media log
2025
november
video games
movies
tv
books
comics/manga
web stuff
october
video games
movies
tv
books
comics/manga
web stuff
september
video games
movies
tv
books
comics/manga
web stuff
august
video games
movies
tv
books
comics/manga
web stuff
july
video games
movies
tv
books
comics/manga
oyasumi punpun - inio asano (complete)
i read this bc everyone says its like their fav manga ever but its sooooo shocking. but it was fucking nothing. i like dedede also by asano but it also ends up being fucking nothing in the last third. the comic was well constructed but i kind of just felt nothing. i guess i liked how it showed subtely how traumatic experiences effect a person without them or anyone else even realising. but that could not carry the whole story....june
video games
soma (replay)
am i expecting too much or something too different from writers' visions???? some really awesome robots & monsters in this but really misses the opportunity to go into why each character has such wildly different feelings towards their situation. it gets so close.postal (1997) [★]
review taken from backloggdprobably one of the most interesting games i've played recently. every person i've seen talking about this game has a different way of interpreting what happens, even if it's just subtley different, which speaks to postal's way of conveying story and mood purely through gameplay - the player is able to figure out for themselves what is going on, rather than holding your hand. the music and sound, visuals, minimal animation and voice lines, and structure all work to show you a story if you're willing to pay attention. of course, there's also the pieces of text on each loading screen and the contrasting versions found in the original manual, which i think is a very interesting way to present part of the in game narrative. a friend compared this game to the undertale genocide route, and after starting to play that route again recently, i can understand why and see the similarities in telling a story and expressing strong feelings through what appears to be pointlessly violent gameplay. in undertale, you're trusted to understand what's going on as you play through the route, and that it's not just violence for the sake of it. i feel as if this game is essentially doing the same thing. outside of the game itself, my opinion is that games like this with unlimlited violence and edginess are on the surface just made to seem offensive but there is usually a deeper rooted reason for them to be made and this is what causes people to connect to them. games like this express extreme emotions without masking them, even if they are shocking and scary. postal has recently had a wave of popularity with younger retro game fans - in a world where people, especially younder people, are told to hide their emotions and act 'properly', where media is so ingrained into life now it's seen as profitable, and therefore smoothed over and censored, a game like this can be exciting and refreshing.
movies
final destination (2000)
movie about having ocd. despite this i have no idea what i was supposed to gain from it. i guess its just supposed to be silly for the hell of it but it was so mentally ill i thought it would go somewhere a bit more serious.books
mickey7 - edward ashton
i read it bc i like clones & the movie was wasted potential.....this was an easy & fun read & it was put together better than the movie but still sooo much wasted character potential!!!may
video games
system shock remake
its peam...i strongly respect how this is an almost 1:1 remake with little changes to make it more modern & therefore dumbed down...its been so long since i played something where half of the experience is made by yourself playing it rather than cinematics. i do think some of the visuals remade exactly look better in the original game bc they were made For that original style. i liked this a lot and thought about it a lot but id hesitate to recommend it to anyone who doesnt already love 90s-early 2000s shooters.movies
sinners (2025)
i enjoyed this a lot....my favourite part was the first half/third i really liked how we got to know the characters & setting through carefully planned out & intimate scenes & i think that was mostly lost when the action started. didnt dull my enjoyment though. it told its story and conveyed its messages very effectively. the visuals and sound were overall fantastic, and im typically not a vampire fan so that contributes to what my favourite parts wereapril
movies
hardcore henry (2015)
i watched this via a stream vod that somehow wasnt taken down so op was talking every now & again but it still counts. fascinating movie, im always cursed to take parodies seriously but they seemed to have actual interest & love for the tropes they were parodyingnovocaine (2025)
the concept was so underutilised im so sad. mc had serious moe potential but never reached it. im quite disappointed...solifidying my new belief that 99% of new releases arent worth going to the theatre for ill wait until i can yoink it (and i didnt see this in the theatre)march
video games
citizen sleeper
review from my backloggdthe gameplay loop is fun and engaging while still being easy to play, the art an audio direction is lovely, the ui is simple but effective. i'd be lying if i said i did not have fun playing this game. i did enjoy my time with it and found myself sinking hours at a time into it. however, time and time again, i feel like i was just bouncing off the surface of the narrative. each individual character story felt like it ended before it even truly began, leaving me feeling like i'd just failed to scratch the surface of it. i wondered at first if i'd just gotten 'bad' endings, but all outcomes left me feeling similar. even the non-optional main parts of the story fell flat, fizzling out into nothing or immediately taken over by a new questline. when i play a story and text heavy game, i want to know what the creators were feeling when they wrote it. what emotions and experiences and interests fuelled what they wanted to make. but i kind of felt like i was just seeing a checklist of what should be included in a text heavy, ttrpg influenced game, that can also be mindlessly tagged as 'capitalism critique' and 'dystopian' but still with 'cosy' and 'slice of life' vibes for your before bed wind down gaming, and don't forget to add in the aspects that can make it easily be compared to popular games of its same genres. it's also worth noticing that i did not have access to the new endings at the time of playing and i'm not a fan of a later patch needing to be added to truly complete a game.
control (2019) [shelved]
probably dropping this for now...the environment design is beautiful & atmospheric but everything else is at odds with that!! it has not been pushing hard enough with what it wants to do. i cant stand the combat & jesse narrating everythingclinical trial (★)
enjoyed this...really strong character writing and i find dynamics like this generally pretty fascinating so theres a lot to pick up on. glad that the horror aspect stays pretty grounded and related to its themes all things considering. its free to play!hello girl (free ver.)
