Memory, theft, waning queer representation, and the power of mega-conglomerates
This newsletter will focus on my recent posts about libraries, librarians, archives, and archivists in pop culture, Disney's stranglehold, upcoming and currently airing series, and the streaming wars
Hello everyone! My last newsletter was on September 26th, for the “Current Affairs Review” section of my newsletter. It focused on the villainization of trans people by the regime, resistance to the latter, lackluster trans representation, efforts to control the Smithsonian and higher education, positive news, and what lies ahead. This newsletter will focus on pop culture instead, as part of my monthly Pop Culture Roundup. My next newsletter about current events will, if all goes well, come out later this month. I recently penned two responses to criticisms of the recent No Kings Day 2 protests on September 18th, by Caitlin Johnstone and Lee Camp on Leaflet, a publication site available through Bluesky, here and here. So those may be of interest. This newsletter may be truncated in your email inboxes, so please be aware of that.
First, I’ll briefly review a few postings on my Wading Through the Cultural Stacks blog, which examines archives and archivists in popular culture. I wrote about the archivy implications of memory erasure through the use of high-tech gauntlets in the little-known series Glitch Techs, set in a video gamesque world. The series was screwed over by Nickelodeon, resulting in a cliffhanger and no second season. I also wrote about vinyl records, emotions, and real-life preservation as related to the hit 2021 anime film Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop. In that post I talked about the importance of memory, social media, vinyl records stores in Karma’s World and Narenare: Cheer for You!, and videotapes.
On my sister blog, I posted about Asahina the part-time library worker, a private library, and maintaining quiet in the manga series The Blue Library. More pertinently I wrote on theft, crimes, and libraries. For the latter, I discussed the theft by anti-hero/anti-villain Doctor Aphra, a character who lost her moral code, as
once described her, with vast adventures and love interests. Aphra, who is nothing more than a lesbian disaster archaeologist, works with her old/new flame Sana Starros to steal a rare book from the university she is attending. She does so despite the librarian telling her to stop, as shown in Sarah Kahn’s Star Wars: Doctor Aphra script (which was used for an audio drama). Aphra even says she stole additional books just to impress Sana.In that same posting, I wrote about Amity Blight and Luz Noceda sneaking into the library’s forbidden section in The Owl House. As a result, Amity loses her job. Yomiko Readman burns down a library with her powers in R.O.D. the TV after her boss said her beloved Nancy (and the other version of her) was a traitor. Rouge Redstar in Metallic Rouge punches a whole line of people to learn the identity of a devious shapeshifter. I also discussed Anne going through a forbidden “archives” in Manaria Friends to help her friend Grea. Then there’s Isabella Alvarado “Stacks” in Craig of the Creek who creates counterfeit books.
This is a late addition to this newsletter, but I thought I’d mention my review for the webcomic, Girlfriend Manual, for Okazu, a site run by Erica Friedman. In my posting, I note the previous version on Webtoons Canvas, and that yuri themes are at the heart of the webcomic. It “nicely mixes slice-of-life, comedy, and romantic elements.” In my review, I describe those themes, how the would-be female couple breaks apart. I am looking forward to how this series resolves “the severe misunderstanding between Levi and Athena.” Girlfriend Manual is still going strong after almost 70 issues. It can be read on Webtoons Originals, with various issues available for purchase on the app.
Late last month, I published a piece for Pop Culture Maniacs about the recent development that Lumberjanes will not be getting an animated adaptation. It is a loss for representation. The series would have, as I put it in the piece, featured “the first trans female protagonist in an all-ages animated series” named Jo. Nor will two characters, named Molly and Mal, who either identify as lesbian or bisexual, and have crushes on one another, be in animated form. Sadly, this development aligns with recent set-backs for trans, and otherwise queer, representation. This includes, as I noted in the article, Disney refusing to air the Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur episode “The Gatekeeper” which centers on a trans female character named Brooklyn (voiced by Indya Moore), not renewing the latter series, cruelly removing trans and non-binary characters from Win or Lose, ending/soft cancelling Primos, and reportedly ending StuGo.
