Cartoons are good

T_____T This scene from ep 7 of 22/7 (nanabun no nijyuuni) really reminded me of this post of mine ("In All Honesty") that I often reference... This episode hit hard, man. So relatable. An absolute rollercoaster in the most painful, fulfilling way.

~✨~✨~

I might currently be following the most anime I've ever actively followed concurrently in a season? ;v; Most anime doesn't seem to speak to me very much, but this season has a lot that I'm liking!

🔹 If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budoukan, I Would Die (Oshi ga Budoukan Ittekuretara Shinu) -- I.......LOVE IT. Very, very gay girl idols. Very cute girls. A disastrous fangirl and her many miscommunications with her favorite idol member. Sometimes some problematic stuff, but I'm willing to overlook for how much I enjoy this show—it's hilarious and an absolute must-watch for idol fans who spend too much money for their oshi's. I've rewatched every episode 1-2 times. 😆

🔹 22/7 (nanabun no nijyuuni) -- WOW NOT YOUR TYPICAL IDOL ANIME AT ALL. Gets quite dark. Kind of weird but really interesting and a lot of heart. Instead of a clear plotline, each episode explores the backstory of a different member of the group..! It's insane. Do not have expectations.

🔹 Smile on the Runway (Runway de Waratte) -- Interesting blend of shoujo and shounen genres I think! Initially I thought it was shoujo because it's rather soft and features typically "feminine"-associated subjects: it's about a girl who wants to be a model and a guy who wants to be a fashion designer... but then some parts are paced in a way that make me think, "omg this is like a shokugeki but fashion" LOL. I wasn't too into it for the first 3 episodes but it gets better from 4 onwards when it introduces other characters and focuses more on the fashion design which is the more interesting aspect imo.

🔹 BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense. -- I usually don't care for MMORPG-based anime but I'm surprisingly enjoying this one! Just really wholesome friendships and lighthearted world-exploring. Soft af.

🔹 IDOLiSH7: Second Beat! -- Technically this one shouldn't be on this list because only the 1st episode aired and the rest will continue airing in April (why???)... but whatever, I'm just happy that there's so much good idol anime right now. I really liked season 1 and it's looking like season 2 will be just as good if not better! It's a lot more of a typical idol anime but good story, good boys.

Carved deep into my heart

A quick catch-up post!

OH MY GOSH PARASITE'S GINORMOUS OSCARS SWEEP LAST WEEK!!! My coworkers forced me to watch that movie a few weeks ago—which I was interested in watching except I'm the most fragile scaredy-cat so it was nice to see it in a lit room full of people who had already watched it :'D... God, it is such a masterpiece. Blows my mind. It really deserves all the accolades so I'm happy that it's being recognized on this level T__T!!

Vídeography has been on my mind lately because of the MV that I directed last month and learning that I enjoy storyboards and shot lists and would like to improve at cínematography and coming up with interesting framing..... Parasite was just so inspiring on everyyyyy level—from the writing to the symbolism to the shot compositions to the blocking to the tasty visual storytelling—just everything. 👌👌👌 And since I just recently had my first experience as a director, I couldn't help but pay extra attention to Bong Joon Ho and his awesome storyboards and learning about his perspective and intentions. It was easy to fall in love with his hilariously lax, humble personality and his incredible interpreter Sharon Choi... I love her...... This tweet sums it up. I can't stop watching videos of her precisely multilingual, sharp hilarious brilliance and have optimistically high hopes for her as a fílmmaker!!! I feel like she could probably write comedy and I'd probably die laughing every 20 seconds...

Anyway, the reason I wanted to write about this was because of Bong Joon Ho's speech when he won Best Directing. I love it for a lot of reasons—the heartfelt shout outs to the other directors, giving credit to who and what inspired him, joking about sawing the trophy into pieces, Sharon Choi being a delight as always, their chemistry together, the "THANK YOU, I WILL DRINK UNTIL NEXT MORNING" LMAO.

But most of all!!! It hit me really hard when he quoted Scorsese's words: "The most personal is the most creative."

Because it reminded me of the post that I wrote a few months ago when I was stressed about the MV, called "directional failure." It makes me feel....validated? I was worried about it and I still think that I need tougher skin, but I think I was right to have this kind of belief and for wanting to embed a fragment of my personality into my work. And like perhaps I have something in common with Bong Joon Ho?

It almost feels like he was speaking directly to me. Really so inspiring. And honestly I had so much anxiety and fear after the MV shoot that it feels like it's helping me heal from it and be a little bit proud that I tried to be a director once. ;u;

~✨~✨~

So like I spent a full week totally incapacitated by a horrible stomach virus LOLOLOL. It started while I was staying at Fome's place an hour away and I felt so sick that he had to drive me home in my car and take public transportation back—bless his sweet soul 😭... I had to miss out on probably my only chance to ever see SuperM live... Everyday I gave my bosses the same update of "My symptoms are too terrible for me to come into the office today, but I'll do my best to hopefully come in tomorrow!" over and over and over... Absolutely shitty experience, would not recommend LOL. You'd think that spending a week at home would at least allow me to work on mixing or consume a lot of entertainment BUT NO....NO FUN OR PRODUCTIVITY; JUST HEADACHES AND PAIN AND BATHROOM AND BED ONLY.

Anyway, FINALLY now 15 days after it first started I can say that I think I'm 100% recovered! And ever since I began being able to function again, things have been really great!! To make up for frustratingly lost productivity, I decided that unless I'm spending time with friends, I'll be spending at least 1-2 hours mixing or recording everyday. I'm doing it pretty healthily too so far as I still leave time to sleep and watch anime (YO IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE I'VE BEEN SO INVESTED IN SO MUCH ANIME... I LOVE THIS SEASON ^u^) and I just spent 2 days of quality time with friends doing really fun things and feeling like I'm being myself and happy.

PS: Also watched Sonic and Birds of Prey in the past few days and while they were not masterpieces, they were little exploding sacks of fun and both offered a lot of creativity—the former in its quippy writing, and the latter in its action and set design!