Chatty AF

Podcast: Ouran High School Host Club Watchalong – Episodes 1-6

Time to KISS KISS FALL IN LOVE all over again!

A teen boy dips a teen girl while girls around her squee, hearts popping around their heads. Behind them, an androgynous figure in glasses is unphased. They are all wearing school uniforms.

I found three whole people over the age of 25 who hadn’t seen Ouran, and they were kind enough to sit down with me and chat about it! Like Fushigi Yugi, this is an imperfect but treasured series very near and dear to my heart, so please enjoy the gushing and critiquing in (hopefully) equal measures.

For this first episode, the team discusses their history with the series, chats about the highs and lows of the Host Club’s parody playground, and lavishes lotsa love on First-Class Protagonist Haruhi.

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: Winter 2018 wrap-up

Helping our listeners flock to the good stuff.

A teen girl with long black hair wearing goggles on her head and winter clothing sits in the middle of a flock of penguins. She's smiling wildly.

Amelia, Peter, and I look back on the big ball o’ cuteness that was Winter 2018 season. Ice girls reign supreme, magus brides stumble at the finish line, and laid-back campers induct at least two of us into their secret order.

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

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

Podcast: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine Retrospective

An uneven character in a long-time franchise gets a much-needed turn in the spotlight.

A young girl with long dark hair, seated in front of a large purple flower, smiles at the camera and says "Because this is my tale."

Vrai, Caitlin, and I teamed up again to look back at Sayo Yamamoto and Mari Okada’s Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine! Vrai and Caitlin adore this one and have a lot to say about its messy relationships and cast full of sympathetic assholes. I had the weird experience of being the only person not that enthusiastic about the series, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an ambitious, aggressively feminist production well worth your time… er, if you can handle the content warnings, anyway.

And speaking of Content Warnings: This series contains depictions of child abuse (emotional, physical, sexual), sexual assault, violence, torture, homophobia, nudity, and explicit sexual content. The podcast will also discuss these topics when they arise.

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

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

Podcast: Winter 2018 Midseason Check-In

The winter adventure continues.

The pleasant winter season is holding strong with ice ‘n’ camp girls, trash princes, tiny mummies, and Sanrio boiz. I sat down with Amelia and Peter to chat about it.

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

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

Podcast: Miss Hokusai Retrospective

The portrait of the artist as young woman.

A young woman in traditional Japanese dress and hair style sits at a table, pen in hand, looking at a blank piece of paper. Her desk is lit only by two small candles.

Caitlin, Amelia, and I chatted about Miss Hokusai, the 2015 feature film from Production I.G. Set in the early 1800s, this historical fiction follows real-life artist O-Ei as she navigates her relationships with her famous father, her young sister, and her own developing art in a society and profession dominated by men.

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

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

Podcast: Fushigi Yugi Watchalong – OVAs (Part 2 of 2)

The grand finale, Part Deux!

A close-up of a teen girl in a school uniform smiling at the camera. To her right and behind her some distance, a monk with flyaway bangs wearing a robe and prayer beads presses a finger frantically to his lips as if to say "shhh"

The 10th and final (sniffle) installment of our Fushigi Yugi watchalong with Vrai, Caitlin, and yours truly! We finished up the OVAs in trademark rollercoaster fashion by both basking in one of the series’ highest highs and suffering through one of its lowest lows. And yet, when all was said and done, we still came out the other side fighting for this flawed but earnest franchise.

Highlights include: A whole lot of gushing about Chichiri, a fair bit of griping about Eikoden, and Mayo doing damn near everything wrong.

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: Fushigi Yugi Watchalong – OVAs (Part 1 of 2)

We discoursed so hard it couldn’t be contained by a single podcast!

A shouting redhead holds a comically wide-eyed child upside down by its feet. To one side, a monk with flyaway bangs holds his staff like a baseball bat, and to the other a young man in modern-day clothes sits on a chair, one hand raised to his mouth in shock. Everyone else is wearing traditional Chinese clothing.

The multi-part Fushigi Yugi watchalong continues with a pair of bonus episodes covering the OVAs! Here in Part 1, we talked about Oni 1 and half of Oni 2. There’s a lot about these episodes that I really like, but woof, is there a lot that I hate, too.

Highlights include: Studio Pierrot’s drunken fanfic, Hotohori’s absurd-yet-emotional homecoming, and a Tasuki episode so unpleasant even I got angry about it.

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

Did you know? Have you heard? The Josei Next Door has a tip jar!

Podcast: Fushigi Yugi Watchalong – Episodes 47-52

The grand finale(ish)!
A close-up of a teenage girl in a battered school uniform, looking determined, her hair flaring out around her. She glows with a red light.

Part 8 of the Fushigi Yugi watchalong with Vrai, Caitlin, and me! As gods rise, characters fall, and the TV series comes to an explosive conclusion, the team discusses the highs and lows and argues for the show’s place in the anime canon. We’re not completely done (there’s still the OVAs to tackle), but I hope you’ll permit me a little sappy nostalgia even so.

Highlights include: Tasuki and Chichiri having their Helm’s Deep Moment, Nakago’s BackstoryFail, and Miaka and Tamahome getting by with a little help from their friends.

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

Did you know? Have you heard? The Josei Next Door has a tip jar!

Podcast: Fushigi Yugi Watchalong – Episodes 41-46

Hope you got your umbrella ready for this plot downpour.

A short-haired girl in a school uniform, looking exasperated, points over her shoulder at a girl with medium-length hair wearing the same uniform. This girl is kneeling on one knee, a mirror clutched to her chest and a rose held out in one hand as if she's trying to woo someone. In the foreground is the back of a man's head.

Part 7 of the Fushigi Yugi watchalong with Caitlin, Vrai, and me! With the badlands safely behind us, we can return to the show’s usual mixed bag of big adventure and even bigger emotions as the series heads into its action-packed home stretch. It’s a wild ride, but a largely entertaining one, with a few dollops of emotional resonance and forced dramatic bullshit on the side. It just wouldn’t be Fushigi Yugi without both, would it?

Highlights include: Geriatric Celestial warriors, various folks meeting various makers (not necessarily their own), and Miaka continuing to be a delightfully thirsty protagonist.

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

Did you know? Have you heard? The Josei Next Door has a tip jar!