Monthly Media: August 2026
August sure passed by in the blink of an eye. I got sick on the last week so most of my reading and watching happening right at the end. Lots of BL anime, indie games, and fanfiction this month. It's also a longer post than usual.
Games
This month I dove into the world of In Stars and Time (ISAT), an indie RPG along the lines of Undertale and OMORI, and went through Iceglobe_System's game catalogue, a fellow Pillowforter!
- Start Again Start Again Start Again: a prologue | Let's Play; First time
- The demo for In Stars and Time. It really shined in the second half! For some reason I watched half the demo, started the game, and then came back to finish the demo. I probably could have played it.
- In Stars and Time | Let's Play; First time
- I enjoyed the introduction so much that I stopped watching an LP with the intention of buying it an play it myself!
- I Want you To Create by Iceglobe_System | First time
- If there's one little I could recommend, it would be this one. It's an interactive collage of artist positivity.
- Romance, NO love!! by Iceglobe_System | First time
- Paladin Trans Man by Iceglobe_System | First time
- a little RPG with several endings exploring various opinions about trans men and trans discourse. Mind the content warnings.
- "Barely" Intersex by Iceglobe_System | First time
- an RPG about exploring the wide breath of the intersex experience.
- Snowy Glades by Iceglobe_System | First time
- a cute and fun platformer with a couple of levels. Very fun!
- Love letters by Iceglobe_System | First time
- An RPG with two endings about living in a world where love is the only things that matters.
- Accept or Deny by Iceglobe_System | First time
- a creative point and click game about acceptance.
- I hate noise by Iceglobe_System | First time
- an interactive novel with various endings about living with misophonia and the lengths one can go to avoid or confront and noisy world.
- I'll be damned by Iceglobe_System | First time
- SORE by Iceglobe_System | First time
Series
Anime
BL everywhere. Binged ALL of the Given animes.
- Given | Rewatch
- Given the Movie | Rewatch
- Given the Movie: Hiiragi Mix | Rewatch
- Given the Movie: To The Sea | Rewatch
- Given: On the Other Hand | Rewatch
- Given: Glimpses of Life | Rewatch
- Ganbare, Nakamura-kun | First time
- THIS. WAS. SUCH. A. DELIGHT! I wish I could forget all about it and rewatch it for the first time again. Nakamura's awkwardness was fun to watch and Hirose had such a charming personality. I really enjoy romance school life anime with a colorful cast and this series delivered. There were also some fantastic scenes that made me bawl.
- I had read the first couple of versions with unofficial translations and this anime took the characters and made something amazing. This is a "better than the books" kind of series. Although it seems that the volume that came out a few years ago had more polished chapters than what I have read.
- For that and other reasons, mostly uh age gap reasons that I didn't enjoy how they were written, I think it's better to watch this series blind than reading the manga (or maybe just the new volume? Not sure).
- Oh yeah, the 90s bops where nice!
Cartoons
- Invader Zim season 1 | Rewatch
- ZIMMMMM is such a fun character. His theatrics and pride never failed to amuse me. The whole world of Invader Zim is so wacky and out there, common sense be damned.
- I really enjoyed some of the little social commentary sprinkled here and there about capitalism and society.
- Somehow the show manages to make both Zim and Dib incredibly sympathetic while allowing them to do horrible things to others and each other. I found Zim easily sympathetic because he's not respected as an invader and ostracized at school. Whereas Dib has a workaholic Dad that is rarely at home, doesn't support his hobbies, and is quite emotionally distant.
- I feel very protective of Daz, Dib's little sister. She deals with so much shit from her brother and his dad is no any kinder or supportive of her. No wonder she has anger issue my god. I think her character is why I started to be partial to little sister character to other series. Kind of a wild revelation but also why I enjoy revisiting series from my childhood.
- Something else that I really enjoyed about this series is the lack of focus on romance or the novel take on it. Don't know about anyone else but as an aroace person there's this almost cliché portrayal of romance and the behaviors of involved parties. In this series, there is one instance of such and it's NOT cliché! It's delightfully unusual in line with the rest of the series. Leave it to a series with an alien protagonist to do something novel with romance aimed at older kids aroace noises.
- There's an active fansite best viewed through desktop! Feel like I'm back in 2009 haha.
Literature
Books
- Given 10th Mix | Reread
- After watching all the animes, I recalled that I hadn't finished this sequel manga. Apparently there was just one extra that wasn't fantranslated and was uploaded last month. So I think I can check the whole Given series off the list!
- Tomorrow, I'll be Somebody's Girlfriend | First time
- Do I tell you that I BINGED all seventeen volumes in TWO days. SEVENTEEN! This is a fantastic psychological shoujosei manga about womanhood. It follows the lives of different characters per volume, mostly young women in their college years although there are a couple of older women.
- I found this manga while I was reading on jirai kei and gave it a try. Gotta say the rest of the characters outside of the one I intended to keep an eye out for where more compelling.
- While this manga is mostly about het romance, very focused on the relationship part my god (aroace noises), there are a couple of non-cishet characters and a strong focus on Tokyo's gay district in one arc.
- There's so many content warnings I could give for this series. TOO many in fact. Definitely proceed with caution.
- Nevertheless, all the characters in this story are flawed and incredibly well-written. The story focuses a lot on women's mental health and their struggles with human relationships. It's also one of those manga that was derailed because of COVID and it portrays how confinement exacerbated loneliness among young people.
- The Under Garden by MAF | First time
- a DnD webcomic. Beautiful art and very curious where the story goes.
- Hime-chan is a Needy Woman | Reread
- During my search for more manga about mental health in Japan, I reread this yuri incomplete fantranslated doujin. It's both light hearted and honest about it's depiction of the main character who is anxious about her current romantic relationship. She has a gay friend with similar temperament which I really enjoyed.
- Umineko Episode 7 Vol. 2
- I have had this in my backlog for MONTHS. The Umineko manga is SO good!
Zines (NEW!)
These are all zines from Iceglobe_System only a couple of pages long each.
- Aspec little creatures | First time
- Probably my favorite! I don't seek a-spec often but it always makes me really happy when I do see it. It's such a nice feeling to see a-spec positivity and not feel alone.
- The label loveless | First time
- Brain | First time
- Loveless in a love filled world | First time
Fics
- Noctornal Instruction by Rena (cronus) | First time
- Chalk It Up to Love by Constantly_Oscitating andOnceABlueMoon | First time
- A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing (18+) by mellicindi | First time
- Toccata and Fuck 🎹💦 (18+) by Raven_Silversea | First time
- The Scenic Route (18+) by mellicindi | First time
Posts (NEW!)
Two articles from nomnomnami about game design.
I ran out of steam for commentary somewhere a long the way. See you next time!
Last updated: 2 days, 12 hours ago
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