alchemicink

Weekly summary: Apr. 26 - May 2, 2026

2026-05-03T14:27:36Z

Happy Sunday! I am sleepy, but I have a lot of things to share this week. Here we go:

( Read more... )

comments

"be careful. She doesn't telegraph her kicks at all" (Weekly TV reviews)

2026-05-02T11:56:30Z

This week: dream lore in Zeztz; manager woes in Girl Rules; and a stellar performance in Akane-banashi

The title quote was the funniest line from Zeztz this week. I couldn't resist using it 😂

Spoilers, as always, below:

Kamen Rider Zeztz (episode 32)

( Read more... )

Girl Rules (episode 7)

( Read more... )

Akane-banashi (episode 4)

( Read more... )

comments

May '26 writing goals

2026-05-02T02:20:33Z

How'd we get through April so fast?! I feel like I didn't have time to write anything! (Other than drabbles lol)

Last month's goals are here.

Let's see how I did...

( Read more... )

Let's figure out what to write this month:

( Read more... )

So there you have it. Wishing everyone else good luck with all your own creative endeavors this month!

comments

Weekly summary: Apr. 19 - Apr. 25, 2026

2026-04-26T15:27:33Z

I overslept (by almost 3 hours) this morning, so now I feel out of whack 😅 It doesn't help that the weather is kinda gloomy too (but it did rain a bit, which is good because we're currently in "extreme" drought)

Anyway, onto the summary:

( Read more... )

comments

"if you want people to like you, then first you need to accept them" (Weekly TV reviews)

2026-04-25T12:24:30Z

This week: Zeztz reveals some important information about Zero; the Girl Rules crew films a music video; and Akane gets a temp restaurant job

Title quote comes from Akane-banashi today.

Spoilers, as always, below (but especially for Zeztz this time)

Kamen Rider Zeztz (episode 31)

( Read more... )

Girl Rules (episode 6)

( Read more... )

Akane-banashi (episode 3)

( Read more... )

comments

Friday Five answers (4/24/26)

2026-04-24T17:03:11Z

These thefridayfive questions are testing how good my memory is 😂

1. What decade did you attend/are you attending high school or college?

High school was during the 2000s and my college years stretched into the beginning of the following decade

2. What clothing fashion from that time are you glad/do you wish went out of style?

I can't remember well what was popular back then because my style at that time was a very simple jeans/t-shirt combo 😂 I do kinda remember palazzo pants being in style for a bit during high school, and I did think they looked stupid

3. Do you still listen to the music from your high school/college years on a regular basis?

Oh definitely! High school was when I started listening to Japanese music and I have been unable to stop since then 😅

4. What hairstyle/hair color did/do you wear during high school/college?

I used to have some stupid-looking bangs! Glad those are gone now....

5. What was/is "the cool thing to do" while in high school/college?

...Drinking? I have no idea because I never did "cool" things 😂 My friend group was comprised of nerds and goths. We mostly just watched movies together and hung out in our cars in various parking lots

comments

Minami?!

2026-04-24T02:54:02Z

So I stumbled across a tweet this week which reminded me that JFF Theater is a thing. They rotate through different movies every few months. So I just watched "Let's go karaoke" (the 2024 live action movie based on the manga... which I haven't read).

It was really good!! I will probably write an actual review soon.

Anyway, I can't watch any Japanese media without recognizing at least one actor in it from something else. So I yelled "Minami?!" when Yagi Miki shows up within the first five minutes 😂 (Minami is the name of her character in Kamen Rider Zeztz. I recognized her voice immediately lol)

Also, the guy who plays Haruno in Ultraman Blazar is in this movie for one scene too 😂

comments

DVD extras

2026-04-22T03:50:43Z

The discussion question over at tv_talk this week is about DVDs, which is funny because coincidentally, I spent this evening watching all of the special features included on my season 2 boxset of Star Trek Voyager.

There were two hours worth of special features I had forgotten about!! I just really love behind-the-scenes production stuff and crew interviews, so I'm glad all that was included. We never get stuff like that today.

My favorite bit of trivia: the composite shots of Voyager parked on the planet in "The 37s" were there to cover up the real background scenery... which was the Hollywood sign 😁

comments

Assorted lunch break thoughts

2026-04-20T17:21:08Z

1) the worse part of my job is requesting more info from people and then they... straight up ignore you *shakes fist at the sky*

2) frost advisory tonight means I have to figure out how to cover my newly-planted garden when I get home tonight 😒

3) it's about a month before Animazement! I'm so excited about it. I'm gonna go for the whole weekend this year (for the first time in aaaages). Watanabe Shinichiro is gonna be a guest again this year!

