November comes to an end, and with it, a new monthly “tradition”? Perhaps? I’m not sure, but I thought it would be a fun exercise to keep a running list of the stories I’ve experienced! So here’s a list— and brief “reviews” — of all of the books I read, the video games I played, and the shows and movies I watched in November. These are only things I experienced to completion (save one anime series that I’m at the halfway point in but really want to talk about), so there are other books I’m still reading, games I’m still playing, things I just started this month or am still working through from months past. Anyway, let’s take a look! We’ll start with books, since writers really should try to read frequently…
Books
1. PandoraHearts 13, 14, 15
PandoraHearts is a manga series I’ve gushed about before. It’s also twenty-four volumes long, so it’s taken me quite some time to read through it. That said, I managed to read three volumes this month! And the story is… wow. I shouldn’t say much since this is past the halfway point of the story, so major spoilers for those who haven’t read that far, but let’s just say I never see any of the twists coming and that continued in these three volumes, and I’m pretty heartbroken because several characters died who I never expected or wanted to die! Mangaka Jun Mochizuki has crafted the most fascinating, strange, marvelous world and story I’ve ever read, it’s utterly captivated me and I’m having a wonderful time tumbling down this rabbit hole. Her tendency to end pages, chapters, and all-too-often volumes with painful cliffhangers owes to me reading this series in chunks — grab a few volumes, blaze through them, and then slam the brakes to keep from throwing money at the entire rest of the series all at once. It’s a story with tremendous momentum, with wild tone changes that somehow work perfectly — from happy to hilarious to heartbreaking to terrifying, the series can shift tones wildly on a dime and it somehow works every single time. Amazing.
2. The Promised Neverland, volume 12
Another manga series I’ve gushed about before, The Promised Neverland is currently an ongoing series, and volume 12 is the most recent English release, releasing near the end of October, right around the release of my own first published novel! And oh boy, does this volume go places. After volume 11 wrapped up the tense and wonderfully exciting Goldy Pond arc, a brand new arc begins and the story continues to move at a blazing pace, without ever feeling like it’s going too fast or skipping important details. Emma continues to be one of my favorite protagonists, a marvelously optimistic and hopeful girl in the midst of a very dark, scary, dangerous world, and the supporting cast — which is massive — covers all sorts of roles and purposes so well. I love these characters and am totally engrossed in their struggle to not just survive in or escape this broken, frightful world… but to change it. I’ve seen non-specific “reviews” from readers who are up to date with the latest chapters (I’ve been reading with each published volume, but you can read the series chapter-by-chapter and be ahead of the published volumes), and many of them are disappointed with the turn the story takes at some point beyond where I am. I’m hoping I find it a more positive experience than they have, but suffice to say I’m still following this story and will continue to talk about it as each new volume comes out. It’s fantastic so far.
3. Log Horizon volumes 5 and 6
I love Log Horizon. I’ve already read through the first ten volumes when they were the only volumes released, and when an eleventh volume released early this year, the time seemed right to start re-reading the series. The series is about a huge cast of characters who get pulled into an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), and have to live in the world of the game. Not knowing how they got there, why they’re there, or anything about the real world — if the real world even exists anymore — they have to learn to make do in a world that was once just an escape for a few hours a day. It’s a fascinating tale with a massive cast that does a phenomenal job of exploring so many different perspectives on this shocking new circumstance, all through the lens of actual video game mechanics as part of the “rules” of daily life. There are lots of stories that do the “people get sucked into a video game” thing, but none of them go as in-depth and take as unique and down-to-earth of an approach as Log Horizon. I read through volumes 5 and 6 this month, and they were even better the second time around.
4. The Count of Monte Cristo
And to round out the reading for this month, we move away from Japanese authors to a French one, and away from modern works to a classic! This was my first read from Alexandre Dumas, but it’s definitely not the last. I fell in love with his writing style, the way he tells stories is unlike anything I’ve read anywhere else, and a big reason I’ve been trying to read more widely in terms of geography and history, because just turning back the clock two hundred years brings us an author who writes completely differently from anyone writing today. (Reading Murder on the Orient Express a few months ago had much the same effect, providing something unlike anything I could get by only reading modern American literature) The melodramatic, theatrical quality to the prose and dialogue in this wildly complex tale of revenge was gripping from start to finish. Fascinating, multilayered characters, marvelously multilayered plot twists, and some of the most immersive worldbuilding I’ve ever experienced, The Count of Monte Cristo scratched an itch I didn’t know was there.
