As a fan of crafting and cute DIYs, I have been amassing a small collection of wooden Rolife dioramas. But though adorable, they seemed rather intimidating, so I never actually tried to put one together…until now! With the help of my model kit-savvy boyfriend, I was finally able to see what the assembly was like for one of the cutest kits in my backlog: the Rolife Dark Castle DIY Dollhouse Box Theater.
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Anything can happen on Halloween, and this year at Chic Pixel, I’m joining in the 31 days of horror movie challenge! Well, since Marcus and I will be doing it together, it’s technically a Pixel x Pixel challenge, and I thought it would be fun to share with all of you in case you would like to give it a go, too.
Broadly, the challenge consists of watching a different horror movie every day of October, but you can watch as many or as few as you want. Or, perhaps you want to watch two one day and skip the next? Go for it!
Our list is made up of movies that were on Marcus’ and my mutual watch list, Marcus’ personal watch list, a few things we’ve been wanting one another to see, and one we want to watch together. We couldn’t keep the list down to just 31, so there are are few alternates that can be swapped in or just added on if we’re feeling adventurous.
Finally, there isn’t any specific order to this list, and we’re likely going to pick and choose based on what fits the mood and the window of time we have to watch for the day. Films that have an M next to them are ones that Marcus has already seen, while A marks ones I’ve watched before. Feel free to check out the list and join in if you’re interested, or share what films you’ll be watching!
We’ll be posting short reviews in the Chic Pixel Pals Discord, so be sure to join if you haven’t already. To sign up, just fill out this form to receive an invite. I’ll also publish a roundup of highlights (and possibly lowlights…) here on the blog at the end. Happy watching!
The Takarazuka Revue, Japan’s all-female theater troupe, has been historically difficult to access for foreigners. While they have performed around the world since the troupe’s first performance in 1914, the most recent US performance was in 1992 according to the Takarazuka Wiki. Tickets are available to purchase online for their in-person performances in Japan, but there’s nothing like the fancy subtitle glasses some shows use if you don’t know Japanese.
That’s why the livestream announcement for Cosmos Troupe’s Casino Royale -My Name’s Bond- was met with such excitement, as it marked the first time a full Takarazuka Revue performance would be streamed for an international audience. And with English, Korean, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Indonesian, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Thai subtitles, at that!
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Naoshi, the sand artist I recently met at Takumi Alley, has just launched a Kickstarter campaign for a picture book called Tako Knows! Follow the short but endearing life of Tako, a tako (the Japanese word for “octopus”), through 88 pages of colorful illustrations designed to bring joy and humor to readers of all ages.
Naoshi writes that after learning that some species of octopi’s lives can be as short as two years, she was “struck by their strength to live out their lives in earnest” and thus was inspired to write a picture book about a tako living its life to the fullest. I love the vibrant colors and whimsical themes in Naoshi’s art, and Tako Knows definitely excemplifies that. Plus, it’s all the more amazing when you realize all of the art is created from colored sand!
While the Kickstarter was already fully funded within a four hours of launching, there is still plenty of incentive to back, including a stretch goal where all backers will receive two postcards with their other rewards!
The picture book itself is $20, but there are a plethora of add-ons to choose from, including an art print of “The Great Tako Wave” inspired by “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa,” a sticker sheet, washi tape, and even a sand art DIY kit.
To learn more about the various tiers available to backers, check out the official Kickstarter page. The campaign runs through June 14, so hopefully we will see even more exciting stretch goals in the future!
Naoshi can also be found on her website, Etsy, and Instagram.
When you’re a butch lesbian that’s attracted to other butch lesbians, it can be hard enough to find a girlfriend, but for Meiri Hiranishi, an awkward otaku college student with no dating experience, things seem near impossible!
Meiri Hiranishi’s debut manga, The Girl That Can’t Get a Girlfriend, is an autobiographical story based on comics she posted over the years to her Twitter, Webtoon, and Tapas. Meiri is a Japanese woman living in the US who longs to find a hot, short-haired girlfriend Γ la shojo anime heroines such as Sailor Uranus, but her awkward attempts at finding love all end in failure. That is, until she travels to Japan for the summer and meets Ash, an American teaching English in Japan.
The pair share a whirlwind month-long romance until Meiri has to return to the US to finish college, but their long distance relationship ends abruptly when Ash breaks things off. Unable to move on, Meiri struggles to try to win Ash back and find happiness for four long years.
Perhaps a more appropriate title for this manga would be “The Girl That Can’t Keep a Girlfriend,” since the majority of the story focuses on Meiri’s relationship with Ash from their initial meeting, tentative flirting, and declarations of love over the span of one month to their breakup and Meiri’s broken heart.
The initial couple of chapters focus on introducing Meiri and her tastes in women, establishing herself as a shy, insecure otaku, which fit with her depiction as a round, goofy caricature (whereas all of her love interests look straight out of shojo manga). Her embarrassing attempts to get a girlfriend, such as when she tries to go femme in order to win a butch woman over, make it clear that she grapples with her own self-worth and feels the need to change herself to appeal to others.
While there’s a lot of sweetness and fun interactions throughout the story, particularly when Meiri meets and starts dating Ash, the core issues she deals with as a lesbian woman struggling to find love and self-worth will tug at your heartstrings, whether you can directly relate to her problems or not.
Still, it’s all dealt with a witty sense of humor and self-awareness that keeps things from feeling too heavy. It’s also worth noting that Meiri wrote the entire English script herself, and her language feels right at home to someone active on the internet in 2023.
The Girl That Can’t Get a Girlfriend is a look at the life and relationships of a single woman, and the stakes may feel comparatively low to some, but in a world where we need more of all kinds of queer stories, from the happy to the sad, extraordinary to mundane, it is well worth the read. I particularly appreciated the evolution of Meiri’s perception of herself over the course of the manga and seeing her finally get to the light at the end of the tunnel. I look forward to reading more of Meiri Hiranishi’s work in the future!
If you have an interest in Japanese stationery, you’ve likely heard of Midori, a paper products company founded in 1950. They produce everything from stickers to letter sets, and are well known for their MD Paper line of notebooks, which are celebrating their 15th anniversary this year.
As part of the anniversary, Midori has released an updated line of MD notebooks, a series of 15 special notebooks with covers drawn by different artists, and is running pop-up events around the world! I was thrilled to find out that a store close to me, M.Lovewell, would be hosting the pop-up event from March 25 to April 8. Of course, I had to stop by the store and pick up some goodies!
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Norn9: Var Commons releases for Nintendo Switch on March 30th, and I couldn’t be more excited! Of course, a localized otome game release is always cause for celebration, but this time I’m extra excited because I worked on the game!! Read on for more info and lots of news and fun to celebrate the launch this week!
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