sideways | Reading

This is the anime film from Studio Wit and co-written by Gen Urobuchi, not the Judd Apatow comedy with the same title and release year. Quick summary: it's Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" set in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo where gravity "bubbles" make for some truly awesome parkour, and the weirdness is centered around the Tokyo Tower because of course it is.

This one is pretty obscure, but it's also extremely pretty - gorgeous animation, great use of "bubbles" as a repeating thematic motif, and some fun character dynamics and banter. Overall, it's solid, but not exceptional.

My only critiques are that 3 of the male lead's parkour team aren't as fully developed - the kid and the team leader have very distinct personalities, but the rest blend into the background somewhat - and it would have been nice to give them just a little more something to distinguish them as individuals. And I think it would have been nice to have just a little more detail about the bubbles themselves - the film implies a great deal, enough to put the pieces together, but I would have been happy to have them spell it out a little more.

Character-wise, there are only 2 female characters (3 if you count Uta's sister, who appears as her mirror image/dark reflection/shadow self). I don't really like the "manic pixie dreamgirl" vibes in places, but it's hard because the female lead doesn't talk very much, and the movie is not really from her POV. I also kind of wish Makoto, the female scientist, had a role beyond "team mom" and "damsel in distress".

Also, there came a point where I couldn't help shaking my head and going "That's rough, buddy" (you'll know when). But I really like how the ending retroactively explained the protagonist's Special Bubble Power.

This is co-written, so it's hard to know exactly what Urobuchi contributed script-wise, but I feel like this hits a lot of his favorite themes and the character design for Uta looks so much like Sayaka Miki from Madoka Magica, which is fitting.

pauraque

Despite having been a longtime fan of the Flash cartoon series, I did not play this Homestar Runner point-and-click when it came out in 2008. That is because in 2008 I was playing World of Warcraft competitively, which for me meant that other video games did not exist.

a list of inventory highlights aerosol cheese as strong bad, a lucha libre character, stands in a band's rehearsal space

a list of inventory highlights aerosol cheese as strong bad, a lucha libre character, stands in a band's rehearsal space

As a joint production of the H*R creators and Telltale Games, the game used Telltale's episodic release structure, putting out five episodes over five months. Each episode stands alone with its own story, which works well with the episodic nature of the source material. Strong Bad is a natural adventure game protagonist, being cheerfully self-centered and amoral; you don't worry about whether it's in character for him to steal anything that isn't nailed down.

( Dear Strong Bad, How do you point and click with boxing gloves on? Your pal, pauraque )

Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People is not currently commercially available. In the aftermath of Telltale going under, the game was delisted and it does not appear that anyone has the rights to sell it at this point. I bought it on Steam ages ago so I still have it there, but if you never got around to buying it, it's now possible to pick it up on abandonware sites.

rionaleonhart

Glancing at the watch I'm not wearing, I see that it is once again time for me to lose my mind over something ludicrously niche.

Danganronpa: Despair Time is an unofficial Danganronpa fan series on YouTube, mimicking the style and concept of the Danganronpa games: sixteen talented young people are trapped in a building and forced to murder each other. I was a little sceptical, but I thought I might as well give it a try.

I'm really impressed! This fan series nails the Danganronpa tone, I like the characters, and it's so dense with interesting plot developments and revelations. I tore through the whole thing and had a great time.

Below the cut are the increasingly rambling and invested notes I made while watching everything that exists so far: the prologue and the first two chapters. At one point I fall hard in love with one of the characters within the space of a few seconds for extremely predictable reasons, i.e. that character being The Worst.

( Notes on Danganronpa: Despair Time, up to the end of chapter two. )

I'm already impatiently looking forward to more. Why have I done this to myself?

sweettartheart posting in

100words

This week's prompt is blood.

Your response should be exactly 100 words long. You do not have to include the prompt in your response -- it is meant as inspiration only.

Please use the tag "prompt: #458 - blood" with your response.

Please put your drabble under a cut tag if it contains potential triggers, mature or explicit content, or spoilers for media released in the last month.

