Victory of a reactionary, 2024 progressive ballot victories, alleged National Archives censorship, NARA's embrace of A.I., dark days ahead for libraries, and positive news about animation
This newsletter will focus on libraries, archives, genealogy, history, but will also talk about the recent election, Palestine, positive news about state ballot victories, anime, and animation, & more
Hello everyone! I’m going to start by talking about the 2024 U.S. presidential election results. For one, I am disappointed and angry that the orange one has been given a second term by Americans. People have cited reasons, whether increases in Latine support, his focus on immigration and economy resonating with people (and their anger), inflation and rising prices during Biden’s term, or a variety of other reasons, including the U.S.-backed/orchestrated genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, under-performing with women, the gender divide, her centrist campaign, sexism, racism, COVID-19 restrictions, not embracing working-class policies, Obama advisors, media’s coverage of this election, or the Democratic party establishment. Regardless of the reason, due to this victory, the orange one becomes, as one writer put it, the “emperor of a violent, global imperium.” While there is the slim possibility that the Electoral College will have faithless electors who will not follow the popular vote, it is unlikely to differ from the electoral results. The orange one will have his criminal cases dismissed, while his reactionary policies (like mass deportation, tax cuts for the wealthy, 10-20% tariffs on foreign goods, cutting through bureaucracy, and anti-unionization) become U.S. policy, and is likely he will cause the economy to crash.
Despite all of this, we can have some solace in ballot measures passed:
residents in Missouri (also to raise minimum wage to $15 an hour), Alaska, and Nebraska, a total of over 2.4 million in all, voted in favor of providing paid sick leave for employees
voters in California, Colorado, and Hawaii, a total of 7.7 million in all, enshrined expansive marriage rights
in terms of voting and elections, over 186,000 voters in D.C. approved a measure allowing independent voters to participate in partisan primaries and implemented ranked-choice voting, while North Dakota voters passed an initiative setting an upper age limit of 81 for those elected or appointed to U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, over 538,000 voters in Maine passed an initiatives to limit “campaign contributions to $5,000 from individuals and entities to political action committees that make independent expenditures” and over 504,000 voters in Connecticut passed an amendment “allowing any voter to request a mail-in ballot” no matter what
residents in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Nevada, Missouri, Montana, and New York, a total of over 11.7 million overall, voted to enshrine reproductive freedom in their state constitutions (Proposition 139, Amendment 79, Question 1, Question 6, Amendment 3, CI-128, Proposal 1), plus those in Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota, a total of over 6.6 million people, whose reproductive freedom measures were not approved, sadly.
voters in North Dakota and Nevada, a total of over one million overall, modernized constitution language about institutions “that benefit individuals with mental illness, blindness, or deafness”
voters in New Mexico, Maine, and California, a total of over 10.1 million overall, passed initiatives which benefited public institutions/public good, like an initiative to fund public libraries (New Mexico), develop outdoor trails in parks (Maine), bonds for the homeless and environmental protection projects (California)
residents in Massachusetts and Kentucky, a total of over 3.8 million overall, voted in favor of education, whether in Massachusetts to remove a standardized test as a requirement for graduating high school or to not provide “state funding to students outside of public schools”. The latter, in Kentucky, was a major defeat for those who want public funding of religious schools and undermine the public school system
over 1.7 million voters in Massachusetts passed a initiative to provide for unionization and collective bargaining for transportation network drivers. Similarly, in Oregon voters favored a measure requiring cannabis businesses to submit a signed labor peace agreement between “the business and a labor organization with its licensure or renewal application”
over 721,000 voters in Nevada passed an initiative repealing language allowing for “use of slavery and involuntary servitude as criminal punishments”
voters in Nebraska, a total of over 1.1 million, passed initiatives legalizing medical marijuana, and establishing a commission to regulate the state's medical marijuana program
voters in Colorado, a total of over 3.1 million, passed an amendment removing bail in cases of first-degree murder, and levying an “excise tax on firearms and ammunition manufacturing and sales…to be used to fund crime victim services programs” and other uses
voters in Puerto Rico held a non-binding referendum on the island’s status either as: independence with free association; statehood; or independence
Sarah McBride was elected as the first trans House member, while: a queer Black woman named Keturah Herron, was elected to Kentucky State Senate, a gay Black man named Rashaun Kemp was elected to Georgia State legislature, a Latine queer woman named Gabby Salinas was elected to the Tennessee state legislature, a bisexual woman named Molly Cook was elected to the Texas Senate, a queer woman named Julie Johnson was elected to Congress (representing Texas), a trans woman named Aime Wichtendahl was elected to Iowa state legislature, and Latine lesbian named Emily Randall was elected to Congress (representing Washington State). Also, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar were re-elected.
