anime feminist

Podcast: Fall 2019 Wrap-Up

Dream a little dream of ani-me…

The two protagonists of Outburst Dreamer Boys stand back to back, Mizuki holding a sword and looking determined.

Vrai, Peter, and I look back at the Fall 2019 season. Join us as we sing the praises of surprise favorite Outburst Dreamer Boys, rejoice in finding some good isekai for once, and lament the tragic half-a-show that was Stars Align.

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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AniFem’s Top Picks of the 2010s

Should auld anime be forgot and never brought to mind~

Shin leans over Bon's shoulder, grinning, and says "We're so popular."

To celebrate the end of the 2010s, I got together with my fellow AniFem staffers to pick our favorites from the last 10 years. In a process that involved surprisingly little arguing thanks to my teammates having (mostly) great taste, we put together two lists:

  • Top 25 of the Decade: Participating staffers wrote up a list of 20 shows, then we tallied the votes and organized the series based on total number of picks and whether they made anybody’s Top Five. The end result is a mighty fine list of anime, if I do say so myself.
  • Bonus Picks of the Decade: Participating staffers picked five bonus series to highlight, that way we could each give a little love to our under-the-radar darlings and guilty pleasures. (Did I suggest this bonus list because I was sad that Snow White with the Red Hair didn’t make the Top 25? Why yes. Yes, I did.)

Happy reading, and I hope these lists can help you find some hidden gems you may have missed, too!

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Podcast: Neon Genesis Evangelion Watchalong – End of Evangelion

I regret to inform you that I did not care for Anno’s spite film.

The extended cast of Evangelion posing for the camera, looking happy and smiling

The 5th and final part of our Neon Genesis Evangelion watchalong with Vrai, myself, and special guests Isaac and Lizzie! It’s time for the Eva Endings Extravaganza as viewers new and old reflect on their feelings about the franchise.

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

Wanna help make AniFem happen on the page and in your ear? Consider becoming a patron for as little as $1 a month!

Podcast: Neon Genesis Evangelion Watchalong – Episodes 21-26

Things are so dire, I can’t even make a bad pun about it.

Eva Unit-01 holds Kaworu in its grasp

Part 4 of our Neon Genesis Evangelion watchalong with Vrai, Dee, and special guests Isaac Akers and Lizzie Visitante! Everything collapses and nobody is happy. The characters in the show ain’t doing so hot, either. (And don’t worry—we’ll discuss The End of Evangelion next time.)

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

Wanna help make AniFem happen on the page and in your ear? Consider becoming a patron for as little as $1 a month!

Podcast: Neon Genesis Evangelion Watchalong – Episodes 14-20

Neon Genesis Watermelion.

Shinji looks at some watermelons on a vine

It’s Part 3 of multi-part watchalong of Neon Genesis Evangelion with Vrai, myself, and special guests Isaac and Lizzie! As Shinji starts to break down, so too does the narrative—and the team has some concerns about how it’s all going to shake out.

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

Wanna help make AniFem happen on the page and in your ear? Consider becoming a patron for as little as $1 a month!

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!

If you like the dishes AniFem is serving up, please consider becoming a patron for as little as $1 a month!

Podcast: Neon Genesis Evangelion Watchalong – Episodes 7-13

You guys. You guys. It’s an elEVAtor.

The Evangelion cast crowds into a elevator, smashed up against each other

Our multi-part watchalong of Neon Genesis Evangelion continues! Vrai, myself, and special guests Isaac and Lizzie discuss gender roles, sex and sexuality, and overall have a pretty good time with this “monster-of-the-week” stretch of episodes. But why does Vrai keep chortling in the background…?

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: Jupiter Ascending Retrospective

Air-rollerblading into your ears.

Jupiter and Channing Tatum stand epically in front of a large image of Jupiter and the Earth

I’m real proud of this one, y’all. To celebrate Chatty AF’s 100th episode, the whole team got together to talk about the criminally underappreciated shoujo space opera epic, Jupiter Ascending. Join us as we discuss female power fantasies, isekai story beats, Academy Award-Winner Eddie Redmayne, and whether the film is Good Actually, Bad Actually, or somewhere in between.

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: Neon Genesis Evangelion Watchalong – Episodes 1-6

Get in the robot discourse.

Misato holds binoculars and leans over Shinji to peer out of a car window

Vrai and I got together with special guests Lizzie and Isaac to tackle the legendary mecha anime. This is definitely a great idea that won’t get me any angry emails at all.

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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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!

If you like the dishes AniFem is serving up, please consider becoming a patron for as little as $1 a month!