Back at it with more of my throwing recommendations into the void!

anime

kaiju no. 8
studio: Production I.G
action, sci-fi, monster
The only things I knew about this series going into it were that it a) was very popular/heavily featured on Crunchyroll, b) featured kaiju hunting, and c) OneRepublic did the ending song lmfao. Literally took me one episode to get totally hooked and I’m caught up on the anime to the weekly releases (including the one that came out this past weekend). Love this so much that I tracked down the manga & renewed my Shounen Jump subscription to read it… and I’m already almost caught up on it as well (YIKES). I almost don’t want to go into details on it because I think I liked it BETTER going in mostly blind. Hibino Kafka is a great MC and I love him so much (HELL FUCKING YEA OLDER PROTAGS), and one of the major reasons I think this is super appealing to me is that I like SO MANY of the supporting cast members too (ALSO HI KICKASS FEMALE CHARACTERS FUCK YEAH THANK U FOR THE MEAL). I don’t think there’s anything super groundbreaking here but it does what it does very well, good storytelling—sometimes, that just is all it needs! (Demon Slayer comes to mind in that regard haha.) Very much looking forward to following this one on the regular!

spy x family code: white
studio: Wit Studio & CloverWorks
comedy, action
If you already like the series, this is more of the same vein: ridiculous hijinks, tons of misunderstandings that are FUCKING HILARIOUS, and I think I laughed until I cried a few times. Honestly a great addition to the overall Spy x Family collection. (lmfao my inner child wailed with laughter during the poop god scene and that’s all I’m gonna say about it)

solo leveling
studio: A-1 Pictures
action/adventure, fantasy
This got a ton of hype when it came out, and it looked way too isekai-adjacent for me to want to get into it, so I ignored it for a good long time. Watched the first episode and was like, hmm uh this is thankfully NOT isekai but idk if I’m into it yet, and took a break. Got antsy after I caught up on Kaiju No. 8 and finally sat down to give this one a proper chance, and I’m pretty glad I did! Ended up binging it very quickly once I got going, haha. Very interesting concept and MC, and I kind of like that they explore the correlation between him getting stronger and losing bits of himself in the process. Also there’s a ton of mystery left unexplained (idk if I’ll track down the webtoon for this one yet but I am intrigued), so that should get interesting as future seasons come out. I can’t honestly say it lived up to the hype it got for me personally, but I did very much enjoy it and will keep tabs on it in the future.

editing two days later to add on a few more lmao;;; clearly i need to sleep more & watch less!

the apothecary diaries
studio: Toho Animation Studio / OLM
drama, mystery, romance
I’d heard a lot of great things about this one and finally sat down to watch it, and am already BINGE-WATCHING THIS SO FAST AHHH. Delightfully fun series with beautiful animation and a great female lead, oh my god Maomao is A+ excellent hahaha. I’m not done with this one yet, but there are some semi-predictable twists I can pretty much tell are coming our way, and honestly it’s a delight. Takes place in a fake historical Chinese setting, and has a ton of heart and hijinks, and some shockingly “discrete” adult jokes & references lmfao oh lordy (for some context, Maomao grew up in a brothel and has Learned Things). Highly recommend it already, and can see why this one had some hardcore hype fans behind it.

a sign of affection
studio: Ajia-do Animation Works
romance, drama, shōjo
Another one I‘ve not quite finished yet, but am really in love with, like comfort-food-style. I don’t watch a ton of romance series but this one is very sweet and uplifting, kind of in the same vein as The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague (yes that’s an actual series too haha, it’s also great!!). Our lead female protag is fully deaf college student who has never left Japan, and has a meet-cute with a good-looking guy at her college who is a polyglot and thrives on world travel. Oh, and of course it wouldn’t be a proper shōjo romance without a good old fashioned love triangle in the works, haha. Pacing can be a tad slow, but the animation is gorgeous, and honestly it’s disgustingly sweet and positive, which sometimes is right up my alley.


movies

monkey man
director: Dev Patel
action, revenge, shoot-em-up
This moviE IS SO GOOD OKAY. I was excited for it when I saw trailers a long while back, and HOOBOY it did not disappoint at all! On the surface, it’s a run-of-the-mill action revenge story, in the same vein as John Wick or Shoot ‘Em Up. Sure, that’s part of it. But then it takes us into the underbelly of India’s caste system politics, and it gets interesting. The storytelling feels a little jumbled at first, but as the puzzle pieces fall into place, I really appreciated the sequencing. Top it all off with some action sequences that HIT HARD (including the Hijra kicking ass scene), outstanding musical choices, and a wonderful cast? Dev Patel knocked it out of the park. Pretty amazing considering how much of a struggle this film was for him to make. I really hope he gets some accolades for this masterpiece, because they’d very much be Well Deserved. So glad Peele made sure this got the distribution treatment it deserved.

