Weekly Spherical-Up, 14-20 February 2024: Vampire Courting Sim, Injustice in Ace Legal professional, and Fushigi Yugi Love -

AniFem Spherical-Up

Rainbows and Rollerblades: The queer evolution of the Scott Pilgrim collection

The franchise has a fancy historical past with queer characters, from the well-meaning if very 2000s comedian to the missteps of the film and at last the maturation proven by the brand new anime.

Cyborgs and Identification in Cyberpunk, from Ghost within the Shell to Cyberpunk Edgerunners

The thought of the cyborg is one which underscores that your physique isn’t simply yours, however one thing society is continually assessing as a commodity.

Chatty AF 201: 2024 Winter Mid-Season Examine-In

The reveals this season are making some large guarantees, however solely a few of them really feel like they’re going to repay.

Who’s your favourite villainess?

Exhausting to imagine that it’s been a full decade because the particular “villainess” subgenre exploded into reputation, ranging from mild novels and spreading outward.

Past AniFem

Veteran Animator Terumi Nishii on the Issues and Future Going through the Anime Business (Anime Information Community, Richard Eisenbeis)

Nishii strongly helps unions, that are at present unusual within the trade exterior of some examples like Toei.

Whereas Nishii shouldn’t be a member of NAFCA, she has just lately been working with them to create an trade survey to measure the extent of the issues animators are going through. “It’s well-known that beginner animators have bother placing meals on the desk,” Nishii defined, “however we’re additionally asking about what sorts of different conditions each those that work at animation studios and out of doors of them are going through with this survey—like, we don’t totally know the tales of those freelancers and full-time staff.” She hopes the concrete information gathered from this survey will assist the federal government perceive the true scope of the problem.

The opposite giant undertaking popping out of NAFCA proper now’s the creation of the “Animator Talent Check.” Presently, the anime trade is going through a workforce scarcity, resulting in underqualified animators getting into the workforce. This has created a little bit of a large number as extra senior animators are compelled to redo the work of newbies along with their work. “At vocational colleges, you’re presupposed to study the specialised expertise wanted to behave as an expert, however they solely educate the overall features of anime manufacturing. Take college students who haven’t been capable of purchase the talents particular to being an animator, for instance. Simply because they graduate doesn’t imply they’ll develop into a professional-level animator. They need to have had extra specialised studying.” By having a standardized check, Nishii hopes these colleges will enhance their curriculum to have their college students move it.

After all, being underqualified is just the beginning of the issues going through staff within the anime trade in the present day. “Typically, extra time hours are extraordinarily lengthy, or there are unusual quotas which you can by no means hit—and, due to this fact, you by no means get to go house,” Nishii stated of the worst firms within the trade. “Japanese firms have existed in an atmosphere the place those that develop into full-time staff have been compelled to work arduous for the previous 20 or 30 years—however it appears that evidently as an alternative of turning into ‘full-time staff,’ it’s extra like they’re ‘slaves.’”

Chunk Me: A Queer Vampire Courting Simulator & Visible Novel (Kickstarter)

A smaller model of the sport is accessible on itch.io.

This Kickstarter marketing campaign will allow us to finish the sport, presenting an exquisite horror-romance courting simulator and visible novel.

The ultimate sport could have an estimated 10 chapters, 200+ voice traces, expanded world-building, detailed character backstories going over their vampiric origins, and developed romance between the participant and their chosen character. Every route could have 3 endings, together with one secret ending.

Our story is a love letter to Southwest Asian folklore and vampire tales. Ranging from doodles within the margins of notebooks, this undertaking noticed its first move in a sport design class. After 2 years of character constructing, a workforce of Queer and/or POC mates assembled to type Kabus Studio.

We labored arduous for the final 7 months to carry these characters to life, with our major aim being illustration within the vampire horror style by and for POC, Queer, and Disabled people.

An Ode to BLEACH’s Yoruichi Shihōin (Nerdist, DarkSkyLady)

Yoruichi’s been a key a part of the collection since its first season.

Let’s name a spade a spade. Ichigo will get stronger all through the Soul Society arc, however his confidence typically writes checks his bottom can’t money. When he faces Byakuya in Soul Society at Rukia’s repentance cell, Byakuya prepares to unleash his shikai, Senbonzakura—his first stage zanpakutō transfer. Ichigo faces a sure defeat however survives due to plot armor and the well timed arrival of the terrifyingly sturdy and swift Yoruichi. After rendering Ichigo unconscious, she squares up in opposition to Byakuya in a sport of tag to flee. Right here’s the place viewers get a glimpse of her expertise.

Though Byakuya strikes quick to the purpose the place Ichigo has bother studying his actions, Yoruichi is a flash step above him, actually touchdown on his arm with the unconscious Ichigo slung over her shoulder. Therefore, her label is “Flash Grasp Yoruichi.” Although the collection touts Byakuya as a big menace Ichigo should face, Yoruichi talks to him like a baby attempting to compete with the grown-ups. The verbal sparring amidst swift evasions makes it clear Yoruichi is equally fearsome. At that time, Yoruichi established herself as robust and stirred the necessity for everybody to study extra about her. Let’s additionally not overlook that Yoruichi trains Ichigo to attain the second stage of his sword, “bankai,” with out which he would by no means win in opposition to Byakuya.

