Mala's Library

Hoarfrost Wires

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I started Hoarfrost Wires a few weeks while going absolutely insane so read it in three sittings. My visual novel reading has been interrupted by my insanity as of late. I felt it was a very gentle story. It reminds me of Yokohoma Shopping Log in how there is a tragic undercurrent throughout it while people continue to live their lives.. Of course, there are robots too.

It makes me nostalgic.. When I first found stories told in this way, I was in my late teens.. Now I think I read a variety of things but this sort of tragic slice of life (yuri) is what appeals to me most after all this time....

A Jumbled Puzzle of Glass Shards

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A Jumbled Puzzle of Glass Shards is by my friend Citrus and, well, I think I mentioned at some point I have a goal of putting more indie works I consume (that aren't manhwa/manga) here. I get anxious because people on Itch.io are my peers. Citrus is not just a peer—he is my friend, one of my best friends actually.

I beta-read for this and gave a lot of feedback, which means I've already gotten out a lot of my thoughts (naturally), but time to go again! I don't read a lot of time travel fiction because it can get extremely convoluted in a way that displeases me. My favorite "time-related" w...

Mayfair Watcher Society: Relapse

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My media consumption has been low partially due to my lack of internet and also partially because I am really tired and burned out and began to feel a moral weight tied to media consumption, which led to me avoiding consuming media entirely.

But, luckily, Zed and I used to listen to Mayfair Watchers Society together and decided to do weekly listening since we are at the same place. Occasionally I skip an episode because of child harm. I didn't listen to Changeling last week but plan to eventually.

Relapse was really interesting to me. I liked a lot of its concepts and I felt the execution...

The Odyssey

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Reviewing The Odyssey feels silly because people generally agree that The Odyssey is objectively good in a way that I will explain as I go.

So I'll mostly be yapping. When I was younger, my family loved movies about Greece. Mother liked them the most. Obviously, that includes Troy (an adaptation of the Illiad) and 300 (this is Sparta!). As a result, despite my general lack of interest in popular movies that aren't horror, I was very excited to see the Odyssey. One might say that my consumption of it was inevitable, whether I saw it of my own volition or I watched it with family.

One of my...

Land der begrenzten Möglichkeiten

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Land der begrenzten Möglichkeiten is a visual novel that is 1000 words. Due to being in the middle of moving, I am prioritizing short VNs. Also, well, I just saw other people talk about it in a way that interested me.

I enjoyed it. I have trans friends who were in the middle of the Antarctica situation described here which meant it was interesting to me, but really, the conversation made me sick because it reminded me of living with my abusers and the talks we had. And it reminds me of all my friends in terrible relationships right now who have to be in them because of the trust they put in...

Hunt Par Force

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Toxic Yuri VN Jam is over. While many of my peers focus on reading things from the jam, I will also be doing this, as well as trying to read entries from older jams I was in that I never got to.

I read Hunt Par Force after another entry that I plan to write about soon. Hunt Par Force was fun. I was enamored by its art direction, and its writing did intrigue me. I think, in some sense of the term, this kind of work is not "for" me exactly, even though I did enjoy it.

I have a strong fascination with Victorian works and historical fiction, specifically around hunting because of the...

the amazing digital circus

Fri, 19 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Happy day for The Amazing Jax Circus.

I watched TDAC. I didn't watch it the entire time it aired (I watched most of it in one sitting then the finale the day it was live), and I have no strong feelings. It is a bit awkward as it is quite easy for me to rag on but I have friends who really like it. But I admittedly watched the ending and felt a strange emptiness.

I am someone who generally dislikes spoilers. I was not spoiled for TDAC: I was only told one inaccuracy which made me anxious up until release. It made this fake spoiler a bit funny. But well, the media circus around it did affect...

silence of the lambs

Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I have been falling into these depression pits lately. Unfortunately, anime has done nothing for me in recent times. In fact, I just find myself continuously disappointed by popular yuri coughs, and I've been too unmedicated for video games.

So, I sat down and finally watched something from my watchlist. My mind immediately went to The Silence of the Lambs. I likely would have watched this years ago if I had not learned about the transphobia, and honestly, I'm happy I waited until now to watch it. I am now a fully grown adult with opinions on things. I'm going to delve into some of the...

chainsaw man (again)

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I have had time to think about Chainsaw Man. I think I like it more now. I've been able to find meaning in its senselessness. Really, I guess it all goes back to the senselessness of humanity and just surviving through it.

I still believe the characters in P1 are much stronger than in P2, and reading it in one sitting results in a bizarre feeling. However, I can ultimately look past that and enjoy the ride.

I like the demons being seen as the cause of the chaos among humans, when a lot of their powers go back to the horrors of humans in the first place. The abuse of women with the STD...

Sorry to Bother You

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I hungout with Guts the past few days and when I woke up from my nap, this movie was on. This movie also already caught me off guard with the 'white voice.' It made me laugh really hard. I've always been critical of dub overs but I'd never seen it like that before.