I could read Dumas’ dialogue forever, I love the melodramatic, theatrical speeches of these characters and the way they weave words into beautiful prose is captivating. And Dumas’ version of France (and Italy) in the 1800s feels so real, so alive, so fully realized, despite being incredibly minimalist in comparison to the worldbuilding tools and style of the vast majority of modern fantasy authors. Dumas does so much with so little, and the pages fly by. I can’t wait to read more from Dumas, and to dive into many more classics and lost gems from various eras and nations. I could write an entire blog post about why I try not to focus on the newest, modern stories of today, but for now, just know that diving into the classics, checking out what people from other countries have written… it shows such a wide, stunning depth and breadth of what fiction can be, and opens a door to a gigantic closet of so many tools and techniques that seem nearly forgotten by modern authors, myself included!
And those are the books I read this month. I’m trying to read more, and while this is only seven books this month (and four of those were manga volumes, which go by really quickly), it’s actually a big jump over the past many months. So I was pretty happy with myself, and I’m looking forward to continuing the series I’m working on or re-reading while also working through my massive list of novels I have yet to read. It’s a very big pile, but I’m working through it bit by bit.
Video Games
Next up are video games! I love video games, especially for how many of them are telling stories that I’m not seeing in fantasy novels today — and the fact that you can play those stories, that you can run around in and experience those worlds, characters, and stories at your own pace and in your own way, adds a whole new layer that is untouched — and untouchable — by novels or film.
1. Tales of Xillia
I love the Tales series of video games… and I’ve only ever beaten one of them, Tales of Symphonia. That is… until November 2019.
Tales of Xillia was a fascinating, wonderful experience. The Tales series does one thing incredibly well in nearly every single entry, no matter how the quality of everything else fluctuates: characters. And, more specifically, character interactions. They do an amazing job of creating a cast of characters and developing their relationships, building them through interactions with each other, and mining tons of story depth and breadth just from character. Character-driven storytelling is one of my favorite things, and the Tales series is all about that. Xillia continued to carry that torch. While I wasn’t really enamored at all with the villains — aside from the two main villains, who were at least somewhat interesting, the rest were sorely underdeveloped and got far too little screen time — the heroes were a blast. I didn’t love all six of them, but I did love the journey they took together, the ways they played off of each other, and the arcs each of them had. All of them grew and changed so much, in ways they never would have alone.
And the world itself was a joy to journey through, as well! Some of the most fascinating scenery and technology I’ve seen, from really interesting spins on “normal” stuff like ships, castles, universities, and windmills, to totally psychedelic impossibilities in the later game, there’s just such a wealth of imagination and ingenuity on display here. Xillia is technically… complicated. It was originally meant to be a much bigger game, but then they ended up having to cut a ton of stuff out, which they ended up repurposing into a sequel. You can feel the cracks at times — especially towards the end — but it was still an experience I loved and had such a great time with. It’s definitely an adventure I’ll take again someday.
2. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
I’ve always been interested in Kingdom Hearts, the Final-Fantasy-meets-Disney-meets-Tetsuya-Nomura’s-OCs (Original Characters) crazy crossover RPG series from Square Enix. But I didn’t get a chance to play the Kingdom Hearts series until this year, when I finally got to dive in.
And… I fell head over heels. Even though I couldn’t actually manage to beat the first game or Chain of Memories, I loved those stories and watched the sections I couldn’t get through. Then Kingdom Hearts 2 came along, and it became an absolute favorite. I loved every second of it, and developed a deep affection for Disney characters I didn’t originally have. I always rather liked Winnie the Pooh, but now I absolutely love that silly old bear. I hadn’t ever watched A Nightmare Before Christmas, but Jack Skellington won me over in his appearances in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2, so I really need to watch his movie now. And the original characters — and the story itself, building on the story that’s been developing since the first game — were all just amazing, blowing me away.
