monthly recap (march 2025)
i'm constantly so bored out of my mind that i need to put myself into situations that are only funny to me. thing is, it always ends with me being hurt— i've been going through an insane woke 2025 gintama plot for the past few weeks, but at what cost? it's exhausting on my spirit so i'm ready to return to being a stay-at-home otaku who doesn't socialize... until boredom gets the better of me again.
NJ tamashii lions den: live pro wrestling
pro wrestling is like real life brain rot (and real life brain damage for the wrestlers) but it is my go-to comfort food when i need a pick-me-up.
there were only three people in the audience by the time i got there at opening, but by the first few matches the number had grown to ten— and none of them were people part of the local pro wrestling scene! still, the turnout was worse than i expected. i thought there would have at least been fifteen people given how well the new years showdown did.
i didn't mind the intimate atmosphere, though. the dojo got a new host instead of the guy who usually handles hughes academy's shows, and i felt like his inexperience and silliness added to the fun of the event. like you can't really take a wrestling show with an audience of ten that seriously.
the matches were pretty unserious too. first event had xander taylor up against bruno astro in a gimp mask. i guess the dojo didn't have enough people willing to fight that night because they pretended that bruno was a mysterious mexican luchador character and had him speak spanish and everything (bruno is brazillian). i'm not sure what to make of bruno's progression in the dojo— he's easily the best technical fighter and performer out of fale's boys so stuff like this and jungle fury feels a bit beneath his talents.
unfortunately i've soured a bit on the pretty boys. even though they're faces i just don't like how homophobic their gimmick feels. a lot of it is like jokingly sexually harassing other wrestlers or staff members which aside from being weird simply feels played out and unfunny. i don't feel like mark is even into the role as much as richie, but maybe it's because he's also taken to running a family vlog instagram reels account.
after richie's fight with tj illes, the pretty boys made an in-character speech about how they were there at the dojo since day one, always fighting and persevering despite never making it to japan, staying strong in the face of those who did and came back to laugh at them. first of all, it's like what are you on about. there have been a couple of fale boys to make it to japan but the dojo is also very infamous for not getting anyone to NJPW itself outside of one japanese guy and the two brothers from late last year.
secondly, it was just a sad, strange speech. the struggle to make it to japan might be an in-character thing but that's also eight years of your real world life spent on a goal that probably isn't going to come true. sure it's kayfabe but the gimmick of the pretty boys is to call everything hot and sexy, not to be so serious like this. the audience had ten people and i was likely the only one who's familiar with actual NJ tamashii lore so i don't know what they gained from talking about it character-wise unless there was a hint of truth. and if there was... again, it's sad that the audience only had ten people.
meal prep
it's easy to eat when you cook for yourself alone. i think the biggest factor is just having enough freezer space.
art log
media log
- lady gaga - ..., mayhem: basically relistened to every gaga album (aside from the film-related records) in preparation for the release of mayhem. dawn of chromatica remains peak, the fame monster is that girl, and joanne is, surprisingly, my third favorite. mayhem is really good! loved the first half. second half gets a bit slow, but i'll listen to it again sometime.
- puss in boots: the last wish: it was a good film but underwhelming after all the great news i had heard about it. the goldilocks storyline was definitely the highlight and i was fond of the nine lives and marriage plot threads as well. unfortunately i did not give a fuck about perrito who was the heart of the film. maybe it was his american accent or his grotesque character design that had nothing to do with the fantastical world of the film or his annoying humor. didn't care for the guy despite liking the role he played— a shame!
- impact pro wrestling - reckoning: first IPW show of the year. i was joking to someone about how pro wrestling is like drag for straight guys and IPW actually debuted a nonbinary pro wrestler who was a former drag queen. i like the new gimmick of jacked maximum; it helps separate his character from sir mr burns/james shaw and feels more accurate to new zealand. going into the event i was wondering what the hell a dog collar match was, but it really is just a fight where they chained up horus and spartan with dog collars and let 'em loose. you're treating these boys like animals and they're having the time of their lives!
- alien weaponry tour (with shepherds reign): i became a fan of the samoan-language band shepherds reign thanks to their song aiga being used by a local pro wrestler i like— so when i saw they were touring with alien weaponry i just had to see them live. crushed it. i'm not huge on alien weaponry but they were also exciting to watch. most surprising thing was how different metal concerts were from pop concerts in audience behavior. pretty much no phones out, everyone genuinely jumping and bumping about in enjoyment. it was a bit scary at first!
- sket dance C1-C100: i'm a massive gintama fan so i've been meaning to read sket dance for over a decade. it came to me in a dream so i finally got off my ass and began it. sket dance starts extremely slow and unfunny and feels like a carbon copy of gintama in a worse setting with a worse cast but i think it shines with its main character. bossun is painfully generic at first! but in sideM terms, he acts like a physical idol with the skills of an intelli who is really a mental. i like how soft and emotional he is without being pathetic or boring. the main trio dynamic seems weak at first because they lack a solid tsukkomi, but it works better once the side characters and plotlines become more interesting and the trio as a whole act as the tsukkomi. student council is great. love agata in particular he's literally me. sket dance is weird even for heartwarming gag manga standards because there are some chapters that are entirely sad without anything funny, some that are absolutely unrealistic and set in different time periods or involve shapeshifting, and some that are just sherlock holmes mystery stories. the tonal shift is extremely jarring but it keeps things fresh.
- nosferatu: excellent film with beautiful cinematography but a story that feels disjointed because it tries to have it both ways.
it's simultaneously about a woman being pursued by a man who violated her as a teenager and about a woman embracing her sexuality by engaging with a man who pleases her over her husband... except the man is the same person in both circumstances. unless it's meant to be a story about a woman dealing with her guilt of being sexually attracted to her abuser in which case idk. i was surprised to find out that this is the only version of dracula that centers around the mina character because it felt so natural that she should be the focus. despite that, she has a less active role than in other nosferatu films in that it's the professor who discovers the solution to killing orlok rather than herself.