Oreos & Peanut Butter

K-Pop: ONEUS Concert Pasadena

Official promotional image for ONEUS’ ‘REACH FOR US’ tour featuring Kim Gunhak (Leedo), Son Dongju (Xion), Lee Keonhee, Lee Seoho, and Yeo Hwanwoong. Copyright goes to RBW.

Hey! Hallie here!

My sister and I finally got to the ONEUS concert we’ve been waiting for for almost four months now! This concert was amazing, and not just because ONEUS is a highly underrated group with excellent songs and impressive choreography. It left a major impression on me because this was the most intimate K-Pop concert I’ve ever been to. This was a fairly small venue and they really took advantage of how personal the size made the concert feel. During one song they walked up and down the aisles to interact with TOMOONs, and during every ment they turned on the lights in the house so they could see and make eye contact with TOMOONs as well. My sister and I were only a few rows back from the stage and we were also placed on the side of the aisle, so we were able to interact with them far more than any other K-Pop concert we’ve been to. (I got a wave from Hwanwoong as he walked beside me down the aisle!) There was so much to love about this concert that I can’t wait to discuss, so let’s get into the set list!

Beginning of Concert:

The concept of this concert was really interesting. In the opening videos we switched between an intense forest scene where a hand reached out towards the boys for help, and a really wholesome forest scene with bright colors and even a bunny (Which of course Keonhee was holding). In the wholesome scene a hand also reached out for the boys, and though the situation seemed less dire, Leedo’s eyes instantly turned red and morphed the scene back to the dark forest. The whole purpose of the video seemed to be to represent ONEUS’ duality as well as to portray a “monster within” theme. This could have easily been a full story, but it was kept to just the opening video. Still, it was definitely intense enough to run seamlessly into “Bring it on”, one of ONEUS’ more intense songs. I always think it’s a smart idea to start out a concert with a hype song to set the tone and energy, and “Bring it on” is definitely one of their more high energy songs. I especially like that the song starts with spoken dialogue from Leedo in his deep register, which was the perfect way to get fans to freak out before they had even started singing.

“COME BACK HOME” isn’t as much a hype song as it is just really intense, and with the high energy already established, I loved that they placed this one early in the concert as well. It’s one of my favorites and has some of their best choreography, which includes a few lifts and a running tackle. Having them be at peak energy for this song was essential. After this was “BLACK MIRROR” which was a little bit jarring considering its more fun, lighthearted sound and feel, but the choreo still utilized their beginning-of-concert energy really well. Their intro ment came next. As I said above, the intimacy of this venue made all of their ments feel like a genuine conversation with TOMOONs, particularly because lights in the theatre came up during their ments so they could see us. Their introductions weren’t long but they were all very adorable, particularly Keonhee’s who couldn’t stop referencing ‘La La Land’.

Middle of Concert:

The next section started with “Who Got the Joker?”. In my experience, most K-Pop groups don’t perform album introductions live very often, but I was really hoping ONEUS would be an exception because of how amazing their introductions usually are. Luckily, I got my wish. “Who Got The Joker?” has some of the best vocals in any of their songs and I was so happy to see it performed. From there they went into “FULL MOON”. “FULL MOON” is their sexy choreography song. So yeah, I think I blacked out for part of this song. Next we got into some of their still high energy, but more nostalgic, easy-listening songs. These were “STUPID LOVE” and “Skydivin'” which blended together seamlessly and weren’t too jarring of a transition from the more sultry “FULL MOON”. Plus, it was nice to have this break from the intense feel we had had so far in the concert. Here we had another ment that was memorable because it consisted mostly of Leedo terrorizing Xion by being a caring hyung. After this ment we got the specialty stages they’ve recently done on a few award shows.

Specialty Stages and End of Concert:

They started out with their cover of Blackpink’s “Pink Venom” which I personally believe is better than the original, partly because ONEUS absolutely kills girl group choreography. Then they went into “Sexy Back”. This was not a sung cover, but a dance cover of the Justin Timberlake song as performed by Leedo, Seoho, and Hwanwoong. Some people were comparing this stage, and the inclusion of chairs for it, to Magic Mike. I wouldn’t say that’s an unfair comparison. Next we went into their ‘Top Gun’ inspired dance medley. This dance medley is a spectacle. The group work here, from the fake fighting at the beginning to the entire airplane made up of members of ONEUS and their backup dancers, is incredible. I especially want to shout out Hwanwoong for leading major parts of this dance with impressive ease.

Unfortunately, the transition into the next songs was jarring again. The members all left the stage and we thought we were going into another break, but they walked back on stage a second later with microphone stands now set up. Which means slower songs! I love both “Red Thread” and “Youth”, and Seoho’s vocals here in particular were mind-blowing to hear in person, but I wished they would have found a better placement for the slow songs. They ended this section with “Incomplete”, which isn’t quite slow but does transition out of the slower songs well. In this section we also got a few VCRs. One VCR was an interview with the boys that almost purely dealt with their mental health and the pressure they feel constantly. I really liked that they were being upfront about this kind of serious topic, and especially that they covered how much both excitement and anxiety goes into preparing for a tour like this. Another VCR showed more behind the scenes of the tour that also addressed the serious amount of both physical and mental work that went into the tour, while still giving us some sillier moments. Though neither showed a story, I really did enjoy the honest look into how the boys are doing mentally.

The next section started with another intro! “Into: EDEN” is gorgeous, and the strong vocals there made for a nice pairing with “Same Scent”, one of ONEUS’ most popular song and probably the song that got the most cheers throughout the night. During the next ment Xion was slow to come out on stage. None of the members seemed to know what was going on, but they filled the space by casually talking about their anticipation for the next few songs. After the concert Xion revealed he wasn’t feeling well throughout the entire thing and apologized for his performance. Honestly, no one noticed. The fact that he was late coming out for this one ment was our only hint. I’m in awe of how well he did and I hope he’s getting rest now. After the ment they went into my favorite song, “LUNA”, complete with gorgeous fan choreography. They also did the Kingdom version of “Lit”, which is more intense than the original but carries the traditional sound of the song, which meant we got both of their most traditional-inspired songs placed perfectly back-to-back. They did another ment here to let us know that we only had two songs until the end of the concert, but that always means an encore’s coming afterwards. In the meantime they closed out with “To Be or Not to Be”, another dramatic song with amazing lifts in the choreo. Keonhee absolutely stole the show with his solo moments in this song as he was lifted above the other members. They closed out with “No Diggity”, another hype song. This song almost blew out my eardrums with how loud it was, but it was easy to see how badass they felt performing this one.

Encore:

Then we had an encore VCR where the boys had prerecorded messages for TOMOON from when they were practicing for the tour. They really focused on their nervousness surrounding the tour in this VCR. I was surprised at this point that all of the mid-concert VCRs were interviews or behind the scenes videos, but I actually wish more groups would do this. It helps the fans feel closer to them and come away from the concert with a better appreciation for the members. Their final set of songs began with “Life is Beautiful”, which is just a really adorable song to begin an encore with. They kept house lights on for the encore, and as usual, the boys were in comfier outfits for it to make the encore feel more casual. Especially with the personal feel of the venue, it felt like the boys were singing “Life is Beautiful” directly to us. They then did their ending ments where they thanked us for the energy, especially because this was their last US stop on their tour. Keonhee also took the time to thank their staff and praise them as much as possible, which I always appreciate. They then warned us to sit down and stay seated for the next song, because they would be walking the aisles!

They sang “Last Song” as they walked through the audience, another nostalgic, heartfelt song that they initially performed with their brother group, Onewe. During the song both Keonhee and Xion walked past me so I could hear up close how beautiful their voices are. Hwanwoong in particular was the member everyone was waiting for because he was the most involved in fan interaction. He took selfies with several people, posed for several more pictures, and either high fived or waved at everyone he could possibly reach. I was very happy to get a wave from him! Because this was their last stop on the US branch of their tour, they decided to give us another performance of “No Diggity” once they got back on stage. My eardrums were blown out again, but I’m very grateful I went on a night where I could see them perform an extra song! Seeing the members leave after a concert that felt so personal was heartbreaking. I do want to shout out Keonhee though, for asking the ASL interpreters how to sign “I love you” to the group of deaf fans just before leaving the stage. All the members were such sweethearts and I’m so glad I got to see them. I do hope they get enough recognition that they can book bigger venues in the future, but I’ll always be grateful that I went to see them at a time where direct contact with the audience was possible.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Comfort Entertainment: The Female Perspective

Screenshot of Usagi Tsukino from ‘Sailor Moon Crystal’. Copyright goes to Naoko Takeuchi, Toei Animation, Crunchyroll, Netflix, and VIZ Media.

Hi! It’s Annie!

