+ China Mieville - Un Lun Dun: YA novel by a white author that feels like a mixture of an updated Phantom Tollbooth (incredibly fun word play and exploration of quirky lands) and Miyazaki's storytelling (awesome female characters, amazing worldbuilding, nightmare fuel, and environmental themes). As TV Tropes puts it: "This book inverts, subverts and plays straight every prophecy trope in existence." One of the two main female protagonists is a South Asian Brit.
+ Chak De! India: Bollywood sports movie (minus much of the stereotypical romance and dance sequences one might expect) about the Indian women's field hockey and the struggles the teammates must face, both personally and as a team, to be seen as competent athletes.
+ The Girl Who Leapt Through Time: Japanese anime movie about a girl who gains the ability to go back in time. She uses it to have mundane, slice-of-life adventures! I'd highly recommend this to fans of Studio Ghibli's work as it has much of the same feel. :D
+ Seirei no Moribito: It starts off with an incredibly badass lady spear-wielding warrior, Balsa, who's hired by the empress to protect her son while he is at the center of a prophecy involving the spiritual world. Balsa has to carry the prince out of the country while fending off the highly-trained assassins of the emperor. There are multiple awesome female characters being incredibly strong and interesting and the story also deals with imperialism in a fictional landscape. The franchise began with a series of novels by Uehashi Nahoko, only the first two of which have been translated to English, but I think the anime (which covers the events of the first book) is better known. :D
If I could add nominations that aren't up yet, I'd probably add PlanetES. This anime is hard sci-fi with a squishy, emotional human core. It's a very realistic portrayal of space exploration and space travel in the future but that means it also deals with the philosophical and psychological aspects of being in space. It has an incredibly diverse set of characters with 3 of the four main characters as POC and a good chunk of the show actually deals with how space travel can impact international relations as third-world countries and their citizens fail to reap the benefits of space travel and research that their first-world counterparts enjoy.
no subject
+ China Mieville - Un Lun Dun: YA novel by a white author that feels like a mixture of an updated Phantom Tollbooth (incredibly fun word play and exploration of quirky lands) and Miyazaki's storytelling (awesome female characters, amazing worldbuilding, nightmare fuel, and environmental themes). As TV Tropes puts it: "This book inverts, subverts and plays straight every prophecy trope in existence." One of the two main female protagonists is a South Asian Brit.
Google Books has a preview.
+ Chak De! India: Bollywood sports movie (minus much of the stereotypical romance and dance sequences one might expect) about the Indian women's field hockey and the struggles the teammates must face, both personally and as a team, to be seen as competent athletes.
Hindi Trailer
+ The Girl Who Leapt Through Time: Japanese anime movie about a girl who gains the ability to go back in time. She uses it to have mundane, slice-of-life adventures! I'd highly recommend this to fans of Studio Ghibli's work as it has much of the same feel. :D
Japanese Trailer w/ English subs
+ Seirei no Moribito: It starts off with an incredibly badass lady spear-wielding warrior, Balsa, who's hired by the empress to protect her son while he is at the center of a prophecy involving the spiritual world. Balsa has to carry the prince out of the country while fending off the highly-trained assassins of the emperor. There are multiple awesome female characters being incredibly strong and interesting and the story also deals with imperialism in a fictional landscape. The franchise began with a series of novels by Uehashi Nahoko, only the first two of which have been translated to English, but I think the anime (which covers the events of the first book) is better known. :D
Check out Balsa's amazingness in action!. :D
If I could add nominations that aren't up yet, I'd probably add PlanetES. This anime is hard sci-fi with a squishy, emotional human core. It's a very realistic portrayal of space exploration and space travel in the future but that means it also deals with the philosophical and psychological aspects of being in space. It has an incredibly diverse set of characters with 3 of the four main characters as POC and a good chunk of the show actually deals with how space travel can impact international relations as third-world countries and their citizens fail to reap the benefits of space travel and research that their first-world counterparts enjoy.
Chech out this very compelling compelling rec post By meredyd. :D