• Kara on the hater side of fandom, which generally means fandom defined by what people don’t like instead of what they do. Why are we like this, and how can we be better?
• In this post, Kara also links to a dark comedy called Haterz (affiliate link) that I, admittedly, finished up yesterday in two hypnotized hours.
• On a related note: anti-fans and public spheres: an academic essay (with a bibliography!) about why we intentionally watch stuff just to hate on it.
• This is the coolest use of Patreon I’ve seen in a while. Motoka Murakami writes manga in Japanese, and if you back him, you can read his work in English while compensating him for it. I think a lot of people resort to manga scanlations because there’s no way to support the artist anyway—and this fixes that.
• Marion Bea is launching a new series of video essays on anime, but to create content she knows people want, she needs your help. Her survey is short, and it’s right here.
• This week’s Bookscan chart is a wake-up call for the comics industry. Everybody’s reading My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness, Bitch Planet, and Wonder Woman, which I guess is a surprise to people in the comic book industry, but certainly not to me. In my cultural bubble people prefer My Hero Academia to even the American comics it gets its inspiration from.
• I’ve never played an otome game before, but if I were to start, I might take my cues from this Waypoint list.
• In another world I wouldn’t even consider Anita Sarkeesian’s stunningly bland and sanitized views on women and games, but in this world I end up thinking about her a lot because for some reason she’s the one getting flak for her opinions. Everyone has a take on her calling a harasser a “garbage human” but all I can think is how weird it is that the entire VidCon organization couldn’t do anything to mitigate her harassment.
• If you’re going to Anime Expo this weekend, I’m jealous! I would love to meet Gunpla master Meijin Kawaguchi.
• Popular Isekai Light Novel Adaptations as Guys Who Lived in Your Freshman Dorm. It’s funny ’cause it’s true.

Anime Expo crowd shot by Ejen Chuang.