4) finally finished up my rewatch of Voyager season 2 last night. I'm ready for season 3!
<--doesn't remember which episodes are in season 3 so this'll be an adventure 😂

5) making good progress on my Girls Remix exchange fic! Hopefully the momentum holds and I'll be done soon. Then it'll be time to write treats for both this exchange and seasonsofdrabbles 😁

comments

Weekly summary: Apr. 12 - Apr. 18, 2026

2026-04-19T12:32:02Z

Covering several topics this week, including mini reviews of some new manga!

( Read more... )

comments

"when fear tries to hold you hostage, how do you make it let go?" (Weekly TV reviews)

2026-04-18T12:02:27Z

This week: Baku saves the cat; Akane meets a rival; and the Voyager crew faces fear itself.

Girl Rules was on a holiday break this week, so I decided I'd watch and review a Voyager episode instead. I've been meaning to get back to my series rewatch, so I'll probably continue to write little reviews for random episodes here and there.

Title quote comes from Voyager.

Spoilers, as always, below:

Kamen Rider Zeztz (episode 30)

( Read more... )

Akane-banashi (episode 2)

( Read more... )

Star Trek Voyager (season 2, episode 23, "The Thaw")

( Read more... )

comments

Friday Five answers (4/17/26)

2026-04-17T15:04:42Z

Enjoyed answering this week's thefridayfive 😊 It was a mostly quiet week for me, and so much better than all the craziness I had to deal with last week.

1. What did you do on Monday?

Work, as usual. The Board of Education meeting I was gonna listen in on (via Zoom) got canceled, so that gave me time to grab some groceries after work. I know a lot of people hate grocery shopping but I kinda enjoy it. I watched two episodes of Kamen Rider Agito (since Girl Rules, my usual Monday show, was on break this week)

2. What did you do on Tuesday?

Work, as usual. Very uneventful compared to scrambling to finish a big project last week. I cooked a simple little mushroom spaghetti dish for dinner when I got home. (It was delicious) I watched some cooking shows on PBS. And discovered my HVAC unit was messed up again 😩 It was so hot when I went to bed.

3. What did you do on Wednesday?

Work, as usual. Started working ahead on some things so I'll be less stressed next week when it gets busy again. Bought a salad from Bojangles for dinner (so I could save half for lunch Thursday). Came home feeling relieved that my HVAC had been fixed and it was a tolerable temperature inside again. Watched more cooking shows on PBS.

4. What did you do on Thursday?

Work, as usual. Pretty much the same as Wednesday. Briefly dropped by my brother's house in the evening to drop off something. I explained to him the concept of fanfic drabbles 😂 Cooked another batch of the mushroom spaghetti. (Still delicious) Listened to a few podcasts. Got excited about the reveal of this year's upcoming Ultraman series. It looks interesting!

5. What are you going to do today?

I have my first vacation day of the year! 🥳 This rarely happens. I plan to do some gardening stuff, and hopefully lots of writing. I might make egg salad.

This is the exciting life I live 😁

comments

Weekly summary: Apr. 5 - Apr. 11, 2026

2026-04-12T12:26:09Z

Feeling better than when I wrote my last summary, but this past week was incredibly hectic 😵‍💫 Just gonna share a few links and then ramble about offline life.

( Read more... )

comments

"But it's not over. In fact, that was the day it started" (Weekly TV reviews)

2026-04-11T11:54:33Z

This week: More secrets are unveiled by the secret agents on Zeztz; Girl Rules is leaning heavily on the "exes to lovers" trope; and Akane has a story to tell.

I've added Akane-banashi to the weekly reviews as I just learned last week that it's available on YouTube free and legally (if you live in North or South America). I haven't been watching a lot of anime lately because most of the new stuff is on Crunchyroll (which I don't have) or Netflix (which I don't have). So this is an opportunity I'm not gonna miss!

In honor of this news, the title quote today is from Akane-banashi.

Mild spoilers, as always, below:

Kamen Rider Zeztz (episode 29)

( Read more... )

Girl Rules (episode 5)

( Read more... )

Akane-banashi (episode 1)

( Read more... )

comments

Friday Five answers (4/10/26)

2026-04-11T03:20:36Z

Slightly late answering thefridayfive questions this week 😅 But I am posting before midnight here, so it's still Friday 🤭

1. What was the last book you read (or are currently reading)?

Not technically a book (because it's a manga series) but I'm on volume 8 of Fruits Basket right now. I'm doing my annual reread. This volume started off with a focus on Hatsuharu, who is one of my favorite characters 🥰

2. What was the last movie you watched?

I haven't been watching any movies lately, so it's the Ultraman Arc movie, which I last rewatched sometime in January I think

3. What television series are you currently watching?

I'm watching several!
Currently airing weekly series:
☆ Kamen Rider Zeztz
☆ Girl Rules
☆ Akane-banashi

Just recently started watching:
☆ Kamen Rider Agito
☆ Kamen Rider Kabuto
(Both of these are beginning to be available on YouTube for a limited amount of time)
☆ The Librarians
(This comes on one of my over-the-air antenna channels on Saturday nights)

Watching sporadically:
☆ Seijuu Sentai Gingaman
☆ Ultra Q

4. What are some of your favorite blogs or communities online?

Don't really follow any blogs or communities outside of Dreamwidth. There are a lot of fun communities here that I enjoy. I couldn't name them all, lest I forget one!

