April Favourites ’22

I can’t quite believe it’s the end of another month already! I mean, one more day and…

Gif taken from Giphy

Sorry, not sorry. 😛 But yes, it’s going to be May tomorrow and I can’t quite believe we are a month away from being halfway through 2022.

Not going to lie, I’m a mixture of excited and nervous for May for a few reasons. It’s going to be nice to have another long bank holiday weekend this weekend, but in a couple of weeks I’ll be going to see My Chemical Romance! Regular readers and friends will know I have been waiting for two years to see them now due to Covid, so I’m glad the time is finally coming up! I printed off my tickets recently so I’m almost ready to go. I’m so excited, but sort of nervous too for many reasons. I haven’t been to a gig since 2017 when I saw cKy, which was a longgg time ago now! I’m also feeling anxious about Covid too. It would suck for both me and Dane to leave the gig with Covid… That being said, it’ll be worth it at this point as I’ve been waiting long enough to go and see MCR! I’m going to try and save up some monies towards merchandise, as I can see me buying a lot of it… Especially t-shirts and hoodies. 😛

Alongside going to see MCR, I’m also planning to go and visit Emily (link to blog) whilst we’re in Milton Keynes! We did try and meet up before/during the cKy gig but it didn’t happen sadly. I’m so excited to meet her! We’ve been blogging friends for as long as I can remember now (over six years I feel!) so it’ll be lovely to see her, and her furry companions too. Go and check her blog out by the way, I have linked it for you all. 🙂

Alongside that, I don’t know what other plans me and Dane have for May, maybe plan something in for our anniversary in June, as well as planning/seeing friends too? We shall see!

One final thing I want to mention is how excited I am for this months content! I have some cute posts coming up in the next couple of weeks and I cannot wait to share them all with you. I know April was a bit of a quieter month but I was so busy over Easter, I didn’t really get much time for myself, let alone sitting down to write.

For now however, lets get on with this months favourites!

Favourite Beauty Product – Peripera – Ink Mood Drop Tint – Bubble Berry and Berry Vibe.

With my March pay I decided to treat myself to some new lip products from YesStyle. I really love wearing lipstick, but as the years have passed, I’ve worn it less and less. I used to live for my MAC satin lipsticks, then liquid lipsticks and now I’m more about my lip stains/tints and glosses. I’ve always found Korean brands lip tints are the best all rounder for lip products, they hydrate, leave gorgeous colour and are affordable. I’ve tried Peripera in the past and really do rate their products highly, so I decided to order myself a couple of lip tints from their ink mood drop range. Bubble Berry and Berry Vibe are both pink lip tints, one being darker than the other. Bubble Berry is described as, “cool berry pink” and Berry Vibe is described as, “bright berry plum”. Alongside the colours being gorgeous and wearable for any occasion, the product itself isn’t sticky, easy to apply and lasts for hours! It’s perfect and I’m so glad to finally have some pink lip tints in my collection.

Favourite Film – Jackass Forever.

As a massive Jackass fan, I have a lot to say about the latest movie. First of all, I have been a fan since I was ten years old in 2000. I adore all the TV show and the movies and if anything they got me through my dissertation for my BA studies at university, as well as some darker times. I’m also a fan of the cKy movies and Viva La Bam. With this being said, Ryan Dunn and Bam Margera not being part of the fourth movie broke my heart a little and I knew from the start that it wouldn’t feel like Jackass to me when I watched it. I finally saw the fourth instalment in April and I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it. There were stunts that had clearly been done before by others and in my opinion, there were clearly stunts that had been written by Bam (I don’t know if anyone else thought this too?). The new cast were great, I have to say, they appeared to be up for anything (and judging by some of their tattoos, had been Jackass fans from a young age like me) and I feel like stunts they did now, were stunts that the Jackass crew back in the day wouldn’t have done. If you don’t know, this is Johnny Knoxville’s last Jackass film… Or so he says, so for his final film I just felt like it was lacking so much and that in itself made me sad. I’m intrigued to see if they do another TV show for the new cast, or another film. I feel like the films should have been left at three, after watching this one. Again, as I said, I didn’t love or hate it, but sadly I think Jackass should be done now, or at least just leave the new cast to do their own thing and retire the old? I don’t know. Let me know what you think! Please excuse the word vomit here by the way, I have so many thoughts about it haha.

Favourite TV Show/Anime – SPY x FAMILY.

With new season anime, comes a new anime show to share with you all! SPY x FAMILY is new for this season and is one me and Dane have been watching for the past couple of weeks since it began. I know this was a manga first of all and one quite a few people I know read and love. I wasn’t massively fussed about watching the anime when it was announced, but seeing as Dane put it on, I thought, “Why not!” and now I really enjoy it! As the name suggests, it’s about a spy family, but with a twist. I don’t want to say too much in case of spoilers, but Twilight, a spy, has to create a family in order to complete one of his missions. The girl he adopts has telepathy and the woman he marries is an assassin. Due to her telepathy the girl knows what her adoptive parents true lives are, but the parents don’t know each others. So far it’s a mixture of funny and keeps you on the edge of your seat. I adore all of the characters so far and Anya (the girl) reminds me of a diclonius from Elfen Lied due to her pink hair and the strange black hair bun covers she wears (which remind of the diclonius horns). I definitely recommend you checking it out and personally, I much prefer the sub to dub, it just works better.

Favourite Music – Saliva – Back Into Your System.

Over the Easter bank holiday me and Dane decided to deep clean our kitchen. It had been long overdue and with family coming over for Dane’s birthday and Easter, we decided to finally do it. During our time cleaning, we decided to put on nu metal from the early noughties, which is a genre of rock music that we both love. At one point Saliva came on and it reminded me of their third album Back Into Your System that I LOVED back in the day and listened to religiously. I remember exactly how I discovered it, through looking for clips from Elfen Lied the song “Weight Of The World” plays against the top of it, which I fell in love instantly. It’s still one of my favourite songs and I’ve honestly missed listening to this album.

Image taken from Wikipedia

Favourite Game – Raft.

This is a game Dane bought for me a while ago so we could play together. Before and during Easter we played it quite a bit, as it’s a really nice, relaxing game to sit and play after a busy day of work. We’ve recently stopped playing it as much as we’ve found it’s getting a little repetitive, but I’m pretty sure we’ll pick it up again some day. The premise of the game is you need to survive and built your raft up. You do occasionally float by islands, which you can stop at to gather more resources, you pretty much live on your raft though. We didn’t realise at first, but there is a story to this game! Our understanding of this is that you play as siblings who need to find their family through radio messages and more. I don’t think we’ve done a lot with the story yet, the idea of the surviving is fun to us! I highly recommend this, but more so if you can play with friends, as it’s just a bunch easier!

Just a few of my favourite things…

Loungefly Cinnamoroll backpack.

To give you all a sneak peak of one of the posts coming up in May on my blog, I wanted to briefly share my latest Loungefly addition, and boy, do I love it! Easter I decided to finally pick up the Cinnamoroll Loungefly backpack, after debating it for months. I’ve been using it since it arrived last weekend and I really love it. It’s comfortable to wear, cute and fits everything quite nicely. It does kind of feel on the small side, but that’s probably because I carry around too much stuff. I think my only worry with this bag is the obvious one, it’s white, so I worry it’ll be stained and dirty easily. That being said, life is too short for regret. I wanted this bag for a while and now I finally have it, I’m going to use it! I snagged it for a bargain of £45 from Pop Figures. They’re Midlands based so this arrived in a couple of days after ordering. I’ll be talking about this bag on a blog post in the next couple of weeks!

Mini Egg nails.

As we all know, Easter was a couple of weeks ago and just before it I was due a new set of gel nails. I decided to go for Mini Egg inspired nails, as not only are they my favourite chocolate, but since 2019 (when I started getting gel manicures) I’ve always wanted to do these nails. So, FINALLY I’ve been able to do it! They’re getting redone this weekend and I’m feeling an emo theme, ready for when I go to see My Chemical Romance. I’m actually really sad to see these go, but I can always get them done again soon. 😀

Animal Crossing Timmy & Tommy amiibo.

On Dane’s birthday we decided to go out and do some geeky shopping and I FINALLY snagged the Timmy & Tommy amiibo figure I was after! This wasn’t cheap at £18, but a lot of places sell it for £20 and up, so I can’t complain too much. Plus Dane bought it for me as he knew how much I’ve wanted it. It’s such a cute figure and in amazing condition. I gave it a good clean when I came home and it’s now in place with all the other Animal Crossing amiibo figures. Now I only have Kicks left to get and potentially Smash Bros Isabelle. The shop I picked it up from is an independent vintage game shop in Birmingham called Vintage Gamer. If you’re in Birmingham like me, or fancy a day trip, I HIGHLY recommend! There’s so many vintage games and consoles, you could spend hours there. Plus the staff are really lovely to chat to, which is always good.

Pokemon Vulpix Flocked POP! vinyl.

