Well, I've been meaning to write a proper July post but kept pushing it back, so now, since it's literally the last day of the month, let's do this.
For starters, I guess I can say it's been a pretty good month for me. I would avoid talking about my job, but my life is not that interesting and there have been developments in that area, which I'm very happy with. Basically in 2022 I had a regular 9 to 5 job working in a company I hated doing things I disliked. Eventually I was able to quit and focus solely on working with audiovisual translation and giving English classes in the side. Turns out I'm not a natural born teacher and, even if I was, I've grown to really dislike working in that specific school, as their system is kind of a mess? Like, students can cancel classes up until just one hour prior to them, and then I have to make more time for the school to give a make-up class, and that happened basically every week. So for some students I wasn't being paid for weeks, and they kept doing it, and frankly I was fed up, so I quit. Coincidentally, the same week I've quit I landed on some dub translation job (basically translating scripts for voice actors to read, you know, so far I've only been working with subtitles), which is something I've wanted to do for a while and things aligned just right for me to get that. So, yeah, I'm relieved and happy I can leave the school behind and start a job I've always admired.
However the situation lead me to reflect on classes in general and, man, I do like some of my students. One in particular was doing super well and I'm proud of him and hope he has a bright future ahead. Were it not for the circumstances, I'd probably enjoy being a teacher. I might do it again in the future, if I can set my own terms, it's not my life's calling but it's often rewarding and I had a bunch of fun. I don't want to shittalk the school too much as well, I wouldn't have the courage to quit my job in March last year were it not for them hiring me. Credit where it's due I guess.
As for actually fun stuff, I went to São Paulo (two hours by bus from where I live) to meet my internet friends again. We do that every couple of months, and we managed to do it two months straight, which was cool. They wanted to do Barbenheimer (eugh), to which I was against but I wanted to hang out so… However we ended up just going for Barbie thanks to some unfortunate situation I won't mention here. Okay movie, not really the reason I went there in the first place, but anyway, hanging out with them is always cool, I don't have many friends with similar interests, or actually that many friends at all. This time I can say we were having dinner in a restaurant and a random guy with a Polaroid camera stopped by and asked if we wanted pictures, so now I have a Polaroid photo of that moment, which is pretty sweet. I also got some giffts, a Yu-Gi-Oh and a Kamen Rider card as a memento, though I don't have where to properly display those, and random Ranma 1/2 volumes my friend gave to me since I like Rumiko Takahashi's manga.
Now, I think I'll also take this opportunity to do some media log highlights, since this is what I like and I don't have that many interesting hobbies to talk about or anything like that.
Movies: This month I've watched Arete-hime and Chibi Maruko-chan: My Favorite Song which are now, without any exaggeration, two of my favorite movies. The former is directed by Suano Katabuchi, famous for Black Lagoon and In This Corner of the World, and Arete might be his masterpiece? It's, as often commented, a truly feminist story that takes and twists fairy tale tropes, but not in a modern, quippy Disney movie kind of way, it's more interesting than that, without giving many details away. What I can say it's a underrated masterpiece, very melancholic but very beautiful, gorgeously drawn and scored and with a meticulous attention to manual work animation. As in, actual work requiring hands, that's relevant to the movie.
The Maru-chan movie is, on one hand, a hilarious piece of gags and a collection of the best animated music videos I've ever seen and, on the other hand, deeply moving and life-affirming, a grounded story about changes and how things sometimes go on and you gotta let them go on. I cried once or twice, died laughing, and can safely tell some of those moments will live forever in my mind. It might seen like I'm exaggerating but no, it's that good, one of the loveliest movie I've had the pleasure of watching recently.
Tokusatsu: Kind of an overlap with movies here since Hideaki Anno's Shin Kamen Rider finally got a worldwide release, but anyway. I had a blast, like his live-action Cutie Honey movie but for boys. Perfect superhero content, everything I like about Anno's (and Higuchi's, when he's involved) tokusatsu movies. Surprisingly, I think it's my favorite of those, even if it's technically a mess of a movie. Thankfully, movies can work in more than one level, so if you get it, you probably won't worry about rushed pacing, "bad" CGI, and will learn to enjoy how awesome of a movie it is.
But if you know me, you know my jam is actually Ultraman, and July saw the premiere of Ultraman Blazar, which is being uploaded weekly to YouTube with subs and dubs. Affter what I consider years of staleness (I won't get into that now), this series is back to what I really love about it. Every week in Blazar we have a focus on the monster of the week, a better balance between that and the character stuff, less focus on toys Bandai desperetaly needs to sell, and a refreshing batch of newly-designed, original monsters and aliens. That last part is the most important. Blazar takes a grounded approach to deatling with kaiju menaces that feels very fresh but doesn't forget to be silly and funny, so a perfect balance to me. So far I'm really happy with the show and wholeheartedly recommend to anyone as a great entry point in Ultraman.
Manga: Just a quick shoutout to They Were Eleven! but Moto Hagio, great, short sci-fi by one of my favorite artists ever that should be read without knowing much about it. I've also read Helter Skelter by Kyoko Okazaki, a great but very depressing one about models, beauty, and surgeries, which I'd rather not get into details as well. I've written too much already anyway.
Well, that's it for July! Hope everyone also had a good month, and for a nice August as well :)