AniFem Round-Up
Catch Me at the Ballpark! – Episode 1
Working at a ballpark is a great idea for a hobby anime, but the show is unfortunately let down by mediocre direction.
Once Upon a Witch’s Death – Episode 1
Despite being a story about a girl with one year left to live, this is solidly comfort food viewing.
The Too-Perfect Saint: Tossed Aside by My Fiancé and Sold to Another Kingdom – Episode 1
A promising shoujo fantasy that’s very interested in the impossible double-standards women are expected to adhere to.
The Beginning After the End – Episode 1
It’s not bad, but it lacks a compelling hook to make it memorable in a sea of super-powered reincarnation isekai.
Please Put Them On, Takamine-san – Episode 1
Let’s talk about applying a critical lens to stories that are mostly about showcasing a kink.
Rock is a Lady’s Modesty – Episode 1
Whether you’re into band girls, yuri, or rivalries depicted with absurd intensity, give this one a look.
The Brilliant Healer’s New Life in the Shadows – Episode 1
It’s boring, but at least it knows slavery is bad!
Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive? – Episode 1
These two teenagers will be tested by the most terrifying force of all: compulsory heterosexuality.
It’s clearly cooking with all the usual ingredients of a cyberpunk police procedural.
The Dinner Table Detective – Episode 1
Heiress by day, Detective by night, this premiere will have you trying to find all the clues for what went wrong with such a fun premise.
YAIBA Samurai Legend – Episode 1
A remake of Aoyama’s pre-Conan title and a good reminder that nostalgia can be a double-edged sword.
Aims to strike a chord by combining European classical music stylings with j-pop rock and a hefty dose of camp, and it’s glorious.
From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman – Episode 1
Not just any harem show, but one about a middle-aged man whose students are throwing themselves at him.
Leans into exploring the commodification of heroes as a product, but also offs the only prominent female character almost immediately for pathos.
Kowloon Generic Romance – Episode 1
A rich premiere that bubbles with a mix of affection and suspicion for that thorny concept of “nostalgia.”
Still finding its footing, but there’s a very promising magical girl series in here.
The medical horror set-up is a great and timely hook, though hopefully it will engage more with what how its premise intersects with disability down the line.
A gorgeous new take on a proto-shoujo classic that pays homage to older adaptation while welcoming in new viewers.
The Gorilla God’s Go-To Girl – Episode 1
Doing some interesting things with masculine versus feminine-coded superpowers, but it’s a bummer that the heroine seems to be the only notable girl character.
Energetic and silly, with an almost Saturday Morning Cartoon sort of vibe.
It’s like I’ve been sent 20 years back in time in the worst possible way.
Umamusume: Cinderella Gray – Episode 1
Just a solid underdog sports story. With horse girls.
Chatty AF 226: 2025 Winter Season Wrap-Up
Dee, Tony, and Peter return to reflect on the 2025 Winter Season’s new anime as well as its many, many, many, many, MANY sequels!
Beyond AniFem
“It’s Like I’m Being Threatened”: The Apothecary Diaries Creator Has Something to Say About the Anime’s Romance (Screenrant, Hannah Diffey)
The comment seems rather more tongue-in-cheek than the headline might suggest, but it still underlines that the story’s best qualities are outside the romantic tension.
According to @keiuzuki on X, in a recent interview, Hyuuga shared candid thoughts on the romance subplot. She humorously admitted that in a high-stakes palace environment like the one in The Apothecary Diaries, romance feels like a distant concern. With conspiracies, court politics, and survival at the forefront, love does not naturally take center stage. Yet, even with this realistic perspective, the growing demand for romantic development in the story is undeniable, and it is coming from all sides, including her own family.
“My honest opinion on that is that in a situation like this, there is no time for romance (laughs). But if there are not many romantic scenes, people around me tell me to add more of it. Not only the readers, but also my aunt says [Won’t they get together soon?], so I am thinking [I’ll just add one more romantic scene]. It’s almost like I’m being threatened while writing (laughs).”
