Heyo! I'm @kalira and this is where you'll find me reccing things (music, watchables, books, fanfiction, etc.) aaand sometimes rambling and decidedly not reccing. >.> I enjoy watching or reading terribad things sometimes and sometimes that also means I Must Shout (sometimes while cackling). XD
Categorisation: 'the recs' are, well, recs; 'the rants' are things that made me go aaaa (quite possibly leading to a friend waking up to 97 DMs from me); 'the rambles' encompasses things I had to talk about but are not necessarily negative. My choosing between the latter two may be a bit more squishy.
I may have enjoyed something in any of these categories.
An important note: I'll never rant about fanfiction.
(Fannish creations are a gift by the creator, to themselves and/or to the rest of the fandom; I'll share recs and positive things only.)
I'll generally try to note (and put in a cut above) spoilers in any of the categories, but as one might guess, rants are more likely to have them.
Everything here should be tagged easily by:
the recs | the rants | the rambles
type of media (book, book series, movie, movie series, TV, anime, manga, fanfiction, music)
title/fandom/creator (so title of media/name of fandom, author or band/artist's name, etc.)
. . .and likely a few other things for categorisation and/or entertainment purposes
I have no posting schedule; I have no particular system or pattern, no minimum or maximum length for a rec or rant. Just the general chaotic madness. Enjoy?
I've been stressed and grieving and sad for some days now, and acid android (solo project of Yukihiro, from L'Arc~en~Ciel) has been very much the vibe for me. Kind of mellow but not soft, solidly defined by the beat. I already knew I loved his music (and his singing) but it's been aces right now.
Reblogging this one again not because acid android is awesome (though he is) but because apparently youtube made an update, so the actual correct URL for one of these songs started pointing to an MCU BTS video. -.- Have updated to use music.youtube links for the ones that aren't music videos, and hopefully it will not do that again.
The Crack at the Heart of Everything - Fiona Fenn (novel)
(I got this ebook as a free ARC; it releases on November 12th 2024.)
This one will be as spoiler free as I can manage because this book was amazing and I don’t want to, well, spoil it.
(I treaded some of the same ground in a slightly more *gestures* form in a review you can read on Storygraph or LibraryThing.)
This is a dark-tinged fantasy, with an edge of (minor spoiler) post-apocalypse, with a queer romance which takes up space beautifully alongside a dramatic plot, and a very close focus - the entire book very much focuses on Orpheus, not because he’s a hero or a major player or a key figure (though he is) but because he’s him and we’re seeing the world through his eyes.
Y’all. Y’all, I don’t think I have read a better book handling trauma? Like. A lot of kinds of trauma, especially floating into the main line with other characters, but especially that dealing with deep childhood scars, also toxic friendships.
The story hurts, in many places, like weight on an old injury - something healed over but never forgotten. But also learning to take that ache and let it go.
(But it isn’t all that hard, achy examination - there’s lighthearted moments, laughter, teasing and breathless steps towards friendship, or romance, and the confusion they bring. There’s softer sorrows and wrenching grief, there’s, always, hope and moving forwards because what else are you going to do? What can you?)
It shows us a lot of hope even in dark, terrifying, seemingly-doomed spaces, and y’all that is so my jam.
Oh, and those other characters? Pretty much all the side characters felt like the main character of another story, who just happened to be intersecting Orpheus’ here. That is such a challenge to pull off, and it was great! (I’d really like to see Red’s background - and her friendship with Fenrir, and how it grew and their adventures together - and her future.)
So was the worldbuilding, which the author gave as the pieces showed on-page, giving us more that built on what we knew as more things happened and Orpheus learned more - as well as showing us things he already knows as they became relevant - allowing the reader to slowly weave together more of the history as well as the present of the world. It never felt out of place with amounts of detail or reveal or confusingly lacking.
The magic and the technology hit a nice balance of ‘yes that’s how that works, I see’ without tipping into ‘okay we did not need a treatise on it, I’ve lost what was going on before’. Orpheus’ Netherflame is fascinating, a little terrifying (even aside from the Hellbeasts!), and a very naturally-handled part of him in his actions, reactions, and senses.
We begin after a number of Major Happenings have, ah, happened, and past, because we aren’t following the drama of the world - we’re following when Orpheus’ world takes a sudden turn.
