August 10th - August 16th 2026

TV/Anime

• ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Crused Sword! | Kiki | 2026 - I will be very surprised if this doesn’t end up being my favorite show of 2026. This is an isekai. It doesn’t have the isekai moment, but the whole show feels like they cut out the death and transition sequence and picks up just after. Not relevant, what makes this show stand apart is how it finally blends an action anime with yuri, while retaining the cringe yuri tropes. I know a lot of people are hot on I Want to Love You Until Your Dying Day, but I feel like it fails on the yuri piece. It fails, imo, in the same way Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games does, it focuses too much on world-building and making the conceit/stakes justified rather than the character romances which feel second class. ROLL OVER AND DIE is always a perfect and present mix of both. I think it accomplishes this by just suspending disbelief in the human moments, the romance moments. Instead of trying to have a romance with the same tone of the world or as a reaction to the most recent battle, you get reprieves that feel slice-of-life-y in the midst of what feels like a horror show. I’ve already watched the first (and only) season through three times. Fuck I love this show.

News/Essays

• How sex work saved my investigative journalism career | CHeek Media Co. - Highly recommend if you are on the periphery or know nothing about sex work. It’s complicated and I think not knowing some of the mechanics is the most harm you can do (to yourself and folks who do sex work). This is a pretty good perspective on both the conditions that push you into sex work and also the unexpected joy and healing that can also come - it’s both.
• Saving China’s Vanishing Fields of Knowledge | Lü Chuanyi | Sixth Tone - I mean, come on. Who doesn’t want to talk about dead disciplines being revived?!
• Cna You Beat Mass Effect 2 on Insanity Without Shooting? | Frogarchist - Sick ass video that does exactly what it says.

YouTube

• the Best Games of 2026 So Far | noclip_2 - From one of my fav creators!
• I Ate 7 Rotisserie Chickens in a Day So You Don’t Have To (but did you even want to) | Bodega Kat - Fuck this is one of her best yet. Such a funny concept and I have to say her partner doesn’t bother me in this video!
• America’s largest grocery store should be out of business | Morning Brew - Morning Brew is all hitters apparently. Funny, silly little video on a weirdo grocery store.