Bess

November Updates

Hi everyone!

I hope you're all well and are planning to get some rest over the festive season. My month has sped by -- I've unfortunately been on-and-off ill for most of it, and my personal life has been busy. Video progress has been minimal, but I do have a bit of time off over Xmas so am hoping to put it to good use. I really want to get the video done by the end of the year (maybe my latest video ever? lol).

Otherwise, though, I've been reading quite a bit (in hopes of m...

October Updates

Hi everyone!

I hope you're all well. Looking back at my last update, it feels like a long and short time has passed.

I've had a very busy month with my work and personal life -- good things and some hiccups but I'm doing okay. It was also my birthday month! I've honestly not touched the video for the last two weeks or so due to all of this, but was approaching the halfway point in editing before that which is a good chunk of progress in a short time. I've been wanting to polish a ...

September Updates

Hi everyone!

How are you all? England has definitely made the transition into autumn and it's been lovely so far. October is also my birthday month so I have a soft spot for it.

September for me was dominated by settling into my new job. It's busy and has left me with less free time than I've ever had, but I'm loving it and it's giving me great personal and professional experience and a huge boost (I get a lot of energy from working in busy environments if the work is fulfilling)....

August Updates

Hi guys,

I hope you're all well! I've had a super busy month. I finished my job a few weeks ago and had a break in between where I was visiting family in Ireland. I started on Monday and am now back on holiday in France and then Spain! My new job is my first psychology role which is also very exciting.

In between I've managed to record and edit the voiceover for the video and begin editing the video itself. I don't have my laptop with me for this trip but will be back home and abl...

July(/August?) Updates

Hi everyone!

First of all, I really apologise for the lateness of this update. I wanted to ensure I had something substantial to come back with, and that took longer than anticipated (the theme with this video).

This script has definitely been one of, if not the most challenging I’ve ever worked on. It’s required me to keep returning to the source material to re-think and really iron out the points I want to make, and lots and lots of rewriting. There are single lines I've por...

June Updates

Hi guys!!

I hope you’re all well and keeping cool wherever you are in the world. The UK has been having a nasty heatwave 😪

Let’s get right in to it: I’m (evidently) running behind on the video. Nobody cares about excuses but quite a few unexpected things cropped up this month, including me getting a new job (?!!! more on that when I actually start in a few months’ time). The script was definitely an uphill battle, but I finally managed to get a solid draft down and am n...

May Updates

Hi everyone!

I hope you’re all well. May really whizzed by but I had a really nice month – in my personal life there was a wedding, festival, and lots more. The weather in the UK has been amazing!

It’s a quick update this month. In terms of the video, I ended up being busier than expected this month, and I’ve found getting back into the groove of writing a little difficult, perhaps because this is one of the more complex analyses I’ve done, but I’ve finally made a brea...

April Updates

Hi everyone!

I hope you're all well. It's been a busy month for me, a bit challenging at work but lots of nice memories made too. I've made a habit of going to one of the local cinemas that screens a lot of anime films which has been really fun. I even brought one of my best friends to see Perfect Blue for the first time.

Most importantly, I can finally give the update I've been wanting to for so long: all the pre-production prep for the Umineko videos is done!!! ...

March Updates

Hi everyone!

I hope the weather's as beautiful where you are as it is in London! March was a good month, including for Umineko progress. I read episode 5, 6 and began 7 of the manga. We're in the home stretch! 7 and 8 are big undertakings but as soon as they're done, writing begins. I'm particularly excited to get to Confession of the Golden Witch for the first time ever. Nothing much more than that to say, but beginning work on the actual videos feels close enough to touch now. I'll be...

February Updates

Hi everyone!

How are you all? This month went pretty quickly for me -- I spent a week of it in Ireland, and otherwise am very much enjoying what feels like the very beginnings of spring, especially this weekend.

After finishing up my Umineko re-read last month, I finished up the bonus content and have been focusing on my first read of the manga, the last big step before beginning video production. The last bit of bonus content to get through was Umineko Saku, whic...

