In June, I had partaken in the second Toxic Yuri Visual Novel Jam. The results of that still haven't come out, but don't worry, I won just by completing it. I wasn't competing for prize money. I just wanted to prove that I could complete something. I did! So I won my own personal contest. Now, that experience is firmly under my belt. I can feel the rhythm of making a short story and elevating it with the power of Ren'Py. Just a couple months later, a new game jam has beckoned me into secluding away once again, falling into that six-week grind to complete a visual novel. It's of possibly my favorite genre in all of fiction.

Denpa.

But what is denpa?

Looks like you have to read to find out!

I recently went through the undertaking of creating an entire visual novel from scratch. For a few years, I pondered the idea of it, but I was too intimidated to actually go through with it.

...But I did! I created my first visual novel ever, KOKOROBAKO, as a solo dev for the second Toxic Yuri VN Jam.

Let me tell you what it was like to make a visual novel from scratch. Maybe it'll spark something within you!

Beware, heavy topics are present here, as the Toxic Yuri VN Jam and its outer communities have a lot to say about them! Take extra care if you're sensitive to talks about suicide, self harm, sexual assault, and similar topics.

It seems that more and more people are picking up Japanese learning as of late. It's always been trendy, but when I was younger, it seemed so daunting, and I knew nobody that took the dive at the time. It feels like a dream come true to see all these passionate people taking steps in learning valuable skills to support their hobbies in earnest.

With the uptick in dedicated learners, people who want to feel like their Japanese studies are more than just a trend end up blowing steam via harsh opinions on social media. I can't really blame them.

This isn't about Japanese, though. Not entirely, at least.

「ゆっくりゆっくり落ちた。」

I fell down the seemingly endless rabbit hole of Cure Dolly's life.

There exists a fantasy world where racehorses can be cute girls, making friends with one another, and they can all see happy endings.

Umamusume inherit the spirit, nameage, and passion of the racehorses they're named after. Their story is meant to be a reflection of what came to be in our distant world. Girls enroll in Tracen Academy to chase their dreams. It's a major feat to conquer the Classics. The world adores them.

Come explore how their stories are told. The Umamusume anime universe spans three main-line seasons, one spin-off series adapted from a manga, two movies, and two short series.

I spent the first two weeks of April 2026 rewatching a few of them just for this post! Read on to see my reviews on the first three seasons, Road to the Top, and Beginning of a New Era.

For years, I had been anticipating, wishing, fantasizing about the best case scenario: an in-house localization of Umamusume, self-published by Cygames, big enough to bridge the gap between American and Japanese racehorsing culture. It felt too farfetched. Granblue Fantasy was doomed to being just a little too niche with it. Priconne had the Crunchyroll kiss of death. Deresute was trapped in Bandai Namco's clammy hands, repulsed by the idea of localization, fated to always be seen as a series you'd only remember from doujinshi.

Was my dream even possible? Was I asking for too much?

Would Cygames bring my fantasies to life?

Let's find out. Maybe you'll end up loving horsegirls along the way!

Needy Girl Overdose is a series about love.

This is obvious to anyone looking in, what with it appearing to be one of those pervy girlfriend-raising simulators. I want to talk about a different kind of love, though. This game embodies love for all things otaku, and might be the one of the very last examples of a rapidly fading otaku culture.

What's happening in modern-day otaku spaces? What does this game have to say about it?

It's been four years since Needy Girl Overdose came out, let's see what impact it's had.

2025 was a biiiig year for my completed catalogue! I successfully watched something pretty much every single night for the entire year. A lot of series that'll stick with me a long time are series I fell in love with during this last year.

This isn't limited to new series, of course! Enjoy taking a peek into the types of shows and movies I choose to spend my time with.

Some of my choices might surprise you! Like wow, Gnocchi, you never saw that before? Nope! There's absolutely no shame in that! I bet there's something here that's new to you, too.

Let's dive in!

I recently decided to dedicate some of my time going through every AKB48 single. I had never done it thoroughly before! I've been casually listening to them for sooo long, but there's probably a few that I haven't watched the MVs for, or some that I've never heard at all...

To start this project, I decided to watch MVs for the current 66 single A-sides. I spun a wheel to see what order I'd end up watching them in instead of watching them in release order. Exciting!

I picked fifteen singles that are my absolute favorites! I think they're an amazing introduction to AKB48. This list shows few different sides of the group, and highlights a lot of essentials.

This post has a lot of embedded content, so if you have a low spec device like me, be prepared and give it time to load!

I personally found it really difficult to start studying Japanese for most of my life, despite being a huge weeb surrounded by anime. I had quite a few reasons for feeling this way. Embarrassment, norms, you name it. Ultimately, it was only a hinderance. Regretting the time lost is meaningless! Let's just look at what we can do about it right now.

There's a bunch of absolute weirdos who don't have this baggage, who just are able to pick up a new skill, and act like elitists because of it. If they can do it, why do we let ourselves get swallowed by shame? Let the weirdos following your dreams motivate you! Are you really gonna just watch some strange bigoted dudes, with dogwhistles all over their Twitter profile, do the thing you want to do, while you don't allow yourself to do it? Do it!

I want to talk about my study methods and experiences as a novice.

Starting a collection of anything can be daunting, and there's often a feeling of regret that you didn't start it sooner. I was lucky enough to get a few CDs over the years, whether it was through gifts, or purchasing them myself.

There's a few things I look out for when I buy CDs! If I'm thrifting, I'll buy literally anything that looks interesting, especially if it has a pretty woman on it. Online, though, I pretty much exclusively buy Asian CDs!

Let's go through some of my budding collection, together.