May 4th - May 10th 2026

TV

• Bloom into You | Season 2 | Nio Nakatani - An excellent end to season 2! Overall, I think the season was fine, but the final episode really locked in what makes this series pop, which are the painfully slow moments. Whether of yearning or of relief, I can’t get enough of the slowness and sitting in Touko finally being happy and Yuu steadily figuring herself out.

Movies (I have full reviews of each Satoshi Kon movie on the blog now! These are just abbreviated takes.)

• Millennium Actress | 2001 | Satoshi Kon - Full review is also up on the blog! My short review is that, more than any other Satoshi Kon movie, this is the one that sticks with me the most. Truly a movie that plays out the same way a story does in your grandma’s mind as she tells it for the sixth time.
• Paprika | 2006 | Satoshi Kon - The most famous of Kon’s movies and probably my least favorite, though they are great and worth watching. It’s easily the biggest spectacle, but lacks the reality bending narrative in Perfect Blue or Millennium Actress and is also rife with the most out-of-touch dynamics with women.
• Tokyo Godfathers | 2003 | Satoshi Kon - Hard to find a flaw in this film start-to-end. It shares so little with Kon’s other films and it doesn’t necessarily gain from that, but it lacks all the bullshit and gives a truly excellent story. It’s simpler and slower with its own unique animation quirks.

Music

• Geneva | Low Gap - Whole album slaps. This is Ohio Appalachian excellence.
• SAME SH!T | Isaiah Rashad - NEW ISAIAH RASHAD ALBUM!!
• Middle of Nowhere | Kasey Musgraves - New Kasey Musgraves album, all around good and I’ve linked my favorite of the bunch.

Podcasts

• Fantastic Mr. Star Fox (with Alanah Pearce) | Aftermath Hours - Ever wonder about the creationg of Iron Lung or the game adaptation film industry? Really cool interview with one of the ladies who makes that happen.

Books/Manga

• The Moon on a Rainy Night | Volume 2 | Kuzushiro - To be honest, I’m pretty disappointed with Volume 2. It isn’t bad by any means, but it is deeply missing its romance roots from the first novel. Volume 2 is much more interested in broadening the social dynamics and gets dark, at least relative to the first volume. It’s pretty well-written and I do still like the art style. I want love!! I hunted for weeks to find a new copy of Vol. 2, so we will see if I end up picking up Vol 3.
• My Darling Dreadful Thing | 2024 | Johanna van Veen - More Gothic horror lmao. Excellently written with a relatively modern (1950s) time period and unique location (Netherlands) for this genre. Interspersed with the general narrative and exposition are psych eval interviews with a doctor, which are excellent. It’s an odd book in that you know what is going to happen, but instead of being told that once you are drip fed new information with the psych evals - which are in the present - with the main character story-telling the events that lead up. Highly recommend so far!

YouTube

• How The Cheesecake Factory Runs One Of America’s Biggest Menus I Big Business - One of the only sit-down restaurants to have a consistent business model over the last few years. Really, really cool behind-the-scenes insight in the 250+ item menu!
• cool sh!t volume 1 | nocaps - Title says it all, check it out.
• Embracer Killed His Dream Game - But DERELIKT Refuses To Die | noclip_2 - An truly insane story from start to finish. An easy and entertaining watch for anyone who cares about video games.