February 2022 Patron Newsletter and Staff Picks (Patreon)

Congrats on getting through another February, AniFam! 

The shortest month of the year may feel like the longest for those of us in the northern hemisphere, but the coldest days are officially behind us and spring is coming 'round the bend. As is fitting of Hibernation Season, there's not a ton of behind-the-scenes news at the moment, although we are progressing nicely on those new AniFem logos and look forward to sharing them with you soon. We'll have more concrete news on that next month, most likely.

For now, there's staff picks to help keep you busy on those days when it's too cold (or, for our southern hemisphere friends, too hot) to bother with the great outdoors. Onwards to the monthly recs!

February Recommendations:

Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games (Vol. 1-2, ongoing)

Format: Manga

Picked By: Vrai

What’s it about? Aya intends to start fresh upon being accepted to Kuromi Girls’ Academy, a prestigious high school known for students who are the height of elegance. This plan falls apart when she stumbles on school idol “Shirayuri-sama’s” secret: that she’s a secret fighting game fanatic with a mouth as brutal as her win streak. Aya had intended to leave her own past as a gamer behind, but after Shirayuri mocks her, she makes a new goal. She’ll quit gaming forever… just as soon as she wipes the floor with this upstart punk.

Why we like it: I picked up this series because rivals-to-lovers is my favorite kind of yuri, but that’s not what kept me around. In fact, the romance has been decidedly on the slow-burn side with this series (which has three volumes out in Japan and is ongoing). What it offers instead is a chance for its heroines to be loud-mouthed weirdos who sling insults at one another over a controller and then laugh about it after, written by someone who clearly both loves and knows a whole lot about the world of fighting games.

In an author's note, she mentions that this series is meant to be something of a love letter to her idea of '90s gaming parlors, with a combined sense of easy camaraderie and rough-and-tumble competitiveness. It makes for a great character comedy that has a lot of fun contrasting the Academy’s focus on “ladylike” behavior with the unrestrained friendships the girls start building in secret. There are hints of chemistry and I’ll be happy when the characters do eventually get together, but for now I couldn’t be more pleased to find such a lively, character-driven hobby manga.

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit

Format: Anime

Picked by: Dee

What’s it about? Traveling spear-wielder Balsa finds herself embroiled in imperial politics when she’s tasked with protecting Prince Chagum, who carries a water spirit within him that the emperor believes will bring ruin to the nation. But is that really the whole story?

Content warnings: Violence (against adults and kids); restrained depictions of child abuse and imperialism/colonialism.

Why we like it: In addition to being an impressively animated, elegantly written found-family series with well-rounded and sympathetic characters, Moribito also flips the script on a lot of fantasy epic expectations. The series gender-swaps traditional archetypes (the gruff warrior, the healer/caretaker, the eccentric-but-wise mentor, the divine nurturer), spends as much time on daily life as sweeping action, and questions how history and knowledge are cultivated in imperial systems.

Moribito not only acknowledges the existence of indigenous cultures within empires but treats them respectfully—as flawed people, but generally more aware and helpful than the imperial authorities at large. While it’s not my place to describe it as “good” rep, from my limited perspective they’re humanized and individualized in a way that feels grounded and nuanced instead of stereotypical. (And I would love an article on this topic from someone better-suited to write it, by the way!)

The show's greatest weaknesses include some "tough love" violent behavior from Balsa that's not interrogated like it should be, as well as an episodic slice-of-life stretch in the middle act that can feel a bit like wheel-spinning at times. Still, it all serves a purpose of developing the cast and mythos, building to a satisfying conclusion that feels exactly right for its characters’ journeys. Moribito is the kind of fantasy epic I wish we’d see more of.