January 2022 Patron Newsletter and Staff Picks (Patreon)

Welcome to 2022, AniFam! 

This month we took stock of the past year and compiled our personal top fives for 2021. The winter season has also kicked off in earnest, with an even shorter timeline for premieres than usual. 

Now that we have the AniFem Store, we've also started a new tradition: from now on, there will be a seasonal code that gets you 15% off your total when you pick up merch during premiere season. Keep an eye on our Twitter, as that'll be the easiest way to keep track of the newest code (although if it would be easier for folks, we're happy to make a post here as well). 

Thanks for all your support, and we hope this new year treats you well. Now, on to this months recs!

January Recommendations: 

Birdy the Mighty: Decode

Format: Anime

Picked by: Caitlin

What’s it about? The popular gravure idol Arita Shion seems like an ordinary airheaded girl, but she has a secret: she’s actually an intergalactic space officer named Birdy Cephon, and she’s here on Earth pursuing a dangerous fugitive. Tsutomu Senkawa doesn’t have a secret and is in fact an ordinary teenage boy who loves urban exploration, until a foray into an abandoned building goes terribly wrong and Birdy annihilates his body in a fight with a criminal. In order to save him, she quite literally shares her body with him, so the two of them are sharing the same one while they fix his own up.

Content warnings: Body horror, genocide, pandemic, natural disasters, boob armor, mistreatment of refugees, sympathetically portrayed cops, loss of bodily autonomy/agency, terrorism, children in peril, gun violence, gendered violence, death, ego death, blood

Why we like it: That’s… quite a laundry list of content warnings, isn’t it? And many of them are uncomfortably relevant to the 2020s, despite coming from a 2008 anime based on a manga from 1985. Plus, apparently Zac Snyder cited the series as an influence on his movie Man of Steel. Don’t let that put you off though - Birdy the Mighty: Decode, if you can get your hands on it, does an excellent job grappling with most of the issues that it presents while sidestepping a premise that sounds more like the setup for a fan service sex comedy.

The thing is, it’s really not interested in delivering fan service, even when Birdy is wearing an outfit that looks more painted-on than put on. Instead, it looks mostly at questions of identity on a number of levels: individual identity and the sense of self, identity as it’s affected by one’s job (or jobs), identity as a member of an oppressed group, and what happens when that identity is marginalized, intruded on, or threatened. It’s a thoughtful action show that I enjoyed immensely; it’s a pity that it’s not easily available these days.

Final Fantasy XIV

Format: Video game

Picked by: Chiaki

What’s it about? You are the Warrior of Light in a Japanese MMORPG. Eorzea is threatened by one calamity after another, but most of all by the Garlean Empire and the Asceans plotting to turn the world upside down in a bid for power and personal gain. And once the world is saved from all the aetherial horrors, you endeavor on your true quest: taking the best selfies of your catgirl.

Content warnings: Suicide, character death, online play, male-gaze oriented armor and monster designs, fantasy racism, mild horror elements, blood, disturbing imagery, slavery, dismemberment, the first 100 hours of gameplay.

Why we like it: Did you know that the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV has a is so popular they got rid of the free trial, which includeds the entirety of A Realm Reborn AND the award-winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 with no restrictions on playtime? It’s an epic story confronting loss and the question of what it means to be a hero for people. With more than a decade of content, it’s got a lot of everything, not including all the friends you can make along the way. Far as online communities go, it is known to be one of the nicest, queer affirming ones out there. Having a friend who plays makes the experience so much more enjoyable.

This game is good enough for Chiaki to spend $15 a month so she can take selfies and do the /dote emote at her girlfriend whenever she sees them.