I further described how Disney cancelled the Tiana series, did not authorize a continuation of Iwájú, quietly cancelled Hailey’s On It! (in May of last year), cancelled The Owl House in October 2021, cancelled Lee Knox Ostertag’s Neon Galaxy last year, and cancelled The Acolyte after one season last year. At the same time, Pixar sanded down and removing anything which alluded to the queer sexuality of Elio, made a failed attempt to make Riley Anderson “less gay” in Inside Out 2 in her scenes with Valentina “Val” Ortiz, and reportedly downplayed Priya Mangal’s queer moments in Turning Red.
Lackluster representation of trans people in media continues. Only three of the series which trans characters appeared in the 2020s (they appeared in at least fourteen animated series) are continuing: Helluva Boss, Skip and Loafer, and One Piece. Luckily, there are some ongoing comics which have trans characters, and others by trans people themselves. This includes Up and Out, Trans Girl Next Door, Assigned Male/Serious Trans Vibes, I want to be a cute anime girl by Azul Crescent, Transincidental by a trans woman named KoalaPhoenix, to name a few.
Otherwise, let me talk a bit about Doctor Aphra, whose full name is Chelli Lona Aphra. She is, as
noted in a posting, among a rash of queer characters in Star Wars, including the aforementioned Sana Starros, and others like Terec, Ceret, and Sister. It is fair to say, as put it, if there was a TV series for Aphra, “the writers’ room would need several Asian people (hopefully an Asian showrunner) and a PR team with the willingness to ensure that…Doctor Aphra isn’t the victim of anti-Asian sentiments” from the beginning.There has been some division among fans over the new comic book series for Aphra entitled Doctor Aphra: Chaos Agent. Some fans have said that the series author, Cherish Chen, disregarded previous storytelling. These fans argued that Chen is destroying all the character development that Aphra had in her first two series by Kieron Gillen (series 1 from 2016 to 2019), and Alyssa Wong (series 2 from 2020 to 2024). Other fans have been more positive. This division could draw some to manga instead. I am not as praiseworthy of introducing Aphra’s unnamed sister, as that messes with the existing canon which has Aphra living with her mother alone. Even so, Aphra remains a character whose approach to life is a “delightful change of pace” from goody-two-shoes among the galaxy, as
noted in a July 27, 2020 issue of Teatime Reading, whether she reminds you of Indiana Jones, as an archaeologist, or not. Even characters like Darth Vader, appeared, at least in her first comic run.Aphra is more than a gender-swapped Indiana Jones with complicated morals. The treatment of archaeology by the Galactic Empire in Aphra’s two series reflects real historical practices, enmeshed with imperialism and colonialism.
said as much in an August 28th issue of Cryptic Archaeologists. This author, also named Karissa Annis, summarized her research here. She wrote a 2021 thesis, entitled “Archaeological Representation in Speculative Fiction: The Image of the Archaeologist in Star Wars,” which focuses on Aphra, Star Wars Rebels, and Jedi: Fallen Order. Aphra, along with Sana Starros, have entries in the recent edition of Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy. However, Aphra’s other partner, Magna Tolvan, does not have an entry, nor does the brutal corporate overlord, Domina Tagge.Typically, none of these characters were mentioned by two White male writers for Empire (Ben Travis and Jordan King) in their listing of the “greatest” Star Wars characters. Entertainment writer Lyvie Scott criticized their list as well in her article for Inverse. She wrote that there is a male bias among some Star Wars fans, saying that the publication’s list is predictable. There is a “preference for droids and aliens…over flesh-and-blood women.” She concluded by saying that the aforementioned list by Travis and King “however conscious…elevate[s] subpar male characters over qualified women…reinforc[ing] a tired status quo and a flawed bias in the fandom, which has been around for decades.”
