AniFem Round-Up
“Every Inch of My Imagination”: Mangaka Makoto Yukimura on writing women and slavery in Vinland Saga
We had the remarkable opportunity to interview Yukimura about writing female characters, portraying slavery and the role of Buddhist Philosophy in his work.
2024 Fall Three-Episode Check-In
This is a big season for popcorn-munching drama, from erotic thrillers to political intrigue. Also? Magical girls!
Solid middle-grade historical fiction; maybe an option if you’re looking to replace Rurouni Kenshin.
What’s your favorite anime from the 2000s?
Always good to have a taste of media history.
Beyond AniFem
Forbidden Bodies: The Summer Hikaru Died and the Desperate Terror of Queer Adolescence (Reactor, Leah Thomas)
What makes this ongoing horror-romance manga (and future anime) so compelling.
The trouble is that Hikaru is actually dead. He goes missing in the mountains in the late winter, and the thing that spends summer days with Yoshiki, though it has Hikaru’s face and voice and memories, is not Hikaru. An arcane mountain creature akin to a god has taken up residence inside Yoshiki’s best friend; a Lovecraftian mass of worming spirals and fleshy paisley writhes beneath his skin. Yoshiki, who knows Hikaru better than he knows himself, is not fooled. In the manga’s very first chapter, he confronts not-Hikaru. “You’re not really Hikaru, are you?” Upset and tearful, the innards of Hikaru’s replacement leak from his left eye socket and he throws his arms around Yoshiki. “Please don’t tell anyone!” he sobs. “I don’t want to kill you!”
Well, that’s a pretty brutal coming-out.
But Yoshiki is, on some level, reveling in the embrace. And Yoshiki, despite it all, has no intentions of sharing this horrifying secret. Because the monster occupying Hikaru is similar enough to the real Hikaru to ease his grief but different enough that he relies on Yoshiki to feign humanity. And this new Hikaru is deeply infatuated with Yoshiki in ways that the real Hikaru never could be. Though it disturbs Yoshiki to acknowledge it, in a way, this devotion from Hikaru is more than Yoshiki ever dared dream of.
Given the choice between not-Hikaru and no Hikaru, there’s no choice at all.
With The Summer Hikaru Died, fledgling mangaka Mokumokuren is doing more than expanding the definitions of what BL and horror manga can become; they are also writing one of the most painfully relatable, beautiful but disturbing queer coming-of-age stories I have ever been privileged to encounter.
2nd high court rules same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional (The Asahi Shimbun, Yuto Yoneda)
Cases are ongoing in various district courts, with split decisions in various districts.
In its Oct. 30 ruling, the Tokyo High Court said the lack of provisions in the Civil Law and Family Register Law recognizing same-sex marriage had “no rational basis and was a form of legal discrimination based on sexual orientation.”
In March, the Sapporo High Court issued a landmark ruling that said the lack of same-sex marriage legal provisions was unconstitutional.
The Tokyo High Court based its ruling on Article 14 of the Constitution, which states that everyone is equal under the law, and the second paragraph of Article 24, which states that laws on marriage “shall be enacted from the standpoint of individual dignity.”
The Sapporo High Court in its March ruling for the first time touched upon the first paragraph of Article 24, which states that marriage shall be based only on the mutual consent of both sexes. The Sapporo High Court said the wording of consent of both sexes can also be interpreted to guarantee marriage for same-sex couples.
33 changed gender in Japan without surgery after 2023 court ruling (The Mainichi)
That number is out of the 790 individuals in Japan who sought legal gender change this year.
The Japanese law on gender dysphoria stipulates five conditions for those wishing to register as a member of the opposite sex, in addition to a diagnosis of gender dysphoria from at least two physicians.
The five conditions comprise being no less than 18 years old, unmarried, having no child who is a minor, having “no reproductive glands or whose reproductive glands have permanently lost function,” and having “a body that appears to have parts that resemble the genital organs of those of the opposite gender.”
At least 10,000 individuals have changed their gender under these conditions.
On Oct. 25 last year, the top court’s Grand Bench ruled that required sterilization is a restriction violating the Constitution’s Article 13, which guarantees individuals’ freedom from “invasion into their body against their will.”
A written notification explaining the ruling was distributed to family courts nationwide as a “reference” for administrative processing.
According to an individual who changed their gender without surgery following the ruling, the process involved submitting a medical certificate and attending an interview with a judge, with approval granted roughly six months after the application.
Miki Yamamoto, Creator of A Smart and Courageous Child Manga (Anime News Network, Rebecca Silverman)
Yamamoto’s story, about a couple navigating their first pregnancy, draws heavily from the illustrative style of picture books.
Sara’s journey from ecstatic to fearful feels like it could be something many parents experience throughout a pregnancy (or waiting for a child in another way, like adoption). What did you hope for readers to understand about the process of having a child on an emotional level?
