Weekly Round-Up, 14-20 May 2025: Looking for the Full Moon Preorders, Library Anime Clubs, and Wind Breaker Season 2

AniFem Round-Up

Gigi Murakami demonstrates how horror manga can channel Black girl nightmares

Murakami’s work blends horror manga, grindhouse, and pulp to create chilling horror stories that center Black women protagonists.

No Gunpla Girls Allowed: How Gundam Build Fighters fails its female cast

Build Fighters wants to say that gunpla is for everyone, but it ends up undermining itself and accidentally saying a lot about trends in shounen and the Gundam franchise in the process.

Chatty AF 229: 2025 Spring Mid-Season Check-In

Spring 2025 is a season with a lot of nice titles and a few that are taking on way too many concepts outside of their scope.

What’s your favorite post-2010 magical girl show?

The genre’s been on quite a tonal rollercoaster for the past decade!

Beyond AniFem

Anime Clubs are Essential: What to Do Now That Crunchyroll’s Outreach Program Is Gone (Knowledge Quest, Ashley Hawkins)

Next steps for librarians now that Crunchyroll no longer allows use of its service for anime club programming.

Communal viewing is vital to socio-emotional development and community building, and has been life-saving for young people we know personally. We’re sure many other librarians can attest to this as well, and we’ve read in the time since this change occurred first-person testimony of how vital anime clubs were to people who went on to become industry professionals, and how important the library has been to so many of those professionals and current fans. 

Crunchyroll’s decision to dismantle its outreach program is also a blow to young people amid attacks on those who need anime and manga programming the most: LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and neurodivergent young people. These students have been the target of government propaganda and, in the case of some of our students, the threat of deportation, imprisonment, and more. It’s a scary time to be a young person. These are the times when building a community is essential. 

For neurodivergent youth, the loss of anime club could be devastating—changes to routine can lead to meltdowns and burnout. For those who have higher support needs, the type of community provided by anime club is often the best or only way to make social connections with people who share their special interests. Making those connections is vital and important.

It’s also important to note that this happened during Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month. For Asian American youth, anime club can often be a way to connect with media that centers a cultural viewpoint closer to or aligned with the one they live at home. It is disenfranchising to take away an essential part of that club where they consume media with characters that resemble them.

They Were Eleven Manga Review (Anime News Network, Rebecca Silverman)

After a long series of delays, the sci-fi classic is finally available in English.

To break this series down to its most basic level, They Were Eleven is about how teenagers overcome fear and prejudice to secure a positive outcome, while Horizon of the East, Eternity of the West pits those same teens against adults with disastrous results. Left to their own devices, the children can solve problems and break down barriers, while the adults cannot do the same due to their longstanding prejudices and beliefs. The series as a whole can be read as Hagio pointing out that bias is learned, not something people are born with, and that Cosmos Academy’s method of fomenting understanding at a young age is the most viable path to world (or galactic) peace. Things like racism, gender, and the hunger for power are the province of those who never learned that people are just people.

Like many of Hagio’s works, gender and gender perception play significant roles in the story. In They Were Eleven, two characters are intersex (although Hagio uses the made-up word “gynandrite”). One of them, Frol, desperately wants to be male based on the way women are treated on their planet; all women are married off in their polygamist society and expected to bear children. Knume, on the other hand, will remain intersex for life and has no problem with that based on their planet’s culture. Frol’s gender issues become a major source of their character development as they struggle with falling for the ostensible main character Tada and the expectations of womanhood they’ve been raised with. This contrasts interestingly with Chuchu in Horizon of the East, Eternity of the West. Chuchu spends most of the story acting in proscribed feminine ways, often staying home and weeping. But when Chuchu’s brother and uncle die, she throws off her gowns and becomes more active, seeking revenge and showing some skill with more stereotypically masculine behaviors and activities. Although Chuchu ends the series engaged to be married (as does Frol), she doesn’t reach that point while behaving “like a girl.” It’s not until she becomes more active and takes her life into her own hands that she grows up, so to speak, making a statement about accepting what you’re told versus becoming your own person.

Anime Herald Announces Print Magazine (Otaku News, Joe)

Chiaki and site designer Katy Castillo will also be working on Anime Herald’s print edition.  

“I’m overjoyed that we’re able to make this project a reality for our fifteenth anniversary,” remarked Anime Herald Editor-in-Chief Samantha Ferreira. “I’m genuinely honored to be able to work with so many incredible, talented people to bring Anime Herald Magazine to life. This new publication will empower us to bring new, diverse voices to the anime media landscape while we continue our mission of running a sustainable publication that pays fair rates to our contributors and team.

Preorders for the publication are being accepted at shop.animeherald.com.

The Hundred Line’s Darumi Amemiya Is Mortifying And I Will Defend Her With My Life (Aftermath, Chris Person)

Her cringe is even more powerful for the grain of truth in it.

Even outside of the meta context of the game, it is impossible for the intended audience of the work to not experience regular bouts of mortification from everything that she says. In Japanese she is voiced by Fairouz Ai (better known as the voice of Jolyene in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure) while Sarah Pitard voices her English. Both do a fantastic job at rendering her character in ways distinct to their context, although Pritard’s performance is particularly brutal for anybody who came of age during the aughts. Because her character is almost eternal at this point, it is hard not for me to project my own millennial context on her. 

