alias_sqbr: Nepeta from Homestuck looking grumpy in front of the f/f parts of her shipping wall (grumpy)
Normally I wouldn't link to games I haven't played but I know I'll forget otherwise.

Eclipse: Special Forces is butch/butch military scifi, just a demo so far but worth checking out for the trailer alone if that premise appeals.

Velvet Bite: Softly, with Teeth m/m and m/f contemporary romance with vampires, was much anticipated and just came out. But tragically the reviews look pretty bad. OH WELL at least it looks pretty and we can imagine the game it could have been.
alias_sqbr: Faith holding a spray can next to "Buffy the Vamprie Slayer" with Faith scrawled over the top (faith)
Vampire m/f romance anime: After Mito loses her parents and is fired from her job, she must fend for herself on the streets disguised as a boy. She comes across a stranger named Ruka and learns his dark secret—he’s a vampire! Ruka invites Mito, still in disguise, to live in an all-boys dorm. Mito exchanges her blood for a place to stay, but a budding romance and her true identity threaten all that hangs in the balance.
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alias_sqbr: Cute funny image of the androgynous Nishima praying and crying with a serious expression (nishima)
I offered to try and find some romance anime for Cam that are low on over the top Anime Style Humour And Silliness, and ended up adding some scifi too.

And since I've made the list I thought I might as well post it here!
Read more... )

Viki!

Jan. 19th, 2024 02:08 pm
alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (Default)
This isn't even the next review post I was planning on lol, but [personal profile] got_quiet asked and it seemed like something other people might be interested in.

Viki is a streaming platform which mostly hosts East Asian live action TV dramas and movies. Some things are entirely free, while others are paywalled past a certain number of episodes. There's a fair amount of BL.
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alias_sqbr: Cute funny image of the androgynous Nishima praying and crying with a serious expression (nishima)
DID YOU THINK I WAS DONE?? I STILL HAVE AT LEAST ANOTHER POST LEFT AFTER THIS.

(I know I could just NOT review everything but I do always like having done it)

Past (just finished):

I finished it:
My New Boss is Goofy
Tearmoon Empire
I'm Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness
Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and The Inexperienced Me
Heaven Official's Blessing

I dropped it:
Frieren
Migi & Dali
100 girlfriends Who Really Really Really Love You

Current (just starting):

Delicious in Dungeon
Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady with the Lamp
Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss But I'm Not the Demon Lord
Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!
7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!
A Sign of Affection
The Demon Prince of Momochi House
Cherry Magic

Read more... )
alias_sqbr: (bookdragon)
These ended up dividing neatly into some specific subgenres. I really have been mostly into m/m romance lately, huh...

Non-romance Anime:
Bocci the Rock
Play it cool guys

m/f romance manga and webtoon:
Sweat and Soap
Busu ni Hanataba wo
Everyone wants to get married
Another Typical Fantasy Romance

m/m but not romance manga:
The Summer Hikaru Died

f/f romantic fantasy novel:
Earthcast
Read more... )
alias_sqbr: Teddy bear with purple details with a love heat. From Nameless: the one thing you must recall (nameless)
I am MASSIVELY behind on reviews so some of these are based on vague memories but lets go! I realised trying to remember which things I'd reviewed before was getting in the way of reviewing anything, so some may be doubles.

Live action TV: Our Flag Means Death S2

Live action movie: Semantic Error

Animated TV:
Cherry Magic
Heaven Official's Blessing S2

Manga:
Tsurumaki-sensei no Sakka Seikatsu
Haru Kakete, Uguisu (Warbler, Sing of Spring)

Books:
Evil as Humans
Married Thrice to A Salted Fish
After I married the disabled war god as my concubine
Paper Lover
A Simple Way To Give Money
Read more... )
alias_sqbr: Cute funny image of the androgynous Nishima praying and crying with a serious expression (nishima)
Watching: Tearmoon Empire, Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and The Inexperienced Me, I'm Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness, Heaven Official's Blessing Season 2, My New Boss is Goofy

Dropped/paused: A Girl and Her Guard Dog, I'm in Love With The Villainess, Chainsaw Man

Read more... )
alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (Default)
I decided that if I could review the game about ALGEBRA BEING FUN I could probably review some things more of you might actually be interested in. So! Off the top of my head without overthinking, let's go!

Lots of m/m, some m/f, and a little f/f and gen.

