Recent Media: Cosy Stories and Sequential Art

[forestofglory]

Golden Kamuy vol 9 by Satoru Noda. I enjoyed the first eight volumes of this back in the spring but I have been getting the series via interlibary loan, so I stopped reading it because lost access to that and also because I was caught up with the english edition at that point. It turns out that this series is pretty confusing to go back to! I have forgotten a lot. I still think the art is beautiful and I love the wilderness survival bits. However, I don’t really want to go back and do a reread at this point. The gorey bit are bothering me more and more and I don’t want to return to them. So I think I’m going to put this series aside for now.(content note: so much gore, animal harm)

Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu I adored this! There’s a f/nb romance between a witch and a werewolf which is very cute, but the cutest thing is the witch’s grandmothers! They are a couple! One of them is Jewish and one is Chinese and they celebrate both Sukkot and the Mid-Autumn festival. I love them and their relationship with their granddaughter. This book isn’t all cuteness, there’s also some magical adventure, and some background really terrible parents, but its is really lovely. (Content note: abusive parents, dead parents)

Star Trek: Voyager There have been a couple of episodes that make me not hate the prime directive! I guess maybe there are times when its a bad idea to go poking other cultures. Also I’m continuing to love seeing all the friendships between the crew members. Right now I’m especially loving Janeway’s relationship with Tuvok.

Help Wanted by J. Emery-- So I asked on twitter for some rec’s for recent cosy short SFF and this was one of the things recommended. It’s a really cute story set at magical university.

Moon-Bright Tides by RoAnna Sylver -- This was another of twitter’s cosy recs. A about a witch who has to bring in the tide because the moon is gone, and a mermaid. I especially loved all the descriptions of food and feeding people (content note: viewpoint character is the survivor of a tragic accident that killed the rest of her family)

The Wrong Foot by Stephanie Burgis --The author set me a copy of this because of my twitter rec request! (We are Twitter pals)It’s lovely take on Cinderella -- but focusing on a young woman who does not want to marry the Prince, but is told she has to when the glass slipper, which is not hers fits!

Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Vol. 1-3 by Haruko Kumota This is a manga about Rakugo performers. Rakugo is a traditional Japanese form of comic storytelling. There’s lots of things here that I love: Intergenerational relationships, performing arts, and the tension between finding your own style and following tradition. (Content note: woman denied entry into traditionally male occupation, background WWII)

Comments

[lunabee34]

Janeway and Tuvok are so great as friends.

[trascendenza]

Right now I’m especially loving Janeway’s relationship with Tuvok.
I love them so much! Tuvok's unwavering loyalty really just... gives me feelings, haha.

[suncani]

I feel like I need to move Mooncakes up to the top of my wishlist now, been hearing so many great things about it.

Also agree about Moon-Bright Tides. I almost wanted it to be a bit longer as I was enjoying it but I don't think it would have worked as well if it was any longer. I think I need to find more fiction that deals with feeding people in a non-negative way.

[forestofglory]

I think you would really like Mooncakes!

I could probably come up with some recs for fiction about feeding people. Let me think about it. I do have tenancy to bond with character who cook, even if they don't have major roles.

[suncani]

I shall let you know how I get on!

I can think of a couple that involve cooking, but they're usually about sadness or regret both short stories - the banquet of temporal delights and one I can't remember the name of but is set in a bakery and magic is incorporated in the baked goods. I'm going to have to go find it now.

[forestofglory]

Well I ended up doing a twitter thread with some recs. I'll let you know if I think of anything else.

[riventhorn]

I've watched the anime for Descending Stories and loved it. Getting to see the rakugo performances was especially interesting and amazing.

[forestofglory]

I've heard good things about the Descending Stories anime form other sources. And I think the Rakugo performances would be amazing animated so I really want to check out the anime at some point.