If you would like a template for the header information you may use this:

Subject: Original - Title (or) Fandom - Title

Post:
Title:
Original (or) Fandom:
Rating:
Notes:

If you are a member of AO3 there is a 100 Words Collection!

nyctanthes

I’m sooo rusty at being fannish.

1. Dandadan. Earlier this year, the first season of this anime about battling spirits and surviving adolescence with the help of your sexy, kickass grandma and the weirdos you encounter and add to your found family along the way, went from “oh I’ll keep it on in the background,” to “I love it and am paying attention.” Fun stories, characters (girl protags with girl friends!), dynamics, and animation. Bonus: Kid 2 and I can watch together. We went to the movie (the first three episodes of S2) and earlier this week watched eps. 4-10. Only two more episodes of this season left? Wahhh!

2. In addition to Novel #1 and Novel #2, I’m playing around with a collection focused on mothers and daughters. I’d love to make it a hybrid collection: some short stories, a novella, some memoir-ish shorts, some essays that toe the line between fiction and non-fiction. I also want to put some straight-up fanfic in there, a la Carmen Maria Machado and her SVU novella (though imo it was one of the weakest stories in that collection.) To that end, I was excited when I came across this brief piece about the similarities between fanfic and litcrit, which in turn linked me to this trad published novella about Dan Humphrey from Gossip Girl being trans. I know nothing about the quality of the work, but am super interested in this aspect of the mainstreaming of fanfic. If they can do it, so can I?

3. In YKINMKATO news, months ago I read a good As You Are story. The micro-fandom of my heart, I haven’t found quality fic for it in years. Finally, someone wrote one. The catch, of course there’s a catch, is that this story has a feeding kink. Not. My. Thing. (I’m not sure I would have tried it if I read the tags, but I rarely read the tags before dipping in.)

And yet, despite the please-no-not-that-kink, despite the fact that I disagreed with the characterization of the leads, I really enjoyed it. I’ve read it more than once! Which goes to show that i) I love these characters and ii) if there’s a well-written story, and the author makes a good case for the choices they’ve made, I will read it. And rec it. Judging by the comments, several other people feel the same way.

I’m always happy to see writers who just go for it.

4. Heard good things about the anime of Apothecary Diaries, which IIRC is about a servant in a brothel solving mysteries, and will be checking that out.

5. Yuletide! I’m wondering what I might nominate. I’m totally out of practice at reading fanfic, so thinking about what I’d like to receive, that fits the cut-off of less than 1K works, is quite the head-scratcher.

Some ideas:
- Ash: A Secret History. After one thousand plus pages, what else is left to tell? Lots!
- subwaytakes: the instagram show with Kareem Rahma.
- The Great Gatsby: A while back, I said I wanted fanfic of Gatsby and his mentor who owned the boat. Now’s my chance?
- Two Lane Blacktop. This road movie is all vibes, and hence perfect for fanfic. I especially want to know more about The Girl.

No, not my micro-fandom. I feel too strongly about it. That would be setting up my YT writer and me for disappointment.

6. To close out, movies via letterboxd. One aspect of it that’s fun is that everyone on the platform displays, in their profiles, their four favorite movies. If you’re on instagram, letterboxd also posts videos in which people (mostly in the film industry but occasionally just folks like you and me) list their four favorites. A good way to find new movies.

My current four favorites are:
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring, Kim Ki-duk (2003). Buddhist perfection.
Consuming Spirits, Chris Sullivan (2012). I watched this on New Year’s Eve in 2021. As soon as I finished it, I watched it again. Here’s more on it (scroll down).
Minding the Gap, Bing Liu (2018). Y’all know I’m a sucker for coming of age stories. This one, and it’s a documentary to boot, is soooo good.
The Music Room, Satyajit Ray (1958). I enjoy tragedies, and stories of quiet, genteel decline.