Through my reviews of K-Dramas and books on this blog, I have often used the phrase “perfect boyfriend syndrome” to describe when a guy in a romance is written to have no flaws at all. It isn’t usually something that I like because it makes these guys feel completely un-relatable and when they are flawed, the narrative will never admit to it. Flawed characters are human characters! And while I was thinking about these perfect boyfriends often written from female perspectives, I was suddenly struck with the thought that perfect girlfriend syndrome is also a thing and is way more prevalent. Why, you ask? Because most media for years and years has been written by men, and because of that women have been seen largely from the male perspective in media. But more and more we’re seeing women written from the female perspective and the more content I watch, the more the difference between women written by men or other women becomes such a stark contrast for me. One of my favorite shows ever is Sailor Moon, which is a superhero show written about women by a woman, and is a great positive example to use here. So I’m going to compare some of the “perfect girlfriends” to the absolutely wonderful characters in Sailor Moon!

Perfect Girlfriend Syndrome:

I think some of the best characters to pull for this for me personally, are characters from video games. I’ve found quite a few that are more obvious, but I also don’t exactly want to use this post to talk about all of the problems that face female characters from video games. There’s a history of poor decisions when it comes to the way female characters in games act and specifically the way that they’re designed. But specifically, I want to talk about characters that are created to look relatable on the surface but in reality have little to no flaws. Characters that at first seem to be great before you realize that they are completely unattainable to either be with or be like. And because this is very specific, it means that we have to look for very specific kinds of characters. I know this might be controversial, but when I hear that I usually turn to ‘Final Fantasy’ games. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Square Enix. I grew up on ‘Kingdom Hearts’. But I always found the male characters to be better than the female characters. This was partially because, for a lot of the games, the female characters aren’t really allowed to fight. Or when they are it isn’t much and they don’t really know how to do it. (Ahem, Kairi.) But lately I’ve been really liking the characters of Aerith and Tifa specifically in the new ‘Final Fantasy VII Remake’ games. And while we have only gotten one of what is supposed to eventually be three games; it is already so much better than the original games at establishing the characters of Aerith and Tifa.

Aerith had almost no character development at all in the original game and what Tifa got seemed to be very little. But at the same time, these characters don’t seem to have any flaws whatsoever. Aerith is an adorable character, but I can’t think of one flaw that she has. And this is something that hit me while watching scenes from ‘Final Fantasy VII Remake’ recently after I had finished re-watching all of ‘Sailor Moon Crystal’ and ‘Sailor Moon Eternal’. Aerith is just the right amount of everything. She’s gorgeous, extremely sweet, never clumsy, innocent but not naive, and just the right amount of flirtatious but also a little shy. The more I thought about all of these things together, the more I wondered how much I really relate to this character. She’s too perfect. She’s lovely and likable but the more I found myself comparing myself to her, as a lot of people do with fictional characters, the more I found myself to be lacking in comparison. And then I remembered that I’m a human being and that’s a character rewritten primarily by men. I still like her, but despite sharing a love for the same colors and flowers, I couldn’t find much else we had in common. Tifa isn’t much better off with her badass nature, mothering qualities, and complete lack of any sort of rage that many of the other people in the resistance have. The game will also sometimes suffer from the use of performative feminism. This is when a female character says something feminist in order for the work to seem feminist, but will then land herself in one or several situations that are decidedly not. For example, Aerith telling Cloud she can take care of herself right before Cloud has to save her. Maybe we’ll get some better development in upcoming games, but right now they strike me as being “perfect girlfriends” for Cloud, or the player.

Flawed Characters:

From the moment we are introduced to the character of Usagi Tsukino, we know that she’s flawed. She struggles with schoolwork, often because she can’t find the motivation to study. She is known for letting her emotions run away with her, often to the point that she bursts into tears. On top of this, she can be really clumsy and is often teased for it. Despite this, Usagi is a badass on the battle field, able to take care of herself, and often self sacrificial. But she still has insecurities and has a ways to go, which also makes sense because of her age. As someone who is also overly emotional at times and definitely clumsy, I found her relatable from the get go. Also add in the hopeless romanticism and she’s basically me. All of the Inner Senshi are written to be relatable so that young girls can find themselves in them. Ami is extremely smart but isn’t very confident in herself, Minako has a lot of confidence but can sometimes be egotistical, Makoto is very laid back but she constantly compares herself to other people, and Rei is extremely competent and badass but can often have a short temper. When the Outer Senshi are introduced, they are also flawed. While they have more of a sense of self, they are still unsure of their methods and don’t always go about things compassionately. And these flaws add to their characters and by making them relatable made them even more likable to the audience.

This is largely because the creator, Naoko Takeuchi, created these characters to be like women for women. She didn’t like that there was a serious lack of female superheroes from the female perspective, so she created her own. She wanted them to feel real. And she completely succeeded! Naoko Takeuchi was extremely progressive in her portrayal of women with flaws, just as she was extremely progressive in her unabashed portrayal of queerness without ever fetishizing it. The show even gets as relatable as showing many characters questioning their sexuality. Something that a lot of young people go through despite shows being discouraged by parents from presenting these ideas. In fact, the original international dubs for ‘Sailor Moon’ are well known for having this queer exploration taken out. Thankfully, with the new international dubs that have been needed for a while, it has been rightfully restored. This is what we get when a woman writes women specifically for representation and for the sake of women being able to find themselves in a heroic story. It’s not difficult to find flaws in these characters, but it’s also not difficult to find characteristics and personality traits to relate to. The women are progressive, badass, and relatable at the same time. This is what female representation should look like!

I’ve made a post before about the difference between female writers and directors and male writers and directors in movies. But I’ve never looked at the faults with portraying women as too perfect and pure to the point that they must be protected at all costs. Women do not get anything from being portrayed as absolutely perfect delicate flowers either. And this is made even more clear when you look at the difference between characters written with the male perspective in mind versus characters written with the female perspective in mind. Women written by women are allowed to be human and beautiful because of it. They are allowed to be messy, and muscular, and beautiful no matter how they define being feminine. I can’t stress how important this is. And being human also means being flawed. Just like I’ve talked about how writing perfect boyfriends isn’t good, it’s also problematic to write perfect girlfriends. Humans need to be allowed to be humans, we can’t keep telling people that there’s something inherently wrong with them when they’re flawed. People are flawed. And the most precious kind of love, is loving someone exactly the way they are and accepting them with their flaws and all. Personally, I wouldn’t want a perfect boyfriend. How would I relate to him? The same can be said for representation in media. Women need to be able to see themselves in media. And that means flawed characters. I’m so excited to be seeing ONEUS tomorrow so look out for our next posts about that!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Video Games: ‘The Last of Us’ Episode 3 Review

Screenshot of Murray Bartlett as Frank and Nick Offerman as Bill in episode three of ‘The Last of Us’ on HBO Max. Copyright goes to Naughty Dog, Playstation Productions, and Sony Pictures Productions.

Hey! Hallie here!

It’s been way too many days since this episode came out and I’ve been dying to talk about it. This episode has been widely praised since its release. Some critics have even gone as far as to call it one of the best episodes of television ever made. And really, who am I to disagree? Episode three was the first episode we’ve gotten that completely took fans of the video game by surprise, and it only improved on the story. Despite not involving the main characters much, no episode has captured the reality of the apocalypse situation or the theme of love as well as this one. I only have praise for this episode, so this review’s going to be a bit different. Instead of going over what I liked and disliked, I’m going to spend a little bit of time on the Joel and Ellie storyline, and the rest of the post on the changes made between the game and the series. Let’s get into it! SPOILERS AHEAD!

Joel and Ellie:

While their part of the story was short, I don’t think it was any less important than what we saw in the previous episodes. First off, Ellie getting excited about finding a box of tampons meant more to me than I anticipated. We don’t usually normalize women’s hygiene in shows that take place in modern day, let alone in shows taking place during the apocalypse where resources are scarce. I also really enjoyed Ellie’s lack of knowledge surrounding things we consider normal, like planes. She grew up in the apocalypse where those things were no longer part of everyday life, so the fact that humans used to fly in the sky is a completely new and fascinating idea to her. But moving on from her wholesome moments in this episode, it seems the show is setting her up to appear just as dangerous as Joel. The scene where she’s inspecting that Infected was unsettling, but her lack of compassion for it was possibly the most unsettling part of it. As for Joel, I really liked the impact Bill and Frank’s story had on Joel and Ellie’s relationship. Joel, just as he is in the game, is unwilling to cope with his grief. He warns Ellie multiple times not to talk about Tess anymore, and you can easily tell that one of the reasons why he does this is because he’d rather push Tess from his mind than process his grief over her death. Bill’s letter to Joel, in which he tells him to protect Tess, pours salt in that wound. But it also makes him realize that his role as a protector of the people around him is about more than just being a grizzled, suspicious man. It’s about finding people you care for who are worth protecting. By the end of the episode that idea starts to warm him to Ellie, and it’s definitely laying the groundwork for the strong father/daughter relationship that will come along later.

