November 19th, 2024- Episode 7 of Dan Da Dan- my reactions
Listening to Wait For Me- Maggie Cheung

I pretty much felt gloomy after watching the seventh episode of Dandadan series, it was a bit of a surprise to catch a serious tone from a comedic anime about ghosts and aliens. Bern was saying how the theming of Dandadan (not to confuse it with style) felt like a David Lynch's writing approach on tragic characters. When he mentioned that, I knew what he was talking about! The Acrobatic Silky's past reminded of Laura Palmer's and Diane Selwyn's backstory from Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive. All three of those characters experienced intense trauma that were beyond their control, it's as if society has failed them all.

Bern also pointed out that the 'Aliens' from Dandadan felt like they represent toxic masculinity, they're about domination, control and strong desire to take over the human race. With all the 'ghosts' symbolizing femininity, they tend be filled with rage- years of pain building up over time. Every time a ghost gets 'tamed' in the series, the viewer in the end begins to understand and sympathize with the spirits. It seems as if all the spirits were once human, trying to survive life and got hit with brutal death/ or passed with no peacefulness in mind.

Both Bern and I love hearing Nerdy Daily's comments, we've been watching his I pretty much felt gloomy after watching the seventh episode of Dandadan series, it was a bit of a surprise to catch a serious tone from a comedic anime about ghosts and aliens. Bern was saying how the theming of Dandadan (not to confuse it with style) felt like a David Lynch's writing approach on tragic characters. When he mentioned that, I knew what he was talking about! The Acrobatic Silky's past reminded of Laura Palmer's and Diane Selwyn's backstory from Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive. All three of those characters experienced intense trauma that were beyond their control, it's as if society has failed them all.

Bern also pointed out that the 'Aliens' from Dandadan felt like they represent toxic masculinity, they're about domination, control and strong desire to take over the human race. With all the 'ghosts' symbolizing femininity, they tend be filled with rage- years of pain building up over time. Every time a ghost gets 'tamed' in the series, the viewer in the end begins to sympathize with the spirits. It seems as if all the spirits were once human, trying to survive life and got hit with brutal death/ or passed with no peacefulness in mind.

Both Bern and I love hearing Nerdy Daily's comments, we've been watching his One Piece reactions. His articulation with this episode  was very beautiful,

"In not leering at her, not even showing the men, it is instead completely about her perspective. It centers her pain in the story and her anger and it so deeply allows us to emotionally connect with what she becomes, the spirit of vengeance.."

Similar to how Diane Selwyn from Mulholland Drive was a lindy hop dancer, we learned that the Acrobatic Silky ghost happened to be a former ballerina-- both were living in poverty with the harsh work life that involves moonlighting. Diane Selwyn's rage snapped from the feeling of rejection and humiliation, being crushed by Hollywood dreams. The Acrobatic Silky's case was about having her daughter being taken away from a group of yakuza, probably had a mountain of debt that she could not pay back on time.
 

As you can see from my updates, I made a new blog page layout revolving around the Nutcracker, pink tulle and frosted snowflakes. The ballerina gif is a coincidence with Acrobatic Silky character-- it is unrelated, I promise. I got my design inspiration from a number of memories: the Nutcracker ballet plays, mom's shabby chic bath set, a white gold locket gifted by mom, shopping at Claire's during the holidays, and Lipsm4ckers makeup collection filled with glitter. Just like my autumn layout, the profile picture drawing was done by Bern, from iphone doodle.

Not counting the tree, I managed put all our holiday decorations up! We have a small space, so it was a pleasant way of storing our Halloween decorations away. I find that boiling a pot of water with slice lemons, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, ginger and cloves really brings out the cozy atmosphere. We even had a friend (Bern's colleague) over this past weekend, apparently he was in Scotland weeks ago during Halloween and showed us some scenic pictures.

Bern and him talked about their creative projects and caught up with their updates in their social circle.  Since we'll be inching towards a bunch of festivities, we did get into a conversation on nostalgia and our family customs. We all grew up with different traditions, customs and such; we talked about the food we loved as kids and *certain* family events that weren't pleasant. Our friend grew up in another Anglophone country from a different continent & season pattern, so his experiences were drastically different from our childhood. It was quite interesting to hear his family's customs.

Between Bern and I, while we're pretty much from the same hometown and had the collective 90s American public school experience, ours slightly differs because I was raised by a large household, predominantly Asian. Bern grew up with the Tommy Pickles' holidays, like in a cultural sense. Bern was explaining to his friend that we both ended up making new traditions for ourselves as a couple living together; our holidays became pretty magical once again ever since we started dating fifteen years ago. It became even more magical ever since we started moving in together. Having a place where a couple can set their own rules and lifestyle really makes quite a difference! Don't get me wrong, we love our parents..we're just adults who needs our own kitchen space whilst still being in one place. I'm lucky to have a partner who enjoys my decorations

Do you guys have any special plans for this upcoming month? Or any stressful plans to dodge? Whatever the outcomes, I hope it all goes well for you all!