In my last issue of my Pop Culture Roundup, I mentioned the premiere of Ranma 1/2 season 2 on October 5th. It is a series produced by MAPPA and is exclusive on Netflix. Last year, it was one of my favorite anime because it is an absurd slapstick comedy, showing that “gender roles are constricting and infuriating.” Even so, Anime Feminist noted in their review of episodes 1-4, that the series did not delve into the latter enough, while noting additional issues. Admittedly I haven’t watched the original version, partially because I’ve heard of how transphobic it is and its continual issues with how it treats femininity. While acquiring the original series can be a challenge (in some ways), with licenses expiring and only able to get it from exclusive sellers, as
noted back in November 2023, that isn’t the case for the reboot/revival.In the first season, Ranma is arranged to marry Akane, the third daughter of a family running a prestigious Japanese dojo. Whenever cold water is dumped on Ranma, he becomes a girl, which is reversed when hot water is poured on him. This is complicated in recent episodes as some try to hold him in a certain gender (particularly his female form) and are not allowing him to shift back and forth.
is right to say that the first season succeeded due to a bigger budget, more time to meet the episode deadlines, and with director Konosuke Uda at the helm. The latter has “been in this industry for decades and brings that experience, along with so many talented animators.” is right to say that there is is “general flippancy given to Ranma’s gender-swapping proclivities.” At some point, Ranma seemingly has no preference “between their masc and femme selves…[and] at least one character is in a desperately homoerotic rivalry.” It remains to be seen whether Shampoo, a Chinese character introduced at the end of the first season, who tried to kill Ranma (since Chinese Amazon Law dictates that if an Amazon is defeated by an outside woman then that woman gets the Kiss of Death and is killed), will be bisexual as the original series apparently implied. In the first season, she wanted to wed his male form. She has already appeared in season 2, causing chaos (and wanting to wed Ranma). I look forward to seeing what is ahead for Ranma, Akane, and the rest of them. Without a doubt, Ranma and Akane will likely get romantically closer, even as they trade insults back and forth.Undoubtedly, something brings viewers to series like Ranma 1/2, regardless of whether people are fans or not.
somewhat addressed this in an article in Anime News Network, last month. He said that anime and manga has a strong pull for Generation-Z (typically defined as those born 1997 to 2012) more than comic books or Western animation. This is due to anime’s emotional and narrative depth by tackling a variety of genres and themes, creative freedom, and accessibility. He said that American superheroes are not succeeding while anime and manga because the manga writer/artist, the mangaka, is the creative force in stories. In U.S. comics, there’s rotating teams of artists and writers, leading to inconsistent storytelling. This is clear from the recent debate over the new series for Aphra, Chaos Agent, which had a new writer.I understand Mazandarani’s optimism about “where Western genre and fiction are headed, irrespective of where it originates from or what medium it is told in,” with Hollywood learning that Japan doesn’t care “what we think when they are busy creating their stories, and that perhaps, neither should we.” At the same time, anime and manga continue to dominate in terms of their storytelling. After all, there’s series like Touring After the Apocalypse and Futari Escape which began this month. The first of these series has a strong, robust female friendship between the two leads and is based on a manga. It is set in a post-apocalyptic world with two girls riding through Japan’s “desolate ruins.” The second is a slacker slice-of-life and comedy travelogue and a live-action series, according to yuri reviewer Erica Friedman. It is based on a manga by Taguchi Shoichi and is a romcom yuri series.
Apart from Touring After the Apocalypse, which features two platonic female partners for life (Yoko and Airi) and Futari Escape, this month heralded the yuri horror series This Monster Wants to Eat Me (which is adapted from a manga) as
described it in a September 16th issue of their newsletter, and the new season of Spy x Family (on October 4th). On October 6th, a comedic series with yuri subtext entitled A Mangaka’s Weirdly Wonderful Workplace premiered. The Girls Band Cry compilation film is releasing. The first part released on October 3rd and the second part will release on November 14th. The news that anime publisher Peppermint will release Girls Band Cry on Blu-ray in German-speaking regions in 2026, could imply this may happen in English-speaking regions sometime soon as well.Less than seven days from now, on October 29th, Season 2 of Hazbin Hotel will premiere on Prime Video. A recent interview with Polygon with creator Vivienne Medrano (VivziePop), behind the animation studio SpindleHorse and its two series (Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss), described her as at the “center of an expanding animation empire.” Medrano said she wants SpindleHorse to become a place where creators of webcomics or artists can come, have their ideas come to life in animation, with Homestuck as a pilot for that idea. She has a five-season-plan for Hazbin Hotel with seasons 3 and 4 have been greenlit and production has begun. There’s a four-season plan for Helluva Boss. Seasons 3 and 4 have been greenlit and production has begun.
