Anime Feminist’s Top Picks for 2016
We’d been talking internally about our feminist recommendations of 2016, and some of the team wanted to go into a bit more detail on some of their favorites.
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2017 Winter Premiere Rankings
I have never found a season as disheartening as this one.
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Onihei – Episode 1
This series is dark, both literally and in subject matter, and there is little reprieve until the very end.
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Marginal #4 – Episode 1
This was an unexpected pleasure, a great example of aiming to do something simple and doing it well.
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Scum’s Wish – Episode 1
Scum’s Wish is a story of complicated love and sexuality, particularly the sexuality of young women, and the connections between sexuality, desirability and power in the world.
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Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid – Episode 1
I really, really enjoyed this show. It was headed straight for my top three of the season – until I hit one scene, which is so problematic I need to break it down in detail.
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Hand Shakers – Episode 1
The Hand Shakers story is all scaffolding to prop up the premise: a teenage boy must keep hold of a pretty young girl’s hand at all times. At all times.
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ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. – Episode 1
My reaction at the end of this episode was “I have no idea what it’s about, but I like it!”
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Gabriel DropOut – Episode 1
On the one hand, women not feeling the need to conform to social expectations of femininity is a good thing! On the other hand, when trash characters reject gender restrictions they also reject politeness, compassion, and decency.
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elDLIVE – Episode 1
It’s worth another episode, if you like the premise and can make it past Fanservice-sensei.
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Idol Incidents – Episode 1
There was a way to approach this concept as pure satire, making fun of both the current state of politics and the idol industry. Instead this show is a straight idol anime with a tone-deaf take on politics in the current climate.
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Interviews with Monster Girls – Episode 1
Not only did I thoroughly enjoy watching this one, it also has feminist merit! (Enjoy the feeling while it lasts, this may be it for a few months.)
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Urara Meirocho – Episode 1
Urara Meirocho is a great example of a show that could work really well for children… if it weren’t packed full of the sexualisation of children.
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Spiritpact – Episode 1
There is a very niche audience for Spiritpact, and it probably includes at least some people who loved Gravitation for Shuichi’s character.
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Seiren – Episode 1
There is a lot of overlap with Fuuka, another high school romance with a directionless protagonist and presenting women from a man’s point of view.
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Schoolgirl Strikers – Episode 1
Some girls who go to a private school are secretly selected by their teacher to battle monsters in another dimension. Not mentioned: why they need to do this while wearing some combination of thigh-high stockings, swimwear, and straps.
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Minami Kamakura High School Girls Cycling Club – Episode 1
It took me two hours to make it through this one episode. This has to be as bad as it gets.
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Fuuka – Episodes 1-2
I mostly found Fuuka frustrating.
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Saga of Tanya the Evil – Episode 1
There are typically three problems with military anime premiere episodes: too many politics, too many cast members and too much identifying personal information. This one’s no different.
