November 2023 Media Round-up
Dec. 2nd, 2023 06:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhysianaThis month's list looks rather sparse, but it's because my brain finally let me pick up an epic-length book again, so I've been doing a lot of reading, but I don't count it until I'm done. Also, I didn't separate out seasons of shows (looking at you, BSD) or volumes of manga (so much Gentle Noble read in such a short time!), so there's depth rather than breadth being represented here for once! (Plus I'm in the middle of entirely too many other shows. Hopefully I'll finish some of them soon!) Anyway, huge shout out to kit for all the manga/webtoon recs, and to annundriel and marsastronomica for dragging me into BSD with them, I love enjoying things with friends!
Books
-Sekine's Love, Kawachi Haruka (manga) - When an office worker with no real interests or ambitions sets out to find a hobby, or anything at all, that can bring some kind of spark into his life, he meets the owner of the local yarn store. A great deal of personal introspection and character development through crafting. (Mature themes, references to experiences of sexual coercion.)
-Malice, Keigo Higashino (Japanese, translated, audio) - Japanese mysteries really are their own distinct subgenre. I think this is the longest I've ever seen the mystery go on after the correct suspect was arrested at the beginning. I ended up getting this one on audio because it's the first in the series but my library didn't have it available and I had accumulated a stockpile of Libro credits.
-Take Off, jui (webtoon, to current) - Vol 1 is the great premise of "two guys meet on an international flight and fall in love over the course of the next 16 hours." Undergrad film major from Hong Kong, art history grad student TA from Taiwan, both flying back to NYC for the start of the semester at (conveniently) the same university. I think my favorite part is that the grad student had already read some of the undergrad's papers as examples from the previous semester for the class he's taking over as TA, and thought he was the best one in the class, though neither of them make that connection until later.
-A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation, Misaki (manga, to current) - The way the worldbuilding here is straight-up what it would be like to be inside a video game delights me, as a person who strictly spectates video games anyway. Premise: stressed out high government nobleman finds himself isekai'd to a parallel world that is almost but not quite his own and is immediately just like, "cool, no one knows me here, how relaxing!" and promptly acquires a guide/guard dog/soulmate and joins the adventurer's guild for kicks. He must be terrifying in his home universe, because in this one all he has to do is hand out a single "good job" and a head pat and he acquires a new minion ready to do literally anything he wants, and he has the unerring ability to identify the most competent person in every room for this treatment. I also appreciate how good his sidekick is at finding walls to lean against while coolly observing all these undignified antics.
TV/Movies
-Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (movie, English, Netflix) - I don't think I really need to say anything about this one, do I? The art style remains so good.
-Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha (Korean, Netflix) - I finally finished this one! Excellent big city doctor (well, dentist) moves to a small town story. I enjoyed all the entwined relationships.
-Bungo Stray Dogs (anime, Japanese, Crunchyroll) - Impending descent into a new fandom, iykyk. I have asked for light novels for Christmas. Everything is fine.
-The Case Files of Jeweler Richard (anime, Japanese, Crunchyroll) - A very nice, soothing set of stories sparked by the jewelry appraised, bought, or sold through Richard's shop, and the (rather ambiguous) relationship between Richard and his new shop assistant.
-Twinkling Watermelon (Korean, Viki) - I liked this one so much more than I expected to! The basic premise is a high school senior travels back in time to when his parents were the same age and ends up trying to make sure they get together, which I was kind of lukewarm about going in, but the fact he's the only hearing member of his family adds a lot of depth to the story, especially after he learns his father wasn't actually born deaf, and meets the family his mother has been estranged from his entire life. And then we get a second time traveler thrown into the mix, also sent back to deal with complicated family feelings. And they're working all of this out through forming a high school rock band! A good mix of heavier emotional themes and lighthearted high school band shenanigans.
Books
-Sekine's Love, Kawachi Haruka (manga) - When an office worker with no real interests or ambitions sets out to find a hobby, or anything at all, that can bring some kind of spark into his life, he meets the owner of the local yarn store. A great deal of personal introspection and character development through crafting. (Mature themes, references to experiences of sexual coercion.)
-Malice, Keigo Higashino (Japanese, translated, audio) - Japanese mysteries really are their own distinct subgenre. I think this is the longest I've ever seen the mystery go on after the correct suspect was arrested at the beginning. I ended up getting this one on audio because it's the first in the series but my library didn't have it available and I had accumulated a stockpile of Libro credits.
-Take Off, jui (webtoon, to current) - Vol 1 is the great premise of "two guys meet on an international flight and fall in love over the course of the next 16 hours." Undergrad film major from Hong Kong, art history grad student TA from Taiwan, both flying back to NYC for the start of the semester at (conveniently) the same university. I think my favorite part is that the grad student had already read some of the undergrad's papers as examples from the previous semester for the class he's taking over as TA, and thought he was the best one in the class, though neither of them make that connection until later.
-A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation, Misaki (manga, to current) - The way the worldbuilding here is straight-up what it would be like to be inside a video game delights me, as a person who strictly spectates video games anyway. Premise: stressed out high government nobleman finds himself isekai'd to a parallel world that is almost but not quite his own and is immediately just like, "cool, no one knows me here, how relaxing!" and promptly acquires a guide/guard dog/soulmate and joins the adventurer's guild for kicks. He must be terrifying in his home universe, because in this one all he has to do is hand out a single "good job" and a head pat and he acquires a new minion ready to do literally anything he wants, and he has the unerring ability to identify the most competent person in every room for this treatment. I also appreciate how good his sidekick is at finding walls to lean against while coolly observing all these undignified antics.
TV/Movies
-Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (movie, English, Netflix) - I don't think I really need to say anything about this one, do I? The art style remains so good.
-Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha (Korean, Netflix) - I finally finished this one! Excellent big city doctor (well, dentist) moves to a small town story. I enjoyed all the entwined relationships.
-Bungo Stray Dogs (anime, Japanese, Crunchyroll) - Impending descent into a new fandom, iykyk. I have asked for light novels for Christmas. Everything is fine.
-The Case Files of Jeweler Richard (anime, Japanese, Crunchyroll) - A very nice, soothing set of stories sparked by the jewelry appraised, bought, or sold through Richard's shop, and the (rather ambiguous) relationship between Richard and his new shop assistant.
-Twinkling Watermelon (Korean, Viki) - I liked this one so much more than I expected to! The basic premise is a high school senior travels back in time to when his parents were the same age and ends up trying to make sure they get together, which I was kind of lukewarm about going in, but the fact he's the only hearing member of his family adds a lot of depth to the story, especially after he learns his father wasn't actually born deaf, and meets the family his mother has been estranged from his entire life. And then we get a second time traveler thrown into the mix, also sent back to deal with complicated family feelings. And they're working all of this out through forming a high school rock band! A good mix of heavier emotional themes and lighthearted high school band shenanigans.