There’s been a lot of commentary on Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss, which are part of the same universe.
described the latter series’s evolution, saying that the revised pilot, under the name “Mission Zero,” serves as a reintroduction and prequel, offering a “sharper starting point for new viewers while giving veterans of the show a chance to revisit familiar characters in a more polished form.” She asserted that Mission Zero differs from the original YouTube pilot which was a bit of a mockumentary with disjointed pacing, non-cohesive humor. The new pilot focuses on what IMP (Immediate Murder Professionals) is, what it does, and how it started. Humile has a point. The pairing of Stolas and Blitzo is divisive, but rooted in imbalance. Stolas does not understand the lived reality of Blitzo, and treats Imps as “disposable.” In contrast, Blitzo constantly “pushes away genuine connection out of fear of rejection.”What Blitzo and Stolas have is surely toxic and unhealthy. The show never says this is an aspiration, but is “messy, funny, and…not meant to be taken at face value.” The pilot re-introduces Moxxie (a endlessly frustrated moral compass), Millie (the powerhouse fighter in love with Moxxie), Loona (the abrasive and emotionally guarded adopted Hellhound daughter of Blitzo), and Stolas (the prince). The latter is infatuated with Blitzo and oblivious at the same time, blurring the lines “between love, lust, and manipulation.” Others have written fanfictions or talked about the layers to the conflict between Blitzo and Stolas in the show’s second season with dramatic miscommunication as
noted. The Hellaverse, the name for the shared universe of Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel, was examined by . Both series are seen as an indicator that adult animation is rising as Thrill Magazine described it last year. I tend to call these animations mature instead due to the other meaning of the word “adult,” i.e. pornographic. Sadly, both series have birthed a trendy hatedom as wrote in a posting in late April of this year.There are many other postings I could bring in. Instead, I’d like to talk about series coming in the month ahead and the rest of the year. Tomorrow, October 23rd, the second season of Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, will premiere. In a review of the series’ first season I wrote years ago, I said it was aimed at a young adult audience and is made for Adventure Time fans. I added that the series “may excite those who enjoy multiverses and alternate realities…[and] easily…meshes with the existing Adventure Time universe…[it has] a serialized storyline…racial diversity…avoids inconsistencies…in Adventure Time [and] is more of a united story than Adventure Time: Distant Lands.” I pointed to moments with queer tension between two queer characters, specifically Princess Bubblegum and Marceline, throughout the series. Additionally, in season 1, “the queerness of Gary and Marshall is shown unabashedly and openly, without anyone bating an eye.” I look forward to it.
Otherwise, next month, on November 7th, there will be the premiere, in Japan, of Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club Final Chapter (part 2). That is the continuation of the school idol series, Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club, which originally aired on Crunchyroll from October 2020 to June 2022. The film’s first part was released in early September 2024. The month after, the final season of Tomb Raider: Legend of Lara Croft will be released (on December 11), and the film Whoever Steals This Book (on December 26). It is not known when the second part of Ark: The Animated Series will release on Paramount+. Presumably it will come out in November or December, likely without fanfare, as was done with Part 1. That series is headlined by an Aborigine lesbian Helena Walker (she was married to a woman in her previous life) who is love with a Chinese lesbian Meiyin Li. In terms of other media about women loving women, the manga Her Kiss, My Libido Twinkles will be getting a live-action film, which will release on November 7th in Japan.
