Fall 2012 Anime Season

Sorry about your having to stare at that Rose of Versailles post for two weeks. Things were very...unusual this past week. Anyhow, here's my season preview. Like the summer season, this season isn't as rich in goodies as the spring and winter 2012 seasons were, but there are still some potentially good-looking options. (And Jormungand season 2, w00t.)

09/09

Battle Spirits: Sword Eyes:
Another one of those series meant to sell a fighting card game to the kids these days, harumph-humph. (Get off my lawn!)

Noteworthy Seiyuu:
Fukuyama Jun (Code Geass's Lelouch)
Midorikawa Hikaru (Fushigi Yuugi's Tamahome)
Neya Michiko (Read or Die's Nancy)
Horie Yui (Aoi Hana's Kyouko, Hourou Musuko's Anna)


09/28

Shin Sekai Yori:
An adaptation of a novel that is not a light novel. In a bucolic futuristic Japan, the people are ruled by those who have the "gods' power" of telekinesis. A girl named Saki and her four friends learn the truth about the calamity that brought civilization to the state it's in, and "throw themselves into life-threatening adventure" to save their world from collapsing again.

I'll give it a shot. It looks like it could be interesting. My interest is piqued, foremost, by this series' source material being a non-light novel, though.

Seiyuu:
Hanazawa Kana (Mouretsu Pirates's Chiaki, Black Rock Shooter's Mato)
Hirata Hiroaki (One Piece's Sanji)
Kaji Yuuki (No. 6's Shion)


10/01

Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun:
An adaptation of a manga running in Dessert, about a studious girl (Shizuku) who befriends a boy (Haru) who was suspended from school for fighting, after finding that he isn't the violent vagabond everyone paints him as. Cue romance.

Sounds like a potentially cute series (opposites attract and all), but apparently Haru threatens to rape Shizuku at some point. Ugh. DO NOT WANT from the character who's supposed to be Shizuku's love interest. Kaburaki Hiro, Kimi ni Todoke's director, is helming this series, so it should be competent as an adaptation. But ugh, that rape threat plot point. Pass for me.

Weird trailer streaming here.

Seiyuu:
Tomatsu Haruka (Mouretsu Pirates's Gruier)
Hanazawa Kana (Mouretsu Pirates's Chiaki, Black Rock Shooter's Mato)
Nakamura Yuuichi (Clannad's Tomoya)

Kamisama Hajimemashita:
Another shoujo manga adaptation, being directed by Daichi Akitaro (Fruits Basket, Kodocha). Known in English as Kamisama Kiss, this series is running in Hana to Yume.

Nanami's dad abandons her because of his gambling debts, so she's evicted from her apartment. After she "saves" Mikage, a man with a dog phobia, Mikage offers to let her stay at his house...which is a shrine. Turns out Mikage is a god, and he transfers his status as the god of his shrine to Nanami. One of the supernatural residents of the shrine is a youkai named Tomoe. Nanami and Tomoe develop feelings for each other.

I've heard this series is sweet and I like the Japanese deity and monster aspect. (See: My enjoyment of the whimsical-look-at-the-supernatural themes in Tokimeki Mononoke Jougakuen and Natsume Yuujinchou.) Its third trailed (listed below), especially, is charming. (Its song is stuck my head. lol) Here's hoping it's good! *fingers crossed*

PVs streaming here, here, and here.

Seiyuu:
Mimori Suzuko (Yuruyuri's Himawari)
Ishida Akira (Mai Hime's Nagi)
Satou Satomi (K-ON!'s Ritsu)
Horie Yui (Aoi Hana's Kyouko, Hourou Musuko's Anna)

Litchi DE Hikari Club:
A series of "comedy shorts" based on what is apparently a pretty disturbing manga, about some high school boys who create a machine that runs on lychee fruit to "seek out the beautiful women of the world." Things don't go as they expect after the machine becomes self-aware.

So...if you like the manga, I guess you'll get a kick out of these shorts? If the "machine that unexpectedly becomes self-aware" theme appeals to you, you should check out Roujin Z. (It's old and wasn't mega-popular in its time, so I'm not sure that many anime fans know it.)

Noteworthy Seiyuu:
None.


10/02

Chou Soku Hentei Gyrozetter:
A kid's show about a futuristic world in which cars have artificial intelligence and a fifth grader is given a special car to save humanity.

Seiyuu:
Inoue Marina (Smile Precure!'s Nao)
Iguchi Yuka (Symphogear's Miku)
Tanaka Rie (Azumanga Daioh's Yomi)
Tomokazu Seki (Cardcaptor Sakura's Touya)

Jormungand: Perfect Order:
w00t, Jormungand season 2, continuing the adventures of arms dealer Koko Hekmatyar and her posse of bodyguards, including a woman named Valmet who is in love with her. If you're wondering who the kid behind Koko in the pic above is, he's Jonah, a former child soldier whose parents were killed because of an arms dealer- an arms dealer who isn't Koko. He becomes one of Koko's bodyguards, and Koko and the other bodyguards become a sort of surrogate family to him.

Yup, watching this. If you liked Black Lagoon, Jormungand will be right up your alley.

PV streaming here.

Seiyuu:
Ohara Sayaka (Fate/Zero's Irisviel)
Itou Shizuka (Marimite's Rei, El Cazador de la Bruja's Nadie)
Koshimizu Ami (Marimite's Kanako)
Toyoguchi Megumi (Marimite's Sei)

Wooser no Sono Higurashi:
A children's series about Wooser, a "mysterious 'animal' that lives on the internet" and has a horrible personality.

I'm not watching this show, but it does sound kind of funny. What's its point? Remember kids, don't trust appearances too much, especially on the internet? Not a bad lesson, actually.

Seiyuu:
Miyano Mamoru (Ouran's Tamaki)


10/03

Monsuno:
A Japanese-US collaboration that premiered in the US this past February and is premiering in Japan this season.

Kids fight each other using monster creatures. This series's English-language website's "Collect them all!" tagline tells you everything you need to know about it.

Seiyuu:
Tano Asami (Smile Precure!'s Akane)

Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai!:
A comedian once joked about middle schoolers having "chuunibyou" ("middle school second-year disease"), referring to their having delusions of being more special and important than they are.

This series' protagonist, Yuuta, used to have chuunibyou and his girfriend Rikka still has it, and they meet another girl who has it and there's a fantastical aspect to this series because two of them are really into video games, and I just don't care. I'll probably try an episode because as an otaku, it is my patriotic duty to sample everything by Kyoto Animation, but I don't expect to watch more than one episode.

This show's ending theme is streaming here.

UPDATE:
A mini-episode has been released in advance.

