Empathetic archives, library privatization, DNA testing, cancelled shows, and beyond
This first newsletter of 2023 will focus on articles about archives, libraries, genealogy, history, LGBTQ+ people, animation, anime, and climate change
Hello everyone! I have been relatively prolific at the end of last year and this year. For one, I published a post on my Wading Through the Cultural Stacks blog about kyber memory crystals, preservation, and memory in the Star Wars franchise, and a post on Issues & Advocacy blog about sophisticated bureaucracies, archives, and fictional depictions. In addition, I have published posts on the aforementioned Wading Through the Cultural Stacks blog (here) and my Pop Culture Library Review blog (here) about looking at the year ahead, another listing my recently added titles, which were numerous in December, an assessment of fictional librarians of color on Pop Culture Library Review in 2022, and heralding a new year on Wading Through the Cultural Stacks. I recently had an article in Pop Culture Maniacs summarizing some reviews and perspectives on the Wednesday series. I recently reposted some reviews I have written in the last year, either about Carmen Sandiego, which I self-published after it was never published on one site as I had hoped, and others about Victor and Valentino, The Owl House, Birdie Wing, Amphibia, Cleopatra in Space, Arcane, The Executioner and Her Way of Life, and indie animation to name a few.
I would like to start this newsletter, as I do with every one, with the subject of archives. Emily Whitcomb of The Feminist Institute wrote about feminist ethics of care, radical empathy, and how in the archival field, “barriers between object, owner, and archivist have been strict and cold,” but that the warmth “brought out by acknowledging archival organizations’ humanity, both on the organizational and individual level, is radical empathy.” Otherwise, the National Archives noted new records for the year (with the catalog having 200 million digitized records). There were new archivist jobs, either for senior librarian/archivist at the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Zionist organization, which will “manage, acquire, preserve and make accessible to users documents and other materials” of historical importance to the ADL, a reference/technical services librarian at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, archivists at NARA’s College Park location working on the Special Access and FOIA Program, which is “responsible for the physical and intellectual control of records of all closed Independent Counsels, the John F. Kennedy (JFK) Assassination Records Collection, and other sensitive records”, a special collections intern at the Loyola Notre Dame Library, an archivist at the Obama Library, which is “responsible for planning, performing and monitoring all archival functions”, and a collection strategies archivist at UMD in College Park. These job listings provide an insight into part of the archival job market, although more listings would need to be examined to get a fuller picture of what the market is like as a whole.
Otherwise, the SAA's Privacy and Confidentiality Section talked about a Zoom call on access to federal law enforcement records at non-federal public institutions, and linked to articles about privacy, technological change and the status of sources in archives, removal of online access to archival records in New Zealand after a potential breach in privacy, and a Hive Mind discussion by the Issues & Advocacy Section on advocating for “ethical digitization practices”. There was a critical review of The Disability Archive UK, an extension of the University of Leeds Centre for Disability Studies, new books published by the Society of American Archivists about managing business archives, born-digital design records, and museum archives. Apart from this, the January 6 panel (officially known as United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack) released their 6,500 page report with “10,000 pages of transcripts” online, which has been published by the GPO and will be published as a book.
Of note are posts about preserving social media records of activism, Instagram posts, and the related issues of ethics and DocNow, protests and protecting activists, and social media archiving and surveillance. Just as important are posts about Twitter’s developer policies for researchers, archivists, and librarians, academic conferencing in COVID times, and the argument that archives are “static representations of dynamic events” since when materiality is “upheld as the highest form of evidence, any loss of embodiment is akin to death”. There were related posts about how preserving cultural heritage on the web/social media “should be an inclusive and community centered effort”, Thomas Pynchon selling his papers/archive to the Huntington Library, how redacted documents are not as secure as you think, an archive of sorts of Tamara Mitchell-Ford, a case study in organizing a digital dark archive, and collaborative archive transcription effort which “seeks to make the records more accessible while…developing a more complete narrative of the suffrage movement in Boston.”
Apart from that, there were articles about preserving “tangible and intangible cultural heritage through the use of cutting-edge virtual reality technology”, the National Museum of African American History and Culture debuting a Freedmen’s Bureau Search Portal, and archives assessment questions. Of note was a new issue of The American Archivist. There were articles about protection of Germany’s cultural heritage, data recovery project at National Archives of Australia, collaborative technical skills development, teaching with primary sources, using oral history to study personal digital archiving practices of modern soldiers, a user-centered approach to email and born-digital archives, finding aid aggregation, professional career building in the archival field, and other topics.
