AniFem Round-Up
Girls Over Flowers: My resonance with Makino Tsukushi’s burden of parenting
Sky shares her love for Boys Over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango)’s beleaguered heroine, who keeps going despite a terrible love interest and largely unsupportive family.
Reconsidering Belladonna of Sadness: Still powerful after almost 50 years
Carmen Antreasian details the history of this cult film, the influence of 1970s Japanese feminism on its narrative, and what keeps it compelling today.
Y’know, for the romance holiday and all.
Beyond AniFem
This February, We’re Highlighting Black Voices in the Anime Industry (Part 3) (Crunchyroll, Guest Author)
Latest part of a series interviewing Black professionals in various anime-adjacent jobs.
You can read our previous articles in the series below:
Additionally, Crunchyroll will be donating to Concerned Black Men of Los Angeles, a non-profit dedicated to empowering the next generation of Black youth through education and mentoring.
This week we’re featuring manga creator and business owner Jacque Aye, anime dub director Shannon D Reed, and comics artist David Crownson.
Same-sex couples finding more venues to host their weddings (The Asahi Shimbun, Kaho Matsuda)
While it’s still a small number, temples and wedding services like photography are beginning to offer services to LGBTQ couples in Japan.
Saimyoji temple in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, in May 2020 began allowing LGBT couples to tie the knot there, after the municipal government put a partnership certification system in place.
In ceremonies for sexual minorities, priests hand over Buddhism rosaries representing LGBT in rainbow hues to the couples instead of marriage rings and oaths are made before a Buddhist altar.
Myokan Senda, 33, vice chief monk at Saimyoji, said sexual minorities are not discriminated against in Buddhism.
“The religion prays for the happiness of all living creatures in the world,” he said.
According to Senda, only two male couples have gotten hitched at Saimyoji as of Feb. 3 due to the novel coronavirus outbreak and other reasons, but some 50 inquiries have come from both in and outside Japan over the temple’s wedding service.
Otome Games You Can Play on Your PC (Blerdy Otome, Naja)
A full list (with star ratings and site reviews where applicable) of otome games currently available on PC in English.
The Nintendo Switch has become the definitive otome hub after the “death” of the PS Vita. Many of the bigger otome publishers like Aksys Games and Idea Factory are releasing their otome localizations exclusively on the Nintendo Switch. But, despite it’s popularity, there are still a lot of gamers who have yet to invest in the console–but does that mean they should miss out on the most recent otome boom in the West? Heck no!
While the majority of games are inevitably going to make their way to the Nintendo Switch, there are still a lot of great otome releases that also have PC releases! Blerdy Otome has you covered, with this list of otome games you can play on your PC!
After Hours (with Asher Sofman) [Seinen Exception #1] (Shojo & Tell)
Podcast discussion of the recent DJ-centric yuri series.
Welcome to the club. Emi knows nothing about dance music. Kei is a DJ with manic pixie dream girl energy. Emi gets sucked into Kei’s world in this series that’s basically a 101 lesson in EDM. “Isn’t this a seinen manga?” Yes, yes it is. But Shojo & Tell host Ashley has a soft spot for these lesbian DJs, so we’re covering it anyway! Ashley and her husband, Asher, discuss the particular moment in music time the series is in response to, how relatable Emi’s millennial struggle is, the rosy portrayal of technology and the club scene we get, and more. Let’s vibe.
Japan gov’t panel proposes to scrap 100-day remarriage ban for women (The Mainichi)
Under the current civic code, if a woman remarries and has a child within 100 days of her divorce, the child would be presumed as belonging to the former husband.
The current provision on legal paternity has been reviewed mainly to stop a growing number of children from having no family registry, which puts them at a disadvantage in availing a range of health and other services.
Of 825 individuals without family registry as of January this year, about 70 percent constituted cases whereby mothers did not submit birth notifications because of the current legal paternity rule, according to the ministry.
Many women have opted not to submit notification of the birth of their child with their current partner to avoid having their former husband recognized as legal father of the child.
Some of them have fled from domestic violence of their former spouses or were still under divorce proceedings but have conceived a child with their current partners.
