Gang, I think they might be making too much anime. At least it means there’s always something to write about…
On AniFem
Girls Frontline – Episode 1 – gun girls: girls who are guns who also shoot guns!
SLOW LOOP – Episode 1 – unfortunately my review of every new soft, cozy hobby show is “well, it’s not Laid-Back Camp, but…”
Futsal Boys – Episode 1 – these boys sure are playing futsal!
Akebi’s Sailor Uniform – Episode 1 – beautifully animated and storyboarded… and with a weirdly voyeuristic overtone to its detail-oriented depiction of thirteen-year-old girls.
The Genius Prince’s Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt – Episode 1 – in the year of our lord 2022, I am not in the mood for a smarmy rich boy protagonist who uses his royal subjects as pawns.
Find all the reviews by my hard-working co-staffers here! Take a look through and see which ones call to you.
Recommendations from Fall 2021 – with the current season in full swing, let’s take a moment to glance back at the best from the previous one!
Top Picks for 2021 – the staff’s favourite series from a weird, tumultuous year.
Bonus book chats: watch me fall in love with Honey Girl, get swept up in Blanca & Roja, and get dragged along behind the wild ride that is Iron Widow.
And don’t forget about Patreon!
You can now access monthly short stories and blog post previews on my shiny new platform. January’s story, a witchy and whimsical piece of flash fiction, went out mid-month, but normally they’ll drop in the first week—which means February’s isn’t far away, if you want to jump in and check it out!
The World Wide Web
A sitcom so bad it exposed corruption within the awards system, Emily in Paris has somehow returned for a second season—and Monsieur Space Ninja has returned to the scene of the crime to follow up on his previous eloquent critique of the show (also an exceptionally good video). Has Emily improved? Yes and no: the series is clearly responding to its rightful backlash in some ways, but it’s also finding new and exciting ways to be racist and lazily-written.
Golden Girls has been the latest evening comfort watch in my house, so it’s fascinating to learn about its history: this video covers its unlikely origins and, most importantly, its long-lasting resonance with the queer community.
The time loop is a storytelling device and game mechanic that’s at once a power fantasy and a terrifying loss of control. Eloquent as always, Jenna Stoeber digs into the development of this genre and the modern anxieties that are leading to more engagement with it.
An Ode to Tsuritama, a Show That No Longer Exists – in the streaming era, it’s easier than ever to access anime… but easier than ever for shows to vanish into thin air if their license runs out. This post is a melancholy musing on a quirky 2012 show that has functionally ceased to exist, highlighting this weird new world of lost media we’re in.
Disney’s Encanto Isn’t Just About Representation – It’s an Act of Defiance – rather than being set in a fantasy land, Encanto is set in the very real country of Colombia, bucking the Hollywood trends most commonly used to depict the place.
Farewell, My Dear Cramer (Series Review) – a story about how women’s soccer receives little support, resources, or attention, produced by a studio that failed to give it the support, resources, or attention to tell that story well. Oof!
Tamsyn Muir Understood the Assignment: The Locked Tomb Series’ Expansive Exploration of Death and Grieving – what Gideon and Harrow the Ninth get right about the world-altering process of grief, focusing not just on the main plot but on the delicate and matter-of-fact portrayal of loss in the bonus short story ‘As Yet Unsent’.
The song that’s stuck in my head this month is… well, I’d like to present some cool new artsy song, but the reality is it’s the opening number to Encanto. It’s been on loop in my brain for weeks. When will I be free of the magic?
See you soon gang! Take care out there.
The Afictionado 