so i’m not super active on this sideblog anymore, as you may have noticed. but every now and then i still see ppl interacting with the posts i wrote here and a handful of new followers here and there, which is nice! im glad ppl are interested my analysis, even if a lot of it is kinda silly now that im looking back on it lol (i did start this blog when i was in high school or something after all XD)
anyways, this is blog is basically dead at this point, but i think i’ll still keep it up for posterity haha. and if you’re still interested in reading my analysis on anime/manga that i like, you can check out my main blog @overflowing-flannel-drawer! it’s mostly memes and silly hours over there, but every now and then if i feel like it i’ll post some longer analysis-type stuff. i’m pretty proud of this post that i wrote about Sayaka from Bloom Into You, who is my favorite character from my all-time favorite manga series. (i’ve been making my way thru the Regarding Sayaka Saeki light novel trilogy so expect a post about it.... sometime shga;sdgs;gjsdgj i’m a very slow reader lolol but once i finish it im definitely planning on writing up my thoughts). i’m gonna try and organize all my anime/manga analysis posts under a #analysis tag from here on out, although tumblr has never been amazing with archiving so. idk hopefully you’ll be able to find things XD
once again, thanks for checking out my posts, and hope to see you on my main blog!
Read it! Rarely do I see a manga from Japan that has such great source on Transitioning there and getting married. Its super cute and made me cry a lil.
Hey there friends! It’s that wondrous time of year again: Lesbian Day of Visibility! And I know there’s a lot of you out there lookin for that Good Gay Content to celebrate and unfortunately that can be hard to find in the world of anime. So like last year, I’ll be compiling a list of some of my recommendations to help y’all out. These are all yuri/shoujo ai series with kickass female leads that do not feature gross fetish material. You can also check out the list I made last year right here for more and there’s also this nice post with some yuri manga. Once again, Happy Lesbian Day of Visibility and let’s get to the list!
Princess Principal
In early 20th century London, every night is girl’s night out as a team of five talented spies use their unique skills to crash parties, take names, and navigate the mysterious underworld of espionage.
Steampunk Spy Lesbians. Not sure how much else I have to say after that. Princess Principal is amazing on so many levels. Stellar characters who all have great chemistry, epic soundtrack, plot twists for days, and of course, a lot of gay under/overtones. Where is season 2.
Canaan
When two small-time journalists end up uncovering a huge terrorist plot, it’s up to them and a mysterious super-powered mercenary named Canaan to shut it all down.
Alright, I have to admit, this show is... a bit of a hot mess. But it’s a really fun, low-key gay kind of hot mess. While there are some confusing story elements and one or two kinda bad side characters, that’s all made up for with some kickass action scenes and a really compelling rivalry between Canaan and her arch-nemesis Alphard. Canaan certainly has its flaws, but overall it’s still a very enjoyable experience.
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid
After a tough day in the office, a computer programmer gets drunk off her ass, hikes into the mountains, and brings home a dragon. Don’t act like you haven’t.
We all know the “magical girlfriend from another world comes to save the day” trope by now, but Dragon Maid really brings a lot of freshness to this overdone plot, and it’s not just because of the gay. Dragon Maid excels at crafting very genuine characters with equally genuine relationships, which makes all the emotional moments really shine. And yes, the 20% of the show that falls into the “oh god why Japan” category can be hard to ignore for some, but at its core, Dragon Maid is a very heartwarming anime that shows there’s all kinds of families out there.
Izetta: The Last Witch
It’s World War II and Austria Eylstadt has a new secret weapon to fight back against the German Germanian army: a 15-year-old girl flying on an anti-tank rifle. get rekt hitler
The main thing that stands out to me in Izetta is the story, which in my opinion is almost completely flawless. Combine that with two pretty awesome female leads who have excellent chemistry and you’ve got yourself a great work of historical fiction. Izetta is a great ride from start to finish.
Kase-san
Yamada is a shy girl who loves gardening. Kase is an outgoing high school track star. Just like the morning glories Kase watches Yamada tend to, their relationship is sure to blossom.
Kase-san is your typical high school lesbian romance fluff. It’s just as beautiful and adorable as you’d expect and I loved it. (read the whole thing in one sitting instead of writing an essay because nothing about me is straight not even my priorities) An OVA adaptation of this series is set for release this June, but in the meantime there’s the completed manga and this super cute animated short that came out last year.
And that’s my list! Once again, if you wanna check out last year’s list for more titles, that’s right here. More recommendations are always welcome, so add them if you so desire. Happy viewing!
the last Bleach opening and the first Boruto opening are like exactly the same
season 2 of Attack on Titan is 10x better than season 1 simply because eren isn’t in like half of it and I don’t need to listen to him screaming all the time
Canaan is a bit of a hot mess… but it’s such a beautiful gay hot mess
Tokyo Underground commits the ultimate crime of being an incredibly shitty anime with an incredibly kickass opening
Gakuen Babysitters is complete garbage I’ve never seen a cast of characters more bland and/or problematic in my life (lookin at you pedo side character)
Sono Chi No Sadame is the only good Jojo opening
who the actual fuck thought Uma Musume Pretty Derby was a good idea and why did it get an anime
The GGO arc of Sword Art Online is the only legit good part and Sinon is the only legit good character in the whole series (also Lisbeth is totally bi)
Princess Principal is an anime that has canon lesbians! You should watch it, its super good!! It's about a group of girl spies who work for the government, and it takes place in early 20th century England! If you do watch it, make sure to watch past the end credits on the last episode for a super gay bonus scene.