Bill and Frank:

The Game: Bill and Frank are both side characters that appear in one way or another in the video game. Bill is the much more prominent character. When Joel goes to Bill for help, preferably to find a car, Bill is very much alive. Bill’s town isn’t as safe of a haven in the game, though. Instead, Bill’s town is large and maze-like. While most of his traps take care of the Infected that wander into the area, the Infected still often slip through the cracks. Meaning Bill has to venture out to take care of some problems himself, and the further away from his house, the more Infected can be found wandering around. It takes a lot of work for Bill, Joel, and Ellie to navigate his town, find the car Joel needs, and escape in it with the Infected only moments behind them. While Joel and Ellie travel this dangerous area with Bill, Bill’s sexuality is only hinted at. One hint ends up being the inappropriate magazines in his house containing men who aren’t wearing much, or any, clothing. You as the player don’t see the magazines, but in a memorable gag we aren’t likely to see in the show, Ellie teases Joel with her opinions on them. Your next hint is Bill’s relationship with Frank. When you meet Bill in the game he’s bitter, suspicious of Ellie, and determined to convince Joel that caring about someone else is a hazard more than a help. Later you manage to pry out of him that he had “a partner” named Frank, who recently abandoned him due to a large fight between them. He never confirms his relationship with Frank, but the way he gets teary eyed and defensive when he speaks about him says a lot. Towards the end of the level you find Frank’s body. He was bitten and hung himself before he could turn, but not before he left a scalding letter for Bill to find. Bill doesn’t really recover from the reveal, but he forcefully brushes it off, leaving Joel to decide he doesn’t want to be like Bill rather than being inspired by him.

The Show: If you’ve watched this episode, like I’m assuming you have, you know Bill and Frank’s story is nothing like the game. First, we get more insight to Bill’s character and his story begins way before he meets Joel. Bill is shown to be, as many of those who played the game suspected, an anti-social survivalist whose crazy ideas became less crazy on the day of the apocalypse. Unlike all the other characters we’ve seen so far in the show, he thrived during doomsday, taking his neighbors supplies and raiding Home Depot for enough trap parts to set him up in his small town for a lifetime. He also doesn’t really have to worry about Infected at all. His town being more contained and his traps being more full-proof gives him the opportunity to kick back and enjoy a home cooked meal and some wine. One day a man who isn’t Infected falls into one of his traps, and when Bill goes to potentially kill him, the man manages to convince him to let him go and give him some food. Here we start seeing the softness of Bill. Bill isn’t the rude, bitter man from the game. While he’s suspicious of others, he has a decency that causes him to be almost unbearably soft around Frank, even when he’s first suspicious of him. And Frank, being the extremely kind man he is, almost instantly (and correctly) interprets this softness as a need for company and decides that he would very much like to be the one to keep him company. Which leads to an adorable first kiss, and an entire episode about their life together as a gay couple. I don’t think I have to tell you how important it is that such a huge episode of such a huge franchise was dedicated to a queer couple. I could have cried over the representation alone. But their story in itself is just gorgeous.

The show brilliantly shows us their relationship alongside the way the apocalypse effects that relationship. We see the two fight over their opinions on letting other people into their town. Frank believes in the importance of human interaction, that’s one of the reasons why he stayed with Bill, and it’s so interesting to see Bill’s untrusting nature be challenged with that point of view. I especially loved when Frank invited Joel and Tess over. It was nice to see how Joel and Bill’s overprotectiveness turned into mutual respect and almost friendship. We then see Bill and Frank thriving off of the new connections they’ve made in perhaps the most adorable scene in the entire episode, where Frank reveals he traded a gun for strawberry seeds and the two giggle happily as they eat strawberries. Then we watch their home get attacked by looters, as Joel warned would eventually happen. Bill is injured and, due to his nature, is fully prepared to be the first one of them to die. He even planned out everything for Frank should he be killed. That alone nearly made me cry. But the thing that actually made me cry was their somewhat happy ending. Frank, as he gets old, falls ill and decides he wants to go via assisted suicide. Bill cries about it at first, which is about where the waterworks started for me. He then takes Frank through the last day he wants, including a wedding ceremony for the two of them and a final dinner that’s actually the first meal Bill ever served Frank. After all that Bill reveals that he plans to die alongside Frank because the show wants me to drown in buckets of my own tears. While their deaths are still tragic, they’re undeniably happy. Especially for people living in an apocalyptic universe. Bill and Frank peacefully fall asleep in each other’s arms. You really can’t expect anything better. And in the end, Bill’s relationship with Frank leads him to tell Joel to hold on to the people he cares about. That’s much more impactful to a grieving Joel than Bill’s bitterness.

I will never get over this episode. It expertly took me through a rollercoaster of emotions, and despite the fact that I ended the episode crying, I will go back to it many more times in the future. The imagery of the open window, leading to a closed off room where Bill and Frank lie together, isn’t something I’ll forget anytime soon. It’s haunting, but it’s breathtakingly beautiful. The fact that this episode barely had anything to do with the plot so far and still might end up being my favorite episode of the entire series blows my mind. Maybe “filler episodes” shouldn’t be as heavily critiqued as they are. If this is what a major series can do with an episode that could be considered filler, I’d like to know what other series could do with the stigma taken off episodes that don’t strictly follow the main plot.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Books: ‘The Stand-In’ by Lily Chu

Promotional photo of the book ‘The Stand-In’. Copyright goes to Lily Chu and Sourcebooks.

Hi! It’s Annie!

Yay, another book review! I got a bookstore gift card as a gift for Christmas and I’ve finally gotten the opportunity to actually go and buy more books. This one was on the top of my list and has been for a while. When I go out to buy books I usually keep myself at a three book limit and I actually saw this one months ago when I was book shopping on vacation. But I had already chosen three books, so I just kind of hoped that I would eventually find this book sometime closer to home. Finally, the bookstore closest to my house got this in stock and I just want to say that this book was absolutely worth the wait. I tore through this book in only a few days after I bought it and it has to be one of my favorite books that I’ve read in a while. The romance is adorable and the book says some absolutely amazing things about mental health that I hope will become more of the norm for all types of media. This post will contain MAJOR SPOILERS, so if you want to read this first and then come back, absolutely do that! ‘The Stand-In’ is so good!

Summary: Gracie Reed is a struggling corporate worker in a job she hates with a disgustingly misogynistic boss. On top of this, Gracie is also attempting to get her Mother in better care due to her Mother’s dementia. When Gracie suddenly gets fired from her job, an unexpected opportunity comes in the form of a mysterious limo pulling alongside her on the street. Inside is the ultra-famous Chinese celebrity couple Fangli and Sam, who have discovered that Gracie looks exactly like Fangli. Fangli offers Gracie money enough to solve her problems and then some to pretend to be her at certain events as a full time job. The catch; she would need to be escorted by Sam, who seems to hate her from the moment she steps into the limo. Would she be insane to say yes?

The Good:

Gracie- I always love when the main female character is not only a badass but also very relatable. Gracie is just trying to do her best and through the course of the story learns to love and trust herself more. Gracie does suffer from some anxiety and other mental health issues which translates, for her, in a love of being organized and planning out her day. This character aspect becomes important to the point that at the end of the novel she creates her own successful app for organization specifically. I loved that the novel explored that creative side of her, but was also very vulnerable in how it went about showing her personality to the reader. You really did feel like Gracie was a close personal friend. It was nice to see a character who was strong, but would still cry after facing something difficult and had moments where all she wanted to do was pull the covers over her head and hide away. But she would still get up and continue on anyways. She wasn’t demure; she was strong and self aware.

Sam- I knew I was going to like this character from his introduction. His opinion against the plan to have Gracie replace Fangli is often the loudest in the room, but his care for Fangli trumps any of those feelings. And when Sam pretends to have feelings for Gracie, I melted every time. Though I did also find hilarious how blunt he was about celebrities staging certain instances so that they’ll get some amount of publicity. Like Fangli staging a trip and fall so that he could catch her. I don’t think we address how often this is probably true for celebrity interactions in general, and it was nice how much the author really wanted Sam and Fangli to feel human to the reader. Sam is also very sweet and sometimes misguided, again we love a flawed character. He starts out being reluctantly helpful but can’t help himself from actually caring. It was a fun dichotomy.

Fangli- This is the character that we spend the most time on when it comes to mental health. It’s revealed that Fangli wanted Gracie to take over for her because she was having a pretty rough time with her mental health. Gracie, who has had mental health problems before and reveals herself to be on medication, tells Fangli that she should get help. Eventually, with the help of Sam, Fangli agrees to see a therapist and begins to heal. Not only is Fangli incredibly sweet and I love her relationship with Gracie, I also think that she’s one of the best examples of portraying struggles with mental health that I’ve ever seen in media. I love watching female friendships in media as well and I love how important that was here. And to top it all off, we also get male-female friendships here too! When it’s revealed that Sam and Fangli have been friends this entire time and have more of a brother-sister dynamic, it feels natural. Fangli was quite possibly my favorite character for being so progressive in her depiction.