With that, I am changing gears and will talk a bit about libraries. There were articles and posts about book collecting, information literacy, how to clean books, the Boulder Public Library re-opening after a delay due to a meth contamination, and the U.S. Education Department opening an investigation into Granbury Independent School District in Texas after it “pulled library books dealing with sexuality and gender”. There were articles about the harm from vocational awe, recording gender through ethical cataloging, the ten library-related stories that shaped 2022, the case for describing race in alternative text attributes, and describing how America’s culture warriors are “going after librarians.” Just as important were articles about ways to use your library card, courses which should be offered in library school, a year of library crafts, information entering the public domain this year, and libraries in St. Paul facing a “moment of reckoning”.
The above-mentioned articles are only some of those out there. Others noted additional equity to transformative agreements and journal subscriptions, the tool Inventaire which can be used to keep an inventory of your books (recommended by Jessamyn West in her newsletter), Daesh extremists using the Internet Archive to deliver propaganda, and people talking about privatization of the Huntsville Public Library (HPL) by Library Services & Systems (LS&S). Some have rightly criticized the ALA, saying they will likely do nothing about it, as the article in Book Riot noted that while the organization said they oppose “the shifting of policymaking and management oversight of library services for the public to the private for-profit sector”, they did not respond when asked if anyone from the ALA would be at the local meeting where this would be discussed or if they would be communicating with the city. The article noted that the ALA has a toolkit opposing “outsourcing of public library operations” but has “historically allowed companies like LS&S to sponsor scholarships for the organization.”
Some on Twitter, like Dr. Heather Hill, predicted in a thread that nothing will change, while Alex Brown asked “will ALA formally denounce LS&S, including banning them from all conferences and sponsorship? And will ALA remove them from their website?” Jessamyn West answered “They absolutely will not” and later added “there are a lot of decent critiques that can be leveled at ALA but I think the way corporate sponsorship gets in the way of them supporting actual working librarians is one of the larger ones.” Dr. Librarian Jenne agreed with this sentiment. Recently ALA president Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada, when talking about book bans, said that the ALA helps library workers with their “office for intellectual freedom [which] provides staff expertise and support…We also offer policy guidance, legal advice, and advocacy.” It remains to be seen if this will be the case for opposing privatization. Pelayo-Lozada has not tweeted once on this issue since the release of the Book Riot article, nor has the ALA put out a statement about it, instead putting out statements about events, protests in Iran, and many other topics. The incoming ALA president Emily Drabinski mentioned “the privatization of public institutions” in reference to this story, and is opposed to it, so perhaps it bodes well.
Others criticized the ALA’s Banned Book List as inadequate, noted that libraries don’t have a mechanism for when something is “harmful and outdated”, pointed out that library tech is “so backward” that there is “no viable way to develop, share and remix classifications”, and how it only takes one parent to get all the graphic novels removed from a school library. There were further articles of interest about shadow libraries moving their pirated books to the dark web after crackdowns from the federal government, securing digital rights for libraries, frequently asked questions about unionization of Pratt Library workers, the myth of library anxiety, and making sense of the politics, in the words of Texas Monthly, “behind the unprecedented attacks on Texas school library volumes that deal with issues of race and gender.” There were worrying articles about the Louisiana Attorney General creating a “protecting minors” tip line to report library books, an author Ammaar Reshi problematically using AI to create a children’s book (which led to anger from book illustrators), the central Oregon Library facing demands to label or move LGBTQ children’s books, along with others about the supposed benefits of professional associations, detaching self-worth and productivity in library school, a review of the book The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin, and reactionary Christian actor and author Kirk Cameron grumbling about libraries not being “interested in hosting him for a reading of his new children’s book”.
While I could mention more stories, whether a Michigan Republican official demanding a “public library with LGBTQ books” be shut down by force, the Crook County Oregon library board rejecting a proposal to segregate LGBTQ books, or researching book challenges, it is worth noting recent mentions of libraries and librarians in pop culture. Take, for example, webcomics like Reeds (see here and here) or The Fantasy Book Club. The latter has a librarian protagonist. That makes it all the more sad to hear that the Ascendance of a Bookworm light novel series is approaching its conclusion this year. The light novel was turned into an anime series about Myne, a girl who wants to become a librarian! I once reviewed the series, noting that libraries are central to the series, especially with Myne as a protagonist. Unfortunately, these themes were barely present in the third season, which ended in June of last year. I hope this anime returns for another season in the future.
