Watched the first episode of Journal With Witch - a perfectly solid start to a show. I find myself intrigued by the direction of the character designs - namely why these two women are so non-femme?

The older aunt Makio's hard chin and eyes and tall prescence are obvious, and even the younger Asa has this bulky frame to her and a level of height that is not typical for the genre. I don't think there is an intent to degenderize them or anything, at least not strongly - the author of the manga (which has similar designs, this isn't an anime-only thing) discusses it being a "story about the bonds between women" and such. But it does combine these characters with a more overall cold & reserved design philosophy:

Both characters wear a lot of browns and greys, with monochrome designs and minimal flourish. This is a story about grief/depression, so it matches that tone, that is the first level reading for sure. On top of that I feel like in anime more explicit "feminine" traits have a more inherently romantic/intimate strength to them than in real life, something the show does not want these characters to have; their journey is going to be very internal where those connotations don't have much of a place.

But if you told me the author was deliberately trying to queer the fujoshi/yuri binary, I wouldn't be like shocked or anything.

Anyway, this episode did a good job setting up the inherent dynamic - frazzled social misfit artist-type aunt and responsible-but-reserved lost soul niece - and the themes of their mutual loneliness. What it will live or die on to me is how much it understands the need for the emotional journey of Asa in particular to travel outside of this core dynamic. If every episode is "I struggle with loneliness...but now I have my found family", it will get both repetitive fast and be unrealistic to how long a valuable bond takes to form - but this kind of "rushing it" circularity is common in this genre of anime from my experience.

It definitely has potential, so we will see if it can avoid the pitfalls!

FRANKENSTEIN
2025, dir. Guillermo del Toro

Goddamn, what a scene.

You know what, enough time has passed and I've given media reviews/reccs in the past, so I'm gonna recommend Pixar's Win or Lose as seriously worth a watch.

I came into the show with zero expectations a few months ago and was pleasantly blown away by the writing, art direction, and character dramas.

Win or Lose is an original drama mini-series created by Pixar that follows a co-ed middle school softball team and the week leading up to a big championship game. Each episode picks one character, either a kid or an adult, and focuses on their perspective/storyline during that week. So in the first episode, we notice a lot of weird mysteries or threads in the background (Why is this character crying uncontrollably? Why are these two fighting?). As the show progresses, we get to see each character's sides of the story and how they interconnect with and affect each other. It's very, very well written and well crafted.

Each episode also tackles a pretty mature and at times distressing theme about growing up and parenting, similar to Inside Out. Here's a one sentence synopsis of each episode's general conflict and theme to give you an idea. Spoilers ahead:

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can anyone tell me the watch order for every movie ever so i can understand all references and homages