Seiyuu:
Fukuyama Jun (Code Geass's Lelouch)

Hayate no Gotoku! Can't Take My Eyes Off You:
An all-new adaptation of the otaku reference-heavy Hayate no Gotoku shounen comedy manga. It's about a boy who, abandoned by his debt-laden parents, ineffectively tries to rob a rich girl but becomes her butler instead.

Tried the Hayate manga. I could see why people are into it, but it didn't interest me. Pass on this adaptation.

PV found here.

Seiyuu:
Kugimiya Rie (Marimite's Touko)
Shiraishi Ryoko (Saki's Mako)
Tanaka Rie (Azumanga Daioh's Yomi)
Itou Shizuka (Marimite's Rei, El Cazador de la Bruja's Nadie)
Iguchi Yuka (Symphogear's Miku)


10/04

 

Btooom!:
22 year-old Ryota has nothing to boast of in life except his skill at the combat game he plays online. One day he wakes up and finds himself in a real-life version of that game and has to figure out how to get out of Zzzzzzzzzzz.

Pass.

And super, along with Btooom!'s protagonist's love interest being pure, busty wish fulfillment service-bait, she's going to get sexually assaulted. My prediction: She won't get raped before this series' protagonist swoops in and saves her in the most Gary Stu way possible, so the viewers who get off on seeing her manhandled in a servicey way by the would-be rapist can feel good about themselves.

Seiyuu:
Mimori Suzuko (Yuruyuri's Himawari)
Sawashiro Miyuki (Canaan, Blue Drop's Hagino)
Nakamura Yuuichi (Clannad's Tomoya)

Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb:
More slice-of-life with Yuno and her art school friends who live at the Hidamari apartments.

I like Hidamari Sketch as a relaxing series with spiffy visuals by SHAFT, but a fourth season of pretty much the exact same thing as the previous three seasons is wearing out the franchise's welcome for me. ^_^;

UPDATE: PV added.

Seiyuu: 
Harada Hitomi (Sasameki Koto's Tomoe)
Shintani Ryoko (Mai Hime/Mai Otome's Aoi)
Fukuen Misato (Smile Precure!'s Miyuki)
Sawashiro Miyuki (Canaan, Blue Drop's Hagino)
Kugimiya Rie (Marimite's Touko)

Busou Shinki:
A high school boy named Rihito returns home after studying abroad and lives with his four moe, sentient, weapon-toting female action figures.

Blah.

UPDATE: PV added. It hasn't changed my opinion.

Seiyuu:
Asumi Kana (Hidamari Sketch's Yuno)
Nakajima Megumi (Macross Frontier's Ranka)

Zetsuen no Tempest:
An average high school boy meets a cute girl who needs him to help her oppose her clan, who want to unleash a power that will destroy the world.

*sigh*

PV here.

Seiyuu:
Hanazawa Kana (Mouretsu Pirates's Chiaki, Black Rock Shooter's Mato)
Sawashiro Miyuki (Canaan, Blue Drop's Hagino)
Mizuki Nana (Nanoha's Fate, Heartcatch Precure's Tsubomi, Symphogear's Tsubasa)

K:
Shiro's high school is located in a suspiciously Academy City-like area. While going on an errand for a classmate, Shiro runs into Kukuri, a girl who is being chased. Fantasy-action stuff happens.

This series is trying so hard to be cool. So hard to be liked. It even has some bishounen for the ladies who like dudes and a busty woman-child for the man-children who like that type of fictional lady (link NSFW). "Blech"-inducing female character aside, this series seems pretty trite, despite its slickly animated action scenes.

PVs streaming here, here, here and here.

Seiyuu:
Ono Daisuke (Kuroshitsuji's Sebastian)
Fukuyama Jun (Code Geass's Lelouch)
Miyano Mamoru (Ouran's Tamaki)
Komatsu Mikako (Mouretsu Pirates's Marika)
Sawashiro Miyuki (Canaan, Blue Drop's Hagino)
Satou Satomi (K-ON!'s Ritsu)
Sakurai Takahiro (Code Geass's Suzaku)
Sugita Tomokazu (Suzumiya Haruhi's Kyon)
Horie Yui (Aoi Hana's Kyouko, Hourou Musuko's Anna)
Nakamura Yuuichi (Clannad's Tomoya)
Kaji Yuuki (No. 6's Shion)


10/05

 

Oniichan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankei Nai yo Ne: 

Obligatory incest-themed comedy of the season. Akito and his twin sister have been separated for years, but now in high school they're living under the same roof.

*sob sob*

Seiyuu:

Kitamura Eri (Madoka Magica's Sayaka)

Takamoto Megumi (Sasameki Koto's Ushio)

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
An adaptation of a very long, very weird manga about the crazy adventures of people in the different generations of the Joestar family. One person in each generation is born with a star-shaped birthmark, and they are the protagonist of each generation's arc. (The eight generation's arc is currently running in Ultra Jump.)

I tried the first chapter of the first arc of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Even setting aside my avoidance of incredibly long series, it didn't do much for me. Good for the folks who are fans of it, though.

PV here.

Seiyuu:
Okitsu Kazuyuki (Shiki's Muroi)
Koyasu Takehito (Fushigi Yuugi's Hotohori)
Kawasumi Ayako (Chikane and Saber)

To-Love Ru Darkness:
An adaptation of a manga spin-off of the To-Love-Ru manga, a harem series in which a high school boy cohabits with an alien princess. This series will star two of To-Love-Ru's side characters, Momo and Yami.

Yup, pass.

PV found here.

Seiyuu:
Toyosaki Aki (K-ON!'s Yui)
Fukuen Misato (Smile Precure!'s Miyuki)
Iguchi Yuka (Symphogear's Miku)
Watanabe Akeno (Kaleido Star's Anna)
Tomatsu Haruka (Mouretsu Pirates's Gruier)
Hanazawa Kana (Mouretsu Pirates's Chiaki, Black Rock Shooter's Mato)
Itou Kanae (Hanasaku Iroha's Ohana)
Noto Mamiko (Marimite's Shimako)
Yuzuki Ryoka (Mai Hime/Mai Otome's Haruka)
Arai Satomi (Railgun's Kuroko)


10/06

Bakuman season 3:
Rather than get pissed again ranting about this series, I'll paste what I wrote in response to its second season:

I won't lie. I hate Bakuman. I hate its sexism dressed in uplifting shounen tournament garb; I hate it for painting its lead's crush as the perfect girl for being meek and modest, unlike that total bitch who's proud of getting good grades; I hate its "men have dreams that women can't understand!" message; I hate how its heroes put down female mangaka, and how every mangaka in Bakuman's world is a guy except the token girl who doesn't have a full grasp of what the shounen market wants because she started out in shoujo. (The shounen market consists of girls as much as boys, really, but hey! They're icky and shouldn't be allowed in the tree house, right?)

 Passing again, of course.