This is a new addition to my very small POP! vinyl collection, but one I just couldn’t resist when I saw people talking about it on Instagram. I do love some of the Pokemon POP! vinyl figures as they look adorable, and Vulpix is always one I’ve had on my list to get as and when, so when I saw Smyths had the flocked version, I pre ordered and collected it later that day! It’s still sat in the box, as I’m unsure if I ever want to worry the flocking on it gets dusty/dirty and ruined! It’s such a cute little figure and I’m so glad I picked it up now. 🙂

Lazy Oaf Rainbow Sally t-shirt dress.

Finally I want to share with you one of my recent finds on Vinted! The image isn’t mine, but it is from the listing I bought the dress off of, so it’s fine. 😛 I haven’t yet taken a photo of the dress, nor worn it as I’ve been so busy, but I’m sure I’ll wear soon and post all about it! Anyway, this Lazy Oaf rainbow sally dress has been on my Lazy Oaf grail list for as long as I can remember. Every time I’ve found this dress for sale on second hand websites it would go for silly prices well over £60, and I just don’t have time for spending money that much on pre loved items, no matter what brand. So, when I saw this pop up on Vinted in my size for £25, I knew I had to snap it up! A couple of days later it arrived, was washed and is now waiting in my wardrobe to be worn! I’m so excited to wear it, it’s so comfy to wear and with some tights, and maybe my heart buckle belt, I’ll look adorable and ready for the summer!!!

So, there we have it guys, my favourites from April! I honestly can’t believe we’re already into May tomorrow, this month has flown and it’s been quiet nice to say the least, which I’m thankful for.

As we’re in another bank holiday weekend this weekend, what are you plans for it? Plus, what items are in your favourites list this month? Make sure to let me know in the comments.

Until next time, take care and have a lovely weekend.

My Dress-Up Darling

Image taken from My Anime List

I don’t know if I’ve ever written a blog post purely dedicated to a manga/anime series before, but no time like the present, eh?

I really wanted to write about My Dress-Up Darling (Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru, which translates to The Bisque Doll That Fell in Love) today as it’s a manga/anime series I’ve really fallen in love with and it’s definitely fast become one of my favourites, which is crazy to think about. I know a lot of people have fallen head over heels for My Dress-Up Darling too and especially Marin the main female protagonist, some falling for her a little harder than others.

I know today’s post is a little different but I wanted to share my thoughts about this series as I know so many people love it and season one is now completed, so I’d like to share what I thought of it in that aspect too.

Don’t worry, there won’t be any spoilers shared here, I’m not about that life. I will however share the basic information about what the anime is all about and more.

I’m just going to get straight into it, I honestly hope you enjoy reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it.

I think the last time I was into an anime so much I had to pick up the manga to read was A Silent Voice (2017). Me and Dane had been to watch it at The Electric Cinema in Birmingham, as I’d been recommended to watch it by adverts and they were damn right to tell me about it! Forbidden Planet/Worlds Apart is literally a stone throw away from the cinema so we ventured there prior to have a nose at geeky goodness, including manga. Dane walked out with Berserk (which was standard back in the day) and I left with the first three volumes of A Silent Voice. I binge read all the volumes in a week!

The same has happened with My Dress-Up Darling where I’ve binge read volumes one to three (still not started four) of the manga after watching the anime, although I’m holding off reading volumes five to eight online until they actually come out for us in the UK. I don’t know about you guys, but I much prefer holding a manga to read instead of just scrolling pages on my phone or laptop.

The anime is based off of the manga also known as Sono Bisque Doll, which released in Japan with its first volume in January 2018, with there currently being eight volumes of the manga, with volume nine on the way! In the UK there are currently six volumes, with five and six being pre-orders. The manga released to us in the UK in April 2020. With the release of the anime and its quick popularity with anime fans alike, the manga has sold out like hot cakes, with many manga stockists apologising and popping people on wish lists. There has also been a lot of scalpers on selling websites trying to sell volumes one and three (which are the hardest to get right now) for stupid prices!

At the time of writing this post volumes two and four are the main ones you’ll find available to purchase at the moment, with five and six being pre orders for the near future. I’ve found Amazon, Forbidden Planet and Wordery have been some of the best places to find volumes for sale.

I was able to snag volumes one and two from Forbidden Planet, as well as four on Amazon. Last week I was able to finally snag volume three through a lovely seller on Depop! She didn’t scalp or put the price up at all, especially with the volume being brand new.

With that out of the way, I’m going to talk about the anime first, just because that’s what I watched prior to reading the manga. It would be weird to talk about it the other way around when that isn’t how it happened for me. There are twelve episodes in season one with the season beginning on 9th January and concluding on 27th March 2022.

My Dress-Up Darling is about Gojo, a trainee Hinamatsuri (Hina for short) doll creator who has just started his first year of high school. One day during school Gojo is in the craft room at school making some costumes for his Hina dolls when Marin sees him. Marin wants to cosplay, but isn’t very good at making costumes, so once seeing Gojo’s talent, approaches him about whether or not he can help her create her cosplay costume for a character she adores. Whilst Gojo has no experience of this, he helps Marin regardless but one cosplay turns from one to more as the story progresses.

It’s a romantic comedy, slice of life manga/anime and my perfect style of anime/manga! In all honesty I’m a sucker for slice of life, no matter what, even drama you’d find on Channel 4!

Each week I’m a sucker for how Gojo and Marin’s friendship progresses, as well as finding out more about each of the characters and what cosplay Marin will work on next.

I don’t feel like this will be a spoiler at this point, but the opening credits for the anime shows what cosplay outfits Gojo and Marin are working on together, even in the order they do them as well. The covers for the manga volumes have the same images of Marin in her cosplay too. I’m so excited to see more in the future! My favourite so far as definitely been her first.

Dane is the one who introduced me to My Dress-Up Darling. I can’t remember how it came about exactly, as we were sick for the first few weeks of January, which is of course when the anime came out. I remember he was watching it and mentioned, “Everyone is going mad for this anime online and how good the animation is. Especially compared to Berserk!” For anyone that isn’t aware (I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it before or not…), Dane is a massive Berserk fan and like many, was disappointed with the animation style for Berserk 2016.

What got Dane into My Dress-Up Darling was, “I had seen a gif on Reddit of Marin dancing in her bikini (taken from episode two) and without sounding perverted, I really liked the animation style and character’s design. I was immediately enamoured with Marin and wanted to know more about her… Besides her bikini choices.”

The GIF in question, more frames than Berserk 2016. Image taken from Tenor

I think Dane had watched a couple of episodes before I decided to give it a go, which he was more than happy about. I watched the first episode and craved more! We’ve been happily watching each new episode every Saturday morning ever since. It’s always been something to look forward to throughout the past couple of months, especially coming up to the weekends. Since the start of the year we’ve been having regular anime weekends where we sit and binge watch any that have new episodes or ones we’ve discovered and have started to watch together.

There is a huge elephant in the room when it comes to My Dress-Up Darling and it’s the amount of fan service, or arguably… Perverse shots that are in the show. It’s a topic that has blown up all over the internet, which I can understand. I don’t get some of the scenes in question that they chose to animate, and whilst I never feel uncomfortable, I do question it. I know a lot of people have also stated after seeing the “lewd” animated scenes, they stopped watching it, as they no longer wished to support the anime. I personally think its a shame that this happens as it affects everyone who has worked on the anime in question (not just speaking about My Dress-Up Darling here!). As I said, it doesn’t personally bother me, but I do question some stuff. The animators of the show (who may have also worked on the manga too) were probably given a clear vision to be like the manga, so, they have.

As I always do, when I really fall in love with something I always like to try and get some merchandise of it, official or fan made merch at that. I’ve seen one piece of official merchandise I’d love to pick up (key chain) but I’d also love a t-shirt with Marin on, especially pulling one of her many happy faces that she’s pulling during the opening credits of the anime.

Marin is very much loved in the community right now for both her personality, as well as for how pretty and “perfect” she is. I guess it’s because we can all relate to her one way or another as anime, manga and game lovers who just want to show off how much we love characters we watch, read and play as. I’ve personally only cosplayed twice, my first time as Lucy from Elfen Lied and my second time as Cartman’s The Coon from South Park. Both times were so much fun, especially the latter as so many people were telling me and Dane (he dressed up as Kenny’s Mysterion persona) how amazing we looked.

I’d love to cosplay as so many characters and people but I just don’t think I have it in me. I’d be so self conscious the whole day in case anyone judged, if I did the character wrong and more.

So, watching My Dress-Up Darling is a nice way of seeing how people DO get their cosplays together, how happy it makes them feel, the learning processes behind it all and more. Plus the friendships Gojo and Marin make together and with others is really lovely to see. OH and to add, it’s so cool to see how they drew parts of Tokyo. Me and Dane are especially missing Japan so far this year and are craving going back, especially when watching anime where it’s set in areas we stayed/ventured to.

Now I’ve spoken a little about My Dress-Up Darling’s anime, I want to touch upon the manga a little, which I’ve been speed reading the past week since I got volume three! I won’t talk too much about it, as I’ve already spoken a lot about the anime as it is.