oh honey
honey
my dude
sweet anon
you have NO IDEA what you’ve gotten yourself into
k imma direct your attention to THIS POST that I made about this show a week or so ago because I legit spent THREE DAYS writing that thing and the fact that nobody saw it and it only got 2 NOTES is a goddamn SIN. (one of which was me reblogging it to my main blog)
also go follow me on my main blog @thatoneclementine where I post/reblog lots of princess principal because idk if it’s all that clear but i really fucking love this show ok
12-ish Days of Anime 2017 ~ Finale: Princess Principal
For those who don’t follow me (which is.... a whole lot of people...), 12 Days of Anime is a little annual series I do on this blog where I count down the 12 days leading up to Christmas by talking about some of my favorite anime and manga moments that I’ve seen in the past year. I really enjoy writing all the posts and it went pretty well for the other two years I’ve done it, so I was raring to go for a third round in the most recent holiday season.... but unfortunately a combination of end-of-semester hell and me not really feeling 100% for my first week and a half back home led to me missing practically all the days. In the end, I was only able to get one post out the door. And now it’s freakin’ February.
Yeah, 12 Days of Anime ended up being a bust in 2017 and I feel pretty bad about it. Considering how late it already is, I don’t think I’ll be making up the rest of the posts; my plan is to somehow incorporate a couple of them into my next 12 DoA at the end of this year, which will hopefully turn out better.
However, I do want to make this particular post. This anime was meant to take the spotlight as my big Christmas finale post, but again, that didn’t pan out. Still, even though it’s WAY overdue, I’ve decided to write about it anyway since I just really REALLY like talking about it and because it’s a pretty underrated show in need of promotion, which was the whole reason I started this blog in the first place. It was also one of the most important 2017 releases for me personally alongside the show I did end up posting about on time for 12 DoA, so it seems fitting. (That post is here, btw, in case you’re interested)
Alright, this post’s already late enough, so let’s get to it and FINALLY talk about Princess Principal.
Maybe you loved this show. Maybe you hated this show. Maybe you thought it was just okay.
But no matter how you feel about Princess Principal, you cannot deny that the opening is LIT.
Seriously I love this opening; I never get tired of it. Openings are meant to get you hyped up for the show you’re about to watch and this one does that so well. It’s exciting, the animation’s cool, the song is amazing, and it’s what got me to watch the show in the first place. Thank you, YouTube, for recommending it to me. Now quit telling me to watch Family Guy livestreams.
If you couldn’t tell already, I really, really like this show (Princess Principal, not family guy). I wasn’t expecting to have nearly as big of a reaction to it as I did, but before I knew it PriPri became one of my all-time favorite anime to have come out in recent years. The setting is very intriguing, the story is admirable for all the attention to detail and the creative plot twists, the soundtrack rocks and fits the spy theme perfectly, and I especially loved all of the main cast and their dynamic. And do I even need to bring up the epic opening again?
It was pretty hard to narrow down one single moment from the show to highlight for this post since there wasn’t ever a dull moment for me with this show. Episode 4 was probably my favorite; it’s the one I’ve rewatched the most. A lot of my favorite scenes in the show come from that ep, particularly the conversation Ange and Charlotte have on the boat that’s super adorable and does a great job of developing their relationship.
In the end, however, I’ve chosen to go with the episode that wrecked me the most upon first viewing: episode 8, “Case 20 Ripper Dipper”.
Episode 8 finally gives us Ange and Charlotte’s backstory and it’s one that I think a lot of people had already suspected early on, myself included. What we have here is basically a “Prince and the Pauper” sort of situation: Ange and Charlotte met as children, discovered they looked alike, and traded places for fun only to end up separated and stuck in each other’s roles. After that, the fandom breathed a collective sigh of relief because thank god they’re not secretly sisters the OTP is safe and low-key even more canon now
Rather than delve into Ange’s past and show how she got to be a super cool badass spy, this episode instead chooses to focus on Charlotte and what she did for the ten years she and Ange were separated. This actually surprised me when I watched this for the first time because I kind of assumed Ange’s would be the more interesting story to tell. A poor girl becoming a princess just sounds like a simple little fairy tale we’ve all heard before. Like, let me guess, her experience among the common people leads her to grow up and become a kind and benevolent ruler who’s loved by all, right?
Hell No. This ain’t The Princess Diaries. This ain’t Barbie’s Princess and the Pauper movie with a barking cat. Shit’s about to get real, everybody.
In any other story, Charlotte’s half of the tale would probably be the happy ending. They even bring this up in the episode: she got to be a princess, shouldn’t that be amazing? But something a lot of people forget is that being royalty isn’t just wearing fancy dresses and waving to the masses, there’s a lot of work and responsibility that goes into the position. It’s not a walk in the park, especially if you’re working from the ground up in a high-stress environment. Which is why I always wanted to be a knight and not a princess as a child; probably one of the first signs that I was a lesbian. But anyway, point is, once you remember all of this, you realize that Charlotte had it just as hard as Ange must have, if not harder.