Seiyuu:
Kawasumi Ayako (Chikane and Saber)

Haitai Nanafa:
Nanafa, an energetic middle school girl, lives with her older sister, her younger sister, and her grandma, who runs a soba shop. Nanafa sees a seal fall off a Chinese kanyan tree, causing the three spirits sealed within the tree to be released.

While this series has a whimsical-supernatural-beings-intrude-on-a-regular-human's-life theme like Kamisama Hajimemashita, I don't plan on trying it. Kamisama looks like it's sweet without trying too hard to be. This series looks like it's going to beat viewers senseless with how precious its characters are supposed to be, and oh my god, don't you just want to go on a moe-induced merchandise-buying spree for them?

Noteworthy Seiyuu:
None.

Little Busters!:
The latest Key visual novel adaptation, about a group of friends who grew up together.

I've enjoyed previous Key adaptations- primarily Kyoto Animation's adaptations of Air, Kanon (the 2006 version- never made it through the earlier Kanon adaptation because of its awful visuals, although I finished that OVA in which Mai and Sayuri get an extra happy ending together since I used to ship them lol), Clannad, and Clannad ~After Story~ (~After Story~ being my favorite, followed by Air). I even enjoyed P.A. Works' Angel Beats even though it has plot holes big enough to drive a truck through. (Yes, I know Angel Beats! was directly written by Key's Maeda Jun, rather than adapted from a Key visual novel.) I did like Toei's Air movie (If you want to see Yukito punch out Misuzu's horrible father, here's where you can see it!), but still prefer the TV version. I would rather see Little Busters! adapted by Kyoto Animation than J.C. Staff, but I'm still willing to give this series a chance.

PVs here and here.

UPDATE: New PV.

Seiyuu:
Horie Yui (Aoi Hana's Kyouko, Hourou Musuko's Anna)
Midorikawa Hikaru (Fate/Zero's Lancer)

Sukitte Ii na yo.:
Another adaptation of a shoujo manga from Dessert. 16 year-old Mei has never had friends or dated. Because of a misunderstanding, she kicks a popular boy named Yamato. He decides he likes her, and she starts to like him back.

Could be cute. Its trailer doesn't do much for me, but it doesn't seem outright bad like Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun, so I'll try it. I dread the girl-classmates-ganging-up-on-the-main-character-because-she-"stole"-their-precious-school-idol part, though- because protagonists in these types of stories tend to just grin and bear the bullying directed against them. Even though such a response is realistic for a lot of people, I'd rather see the bullied girl rub her tormentors' ridicule back in their faces and act like she doesn't give a shit. (That's part of why I like the protagonist of Okazaki Mari's Shibuya-ku, Maruyama-chou so much. She starts out as a passive girl who doesn't want to rock the boat and disrupt her illusion of a peaceful school life by admitting that she's being bullied, but owns what's happening and becomes much more effective at dealing with the scumbags who try to push her around.)

Seiyuu:
Kayano Ai (Lagrange's Muginami)
Sakurai Takahiro (Code Geass's Suzaku)
Kotobuki Minako (K-ON!'s Tsumugi)
Uchiyama Yumi (Binbougami ga!'s Momiji)

Code:Breaker:
While riding the bus, Sakura sees a bunch of people burning in blue flames while a teenage boy stands above them. When she returns to the scene the next day, there isn't evidence of anything more than a small fire. Her class gets a mysterious new transfer student, the same boy who she saw standing over the burning people. Sakura learns that the boy, Rei, is an assassin with preternatural abilities who is part of a secret government organization.

Pass. This series' premise doesn't interest me, and going by its trailers, it takes itself too seriously given that it's just a checklist of anime tropes.

PVs here, here, here, and here.

Seiyuu:
Hikasa Youko (K-ON!'s Mio)
Saiga Mitsuki (Mai Hime/Mai Otome's Chie)
Yukana (Futari ha Precure's Honoka)
Kaida Yuko (Strawberry Panic!'s Amane)
Kimura Subaru (Penguindrum's Kanba)

Oshiri Kajiri Mushi:
Inspired by a popular children's song called "Oshiri Kajiri Mushi" ("Butt-Biting Bug"), this series is about a ten-year old bug who attends Biting School.

Here's the Oshiri Kajiri Mushi song. Enjoy. lol

Seiyuu:
Ise Mariya (Lagrange's Yurikano)


10/07

Cross Fight B-Daman eS:
Another series meant to market a children's fighting game or something.

Seiyuu:
Mizusawa Fumie (Heartcatch Precure's Erika)

Magi:
An adaptation of a shounen manga that re-imagines One Thousand and One Nights.

Going by its trailers, it looks pretty meh. And there's the way to attract female fans- advertise the token only female character in the series being scantily clad and bound up in chains while the guys strike cool poses! She is shown holding her own against a tiger in the PVs, but still- why present her in such a way in the promotion art? Why are the only characters who look like they have agency boys?

Noteworthy Seiyuu:
None.

Teekyuu:
A slice-of-life comedy about four girls who are on the same tennis team. They don't play tennis much.

Pass. Don't see anything suggesting this series is going to be one of the not-utterly-disposable examples of its subgenre.

Seiyuu:
Hanazawa Kana (Mouretsu Pirates's Chiaki, Black Rock Shooter's Mato)
Mimori Suzuko (Yuruyuri's Himawari)

Ixion Saga DT:
An adaptation of a fantasy PC game, about a fantasy PC game-playing teenage boy who finds himself in an alternate fantasy world.

Meh.

PV here.

Seiyuu:
Kamiya Hiroshi (Zetsubou-sensei)
Fukuyama Jun (Code Geass's Lelouch)
Nakai Kazuya (One Piece's Zoro)
Saiga Mitsuki (Mai Hime/Mai Otome's Chie)
Shintani Ryoko (Mai Hime/Mai Otome's Aoi)
Mikami Shiori (Yuruyuri's Akari)
Sugita Tomokazu (Suzumiya Haruhi's Kyon)
Hosoya Yoshimasa (No. 6's Nezumi)


10/08

Aikatsu!:
Based on a card game aimed at girls. Figures that while the card games marketed at boys are about fighting and monsters, this one's about choosing the right clothes to become a cute top idol.

Seiyuu:
Noto Mamiko (Marimite's Shimako)
Kotobuki Minako (K-ON!'s Tsumugi)

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo:
An adaptation of a seinen light novel. Ugh, this series' premise.

Sorata, an ordinary high school boy, lives in Sakurasou, a dormitory for the problem children at his school. Mashiro, a cute girl who is a highly talented artist, moves in. Sorata decides to protect her from the dorm's eccentric residents and finds that she's completely incapable at taking care of herself. e.g. She can't leave her residence without getting lost. Sakurasou's other residents dub Sorata Mashiro's "Master", and they live together as "master and pet."

Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh. Ptooey.

PV here.

UPDATE: New promo vid.

Seiyuu:
Kayano Ai (Lagrange's Muginami)
Toyoguchi Megumi (Marimite's Sei)
Sakurai Takahiro (Code Geass's Suzaku)
Horie Yui (Aoi Hana's Kyouko, Hourou Musuko's Anna)

Girls Und Panzer:
In the world of Girls Und Panzer, girls practice Sensha-do, the art of tank combat. After transferring to Ooriai Girls' Academy, Miho is ordered by the student council to join Ooriai's Sensha-do team to compete in the national Sensha-do championships.

Potentially fun setting, but this series is by the same folks who brought us Strike Witches, so blagh. This series doesn't appear to be anywhere as obsessed with young girls' crotches and butts as Strike Witches, but going by this series' promo art and trailers, there is enough indication that this series' adult viewers are expected to leer at the little girl characters in it (e.g. how the redheaded girl in the promo pic above is posed) to warrant my giving it the side eye.

PVs here and here.

Seiyuu:
Kayano Ai (Lagrange's Muginami)
Kitamura Eri (Madoka Magica's Sayaka)
Shiina Hekiru (Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou's Alpha)
Ueda Kana (Marimite's Yumi)
Kikuchi Mika (Mai Otome's Arika)
Fukuen Misato (Hidamari Sketch's Natsume)
Hirano Aya (Suzumiya Haruhi)
Kawasumi Ayako (Chikane and Saber)
Nabatame Hitomi (Strawberry Panic!'s Shizuma, Marimite's Eriko)
Ise Mariya (Lagrange's Yurikano)
Tanaka Rie (CANAAN's Liang, Mai Otome's Tomoe)

10/10

Medaka Box Abnormal:
The sequel to Medaka Box. Zenkichi is an average guy whose best friend and crush is Medaka, an eccentric, seemingly "perfect" girl who strives to solve her school mates' problems after becoming class president.

Tried the first episode of Medaka Box. It wasn't awful, just meh.

PV streaming here.

Seiyuu:
Toyosaki Aki (K-ON!'s Yui)
Kayano Ai (Lagrange's Muginami)
Katou Emiri (Sasameki Koto's Kiyori, Madoka Magica's Kyuubey)
Paku Romi (Air Master's Maki)


10/11

Pycho-Pass:
A Noitamina series. In the near future, technology that can "measure and quantify a person's state of mind and personality" has been developed. Psycho-Pass's protagonist, Shinya, is a police officer. I assume/hope he and his colleagues will have to deal with the flaws and potential abuses inherent to their mind-reading technology.

I have some hope for this series because Urobuchi Gen (Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero) is in charge of the series composition.

PV streaming here.

UPDATE: A PV with animation.

Seiyuu:
Hanazawa Kana (Mouretsu Pirates's Chiaki, Black Rock Shooter's Mato)
Tomokazu Seki (Cardcaptor Sakura's Touya, Fate/Zero's Gilgamesh)
Ishida Akira (Mai Hime's Nagi)
Sawashiro Miyuki (Canaan, Blue Drop's Hagino)
Itou Shizuka (Marimite's Rei, El Cazador de la Bruja's Nadie)
Sakurai Takahiro (Code Geass's Suzaku)

ROBOTICS;NOTES:
Another series that doesn't fulfill Noitamina's original purpose (at this point, the Noitamina label isn't a draw in and of itself for me)- or look good, for that matter.

In 2019, an average high schooler named Kaito is in his school's robotics club. Together with his childhood friend Akiho, a crack fighting game programmer, he decides to create a fighting robot.

Eh.

PVs streaming here.

Seiyuu:
Kugimiya Rie (Marimite's Touko)
Hona Takako (Kara no Kyoukai's Touko)
Kikuko Inoue (Aa! Megami-sama's Belldandy)


10/13

Seitokai no Ichizon season 2:
I tried the first episode of the first season of Seitokai no Ichizon. Considering its haremy premise (its protagonist is a guy in a student council full of girls), it wasn't bad. Didn't watch any further, though.

Noteworthy Seiyuu:
None.


10/20

Aoi Sekai no Chuushin de:
A parody of the console wars. Two kingdoms are at war- Segua and Ninterdo. Gear (Sonic), from the kingdom of Segua, seeks to defend his homeland from Ninterdo's emperor Marcus (Mario).

Certain older gamers may get a kick out of this series' premise, but it's lost on me. Pass.

Seiyuu:
Mimori Suzuko (Yuruyuri's Himawari)
Koyasu Takehito (Fushigi Yuugi's Hotohori)


11/04

Initial D Fifth Stage:
You already know if you're going to watch this. Not being an Initial D fan, I'm not. Initial D is worth sampling in order to understand the ubiquitous parodies of it more than for itself. But I guess plenty of people disagree, since this is its fifth season.

Animax will air Fifth Stage's first episode on November 4, but then from November 9 on, this series will only air on the "Animax presents PPV" pay-per-view service. On the second Friday of each month, two new episodes will be available for 840 yen.

Seiyuu:
Tomokazu Seki (Cardcaptor Sakura's Touya)
Koyasu Takehito (Fushigi Yuugi's Hotohori)

Date still undetermined:

Hiiro no Kakera Dai-no-Shou:
Season 2 of an adaptation of an otome game about a high school girl who inherits her ancestor Princess Tamayori's task of sealing the sword Onikirimaru, with help from five young men who act as her guardians.

I didn't try the first season, but I'm glad for this series' fans.

Seiyuu:
Miyake Marie (Penguindrum's Ringo)
Sugita Tomokazu (Suzumiya Haruhi's Kyon)
Ohara Sayaka (Fate/Zero's Irisviel)
Mimori Suzuko (Yuruyuri's Himawari)

And that's it!

HELL YEAH ROSE OF VERSAILLES

 Right now, anime fans on the internet are collectively hyperventilating over the FREAKING ROSE OF VERSAILLES ANIME BEING LICENSED!!!!! BY RIGHTSTUF!!!!!!!! FOR STREAMING ON VIKI AND A DVD RELEASE!!!!!!! I'm listening to "Bara ha Utsukushiku Chiru" as I type this.

Here is RightStuf's press release page on the license. The series will start streaming on Viki this December and come out on DVD in 2013. Being even further awesome, RightStuf is soliciting questions from fans for a Q&A with Rose of Versailles creator Ikeda Riyoko.

Just to show how excited I am for this, here's some Rose of Versailles fan art. (Source links below each pic.)

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Oscar-sama~ XD

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The fan art above is cuter than a basket full of puppies.

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Another cute (if kind of depressing XD) fan art.  

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I like Oscar and Andre together, but Oscar looks SO good with other women also. 

