Talking Bout Things

This is a blog where I’m gonna talk about media I watched, played, listened to or read that I enjoyed, got disappointed by or disliked

[novareviews]

Concept Album Gauntlet

So in my life, I wanted to listen to as much concept album/rock operas as I can and in the pursuit of that, I’ve compiled this list using TV tropes, Wikipedia, Album of the Year, and sometimes what I personally consider a concept album/rock opera, these will be reviewed at some point but for now here is that list

1966

5/16: The Beach Boys-Pet Sounds

1967

5/26: The Beatles- Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

12/15: The Who-The Who Sell Out

1968

11/22: The Kinks-The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society

12/20: The Pretty Things-S.F. Sorrow

1969

5/17: The Who-Tommy

9/26: The Beatles-Abbey Road

10/10: The Kinks-Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)

1970

11/27: The Kinks-Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One

1972

6/16: David Bowie-The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

1973

3/1: Pink Floyd-The Dark Side of the Moon

4/13: David Bowie-Aladdin Sane

10/19: The Who-Quadrophenia

11/16: The Kinks-Preservation Act 1

1974

3/8: Queen-Queen II

5/8: The Kinks-Preservation Act 2

5/24: David Bowie-Diamond Dogs

9/28: Electric Light Orchestra-Eldorado

11/18: Genesis-The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

1975

3/11: Alice Cooper-Welcome to My Nightmare

9/12: Pink Floyd-Wish You Were Here

1976

4/23: Gentle Giant-Interview

6/25: Alice Cooper-Alice Cooper Goes to Hell

1977

1/21: Pink Floyd-Animals

7/7: Styx-The Grand Illusion

7/8: The Alan Parsons Project-I Robot

1979

11/30: Pink Floyd-The Wall

1981

1/16: Styx-Paradise Theatre

7/31: Electric Light Orchestra-Time

1983

2/22: Styx-Kilroy Was Here

3/21: Pink Floyd-The Final Cut

8/8: Billy Joel-An Innocent Man

1984

4/30: Roger Waters-The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking

1987

6/15: Roger Waters-Radio K.A.O.S.

1992

9/7: Roger Waters-Amused to Death

1994

3/8: Nine Inch Nails-The Downward Spiral

1995

7/10: Scatman John-Scatman’s World

9/25: David Bowie-Outside

10/27: Ayreon-The Final Experiment

1997

5/21: Radiohead-OK Computer

1998

2/10: Neutral Milk Hotel-In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

10/31: Ayreon-Into The Electric Castle

2000

6/20: Ayreon-Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer

6/20: Ayreon-Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight of the Migrator

10/2: Radiohead-Kid A

2002

7/16: The Flaming Lips-Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots

2004

5/25: Ayreon-The Human Equation

6/8: My Chemical Romance-Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge

9/21: Green Day-American Idiot

2005

5/11: Gorillaz-Demon Days

9/3: The Protomen-Act I: The Protomen

9/27: Ludo-Broken Bride

10/24: Tally Hall-Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum

2006

9/26: The Dear Hunter-Act I: The Lake South, The River North

9/27: The Killers-Sam’s Town

10/20: My Chemical Romance-The Black Parade

2007

1/14: Right Away, Great Captain-The Bitter End

5/21: Devin Townsend-Ziltoid the Omniscient

5/22: The Dear Hunter-Act II: The Meaning of, and All Things Regarding Ms. Leading

8/24: Janelle Monáe-Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase)

10/10: Radiohead-In Rainbows

2008

6/12: Coldplay-Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends

11/11: Right Away, Great Captain-The Eventually Home

2009

3/3: The Antlers-Hospice

5/15: Green Day-21st Century Breakdown

6/23: The Dear Hunter-Act III: Life and Death

7/29: The Outline-Phantasmagoria

9/8: The Protomen-Act II: The Father of Death

9/9: James Richards/The Beatles-Everyday Chemistry

9/15: Kid Cudi-Man on the Moon: The End of Day

2010

3/3: Gorillaz-Plastic Beach

3/9: Anaïs Mitchell-Hadestown

3/30: Evelyn Evelyn-Evelyn Evelyn

4/20: The Apples in Stereo-Travellers in Space and Time

5/18: Janelle Monáe-The ArchAndroid

11/9: Kid Cudi-Man On The Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager

