... oh yeah, I had family time this month too! My Dad visited (he lives pretty far), and I also got to spend some time with one of my little sisters. My sister and I celebrated my birthday a little early with some games at Round 1, and my Dad treated Chris and I to our favorite coffee place while catching up. We didn't spend a whole lot of time together since we were so busy, but I'm glad I was able to make a little bit of time for them!

yayyyyy bday celebrating yayyyy (more about this in a moment)

I have some big projects in the works right now. One of them will be revealed tomorrow! Another one - some physical medium art for a show - maybe in a month? And then another one - a new game project - I've been slowly thinking about for a little bit, but is still currently in planning stages... life's been a little too busy and won't slow down until May. Phew.

Birthday Bonanza

Usually this month is totally nuts for the fact that my birthday (April 19th) is followed by my partner's birthday (April 20th), and this year it just so happened to fall on a major holiday weekend!! That made it a little weird to plan things, but we had a wonderful celebration regardless mostly thanks to our incredible friends. I was honored to receive some lovely gifts, ate so much good food, visited our most favorite shop in the world RATNEST, and played a bunch of unique rhythm arcade games (one of which I hadn't played before, a Rhythm Heaven arcade cab!). We've been able to enjoy many treats this month... there's still so many.... I'm very grateful!!

We also learned how to play Mahjong the night before my birthday simply so we could play the Higurashi Mahjong arcade game - it was fun!! And we actually won many matches, only losing when we threw the match!

I had some wonderful art gifts made by lovely friends!! In order: My character with the fairy Mia Hyperia drawn by Mia herself, my character held up as an important item by Breezy the Bobcat by Valeria Asteria, my character Mikun holding up a big Love Beans present by AnnMWhite, Azar hugging my character by CreeperBoy90, and a real life hero chao plushie made and sent to me by my friend Dare!! (psst... did you see the top of this page? That lil' YIPPEE was done by my buddy EdgeDrive_Art!!)

Games

My partner started Final Fantasy Adventure, which technically isn't a Final Fantasy game and is instead the first entry of the Mana series!! My only other experience with the Mana series has been Visions of Mana (which I LOVE PLEASE play it!!), so it's been awesome seeing where it all began. It's very impressive how many different kinds of techniques/items you can use considering it's a Game Boy game - the amount of variety is super cool!! Even just watching has been fascinating, and I love how cute the enemies are!!

My partner's also been playing The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails, which is effectively a spiritual successor to one of my favorite Falcom series: Zwei!! The art for the characters and environments is absolute eye-candy, I'm enjoying the adorable monster designs, and it seems like a blast to play! One of my favorite details is that you can dress up Nayuta and your fairy companion Noi - I love when clothing changes the visuals of characters!! We're only maybe 30% into the game, but I'm enjoying it very much.

Chris played through a short SHMUP/cute 'em up with cute, silly graphics and one of the funniest names for a game I've seen: Harmful Park! You're playing as two sisters as they use wacky gadgets (finger guns, pie throwers, a giant exploding sweet potato, etc) to shoot down all sorts of ridiculous and colorful theme park enemies, from an inflatable dragon, to flying plushies, gumball machines, a huge jack o'lantern goblin... it's a fun game to watch!

On April Fool's Day, I watched my dear friend Edge stream a little RPGMaker indie game: HalOPE! It was an interesting view into topics such as loneliness, grief, and depression. You play as an Angel and essentially go on small quests to help others via delivering items to different characters, obtaining new items to pass along to others. It varied on just how deeply it got into every theme, but there were some parts that resonated greatly. Watching the game unfold also ignited my spirit for wanting to create more games of my own. Please check it out, it's pay what you want / free!!

I've mostly been playing games this month only during my Twitch streams, and actually had a 3-day special Rhythm Games week just for fun!! I played several games I hadn't touched in a few years, and had an absolute blast sharing some favorites that may be a little on the more obscure/hard to find side. My favorite was probably playing Dance Dance Revolution Extreme on my 20 year old dance pad because it actually decided to cooperate enough to get through most of the songs I played hehe! I'd love to hear what others thought of this selection of games, please tell me if you had a favorite!

Speaking of rhythm games... I ended up purchasing vib-ribbon on my PS3 and sharing that in a stream, too! What a unique game!! I had only played it a smattering of times previously, so this was the first time really diving into the game and it was a lot easier to pick up on than I expected. The soundtrack slaps and the gameplay is fun, so I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys rhythmic challenges.

A game that's been surprisingly fun which I started on stream is Pokemon Channel! I hadn't played it except maybe once when it first came out so I didn't know what to expect, and I appreciate how lowkey it is; it's the kind of game where you can play it for a little bit as a break and then get back to whatever you were doing. I appreciate how many tough times the Pokemon games have been getting me through this year.

Pikachu why are you like this....

Anime

I SAW DECA-DENCE. AAAAAAH. Chris and I binge-watched it almost entirely in one sitting because it was just that good; it became an instant favorite for me. I won't spoil it with details, but TRUST ME!!! WATCH IT!!!! I recommend watching the first two episodes back-to-back, because then you get the full breadth of just how insane it is. I LOVE it and I wish I could draw fan-art but that would be spoilers...

Watch Deca-Dence!! Talk to me about Deca-Dence!!!