(Antoinette does prefer Oscar's company over her husband's. ;D )

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Soooo happy this was licensed. I didn't remotely expect it.

Update from Okazu:

Viki.com is premiering the opening episode at New York Comic-Com on October 13, followed by a Q&A session with Prof. Susan Napier. (I've already spoken with Prof. Napier and asked her a few questions written by myself, Katherine H. and Erin S. I'll hope that she'll have time to answer a few of them for us.)

Sounds like a fun event! I'm not attending New York Comic-Con, but I am interested in Prof. Napier's answers to my, Erin, and Erica's questions, should she have time to answer them.

We're getting meta: Female Yuri Fans in Anime and Manga

On Skype this past week, I attended a panel on sexism in anime and anime fandom by Patrick and Lauren that spawned some interesting discussion of how female otaku are portrayed in anime- predominantly in an objectified or male-otaku-wish-fulfilling way, even though there are exceptions like most of Kuragehime's cast, Hyouka's Mayaka and Sasameki Koto's Aoi. (Heads up, Lauren and Patrick recorded the sexism in anime and anime fandom panel they held at Otakon and posted it here.) Hence my idea for this post, going character by character.

Ritsuko in "Where the White Flowers Bloom" in Sakuraike's Hanakotoba doujinshi (publication date circa 2004, but I'm not sure exactly when) and later republished in English in Yuri Monogatari 5:

"Where the White Flowers Bloom" is a comedy one-shot about a yuri doujinshi circle composed of two friends- a straight girl named Kotomi, who attends a coed high school, and a lesbian named Ritsuko, who attends an all-girls' high school and has a cute girlfriend named Miyuki. There is no angst here- Ritsuko and Miyuki are completely comfortable with themselves and quite happy together. Amusingly, Kotomi's little sister discovers Kotomi and Ritsuko's doujinshi and tearfully tells Kotomi that she'll support her and Ritsuko as a couple no matter what hardships they go through, not listening when Kotomi tries to explain that she's mistaken.

This one shot was originally published as a doujinshi by Sakuraike, a yuri circle known for their sweet, realistic take on high school romance. It's cute, it's funny, and it's frank about its characters' sexuality without objectifying them.

Kannazuki no Miko's Himeko:

I'm counting this drama CD (released in 2004 also) here because it contributes to the KnM anime's canon.

One of the many ineffective villains in the KnM anime is Reiko-sensei, a manga artist. One of KnM's two protagonists, Himeko, is a fan of Reiko-sensei's manga. In a scene from the drama CD that I would love to have seen animated, Himeko giddily attends a book-signing by Reiko-sensei and tries to explain why she loves Sensei's manga to Chikane. (For the two people reading this who don't know, Chikane is in love with Himeko, but thinks her love is hopeless at the point at which the CD takes place.) Chikane is suddenly very interested in Himeko's manga when Himeko describes the manga's heroine, Asuka, confessing her love to a princess. After Himeko acts out Asuka's love confession, a secretly giddy Chikane apologetically says that she had something else on her mind and didn't catch what Himeko said, so could she repeat it? Himeko does because she's glad Chikane is now interested in the manga. Oh guileless, naïve Himeko.

Nothing in this drama CD contradicts the anime's canon, but the overall thing feels more humorously self-aware than the anime, so it makes sense that, in it, Himeko's fannishness over Reiko-sensei's manga turns out to be fannishness over a yuri couple in said manga. It doesn't feel objectifying at all, just cute.

Yurina in "Hana no Yurina Gumi" in ES ~ Eternal Sisters anthology 2, and later Yuri Hime S issue 3:

Presenting the earliest example I've found of the cute-girls-slashing-their-friends trend in moe, from the ES anthology that came out in 2005. (See also: Hiyori in Lucky Star, Mugi in K-ON!, and Chitose in Yuru Yuri. I'm not doing a write-up on Chitose in this post because as much as she slashes Yuru Yuri's other characters, she isn't actually portrayed as someone who reads or watches yuri. I'd bet a million dollars she does, though.)

Yurina attends your classic yuri all-girls' school, and she makes a pest of herself by seeing every interaction between her classmates as gay and trying to get them to realize that they're experiencing, doki doki, forbidden love. She writes yuri doujin novels based on her "pairings."

Like every other moe girl slashing her friends in this post, Yurina's behavior is meant to be identified with by male yuri fans rather than female yuri fans- most evident in how she fetishizes lesbian relationships being "forbidden", which I've only seen straight guys do since the idea of gay relationships as taboo simply for being gay is distressing to the people who actually have them.

Unlike the other characters on this list who friend-slash, on the plus side, Yurina gets a love interest (who acts as a tsukkomi foil to her behavior.) But on the worse-than-average-for-her-character-type side, there's the "Yay, forbidden love!" thing. The best thing about this one-shot is its title, which parodies the title of a classic yuri-ish shoujo gang girl manga called Hana no Asuka Gumi.

Girl Friends's Tamamin:

In late 2006 (yeah, I can't believe it was that long ago either), Morinaga Milk's Girl Friends started running in Comic High! One of the closest friends of Girl Friends' central couple, Mari and Akko, is Tamamin, the resident otaku and flaming weirdo.

She cosplays! She's in the school manga club! She brings doujinshi to school! In fact, when she bumps into Mari in the school restroom, she drops her smutty Revolutionary Pretty Girl Marriage doujinshi, which Mari unwittingly reads and flips out over. (Partly in a "What the hell did you bring to school" way and partly in a "*light bulb goes off* Is this what I want to do with the girl I like?" way, thus joining the ranks of teens who have explored their sexuality through manga smut.) As with all of Tamamin's otaku moments, it's played as a comedic moment to lighten Girl Friends' angst. I think Morinaga just wanted to reference her own prolific yuri doujinshi drawing (and probably collecting), which has included Utena and Sailor Moon yuri slash.

Some of Tamamin's cosplay choices do pander to Comic High!'s seinen audience, like the cosplay Ohno does in Genshiken, but Girl Friends does a good job of not making it feel male gazey. Kind of like how Kaichou ha Maid-sama avoids making its scads of maid cosplay feel servicey- although in Maid-sama's case, because it's shoujo. (Tangent: If someone finds Tamamin's cosplay more problematic than I do, their opinion is totally valid. I don't want some defensive fanboy linking here to be like "See! A girl wrote this! Tamamin's cosplay isn't male gazey at all!" to someone who thinks otherwise. If a woman says she finds a story's depiction or treatment of a female character sexist or icky or problematic in some way and you're a dude who disagrees, step down. You'll step into condescending jackass territory otherwise. Or framed more broadly, if you enjoy privilege in any particular area and someone who has less privilege than you in that area finds a portrayal of a character in their less-privileged-than-you group problematic as a depiction of people in that less privileged group, it isn't your place to argue that it isn't problematic.) I am, admittedly, biased by the fact that I like Girl Friends as a whole and I like Tamamin, shameless nerd that she is.

