gaignun | Reading

From Far Away 1-14 (Kyoko Hikawa) - for a beautifully-drawn shoujo manga with an interesting plot, this was such a slog that I am absolutely baffled. Like, I have bounced off this multiple times and basically made it through this attempt by skimming towards the end. Absolutely should have been my thing, absolutely was not. Base plot is isekai/portal fantasy, schoolgirl in a world with a bit of magic with a strong romance and good supporting cast.

"Gaiking" - the Force Five version of the series, presented on five DVD-Rs that I picked up many years ago. Despite this being an incomplete version of an already-shaved series, it wasn't difficult to follow and was pretty enjoyable. Had a 'movie version' added at the end.

RahXephon - complete series + movie. This is one of those "I will need to watch this again to fully follow wtf just happened" pseudo-mecha anime from the earlier part of the century. I liked it, and I liked the cast for the most part, though every now and then it felt like it was trying to go the harem route for no reason. I have a full DVD set with all the beautiful liner notes but I apparently also picked up a thin Blu-ray set at some point...

So, From Far Away can go, Gaiking and the thin RahXephon set can stay. Technically I guess this is a 50/50?

Anyway, even though we're into Actual Advent territory, I'm just gonna keep going and probably all through next year?

thawrecka

littlerhymes asked: "Standout books/comics/manga you read this year"

I was like, what did I even read this year? I feel like I've had more trouble this year than ever remembering what I actually experienced within the calendar year.

Goodreads to the rescue! I gave up on my reading spreadsheet early but I did dutifully log books on GR.

My favourites of the year:

Colette Decides to Die, volumes 1 to 3 by Alto Yukimura - the title makes it sound very grim, but this is a charming shoujo series about an overworked apothecary suffering burnout who decides to jump in the well when she's particularly exhausted, and instead of dying she meets Hades who is also overworked and suffering burnout and needs medical help. Through the relationship they develop, they learn the importance of delegating! And they have adventures! There's also a bit of a romantic element, but that hasn't progressed far in the volumes I've read.

It's a particularly soft & kawaii version of the Greek gods, but why not after all. I'm charmed by it. (I see a lot of discourse on the tumbles about how Greek gods are terrible and shitty in the ancient texts and therefore should only be terrible and shitty in modern fiction, but like, when I want terrible and shitty iterations of the Greek gods those ancient plays and poems already exist for me to enjoy...)

I did catch up on the last three volumes of Natsume's Book of Friends and it's still excellent and amazing and heartwarming & etc.

The more I think about A Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon after the fact, the more I appreciate it. Such neat and tidy plotting, a nice spot of social commentary, and a fun story with cute illustrations, all in a slim 176 pages.

Butter by Asako Yuzuki is the best book about a female serial killer I read all year. I like how messy and textured it is, how atmospheric, how rounded the characterisation feels, the insights it has into Japanese culture and the way it treats women, bodies and food. It doesn't come to any comfortable conclusions, and yet the ending still feels optimistic, and I appreciate how much space it allowed for ambiguity.

kalloway

I've done another bit of security-pruning and circle adjustment. Occasionally I just unfollow/un-access accounts that haven't posted for a rather long time. And I saw a few folks that are active again, so re-followed. ^_^ This is also a reminder that you can unfollow/etc. me for any reason and I won't take it personally.

I posted up a

holiday_wishes post over here. The most important bits are to tell me what to work on with my website and also send me Gundams, lol. I'm still granting all the wishes I can. This is such a fun time of year.

If you're in the USA (sorry, int'l shipping sucks), you can have some of my stuff over here. I really should make these posts more often as I spelunk.

I need to go through my communities and make/add some sort of No AI guideline to each. I just pulled a drabble from a community because they're allowing AI slop to be posted. It's now crossposted to my spaces and deleted from theirs. I'd always meant to create more for that community but that sure isn't happening now.

kalloway

Back to work... I expect the robots to be revolting tonight, for sure...

The one shop that I buy Gundam kits from started a massive Black Friday sale a few weeks back and there felt like there was something a little off about it... Yeah, they just announced they're sunsetting over the next few months because a billion reasons including tariff hell, but mostly peronsal-want-to-spend-more-time-with-family stuff. Better than being completely underwater, at least.

I'm going to try to get holiday cards out over the next week. If you're not on my usual mailing list but would like one, please PM me an address.

denise posting in

dw_news

Hello, friends! It's about to be December again, and you know what that means: the fact I am posting this actually before December 1 means

karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.

The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.

( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )

Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.

On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.

thawrecka

I won't do a more formal version of the December talking meme, but if you leave prompts in the replies to this post about topics you'd like me to talk about I'll try to get through them during the month.

kalloway

I really need to catch up on these...

The Zen Diary - via JFF. It wasn't immediately clear to me at the beginning if this was a drama or a documentary and while it's more like some dramatized memoir, holy shit did it evoke a lot of feelings. Mostly wanting to punch the lead. Very well acted. A very good movie. Hated it.

Have a Song on Your Lips - via JFF. A fairly uplifting 'teaching choir' story with all sorts of complications. Also well acted and enjoyable.

Come Back Anytime - via JFF. Restaurant documentary.

Mottainai Kitchen - via JFF. Documentary about eliminating food waste.

Misc JFF shorts - via JFF and also on YouTube, several about sushi, yokai, music, and art...

The Scoop - via JFF. Hilarious as fuck double-crossing delight about an underground school paper and a writing club.

LOLO Itsukou Series 7: I Can't Hibernate with Books as a Pillow - via JFF, also on Youtube. By a group that writes short modern plays for student productions. Students in the school library on xmas eve. I'd watch more by this group.

Takano Tofu - via JFF. Sort of underwhelming drama about a family that makes Tofu and their complicated lives. Doesn't stick the landing at all but otherwise well acted.

Wizard Barristers - Yep, watched this again and still enjoyed it through the fanservice and whatnot does grate a bit. It's just the right kind of over-the-top that I sometimes need. I feel like the title basically explains the plot? Bonus for Moyo. Always bonus for Moyo.

Super Dimension Century Orguss - aka the one that didn't become part of Robotech and that's incredibly okay because Orguss is... There are some very good ideas in here but a lot that fail spectacularly and also a lot of absolute What The Fuck?! Listen, I watched Orguss so you don't have to.

E's Otherwise - rewatch as well. E's has some bumpy moments but manages to pull itself together by the end. The cross-dressing scenes still hold up incredibly well.

kalloway

I hope anyone celebrating Turkey and/or Nap Day had a lovely one. Since I was out incredibly late (for me) on Thursday and couldn't get myself together to do more than shuffle around the house for a few hours, everything I'd meant to do on Friday will get done today... I think it's just run by the pharmacy, run by the PO, and maybe another shop to get gloves for the mitten tree at the library.

I've taken advantage of a couple of gunpla shop sales... and I got my gift from the second Secret Santa and just... what a wonderful and generous community. I am humbled.

Still have some stuff on my giveaway post and I might be adding more as I clean and whatnot. I'll probably post it to

holiday_wishes by the end of the weekend.

I'm sure there's more but it's sure been a week and a weekend. I need a nap and probably some turkey...

FRANS

Reading

Media Roundup, Accidental Advent All-in-One Again

Best books & manga I read this year

Greetings

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Look! I remembered to post before December started this year!

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Media Roundup, Accidental Advent All-in-One Again

Another Long Weekend

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