The major media post of November 2023

December 1, 2023

• Manga/comics
  • A face you are not allowed to show
    • Look, sometimes you want to read about horrible toxic relationships between assholes. a hostess and an actress develop a… kind of BDSM-like? relationship in secret. this one just started, it’s fun, it’s very explicit.
  • A distant relationship
    • look…sometimes you want to read even more about horrible toxic relationships between assholes. this one is a student/teacher thing, so clear CWs on that. It’s okay though, if you enjoy reading about terrible people in broken, messy love, then I highly recommend it.
  • A love that has yet to blossom
    • however, this is pure and wholesome, yuri, about two girls who meet on the train and discuss books. a story about trying to find the passions in your life. it’s sweet.
  • I won’t let Mistress suck my blood
    • dear reader, as I’ve probably said before, I am a sucker for vampire stuff. this one is new, it’s nice so far.
  • Banana Fish
    • crime guys! I’ve only read the first part so far, it’s fun, I’m curious to see where it goes.
  • Sheep princess in wolf clothing
    • just pure fluff yuri, but sometimes that’s fun too. the designs are incredibly cute, i love a kemonomimi character.
  • Teppu
    • hell yes here we go. the worst girl, absolutely turned on because she beats up people and/or beats her up. this is the good stuff. I wish it was longer, it was terribly obviously canceled early and that sucks, but what’s here is great. a++.
  • Strangers in paradise
    • this is a western comic, not a manga. about a love triangle between two female roommates and a guy, with a lot of drama, intrigue, mafia shit, etc. It’s fun, it’s old, I’m interested in reading more of it eventually.
  • Walking witch
    • sometimes light and sometimes dark, the journeys of a witch who travels the world and encounters different people. I’ve read the first two parts so far, it’s fun. great Kino’s Journey energy.
  • The moon on a rainy night
    • I have only read the first part so far. high school yuri, it’s cute. deals with themes of disability/deafness, and while I’m certainly not qualified to speak on that, it seems like it’s being taken realistically and seriously? good stuff.
• Anime
  • The bride of the old magician
    • I desperately wished I had a big fairy with a skull face to transport me away from my depression and into a world of magic. I love Elias, I love Chise. season 2 extremely ramps up the yuri vibes around Chise and Philomela in a way that’s probably bait but feels so real.
• Books
  • The Decagon House Murders
    • I haven’t read a mystery novel since I read Holmes stuff as a kid, so this was a new one for me. I totally picked it up because the author was referenced in Umineko, and I think some of that influence is here. it’s good, it was a quick read and I’m interested in checking out other works by the author.
• Games
  • Little Goody two shoes
    • i want to to like this game. in theory a lot of what it does would be right up my alley, the art is cute, it’s explicitly gay, and I love this kind of folk/fairy tale horror stuff. but god, the parts that are “a video game” are just miserable. just absolutely disgusting to play.
  • Fashion dreamer
    • This is the biggest disappointment of the year for me. First of all, everything is gender-locked in a way that feels mindless, but there’s also just… no play here? like there’s a strange lack of structure, but in a way that feels incomplete rather than open or sandbox-like. it feels like something that used to be a mobile game, with all progression structures removed.
  • Backpack fights (demo)
    • Okay, this feels a lot like it’s canceling Backpack Hero’s core mechanic, which feels a bit unfortunate. but – applying that to a multiplayer asynchronous autobattler is a good twist on it, and I’ve put a lot of time into this. as a fan of autobattlers (that aren’t TFT or the other bad Moba versions) this was a lot of fun.
  • Cobalt core
    • there are so many roguelite deckbuilders out there, but it’s a genre I really love. this one is extremely cute and has a neat layer of positioning with its ship battles. the designs and writing are very cute, i like these characters a lot. i Doing it feels like there’s a slight lack of different viable builds, but I think that’s taken into account more in the mix of characters and ships available.
  • Phoenix Wright: Ace lawyer
    • I had actually never played this before! started the first Ace Attorney in the collection on Steam, it’s neat! it has some of the same problems as LA Noire, asking you to choose a specific piece of evidence even if you think something else could work too? but it’s much less punishing, and I end up just reloading when things go bad anyway, so it’s fine. I’ve heard some other games in the series are even better, so I’m excited to get into those.
  • In Stars And Time
    • holy shit this game. I was really looking forward to it and was absolutely blown away by it. a very strange timeloop RPG, I fell in love with all its characters, its world and the story it told. I’m a big fan of timeloop stories, and this one delivers on all fronts. these are already my precious blorbos. I screwed up, big ugly tears, a++.
  • Hardcoded
    • Just a heads up: this is a porn game, so be warned, be cool and be normal. a very trans-cyberpunk game where you play as a robot girl building a new life for herself in the dystopian ruins of a city, with your new found family/big gay polycule. there’s a lot of sex, yes, but it’s also extremely thoughtful and sweet? smut, but with a lot of heart. so cyberpunk Actually anti-corporate rather than pandering to a bunch of toothless both sides. it’s cute and good.
  • Knuckle sandwich
    • this game is crazy! in a good way. I had backed the kickstarter forever ago, I’m excited to get further into it. The soundtrack is amazing, this game got me into nelward.