been like to bring Black Box Diaries to an audience around the world – excepting her native Japan. “It’s been very healing to me because it’s a very personal story to me,” she said. “And I’m always hoping that one day I’ll bring back this film to Japan, which hasn’t happened yet… So, I’m very excited.”

As the documentary shows, Japanese police and prosecutors were reluctant to investigate Itō’s allegations, in part because the law required evidence of a violent attack to pursue charges against an alleged assailant. After Itō came forward publicly, pressure mounted on legislators to amend the penal code and last year they did just that – redefining rape as “nonconsensual sexual intercourse.”

“As a journalist and as a woman who grew up and lived in Japan so long, it was just a hard realization of how backwards our legal system is and how also at a personal level, how difficult [it was] even to report the case to police,” Itō said in an earlier appearance on the Doc Talk podcast. “Making a cultural shift takes a lot of time and it’s difficult, but I believe in storytelling and I think it is one of the ways to do it.”

2024 Switch and PC Otome Retrospective (Blerdy Otome, Naja)

A round-up of every otome game that came out in the West this year.

In order to save money, the main character works at a store called “Gokurakudo” in a different world. She will be working with a young doll called “Yoruichi” who works there, but….

Guardian Goddess has some of the horror I was hoping to see in 9 R.I.P. but in a bite-sized gameplay experience. Interesting premise and I am always excited to see another indie Japanese otome localization!

Once taboo, more Japanese women are brewing sake (The Mainichi)

A portrait of a master brewer mixed with a history lesson.

Sake making has a history of more than a thousand years, with strong roots in Japan’s traditional Shinto religion.

But when the liquor began to be mass produced during the Edo period, from 1603 until 1868, an unspoken rule barred women from breweries.

The reasons behind the ban remain obscure. One theory is that women were considered impure because of menstruation and were therefore excluded from sacred spaces, said Yasuyuki Kishi, vice director of the Sakeology Center at Niigata University.

“Another theory is that as sake became mass produced, a lot of heavy labor and dangerous tasks were involved,” he said. “So the job was seen as inappropriate for women.”

But the gradual breakdown of gender barriers, coupled with a shrinking workforce caused by Japan’s fast-aging population, has created space for more women to work in sake production.

“It’s still mostly a male-dominated industry. But I think now people focus on whether someone has the passion to do it, regardless of gender,” Takahashi said.

She believes mechanization in the brewery is also helping to narrow the gender gap. At Koten, a crane lifts hundreds of kilograms (pounds) of steamed rice in batches and places it onto a cooling conveyor, after which the rice is sucked through a hose and transported to a separate room dedicated to cultivating koji.

Analysis: Fewer women in workforce as regular employees (The Asahi Shimbun, Misato Nakayama)

The study compares hours worked weekly by men vs women in several professions; women tend to choose non-standard working hours because of gendered expectations around childcare.

Among those occupations where the average working hours of male regular employees was 45 hours or less, the percentage of female regular employees exceeded 50 percent in “social welfare professionals” such as social workers, “nursing service workers” and “accounting clerks.”

Meanwhile, the percentage of female regular employees in “reporters and editors” roles, where the average working hours for male regular employees was 47 hours or more, dropped to 33 percent.

The percentage of female regular employees in the category of “doctors,” where the average working hours for males was 50 hours, was 24.9 percent, while the percentage of female regular workers in the category of “automobile drivers,” such as truck drivers, where male regular employees on average work the longest hours at 53 hours, was significantly lower than other occupations at 2.8 percent.

On the other hand, “teachers,” where the average working hours for male regular employees exceeded 50 hours, had an exceptional feature with a high female ratio of 49.8 percent.

Elementary school teachers, in particular, are viewed by some as a feminine job, and the large number of women employed in this field is believed to be one of the reasons.

According to the internal affairs ministry’s labor force survey conducted in 2023, the employment rate of women aged from 15 to 64 was 73.3 percent, which was high by international standards.

The Centennial Case Is A Good Piece Of Shinhonkaku Mystery Propaganda (Mimidoshima)

Review of an FMV game with great writing and terrible gameplay.

While I find the English title apt for its scale, the Japanese title, 春ゆきてレトロチカ, describes the game’s aesthetic: the passing of spring fashioned in retro-chic clothing. New beginnings emerge after things have come to an end, just in fashion lingo. This sounds a lot like the Orientalist cliché, mono no aware, where “expert” commentators note how the noble Japanese are perceptive enough to feel a pathos about how things must inevitably change, the transience of everything, and all that nonsense.

But what I find most compelling about this game is how it roots this cliché in a history full of violence and dreams. The optimism of Taisho Democracy potentially giving women rights isn’t some utopian dream; it seemed possible until the Kanto Earthquake and World War II interrupted women’s suffrage. No one feels emotion from change itself; it’s because change is so destructive and creative that trauma follows. Today’s Japan is still marked by the legacies and broken promises of the Taisho and Showa eras.

We get our traditions and our life from the corpses buried under our feet. The epilogue of the game wants us to face this truth. What we do with it is another matter, but I think it’s a lesson worth learning.

I really like The Centennial Case. It was made by people who obviously love shinhonkaku mysteries and have experience in making adventure games. The game can work very well as an introduction to Japanese mysteries, if not for the atrocious gameplay.

Over 2,500 Okinawans rally against sexual assaults by US military personnel (The Mainichi, Hiroshi Higa)

Multiple news stories have come out this year about assaults by US soldiers.