The proposed amendments to the Civil Code also include giving the mother and child the right to file for court arbitration to deny the presumed legal right to her former husband. Currently, only the husband is allowed to do so but there are cases where gaining his cooperation proves difficult.
10 Black Women in Gaming You Need to Know (Gayming Magazine, Latonya Pennington)
Ten mini-profiles on Black women working in the games industry today.
In the 1980s French-Caribbean game developer Muriel Tramis would make history as the first Black woman game designer. After studying engineering at the Higher Institute of Electronics in Paris and spending five years at the aerospace company Aerospatiale, she joined the video game company Coktel Vison. There, she created her first games: the 1986 point and click adventure game Méwilo and the 1988 adventure strategy game Freedom.
Both of Muriel Tramis’ early games were inspired by Martinican legends and cultures and their legacy can be seen in games made by contemporary Black developers such as the point and click adventure game Dot’s Home and the action-adventure RPG Aurion Legacy of The Kori-Odan.
Today, there are dozens of Black women not only making games, but also creating video game communities, video game mods, or spreading the word about the games that they love playing.
Here are 10 Black women in the gaming industry everyone should know about for Black History Month and beyond.
REVIEW: ‘Fishbowl Wives’ Taps into the Sadder Notes of Love (But Why Tho?)
Review of the semi-anthology film recently released on Netflix.
As much as Fishbowl Wives is about a romance between an older woman’s affair with a younger man, it’s more about finding the courage to survive outside of marriage and ultimately leave a bad situation. Sakura has to find herself outside of the men around her and find meaning that brings her to life again. While this begins by crossing the line with a cute goldfish seller, it culminates with moments of introspection and resilience. Sakura embraces who she is, her wants as much as her needs, and that’s the real love story.
That said, Sakura’s relationship with Haruto is still an important one. His innocence and the way he encourages her to exhale everything she holds inside is important to Sakura’s growth. To see Sakura nurtured in a relationship balanced starkly against the abuse she endures from her husband is heartbreaking. Even more so when her tender moments with Haruto are spliced with scenes of her husband’s infidelity in which he belittles her to other women. At times, Fishbowl Wives is hard to watch. Not because it’s bad, but because the way Takuya treats Sakura is hard to witness, especially once she’s begun to pull away.
The best part of the series is that Sakura’s vulnerability isn’t the only one explored. The extended cast of Fishbowl Wives explores the things hidden from public view and the push and pulls, and the unhappiness that boils beneath the surface. In a way, Fishbowl Wives feels more like an anthology than it is one linear narrative. While Sakura is the nexus of everything, with her public infidelity intertwining with and pushing many of the women around her, Yuka, Noriko, Saya, and Hisako have their own stories. They have their sadness and loneliness that help round out the series’ focus.
The violent truth about immigration detention centers in Japan: Part 1 of 2 (The Mainichi, Asako Kamihigashi)
Profile of the plaintiff suing the Japanese government, and an overview of how immigrants in Japan have become especially vulnerable since 2020.
According to sources including the bill of complaint filed by the Japanese Brazilian man, 35-year-old Andre Kussunoki, who was detained at the Tokyo Regional Immigration Services Bureau, on Oct. 5, 2018, Kussunoki was informed by an immigration officer that he would be transported to the Higashi-Nihon Immigration Center in the Ibaraki Prefecture city of Ushiku. Kussunoki told the officer that he did not want to be taken to the detention center in Ushiku, since his friends would not be able to come visit him there, and also because that year, there had been a suicide at the center. He asked why he was being transferred there, but all he was told was that the matter was finalized and the immigration officers refused to engage in a discussion with him about it.
In August 2019, Kussunoki filed a lawsuit seeking 5 million yen (approx. $43,000) from the Japanese government for the injuries he incurred four days later, on the day of his transfer to the detention center in Ushiku, when he was pinned to the floor by multiple immigration officers and his arms were twisted. The trial is still ongoing at the Tokyo District Court.
VIDEO: Overview/discussion of Wonder Egg Priority’s successes and failures.
THREAD: Short film created to advocate for increased diversity in Japan’s TV and film industry.
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