11/22: My Chemical Romance-Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys

2011

4/12: Between the Buried and Me-The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues

6/7: Fucked Up-David Comes to Life

6/21: Tally Hall-Good & Evil

10/24: Coldplay-Mylo Xyloto

2012

4/29: Brendon Small-Galaktikon

6/12: Right Away, Great Captain-The Church of the Good Thief

8/4: The Mechanisms-Once Upon a Time (In Space)

9/12: TWRP-The Device

10/9: Between the Buried and Me-The Parallax II: Future Sequence

12/12:Miracle Musical-Hawaii: Part II

2013

6/16: The Mechanisms-Ulysses Dies at Dawn

9/10: Janelle Monáe-The Electric Lady

11/28: The Mechanisms-Tales to be Told

2014

1/21: Against Me!-Transgender Dysphoria Blues

7/25: The Mechanisms-High Noon over Camelot

8/12: Porter Robinson-Worlds

2015

2/23: Public Service Broadcasting-The Race for Space

7/10: Between the Buried and Me-Coma Ecliptic

9/4: The Dear Hunter-Act IV: Rebirth in Reprise

2016

1/15: Panic! At the Disco-Death of a Bachelor

9/9: The Dear Hunter-Act V: Hymns with the Devil in Confessional

9/11: 猫 シ Corp.-News at 11

2017

1/29: The Mechanisms-The Bifrost Incident

4/28: Gorillaz-Humanz

4/28: Jonathan Coulton-Solid State

5/3: leon chang- bird world

6/16: Styx-The Mission

8/25: Brendon Small’s Galaktikon- II: Become the Storm

12/31: Sidney Gish-No Dogs Allowed

2018

1/28: The Mechanisms-Tales to be Told, Volume II

5/11: Arctic Monkeys-Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino

10/5: Fucked Up-Dose Your Dreams

11/30: The 1975-A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships

2019

1/27: Vylet Pony-Homeward

4/26: AJR-Neotheater

2020

5/20: The Mechanisms-Death to the Mechanisms

12/5: leon chang-return to bird world

12/11: Kid Cudi-Man on the Moon III: The Chosen

2021

4/20: OR3O: Clover: Love, Hope, Faith & Luck

10/15: Coldplay-Music of the Spheres

11/12: Sewerslvt-we had good times together, don’t forget that

2022

2/22: Vylet Pony-can opener's notebook: fish whisperer

2023

2/3: Vylet Pony-Carousel (An Examination of the Shadow, 'Creekflow', and its Life as an Afterthought)

2/24: Gorillaz-Cracker Island

3/17: Naethon Apollo-Tales From Cazilor

8/18: Ricky Jamaraz-Worst Album Ever

11/10: AJR-The Maybe Man

12/25: Willy Rodriguez-wetdream

2024

3/8: samlrc-A Lonely Sinner

7/11: Vylet Pony-Girls who are Wizards

8/23: Magdalena Bay-Imaginal Disc

2025

1/15: Miami Nights 1984-Gunblaze Assault

5/2: Car Seat Headrest-The Scholars

7/11: Vylet Pony-Love & Ponystep

2026

1/9: The Protomen-Act III: This City Made Us

[novareviews]

Concept album gauntlet entry 1: Beach Boys-Pet Sounds

Forgive me, I’ve never really talked about albums or my thoughts on music before but I figured if I’m gonna do this personal challenge, I need to really think about things.

So according to Album of the Year and somewhat Wikipedia, this album counts as a concept album, one of the earliest ones in fact and some readings I’ve done online tell me that some people try to connect the songs in a story but that’s not what it was written for by Brian Wilson and some of the others.