Episode 8 really gave me a new appreciation of Charlotte and made her one of my favorite characters in the show (alongside everybody else lmao, I love all of them). Finding out what she had to go through for ten whole years to get to where she is now was really eye-opening for me and with that in mind, I think I can safely say she’s the strongest character in the show. This part where she’s stressed out to the point of vomiting and gets up determined to finish the day successfully despite that is what really got me emotionally the first time I saw this episode; it was one of the multiple “oh FUCK” moments I had while watching PriPri.
The episodes prior to this one set up how similar Ange and Charlotte are. Appearance aside, they’re both difficult people to read, albeit in different ways: Charlotte has an eternal poker face and Ange’s such a perfect mix of serious, crazy, and seriously crazy that you can’t tell how to take whatever she says. That culminates in this episode, where we find out how they got to be that way. Both of them had the same method of staying alive in their respective environments: they pretended to be people they weren’t. Ange pathologically lies and has developed Oscar-worthy acting skills while Charlotte, again, spent basically her whole life as an imposter. But what we start to piece together from episode 8 onwards is how different the two of them really are and how they defy audience expectations.
Ange did become a master spy and her physical prowess is second to none, but all she really gained was fear. She acts the way she does because deep down she’s scared; the way I see it, all her lying is a coping mechanism The only thing that’s ever been on her mind is running; her goal all this time was just to get to Charlotte so they could escape everything together. It’s even brought up later on in the anime; Ange’s always been the runner of the two and that hasn’t changed at all.
Then you have Charlotte, who is the very embodiment of the phrase “fake it til you make it”. In being forced to take on the role of princess, she actually successfully fell into it and found herself an end goal beyond just reuniting with Ange. She has actual hopes and dreams for the future of her country and gained the ambition to make it really happen with her borrowed power.
After ten years, Ange has learned how to survive. Charlotte has learned how to live. They both did what they had to do out of a necessity to stay alive, but Charlotte is the one who actually made something out of it. Her time spent as princess made her much braver than Ange ever was and is. They originally set up Ange as the tough, fearless badass who’s going to show Charlotte how to be strong. But what episode 8 showed us is that even when they were children, it was always the other way around.
whew glad I finally got this done! Thanks so much for making it this far; I’m really passionate about PriPri if you couldn’t already tell and this was a blast for me to write. If you want to read my other 12 Days of Anime posts from previous years, they’re all right here. Hopefully I’ll be more on top of things in 2018. Thanks again for reading!
uhhhh lol lots of people are "up in arms" about the forced kiss in citrus, and those who actually know what the series is about and what it entails understand that the scene wasn't supposed to be romantic or cute, it was supposed to be uncomfortable. the series is a drama lol theres plenty of reasons to be intrigued and interested in the series, plenty of wlw adore citrus, are you gonna call em homophobic and sexist too? watch the show and learn to read between the lines even a little bit
okay this might surprise you a little but when people sit down to read or watch yuri, they want romance. dramatic romance, fluffy romance, either way they want it. they don’t want discomfort. i think the wlw who like citrus are either kids or immature adults who don’t yet know that a relationship is not supposed to be that complicated. yes, there’s baggage at times but you never want any pain that comes with dating someone to come from that person themselves. you rarely see popular m/f romance anime complicate things so much. they only make same-sex romance anime toxic, and i think the reason why is pretty clear. so wlw who like citrus need to develop some standards that rise above forcing someone you barely know into a kiss. if you keep settling for less it’s only going to damage anyone who’s been in an abusive relationship (especially those who’ve been in an abusive same-sex one) in the long run.
also, mei and yuzu are step-sisters, which makes this incest. even if they’re not blood-related, one of them (presumably mei) is taking advantage of that familial living situation to get that girl.
I haven’t watched/read Citrus nor do I plan to at all (NTR was enough torture for me lmao), but I agree with all of this. Part of maturing as a babby wlw is learning how to separate the Good Gay Content™ from the Fanservice™. And Citrus really seems like it belongs in the latter category.
The thing that makes Citrus problematic isn’t necessarily the toxic elements of the relationship - well actually yes it is but gimme a sec im getting there - the problem is that those elements are being applied to a wlw relationship. And that because of that, people somehow don’t think it’s something to be up in arms about. If that scene in ep 1 (you know the one) happened between a boy and a girl, then everybody would be raising hell calling it out. But then since it’s yuri, they’re defending it and brushing it off? Not to mention the fact that the only kinds of wlw anime/manga that seem to get popular these days are ones like Citrus and having that as the go-to ref for a wlw relationship isn’t good!
I’m totally about to sound like a str8 person by saying this, but from what I can gather about Citrus, the series would be completely fine and might actually be better if Yuzu and Mei weren’t a couple. Like, I’ve literally only read the wikipedia article, but Mei has been through some Shit and seeing her work through that with the help of her new step-sister might actually be a bit touching? Again, I don’t really know, but I feel like it could potentially have a good story. But it’s clear that that isn’t Citrus’ agenda. What is, though, is fanservice. Literally that’s the only reason the yuri elements are there and it distracts from and ruins what could be an interesting story.