Movies that might replace these one day:

Seven Samurai, Akira Kurosawa (1954). Enough said.
Trenque Lauquen, Laura Citarella (2022 & 2023). A multi-hour, Argentinian puzzle-box film with a fantastic script. Really unique and lovely. Highly recommended.
Yi Yi, Edward Yang (2000). The perfect family saga. Showing in theaters this fall. I’m so here for it.
Young Frankenstein, Mel Brooks (1974). Just thinking about this movie gets me cackling.
Before Sunset, Richard Linklater (2004). One of my favorite tropes (after years and years, meeting the one who got away) done just right.

What are your four favorites? What are your runners-up?

prixmium

cw: animal death
cross-post from tumblr

I'm about to go to sleep, and likely before I wake up in the morning, on the other side of the world, my dad and stepmom will have to put down Charlie, the little dog who's been part of my family since 2011 when my mom saw him on a foster site and decided he needed her.

My mom passed on before he did, but he has continued to be a part of our lives, even when he temporarily moved in with a family friend.

I visited home for the first time in over a year for a few weeks in August. He waited all that time to see me. He played with me a few more times.

A couple nights ago, my dad messaged me to let me know that a couple days after I got back to Japan, Charlie collapsed and was having considerable breathing trouble. The vets said he was in late stage heart failure when they got him checked out.

Little guy is old and has had a great and pretty varied life for such a little creature. He's loved many people and been loved.

I'm thankful both to God and little Charlie that I got to see him again. If animals and people go to heaven and to the same one, I hope my mom is glad to see him soon.

Rest well, little cryptid.

muladhara

Some things, a list:

# it feels very autumnal this morning, and I am absolutely loving it!

# It was a good job I impulsively bought that heated airer, because the other morning, literally as I was about to go out of the door to work, my other (non-heated) airer broke on one side!

So I had to prop it up on some stuff, so that the wet washing wasn't touching the floor. I hoped it wouldn't collapse entirely while I was out of the house, and it did not, and I was pleased about that.

But yeah, that was a good call on past me's part!

# I have started rewatching the X-Men films because of partly spurious reasons (that you don't get to know), and partly because I dunno, it's been a while since I watched them last, and I haven't seen the more recent ones - I only got as far as Days of Future Past last time, despite buying Apocalypse at the time (I have had to buy Dark Phoenix, and I also got New Mutants, so now I feel my collection is complete :D )

I have a lot of nostalgia for the first film, but it is Not Good. The writing is awful, apart from a couple of lines here and there, and I spent some of the time wondering how some of the cast (primarily Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen) could say some of that with a completely straight face (but I guess that's why they call it acting, right? ;) - turns out I made exactly the same comment when I watched it ten years ago, lol ). That said, "I saved your life!" "No, you didn't." and "You ain't part of the group." have lived rent free in my head for the last twenty odd years, so...eh.

I feel X2 is better written and better paced, but I still feel like there's too much going on at once. I think they should have picked one thing and stuck to it rather than trying to cram two stories in there and added Phoenix stuff out of nowhere.

I have mixed feelings about how I will feel about X3, but I'll cross that bridge when I eventually get to it

# I have managed to finally make a tangible change in the house wrt redecorating! \o/ it's about bloody time!! I have new carpeting on the landing upstairs, which is probably a mistake because I haven't sorted the walls out yet (whether painting or wallpapering), but whatever. It is A Thing, and I did it, and I am stupid proud of myself!

# Nobody cares that I am playing Umamusume: Pretty Derby, but I wanted a list of my current wins, so I'm slapping it under a cut here:

( Read more... )

# I've got nothing else for the time being, I haven't really had a lot of time outside of work to do anything even remotely interesting. But perhaps that will change, who knows!

Current Music: Although the Sky - Dorkus64

lovelyangel

TWSBI Diamond 580AL Fountain Pen and Pilot Iroshizuku Murasaki-shikibu Fountain Pen Ink

TWSBI Diamond 580AL Fountain Pen
Pilot Iroshizuku Murasaki-shikibu Fountain Pen Ink

It might not be a good thing that I’m signed up for JetPens emails, as I can be easily tempted. Sure enough, their weekly newsletter waved an addition to their stock of TWSBI Diamond 580ALR Fountain Pens before me, and I had to go look. Up until then, I wasn’t familiar with TWSBI pens.