Moving on from that, I’ve been somewhat prolific in the last month, including writing about recently added titles for September, celebrating yuri love in libraries (for International Lesbian Day), and re-examining the archivy themes in Love Live! Superstar!! season 1. Also, I wrote about messy archives in YuruYuri, earthquake-prone archives (plus a giant salamander and falling books) in Ryoko’s Case Fire; case files, truth, and prosecutorial misconduct in Ace Attorney, and reference rooms in the manga If You Can See Love, relating it to stereotypical depictions of archives in Amphibia, The Bravest Knight, Hilda (in some ways), Stretch Armstrong, or Vowrune, among other media.
Additionally, I wrote about quiet and shushing in Kiff, Elizabeth “Libby” Ware Packard’s marriage and the Gordon family, reality of libraries and how they aren’t just for reading (this led to some spirited discussion in the forum I shared it on); diaries, secrets, and personal archives in Bingo Love, and recently added titles on my Pop Culture Library Review blog in October. In the latter, I described the library scenes in the currently streaming Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, I'll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History, and fiction in different forms, and updated my entry for The Truman Show. Apart from this, I penned a post noting the difference between a bookstore and a library, with an analysis of the manga Himawari-San, and connecting it to real-life concepts.
The biggest news is my latest article on Pop Culture Maniacs entitled “A trend toward ‘nomance’ in animation: increased depictions of female friendships,” focusing on various recent series, either in Western animation or anime, which center on friendships between women. This included Laid-Back Camp (ended), Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure (ended), Wonderful Pretty Cure! (airing), Train to the End of the World (ended), Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night (ended), Pon No Mochi (ended), Tonbo! season 2 (airing), Love Live! Superstar!! (airing), Narenare Hanare (ended), and Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (airing) which aired this year, and others which have aired in recent years like Encouragement of Climb: Next Summit, Do It Yourself!!, The Aquatope on White Sand, Ippon Again!, A Place Further than the Universe, Management of a Novice Alchemist, and Let’s Make a Mug Again.
The recent election results puts in different light disconcerting news about the National Archives embracing A.I. in their new strategic framework, which will reportedly chart a “course for the agency that emphasizes building digital capacity, scalability, and responsibly embracing technological innovation” and incorporate A.I. into “archival recordkeeping and information-sharing practices to make it easier for everyone to use the records held by the National Archives.” The press release claimed that A.I.. and machine learning will “enable more Americans to have greater success navigating the agency’s vast holdings.” This aligns with what I wrote back in June 2021: that archives and archivists have, since the 1970s, had to "justify their existence in economic and market-based rather than social and cultural terms" and that "economic and market-based approaches over notions of accountability, responsiveness, and the social good," quoting from articles in The American Archivist by Ciaran B. Trace and Adrian Cunningham (quoting Craig Gauld).
I am very skeptical that this use of A.I. will be effective and feel the agency would be better suited to hire more people than doing something like this (or contracting researchers/historians/etc., or using the citizen archivist program, for one), which really seems like a cost-cutting measure, even though it will likely create more work for archivists and other employees at the National Archives to fix the mistakes from A.I. Ancestry has used A.I. on their massive collections and it… hasn’t really worked. In fact, it has created so, so many errors, that I fear the same will happen here. Unfortunately, A.I. has become more and more integrated in the National Archives processes (it was even promoted by David Ferriero back in February 2020 as "support[ing] the Agency’s mission"). The agency listed pilot studies to identify personally identifiable information, respond to FOIA requests, and autofill descriptive metadata for archival descriptions, along with others. There are plans for streamline declassification, developing a chat interface (like the notorious plagiarism tool named ChatGPT), to interact with historical documents (sounds like a nightmare), automatically generating descriptive metadata for documents, and others using A.I.
