March 2nd - March 8th 2026

TV

• Bloom Into You | Season 1 - Yay! Toxic yuri! I have the first two volumes of Bloom Into You, and it was well-cemented in the yuri canon. If you go on Reddit and look up “Baby’s first yuri” you are no doubt going to see it. I don’t know if I read the second volume. The first was such that I knew I would really like the second and I think I lost my way during a move and never got into it. The only thought I have this week is that the character development of Yu seems a bit unbelievable. How she goes from so meek to imposing is off. It definitely gives the toxic yuri-lite vibes that I really like, but it does bug me that the switch was so fast. One thing I do love about this series is that it gives the sense that everyone is militantly straight and then a few episodes go by and now even your teacher is a lesbian lmao. A really fun watch.

Music

• Software Developer | Blessing Jolie - This is an odd song. It’s like hip-hop lyrics over a contemporary country production. It’s odd and itches the brain just rights.
• Stereo Boy | FKA Twigs - I’m not a big FKA Twigs fan. Maybe because I’m not bisexual, but this is the first track by her that really got into my liked tracks.
• Parachute | Haley Williams - Look, it made me cry. Each time I listen I feel like it worms its way further and further into my heart.

News/Essays

• Resident Evil Requiem Has a Bizarre Ultra-Limited Edition With Exercise Equipment in Japan — and It Sold Out Almost Instantly | IGN - When I heard about this story, I was just smitten. Everything from the infomercial to the actual product had me, and the home shopping channel acting was perfection. Love this, Capcom.
• Education Dept. Drops Appeal of Court Order Blocking Anti-DEI Guidance - Finally some good news.

Books/Manga

• Nana | Omnibus Volume 2 | Ai Yazawa - I re-watched Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift this week and I realized why I adore Nana and Princess Jellyfish, though oddly I think I’m shifting to being more of a fan of Nana, which is very unexpected to me. When I was a kid, late teens and early 20s adults were fucking cool. They were street racing and going to warehouse raves and the fashion was peak. There is charisma for the alt/grunge/punk/fashion scenes in this era of the early-to-mid 2000s. When I got into my late teens, that wasn’t left. Or at least it was harder to find. We were still in a skinny jeans era with Instagram taking off and the worst music generation in a century. The world had changed, and we had changed along with it. And that reality was a lot less sexy and charismatic than the adults of my childhood. So, seeing that era represented is brilliant, it makes my heart happy.
• #DRCL | Sakamoto, Shinichi | Viz Media - What an odd book. Given the cover I presumed this to be Bram Stoker yuri goodness, but it has turned into something else entirely. It is like Junji Ito meets Ouran Highschool Host Club. The artwork is brutal and deeply detailed. It’s not too scary to cause an issue for me, and I’m quite surprised that I am feeling compelled with the story. The way some characters and scenes are drawn is brutal in the best way.
• Kase-san and Yamada | Takashima, Hiromi | Seven Seas Entertainment - Oooohhhhh jealous girlfriend yuri! Simple slice-of-life.

YouTube

• Norwegian Government comes out swinging on enshittification | Louis Rossmann - Go watch the YouTube video!! It’s pretty funny, especially when you consider that a national government made it.
• In Death We’ve Just Begun ft. Poppy and Son Lux (Official Music Video) | Marathon Launch Cinematic - I’m Marathon-pilled, good luck.

Games

• Marathon | Bungie | 2026 - I unfortunately didn’t get on for launch day, but day after will have to do. I got through the tutorial and played two rounds with randoms, so I haven’t played enough to have full experienced a run, but I did kill a few runners and a lot of UESC bots, so here’s where I’m at. Marathon is an extraction shooter, which is a genre I’ve never played. I’m a Bungie fangirl, so I ordered the physical edition immediately when it was announced. The aesthetic is probably my favorite of any AAA game ever. Gameplay wise, it feels like a Bungie game, which is excellent. I never worried about gun anything. Types, ammo, handling, feel, sound effects. All exactly what you’d expect from Bungie. I am good at “walk around and shoot” but sometimes totally forget my powers, so it took me a second to acclimate to the build powers for the Recon shell I was using, but I really liked them once I started just using them. I’ve only played in Perimeter (Beginner) and I was having a lot of fun! There’e not many other human teams, so you’re mostly holding it down against bots and looting everywhere. It is taking me time to understand what is valuable and what’s worth keeping in my limited inventory, but that’s a good sign. I spent over an hour just ogling over the artwork and lore. Everything is so stylish and perfect. It also seems very light on the micro-transactions, at least so far. In just an hour or so of gameplay, just by getting achievements I was showered with a lot of skins and other cosmetic goodies. The most surprising part is that story elements. I didn’t expect this game to really have any of that, and the voice-acting and characterization of your AI, the antagonist, and factions is just fun and adds a lot of flavor and depth to the world. Overall, I think getting on with friends where I can use my mic, and getting better at the systems will be the telling moment for my relationship to Marathon. For now, I just love being in this world.
• The Thaumaturge | Fool’s Theory | 2024 - Okay, we’re back! I wrapped up all the remaining side-quests I had access to in Act II and moved onto Act III. I will say, my number one issue of this game is undoubtedly the urban side-quests. There are too many, they’re all on timers - which isn’t in itself a bad thing - but those two issues compound given the final gripe: there is a salutor mission hidden in one of these quests and there isn’t any indicator of its importance when you pick it up. The fact that you could go into Act III without having had a shot at all the salutors is ridiculous, and if you want them all that you can’t easily find the quest is wild. Otherwise, the Morana quest is peak side-quest and I like the cinematic entrance into Act III. I had to check how much time remained, just for my sanity, and it looks to be about 2 hours, so I will finish this game during my next play session, yay! The write-up for this is going to be long haha!
• DEMO: Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmnth | Hyper Games - This is an adorable game that is very polished. The music and animations are particularly excellent and I have a very deep appreciation for children’s media that has strong appeal for both adult and child-alike. Moomin are iconic and it feels good to see a game so lovingly crafted around the franchise. If you aren’t familiar with Moomin, it would be very easy to think this game is a survival horror-lite experience. The themes and music are quite immersive and I really appreciate the difficult themes they are addressing.
• DEMO: Denshattack! | Undercoders - It’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, but you’re a train on a Door Dash-ing mission. Soundtrack may be my favorite part. I loved the two-color menu and pause screen. The general animation, colors, and aesthetic wasn’t for me. It’s fine, but I prefer more contemporary manga styling and this felt too flat. Gameplay wise, it felt tight and refined, but not for me. If you like any of the tricking games, you will probably like this!
• DEMO: Celestial Return | Metaphor Games - Somewhere between Disco Elysium and Citizen Sleeper, though I err very much on the side of Citizen here. CRPG but in a cyberpunk setting with detective noir vibes. Aesthetically, it’s not my cup of tea. It’s more on the graphic novel//comic book side of things, which I historically do not like. The vibes remind me of Hellboy and the music is fine. I love the Insight character art. The writing is passable for the genre, which is still a high bar. I found myself genuinely intrigued by the opening mission, but lost steam with the in between dialogue and character developments. To me, the most glaring issue is how the Insight (all of your emotions) dialogue. All of the nuance and complexity is gone and it becomes generic and/or passe - we just don’t talk like that anymore and it doesn’t track with the futuristic setting.