Frankly I actually wasn’t planning on covering this at all because I thought Beach Boys wasn’t for me, I thought they were all 50s era radio jams, nothing really soulful or super passionate but catchy and upbeat. Until I heard A Day in the Life of a Tree and learned Brian Wilson was a man in pain and Pet sounds is an album full of those songs, and frankly while I don’t know if all of them are sad, basically every track conveys the heart and raw emotion I think is intended, even Wouldn’t it be Nice, the track that sounds absolutely like the radio pop kind I mentioned earlier, still has the soul because in the context of the rest of the album, it’s someone just wishing to live with their beloved, emphasized I think by the following track being You Still Believe In Me, which is I think about someone who hates themself being comforted by the fact he still has a supporter in life.

That’s Not Me is about someone feeling inauthentic to themself while trying to fit into the world but he just wants to be his true self with his girl, and then we pivot to Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder), where instead of the guy being comforted, it’s him comforting his girlfriend, followed by I’m Waiting For The Day which is a love poem, and then the instrumental song, Let’s Go Away for a While

We break now from the love story to board the Sloop John B, and experience the shittiest trip the singer has ever been on after losing his food, one of the crewmates is arrested and I think he punches his grandpa, so he just wants to go home. I’m skipping the other 3 songs God Only Knows, I Know There’s An Answer, and Here Today, because I don’t have much opinions on them and any “plot” I feel is repetitious to say but then, we get to one of my favorite tracks: I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times, a song about not feeling like you fit in anywhere and trying your best but you ultimately feel like you weren’t born for the time you’re in. Then we hear Pet Sounds, another instrumental before ending the album on the melancholic track, Caroline, No. The song where Caroline, the presumed love interest this whole time, has changed more than the singer is comfortable with.

Ultimately while idk if I can call this a concept album, it was a very good listen and unbeknownst to me when I started this journey, Pet sounds creation would lead to our next entry in the Gauntlet

[novareviews]

The Backrooms

On occasion I post on different sites for reviews, as I have now, so I’ll just be linking that today

A ★★★★★ review of Backrooms (2026)

Potentially one of the hardest films I can think to talk about, I come away from it having the feeling of experiencing something exceptional

[novareviews]

Konbini Goutou kara Tasuketa Jimi Tenin ga, Onaji Class no Ubude Kawaii Gal datta

Or

The Sobbing Clerk I Helped From the Convenience Store’s Robbery Is in Fact a Naive and Cute Gal From My Class

Man this was shit, disappointingly so. Alright so one of my favorite genres I guess are stories where someone or a group either regrets their actions or gets karma for something they did, and this story does start with that but… alright alright I’m getting ahead of myself

The summary

This story follows a kid named Riku Kuromine, who lost his parents in a traffic accident when he was a kid and he’s been living alone ever since, with his childhood friend being his emotional support and he loves her so the story starts with him confessing to her and she turns him down, our level headed protagonist decides that since his light said she just wants to be friends, he should off himself in a forest he used to go to with his family, but first he’s gotta take a dump and while at the convenience store, it gets mugged and he tells the robber to just kill him which freaks him out enough to run away, and he manages to get into a relationship with the store clerk who’s also the class beauty! After this we get some chapters of their relationship and some lingering regret from his childhood friend and then the plot falls apart in the second half.

Now for spoilers, if you wanna read the story it’s only 15 chapters but in all honesty, try other romance stories

Final rating: 2/10

So over the course of this manga we learn that the class beauty has blocked out her memory of middle school and also thinks her parents are on a trip, which isn’t true because they’re dead and she blames herself, not only that but her parents accidentally killed Kuromines family, the guilt of which made them hang themselves. But aside from that this story has 4 love interests and I’m pretty sure the 4th is only there because the childhood friend who legitimately had no reason to reject Kuromine except the plot demanded it, she’s basically dropped from the story and despite the roadblocks thrown in, like the class beauty’s friend falling in love with Kuromine, the beauty losing her memory and then Kuromine losing his memory the story basically shows they’re gonna be the main couple at the end, and leaving me feeling empty at the rushed, squandered potential and half-assed plot

[novareviews]

