Media Round Up: Cuteness, Swoosh, and War

[forestofglory]

Here's what I've been reading, watching and playing lately.

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell— This science fiction novel was first posted on AO3 as original fiction. It has a lot of fic tropes. I liked the characters, and I thought the setting was really cool. However the romance beats didn’t feel earned. Parts of the ending I found really hard to suspend my disbelief about. The book set in an Empire and dealing with politics I wanted more in the way of engagement with imperialism. Still it was fun to read, and I liked that so much of the action was talking to people. (content note: domestic abuse)

Venice by Jirō Taniguch— This is a comic/travel journal by a Japanese artist about Venice. The artist found some postcards from Venice in his recently deceased mother’s effects and traveled to the city to learn more about his family history. The format is a bit unusual; there's no text in comic panels but there is some text in the white spaces next to the panels. The art is lovely, water color with lots of focus on architectural details.

Meng Qi Shi Shen – Cinderella Chefep 4-— This really took a turn, and got way more dark and violent than I was expecting from a cute show with lots of cooking for a few episodes. Then it went back to being cute and full of cooking! I have a bit of tonal whiplash. There were lots of people enjoying food. We met a new character with fluffy hair There was a fun cooking contest! The show was also not great with regards to gender and sexuality in these episodes. But mostly it's cute and fun.

The Moon Brightens for You episodes 21-24 — Still enjoying this show! Since I last wrote about this show a couple of you have watched some of it. This is very exciting! I feel less alone with all my feelings.

The current story arc involves a war and I’m having trouble suspending my moral disbelief that the characters are on the Righteous side. Since other than the fact that our characters are on this side there doesn’t seem to be a ton of difference. The other side is “rebels” but we don’t know why they are rebelling. Maybe I’m missing some cultural context. US made media tends to be very sympathetic to rebellions in general, so if I’m supposed to assume rebels=bad its not working for me.

However the war plot did end up with a lot of focus on training the army which I really enjoyed! It introduced a whole set of new characters who l really like. And some big battle scenes that let us have more swooshy action. The show does a good job of making the stakes personal but still showing the scope of the battle. And the main character did something that was so cool and swooshy!

(content note: vomiting, homophobia)

Cosy Grove— I’ve been playing this with my kid on our switch. It’s very fun and cute. It’s a lot like Animal Crossing New Horizons, in that you are on an island and you find stuff and craft stuff, but it's a haunted island! The island is haunted by ghost bears, who are very cute. There’s a Ranger Bear and Maker Bear and Baker Bear, among others. The bears give you quests and teach you about the game. You also have a little fire spirit at your campsite that looks a lot like Calcifer in the Howl’s Moving Castle movie.

Comments

[starshipfox]

Venice sounds interesting and charming! The lack of text sounds like an interesting take.

[forestofglory]

It's really lovely! There's enough text to tell a story, but its very minimal. The focus is really on the art.

[libitina]

Moon Brightens for You - do the rebels have more coarsely woven fabrics in bright colors with knotwork? And/or are they wearing more intricately braided hair? If so, it's some parts historical and some parts active current racism/ethnic oppression. And has shown up in nearly every c-drama I've watched so far (including some of the non-historical ones)

I'm sad about the homophobia because, as with many shows, I'm totally screaming at them to have a 3some.

Like I got to the episode with the fire. And right before there you have her channeling energy into the lead and then 2nd lead comes in, and he could have totally started circulating energy from his other side. It would have been lovely.

I'm also enjoying how they were awarded gendered swords and immediately told to resist gender essentialism and learn how to use each other's swords. That continues to be fun.


Re: Cinderella Chef - if you need emotional support and crying hours, I'm here for you.

[forestofglory]

I really need to pay more attention to hair styles in cdrama -- there's lot of important information there. But so far the people with braided hair have most been "noble savage" types like Lin Fang's body guard with the snakes.

If it helps the homophopia doesn't come form any of the main three. Though its still supper frustrating.

I really wish the fire scene had gone like that!

[narie]

I liked the AO3 version of Winter's Orbit more than the published one for the same reasons as you. I think the original did a lot more justice to both characters whereas the novel foregrounded Jainan at Kiem's expense multiple times, and it was very disappointing - especially knowing the original didn't do that!

[forestofglory]

Oh that is very disappointing!