Sorry, this individual post will be very boring.

I want to write some things about BNA, the new "furry darling" anime that came out of Netflix jail recently.

Over the course of the past three weeks, I've spent a great deal of time ruminating, writing, and editing my thoughts to form the set of posts that will follow this one. There's a lot of thoughts, a lot of words. I've tried to split them up into more coherent individual pieces, so that you can read them individually if you like and skip the parts that aren't relevant to your interests. They are still related though, and to get a full picture of what I'm trying to say about the show, I think it's best to read through them all. However, the three parts I go into are as follows:

1. "Michiru is trans". What it says on the tin. By far the longest of the three parts, it's also the most important. I'm not certain, but I do think this is also the part you can skip around in the most; it's significant length is largely due to my elaborating in great detail everything from the show that makes me say this.

2. "On the furry canon". A shorter discussion of the different ways different media (particularly Zootopia, Beastars, and BNA) "feels furry" or not. Somewhat inspired by this Twitter thread by @Kavaeric. Also I think he was working on a full essay based off of that tweet thread so, look out for that. Whenever he finishes it, I have a feeling that will be more thorough than this post, which was only a side thing I realized I had thoughts about as I worked on "Michiru is trans".

3. "The shadow Trigger casts". An also short discussion of the specific factors that I think led people to expect something other than what they got with BNA, the flaws it has, and the things I was pleasantly surprised by with it.

Things I want to get out of the way before we begin

This post is largely intended to state some things that will be important set dressing for the other posts. Think of it as the "don't fucking @ me over this" post. My hope is that you will read this and keep what I say in mind here as you read the other posts.

I don't speak or read any Japanese. I watched, mostly, the English dub of the anime (with subtitles also on). Rarely, I listened to the Japanese dub (Mostly, to confirm technical things. I kinda wonder if COVID messed any with the recording of the English dub or if the specific audio weirdness the show has in scenes with big crowds was always just going to be that way due to a low budget for extras). I have read a few (sometimes partial) translations of interviews with creators (like here or here or here) (and one English-language AMA with Genice Chan, who was heavily involved in character design for the show, among other things), and a brief English summary of the (Japanese-language only, currently) prequel light novel. Obviously, there's a lot more information out there I don't have for a variety of reasons. I may make brief references to these interviews in particular, in part to discuss what I think the studio was intending with the story, but I also think that, for large portions of what I intend to write about, while knowing that context can be enlightening and interesting, the work stands on its own.

I am a cis man. Given that I've written over 10,000 words about why a character is trans, I want it to be clear that, there are things that I will be writing about that I do not have a full perspective on, and I may absolutely be missing things. I am a gay man, sure; I'm familiar with queer spaces. And, for reasons I go more into in "Michiru is trans", I hope I can convince you that BNA is resonant with me in ways that are related to why a trans person might see themself in this work. But, I will make mistakes. If you notice them, I apologize, and if you're comfortable pointing them out to me, I will rectify them to the best of my ability. But, particularly with "Michiru is trans", I see my role here as highlighting and elaborating on an idea that I would be interested to hear others' opinions on.

These posts are completely full of spoilers. In order to discuss BNA to the level of detail I intend to, I will be going into laborious detail about many, if not most, aspects of the story. I think there may be a way to extract some of what I'm saying in spoiler free ways, but that is not my intention with these works. Perhaps I will revisit them or talk about them elsewhere (say, Twitter) in ways that are spoiler-free. However, if you read this, you must decide between either being okay with everything about the show being spoiled or watching the show before reading this.

I use the word "beastfolk", not "beastman". If you're not expecting it, it may sound awkward, and I know that. I debated between "beastfolk" and "beastkin", which I thought I had seen used in some fan translations, but given some of what I talk about in "Michiru is trans", I ended up deciding that terms of form "x-kin" may be somewhat overloaded in this discussion. Also, I just like the sound of beastfolk better anyways, as a personal aesthetic choice. Further, I think it's not the worst thing in the world to remove the genedered component from the word. I don't alter quotes from the text (specifically, the dub), but when I'm speaking, I'm trying to use the word "beastfolk", at least in these posts.

One last thing before we get started: this blog was started with the intention that I would largely write from the hip and just post whatever. I spent a little more time than usual with these, particularly "Michiru is trans", and I do hope you find what I have to say interesting and useful to think about and discuss. That being said, these posts are still somewhere in between "highly polished and edited essay" and "took one take and never came back". Nothing I say is bulletproof, but I do enjoy thoughtful discussion about what I write.