WWAC’S Favourite Manga of 2023 (Ladies Write About Comics, Masha Zhdanova)

One prime title chosen by every member of the workers.

Moms, launched by Glacier Bay Books after a profitable Kickstarter marketing campaign, collects twelve tales about small however important moments of kindness enacted in unusual methods. Umi Kusahara’s quick tales are accented by touches of the incredible however grounded in a actuality that doesn’t pull its punches. These tales are notably involved with grieving and the emotional impression of loss, which is represented delicately however with out sentimentality.

Within the piece that lends its title to the gathering, “Moms,” two girls go to the hospital beds of two youngsters who’ve solely barely survived a horrible automobile crash. Every lady has an advanced relationship with the affected person she visits, however they discover sympathy and assist within the connection they create with one another. As within the different tales within the assortment, the catharsis lies within the second of readability when the characters could be lastly sincere with themselves about what they need and what’s going to make their lives price residing.

This Week in Video games: Not My Elena (Anime Information Community, Jean-Karlo Lemus)

Road Fighter’s Elena’s new gyaru design has been closely whitewashed.

There could be plenty of controversy over dealing with Black characters in media. In stay motion, it may be as a result of you should have the correct lighting for a Black character to look proper on-screen (that is why Moonlight was so good—they’d phenomenal lighting for its mainly-Black solid). In animation, people could be fairly antsy when it appears to be like like a sometimes dark-skinned character has been lightened for no matter motive. Typically, it may be an sincere trick of the sunshine making the character look a shade brighter… or typically it’s this, and a Black lady will get whitewashed. Once more, Elena already confronted criticism for her options being inaccurate for somebody from Kenya. Wanting as pale as she is (it legit appears to be like like she hit up a tanning salon), “Stylish Elena” simply flat-out doesn’t seem like herself. (…)

Yeah, man. I don’t know who that “stylish” lady is, however that’s not Elena. This isn’t the primary time Road Fighter: Duel closely whitewashed Elena—her “authentic” look was closely whitewashed too. So it’s not even that they tousled with the “Stylish” variant due to the particular “look” they have been going for. That is fairly intentional. Followers are, to place it calmly, not glad. The preventing sport neighborhood has its roots within the Black neighborhood. Road Fighter specifically has all the time been very celebratory of that a part of their historical past, therefore its very urban-influenced design in Road Fighter 6. Seeing Elena executed soiled like this has lots of people dissatisfied, to say the least. The responses to the official tweet debuting Stylish Elena are nearly unanimously detrimental. On the time of this writing, CAPCOM hasn’t responded to the matter, however I hope they do. It’d be good to do proper by Elena and her many, many followers.

Tokyo ward residents file criticism over cartoon discriminating in opposition to transgender individuals (The Mainichi, Miyuki Fujisawa)

The cartoon trots out the transmisogynistic “males are trying to make use of anti-discrimination ordinances to enter ‘girls’s areas’” rhetoric.

In March the identical 12 months, an ordinance prohibiting discriminatory remedy on the idea of intercourse was enacted in Suginami Ward. It’s believed the “gender id ordinance” talked about with the cartoon was referring to this. Tanaka is claimed to have opposed the ordinance on the grounds that if it have been accepted, then “males would have the ability to enter girls’s baths.”

Concerning the administration of public baths, the Ministry of Well being, Labor and Welfare has expressed the opinion that the excellence between women and men doesn’t discuss with self-identified gender, however to intercourse as decided by bodily traits. The residents who filed the petitions identified that it was a factual error to say males would enter girls’s baths.

Throughout a information convention, Suzuki said, “What if I had seen that (problematic illustration) after I was a highschool pupil simply beginning to consider my gender? We have to communicate as much as shield in the present day’s youngsters.” Ikeda, in the meantime, commented, “In sexual phrases, I’m within the majority, however discrimination is an issue on the aspect of the bulk. I don’t endorse residing in a society the place there may be discrimination, and I take it very critically that that ugly illustration appeared in an election bulletin.”

The Name is Coming from Contained in the Courtroom (Unwinnable, Jay Castello)

How the latest Ace Legal professional sport sharpens its critique of the authorized system.

Nice Ace Legal professional takes completely different swings than its predecessors in some ways. Whereas Ace Legal professional has all the time thrown up points with its explicit fictional authorized system, and the Apollo Justice Trilogy (the 4th to sixth video games within the mainline collection) frequently attempt to enact reform after which narratively retcon their very own progress, Nice Ace Legal professional grounds its critique in one thing extra historic – and systematic.

Though nonetheless fictionalized, Nice Ace Legal professional straight criticizes the ability of the British Empire and the way it places stress on the fledgling authorized system of Japan, in addition to defending its residents from going through punishment for his or her crimes. Cash is proven to undermine the alleged equity of the courts. In contrast to different Ace Legal professional video games’ contextless problematizing of their self-created worlds, Nice Ace Legal professional makes actual connections.

In doing so, its peeling again of the farce of the courtroom as an area for solemn, ritualistic justice turns into way more highly effective. I’m solely three chapters (out of ten) into my replay (for evaluation podcast Turnabout Breakdown), however I do do not forget that it extraordinarily doesn’t stick the touchdown on its method to empire. However in undermining the performative sanctity of the courtroom itself, Nice Ace Legal professional already makes a extra coherent critique than any of its predecessors.