*I have received a free ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, please note that this doesn’t affect my opinion of the book, nor my personal thoughts.

I have to say that I really did enjoy this first volume. I suppose it was easier for me to get immersed in the story since I’m well familiar with it. The Blue Wolves of Mibu are exactly how I’ve got to know them, so I’m really glad to see that the author has kept their depiction as it was meant to be.  

I’m not generally into stories where the main character is a child—although there have been exceptions—but I really feel for Nio. He lives in a harsh world where people are murdered and children are kidnapped all the time, and he just wants to make the world a better place. I’m really looking forward to seeing where his own sense of justice will take him. 

Not really short of cute comical moments—despite the brutality of the story—The Blue Wolves of Mibu Vol 1 is the perfect introduction to the world of the Shogunate. 

Happy New Year!

We're just a few days into 2024, did you have a lovely celebration? 2023 has been a difficult year for me, especially these past few months—which explains my absence from this blog in November and December. Unfortunately Covid caught up to me as well and, since it was the first time, I was basically knocked out and had to postpone my planned content until further notice. I'm well now, thankfully, so I'll be taking the whole month of January to work on my blog and schedule all posts I had to put on hold until now. 

I've also started bullet journaling and I'm quite excited—make sure you check out my Instagram to see my monthly themes! I've never been a very arts-and-crafts person, but I've taken an interest in bullet journaling lately, as well as water colouring (I was gifted a watercolour paint set and the book  Watercolor With Me in The Forest by Dana Fox for Christmas), so I'm very eager to get into it!

I normally don't make any New Year resolutions, so all I wish is for everyone to have a happy year and, if you're going through a hard time, let's hope 2024 will be good to us all.

Have you started something new in January? Let me know in the comments!

次回まで。♥

Halloween is basically upon us, so today I bring you a bit of a different post from my usual ones to set the right mood. I have a weird relationship with horror films—just like with chocolate, haha—I’m generally not a big fan but I’ll still watch them from time to time. The same goes for video games… You’ll never find me play one—I’m genuinely too scared—but I won’t hide that I like watching others play them.

Since horror video games set in Asia are quite popular at the moment, I’ve decided to compile a short list of Asian horror games to make your Halloween extra frightening!

Parasocial 

I’d like to start this list with a bone-chilling horror made by Japanese developer Chilla’s Art. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because they’ve made games such as The Karaoke, The Closing Shift, and The Convenience Store.

The game I’m mentioning today is Parasocial (パラソーシャル), a psychological horror game which explores the dark side of live streaming as a VTuber. What makes it terrifying is the fact that the themes examined could very easily happen in real life. Forget about scary monsters and horrifying creatures, being aware that someone constantly watches your every move and could harm you in the blink of an eye is far more petrifying.

The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation

Next on my list is the Taiwanese The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation, a first-person supernatural horror about the legend that haunts Tunghu University.

If you think you’ve heard of The Bridge Curse before, it’s because this game is based on real-life events in Tunghai University, Taiwan. Explore the Campus grounds and try to survive the horrors this curse has unleashed upon you. Will you be able to break the curse before it’s too late?

Fun fact: a film with the same title (The Bridge Curse) was released on Netflix in 2020, and it’s pretty spooky… A perfect addition to your Halloween night fun, don’t you think?

Welcome to Kowloon

Continuing my list of Asian horror games to make your Halloween extra frightening, from Taiwan we travel to China with a first-person indie horror called Welcome to Kowloon.

Once the most densely populated city with a tangle of narrow streets and endless passageways, now the buildings are merged into one indistinguishable sea of iron, concrete, and glass, their backstreets and cramped alleyways full of mystery and terrible hidden secrets.

I suppose games where you have to escape from something/someone scare me the most, which is why I picked Welcome to Kowloon for this list.

Home Sweet Home

Let’s now fly to Thailand with a first-person horror adventure based on Thai myths and legends, Home Sweet Home.

While searching for his missing wife, the protagonist finds himself in an unknown place hunted by terrifying creatures. If you fancy your games to come with a side of gore, then Home Sweet Home is the perfect game for you, especially for this Halloween.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, I do occasionally watch others play horror video games, but gore is where I draw the line. I won’t be watching the gameplay, nor the Netflix series, thank you very much.

Night Security

We’ve come full circle, and my list of Asian horror games to make your Halloween extra frightening concludes in Japan—just as it started—with another bone-chilling horror game by Chilla’s Art, Night Security (夜間警備).

Make sure you complete your objectives for each floor, but beware the strange occurrences that befall the building you’re supervising… Without giving too much of the story away, I like the way they take inspiration from everyday cultural aspects and add sinister horror elements to make the story ominous and really scary.

🎮🎮🎮

Our trip exploring 5 Asian horror games to make your Halloween has sadly come to an end, I hope you enjoyed it! Have you played any of these games? Let me know in the comments how you are spending your Halloween!

次回まで。♥

I first came to hear of Lafcadio Hearn during my visit at the “Fantasmi e Spiriti del Giappone” exhibition, as the tales depicted in Benjamin Lacombe's book are inspired by Hearn’s stories. Today, I will be sharing my impressions of Hearn's book In Ghostly Japan. 

*I have received a free ebook copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review, please note that this doesn’t affect my opinion of the book, nor my personal thoughts.

In Ghostly Japan is a collection of fourteen stories about the spirits of the dead, and the spirits of the living, offering a captivating—yet ghoulish—window into Japan's supernatural and spiritual world.

I’ve been really eager to read any of his works since then, however, I did not enjoy In Ghostly Japan as much as I thought I would. Personally, I thought the book was more heavily inclined to the spiritual—rather than the supernatural—which I suppose it’s why I had a difficult time getting through some of the stories. I also unfortunately had to skip a couple because I just couldn’t connect with what I was reading at all. A shame, really. 

However, some of the stories were really frightening, and I did enjoy them quite a bit. Furisodé, for example, tells the tale of a haunted kimono (and it reminded me a lot of a Japanese horror film with a very similar story, except it was about a doll), and it was quite eerie. A Passional Karma was indeed petrifying, and Ingwa-Banashi was purely spine-chilling. 

Even though I had a tough time with some of the more spiritual stories, I’m glad I was given the opportunity to read In Ghostly Japan.

Have you read this book or plan to read it? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and if you have a favourite story among them.