After Kingdom Hearts 2 comes Birth by Sleep (and 358/2 Days, which I watched in movie form in October along with the rest of the series up to Birth by Sleep), which serves as a prequel to the first game in the series, while also setting up so much of the events and revelations that play into future sequels. I loved the three leads, Terra, Ventus, and Aqua. They make a phenomenal trio in this achingly earnest and heartbreakingly tragic tale, and yet in that tragedy is still a glimmer of hope. I wasn’t hugely enamored with the gameplay, and I think traveling to Neverland and its silly Peter Pan goofball of an adventure last of all the Disney worlds, right before the really intense, dramatic climactic final battle, feels very awkwardly placed. But I loved this journey, even playing through it three times as three different characters. The Disney worlds and stories were woven into the main story and the individual character arcs better than anywhere else in the series, making the “crossover” element of this series feel utterly seamless in this entry. I am so, so, so excited to play the rest of the series when I can, but suffice to say, I’m all-in on the madness of Kingdom Hearts. It goes to crazy places, with some of the most wildly imaginative storytelling I’ve ever seen, and I’ve loved every second of it.
3. Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight
The final game I beat this month was a little indie game called Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight. I’ve known about it for a long time, but always thought it looked just a little too outside my tastes to be worth trying out. But one thing led to another, and I tried it, and I loved it!
It’s a short game, and is very much about implied story rather than overtly telling the story to you. Lots of hidden clues about the overall lore and story, lots of stuff tucked away in optional conversations with characters, but I really enjoyed that approach as I explored this desolate, infested castle in a journey to purify the curse that had taken hold of the place. I originally got the bad ending when I beat the game — without knowing there was a bad ending! — and immediately looked online for what the heck I missed. Finding that, I managed to get the proper good ending, but both endings were rather bittersweet. I’m more about happy endings myself, but this very different sort of storytelling style was really well-done and I enjoyed the journey. Short and sweet, too — I beat the entire game in under five hours. The gameplay is fast-paced and engaging, and you can even transform into a kitty cat! It’s way cute.
Anime
I love anime! And… didn’t watch very much of it. Well, except for one long-running series I finally started this year, and one newer series that I’m halfway through. Let’s talk about them.
1. Naruto
This shonen classic completely flew under my radar when I was a kid. Naruto is to many western anime fans what Dragon Ball Z was for me — a thrilling action story running for hundreds of episodes with exciting, sometimes goofy characters, and one of our first introductions to anime itself. And every time I looked at Naruto the character, and the show he came from… I just wasn’t ever interested.
Until I finally gave it a shot. And after the first twelve episodes…
I dropped it.
It was boring. Naruto himself was an interesting character, as was his teacher Kakashi, but the story was dragging its feet, the villains were uninteresting, the drama so hilariously overdone that I couldn’t take anything seriously, and it was boring.
But I kept reading about how amazing some of the story’s arcs were — including the story’s second arc, which I hadn’t reached in my first watch. So…
I skipped some episodes. Skipped right over the first arc and jumped into the second, where the young ninja protagonists take on the Chūnin Exams, a set of tests to determine which young ninja-in-training will move up in rank and be eligible for more difficult, meaningful missions.
And then I was hooked. I loved it. The action was thrilling, the various abilities of the massive cast of characters were so inventive and surprising, and the characters were really engaging. The villain was also perfectly vicious and horrifying, really upping the ante and sucking me into this story. And a few hundred episodes later, I finished it!
So now I’ve started Naruto Shippuden, the continuation of the story after a three-year period, that opens with all of our favorite characters undergoing a major change and showing off what they’ve learned in the intervening years. At this point, I’m hooked on Naruto. It’s a strange, sometimes meandering adventure with a wide variety of characters that oscillate between being awesome and being suddenly incompetent. But it’s also full of heart, incredibly exciting, wildly surprising, and a really earnest adventure that I’m so looking forward to following to its conclusion.
2. Dororo
Dororo is a 2019 anime adaptation of a manga from 1967, and it’s a huge departure from that original source material, while also — from what I’ve read from people who’ve actually read the classic manga — keeping wonderfully true to the soul of the source.
