Things consumed: Colonoscopy edition!
Which is to say, I was VERY WOOZY for some of these.
Games (mostly from the currently ongoing steam sale):
Scribblenauts Unlimited (windows only): Solve people's problems by creating/editing objects. Fun, but you play as a guy saving his sister, and everytime you finish a level you gain another sibling as a possible avatar and ALL FORTY OF THEM are male. I checked! WHY NOT MAKE HALF OF THEM GIRLS. OR EVEN ONE OF THEM. They're not even compulsory so dude players wouldn't have to play as a girl, but girl players could! This annoys me so much I have stopped playing. IT'S SO UNNECCESARILY SEXIST. (Non binary/ungendered characters would also be good but if they can't manage girls)
Grim Legends: the Forsaken Bride: a Hidden object game from Artifex Mundi, only just started. Graphics are a bit uncanny valley but it's a nicely immersive Olde Worlde village setting. So far you're a woman rescuing your sister.
Higurashi When They Cry: Stalled on this completely. It's not bad, I just find it hard to keep up momentum with kinetic novels (like a visual novel but with no real choices)
Message Quest: a puzzle game about a lazy messenger in a fantasy world trying to avoid doing his quest. Has occasional simple turn based combat and I got stuck on a battle, but was enjoying it until then and will use a walkthrough to get past it at some point. Has some things that made me :/ about gender but is ultimately good hearted. It's a bit weird having to poke a lazy character who "just wants to sleep" when you have cfs, but he really is just lazy.
Audiosurf 2: Crashed on both windows and Mac :/
Books:
Any Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare: REALLY TRASHY regency romance about a Duke whose mother is sick of him being unmarried so tells him to pick any of a room full of well born spinsters for her to turn into the perfect duchess, so he picks the serving girl to spite her. BUT THEN THEY FALL IN LOVE. Was effectively readable and fun when I felt crappy, and the characters are likeable and suit each other, though it was way more gender essentialist and M/f than I like. Now I'm more awake am having trouble motivating myself to finish it.
Blood and Wine by Alexis Hall: even trashier f/f supernatural romance I keep trying to read and bouncing off. It's just too Supernatural Romance for me, with an over the top sleazily-distracted-by-sexiness world weary noir detective POV I found grating (at least in regency romances the main characters are usually only distracted by each other's sexiness rather than by every second character they meet)
The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells: Tried the free sample and lost interest. The treatment of an intellectually disabled character bothered me, and the dynamic with the two female characters introduced thus far felt very "grumpy gnc women are fine but biddable pretty women are stupid and worthless". Since I'd already been wondering about such subtext in the previous book of hers I'd read ("The Wheel of the Infinite", which I otherwise really liked) I decided to give up, though with the possibility of trying again some time. The fantasy plot and main character's angst were ok but not very interesting. Also everyone's lizard people and I found that off putting *am apparently mammal centric*
Manga:
Tonari no Robot Yuri about a robot who always looks 17 and her female friend who has just turned 16. Unfinished but otherwise pretty fun, with some nice science fictionyness about AI.
Anime/animated tv:
Voltron: A reboot of the old cartoon by Dreamworks on Netflix, using significant people from Avatar the Last Airbender. I really enjoyed it! It's basically your typical "rag tag group of teens discover they have a Destiny to Save The Universe Using Giant Robots, learn the value of teamwork, save the day" story, but well told with a really nice ensemble cast, well constructed and consistent plot, endearing and expressive animation, funny and well written dialogue, exciting and visually spectacular space battles etc. Starts out VERY male dominated, only improves a little, but treats its female characters really well. Very ethnically diverse. Annoying about the fat character, especially to start with, has a running gag about him vomiting a lot for the first episode or two which thankfully gets dropped.
This Boy is a Professional Wizard: tiny cute little m/m anime where nothing non consensual happens! Also everyone is an adult! And nice! Which is so rare I was really happy, even though other than that it’s super short, cheaply made, and has a pretty generic “self hating workaholic finds happiness with free spirit” plot where all but one very minor character are men. It’s hard to find out much about the writer/director Yamamoto Soubi but I’ll have to see if I can track down her other OVAs. Props to her for getting an Aussie release when she seems to be very indie.(and yes it has a happy ending and nobody dies)
Wolf Girl and Black Prince: Shoujo highschool romance about a girl who ends up fake dating a "princely" guy who's secretly a jerk with a VERY DEEPLY HIDDEN heart of...if not gold then maybe brass. I read the manga of this recently and enjoyed it well enough but couldn't get into the anime, I think just because I felt no desire to go over it again so soon. Also I found myself shipping the MC and her best friend even harder than before. Anyway it seemed like an ok adaptation even if the OP is an embarrassingly succinct encapsulation of the trashiness, this is so one of those relationships you can enjoy in fiction but think would be awful in real life.