Orpheus who has in some ways been through a hell of a lot (no pun intended >.>) and in some ways has been very sheltered . . . and is now kicked away from that ‘shelter’ (for good or ill) and facing a lot more hell, and- Also a sunshiney tagalong of a hero trying to look after him, probably just to taunt him and kick him while he’s down, he’s sure, obnoxious handsome-
(Yes, it’s a grumpy x sunshine romance. Yes, Orpheus has no idea how feelings work.)
Orpheus’ view of the world gets a lot broader, very fast, and it hurts - it hurts him, shock and guilt and responsibility, and it hurts us, because there’s some very grim shit out there. (But it never feels grimdark or cruel for the sake of it, or ‘gritty’; there’s a lot of hope, and welcome from character who have their own struggles and triumphs going on, widening Orpheus’ experiences and his feelings.)
We begin very closely with Orpheus’ personal disaster, and as his understanding grows, it widens to the disaster facing the entire world - both that which has already happened, and the ways in which it could get so much worse - while keeping close in on Orpheus himself.
Every few chapters there’s one that’s an interlude to Orpheus’ past, (in chronological order) mainly his childhood with (now-Empress) Lore . . . and places where the reader can see the source of wounds Orpheus carries now, and even some he hasn’t . . . quite realised himself, yet, in the now.
There’s some twists and surprises, some of which are neatly foreshadowed and some of which really did take me by surprise - and those always came with an oh, ohhhh that fits realisation of settling into place when they did. Not once did something feel like an addition for shock value or similar.
Orpheus has to face a lot of rough realisations and decisions, and he struggles with them! He isn’t a hero, never thought of himself as such; but even when he struggles, even when he’s not sure what he’ll do, the reader can see the path he’ll choose and it hurts how hard he’s trying and what it costs him.
Fenrir, our sunshine, carries his own share of trauma (I think everyone does here, even our biggest villain; which is shown, as is how it led to said villainy . . . but not as an excuse or softening of the atrocities caused), but is that hero Orpheus knew he’d never be and maybe resents a little. There’s a hell of a lot more to him, we find along with Orpheus, and . . . more yet that there isn’t time or space or perspective for (locked in Orpheus’, of course) in the novel.
The romance builds slowly due largely to Orpheus having no idea how feelings work, his own or anyone else’s, really, and some very understandable hitches between that and the major dramatic plot elements. (My few agh points, shall we say, were very much people are agh, and didn’t stretch on too long.)
Also, the title? Super well chosen, weaves very well into the happenings, more and more so as we learn more.
I will not spoil it, but I was on the verge of tears for almost the last quarter of the book, anticipating the climax along with Orpheus, and the author surprised me pleasantly! (I did cry once during the book; it was not at the end, and it was a very well done moment of grief and loss as much as it hurt, and Orpheus’ raging reaction to it was . . . cathartic and painful and soothing at once.) I was surprised at how the main villain was handled, but it was not a disappointment (and at least/especially for Orpheus, may have been the best way it could have gone).
While the book stands alone well, it does say it’s book one of a series; I’m quite curious to see how Fiona Fenn continues to explore the world, and, hopefully, at least some of the characters I got so attached to or fascinated by here.
No particular genre, no particular artist, just a collection of covers I really love - sometimes, if not always, more than the originals . . . assuming I've even heard the original, which for some of these I have yet to do! (. . .eventually I'll actually do that, I suppose. . .)
Not all J-Rockers, and not all J-Rock originals either, but it's likely no surprise to anyone who knows me there are a good few of those here. ;)
~
Koi Hitoyo - Acid Black Cherry
(Original: Shizuka Kudo)
I hope my restraint is appreciated listing just one ABC cover, when he is not only my very favourite musical artist, he has four entire albums of cover songs to choose from. . .
Koi Hitoyo is one of my favourites he's covered, however, and also one of the first I heard of his (part of why I chose it for this list). Certainly I'd not heard the original before this version, but I love the hypnotic rhythm of this one!
~
Teeth - Roksana Węgiel
(Original: 5 Seconds of Summer)
I'd actually never heard the original of this one before either (I didn't realise when I first ticked onto this on a playlist that it was a cover); the original doesn't really do it for me, but I love the rhythm and vocals of this version! (This also remains the only song I've ever listened to that spontaneously made me think of a character. >.> I've never connected to fandom that way through music, though I write a lot of music-inspired things mainly in challenges.)