The Romance- I really like a good hate to love, emphasis on “good”. This trope usually has to be done pretty well for me to like it, and it was done beautifully here. Sam dislikes Gracie right off the bat because he believes she’s in it for the fame and money and will eventually take advantage of Fangli, while Gracie dislikes Sam because of how immediately he starts treating her like an enemy. When they eventually learn to trust each other within the job is when they decide they probably got off on the wrong foot. I always love a relationship that’s built on trust, and it makes the faster pace of their relationship from then on make more sense. Both of them are so cute with each other, and Sam is always so eager to support any of Gracie’s efforts. Seriously wholesome. And the tension between the two of them as well as his protective nature of her during the job that helps establish their trust, makes the romance so much fun to read! You just want to know what’s going to happen next between the two of them!

Adult Female Friendships- This is so important. Gracie does become really close to Fangli and that relationship feels almost as important to the novel as her relationship with Sam. Not only that, but it doesn’t involve anything dramatic. Their relationship is formed through spending time with each other when they need it and just talking. And these scenes are always wholesome and never boring. Gracie also has another friend who she texts all the time. And they don’t have to be together all the time for the friendship to remain strong. This is something that even Gracie realizes throughout the novel; that this relationship is important regardless of how much time they can actually spend together. It really made the friendship feel more adult; because I find that friendships like this are more common with adults. I don’t get the time to hang out with my friends all the time, but when I do it still feels very meaningful to me. I like that representation here.

Health Representation- As I said before, the exploration of mental health and depression through Fangli was one of my favorite parts of this novel. And I loved how the novel made her getting help for it such a win for every character involved. Not to mention that Gracie herself is our main character and is on medication. As someone who has gone through mental health struggles, this was incredibly important for me to see in a novel. And normalizing having mental health struggles every once in a while is more important now than ever. On a different side of health I also like how this normalized having someone with dementia in your life and the struggles of dealing with that. I have someone with dementia in my life and this was also so incredible for me to see. This novel made my experiences not only feel normal, but also common. I can’t stress how important that is.

Assault- I also loved the way this author dealt with sexual assault in the workplace. There was no sugar coating it; it was described to be as messed up as it is. Having a scene where she was able to confront her abuser and succeed in tearing him down was incredible. Not many women are able to do that, so having scenes like this in media are so cathartic. It was handled so well!

The Glamor- The movie premieres, the gorgeous dresses, the romance with the escort; it all completely took you into an entirely different world. I love my escapist fiction! But it also made it real by allowing the celebrities to be human beings and acknowledging some of the falsities that are played up for the public. So well played!

The Bad:

Character Development- There were some issues I had with the character development for a few of the characters. For example; we learned a lot about Sam’s backstory but we didn’t necessarily get too much about how he felt about it. We were told about some of his reactions, but in a lot of instances we didn’t get to see it for ourselves. Just like we didn’t actually get to see Fangli when she wasn’t completely stable, we saw her only when she felt stable enough to talk to Gracie. I liked seeing the story from Gracie’s perspective, but I feel like we only saw the best of other characters on multiple occasions. I also would have liked to get more about Mei considering that she was the answer to the major plot twist at the end of the book. I really felt like I didn’t know anything about her. I just wish we would have gotten a little more!

Pacing- The pacing, specifically of the romance, went a little too fast for me. While I liked that the relationship had a good base, it felt like Sam and Gracie went from a truce to romantically involved in seconds. It was difficult to tell when their feelings grew to that level because it seemed like they just appeared right after the truce. I would have liked a little more of a slow burn with this, especially with the hate to love dynamic. I also had a bit of an issue with the pacing of the ending. We very suddenly find out that Fangli is Gracie’s sister very very close to the end of the novel. Fangli barely gets any time to react to this information and the reader barely has any time to cope with this new information before the novel just ends. I would have liked to see this reveal a little earlier in the novel.

Sudden Breakup- I’m usually not a fan of the sudden breakup trope. It’s usually not needed. As an example; the 90s anime of Sailor Moon incorporated a sudden breakup that didn’t need to happen and did not actually happen in the manga or Crystal. It’s one of the reasons why I like the relationship between Usagi and Mamoru better in Crystal and the manga. Sometimes it’s done well, but I usually don’t like it even then. And I really wasn’t the biggest fan of it here. It happens very suddenly for a really odd reason. Gracie suddenly asks Sam to pretend to be her Mother’s lost brother because her Mother thinks that he is her brother and is having a really difficult day. Sam refuses, for a reason I didn’t quite understand, to the point where they almost start arguing and then Gracie misinterprets a conversation and just leaves. All of it felt a little out of nowhere with not a whole lot of build up. It felt like a really immature move from Gracie too. I wasn’t exactly sure why Sam was so eager to take her back when she was so eager to drop him and in the end they don’t even really talk about the situation with each other before getting back together. It just felt very odd to me.

I did have a couple of issues with this book, but overall it was beautiful! I loved the romance and the emphasis on mental health. I really hope to see more books tackle mental health in this way in the future. And it’s a good wholesome read! It isn’t my new favorite book, but I can see myself returning to it eventually.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Netflix Shows: Reasons to Watch ‘The Sea Beast’

Screenshot of Jacob as voiced by Karl Urban, and Maisie as voiced by Zaris-Angel Hator. Copyright goes to Netflix.

Hey! Hallie here!

Recently the nominees for the 2023 Oscar’s were announced, including the nominees for Best Animated Feature Film. The movies up for the Oscar were all easily predicted by most people, all aside from one entry. ‘The Sea Beast’ making it onto the list of nominees was a surprise to most and effectively shot this movie back into audience’s radar. When it first came out on Netflix it wasn’t extremely well advertised, but the people who saw it seemed to only have positive things to say about it. Still, after some reviewers claimed the movie was just a redo of ‘How to Train Your Dragon’, a good amount of people wrote it off. I was one of those people. But now that I’ve actually given this movie a chance I can confidently say I don’t know what those reviewers were talking about. This movie was wonderfully whimsical and extremely unique. So if you’re still on the fence, here are all the things you’re sure to love if you give ‘The Sea Beast’ a chance.

The Main Characters: First off, our leading lady is a young Black girl named Maisie. It’s so nice to see a movie center the power of a little Black girl. And Maisie is a particularly badass little girl. From the first moment we see her we know she’s rebellious and intelligent, with her heart set on adventure. She’s fearless both in her attempts to escape from her orphanage and in her first attempts to join the group of pirates she idolizes. But she’s also sweet. She’s the catalyst for all of the characters in the movie coming to understand sea monsters, purely because of her immediate willingness to empathize with them. And the wisdom her kindness gives her sometimes makes her seem more capable than the adult characters in the film. It’s really impossible not to fall in love with Maisie. Then there’s Jacob, who happens to be both a handsome pirate and voiced by Karl Urban. Which means he’s a very attractive animated character. He’s also surprisingly gentle for the kind of character you think he’s going to be. He’s roguish but proud, showing an immense amount of self confidence in his abilities to the point of seeming self-centered. But pretty early on the film makes a point of balancing out his pompous nature with his natural care and concern for others. And all of that is only made more obvious when he meets Maisie. Though he initially doesn’t like her and doesn’t see himself as the kind of person who would be good with children, he’s also the first to warm up to her and takes caring for her very seriously. Even when he doesn’t fully believe Maisie’s ideas about sea monsters, he’s still willing to hear her out and wastes no time questioning his biases. I would gladly watch several more movies about these two.

The Ensemble Cast: Though Maisie and Jacob are the real highlights here, the entire cast is irresistibly likable. My favorite of the ensemble cast is Sarah Sharpe, the apparent first mate of Captain Crow. She’s blunt and no-nonsense, never letting anyone waste her time. She’s also very clearly the entirety of the brains on the ship. Literally all of them. Just like Jacob, she initially doesn’t know what to do with Maisie and isn’t certain she likes her very much. But. because she’s awesome, she still gives Maisie her first knife and is technically the first person to welcome her into the pirate crew. The way she warms up to Maisie as the movie goes on is almost just as endearing as Maisie’s storyline with Jacob. Captain Crow is also an interesting character. He’s an understandable character who you respect, but he’s simultaneously very dangerous and the movie does a good job of making sure you remember that. Along with that he has an interesting father/son relationship with Jacob that complicates much of the movie in an almost heart-wrenching way. Though the rest of the crew aren’t as well developed, I still appreciated all of them. The diversity in the crew is incredible, with Fen, who seems purposefully gender ambiguous and has been referred to by they/them pronouns in promotional content, being the standout for me. Also amongst the crew is a surgeon, which regardless of his small amount of screen time, made me unreasonably happy. We don’t often see surgeon characters in pirate media, but I love when we do. Though the main villainous characters aren’t all that interesting, I’d say the rest of the cast more than makes up for them.