Azumanga Daioh: FINALLY got around to finishing it. A cute, not especially plotty graduation arc to finish off this cute, not very plotty but funny and endearing slice of life show about schoolgirls. I enjoyed it! Alas noone seems to have written the post-canon Sakaki/Kaori the world CLEARLY NEEDS (I mean there is some but it's...not...good), but at least I got canon Sakaki/cat hugs.
Flying Witch: highschool slice of life centering on a girl who is secretly a witch. The first episode was mildly amusing and endearing, though it's a bit male gazey in that moe way where girls are Cute and A Bit Silly. I'm a little worried it's going to get harem-y around the rather bland male character, though noone's shown unambiguous interest in him so far.
**** The following reviews mention underage incest subtext! ****
Shounen maid: So on the surface this is a very cute story about a boy who goes to live with his eccentric uncle after he's orphaned, and the two of them form a new family/have heart warming hijinks etc. I was told it had shota subtext, and was expecting moe-esque "the camera just happens to be staring at this 14 year old's butt while they just happens to be wearing bathers", which I could have lived with, but what I couldn't live with was the subtext between the boy and his uncle. Nothing happens, and it's subtle, but it was still too squicky for me, especially because he's only 10. Which is annoying because it IS really cute, otherwise, and I enjoyed a story with positive depictions of male and female characters with traditionally feminine traits (it's mostly male focussed but there's a secondary female character who's very girly)
Tanaka-kun is Always Listless: highschool slice of life centering on a boy who is amusingly listless. Except I didn't find it amusing and was just bored during the first episode, especially given that it was all about dudes. Apparently has a random "girl in love with her older brother" subplot later that people found squicky. (After watching Flying Witch I had a moment of "WAIT if all the girls are in his harem does that include his cute little sister DIDN'T I SEE SOMEONE SAY A SHOW THIS SEASON HAD SQUICKY INCEST" but turns out that was this)
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/618954.html. There are
comments.
Games (mostly from the currently ongoing steam sale):
Scribblenauts Unlimited (windows only): Solve people's problems by creating/editing objects. Fun, but you play as a guy saving his sister, and everytime you finish a level you gain another sibling as a possible avatar and ALL FORTY OF THEM are male. I checked! WHY NOT MAKE HALF OF THEM GIRLS. OR EVEN ONE OF THEM. They're not even compulsory so dude players wouldn't have to play as a girl, but girl players could! This annoys me so much I have stopped playing. IT'S SO UNNECCESARILY SEXIST. (Non binary/ungendered characters would also be good but if they can't manage girls)
Grim Legends: the Forsaken Bride: a Hidden object game from Artifex Mundi, only just started. Graphics are a bit uncanny valley but it's a nicely immersive Olde Worlde village setting. So far you're a woman rescuing your sister.
Higurashi When They Cry: Stalled on this completely. It's not bad, I just find it hard to keep up momentum with kinetic novels (like a visual novel but with no real choices)
Message Quest: a puzzle game about a lazy messenger in a fantasy world trying to avoid doing his quest. Has occasional simple turn based combat and I got stuck on a battle, but was enjoying it until then and will use a walkthrough to get past it at some point. Has some things that made me :/ about gender but is ultimately good hearted. It's a bit weird having to poke a lazy character who "just wants to sleep" when you have cfs, but he really is just lazy.
Audiosurf 2: Crashed on both windows and Mac :/
Books:
Any Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare: REALLY TRASHY regency romance about a Duke whose mother is sick of him being unmarried so tells him to pick any of a room full of well born spinsters for her to turn into the perfect duchess, so he picks the serving girl to spite her. BUT THEN THEY FALL IN LOVE. Was effectively readable and fun when I felt crappy, and the characters are likeable and suit each other, though it was way more gender essentialist and M/f than I like. Now I'm more awake am having trouble motivating myself to finish it.
