I watched the first season of The Summer Hikaru died, an anime adaptation of Mokumokuren’s manga of the same name that is currently ongoing. I haven't read it, but had added the series to my watchlist at some point. It's 12 episodes long at about 20 minutes each. The plot follows 2 boys that live in a small town steeped in superstition. One of them, Hikaru goes to a mountain that is forbidden to enter by anyone or they're never to be seen again. His family have lived in the village for generations and the men carry a tradition of performing a ritual to an entity they call Nonuki. Sadly, the boy dies in the mountain and gets possessed by something, retaining the memories of the boy. He goes back to try to live as the boy and the episodes explore how the relationship with his best friend Yoshiki continue while supernatural activity spikes around the region. The animation is beautiful. I had never heard of the studio, but the character designer is the same for the Mononoke movies. It gave me some ideas that I'd like to experiment with. I liked some of the patterns and parts of the intro and outro. The story seems to have queer themes, but the author has explained that the focus isn't romance, it's coming-of-age horror. That's honestly great, I feel like most times romance seems to be the only way to tell an engaging story and it isn't. I've been looking at masters programs and have considered something related to animation or multimedia. So, I've been practicing with basic animation and downloaded Blender to try to learn how to do stuff there and been looking into how to write a script.

Next on my watchlist was The Punisher special One Last Kill. My partner said he saw spoilers, so before I find any myself, I figured I'd watch it. And damn, was that bloody and gory. That's all I'll say about that, but it was a good watch. #recentlywatched #tvreview

Last night I finished watching a Chinese drama called Mobius (2025). It's a detective type show about a guy that experiences day loops and uses what he remembers to solve cases. It's 18 episodes long, each episode is about 45 minutes each. There's no rhyme or reason as to WHY the loops happen, but as the episodes progress, you learn why he experiences them and the limitations, which I felt was good enough. I surely wasn't interested because of how faithful it is to reality, so I can forgive the choices made for dramatic effect. It was pretty entertaining with elements of thriller as the officers converge on a suspected killer. I might recommend it to my sister. The show ends with a possibility for a second season, but honestly if it doesn't get renewed, I'm fine with it. They told a story and it mostly wrapped up pretty well.

In terms of language learning, they talk too fast and not very clear for me to catch tones and words, but I did rewind a few times to try to listen and repeat phrases. It's already been a year since I started learning Mandarin for at least 10 minutes a day. I'd say my progress is decent for the amount of time I've put into it. I can read some characters and recognize quite a few words and phrases. I'll have a chance to practice what I've learned when my nephews come over during the summer. So there's that. #recentlywatched

I finished watching an anime called My Daemon. It's 13 episodes long with 45 min episodes. It very much fits into a dystopian genre. I had added it to my Netflix watchlist last year and decided to give it a watch, now that I'm back to researching dystopia. Set in a post-apocalyptic war where nuclear warfare caused weird creatures called demons with abilities to emerge, humanity has been reduced to specific zones as these monsters rampage towards people and they respond in kind. These demons are treated like monsters and within that pervasive hatred there's a little boy that adopted a small demon and cares for it like a loving pet. Demons are only treated in 3 ways; extermination, slavery, and research (akin to animal testing). The boy and his demon buddy suffer from bullying, discrimination, and outright violence to take the demon away dead or alive because they are considered dangerous. They are targeted by an organization that wants the demon and some shit happens. It was a good watch. The animation was done by a Thai based company called Igloo Studios for Netflix. No word if there will be a second season, doubt it, but I'm OK if it ends there. They can certainly explore more, but also leave it to the imagination.

Cleaning up my watchlist I found Bee and Puppycat. I checked if there's any cancelation news and I didn't find anything. It's been like 4 years though. Would love to see more of that show. The YouTube channel Cartoon Hangover keeps posting YouTube Shorts about it and the comments always ask for a new season. I hope that day will come. I haven't given up hope.

Speaking of shows I'd love to see more of, Regular Show is dropping new episodes today. Called The Lost Tapes. I can't wait to see more Mordecai and Rigby, oooOooooooOOOOOooooooh. Not sure when they'll be on hulu, but I hope it's soon. I think you can't watch TV from the Cartoon Network website anymore and I believe I don't have that channel. My mother insists on having cable although nobody uses it, but it's part of one of those packages with phone and internet. I remember when the cable company switched owners and they changed the channels package, removing Cartoon Network and Comedy Central from basic. Those were pretty much the only channels I watched regularly and I don't watch cable since then. It's been like 7 years. So yeah, new Regular Show, Yeaaah. #recentlywatched #watchlist

I opened hulu to check for new American Dad episodes. Didn't find any, so I watched the new season of Malcom in the middle. It's 4 episodes long. I used to watch that show and vaguely remember liking it. I enjoyed what they did, I thought it was pretty well thought out and carries the essence of the original run. I heard on a podcast that the actor that played Dewey as a child was offered a bunch of money for the reunion episodes, but he declined. Too busy studying Literature in Harvard or something like that. The recast was alright. Some actors don't want to go back to acting and that's understandable. So many child actors end up with trauma, seen plenty of documentaries about it. I'm sure he had his reasons to decline and good for him that money was not enough of a motivation to come back. I wish him the best.

I had a blast watching Life's Still Unfair. It's funny and just as wacky as I remember it. I don't wanna spoil it, but it was entertaining and has a nice message about family and communication. Some toxic families deserve to go no contact for the sake of sanity, but I think that's a last resort if no understanding can be reached. Each case is different of course, especially if troubling behaviors loom. But in this fictional story, it was nice to see them accept each other. It's worth the watch if you liked the OG series. #recentlywatched

Spent a week at my partner's house and I watched some Deep Space Nine with him. I told him Ferengis seem to be stereotyping of Jews, which he didn't get, but that's because I've seen more TV than him. Quite literally a decade worth due to age difference. I had an event last Saturday where I DJ'ed some punk, post punk, and goth rock. I had been itching to play some Russian postpunk and I finally had the chance to do so. The feedback was great. I love being able to share good music with fellow lovers. I'm happy to report I didn't get sick after the party, but I did get terrible period pains. Because it sucks to know that cramps can get worse with age. My partner had some edibles and told me to eat half of a 100mg cookie. I told him that would probably knock me out and it did. Can't feel pain if I'm unconscious. At least I was well rested.

I was a little bummed that the weather has been so rainy and rip tide currents very high. I wanted to go to the beach. My Photos app has reminded me it's been over 6 months since my last trip to the beach. The weather will eventually be sunny again and I hope to visit the beach soon, my body yearns for it. I have my own upcoming event soon, so that will keep me busy because of course, I need a deadline for motivation. Which apparently that can get ruined during perimenopause. Getting older is full of fun surprises, at least through social media I've learned much from my elders. My mother does share tips with me. I just have a hard time listening sometimes because she's a retired professor and everything she says sounds like a lecture, but I try to value my time with her. I'm aware that my mostly sedentary lifestyle is not healthy which is why I force myself to walk while playing Pokémon Go around my neighborhood. I hardly count dancing while painting to be exercise, but at least it's something.

I recently watched the new episodes of Daredevil Born Again, which makes 3 of them so far. I'm not well versed enough in the lore to see where it's headed, but it's been a good watch. I'd be happy if new American Dad would drop to make my weekend. Lastnight I glanced at My Stuff on hulu and noticed I haven't seen the 3rd season of Bleach Thousand year war, so I'll probably binge that today to kick off all the animation I have to manually put together for some visuals I'm working on for my event. Appreciating good animation will probably make my work seem like less of a hassle in comparison. I truly respect the art and work in animation. #recentlywatched #lifeupdate