April 2022 Patron Newsletter and Staff Picks

It's finally here! This month we introduced our new site logo, including fancy new icons for our social media and podcasts--plus, some super cute new merch at the AniFem store! We're so grateful to Katy Castillo for her amazing work, and we'd love to hear y'all's thoughts on the new look.

April Recommendations

The Emperor and I

Format: Manga

Picked by: Dee

What’s it about? High school girl Kaho opens her refrigerator one day to find an emperor penguin inside, so she and her family make the obvious choice: adopt "Emperor" into their home! After all, how hard can taking care of a slightly magic penguin be?

Why we like it: Emperor and I is the perfect chill-out manga: funny, warm, cute, educational, doesn’t overstay its welcome, and contains nothing I need to warn folks about. Also: Penguin! What else do you need, really?

Emperor serves as a focal point for the humans to gather around, allowing the cast to steadily expand from Kaho’s family to her friends and neighbors, each character distinct and grounded without relying on stereotypes. In between animal facts and shenanigans, they create a relaxed, welcoming community, making this a comfy series as well as a silly one.

Emperor and I is complete at 4 volumes, with a chef’s kiss of an ending. My only critique is that it’s digital-only so I can’t have the good penguin and kids on my bookshelf. That said, it’s available on both the Shonen Jump app and through various e-bookstores, making it an easy commitment and a great bite-size read for commutes and work/study breaks. So dive in, AniFam!

Umineko: When They Cry

Format: Visual Novel

Picked by: Caitlin

What’s it about? Rumor has it that anyone who can solve the riddle of the epitaph on the portrait of the witch Beatrice the Golden in the Ushiromiya mansion will inherit the family’s vast fortune; otherwise, the witch herself will come to take back her gold. Ushiromiya Battler comes to Rokkenjima, his grandfather’s island, for the first time since he left the family six years ago, along with the rest of his family. Is it just bad luck that the year he returns is the one when the witch comes calling? Or is there something else?

Content warnings: Murder, including of children, descriptions of gore, demons and witchcraft, groping jokes; for additional content warnings that involve extensive endgame spoilers, please see this post 

This one is a commitment, y’all. It took me over 100 hours over the course of several months to play through Umineko: When They Cry from beginning to end, and that was entirely linear story. It’s one of the longest pieces of fiction ever written, longer than War and Peace or Homestuck. There were moments where my editor fingers itched to slash through the extraneous prose like a sword, but by the time I finished, I was entirely glad for the experience. Maybe someday I’ll even reread it to pick up on the things I miss!

It is, however, difficult to give a coherent recommendation for Umineko because it’s one of those stories where it really is best to go in knowing as little as possible. Just know that it goes from being a fairly straightforward murder mystery/horror story to something both deeply meta and emotionally satisfying via constant escalation. This recommendation goes triple for fans of the mystery genre because… well… to say so would be spoilers. But if you’re familiar with Knox’s 10 Commandments, you’re exactly the kind of person who would get the most out of this story.

If a 100-hour visual novel doesn’t sound like the best way to experience a story to you, I hear the manga is a solid adaptation if you can get your hands on it, but it’s long out of print in English. Just promise me you won’t watch the anime, okay? It only adapts half the story and does it badly, making for something an incomplete and unsatisfying version.