I will be changing gears once more, noting genealogy and family history topics. Some wrote about how (White) Americans don’t typically like to be reminded of slavery, remembering Chinese heritage, celebrating a Chinese American family's history through recipes in The Woks of Life, and claims of possible action by Barbados's National Task Force on Reparations forcing Benedict Cumberbatch and Richard Dax to pay reparations for his ancestral ties to slavery in Barbados, with David Denny, the general secretary of the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, reportedly saying “any descendants of white plantation owners who have benefitted from the slave trade should be asked to pay reparations, including the Cumberbatch family.” These reports were denied by David Comissiong, a Barbados politician, who said in an op-ed that The Telegraph had misquoted him, accusing them of yellow journalism, but saying that there is a possible reparations claim against the Drax family.
There were articles about selling off family history, setting genealogy goals for 2023, noting who can see your DNA results from genealogy services (the cops for data on MyHeritage, GEDmatch, and 23andMe, with varying levels of protection), and the warning that “you may uncover some information that you may not want to share with your country club friends, who think your family tree only consists of outstanding and law-abiding citizens.” The above warning is clearly aimed at White readers, as they would, be the ones at country clubs and grumbling about citizens who are “law-abiding” and “outstanding”. There were further articles about how George Santos lied about Jewish heritage with genealogy websites showing that “his mother’s parents were born in Brazil, not Ukraine or Belgium, as his campaign website stated,” remains in a shallow Ohio grave finally identified thanks to DNA genealogy, and the reported use of genetic genealogy to solve four murders in Idaho. The talk about DNA makes me think of the 32nd episode of Sailor Moon, “Bad Hair Day” in which the villains think they have located Sailor Moon in a haircuttery, but it is Minako Aino (also known as Sailor Venus). They made this mistake because they had the wrong DNA match for Sailor Moon, messing up their calculations! There were further articles about genealogy tips for death certificates, researching Minnesota newspapers, decades of Black history lost in an overgrown Pennsylvania cemetery until “volunteers unearthed more than 800 headstones,” digitization of the 1926 Ireland census, the Chronicling America newspapers collection now including all 50 states and more, and a study showing that Ashkenazi Jews have become more genetically similar over time.
I enjoyed reading the issue of the webcomic, Reeds, about the complex family relationships in that webcomic, the 21 cubic feet of Captain Wyman Packard papers held by Naval History and Heritage Command which relate to his “service with the Office of Naval Intelligence”, and the always useful Old Fulton County Post Cards website, said to have over 51 million old newspaper pages from the U.S. and Canada. The site itself has been written about by the Columbia Journalism Review, Harper’s Magazine, and even has a Wikipedia page (“Fultonhistory.com”), while criticized by Joseph R. Matthews in Adding Value to Libraries, Archives, and Museums, arguing that digitizing a lot of content doesn’t mean that people are using your site. I’m interested on looking more into Wyman Packard in the future, who is described on his Wikipedia page as a U.S. Navy captain and historian.
With that, I am moving to the subject of history, which is broader than genealogy. Some wrote about the secret Asian American history behind New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle” and two Black lawmakers making U.S. history for their nominations as House speaker, all while William Hogeland asks whether the U.S. House should even elect a speaker. History News Network had articles reviewing a book about how fitness joined the middle-class mainstream (Fit Nation), a review of another book about how myths about the past can shape the future, how Florida's anti-CRT Law is influencing professors to cancel classes on race, when the House needed 133 votes to pick a Speaker, and why the Constitution wouldn’t have been “much help [in] resolving the Speaker mess”. There were summaries of articles about a Black contractor (Devon Henry) who removed Confederate statues, the history of fashion's turn to embracing fakery, the story of pioneering Black feminist Dorothy Pitman Hughes, how American fitness trends went global, resisting the plans for America's “Nuclear Sponge,” being honest about the partisan nature of gun culture in the U.S., and how the "Third Way" made neoliberal politics seem inevitable.
