Onwards ever onwards into the eeby deeby.
On the blog
(Re)Telling an Epic: Biwa and The Heike Story – musing about the nature of The Narrator in adaptations of older stories, and getting all emotional about a little biwa-playing soothsayer.
Queer YA Spotlight: The Heartbreak Bakery – craving baked goods whilst recommending this sweet, magical book about playing matchmaker and trying to figure out your own gender recipe.
On AniFem
The Orbital Children – Episode 1 – a sci-fi set in a spacefaring future that feels eerily close.
Delicious Party Pretty Cure – Episode 1 – PreCure is always fun, with the added bonus that this one has some cute food positivity!
Winter 2022 Three-Episode Check-in – giving you the lowdown on how the season of rom-coms and gender-weirdness is progressing!
The Orbital Children‘s Rejection of Ecofascist Ideas – see above summary about how this series feels eerily down to earth despite being set in Earth’s orbit. The good news is, where it draws on very real and prescient politics, it staunchly rejects them and invites the viewer to imagine, and fight for, a better future that everyone gets to be part of.
And don’t forget about Patreon!
You can now access monthly short stories and blog post previews on my shiny new platform. February’s story was a snapshot of a queer road trip; those long country highways the best place for bittersweet conversations and the blush of new love. Patrons of all tiers also get blog posts a week before everyone else!
Fun things to watch on the web
A saga for the ages, Mister Michael’s Microphone breaks down the iconic, messy, and iconically messy Pretty Little Liars in an opera-length series that was, frankly, enthralling. I know so much about this show now, and yet I know nothing. (CW: discussion of fictional age-gap relationships, mentions of torture, wild and out-of-left-field transphobic and homophobic writing decisions on the part of the PLL showrunners)
Raya and the Last Dragon was marketed as “Southeast Asian representation!” so what do actual viewers from SEA have to say about it? Xiran uses their platform to host what is essentially a conference (and I loved that, truly and deeply) on the many odd and off-putting aspects of this movie and the discussion that surrounded it upon its release. Watch all three parts!
While a concept like “fan service” might seem ubiquitous enough that it’s easy to define (and dismiss), there’s a delicate art and science to making characters attractive and appealing, combining efforts from character designers, animators, colourists, scene compositors, directors, and a host of factors. Canipa looks at the technicalities of sexy anime moments (with a nice balance of pretty boys and pretty girls, I might add. Equality!).
The Metamorphosis of the Magical Girl Genre – mahou shoujo series with dark elements aren’t a new invention, but post-Madoka there’s been a market shift that’s worth contextualising. Nina Morales charts the changes in the genre over the past decade, and argues that grim ‘n’ edgy trends aside, it’s not necessarily all bad news.
The Anime You Should Have Been Watching… in Winter 2012 – the influx of seasonal anime can mean fandom is often flash-in-the-pan and gems can get lost and forgotten, especially as years go by. Kevin Cormack looks at the anime that were airing exactly a decade ago, examining some of the series that stand out as emblematic of the era.
Why K-On! Deserved Its Second Chance – a personal musing on the impact of the series that, though no one knew it at the time, would define a genre and launch the career of one of the best-loved anime directors out there.
This Week in Anime: Why Marin is Everyone’s Dress-Up Darling – why is horny cosplay-centred rom-com My Dress-Up Darling one of the most engaging shows this season? Steve and Jean-Karlo break it down, highlighting the earnest and layered characterisation of the two leads and how the show avoids falling into the “nerd girlfriend wish fulfilment” tropes of other series that tackle similar topics.
The song on repeat this month is this atmospheric bop from Chela. Relistening to this constantly is not a bad habit!
And that’s all we wrote! See you soon for more, and take care out there!
The Afictionado 