Anime Night and More

 I am sleep-deprived this morning because I was out until after midnight last night.

I can only blame myself, but there it is. I was off watching anime again... I've been in a weird space with my consumption of manga and anime again. Last year, I only really wanted queer content. Like, it was all yaoi, all the time, but this year? I've been casting my net around for something... that I have yet to find. I may not remember to post tomorrow, so the things I've been reading are:

The Monster and the Beast / Bakemono to Kedamono by Renji, which is smut, but not (so far) particularly graphic about a shy monster who meets a... nymphomaniac? I mean, you put it like that and it sounds terrible, but it's really incredibly cute. (I linked to my review, if you're curious about this one.)

I also read all of the volumes of Ultraman that the library had, which is to say, four.  Then, I find out that there are 13 in English?? Sheesh. I doubt my library will actually buy them all, but I asked them to, anyway. Ultraman is to Japan what Star Wars is to America, except older and possibly more well-known to the average person on the street. Ultraman is normally consumed as live-action, but there have been several manga made of him in the past, this one is the latest iteration.... and I don't know, he's kind of like Superman, in that he has all sorts of alien powers. In the case of Ultraman, Ultraman actually merged physically with an alien, but yeah, then he goes around beating up bad aliens and bad people. It was okay. I would like to read more of it, because it's pretty?

I'm also reading a manga that the library has called Bokurano: Ours, which I haven't reviewed yet because I haven't finished it and I'm pretty sure this particular manga is the sort that is made or not by how it ends. It's basically a bunch of kids who get caught an OH NOZ REAL LIFE video game, type thing, only they discover that instead of killing the Hive Queen ala Ender's Game, they're actually wiping out multiverses of our own universe--like when they win, the entire alternate Earth dies. Also, the players die as part of the process? My only issue with it right now is that because we can't invest in any character... the author seems to be taking the opportunity to tell really fairly horrible life stories for fairly horrible people (middle schoolers, no less!)  So, I'm on the fence on this one, but I would like to see it through to the end in case there's some redemption at the end of it all.

We'll see.

I'm currently reading the first volume of Whispered Words which is actually a yuri novel about unrequited love between two classmates.I keep bouncing in and out of this one because it has a strong 'male gaze' vibe to it...?? I don't know. I keep picking it up, though, so maybe I will push through. There might be an anime of this one, too, I haven't done all my research yet because I haven't finished it.

Then, independently of the anime group, I ended up binge watching all of the first season of "Wotakai: Love is Hard for Otaku" which is one of those shows that makes me wonder what is wrong with me that I found it so compelling that I watched all of the episodes over a two day period. I was not particularly fond of this manga, but I whizzed through the anime. I can not explain this. I must have just been in the right mood. Plus the opening song was very cute.

I also started watching "Folktales of Japan" which is awesome because it seems to have been written for kindergartners... which? I mean, as far as what I know about Japan, I'd say that's about my level??  So, you know, that's been kind of fun. Plus, they're simple and the kind of thing I can watch before bed.

I guess the point of this huge list is that I'm feeling very scattered in what I've been consuming. Are other people feeling this?