Media Round Up: Found Communities

[forestofglory]

I have not been consuming a ton new-to-me media lately instead I’ve been re-watching things, and reading a lot of fanfic, and also spending time on creative projects. But here are a couple of things that I have read or watched recently.

Barakamon Vols. 1-2 by Satsuki Yoshino -- a slice of life manga about a calligrapher who moves from Toyoko to a small island in the south of Japan to help improve his skills. Lots very charming small town life and cute kids.

Star Trek: Voyager We have finished with the 1st season, are now in the middle of season two. This show is still a lot of fun! Some of the technobabble here is really bad, but mostly it's fun and I don’t worry about it. Also everyone who told me Janeway is great was correct. She’s so good a keeping people's moral up, and I enjoy her take on moral dilemmas.

Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare, Vol. 3 by Yuhki Kamatani I’m still enjoying this manga about a gay teen finding queer community, but sad things happened in this volume. I continue to enjoy the built environment of the city it takes place in. This one featured some cool bridges to bike on.

The Stars Change by Mary Anne Mohanraj -- I was a bit confused about whether this was collection or not, but having read it I’d say it's one novella with frequent POV changes. I liked this, but it was maybe a bit heavier than what I wanted to be reading. It's about a university in space during the opening shots of a war, so there is violence and death. But it is about community and people pulling together in the face of a crisis and I appreciated that. (Content note: war, suicide, explicit sex)

Princess Tutu eps 1-5- This is a magical girl anime set at a ballet school. It very surreal, and reminds me a bit of Utena (Content note: suicide)

Comments

[jo_lasalle]

Captain Janeway is great! Captain Sisko might be my One True Captain but it's cloooose. (I'm sorry I never came through on episode lists; we actually had selections from Voyager on our to-watch plan too, so I thought we'd be making selections anyway, but now The Untamed is still eating all my TV time...)

[forestofglory]

I'm glad no one is forcing me to chose a One True Captain. Sisko is also amazing!

(Don't worry about it -- The Untamed has derailed quite a lot of my plans recently as well so I understand)

[conuly]

Janeway IS great, though the writing is just inconsistent enough that I agree with fanon that she has some poorly-treated mental illness, probably depression or bipolar disorder or something similar that's only exacerbated by their jaunt into the Delta Quadrant.

Still pissed about how Voyager screwed up Seska. Will never stop whining about it.

[forestofglory]

Oh this is an interesting fanon -- I will have to look for clues of this. (Why is the federation so bad at mental health?)

Tell me all more about your Seska complaints? I loved her as the maquis crew member who wasn't a good fit for starflet but had valid problems. I'm really into the whole betrayal thing. We just watched the 1st episode where she shows up with the Kazon, and wow does that lead on some problematic tropes.

[conuly]

Ah, well, if you're really into the betrayal than I don't think we'll agree. It just seems like they threw away the perfectly good Maquis-blending-with-Starfleet plot, and Seska is a symptom. She could've been a twofer - first Maquis-blending-with-Starfleet, then they find out gasp! that she's a Cardassian and she has to deal with all that in order to survive... but instead they just made her super backstabby against her own best interests and tossed away a perfectly good plot and character.

[forestofglory]

Ugh, I was rewriting that like five time and I left out the "Not" -- it should read "I'm not really into the betrayal"! So yes I do agree with you, sorry.

I hadn't considered Seska not betraying them but also still being a Cardassian -- that would have been really cool actually. (Though I do love difficult Bajorian women, Kira and Ro are some of my favorites)

[conuly]

And she doesn't have to at any point be what any of us could call a "good person" to not betray people. She could be justifiably hated and still look out for number one.