The manga (from what I’ve read so far) is pretty much identical to the anime. I can’t say as I’ve noticed any massive differences so far, which I like. The manga style is gorgeous to boot by the way and is very similar again to the anime. I know some manga styles differ to the style when you watch the anime (Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid being a good example of this…) but thankfully this didn’t do that.

At the time of writing this, season one of My Dress-Up Darling has come to a close and what a close it was to a show so many of us adored! I won’t say too much of what happens in the episode itself due to spoilers, etc, but for anyone who is watching (from January, or if you decide to watch it after reading this post), please make sure to continue watching episode twelve after the credits begin… There’s a bit at the end that really rounds up the season perfectly.

Overall I’ve fallen head over heels for My Dress-Up Darling, which is also bad news because now not only do I want as much merchandise from it as I can get my mitts on, but I’m also sad that the anime’s first season is coming to a close this weekend.

Image taken from Good Smile Company US Twitter

I’m already planning on watching the dub version, just so I can enjoy it all over again, as well as ordering the Marin Nendoroid when it releases too! Me and Dane have been talking about whether a DX version will release too, where Marin will have all her cosplay outfits to dress up in too! Otherwise, an additional set of outfits for this would be great. Good Smile Company would miss a trick not doing that!

If you’d like to watch My Dress-Up Darling yourself, you can find it on both Funimation and Crunchyroll!

So, have you been watching My Dress-Up Darling? If so, what do you think of it? Have you been watching the dub, or the sub? Of course, have you also read the manga? Maybe you hadn’t heard of it until now, has my post inspired you to watch? Make sure to let me know all your thoughts in the comments below!

Until next time guys, have an amazing weekend and I’ll see you in April! 🙂

March Wish List ’20

It’s officially March and I already know I’m going to be skint this month… 😛

I’m also aware that I’ve broken my “every Saturday will be when posts go up” rule that I set after I got back from Japan. Like I said on my previous post for my February favourites post, I have always had certain days set for my monthly posts and I’m going to stick with these. So this week I will have two posts up! This one today and then one on Saturday.

This months wish list is full of game and anime related stuff, which isn’t a bad thing! 😛 I’ve already mentioned in various posts about all the games that are coming out this month that I am excited for, so of course I need to mention them here!

I hope you enjoy this months wish list post, and it isn’t too Japanese gaming and anime related… 😛

• Nintendo Switch Animal Crossing: New Horizons (link)

Of course I had to mention my favourite thing about March! Animal Crossing is finally coming to the Switch this month and I know I’m not the only one who is really excited for it. I’ve had it pre-ordered for months now and I am counting down the days now until it comes out. I’ve actually booked the day off work so that I can head out first thing in the morning, pick it up from Smyths (where I’ve pre-ordered from) and spend the whole day playing it as much as I can! Dane is also getting the game, so we can play it together the weekend it comes out, which I am beyond excited for. I’ll be talking loads about his game this month… Just warning you now. 😛

• Nendoroid Mai Sakurajima (Requested through YY Kawaii)

As many of my readers know, both me and Dane collect Nendoroid figures and we made sure to pick up some that we really wanted when we went to Japan in January. HOWEVER I regretted not buying one in particular that I kept seeing, which is Mai Sakurajima from Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, an anime that me and Dane watched together last year. We both fell in love with it and it’s one of those anime series now that I really love. We saw LOADS of merchandise in Japan for this anime and aside from Dane buying me one charm of Mai Sakurajima in her bunny girl outfit, I didn’t get anything else. I saw the Nendoroid figure loads and at decent prices too… But I just never bought it, as I planned to when I got back to the UK. HOWEVER, she’s either sold out or the release date has been pushed back months. She hasn’t been re-released… Just pushed back, which I find odd. So, I reached out to my favourite person for getting my Japanese goods, YY Kawaii to see if she could get Mai for me and she could AND FOR A GOOD PRICE! I’m so excited to receive her now and put her on display either in my Nendoroid cabinet or maybe on a shelf I’m getting next to my bed for some of my favourite things! I’ll see how I feel, but yes! I am excited for get her now.

• Nintendo Switch Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (link)

Back in 2008 my dad bought me a red Nintendo DSi (which I still own!) for Christmas and I LOVED IT! I remember not long after that whilst searching through Gamestation (who else remembers Gamestation?!) they had Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and I decided to pick it up. If there is one Nintendo handheld console that really disappointed me, it’s the Game Boy Advance. I hated pretty much all the games that came out on it, as well as the prices, so I hardly played it and instead stuck with my Game Boy Color. The DSi was great because you could play both DS and Game Boy Advance games in it, so I binge played Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team on it all the time! When I finished the game and found out that Nintendo had also made a version for the DS I decided to find it to buy! I found Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team from Play.com (who remembers play.com?! FUCK I FEEL OLD NOW) and again, I played the shit out of it! Since then I have been in love with the Mystery Dungeon series so I have been excited for the Switch remake of the original two to come out. I’ve played the demo as much as I can and have this game pre-ordered with Smyths to pick up after work on Friday. I am beyond excited and already know I’m going to play this game loads this weekend. Sorry for the massive ramble talking about this, but I just had to share. 😛

• John Lewis & Partners Premium Faux Fur Throw in Soft Pink (link)

A couple of weeks ago me and Dane popped into town as I had to exchange some Vans I bought before Christmas. I wore them to Japan as they were perfect for walking around in BUT they ripped at the side! The store was amazing and exchanged them for me straightaway. They are by far my favourite shoes now… ANYWAY as we were in town we decided to have a nose around whilst we waited for the trains to quiet down from the rush hour. We went into John Lewis, as we love a good nose at household stuff and I saw this gorgeous pink throw, which is one of the softest things I’ve ever touched. I really wanted to buy it, but they didn’t have any in stock. When we found out how much it cost… We were put off a tad. I still want it though to stick on the end of my bed BUT the price… I’m going to say this for a rainy day when I fancy a BIG house related treat. FYI if you haven’t gone to have a nose at the price yet… It’s £95.00… Ouch.

• Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai Blu-ray Collectors Edition (link)

It was only from looking for the Mai Sakurajima Nendoroid that I decided to take a look into the anime she comes from, to see if there’s any DVD’s or Blu-ray’s out for it… WHICH THERE IS THIS MONTH! Me and Dane love this anime, so as soon as I found this on Amazon I shouted to Dane, “Hey Dane? Bunny girl senpai is out next month… Shall we buy it?” His simple answer was yes. 😛 So this will be pre-ordered by one of us soon!

• Persona 5 Royal Steelbook Edition (link)

As a Persona 5 fan, I am beyond excited for Persona 5 Royal! It’s basically the same game but with loads more story and game play added… So an expensive DLC if you will, but I don’t mind as I love Persona 5 so much! There’s loads of stuff that has been added that I’m so glad to have heard and seen already. I won’t mention here, as whilst I didn’t mind spoilers, I know others may who have never played the original game, or who have and have wanted to stay away from the spoilers. I’m actually being sent this game from Gamersheek, who are an amazing company that I discovered back in 2017 and since then we have built up  great relationship! I worked with them for a time to advertise the Joker Nendoroid, which I loved! Since then, whenever Persona 5 related games have been released, Gamersheek have sent them to me! I will be writing all about Gamersheek at some point this month, so make sure to keep eyes peeled for that! 😀

• Nintendo Switch Lite Carrying Case (Animal Crossing: New Horizons Edition) & Screen Protector (link)

Another Animal Crossing related item! Nintendo have announced some amazing Animal Crossing related merchandise that will be coming out at the same time as Animal Crossing: New Horizons and this is one of the many items I would love to get! I don’t need a carrying case for my Switch Lite as I already have one, but this one is so cute! As I’ll be popping out the day this comes out, I might see if I can grab it whilst I’m out, instead of pre-ordering it. 🙂

• diy Crossing Cross Stitch Kit in Goldie (link)

Honestly whilst writing this post I have just gone and ordered the Cookie one of this… OOPS! 😛 I wanted to buy something to cheer me up, as I’m currently in bed with the flu and it sucks. I love cross stitching and doing kits and as I now have my plushie case (it’s a book case but I shoved all my Pokemon plushies in there!) I would love to decorate it a bit more with Animal Crossing related stuff! I’d like to do the cross stitch kits of my favourite Animal Crossing characters and hang them/place them inside the case somehow! I’m excited for the Cookie one to arrive now!

Anyhoo guys, that was my wish list for March 2020! It was very Japanese weeb heavy and I have zero fucks. 😛

What do you guys have on your wish lists this month? Are you excited for Animal Crossing too? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having a great week so far. 🙂

2019 Top 3 Favourites

It’s the first day of 2020 and I am spending it in the laziest way possible… Sat on my cuddle chair, in my pyjamas and wrapped in a blanket. I don’t think I can get any cosier to be perfectly honest with you. 😛

I decided to do an overall top favourites post for 2019, as December doesn’t have anything special on it that my January 2020 favourites won’t miss out on in a months time. I didn’t so a December 2018 favourites last year and no one missed it to be fair.