It is not known when Tracey Butler's independent series Lackadaisy will premiere on YouTube. With Glitch Productions, a well-known indie powerhouse, now helping, it will likely move forward more quickly. Unfortunately, the online animation community is “marred by elitism, artistic myopia, and a perpetual state of rage” as
described it back in late August of this year. Berry noted the “blinding whiteness of Internet fandom” as an ongoing issue, pointing to the backlash to Mindy Kaling’s Velma. I wrote about that series years ago, in a review of season 1 and another about what people (including reviewers) were saying about the series. Although Velma was a middling series, and I never watched Season 2, I still feel that the backlash, was unwarranted. I feel the same about backlash to other diverse series, like High Guardian Spice. I remain a fan of that series despite anime dudebros saying otherwise.Changing gears for a second, I’d like to talk about a few upcoming animated series. One of those is sequel series Avatar: Seven Havens, set after Legend of Korra. It will have 26 episodes across two seasons and follow two teenage girls. Diana Huh, who did freelance work on the series, described the story as “really dang good.” She admitted she has “yet to watch the og series,” likely a reference to Avatar: The Last Airbender rather than Korra. According to reports, it follows two earthbending sisters, one of whom, Pavi, is the Avatar following Korra. Pavi has to face human and spirit enemies, while saving the pillars of civilization, with help from her airbending mentor (Jae) and a monkey-cat named Geet. This puts Korra in a negative light. Hopefully they explain how this apocalyptic event happened. Seven Havens appears to be influenced by French surrealism (particularly Mobius, i.e. Jean Giraud), and 1990s anime series.
I doubt that the Seven Havens, which will likely premiere in 2027, as I noted in my newsletter back in May, will be aged up and with a darker tone like Korra. Instead, it may go back to being geared to those of all ages like Avatar: The Last Airbender (also known as ATLA), or the ATLA movie next year (entitled The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender). On the other hand, maybe it will be a young adult animation instead. I’m hoping for the latter. At the same time, I remain optimistic that Seven Havens will have “queer characters in the main cast.” I noted something similar back in March, in this very newsletter, saying:
…Avatar: Seven Havens will take place many years after Korra…it seems to be positioning Korra as the one “responsible for a tragic cataclysm”…My hope is that Avatar: Seven Havens has queer characters in the main cast. After all, with series creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who also created Korra and ATLA, returning, along with Korra storyboarder Ethan Spaulding and Sehaj Sethi as executive producers, [the series]..is [in]…good [hands]…Sethi is an Indian-American woman screenwriter known for work on many live-action series…[Seven Havens will be] her first animated production.
Like
, I am cautiously excited for Seven Havens. It could have a world “perhaps mirroring the Dark Ages that followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire, or contemporary authoritarianism, propaganda, and division taking root in a once-highly globalized society that scrambles for power structure and squabbles over material resources,” as Berman notes in his newsletter. I look forward to what the crew of Seven Havens comes up with.It is said that Seven Havens will have a changed style from the Avatar series before (ATLA and Korra). It is continuing production as
noted in his newsletter. I am excited for two other upcoming series, although I worry that the recent announcement that Warner Bros. Discovery mega-conglomerate is up for sale may imperil these series. One of these series is entitled My Adventures with Green Lantern (MAWGL). It is a spinoff from My Adventures with Superman (MAWS), which has aired two seasons. MAWGL has Jake Wyatt, from the latter series, as executive producer. Wyatt is joined by animation veteran Sam Register, and storyboarder (and director) Stephanie Gonzaga.MAWGL will follow the story of Jessica Cruz, a high school student, when a Green Lantern Power ring chooses her as a champion. Her life gets more complex when debris from the ancient space war with the lanterns arrives and she has to face various offworlder foes. I love that Wyatt ribbed potential haters of the series, declaring that to those few speculating about MAWGL, “it's so much worse than you think. I mean that if you hate fun, you are gonna have a real bad time.” That makes me more stoked for this series.