JetPens is a wealth of information, and of course there’s a feature: Which TWSBI Fountain Pen Should I Buy? I read the entire article. While the Diamond 580ALR pens come is all sorts of wonderful colors, I shied away from the texture on their aluminum grips. So I looked into the TWSBI Diamond 580AL model, which has a smooth aluminum grip. (Actually, it’s very faintly textured, which is what I preferred.) The drawback is that it comes in only two colors – Silver and Iceberg Blue. I decided to get the blue one.

Ink was a no-brainer. I got a nice, large (50ml) bottle of Pilot Iroshizuku Murasaki-shikibu Ink. The price was pretty good, too.

I placed the order last Wednesday, and the kit arrived in the mail on Saturday. Unfortunately, I am packing up my office and workspace, so there’s no way I have the time nor place to play with the new items. Playtime will have to wait until October.

larissa

hmm. i feel like the last week was a blur...

honestly, it's been a bit touch and go. pain levels have been high and have kept me from doing some of the stuff i've wanted to do — although i did finally get back to trails in the sky the 3rd, if nothing else. this game feels a lot shorter than the previous two, which i don't really have a problem with. it mostly feels like an extended epilogue, which is fun and different for a whole game to be about, ha. (also, all the stuff with kevin and ries is proving to be good inspiration for one of my current projects.)

speaking of trails, i have finished the fanlisting for estelle bright. there's a pretty thorough introduction for those unfamiliar with the game and character. i really can't wait for the remake of the first game, especially now that we're in september and it's only a few short weeks away. (all the more reason to finish 3rd sooner than later.)

in ff14 news, i had to leave one of my raid groups because the times were just not working out for me; i have made my peace with it but am sad i won't be able to continue with that particular group. my ex farm group is still going well, though; we're about 40% through the grind for the newest extreme. one pair of wings dropped this week and the lucky winner was... me?! i still can't believe it.

writing has been continuing, but has been up and down. still working at it, though.

i think that's it for this week!

Current Music: Time — Poppy Ackroyd

stonepicnicking_okapi posting in

100words

Title: field of flowers
Fandom: BTS
Rating: Gen
Notes: Namjoon feels guilty. Seokjin helps.

( Read more... )

marycatelli posting in

books

The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine, Vol. 2 by Grrr and Irinbi

The isekai continues. Spoilers for the first one ahead.
( Read more... )

cosmicjellyfish

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: a tūī yelling outside

atamascolily

Another Japanese murder mystery novel from the '80s recently translated into English. As usual, Pushkin Vertigo's cover art and design are excellent and memorable.

This is technically the third book in the "Bizarre House Murders" series (so I should have read The Mill House Murders first) but the only connecting thread is that all the houses are built by the same architect and therefore exist in the same world. (EDIT: There is also one character who appears in every book as an amateur sleuth, but I didn't make the connection that it was the same guy until after I finished.) You'd think by the fourth time this happened (once in the backstory of The Decagon House Murders and again in every volume) people would maybe not go to events at a Nakamura Seiji house, just on the off chance of getting offed, but there wouldn't be much plot if they didn't, so here we are.

This is a book-within-a-book - after a brief frame narrative, we are reading an in-universe book called The Labyrinth House Murders, which purports to tell the "true story" of what happened when a group of mystery writers got together, despite the admission that everything has been heavily edited and altered. As a result, it's almost impossible to guess the true murderer, because the unreliable narrator has omitted several key details that would allow readers to solve the puzzle first - I ran into this exact problem, because I said, "it has to be [x] because [loophole], but there's no one here who fits that criteria" and lo and behold, there was, it just wasn't stated and what details were given were presented in such a misleading way as to make the reader assume something wasn't true. Is this fair play? I don't know, I don't usually care for unreliable narrators, but I thought this was technically well done. I did call several other things, though, so it's nice to know I haven't entirely lost my touch.