Tamamin shares her nerdy interests with a group of otaku girls, which is quite nice to see. Interestingly, she's the only conventionally pretty one. The other otaku in Girl Friends, including a couple otaku guys who attend a mixer Tamamin attends, fit the gawky, not-caring-much-about-their-looks otaku stereotype. In the afterword to Girl Friends volume 1, Morinaga depicts herself and her friends in high school as plain and nerdy/not mingling with the Beautiful People- so her depiction of Tamamin's otaku group feels like she's poking fun at herself in a way. Tamamin's closest friend, ironically, is Sugi, a more image-conscious girl who loves Tamamin as a friend despite her otaku hobbies.

Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora's Kozue:

In the winter 2007 anime season, we got Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora, Kaishaku's Tsubasa Chronicle-esque mish-mash of series they'd done, including expies of Kannazuki no Miko's Chikane and Himeko, named Kaon and Himiko. Like KnM's Himeko, KyoSora's protagonist Kuu has a chummy, tomboyish roommate who teases her about her love life, named Kozue. When Kuu sees Kaon and Himiko kiss in episode 2, with sparkles around them and everything, she's like "Doki doki! Oh my! Two girls kissing, just like in the manga Kozue owns!" It is but a fleeting comment, but it counts. It's also one of KyoSora's few intentionally funny moments. KyoSora has plenty of service, but none involving Kozue, for what little she appears.

Lucky Star's Hiyori- and Konata?:

Hiyori is a fan of BL and yuri. She guiltily draws yuri doujinshi based on two of her friends who, blessedly for her, are too naïve to catch on. Hiyori has some funny moments (my favorite being the one in which she trips and twists around mid-air to save her drawing hand from being injured) and like every other otaku character in Lucky Star, is meant to parody how otaku practice their hobby and relate to non-otaku.

I'm sure the Konata x Kagami fans drew all sorts of inferences from Konata's geeking out over Maria-sama ga Miteru and watching Strawberry Panic! in episode 7. She could count, but she isn't as definite as Hiyori.

Lucky Star's entire premise (the daily lives of moe otaku girls) is service. And as with Tamamin's cosplay, it has elements that could be read as what we more commonly think of as service for people who really want it to be there. But like pretty much everything by Kyoto Animation, Lucky Star does a good job of avoiding feeling male gazey. I've only read a smidgen of the manga, so I can't comment on it. A lot of women like the Lucky Star anime, myself included, but I get that, even though I and other female anime fans identify with some of its characters' behavior, the female otaku characters in it are meant to, overall, be identified with more by male otaku than female otaku.

K-ON!'s Mugi: 

So basically, Mugi's as gay as a rainbow banner festooned with lilies at a pride parade.

She slashes her friends, which is obviously an unrealistic meta gag (I've explained why I don't like it before), but she's also the first one in her group to decide to go to a women's college. (<- Said with a wink and a nudge, y'all. I know there are other great reasons for attending women's colleges. But it's Mugi, so... ^_^ ) There's also her brief thing for Sawako-sensei in the anime.

After Mugi graduates, her kouhai Sumire (in the original K-ON! manga's high school sequel) confirms that Mugi has read her share of yuri. (I'll assume anime-Mugi has done it too, because I can.) Once again, just a one-time reference to the yuri fandom of the character in question, but still nice to see it mentioned- especially for a character who is already pretty gay.

Sasameki Koto's Aoi:

Sasameki Koto's Aoi, "Where the White Flowers Bloom"'s Ritsuko, and Hanjuku Joshi and Ruruiiro no Yume's Chie are the only characters in this post whose yuri fandom isn't A) only referenced once/obscurely or B) at all meant to make them act like your stereotypical otaku guy in a cute girl suit. Like Ritsuko and Chie, Aoi isn't a sex object at all either.

Aoi is a yuri fangirl (in love with a series of Maria-sama ga Miteru-esque shoujo light novels written under a female pseudonym by the brother of SK's protagonist's love interest, Ushio- try keeping that straight) who crushes on SK's protagonist Sumi after Sumi accidentally gives Aoi the impression that she likes the same novels. Thus, Aoi ropes Sumi into helping her publish and sell a doujin novel for a yuri event aimed at female yuri fans. Aoi's fan behavior is over-the-top when we first meet her, like a lot of otaku characters, but SK gives us a thoughtful reason for that. (Besides her age and inherent awkwardness.) None of the other girls she ever knew were into yuri, and they acted like she was "forcing [her] interests on [them]" when she acted the same way about yuri that they did about BL. So Aoi's really, really excited about having a friend (Sumi) who she thinks not only doesn't mind her interests, but shares them.

Aoi buys into some problematic, Class S literature-esque assumptions about lesbian relationships, but Sasameki Koto makes the point that that aspect of Aoi's fandom is ridiculous and deconstructs it while otherwise portraying her fandom well- as an outlet for her own gayness. I want to point out that, while Class S lit and the Class S feminist movement that spawned it have their problematic aspects, yuri fandom and feminism in Japan owe them a considerable debt, as explained here. Not trying to sugarcoat the problematic side of Class S, but I don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water either. Which I don't think SK does, given the positive aspects of its portrayal of Aoi's fandom for those novels.

Anyway, Aoi doesn't get a love interest before graduating high school, but she does become more comfortable in her own skin. See: Her befriending Sumi's out lesbian friends Tomoe and Miyako, who provoked some homophobic blustering from her when she first interacted with them.

Maria Holic's Kanako:

Ech, I have to include Maria Holic, don't I. I prefer writing about titles that haven't made me want to taser myself unconscious, but yeah. Kanako digs girls and yuri and attends her dead mother's all-girls' high school alma mater to find a girlfriend. That premise has potential to be charming, but MH's execution of it sucks. Rather than rehash what's wrong with the show, I'll just point you to my old review of it. Kanako is another example of a yuri fangirl character whose behavior is meant to resemble what otaku men stereotypically behave like rather than otaku women, but unlike, say, Mugi and Hiyori, I don't know a single woman who is a fan of the series she's in. I sat through MH's first season, didn't bother with its second, and haven't tried the MH manga.

Hanjuku Joshi and Ruriiro no Yume's Chie:

A lot of Morishima Akiko's fans (*pauses to leave fresh incense and flowers at our collective shrine to her*) are familiar with her "YurixYuri Observation Diary"- a funny series of short autobiographical manga she used to draw for Comic Yuri Hime in which she draws a parody version of herself acting like a mega-fangirl in various situations. It's hard for me not to think of them when I read Chie's story ("Soft-Boiled Fujoshi") in Ruriiro no Yume.