I really love writing my favourites post, I can reflect over the month on things I loved and I enjoy writing about them too and sharing with you all. However, 2019 wasn’t a good year for reading for me. I seem to have been too busy seeing friends or chilling on games, my phone or watching something on the TV… Which is a shame. 2020 is the year I will be trying to read a hell of a lot more! I do miss reading my favourite manga series as soon as the books come out in the UK, but at least 2020 means I will have more to read now… See, past Nat was doing future Nat a massive favour! 😛

Anyhoo, no more nattering, it’s time to show off my op 3 from 2019, as well as runner ups. 🙂 I really hope you enjoy the first post of 2020!

Beauty Top 3

1. The Body Shop Drops of Youth™ Youth Liquid Peel.

2. Laneige Two Tone Matte Lip Bar in Red Velvet (review here).

3. Childs Farm Baby Moisturiser with Shea & Cocoa Butter.

Runner Up – Lime Crime Wet Cherry Gloss in Cherry Bomb.

TV Shows Top 3

1. Inside No. 9.

2. Mr. Pickles.

3. Fruits Basket.

Runner Up – Stranger Things Season 3.

Movies Top 3

1. Detective Pikachu.

2. Spider-Man: Far From Home.

3. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Runner Up – Avengers: End Game.

Books Top 3

1. Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid.

2. In Real Life by Cory Doctorow.

3. Persona 4.

Music Top 3

1. PVRIS – “Fire” (this is the single that got me into the band this year – who I now LOVE TO BITS!).

2. Litany – “Bedroom”.

3. Billie Eilish – “Bad Guy”.

Runner Up – Grimes – “We Appreciate Power”.

Games Top 3

1. Yoshi’s Crafted World.

2. Untitled Goose Game.

3. Borderlands 3.

Runner up – Pokemon Sword & Shield.

So that’s all of the my favourite items of 2019! I honestly can’t believe it’s 2020 now! I’ve spent most of the day relaxing, writing and talking to my mom on FaceTime. Can it really get any better than that? 😛

What were your favourite items from 2019? I’d love to hear!

Until next time all, Happy New Year! ^_^

May Favourites ’19

I cannot believe we are officially over halfway through 2019! The year is flying by, but I feel the past two months really have flown since I’ve been at my new job. It’s been amazing so far and to be honest with you the end of May and start of June have been amazing for so many reasons!

After years of wishing to go, on Wednesday me and Dane FINALLY booked our trip to Japan! I still cannot believe it’s happening and the sooner it sinks in, the better. I’ll be writing all about this in June at some point. 🙂

I’m off work next week which I’m really excited for as I haven’t actually had any holiday since my birthday in January. Me and Dane have loads planned, including going to Manchester for a few days and even going to see The Book of Mormon there! 😀

Anyhoo, I’ll try and give a massive life update post soon on my blog instead of using my monthly post to give you guys TOOOO many updates.

On with the monthly favourites! 😀

• Colgate Naturals Charcoal Toothpaste.

If there’s something I love, it’s a toothpaste that tastes sweet, foams loads and leaves my teeth and mouth lovely and clean. This is a new charcoal toothpaste by Colgate so on a food shop at the start of May I saw it was on offer so decided to pick it up. Well, I picked a couple of these because I do love a charcoal toothpaste. Since buying it I really do love using it morning and evening. If anything, it’s a pleasure to use. It doesn’t go black when brushing with it, which is fab! I know some people don’t like that when it comes down to charcoal toothpaste – this is nothing like that!

• Lime Crime Wet Cherry Gloss in Cherry Bomb.

In the Easter sales I ended up grabbing some bargains, including the Lime Crime best of red lips and this was one of the four products inside of the set. Out of the four this is definitely my favourite to be honest, which took me by surprise! I’m not going to lie – whilst I thought the wet cherry glosses looked amazing, for £16.00 I thought they were a rip off for something you could pick up on the high street for half of the price and less! I’ll admit it. I’ve now eaten my own words, these lip glosses are definitely a game changer. They’re so light, not sticky and so much more pigmented than I thought they were going to be. If I fancy a bit of colour, but don’t wish to wear anything heavy I’ve been reaching for this. The wet cherry glosses also smell AMAZING! They remind me of the Yankee Candle Cherries On Snow and I can only image this is what an American cherry pie must smell like.

• Decleor Hydra Floral Everfresh Hydrating Wide-Open Eye Gel.

Since I started my new job, I’ve been seeing my mom more – which is so lovely. We tend to pop to the shops together after I finish work or relax. On one of our shopping trips I picked up a new eye gel for myself, that isn’t this one however. The one I bought was anti-aging and BURNT MY SKIN! It was horrible and I was beyond gutted in so many ways. My mom gave me this eye gel as she knew how I was after a new one. So far this one has been amazing and I haven’t had any issues. It’s a lovely cooling gel and even though I’m sure it isn’t anti-aging but I feel like it does help with brightening my eyes a tad.

• Optex Intensive Eye Drops For Dry Eyes.

I really do love using eye drops, especially during he cold and hot months especially. Depending on the type of eye drops I buy, depends whether I repurchase them again or not. I don’t feel like I’ve ever really enjoyed eye drops as much as I have with the Optex ones. I find these work really well for me, especially as the hayfever season has officially started. These really help my eyes first thing in the morning to wake me up, as well as refreshing my eyes. I make sure to use these daily to keep my eyes from drying up whilst the weather is on and off of what it wants to be! 😛

• L’Oreal Men Expert Pure Power Black Charcoal Face Wash.

IDGAF is this is a product for men, I’m still fucking using it! 😛 It it works for blokes, it’ll definitely work for me. 😉 If you know what I mean! This is actually Dane’s face wash, which he loves to bits! He’s had this since about March/April now and around the time he first got it he recommended I give it a go to see what I thought of it. I LOVE it! A little bit of it goes a long way and it goes REALLY creamy and with loads of lather. It gives a lovely cooling feeling on the face, which is great when the weather is really warm. I give this a go once a week to once a fortnight and it really does give my skin a bit of a boost.

So now my beauty favourites are done, time to talk about the miscellaneous favourites of the month!

Image taken from GIPHYGIPHY

Favourite TV Show – Attack on Titan Season 3.

I was so happy for Attack on Titan to be back for the rest of season 3 at the end of April and weekly me and Dane have tuned into Crunchyroll or Funimation to make sure to watch the latest episode. We’re caught up so far at the moment and each episode has me on the edge of my seat and by the “to be continued” at the end of the episode, I am already craving more! Dane knows what’s happening throughout the series at the moment as he’s all caught up on the manga – so he’s always one step ahead of me in regards to what’s going to happen… Which sucks. 😛 One of the episodes recently was really emotional for me and I really need this weeks episode soon!

Image taken from GIPHY

Favourite Movie – Detective Pikachu.

I have been so excited for Detective Pikachu since it was announced months ago so as soon as tickets were released for this film at my local cinema I made sure to get our seats booked! It was an awesome date night out to be honest with you and I couldn’t have been any happier as I left the cinema after watching this. It was everything I wanted and more and I would love to go and spontaneously go and watch it again. I played the 3DS game of this and it was completely different with the story line in various ways. I honestly enjoyed the film more, because whilst the game had more information about Tim’s father and clue searching the film had more about what happened to Tim’s father. Recently Nintendo announced that there is going to be a sequel to Detective Pikachu on the Switch, which I am SO EXCITED FOR! 😀 Honestly if you haven’t been to watch this film yet, go and see it before it’s gone from cinemas.

Image taken from GIPHY

Favourite Book – A Polar Bear In Love Vol. 4.

I love this manga series so much and I was so scared that volume 4 was actually the last volume in the series! Thankfully this isn’t the case, but this volume was really emotional and it really tugged on my heart strings. I’ve mentioned this manga series on and off in the past on my blogs monthly favourites, but it’s about a polar bear who falls in love with a seal pup. Of course polar bears eat seals so the love is seen as strange, especially by the seal who at first is constantly scared that the polar bear is going to eat him. Along the way they start to travel together and even make some friends along the way. This manga has been turned into a mini series, which I really need to watch more of! 😛

Favourite Music – I Prevail – “Bow Down”, PVRIS – “Fire” and Grimes – “We Appreciate Power”.

If there are three songs I couldn’t stop listening to this past month, it was definitely the three shown above. I discovered all these thanks to listening to KERRANG! Radio during the week at work and I’ve fallen in love with them all! “Bow Down” has some screaming singing in there, as well as some normal singing. I love the combination between the two singers and it works really well! I love singing along to it on my way home from work, as well as in the evenings when I’m chilling out. PVRIS are a band that I feel I’ve discovered too late! I now really want to get their albums to listen to, as I really love their songs, especially this one. It’s so damn catchy and I always find myself singing along to it, especially if it comes on when driving. Finally we have Grimes “We Appreciate Power”. I’ve always listened to Grimes on and off over the past 7 years and I do rather like her music. Another artist whose music I need to download and listen to more!

Image taken from Tumblr

Favourite Game – Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.