This comes on the heals of a Wall Street Journal article asserting that present archivist of the United States, Colleen Shogan, and other top National Archives advisors have:
…sought to de-emphasize negative parts of U.S. history. She has ordered the removal of prominent references to such landmark events as the government’s displacement of indigenous tribes and the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II from planned exhibits. Visitors shouldn’t feel confronted, a senior official told employees, they should feel welcomed. Shogan and her senior advisers also have raised concerns that planned exhibits and educational displays expected to open next year might anger Republican lawmakers—who share control of the agency’s budget—or a potential Trump administration…Longtime employees said Shogan’s directives amounted to censorship…Shogan’s senior aides ordered that a proposed image of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. be cut from a planned “Step Into History” photo booth in the Discovery Center…The aides also ordered the removal of labor-union pioneer Dolores Huerta and Minnie Spotted-Wolf, the first Native American woman to join the Marine Corps, from the photo booth…The aides proposed using instead images of former President Richard Nixon greeting Elvis Presley and former President Ronald Reagan with baseball player Cal Ripken Jr. After reviewing plans for an exhibit about the nation’s Westward expansion, Shogan asked one staffer, Why is it so much about Indians?…Among the records Shogan ordered cut from the exhibit were several treaties signed by Native American tribes ceding their lands to the U.S. government…For an exhibit about patents that had changed the world, Shogan directed that the patent for the contraceptive pill be replaced. Aides substituted the patent for television…Shogan and her top advisers told employees to remove Dorothea Lange’s photos of Japanese-American incarceration camps from a planned exhibit because the images were too negative and controversial…Ellis Brachman, a senior adviser to Shogan, complained to some employees that they were too woke…The National Archives declined to make Shogan available for an interview. It responded [by saying]…’Leading a nonpartisan agency during an era of political polarization is not for the faint of heart’…At least a half-dozen senior officials have stepped down in recent months, some blaming Shogan’s leadership. One longtime Archives employee filed a federal whistleblower complaint this summer, alleging Shogan abused her authority and engaged in censorship…In 2021, the agency had put a banner atop its online catalog that warned about “potentially harmful content,” a recommendation of an internal task force on racism convened by Shogan’s predecessor…The banner annoyed Republicans…Three months after Shogan stepped into the job, the banner was gone…In the summer of 2023, during planning for an exhibit on coal communities featuring images by photographer Russell Lee from the 1940s, Brachman—Shogan’s senior adviser—requested changes to the accompanying text…Archives employees complained, and a compromise was struck…Brachman also asked to cut references to the environmental hazards caused by the mining industry…Last fall, as employees began soliciting bids to build the exhibits for the renovation, Shogan told senior officials she wanted sweeping changes to the plans and that she wanted staff to make sure the exhibits weren’t pushing a partisan agenda...One former staffer was told to look for success stories about white people…Shogan’s aides offered several explanations for removing the photograph of Dr. King and adding one of Nixon clasping hands with Elvis. One was a reluctance to feature activists…A proposed exhibit exploring changes to the Constitution since 1787, which included amendments abolishing slavery and expanding the right to vote, was shrunk. Archives leaders told employees that focusing on the amendments portrayed the Founding Fathers in a negative light…Shogan’s team also asked that a video promoting National History Day remove a photo of former first lady Betty Ford wearing an Equal Rights Amendment pin…Archives employees say Shogan has gone out of her way to appease Republicans…Shogan last week spoke at a closed-door event at the Archives called “Faith in America,” hosted by Stand Together, a nonprofit group founded by libertarian billionaire Charles Koch. Shogan’s husband, Rob Raffety, is Stand Together’s internal communications director. He declined to comment…Among the points Shogan addressed during her welcome remarks at the private gathering: the importance of using America’s founding documents to teach and inspire.
