Chatty AF 239: Sanda Retrospective

Chatty AF 239: Sanda Retrospective

From Chatty AF: The Anime Feminist Podcast by Anime Feminist

February 2, 2026 · 1h 11m

About this episode

The episode features a discussion on the themes and characters of the manga 'Sanda' by Paru Itagaki.

Tony, Caitlin, and ANN’s Sylvia get together to talk about Paru Itagaki’s madcap dystopic LGBT romance battle shonen featuring a sexy Santa Claus, Sanda! 0:00:00 Intro 0:01:53 Paru Itagaki 0:07:07 Whomst is Santa 0:10:21 Wish fulfillment 0:14:35 Black Santa 0:18:50 The “Trauma-free Curriculum” 0:31:08 Oshibu 0:34:55 Puberty and body horror 0:37:59 Furuyama’s Body 0:42:04 All the metaphors 0:45:41 Enforced heteronormativity 0:48:44 Bury your gays? 0:56:59 Bury your gays 1:02:39 Itagaki’s unpredictability 1:04:33 Hopes for season 2 1:08:49 Closing thoughts 1:09:24 Outro Tony: https://bsky.app/profile/empty-visions.bsky.social Caitlin: https://bsky.app/profile/alltsunnodere.bsky.social Sylvia: https://bsky.app/profile/vestenet.bsky.social AniFem Linktree: https://linktr.ee/animefeminist AniFem Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/animefeminist AniFem Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/animefeminist Recorded Thursday 29th January 2026 Music: Open Those Bright Eyes by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

People in this episode

Hosts: Tony, Caitlin

Guest: Sylvia

Topics covered

  • LGBT themes
  • dystopian narratives
  • battle shonen
  • body horror
  • metaphors in media
  • season expectations

Keywords

  • Sanda
  • Paru Itagaki
  • LGBT romance
  • battle shonen
  • body horror
  • Santa Claus
  • dystopia
  • metaphors
  • season 2

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Anime Feminist

Books & works: Sanda

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