Horizon: Zero Dawn - An Absolute Masterpiece

What I love most about Horizon Zero Dawn is that now that it's finished, I don't feel the need to look for fanfiction. I feel satisfied. I'm stoked beyond belief for the DLC, don't get me wrong - plus, I ordered the art book while the credits were rolling.

My roommate and I finished this game last night after pouring 46 hours into it. Exploring until we had nothing left to uncover. I enjoyed every moment of it.

I play a lot of video games, my dudes, and I've never felt satisfied like this after a game was finished.

The soundtrack, the acting, the scenery... Above all, the sense of wonder I felt while playing it...? I'm only disappointed that I've played it already because that means I won't be able to play it ever again with fresh eyes. It is so visually appealing, and so hopeful towards what the world could be in the event of an apocalypse... I always tend to lean towards more hopeful post-apocalyptic scenarios, like how the world will grow back in the 'life, uh, finds a way' type of mindset. Sure, the world will end one day, but the trees don't need us to maintain them. This game takes that into account, and the time spent exploring 'ancient ruins', which is something so simple as actual ruins of real places standing today in our world, is fascinating. Climbing skeletons of skyscrapers? Finding ancient artifacts which are wristwatches? Finding the metal skeletons of cars? Absolutely fascinating.

From the opening scene I was hooked. Matriarchal society? Outcast Dad-figure raising a baby into a hardened warrior who still retains her curiosity? Sci-fi universe in a post apocalyptic earth now run by tribal colonies of the humans who are left, most of whom aren't white people? Casual LGBT content that you barely notice because people are just who they are and it's no big deal? I'm in.

This game does what others haven't. Lady main character who is vulnerable, who is so scared all the time, and yet so brave. You struggle with Aloy, you cry for Aloy, you cheer for Aloy.

I can't talk about most of the story because of spoilers, and that's okay, because I want everyone who plays this game to go in knowing as little as possible. This game is an absolute masterpiece, and I am so thankful to Guerrilla Games for sharing it with us.

If you are able, I highly recommend this game. Check out the trailer here, and listen to the entire soundtrack on Spotify.

I read My Brother's Husband

After I did my review of My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, people asked me if I was planning on reading My Brother's Husband. Little did they know I had already ordered it and was waiting impatiently for it.

Warned to have tissues handy, I prepared myself for a wild ride.

I have to say that after reading My Lesbian Experience, My Brother's Husband was tame in comparison. I got teary, but never wept.

I was thankful for this, in the end.

My Brother's Husband is about a family whose lives are turned upside down when Yaichi and his daughter Kana are introduced to a large Canadian man named Mike who shows up at their door in Japan one day claiming to be Yaichi's twin brother's husband.

Ryoji, Yaichi's twin, has passed away recently, and Mike has no family other than his brother in law and his niece.

So, the family tries to get to know each other.

What results is a charming and painful look at cultural differences and their views on homophobia and how it is handled, both by the locals, and by Yaichi himself, coming to terms with the idea of his brother being gay, and how much Mike really loved Ryoji.

I was surprised, honestly, to read such a family friendly comic by artist Gengoroh Tagame, who usually does books like this. It was refreshing, and Kana, the daughter, was a delight, explaining simple things to her father with the innocence of a child. Why do these men kiss each other? Because they're in love. It's simple.

The volume that I purchased contains volumes 1 and 2 of the manga, and it came out in May 2017. I've scoured the internet wondering when the second half will be out, but I can't find any information regarding that.

Still, I will keep my eyes open for it, because the volume I read was an absolute delight. Check it out if you get the chance!

Legend of Korra: Turf Wars Part One

Note: I will not spoil the content of the comic because I would rather you go out and buy the comic yourself.

Irene Koh is a great artist. I've been following her on Twitter for awhile now, and when I saw that she was going to be doing the art for the new Korra comic, I was like, wow, that's cool.

Then I heard the comic would be Korrasami centric and thought, finally, the lgbt content we deserve.

This comic didn't disappoint. With great story by Michael DiMartino (as usual, the Avatar series is one of my favorites), beautiful coloring by Vivian Ng and art by Irene Koh, I was very much looking forward to this story.

Unfortunately, as the internet tends to do, I was spoiled for every. single. lgbt related. piece of content in the book.

Thanks a lot, Twitter.