In Hanjuku Joshi, Chie's a side character. Chie's little sister Chitose tells her about her relationship drama before asking to borrow some of Chie's yuri manga. (Chie's also a huge BL fan, so she has a sizeable stash of that genre too.) Having far less experience with real relationships than fictional ones, she pretty much fails at giving Chitose advice.

But then! In Morishima Akiko's Ruriiro no Yume one-shot collection, Chie gets her own story.

In "Soft-Boiled Fujoshi", Chie attends Chitose's school culture festival (where Hanjuku Joshi fans get to see Chitose being lovey-dovey with her girlfriend Yae) and meets a cute girl named Yuria, who offers to show her around. Chie feels like she set off an "event flag" and thinks that everything is happening so conveniently, she's probably being delusional. Turns out Yuria recognized Chie as her favorite doujinshi author and is as big of an otaku as Chie is. Chie eventually finds that what she's feeling for Yuria isn't moe but, gasp, real love, and realizes that love is better than moe. Sayuri-hime volume 4 includes a cute, brief one-shot about Chie and Yuria working on a doujinshi for Winter Comiket.

So yeah, obviously I like this example. It's funny, it doesn't treat Chie and Yuria like sex objects or male wish fulfillment vehicles, and Chie's the only character on this list whose love interest digs anime and manga also, making for some charmingly nerdy interaction between them. I also quite like that Chie's surprise at her feelings for Yuria aren't caused by Yuria being a girl, but by her being that unused to non-fictional relationships. While some of her behavior is over-the-top (including shipping some random girls from a distance), she doesn't feel like an avatar for male yuri fans- just a weird girl who likes another weird girl who likes her back. I can get behind that.

An Idiot's Guide to Shinjuku Nichoume

I recently realized that my hard won first-hand knowledge of the lesbian scene in Tokyo- gleaned when I stayed in Tokyo for two months last summer- might be appreciated by folks looking to explore it. So here are some notes.

To get to Nichoume:

To the west of Shinjuku station, you have the business district- your classic concrete jungle of skyscrapers honeycombed with offices. To its east, you have the shopping and nightlife area. (Including an Animate!) I worked as an intern on the west side, and first visited Shinjuku Nichoume after a middle-aged male co-worker warned me that I should avoid that area. Thank you for the reminder, good sir. ^_^

Exit the east side of the station and keep walking until you start seeing bars full of men only and shops filled with images of buff, half-naked men. Why did I not mention bars full of women? Most of the businesses in the area- including bars at the ground level (a lot of bars in Tokyo are on higher stories in buildings, requiring you to look up to see the signs for them), are aimed at the dudes.

Want a shop aimed more at queer ladies? (I'll get to bars and events.) Go to the Love Piece Club- a.k.a. the place that produced and sells the Plica-chan movie- which is in a different area of Tokyo. I visited it once. It's a nice, if very pink, place, with an interesting bian manga selection towards the back- mostly tankoubon by Takeuchi Sachiko

and issues of Carmilla, a lesbian magazine that made me wonder who the hell buys it.

Love Piece Club's address:
文京区本郷7-2-2 本郷ビル2F
Directions to LPC (in English!) found here.

Bring a map! Ideally ask a business owner or an officer at a police box for directions, since they're more likely to know the area well than a random passerby. Obviously, you should make it easier for the people you're interacting with by learning basic conversational Japanese and how to ask for directions. Don't make your server at the restaurant you dine at cry on the inside from having to pretend you deserve a cookie for knowing "Konbanwa" and "Arigatou."

My guidebook (Frommer's) didn't remotely list every lesbian bar- just some popular/especially foreigner-friendly ones. The night before I left Tokyo (where I got a drink at a Nichoume bar to wind down and rest my feet after having spent the day visiting a maid café and buying doujinshi with a friend, and going around Tokyo by train to see certain sites one last time), I was given a list of all of the lesbian bars in Nichoume and their addresses by someone who works there, but I...uh, didn't find it where I thought it would be. (With a couple event flyers I've kept.) But I know there are a lot. ^_^; I wouldn't post it here anyway, since I assume that at least some of those bars may not want to be that easily found.

This past year, the popular Motel #203 bar changed its name to Bar Gold Finger and moved to a shagadelic-looking new ground-level location. I assume it’s still a good bar.

Photos not mine, from Bar Gold Finger's website. (CLICK THE LINK. That amazing music.)

Bar Gold Finger's address:
新宿区新宿2-12-11林ビル1F
Click here for a map showing how to get there.

Be prepared to answer how you found out about whichever bar you're visiting. The super-nice bar owner at Kinswomyn (Nichoume's most famous, established bar) seemed to get a kick out of seeing the description of her bar in my guidebook.

But god damn, Kinswomyn. You're a lovely bar, but you don't make it easy for me to find recent pics that show that. (Used interior ones only, since there are no exterior pics, and exterior pics wouldn't work anyway because the entrance is just a door in a hallway.) I gleaned a few from Kinswomyn's Twitter account, found here, here and here.

I included the third pic because of the character I spotted in its background.

Kinswomyn's address:
新宿区新宿 2-15-10 第 1 天香ビル 3F

You'll have to work harder to find this one. From the direction of Shinjuku-doori, walk up Naka-doori. Down one of the first few roads to your right, you'll find it in a building to your left. When I visited it, its outside sign was faded. Hopefully they've replaced it. If you get there before the crowd arrives at 9:00, you may pass by its door without realizing you just did and wondering if you got the address wrong, before asking someone else in the building where Kinswomyn is, being pointed back there, and staring like an idiot before opening it. ^_^ Good luck! In all seriousness, just bring a map and the address and say "Sumimasen, kono basho o sagashiteimasu" ("I am looking for this place") to someone. (Maybe more than one someone.)

There's an all-women's party every week in the area, and the lesbian bar owners are big on promoting each other's events, so when you visit one, you're likely to get a recommendation or flyer for the next party coming up. Best thing about the event flyers- they have maps! If you go to a Nichoume party, be prepared to cough up a 2,000 to 3,000 yen cover.

The best place to find flyers for all of the upcoming lgbtq events in the area is the CoCoLo Café. CoCoLo Café accepts credit cards, but the bars don't. The Advocates Café does, but only if you charge 5,000 yen or more at once. The Advocates Café is really a bar that opens and closes early, renowned for being a good place to get word-of-mouth event/club recommendations. Like CoCoLo, it is aimed at all genders and sexualities, but unlike CoCoLo, men make up the vast majority of its clientele- including quite a few non-Japanese folks.

 Don't own these photos, screencapped them from Advocates's front page.

Advocates' address:
新宿区新宿2－18－1 第7天香ビル1F
You don't need an address or a map. You can't walk down Naka-doori and miss Advocates.

Ditto, from CoCoLo's website.