Live Action TV: Sandman, Old Fashioned Cupcake

Games: Nurse Love Syndrome, London Detetctive Mysteria

Anime: My Dress Up Darling, SpyxFamily, Sasaki and Miyano, Hirano and Kagiura, Umibe no Etranger

Prose fiction: Light Tea and Sweet Wine, The Wrong Way To A Demon Sect Leader, You Boys Play Games Very Well, [archiveofourown.org profile] spit_kitten
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alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (Default)
Because I've been in the mood for them lately! None of these are spectacular but I had fun with them.

M/F:
My Boss’s Special Request

F/F:
Straight Girl Trap

M/M:
Idiots Don't Catch Colds
The Demon Lord Wants To Be Friends With Me
Baby Come On!
Read more... )
alias_sqbr: (happy dragon)
I was offered a review copy of the LGBTQ+ paranormal romance anthology Longsummer Nights and encouraged to be entirely honest, so I'm going to write reactions as I read.

Thus far I've read the first three stories and the hit rate has been pretty good, considering that I bounce off a lot of paranormal romances and short stories. It's all felt more like AO3 original fiction than commercial (Paranormal) Romance, which for me is definitely a plus.

Heat is on a scale from 0 to 5.

SEEDS OF SOLACE by RIEN GRAY Pairing: F/NB Heat Level: 3
The love interest and relationship felt like paper-thin devices to write the (more fleshed out) protagonist having cheerfully weird, kinda vague xeno sex. I need more emotional connection even in erotica, and didn't find it very sexy, but I did enjoy the evocative fantasy Southern Gothic weirdness.

ANNIVERSARY by A.K. FEDEAU Pairing: F/M Heat Level: 3
Bittersweet noir about an established couple. A bag of slightly cheesy noir and fantasy tropes, and not a classic romance, but I enjoyed it.

VIRGIN COCKTAIL by FISHER STRUNC Pairing: M/NB Heat Level: 4
Delightful "Oh god they were roommates, and also one of them is a vampire" romance with all the standard AO3 slash tropes, except the bottom is an afab non-binary character and the sex is PIV. I tend to have Messy Gender Feelings about that sort of thing but the blood drinking made up for it >.>

Longsummer Nights was created by VOW, a collective of writers who met working for the US division of the Japanese otome company Voltage. When they unionised Voltage shut the US division down and they've been working on finding new ways to support themselves and other writers ever since. I am thus very happy to discover that I thus far like their writing as well as their politics, and hope they sell lots of books! It's $15US for 15 stories in a variety of formats.

Content note: I quote some violence. Spoilers for all three stories!
Read more... )
alias_sqbr: (up and down)
I was having a high pain, low brain day so decided to just scroll through the top rated romance webcomics on a random scanlation site. I ended up half-reading two Korean m/f comics, giving up on one because it didn't inspire enough feelings, and on the other because it inspired too many. But they filled in the time until I felt better!

Thirsty Thirty: A career-focussed woman on the verge of hitting thirty feels listless and depressed after her boyfriend cheats on her. But then it turns out her quiet, competent manager has recognised how hard working and talented she is and they grow closer. I don't mind boss/employee romance if it wallows in the Forbidden-ness but this was just kinda bland wish fulfilment, and while it hit some standard romance beats and they weren't totally shallow or unlikeable I didn't care about either of them enough to get much of a kick out of them getting together, or care enough to see what obstacles the story would throw in their way to keep reading past that point. The story did seem to support her right to care about her career, but also uncritically supported overwork, and while I believed she was excited about creating pretty lighting setups for people, I was not.

The Blood of Madam Giselle: A Victorian noblewoman decides to spite her abusive husband by exploring the Forbidden Basement, where she encounters and bonds with a weird sad pretty vampire boy locked half-naked and starving in a cage. Definitely not bland wish-fulfilment and I absolutely cared about the main couple enough to keep going past the point where they got together, but the story is the kind of porny romantic melodrama that wallows in Angst and Sex and Shock where there's a good chance they not only won't end up happily but might be the cause of each other's downfall due to mutual violent obsession etc. Plus it hit some other buttons for me and I eventually listened to my brain's STOP READING messages. Not until I'd encountered an unexpected but definitely not unwelcome sexy f/f topless blood drinking scene involving two side characters, if I could just read about whatever is going on with those two I'd have kept going a while longer.