January Updates

Hi everyone!

Happy February! January felt very long and cold this year and I was definitely ready to see the back of it. It was a good month though, I found out my contract at my current job is being extended for another year, had a few interviews (before I got the news, though I’m still looking around for other interesting stuff), did some fun stuff and realised I love dumplings way too late.

In terms of video stuff, I finished re-reading Umineko!!!!! The day is finally here. I...

2024 Reflections and 2025 Plans

Good afternoon and Happy New Year all!

I hope you all enjoyed your New Year's Eve whatever you were doing -- mine was quite calm. First rewinding back through December, here's my media roundup:

After listening to The Retrievals last month, I realised there was a bunch of Serial Productions shows released over the last few years I hadn’t listened to and started making my way through them. The first one I listened to was The Good Whale, their most recent show about the release of ...

November Updates

Hi guys!

How are you all? As always, the end of the year has crept up on me. I'm enjoying autumn and winter more this year. I found myself being more mindful through this summer and trying to make the most of it, so when the change came, I was ready. I also spent the last two winters at my job in homelessness, our busiest time, and I can't deny it's lovely to have a break from that this year. I loved my old job, but particularly last winter was an extremely stressful time and I k...

October Updates

Hi everyone!

How are you all? Things feel very different in the UK now that the clocks have gone back, though it's still sort of warm. October was my birthday month -- I turned 27 on the 10th. I had a big party for the first time which was really nice. The second half of the month was a bit flat, I've been feeling sort of uninspired. I did manage to go to Miku Expo here in London for the third time which was awesome! I've also been thoroughly enjoying Big Brother.

I haven't made t...

September Updates

Hi everyone!

How have you been? I’m settling in well to my new job and am really enjoying having more time and energy than I did. I also feel like I’m learning a lot from it which is a great feeling.

It’s been a pretty productive month, even though an ear infection knocked me out for the best part of a week. Without that I could’ve made more progress, but I’m just over halfway through episode 6 of Umineko. This has probably been the most interes...

August Updates

Hi everyone!

I hope you’re all well. I’ve really enjoyed summer, but am starting to look forward to autumn in hopes that it’ll cool down a bit as London has been way too hot.

It’s been a few weeks since I uploaded the Japan ‘vlog’. It’s been a less popular upload which was to be expected between the length, lack of actual video for much of it and slight departure from my usual content, but it was a passion project I really wanted to complete for my own sake, and I’...

I went to Japan!

It's here! 🥹

Thank you all as always for being so patient in waiting for this. I had a huge dip in motivation for some reason during the editing phase which collided with an ever-busier offline life (and some pretty difficult periods in general). I do want to upload more frequently and I'm going to be thinking seriously about how to achieve this, even if it means making changes to my editing/video style.

This was always intended to be a sort of lo-fi, personal project and never...

July Updates

Hi everyone!

I hope you’re all well. It feels like the last month went especially quickly. It was a big one for me – I started my new job! I’m still working with homeless people as I was previously, but now in a mental health capacity (amongst other things), finally going back to my psychology routes. It’s a really weird feeling as I adored my old job, but I’m trying to enjoy the slow easing in and all of the new learning it’ll afford me. I’m sure I’ll talk more a...

June Updates

Hi everyone,

I hope you've all had a good month. I've spent a lot of it travelling so not many updates. I was invited to take part in a Higurashi fan event and was interviewed on stream a few weeks ago, which you can watch back here!

In terms of media, I only finished one show, but it's a big one: Sound! Euphonium Season 3. I can't believe Eupho is finally done. Despite di...

May Updates

Hi everyone!

How's it going? No exciting (YouTube) updates on my end, still trudging through editing. It's been a busy month in my personal life -- I've got a new job! I found out on Friday and won't be starting for a number of months, so more on that a bit down the line. It's not super far-removed from what I'm doing now but I'll have less responsibilities and hopefully slightly better work/life balance/less stress so it can only be good for the channel.

Otherwise, I was invited ...

April Updates

Hey guys!