More HNN articles noted it was no contradiction for the former president to demand illegal actions to defend "law and order", the path from crunchy counterculture to alt-right, the “private little hell" of Florida's 1950s anti-gay faculty investigations, yet another article about the history behind America's relationship to exercise, how liberals helped J. Edgar Hoover when he tried to destroy the Left, the ways that Ambassador Joseph Grew tried to prevent the Pacific war (summarizing from a new book, Our Man In Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor), the racist origins of Georgia's runoff system, and Gerald Horne on the long and continuous American counter-revolution (review of his new book, The Counter-Revolution of 1836: Texas Slavery & Jim Crow and the Roots of U.S. Fascism). Further posts, which summarized content from elsewhere, were about: the selective appropriation of Christopher Gadsden's famous flag, how James M. Scott's "Black Snow" traces the line from Tokyo to Hiroshima, what Casey Jones tells us about the past and present of America's railroad workers, the argument that immigrant education in America is a “series of stories of courage,” and the fact that the Salem witch trials “challenge us to resist moral panic and suspicion.”
While there are many more HNN articles, I will be moving onto to some other sources here, with other articles from that publication in later newsletters. For one, there’s pages on Max Rambod Inc., which sells rare books, photographs, and documents. There were entries for an original photo of a suffragists demonstration in 1912 which was priced at $550 dollars to a photo album containing “images from a New York Suffrage Parade” in 1913 worth over $2,400 dollars. There were entries for a large photo of New York suffragists protesting outside the White House in 1917, the first American abolitionist novel by Archy Moore, a contract with the Dramatists' Guild of the Authors League of America for his plays signed by Langston Hughes, a N.A.A.C.P report on the lynching of Claude Neal in 1934, a copy of An Enquiry Concerning the Intellectual and Moral Faculties and Literature of Negroes by Henri Jean-Baptiste Gregoire in 1810, press photos of Hiroshima before and after the atomic bomb, a photo of Hiroshima before and after the A-bomb with an “inscription describing what he did over Hiroshima by Enola Gay Weapons Officer Morris Jeppson,” and a photo album of the first anti-ballistic missiles.
On a different topic is climate change and environmentalism. This included articles about the strangeness of eating fish, why advertising feels like a form of urban pollution, an examination by ProPublica of “how the federal government…denies that cellphones pose any risks” (noting that the “amount of this radiation absorbed by the human body depends on how close a person is to a phone and a cell transmitter…determining wireless radiation’s health effects with certainty is difficult” and other issues), intersection of diversity, inclusion, and climate, an ode to nature and a warning against cultural trappings, Canadian communities facing tough decisions as climate change infringes on their futures, and climate reparations hinging on Brazil’s Amazon process. There were posts about California’s water crisis, how COP-27 drove fundraising for climate firms tied to the region, COP15 goals of reducing biodiversity loss by 2030, nurturing thoughtful climate leadership, EV adaptation signaling progress in the electrification movement, and climate denial (also see here).
Environment, Law, and History had posts about: cow trials and climate change, Maimonides and greenhouse gas regulation, climate science, history, and the law, trends and approaches to the commons in historiography, law and environmental-technological change, 50th anniversary of the California Air Resources Board, the law and climate change under Reagan and Bush I, a new metaphor for Magna Carta and property, lessons from tobacco for the future of climate change liability, Postwar America's greatest environmentalist James Hansen, the conservative as environmentalist, and lessons from environmental history.
There were further posts on top climate art of 2022, Twitter vs. Tesla in race to the bottom as climate deniers surge, where climate change will erase the past next, India's new year in energy and climate, climate incentive programs having a digital infrastructure problem, caffeine the motivation molecule, America’s blackcurrant ban, and Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell saying that without congressional legislation, it would “be inappropriate for us [the Fed] to use our monetary policy or supervisory tools to promote a greener economy or to achieve other climate-based goals…We are not, and will not be, a 'climate policymaker’”, a position which is much more cautious than the European Central Bank.
Next up is something totally different: articles on LGBTQ+ people. Some focused on a new Oklahoma bill that will attempt to criminalize trans care for adults, Pope Benedict XVI’s era of queer bashing coming “to an end with his death,” a gay year in review (noting lesbian moms in Peppa Pig, Harley and Ivy from Harley Quinn becoming “wholesome girlfriends in a fucked up world,” various films and dramas, and many other media), the official swearing in of Zooey Zephyr (Montana’s first trans lawmaker), and a Florida school's transphobic bathroom policy upheld by a federal appeals court in a 7-4 decision. There was a quiz about being genderfluid, a guide to pansexuality, an article about asexuality, and an interview of Kit Connor, star of Heartstopper, arguing that bisexual representation in media is “shockingly low” despite the fact there are many bisexuals in the LGBTQ+ community.
