Category: Manga
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Does ‘Boys Love/Yaoi’ Manga Have A Gender And Sexuality Problem?
‘Boys Love’ manga presents gay men for the pleasure of straight women – so why does it represent both so badly?
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30 Day Anime Challenge: Day 0 (Introduction)
Originally posted on The Cosmic Anvil Blog: Over the next month starting from today, the Cosmic Anvil team are going to be undertaking their greatest challenge yet: a 30 Day Anime Challenge running alongside our Kickstarter campaign, which is aims to raise enough money to get the very first collected volume of Age of Revolution…
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How The Female Gaze was Celebrated and Censored in Cardcaptor Sakura
Originally published for Bitch Flicks as part of their ‘Female Gaze’ theme week, 26th August 2015. With their starry eyes, cutesy costumes, Barbie-esque features, and catchphrases overflowing with dreamy positivity, the magical girls of the shojo (girls) genre of anime might not seem like the most feminist of heroines upon cursory glance. Yet, the plucky…
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“You’d Better Become Aware That You’re Just a Woman”: Your New Favourite Feminist Manga.
Seinen stories are primarily characterised by soft-core sexual content and a female protagonist, but rather than rely solely on the usual fan service to satisfy male readers (panty shots, accidental nudity, nosebleeds, etc.) Sacred Blacksmith uses its genre trappings to instead highlight the causes and consequences of sexual violence with chilling realism, and handles it…
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The Dark Gender Politics of ‘Black Butler’ Are The Secret To Its Success
Although there is something negative to be found in the twinning of androgyny with the monstrous, I think that what Toboso ultimately proves by playing on that connection in Black Butler is that we are perhaps more uncomfortable with androgyny then demonism, and this is the story’s unique appeal.
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The Problem with Graphic Novels
I have loved comic books right from when I first learnt how to read. It started with Tintin and Asterix and Obelix as a child, which my mum introduced me to. I later discovered superheroes as a teenager – Batman and X-Men were (and still are) particular favourites. Not long after that I started…
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Disability Visibility in Comics & Manga
Roughly a year ago now I started reading a manga called Gangsta online and became pretty much hooked from the first few pages. I lapped up every chapter that was available, and every subsequent chapter that was painfully slowly uploaded by the scanlators (I would explain what a ‘scanlator’ is, but the clue…