Another new all-time favorite is the tranquil, utterly cozy Aria the Animation! I literally lose it every time I watch an episode because of the titular character Aria himself. The show itself is a serene, beautiful slice of life story centered on the women who operate guided tours on gondolas in Neo Venezia, a gorgeous recreation of Venice on another planet after Earth's become hard to live on. The worldbuilding is awesome, one of my favorite aspects being the unique titles based on fae and folklore given to those who protect and run the city. But Aria..... any time he does anything at all I scream because he is TOO ADORABLE. Chris and I had been eating dinner while watching this show, and he had to make sure I don't have anything in my mouth before starting each episode because it shows a montage of Aria just doing things and I'd go absolutely bonkers every time!!! I hope the other seasons are just as pleasant.

LOOK AT ARIA!!!! LOOK AT HIM I LOVE HIM

To pick up my spirits as I worked this month, I re-watched Sk8 the Infinity because with how warm it was getting (around 90 degrees Fahrenheit aaaa) it felt like Summer. This is one of the few anime that I greatly prefer the dub over the sub because the writing is utterly UNHINGED - it makes me laugh out loud, and the lines bounce around in my head randomly even now. The characters are extremely fun and sweet, and I adore the show's message about doing something you love simply because you love it. Give it a watch when you want a show that's short but exciting!

The Spring anime season has started, and this time there's actually a lot of nice new stuff I'm enjoying each week, including a short series of specials for one of my favorite shows ever: Lycoris Recoil!!! Lycoris Recoil: Friends are Thieves of Time features 2-minute shorts with laid-back looks into some of the characters' lives, so nothing too big, but I'm happy to see more for a series I like so much. If you haven't seen the original series, it's pretty short and very worth seeing!!

One of my favorite shows that's airing this season is made-for-TV original Apocalypse Hotel. I got immediate vibes from some other favorite media, NieR Automata and Planetarian, but this story is certainly unique in the content it offers. It has a surprising amount of humor, appealing designs, beautiful visuals/animation, and goes places I wouldn't have expected. I'm only 3 episodes in and thoroughly enjoying it!!

Another TV original I'm enjoying is Lazarus! The animation is CRACKED; I hope the storyboards are posted online eventually because I wanna see how the heck this team thinks regarding motion and staging!!! The music is incredible, intriguing story, great flow of action, and excellent character designs. It's still early in the series as it continues to air, but I'm hoping it continues to be good because I'm digging it.

There is an amazing amount of pretty anime this season, one of which I'm particularly liking being an adaptation of the classic story Anne of Green Gables," Anne Shirley! I hadn't seen anything with these characters in years, but this adaptation does a fantastic job of showing the high spirited Anne feeling super deep emotions and just bursting with imagination. The backgrounds are painted with lush details, perfect for the setting, and the characters are animated with excellent flow and expression. It's lovely.

Another pretty, pretty show is How to Become Ordinary Season 2! The mysteries feel higher stakes this time around than the ones featured in the first season. The cinematic approach to the scenes, from its macro shots lingering on delectable desserts to sweeping views of gorgeous backgrounds, is something I deeply appreciate with my videographer background.

Speaking of sequels, silly shenanigans have returned with Season 2 of Aharen is Indecipherable. All I have to say about this is that I think they KNEW I'd be watching because they mixed Animal Crossing with the Yakuza series in the second episode. The series continues to be playful in its humor while still having a decent amount of sweet moments too.

Another continuing series that I've only just started is Black Butler's Emerald Witch Arc. I'm a couple episodes behind what's currently airing because I prefer the English dub over the sub and don't mind waiting for it. I'm a big fan of how Cloverworks is handling this series - the animation is delicious, and I LOVE Sebastian's fangies!!! I'm not sure what to expect from this season of the show, but I do love that it involves werewolves!!

As soon as we started Kowloon Generic Romance, both Chris and I felt like there's more than meets the eye to the story. An intriguing and dystopian mystery with hints of romance centered in Kowloon Walled City, I'm fascinated by how they're building the events so far. The animation is reminiscent of the 80's to me with how the characters are rendered, but also have modern sensibilities with coloring and lighting. It's compelling!

The latest Gundam project - GQuuuuuuX - starts off in a way where I don't really know what to make of the characters. It's interesting that it's an alternate timeline to the original series of Gundam where the Principality of Zeon ends up winning the war, but has a story all its own. I'm still kind of warming up to it - it's hard to follow-up how much I adored the absolutely incredible Witch from Mercury - but I'm really liking the character designs! The Haro with a beanie is adorable.

Other Media

Mune: Guardian of the Moon is an adorable French animated movie, and if I'd seen this as a kid it would've eaten my brain alive with excitement with how unique the creatures are!! The design of and sounds Mune makes are so cute... The story is alright, but I love the mixed-media approach used to tell it and appreciate the immense creativity showcased.

Snapdragon is a graphic novel that combines magic and realism in a delightful way, telling a story of witches, complicated families, ghosts, magic, and breaking out of social norms. I loved it so much I immediately bought a physical copy after reading it digitally!!! It'd be perfect to revisit around Halloweentime, though its heartwarming story is great at any time of year. Please check it out!

Almost May!

Like I mentioned before, I'm posting something important tomorrow, and then it'll be May. I hope things get better then... for all of us. Life has been a particularly hard struggle recently, but I'll continue to share just as much love and hope with everyone as I always have. If you read this update, tell me what you thought - I'd love to hear! And thank you so much for making it this far!!

Here's a picture I got of the Pink Moon this month!! It really was pink????