i saw this recommended by a streamer i follow, i dled it when it was free but now it is paid. im not sure if theres many differences in this updated paid version. all the reviews i can find are for the free ver & i have to say i cant understand how uncritically positive they are. its got a really strong start with compelling ideas, setting & aesthetic but really really falls flat & ends with a slice of life almost comedy epilogue in an entirely different tone to the rest of it. im guessing the paid version doesnt expand on the story either judging by steam reviews. a bit disappointing.....i guess people just really liked the art and the fact its got like a trace of yuri in it.movies
swiss army man (2016)
i know i said recently i dont get too emotional at movies but this got to me a bit.....dont tell anyone ok.....mickey 17 (2025)
im so mad this missed out on all the potential interesting narratives it presented like SHREDS of every now and again to tell a story that feels like its talking down to the audience….the whole thing felt SO ingenuine and as a result there was no emotion to be picked up behind anything at all. everything either seemed like it was the writers just going through the motions of a formulaic space sci fi story or it was cheapened by badly placed jokes. im biased here maybe as i love stories about clones (and related concepts) and ive seen maybe every popular sci fi trope done to death so my expectations are always high, but at the end of the day i dont care if you put out the most overdone story in the world, so long as i can see some real intention, emotion and writing drawn from real experiences in there!! and not leave feeling like ive just been talked to as if im a child watching a grown up movie for the first time :) for 2 hours. however seeing peoples takeaway from it being feeling like theyve had their minds blown finding the connection between stories about clones = stories about people being seen as expendable, faceless, tools, whatever and not thinking past this shows thats the audience its made for i guess, like i would expect a movie written for adults to put faith in them to be able to figure out those base themes quickly so we can get on with a more narrowed down and personal storyline based within these themes. clones is like the EASIEST opportunity to do that but it kind of feels like setup and nothing else!! i want to know what it feels like to live that kind of life, i want to know how it feels to mickey to have all of his painful and traumatic experiences forced onto him to be reduced down to ‘we found a cure for xyz through you’ and 'how does it feel like to die?’…..ah, wait…..ok…..i’ll just go and play all the deus ex games again i guess….prometheus (2012)
i was forced to watch this and was promised clone robots in the next movie. it was kind of slop i wont lie. unlikeable mc but she was treated soo bad by the writersalien covenant (2017)
this one was better but i truly think they could have trimmed out some time from the beginning and either left it as is or added in more off the shits robot clone moments as that was the interesting part (not biased). ive reached my yearly tolerance of space moviestv
severance season 2 (complete)
HELLYNA I LOVE YOUUUU i understand you so much girl....crying screaming throwing up....anyway. aside from a few shaky pacing moments in the earlier episodes every episode was fascinating and emotional and inspiring. the ending was perfect imofebruary
movies
minority report (2002)
i watched this as a teen and took it deathly seriously. i think the week before that id watched psycho pass and thought it was amazing so of course this blew my mind. however watching this now it was a comedy. pic related
i, robot (2004)
movie that sets out to explore whether robots pass the harkness test. had a lot of fun watching this with oomfs but i also think this irreparably damaged sci fi media writing from then onwardsbooks
tales from the loop - simon simon stålenhag
this guys art appears literally everywhere when researching sci fi & environment art & is clearly an inspiration to many. sci fi version of the artist who made sirenhead. i thought i would check out the books to make a proper opinion especially as ive been drawing a lot of huge man made structures contrasted against nature recently. i will say it did not do much for me & made me realise what i like about this sort of imagery is the real life context of the structures & how it feels unreal despite that. most of the short stories attached also were about childhood memories & nostalgia as the main themes which is not something i can relate to and understand the need to write about really......i feel like the tech did not mesh well with the nostalgia stories and felt shoehorned in a bitneuromancer - william gibson
on third reread maybe its peak? well i liked it a lot more this time around anyway. i have probably just gotten better at interpreting stories and knowing what i want to get out of something [add more]january
movies
moon (2009)
i watched this on a whim found thru fkn. pinterest. bc it has clones + effects of extreme isolation including physical body decay. very interesting subjects to me. im a clone yaoi enthusiast. however extremely formulaic & even when i got distracted i could still piece it togetherthe menu (2022)
i thought this was shallow and did not deliver on what it promised but not bad per se. but this could just be me desperate to be a contrarian as this movie is very well liked from what i seechallengers (2024)
the dynamic between these 3 is INSANEEEEE but also just generally an extremely well made movie that fully made use of its runtimethe thing (1982)
yes i hadnt seen this before. this is one of those things that is probably better if you see it before the 3894958569 that take inspiration from it. cool to see some of where 90s game artists got their creature ideas fromcomics/manga
hungry ghost - victoria ying [eating disorder & discussion of weight tw]
why would you have your mc essentially forgive their abusive parent at the end, who has caused massive damage to your mental and physical health, because 'that's just how they show love'?? maybe if this is based on the authors own life they still have some things to reflect on...not to make assumptions about a stranger but it really felt like mc is still very much in her journey of recovery ('well...maybe it wasn't that bad....they didn't mean to cause this...') + lot of discussions whether mc's behaviour towards friends & depiction of them is authors own toxic bias showing thru but imo this is showing how ur thoughts r manipulated when u r in a situation where ur weight is constantly talked about + compared to others. that could have been clearer tho.blue pill arcade vol 1-3 - mary safro & io black
having followed the artist's work for a long time & reading all of this duos main comic + owning the first volume of this spin off in print i finally bought the rest. wonderful character driven stories in a Real cyberpunk settingdownload: https://cryo-draws.itch.io/blue-pill-arcade
pixels of you - ananth hirsh/yuko ota/j.r. doyle
i like this artist's work so have been wanting to read this for a while but the story felt disjointed, the 'rivals to lovers' relationship forced, and the minimal worldbuilding and themes built purely on buzzwords