– Natsu Hyuuga
Black American Aesthetics in Japanese Male Hip-Hop: A Black Feminist Analysis and Critique of Racialized Masculinity in Japan’s Western Region (Academia, Brianna Slaughter)
An open access master’s thesis (plus other papers on related topics).
Japanese hip-hop culture has become more popular and mainstream within the last decade, especially among Japanese men. While hip-hop has become more appealing to international communities, these Japanese male artists use techniques that are eerily similar to Black American hip-hop aesthetics and styling. Many local Japanese male rappers in major cities have adopted these ‘hip-hop’ styles, citing their influences on Black American rappers and gang culture while performing at Japanese hip-hop clubs. Japanese hip-hop clubs have also become more popularized in major cities, with club posters promoting their spaces and forming a sense of community with both party-goers and performers. This research will explore how and why local Japanese male hip-hop artists in the Kansai region use Blackness and Black masculinity to express and rap about their daily lives in Japan through a Black feminist perspective. Drawing from thirteen in-person interviews from male Kansai rappers and autoethnographic data, this research aims to analyze and critique the formulation of these identities using narrative analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis, and Black feminist framework. These artists utilize Black American hip-hop culture to create parts of their identity and diverge from traditional Japanese societal norms through their rap career, aesthetics, lifestyle, and formulation of community, while also remaining distant from Black social movements and awareness of sociohistorical Blackness.
Sailor Moon Super Live London: A Magical (Girl) Show Held Back by an Inaccessible Venue (Anime Herald, AJ Mack)
While the show was great fun, the venue had a number of problems accommodating disabled patrons.
The venue also didn’t provide enough chairs as promised, which meant my friend had to stand for the whole event regardless. Chairs were also not especially great for those with access needs. They were high-backed with no cushion and no arms. They looked more like table chairs that had been frantically shoved onto the platform than anything purposefully designed. Whilst most small venues do just reuse their table seating, the chairs provided are usually at least comfortable to sit in for a long time, for example, on my most recent visit, The Clapham Grand put out a plush velvet armchair for me. In the end, I opted to stay in my wheelchair, even though that meant not being able to get flush with the railing in front of me, which further impeded my view.
When I attended the Monday showing, the accessibility area was at full capacity; meanwhile, there were still a bunch of regular seats available in Band B and VIP admission. I don’t understand why they didn’t just have two types of reserved access seating, for example, platform seating and crowd seating. I understand the capitalist notion of not wanting to risk giving away a £145 ticket for free, but £53 for such a restricted view felt like an absolute joke. Given that more prestigious venues like the Bridge will offer front-row tickets at a large discount, I don’t think it would have been unreasonable to give those with access needs a cheaper ticket price.
On the whole, I just think that OUTERNET was not a suitable venue for the show. Whilst they did have the setup for some great visuals, their accessibility needed way more work. London is not the only city either. There are thriving theatre scenes in Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, and more places besides! Even small university towns like Loughborough have theatres that can seat 500+ and have wheelchair space. So there really were better accessible options out there if they were just willing to look past the Central London Bubble.
That said, the staff working at the venue were kind, friendly, and helpful. They were very reassuring when we arrived late, and didn’t stop us from entering as some theatres do. I was also impressed by how reasonable all the merchandise was! I got all of this for just £35.
Katamari Damacy creator’s To a T is full of colour and joy, but is also a serious and affecting depiction of living with disability (Eurogamer, Ed Nightingale)
The game recently showed off a demo at the Game Developer’s Conference.
Interestingly enough, the link to disability wasn’t actually intended from the start. “The concept of the character being in a T-pose came from another small game idea I had,” Takahashi told me. “I hadn’t linked the T-pose to disability until someone pointed it out in feedback. I was more focused on daily life challenges, which could be categorised as disabilities, but the inspiration was primarily drawn from game design.”
Following that realisation, Takahashi has worked with accessibility charity AbleGamers to ensure the game is an authentic portrayal of disability. “We sent the initial storyboards to AbleGamers and received some comments,” he said. “They liked the concept of a teen using well modified tools, such as a long spoon or long toothbrush.”