That said, I still enjoyed reading the story as a whole. My biggest disappointment in any of these Avatar comics is the six month wait between each part. I closed the comic, saw that the next part will come out in January 2018 and yelled in frustration.

Oh well, them's the breaks, I suppose.

Korra and Asami come back from their vacation in the Spirit World to find out that a big corporation wants to use the space that the portal resides in to make an amusement park.

On the other end of things, there is gang activity that is only increasing, political unrest (what else is new in Republic City), and the city's edge is filled with refugees looking for homes to call their own.

This is a lot to balance when coming back from a restful vacation with your new girlfriend.

The LGBT related content is refreshing and respectful. I related a lot to all of the coming out scenes in all forms of them.

I'm looking forward to seeing what January 2018 brings, and delighted by the fact that a mainstream comic has two women who love each other kiss on the second page.

If you like the Avatar series, please give it a read! All of the comics are great... This one needs a little extra support so we can continue to prove to comic industries that healthy LGBT content is the content we want.

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness - A Review

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness - by Nagata Kabi

Content Warning: Talk of depression and anxiety. This book is quite real in its descriptions of feelings and can and likely will be triggering for certain individuals.

Where do I even start?

I’ve heard about this charming manga for a while now; people have been talking about it on Twitter, passing word around in local comic scenes. I checked my local comic show and unfortunately the author wasn’t there that time. She went to TCAF, but not VanCaf! That’s alright.

So recently I did some adulting and rewarded myself by ordering this book, as well as My Brother’s Husband, which has yet to arrive in the mail.

Reading comics late at night when you have to work the next morning always seems like a good idea, don’t you think?

I’m glad I read it. It’s after 2am and I’m going to be so tired tomorrow, but I’m still so glad I read it.

Nagata writes in such a charming way, and yet is so real it hurts. I cried from the moment I opened the book to the moment I closed it. I am a very soft person, it’s true, but each page had something different that struck me.

Her anxiety and depression, her feeling like she didn’t deserve to eat, or didn’t deserve good things, and was constantly striving to please her parents - I get that. We as young(ish) people (I’m 31) are taught from our youth to live life a certain way, and expectations are heaped on our heads. I know that there are culture gaps in what I’m about to say, so I’ll just say what I know from my own experience in Western Canadian culture. It is expected of you to pass high school with good grades, go to post secondary and get a job in your field that pays well and supports you. You can move out and meet someone and get married and have two and a half children and a white picket fence, etc, etc. Right? Wrong.

Since Millennials seem to be killing everything these days, including the (North) American Dream, that’s not how things have been. It’s certainly not how my life has been. I related to this story in a lot of ways in that Nagata helped me feel like she was not only talking about herself, but also about so many people I know in my life who struggle with anxiety and depression.

I recognized things she said about feeling like she wasn’t good enough, didn’t deserve to eat, couldn’t try anymore, as things I’ve heard from close friends of mine.

Adults expect from us to be ‘salaried employees’, to have health insurance, to not need assistance, when the truth is - we can’t do this on our own. We need these human interactions, these relationships to function as normal human beings.

Reading Nagata’s desperate desire for human contact, in the form of hugs from an older woman to make up for affection she didn’t get from her mother, was eye-opening. There is so much that we as a society, Western or Eastern, any society, really, don’t talk about. We should be able to ask for affection if we need it. We should talk about it.

I’m pleased that Nagata did.

In regards to the whole scenario of her hiring an escort for her first time and then being completely confused because she didn’t understand her own body? I get that too. This book was incredibly real, and I found myself crying because I was so happy that Nagata’s first experience in a sexual situation was a pleasant one.

I felt her embarrassment, but also her confusion. Her writing and art were so perfectly, naturally, charmingly displayed, even while talking about how much easier death would have been.

Halfway through the book, I was overwhelmed and had to put it down to message a friend who struggles with depression and anxiety to tell her how much I love her and appreciate how hard she’s working to get out of bed every day. I understand her a little better, and probably a little bit about myself, too.

If you buy it to read it because there’s a nipple on the cover, you might find it’s not at all the kind of story you’re expecting. It’s not that kind of book at all. But you might be glad you read it anyway. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Thank you, Nagata Kabi, for writing this charming, yet heart-wrenching book, and showing us a real slice of what it’s like to live with depression. Time to go dry my tears.