There are good, positive wlw anime out there! I have a list! (kinda needs to be updated, but for now that’s a good starting list)
12 Days of Anime 2017 ~ Day 1: Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid
Thinking back, I honestly don’t remember what got me to start watching this show in the first place. The most likely answer is probably that I’m a sucker for nearly anything gay, so there was no way I was gonna avoid this show for long, but I also recall finding some clips on YouTube and liking them enough to watch it. Funimation also picked this one up for SimulDub and I’ve got a subscription with them and follow them on social media, so I did see a number of promos for it as well.
But the thing that I really think got me hooked on this show was that it aired at the exact right time for me. I won’t go into details, but basically at the beginning of this year I just really needed something that would lift my spirits. And that’s what this show did for me. Okay, I can’t remember roaring with laughter while watching it, but it really made me smile. Every time I rewatch part of it I just start smiling like an idiot. I love the opening theme, too, it cheers me up any time I hear it. Maid Dragon isn’t what I’d call an amazing show, but it’s definitely a very heartwarming, feel-good one that makes you get all tingly inside. And it still makes me very happy.
Also, the SimulDub for this show was very well done. I like this show equally in both Japanese and English. And a big part of that has to do with the cast and crew. All of them very clearly loved and cared a lot about the show they worked on and I really like seeing that. (Sarah Wiedenheft, Tohru’s VA, even bought a Tohru tail pillow and wore it to recording sessions like how’s that for dedication lolol)
(Not featured from the main cast: Garret Storms as Fafnir, Jeff Johnson as Takiya, Alison Viktorin as Shouta, Sara Ragsdale as Saikawa, Jamie Marchi as Lucoa (she also adapted the script, I think), and Rachel Glass as Elma)
seriously tho i love all of these people and they did a phenomenal job on this show send them all some love and check out all their other work
Moving on, when trying to select a moment for this year’s 12DOA feature, I initially went for their first meeting in episode 12, where we see how Kobayashi got completely wasted and accidentally invited Tohru to live with her. It’s easily one of my favorite moments in the show since it’s simultaneously hilarious and full of feels.
But as much as I loved that scene, in the end I’m really gonna have to go with the final episode instead. Within the first ten minutes or so, Tohru gets forcibly taken home by her disapproving father, leaving Kobayashi and Kanna to deal with her absence for most of the episode.
To be perfectly honest, the first time I watched this episode when it aired, I actually found this portion to be underwhelming. I don’t know, it just felt too slow and quiet and I guess I expected something more from the series finale. Besides, I feel like I and a lot of people have seen this set-up before, with the girlfriend leaving and everyone else moping.
But the more I rewatched this, the more I realized that this was actually a whole lot more tragic than I first gave it credit for. And to understand why, we have to look back on the series as a whole.
I’ve been trying to think about what really separates Maid Dragon from other similar slice-of-life shows. Because after all, there’s been plenty of these “magical girlfriend from another world comes and falls in love with someone while bringing in more wacky people and shenanigans with her” anime in the past (that was very specific but I’m sure you know what I mean). These days, it’s kind of a tired set-up and come to think of it, you don’t really see too too many of those anymore; there’s still a couple every year, but I think this genre really peaked in the 2000s and maybe the early 2010s (don’t quote me on that; I’m a weeb not an expert). So yeah, we all know this story by now.
But something about Maid Dragon always felt different to me; something always set this one apart from all other shows like it. Of course, there’s the fact that Kobayashi is a woman and our main pairing is a same-sex couple, but ultimately that doesn’t really change anything since Kobayashi’s still the jaded protagonist who’s missing something in her life and Tohru’s still the wacky magical girlfriend who comes and shows her the way. The rest of the cast is typical for this sort of show, too, and throughout the whole thing we kind of go through all the motions of a fantasy slice-of-life: beach episode, hot spring episode, shrine/festival visit, boob fanservice, y’all know the drill by now. So then what is it that Maid Dragon does different? I think I’ve found out what it is: the relationships between the characters and the actions they all take feel very real and genuine.
The moment where I first started to realize this aspect of the show was episode 4, when Kobayashi and Tohru are talking about Kanna getting all excited for her first day of school. Specifically look at this part here, where they’re watching her through the bedroom door.
The way they’re talking about her while she sleeps, the way they smile at her like that from the door, it all makes them look like two parents watching over their child, no? There’s no real prompting for them to be acting like this; there’s no scene where they go “whoop we parents now gotta start acting like it”. They don’t even comment on the fact that that’s what they’re acting like until a bit later, but I’ll get to that. This is something they just settled into naturally. And I’m not speaking from personal experience, but I feel like that’s how it is in real life, right?
This really put the rest of the series into perspective for me because it made me realize quite a lot. Maid Dragon spends a lot of time in the background building up Tohru, Kobayashi, and Kanna’s relationship together. Nothing about them changes incredibly drastically - all of them are still very much the same people/dragons they were at the start - but there’s subtle changes in how they start talking to and treating each other. Kobayashi, whether she realizes it or not, is very quick to start talking to Kanna like a parent would their child when she starts encouraging her and giving her advice. Same for Tohru: Kobayashi is quick to pick up on how to deal with her antics and through that comes to learn what she likes about her, just like a real couple might. So when Kanna tells Kobayashi and Tohru that Kobayashi’s like a mom to her, it may be played for laughs, but it honestly doesn’t seem all that surprising. I think all of us viewing think the same way by now, too, whether we realize it or not.