This is a game I have not been able to stop playing whenever I have a moment to pick up my phone to play it. I play it in the morning when I wake up, if I have a spare 10/15 minutes before work, during my work break and then in the evening on and off after work. I don’t know how I have suddenly grown so addicted to it, but I have and I’m loving it! 😛 Even talking about it now, I’m going onto the app to see if there is anything I need to do! I am so excited for Animal Crossing to come out on the Switch and I’m keeping fingers crossed that Nintendo will announce information at E3.

So those are all my favourites from May! Again, I cannot believe it’s June already. The start of June is always a busy month for me and Dane, including celebrating when we bought our house as well as our anniversary. We’ll be 6 years together this time next week and it’s crazy how time flies when you’re having fun. 🙂

I’d love to hear what your favourites were from May! Make sure to let me know in the comments down below. Do you have a busy month ahead of you? If so, let me know about that in the comments too.

Until next time, take care all and I hope you have an amazing weekend. 😀

 

2018 Top 3 Favourites

I thought I’d do an overall favourites post about 2018, because although I do it monthly and talk about my favourites, it’d just be good to have a summary of favourites from throughout the year.

Of course with talking about my favourite things from 2018, I’ll be mentioning my top 3 favourites from each category I talk about monthly on my favourites post, including beauty, TV, film, book, music and games.

I’m hoping for the New Year to try and include favourite clothing as well! I wanted to start doing this halfway through 2018, but instead I thought I’d wait until the New Year to start including it. You’ll see this coming into my monthly favourite posts starting in February, when I do my January favourites.

But for now, let’s start talking about my favourites from 2018!

Beauty Top 3

1. The Body Shop Banana Body Yogurt (review).

2. Australian Bodycare Skin Wash.

3. Lime Crime Plushies in shades Cherry Soda and Gumdrop (review).

TV Shows Top 3

1. How to Keep a Mummy.

2. American Horror Story: Cult.

3. Hitoshi Matsumoto Presents Documental.

Movies Top 3

1. Deadpool 2.

2. Christopher Robin.

3. Bohemian Rhapsody.

Books Top 3

1. Snotgirl.

2. Himouto! Umaru-Chan.

3. A Polar Bear In Love.

Music Top 3

1. Arianna Grande – “No Tears Left to Cry”.

2. Mahalia – “I Wish I Missed My Ex”.

3. Don Broco – “Stay Ignorant”.

Games Top 3

1. Detroit: Become Human.

2. Spyro Reignited Trilogy.

3. Pokemon Go/Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee!

So those are my top 3 favourites from 2018! I know this blog posts wasn’t lengthy as to why they were my favourites, but I’ve spoken about all of these mentioned here so many times on my blog before, multiple times too and even have some reviews around. 🙂

What were your favourites from 2018? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

I can’t believe we’re into the first week of 2019 now. Where is time going already?!

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having a lovely week so far.

November Favourites ’18

Image taken from GIPHY

We are FINALLY in December and I’m not quite sure if I’m excited or meh about Christmas yet… Or the fact that 2018 has flown so damn quickly! Also I’m 29 in almost less than a month. Urgh can’t deal with that right now. 😛

I’m going to try so hard to do Blogmas this year as I would really like to. It wouldn’t be something special every day, but it would at least be SOMETHING on my blog, you know? I’d mostly try and fill quiet days in with advent calendar stuff, as well as what I’ve been up to.

Due to the fact November flew by so quickly, I feel like I never got the chance to really think much about what I loved. I had a long think about it though and I finally came up with what I loved throughout the previous month!

• Marc Jacobs Decadence EDP.

My brother actually bought me this perfume a couple of years ago for Christmas AND I KNOW perfume has a use by date on it (like all things…) but I never adhere to these things. 😛 I really love this scent as it’s so unique and yet has a feminine and slight masculine scent. The bottle itself is gorgeous! This is a proper going out perfume, but I love using it all the time. I’ve used this most of November and it’s reminded me 1. How much I love it and 2. How well my brother actually knows me when it comes down to perfume! 😛 He always buys me the best stuff. 🙂

• Simple Kind To Eyes Soothing Eye Balm.

This isn’t the BEST eye balm in the world, in the sense of it isn’t helping any ageing lines that I might be starting to get… However I was quite poorly for a couple of weeks in November with labyrinthitis. It honestly sucked. This eye balm really helped though when I felt tired and like shit. I do really love this eye balm, it’s not thick and heavy like most eye creams. It’s really light and leaves a lovely cooling feeling after.

• Lush Prince Of Darkness Fresh Face Mask (review here).

I picked up this face mask from Lush at the start of November when I went into London. Aside from online the only place you can get this face mask in store is in the Oxford Street store in London. I had 5 empty black pots so I picked this up for free! It’s by far one of my favourite face masks and I use it once a week. It really does help my skin after I’ve had a bad breakout. It clears out my pores and scrubs my face to make it lovely and soft. I definitely recommend giving this a go if you’re combination skin like I am!

• Vaseline Lip Therapy Aloe Vera.

This is my life saver and game changer! I’ve been on and off over the years about which lip balms have changed my life. Last year when my lips kept splitting in the corners this was something I ended up buying to try and help my lips. It helped so much! Since then I use this daily, whether I’m in or out of the house. It’s also great to use underneath lipstick to keep my lips lovely and soft. Out of all the flavours, scents etc out there the aloe vera one is by far my favourite. 🙂

• The Body Shop Banana Body Butter.

Since I started using The Body Shop banana range, it’s certainly made me realise how much I love The Body Shop for their products. They’re just great and at an affordable price too! I LOVED the banana range and I’m so gutted it’s now gone. It wasn’t around long enough for my liking. BUT I love using the body butter on my hands to keep them lovely and soft. I know this is really odd, but their hand cream doesn’t do anything for me. Only the hemp one works. I do love this though as it smells delicious and really does moisturise my hands when they need some major TLC!

So now my beauty favourites are done, time to talk about the miscellaneous favourites of the month!

Image taken from GIPHY

Image taken from GIPHY

Favourite TV Show – The Office (US) and Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai.

I couldn’t just name one TV show this month. I loved both of these equally! Thanks to Dane’s brother and his girlfriend we discovered that The Office (US) is fucking hilarious! I’d watched the UK version of it growing up and rather liked it, in a weird way. There are some really funny and iconic moments in the show, but my favourite part is how frustrating Jim and Pam are! In the sense you want them to hurry up and get together. 😛 Jim is by far my favourite character and the way John Krasinski plays him, he does such an amazing job at making the character so natural, normal and relateable.

The second show I’ve been loving is an anime that Dane has been watching for a while now, but every time he’s asked me to watch it, I was either too busy with my blog, playing games or I just couldn’t be arsed to watch it. Finally I gave in and began to watch it towards the end of November. Oh man it’s such a good anime and I’m glad I decided to watch it sooner rather than later! It’s about a guy who sees a girl dressed up a bunny girl in the library and he’s the only one who can see her! Then it goes on from there. It’s definitely worth a watch as it’s pretty unique. It’s on Funimation and Crunchyroll and is only subbed.

Favourite Film – Bohemian Rhapsody.

Oh man I honestly LOVED this film so much! I actually saw it at the end of October but it was pointless mentioning it last month. Alongside Deadpool 2, this was definitely one of my favourite films this year. It was amazing, beyond amazing! I grew up listening to Queen with my mom in the car whenever we were out and about so I do have a love for the band. When the trailer for this first came out I KNEW I needed to go and see it, Dane wanted to see it too. However as the release date loomed Dane changed his mind, “I don’t think I’ll enjoy it as much as I thought I would.” I was desperate to see it and as I didn’t think I’d be able to go with anyone else, I booked it regardless for us both. We left the cinema with Dane loving the film more than I did! I cried throughout the film and I just felt for Freddie Mercury. It makes me wish he was still alive. If it’s still showing and you haven’t seen this film yet, please do.

Image taken from Otaku Magazine USA

Favourite Book – Giant Spider & Me.

I discovered this book whilst I was visited my friend Sophi in London. I was after a new manga to read online as I’d read all my books I’d taken with me for entertainment on the way there. I can’t remember how I discovered this manga to be honest with you, I just know I found it on a UK anime and manga blog. It sounded weird but different, so I gave it a go and whilst I didn’t fall in love with it, it’s something I found myself reading each morning I woke up, as well as partly the way home from London. I occasionally read it before I head into work if I get there early. It’s based in a post apocalyptic world where this girl lives on her own and whilst out she finds the giant spider, who ends up becoming her pet/friend and lives with her. From there she starts to meet more people who have to come to accept the giant spider etc. It’s a very sweet manga and one I recommend people to read, especially if you hate spiders. This isn’t a normal spider and I don’t mean in just the size of it. 😛

Favourite Music – Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace.

This is by far my favourite Foo Fighters album. As odd as it sounds it’s been there for me through so much over the years. When I’ve been happy, sad, angry and depressed. Lately I’ve listened to it loads as it’s such a great diving album to listen to. I love listening to it before I go to work as well as before I head to my pole and hoop classes with my bestie Jacqui. I’ve popped the whole album above so you can give it a listen for yourselves if you haven’t already. Some of my favourite tracks from it are “The Pretender”, “Let It Die”, “Long Road To Ruin”, “Come Alive”, “Stranger Things Have Happened”, “Summers End”, “Statues” and “Home”. So most of the album really. 😉

Image taken from GIPHY

Image taken from GIPHY

Favourite Game – Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Pokemon Let’s Go: Eevee.