Hey there

Been a while huh? That’s my honest bad, I didn’t actually get bored with the concept of reviewing, at the time my problem was honestly that all I was reading and watching at the time was anime and manga, and that hasn’t actually stopped really, I didn’t want to just be an anime/manga reviewer but eventually I realized I was falling into a trap that made me make this blog in the first place: worrying about judgment

So I’m gonna try and be more active here again, share the things I like and enjoy, be it webcomics, movies, internet series, whatever, whether it’s finished yet or not

Hope to see whoever didn’t unfollow me back and hopefully some new people too

[novareviews]

Oakley's World demo

Oakley's world is a quick little game in the category of Unfiction and virtual pet simulator, though I wouldn't be going in expecting an in depth one, its not really here for that. I may cover more unfiction projects in the future but we'll have to see.

Where'd I First Learn of it:

This is actually the blogs first requested review! i know the creator from a discord server I'm in and she kindly asked for a review, and i figured, why not?

Spoiler-Free (ish) Review

So, if youre unfamiliar with the concept, Unfiction is when people make a project, generally horror based, where the story is told in a world similar to ours. This is no exception, seeming like a typical virtual pet simulator where you take care of a flower named Oakley, you feed him sunshine, give him water and count fish because fish is good fertalizer for plants. Then after you do all that, the game crashes but quickly comes back up but something is wrong with the game. and in the tradition of unfiction projects, thats as much as I'll share on my own, however you should know that the creator said there will be more in the future. Here's a link to the game, try it out for yourself: https://danielles-games.itch.io/oakleys-world-demo

[novareviews]

Tomo-Chan is a Girl

Tomo-Chan is a Girl is a 2023 anime that ran in 2023 based off a manga that ran from 2015 to 2019, it follows the life of Tomboy karate master Tomo Aizawa as she tries to get the romantic attention of her childhood friend Junichiro Kubota. Helping her in this goal is her other childhood friend and dark girl Misuzu Gundou and popular girl Carol Olston

Review

Yeah truth be told I don’t think there’s really anything to spoil in a story like this, the very first scene is Tomo confessing her love to Jun…who doesn’t get it and thinks she’s saying she loves him like a friend. From there the show becomes, in my opinion, a mix of Tomo, Misuzu and Carol trying to figure out how to get Jun to notice Tomo in a romantic way, and also an examination on what it means to be a girl. Tomo is a very tomboy person, built muscular enough that people who don’t know her at first think she’s a guy but it’s never taken enough to be an insult as she is still woman shaped. On the other hand she barely dresses in a feminine way and she’s actually too tough to participate in the girls sports and has to participate in the guys side, like Karate or dodgeball. However she still feels self conscious on occasion about not appearing feminine enough

Ultimately the show’s message is that Tomo doesn’t need to look feminine or act feminine to be a girl and ultimately she and Jun do get together. But on the note of Jun, he’s actually not as stupid as the premise implies, he doesn’t actually think Tomo is a guy and is aware the entire time that she’s a girl who confessed to him but he just feels awkward about potentially damaging his and Tomo’s friendship, Tomo is as well but she’s trying to move past it, unsuccessfully due to her own feelings being a whirlwind of contradictions.

At the end of the day, I honestly think this is a sweet and funny little anime that I highly recommend a watch of, with some great voice acting and a cute little story

[novareviews]

Love Flops

Love Flops is a 2022 sci-fi comedy harem anime that aired on HIDIVE that follows the romantic exploits of Asahi Kashiwagi, a high school student who winds up having a very confusing day when he runs into 4 women and a man, all of whom he upsets but after clearing things up they all decide they are in love with him, and thanks to his dad, they are all his bridal candidates as well, including the boy cause dad is open minded...or is that actually the plot?

Where'd I First learn of it:

the youtube channel Mother's Basement has a series he does called Hottest trash of the season where he talks about some shows he cant quite say are great or that they dont have cringe elements and Love Flops ended up in his Fall of 2022 with a later video that brought up what the show is hiding

Spoiler-Free (ish) review:

Oh my an ish added on to my categories in the second review? Well yes because this is a show I highly recommend but it hides what it is very well for a long time so I need to say what I consider the point of the show is, and the major twist in the spoiler free section. I won't say too much but it may help you decide to watch the show.