Blood and Wine by Alexis Hall: even trashier f/f supernatural romance I keep trying to read and bouncing off. It's just too Supernatural Romance for me, with an over the top sleazily-distracted-by-sexiness world weary noir detective POV I found grating (at least in regency romances the main characters are usually only distracted by each other's sexiness rather than by every second character they meet)
The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells: Tried the free sample and lost interest. The treatment of an intellectually disabled character bothered me, and the dynamic with the two female characters introduced thus far felt very "grumpy gnc women are fine but biddable pretty women are stupid and worthless". Since I'd already been wondering about such subtext in the previous book of hers I'd read ("The Wheel of the Infinite", which I otherwise really liked) I decided to give up, though with the possibility of trying again some time. The fantasy plot and main character's angst were ok but not very interesting. Also everyone's lizard people and I found that off putting *am apparently mammal centric*
Manga:
Tonari no Robot Yuri about a robot who always looks 17 and her female friend who has just turned 16. Unfinished but otherwise pretty fun, with some nice science fictionyness about AI.
Anime/animated tv:
Voltron: A reboot of the old cartoon by Dreamworks on Netflix, using significant people from Avatar the Last Airbender. I really enjoyed it! It's basically your typical "rag tag group of teens discover they have a Destiny to Save The Universe Using Giant Robots, learn the value of teamwork, save the day" story, but well told with a really nice ensemble cast, well constructed and consistent plot, endearing and expressive animation, funny and well written dialogue, exciting and visually spectacular space battles etc. Starts out VERY male dominated, only improves a little, but treats its female characters really well. Very ethnically diverse. Annoying about the fat character, especially to start with, has a running gag about him vomiting a lot for the first episode or two which thankfully gets dropped.
This Boy is a Professional Wizard: tiny cute little m/m anime where nothing non consensual happens! Also everyone is an adult! And nice! Which is so rare I was really happy, even though other than that it’s super short, cheaply made, and has a pretty generic “self hating workaholic finds happiness with free spirit” plot where all but one very minor character are men. It’s hard to find out much about the writer/director Yamamoto Soubi but I’ll have to see if I can track down her other OVAs. Props to her for getting an Aussie release when she seems to be very indie.(and yes it has a happy ending and nobody dies)
Wolf Girl and Black Prince: Shoujo highschool romance about a girl who ends up fake dating a "princely" guy who's secretly a jerk with a VERY DEEPLY HIDDEN heart of...if not gold then maybe brass. I read the manga of this recently and enjoyed it well enough but couldn't get into the anime, I think just because I felt no desire to go over it again so soon. Also I found myself shipping the MC and her best friend even harder than before. Anyway it seemed like an ok adaptation even if the OP is an embarrassingly succinct encapsulation of the trashiness, this is so one of those relationships you can enjoy in fiction but think would be awful in real life.
Azumanga Daioh: FINALLY got around to finishing it. A cute, not especially plotty graduation arc to finish off this cute, not very plotty but funny and endearing slice of life show about schoolgirls. I enjoyed it! Alas noone seems to have written the post-canon Sakaki/Kaori the world CLEARLY NEEDS (I mean there is some but it's...not...good), but at least I got canon Sakaki/cat hugs.
Flying Witch: highschool slice of life centering on a girl who is secretly a witch. The first episode was mildly amusing and endearing, though it's a bit male gazey in that moe way where girls are Cute and A Bit Silly. I'm a little worried it's going to get harem-y around the rather bland male character, though noone's shown unambiguous interest in him so far.
**** The following reviews mention underage incest subtext! ****
Shounen maid: So on the surface this is a very cute story about a boy who goes to live with his eccentric uncle after he's orphaned, and the two of them form a new family/have heart warming hijinks etc. I was told it had shota subtext, and was expecting moe-esque "the camera just happens to be staring at this 14 year old's butt while they just happens to be wearing bathers", which I could have lived with, but what I couldn't live with was the subtext between the boy and his uncle. Nothing happens, and it's subtle, but it was still too squicky for me, especially because he's only 10. Which is annoying because it IS really cute, otherwise, and I enjoyed a story with positive depictions of male and female characters with traditionally feminine traits (it's mostly male focussed but there's a secondary female character who's very girly)
Tanaka-kun is Always Listless: highschool slice of life centering on a boy who is amusingly listless. Except I didn't find it amusing and was just bored during the first episode, especially given that it was all about dudes. Apparently has a random "girl in love with her older brother" subplot later that people found squicky. (After watching Flying Witch I had a moment of "WAIT if all the girls are in his harem does that include his cute little sister DIDN'T I SEE SOMEONE SAY A SHOW THIS SEASON HAD SQUICKY INCEST" but turns out that was this)
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/618954.html. There are
comments.