I hope you're all well. I don't know where the last month went. I was on holiday in Ireland at the start of the month and also ill and then the rest blurs into one. Work is busy as ever but I feel like I'm striking a bit better work-life balance recently.

With that being said, there's still not loads of progress on the video. I'm slowly but surely editing it together (and please don't expect anything fancy, it's mostly a compilation of photos and video footage). But I've...

March Updates (+ full video audio)

Hi everyone!

I hope you're all well. I've made a real effort to make time to work on the video this last few weeks. Progress is still slow because of how little free time I have in general, but I've finally finished editing the audio and moved onto the actual video. As it's been a long wait, I've attached the complete audio (sans music) for anybody who'd like to listen to it now!

I've also posted my com...

(Late) February Updates

Good evening!

Apologies for the ridiculously late post, it's been a busy few weeks x_x How are you all? Honestly the past few months have been pretty challenging for me but I've been keeping busy and am looking forward to longer and brighter days!

In terms of the video, I managed to record the audio (always a harrowing affair for a video this long) and am into the editing process now. It's coming along slowly but surely. I'm still not sure exactly how long it will be, but it's lo...

January Updates

Hi everyone!

How was your start to the year? January felt very long to me. Work was expectedly difficult but there were also some unanticipated professional and personal hurdles. It was a very up and down month but there were lots of nice, calm moments too.

I didn't make as much progress as I'd've liked on the Japan video for the above reasons but it's coming along nonetheless. I finished the script -- both the first draft and all the editing, so that's all done -- and I've been d...

2023 Reflections and 2024 Plans

Hi everyone!

I hope you've all had a wonderful, restful holiday season.

2023 was obviously a quiet year for me online. I released a grand total of one video, but am just proud I've managed to achieve that. Offline I've had a crazy year. Here's some of what I've been up to:

- I travelled to no less than four new countries this year: Japan, South Korea, Spain and Belgium (as well as two trips to Ireland). The Japan trip was obviously particularly significant -- I crossed off m...

2023 Q4 Media Roundup

I actually forgot to include Sorry We Didn't Die at Sea in the last post. It's a play I saw at the same theatre that showed The Garden of Words and is quickly becoming a favourite of mine. Originally an Italian production, SWDDaS is set in a dystopian future where Europeans are fleeing the continent via the same means as the migrants and refugees our governments are so set on denying entry to our countries. It's a dark and absurdist comedy that plays out almost entirely withi...

Video Poll #4

Hi everyone!!

I'm finally back with another video poll! As discussed in the updates post I just shared, I might make a vlog of my Japan trip before either of these, but will be working on the winner from this poll in parallel to that. It's just two simple options this time: a video on Chainsaw Man or Umineko.

I was a little late to the party but I finally read all of Chainsaw Man ahead of the anime airing last year after being p...

November Updates

Hi everyone!

Apologies for the lack of updates last month, but I wanted to be able to come back with something substantial, which I finally can.

The Power of Tokyo Godfathers is finally up on YouTube! Though unfortunately not in the form I'd intended. I tried re-editing a number of times to bypass the copyright issues but it wasn't going anywhere and I eventually decided to push ahead with the au...

2023 Q3 Media Roundup

As discussed in my last one of these, I only watched the first Spiderverse film recently but absolutely loved it and was really happy to catch Across the Spider-Verse before it left cinemas. It was even more ambitious and creative than the first yet still airtight. I'm really enjoying Miles' journey as a character and he has easily become one of my favourite protagonists in fiction. I also particularly enjoyed the soundtrack in this one. Absolutely can't wait for the last ent...

The Power of Tokyo Godfathers

Hello everyone!!!!

SO it's been a little while. I actually finished editing the new video probably close to a month ago now but have run into unexpected copyright issues trying to get it up on YouTube (I previously uploaded the 7-minute-ish preview and had none so had been hoping that would go for the whole video but alas). I've been trying to sort things out but it's not made very easy by YouTube's copyright system. It only tells you about one flagged bit of footage at a time so that I...