A lot of their daily behavior is also something they gradually start to settle into throughout the show. We never get a scene where they lay out their morning routine together, but then one day we see Tohru make everyone breakfast, send Kobayashi and Kanna off to work and school, then get her chores done in time for everyone to have dinner. There’s no real attention drawn to these moments even the first time they happen, so it all feels just as natural to the viewers as it does to them. We still have Tohru being her usual silly self about it, of course, but that’s become natural to us, too, at this point.
What I’m trying to get at is that the way they so seamlessly fall into these roles without much fanfare really solidifies their connection and their growing dynamic as a little family. I feel like most other shows I watch like this tend to have a lot of cheesy scenes or dialogue to call attention to how the characters are acting, but it’s so much stronger in Maid Dragon because of how natural everything is played.
And that’s why episode 13 hits so hard.
Just look at this first bit where Kobayashi and Kanna are just silently trying to figure out what they’re going to do now that Tohru’s not there anymore. There’s not a whole lot of dialogue exchanged between them and then they’re just silent; neither of them know what to say or what’s going to happen next, which is just such a genuine reaction.
Speaking of genuine reactions, that’s exactly what they have for the rest of the sequence without Tohru. Their numb acceptance of everything is just so real and I think maybe even relatable. Both of them know there’s nothing they can do about their new situation, so they just figure out what they think they have to do now and try their best to resume their normal daily life without Tohru.
First and foremost is Kobayashi, who’s running around doing the best she can to take care of herself and Kanna. One of the big moments in this sequence for me is when Kobayashi’s not only picking up some of Tohru’s jobs, but also when she making sure Kanna can take care of herself in case she works late. It legit feels like she’s learning and doing her best to be a good single parent.
Then there’s Kanna, who’s always wearing her usual expression and not complaining at all to Kobayashi so as not to worry her, but she’s clearly affected by Tohru’s absence; the shot of her erasing a doodle of Tohru gets me every time. And if you thought that was sad, we then get the little scene of her at Saikawa’s house where she finally just breaks in front of her and starts crying.
There’s even Takiya, who in any other show might be doing the “GO AFTER HER YOU DUMMY” thing that best friends are supposed to do. But instead he’s super considerate and supportive, doing his best to give Kobayashi the space she needs while also looking out for her to make sure both she and Kanna are doing alright in the wake of this loss, like maybe a real co-worker/best friend might.
Honestly this doesn’t feel like the season finale of a slice-of-life anime. It feels more like the opening to a movie about a widowed parent trying to cope with the loss of their wife while raising their kid. I mean yeah, we all know Tohru’s not gone for good, the show wouldn’t do that. But the way this part of the episode is done, she might as well be dead.
Sometimes family is two wives and their tiny dragon child. (yeah, Kanna says it’s like having a big sister and a mom, but come on, we all know what’s up) From start to finish, everything about these characters is very real and human (barring the fact that everyone’s over-the-top anime and most of the cast consists of dragons), which is a big part of why every moment, happy or sad, hits home for us. Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid isn’t as much a story about romance as it is about the bonds between members of a family, whether that family is even blood-related or all belongs to the same species. And it’s beautifully executed the whole way.
yea almost forgot to make this announcement cuz shit’s been hectic but 12 Days of Anime is gonna be back for another year!
This is when every day starting from Dec. 14 and leading up to Christmas I post about my favorite anime moments that I’ve seen this year. The anime I talk about doesn’t necessarily have to have come out in 2017, I just have to have watched it.
I had a lot of fun doing the posts last year and this year I’ve got some pretty good stuff I have lined up to talk about, so I’m really looking forward to it!
oh and if you thought it got gay last year, well... prepare yourselves friends :)
kino’s journey
one punch man
angel beats
princess principal
death parade
the ancient magus bride
wolf’s rain
your name
everything from studio ghibli
michiko & hatchin
izetta the last witch
revolutionary girl utena (in fact one of the big themes of that show IS LITERALLY TEARING DOWN CREEPY INCEST AND THE PEOPLE WHO ENCOURAGE/TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUNG GIRLS FOR THAT SHIT BECAUSE FUCK TOXIC MASCULINITY/THE PATRIARCHY)
baccano
spice and wolf
madoka magica
wandering son (THIS ONE’S ABOUT REALISTIC/UN-SEXUALIZED TRANS KIDS)
sweetness and lightning
the eccentric family
hibike euphonium
The Best Anime You’re Not Watching: Princess Principal
If you follow me over on my main blog, you’ve probably seen me gushing/screaming/crying about this show for the past month or so (you’re probably tired of it by now and I’m not sorry). I knew from the premise that I was going to like this anime at least a little bit, but I really wasn’t expecting the huge emotional reaction I ended up having towards it and from what I can tell a lot of other people who watched this show feel the same way. Anyways, I love this show to death and more people need to watch it, which is exactly what the point of this blog is. And I really want to post more often here, so this seems like the perfect opportunity to talk about Princess Principal. (also I have a lot of thoughts about this show and absolutely nobody to talk about it with because none of my friends have seen it yet WHICH IS REALLY FRUSTRATING DAMMIT)
Princess Principal is set in Albion, an alternate steampunk version of late-19th/early-20th century England. Ten years following a civil war known as the “London Revolution”, a great wall separates the country into two opposing nations: the Commonwealth and the Kingdom. Though officially at peace, conflict is still high between both factions as each side sends spies to duke it out in the shadows. Our story follows a team of five undercover Commonwealth agents: Ange, a pathological liar and self-proclaimed alien, Dorothy, the team’s leader, getaway driver, and token sex appeal, Beatrice, a sweet sweet cinnamon roll with the ability to mimic people’s voices, Chise, a skilled samurai experiencing massive amounts of culture shock, and Princess Charlotte, a member of the Kingdom’s royal family who is totally Ange’s girlfriend. Every night for these spies is girl’s night out as they crash parties, take names, and navigate the mysterious underworld of espionage.