Beyond this were articles about right-wing incitement of violence against LGBTQ+ Americans, reactionary media that are fueling anti-LGBTQ+ violence, Robin kissing his boyfriend on the cover of his new DC comic, a Minneapolis man arrested for threatening an LGBTQ+ bar, 10 trans attorneys admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, and the making of the “Girls Like Girls” phenomenon, referring to a music video, and song, by Hayley Kiyoko. Further articles defined a polycule, noted the difference between being pansexual and bisexual, explained top 12 Tumblr ships in 2022 (the only two I know are Lumity in The Owl House, and Piltover’s Finest in Arcane), provided a guide to lesbian Christmas movies, described queer love and struggle in Jackson, Mississippi, and noted Lizzo’s comparison of monogamy to religion, arguing that “people fight for monogamy like they pray to it every day”.
Other articles of note were on the history of those who doubt trans youth, roots for LGBTQ+ Harley Quinn in the movies, an interview with pansexual actress Ashly Burch, the top mistakes of asexuality studies, and a leading adult site revealing 2022 top search trends, with 'transgender' jumping in popularity. Apart from this were posts asking whether romance is performative in nature, outlining an argument that without representation of “a diverse range of experiences in media” asexual and aromatic individuals will “never be fully included or validated in society,” and noting two-spirit visibility and the year activists rewrote history.
It is worth noting 16 LGBTQ+ celebrities who came out this year, explaining right-wing attacks on drag performers, 9 trans and nonbinary people on bodies, desirability, and revolutionizing beauty, a GLAAD study noting that only 23 percent (10 of 44) of films in 2021 included LGBTQ+ characters, with “zero characters represented who had a disability and zero characters living with HIV,” and websites such as the Asexuality and Aromanticism Bibliography.
With the seeming expansion of rules within Russia against LGBTQ+ propaganda (likely as an effort to strengthen nationalism within the country), there was an IKEA manager in Poland cleared for firing an employee for anti-LGBTQ+ remarks, the queer Julius’ Bar becoming an official historic landmark, explaining why Cynthia Lummis voted for same-sex marriage (because the bill is weak and opens the door for states to not permit such marriage if the Supreme Court leaves it all up to the states), and the best TV shows of 2022 with LGBTQ+ women and non-binary characters. With the possible premiere of the animated Neon Galaxy by Molly Ostertag, wife of ND Stevenson, this year, or even next year, I hope to hear more about The Witch Boy (a graphic novel series by Ostertag), an animated musical which is supposed to be on Netflix according to articles in Deadline Hollywood, EW, NALIP, and CBR.
With that, I move onto the subject of animation. There were articles about series such as Legend of Korra, Miraculous Ladybug, Daria, Bojack Horseman, and 10 LGBTQ cartoons in 2022, but I was drawn more to other articles about animation. This included those about the best Indian Disney characters, a new look at the upcoming Hazbin Hotel, a review of part 2 of Chicago Party Aunt, Disney movies that pass the Bechdel test (including recent ones like Raya and the Last Dragon), right-wing people complaining about Emmys going to kid’s shows with LGBTQ representation (so what?), Italian animation, a review of a book about Czech animation entitled Animace a doba (Animation and Time), studying the dance from The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon, and a rare dialogue with animator and director Elena Rogova.
Otherwise, articles were on Tadahito Mochinaga and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, a satirical comedic animated series entitled Standing By created by Dan Levy coming to Hulu, possibly this year, interesting things to know about Iwaju, a Disney production done in coordination with an African company, and the best horror comedy animated TV series of the 21st century. Of note is the indie animation page put together by Creator Nation, which lists 73 shows as now, noting how to support each show. Not listed on there is Defenders of Alodia, which would be an animated series “following the adventures of a teenage girl as she traverses through a land filled with robots and magical creatures.” However, it failed to reach its Kickstarter goal. But, Boldbird Studios is continuing to produce the series.