I really love Cassius Green. At first I struggled to understand what kind of person he was in the movie.. But he's a loser. Like, a loser guy. It really sparked joy. I think one reason he ends up in the role he is in is because he is a loser. People like him because he's a loser. I like that his girlfriend likes him as a loser but...

Bible Belt

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Albums! Well, the Bible Belt EP.

It's been a while since I talked about music. I've been more on an album kick as I've grown a bit disillusioned with my playlists. Baby Bugs is an artist I've been enjoying for the last year or two. I hate to categorize her but in my head there are offspring of Nicole Dollanganger (who to me is an offspring of Katie Jane Garside), and Baby Bugs is somewhere in that family free. I wouldn't describe it as similar but it's that morute biblical trauma music.

I like every song in this EP though I really liked Bible Belt.. Funeral Song is also enjoyable. Holy...

The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I've had The Hills on Eyes on DVD for quite some time now. My girlfriend and I have been planning dates just at my apartment to save money, and well, watching moves on my CRT is romantic

chainsaw man p2

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In February 2019, I read just listen to the song and said "Of course, you have to think about the fact that this is by the creator of Chainsaw Man, probably the most popular manga at the moment about a boy who is part chainsaw. It's acclaimed for it's genius while others tear it down for being just another shounen manga. Make of that what you will. "

When I talked about part 1, I had very little to say. I said "It was really difficult for me to predict what would happen next. Sometimes... I think of the ending and go "haha what was that?" .

I also talked about watching it because Dorohedoro...

Fionna and Cake S2

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I have finished Fionna and Cake S2. To be honest, I really struggled this season. I thought Fionna and her friends weren't a strong enough characters for a while, especially because so much of the seasons tension was built around Fionna being a clown, but honestly, after seeing everything, I am solid now.

Gary's upbringing was weird to me at first, but it contrasts well with Fionna and Marshall's. His kindness is a nice contrast to his AT counterpart (PB). He acted the same without her crazy intelligence, but emotionally, he is the smartest character in the Fionna and Cake world it seems...

Invader Zim (The Movie)

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Invader Zim movie is very strange to me, especially now that I've seen it a few times. I struggle to call it good or bad- just Invader Zim sort of... I enjoy Jhonen Vasquez at times though I prefer when he was writing for edgy teenagers. I sometimes listen to him in podcasts, and over time, I've had to grapple with the fact he isn't the artist I adored as a JTHM-loving emo teen now but more of a modern kid's cartoonist now.

Most modern kids cartoons don't make me laugh or I actively dislike the humor. But Jhonen Vasquez sort of goes back and forth for me. It still reminds me of 2000...

DYSFUTUR3.05

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This is the first entry I read in RoRo Jam (okay technically the third, the other two were by friends and they submitted early), and I cried.

When it started, I struggled to get into it. I always do with visual novels that have been chunks of chat based messaging between 2 characters. This is because you are thrown into the thick of it, and the options for explanation of the things around you are low. Trusting the author in that way frightens me, but in the end, with DYSFUTUR305, I felt like I'd read it too early. I liked it so much that I wish I'd saved it for later LOL. I was on call with...

Common Sense Monster Volume 1

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hello! Salutations! I am now leaving the NSFW abyss and reading normally again. Probably. Anyways, I picked up Common Sense Monster again. I actually read it a while ago, but found myself getting bored of most things at the time, including this manga. Also, it updates so slowly.

Common Sense Monster is about a girl, Itou, who has ASD and her relationship with a monster, Takahashi, inhabiting her classmates body. I admittedly find the writing lackluster at times though the ideas and concepts push it very far for me.

The art at times is also a bit clunky, but I also find it very cute and...

Dragon Ball (First Tournament Arc)

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I recently sat down and started reading Dragon Ball. It's because I've been really bored, and perhaps my boredom was a result of reading a bunch of short things. Dragon Ball is 520 chapters, and I don't know how many breaks I'll take reading it, so I'd like to go over some of my thoughts whenever I reach a good point in the manga. I'm at chapter 56, all Dragon Balls were collected, Oolong wished for panties, and first tournament where old pervert is in disguise has ended.

I like Dragon Ball a lot, but I'm going to complain. I find the jokes in Dragon Ball creepy. I haven't read manga in a...

Fear Me [Jeff the Killer's Dating Sim]

Sun, 09 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Something terrible is happening to me.

I recently find my carefully curated tastes devolving, and it is making me insane. Of course, I still love everything I like, but as I get more stressed out, I find myself retreating inwards and becoming more like my childish self. I ended up liveblogging this entire thing on the fediverse. Liveblogging is something I try not to do because I am embarrassed easily, but this is part of the bad thing happening to me.

Through 2013-2016, I wrote a lot of Creepypasta fanfiction and read a bunch of it too. I stopped for one primary reason- the reason many of...

Cyberbulli

Sat, 05 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Cyberbulli was so fucking funny. The main character reminds me of my elementary school/middle school self in a lot of ways. When I lived in a majority white/Christian area and was suffering and believed myself to be much better than my peers. It's a kind of character I like to read when done well, and she is done very well.