First thing we have to get on the same page about is the opening. Because it’s absolutely EPIC.
(i thought tumblr let you embed videos but i guess not? or maybe i screwed up? anyways there’s a link up there go watch it)
Moving on, let’s start praising Princess Principal (holy wow ALLITERATION) by talking about the setting. This show has literally everything I could ever want to see: steampunk, action, spies, and a kickass all-female lead cast… and lesbians, but more on that later. Probably my favorite things about the universe of Princess Principal are all the little gadgets the characters use, most notably Ange’s C-Ball that lets her float.
There’s also other things like the huge machinery we see in an underground scene, the cars that the team drives, the Kingdom’s airships… whatever the heck Beatrice made in episode 8…
(seriously we never get any kind of explanation for this thing and it never comes back again but this one little part is so frickin funny)
There’s also concept art/blueprints somewhere of some of the different vehicles and mechanical devices seen in the show. I can’t find them now (I wanna say they’re on twitter?), but I remember they were pretty detailed and it’s clear a lot of thought was put into the inner workings of everything no matter how big or small. And yes, there’s blueprints for Beatrice’s thingamajig too.
On the subject of detail and thought, a lot of that definitely went into the writing as well. There are a lot of mysteries and plot twists to unravel throughout the series that are very well executed. Most of it is based around sprinkling in little hints throughout an episode that come together within the final minutes and though they’re not completely obvious at first, they’re always right there in front of you in plain sight; you just have to pay close attention. Being able to pick up on all these things kind of makes you feel like a spy yourself, in a way.
The music for Princess Principal was done by Yuki Kajiura, which automatically gives pretty much every anime fan very high expectations going in. I think Kajiura really delivers in this series; in fact, this might be one of my favorite soundtracks of hers to date. There’s a lot of her signature style that we all know and love, complete with the epic vocals in the background, but in this OST she also adds a lot of jazzy pieces into the mix as well. It kinda gives it a bit of a “James Bond” type of feel, perfect for spies running around in jolly old England Albion, especially when the saxophone kicks in. Even the opening, while not composed by her, still gives off the same sort of vibe with the bass around the middle of the track along with, of course, some awesome sax. (oh boy don’t read that bit out loud haha if you know what I mean)
And now, finally, we get to the bit I’ve been most itching to talk about. The thing that is, in my opinion, the biggest strength of Princess Principal: its characters.
At first glance, we have a very typical action team setup. You’ve got the leader (Dorothy), the cool prodigious main character (Ange), the muscle (Chise), the sweet smart one (Princess), and of course, the lil’ cute one who supplies the moe (Beatrice). But as you watch the show, you find out very quickly that all five of them are developed much much further than those basic concepts and that none of them are what they seem to be on the surface, which is pretty fitting since they’re all spies. (yeah, I know I called Dorothy the “token sex appeal” earlier, but that was just for comedic purposes; don’t get mad at me plz XD) And as you just saw in the above image, they’ve all got really cool designs, too. (where can i get me Ange’s hat and cape i really want them)
Of course, this is a show about a team of spies, so it wouldn’t matter how cool they all were individually if they didn’t work together well as a cast. And they do. Ange, as the main character, is not surprisingly exceptionally skilled all around and in any other show she’d probably just be soloing every mission. But as good as she is, she isn’t at all invincible or OP; she needs the specialized abilities that all her teammates possess. Each of them has a very important role to play and none of them are at any point just dead weight. The other four team members don’t just exist to support Ange either; all five of them support each other as a single unit.
They also play off one another very well outside of missions and their team dynamic has clear development over the course of the show. And that development is not derived from the overdone “You’re getting a partner” “But I don’t want a partner” “Actually come to think of it you’re not so bad partner” schtick you see in all the buddy cop movies; they don’t do that at all THANK GOD. Instead, it’s a bit more on the internal and subtle side. At the start, while everyone clearly works together well and missions go very smoothly for the most part, you still get the sense that they have a very thin layer of trust towards one another and they may not all be on the same side, which, again, is very befitting of spies. Sure they’re teammates and they all work for the same people, but individually they each have their own goals and motivations, some more obvious than others. Because of that, they each occasionally withhold information from each other and sometimes even the audience (again, some more than others). But as time goes on and they figure out more about each other, they start to bond and form a genuine friendship. They begin to channel their individual goals into their work as a team and either open up about or put to rest whatever secrets they’re keeping. And again, all of this is very subtle, which is as it should be; we don’t need all this stated, we can clearly see their chemistry.