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People at my workplace criticized this, saying it was “grossly naïve,” “utterly disgraceful,” and echoes when in the 1990s, an exhibit on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings was cut down to only focus on the Enola Gay. I read a few articles on this too, with some saying Shogan is obeying fascism in advance, pre-emptively self-censoring, and even called on Shogan (and her advisors, like Ellis Brachman) to be fired. Others claimed that the archivist of the united states should only be concerned with “preserving and presenting the truth” (said by historian Harvey G. Cohen) or that the correct stance for an archivist is “to be committed to telling a truthful story that reflects what actually happened, even if this makes some people uncomfortable because there are truths they would rather block out of their understanding of the country’s past” (said by Nathan J. Robinson of Current Affairs). I have issues with saying that the archivist should just “tell the truth” about what happened.
Whose truth would she tell? I’ve written about this on my Wading Through the Archival Stacks blog repeatedly, noting, firstly, that "truth" cannot be achieved through looking at archival records, which provide one perspective, secondly that everyone has a different emotional truth (what someone feels about a situation which sometimes always align with actual facts), and thirdly that records only have the potential to reveal the truth since the records are only contemporaneous records from specific organizations or individuals, but cannot reveal truth on their own. You can only deduce something from combining these records together, as “many voices, truths, perspectives, and stories can be found within archives, evidence rooms, and the like. All of them can easily come together to tell a cogent story.”
More than that, this reporting by WSJ (which is pretty inflammatory to be perfectly honest) may be partially inaccurate. The response by Brachman to Robinson of Current Affairs hints at this. He was alleged, in the article of: saying National Archives employees are “too woke”; calling for changes to text on an exhibit on coal communities featuring images by photographer Russell Lee from the 1940s and asked to identify the recruits as Southern farmworkers; asking to “cut references to the environmental hazards caused by the mining industry” in the same exhibit; and requested that the story about using public records “to return assets to Jews after the Holocaust” to be removed. Brachman told Current Affairs that “balance was missing in the early planning of some of the new galleries here, and we have had to make some difficult decisions during the planning process”, that “some did not appreciate that process and didn’t want to do the hard work to address the nuanced and many layered facts of American history”, said that the exhibits in question haven’t been opened to the public, and asserted that the National Archives is willing to face “hard truths” in history. However, Robinson noted that Brachman did not provide “any evidence to refute any of the Journal's reporting.” Hmm. The same can be said for Shogan’s response, in which says says, in part, “I strongly disagree with the misinformed perspective presented in the article.” She said something similar on LinkedIn.
These allegations of self-censorship echoes what former Archivist of the David Ferriero did some years ago, in regards to an image of the Women’s March: blurring a Getty image (not a federal record) of the 2017 march. As I argued back in January 2020, the issue was blown out of proportion, and I linked to posts by former NARA archivist Maarja Krusten. In one, she said that the Washington Post article on the topic set off a flurry of social media comments, with posters carried by marchers blurred, "obscuring references to the President and to anatomical terms (vagina, pussy)," and Krusten said she explained the display's nature on social media, and criticized the SAA's statement, saying it "drew solely on news clips," recommending actions for which there is no legal basis, but said the image should have said a label that it was not an image within the agency's holdings. In another, also in 2020, Krusten noted that "NARA put up the unaltered version of the Women’s March photo" later on, and that Ferriero "apologized forthrightly as the one in charge of an organization should" and explained her conversations on social media on this subject, some of which likely mirrored similar conversations I had at the time too.
In that same newsletter, I linked to a statement by the Concerned Archivists Alliance, saying it is "more important than ever for archivists and archival institutions to nail their colors to…mast of truth and ensure that…materials they curate – as well as those materials’ public expression – are accurate, whole, and unaltered...NARA had violated the Code of Ethics of the Society of American Archivists" and argued that NARA apparently disagrees, is acting cowardly, asserted that Ferriero's new apology had a fuller explanation but raised "troublesome questions" in the process. Further mentioned/criticized by Krusten is a statement by SAA's Executive Committee on this incident, saying it raises "serious concerns...about falsification of the historical record" and that such an image alteration is "fraudulent and deceptive," and said the organization encourages completion of a review of existing policies and procedures to signal NARA's "commitment to defending accuracy and respect for historical documentation."
