Category: Karleen

12 Days of Anime: Neo Yokio’s Christmas Special for the Ages

Neo Yokio, Ezra Koening’s satirical urban fantasy animated series, arrived on Netflix in September of 2017 to mixed reviews. Season one followed Kaz Kaan, a wealthy and recently single exorcist, in his adventures slaying demons and perusing the city of Neo Yokio. With still no second season confirmed, Neo Yokio returned for a Christmas special this month. For a show that dabbled in ideas of class, materialism, and socialism, Christmas is the perfect homecoming. Most animated Christmas specials aired in the United States either focus on the myth of Santa Claus or the birth of Jesus Christ, if not both. Neo Yokio, an anime hybrid of a US Christmas special, is about neither. Pink Christmas looks at the holiday for what it’s become–materialist, self-serving celebration–through the eyes of its fictional wealthy.

This post contains spoilers for Pink Christmas and The End of Evangelion.

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12 Days of Anime: Devilman Analysis Recommendations

2018 was a big year for Devilman, if not The Year of Devilman, propelled by the success of adaptation Devilman Crybaby from the mind of Masaaki Yuasa. More people discussed my once-obscure (in the United States) favorite series than I can count, and I couldn’t get enough. Whether new to Devilman or an expert, favorable or scathing, I agreed or not, I had to know what people thought.

One of my New Years resolutions for 2019 is to leave direct comment more on articles and other online media I enjoy. Unfortunately I didn’t always comment on the posts about Devilman I read, so for now I’d like to show my appreciation by sharing some studies of Devilman (mostly Crybaby) that have stuck with me over the year.

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12 Days of Anime: Indispensable Asexuality in Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare

In Pride Month (June) of this year, Seven Seas announced their license of Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare by Yuhki Kamatani. I’ve followed Shimanami Tasogare, a manga by openly x-gender and asexual mangaka Kamatani about a gay teenager who joins a small community of LGBTQ people, since its first chapter and have looked at it many times on this blog, and its popularity in English-speaking spheres has only increased over time. I regularly look up discussion of it across the Internet to this day.

In the time more people have become aware of Yuhki Kamatani as a creator and Shimanami Tasogare, the English conversation around them has slightly changed. When people rightfully promote Shimanami Tasogare as a story with LGBTQ characters authored by someone LGBTQ, Kamatani’s nonbinary gender is often mentioned… but not their asexuality. When the identities of the cast are listed, the asexual character Anonymous (asexual and aromantic in English terminology) is omitted despite being central to the story. Not only does this leave potential readers uninformed about Kamatani as a person and the content of the manga, but it misses the point of Shimanami Tasogare.

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12 Days of Anime: LGBTQ Anime Panels, Then and Now

2018 was my third year of holding lecture panels for anime conventions at Kumoricon in Portland, Oregon and Sakura-con in Seattle, Washington; and my eighth year attending conventions overall.

Kumoricon 2010 was not only my first Kumoricon, but my first time at any pop culture convention. The panel I enjoyed most was the LGBTQ Convention Meet-Up Panel the night of Day Two, where the host gave an overview of LGBTQ portrayal in anime and manga from the past year through a slideshow. I arrived late, but there were plenty of seats left with how few people were there. Despite its humble size and attendance, it left a huge impact on me. It was the first time I heard LGBTQ topics in media or in general discussed outside my friends or the Internet. For years panels like those disappeared in my local convention scene, but now they’re back and stronger than ever.

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Tour of Motorcity Retrospective: Battle for Motorcity

As of this month, it’s been over six years since Motorcity was cancelled. For an introduction to the short-lived Titmouse animated series on Disney XD, see my first retrospective post that answers the question “What is Motorcity?” This time, we’ll be diving into the series proper with the first episode.

“Battle for Motorcity” was originally envisioned as a pair of episodes for a two-part premiere, but was condensed to one episode. Despite the shorter runtime, it artfully and naturally packs a ton of worldbuilding, character dynamics, and future plot points into a single high stakes pilot. In a cyberpunk future where the rich deserted Detroit to build a utopia above it, the young Burners fight to protect the old city from the evil corporation KaneCo. Let’s take a Tour of Motorcity and look at not only the fictional universe and characters, but where “Battle for Motorcity” places the story in the genre of science fiction dystopia and the sociology of economic polarization in Detroit.

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Shimanami Tasogare: the Construction of Identity, the Architecture of Community

In honor of the publication of the final volume in Japan and the English license from Seven Seas Entertainment, it’s finally time for an in-depth look at Yuhki Kamatani‘s Shimanami Tasogare. The manga follows Tasuku, a teenage boy coming to terms with being gay after a failed suicide attempt. In his hometown of Onomichi, he discovers an LGBTQ-friendly lounge through its aloof owner known only as “Dareka-san” (Anonymous). Over the course of a year, Tasuku comes to know the community of the lounge and their housing renovation organization Cat Clowder.