The Okinawa Prefectural Government found out from media reports in June that police had formed cases against two U.S. military personnel over sexual assaults since March. The Japanese and U.S. governments in 1997 decided on a system for the U.S. side to report incidents that could affect public safety to the Japanese government and the relevant local bodies. It became an issue that the Japanese government and investigative authorities failed to contact the Okinawa Prefectural Government and relevant local bodies about either of the cases despite this system.

In an effort to tackle the current situation in which serious sexual assault cases are being repeated, an executive committee to organize the rally was formed centering around the Okinawa prefectural women’s group liaison council consisting of 21 women’s groups in the prefecture as well as labor unions and peace movement groups. Preparations were led by Okinawan citizens.

Sorane Sakihama, a third-year Keio University student from the prefectural town of Chatan, participated as the representative of younger generations. At age 13, she had also attended the rally to protest against a 2016 case in which a woman was sexually assaulted and murdered by U.S. military personnel. Looking back on that time, the now 22-year-old emphasized, “Will we have to have children in junior and senior high schools now stand here (at a protest rally) again after another series of incidents a few years later? We will never let such things happen again.”

2 ex-Johnny’s talents sue agency for $300 million in US over sex abuse (The Mainichi)

The suit also encompasses the company’s current and former executives for their failure to address the abuse.

The lawsuit filed in Clark County, Nevada, is believed to be the first by victims seeking compensation since the company publicly acknowledged in September last year that its founder, Johnny Kitagawa, who died in 2019, had sexually abused its performers.

The plaintiffs are Junya Tanaka, 43, and Kyohei Iida, 37, according to the suit. Tanaka alleges that Kitagawa sexually abused him at a Las Vegas hotel in March 1997 when he was 15 years old, while Iida claims he experienced similar abuse in August 2002 when he was 14.

Both plaintiffs allege that they were subjected to regular abuse during their time with the company, spanning from 1997 to 1998 for Tanaka and 2002 to 2006 for Iida.

They are each seeking $50 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages.

I would like it if ‘Dandadan’ stopped using sexual assault as a plot-driver (The Mary Sue, Kirsten Carey)

Dissecting the cliffhanger at the end of the season.

In Yokinobu Tatsu’s manga, this scene is resolved quickly. The manga doesn’t focus on this scene as much as the anime does. Science SARU’s Dandadan anime pads it out and actively makes it bigger by making it into the season cliffhanger.

Usually, for a season cliffhanger, you want something like, “Will this character survive?” Or, “Who was THAT character?” “Will this character be raped?” is certainly a new one. But it’s new for a reason: it’s in incredibly bad taste. It’s not a “fun” or “compelling” cliffhanger.

Sexual assault is a traumatic event. Leaving a highly charged event like this unresolved, dangling in the air for months, is actively triggering for people. That is the kind of feasible reaction that someone should’ve probably mentioned in a meeting.

REEL: Discussion of practical approaches to maintaining resistance.

SKEET: Webtoon’s current contest is following in the footsteps of the Rising Stars of Manga contest.

Webtoon canvas released the policies about its 1 million dollars contest m.webtoons.com/en/notice/de… Be aware that if you participate in this kind of contest, you are bequeathing your IP for a period of three years "from the publication of the Final episode of your series" Read it carefully

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— Elhijah – Tiefling Adelphia on Namicomi 💭 (@elhijah.bsky.social) December 24, 2024 at 4:35 AM

AniFem Community

It really emphasizes how many solid adult romances we’ve had lately.

Since romance usually isn't the focus of my favorite shows or manga, and it's much easier to find teen romance than adult romance, this is a harder list to put together than I originally hoped.  MANGA: For BL with adults, my favorites include Our Dining Table which is one volume and very sweet (two men connecting over babysitting & cooking for one's younger brother), and The Scene of My Rumspringa, a great one-volume recent-historical setting of 1980s America with an unusual premise (Amish man on his one lifetime trip outside of the community falls for a city boy who is also a prostitute). For yuri, there's After Hours, a three volume series that doesn't drag out anything (women have a one-night-stand, then decide to make club music together). For hetero romance, I suppose there's My Happy Marriage - the only one of these with an anime and any level of fame.  ANIME: Virtually all of the ones I've seen are hetero romances, probably due to lower availability of adult LGBTQA+ romance in anime versus manga. Even though they've been physically de-aged, the leads of ReLIFE are really adults, so does this count? They don't really get together until after they re-age anyway. Both the anime and live action drama are good. The leads of Nodame Cantabile are messes in different ways, but there's definitely romance happening under the surface. I haven't seen any live-action version. Mandatory shout-out to the leads of Spice & Wolf... which doesn't have a live version as far as I know. Finally, thank goodness for Cherry Magic, which also has a very nice live action drama.
Still Sick.

Still hoping for Our Teachers are Dating to get an anime. With the amount of trashy harems that get adapted uncut but with censor bars and full-on screen blackouts in the TV broadcast, you can't even point to the sex scenes as a reason it shouldn't.

— Jisu (@sanajisu.bsky.social) December 24, 2024 at 8:41 PM

Cherry Magic, Wotokoi, and MMO Junkie immediately come to mind for me If they ever make She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat inti and anime though, that'll take top spot for sure

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— Merry Kit-mas 🎄 (@pinkroomba.bsky.social) December 24, 2024 at 12:53 PM

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