The design and atmosphere of the house is fantastic, as is the Greek mythological theme - the houses are getting more and more complex as time goes on and I'm so here for it. I like how self-aware the characters are of mystery tropes, since they are all readers/writers themselves.

It may not work for everyone, but this is a strong contender for a hypothetical "most enjoyable books read during 2025" list - no one is out there doing it like Ayatsuji. I looked it up and there are 6 more books in this series that haven't been translated into English yet, so that's something to look forward to.

EDIT: This book is infinitely funnier when I learned that "Yukito Ayatsuji" is in fact a pen name. LOL. Combined with him being a member of his university mystery club, there is definitely a lot of "write what you know" at play, but he makes it work.

lebateleur

It sure is frustrating when the owl's periodic language path updates wipe the results of all your hard work off the board. I know the real goal is to maximize user's time-on-app vice the user's experience, but I don't see how resetting someone's progress from Unit 26 to Unit 6 would encourage them to spend more time engaging.

Chinese — Finished 1/10 of Rookie Unit 8; legendary through Rookie Unit 6
Dutch — Finished 1/5 of Explorer Unit 2; legendary through Rookie Unit 3
Gaelic — Finished 1/5 of Explorer Unit 13; legendary through the Explorer Unit 10
Hindi — Finished 4/5 of Unit 1; backburnered to focus on the letters with the GC
Indonesian — Finished 2/5 of Explorer Unit 12; legendary through 2/5 of Explorer Unit 11
Japanese — Finished Traveler Unit 24; legendary through Traveler Unit 21
Korean — Finished 1/5 of Rookie Unit 6; legendary through Rookie Unit 5
Latin — Finished 1/5 of Rookie Unit 6
Manx — Finished lesson 3 of the Loayr Gaelg 3 textbook
Welsh — Finished 1/5 of Rookie Unit 6; legendary through 1/5 of Rookie Unit 4

And, because, why not? Here's where things stood ( last month. )

これで以上です。

anneapocalypse

August word count: 11786
Year to date: 86151

Though a lighter month than last month in raw word count, it's felt like a very productive one. (The current project is two companion longfics, Harsh Light and Gentle Dark, set during FFXIV's Heavensward expansion, one from my character Ariane's POV and one from from the POV of Urianger, my favorite NPC in the game, who will be shipped with Ariane but not until later!) I pushed onward through Gentle Dark, the Urianger fic, and got its final chapters written, which I'm very happy about! This does not mean that the first drafts are completely done, as there are some interlude bits I still need to write and which I deliberately saved for last. I'm working on those now, and on getting the chapter breaks finalized. I'm planning on posting these fics concurrently, alternating chapters by week, so matching chapter counts would be ideal.

As September approached, I was thinking it would be my first year doing FFXIV Write, a daily prompt-based fic writing challenge that's been going for many years. I struggle with even the idea of writing and posting in a single day with minimal editing, but I figured it'd be a good challenge for exactly that reason. However, it was recently announced that FFXIV Write will be taking a hiatus this year, as one of the organizers recently had a baby (a good reason!) and needs the time off. Some fans have decided to undertake the challenge anyway using prompts from previous years, and some have made and shared prompt lists of their own.

Personally, I've taken it as a reason to just keep going on the current project. My hope is to get the drafts into my beta's hands sometime this month; I think that's a reasonable goal, but we'll see how it goes! Either way, it's so exciting to see completion approaching. While I've posted a few one-shots for FFXIV, most of my fic-writing energy for the past couple years has gone into this, and it'll be my first longfic for this fandom. I'm really excited to get it out there!

finch

Over in smallweb it's smallweb September and so I've been trying to list out the stuff I've been meaning to do on my website and haven't gotten around to.

So far my list is:

probably find a webhost that's not just uploading shit to my email provider?
put my original universe stuff together literally at all
reformat the character reference pages and get them up
putting the art up would also be nice
fanfic archive could use updating/incorporating
so could some random other pages like my Flight Rising lore

Not sure how far I'll actually get in the list but it's nice to kind of lay out what I'm thinking, at least.