The story follows the young man Hyakkimaru, who was born without skin. Or eyes. Or ears. Or a nose. Or limbs. He isn’t even born with a voice, and seeing his horrifying face open its mouth in the desperate, silent cry of a baby given the worse deal imaginable is a heartbreaking introduction to this character.
He’s born this way because of his father, who formed a literal deal with demons for the sake of power and prosperity. His firstborn son — Hyakkimaru — was born deformed and missing everything but the absolutely vital bodily components to actually live, and he demanded the child be killed. But the midwife took the baby and, following the mother’s wishes rather than the father’s, spared the baby’s life, sending him down a river in a basket. He was later found by a kindly old blind man, who then helped him find his way to a man who could form special wooden prosthetics for the growing boy in order that he might actually function in this world.
Jump forward about twenty years, and Hyakkimaru is on a journey to restore his ruined body. Because he wasn’t born simply without all the things listed. No. Those demons his father formed a pact with? Each of them stole a body part from the unborn Hyakkimaru as payment. So now he has to track down each of these demons and kill them, with each demon slain restoring a stolen part of his body. From his skin, to individual limbs, to his voice, and more.
I’ve only watched the first 12 of 24 episodes, but I’m completely hooked. Dororo is steeped in gruesome, bloody violence, and it often goes into very dark territory. It’s set during the warring-states period in Japan, when the country was fractured into dozens of districts, when samurai served local lords and were constantly at war, treating ordinary farmers and civilians with vicious brutality. This is not a happy world.
But… there’s a surprising, impactful amount of heart and hope. Hyakkimaru’s journey to restore his humanity isn’t just a physical journey, but a spiritual one. He learns what it is to be human, what it is to do good or evil, and what it means to live rightly in this brutal world. He isn’t always fighting demons, but also meeting people, forming relationships, and fighting to protect the weak and powerless. His closest companion is Dororo, a child whose parents were lost to the constant warring, and roams the countryside alone, stealing to live and yet having such a childish, joyful attitude. Dororo contrasts so well with and complements so well the silent, impassive Hyakkimaru, and they make such a wonderful team. Dororo is the one who most helps Hyakkimaru learn what it is to be human, and their relationship, as well as the other characters they meet along the way — including the old blind man who continues to join with the duo now and then, helping fight demons at times too (the old dude’s kind of a beast, I love him, even if I can never remember his name).
It’s a dark, violent story that is so full of hope and heart. I love it so much, and I’m hoping the second half will keep this fantastic journey going and bring it to the excellent conclusion it deserves. Watching Hyakkimaru grow so much despite not having eyes to emote with, despite not having a voice until the most recent episodes I’ve watched (and even then, he’s only spoken about six words so far), is enthralling, and equal parts heartrending and heartwarming. I can’t wait to see how it ends.
Movies
And finally, movies! I have a great “movie night/afternoon” each week, once with my mom and once with my dad, for very different flavors of movies each week. It’s really fun, and also lets me watch tons of movies from all sorts of eras and styles and genres. So I’ve got a lot of movies to talk about, let’s get into it!
1. John Wick 1 and 2
I’m lumping both movies together, though I watched them one week apart, because it just makes sense to talk about them together.
John Wick is amazing. Both of these movies were an incredible action thrill-ride with a surprising amount of heart. They take the quite popular trope of “old assassin/hitman/cop/some-violent-occupation who got out gets pulled back in against his will” and put a really great spin on it.
The action is incredible, the fights are some of the most intense and creative I’ve ever seen, but what stunned me more than anything about these movies is the worldbuilding. They’ve crafted a whole world of assassins with rules, special currency, slang and lingo (I love that “making a dinner reservation” is code for “I need someone to clean up X amount of dead bodies”), and so much more to take the “assassin story set in NYC” setting and make it feel like somewhere familiar but also completely new and fantastical at the same time. It’s so freaking cool, and they do so much of it without beating you over the head with it, and it works! John Wick himself is also a really great character, with a really understated performance from Keanu Reeves that implies so much more than is directly shown or stated. I love that kind of stuff, and it’s done so well here. Looking forward to watching the third movie in time!