More thoughts and content notes under the cut, I kinda feel like I need a vague content note for the content notes. Note: There's sure some CONTENT.
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alias_sqbr: (bookdragon)
Tagged by [tumblr.com profile] elwing and also I think [tumblr.com profile] phlebasphoenician ages ago but I was really tired that day and forgot until now.

last song: The Devil's Part, All Our Exes Live In Texas. The problem with this band is I like their songs (so many weird breakup songs!) but I find Australians trying for a Folksy American Vibe annoying on principle (idk maybe this is unfair and that’s just what aussie folk sounds like). I have to admit this one is pretty good, though, with an enjoyably creepy, femslashy video.

last movie: Probably 'Seeing Red'. I liked it, for all the reasons mentioned previously!

currently reading: Devil Venerable Wants to Know by Cyan Wings, a Chinese m/m xianxia romcom. This question usually trips me up because I tend to either finish books in a day or so, or give up entirely. But I've been stalled halfway on this one for a while. It's a fun premise: the amoral immortal secondary romance lead of a cheesy romance novel comes across a copy before he meets and falls for the heroine, and is horrified. Both because his love leads to him dying at the hands of the heroine's dickish boyfriend and his second in command going mad with grief, and because becoming such a mushy pushover feels preposterous. He decides the best solution is to (a) get the heroine to find a different better boyfriend and/or self actualisation (b) get to know his second better and encourage his mental health. His idea of 'helping' involves a lot of like...pushing the heroine off a cliff to speed up her arc etc which is darkly funny, and there's some great amoral female characters who are enjoyably femslashy with the heroine (she just keeps being so NICE and they DON'T UNDERSTAND and also it's not like they care or anything but her boyfriend is a DICK and she can DO BETTER). And it has a lot of fun poking at genre conventions. But the romance between him and his second is VERY slow burn and the rest of the plot is a lot of amusing but repetitive silliness. It it was half as long I probably would have loved it, as it is...maybe I'll finish it one day.
alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (Default)
Live Action TV:
Our Flag Means Death
Murderville
Inventing Anna

Western Animation:
Star Trek Prodigy
Turning Red
Encanto

Anime:
Life With an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated Into a Total Fantasy Knockout
Taisho Otome Fairy Tale

Read more... )
alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (Default)
I have a large backlog of things to review so am going to break them up.

Books:
Game Programming Patterns
Snowspelled

Manga and Webtoons:
A Red Knight Does Not Blindly Follow Money
Dame na Watashi ni Koishite Kudasai/Please Love the Useless Me
The Reason Why Raeliana Ended up at the Duke’s Mansion
Read more... )
alias_sqbr: (up and down)
Ukrainian Bundle: Metamorphabet, Windosill, Resynth, Changeling, Landlord of the Woods

Other: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Doreamon: Story of Seasons, Deltarune Chapter 2, Magical Otoge Iris

Read more... )
alias_sqbr: the symbol pi on a pretty background (Default)
Games:
Lost in Secular Love
One Shot

Manga:
Love Me For Who I Am

Live Action Movie:
Jungle Cruise

Animated TV:
Arcane
Read more... )
alias_sqbr: Cute funny image of the androgynous Nishima praying and crying with a serious expression (nishima)
I really enjoyed the Chinese fantasy m/f romance visual novel My Vow To My Liege, historical RPF set in the 5th Century BC Kingdom of Ng/Wu about various real and mythical people. The protagonist is King Fuchai, a woman cross-dressing for Reasons (to do with Evil Dragons)

It's well made, with good art, UI, music, and (Mandarin) voice acting. The writing is pretty good, too, a little repetitive in parts and with some pacing issues but made with a lot of heart. The English translation was done by one of the writers and is a little clunky and in need of proof-reading but has some moments of real poetry. And the game is LONG, you get a ridiculous amount of story for the low price.

Content notes for the game: suicide, violence, incest (not a love interest), rape (not from a love interest), age gap ships, slavery, fatphobia, hurtful gender reveal, master-slave relationship, major character death, violence between love interests

Here's the masterlist of my reaction posts and a character guide.

More thoughts, no spoilers:
Read more... )
alias_sqbr: (happy dragon)
Books:
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

Games:
I Love You!
One Shot
A Garden On The Sea
Doreamon Story of Seasons

Read more... )

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