5. What social media do you belong to and check often?

long-suffering sigh I'm still on Twitter because it's the best place for me to keep up with Japanese entertainment news. Mostly I'm there retweeting fan art these days.

I'm enjoying my recently-created Tumblr account! Though I've been too busy this week to pay much attention to it.

I would love to delete my Facebook account but it's unfortunately useful for work sometimes 😩

comments

Sure I'll add another idea to the endless WIP pile

2026-04-08T02:44:56Z

I was driving home this evening, minding my business, when my brain suddenly said "hey do you want this canon-divergent Voyager AU where B'Elanna and Harry were friends at the Academy before they met on Voyager?"

And my responses were as follows: "ahhh I have zero time for this right now 😭" and "where did this even come from because I was thinking about a different fandom entirely just a moment before 🤔" and "that's an incredibly fun idea 👀"

So, anyway, I am making a note in my phone for later. Sometimes I find myself jealous of people who are not constantly bombarded with ideas they have no time to write 😂

comments

Weekly summary: Mar. 29 - Apr. 4, 2026

2026-04-05T12:35:13Z

I'm not feeling great at the moment (physically and mentally), so here's the usual summary without much fanfare

( Read more... )

comments

"Don't falter. Don't suffer. Enjoy the bad dream" (Weekly TV reviews)

2026-04-04T12:59:38Z

This week: Zeztz reveals some backstory on our new antagonist, and the Girl Rules gang contends with the concept of friendship :)

Title quote is from Zeztz this week.

Spoilers, as always, below:

Kamen Rider Zeztz (episode 28)

( Read more... )

Girl Rules (episode 4)

( Read more... )

comments

Not how I would have written it...

2026-04-04T01:22:54Z

The next Kamen Rider series title and logo was announced today, and they apparently decided on "Kamen Rider My-th"

Which seems intriguing, but then you look at the katakana in the logo and it's written as マイス (maisu)

Mice?! 😂 Toei, why would you do that?

(I understand why you could write the word like that in Japanese, but I don't understand why you would 😂 Anyway, it'll be a while before the new series starts. Plenty of time to get used to it beforehand...)

comments

April '26 writing goals

2026-04-02T01:04:43Z

Good riddance to March! Hopefully I can get more writing done in April 🤞

Last month's goals are here

How'd I do?

( Read more... )

And now some goals for April:

( Read more... )

So it's mostly a rehash of last month, but I don't have anything else I'm dying to write right now, so I guess that's all the goals I'll set for April. We'll see how it goes. Wishing everyone else good luck in their creative endeavors this month!

comments

Fire extinguishers?!

2026-03-31T17:28:19Z

Earlier this month, I was on my way to work and I drive through a small town on my commute. And I saw a guy setting up a trailer on the street corner to sell stuff. That's not unusual. People sell stuff like produce there all the time.

But not this guy.

He was selling fire extinguishers 😂

Anyway, imagine my surprise when I left the office for lunch today and saw this guy again! Different town. Different street corner.

Same fire extinguishers 😂

comments

Weekly summary: Mar. 22 - Mar. 28, 2026

2026-03-30T00:11:17Z

Got a weird hodge-podge of stuff for this week's summary. Let's just get to it.

( Read more... )

comments

"you can be my type for only one night" (Weekly TV reviews)

2026-03-28T13:15:59Z

This week: Nightmare fight club on Zeztz! And a friends-with-benefits situation develops on Girl Rules.

Title quote is from Girl Rules again this week because I forgot to write down any of the Zeztz quotes.

Spoilers, as always, below.

Kamen Rider Zeztz (episode 27)

( Read more... )

Girl Rules (episode 3)

( Read more... )

comments

Making some yearly goals in... checks notes ...March

2026-03-27T17:10:34Z

I think January is a terrible time to set goals for the year because it's so dreary that I'm not motivated to do anything. So... I'm making a post about goals for the year now instead 🤭 The weather is getting nicer!

Offline goals:

( Read more... )

Online goals:

( Read more... )

I guess that's it for now. Maybe I'll check-in in a few months to see if I've done any of this. Or maybe I'll just forget about this post completely. Who knows! (Certainly not me)

comments

Weekly summary: Mar. 15 - Mar. 21, 2026

2026-03-22T13:50:45Z

Another week down. March is flying by.

( Read more... )

comments