2. The Mask of Zorro and The Legend of Zorro
Oh, boy. These two Zorro films starring Antonio Banderas are a real roller coaster. Mask is freaking fantastic, it’s such a fun, exciting, thrilling swashbuckling adventure, with tons of humor and tons of heart mixed together so well. Anthony Hopkins turns in an amazing performance as the elder Zorro, while Banderas is just born to play Zorro, he’s perfect in the role.
And then Legend comes along, playing sequel to Mask… and almost completely ruins everything the first film did so right. It takes the more all-ages, down-to-earth humor and fun tone of the first film and goes wildly slapstick and childish… while at the same time dealing with much more serious subject matter like divorce, abandonment, and a villain trying to start a world war. It is outlandishly inconsistent in tone and storytelling. The action, while often enjoyable, also often leans towards goofy slapstick rather than the dashing, adventurous, swashbuckling thrill-ride of the first film, which fit Zorro so well. There’s a phenomenal sword fight towards the end, and a few good (but far too short) fights mixed in throughout, but there’s a lot of goofy “let’s play to kids” cheese which feels way out of place, especially when the story goes to much darker places in terms of subject matter than the first. It feels like it’s trying to pander to children, while also trying to be bigger and more intense than the first movie, and loses itself in a big way from the very start, and never quite seems to find itself by the end. Banderas does his best with a script that does none of these characters any favors, but it’s a real shame because… he’s a perfect Zorro! I’d gladly recommend The Mask of Zorro, but just skip out on its sequel.
3. The Three Musketeers (2011)
So… this one was interesting. I love the swashbuckling adventure genre, I think it’s something we need more of in movies, but… well, this version of The Three Musketeers was… fine. It was enjoyable at times, but often just utterly ridiculous. A good popcorn movie, that’s for sure, and a pretty wild action thrill-ride, but the plot’s pretty thin and the characters sorely underdeveloped, with two central romances that are both kind of terrible, and yet are attempting to be the core of the dramatic weight for much of the story. It also has a shockingly star-studded cast: Luke Evans, Orlando Bloom, Mads Mikkelsen, and Christoph Waltz are all here and… well, they don’t stand out as much as they should. Orlando Bloom is having the time of his life as a hammed-up ultra-confident villain and he’s pretty fun to watch. Luke Evans is sorely underused, bringing in a really great understated, dramatic performance that would be incredible in a Musketeers movie that took itself more seriously.
The main thing that was really enjoyable were the sword fights. There’s a huge group fight early on, with the three Musketeers and new arrival D’Artagnan taking on a whole host of soldiers. And D’Artagnan’s rooftop duel with his nemesis is incredible. So… it’s a fun time, but most of it’s largely forgettable. Even though it has airships! Airships with flamethrowers! That’s… so dang cool. Wish they’d been in a better movie.
4. Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon
I’ve never seen a Bruce Lee film before this one. And it was really fun! And also… very strange at times. It was an inconsistent ride, but I thought the good out-weighed the bad overall. Some really excellent fights, although Bruce Lee’s character is hilariously unmatched. There’s no one in the movie who gives him even a mildly believable challenge, which could be disappointing to some, but I thought it made for a really fun watch. Just a weird, pulpy sort of action film with thin characters and occasionally awkward scenes that just waste time and do nothing for story or character, but when Bruce Lee throws down, it’s a blast. Or when he fights “without fighting.” See below:
5. True Grit (1969)
I’ve seen a lot of Westerns over the years. My dad’s a big fan of them, so watching movies with him let him introduce me to tons of the classics and the hidden gems in a genre that’s almost completely vanished in modern cinema. I really love a lot of them, but even ones that aren’t incredibly great are usually a lot of fun. That’s how I ended up feeling about True Grit.
It’s got some hilarious dialogue, a really interesting character duo in young girl Maddie and old grumpy bounty hunter Rooster Cogburn, and some clever bits of action and techniques for literally “smoking out” a group of outlaws. But it’s… weird. It meanders at times, and the final action set-piece is cool in concept but spends half it’s time in super close-ups of the main players so that you don’t really get a sense of who they’re shooting at or if any of their shots are landing, and ends far too quickly. And one of the main characters dies at the end, even though he was only hit in the head with a rock. Which, I mean, fair enough, that can kill you, but he gets up and moves around just fine after everyone assumes he’s dead, and then turns around and dies anyway. And why are you going to have a bump on the head kill one of the main characters in a Western filled with heroic gunfights? It’s… weird. A fun time with, as is common for many Westerns of the era, loads of great quotable lines, but it doesn’t stand up to the best of the genre.
