I must give a shout out to
Remember how Joshiraku was about normal young women in their 20s, and it was just so cute and pretty and witty and wise?
If you were to take that color-coded sewing circle and turn it inside-out, you would find the despair and misery of Turning Girls.
Tsuzukusekai writes:
Turning Girls is a short web anime series by a group named AnimeBancho, wherein the characters are all single women on the cusp of reaching 30 (hence the “Turning” part of the title). Each episode is five minutes long (with official English subs), and it’s made with a small budget in mind so don’t expect lavishly-detailed animation. The art is clean enough, though. So far there are three episodes out, which cover topics like group dates (go-kon), unproductive office days, and breaking an arm for your hobbies. Two out of three ain’t bad for me!
There’s really not much else to say, but I think it captures the world-weary, jadedness of adults. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I need to watch something that isn’t about high school kids…
Turning Girls is not just an anime that’s NOT about high school kids … it’s an anime that quickly, brutally exposes how disappointing adult life can be, and shows us simultaneously how anime is unrealistic and why we are so miserable that we need to drown our sorrows in anime.
It’s like a much, much darker version of The Daily Lives of High School Boys.
I’m going to tag this “anime shows that will annoy most feminists,” because this is a show that will really drive most feminists into violent rages. The visuals are very minimal, but the writing is like a painful scalpel of criticism, with no anesthetic.
gaikokumaniakku 
I didn’t know that Joshiraku was the polar opposite to Turning Girls!
May I ask why you think Turning Girls will inflame feminists? I’m curious!
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All the feminists I meet think that women aren’t supposed to get married until about 35, then have babies around age 40.
In my experience, the Japanese “Christmas Cake” idea [that women are supposed to marry by age 25] causes feminists to scream with rage.
Turning Girls basically tells women, “If you wait until you’re 28 to get married, your life is going to be over and you’re going to be miserable.”
I have met multitudinous hordes of women who would not be able to sit still through five minutes of this show; they would have to turn it off or leave the room or something.
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Reblogged this on The Anime Magick Archives.
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Update:
Sunshine Mary recently did a couple of posts on the real-world consequences of women who don’t get married and then feel surprised that they have fewer options at 32 than they had at 22.
https://sunshinemaryandthedragon.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/the-baffled-spinster/
http://sunshinemaryandthedragon.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/possibly-the-worst-advice-for-young-women-in-the-whole-history-of-the-internet/
I am amazed Mary used the term “spinster.” I haven’t heard anyone use that term in years.
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