There was a report that Cruz will be a former softball player who was betrayed by her friends after they reached puberty, and bullied out of the softball team. As a result, she becomes a chronically anxious first-year. The report states that Cruz wants to keep her head down, but overcomes her low self-esteem, anxiety, and fear. She realizes she has the courage and tenacity to become the greatest hero of the world. That same report said they were searching for “a Latina actress aged 18 or over to play a 14-15 year-old, and the talent must be able to sing.” The series was said to be “younger-skewing.” MAWGL has the potential to reveal that if being a Green Lantern is about “overcoming great fear, nobody wears the green better than Jessica Cruz.” Although reports, as noted by
, say her suit will be Sailor Moon inspired, I am skeptical. Considering that MAWS cited Pretty Cure as an influence, why wouldn’t they do the same with MAWGL?I hope that Cruz in MAWGL is as strong as the Jessica Cruz (voiced by Mexican actress Myrna Velasco) in DC Super Hero Girls, who has two moms. The same goes for the Cruz in Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen, Part 1, voiced by Jeannie Tirado. In that film, Cruz loses her all-powerful Green Lantern ring, which is, “a symbol of power, belonging, and control” and without it, she feels “unmoored and listless, like a ship drifting across the open sea.” The latter is akin to how Adora felt in the final season of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (SPOP), after the Sword of Protection was shattered. Canonically, as I noted in my review of the aforementioned film, back in April 2023, Cruz was scarred by past trauma. In fact, Juane D’Arc, from RWBY, helps Cruz “be more than her fear,” even as he suffers from trauma. She is one of that film’s stars.
MAWGL wasn’t the only series announced. Two other younger-skewing series are in development: Starfire! and DC Super Powers. Later it was announced that a mature series named Mr. Miracle was in development. It is based on a comic series of the same name, as
noted on his blog. The first of these series is executive produced by Josie Campbell and Brianne Doughard. Campbell is currently a showrunner of MAWS, along with serving as co-creator and producer. She worked on several DC series before, like Justice League Action and Teen Titans Go!. She directly wrote at least eight of the 52 episodes of SPOP (i.e. about 15.5%) and served as a staff writer or story editor on 37 others. This means that she worked on 45 of the 52 episodes of the series, or about 86% of the series! Additionally, she was story editor, or writer, on 21 episodes of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.Doughard contributed to many series over the years, such as Santiago of the Seas, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, Teen Titans, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Starfire! will follow the adventures of Koriand'r / Starfire. She uses an ancient spaceship to escape her planet and explore the universe, meeting a space biker (Crush), a plant lover (Fern), and a magical princess (Amethyst). They travel together to the universe’s “deepest reaches…save Space Dolphins, surf technicolor nebulas, and boldly soar into the unknown," making me think a little of Star Trek. Starfire! is more promising than DC Super Powers, which has superheroes attempting to “level up their powers under the supervision of Principal Martian Manhunter.” I probably won’t even watch that to be honest. I wonder if Starfire! will make Starfire a pansexual and polyamorous character, as writers for SYFY and ComicsAlliance have asserted is established canon.
SPOP, MAWS, and Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, which Campbell worked on, all had queer characters in the main cast or supporting cast. Drouhard was a character designer on Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, which has a queer character, particularly Velma Dinkley. She was in love with another female character named Marcie Fleach (nicknamed “Hot Dog Water”). On social media, Starfire! was described as “a lot of fun” and “happy” by Drouhard. In the series Starfire may be a happy good-lucky-girl, as she drew back in 2024. DC Super Powers will feature a Black woman named Jennifer Pierce as Lightning. The show’s producer, Michael Chang, is known for his work on Kipo (directed five episodes), Young Justice (directed ten episodes), and Teen Titans (directed 22 episodes). Hopefully that diversity is present in Starfire! too.