Earlier it was hinted by one writer for the series that the hit mature animated series, Inside Job had been cancelled by Netflix. Sadly, on January 8, Shion Takeuchi confirmed this, saying she was heartbroken and “devastated not to be able to watch them [the characters she created] grow up”. She said that “Reagan and Brett deserved to get their ending and finally find happiness. And I would have loved to been able to share what was in store with you all.” This action reversed the announcement by Netflix of a Season 2. It bodes badly for Takeuchi as it this was the first project under her deal with Netflix and “was the first adult-animation series produced in-house by Netflix Animation Studios”.
Notably, the series ended on a cliffhanger, but was cancelled anyway, with many fans devastated, with some hoping the series finds “another home.” Paul Tassi wrote on Forbes that with the cancellation, the show has a “newly aflame mob of angry fans”, and said that un-renewing a show is becoming more common with streaming platforms. He added that it has “been a brutal period for animation recently” particularly at Warner Brothers Discovery, with shows “removed from its library entirely” and it reminded him of when Tuca and Bertie was cancelled by Netflix and “was forced to flee elsewhere for renewal.” He concluded the article by saying the decision was “likely some combination of metrics and cost-cutting” but that the show “now joins Netflix’s graveyard of unfinished series” and said the cancellation is a “shame…after fans…had already been promised a second season.”
This comes at the time that HBO Max removed Seasons 16-31 of Looney Tunes on December 31, 2021, making these scenes the “latest casualties of Warner Bros. Discovery's HBO Max content purge, which seems to have disproportionately affected animated content.” Others declared that it is “far too early to know how CEO David Zaslav’s cost-saving measures” will affect the “health” of HBO Max, even though what really matters is the fact that people will have less choices to choose from as shows become less accessible. While one can be glad that shows like the final season of Hilda, and seasons of Arcane, and Bee and PuppyCat are coming to Netflix this year, this situation puts in question how much the platform can be trusted to renew shows on the platform. All the while, Disney is pumping out new shows, like Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, and continuations of new ones this year, such as The Owl House, The Ghost and Molly McGee, and Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
This brings me to the subject of anime. Anime News Network had many posts, including a review of the new episode beginning the second season of D4DJ (which previously was noted as including a lesbian couple). Previously ANN had an interview with Seiji Mizushima, director of D4DJ First Mix (name of the first season), an interview with the cast (specifically Yuka Nishio, Aimi, and Risa Tsumugi), and noting the series ending which is a “single, slow zoom-in shot of Maho dancing and messing around alone at her DJ station” as one of the “most adorably earnest things”, along with other posts. ANN summarized the announcement by Crunchyroll for what is streaming in the winter 2023 season, a sequel anime of Rascal Does Not Dream, an updated statement from Crunchyroll on the advertising VOD policy, the difference between Tokyo Mew Mew then and the reboot, announcement that the fan servicey My Dress Up Darling (which I wouldn’t recommend) getting a sequel, Crunchyroll adding many anime films to the service, DMM TV revealing the Space Idol short anime starring Kaede Hondo, answering why many manga artists have health problems, and describing (in an article from 2020) a memorial epilogue to Stars Align which aired less than a year after the series ended.
There were articles about Hayao Miyazaki’s characters (in Howl’s Moving Castle) and chronic illness (and Legend of Korra), how anime (such as helped shape the non-binary identity of one writer, a spotlight on Euphyllia in The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess, a fall 2022 anime watchlist from radicaldonut, which notes some I watched: I’m the Villainess so I’m Taming the Final Boss (I agree with her as this wasn’t my favorite either), Spy X Family, Do It Yourself, and Bocchi the Rock, an article about women in Japanese films (specifically anime), Japanese TV, a review of Najica Blitz Tactics, anime couples that stayed together after the finale (I only know Sakura and Syaoran in Cardcaptor Sakura, Narumi & Hirotaka in Wotakoi: Love Is Hard For Otaku, Sailor Moon & Tuxedo Mask in Sailor Moon), 10 beloved anime couples who deserve their happily ever after (such as Kaguya & Shirogane in Kaguya sama: Love is War, Komi & Tadano in Komi Can't Communicate, and Yuu & Touko in Bloom Into You), the best anime in 2022 chosen by fans (the ones I know include Lycoris Recoil, Spy X Family, My Dress-Up Darling, Akebi’s Sailor Uniform, Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club season 2, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War – Ultra Romantic, Shine Post, Love Live! Superstar!! season 1 & 2, Teasing Master Takagi-san 3, Birdie Wing, The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated!, The Aquatope on White Sand, and Healer Girls), anime series with positive messages, argument that Yuri Kuma Arashi stands out as one of the most bizarre yuri anime of all time, and the best anime Christmas episodes (in Komi Can't Communicate, Cardcaptor Sakura, and K-On!).