Oh man November was just full of games and being poor. 😛 Spyro and Pokemon are both massive games from my childhood and both make me feel really nostalgic. Within the space of a few days both Spryo Reignited and Pokemon Let’s Go came out! I’m still working my way through both games. 😛 First of all I want to say how much I was pissed off about Spyro. Not in the sense of the game but how bloody pisstakey it was for me to get it! So I pre ordered it back in August ready for the original release date of September. The game was pushed back to November so I had to wait another couple of months. Fine. BUT when I didn’t even get it the day it came out due to “courier issues” I was pissed. So I complained to Amazon and they ended up refunding me for the game and allowing me to keep it. It arrived the next day. So I’m pretty chuffed by that result. 😛

ANYWAY on about the game! I LOVE Spyro Reignited so much and they did such a good job on it! I played some of the first Spyro game but fast got bored after I finished the first world and levels. I felt like it lacked what the second and third games brought to the table. So I ended up moving onto the second game, which I’ve nearly completed! They’ve got some of the old voice actors back to reprise their previous roles, as well as some new ones. I love that Cassandra Morris (voice of Morgana in Persona 5, as well as many other things!) does some voice work in the game. I haven’t played the third game yet, but I know I’ll soon get to that this month!

With Pokemon Let’s Go I decided to opt for the Eevee option as it’s one of my favourite Pokemon. I loved Pikachu growing up, but the older I’ve got the more overrated Pikachu has become. Nintendo did such a good job with this game and aww man I couldn’t be happier with it! I think I’ve only had one issue with it so far and that’s that the 2 player option is shite. It’s not for adults really, it’s for children to play with their parents and introduce them to playing Pokemon. It’s a great idea to be honest and there’s nothing wrong with it per say. It’s just not any good for older gamers. Dane has also loved playing this and intends to take it with him whenever he has to work away from home! We’ll probably end up getting the Pikachu version sooner rather than later. 😛 Dane even contemplated getting me a Switch so I could play at the same time as him. The catching system for the game is amazing and works really well! This being said I’ve only used the Poke Ball controller (which I bought with the game) which I find looks like it works better than the joy cons. They seem super faffy! Handheld mode is definitely the best way to play the game though. I plan to write a massive post about the game eventually (probably this month tbf…) so I don’t want to talk too much about it to be honest.

So those are my favourites from November, the month that went by in the blink of an eye and left me feeling poorly and poor! 😛

How was November for you guys? What were you loving throughout the month? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Again, I am going to try and do Blogmas this year, but don’t get too excited for it as to be honest I can’t see it happening. xD

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re kicking off December with Christmas music and films. 😛

Winter 2018 Anime We’re Watching – His & Hers Post

This is a series I really wanted to start this year… Well two in fact! I LOVE LOVE LOVE anime and manga so I’m finally going to writing more about it on my blog as and when I can. I know my blog started off with mainly beauty and fashion but the older I’m getting, the less arsed I am about both of them. They will always factor into my blog (beauty more than fashion at least!) but I just want to start writing more about the things I enjoy and wish to talk about, instead of the stuff I hope my audience will want to read. Sounds selfish, but it’s my blog! 😛

As well as starting off talking more about anime, I am also going to be trying to do more blog posts with Dane, aka his and hers posts. I have loads of ideas for posts us two can write together and give both a male and females opinion on.

ANYWAY enough of stalling, on with the post!

Winter anime for 2018 is pretty amazing right now and if you’re a part of the loop you’ll either be incredibly pleased about the new and returning series that are on show right now, or disappointed. There may be some happy medium… 😛

I wanted to share some of the winter anime series that I’ve been watching and my thoughts about them. Dane has been watching some of them more than myself and vice versa, which is why I wanted him to join me in writing this post.

I have My Anime List up as a guide as to what is on at the moment for winter. I’m not going in any particular order. Of course I will list where you can watch these series if you’re interested!

From Myanimelist

Violet Evergarden – Available to watch on Netflix (dubbed).

Synopsis (source: Anime Expo) – There are words Violet heard on the battlefield, which she cannot forget. These words were given to her by someone she holds dear, more than anyone else. She does not yet know their meaning. A certain point in time, in the continent of Telesis. The great war which divided the continent into North and South has ended after four years, and the people are welcoming a new generation. Violet Evergarden, a young girl formerly known as “the weapon,” has left the battlefield to start a new life at CH Postal Service. There, she is deeply moved by the work of “Auto Memories Dolls,” who carry people’s thoughts and convert them into words.

Nat’s thoughts – This is a series that Dane got me to watch a couple of episodes in after it was added to Netflix recently. I’ve only watched a couple of episodes of this to be honest and it’s not that I dislike it, nor do I love it. It’s a series you seem to need to stick with or you won’t continue watching it, like myself. I just feel like the story is very slow and you’re just seeing the impact Violet has on other people whilst she’s trying to piece together the puzzle of what happened to her during her time in the army/fighting in the war. I may give it another go however as it does seem like a gorgeous story. The art style itself is also gorgeous and without sounding daft, is aesthetically pleasing. 😛

Dane’s thoughts – I started watching this after seeing a GIF on Reddit and thought, “Wow, that looks pretty!” After watching it I now think it’s one of, if not, the most beautiful anime I have seen to date. The hair… Damn… The hair just looks so good. Not surprising from the animation studio that brought us K-ON!, A Silent Voice and so much more. Kyoto Animation are really one of my favourite studios.

From GIPHY

The story, whilst slow but so pretty, kept me pretty engaged. I want to know what happened pretty much in the war, who the pretty major is, and how pretty Violet will eventually learn to understand her emotions, that are pretty. Even if Nat is no longer interested I will continue to watch it as it is released as a simuldub (an anime dub that is shown simultaneously with the Japanese release). It is definitely a must watch for me.

Did I mention how pretty it was? 😉 😛

From Myanimelist

Citrus – Available to watch on Crunchyroll (subbed).

Synopsis (Source: Yuri Project) – Fashionable Yuzu imagined the first day at her new school she transferred to after her mother’s remarriage a bit differently; she didn’t know it’d be an ultra-strict and conservative girls’ school. So instead of a sweet high-school romance, she butts heads with the stern student council president Mei—who turns out to be her new stepsister. And she has to learn that hate and attraction are often not that far apart.

Nat’s thoughts – Bloody hell this is an anime series that is taking the anime world by storm right now! I don’t think I’ve heard anyone say a bad thing about it other than how odd and meh (look at Dane’s thoughts for what I mean by meh…) it is. It’s basically about two step sisters who enter into a relationship. I’ve only watched a couple of episodes at the moment and it really does throw you into this young lesbian romance that the two girls enter into. Even the titles are very kiss heavy, like full on tongue and making out. Me and Dane aren’t really into shoujo ai (non-explicit lesbian relationships anime) but we watched it due to everyone talking about it right now, Dane more so than me! We did this with Yuri On Ice!!! and we’re so pleased that we did as we loved it! However, Citrus is different. I think the reason people are going crazy for it right now is because it’s sexual. People go mad for that sort of shit to be honest and considering the type of sexual relationship the two girls have… I’m surprised they’re showing it overseas. I do love Yuzu so much though, she’s adorable and moves away with her mom for their new “life” so she hopes to fall in love etc etc. She’s also kawaii with her fashion sense and quirks. It’s not a series I dislike nor like at the moment but like Violet Evergarden I do want to start watching it from the beginning to give it a fair chance (even though deep down I don’t think the sexual scenes are right considering how rapey they look…). Dane however has been watching more of it than I have! 😛

Dane’s thoughts – Anime is trash and so am I.

Lesbianism and sexual assault is the name of the game here. It is about Yuzu (the protagonist) and Mei, her new stepsister, getting freaky with each other and their shenanigans at school. Whilst it does develop into a consensual “thing” they have going on (as of episode 5 I would not call it a relationship just yet), it starts off really fucking rapey. Yuzu, being a confident and outgoing person in everyday life becomes very uncertain and scared once something vaguely sexual occurs. Even when it’s not even sexual it gets awkward fast, she’s like a teenage boy getting a boner at the slightest thing. Then Mei gets involved and you’re like, “Hell yeah!”… If you’re into that sort of thing… Then it gets rapey. Straight after everyone goes on their day like, “I was just groped, had my clothes torn off me… But I like it so it’s okay.”

The story has left me wanting to know what the deal with the dad is, why Mei behaves like a piece of cardboard, what other ways you can make lesbianism awkward and why Japanese girl-only schools make them so “horny”. Each episode is a roller coaster of emotion that leaves me feeling much like Fry from Futurama being sentenced to death by snu-snu.

From GIPHY

But…

… That shit is hot yo.

From GIPHY

All jokes aside, our reaction to this anime is just like Donald Glover (above) and does once again remind us of how trashy anime can be. If it was a bit more tasteful we could give it a proper recommendation but it’s just on the edge of being a bit too rapey. It’s definitely not for everyone.