The food at CoCoLo is decent, and I had a dessert drink (a matchacchino) that I quite liked. But it's especially nice for its flyers and the ability for gay couples to be lovey-dovey at a restaurant without worrying about getting side-eyed. Or getting awkwardly hit on like I was, before ditching the woman in question with the other girl she hit on at the same time (really) because she creeped us both out and we got along and were sick of being politely tolerant while craning our necks around her to speak to each other more. CoCoLo also stays open until 7:00 in the morning on Friday and Saturday nights (midnight on Sundays and Mondays through Thursdays), so it's a good place to get a slice of cake or coffee or something late at night. Here's a video tour of the café.

CoCoLo's address:
新宿区新宿2-14-6 第１早川屋ビル１階
Map (in Japanese) found here. It's easy to spot from Naka-doori.

The trains in Tokyo stop some time between 12:00 and 1:000 in the morning, so if your home base isn't in the area and you don't catch the last train (check the train station schedule if you want to catch it, or the first train at 6:00-ish in the morning) and you really don't want to make yourself stay awake until the morning train, your best/cheapest bet is one of the internet/manga cafés. Just start walking in the nightlife area of east Shinjuku, and you're bound to see one. See here for more details on what internet/manga cafés (and other lodgings) are like. Unlike the author of that article, I think internet/manga cafés are the most miserable places in the world to sleep (you're basically paying for a booth with a computer, a pleather pad covering the ground, and a cracked beanbag chair, with nothing to block out the light), but if you're dead tired it'll do. Sometimes the booths with the pads are sold out, so you have the option of buying one sans a pad.

Anecdote: I once locked myself out of the sharehouse I was staying in because I'd left my house key in my other bag. My housemates weren't home, and I  couldn't contact them. I tried to break in- checking the doors and windows and trying lock-picking with hairpins for the first time. My housemates weren't back by the time the last train to downtown Ikebukuro (I was in a residential area outside of it) was about to arrive, so I took the train downtown to find an internet café. At the first place I visited, the guy at the counter said they only had padless booths left. I was like "lol No" at the idea of paying to sleep on a floor, and left to check out the other internet café in the area. Their credit card machine was wonky, so they could only accept cash, but I was too low on it. (Spent the day in Shibuya's shopping area- which, incidentally, has a wonderful Mandarake.) Long story short, I went back to that first internet café, and the guy at the counter was like "lol No" when I asked if they still had any booths available. Sleep-need aside, my nerves were frayed by the pick up artists hanging around outside (there because of the love hotels downtown) whose presence dominated the area (due to there being a lot less normal people out at that hour) and who were, like, ten times more persistent and than they are during the day. I normally don't curse out people, even creepers (my tactic usually being to ignore them), but I snapped and (sensibly, in English) told one of them to f*** off. I finally walked back to the sharehouse...and miracle of miracles, there was a light in one of the rooms! The front door wasn't loud enough when I knocked, so I sensibly (and cathartically) kicked the door until I hear my housemate coming.

Uh...the point is that there's always something worse than sleeping on a pad and misplacing your house key can screw up your night. And here's another good article on cheap lodgings.

Last but not least, some Twitter accounts of interest for their event announcement tweets. More convenient than getting a flyer, although you can get a cheaper cover at some events if you bring a flyer.

Bar Gold Finger (which holds a Gold Finger party on the third Saturday of each month)
Dyke Weekend 2012
Kinswomyn
La Niña (The account for the La Niña parties held on the second Saturday of each month.)
Stonewall AJET Japan (An English-language Twitter account for a new LGBTQ community group aimed primarily at English-speaking expats and visitors in Japan.)
Tokyo Wrestling

If you have other suggestions for the list, let me know!

So...uh, yeah. That's what I've got. If you visit Shinjuku Nichoume (or any other nightlife area where my ramblings may be relevant), godspeed. *salute* I hope this post proves useful.

Manga Review: Wandering Son volume 2

First off, I recommend anyone reading this volume to read the "Transgendered in Japan" essay by Wandering Son's translator, Matt Thorn, before reading the rest of the volume. You'll have a better appreciation of the context for some scenes in this volume's final arc if you have the knowledge imparted by one of the topics touched on by the essay first.

And it's a great essay all-around, explaining what it takes to legally change one's gender in Japan, societal views of trans people (framed within the context of how the lgbt community as a whole is perceived in Japan), and the roles/portrayals trans people get in the media. There's some interesting, if unsurprising, discussion of how views/portrayals of trans women and gay men are interrelated. Thorn also discusses manga portrayals, a couple wonderful lgbt celebrities (a trans comedienne who publicly called out Governor Ishihara for some homophobic remarks and a lesbian fashion model who blogs about lgbt issues), and the inaccuracies of Western views of Japanese views about lgbt people. Really a fantastic essay.

Anyway, onto the main review~

Nitori, Takatsuki, Chiba, and Sasa start the sixth grade, but Chiba gets placed in a different class. Nitori's new teacher assigns the kids to write an essay about their dream. Nitori's dream is to grow up to be a beautiful woman, but that can't exactly be turned in. Maho, bless her blunt sincerity, suggests BSing the essay, but Nitori doesn't write down any dream at all.

Nitori and Takatsuki start an exchange diary, and worry about including Chiba and Sasa (meaning they'd have to out themselves to Sasa), but Chiba and Sasa start their own exchange diary, so phew. Nitori and Takatsuki expect Sasa to be supportive but, understandably, coming out to her (especially when they don't feel ready) would still be stressful.

And Yukiiiiii. I love that Shimura Takako includes older role models for her protagonists in this series and Aoi Hana. Yuki, who seems suspect at first, when we don't really know her, turns out to be one of the best things to happen to Nitori and Takatsuki. I also like how the story shows that Nitori and Takatsuki's friendship with Yuki is good for her too. She didn't know anyone else who was transsexual growing up, so it's cathartic for her to see them as friends and make things easier for them.

Finally, the field trip arc. A boy classmate targets Nitori for bullying, causing Chiba to (understandably) lose her temper. And, of course, the teacher only notices what she did. Still, Chiba tells Nitori that they're "bosom buddies" (I love the Anne of Green Gables references in this volume; it was one of my favorite books as a kid because I loved Anne), Nitori and Takatsuki run into Yuki and her boyfriend Shii-chan on vacation, and Nitori works up the courage to tell off the bully. (Yay Nitori!!)

Besides the essay, extras includes a Pronunciation Guide and an Honorifics Guide. The translation is still excellent. Just one quibble- I don't mind "Sayonara" being left untranslated at one point, but it's a bit weird that Nitori's teacher saying "H-hai" to Yuki isn't translated as "Y-yes."

There is also an Afterword in comic form by Shimura Takako. No matter how self-deprecatingly she presents herself, I will still turn to jelly if I ever meet her.

Story: A
Art: A-
Overall: A