~
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) - ADAMS
(Original: Eurythmics)
A rarity on this list - I love the original! But I also love this cover. I've enjoyed the original since I was little, and having loved ADAMS since they began . . . I was delighted as well as surprised when they shared this!
~
Every Breath You Take - Walk Off The Earth
(Original: The Police)
Though I'm only loosely familiar with the original, and am pretty eh on it, this one . . . definitely a very different feel - eerie and melodic.
~
Ordinary World - Hyde
(Original: Duran Duran)
Did not remember this was a cover when I first heard Hyde's version, but I love the feeling he brings to it - and heck knows Hyde can always give am exceptional ballad feel with his vocals, which pairs wonderfully with the mood of the lyrics here.
~
Sexual xxxxx! - acid android
(Original: Buck-Tick)
One of the few on this list I had heard the original first, perhaps! And yet, while I quite enjoy Buck-Tick and I like the original . . . I like this version better? A+ job to Yukihiro, it sounds amazing.
~
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Miyavi
(Original: Nirvana)
While I have heard the original for this one (I do not live that much under a rock . . . only close), and I like it, I love Miyavi's version! It has a great pull to it~ And (perhaps unsurprisingly, given it's Miyavi), personally I feel like the arrangement is more intricate and interesting! Giving the winding melody more space? (Plus, I linked it to a friend (going wtf Miyavi covered WHAT?) when I found it, only for friend to observe that . . . Myv is more easily understandable than Kurt Cobain in the vocals. XD)
Because they've been on my mind more than usual for some reason (Atsushi. . . 😭) some of my favourite Buck-Tick songs. . . Loosely in order of release dates. 🤔
Just One More Kiss
Kiss Me Good-Bye, which was released the year I was born ^^; though this live is from a couple of years later, I believe.
Dress, which is one of their most well-known/popular so far as I know, but sometimes that's for good reason, eh? ;) (Also currently on my sleep playlist.)
Kemonotachi no Yoru
Kogoeru
There are of course others I love and even more I really enjoy even if they're not top faves, but I capped myself at five to list specifically. >.>
(I also didn't intentionally choose basically two almost-as-far-apart-as-possible sections of their back catalogue chronologically but here we are. XD)
. . .such as it is, since the plot is a bit of a giant ???
Also kind of long? But without much reflection on the plot, because, as stated, it was a giant ???
I watched this anime (two short OVAs) with @mad-madam-m on a 'let's have fun and watch a couple of short, bonkers BL anime' night. Bonkers anime night was a definite success. XD
I actually thought this one was more likely to be good/enjoyable than the other one we watched that night (Sex Pistols; I'll eventually write a post about that one as well) but man was I wrong!
This anime is. . .
Fuck. It is very difficult to encapsulate, because it is so very batshit. As I said to M as the end credits were rolling, ‟well, that sure was an anime” and ‟that did not make sense at all, even once, even by accident”. (She laughed, but she did not disagree.)
The description I have seen for this OVA just about everywhere features the tidbit that:
A mysterious earthquake drags Hamura Shou, newly-enrolled in Yuusei Academy, and two other students, into another world, where an attack by a monster causes Shou to unfurl great, white wings.
That scene does indeed happen, but it has no bearing on the plot, it is basically a side-note very early on, before the plot actually begins. Which is not something I would have anticipated of falling into another world and fighting a monster, let alone discovering that one must be royalty of another world.
Because that is what the wings signify - The Winfield Chronicles (never defined) tells us that in the Kingdom of Winfield, the males of the royal family all have great, white wings.
(Me @ M: if all the men of the royal family have giant white wings, I am going to headcanon that the women have bat wings. There's nothing behind this, I just do. I’ve decided.)
It is a total of 1 hour long - two half-hour OVAs. However, watch it, and you will get the distinct feeling that it was supposed to be a full 13-episode anime (with a season 2 of at least the same length to follow). It lulls one into a false sense of security, as we get most of episode one . . . and then 2-10 minutes from episodes two through thirteen, at a guess.
Not ‘should have been a full anime, was rewritten to be shorter’, no no nooo, it was as though we got selected scenes from those never-existed episodes. A scene changes and you get the feeling you have missed 1-3 episodes worth of plot. With no context as to what it might have been.