From Myanimelist

Poputepipikku/Pop Team Epic – Available on Crunchyroll (subbed) and Funimation (dubbed).

Synopsis (Source: MAL) – Two high school girls, the short and exceptionally quick to anger Popuko, and the tall and much more calm Pipimi, do insane things and swear like sailors in this absurdist comedy filled with references and meta humor.

Nat’s thoughts – Pop Team Epic is a manga I have known about for a couple of years now so when it came out as an anime series I was excited and intrigued to see what they had done with it! The manga is actually more of a comic and shows strips of different scenes of what the girls get up to. It was extremely funny, random and odd all at the same time! I loved it though, but what I don’t love right now is the hype. I get the hype, I really do but at the same time I REALLY hope it doesn’t get too hyped for it’s own good. I’ve only watched a couple of episodes as urgh I don’t know. I think I’ve been more interested in other anime series right now to really want to focus my time and energy watching this one. I will however watch it from the beginning again because I can. 😛 It does have some really funny moments in it however, but I do feel like it worked better as a manga/comic strip.

Dane’s thoughts – Hmm. Don’t let the cute aesthetic fool you, it is not cute. It’s bat-shit crazy. It has its moments where they elicit a chuckle and the occasional, “HA!” but I haven’t wanted to carry on watching it to be honest, or at least not felt the urge to continue. It feels more like a chore to have my TV vomit memes into my eyes at such a blistering pace. We watched it subbed originally, I am a fast reader and enjoy subbed anime but I was more laughing at the visuals rather than the jokes themselves. We tried the dub but I don’t think it had the same impact, whilst the voice actors are good it just didn’t work for me. I guess it would be like trying to dub Konosuba.

I just have the feeling most people are watching this to try and show how weird and quirky they are.

From Myanimelist

Junji Ito: Collection – Available on Crunchyroll (subbed) and Funimation (dubbed).

Synopsis (Source: My Anime List) – A collection of animated horror stories based on the works of Japanese artist Junji Ito.

Nat’s thoughts – This is definitely one of my favourites from winter 2018 so far and I love it so much! Dane has read a selection of the manga by Ito Junji and we actually own Uzumaki which is one big story and probably won’t feature on the anime. Dane loves Junji Ito’s work and I’ve always found it to be creepy when he’s shown me the manga. However when we saw that there was an anime series online based off of his stories, Dane had to give it a go. I really enjoyed the first episode and to be honest I couldn’t wait for the next time! There will be 2-3 horror stories per episode which are either one off shorts or part of a longer series/story. The stories are a mixture of creepy and unnerving, as well as funny at times and somewhat lighthearted. It depends on the story really. As my Friday work day comes closer to 5pm I think of how excited I am to get home and continue watching this with Dane. I really do love this series and if you love horror you will definitely enjoy this.

Dane’s thoughts – I actually had no idea this was coming out until I saw that Funimation had the simuldub out. I have no idea how I missed this in the run up to it being shown.

As Nat has mentioned I have read a fair bit of Junji Ito’s work already online and currently only own Uzumaki (I am hoping for that to change though soon). The stories he writes are so unique and he is the king of the full page spread, the detail and horror in these images are grotesquely mesmerising. Every week the anime shows two short stories (or in some cases part of the greater story) from his collection. It’s great because you get something new each week, made so much better by the unique ending credits each week too which shows the characters from said stories. Something I have never seen before.

The problem with this is that it just does’nt carry over well in the medium of anime. The horror is not quite there in what the anime portrays. The horror comes from the thoughts of the story themselves and thinking after, “What if that were to really happen?” The animation is okay and sometimes the single shots have good detail in them but it just doesn’t have the same impact of turning the page of the manga.

I will continue to watch this one out of respect for the creator. I also want to see how they tackle the Tomie stories which they have not yet covered as of writing this.

From Myanimelist

Miira no Kaikata/How To Keep A Mummy – Available on Crunchroll (subbed).

Synopsis (Source: Crunchyroll) – When high school student Sora Kashiwagi finds himself staring down a mysterious oversized package sent to him by his self-proclaimed “adventurer” father, the last thing he expects is for it to be opened from the inside… by a little mummy so small it can fit in the palm of his hand!

Nat’s thoughts – Oh man if there is an anime series I have thoroughly enjoyed and been pretty obsessed with since Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid and Your Lie In April, it has to be How To Keep A Mummy. I discovered this anime through Crunchyroll’s Facebook page when they posted a video showing off the show for winter 2018. It’s so damn adorable and if you don’t find the little mummy Mii Kun adorable then you clearly have no heart or soul. The series is just so adorable and constantly pulls on my heart strings. It’s based off of a manga that I really want to read at some point. I always look forward to watching this on a Friday evening or Saturday morning. I can already tell it’ll be one of my favourite things of 2018.

Dane’s thoughts – Erm… It’s kinda cute. Nat likes it so I guess that counts for something… Right?

From Giphy

If you like miniature decaying (Nat – HE ISN’T DECAYING!!! HE’S FUCKING ADORABLE!!!) corpses being reanimated and behaving like a retarded pet (HEY HEY HEY!!! HE’S FUCKING ADORABLE. DON’T MAKE ME SAY THAT AGAIN!!!) then this is the anime for you. You may think I am joking but that basically is the premise. Young boy, who’s name I cannot be bothered to learn, gets sent a mummy by his dad who is currently in Egypt travelling and it proceeds to become attached to the boy and becomes his pet. There is even a retarded rip-off Dragonite and some weird bellybutton motherfucker in it too.

Here is an actual scene:

From Giphy

If you haven’t guessed, this anime is not my cup of tea. It is cute but I found it boring and there wasn’t much going on. I can see its appeal though and by no means do I hate it.

If you do hate it though … Fuck you (Thank Dane ;P).

Back to me now (Nat of course. :P)!

Although we are also currently watching some other anime(s) too these don’t count with the anime that is out during winter 2018. We’ll definitely do another post on those though in the near future as we really want to!

So that is the list of anime that we’re watching (well sort of… :P) at the moment from the new winter releases for this year. If you enjoy watching anime like we do, what have you been watching recently? Anything that we’ve watched or if you haven’t had we intrigued you to? Make sure to let us know in the comments down below!

I just want to say a massive thanks to Dane for having a go on this blog post with me today. Bless him he’s been learning how to add pictures to posts etc etc. It was quite sweet really!

I’m off now anyhoo to enjoy the rest of my Sunday. I hope you guys have had an awesome week! Until next time, take care all.

 

TV Shows I’m Loving At The Moment

Now I wouldn’t exactly call myself a coach potato but I feel like this is pretty much an accurate term for me lately. As of late after both me and Dane finish work we either sit and play games online with friends or binge watch various TV shows. Mostly the later though…

There just seems to be so many TV shows out lately with new series that we need to watch! There’s so many that almost everyday we have a new episode to catch up with. This sounds worse than it actually is… 😛

So come and have a read about what TV shows me and Dane have been binge watching lately. You never know, you may just get some inspiration for what you can watch yourselves. 😉

• RuPaul’s Drag Race – S9 (Netflix)

I’ve been a fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race for as long as I can remember and as soon as a new season comes out I always make sure to keep up with the episodes. Spoilers are one of the reasons why, but it’s mostly due to wanting to keep up with which queen(s) are doing the best. I’ve always watched the show with Dane, which is really nice to be honest! I didn’t think he would be interested in giving it a go due to what it’s all about, but he loves it! My favourite in this season so far is Nina Bonina Brown. This being said though I’m not a massive fan of season 9 so far… It just seems like the queens don’t give much of a shit, or give too much of a shit. No one is really standing out right now for me. I just hope someone does soon! I want another Jinxx Monsoon! She’s my favourite queen! For the first time in the UK this is available on Netflix as and when a new episode airs. I used to have to look online for videos to watch when it came to getting my RuPaul new show fix!

• Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid – S1 (Crunchyroll and Funimation)

Out of all of these TV shows being mentioned in this post this is definitely one of my favourites. I’ve mentioned this show on my blog before. It’s about a dragon who is pretty much adopted by by a human and who falls in love with said human. More dragons come to the human world, another one who comes to live with them and others who live with other humans. It’s a very funny show and heart warming at the same time. I’ve started to read the manga of it and it is amazing!

• Attack On Titan – S2 (Crunchyroll)

Both me and Dane have been waiting what feels like forever for season 2 of Attack On Titan to come out! We both love the show and we’ve been worried that the next season would never come out. It’s been out for a couple of weeks now and it’s amazing. Dane pretty much knows the basics of what is going to happen due to reading the manga. I haven’t yet read the manga for Attack On Titan and I’m unsure when and if I will. If you loved the first season of Attack On Titan then make sure to watch this season!