Coming back to the WSJ story, it is much worse than anything that Ferriero did. Don’t forget that he even chartered an anti-racism task force in 2021 (known as the "Archivist’s Task Force on Racism") and embraced its recommendations, which I've noted in previous newsletters. Also, at least in rhetoric, Ferriero asserted that the agency would be more “diverse and equitable," including engaging in land acknowledgement various times. In the case of that incident, the National Archives, and Ferriero, apologized, he publicly stated, in part, that he takes "full responsibility for this decision and the broader concerns it has raised" (some, like the Concerned Archivists Alliance, said it was inadequate). One of the most revealing things in the WSJ article is that she spoke to a libertarian group behind closed doors and that her husband, Rob Raffety, works for said group (founded by Charles Koch). The latter, I would argue, implies that Shogan herself may be libertarian as well.
After all, she declined to publish the Equal Rights Amendment in the Constitution if she became archivist, and I’m not sure she is a “net positive” in the sense of what I said in the past, since I was primarily just being optimistic. In my original version of this newsletter, I said there should be an independent investigation of this matter but considering that the orange one has won, I think this issue is moot at this point. Sadly, I don’t even think there is a need to investigate it at all, because as soon as the orange one gets in, he will probably fire Shogan and the other top NARA officials and appoint his own in their place to dismantle the agency from the inside out. There’s no doubt in my mind he will do that because he hates what the agency did in regards to the classified documents and he wants to destroy NARA. I wouldn’t be surprised if he tries to overhaul the entire agency with his appointee, which would be a disaster.
This brings me to other topics, specifically those focused around libraries and librarians. First of all, libraries are in deep trouble with the victory of the orange one. Although the ALA stated that their organization “will stand up for all Americans’ freedom to read — and we will need everyone who loves libraries to stand with us,” it remains to be seen whether the organization (which generally represents White library leaders, rather than front-line librarians) can help effectively fend off “attacks on libraries, library workers, and readers.” However, there will undoubtedly be resistance to his reactionary policies, for sure.
I read with interest an article in the Harvard Crimson about two library workers, Maya H. Bergamasco and Jonathan S. Tuttle, who support a study-in at Harvard Library advocating for Palestinian rights, despite University Librarian Martha J. Whitehead falsely claiming it “undermines our commitment to provide an inclusive space to all users,” something which couldn’t be further than the truth! The article states that many library workers support these sit-ins but “did not join us in authoring this piece out of fear of repercussion,” saying that the Harvard library system runs on labor of library workers, that libraries aren’t neutral. In their view, such a claim creates a “chilling effect and facilitates the suppression of dissenting voices by mainstream ones,” adding that silence in supposedly neutral spaces is not meant for everyone, but is a “politicized version of silence,” with bans of those who participated in this action. They condemned these bans and called for Harvard libraries to “refrain from disciplining those who study together, united not in disruption but by a shared conviction.”
Otherwise, there were articles on:
how a ruling against the Internet Archive (which is getting over a terrible hacking attempt) threatens the future of America’s libraries
the heart of what some call “slow librarianship”
vocational awe and libraries
prison censorship of libraries
progressive library organizations across the world (may be a bit dated)
information literacy in the “age of internet conspiracism” (more relevant than ever now)
alternatives to policing in libraries
If you have been following any of my genealogy blogs, you may have picked up with the fact that I am putting many of them on permanent hiatus, specifically Milling ‘round Ireland (covering my Irish genealogy), Digging for Italian Roots (covering my Italian genealogy), and Decoding my Transylvanian roots (covering my Romanian genealogy). In the case of Digging for Italian Roots, my primary motivation is because of the recent election, and, as I wrote, as noted above, some of my cousins, particularly in Western Pennsylvania and Florida undoubtedly voted for the orange one. Too much of my family roots are tied up in that. As for Packed with Packards!, I will probably also phase out that blog after my last scheduled post comes out on July 11th of next year. Also, I'm stretched too thin managing all four blogs, so that’s part of the issue as well.