YAMAMOTO: Some readers with children have told me, “I’ve never had such anxiety,” or “You worry too much,” so I guess how people perceive this world is different. While making this series I thought people who have never had children, and who are wondering whether to have them are particularly experiencing this fear. There are many unreasonable things in society, and some people may feel they can’t have children in such an unstable society, while others may want to have children even if they feel anxious. I don’t intend to give an opinion on which way people should go. All I would like to ask is that readers use their wisdom and courage to make this world a place that welcomes new people and where we are tolerant of each other.
Can you tell us about the thought process behind drawing A Smart and Courageous Child? Why did you decide to use color rather than black-and-white images? Why did you use red as your most eye-catching color? What impression did you want to leave readers with after they looked at the images?
YAMAMOTO: In my older manga I preferred using monochrome, thick, and rough lines. Rather than following the typical style of Japanese manga, I preferred a freer style of expression as an underground manga author. I really liked that style, but there were some problems. The biggest one is that in Japan there is a custom of different art styles for manga for women and manga for men. In particular, the style of manga for women is limited, and women weren’t picking up my works because my art deviated from that style. Although I’ve always drawn on the theme of women’s lives in my works, I’ve rarely met female readers of my works. This time, especially with the theme of children, I wanted more women to read my work, so I decided to incorporate soft colors, which are said to be more popular with women. I have mixed feelings about this, but I arrived at this art style because of negotiation between my ideal illustrations and the actual real world. I planned to draw with a limited number of colors, with a base of black, gray, and beige, so red was convenient because it would be the focal point. Red gives a sense of energy and passion, but it also has a sense of danger. So, that ambiguity made it easy for me to use it.
Many outdated stereotypes hold that fathers have less of a role to play during pregnancy and infancy than mothers, something the relationship between Sara and her husband seems to refute. What do you hope readers take from the way the two characters support each other?
YAMAMOTO: This work had a larger theme of social issues rather than marital problems. Therefore, it depicts how even a kind, gentle, and good husband can have problems like this depending on the social situation. Also, even ideal, trusting couples can have misunderstandings due to differences in physical experiences. Unfortunately, neither society nor marriage can be perfect all the time. Problems will never be eliminated, but I think a good husband or partner is someone who is at least proactive in addressing problems.
Women Make Big Strides in Japan’s Lower House Election (Unseen Japan, Jay Allen)
This election marks a notable loss for the LDP’s iron hold on seats in the House of Representatives.
Japan lags behind the rest of the economically developed world regarding female representation in politics. The annual World Economic Forum Gender Gap report ranked Japan 138th out of 146 countries in politics in 2023. A stunning 14% of all local prefectural assemblies across Japan have zero women representatives.
Fortunately, Sunday’s election showed some signs of change. A total of 314 women ran for political office – an increase of 69% compared to the 2021 election. 73 of those won their elections, topping the previous grant total of 54 female Lower House representatives in 2009.
Among Japan’s political parties, the Japan Communist Party had the most women as a proportion of its candidate roster at 37.3%. They were followed by the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) at 22.4%. The LDP came in third at 16.1%; however, the party stood the second highest number of female candidates overall at 55.
Japan revises foreign trainee rules to allow job transfers over abuse (The Mainichi)
The number of workers fleeing abusive workplaces in 2023 exceeded 9700.
While the previous guidelines stated switching workplaces was permitted when there were “unavoidable circumstances,” the new guidelines specifically stipulate that job transfers are allowed if interns are abused, sexually harassed or there has been a malicious violation of laws and regulations at their workplaces, including a breach of contract.
The guidelines also enable coworkers of abused trainees to transfer and allow interns to take a part-time job for up to 28 hours per week to cover living expenses while making the transfer.
A special provision was introduced for trainees who are unable to find new employers as trainees and wish to switch to the specified skilled worker visa, enabling them to temporarily work under a designated activities visa until they pass the exam necessary for making the switch.
The foreign trainee program, which has been in place since 1993, has been criticized as a cover for Japan to import cheap labor.
Twitch Changes Rules That Target Politics, ‘Sensitive’ Social Issues Following Widespread Pushback, But Streamers Still Wary (Aftermath, Nathan Grayson)
The initial change marked LGBTQ+ issues, reproductive rights, and immigration as “sensitive issues.”
So, reading between the lines, Twitch’s goal here is to make it easier for brands to avoid politics-focused streamers, just as it once did when it created an entire category for pools, hot tubs, and beaches after advertisers made a fuss about Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa and other hot tub streamers in 2021. Twitch has been unprofitable for quite some time and has made many unpopular changes in pursuit of a stream it arguably considers more important than that of the live variety: revenue. These include a substantial focus on ads, shuttering operations in Korea, and multiple rounds of mass layoffs.
The specific context here is more labyrinthine: In October, Twitch began to face criticism from Israeli media and Israel-friendly content creators as a result of a sign-up snafu in which the company accidentally blocked email verification in Israel and Palestine for a whole year, as well as a TwitchCon panel in which several streamers of Arab descent ranked other creators based on who is allowed to say “habibi,” an Arabic term of endearment – the top tier of which was “Arab” and the bottom tier of which was “Loves Sabra,” an objectively bad brand of hummus from a company with Israeli military ties.
