#eternal filena

[mostlymilkwood]

I recently watched the Eternal Filena OVA, and then started playing the SNES RPG for it, thanks to this clip going around twitter. I'm actually super curious if they really are the first sapphic marriage in anime, as I've rarely seen this series brought up in yuri history. A part of that may be down to the fact that the game is more known than the OVA, and that the OVA, while a fun watch, is not very good lol.

There isn't too much written on the English side of the things about what yuri was up to during the 80s, barring of course The Rose of Versailles, and Eternal Filena is absolutely riffing on that, down to both Filena and Oscar being blonde haired nobles who are raised to present as men and have to hide that they're women for various plot reasons. Incidentally this is how Filena is able to marry Lila in the first place, since everyone think she's a man, though she's already told Lila she's a woman when she suggest they get married (again, for various plot reasons, watch the ova or play the game!)

I wanna dive more into the proto-yuri era of the 80s and 90s at some point, as well as the evolution of marriage in yuri works but for now I'm going to get back to playing the Eternal Filena RPG to see if those girls get their happily ever after.

[superfamiblog]

Eternal Filena (Tokuma Shoten, 1995) English translation patch by satsu.

[caterpie]

Eternal Filena (1992)

[jewlwpet]

Cute

[what-a-connmotion]

Eternal Filena (1992–1993)

[emtmercy]

wow loving their vibe

[chaoticruinsgentlemen]

[neonapocalypta]

(Mostly) First Impressions of Eternal Filena

CONTEXT: Another thread repost from my twitter during my original batch of Takeshi Shudo stuff I watched while being ill in March. Of course, these are edited for any grammar and anything that didn't need to be there w/ hindsight. This time, I actually had to add stuff in the form of notes. I gotta get back on this watch, I've just been down so many rabbit holes this year. I had also watched cosmos pink shock, but never got around to talking about it despite loving it. I look forward to talking about these shows more someday. (And pretty soon for one of them...)

---

I knew getting ahold of a lot of Takeshi Shudo's early work was gonna be a challenge, but at least according to Wikipedia he did a lot of uncredited work throughout the early 70s. What a shame, even if it seems like he was just a helping hand.

Lucky for me I guess I've seen enough of the guy's work that I can usually tell what he might have written. He has a distinct style from what I've sampled so far. [NEW NOTE: This is in relation to some of the earliest shows he worked on as a writer. I had been having trouble finding his proper credit online for individual episodes he wrote. I had watched those before watching these ovas. During these shows I'd just have to watch an ep and guess if he'd pop up in the credits. I was right pretty much every time. What a nice memory.]

So far, my favs are Radio City Fantasy and Eternal Filena. Radio is a cute love story in twist with a drug trip. Filena is also a love story about two people that have to come together and make shit work.

Filena has 3 versions. The light novel (I can't read it.) the game, and the anime that was never completed. The anime is still worth watching, it has some cool visuals and frankly I love Lila and Filena a lot, so its an added bonus for me. I'm not sure which version is closer to Shudo's LN. My guess would be the anime since it seems like he had more involvement in the writing, but I'm only guessing. The game feels almost has a road trip vibe and is quicker paced compared to the anime.

I know the claim about Prof Ivy being a Lesbian was debunked recently, so its cool to be able to say Takeshi Shudo has written a lesbian couple. I know there's talk about Filena being a trans man, and I think that's valid. Though it seems like this is mostly talked about from the perspective of the game, where their character is written a bit different than the show. (Less openly affectionate, more traditionally masculine personality)

Also, if Filena is a trans the ending of the game is pretty terrible then, forcing them to wear a dress when they don't want to. (Aka forcing them to conform to women gender roles in this case.) I'm not saying that's why I think Filena isn't trans, I'm saying if they are, that's a really shitty ending for a trans guy. Epesh bc Lila, their partner, is making them wear it.

My guess is that Shudo intended them to be a lesbian couple. Rn having access to the novels would be really helpful. If you've never read a Shudo novel, at the least the Pokemon ones are written a lot different than most books. Most people would say he's a terrible writer, but I disagree. At least in those books you can feel his brain throughout the page. No one else could have written those books in that exact way. He has a voice, lets say, and I'm sure the writing style is the same in the EF LNs. Either way, I think it's so cool to have a series from the 90s that lets people speculate about queer identities and there's viable text to provoke discussion.

It's also cool to see how our main couple is treated. They live in a world where they're slaves and are only seen as entertainment. Together they see each other as loved ones, work ingas a team to create a better future for themselves. It's something you have to read/play to completely get what I mean and I think the anime is better at showing this aspect. But trust me, there's a warmth to their relationship past the romance. (no matter what type of couple they are.) With it being a romance, makes it better. Double for gay interpretation. It doesn't feel it was written to be "Lesbians be hot" but more "This is a couple". Even if in Shudo's novel they don't end up together (they do in the game.) or it goes any other way in the end, I still really respect how they're written.

MORE END OF THE GAME SPOILERS: They become queens at the end. Like Lila is on the throne with Filena. Based.

I'd love to keep talking about Filena and Lila at length bc I think they're great, but I don't want to spoil anything else. Btw the game is on the SNES and never got localized (i WoNdEr WhY?) so Filena being either a gay woman or a trans protag is pretty cool considering the era. Fuck, her being a woman protag by itself was a big deal for that era as far as I know.

*Btw not saying the Queer themes are the only reason this wasn't brought over. I could guess several like how it looks like FF or how its an adult property, and more. [NEW NOTE: I think I meant it looks enough like Final Fantasy that investors wouldn't want to risk it being in competition with those games. tbh that coulda made it a better candidate for an ENG release during certain times as well. I was just spit ballin' but it bothered me enough to add this note. While we're here, I think between it's adult and Queer themes, and also coming out in 95 is most likely why it stayed JPN excusive. I should have mentioned its late release date (for the SNES), but when you're sick and on twitter things slip through the cracks I guess.]

The game has a fan translation and there's a recent lp that shows it off. I'd say check it out if you like that era of JRPGs in general. Personally, for English speakers at least, the game then the anime is the best way to go since you'll get a full story first.

There's several reasons I like one version over the other but that's small shit and I've written enough for now. I wasn't planning on this thread becoming about Filena but I guess it is national Women's day [At time of writing] and no matter Filena's gender, Lila is a queen.

Also sorry if I get anything wrong. Espesh about Shudo's career. Info on the english web is not great. Like some websites say Radio city was his first work at 18, but it came out in 1984 and he was born in 1949. If I get anything wrong, I'll correct it.

i got a lot more Shudo stuff I've seen and want to see, so maybe next time I'll post more about Radio city. This was meant to be a small update thread lol.

[semnomegusejogos]

Eternal Filena Super Famicom

[a-girl-called-bob]

started playing this super nintendo RPG last night called 'Eternal Filena' (Eien no Filena; the game was never officially translated, but a pretty solid fan patch exists here). The game plays very much like Final Fantasy 5 - it's a turn-based RPG that uses an ATB meter affected both by the speed of a character and the weight of their equipment.

So get this: In a world with radical technological disparity, the Empire has conquered every nation around it. You play as Filena, a girl from a subjugated race raised as a boy for her own protection - though, that's a bit complicated. See, girls of your race are treated poorly, sure - most work in either service or service - but guys of your race aren't treated that much better, as most of them are forced into gladiatorial combat training from a young age, as that gladiator combat is the most popular form of mass entertainment for the Imperial populace. Still, due to reasons that come up fairly early in the game, maintaining the disguise is crucial.

Now, very early on (like, 'before the first real fight' early), you're put into a situation where you're expected to sleep with a woman, Lila. She naturally discovers that you're in disguise, but she's willing to keep your secret - after all, she can't exactly leave without staying the night, or she'll likely be arrested or killed. Lila ends up posing as (?) Filena's wife, and this persists despite them all leaving the gladiatorial combat environment fairly soon.

You also meet Nest, the guy who essentially writes the booking of the gladiator battles in order to create interesting 'stories' - like Kayfabe, if the fights were actually to the death. You basically start attracting interest around town, initially, because you were the obvious jobber for the first matchup and you pull off a surprising victory.

After a few fights, your reputation changes and the town opens up a bit, but after you're forced to fight your mentor in the arena, the plot really gets started. As he lays, dying from your spear, he hands you a token of your heritage and tells you to break into the information office and use their machines to decode it. This is where the game picks up, and where I'll stop summarizing.

This game is apparently an adaptation of a light novel series from the 1990s, and also got an anime that was apparently not that good.

Eternal Filena isn't technically impressive, and it has a couple of annoying parts where grinding is necessary (though, one point - which is very funny, because it's supposed to be an escape sequence - has a room with a full-heal machine that also has random encounters that drop way more experience than you've had from random encounters to that point, so it's a perfect place to grind despite 'Get the Fuck Out' klaxons going; it's also a necessary place to grind, because there's a super overleveled boss at the end of that area), but it's a really solid turn-based RPG on its mechanical merits nonetheless.

While the story is certainly not new, and it's been done more effectively since, a lot of the story elements that are here are really quite good. The translation patch does a good job of capturing the intended weight of most scenes (at least in the early-game, I'm only 3 hours in at this point and the world looks pretty big from here). There are some fairly obvious gender-feelings around (Lila's increasing insistence that she's her wife becomes both funnier and more subtext-laden as the game continues, especially as more and more people discover Filena's secret), and the setting raises some interesting questions that I hope will be touched on in some throwaway NPC dialogue.

In all, Eternal Filena is a solid RPG that deserves a second look. I'd just recommend making sure your fast-forward and turbo-A/B keybinds are set on your emulator, because some sections (especially the aforementioned grinding) can be made much quicker and less annoying that way.

In order to prevent copyright strike issues, please DM me for questions about how to get specific ROMs. Most games are available on Archive.org if you search 'no-intro' and limit it to software, though you'll need a free account.

[90sfantasyanimestuff]

Eternal Filena, Akemi Takada

[mostlymilkwood]

I cannot express how unprepared I was for this man to be a literal clown.

[superfamiblog]

Eternal Filena (Tokuma Shoten, 1995) English translation patch by satsu.

[caterpie]

Eternal Filena (1992)

[jewlwpet]

[80sanime]