Apart from this were articles about anime with real mental health conditions (includes some I’ve either finished or watched like Nana, A Silent Voice, and Your Lie In April), the 17 best anime about dorm life (the only one on this list I’ve watched is Strawberry Panic), the confirmation that the I’m in Love with the Villainess novel will be turned into an anime which is premiering sometime this year, the best anime for the winter (including My Roommate Is A Cat and Laid-Back Camp), understanding adultification through Anthy Himemiya, and a review in Anime Feminist about how Shirono Honami’s I Want To Be a Wall is “a reminder that we can shape our own barriers and boundaries, along with Erica Friedman’s “Okazu Top Yuri of 2022”. The latter notes that Yuri is My Job! and I’m In Love With The Villainess will have an anime adaptation this year and noting Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, and the “wholly unrealistic fantasy sports anime” known as Birdie Wing.
With that, I am moving onto other topics. History News Network had articles about how “elite universities are powerful institutions that…act in their own self-interest,” stopping imperialist war in the world, how the class divide is threatening U.S. stability, whether the supposed tilt toward “isolationism” among Republicans will end, and Ireland moving closer to becoming united as one country. There was an absurd post about “cancel culture” which misunderstands the whole point of this consequence culture (this post led me to unsubscribe from Becky Tuch’s Lit Mag News), as she liked many who claimed it was “censorship” and other laughable ideas, like saying that it is equivalent to “book burning”, and have to agree with one of the comments that it sounds like a lot of “white people bullshit” or those defending the publishers in this case. One of the commenters, who ended up challenging the other commenters (perhaps in an aggressive way) ended up being banned by the author, proving that the original poster was engaging in “cancel culture”, hilariously enough.
Beyond this were stories in Catapult about Wednesday Addams, Whiteness in disaster movies, fanfiction writers, prison visitation (and how it is different than what is shown in the movies), the false comfort of the ’80s suburban lawn, literary colonialism, asking whether female androids “dream of rebellion,” learning the machinery “of the mind” through fanfiction, how Black women in fantasy saved a writer when academia failed, and how fan culture’s veer into the mainstream saw it lose its “sense of protection and gain an abundance of entitlement, even cruelty.” There were further articles about how impersonation is now a problem on Substack (how wonderful! Not), advice on tackling difficult stories, how the imaginary worlds of media help shape our real world identities, Black feminist memoirs on justice, Africanfuturism, abolition, and theoretical physics, the dictatorship of the Supreme Court, Jan. 6 report giving an incomplete picture of right-wing extremists, and 10 anticipated movies for this year (the only ones I might watch are Elemental, Dune Part Two, and Killers of the Flower Moon).
There were stories about the bookish internet, exploring the new FCC National Broadband maps, media groups like The Guardian coming together to oppose prosecution of Julian Assange, Amazon’s CEO declaring that an anti-Semitic film won’t be removed, radical lessons from the history of DIY transition, Africanfuturism and dreaming of bigger, bolder African futures, colorism, gender bias in the workplace, speech at the U.N. by a Mali Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maïga who slammed France and praised ties with Russia, a Law Library of Congress report exploring sanctions supposedly to limit “worldwide human rights abuses,” and the role of the speaker within the Swedish parliament.
With that, I come to the last part of this newsletter, which summarizes illustrations, from The Nib. There were posts about the post-holiday blues, the tipping point, the “retirement” plan of the Muskrat, New York City possibly losing over 10,000 Airbnb listings due to new regulations (oh well, not much of a loss), a 2023 vision board, annoying executives, a beginner’s guide to “urban foraging.” Others were on topics such as: the secret history of the Pinkertons, home organization, police giving fascists an armed escort, left-leaning people being transphobic, a U.S. court dismissing a suit against Saudi ruler in Khashoggi killing, Harriet Tubman’s daring Civil War raid, and Chuck Schumer’s absurd “rules of order”.
There are more illustrations, but what is shown above is sufficient for this newsletter. I worked hard on this newsletter this week so there wouldn’t be a month gap between this newsletter and the last one. Hope you all have a good week ahead!
- Burkely