February 16th - February 22nd 2026

Movies

• Wuthering Heights | Emeral Fennel | 2026 - It’s not too often that I go and see the big discourse movie, but a friend of mine had read the book and I thought why not? It wasn’t as cringe-inducing as I thought it would be. Look, I’m a lesbian, it’s a godsend whenever I can sit through any form of het media no matter how much people like it, and this was no exception. What can I say? Everyone tried their asses off, which isn’t often in most media, so they deserve recognition for that. The sets are intentional and grande. The actors feeeeeel like they’re giving it their all. Aside from the small (read: massive, inexcusable) white-ifying of Heathcliff it appears to stay true enough to the source material, but whatever I didn’t even know who Heathcliff was until I got to the theatre. Ultimately what my friend and I landed on is that this was all aesthetic energy that was for not because the core story is bland an souless. It doesn’t do anything except make normies feel like they saw a kinky, period piece.

Music

• .hack//SIGN Original Sound & Song Track1 | Yuki Kajiura | 2002 - I never watched this arc growing up, but .hack The Legend of Twilight was an exceptionally formative series for me growing up - I have numerous drawings of the main characters in childhood notebooks. This came up on a YT channel that plays old Toonami content and I was blown away by the show and especially the soundtrack, so here it is!

News/Essays

• Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras | Blood in the Machine - Fuck flock and fuck ICE. Let’s goooo.

Books/Manga

• Princess Jellyfish | Omnibus Volume 3 | Higashimura Akiko - I’ve been reflecting a lot on how this series makes it continually compelling even though the characters really don’t grow, change, or learn their lessons. This makes sense for the side characters (like amars have to be amars, especially to draw contrast to Tsukimi), but the lack of (or miniscule) growth from her is odd. I’m almost 6 volumes in and Tsukimi is still asking Kuranosuke if he’s embarrassed to be seen with her. What I didn’t expect from Princess Jellyfish was how robust the other plotlines were going to be. LIGHT SPOILER: When Shu slaps that bitch?! I was DYING. And now it’s got her all caught up and catching feelings for him. I’m in love with how this plot has developed. I really hated it at first and didn’t understand its utility until now. Payoff is always excellent. I also reflect a lot on how young Kuranosuke feels and how I’ve never felt that level of confidence and ownership, and being years past when I felt like Tsukimi this series is always fascinating.
• Nana | Omnibus Volume 2 | Ai Yazawa - This is now officially my public transit book. I’m really loving Nana. There’s just something sexy about a band and I see myself in the blonde Nana often. Trying to tie yourself to someone else so that they give you direction and purpose, so that they quell your anxiety and take away your loneliness, but I never felt the ability to do so with the type of platonic intimacy she has. This series has charisma.

YouTube

• How to Shop at a Japanese Supermarket (A Tour of Uwajimaya in Seattle) | Kenji’s Cooking Show - I’ve been getting more into J. Kenji’s cooking videos. I really love the at-home, ad-hoc vibe of how he teaches, and he seems pretty sensitive to the more accessible, cheaper ways to augment his dishes so it broadens the audience. This is such a feel good video. It really hit home because I have lived in two different cities in which I would frequent Uwajimaya and it was cool seeing so many familiar staples that he would pick out from my childhood (and present).
• I Ranked All 21 Games from EA Sports BIG! | Square Pegs - EA BIG! is all hitters. Def Jam Vendetta, Fifa Street 2, and Street Vol. 2 absolutely dominated my childhood. Each of those are all-timers and fill me with the sweet, sweet nectar of nostalgia. It’s cool to see a ranking from someone who was working at EA, and on some of these IPs!
• This Discovery Just SHATTERED Pokemon Emerald’s World Record | PulseEffects - I highly recommend getting some exposure to the speedrunning community. It’s this weird, niche microcosm where, for the most part, even though it’s man-dominated it’s not as toxic as most places on the internet. Specific, GDQ - Games Done Quick, an expo(?) where speedrunners get together to attempt world records in front of their peers and fans. AND they are leftist, feminist, and trans friendly. GDQ specifically has a reputation for not only being inclusive, but having teeth when it comes to kicking out losers. I love videos like these because they exist outside the economy and the pressures of a work-based society. These folks spend the same, if not more, time on optimizing strats to reduce a second off of a runtime than they do in the workplace - their labor isn’t captured for profit and that’s pretty rad. To commit yourself to excellence for the sake of it.

Games

• DEMO: Digimon Story Time Stranger | Media.Vision Inc. | 2025 - tl;dr I really liked this demo and this game looks more than passable, which is god send for us Digimon fans! I haven’t played any Digimon game longer than an hour, so take that with a grain of salt. This is a very polished and streamlined experience. It takes the core mechanics of Persona (animation, overworld, combat flow, UI) with an overt Pokemon influence for the Digimon personalities and the way they represent the type advantage system. Luckily, the way that you “capture” (convert) and Digivolve Digimon is really novel to me! Given my lack of experience with these games, it was really refreshing. There are small touches that just make you feel good, like how some moves transform your Digimon into pixels or how the Digivolution is tracked with pixel art. The only gripe I have is that I disliked or hated essentially every Digimon voice actor. They were painful in general, and disorienting when they diverged so significantly from the anime - which is understandable, but still. Overall, I was surprised I got sucked into the demo. Who knows if the story pans out, but there is something magical about the Ultimate battles and the fidelity of the world. I can’t imagine buying this to sink 60 hours into it, but if long-ish RPGs are your vibe and you like or love the Digimon universe I know you will have fun with this!
• The Thaumaturge | Fool’s Theory | 2024 - This game troubles me. On its face, it’s a perfect Boggy game. The characters are complex and authentic. The story is compelling, well-researched, and clearly personal. The world is beautiful and stuffed with lore, history, and secrets. The combat is accessible, fun, and visually appealing. It’s a heartful game taking on a tough moment in a tough era. Yet, I just can’t stick with it. I haven’t played The Thaumaturge since October of last year. I dropped off after about 15 hours, which is a little over halfway through Act 2 (of 3). The thing is, the game is good. It’s actually great. It lands in that high-class AA category and I find myself recommending it often. Perhaps the one issue I have with this game is that it hits this excellent for too long. Not usually a complaint I have for games like this, but
• Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade | SquareEnix | 2022 - Still beautiful, still fun. Nothing crazy story wise this play session, but I think that’s also why this game is excellent - it’s both a cozy, wholesome serve-your-community sim and an environmental terrorism sim. Excited to see the next escalation for the crew.
• Peak | Landfall Games & Aggro Crab Games | 2025 - Oh no, I have joined the friend-slop fray! I hate to admit, I had a lot of fun with Peak. It was via an online date, so that obviously added to the vibe, but yeah it’s exactly what everyone says - simple, fun, and has emergent moments. I think I will try to use proximity chat next time.
• The Red Lantern | Timberline Studio Inc. | 2020 - Hahahahha this game fucking sucks. Don’t play this. No tea, no shade on the voice acting, but the writing and gameplay are garbage. Good views.
• Franken | samanthuel louise gillson | 2022 - Fuck this game is perfect. The music, the design, the immediate and many JRPG references. The artwork is some of the best pixel art I have ever seen and the writing is witty and playful. I describe this game as a 100+ hour JRPG boiled down into an hour. It’s fucking free (but pay a donation if you can). You have to play it!!