In the original storyboard, Takahashi explained, the teen dunked their head into a sink of water to clean their face. “AbleGamers pointed out that seems unrealistic,” he said. “They suggested that they should have a better designed sink or faucet in the house like a longer spoon because the teen was in a T-pose since birth.”
As such, the teen is able to get by with some specially designed mechanisms – in the final game, the faucet turns 180 degrees to eject water upwards. It mimics the sort of customised solutions disabled people often require in daily life – for gaming too, as with Caleb Kraft’s The Controller Project making custom designs, as well as both Xbox and PlayStation allowing for at least some customisation in their accessibility controllers.
Woman crusades to fix unequal toilet access at public restrooms (The Asahi Shimbun, Kayoko Sekiguchi, Tomoko Yamashita and Takahiro Ogawa)
This news comes on the heels of an assemblywoman receiving death threats after calling for menstrual products in public restrooms.
Atsushi Kato, a representative director of Japan Toilet Labo, a nonprofit advocating enhanced accessibility of public restrooms for all people, said there was an insufficient number of toilets for women at public transport hubs in Japan.
“An adequate number of facilities should be made available so that all kinds of people can easily use a toilet,” he said. “The actual situation of each restroom should be examined while factoring in the changing social environment and the disparity in speed of access between men and women.”
A 2016 transport ministry survey that received responses from 884 people found that accessibility is a big issue at public restrooms in train stations.
Asked what they find inconvenient or disagreeable with at such facilities, 44.0 percent of women in the survey chose “waiting in line.”
The share of men who selected the same answer was 31.3 percent.
For restrooms at large-scale commercial facilities, 47.6 percent of women cited waiting in line, compared with 15.5 percent of men who answered likewise.
Hyogo police compel girl, 12, to ‘confess’ to bogus sex acts (The Asahi Shimbun, Kyota Tanaka)
The girl was interrogated by police without a parent present for nearly four hours, until she agreed to make and sign a confession; police interrogation practices have been repeatedly criticized by activists and lawyers.
In the month after the interrogation, police explained to the family: “The victim’s report, saying he had been touched more than 10 times in the classroom, was false.”
The parents protested the way that they and their daughter had been treated by the police station.
Six photos of the girl were taken toward the end of the questioning, and police said they would delete the pictures.
However, an officer said the questioning was “not illegal” and refused to retract the confession.
The questioning of the girl occurred during the final stages of the high-profile case of Iwao Hakamata, a former death row inmate who was convicted of multiple murders in the 1960s after “confessing” during brutal interrogations.
Hakamata, now 89, who spent decades behind bars, was found not guilty in a retrial in autumn last year.
“I understand how he feels,” the daughter said after watching a special TV program about Hakamata.
Hyogo prefectural police acknowledged to The Asahi Shimbun that they had investigated a sixth-grader but refrained from commenting on the appropriateness of their investigative methods.
Ex-announcer: Sex harassment became ‘normal’ at Fuji Television (The Asahi Shimbun, Midori Iki and Saori Kuroda)
The investigation was conducted in the wake of (now sustained) allegations made against announcer Nakai Masahiro.
The report described Fuji TV as a cesspool of sexual harassment, and that the assault was essentially an extension of work there.
“To us, that was ‘normal,’” the former announcer said. “The results (of the report) were not surprising.”
She explained that when she was a Fuji announcer, sales employees often called her to attend gatherings involving corporate sponsors. There, she would be sexually harassed, and some of the sponsor employees even touched her.
She said she long felt that was the ordinary state of affairs at Fuji TV.
But she now realizes that simply putting up with such abuse was a factor behind a corporate culture that allowed sexual harassment to continue. She feels she let down younger female employees.
The investigative committee conducted a survey in February of 1,263 Fuji TV employees and executives.
Overall, 9.7 percent of respondents said they had been forced to attend gatherings with people from production companies and commercial sponsors.
Among the female announcers who responded in the survey, the ratio was 24.1 percent.
VIDEO: A (subtitled) interview with Ikuhara discussing magical girls.
VIDEO: Hakuoki SSL Sweet School Life is Getting an English Release.
SKEET: Nintendo announcement about a wheelchair basketball game for Switch 2.
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