The Sea Beasts: Though I wouldn’t say you explore any of the personalities of these creatures to the extent that you explore the personality of say Toothless in ‘How to Train Your Dragon’, I still really adored the sea beasts. Red is, of course, one of the most eye catching. While her design is simple, staying to mostly one color, it’s very clever. Her fins and tail make her resemble a whale, which gives an air of familiarity for the audience, but her horn and snake-like neck add something whimsical to her design. And she isn’t the only sea beast with a great design. From the giant purple crab with a mouth resembling the Kraken from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, to the yellow walrus-like creature with tusks, to the armored alligator-like beast at the beginning of the movie. There’s a clever amount of aquatic designs, bright colors, and scary features to make any lover of creature design happy. I especially loved Blue, the squishy creature with frog eyes who always stole each scene he was in with his adorableness. Though none of the sea beasts have full personalities, I did enjoy how Red’s storyline mirrored Jacob’s. While Red often only attacked when provoked, there were situations where that wasn’t the case. Jacob, similarly, was quick to judge or attack the sea beasts he initially came across because of how little he trusted them. I loved the understanding Maisie fostered between them both as they both attempted to move past their violent tendencies. This connection between all three characters was shockingly deep for what I expected from this movie.

The Pirate Theming: I just have to throw this in here because I’m a huge lover of pirates and pirate theming. There’s a reason why the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ films are some of my favorite films of all time. ‘The Sea Beast’ offers the perfect amount of pirate theming. There’s a crew with a satisfying sense of camaraderie, sea monsters, beautifully designed pirate ships, and even conflict with the crown. It has everything you want out of a pirate story and more. I’m really picky about pirate media because I often find that shows don’t properly capture the love for adventure and fantastical ideas about the sea that draw people to the pirate genre in the first place. ‘The Sea Beast’ has no problem with capturing either of these. I’ll definitely be returning to this movie to get my pirate fix.

I personally loved this movie. Though I’m pretty certain it won’t be able to beat out some of the other animated films in the Best Animated Feature Film category at the Oscar’s, I definitely think it’s good enough to win an Oscar and it at least deserves recognition. Though it does portray a child who befriends a monster-like creature in a world that dislikes those kinds of creatures, it isn’t similar to ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ at all. Beyond the basics, this movie comes with a completely different plot and completely different stakes, as well as themes about found family and overcoming past trauma to make way for a new future. It’s such a well done film and if you haven’t watched it yet, I really hope I convinced you to watch this immediately. Right now. Do it.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Live Entertainment: Sailor Moon in Japan

Promotional photo for Universal Studios Japan and their limited time ‘Sailor Moon’ event. Copyright goes to Universal Studios Japan.

Hi! It’s Annie!

Firstly, Happy Changkyun Day! It probably isn’t the most fitting to do a Sailor Moon themed post on his birthday (pastels versus his usual all black), but I didn’t want to start my post today without saying that first! I promised to do a post about Sailor Moon events in Japan that I’ve looked up over and over out of pure jealousy. Most of these were limited time events and because of that actually are not still open. But I wish they were because now I won’t actually be able to go to many, if any of these at all, when I eventually take my trip to Japan. A few of these limited events I’m hoping will come back eventually and I especially hope that one of these that is actually permanently closed will eventually open again. Or at least something like it. And I promise I did actually include some experiences in here that are still available. I want to be able to do something Sailor Moon themed in Japan, so some of this is stuff that I’m hoping to actually do! I’m just going to get into it!

Sailor Moon Universal Japan:

This was a limited time event at Universal Studios Japan that included a ride, shop, and cafe. Universal Japan is partially known for its commitment to anime and that includes their attractions. They have one specific ride that’s always anime based, but which anime it’s based on changes all the time. In fact, usually the ride hosts two different anime experiences at the same time and it switches between them depending on the day. This is possible due to the fact that Universal mostly has digital and screen based rides. These rides are more like a show with moving seats than a full fledged ride. Sailor Moon was there for a good amount of time, but by now another anime has replaced it. Still, I love going to Youtube and watching as many videos as I can of all of the experiences that this involved. The ride itself features all of the Sailor Scouts and was even marketed with all of them in mind. Getting off at the train station closest to Universal Japan meant seeing posters of every single Sailor Guardian covering almost the entire station. And that included Sailor Neptune and Uranus! The ride itself also highlighted each Guardian and featured them all fighting crime in their original Guardian forms as well as transforming into their gorgeous Princess forms. The store itself also sold merch of all of the Sailor Scouts. While, as always, they focused mostly on the Inner Senshi, they did have some selections for the Outer Senshi as well including adorable hair bows for each of the Guardians. The Sailor Moon food specifically focuses on sugar, which I’m sure especially Usagi and Minako would approve of. The savory food seems to be more focused on Mamoru, but the deserts are mostly strawberry based with sugary drinks for each of the Inner Senshi based off of their colors. While the food didn’t have many options for Outer Senshi fans, I’m pretty sure there was a joint jello-like dessert for Haruka and Michiru. So plenty for fans of any of the Guardians to enjoy!

Sailor Moon Cafe in Tokyo:

This opened only a few years before the pandemic as what was supposed to be a permanent Sailor Moon cafe. Unfortunately, the pandemic put this permanent cafe into permanent closure it seems. Some hold out hope that they may eventually get the money to bring this back, but we’ll really have to see what happens. Nothing has happened to bring back this cafe yet. And this wasn’t your usual cafe. This boasted the general cafe merchandise you would expect as well as the Sailor Moon themed food you would expect. You could order the food on collectible plates and shop in the store, where they had Sailor Moon outfits on display, while you waited for the big event. Because here, the big event was actually a show where the Inner Senshi as well as Tuxedo Mask would all come out to perform for a bit and then greet guests. I heard nothing but good things about this experience and it’s such a shame that it didn’t last as long as everyone hoped it would. Maybe something like it will come out soon!

Sailor Moon Museum:

This was a temporary exhibit in Tokyo that included merchandise and a cafe! The museum also changed depending on the month that you were there so that the museum could focus on different seasons of Sailor Moon. If you’re wondering what exactly this museum focused on to showcase, the answer is absolutely everything. The museum focused a lot on the art of Sailor Moon and showcasing some of the story boards and art from the manga, to the 90s anime, to Crystal, all the way to Eternal. The art was what changed depending on what month that you were there. The museum also had a section for the Sailor Moon musicals that occasionally go on in Japan; showcasing costumes, props, and even some stuff from the actresses themselves (Mamoru has gone between being played by men and women, but is mostly played by women). The museum also has an entire section dedicated to Sailor Moon merchandise through the years, from the very first dolls to the intricate dolls and plushies that we see on the market now. The shop after the museum was insanely large and mostly pink (Yay!) and had the DVDs of all of the Sailor Moon musicals. (One of these DVDs is well known for having the only canonical Haruka and Michiru kiss as the actresses decided to do it as a surprise for the audience.) The Sailor Moon cafe here was known for having the best food of any Sailor Moon cafe to come out for a while. The food was thoughtfully prepared, the desserts were delicious, and when they started with the art for the last part of Sailor Moon, they included a bunch of Outer Senshi items on the menu. I’m just sorry I missed it!

Sailor Moon Musicals:

If you’re lucky, you might be able to visit Japan when they’re doing a brand new Sailor Moon musical. I know that if this suddenly cropped up during a trip, there’s no way I would be able to resist. Whether I know the language or not. The Sailor Moon musicals have been known to be fun and extremely good productions at the same time. Don’t think of these as novelty, you have to think of these as Off-Broadway production level. Because that’s the amount of work that goes into them. Most fans of the musicals have watched many different iterations of the characters and most have a favorite that speaks to them the most! While I am just starting my research and deep dive into the musicals, I am already a huge fan of Shuu and Sayaka, the adorable best friends who have most recently played Haruka and Michiru respectively. (I just want someone to look at me the way Shuu looks at Sayaka!) I also have immense respect for Nao and Yuuka who are the actresses who made liking Haruka and Michiru as a couple a less controversial opinion and were the actresses I was talking about earlier who brought us our first canonical kiss between the couple. There’s so much good content from the musicals and I absolutely encourage you to look them up if you haven’t already! The songs and acting are amazing! It’s the perfect way to bring these characters to life.

Sailor Moon Store:

This is a permanent Sailor Moon Store in Harajuku and is still open and fully functioning! Yay! Finally! The store was opened because of the immense success and popularity of Sailor Moon and features two distinct sides. One side of the store is night blue and focuses on clothing, including providing a fitting room. The clothing here is pretty generic, but still cute! And this side has some jewelry that often seems to focus on each individual Guardian, so if you want something for your favorite Guardian they might have it. My favorite side of the store is pastel pink and focuses on all the other types of merch, and some of the cuter merch in my opinion. This is more of where you’ll find pieces dedicated to specific Guardians. They have plushies of each of them as well as art pieces, pens, and really anything else you can imagine. But the store feels like it’s as much for the aesthetic as it is for the merchandise. The night blue side seems to depict Sailor Moon while the pastel pink side shows the aesthetic of Usagi in her casual form. It almost looks like a candy shop; it’s so cute in there! I already wanted to visit Harajuku at some point, so this is absolutely on my list now!

