October 2022 Patron Newsletter and Staff Recommendations

As we bid a tearful farewell to spooky season, we're faced with an entirely different, less fun kind of terror: Elon Musk making good on his threat to buy Twitter. As folks understandably look for other platforms to call home we continue our search as well (beyond our current secondary presences on Tumblr and Mastodon), and we'd love to hear from you all where we can best reach you. Let's continue doing our best to keep independent anime journalism alive, AniFam -- we couldn't do it without your wonderful support!

October Recommendations

AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative

Format: Game

Picked by: Caitlin

What’s it about: Six years ago, the right half corpse appeared in the middle of a live game show stream. Now, the left half has appeared, with no signs of age or decay. Date Mizuki and Kuruto Ryuki are detectives for ABIS, a secret organization within the Metropolitan Police Department that investigates crimes by diving into suspects’ and witnesses’ dreams and examining their psyche. It’s up to these two to investigate the Half Body Serial Killings… six years apart from each other.

Content considerations: murder, violence, blood, body horror, minor gore, eye stuff, mutilation derealization, porn addiction, imprisonment, BDSM dynamics, eugenics, viral pandemic

Why we like it: So let’s get this out of the way: AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative is a sequel. Yes, you can play it without having played the first one, but it’s better if you’re familiar with the settings and characters… although maybe you’ll enjoy certain gameplay elements more if you’re not comparing them to previous versions. No, it’s not anywhere nearly as good as the first one… but it’s still a worthwhile and ultimately fulfilling experience.

I have two main reasons for recommending it here at AniFem: one is that the writer, Uchikoshi Kotaro, is a staunch LGBTQ+ ally and he’s not afraid to speak out. The first Somnium Files game had some optional dialogue where Mizuki, the protagonist’s foster-daughter, gives a speech about the importance of the LGBTQ+ community. nirvanA Initiative, on the other hand, has non-skippable dialogue where a character openly declares, “If you think there’s only men and women in this world, you’re sorely mistaken!” It may have been a bit clunky, but it’s earnest and Uchikoshi has continued to stick to his guns.

The other is that this is a rare adventure game where you get to play as a female protagonist… or at least you do for half of it. I’ve found that I inhabit female protagonists in a way that I rarely do male ones, and I had so much fun playing as Mizuki. She’s bold and rough and tumble, ready to throw down at a moment’s notice with her incredible brute strength. She and her AI eyeball partner, Aiba, have chemistry I can only describe as sheer chaos. It’s a good time.

Perfect World

Format: Manga (12 volumes, complete)

Picked by: Dee

What’s it about? When 26-year-old Tsugumi reunites with her high-school crush Itsuki at a workplace social event, she’s surprised to learn he now uses a wheelchair due to a spinal cord injury. As the two reconnect, Tsugumi’s crush sparks back to life and Itsuki finds himself reciprocating—but in an ableist world, their relationship is far from barrier-free.

Content considerations: Depictions of depression and ableism; a nurse who develops romantic feelings for and a short-lived romance with a former patient.

Why we like it: I’ll probably push to add this title to our site’s Manga Recs list at some point, but for now here’s a patron-exclusive: this josei series is real, real good. Perfect World is a grounded, character-driven drama that not only costars a disabled love interest but takes time to explore accessibility, ableism, and the complex feelings different characters have about their disabilities.

The author researched and interviewed extensively, and it shows throughout the story, particularly in the segments on "barrier-free" architecture. Zahra wrote a piece for us about how the series handles disability a while back (including the short-lived nurse-patient romance that’s the manga’s greatest flaw), so you can read that for extra details.

In addition to its handling of disability, Perfect World also explores nontraditional gender roles and family structures, particularly in later volumes. Expectations about what a couple or a family are “supposed” to look like abound, but while Itsuki and Tsugumi do struggle with these expectations, they ultimately reject them in favor of the relationship that works best for them. This leads to some lovely later plot beats focusing on Tsugumi as a professional designer and Itsuki as a domestic caregiver, adding one more feather in Perfect World’s cap.

I wouldn't go so far as to call this a revolutionary title, but it's certainly a refreshing one, featuring a supportive couple, nuanced depictions of disability, and a progressive undercurrent for a more accessible world. Well-paced and well-developed, this is an easy rec for the AniFem audience.