There’s further news about KPop Demon Hunters. It surely has a “hidden power” and lessons for all of us, as writers
and wrote respectfully. It is a transmedia phenomenon, not only because of a sequel film, as noted. There will not be a live-action film as director Maggie Kang strongly rejected it. There’s other series coming in the year ahead. Erica Friedman, over at Okazu, wrote about new yuri manga like Yume to Koi de wa Tsuriawanai, and Tayutau Koi no Chirigawa ni (by The Summer You Were There creator Yuama). There’s the launching of a new yuri imprint by Bunkasha named orSis, with authors like, Nomiya Rion, Yoshitomi Akihito, and Akegata Yuu. That is possibly related to the closure of Manga Planet.Otherwise, there were reports about the yuri comedy anime Kamiina Botan, Yoeru Sugata wa Yuri no Hana. It will broadcast in Japan beginning in April 2026. It is directed by Takashi Sakuma. Shuntaro Tozawa will be assistant director, joined by Yoko Yonaiyama (series composer), Kou Yoshinari (character designer), Kana Hashiguchi (music composer), and Soigne (the animation studio). This series is based on Hey’s original, and serialized, manga. It follows Botan Kamiina (voiced by Sayumi Suzushiro), a “first-year university student who tries drinking for the first time when she meets her dorm supervisor, third-year student Ibuki Tonami, who enjoys alcohol but doesn't like to drink in public. The two become friends and sample different drinks while living in Chichibu.” I am unsure about this series. Erica Friedman previously stated that she is cautious because it “looks like unnecessarily childish women get messily drunk.” In another post, she said that in this series, Ibuki Tonami gets “grabby” when she gets drunk while praising the trailer’s animation as “beautiful.”
(title translates to The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie | Teaser PV)
Next year there will be the release of the animated adaptation of Witch Hat Atelier, the manga adaptation of a Thai girl’s love novel, Cranium!, and:
Oshi no Ko Season 3 in January 2026
Does It Count If You Lose Your Virginity to an Android? short anime adaptation of a romcom yuri sci-fi manga in January 2026
‘Tis Time for “Torture,” Princess (season 2) in January 2026
The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie, a companion film to The Dangers in My Heart, with some extra footage, releasing on February 13, 2026 in Japan
Watashi no Koto Suki Janakatta ka yo!? (Wait, So You DON’T Like Me?!) manga by The Great Jahy creator Wakame Konbu in February 2026
Draw This Then Die!, an adaptation of a manga, “centers on Ai Yasumi, a high school girl who loves to read manga, and learns about the joy and pain of drawing her own manga,” in February 2026
If My Favorite Pop Idol Made it to the Budokan, I Would Die stage play running in Aichi from February 20-23 and in Tokyo from February 27-March 1
Magical Sisters Lulutto Lily, a new magical girl anime centering on two sisters who are idols, premiering in April 2026, and made by the same studio, Pierrot, which has been producing anime which the studio’s founding in 1979
Hasu no Sora Jōgakuin School Idol Club, within the Love Live! franchise, getting a 3-D anime film, entitled Love Live! Hasu no Sora Jōgakuin School Idol Club Bloom Garden Party, in spring 2026
X-Men ‘97 season 2 in mid-2026
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man season 2 in fall 2026
Go for It, Nakamura! sometime in 2026
The 100 Girlfriends season 3 sometime in 2026
Magic Knight Rayearth anime reboot sometime in 2026, for the original series which aired from 1994 to 1995. Notably this series was an inspiration for High Guardian Spice, according to creator Raye Rodriguez
Batman: Caped Crusader season 2 sometime in 2026
The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder season 4 sometime in 2026
Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games sometime in 2026 (it was delayed)
Roll Over and Die, a dark yuri fantasy sometime in 2026
There is the possibility that Common Side Effects season 2, Harley Quinn season 6, Helluva Boss season 3, RWBY Volume 10, My Adventures with Superman season 3, Skip and Loafer season 2, Hazbin Hotel season 3, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card season 2, and the There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… anime sequel, to name a few, will air next year.
A Yuri News Network posting by Erica Friedman on her site, Okazu, on October 18, talked about the cover reveal for Love Bullet, which can be pre-ordered, and a new series about a “rental girlfriend” who falls for a female customer named “Kimi no Sei Nandakara, Sekinin Totte yo ne.” The first volume of Project Yuriforming, about “an alien who wants to bring Yuri to everyone on earth,” a new comic entitled The Mermaid I Met By Getting Fired, and the first volume of The Lying Bride and the Same-Sex Marriage Debate were released. Friedman noted the adaptation of Does It Count If You Lose Your Virginity to an Android? as well, along with the theatrical film release of There’s No Freaking Way I’ll be Your Lover! Unless… anime, and the new Magic Knight Rayearth anime next year. She noted other news, such as a new girl’s love revenge drama named Broken Of Love หัวใจช้ำรัก, yuri doujinshi, and yuri visual novels.
