November Round-Up '25
Wowie, it feels like November just slipped through my fingers... It's been a very physically-painful and mentally taxing month, but I'm grateful for heaps of good media to keep me strong. I'll detail a bit of what happened for me personally, about new projects, and I'll also share a lot of the cool stuff I experienced that you can check out too!
Alix's Life Offline
I was finally (after 5 months) able to get my bad crown replaced, which has been a huge trial to heal from. I'm grateful for my new dentist saving the tooth, though she told me the old crown was "the ugliest work she's ever seen," which was alarming considering she's worked in this field for 25 years... at least I was able to get it fixed!! It's not been an easy ride after getting the new crown put on, but I'm hoping to be past the pain for good for soon.
Chris bought these treats for me as a surprise to eat for when I slowly start feeling better after my surgery! I've only tried the KitKat and Kisses so far, but they're super tasty! I feel so loved with my partner!!!!
The USA holiday of Thanksgiving happened a couple days ago, which I view as a time to be grateful for my loved ones, friends, and support I've had present in my life, plus eat a lot of delicious food! It was just Chris and I at home, relaxing with retro games and making a big tasty spread together.
Here's the food we made!! Everything was amazing, I can't even pick a favorite because it all came out so delightfully. Plus, we still had a yummy dessert:
I made my personal Pecan Pie recipe and added chocolate to it!! It was amazing how different it tasted from its normal version, but also in a super delectable way!
As for the retro games, I started a new game of Banjo Kazooie (I didn't grow up with it so I've never finished it, plus there's a Christmas-y level I wanted to get to for this next month) and completed a game I haven't played since I was a child: We're Back, A Dinosaur's Tale! Kid me would be proud, and the game itself actually takes place on Thanksgiving too! Chris also had a blast finishing a playthrough of SNES Panel de Pon for the first time!
Projects
I made a new zine to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday in my own way: Comfort Foods Filled with Heart! I wanted to share the spirit of good food and love with those who were kind enough to get a doodle from this month's art stream, and decided I might as well put it out publicly as well. Thank you again to everyone who's supported me this year, it's been especially rough lately.
My friend Event Horizon has put out another banger: Celestial Overture! Inspired by Alice Thymefield from ZZZ, this song brings some warmth at the start of the frigid season with bright, Summer-y vibes. It was a privilege to draw this cute bunny girl trying her best to make a symmetrical sandcastle by the pretty starlit ocean!
Games
Something I actually forgot to mention last blog post was that Chris played through the indie game Pseudoregalia! It was really neat, with a dreamlike aesthetic, an interestingly varied soundtrack, and fantastic character design for the protagonist Sybil. The movement looked a bit frustrating to come to grips with until all of the moves are unlocked, but after that point it was smooth sailing.
My friend Cin and their partner Echo put out a fantastic lil' flow-focused game, Hoptix, which I finally had the opportunity to play via Twitch stream and I loved it!! It's hard to find a truly chill game where you can simply play as you wish and vibe, and Hoptix is totally perfect for just that. I've kept thinking about it as a game I wanna go back to when I'm stressed because it felt so nice to run around in. Please give it a try!
Chris and I played through Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon together and it was absolutely lovely! With one of the most beautiful and stylish art styles I've ever seen, extremely cool boss designs, and an enchanting fairytale-like story, I feel like it's strange it wasn't marketed as an optionally co-op experience because we had a lot of fun playing it as one; Chris controlled Cereza, while I played as the demon Cheshire. Something I especially adored is the voice acting - it added *so* much to the story and the characters' personalities with how the lines were read! I had a really good time with this game.
One of my favorite artists, GGDG, released the third chapter of their visual novel Soul of Sovereignty and it was a treat for the eyes and ears, alongside its delightful gut-punching story. Their writing and visual style is hugely inspirational to me, and I've enjoyed hearing them dip into musical work alongside Toby Fox and now Albasoup/Alex Rosetti. Please read it!!!!
If you've been keeping up with me this year, you've probably seen that the Pokemon series has been truly helped me through all of the struggles life has been throwing at me. It's a series that's been dear to my heart for a very long time, and now, I've finished something that I've wanted to do for as long as I've played the games: I completed the Pokemon Crystal Pokedex!!! Crystal was the first game in the series that I played, so it feels like a dream come true to actually have done it. This took me across several other entries: I also finished my first Gen 1 game, Pokemon Blue, this month, plus played most of Yellow and Gold to get every last 'mon. I'm very happy about this!!
I watched my partner play some short and sweet free itch games: Mage Recall, which was a soft, lovely little Gameboy-styled adventure featuring a mage reawakening her magic by helping people out, And Franken, a silly FF4-like RPG with a wonderfully curated soundtrack and charming visuals. Both are nice experiences that I'd recommend!
Chris and I took amusement in testing some SEGA Genesis games recently, which led me to suggesting Chris try Crystal's Pony Tale, a game I used to play over and over for my little sisters when we were very young. It's a short and very strange (read as: charming) game. Still sweet all these years later!
I'm not personally into dungeon crawlers, but I've been enjoying watching Chris play Brandish: The Dark Revenant! Chill vibes combined with a good soundtrack (as is tradition for Falcom games) makes for a relaxing journey. I like that some of the monsters offer you bits of advice every once in a while!
Threads of Fate is a game we'd been meaning to check out for years due to glowing praise from friends, and on the surface it seems like a game that's totally up my & Chris' alley: a beautiful visual style, 00's-era Square charming story, and fun monsters. Chris tried some of Mint's story, but some of the gameplay elements were... shockingly frustrating? Like one-hit kills that came out of nowhere without much you could do to avoid them. I'm interested in seeing the story to completion, but for now it's on hold.