That said, I think the point of the show, underneath the comedy and harem elements is ultimately a story about grief and lost chances. The show takes place a bit into the future with robots and AI all over the place while asahi tries to live his life and get along with his 5 bridal candidates that live in his house but as the show progresses and gets some crazy additions with secrets the cast has, we keep getting subtle clues that something is off. Small details that make it feel like a lucid dream if nothing else, culminating in episode 7 of this 12 episode anime where the walls come crashing down and we see what the show was hiding, followed by episode 8 where we start to see what the show was actually about.

That’s all I can say without giving spoilers on what the show is actually about so if I haven’t convinced you yet, I recommend reading the spoilers but I do genuinely think this anime told a great story at the end of the day

Spoilers

It turns out that the entire show up to episode 7 hasn’t been real, asahi has been playing a video game for the company that makes AI programs and all the girls in his harem are constructs made by different nations of the world to help the AI learn how to love. We also learn Asahi being picked for this wasn’t an accident because his departed childhood friend Ai Izawa, someone who had feelings for asahi and he also loved but neither said it, is the baseline of all artificial intelligence and ultimately the show ends with Asahi and Ai coming together and finally admitting their feelings for each other so now they can both move on from regrets and at least Asahi can no longer be a shut in, wracked with sadness

[novareviews]

She-Ra & The Princesses of Power

She-ra is a Netflix exclusive cartoon that aired from 2018-2020 following the adventures of Adora and her 7ft tall alter ego She-ra as she and her newfound friends in the rebellion fight to save their planet from the evil Horde, a faction Adora herself was part of until very recently. Along they way they make new alliances, learn the meaning of friendship and all that jazz you know about from kids shows

Where’d I first learn of it:

Well I can’t remember totally where I first heard of it but I remember when it was a big thing, I just never actually went into it on my own until recently because of Netflix’s decision to remove all their dreamworks coproductions from their service

As for why it finally caught my eye, I suppose it would have to be because I knew vaguely about Catra’s plot and I wanted to see it in action

Spoiler-free review

Watching this show did reveal some surprises to me I didn’t expect, like Adora being raised by the horde from the beginning or how much I genuinely loved basically all the characters except for Shadow weaver who I wanted to constantly lose the entire time I saw her. The art and comedy was ok, the world building was great, the character dynamics were fun to watch and overall it was an enjoyable ride that I only wish I went on sooner, I highly recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy stories with a sci-fi style and an interest in redemption arcs.

With that said I do have spoiler related thoughts so if you wanna go in blind this is where you hop off, take care and I’ll see you on my next post

Spoiler-Based thoughts

Alright so I don’t know this shows production timetable and while I enjoyed season 5 there were definitely parts that I felt were kinda rushed, specifically Glimmer and Catra’s redemption. This season for them, to me, was in them coming to terms with and apologizing for the actions they did across the whole show or in glimmer’s case season 4 and honestly I’m not too happy that glimmer only got about 1 episode with the Best Friend squad that involved actual guilt being shared for her actions, but it’s also not something I wanted dragged over the rest of the show, I just thought it resolved too quick is all. Catra on the other hand, I would have liked to see more interaction between her, Entrapta and Scorpia but I suppose the show really did only need to show Catra and adora making up.

[novareviews]

An Introduction to how I’m doing this

So despite my blog name, I’m not looking to be an actual reviewer I just want to talk about things that have gotten my interest in one way or another and I’ve decided to express that in this kind of blog, with that here’s about the format I’m looking to do going forward

A brief summary of what I want to talk about

Where I first learned of it, if I can recall, and to explain why it caught my eye I’m getting rid of this rule, in hindsight it was a bad idea and doesn’t matter to the review

My spoiler free thoughts on the subject of the post

And finally thoughts I have to put under a spoiler

I’m thinking of other ideas already besides just making standard discussions but that will come at a later time