This month I've been getting into AKB48 and new GL's. There's so many new coming in and I still have a few I haven't finished yet. But I'm glad they air one episode per week because I'm unable to bingewatch anymore.

Films

Girl's Drive

This is an AKB48 film which features a high school girl who gets humiliated by a radio host and she goes on a journey with a bunch of girls to kill him. Despite the plot it's actually a feel good film.

(WHERE IS THE ENGLISH SUB FOR URANUS2324?? I NEED IT NOW!)
 

Tv series

Inside Mari
I posted a review of this earlier. The series itself isn't super well done but I watched it because I really liked the manga and I wanted to revisit the story.

Stardust Telepath (GL-ish)

Ayaka is in love with Hiroko (GL)


This is the fourth Japanese GL airing this year! It's an office romance with comedical elements but the last few episodes have also been more dramatic and they have discussed lesbian identiy which I love. It's a bossxemployee ship (one of my favorite tropes)
 

The Secret of Us (GL)

I love exes to lover stories! I haven't watched all the episodes yet but so far I've enjoyed it a lot. The actresses are incredibly beautiful!

Telling the Moon about us (GL)
A Chinese GL about two actresses who seem to have great chemistry outside the screen as well. There's only one episode up but I'm really excited to see future episodes.
 

Meet you at the Blossom (BL)

 Uncensored Chinese cultivation BL! It's only 12 episodes but I've enjoyed every episode so far. It's really funny and the leads have great chemistry.

Anime

Vtuber Legend (GL-ish)
At one point in my life i used to watch a lot of vtubers so it's interesting to see an anime about them. The protagonist is a slightly alcoholic and perverted woman whose stream goes viral after she forgets to log off. Although it's not technically a yuri the protagonist is very open about her sexual attraction towards women (not in a fanservice way imo). It's a funny anime!

I didn't have much time this month as I was focused on my university entrance exams and following the Israel-Palestine war on social media. It's been difficult to focus on watching anything. But! I still managed to watch something this month:


Films

Madoka Magica Rebellion
Even though I watched the anime series last summer for some reason I didn't watch the film immediately after. I really liked the film especially the visuals and how it was more slow-paced than the anime. Looking forward to the next Madoka film!
 

Challengers

This film was worth the hype! The main actors were amazing and I really liked how they were tangled up in this complicated relationship with each other. Also I love that the main female lead Tashi Duncan was an evil girlboss! I think I really have to rewatch this and also read some fics because there was so much underlying tension with these characters I want to explore it even more.
 

Daisies
This has been long on my watchlist. It's an avant garde classic and it's visuals have been popular on tumblr for a long time. I really liked it. I realized I really want to get back into avant garde films because I feel like they let my creativity flow and follow the structure of intuition and dreams and connotations rather than a Aristotelean plot structure.

 

Series

To the X who hated me (GL)
This was a short South-Korean GL on youtube. It surrounds the up and dows of a youtube lesbian couple. I really liked it although i wished it would have been longer

Calm down (GL)
Another South-Korean GL from the same studio that made Lonely Girls. There's only two episodes up but I really like the plot. A girl that has just broke up with her boyfriend gets into a thing with her friend.
 

Dead Boy Detectives
I've only watched a couple episodes but I really like it! Neil Gaiman is one of the producers/makers of this series which I was gladly suprised by. Funny British horror with queer undertones reminds me of early tumblr fandom culture which I love. This will be my comfort series.

Hazbin Hotel
So I finally watched it! I'm really interested in the myth of Lilith and the show is so popular I decided to give it a try. It's very entertaining and it isn't as vulgar as some (antis) have made it seem online. First I wasn't sure if i liked the musical aspect of it but then i got used to it. It's a very bold show and I'm suprised that something so unique has been made but I'm happy about it. This was also a comfort watch. I'll be watching the next season.


