My Thoughts on Angelic Kitty Miracle-Chan

It's okay if you don't agree with me on this but I just need to get it out there :P

So the short itself is absolutely subpar. It's a shallow exploration of media being used as an escape for gender dysphoria/isolation while at the same time being very overtly cynical. But I don't wanna dog on it too much because it's a student film, which I feel should be given the grace of being imperfect. That being said, there's a very vocal disdain for this short on social media which has been blown way out of proportion.

It comes from both projection and a refusal to acknowledge differing life experiences - especially of differing trans experiences. I've known multiple trans women like Alex, I even see some of Alex in myself. Too paralyzed with fear of the outside world and its judgement that you crawl into yourself and imagine a world where you are the most beautiful and loved person in existence. It's a state of being that I feel is all too common among trans women pretransition but for some reason this very shallow exploration of that is going over a lot of people's heads.

The main criticism is that it demonizes trans women and moe culture but like...In what way? Because Alex is sort of neurotic and happens to like anime? Because they buy "creepy" cosplay gear to try and look like Miracle-chan? Yes, Alex is socially inept, but its not impossible to piece together that their neuroticism isn't a consequence of watching anime, it's because of outside factors that attracted them to anime. This isn't elaborated on in the short - In my opinion, 7 minutes is not nearly long enough to explore the subject matter put forth in this film - but it's very easy to come to this conclusion. You don't know everything about Travis Bickle, but you can infer that he had a troubled past by his behavior in Taxi Driver.

This is what I mean by the criticism being partly projection. The assumption that it paints people who enjoy anime, or more specifically Moe, as anxious losers is understandable, because that's all the short really offers. But to completely discard it because the character is imperfect and refusing to connect the dots in what it's attempting to communicate is indicative that the characterization has deeply offended you in some way. "THAT'S NOT ME! YES I WATCH ANIME, YES I DON'T LEAVE THE HOUSE, YES I BLOW OFF PLANS WITH FRIENDS TO ROT IN BED, YES I COLLECT ANIME FIGURINES, BUT THAT'S. NOT. MEEEE!!!!"

And like I said before, I've known people like Alex and used to be a bit like Alex, so it's easy to sympathize with the character. Seeing such an overwhelming majority of people online, some of them other trans women, trash the movie for Alex's very basic characterization is so confusing and heartbreaking. Not one of you know a chronically online T girl? Not one of you acted in similar ways before you transitioned? The trans experience isn't a homogenized blob where every T girl magically realizes that they're a woman and starts hormones. There are trans women who struggled for years before they made the jump, the most popular example I can think of is Jane Schoenbrun - Which, by the way, I Saw The TV Glow has the same basic concept as Miracle-chan but you can't see how it may be potraying isolation among trans women?

There are also many trans women who are imperfect. And I understand the hesitation to portray these more imperfect personalities in media but it is wildly important. Directors like John Waters pushed boundaries for the queer community with films like Multiple Maniacs, which has a group of queers put on a freak show for a heteronormative audience - the group that pushed them to the outskirts of society in the first place. To turn around and bash this very surface level depiction of a loser girlfailure is so irritating, as it feels demeaning to those who have lived and are still living this experience.

Am i reading to much into a 7 minute student short? Maybe. But I don't care. JUSTICE FOR T GIRL FAILURES!!!!

Also, the intro animation was sooo cute, Love you Miracle-Chan! o(≧∀≦)o