Reading Cyberbulli was fun for a variety of reasons that I put into words in a comment, but let's go. Cyberbulli is an example of a kind of work I really desire from the yuri genre. The plotline is a plotline you'd see in a 2000s movie but with intense lesbian mental...

I'm in Love with the Villainess

Sat, 05 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Sorry, I have not updated in so long! I got really tired of static HTML, but I've really wanted to update. My girlfriend and Instagram story viewers have been forced to see all my media rambles (and Zed and Citrus and others too really). I finally sat down and started sorting out the media page and can update again though things aren't perfect still.

Anyways! Onto the media!

I'm In Love with a Villainess I saw via Instagram reels. Anime yuri is evolving. This was inevitable of course- with the yuri renaissance in manga happening, of course we'd get more good yuri anime as those works get...

Look Back

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I put off watching Look Back forever but did some months ago becuase my girlfriend really loves it. She loves Fujimoto's works in general, but I believe Look Back is her favorite. I really liked it. It made me cry. It felt like a more pessimistic/adult version of Whisper of the Heart.

It was weird. I watched Look Back I think around the time Meat Girl got kind of popular, and I'd never really had a project have any sort of.. attention like that. It felt like I watched it at a good time because I felt kind of weird seeing so many people play it. Seeing people call one of my characters' a...

Dragon Ball Daima

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

To be honest, I think Dragon Ball Daima is perfect and truly captures the soul of Akira Toriyama's works outside of Z and Super (which.. Super is complicated I know). It made me very happy. I have really been wanting something like this from Dragon Ball for a long time. I've always been curious what's going on elsewhere in the Dragon Ball Universe because so much is implied, and Daima gave me a lot of fun. There are some goofy plot things, but I had so much fun I didn't mind and the show itself seemed to embrace the goofiness.

The combat is some of my favorite I've seen in the series. The...

Rental Onii-Chan

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Rental Onii-Chan is a nice story I kind of wish I'd read when I was younger, but am also very happy I didn't read as I think it might've been what made child me finally kill herself. JUST KIDDING! Maybe. Anyway, it's a very sweet story about a girl being taken under the wing of a temporary brother while her brother is at home being a pos.

For a very long time, I refused to read stories with children due to my own trauma. I would sometimes find myself envious of them or wishing I could relive my youth in a positive light. I realized while reading this I seem to have completely gotten over...

Uzumaki

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Well, Uzumaki came out after all these years. I liked it, but it does not live up to the manga at all. It did make me want to reread the manga though.

I have a lot of feelings about the anime. I think the OST was really spectacular. It really is what I imagined the background music of the story Uzumaki to be. I'm actually listening to it right now.

The dip in animation quality from EP1 to the other episodes was disappointing, but I don't really want to rag the animation team because God knows I'd rather animation look bad than people be overworked, and I think "poor" animation can be okay...

re:curse

Sun, 06 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The final one I'll talk about for now is re:curse. re:curse is a game by devpalmer. It's endlessly interesting- to the point of me wanting to get VX Ace so I can go through the project files. It features Caroline, who appeals to me, a Glados lover (it makes sense if you play.) She's a virus in the shape of pierrot. At some point she explains why she took her form and says something along the lines of 'does the jingling of a pierrot's bells not please you?' SO REAL AND TRUE. Lots of really good lines in this game really.

I think it's fun and it features Joan (heart eyes). There's two endings....

Married in Red

Sun, 06 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Next is Married In Red. I think Married in Red is the only other Studio Investigrave game I've played so far as the other ones are visual novels, and due to reading many vns recently, I'm taking a bit of a break from them. Married in Red was honestly fantastic. The art is spectacular, and I really enjoy the gameplay. It also reminded me of old gameshed games. The games UI is really beautiful, and I love Bok-su Go. The story is pretty predictable, but that doesn't take away from the fun of it. It's 2010s RPG horror in peak form to me. Fun art, cool sprites, murder, puzzles, memorization! Yay!...

Cold Front

Sun, 06 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Hello! It's been a while since I updated here. I had to read a lot of entries for the menhera vn jam, and originally I was going to write stuff down for all of them but by the end my brain had melted LOL. In the last weeks, my body also started having a series of strange health issues that made doing anything that required energy impossible, so now I've been playing video games. I'll log a few of them here and some I've played in the past because I've played many games since checks date... 11.21.23 lol. Probably not all tonight though. I'm super tired lately.

Since I've been in an RPG Maker...

Mr. Right Turns Out to Be A Younger Woman

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

damn girl where have you been. well. well. i was reading mostly random i found on bato and i didn't really feel like logging any of it because so much of it was heavily nsfw... i've finally regained my senses haha. i don't remember how i found this manga actually. Mr. Right Turns Out to Be A Younger Woman feels like something i would've read a long time ago. happy i read it now though. it was good. it tackles the struggles in relationships with larger age gaps in a graceful way I feel. all of the characters are a delight. i wish it were longer though.

there's a line that says "the...

Dear Girls Who Have Grown Up