February 17, 2026
Waaay back in, oh, I don’t know. Call it 2017, when Harry Potter fame started being questioned (and Rowling in general), Earthsea series was put forward as an alternative.
So let me tell you: Wizard of Earthsea is nowhere like Harry Potter series. It’s telling Harry Potter reader to read better fantasy series.
Which is fair enough. So let’s get back to Wizard of Earthsea.
Wizard of Earthsea is about Ged; a unusually talented at magic youth from basically backwater island. He’s headstrong and prideful, and learned magic from local Witch - before his home is invaded by nearby empire. Using his magic, Ged, not yet named Ged at the time, managed to fend them off. But he went into comma, until Ogidon, a mage, found him, healed him, and take him as his apprentice, and giving him the name Ged.
February 13, 2026
What do you see beyond the viewfinder? Death, apparently.
It’s almost complete coincidence I picked this nonfiction. I was just done reading Watanare, which is a fiction, so I picked nonfiction next, and my eyes just went to this book, and I was like, hey. Why not? I don’t know the synopsis or tags or whatever the book is about, beyond the author and the title.
It’s certainly heavier read than Watanare. What is it about? Well, it’s about photography, and death. Specifically: war.
February 4, 2026
Yesterday I finished volume 7 of Watanare light novel - the latest one published in English, as of this writing. Combined with watching Cosmic Princess Kaguya yesterday, it made me think.
I don’t plan on making this review spoiler-free, but neither it is synopsis of whole series. This will be the last warning.
When you searched Watanare in your favorite search engine, you’ll find accusation that it is male gaze. This is wrong, but not in that way. Let’s know the main character: Renako Amaori.
January 27, 2026
The first Vocaloid songs I listened was Koi wa Sensou. Back then I knew it as Love is War, a translation that now considered inaccurate. As I know little Japanese, I can’t say if it’s right or not. That was in 2008. What followed was a slew of Vocaloid classics; of which you’ll hear some of them in Cosmic Princess Kaguya, sung by the VAs - both Japanese and English dubs, a rarity.