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Or, I Could Just Not Update Forever
Dec. 4th, 2024 10:43 amThings are proceeding apace here at Chez Roundhouse.
At this very moment, Shawn is sitting at the dining room table sorting out short-term disability. This is a very "normal Shawn" activity, so we have, at least, reached the stage post total knee replacement surgery (right knee) where she can concentrate on things that are not solely PAIN MANAGEMENT. I will tell you? A few days ago, Shawn was really not sure today would ever, ever, EVER come.
Yesterday, I was able to be... somewhat of a participant for my bi-weekly podcast recording. I can't say that I was firing on all my cylinders, but I was upright and present and caffinated. That's what passes as close enough these days.
Also in the plus column: I know what day it is: Wednesday.
And, as it happens, one of the things that I've been able to do while playing Personal Care Attendant, is read a LOT of manga. In reverse order of when I read them:
Telework Yotabanshi/Home Office Romance by Yamada Kintetsu. This was a very cute slice-of-life straight romance that features a Systems Engineer who is... Very Engineer, if you know what I mean. It's very rarely stated in manga, but I feel like if this were written by an American it would just be stated that our main character, Mitsuhashi, is on the autism spectrum. He likes to do things in his very thoughtful way and doesn't like change and isn't especially good at picking up social clues. It's not stated that this take place during the pandemic (possibly to make it more universal and less era specific), but his neighbor also is working at home--she is a perky, out-going archeology grad student named Izumi. This one-shot follows their romance as it unfolds through various chance meetings, etc. It's VERY RELAXING.
The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy at All by Arai Sumiko which has a new release from Yen Press this year. It's a yuri, which, oddly, I rarely read in part because.... well, actually the reasons are legion, but among other things, I prefer my romance between adults and so many of these are situated in high school. This one is, too? But, The Guy She Was Interested in... solves one of my other big problems with a lot of yuri, which is that I RARELY find the women in them attractive. Lesbians have a look that isn't conventionally attractive. The heroine in this one is actually dykish and that works for me. Not that this is a "sexy" yuri--so few of them are. It's honestly much more of a coming-of-age story. This manga is on-going, but I read all 100 chapters of it that I could find.
Just Like Mona Lisa (Vols. 1 & 2) by Yoshimura Tsumuji, which I straight-up hated, despite the fact that the premise should have been a gimme for me, in particular. It's a science fiction story set on an alternate Earth where everyone is born without a gender. Some time around 12, most people have decided which of the binary options suits them best and they pick one or the other and grow into that. Our main character, Hisane, is 17 and a half, and is still genderless. This is not a problem for them until their two best friends (one guy and one girl) confess on the same day. I hated this for a number of reasons, but the main one was that we also find out that there is no option for Hisane to stay nonbinary/genderless. All of the others who ever stayed genderless this long died. So it's kind of a "f*ck or die" trope only with gender and I abhor it.
Akane-banashi by Suenaga Yuki (art by Moue Takamasa), Volumes 1-3. If you've read or watched any of Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū this is that, only high school. If not, rakugo is a traditional Japanese theater performance style that is basically a one-man show. There are traditional stories that get told and the performer uses nothing but his (or, more rarely her) voice and a simple prop, like a folding fan. Akane-banashi is a Shounen Jump product and I can't tell if that means that if I watched it, I would eat it all in one gulp, or if I'm starting to feel like a lot of these "my super power is some ancient Japanese artform" manga/anime are starting to all taste the same, as it were. LIke, as I was reading this I very much felt pulled along and it was hitting all the right "she's a genius!" and yet "she must struggle!" notes, but then I put it down and was very... I feel like I've read this basic premise a million times already.
Then, I read something EXTREMELY smutty called Can’t Think Straight by Pangin (art by Huddak). I've been describing this manhwa to people as "the roommate trope plus enemies to lovers." It's basically about a horribly homophobic straight guy and his gay roommate who through very unlikely circumstances become fuck buddies and then... sort of (at least where it left off) actual boyfriends. This is the WORST example of a redemption arc because the love interest (the straight guy) still has way too much to recover from when the two men are already moved in together and supposedly dating. Luckily, I did not read that one for that PLOT.
A much more adorable and realistic BL/yaoi that I read was That Blue Sky Feeling by Okura (art by Coma Hashii), Vols. 1-2. Okura also wrote I Think Our Son is Gay which is a very lovely story about a mother coming to terms with the fact that her eldest child is gay. That Blue Sky Feeling kind of follows a similar arc where the young protagonist meets the first gay guy he's ever known--a kid who is out in high school and suffering for it--and sort of falls VERY SLOWLY in love with him. (I mean, I am guessing? It is also more coming-of-age than anything else.) Weirdly, this is also a VIZ product, but there's something very charming and original going on here that I quite like.
Two Sizes, Too Small by Mizore is the final one that I read which I also can't entirely recommend. It's about a height gap, which normally I can relate to because I am 5'2" and Shawn is 6'1" but, sadly, this one veered into creepy territory because the smaller one looked very, very... child-like and I had to NOPE out hard once the romance heated up.
So, for me this is a LOT for one week, particularly when sometimes I have to confess to not having read ANYTHING.
In other--sort of related--news, I lost my Duolingo streak. Ironically, Shawn has been able to keep hers up. My problem has always been that I tend to sneak my lessons in when I am out and about town or in a queue or whatever. Because Shawn is at home, I'm just not waiting in the car for her at the usual times and so I have completely forgotten to even open the app. I think that I bailed at just the right time because some friends of ours and Shawn have been discussing on WhatsApp the fact that Duo seems to have become more menacing and threatening than usual. Anyone else experieince that?