6. Frozen
This was a really fun re-watch! I love this movie, I love the soundtrack, and “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” has such a special place in my heart.
Disney’s shift to 3D animation over its classical style was a bit controversial and in many ways disappointing at the time, and while I’m especially a fan of 2D animation, the studio had really come into its own and nailed down its style by the time of Frozen, and it shows in the lavish animation, the incredible snow and ice effects, and some really marvelous effects in the final climax (a great moment of “stopped time” just takes my breath away, I love what they did there).
I think Frozen is kind of a lopsided experience, though, especially as a musical. It’s heavily front-loaded on songs, and all of the best songs happen in the first half. Then there are no songs for a decent stretch, until… “Fixer-Upper.” And that’s the last song in the movie! Kind of a disappointing way to go out, but the actual climax and resolution is excellent, so it makes up for it at the end. The characters are also huge standouts, especially Anna, she’s a total delight. A really fun time, and I’m looking forward to eventually seeing the sequel.
7. The Count of Monte Cristo
I read the book and then watched the movie! And this movie version… takes a ton of liberties with the source material. From the very beginning, it’s clear that things are going to be different if you’ve read the book, and yet they do a really amazing job with this new and different take on the same story of Edmond’s revenge.
Jim Caviezel is a magnetic, fantastic Edmond Dantés, and most of the rest of the cast does an excellent job as well. It’s a less surprising, twist-heavy, and unpredictable story than the novel, but I think that worked incredibly well. The tremendous breadth of Dumas’ novel would be nigh-impossible to fit into a two hour runtime, and so they took the same soul of the story and characters and created something new. There are even some changes I really enjoyed and preferred over the novel! I’ll take Dumas’ novel over the movie any day, but the great thing is that I don’t have to choose and can enjoy them both. A really excellent adaptation and a wonderfully enjoyable film.
8. Tangled
I. Love. Tangled.
There’s a small collection of movies that I can watch over and over and over and still love. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is one. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Whisper of the Heart also hit the list.
But at the very top is Tangled. Disney’s take on the Rapunzel story is about as close to perfect as I’ve ever seen a movie get. I have my issues with others of my favorite movies, even though sometimes those are very small issues. But I honestly cannot criticize Tangled at all. I have nothing even remotely nitpicky or negative to say about it.
Rapunzel is one of my favorite characters ever, with her relentless optimism and boundless sense of wonder — if you can think of other characters to whom those traits apply, Rapunzel has them beat, and it’s not even a contest. The music is fantastic, with not a single weird filler song like Frozen’s “Fixer-Upper” — every song belongs and is perfect for the moment it’s used for. The visual storytelling is astounding, with so much being told without a single word spoken. And it just… it grabs my heart and won’t let go.
There was a time a few years ago where I watched a movie almost every single night. And after a few months, I watched Tangled. And then I watched it again the next night. And after three nights in a row, I wondered: “Will I ever get sick of watching this?” So I tested it out. I watched it every single day for an entire month.
I only loved it more every time.
It’s been about two years since I last watched Tangled, and I was a little nervous to jump back to it. But it was just as wonderful as ever. It’s really… I dunno, I have a hard time properly articulating why I love it as much as I do. It’s a heart thing, which is what makes all of my favorite stories — they’re the ones that grab my heart. And Tangled grabbed my heart in the best way ever. Watching it again after all this time was the perfect way to end the month.
And hey, whoa, that’s everything! This was fun to write about, and it was really fun keeping a running list of all these things through the month, looking forward to writing this up at the end. I hope you enjoyed this post, and look forward to next month’s “Monthly Review”! Considering what I’m currently playing and reading, it should be really interesting and different. And I hope I put a few books, games, movies, or anime on your radar that weren’t there before. Thanks for reading!