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 preview to share but I'll either forgo this to save time or just put a more rudimentary one up perhaps in the next month.

Things have quietened down a bit in life again (fingers crossed anyway), work still means I have minimal free time but I'll keep pushing forwards! Sorry this isn't more of an exciting update.

One thing I do want to mention is friend and YouTube peer Joe of Beyond Ghibli has put out a beautiful book on anime. I've known about this book for a while (we might have had a conversation about Higurashi pertaining to it) and now I have my hands on my own copy, I can say it's a true achievement. I'm really excited to dive in. Keep an eye out for it in shops -- I magically overheard an enthusiastic conversation about it in one of my local bookshops right after getting my copy.

Otherwise, this month I managed to read Solaris by Stanisaw Lem and The Snows of Kilimanjaro, a short story collection by Ernest Hemingway.

Solaris was an enjoyable addition to my commute this month -- it's a sci-fi story with psychological themes I knew of via the 2002 film. It could get slightly dense and informational at points, but I generally enjoyed it and found it quite gripping. Without saying much outright, the story lends itself to interesting questions and even debates around grief and love. It's not a resounding recommendation but one I can suggest if it sounds like your sort of thing.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro was less enjoyable -- my first and likely last experience with Hemingway. I found the collection in a second-hand bookshop earlier this year and thought it sounded interesting. It was instead largely dry and sexist. I found the writing really unremarkable, repetitive, couldn't find a purpose to most of the stories and the presentation of the male vs female characters was really hatable. A rare almost universally negative appraisal from me.

On a brighter note, I got to see the personally much-anticipated Chainsaw Man film at the cinema this month (IMAX, no less). I'm a big Chainsaw Man fan and it didn't disappoint -- I've been thinking about it daily since. The Reze arc wasn't my favourite from the manga (it was after this point that I became really invested in the series), but this was a pitch-perfect adaptation which drew out the very best from the material within the context of the wider story.

I was personally a fan of the TV series' animation and the directing, but am amazed by how seamless the transition between directors into the film feels. Seeing (and hearing) this film on the big screen was a true advert for the power of cinema -- I enjoyed the watching experience on a whole new level. The performances were great, the music was beautiful, the writing was delicate, and the film serves as a beautiful shift into Part 1's more somber second-half. Go and see this film! I will absolutely be talking more about Chainsaw Man on my channel in the future.

As part of my birthday celebrations, I also went to see the play Punch at the theatre -- based on a phenomenal true story about a man who accidentally kills somebody in a fight, goes to prison for it, goes through the restorative justice process, and now campaigns against violence with the mother of his victim. It was a 10/10 production. While difficult to get to if you're not in London, it's based on Jacob Dunne's book Right from Wrong.

Otherwise this month, a shout out to Sarah Davis Baker's channel. If you don't watch her yet, I don't know why.

That's all for now!!