In Kamatani’s Onomichi, the characters’ surroundings often mirror their states of mind: freedom, confusion, joy, frustration, fear, redemption, and more. As the characters express more of themselves, and to acquaintances, they don’t necessarily come to a better understanding of themself or others. Still, their journeys and relationships to identity reveal many facets of LGBTQ life. Together, they build and maintain community in the face of oppression.

This post contains spoilers for all of Shimanami Tasogare. Do not read it if you wish to remain unspoiled for the English edition coming in May of 2019.

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Tour of Motorcity Retrospective: What is Motorcity?

A retrospective on Disney XD’s short-lived animated series Motorcity has been a long time coming on this blog, half to express how dear it is to me and half to hopefully introduce it to other people. After rewatching it last year with a friend who had never seen it before, I started writing in-depth looks at episodes. I lost steam on the project as I felt I couldn’t do such a wonderful show justice in my analysis, but with the recent possibility Motorcity could return I’m willing to try again.

Before we get into an episode-by-episode retrospective, we first need to ask: what is Motorcity? Whatever happened to it? Why is it relevant again? What made it so special? And what now?

What is Motorcity?

Chris Prynoski had the idea for a cartoon titled Motorcity about rebellious driving in a future Detroit, Michigan where cars are obsolete for over a decade. An action-packed, if crude, proof of concept was produced for MTV following Prynoski’s Downtown in 2000, but was never picked up. Years later, now the owner of the dynamic animation studio Titmouse, Prynoski partnered with the channel Disney XD to finally develop Motorcity.

It premiered April 30th of 2012. The Disney XD series takes place in a futuristic Detroit, owned and operated by the billionaire engineer Abraham Kane, constructed on top of the old city. The dystopian Detroit Deluxe offers safety and sanitation to its citizens, at the unseen cost of personal freedoms such as artwork, fashion, and of course automobiles. In Motorcity, corporations are literally built on top of the people kept out of sight and demonized. The Burners, a diverse gang of drivers headed by their fearless leader Mike Chilton, turn their backs on Deluxe to fight for the people below and dismantle Kane’s tyranny. However, the show is anything but dreary. It’s heart-pounding, vibrant, and hilarious!

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Solo: A Shortcoming of Gender and Sexuality

Shortly before the release of Solo: A Star War Story, the latest Star Wars midquel film that dives into the backstory of the original trilogy’s Han Solo, screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan supported describing the iconic Lando Calrissian as pansexual. While he may have had noble intentions, the robot-focused exploration of Lando’s sexuality does more harm than good in introducing people to pansexuality. L3-37, his co-pilot and love interest, unfortunately falls into misogynistic tropes for the first leading droid played by a woman in a Star Wars film. Together, they leave Solo with a lot to be desired in terms of gender and sexuality in science fiction.

Of course, this post contains spoilers for Solo: A Star Wars Story.

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The Last Jedi’s Balance of Nostalgia and Progress

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi is a divisive film, to say the least. Many consider it “childhood-ruining,” while positive reception commemorates a rejection of nostalgia and subversion of fan expectations. However, the film is not the anti-nostalgia manifesto many believe it to be. It celebrates the beloved strengths of the series while reconciling its faults and looking to the future because, just as Rey learns, everything is a balance of extremes.

Past and future collide not only through the events of the film and its characters, but the sequel trilogy’s metanarrative on Star Wars fandom as well. The Last Jedi continues how in Episode VII: The Force Awakens the new characters connect with established characters, objects, and concepts like fans of the franchise would. It all comes to the forefront with the story between Rey, Luke Skywalker, and Kylo Ren on navigating the past, present, and future.

Of course, this post contains spoilers for The Last Jedi.

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When the Social Issues of Lakewood Plaza Turbo Hit Close to Home

Cartoon Network’s OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes joined the national conversation on gun violence when five new episodes were digitally released weeks after the mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida. One of them, “Let’s Not Be Skeletons,” features allegorical argument for gun control. The timing was coincidental, as animated television develops over months to years. The episode was actually pitched back in July of 2016, (coincidentally or otherwise) not long after the mass shooting at Pulse in Orlando, Florida.

While OK K.O. usually follows the goofy adventure of K.O. on his dream of becoming a hero at his local plaza populated with superpowered humans and non-humans alike, it’s no stranger to social issues. The main conflict rests between a heroic bodega and a villainous corporation, after all. Sometimes it even address issues directly; including climate change in the Captain Planet-based episode “The Power is Yours,” journalism in “Action News” (unfortunately overshadowed by “Let’s Not be Skeletons” when they were released simultaneously), and misogyny in “Second First Date.” However, this post focuses on how OK K.O. explores real world racism, addiction, and of course gun control through its fictional setting in some of its best episodes.

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