Anyway, that's us. Hopefully, now that Shawn seems to be returning to slightly more normal activities, so can I.
At this very moment, Shawn is sitting at the dining room table sorting out short-term disability. This is a very "normal Shawn" activity, so we have, at least, reached the stage post total knee replacement surgery (right knee) where she can concentrate on things that are not solely PAIN MANAGEMENT. I will tell you? A few days ago, Shawn was really not sure today would ever, ever, EVER come.
Yesterday, I was able to be... somewhat of a participant for my bi-weekly podcast recording. I can't say that I was firing on all my cylinders, but I was upright and present and caffinated. That's what passes as close enough these days.
Also in the plus column: I know what day it is: Wednesday.
And, as it happens, one of the things that I've been able to do while playing Personal Care Attendant, is read a LOT of manga. In reverse order of when I read them:
Telework Yotabanshi/Home Office Romance by Yamada Kintetsu. This was a very cute slice-of-life straight romance that features a Systems Engineer who is... Very Engineer, if you know what I mean. It's very rarely stated in manga, but I feel like if this were written by an American it would just be stated that our main character, Mitsuhashi, is on the autism spectrum. He likes to do things in his very thoughtful way and doesn't like change and isn't especially good at picking up social clues. It's not stated that this take place during the pandemic (possibly to make it more universal and less era specific), but his neighbor also is working at home--she is a perky, out-going archeology grad student named Izumi. This one-shot follows their romance as it unfolds through various chance meetings, etc. It's VERY RELAXING.
The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy at All by Arai Sumiko which has a new release from Yen Press this year. It's a yuri, which, oddly, I rarely read in part because.... well, actually the reasons are legion, but among other things, I prefer my romance between adults and so many of these are situated in high school. This one is, too? But, The Guy She Was Interested in... solves one of my other big problems with a lot of yuri, which is that I RARELY find the women in them attractive. Lesbians have a look that isn't conventionally attractive. The heroine in this one is actually dykish and that works for me. Not that this is a "sexy" yuri--so few of them are. It's honestly much more of a coming-of-age story. This manga is on-going, but I read all 100 chapters of it that I could find.
Just Like Mona Lisa (Vols. 1 & 2) by Yoshimura Tsumuji, which I straight-up hated, despite the fact that the premise should have been a gimme for me, in particular. It's a science fiction story set on an alternate Earth where everyone is born without a gender. Some time around 12, most people have decided which of the binary options suits them best and they pick one or the other and grow into that. Our main character, Hisane, is 17 and a half, and is still genderless. This is not a problem for them until their two best friends (one guy and one girl) confess on the same day. I hated this for a number of reasons, but the main one was that we also find out that there is no option for Hisane to stay nonbinary/genderless. All of the others who ever stayed genderless this long died. So it's kind of a "f*ck or die" trope only with gender and I abhor it.
Akane-banashi by Suenaga Yuki (art by Moue Takamasa), Volumes 1-3. If you've read or watched any of Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū this is that, only high school. If not, rakugo is a traditional Japanese theater performance style that is basically a one-man show. There are traditional stories that get told and the performer uses nothing but his (or, more rarely her) voice and a simple prop, like a folding fan. Akane-banashi is a Shounen Jump product and I can't tell if that means that if I watched it, I would eat it all in one gulp, or if I'm starting to feel like a lot of these "my super power is some ancient Japanese artform" manga/anime are starting to all taste the same, as it were. LIke, as I was reading this I very much felt pulled along and it was hitting all the right "she's a genius!" and yet "she must struggle!" notes, but then I put it down and was very... I feel like I've read this basic premise a million times already.
Then, I read something EXTREMELY smutty called Can’t Think Straight by Pangin (art by Huddak). I've been describing this manhwa to people as "the roommate trope plus enemies to lovers." It's basically about a horribly homophobic straight guy and his gay roommate who through very unlikely circumstances become fuck buddies and then... sort of (at least where it left off) actual boyfriends. This is the WORST example of a redemption arc because the love interest (the straight guy) still has way too much to recover from when the two men are already moved in together and supposedly dating. Luckily, I did not read that one for that PLOT.
A much more adorable and realistic BL/yaoi that I read was That Blue Sky Feeling by Okura (art by Coma Hashii), Vols. 1-2. Okura also wrote I Think Our Son is Gay which is a very lovely story about a mother coming to terms with the fact that her eldest child is gay. That Blue Sky Feeling kind of follows a similar arc where the young protagonist meets the first gay guy he's ever known--a kid who is out in high school and suffering for it--and sort of falls VERY SLOWLY in love with him. (I mean, I am guessing? It is also more coming-of-age than anything else.) Weirdly, this is also a VIZ product, but there's something very charming and original going on here that I quite like.
Two Sizes, Too Small by Mizore is the final one that I read which I also can't entirely recommend. It's about a height gap, which normally I can relate to because I am 5'2" and Shawn is 6'1" but, sadly, this one veered into creepy territory because the smaller one looked very, very... child-like and I had to NOPE out hard once the romance heated up.
So, for me this is a LOT for one week, particularly when sometimes I have to confess to not having read ANYTHING.
In other--sort of related--news, I lost my Duolingo streak. Ironically, Shawn has been able to keep hers up. My problem has always been that I tend to sneak my lessons in when I am out and about town or in a queue or whatever. Because Shawn is at home, I'm just not waiting in the car for her at the usual times and so I have completely forgotten to even open the app. I think that I bailed at just the right time because some friends of ours and Shawn have been discussing on WhatsApp the fact that Duo seems to have become more menacing and threatening than usual. Anyone else experieince that?
Anyway, that's us. Hopefully, now that Shawn seems to be returning to slightly more normal activities, so can I.