There were some more positive news articles, however, when it comes to:
old Irish/Gaelic girls names
magic ancestors in theatrical space
Irish diaspora in New York state
story of brotherly love among ancestors in Iowa
photographs about ancestors owning a piano
There are many stories about history, some of which are relevant now. This includes stories on the following:
a survey of 2,000 women in the 1920s changed how Americans thought about female sexuality
an interview with Jeff Schuhrke about how the “AFL-CIA” Undermined Labor Movements Abroad
protecting prairie restoration in North America
historical precedents to the orange one’s attacks on Haitian immigrants
how renaissance art found its way into American museums
how America turned weapons into a consumer commodity
I enjoyed reading, as a background for what is going on now, an essay about Robert F. Jones, a “county prosecutor from Ohio who in the 1930s joined a KKK-offshoot called the Black Legion — and later was elected to Congress and confirmed to a role on the Federal Communications Commission”! The essay, by Dana Frank, says the following, in part:
Once Jones had been initiated, the Legion deployed its impressive — and terrorist — electoral machinery to twice elect him Allen County prosecutor on the Republican ticket. He would go on to serve four terms in Congress beginning in 1939. Only when Jones was nominated to the Federal Communications Commission in 1947 was it dramatically revealed that he’d been a member of the terrorist, white supremacist group. Today, the Black Legion, and Jones’ role in it, remains a largely missing link in the history of U.S. fascism. It’s well-known that during the 1930s Louisiana Senator Huey Long and Detroit-based “radio priest” Charles Coughlin both flirted with fascism and had followers in the millions…The Black Legion engaged in vigilante terror…Who stopped the Black Legion? Many of those with the mandate to do so looked the other way. Local and state officials across the Midwest, as well as in Congress, the U.S. Department of Justice, and even FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover knew in meticulous detail about the Legion but chose not to take it on. Many, including Hoover, even squashed prosecutions of the terrorist group…Rep. Robert F. Jones, of course, was not alone in his politics. We know that Congress has been chock full of actual Klan members; 16 U.S. senators and 75 representatives allegedly belonged in 1924…It’s not just a coincidence that Rep. Jim Jordan, a diehard supporter of Donald Trump and a defender of the January 6 insurrection, today represents the same congressional district in Ohio as did Robert F. Jones.
Pivoting a little, I’d like to talk briefly about climate change and environmentalism. There was a story in BBC News about environmental campaigners fighting against expansion of data centers in Northern Virginia which are “being built over conservation land, parks and neighbourhoods, increased water demand, and the facilities’ back-up diesel generators affecting air quality.” That isn’t something you always think about! Otherwise, some noted how killers of Indigenous people in the Amazon escape justice in Brazil and the fight against U.S. militarization of the Pacific region.
There were assorted other articles on lessons from Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, and climate change is drying out the U.S. West “even when rain pours,” while it remains to be seen what the environmental policy of the new administration will be, but it can be guessed that it will be completely for fossil fuels and not any support, whatsoever, for alternate energy. The orange one’s victory is blow to climate justice and fighting climate change for sure.
With the victory of the orange one, LGBTQ+ people are in for a lot of hurt, and people need to stand with them and support them to fight whatever reactionary policies are proposed. However, there are still some positives to report! Doctor Aphra will be returning to Star Wars: A New Legacy #1, by Kieron Gillen (he worked on the original Aphra series before Alyssa Wong did her hand at the second series), which releases on January 29th of next year.
Otherwise, the first season of Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft was received positively, with some noting the possible romantic subtext between Lara Croft and Camille, or the Chinese mythology throughout the season. And to make matters even better, the series was renewed for a second season! Reports are that it will focus on the romance and relationship between Lara and Sam Nishima. Hopefully it goes through with possible Republican victory in the U.S. House of Representatives, which could want to pass censorship laws.
This relates to the massive outpouring of support for Love Bullet among fans, which even sold out! There was also the release of manga like My Journey to Her which focuses on a trans woman and what it means to be trans. It was great to hear about the film Lover of Men which “dives deep into a rumored love triangle between [Abraham] Lincoln, Mary Todd, and his friend Joshua Speed”, a lesbian firefighter getting 1.3 million for enduring 21 years of harassment, and Thailand legalizing same-sex marriage, to name a few stories.
This rolls right into the next topic: anime. There are reports about the streaming of the coming-of-age horror thriller and drama film Look Back on Prime Video with an English dub, the reveal of three new cast members of the new Rose of Versailles film, the manga The Case Book of Arne Mystery Game getting an anime adaptation, and an interview with the creator of Witch Hat Atelier (soon to get an anime adaptation). Otherwise, there were reports about Crunchyroll adding the anime Girls Band Cry (on Nov. 6), review of the first episode of Ranma 1/2, and the announcement that The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You Season 2 will premiere in January 2025.
