"Okay that's great and all BáiYù, but I might have a better chance of winning if I do happen to appeal to your specific interests. What do you even like?"
Wow great question! I have excellent taste so I'll let you know what sorts of stuff I like to be inspired by so that you too can be smart like me 👍 In no particular order:
Game — The World Ends With You (Square Enix, 2008)
TWEWY holds a special place in my heart as an especially formative game in my early pre-teen years. SE might have fumbled the marketing hard on it and all its remasters, but for those who played the original, it really pushed the envelope as far as gameplay and soundtracks go in the late 2000's. The original DS edition of TWEWY had players controlling both Neku and his partner simultaneously by using a combination of the touch screen and buttons, and if you mastered the art of knowing when and where to direct your focus, it was a truly innovative system. The soundtrack was also pretty unique at the time by including both Japanese and English vocal tracks, with the EN version actually having more songs than the JP version at the time. Combine that with a stylish art direction and a plotline full of twists, and I was obsessed. It's a bit of a shame that NEO: The World Ends With You doesn't quite capture the same desperation and tension as the first game...
Game — Mother 3 (Nintendo, 2006)
Listen, I don't care if you're tired of hearing about how everyone and their mother likes the Earthbound series, because I do too and I'm tired of pretending like it's cool and subversive to claim otherwise. Mother 3 in particular is a rare example of a nakige (lit. "crying game") RPG full of heart, humor, and wit, and all the cool great gamedevs you like are probably influenced by it in some way, shape, or form. There is something about the sum of its parts that still makes me cry when I remember the ending. If you are able to, I highly recommend playing it or watching a video of it.
Game — The Caligula Effect 2 (FuRyu & historia Inc, 2021)
YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD ESCAPE ME NOT MENTIONING THE CALIGULA EFFECT? No, shut up, I don't care about the Roman Emperor, let me finish. The Caligula Effect refers to a psychological phenomenon where people may have the impulsive urge or desire to do something that is largely forbidden or considered taboo by society, like when you've been told not to break something and now you really wanna break it just to spite them. The Caligula Effect: Overdose is full of prime examples of the type of people who face these societal issues taken to the extreme, while CE2 is a little more toned down in terms of how disagreeable the main cast is, if only by virtue of the second game being based on the regrets of people who have largely tried to move on or cope with their issues in reality. To put simply, The Caligula Effect series is a highly psychological contemporary JRPG set to the soundtrack of real-life Vocaloid producers with superb writing. If the graphics being "behind" that other JRPG series I hate with my whole tits out makes you scoff at this, then I do not think highly of you and I am tired of pretending to hold that grace.
Game — In Stars and Time (insertdisc5, 2023)
Ayyyyy who need they time looped? In Stars and Time is an RPG where the despair and menhera is cranked up to 11 and you might start crying hysterically at any given moment past Act 1. It's got its funny and lighthearted moments, but the way that Sif's mental state really starts to get to you too at the low points is just. So good (read: horrible (/positive)). This is the type of media that rips you apart and stitches you back together that I really love 💖
Anime & Manga — Trigun & Trigun Maximum (Yasuhiro Nightow, 1995)
I actually recently finished reading Trigun Maximum for the first time and if you've only watched the '98 anime, Stampede, or Stargaze then um. I'm so sorry, you really gotta read the original series + Maximum (which is a continuation of Trigun because of some serialization stuff at the time). There's something about people being subjected to extreme violence for the simple act of existing but still sticking to their vows of peace and love that really activates my neurons. I miss Wolfwood so much.
Anime & Manga — Witch Hat Atelier (2016)
Yeah honestly, absolutely none of you should be surprised here and if you don't like Witch Hat Atelier then you might as well not enter the jam. WHA is an absolute masterpiece of a series and has so much of everything I want from any kind of fictional media: a story about a young girl growing up and learning in a supportive environment that respects the autonomy of her and her peers; vibrant worldbuilding and a magic system based on skill rather than innate genetics; commentary on class, race, disability, socioeconomic status; adult characters who do their best to provide for the future generation while carrying their own unresolved traumas; etc. There is just so much to love about WHA and the main cast and despite only really getting into the series at the beginning of this year, it's already salvaged my passion for creating art when I've been so, so close to quitting it all. WHA is a story about relentless hope against despair that doesn't pretend to shield its young protagonists from horror, but equips them with the tools and support to see tomorrow's sunrise. It's beautiful, just absolute chef's kiss. I'm not telling you what my AO3 account is though.
Nonfiction Books — DILF: Did I Leave Feminism? (Jude Doyle, 2025)
If you did a spit-take on the title, then yeah that's the point. For those unfamiliar, Jude Doyle is a renown feminist who faced some scrutiny (understatement) when he transitioned , and this book gives a bit of a primer on the history of the modern feminist movement, the role of both trans women and trans men in the movement, and how feminism is intrinsically entwined with trans activism if any of us have got any hope for a future that isn't super fucked. It's very good trans masc theory and I want more conversations to stem from the topics that Doyle touches upon here, because it's so important.
Honorable Mentions: the stuff I made.
Yeah listen, I made this stuff and I think I did good with it. It'd be neat if I saw more things like it sucks to be us and Blood & Play, which focus mainly on T4T relationships between COVID-Conscious folks. I like what I like, and as we've already established, I have great taste 😌