And SPEAKING of clearly seeing chemistry…. Ange and Princess are gay. Like, REALLY FUCKIN GAY. Like, I have no idea how they’re so good at stealth missions cuz they’re setting off ALL the gaydar alarms with how gay they are.
If you’ve been on either of my blogs for a while, you probably know that the only anime I watch have lesbians or at the very least a ton of yuri subtext. (okay that’s a lie I watch other things too… kind of…) So yeah, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that most of the reason I kept watching this show was because I ship these two XD. But in all seriousness, they are perfect together; their relationship is very well-developed both casually and romantically and easily one of the show’s highlights.
And what makes this pairing even better is that IT’S BASICALLY CONFIRMED TO BE CANON IN EVERY DAMN CAPACITY. I won’t spoil the show here of course, but they make it pretty clear that the two of them are in love. Also, if you’ve watched some of the livestream events with the main voice actors because you’re running away from responsibilities and don’t want to sleep (help me), then you’ll see that they all pretty much ship them too (especially Ange’s and Princess’s VAs). They’re all such cute lovable dorks and it’s clear they care about the show as much as the rest of us do, which is always great.
And lastly, good god, have you SEEN the promo art???
yep. das pretty gay.
So what have we learned today from this long-ass post? Princess Principal is a marvelous anime with an intriguing setting, awesome music, brilliant characters, and adorable lesbian spies. What more could you possibly need in a show? Please go give this anime the love it deserves; you won’t regret it.
Yuri manga by women about women (who aren't in high school)
Sadly a lot of them are one shots, but there’s a few longer ones. A lot of yuri manga is tragically too short and I’m always left wanting more. D:
After some struggles with myself, I ended up putting stories about college aged women so long as it’s not “innocent school life” heavy.
Yamaji Ebine
Love my Life (this one has a movie. A uni student coming out to her father and finding that her parents were both queer as well.)
Indigo Blue (A novelist caught between feelings for her boyfriend but also her feelings for another woman.)
Free Soul (22 year old aspiring manga artist writing a manga about a black jazz singer. Artist falls for a trumpeter of a jazz band.)
Sweet Lovin Baby (A young woman befriends a lesbian couple and falls for them. With three other short stories.)
Morishima Akiko
Conditions for Paradise- An OL in love with a world hopping freelance journalist
We’re Aiming for Love Now (Journalist and a cutie in a cosplay store)
Happy Picture Diary - (REALLY FUNNY. An social worker and an editor’s daily life together. All chibi but with some really real lesbian life jokes)
Off-Time (an aging lesbian short one shot)
20-Year-Old Girl x 30-Year-Old Maiden- (one shot, a 30 year old sensitive about her age with a 20 year old woman in her art class)
Princess of the Stars- (short- almost didn’t make it b/c high school flashbacks but it’s college roomies and it’s short and sweet- and challenges that “girls experiment with girls in high school then grow out of it” thing that people in Japan sometimes think)
Other Artists:
Ohana Holoholo: Torino Shino (Saya lives with her bisexual former girlfriend and her son. Nico, an actor living up stairs and a close friend, drops by for a visit almost everyday. Somewhat like family, and somewhat not, a story about their lives)
My Unique Day-Sakamoto Mano (women in an acting troupe together. one shot)
Abracadabra- Tanaka Minoru (a magician and a cute girl dealing with confessing to a girl for the first time)
Lonely Wolf, Lonely Sheep- Mizutani Fuka (two women with the same name meet. Warnings for self harm)
Cirque Arachne: Saida Nika (Two women working in the circus in a trapeze act. Stellar cute.)
Maple Love- Otsu Hiyori (meeting in college; really cute)
Two that I recommend but are set apart from the others because one is written by a man and one is written with the male audience in mind respectively
Kusari ha mou iranai- Uso Kurata; two Office ladies
Octave- Akiyama Haru (seinen manga; a talent manager and a songwriter)
This is by no means an exhaustive list and I know there’s more (one particularly that I wanted to put on here but couldn’t remember the title of) so feel free to add on your favorite adult queer lady manga to the list!
DONT LET KASE SAN FLOP Y'ALL LETS GIVE IT ENOUGH ATTENTION TO GIVE IT A FULL ANIME!!! It’s just a good pure shoujo ai that shows a relationship between an athletic girl named Kase-san and a gardener named Yamada! The 5 minute youtube clip is out now and you can watch it here X
Lesbian Day of Visibility is soon drawing to a close (well, in my time zone, anyway), so I’d like to very quickly make a short list of some anime with lesbian characters that I’d like to recommend! It’s hard to find anime with lesbians that aren’t just gross fetish shows, so hopefully this’ll be helpful to anyone who’s looking for more quality entertainment.
Aoi Hana
Fumi, a shy, bookish lesbian, is entering her first year of high school. She reunites with Akira, her old childhood friend from elementary school, and together they help each other through emotional and relationship-related problems.
Made a post about this show a little earlier today, so I’ll keep this brief. To quickly sum up what I wrote there, Aoi Hana is a beautiful, down-to-earth story that portrays lesbianism much more seriously than most other anime and its one I think anyone can get into.