Big names like YouTuber Ethan “H3H3” Klein contended that this constituted open antisemitism, while streamers who participated in the panel – including the tier list’s creator, Raffoulticket, who is Jewish – vehemently denied those accusations. Nonetheless, the Anti-Defamation League, a notorious Israel supporter, got involved, prompting Twitch to suspend Frogan, considered the ringleader of the panel, and the other streamers who participated for 30 days. This after it handed out a two-week suspension to Asmongold following a much more unquestionably-racist rant against Palestinians.
Japan’s Pioneering Women Doctors: Ogino Ginko and Kusumoto Ine (Unseen Japan, Ebony Brown)
Both women were unquestionably accomplished, but the younger Ogino is often recognized as Japan’s “first female doctor” because she pursued Western medicine and passed the medical licensing board.
After the Meiji restoration, the Emperor relocated to Tokyo, and many followed. After the death of her mother, Kusumoto was no longer tied to Nagasaki. So she, too, made the journey to the capital.
Though her father had left, her brothers stayed in Japan. They helped her set up a medical practice in Tokyo. Through Mise, she was able to gain connections to the imperial court.
There, she attended the birth of one of Emperor Meiji’s concubines. Despite her skilled efforts, the child was a stillbirth, and the mother died a few days later. Still, the emperor paid her handsomely for her services.
Kusumoto decided to once again return to Nagasaki and gained a midwife license. There, she opened an obstetrics clinic and served the community.
Kusumoto never took the medical licensing exam. While some feel she refused because she was already 57 years old when women were allowed to sit for the exam, others feel she saw no point. By that time, she’d been a practicing doctor with her own clinic for many years.
How To Read A Trans Fem Writer (Substack, Kai Cheng Thom and Maya Deane)
Examining the backlash so often faced by transfemme writers online.
For many decades, the only accessible form a trans woman’s story could take was the classic Trans Memoir of Edifying Suffering, Dysfunction, and Perversity, sob stories full of exotic pain and extravagant gender puzzles who will go to any lengths to be fabulous. Meanwhile, atrocious anti-trans writers like J. Michael Bailey, author of the debunked pop-psych book The Man Who Would Be Queen, made their careers with lurid, sensationalized theories about us that bury our humanity under layers of exoticizing grotesquerie.
This history makes readers expect trans women’s stories to be what the brilliant SFF writer Violet Allen calls “stories of sadness and struggle that enrich the reader”: Uplifting and Meaningful, but not fun to read. As cyberpunk writer Aubrey Wood puts it, trans women’s genre fiction “is expected to champion proper ‘representation’ by both readers and industry professionals and this has led to one-dimensional demands for characterization and plot.” Gretchen Felker-Martin puts it more bluntly: “There’s still tremendous pressure from without and within for trans women to create only ‘helpful,’ ‘healthy,’ ‘constructive’ art. We need to make ourselves seem inoffensive, we need to demonstrate our humanity, we need to soulfully show others our suffering. It’s all bullshit, frankly.”
It is bullshit. Trans women’s fiction is weird, funny, endlessly inventive, nothing like the eat-your-vegetables morality plays that so many readers expect. Those who know how to read it love it. It’s neither alien nor unrelatable; it’s gorgeous and human, and since it had to overcome the headwinds that keep trans women out of publishing, it tends to be very good. But you have to make an effort to see it, to read it, to encounter its surprise and delight.
We asked Violet Allen to speak to the Catch-22 trans women writers find ourselves in. She said, “As a Black trans woman, whose image in popular culture flickers between rank abjection and noble suffering, I have a sense that people want to see work from me that is ‘important’ more than they want to see work that is ‘good,’ even though I mostly write romantic comedies about dragons and spaceships.”
VIDEO: Satire on the clockwork outrage every time a marginalized person appears in a video game.
AniFem Community
Watch some 2000s anime! There are a lot of good ones!
It’s so hard to pick just one like… Paranoia Agent, FLCL, Kaleido Star, Pretear, Azumanga Daioh, Dot Hack, Gravitation, Boogiepop Phantom, Serial e-Experiments Lain, AIR ???? I could go ON I WAS BEING RAISED BY THESE SERIES
— Han☾ (@hanexe.bsky.social) November 5, 2024 at 5:15 PM
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Despite aging poorly in some aspects (the fatphobia and "creepy teacher" jokes), in others Azumanga Daioh still holds up. It was one of my first anime more than a decade ago, and I recently got to introduce my younger sister to it! Princess Tutu is also dearly beloved, and is pretty caveat-free iirc
— 💖 max 💖 (@freckledcryptid.bsky.social) November 4, 2024 at 9:54 PM
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Can't tempt me with that kinos journey image now that all I'm thinking about
— MerriKiwi Unprofessional Youtubers (@merrikiwi.bsky.social) November 5, 2024 at 6:57 PM
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