Book: The Silence Between Us by Alison Gervais

The Silence Between Us by Alison Gervais is a coming of age YA romance that features a Deaf protagonist! September is Deaf Awareness Month, so I though it appropriate to post this now. Maya is a seventeen-year-old girl who grew up hearing but got sick with meningitis, therein losing her ability to hear and becomes Deaf. She recently moved to Colorado from New Jersey and readjusts to being at a hearing school, having attended a deaf school for many years, due to the fact that the nearest deaf school is too far a commute. 

Maya goes through many struggles, juggling with her brother's cystic fibrosis, CF, while trying to fit in with the hearing students. Soon, she meets Beau, the student council president, one of the only hearing students who actually takes an interest in her and ASL. Maya is more focused on school and so he isn't even on her radar, especially with him being a hearing boy...

Anime: Mirai by Mamoru Hosoda

This critically acclaimed film, Mirai by Hosoda Mamoru, has caught my eye for a while now. There are many people who love this film to the point that it has ended up on Netflix! Time for me to see why it is so popular!

Four-year-old Kun has a mother and a father, who is an architect. Kun has a new baby sister and has to learn how to deal with her being in his life now that it's not just him anymore. Throughout the film, we get to see Kun making choices and decisions and certain events that change his outlook on his younger sibling, even if it's just for a little while.

Paper vs Screen: The Garden of Words by Makoto Shinkai

Happy anniversary! Whose you may ask? Well this blog is officially a year old today! Gods, I didn't think I would be able to chug through six months, much less a year! I honestly feel very accomplished. My book review vlog may have lasted nearly ten years but the uploads were inconsistent, there was no set schedule so I actually am really proud of myself for being able to keep on top of things and stick to a schedule despite everything that has been going on with 2020. And thanks to all who have continued to support me through the last year! I hope that I will be writing this blog for many years to come because despite this seeming to be tedious, I really like writing and being able to share my interests and thoughts with those who are the same as I. I also might be updating the schedule and try to spread out posting more throughout the week, but I'll see how things go. Now, we are going to go back in time for a bit, to the very first review that I did on this blog, but... with a little twist!

Manga: Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare by Yuhki Kamatani

Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare by Kamatani Yuhki is a very renowned series, it caught many peoples' attention when it had first released. It had caught my attention too. I read the first volume in a Barnes & Nobles when it first came out and then I could never find the rest of the series so I could finish reading it. My library just recently got the full series so now was my chance!

Kaname Tasuku is the new kid in school and is a closet gay. A friend of his scrolled through his phone and found gay porn on it and he is almost outed. He says some hurtful things that are offensive to other gays and himself so that he won't be outed. That same day, Tasuku contemplates committing suicide but then sees someone else jump out a window! Running over to the building he finds the Drop-In Center, full of all different kinds of people that help Tasuku.

Light Novel: The Garden of Words by Makoto Shinkai

 

I guess you guys didn't see this one coming! Or maybe you guys did... let me tell you though, I didn't. I had no idea about the light novel until recently, I just don't keep up to date anymore with anime and manga news all that often. So imagine my surprise when I went on the Kindle store to finally buy The Garden of Words the manga and found this instead! There were some discrepancies with me trying to buy it, mostly due to the fact that the light novel isn't it's own listing and is linked to the physical manga listing. I couldn't find the Kindle manga listing until I chatted with customer service who kind of fixed it. You can find the manga now, but the light novel is still linked to it, not yet a separate listing.

Anime: The Garden of Words by Makoto Shinkai

This review has been a long time coming! This is going to be a throwback to my very first review on this blog... The Garden of Words by Shinkai Makoto! This film has finally reached Netflix, really it's been on there for a while but I haven't gotten the motivation to watch it as of late. I finally motivated myself to watching it though, so here we go!

The Garden of Words is a coming-of-age, slice of life film that revolves around Akizuki Takao, a fifteen-year-old first year who dreams of becoming a shoemaker in this day and age. He always skips first period on rainy days, going to a nearby park. One of these days he meets a woman at the park in the gazebo, drinking beer and eating chocolate.

Book: Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements (Things #1)

Okay everyone! This is the second review transferred from my book vlog! It was a summer reading assignment for school that I had put off for the longest and read the book and filled out the packet for it on the plane ride home from my vacation. Personally, I don't like school assigned books, I don't like that I am being forced to read a novel I had no interest in reading at the time. 

Anyways, all I remember from this is that the main character becomes invisible and it is a big problem for him. Now I have not much more to say, so let's allow 13-year-old me take it away!

Anime: Children of the Whales by Umeda Abi (Season 1)

As we are are in quarantine, it has given me a lot of time to catch up of some anime that I've missed recently. These are crazy times right now as I am typing this up, for this post is going to be up weeks after I have finished typing it! I hope you are all still safe when you read this because I can't see the future. Stay inside and watch some anime or read some manga! If you're reading this blog I would hope you like to do one or the other. Moving on, we are going to get right into this review! 

I have heard a great many things about this anime and boy, they weren't wrong! This anime is a relatively new one, available on Netflix by Netflix. It's a coming-of-age, fantasy, adventure centered around a ship called the Mud Whale and going-ons that happen. 

Anime: Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki

One of Miyazaki Hayao's masterpieces, Spirited Away is a title everyone who loves Studio Ghibli should know. I know that this is a film, but it is an anime overall, so I'm going to be rewatching all the ones I have access to. This is unfortunately not one of the one that has a manga series accompanying it, like Nausicaa does. This Miyazaki film is a coming of age featuring Chihiro, a young 10 year old girl, who's family is moving to a different town. While this happens she somehow gets involved with the Spirit World. I know that most people have watched the film before but I will still put a spoiler warning just in case.

Manga: +Anima by Natsumi Mukai

This is an oldie but a goodie! This is an amazing manga and I wish there was more to it. +Anima by Mukai Natsumi revolves around a group of four kids, ages varying from 10 to 17, traveling around the country trying to survive and find others like them. They are called +Anima, humans that can take on the qualities of one specific animal but only one part of them can take on the quality. The placement of the change doesn't move, the placement stays but the +Anima can change the one part of themselves from animal to human and back again. 

Manga: The Garden of Words by Makoto Shinkai

The Garden of Words by Shinkai Makoto is a wonderful coming-of-age, slice of life, shoujo manga centers around a young first year boy, just starting high school, and a woman who has started to give up on life. Once these two meet, they start to change each other, preparing themselves for what lies ahead in their lives. I had to reread this manga to remember the details, like the characters' names, since it's been a while from when I last read it. The story is superb and it really moves you, making you sympathize with the characters and feel as though you're them. 

"Shinkai has often been hailed as the next Miyazaki..." -Variety