For Pride Month I will be watching and reading more lgbt works~

Films

I didn't watch many films this month. I've been mostly watching tv series and reading fanfic on my free time. This month's films have been 2 kinky straight romance + 2 lesbian romances.

The Secretary (2002)



Secretary masochist x boss dom. This was less scandalous than I thought but the main leads had great chemistry. The psychological side of BDSM was also explored, the main character uses it as a replacement for self-harm and gradually througout the relationship she becomes more independent. The ending was too rom com style for me and imo it broke the tone of the film.

Love and Leashes (2022)

This is a South-Korean BDSM romance I found from Netflix. I heard it's a realistic portrayal of BDSM and the film does go through the roles and rules. We finally have femme domme representation! The play sessions were sometimes too short and the erotic side of this film wasn't very strong although it's a depiction of BDSM, it was more of a funny weird thing. But the film kept me interested and it had its fun moments.
 

Light, Light, Light (2023)

Finnish film set in the 80's, Chernobyl has just exploded and two teenage girls meet a a little town. I loved the nostalgic vibes and 80's soundtrack on this film. Unfortunately it's told from the past tense through memories and time skips, which made the film less emotionally intense. Sometimes the scenes were more like from a music video. It was a beautiful but sad film.

Duck Butter (2018)

I don't know how to feel about this film. During my watching experience I was fully invested in the story, as it is very time-intense depicting 24hours. How the two women become more involved with each other and with each other's traumas is interesting. Something that starts out as a spontaneous adventure ends up being a codependent nightmare. Sergio's character was super interesting. The film's grittiness reminded me of the HBO show Girls, although it wasn't as sarcastic in tone. What put me off how many poop jokes were during the film and in the end there's actual shit involved in one scene. It sure isn't a beautiful film, but very chaotic.
 

Tv-series

I finished 3 series I started last month:

Pit Babe (BL)
The first omegaverse show! The first part of this story was more focused on car racing, which isn't my thing. The omegaverse stuff became more important to the plot in the second half. The ending was full of twists and turns, it was super dramatic. I still think it should have been an omegaxalpha story instead of alphaxalpha, but this is a great start and hopefully there will be more omegaverse stories.


Chaser Game W (GL)
My favorite show I've watched this year. Lovers to enemies to lovers again, which I loved. I also enjoyed the female-centric workplace and great outfits. My only problem was that it was too short: the ending would have been a little less rushed if it had been 2-3 more episodes. Overall, a great story !

Love Senior (GL)
So much lesbian drama with engineering students! The main couple have both three different girls going after them and that's what causes the major drama in this story. I found the episodes a little bit too long and the drama was sometimes slacking. But the lead pair is absolutely beautiful and have great chemistry. I didn't like the coma and amnesia trope in the ending but I'm glad it was a happy ending eventually.

New series I finished:

Happy Shiny People (doc)
Continuing my cult documentary obsession. This one is about Christian cult-like movement that the reality show star family Duggars are part of. It's about abuse, exploitation and sexual assault that is rampant in the Church. The ex-members and family members share how the cult prepares, especially women, for the perfect victim mindset. The cult also encourages homeschooling and has a mission to send those homeschooled Christians to government positions. It's terrifying how much political power these kind of people have in the US!

Blueming  (BL)

My first South-Korean BL. This was a pretty short show. I noticed how different in direction style it is to Thai BL's, which have lot of dialogue and close-ups. This BL focused in a film school, which I love since I've been thinking about applying to one. It has one of my favorite tropes of someone who considers themselves an outsider has a popular person fall in love with them. This was somehow very realistic in tone. 

Books

The Imperial Uncle
It's been a while since I've read a new danmei. I was looking for something short to see how to execute a romance in around 400 pages. This one is a political drama told from a first-person narrative. The main character is a hopeless romantic and the romance in this danmei is very... delicate? Romantic in an old-fashioned way. The main character Prince Huai is part of a political conspiration and the story is much about nostalgia and finding your place in the world, which I loved.