dune: part 2
director: Denis Villeneuve
action, drama, sci-fi
Okay so I did enjoy Dune: Part 1. Quite a bit. But Dune: Part 2 blew it out of the damn water. Growing up, I wasn’t into the books, because I watched the 1980s movie when I was probably a tad too young/immature to appreciate it, and it gave me weird fever dreams that were so impressionable that I still remember having them. (Most of the book readers in my family were SUPER into the books by contrast, haha.) Now I’m reconsidering picking the books up for a proper read, because HOOBOY absolutely LOVED this movie enough to see it twice, once in Dolby & once in IMAX. (Side note, IMO: Dolby > IMAX pretty much any day, with a few very rare exceptions.) Loved the cast, love the vibes, the music was amazing (memes aside but those are great too)… just a fantastic cinematic adventure. Huge fan of where this is going, and super excited for more releases in this environment.

the fall guy
director: David Leitch
comedy, action, romance
Look, I AM UPSET. This got so reamed in the box office and it absolutely didn’t deserve that. This was such a fun movie, and everyone I talked to who’d seen it was like, I FUCKING LOVE IT. (Granted, most of us are ladies. Whatever, we like movies too okay.) Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt are both so great in this, and I legit bought it the second it was available on digital and have plans to watch this many, many times. Fun/ridiculous shenanigans with a stunt man who gets sucked into something Way Bigger than it should’ve been, with a little bit of a love story mixed in there. Heck, sometimes we just want fun popcorn movies. This is one of them, and shAME on movie goers for missing out in theaters.

civil war
director: Alex Garland
drama, action
I wasn’t sure what to expect with this movie, honestly. It seemed almost like right-wing propaganda the first time I’d seen it advertised, until I realized who had been cast in it. I actually almost missed its theatrical run, but heard so many people saying how good it was that I finally went super late with a buddy of mine who hadn’t seen it yet either. Honestly? I was pleasantly surprised at how well done the movie was, though it’s definitely a cautionary tale that very much hits a little too close to home, like this is something that could actually happen (and it’s TERRIFYING). From an artistic standpoint though, very well done. Just pretty uh, pessimistic in so many ways.

kingdom of the planet of the apes
director: Wes Ball
action/adventure, sci-fi, drama
I did a dumb and didn’t watch any of the movies that lead up into this one, lmao, BUT I had read synopses and had a bit of an understanding of the backstory leading up to this installment. (Definitely have plans to go watch them now!) Really interesting story, and had massive Horizon games vibes from watching it haha. Really liked our main character and watching his growth throughout the movie, too. Fascinating concept, and it sounds like there are definitely more to come.


tv shows

shogun
provider (US): FX/Hulu
period drama, action
Everyone and their dog is raving about this show and you should be too. SUCH a good series, beautifully shot, and I think my ONLY gripe with it is that it’s confusing when they actually use Japanese for when they’re speaking Japanese, but are speaking in English when for anything that’s supposed to be Portuguese. I mean, I get it—casting restraints & such. But stilllllll, haha. Anyway, uh. I read Shogun my freshman year of college, and it’s one of several reasons I actually decided to study Japanese history (because it made me realize HOW LITTLE I knew of it back then). I never watched the previous adaptations, but this one is just really well-cast and has amazing cinematography. FX knocked it out of the park, generally speaking, and EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT HOW GOOD IT IS. I’m actually not quite done with it yet but OH MAN I am so looking forward to the rest, what I’ve seen so far is SO FUCKING GOOOOOOD. 1000% worth the hype.

masters of the air
provider (US): Apple TV+
period drama, war, action
This show is INTENSE and absolutely beautiful. If you’re a fan of Band of Brothers, this is in the same vein (and I believe it’s even the same showrunners). It’s actually based on memoirs of soldiers who were in the 100th Bomb group in the Air Force (Army) in WWII. Super fascinating, and really well cast & directed. Highly recommend this one.

the new look
provider (US): Apple TV+
period drama, fashion
Another WWII era story, but this time about some of the fashion giants who lived through German occupation in Paris (mainly Chanel & Dior, but others are included as well). I honestly knew so little about the history of some of the big fashion houses & the drama between them, so this was absolutely fascinating to me. Beautifully produced, and honestly educational (for me—now I kind of want to dig into the actual history here!).

the reluctant traveler
provider (US): Apple TV+
reality, travel
Eugene Levy is a gift, okay. This is such a fun travel series, even if so many pieces of it are waaaaay out of your average viewer’s price range lmao. I’ve got a bunch of new places I want to visit now though, and seeing Eugene Levy kind of struggle through some experiences is giving me courage to try something new myself! Great easy background TV in a landscape full of hard-hitting dramas.



books
… or only one book right now haha.

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
historical, war, drama
I’m only partway through this right now, but OH MY GOD IS IT SO GOOD!!! If you’ve never heard of Kate Quinn before, she’s a historical fiction author who usually focuses in on lesser-known stories of actual women in big historical moments, and she’s a phenomenal storyteller. The Diamond Eye follows the story of Lyudmila (“Mila”) Pavlichenko, a WWII-era Russian sniper with an insanely high tally. Oh my god it’s a huge ride so far. The story isn’t told chronologically, so we keep getting left off in really interesting spots when the timelines we’re following get switched. SO looking forward to getting a good chunk of time to sit down and plow through the rest of it. Already highly recommend it.