Sen

listen i love The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All, but any time it tries to do more serious drama it feels like it's extremely struggling against both the twitter 4-page format and just a general inability to deliver there.

general spoilers below

here's a bunch of stuff I experienced this month

• Manga/Comics
  • Völundio ~Divergent Sword Saga~
    • The follow-up to Helck, it's taken me a little longer to warm up to it since it doesn't have as immediately-lovable characters but I'm on board now. A big ol fantasy adventure that is largely about running a tavern.
  • There's No Freaking Way I'll be Your Lover! Unless... (vol 1)
    • Fake dating into real dating is an extremely contrived concept that I'm completely a mark for. Yuri where the line between friend and girlfriend is maybe not as well-defined as initially thought.
  • A Tropical Fish Years For Snow
    • Very cute yuri series about loneliness and companionship. It does sometimes reach comic levels of "please just talk" but it's a good one.
  • The Executioner and Her Way Of Life (vol 1-2)
    • This series dunks on male power fantasy isekai incredibly hard within the first few pages so I'm already sold.
  • Vampeerz (vol 1-2)
    • I continue to be a sucker for vampire romance, this is v cute.
  • Gundam Thunderbolt (vol 1)
    • It's Gundam baby! I liked this, will probably read the rest of it at some point. A very tense conflict in space, does a good job of humanizing everyone.
  • Sweet Blue Flowers
    • I love Takako Shimura's work, this is classic coming-of-age romance with lots of awkwardness, growth, misunderstandings.
  • The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All
    • This is food for me, I feast upon this. Budding romance between prep (who is secretly a big music nerd) and nerd (who is secretly a hot androgynous punk). Good stuff.
  • Boys Run The Riot
    • A queer coming of age story about finding yourself and overcoming adversity, plus streetware. Good stuff.
  • Blue Flag
    • Cute love triangle romance story, sorta deals with some queer themes but doesn't really feel like it lands that well, and also spends a lot of time kinda monologuing in circles.
  • The Department of Truth (tpb 1-2)
    • Really striking art, this is a sorta X-Files/Men In Black/Inside Job look at conspiracy theories as a force that shapes the world, it's dark and weird and interesting.
• Anime
  • Vision of Escaflowne (series)
    • Incredible stuff, everything that is unique and good about 90s anime represented here.
  • Escaflowne (movie)
    • Less incredible stuff - I don't think it works on its own, but I also don't think it works as a companion to the series? Some of the designs are fun but that's about the only praise I can give it.
  • Last Exile
    • A big epic 'cloudpunk' airship drama, I like this but haven't finished it yet as I found it a little slow and the characterization a little off. Love Dio though, I'm a sucker for terrible men.
• Games
  • Growing Up
    • Raising sim set in a sorta 90s modern realistic setting, it's fine but I feel like there's not a lot of meat there and it doesn't do much to allow for player expressiveness, roleplaying, etc.
  • Hand of Doom
    • This game's goofy in a good way, a sorta dark fantasy puzzle adventure with a lot of FMV elements. Intentionally cheesy.
  • Inkbound
    • I'm struggling with my feelings on this one - I'm a huge fan of Shiny Shoe's previous game Monster Train, and I like the core game loop of Inkbound, but it's wrapped up in a lot of live service game stuff that feels offputting and unnecessary.
  • Pocket Mirror: GoldenerTraum
    • A classic RPG Maker horror game, I had a fun time with this but it's very beholden to the kinda tropes of that genre.
  • Halls of Torment
    • It's a Vampire Survivors, has a fun "old Diablo" aesthetic. Abilities and synergies not as interesting though.