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I just updated this season’s “Shorts Sequels and Kids Stuff” entry with a look at the very first (very raunchy) episode of Gokujyo.

I’m just updating quickly to mention that I have a close relative in the hospital, so updates may be spotty until the situation calms down. Thanks for your understanding.

So what has everyone been watching so far this season?

Note: This post contains spoilers for the series Puella Magi Madoka Magica. If you haven't seen the series and care about being spoiled, it's probably better to skip this.

This post is dedicated to my friend LT, a passionate Mami-supporter.

In my previous entry, I talked about some reactions to Puella Magi Madoka Magica that described the characterization of the cast as, to put it politely, lacking in depth. I've seen the term "moeblob" bandied-about, which is at its heart a description of characters who lack personalities beyond what's required to provoke a reaction of "moe" in their audience. While this is a term I'd usually reserve for series that have no other purpose than to present cute characters to an otaku audience (unlike Madoka which actually has a fairly rich story to tell), I don't completely disagree with the term's use in this case - the characters in this series really aren't what I would call fully fleshed-out. That, however, doesn't mean that they lack stories worth telling.

Tomoe Mami is a character known primarily for having been killed three episodes into the anime's broadcast. While her death marked a startling turning point in the series, as a character she wasn't around long enough for the event to have the same kind of emotional weight as some of the events which occur in later episodes. She's become the target of a lot of posthumous speculation, and there have been theories that speculate that she was somehow working in conjunction with Kyubey to help entice innocent girls into becoming contract labor for his energy machine. Her death became a meme and her character remained a mystery. She's easy to overlook in lieu of characters who had more screen time and yet, like the other girls in Madoka, her existence serves as a strong symbol of something much bigger than the struggles of one character in one anime.

I wanted to post a short update just to mention that the Shorts, Sequels and Kids Stuff post for Winter 2012 has been updated with a review of the first episode of Busou Chuugakusei Basketarmy under the "Shorts" header. I'd also like to mention that my lack of "Women in Anime" posting this week is due mostly to being unexpectedly busy, then deciding to wait until the following Wednesday to continue onward (for the sake of consistency). I did mention that the column's posting might be spotty until the season has calmed down a bit, so consider that my excuse.

Carry on.

I got several comments on my Rinne no Lagrange first episode review, not so much pertaining to the show itself but in relation to a paragraph I posted about my thoughts on the term "Mary Sue" and how it did/didn't apply to the main character of that series. Those thoughts were based on a blog post that I linked to in the review. There was some discussion about the accuracy of the blog post and the use of "Mary Sue," as well as the choice that the author made to use the character Batman as a male comparison. I thought it was an interesting discussion that might better be addressed and clarified out in the open rather than multiple times in the comment section of that review, so here I am.

The primary point that I took away from Comic Book Girl's examination of Mary Sues is that we generally have different ways of examining and critiquing female characters than we do male characters. I wouldn't say that everyone is so-inclined - I'd argue that a good critic is someone who's equally critical of a poorly-written male or female character - but as far as casual criticism goes, what I have personally witnessed is that it seems much easier for people to jump on a dopey, poorly-written female character and criticize her freely, while ignoring or deliberately avoiding Johnny-goody-two-shoes in the other corner. It doesn't help that there really aren't a lot of lead roles for women, period, but that's a whole other post.

As at least one commenter mentioned, the term itself comes from a particular character from a particular Star Trek fanfiction from way back in the day. It came to refer to a very specific type of self-insert, one who is mysterious, unrealistically-talented and/or unnaturally beautiful, and beloved by all of the canon characters. I don't necessarily have a problem with the term as it describes these kinds of characters (since they are pretty one-dimensional and uninteresting), but what I do have a problem with is what I see as its widespread use to describe any sort of female character who's any measure above the norm. This isn't a crime committed by most critics that I'm familiar with, but poke around forums for a while and you're sure to see the term flung around in this way (and it's even listed as one of several relevant definitions of the term on the TV Tropes page for Mary Sue. Apologies in advance for the link, which will trap you within a TV Tropes time warp that may last for several hours). I don't mind being corrected about the definition and technical use of the term, but I do believe in semantic shift, especially in such a quickly-changing environment like online fandom. As a fan who doesn't passionately follow fanfiction but who pokes her head in once-in-a-while, this is my experience; we have different standards for judging original characters from fanfiction, and those standards often extend to "official" canon characters. And no, the existence of a male version,"Marty Stu" or "Gary Stu" (depending on your preference), does not imply that the male use of the term is nearly as common, or that the extensive use of the female version is somehow free from criticism.