Sailor Moon Cafes:

Usually there will be some major cafe in a major area doing something Sailor Moon themed. It’s still one of the most popular anime to ever be created, so there’s a chance you may find something open that I haven’t mentioned. I’m certainly hoping to! While cafe food isn’t necessarily known for being great (unless you go to very specific cafes), most people say that the aesthetic and merch alone are worth going to a cafe for your favorite anime. So I’m hoping to find something Sailor Moon themed like this while I’m there! It might be difficult though because it’s far easier to find something when a piece of media for it has recently come out. So I guess I’ll have to cross my fingers for another Sailor Moon movie to come out soon!

I’m already so excited for this trip and I’m hoping that all of it works out so we can go when we have it planned! While it doesn’t look like there’s much Sailor Moon stuff to do right now, you never know what might pop up between now and when I end up taking my trip! And while I am hoping some more experiences might crop up; I still have plenty of things on my list to do in Japan. Between sight seeing, general exploring, and theme parks, there might not be enough time for everything that I want to do. But I know that I will probably at least be able to fit in the official and permanent Sailor Moon store! This show has come to mean so much to me in such a small amount of time. Probably because it reminds me of all of the magical girl shows I used to watch as a kid that were actually based off of this. But the original material is so much better than those shows were! Seriously, where has Sailor Moon been all my life?

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Video Games: ‘The Last of Us’ Episode 2 Review

Screenshot of Pedro Pascal as Joel and Anna Torv as Tess in ‘The Last of Us’ on HBO Max.

Hey! Hallie here!

The second episode of ‘The Last of Us’ landed on HBO Max on Sunday with even more things for me to get excited about. Just like the first episode, this one stuck pretty closely to the content of the video game, but there were a few surprises that caught me off guard. This episode also gave us our first introduction to the Clickers in the show! I’m excited to see where all of this is going and there’s so much I want to discuss, but before that here’s your SPOILER WARNING. This review will have spoilers for episode two and potential spoilers for the video game as well. Tread carefully if you’re going into this show with no knowledge of the game!

The Immune:

The Opening: Just like everyone else, I’m really loving the openings to each episode we’ve gotten so far. Each episode has given us a bit of backstory to the fungal virus that caused the apocalyptic environment in ‘The Last of Us’. In episode one that was a 60s interview featuring two scientists discussing pandemics and a possible world-ending fungal virus, with the implication that human inaction (especially inaction towards climate change) was the cause of the disease taking over the world. In this episode beloved Indonesian actress Christine Hakim takes on the role of a scientist who, without warning, is taken to a heavily guarded facility to perform an autopsy. There she learns the woman she’s performing an autopsy on went insane and attacked her coworkers, even managing to bite some of them. When she looks in her mouth she finds fungal growth. When asked what to do about this development, which they now know is passing from person to person, she can offer no vaccine. Instead, she says to bomb the city and everyone in it. The whole scene really sells the dire nature of the virus, and the hopelessness that the characters in the world of ‘The Last of Us’ have gotten used to. These introduction scenes are by no means fun, but they are very informative and appropriately bleak.

Joel and Ellie: This episode was the first time we got to see these two bond and I absolutely loved it. Joel spends most of the episode exasperated with Tess for believing Ellie when she says she’s immune, and for having to escort Ellie at all. Meanwhile, Ellie encourages said exasperation by taking her immunity a bit too lightly, even jokingly pretending she’s turning into an Infected at one point to mock Tess and Joel. But Ellie is very easily likable and, as the episode goes on, we get to watch Joel warm up to her. Ellie impresses both Tess and Joel with her story of rebelliously wandering into a mall alone, (although fans of the game know she was with Riley,) and getting bitten. And though Ellie annoys him a bit with her tendency to make fun out of every situation she’s in, like in the Hotel where she plays pretend at the front desk, you can tell that he finds her light attitude refreshing. Joel admires Ellie’s positive outlook, especially when she’s commenting on the overgrown city that he lost interest in a long time ago. About midway through this episode they get a full scene to just sit down and talk, too. Though they both start out very short with each other, the two bond over a sobering conversation about what it’s like to kill Infected knowing that they were once human. We only have small one-on-one interactions so far, but with Tess gone, we’ll get way more in the very near future.

Tess: Speaking of. I was sure we’d see more of Tess in this series. The trailers featured her so heavily I thought we’d be getting more backstory for her or something. Still, I wasn’t expecting her character to last longer than two episodes, and sure enough, she didn’t. I liked what the series did with Tess. They didn’t add much to her in the way of story, but they didn’t need to. Tess is the Ben Kenobi character. The one who’s there to push the heroes to their main goal through their ideals and untimely death. Tess was effective at this, both because they made her relationship to Joel closer in the series than it was in the game, and because we got to see her warm to Ellie much faster than Joel did. We even spent a lot of time on her idealism. The minute Tess heard a vaccine was possible, she didn’t hesitate to wonder if the information was true. She wanted to believe it was possible and, more importantly, she wanted to do something helpful that went beyond the shady things she’d done to survive so far. I liked her death as well. It was emotionally impactful to watch her face the Infected head on, the exact creatures she feared to turn into after she was bitten, and take them down in a self-sacrificial move. Much more impactful than her trying to fight off the military and being shot instantly. Tess’ role didn’t deviate much from the game but honestly, I have no complaints about that.

The Museum: The Museum section was taken right out of the game. From the glass cases they hid behind, to Ellie following Joel’s lead and taking cover with him, to the insanely accurate and impressive Clicker makeup. It was so satisfying to see the whole thing come to life on screen.

The Sets: Every shot of the rundown city was both gorgeous and completely game accurate. The overgrown vegetation on the cars, the giant leaning buildings, and the strange fungal growths were beautiful in their own grotesque sort of way. The city looks like it’s slowly being destroyed by the forest attempting to grow in its place, and that’s exactly what I wanted to see. I especially loved the hotel interior. Though the hotel comes later in the game, it fit in well with the rest of the city and it was cool to see the swamp-like environment so perfectly recreated.

The Infected:

The Fungal Tendrils: I already didn’t like this idea in episode one, but I liked it even less in episode two. It still feels way too Doctor Who to see little tentacles coming out of the mouths of the Infected. And though I do like that they’re using these to connect the Infected in a fungus-like system that occurs naturally in forests, I don’t think it’s necessary. And the whole idea gets weirder by the episode. In this episode for example, in order to fully turn Tess (even though she was already bitten and could definitely just turn from that alone,) one of the Infected basically attempts to kiss her. The scene wasn’t even creepy. It was just painfully awkward. Usually I’m more saddened by Tess’ death, but this time I just spent the whole scene cringing at how odd it was. At this point I don’t think they’re going to convince me to like this new addition to the Infected.

And that’s it! The series has stuck very closely to the game so far, but with the promise of a few new characters and locations, I’m interested to see how much new content they’ll give us as well. In the very least, it looks like we’ll be skipping my least favorite level in the game. Getting the hotel out of the way now means we likely won’t get the whole segment where Joel has to wander around in the dark to get back to Ellie after falling down an elevator shaft. That has always been the most terrifying part of the game for me (aside from David,) and I won’t miss it. In any case, I’m excited for episode three! Now that Tess is gone, the plot’s going to get faster from here on out.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Theme Parks: Sanrio Puroland

Promotional image of Sanrio Puroland. Copyright goes to Sanrio Puroland in Japan.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I am currently hoping, (though I am not sure if it’ll even happen) to go to Japan for the first time within the next couple of years. To prepare for this, and also completely out of excitement, I’ve been looking up potential places that I might want to visit. Considering my immense love for pastels and cute things, this is one of the places that I have absolutely been looking up as a potential place to go. And, up until a few months ago, I had no idea that this place even existed. For those of you who are like me and hadn’t heard of this Sanrio theme park before, allow me to explain. This is a four story theme park that is entirely indoors complete with shows, shops, plenty of character meet and greets, lots of aesthetic places to take pictures, and even a couple of rides. There’s plenty to explore at this park for plenty of the Sanrio characters that everyone loves, so I’m just going to get into everything that this adorable park has to offer!

Rides:

If you’re expecting any sort of thrill rides or really in depth types of rides, you’re probably going to be disappointed. The rides are really not the point of this park, but they are really cute all the same! One of the rides is My Melody, and it’s more like a pop-up storybook than a ride. The other ride is a boat ride which features all of the Sanrio characters preparing for a big party being put on by Hello Kitty. This is more of a Small World type of ride but without the song. Which I’m sure some people will find merciful. These are all definitely slower rides that are absolutely kid friendly! What’s interesting about this park is that in a lot of other places people might label this purely as a park for kids, but in Japan all kinds of theme parks are marketed towards adults so it’s really common to see groups of just adults here too! If you feel odd about going to a type of park like this because of the way the US views theme parks, completely throw those prejudices away! All theme parks are for all ages!

