Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito: A heartful treatise on the everlasting immutability of love through the bounds of time, space, family relations, and logic. Through the enacting of rape fantasies pandering to the ever-present male gaze which are thinly disguised as dangerous scenarios continually threatening our supposedly empowered female lead, nay, protagonist, YamiHat follows Terry Goodkind's model of "almost rape" as a legitimate plot device to reveal the tension inherent in allowing misogyny to exist alongside a vague attempt to write an empowered female character. It cleverly allows us identification with the sexually-frustrated and literally masturbatory lead, thereby pointing the finger back at us. YamiHat also manages, through the use of careful editing, staging, and mise-en-scene, to impress upon the viewer the powerful orbital rotation capable of those works of the literary medium known as books. It's influence is as far and wide as Mawaru Penguin Drum (magical hats) and Aoi Hana (lesbian incest) and as such I continue to hold out hope that, someday, this series will become the necessary catalyst to change the world we live in.