Somewhat related to the above, I came across an article by Omar Farque of Comic Book. Although I have not watched Yu Yu Hakusho, The Vision of Escaflowne, Great Teacher Onizuka, or Outlaw Star, and cannot speak to whether they should or shouldn’t have reboots, I disagree that Revolutionary Girl Utena needs a reboot. He is right that Utena is “coming-of-age fairy tale put through a blender of surrealism and gender subversion.” He correctly describes the series as focusing on Utena Tenjou, “a girl who wants to be a prince rather than the stereotypical princess” who ends up an academy “where sword duels determine who gets to possess the Rose Bride, who supposedly grants the victor power to ‘revolutionize the world’.”
He adds that, in his view, the series was a product of its time and crew. It had rough edges and ‘90s cadence, building upon and subverting the magical girl genre that Kunihiko Ikuhara helped define. Farque admits that a “straight remake risks sanding off the provocation that makes it hit.” Even so, he claims that there is “room for a reinterpretation,” and that a new take “could engage contemporary conversations on gender and queerness with today’s vocabulary.” That is possible in theory. More likely, it could be churned out as slop, and cut down to fit down to fulfill the one-season yuri curse (usually 11-13 episodes long). That would be an utter disaster. I’m wary that the series could be re-adapted well.
(this video is an example of the anime on Hulu, showing previous efforts it made to pull in anime fans)
I’d like to talk, in the last part of this newsletter, about the continuing streaming wars. Each platform is trying to draw in more subscribers. For those interested in animation, things are up in the air. The impact of the Disney+/Hulu merger is not yet known. Whenever it is completed, it could imperil the many anime offerings on Hulu, especially if they are not licensed for Disney+. It remains to be seen what will happen. If they go the route of Crunchyroll, when it merged with Funimation, it will be bad for fans. The same goes for the recent news that Oshi no Ko’s third season will be on Crunchyroll rather than HIDIVE. Does this hint that HIDIVE is in trouble? Possibly, but that could be presumptive.
Already fans are annoyed at the recent moves by Crunchyroll in terms of their subtitles, with unverified accusations they were generated with A.I. The platform said that internal system problems were the reason for the subtitle snafu. HIDIVE has already hit back on the platform, gaining some traction in that way, and cementing itself again as a niche provider of anime. It has a “diverse library of anime series and films” as AMC Networks, its corporate owner, declared last year.
Apart from HIDIVE shutting down its operations in certain parts of the world some years ago, its user base is much smaller. The last count of the number of users was in 2020. It was 300,000 at the time. Statistics on site visits hint that the true number is higher now. In comparison, Crunchyroll has over 17 million paying subscribers, with debates as to whether this is a milestone or not. It is hard to see how HIDIVE can compete with the latter, and others, like Netflix. After all, Crunchyroll has begun to spiff up their site, releasing various manga issues on a regular basis. This could be a response to webcomics platforms gaining more prominence, like Tapas (partnering with Yen Press), and Webtoons (partnering with Boom! Studios).
Webtoons is planning a new digital comics platform in collaboration with Disney. Anime News Network describes it as “…a new digital comics platform…[which] will include more than 35,000 comics from across Disney’s portfolio, including Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, and 20th Century Studios, along with WEBTOON Original titles.” Disney acquired a “2% equity stake in WEBTOON Entertainment.” It is gaining a “dedicated section on the English-language WEBTOON app.” The Mouse, as to say, is making its move.
I had originally planned to write more in this newsletter. Anything else not included here will be included in another issue. Until next time!
- Burkely
Thanks so much for the mention! (I did want to point out that you linked the wrong profile though.)