The end of September I'm going to be hosting Fourth Wing Femslash Week over on Tumblr again, which people seem to be excited about. It's not a fandom that sees a lot of femslash, so it's fun to drum up some interest.

This week I've been focused on writing for a different event week over there, but after that my plate's mostly clear between now and then so we'll see what happens, eh?

Also at the end of the month I start classes again. Ughhhhhh. Not terribly excited about that, but I guess I'll worry about it when we get there.

sheliak

No cut, since I just did the one.

spiralicious posting in

endings

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

duskpeterson

BLOG FICTION

Tempestuous Tours (Crossing Worlds: A Visitor's Guide to the Three Lands #2). A whirlwind tour of the sites in the Three Lands that are most steeped in history, culture, and the occasional pickpocket.

Latest installments:

The Royal Sanctuary: The inscriptions.

The Royal Sanctuary: The sling.

The Royal Sanctuary: The statue.

EARLY ACCESS

A Visitor's Guide to the Three Lands: Novel and Side Stories (Crossing Worlds), which includes an expanded version of Deadly Introductions, is now available to my Patreon and Ream readers. The omnibus will go into general release next month.

NEWS

Early access previews at Patreon and Ream

I'm now providing one-month-early previews of my new e-book fiction through Patreon and Ream. I want to give a treat to readers who financially support me, while still making those stories quickly available to the rest of my readers. The early access model seems to be the best way to handle that.

( General news and upcoming fiction )

( Ways to offer me a tip, financial or nonfinancial )

queenlua

I (finally!) got a chance to play John Company (2022 edition) with some friends last week :3

For those not familiar: Cole Wehrle is a very interesting board game designer who I've blathered about before; he tends to make board games with asymmetric gameplay and complex mechanics... but the complexity of the mechanics usually feel less in service to Making Stuff Hard and more in service of Providing A Nuanced And Detailed Experience. (The way Bird Guy described it was, "I feel less like I'm playing a board game and more like I'm engaging with some sort of... interactive art-piece-slash-simulation? in which I'm roleplaying something dictated by my position in the game?" And, yeah. That really is the best description of the Wehrle board game experience. This one included!)

ANYWAY. Jotting down some brief thoughts for posterity and/or anyone else curious about this game:

( Read more... )

Profile

Winger

August 2025

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Page Summary

atamascolily - Lily watches: "Bubble" (2022)
pauraque - Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People (2008)
rionaleonhart - I Guess I Have A Lot Of Blood.
sweettartheart in 100words - Prompt: #458 - Blood
nyctanthes - Fannish Fifty: 1-6
prixmium - RIP Charlie
muladhara - the constellations are good-hearted
lovelyangel - Pen and Ink
larissa - 2025 week 35
stonepicnicking_okapi in 100words - 457: BTS: Gen
marycatelli in books - The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine, Vol. 2
cosmicjellyfish - [crossposted] what are you currently…?
atamascolily - "The Labyrinth House Murders" by Yukito Ayatsuji
lebateleur - August Language Roundup
anneapocalypse - August Writing
finch - Small Web September, perhaps
sheliak - Icon — 12 Kingdoms
spiralicious in endings - (no subject)
duskpeterson - UPDATE: Tempestuous Tours + introducing early access fiction
queenlua - wake up babe new cole wehrle board game just dropped

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Style: Teal Eaves for For the Bold by timeasmymeasure

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Page generated Sep. 2nd, 2025 07:41 pm

not today or tomorrow

Reading

Lily watches: "Bubble" (2022)

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People (2008)

I Guess I Have A Lot Of Blood.

Prompt: #458 - Blood

Fannish Fifty: 1-6

RIP Charlie

the constellations are good-hearted

Pen and Ink

2025 week 35

457: BTS: Gen

The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine, Vol. 2

[crossposted] what are you currently…?

"The Labyrinth House Murders" by Yukito Ayatsuji

August Language Roundup

August Writing

Small Web September, perhaps

Icon — 12 Kingdoms

(no subject)

UPDATE: Tempestuous Tours + introducing early access fiction