I Think Thinks

A Quick Review of Just Like Home

Posted on January 19, 2023 by Annie Simm

Wow! It’s been forever since I did one of these. Sorry about that.

I’ve been super busy and haven’t had much free time to read. But then, I found out the Libby app has audiobooks!

Just Like Home is the second Sarah Gailey book I’m reviewing for this series. The first was Upright Women Wanted, which you can find here.

The way that Gailey handles narratives was just so intriguing to me. They would be so flippant yet confident about their world-building that I decided to find another Gailey book. I needed to see if they would be my new favorite author or if this was just a fluke.

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Uncategorized

Separating the Art From the Artist: A How to Guide

Posted on October 28, 2022 by Annie Simm

Back when I was in middle school, I bonded with a classmate over our mutual love of anime. The classmate even owned a manga that she brought to school and let me read. That series was Rurouni Kenshin. This was the first ever manga I saw in person and this friendship was likely a major contributor to my love of anime. I don’t think I would have started collecting One Piece volumes if not for this interaction. (Also, Oda worked on Kenshin in his early days, so it’s connected there.)

Jumping ahead a couple of years and I’d decided to collect Rurouni Kenshin volumes. Viz Media even had them in these big prints where you could buy 3 volumes in one book. Unfortunately, I never finished my collection remains because the news broke that Nobuhiro Watsuki is a monster.

I won’t go into detail but just know that Watsuki shouldn’t be trusted around young girls. I don’t know how he is still able to work in the anime industry and before anyone tries to claim that “the culture is just different,” it wouldn’t have been a crime and he wouldn’t have been convicted if it were.

I had to learn the hard way to separate my love for Rurouni Kenshin from my hatred for the creator. I’m sure in recent years we’ve all had one or two( or ten) creators we had to cut off because they did something terrible. So for those who need a little help letting go, here’s a guide for separating the work you love from the artist you’ve grown to despise.

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Reviews, TV Reviews

A Quick Review of Bee and Puppycat

Posted on October 5, 2022November 12, 2022 by Annie Simm

So because my life is chaos, I am again without my beloved laptop, and this will be my first attempt to write and edit a post using only the WordPress app. Let’s hope this goes well!🤞🏾 (I guarantee there will be grammar and spelling, but I’ll come back to edit things after my laptop gets back.)

Also, obviously, there will be some spoilers for the show.

I first found Bee and Puppycat on Frederator’s YouTube channel around 2015 or 2016. I can’t remember if the series had come out yet or if it was just a pilot. All I knew was that it was cute and weird, and I wanted to see more of it. Eventually, Fredorator partnered with VRV, and I watched the new Bee and Puppycat episodes there. After that, the show went on hold for a couple of years for reasons I’m too lazy to research why.

Also, I keep hearing that the second season got leaked, so while some fans might have already seen these episodes, I only saw them when they were released on Netflix.

This isn’t technically a first-watch review of the series, but it has been so long since I watched the original that I can’t say I’ll be an expert on all things Bee and Puppycat.

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If I Could Rewrite, star wars, Uncategorized

If I Could Rewrite: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Posted on July 26, 2022May 3, 2025 by Annie Simm

Creating new work is hard, but editing is easier. Today we’re tackling Star Wars: The Last Jedi. This is a continuation of changes I made in The Force Awakens post here and here.

Finally, I’m on to the second movie in this trilogy. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I would do these last two movies because I felt like they needed a lot of rewriting, and I’m trying to avoid turning this into fanfiction.

A Quick Review: Toy Story 4

Posted on February 14, 2022October 31, 2022 by Annie Simm

I forget to publish this post! (￣_￣|||) I literally had it in my drafts for a month and a half, but I guess we can just pretend it’s in response to the Lightyear trailer.

This was a movie that I was reluctant to watch. I thought that Toy Story 3 was the perfect send-off for the toys, so when Toy Story 4 was announced, it felt like a thoughtless cash grab.

Boredom convinced me to give it a chance, and I’m glad I did.

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Movie Review, Uncategorized

A Quick Movie Review: Encanto

Posted on January 1, 2022October 31, 2022 by Annie Simm

Like a lot of people, I didn’t see many advertisements for the film. The only reason I even know about the movie was that “Surface Pressure” was all over my For You page on Tiktok. It made me fall in love with Luisa’s character, so, when the film dropped on Disney Plus, I raced to see it.

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Anime/Manga, Uncategorized

The Rise of Isekai: Escapism at Its Greatest

Posted on December 4, 2021May 4, 2023 by Annie Simm

(Spoilers for the setup for My Next Life as A Villainess)

The other day I was looking for a new anime and stumbled across a series called My Next Life as A Villainess: All Paths Lead to Doom. The show follows a girl who dies and is reborn into her favorite otome game as the main villainess who suffers a terrible fate in all her endings.

If this setup sounds familiar, it’s because it’s all over the anime/manga scene right now, and it’s an isekai.

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If I Could Rewrite, Uncategorized

If I Could Rewrite: Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Plot

Posted on October 30, 2021December 29, 2024 by Annie Simm

Finally, it’s here! (Sorry, this took so long. I was using No Bones Days as an excuse to procrastinate.)

I’m gonna go into this post assuming that you read the “characters” post. If not, go and do that now.

…Did you do it? You promise? Okay then, let’s get into it.

Alright, on to part two of this series! This is a continuation of the stuff I did in the Character post. Meaning that any concrete decisions I made for the characters still apply here even if I didn’t mention them again. I gonna try not to repeat stuff without adding anything new.

As I said before, I think the movie had the right idea, but the execution is off. These are just the changes I think would help.

Buckle up! It’s a long one.

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Book Reviews, Reviews, Uncategorized

A Quick Review of Upright Women Wanted

Posted on September 20, 2021September 20, 2021 by Annie Simm

You thought it would be part 2 of that Star Wars Rewrite, but it was me, A Quick Review!

But seriously, I feel bad for how I pretty much abandoned this series. I had a lot of free time for reading when I started this series, but I got a job as a frontline healthcare worker, so I lost all my downtime real quick. As a result, this will probably be the last A Quick Review for a minute. (At least until I get an Audible account or something.)

For now, let’s send this series off with a book that’s gay and it slaps.

Sorry, I’ve been on TikTok for too much.

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If I Could Rewrite, Uncategorized

If I Could Rewrite: Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Characters

Posted on September 6, 2021January 17, 2022 by Annie Simm

(Spoilers for the entire Star Wars Sequel trilogy. I will need to discuss future movies to explain some of my choices.)

Creating new work is hard, but editing is easier. Today we’re tackling Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

I agree wholeheartedly with the popular consensus that these movies weren’t the best. I think the main problem with them was the presentation. The creators had plenty of cool ideas and concepts they wanted to explore, but their delivery was just a bit off. The movies feel half-baked and the characters under-developed as a result.

In this post, I will focus on changing some characters’ introductions/presentations to better fit the story’s overall themes. I plan on doing another post where I edit the events of the plot to make it flow better.

I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to do the entire sequel trilogy or just this movie. If I tackle the other movies, the decisions I make in this post will carry over to those.

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