AniFem Round-Up
BIRDIE WING – Golf Girls Story – Episode 1
It hits the ground running and just never stops.
The Greatest Demon Lord is Reborn as a Typical Nobody – Episode 1
Pretty okay, but the time-skip at the end feels like it’s going to become a completely different show.
Deaimon: Recipe for Happiness – Episode 1
Cozy, found family dad anime with a lot to like.
Heroines Run the Show – Episode 1
Come for the endearing heroine and shoujo vibes, stay for the art nouveau influences.
Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost – Episode 1
This might not be too bad as a five-minute short, but unfortunately it’s 22 minutes long.
Skeleton Knight in Another World – Episode 1
For some reason a “let’s hang out” isekai tacked on a graphic, exploitative sexual assault scene.
Watching this is like being trapped in the worst parts of 2007.
Dance Dance Danseur – Episode 1
Mixes gorgeous dance scenes with commentary on toxic masculinity.
Rock-solid shounen sports stuff as long as you like shouty protagonists.
The season’s most anticipated premiere delivers in spades for manga fans and newcomers alike.
In the Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki – Episode 1
Mashes up two different kinds of perfectly good comedy (“moe girls hanging out” and “sex jokes”) and comes out basically unbearable.
Don’t Hurt Me, My Healer! – Episode 1
The side characters are charming but the leads land with a little bit of a thud.
Love After World Domination – Episode 1
It’s all tropes you’ve seen before, but it’s pure enemies-to-lovers rom-com comfort food.
Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie – Episode 1
The role reversal of “cool girl/clumsy boy” is fun, but the jokes already feel a bit one-note.
What was your favorite Winter 2022 anime?
Those shows still need their due, after all.
Beyond AniFem
Director Sono Sion Sexual Assault Incident Reignites #MeToo Movement in Japan (Unseen Japan, Krys Suzuki)
Sono has been accused of using his position as a director to proposition and pressure actresses.
The Sono incident comes as a recent slew of cases against other Japanese film directors and actors in the industry in what seems to be a ‘revival’ of the #MeToo crisis in Japan. (Although one can argue, did it ever really go away?) Sono’s incident follows sexual harassment charges by other well-known names in the industry, including film director Sakaki Hideo and actor Kinoshita Houka. [7]
In response to the allegations, Sono Sion offers “sincere apologies” on his website, not to the victims, but for “causing a disturbance to everyone,” and for his lack of “awareness as a film director” and “consideration for people around me.” He ends his statement with a criticism of the article’s “differing points from the facts”, and insists he will “take legal action”. [6]
Sono was known to shamelessly boast of his sexual advances on “most of [his] leading ladies”. When former actress and sexual assault victim Milla Araki reached out to Sono last month requesting “cooperation in supporting sexual abuse victims,” Sono’s response was “Of course, that’s impossible for me”. [3] It’s clear that Sono Sion knew what he was doing all along. He isn’t sorry at all for what he did. He’s only sorry he got caught.
63% of people with foreign roots in Japan questioned by police (The Mainichi)
The survey was answered by just over 2,000 people.
Among individuals who were approached by the police over the past five years, 50.4 percent were stopped “two to five times,” while 10.8 percent were questioned “six to nine times” and 11.5 percent “10 times or more,” according to the survey conducted between Jan. 11 and Feb. 28.
A total of 70.3 percent of those individuals said they “felt uncomfortable” with the police questioning, while 85.4 percent said the police approached them upon recognizing they have roots in other countries. Most of those people believed officers had such an awareness because of their appearance.
A Japanese law governing police officers on duty allows them to question people if there are reasons to suspect they have committed an unusual act or crime. But 76.9 percent of people who were questioned by police officers in the survey said there was no reason for being treated with suspicion.
Pregnancy trap for workers in controversial Japan scheme (Yahoo News, Tomohiro Osaki)
Foreign workers report being pressured to seek abortions if they become pregnant and are also expected to shoulder high costs and risks alone. Includes description of stillbirth.
Financial pressures, including debt from recruitment fees and the needs of family, also weigh on interns like Le Thi Thuy Linh, a Vietnamese worker on a farm in southern Japan’s Kumamoto who found out she was pregnant in July 2020.
She feared her family back home would be “destroyed financially” if she was deported over the pregnancy, said Ishiguro, who is representing Linh.
She hid the pregnancy from her employer and sought a termination.
But abortion pills are not approved in Japan, where surgical terminations typically cost upwards of 100,000 yen ($815), and some interns fear clinics could reveal the procedure to their employers.
That leaves some women seeking unauthorised abortion pills — a “very risky act that could see them charged with foeticide,” Tanaka said.
Kyoto police host seminar for teens to curb ‘nude selfie’ exploitation (The Mainichi, Kotaro Chigira)
The goal is to help teens recognize and avoid predatory interactions.
Prefectural police warn children that they should never send nude photos to other people, and if solicited, they should take screenshots of the exchanges and consult with adults or police. Second-year student Koki Matsumoto, who participated in the April 5 seminar, expressed surprise at how easily regular exchanges online could develop into crimes.
According to Kyoto police, of the 1,458 minors who fell victim to sex crimes across Japan in 2021, 514 people — the highest proportion among the victims — were targeted in connection with nude selfies. Police warn that once a person sends their naked pictures, it could escalate to the perpetrator demanding money, and lead to the person becoming a victim of sexual violence.
Identities divided (Pt. 2): Okinawan Amerasians fight racism, embrace their Black roots (The Mainichi, Shinnosuke Kyan)
Part two of a series; includes extensive discussion and description of anti-Black racism.
Oyafuso has also joined protests against the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, to the Henoko district of Nago, also in Okinawa. However, when she hears others speak with open antagonism toward the U.S. military, she feels uncomfortable and out of place. She said, “I’ve asserted my identity as an ‘Uchinanchu’ (Okinawan), but society and those around me will not let me be one. I’ve always been Black in their eyes.”
It was the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement that rippled through the United States and across the world in 2020 that made her feel more positive. Oyafuso also joined BLM demonstrations near Kadena Air Base with family and friends, holding signs condemning anti-Black racism.
Through creating information pamphlets on Black history and Black Lives Matter, she gradually began to feel good that she’d been born Black. When she was young, Oyafuso used to be insecure about her hair, but she now enjoys styling it with colorful braids.
VIDEO: Brief history of the ritual tattoos traditionally worn by indigenous Ryukyuan women.
TWEET: Information regarding a currently ongoing Etsy strike.
TWEET: Reba Buhr, voice of Main in Ascendance of a Bookworm, announces she is not currently working at Crunchyroll because of low wages.
THREAD: BL artist Toyota Yuu announces she is donating a portion of her profits to a marriage equality nonprofit.
THREAD: Information regarding Sony/Crunchyroll/Funimation’s decision to revert to in-studio recording despite the inclusivity benefits of at-home recording and, perhaps coincidentally, as dub actors have begun openly discussing unionization.
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