In Darumi, I see both myself and the many cringe women and gay men I knew in middle and high school. She is an emo scenester, insecure, the kind of girl who would get way too into Johnny The Homicidal Maniac and have full zip up Invader Zim GIR pajamas. She is a walking Hot Topic despite thinking herself above that, someone who I could see owning a Yaoi paddle. I knew, and on some level was, a person like this: full of self-loathing and overly effusive, swinging between the far ends of depression and uncontrollable excitement, burying myself in extreme and transgressive fiction and externalizing pain as a means of hiding it. And though the cast of The Hundred Line is initially abrasive, the game does its best to sell even the most depraved and cartoonish student, attempting and often succeeding at giving them depth and pathos. After the initial shock, it is hard not to care for Darumi like a good friend, a sibling or child.

Ishiba apologizes to Tamaki for Nishida’s slur about Okinawa (The Asahi Shimbun, Kae Kawashima)

The Prime Minister gave the apology on behalf of another member of the Liberal Democratic Party.

The offending remarks were made earlier this month by LDP Upper House member Shoji Nishida about the Himeyuri-no-to memorial, which honors female student nurses and teachers killed in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa.

Nishida angered Okinawans and the broader public by describing the exhibits at the memorial as “terrible” and an example of “rewriting history.”

Nishida later apologized for his remarks about the memorial but continued to insist that educators in Okinawa Prefecture were distorting the history of the fierce battle toward the end of World War II.

The memorial is a powerful symbol of peace and anti-war sentiment in Okinawa Prefecture.

During the meeting, Ishiba told Tamaki that such tragedies must never be allowed to happen again.

Refugees, immigrants, supporters connect through food and music at Tokyo festival (The Mainichi, Daisuke Wada)

The article also includes video footage taken at the festival.

The Refugee & Migrant Festival, organized by an executive committee of supporters for individuals who have come to Japan due to various circumstances such as persecution in their home countries, has been held as a charity event for the past three years. Proceeds are used for activities supporting refugees and related causes.

The sixth edition of the festival took place at Heisei Tsutsuji Park in Nerima Ward on May 10. Attendees engaged with people of diverse backgrounds through cultural exchanges involving food and music. Booths offered Myanmar and Kurdish sweets, snacks from Asia and the Middle East, and handicrafts and accessories from African countries. The event was bustling with families and other visitors, while a special stage featured performances of songs and musical instruments.

Additionally, many at the event listened intently to supporters discussing the current situation for people on “provisional release,” whose refugee applications have not been approved but who are allowed to live outside immigration facilities under certain conditions.

Iwakura Aria is Coming to Steam and Nintendo Switch in August 14, 2025! (Blerdy Otome, Naja)

The studio behind it is perhaps best known for Steins;Gate.

Set in 1960’s Japan, Iwakura Aria tells the story of a young orphan, Ichiko Kitagawa, who is plucked from the streets of Tokyo and set to work as a maid in the Iwakura household – a beautiful mansion house in the suburbs.

Soon she develops a close bond with the beautiful Aria Iwakura, an initially frosty and frail young woman who is the daughter of the household.

In time, Ichiko Kitagawa begins to unravel the truths of this seemingly idyllic mansion – and so begins a dark series of events which will seal the fate of both women, for better or worse…

Pre-Orders for this critically acclaimed and much-anticipated visual novel are now open on the Nintendo Switch eShop in the US and EU with a 10% discount. Steam players can enjoy a 10% Discount on launch day. Iwakura Aria will also be available as a physical release on Nintendo Switch.

This Shonen Anime Fights Toxic Masculinity (Aftermath, Isaiah Colbert)

The series is shooting for both positive masculinity and a bit of positive trans representation.

It doesn’t help that prominent anime content creators, such as the Trash Taste crew, often avoid taking a stance when confronted with their fan base’s hostility toward discussions about the inherent political themes in anime. Case in point, their announcement that they’d no longer feature Twitch streamer Hasan “Hasanabi” Piker on the podcast on March 3, after they received backlash over him correctly calling One Piece correctly socialist. By choosing neutrality, they reinforce the misconception that anime lacks political intent, allowing reactionary voices to dominate the conversation and reshape anime discourse in their image (ironically for right-wing ends). 

By refusing to engage with what Piker was saying, these content creators further obfuscate the rich, intentional storytelling of series like One Piece. This distorts the medium into a matter of debate over “mistranslations” when fans point out its political messaging and gender-affirming themes. Wind Breaker bucks every opportunity for misconceptions by laying its stance on toxic masculinity and acceptance bare for all to see. That’s so fucking refreshing. 

Wind Breaker is sweet, endearing, and quietly revolutionary. It proves that masculinity isn’t about rigid roles as a stoic protector. It’s about genuine connection, unwavering acceptance, and fighting for (and alongside) the people you cherish. I hope that Wind Breaker’s Sakura and Tsubaki will serve as a gateway for anime fans who mainline shonen to try out shows from other genres like seinen and shojo that also explore gender expression to greater depths — anime like Paradise Kiss, Princess Jellyfish, Skip and Loafer, and manga like Boys Run the Riot. If a shonen anime can pull off that feat, I think the kids will be alright.

VIDEO: How the 2008 recession impacted shoujo manga’s status in the United States.

SKEET: Preorders have finally been announced for the English release of Looking for the Full Moon.

Looking for the Full Moon Volume 1 will be out on Blu-ray this August!

Check out a new trailer for the shoujo classic!

Pre-order at the MediaOCD store for an exclusive slipcover!
www.mediaocd.com/product-page…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L2D…

[image or embed]

— AnimEigo (@animeigo.com) May 19, 2025 at 3:59 PM

AniFem Community

There’ve been a lot of great series since 2010, more than you might think!

Toddler shows are always in my mind anyways these 4

[image or embed]

— Prizma 🌈⃤ Women are my favorite guy (@multicoloredprism.bsky.social) May 20, 2025 at 1:36 AM

[image or embed]

— Professional Bully, Applications Open (@cream.land) May 20, 2025 at 12:56 PM