Meet and Greets:

If you have a favorite Sanrio character, you can bet that they’ll probably be somewhere in the park. If you can’t meet them that day, you’ll most definitely be able to catch them in a show at some point. But for the most part, you’ll probably be able to catch most of your favorite Sanrio characters for a meet and greet. Hello Kitty, Pompompurin, My Melody, and Cinnamoroll are pretty much always out for meet and greets. Usually there’s one or two other characters thrown into the mix that change depending on the day. To make wait times and lines less crowded, you can go to a kiosk in the park to reserve a meet and greet time for specific characters. Obviously, the biggest meet and greet event here is for Hello Kitty. Kind of like at Disneyland, meeting Hello Kitty involves going into her house (which is more like a mansion or palace) and exploring before you even get to the meet and greet portion. I know that a visit to this place wouldn’t be complete for me without a hug from Pompompurin, so I’m glad that they have a pretty good selection of meet and greets! While rides aren’t really a priority here, the characters absolutely are!

Shows:

Sanrio Puroland boasts an over fifteen minute long show that changes depending on the season. Nobody knows what these shows are like except for visitors of the park specifically because they don’t allow pictures or videos inside. Everyone who has seen these premiere shows have described them as being chaotic and unhinged in an adorably hilarious kind of way. I am thoroughly intrigued. Other than that, there are usually several shows that happen on the main floor. These shows include everything from general stage performances, to Hello Kitty coming down from the ceiling, to extreme light shows. Some of the shows are general cavalcade style shows where there are a collection of cute Sanrio characters dancing around. If your favorite character isn’t available for a meet and greet on the day that you decide to go, you can usually see your favorite character in one of these cavalcade style shows. On top of this, all of the shows usually feature the Sanrio characters in new and adorable outfits that you won’t see anywhere else!

Aesthetic:

Other than the general attractions, Sanrio Puroland is a great place to go just for the aesthetic alone! The first floor that you enter on is mostly pastel pink and white, and doesn’t contain much beyond shops. But they have a giant selection of shops! Some of the shops are general merch for the theme park and most of the popular Sanrio characters, but there are also character specific shops here. For example, if you’re looking specifically for My Melody merch, there’s a specific pastel pink shop just for that. The main floor that connects to most of the experiences is a giant floor where many of the meet and greets take place and is also where the boat ride is. In the center of this giant floor there’s a stage and a wishing tree covered in Hello Kitty bows. The wishing tree is absolutely giant and extremely detailed, it also lights up different colors for some of the shows. In my opinion, it’s the most stunning aesthetic piece in the entire park. The surrounding area looks like a fairytale village with several cottage looking buildings containing small scenes and props or other interactive activities. The other floors mainly contain more places to take pictures and explore, some of them including interactive activities. There’s an entire Gudetama floor including a mock cafe and some hilariously odd visual details. You can also explore a room covered in adorable pastel stars, and an entirely pastel arcade for even more entertainment. Whatever aesthetic you feel like immersing yourself in, as long as it’s pastel, you’ll probably find it here!

Food:

One of the main advertised elements of this theme park is actually the food. You usually have to go to a themed cafe for food like this, but the character specific type of food is what Sanrio Puroland specializes in. They have a giant character food court where you can get something for almost every character and even options to create your own character themed food, buffet style. I have to say though, this is one element that I’m not as excited for when it comes to the park. Most people say that the food here is pretty flavorless and that the cuteness makes up for it, but is the only good part of the meal overall. There are other food kiosks around that seem to be more promising. Some of them focus more on drinks and desserts but also sell things like teriyaki buns that most people seem to have better luck with. Not only that but the drinks and desserts are equally as cute as the other cafe themed food they sell! Personally, if I get around to going there I might go for one of the kiosks instead. Especially because the food court is known for getting extremely busy because it’s one of the main attractions that the park advertises.

I haven’t actually decided yet if this is a must-do for me when I hopefully get around to going to Japan in the not so distant future. I already have so much on my must-do list from general touristy stuff, to Tokyo Disney Sea, to the new Studio Ghibli Park, to a couple of Sailor Moon things that I’m hoping to do. The Sailor Moon stuff can be on and off so I’m hoping that there will be a cafe of some kind doing a Sailor Moon type promotion. They did have a Sailor Moon cafe that was supposed to be permanent, but unfortunately the pandemic caused the cafe to go under. Universal Japan was doing a Sailor Moon themed event for a while, but that was only for a limited time. I know for a fact that there’s at least the official Sailor Moon Store to go to! I’m still formulating my list and trying to figure out how much time I’ll have. And I have a feeling I won’t end up getting to Sanrio Puroland despite my love of pastels. But maybe I’ll visit eventually! I just knew that I couldn’t pass up talking about a completely pastel theme park on our blog! I might do more posts about my research or about other events I’ve found, such as Sailor Moon, in the future though!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Video Games:Would the ‘Dragon Age: Inquisition’ Love Interests Be Good Partners? (Pt.2)

Screenshot of an Inquisitor and Solas in ‘Dragon Age: Inquisition’. Copyright goes to BioWare.

Hey! Hallie here!

In my last post of this series I essentially said I was going to save the best for last. Meaning, this final post is going to cover the big Solas vs Cullen debate. These two and their dateability have been a hot topic among ‘Dragon Age’ fans, and some have even called into question whether these characters would be likable at all if they were real. But we still have a few other characters to critique, including the bonus character I promised. Please note that everything in this post is just my opinion and I don’t think anyone is wrong if they have a different opinion from me. So without any further delay, SPOILERS AHEAD, and let’s get into this!

Josephine: She’s genuinely the sweetest bean. Just like Dorian, I don’t have much to critique here. While Josephine can come across as a bit too uptight, getting to know her reveals that she’s not actually closed-minded or stiff. She simply has a lot of anxiety and desires to put 110% into every job she takes on. In a relationship she’s very much a romantic, but not in the way Cassandra is. Instead of grand gestures and obsessing over romantic books, Josephine simply loves the idea of love and is content cuddling with the Inquisitor in front of a fire to demonstrate her devotion. She has respect for all different ideologies and cultures, so there’s no worries about her there, regardless of which kind of Inquisitor you’re playing. And throughout a romance with her she’s supportive, sweet, and she shows clear care and concern for you. While her romance might not have the most depth of the game’s options, it certainly doesn’t mean her route is a bad one. And it also doesn’t mean she would be a bad partner to have in real life. While she’d need someone who could help balance her anxiety, she’d undoubtedly be an absolutely amazing partner.

Cullen: There’s a lot of nuance to trying to figure out if Cullen is dateable. First off, he’s a nice guy. Much like characters like Cassandra or Blackwall, he has a lot of respect for the Inquisitor, whether or not he agrees with your decisions. Cullen’s also just pleasant. He’s very polite, offers frequent compliments to the Inquisitor, and is the quickest to lend a hand whenever he feels he can be of use. The issue with Cullen is his stance on mages. Unlike Cassandra, Cullen’s view on mages is still borderline “lock them up”. He hates the Chantry, but past trauma has made him feel like the Circle is still important to ensure society survives, rather than allowing mages personal rights and freedoms. It’s pretty irritating to hear, especially because Cullen is so adamant throughout the game that he’s changed and has come to respect mages more. But Cullen proves time and time again that that’s not really the case. Maybe it’s worse because, mechanically, you need one of your advisors to talk up the templar route to you and Cullen is the most obvious choice. But it all makes him look a bit like a hypocrite when, in a completely different conversation, he talks about how he regrets the way he treated mages in the past. Here’s the thing with Cullen, though. An Inquisitor who sides with mages can, at least mostly, change his mind. There’s also the fact that, as a mage, he’s not discriminatory at all. He trusts the Inquisitor regardless of who you’re playing as. And his romance with every Inquisitor is probably full of the most active trust building of any romance in the game. The Cullen romance feels the most like a real life romance, where roadblocks cause both of the people in the relationship to learn how to lean on each other. Overall, I think he’d be a good partner. I just don’t think that anyone would be wrong to refuse waiting around to correct his twisted views.