Friendships and relationships appear to have developed, changed, evolved without any notice; situations happen or disappear without notice; characters appear and are treated as though they're part of the core group even though we have never seen them before.
At one point while watching this happened: he’s new, right? he’s new? red hair? we didn’t have a red hair, did we? where did red hair come from? holy shit red hair has a gun???)
That moment happened immediately after a scene change from the group in the headmaster's office being assigned to hunt down ghost rumours (no context did not make that make any more sense; they’d never been cordial with the headmaster or hunted ghosts, rumours, or mysteries) to them somewhere in a ruin (?) fighting giant werewolf things (not ghosts???).
Oh also? The headmaster? We called him Headmaster Commander Evil Bishie; his assistant was Homeroom Teacher Bad Touch Bishie. (He legitimately stuck his hand down our MC’s shirt at one point, stroking his chest/side, to pluck out his necklace/amulet, then put it back down inside his shirt and lingered, leaning close, to pet his neck.)
The headmaster’s office was the most obviously, blatantly bad guy base it could possibly be. The corridor was tiled in white and green marble, with white walls - and then there was a turn off it where the flooring is dark, with a red runner, the entire length of the short hallway was in dramatic, deep shadow, leading to very dark, looming double doors.
Our other characters included Baby Bard Bishie, The One Not-Bishie, Blue Hair A, Blue Hair B. . .
There’s implied pre-twincest featuring our MC and his long-lost brother? Only . . . not really/quite. Whether that ‘not really’ is that they’re twins or that they want to bang is up for debate. >.> (Regardless of the railing against it by one of the boys? Definitely twins. Their backstory is, of course, never explained.) They are not the pair with blue hair, incidentally.
They would definitely have started banging in S2 . . . but the one of them who vehemently denied he was adopted or could have a brother did immediately start fantasising about being kissed and petted; why are you stepping into my heart? approximately 45 seconds after their reunion *coughs* meeting.
(Also somehow despite almost everyone looking the same, the twins were the easiest to tell apart.)
There was nothing shown how our group even formed or started working together . . . or on what they were supposedly working, I guess; including two teachers (if we count the mysteriously appearing red hair, at best guess) and several students, some of whom are romantically involved, sometimes in unpredictable manners. (But not the twins. Yet.)
Sadly, that full-length anime does not exist, because M and I agreed we would, actually, watch that if it did.
(Maybe it would have had a plot . . . or more with the wings . . . or an explanation of ‘magic royalty’, or Winfield, or the parallel worlds, or what Headmaster Commander Evil Bishie and his right hand were doing, in this world or with/against our protagonists, or. . .)
I went to see the new CATS movie with @mad-madam-m yesterday (we’ve been planning this since the first trailer dropped) and it was actually a) better than I expected, and b) enjoyable, which was a nice surprise! (I expected us to enjoy it because it was entertainingly bad, honestly.)
I’ve loved CATS since I saw the Broadway version as a kid, and listened repeatedly (incessantly) to the soundtrack thereof back then - and at times even these days - and was delighted to see a production of it when it came to our city when I was small.
The movie left me with 2-3 major issues and a handful of quibbles… I have not organised them at all, but here are my thoughts.
…which I am putting under a cut because I had a lot more to say than I thought, apparently.
. . .a very, very tiny focus (not really a genre), but I do actually really love selkie stories (especially ones that blend the traditional lore, lesser used sides even better, and unusual takes). I like animal bride stories in general . . . when they're taken to a less eesh direction. >.>
In one way or another, all of these avoid those yeesh points . . . in the end, at least.
The Selkie Queen - The Wild Oats
(folk)
I've known this one for a good 20ish years and it always makes me want to dance . . . which I suppose is good, considering the theme, dance to save-
The Maiden and the Selkie - Heather Dale
(folk)
A selkie ballad with a happy ending? No yikes period in the romance? And a male selkie??? (I like Heather Dale in general, but I found this originally in an unlabelled playlist and had to track it down.)
Selkie - Blackbriar
(symphonic metal)
I'd class this one as a happy ending, too . . . at least for the selkie. ;) That is what's important, right? (I've loved Blackbriar's music for some time, and was surprised and delighted when they posted this video a few years ago.)
