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media round-up
Apr. 8th, 2026 08:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sidewaysIt is getting dangerously close to a year since my last media round-up, so knocking out a few highlights.
• On the back of my mother's hands-clasped "please please you'll love it" begging I read Project Hail Mary over Christmas, and subsequently watched the movie during Easter. And I did really like it! It confirmed my suspicion that Andy Weir is not actually a very good writer - a suspicion then sealed in stone when he opened his big yap and honked out some downright comically blinkered views on the place of politics in sci-fi - but a good amount of charm battled through despite his best efforts.
• I sort of discovered I could acquire more anime DVDs than I even knew existed via eBay and, well... proud to say I now have my own copies of Wolf's Rain, Baccano, Fafner in the Azure: Dead Aggressor, and Gundam 00. This last in particular was such a trip down ol' nostalgia lane it was a little overwhelming. "I'm looking forward to finding out whether this had as many interesting political points to make as I thought or whether I was just nineteen," I commented to some friends, and the answer turned out to be "yes".
• Also watched Paprika on Vesper's recommendation, and wow! Always delightful to experience a story that really gets dream logic. I had Paprika Parade on repeat for days afterwards.
• We also had a crack at Reanimal, in which the real villain was my GOD-AWFUL internet connection that caused me to drop out every half hour or so. The game has a very strong aesthetic atmosphere and some truly wonderful and spooky moments, but it's a bit short for the price-tag and I hold that it would have benefited from some tighter thematic editing. So it goes! I'm still interested to see what Tarsier does next.
• Lane and I have reunited to tackle Divinity: Original Sin: The First One: It's Origining time. I like to think my grasp of tactics has improved since I was last setting my own head on fire with distressing regularity, but Lane may disagree. We've so far made it past the first act and notable incidents include sort of unnecessarily murdering a couple of NPCs right out the gate, wheeze-laughing every time the companion with the dreadful southern accent utters the word "comrade", and slaughtering our way through a very long succession of goblins before realising there was probably an easier way to do this.
• Managed a strong start to the book-reading front this year. Our Wives Under the Sea was gorgeously written but a little thin on actual meat for my tastes; it felt like a short story stretched out to its very limits. The Lathe of Heaven was a hell of a ride; what I would have considered the ultimate chilling conclusion happened somewhere around the middle, leaving me with no choice but to follow along blindly into what happened next. The City of Last Chances was simply a slog; I clawed my way out the other end and do not intend to return.
• On the back of my mother's hands-clasped "please please you'll love it" begging I read Project Hail Mary over Christmas, and subsequently watched the movie during Easter. And I did really like it! It confirmed my suspicion that Andy Weir is not actually a very good writer - a suspicion then sealed in stone when he opened his big yap and honked out some downright comically blinkered views on the place of politics in sci-fi - but a good amount of charm battled through despite his best efforts.
• I sort of discovered I could acquire more anime DVDs than I even knew existed via eBay and, well... proud to say I now have my own copies of Wolf's Rain, Baccano, Fafner in the Azure: Dead Aggressor, and Gundam 00. This last in particular was such a trip down ol' nostalgia lane it was a little overwhelming. "I'm looking forward to finding out whether this had as many interesting political points to make as I thought or whether I was just nineteen," I commented to some friends, and the answer turned out to be "yes".
• Also watched Paprika on Vesper's recommendation, and wow! Always delightful to experience a story that really gets dream logic. I had Paprika Parade on repeat for days afterwards.
• We also had a crack at Reanimal, in which the real villain was my GOD-AWFUL internet connection that caused me to drop out every half hour or so. The game has a very strong aesthetic atmosphere and some truly wonderful and spooky moments, but it's a bit short for the price-tag and I hold that it would have benefited from some tighter thematic editing. So it goes! I'm still interested to see what Tarsier does next.
• Lane and I have reunited to tackle Divinity: Original Sin: The First One: It's Origining time. I like to think my grasp of tactics has improved since I was last setting my own head on fire with distressing regularity, but Lane may disagree. We've so far made it past the first act and notable incidents include sort of unnecessarily murdering a couple of NPCs right out the gate, wheeze-laughing every time the companion with the dreadful southern accent utters the word "comrade", and slaughtering our way through a very long succession of goblins before realising there was probably an easier way to do this.
• Managed a strong start to the book-reading front this year. Our Wives Under the Sea was gorgeously written but a little thin on actual meat for my tastes; it felt like a short story stretched out to its very limits. The Lathe of Heaven was a hell of a ride; what I would have considered the ultimate chilling conclusion happened somewhere around the middle, leaving me with no choice but to follow along blindly into what happened next. The City of Last Chances was simply a slog; I clawed my way out the other end and do not intend to return.