Solas: What to say about the egg head? I’m a Solas romancer myself, so you might be surprised to hear me say that, right off the bat, Solas is very much not dateable. His ideals aren’t the problem. Solas is an advocate for the rights of everyone. He especially advocates for elves, no surprise seeing as he’s an elf, but he also stands up for spirits, the poor, and mages. I also disagree with the people who outright think he’s a jerk. Solas isn’t. Solas is polite and kind first and foremost, only ever treating his peers with appreciation. He’ll even throw random compliments towards party members he isn’t a fan of. He’s also open minded and loves encountering people who are just as curious about the world as he is. Solas’ big problem first comes to light when you try to discuss the Dalish with him. While in some situations he’ll admit that he admires the resilience of the Dalish people, he mostly just bashes them and really dislikes it whenever you mention them. His reasoning is that he attempted to share his knowledge with them and they rejected him, but the real reason is pride. And his pride is exactly why he wouldn’t be a good partner. It makes sense why he’s so prideful. He’s thousands of years older than everyone else. But the fact that he believes his past way of life and his ideas are more valuable than everyone else’s, makes him both a bad person and a bad partner. That’s the entire reason why he can sound so snooty, and it’s why he plans to destroy everything and bring back the time of the elves. He thinks he’s the smartest, that he knows best, and I don’t know about you but I know enough guys like that in my life to know he would suck as a partner. But I’d also argue that’s kind of the point. He’s a villain and he’s supposed to have a deplorable, fatal flaw.

Krem: And here’s the mystery character! I had to add Krem in here because, if I could date anyone from this game, it would be Krem. It actually kills me that he isn’t romanceable. Just like Iron Bull, he treats the Inquisitor with courtesy and consideration. He also takes on Iron Bull’s tendency to address the Inquisitor as an employer, which is one of the things I listed as a negative while talking about Iron Bull. But with Krem, he seems to treat the whole “employer” thing as more of a formality. He’s farther removed from the Inquisitor, working as one of your outside forces rather than as a personal bodyguard. And Bull is the only one Krem views as an actual superior. Krem is also really casual and sweet. After you get past his explanations surrounding Bull’s Chargers, he’ll move on to anecdotes from their adventures he thinks you’ll find funny or important, and even, eventually, has a heartfelt conversation with you about his queer journey. He’s really open, but not in a too trusting kind of way. He can definitely keep a secret, he’s just an open book who likes connecting with people. That’s an excellent start to a relationship, and his general good humor and attentiveness make him seem like a great partner to have. Plus, he’s unbearably sweet in the storyline where Cole pairs him up with the bard. I just want to romance him. Is that too much to ask?

And that’s it! As you can see, all of these characters have their pros and cons. But that’s what makes them so interesting. Just like in real life, all of the characters in this game are flawed. It’s simply up to the player to decide which flaws are deal breakers. But still, each of the romances in these games has their really excellent, heartwarming sides as well. I even thought of a few more I didn’t expect as I was writing about each character. So don’t let anyone make you feel bad over who you like to romance in ‘Dragon Age’ games. It’s your decision and there are plenty of valid decisions to make in each BioWare title.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

K-Pop: Monsta X ‘Reason’ and Bias Updates

Promotional photo of (from left) Lee Jooheon, Chae Hyungwon, Lee Minhyuk, Yoo Kihyun, and Im Changkyun. Copyright goes to Starship Entertainment and Monsta X.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I feel like I’m making this too late, but I absolutely needed to talk about ‘Reason’, Monsta X’s new release! Not only because this is one of the main groups that I stan, but also because this has to be one of my all-time favorite releases from them. I loved absolutely every song on this album, to the point that the songs have been running over and over in my head since I first heard them. I think the only reason why I’m putting this out so late is because I often struggle trying to figure out what exactly to say about each song in an album. One of the major points of music is that it’s supposed to be felt more than described, but I’m going to do my best! And I have some bias appreciation and updates to talk about at the end that will hopefully even out some of the places that I struggle here. So look out for those! If you haven’t yet listened to this album or watched the MV, go do that now! I can’t stress enough how amazing they are and they are absolutely worth the listen! I’m just going to get into it!

Beautiful Liar:

This is absolutely the hard hitting title track that I expect from Monsta X. Each of their title tracks are different, but they all have some kind of element that pulls you in from the moment you press play. The song is fast paced but also has lower and smoother vocals for a good portion of it that gives the song a more sensual element to it. As always, the rap here is a major stand out. I don’t think you could find many rap lines as cohesive and complimentary as I.M and Joohoney. The song also highlights the ranges of all of the vocalists, giving them plenty of impressive high notes to hit. More than wanting to dance to it, this song just completely pulls you in. It’s compelling in a way that gives you no choice but to listen to it and then listen to it again.

Beautiful Liar MV:

The MV is darker and more mysterious, with the background mostly being dark but each of the members standing out in bright red. We see moments of them also blending into this black and white aesthetic, but for the most part they each stand out as a pop of color within a crowd of monotony. Each of the members is highlighted individually for most of the song, including in some places with choreography. It makes it really easy to find great highlight moments of your bias, no matter which member your bias is.

Daydream:

This is one of my favorite tracks on the album. It almost has a creepy and playful vibe, and the song depicts feelings of craziness without a partner that isn’t necessarily even real. Most K-pop stans can relate to some degree. Each of the members get to sing to the creepy tune here along with the usual knockout raps. I’m absolutely obsessed; this is the song that gets stuck in my head most often. And I love hearing even the rappers singing here. I also love how the melody is a perfect contrast to the more dance-type chorus. It’s amazing!

Crescendo:

We’ve started hearing the rap line sing regularly for a little while now, but have you ever wanted to know what would happen if the vocal line rapped? Here’s your answer. It’s nothing short of amazing! Hearing each member rap to the beat is stunning and the vocals at the end of the song make the lyrical purpose very clear. This has to be another favorite for me.

LONE RANGER:

This has more of a country feel that it perfectly captures while still sounding completely in line with Monsta X. I love the high notes that many of the members hit here during every chorus. They’ve been liking the more country theming lately and I have to say that I think they do it well.

Deny:

Another one of my favorites on this album, but at this point what isn’t? This is not as much of a slow song as it is a chill and relaxing song. It depicts the melancholy of feeling alone when you like someone who doesn’t return those feelings. The lyrics are excellently done and depict those emotions so well, from the way it affects you physically to the mental effect. Again, we’re getting tons of amazing vocals from all of them here!

IT’S ALRIGHT:

This song is also more of a relaxing type and has such deep lyrics about getting back to someone that you miss. It closes out the album with this gorgeous bittersweet feeling, but there’s this level of hope that goes along with it as well. Monsta X does really well with adding various levels to their more melancholic songs.

Bias:

With all that said, it’s been a while since I’ve talked about my Monsta X bias and I’ve kind of been in the mindset for talking about all of my biases lately. Because I’m not so great at really depicting how I feel listening to these songs, I really wanted to be able to rant about something that I can put words to. And that’s how much I love and admire all of these boys, including one Im Changkyun. I’ve talked a lot about Namjoon and his writing and artistic interpretation on this blog, but Changkyun has also talked in depth about his own artistry and I feel like I’ve failed to talk about this enough. I always find it rare and so appreciated when an artist is completely candid about the way their times of life, feelings, and emotions lend to their writing. But it’s such a personal thing that I never expect an idol or artist to talk about it with the public. Changkyun has been candid about his own mentality and the way he views emotions, and it’s made me feel a little better about the way I sometimes feel. He talks about how he wants to be happy but he doesn’t find it productive to always seek happiness. In one of my favorite solo artist tracks of all time, “God Damn”, he talks about how when he is happy there’s the fear of temporary happiness. And that was a take that I found so true and at the same time took me completely by surprise. In an interview he did, he talked about how exhausting it is to always expect happiness outwardly and from yourself, and how he’s learned to appreciate feelings of melancholy. When I say he expanded my entire view on how I approach emotions, I’m not understating it. I find myself returning to those quotes very often! He even took on the fear of the future due to uncertainty and turned it into something positive by talking about how good of a motivator it is. I’m always a sucker for an idol who says something that I need to hear. And Changkyun has done that on multiple occasions for me! I actually recently went to a K-Pop festival semi near where I live and I ended up buying the most adorable I.M keychain I’ve ever seen in my life (as well as one for Yunho), so now I travel around with a little reminder. For having it for such a short time I already have found that I clutch it subconsciously when I’m anxious. I’m still heartbroken that I lost out on seeing Monsta X last year because of a scheduling conflict! I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to see them soon, but I guess we’ll see how military enlistment goes.

Bias Updates: I wanted to add this little note in here too! You might have noticed that my sister and I have both chosen a handful of groups to stan. Honestly, it’s completely because my wallet and my brain can’t handle more than that. But both of us stan ATEEZ, BTS, ONEUS, and Monsta X. We also each stan a girl group, but we actually have different preferences for that one. I stan Everglow while my sister is a Dreamcatcher stan. My biases are Yunho, RM, Leedo, I.M, and Mia. My sister’s are Hongjoong, JHope, Keonhee, Joohoney, and Dami. Just in case you were curious, this is kind of where we’re at for groups and biases on the blog, so this is probably what you’ll see content the most for! Hopefully you found something that interests you in there!

Seriously if you haven’t listened to Monsta X yet, go and do that! They are definitely one of the best K-Pop groups out there! And you won’t regret listening to this most recent release!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie