Written by: Josh "The Merc" Raynor
This year at NewFest (New York’s LGBTQ Film Festival) I had the distinct pleasure of watching several great films, but the one I was most anticipating was Lesbian Space Princess. This adult animated film dives headfirst into LGBTQ culture and embodies female empowerment and queer identity. Its brightly colored palette spans the rainbow, allowing for subtle representation of all sorts among the more obvious moments.
The incredibly bold and upbeat animation serves to amplify the smart and witty writing of this film. It leans into some great tongue-in-cheek satire, while bringing with it a deep sense of emotion, beautifully showcasing the struggles of anxiety, self-loathing, and self-doubt, and how those things can shape a person's outlook on the world.
The film follows Saira, the titular space princess of an all-lesbian world called Clitopolis. She’s young and awkward, and throughout the story, learns who she really is deep down. She battles low self-esteem and anxiety that manifests itself in a captivating way, as well as parents who can’t seem to accept her for who she is, and all of this leads her to desperately seek love, while blaming herself for other people’s mistakes and shortcomings. Something I’m sure many viewers can relate to in some way.
We get to see a nice spectrum of queer representation, both on-screen and behind. From lesbians and bisexuals, a drag queen, a trans Queen, and a non-binary goth, there’s a little bit for just about everyone. Even the voice cast is represented in this way, which was something I was incredibly thrilled to find out. The drag queen is voiced by an actual drag queen, and the trans Queen is voiced by an actual trans woman, and it’s this that makes the film feel more authentic.
Lesbian Space Princess, at its core, is a coming-of-age story told in a way we don’t see very often. Typically, it’s adolescents who are focused on in these films, as that’s the time when most people discover who they really are, but this focuses on a woman in her early twenties who hasn’t really had the opportunity to do that. She’s always been in the spotlight because of her family, yet always looked down upon for not being just like them. The film is full of terrible people being terrible to Saira, and it’s only after she goes out on her own that she can finally grow and realize that and make a better life for herself.
Overall, this is an incredible film that everyone should check out. Queer, animated sci-fi is a genre I hope we get a lot more of, and with a message like “we deserve to love ourselves,” I think this one will really hit people in a deep and meaningful way.
The Merc’s Score: 9/10
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