YuruYuri
Join the 4 members of the Nanamori Middle School Amusement Club as they have fun and get up to all kinds of antics!
Alright admittedly, this show probably doesn’t have as much... I guess substance as pretty much everything else on this list and it’s really here more for nostalgic purposes than anything. I have good memories of watching this with my brother and to this day I think it’s still one of my favorite slice-of-life comedy anime. If you’re looking for something cute, harmless, and funny, then give this a watch. (the OVAs and season 3 weren’t as good imo, but they were still alright I guess)
Yurikuma Arashi
Gay bears disguise themselves as human girls and infiltrate a homophobic high school. After that shit gets weird. Like REALLY weird.
If you couldn’t tell by that plot summary, this show is... let’s say unique. But despite how strange it is, its overall message of accepting your sexuality is one that I think is a very powerful one. Of course this is probably the most out-there way to showcase it, but nevertheless it’s a great show if only to get that idea across.
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Utena Tenjou is a tomboyish girl who wishes to be a prince. One fateful day at school she meets a mysterious student named Anthy Himemiya. Anthy, as it turns out, is known as the Rose Bride and is the center of a dueling tournament in which members of the school Student Council compete in sword fights for possession of her and, by extension, the “power to revolutionize the world” that she seems to be the key to. Utena joins the tournament to protect Anthy from the other Duelists and in the process begins to unravel the secrets surrounding her school, the duels, and even Anthy herself.
I can hardly express how much I love Revolutionary Girl Utena. It has pretty much everything I love: action, supernatural elements, mystery, TONS of abstract imagery that I can analyze, and, of course, lesbians. You wanna hear me ramble, you get me to start talking about this show. I could go on and on about all the symbolism and themes of Utena forever and probably never get tired of it. Heck I’m even writing a paper about this show for school; getting to nerd out over anime for actual academic purposes is literally a dream come true.
Utena is 20 years old this year and it still holds up as a true masterpiece and a classic 90s anime. I don’t even know what to say it’s just so good. It’s a must see, trust me on that.
Unfortunately this list is way shorter than I’d like it to be because I have yet to discover more good anime with lesbian characters! (And I’m talking actually confirmed, canon lesbians) So if anyone has any more recs, please add them! They’d be much appreciated!
So last month I completely missed the opportunity to talk about Wandering Son for Trans Day of Visibility. And then I promised a full post about it within a week and... SPOILERS that didn’t happen. Sorry, it’s coming, I promise.
But now I’ve got a second chance because today is Lesbian Day of Visibility. And there is no way in hell I’m letting both the trans kids and the baby lesbians down on their respective visibility days in the same damn year. As an anime fan and a (mostly closeted) lesbian, I must answer the call and deliver my beautiful sisters some quality sapphic entertainment!
So let’s get to it already today’s special feature is Aoi Hana!
Aoi Hana (English title: Sweet Blue Flowers) takes place in two Japanese all-girl high schools and features Fumi, an extremely shy lesbian first-year, and her outgoing childhood friend, Akira. Together with the other girls they meet in their respective schools, they do their best to support one another through difficult experiences and relationships.
In the great bit world of anime, Aoi Hana is really a breath of fresh air. I think by now we’re all unfortunately used to gross fanservice shows where the gay and lesbian characters are overly sexualized and/or fetishized for creepy men. That or we get baited by three different shows airing at the exact same time LIKE COME ON GUYS REALLY ARE YOU KIDDING ME JUST LET THEM KISS ALRE sorry got a bit sidetracked there. (but seriously im still not completely over that)
Amidst all that, Aoi Hana stands out with its purity. This has really got to be one of the most pure things I’ve ever seen in my life and I’m glad an anime about lesbian high schoolers has that distinction. There’s nothing unnecessarily explicit or sexual about any of these girls or the whole series in general, it’s just these girls living their lives. None of them exist just look hot and be over-the-top gay while doing it, they’re simply having their story told.
On top of that, not only are the girls taken seriously, but so is their sexuality. Their gayness isn’t played up for any reason, it’s just a part of their identity and that’s that. Sexuality isn’t brought up more than it has to be, and when it does enter the spotlight, it’s not just sunshine and moe gay rainbows everywhere all the time. There’s a whole buttload of emotions that come with being gay and unfortunately not all of them are going to be happy, especially if you’re an extremely closeted baby gay like Fumi. This is also going to differ from person to person based on a whole slew of things and Aoi Hana showcases that as well, making for some pretty realistic interactions between the girls. All the characters have very real feelings and reactions towards all the emotions they and those they interact with are experiencing and all relationships they enter and observe.
The one problem I do have with the show is that the characters are sometimes kind of cliche. Not that any of them are bad or unlikable in any way, it’s just that even though they are very realistic in the ways they act, some of them kind of fall into stereotypical character types and because of that some parts of the story are pretty predictable. But that’s not really a big deal; it’s not like it ruined the show for me at all. Just a lil thing I wish could’ve been a bit different.
All in all, Aoi Hana is a beautiful anime. It’s one of the first yuri shows I’ve seen where I really felt like I was watching something that was made for me, not for some fetishist to get off on. It makes me really happy to have finally found some real representation in a medium I love. And to all my fellow lesbian anime fans out there, I hope you feel the same way.
