Recent Media: Many Queer Things

[forestofglory]

My Brother's Husband by Gengoroh Tagame, Translated by Anne Ishii Someone I know described this as “for straights” and I see what they where getting at. It's the story of someone working on overcoming their homophobia. Yaichi’s brother moved to Canada (form Japan) and married a man. The brother than died and the his husband Mike arrives at Yaichi’s doorstep for planned visit as the manga opens. The story really centers Yaichi’s feelings of discomfort as he slowly comes to accept Mike. So I can see why some people find that frustrating. Still a lot of this manga is really cute! I particularly liked Yaichi’s daughter Kana, who is really excited to meet her Uncle and very accepting of him.

I Ship My Adversary X Me by PEPA translated by Yudun & MomoepomThis is a partly translated chinese web novel . So far 16 of 47 chapters have been translated. It freaking adorable! Its boys love story about two actors that most of the fans have decided hate each other and are rivals. However one of actors finds out that some of the fans ship them instead, and that he really likes reading all their fluffy takes on the relationship! So far this just full of them have very cute interactions with each other. And they feed each other! Really I am very squeeful about it. However one of the two translators who was working on this seems to be taking a mental health break so it might be a while until we get any more. (Content note: embarrassing situations)

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders Anders is the guest of honor and WisCon which I will be attending so it seemed like a good idea to read her latest book. For me this was more of an ideas book than an character book. But there were a lot of really interesting ideas about about time, memory, and governance that I want to think about more.

Star Trek Discovery Season 2 R and I have only 2 episodes left of this. I’ve been taking a bunch of notes and will probably do a longer write up about the season when we finish it.

She Ra Season 2 The second season of this cartoon is delightful. My main problem here is that seven episodes makes for a very short season and I wanted more, especially since the season ends on a cliffhanger. Also there wasn’t enough Queen Angella. I really liked that this season focused on characters growing into their new roles. Also we got a queer relationship on screen! Looking forward to more of this soon.

Comments

[calissa]

I'm interested that you felt The City in the Middle of the Night wasn't so much a character book. I found the way it delved into toxic relationships to be quite fascinating and I felt it had some resonance there with All the Birds in the Sky. It would be amazing to hear Charlie Jane Anders speak at WisCon! I hope you have a wonderful time when it comes around.

Hard agree on S2 of She-Ra. My sweetheart and I had blown through all the episodes before we'd even realised that was all there was!

Super tempted to try I Ship My Adversary X Me.

[forestofglory]

I guess what I mean about The City in the Middle of the Night is it wasn't caring about the characters that made me keep reading. Not that the characters where's well drawn and the relationship dynamics weren't compelling. But I found myself keeping a bit of distance form the characters -- perhaps because they where so unhappy a lot of the time and that was stressful.

All the WisCon GoH speeches I've read and the ones I saw in person last year have been amazing. I'm sure this years will be too.

I manged to look at how many episodes of She-Ra there were before I watched too many -- so I watched it pretty slowly to savor it a bit -- but still there wasn't enough.

I Ship My Adversary X Me is super cute. And I'm glad that I read it even if there isn't any more for a while. For me its the kind of thing where I don't desperately need to know what happens next. Its romance novel so I know they'll get a HEA eventually. I'll try post here when it starts up again.

[calissa]

Oh, I definitely see what you mean about tCitMofN. They were some very unhappy characters and it was rather stressful.

I hope that one day I'll be able to make it along to WisCon. I've heard such good things about it.

[forestofglory]

I'm glad it makes sense to you!

WisCon is pretty far for you to get to -- but I really enjoyed it last year and hope to keep attending so if you ever do make it we could meet up.

[calissa]

I would love that!