This was the reason I applied this line of thinking to my review of Rinne no Lagrange's first episode; my immediate urge was to call Madoka a Mary Sue character mostly because of the time the episode spent showcasing her extraordinary skills and the devotion towards her as demonstrated by the girls in her class. I caught myself, though, because that's not fair; Madoka is an idealized hero character with skills to match. She might not be the type of character I care for (I prefer more regular, everyday people), and the series in which she stars doesn't appear to be anything special, but to knock some characters for being improbably brainy, physically strong, or talented means to criticize several lead characters from stories that span all media (which often doesn't happen). And that is where the term's semantic shift has proven to be the most detrimental to the expression of women's power fantasies an heroic ideals. One step out-of-line and she's a Mary Sue as judged by the layperson fanbase, whereas her male counterpart may not undergo the same scrutiny. Likewise, despite Batman/Bruce Wayne's adherence to many of the profile quirks of a traditional Mary Sue, it can be argued that he's not one, so it's a label that should be applied just as carefully and thoughtfully to women who are attractive, powerful and/or mega-rich. Being a fantasy doesn't make her a Mary Sue. Being unrealistic in certain ways doesn't make her meritless as a character.

In closing, I'm no Mary Sue apologist and I am aware of where the term comes from and what it means, but the point I'm trying to make is that its use is out of control. Even someone like me, who prides herself on trying to be conscious of race, gender and sexuality, can internalize this kind of fandom baggage, and that makes me feel a little ashamed of myself. My only regret in this specific case is that I made a big deal out of the use of this terminology as it relates to a series that doesn't seem as though it'll be worth talking about any further, but them's the breaks.

I thought long and hard about how I wanted to kick off this column. I had considering sharing some more information about myself and some opinions about anime fandom and where I think I belong within it, but that's something I could write about any time. I thought about beginning at the beginning with, as someone suggested, examining Princess Knight. I thought about dusting off one of my favorite series, Mononoke, which is a collection of supernatural stories that primarily revolve around women, and giving that a well-deserved re-watch. In the end, though, the subject that I kept returning to was a series that concluded less than a year ago - a little magical girl series called Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

Why Madoka? Well, it all has to do with moe.

Every year ANN does a "best-of" post for the anime that's released in some form in region 1 (either on DVD or streaming) during the year. While I respect their methodology and understand their reasons for sticking to official releases, I can't help but thinking that the delay between release (which can be months and sometimes even years) gives the list a feeling of "been there, done that." With all due respect to their reviewers, Carl  Kimlinger and Theron Martin, who are both very experienced, I can't help but feel like the list is missing a female perspective (or at the very least a little bit of diversity). As someone who watches anime as it's broadcast, whether that be via streaming methods (which have become ubiquitous lately and which I attempt to utilize as fully as possible) or other means, I take pride in rooting out hidden gems and enjoying popular favorites as they're being released.

These are my thoughts primarily on the anime that was broadcast in Japan last year. In some cases, alternative choices may have been overlooked if I didn't feel like I'd seen enough to feel confident in the decision. Some of the categories are meant to be less serious than others (I'm sure you'll be able to tell the difference). Feel free to mention some of your favorites in the comments!

My Favorite Series of 2011

Mawaru Penguindrum

Runners Up: Kimi ni Todoke Season 2, Natsume Yuujinchou San, Tiger & Bunny, Usagi Drop, Wandering Son, Puella Magi Madoka Magica

All right, I realize I didn't do a very good job of narrowing the list down, but I can't help it; there were several series that aired in 2011 that I really loved, and for varying reasons. I loved Kimi ni Todoke's portrayal of social anxiety, for example, and Wandering Son gave me hope that anime's portrayal of gender and sexuality wasn't entirely doomed to be terrible. What made me go with Penguindrum over the others is the fact that it managed to combine many of the things I love about anime. The show is colorful and strange, it has a great soundtrack, and the director managed to incorporate surrealism and symbolism in the best ways. It may not be quite as good as its director's most well-known (and loved) work, Revolutionary Girl Utena, but I just finished it and already I'm looking forward to watching it again.