Apart from the above, there were articles on Japan’s animation industry momentum according to recent figures, the best anime with an unfinished ending (I only knew three of these: Ouran High School Host Club, Land Of The Lustrous, and Nana), and the best-ranked LGBTQ+ anime series/movies. The latter included, some I know of, like Sweet Blue Flowers, Puella Magi Madoka Magica (haven’t watched), Yuri is My Job!, Liz and the Blue Bird, Stars Align, Wandering Son, Sasaki and Miyano, Classmates (haven’t watched), Paradise Kiss, Junjou Romantica: Pure Romance (haven’t watched), Carole & Tuesday, Tokyo Godfathers (haven’t watched), Bloom Into You, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Banana Fish (haven’t watched), Yuri!!! On Ice (haven’t watched), No. 6 (haven’t watched), and Given (haven’t watched) and there were others I didn’t know previously: The Stranger by the Shore and Heavenly Delusion.
There’s the negative news about rise in Disney+ monthly subscription prices, which will undoubtedly be bad for animation as less people will be able to afford buying the service. In terms of money, some said that the cost of Arcane is why it was cancelled after a second season, since it cost $250 million to make. I sure hope it was worth that! And after watching the first three episodes of the series which have released so far, I’d definitely say it is worth it at this point. In terms of other animation news, there is the release of Invincible Fight Girl which began on November 2nd (I’d highly recommend it!) and the soon-to-be-released revival season of Phineas and Ferb, to name two series.
Sadly, there’s also news about the cancellation of Hailey’s On It!, Hulu pulling OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes from the streaming service, the frustrating issue with no queer representation in Inside Out 2 which some called a missed opportunity, and the criticism of the cruelest cancellation of Final Space (back in 2021). This is balanced out by the release of Rebecca Sugar’s dreamy, folky album called Spiral Bound, beginning her music career, diversifying her monetary sources perhaps.
With that, we get to Gaza, Palestine, and the burgeoning regional conflict. Prior to the election results, some called out Western support for Israel as a “colonial legacy,” Western distortions of the Palestinian struggle, the U.S.-Israel plan for Gazans (it looks grim), Knesset’s collective punishment of Palestinians, and argument that Harris is complicit in Gaza genocide. Regardless of what happens next, there is no doubt that Palestinians will be screwed over by the orange man, likely more than they currently are, which is already a terrible situation.
More than that, we move onto other topics worth noting here. One of those is that Baltimore infrastructure projects are in jeopardy with the second term of the orange one, what the U.S. Air Force doesn’t want us to notice on election night (weapons testing of a dummy hydrogen bomb near the Marshall Islands), Argentina's Javier Milei firing the country’s foreign minister, Diana Mondino, for opposing U.S. embargo on Cuba (Modino did the right thing!), the rise of DIY pirated medicine, and the time that Vance called the orange man “America’s Hitler” (of course he doesn’t agree with this now).
I liked reading about how to get people going to the movies again, the dystopian future of TV as A.I.-generated garbage, why smashing the administrative state is a disaster for reproductive rights, the orange man’s reckless infatuation with nuclear weapons, U.S.-backed coups between 1947 and 1989, and the Star Wars: Reign of the Empire novel trilogy revealing the origins of the Rebel Alliance, a trilogy to come next year. There were also some stories about women swearing off dating, marrying, or having childbirth (or sex) with men, a movement growing in the U.S. based on a similar movement in South Korea called 4B, becoming more and more popular among U.S. women. I can’t blame them, not at all, regardless of possible transphobia involved, as some are claiming on social media (I haven’t seen any articles about it though). On a positive note, the second season of Andor was announced to come in May of next year!
The above song, from The Proud Family is basically how the orange one acts all the time, especially when she sings “the whole world revolves around me” and she sings it is all about her. Clearly, it is not, and she is being a jerk.
There are also illustrations about labor theory, classical influencers, protecting the trees that are left, a leftist entering an alternate dimension (i.e. showing the hatred against leftists and what they experience all the time), Republican textbook fair, drawing art for art’s sake, and quick fixes for the Supreme Court.
That’s all for this newsletter. Until next time!
- Burkely