Movies
After watching all of the classic Universal monster films in September, and as fans of the director's work in general, Chris and I were looking forward to Guillermo del Toro's version of Frankenstein. This film is an absolute masterpiece, overflowing with artistry from how it's shot, to the set pieces and costume designs, to the storytelling... what a beautiful dark fantasy telling of this classic. It quickly became a new all-time favorite for me. Do yourself a favor and give it a watch!
Cloud was a horror movie Chris and I had meant to watch during October, but I'm actually glad we waited to watch since it wasn't "spooky" in the way we were hoping for with the movies we saw that month... and yet it was still scary in a much more real-feeling way! Very intense with many moments of quiet horror.
I watched a whole bunch of movies that centered stories or had something to do with the Thanksgiving holiday! I hadn't really seen many in the past, so I made time to watch some new things just for fun.
Pieces of April was, by far, my favorite Thanksgiving-themed movie and just a really great movie as a whole. Surprisingly hilarious and genuinely heartfelt, all while nailing the feeling of being the black sheep in the family and showing some very heart-achey moments.
Sweet November is a bizarre movie, the one Chris and I refer to as "Keanu hot dog movie," which made me laugh out loud many times because I just couldn't expect what would come next. I overall really enjoyed this movie, though interestingly enough critics seemed to hate it because... it was too sentimental??? Like that's a bad thing???????? I recommend checking it out to hear Keanu Reeves say "yippee" in a flat tone.
Krisha was a devastating watch. Disorienting and overwhelming moments really hit home how uncomfortable the main character is in her situation, and the helplessness as everything falls apart is agonizing. At its heart is a story of family dealing with the after-effects of addiction and taking time away from everything to fix yourself. While it's really well done, I don't think I'll be watching this one again.
The Humans shows a family get-together slowly unraveling as more secrets and discomfort is revealed, with ghost stories also playing a surprising role. A lot of the dialogue felt like very real, lived experiences, and were quite relatable.
Soul Food made me HUNGRY!! I'm always happy to see more Black cinema and this movie was really cool. Told from the perspective of a kid witnessing his family go through huge changes when the matriarch goes into a coma. Has a heartwarming resolution.
Mrs. Doubtfire is a childhood staple for many kids of my generation, but is something I never grew up with... so when I saw it supposedly had a Thanksgiving scene, I felt it was the perfect time to give it a watch! Despite certain things being shown in a very poor light in the movie, I thought Robin Williams' character was portrayed in a surprisingly kind way; it was nice to have a movie with a truly loving dad in it! I also appreciate that the real humor of the movie was built from the main character placed in situations where he struggled to be two people at once.
Scent of a Woman was much more intense than I expected. Al Pacino's performance is pretty grand, flipping between very unlikeable and then likeable with how he warms up to and protects the main character.
I saw Grumpy Old Men, which is all about two old men running on spite. It spans not only Thanksgiving but also Christmas, so there were lots of nice winter-y shots. The humor was overall kinda "meh" to me, but still glad to see yet another film I've seen referenced in pop culture quite a bit.
Unfortunately not every movie I watched was a winner... Home for the Holidays was filled with the kind of comedy that turns me away from them in the first place, The Ice Storm was filled with things I find very unpleasant, and Jim Henson's Turkey Hollow was just straight up bad (which is unfortunate because the puppets were cool).
Anime
The Fall anime season isn't something I kept very close eye on until the beginning of this month, so here's what I've been watching!
Shabake takes place in a setting that typically doesn't attract me, but I've been enjoying the beautiful animation, air of mystery, gentle pace, and supernatural elements of the story. It feels like the way it's going could've been a movie or two instead of a tv show because of how each episode fades into the next, but I'm really liking it as a show to look forward to each week!
To Your Eternity season 3 took some turns after the first episode that I wasn't expecting and easily grasped my attention. I'm not super sure what to expect from this season, but I'm glad it's already much better than the second one so far.
SPYxFAMILY season 3, on the other hand, has been a bit hard to watch because it's really just... more of the same? I think it's fine, but I have to be in the right mood to watch it. I hope they move the plot along so it doesn't just continue into infinity like a shounen...
Digimon Beatbreak has been visually astounding with super cute new monster protagonists, but the characters so far haven't had too much personality? It feels like they're trying a bit too hard, and yet, not hard enough to make something of it so far... but maybe it's just some strange pacing. I'm liking the focus on found family as a core of the series at least, and I'll continue watching hoping it shapes into a show I truly love.
Clover isn't a currently airing show - or even a show at all - but a short animated music video that I shared with Chris after not seeing it for a very long time. I'd read the manga as a kid and remembered it being pretty cool, and seeing this little bit in action made me wanna revisit it!
As a result of watching some cute CLAMP music videos (namely, Clover and the CLAMP in Wonderland videos), Chris and I had a hankering to watch something of its ilk, so we tried some of Kobato! It's a bit slow, but very cute and overflowing with sweetness. It's an iyashikei in the purest form - a story meant to heal the viewer, while the protagonist heals others with sweetness and kindness (and a good deal of airheadedness...). I do like that one of the main protagonists is a plushie dog-like creature with huge sharp teeth.
And now, for the final month of the year!
I'm done with suffering this year. I'm planning to make December into a fun, creative month where I spend a lot of time with my partner offline focused on personal projects. I do plan to have themed Twitch streams at my typical stream times (get ready for the return of a... certain video game 
), but I'll be most focused on celebrating as thoroughly as possible, as well as watching Christmas-y films each day of the month leading up to the holiday. How do you plan to spend the last month of the year? I'd love to know, plus hear about what you thought of this blog post. Thanks so much for reading; I'm sending you all the best!
Here's a cardamom bun that Chris and I tried from our local European bakery! It was freshly baked and so delicious, I'm very happy we got to try one for the first time!