Anime + Manga Titles

Good Soil Makes a Good Crop: The Story of Saiunkoku and the myth of meritocracy

The Summer of Saiunkoku continues, this time in article form!

Shurei in formal dress stands with her back to the viewer, one hand extended to a blossoming cherry tree branch.

Once upon a time, a poor little girl named Hong Shurei did not dream of marrying a prince. Instead, Shurei saw the struggles of the people around her and dreamed of becoming a civil servant—an impossible dream, for women were banned from public office. Yet when the law changed to allow her entry, Shurei soon learned her dream was not without its nightmares, for deep-seated prejudices loomed everywhere she looked, and these were not the sort of monsters one could draw a sword and slay.

Despite its fantastical shoujo setting, The Story of Saiunkoku is no traditional fairy tale, and Shurei’s journey is much closer to unjust reality than escapist fiction. This allows the series to explore systemic oppression, workplace harassment, and the importance of structural support, especially in systems that claim to be merit-based. Through its young, marginalized civil servants, Saiunkoku provides an intersectional critique of the “bootstrap” mentality, highlighting how oppression creates hurdles that often require more than just “hard work” to clear.

Cllick here for the full article on Anime Feminist!

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Podcast: Shojo & Tell – The Story of Saiunkoku [With Transcript]

Let’s put some shine on this buried treasure.

In the foreground, Shurei faces the viewer and holds a fan. She is surrounded by flowers. In the background, Ryuki and Seiran watch her affectionately.

I was beyond delighted when Ashley (@AshMcD00) invited me on to Shojo & Tell to talk about one of my favorite series: The Story of Saiunkoku, a.k.a. “the shoujo gem that time forgot.” Hear us gush about Shurei, marvel at wild plot twists, discuss the manga’s feminist undercurrents, and pick our favorite pretty boys.

You can listen to the episode or keep reading for the full transcript.

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Daring to Speak its Name: Goodbye, My Rose Garden and the queer historical romance

Set in 1900 England, Goodbye, My Rose Garden tells the story of the young noblewoman Alice and her maid Hanako as the two connect over their shared passion for fiction and eventually fall in love. Steeped in references to the history and literature of the Victorian era, the series draws on turn-of-the-century reality and fantasy alike to highlight the intersectional struggles of queer women of the period.

Utilizing the narrative devices of early feminist and women-loving-women (wlw) literature, Rose Garden encourages its audience to expect a melancholy love story. However, it swerves in its finale to offer an unambiguously romantic, happy ending, arguing against “inevitable” heteronormativity and providing a shining example of how to write nuanced, happy historical queer fiction for a modern audience.

Click here for the full article on Anime Feminist!

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Podcast: Love It Or Weeb It – The Eccentric Family [With Transcript]

Take a flight of fancy with this under-the-radar gem.

Promotional image for The Eccentric Family featuring the title and main cast.

Annie (@annieothername) and Jeff (@jeffinitelyjeff) were kind enough to invite me onto their podcast Love It Or Weeb It to talk (and talk!) (and talk!!) about one of my all-time favorite anime, The Eccentric Family. Join us for a lively discussion of mythology, femme fatales, and adorable tanuki. No hot pots allowed.

You can listen to the episode or keep reading for the full transcript.

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You Don’t Have to Kick Ass to Be Kickass: Shoujo fantasy and the value of the noncombatant hero

HItomi stands atop the Escaflowne mecha, holding aloft her glowing pink pendant

Over the decades, the number of fantastical stories starring female characters has slowly but significantly risen. As that number has gone up, so too have the number of lady action heroes. Girls and women are no longer relegated to the roles of “white mage” or “brainiac”; they can sling spells, slay vampires, and punch supervillains in the face right alongside the menfolk.

And this is a good thing… for the most part. But the ability to enact violence shouldn’t be the only way we measure someone’s value. It’s important to showcase a variety of roles—not just soldiers, but politicians, doctors, mediators, artists, caretakers, and so on—to highlight the different ways of doing good or being a hero. This is as true of fantastical escapist fiction as it is grounded slice-of-life stories.