• 13 Reasons Why – S1 (Netflix exclusive)

On this list this has to be my favourite one on the list! As soon as me and Dane watched the trailer for this on Netflix we knew that we would want to watch it! It’s based off a novel of the same name and the show is said to be loads better! The show is about Hannah, a girl who has committed suicide and records 13 tapes explaining why she killed herself. It’s an emotional roller coaster and to be honest it made me feel really low at the end of it. It’s an amazing show though and one I recommend everyone to watch as soon as possible! I might pick the book up in the future to read if I fancy it. This is a Netflix exclusive so if you want to watch it you need to have a Netflix account… Or you can be naughty and find it online to watch.

• K-ON! – S1 and S2 (DVD)

Like Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid this is another one of my favourite TV shows on this list. Dane recently became interested in watching K-ON! and popped it on for us both to watch one day. Since then we have been hooked and it’s definitely become a massive new love for us both. We haven’t finished watching season 2 yet, but I’ll be sad when we do however. I was going to buy Dane all of the seasons on DVD as well as the film on blu-ray but I left it in the end. I’m sure we’ll buy them on our week off together next week. I’ve bought all of the manga of K-ON! and I’m loving it so far!

• Masamune-kun’s Revenge – S1 (Crunchyroll and Funimation)

This is a show I have loved and then been bored with… Which is strange! Dane has felt the same way about it as well. We usually stop watching things we get bored with, like anyone would be to honest. The only reason we have kept on with it is because we have watched so much of it already. It just doesn’t feel like it is going anywhere right now and we’re about 10 episodes in. I was going to buy the manga of it to read but I am so bloody glad I haven’t… This show just doesn’t feel like it’s going to have a decent outcome. This being said it is good… But I don’t recommend it. I would recommend all the other shows on this list more!

• Peter Kay’s Car Share – S1 and S2 (BBC iPlayer)

This is one I haven’t really watched with Dane. He’s not particularly interested in stuff like this and although I’m not a MASSIVE fan I do love this show! It reminds me of the summer I was at university studying my MA and when Dane practically lived with me for 3 weeks whilst my family was away on holiday. It was lovely and pretty much a test drive for what it would be like if we lived together. So when season 2 came out recently I had to watch it as soon as possible! As the title suggests it’s about a car share. He drives and his colleague keeps him company in the car. You see their relationship grow from just colleagues to friends, to possibly something more. I was disappointed to learn after watching episode 4 that that was it… No more episodes for season 2. I mean what the fuck Peter Kay?! I say this due to how the last episode of season 2 ends. I can’t say anything without giving away any spoilers, but it’s a mixture of really shit and the perfect cliffhanger. Both season 1 and 2 are on BBC iPlayer at the moment so go and check them out if you’re interested.

• Eromanga Sensei – S1 (Crunchyroll)

This is a new anime to be added to Crunchyroll recently and it’s one people either love or hate due to what it’s about. I’m watching it for a mixture of reasons. 1. The main female character is so fucking adorable and 2. I like the fact that she’s a manga cartoon artist and that her brother (the main male character) is a manga/light novel writer. These are both the sorts of job roles and creative talents I give my characters when I write. The part about the show that is riling people up is the fact that the two main characters are siblings (well adopted siblings…) and they’re meant to have a relationship together… Awkward… This aspect doesn’t appeal to me at all but the story line otherwise really does. It’s only 2 episodes in at the moment so I’ll see how it goes, but so far this relationship side hasn’t really shown. A few creepy bits have though… Otherwise it’s pretty funny at the moment and I’m enjoying it.

So those are some TV shows I’m loving right now! I feel like I have a show a day to catch up on, which is really sad but it gives me something to look forward to after work I suppose!

It’s not on this list but I’m currently watching Sirens, which aired on Channel 4 6 years ago! WOW I FEEL OLD!!! What TV shows are you loving and binge watching right now? Are you watching anything that’s on my list? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time take care all and I hope you had a lovely Easter and are equally having a lovely week.

Currently #9

I know it hasn’t been that long since my last currently list but I thought it would be nice to write another considering how much stuff I have been currently doing! I’m pretty damn excited to write about a lot of them… I would have waited for my day off tomorrow to write this but the ideas and thoughts of it just came to me, so I have to get it typed and published tonight! I’m sure it’ll make some good bedtime reading for some, as well as some equally as good morning reading for others. 😛

Watching – Lately me and Dane have been watching a lot of anime if not just anime. Why? Well because we can and we want to! Before Christmas Dane bought a membership to Funimation which enables anime lovers to watch loads of anime with English dub instead of English sub. We don’t mind either way how we watch anime but sometimes if we’re multi-tasking we much prefer dubbed. We also have a membership to Crunchyroll which we use to watch subbed anime. ANYWAY! So lately we’ve been watching Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid and Masamune-Kun’s Revenge on Funimation and Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid has fast become one of my favourite anime shows! I want to read the manga for it next, the same goes with Masamune-Kun’s Revenge too. They’re both completely different to one another which is what I like. Dane got me into both of them which is really cool.

Masamune-Kun’s Revenge is a slice of life style anime where you get to see Masamune try to get a girl to fall in love with him only to break her heart. Why does he want to do this? To gain revenge for years of being bullied by her! It’s very funny and one you should check out if you like comedy romance style anime.

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is completely different and not slice of life or realistic at all and I think you can gather that from the title alone! As it states Kobayashi has a dragon maid. She befriends Tohru after a drunken night out and tells her she can come and stay with her and become her maid. From there we see them live their lives together with Tohru mostly in her human form and occasionally in her dragon form. We also see Tohru’s dragon friends becoming human too and joining her and Kobayashi’s friends. My favourite dragon so far is Kanna, the youngest of the dragons and therefore the cutest! 😀

Reading – I have been reading so much manga lately that I feel like I can’t keep on top of the addiction it has fast become! Since the start of the year I have either finished or started four series of different manga. WOW! I’ve not read this much since 2009 when I discovered the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella. I remember binge reading them late into the night. I have read and finished both Your Lie in April and Paradise Kiss, which I loved and will hopefully be reviewing in the future! Your Lie in April was an amazing manga to read and everyday during my break at work I found myself getting through a book a day and soon enough the series had finished and I had no more to read. It ended sadly but not as sad as I imagined to be honest, but I put this down to already knowing what was going to happen. Paradise Kiss was bought for me by Dane for my birthday this year and I bought the third and final volume myself. This is a manga by the same person as Nana and I didn’t know what to expect when reading it. I loved it and it was realistic and romantic at the same time but without too much romance. I did really love reading it and it was different to what I normally read. I especially love how Ai Yazawa breaks the fourth wall with her manga, it’s not something I’ve seen anyone else do… Yet. I started reading Nichijou, which I love but I’m in no hurry to continue with just yet.

Image take from weheartit.com

I’m currently reading A Silent Voice which alongside Elfen Lied, Nana and Your Lie in April has fast become one of my favourites… If not my number one favourite right now. The story is so realistic and amazing. It talks about bullying and how it can affect everyone so well and is definitely the sort of thing I love to write myself. It has inspired me even more to create my own manga series in the future. Me and Dane went to watch the anime movie of A Silent Voice yesterday and it was amazing. I’ll be reviewing it VERY soon.

Listening – In February me and Dane booked for us to go and see cKy in May! AHHH I’M SO EXCITED! I’ve been a fan of the band since I was fifteen and have always wanted to see them live, but just never got the chance… Until now! I’ve been listening to most of their albums since then as I just forgot how much I love listening to their stuff. My favourite album of theirs definitely has to be Infiltrate Destroy Rebuild. I don’t know why, just all of the tracks make me so happy and I can sing them loudly, one after the other. I love all of their other albums of course, but this one just stands out the most. My favourite song from it is Plastic Plan, which I’ve put the music video for above. Let me warn you, it’s really fucking old. 😛

Image taken from weheartit.com

Eating – There’s not really much I’ve been eating lately that’s any different to lately. If anything me and Dane haven’t been following out diet like we were at the start of the year. We have cut out a lot of junk mind and still have, but at the same time we’ve been binging on things. We recently discovered that at one of our local Asian supermarkets you can buy birthday cake Oreo’s, as well as matcha flavoured Oreo’s and they weren’t as expensive as you’d think either. Just over £1 a packet! I wish we had bought more but meh got to be good. 😛

Wearing – To be honest I haven’t really been wearing anything too special lately… If anything I’ve worn a dress I bought in the Christmas sales in 2016 for a day out with Dane and an evening out with my dad and brother. I also recently bought a dress for a family wedding I’m attending this weekend. That will be exciting to go to! I would show pictures but I’m not too keen on showing them on my blog. Not because they’re horrible or anything, but they’re just not the sort of pictures I feel will work on a post. I’m waffling. 😛

Wanting – I really want a holiday to be honest. Even if it isn’t abroad, just for me and Dane to get away for a week max and have a relaxing time would be lovely. We did look to go to a spa weekend for his birthday in April but sadly due to everywhere being pretty much booked for Easter we aren’t really able to do that. We’re going to try and see if we can do something in June instead for our anniversary, but we shall see!

So that was my currently list number nine! Wow before we know it it’ll be my tenth one which is kind of weird to be honest. They’ve all flown by so quickly. To be honest this whole year is already flying by quickly. 😛

What’s on your currently lists right now? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time take care all and I hope you had a lovely weekend.