Because I was so late with the Fall Season shows, I'll be doing their follow-ups whenever I have the time. Before that, though, I wanted to get a jump on the Winter Season. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this season I'll be switching things up a little bit. Before I write any reviews, I'll be dividing the season's shows up into high, medium, and low priority, and I'll be mentioning which series are sequels (that I haven't seen the source material for), shorts (series with very short episodes), shows for kids, and one-shots, because those will all most likely go into one large compilation post.

The reason for this, as I've mentioned, is that I think it will be helpful to organize everything beforehand and go into these reviews with a purpose. My desire to spend a lot of time simply reviewing first episodes has waned and I'd like to give myself the time to expand this blog's focus. I have also found that spending too much time reviewing shows that make me angry only makes writing feel like a chore. This attitude might be unprofessional, I'm not sure; what I do know is that I'm confident that I can provide the coverage required to mention my specific dislike of certain series without spending so much time on them that my soul feels like it's going to leave my body and go on vacation somewhere.

In any case, if, for any reason, you happen to disagree with my categorization or reasoning, feel free to chime in in the comment section. I can't guarantee that my mind will be swayed (often I have very specific reasons for avoiding something so I could probably only be convinced if those reasons actually don't come into play), but I'll most definitely take comments into consideration.

For this exercise, I'll be using the most up-to-date version of the anime season chart that I could find. Click on the small version above to see the full-sized chart. I'd like to note that, while I have very few series classified as "high priority," that doesn't necessarily mean that I'm pessimistic about the season. It's more that most series have too many unknown factors for me to anticipate them confidently. I also didn't include the Gundam Seed HD Remaster because it's not a new series.

Anime is a medium that uses the freedom that animated images provide to explore every sort of social issue, classic story and character. Naturally the types of characters featured in anime run the gamut from young heroes to elderly providers-of-wisdom, from frilly magical girls to princely young women in drag, from the manliest of mecha anime protagonists to those who are mysterious and androgynous. In spite of this variety, though, I've sometimes found it difficult to find anime characters that I've felt I could relate to; women abound in anime and there are numerous ones who can match their male counterparts shot-for-shot, but skillfully shooting a gun or being able to bust out martial-arts moves doesn't really speak to how well-rounded, how true-to-life a character is portrayed. Considering how many series there are that can, in the same breath, feature a woman's physical skill and turn her into a fetishized object, the task of sifting through anime series in search of admirable women can seem like an impossibility.

Beneath the surface, though, there are several great series that do happen to give women the spotlight or that speak to issues that concern many of us with two X chromosomes (or those of us who care about social justice and being inclusive). As hopeless as it may seem sometimes, there are a few shows that really get it right. Whereas I normally spend a lot of my time chastising the shows that deal in misogyny, racism and homophobia, in future I plan to use this space to discuss those that give us characters we can root for and admire, as well as those which might make some missteps but which still convey some valuable ideas. I also plan to talk about the peculiarities of being a female fan is in such a male-dominated (perhaps not numerically, but as far as subject matter is concerned) fandom.

Going forward, I plan for this to be a Wednesday column. Why Wednesday? In the working world (assuming that you work a normal Monday-Friday work week like I do), Wednesday is "hump day" which marks the week's halfway point and the steady movement towards the weekend. Sometimes anime and the fan culture surrounding it can feel as tedious as a work week, and it's the real gems of anime that help to get me over that hump so that I never end up staying too frustrated. Or, maybe I just decided Wednesday was a convenient day because I have the house to myself most of the time. ;)

So look forward to this new column. I hope I'll be able to make it something to be proud of.

*note: updates may not be weekly until I'm caught up with things from the previous and current anime season, but I'll try my best*

Hello again, everyone. Since I had a pretty enthusiastic response when I mentioned doing another session of the anime book club, I thought that it might be about time to start thinking about both a time frame and another series to watch. While I really enjoyed watching and analyzing Windy Tales, there have been requests that the series we pick this time be a bit more plot-focused, as well as more available to those who don't torrent anime while still being lesser-known and/or unique or artistic. This reduces the potential candidates quite a bit! I think, though, that there are still plenty of anime series that would fit the bill. I've got a few suggestions here, but please feel free to contribute your own in the comments.