So, how do we tell these stories without falling back into the old gendered stereotypes of “man fight, woman heal”? One subgenre in particular provides us with a useful template: shoujo fantasy, which features a number of action-packed tales with protagonists as diverse as their worlds.

Click here for the full article on Anime Feminist!

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Nonconforming in the ‘90s: How Pokemon’s gender variance caught the hearts of generation

Smashing gender norms at the speed of light.

Jessie and James in Rose of Versailles cosplay. James is Marie Antoinette and Jessie is Oscar.

Twenty years ago, I watched my very first episode of Pokemon and began my lifelong journey into the world of anime, manga, and JRPGs. I couldn’t tell you the exact date, but I can tell you the episode was “The Flame Pokemon-athon!” and that I was both confused and delighted by this weird show with electric mice and flaming horses. I can also tell you I swiftly fell in love with it, bringing my best friends along for the ride.

And now, two decades later, after diving back into the anime after years away from it, I think I can finally tell you why: why this strange, silly, sincere show mattered, not just to me but to the turn-of-the-century Western kids’ media landscape as a whole. How it filled the space between “boy stuff” and “girl stuff,” treated both as having value, and—through its world, characters, and story—challenged why there was a division in the first place.

Click here for the full article on Anime Feminist!

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Nichijou and the Everyday Epics of High School Girls

A slice-of-life that really knows how to live. Mio dives dramatically off a riverbank. Yuuko watches her, shocked, in the foreground. Adapted from the manga by Keiichi Arawi and vibrantly animated by Kyoto Animation, this comedy featuring robots, talking cats, and murderous deer initially sounds far from “ordinary.” However, Nichijou‘s dedication to finding reality through absurdity—to showing how things feel rather than how they literally are—grants the series an authenticity that many grounded YA dramas struggle to capture. More to the point, it accomplishes this with a cast largely composed of high school girls—in particular, the central crew of Yuuko, Mio, Mai, and Nano. Through these girls’ diverse personalities and adventures, Nichijou not only showcases many common (and not-so-common) trials and triumphs of modern female adolescence and friendship, but also expands the narrow idea of what it means to be a “normal” teen girl in fiction. Click here for the full article on Anime Feminist!
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Lady Leads & Sidekick Lads: Flipping the script in Team Rocket’s “Training Daze”

The lovely, charming origin story.

The Team Rocket trio stand together, wearing red training uniforms. Jessie clenches a fist and looks at James, who looks back at her with a determined smile. Meowth stands between them, grinning wide.

The Team Rocket trio have never been your typical villains. With a tenacity only matched by their incompetence, an enduring love for one another, a closet full of exquisite crossplay, and enough puns to sink the St. Anne, they’re about as charming as “bad guys” can get.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that their special backstory episode defies as many conventions as they do, taking the classic team origin story and turning familiar gendered archetypes cleverly on their heads.

Click here for the full article on Anime Feminist!

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Podcast: The Vision of Escaflowne Rewatchalong – Episodes 21-26 (Final)

The kids are (probably gonna be) all right.
Hitomi grips Van's arm between her hands, staring at him intently.

The Escaflowne Rewatchalong comes to its plot-packed conclusion! Revelations are had, families are reunited, and we can finally, finally, talk about Dilandau.

Click here to view the show notes and download the SoundCloud file, or find it on iTunes and Stitcher by searching for “Chatty AF.”

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Podcast: The Vision of Escaflowne Rewatchalong – Episodes 14-20

Everything happens so very, very much.

Folken and Naria hold hands in a darkened room, as if taking part in a dance

We’re back with more Escaflowne chatter! With dream ghosts, cat twins, and literal fanfic machines, it’s the show’s wildest stretch to date—and that is saying something.

Click here to view the show notes and download the SoundCloud file, or find it on iTunes and Stitcher by searching for “Chatty AF.”

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