november 2025 wrap-up
on worldbuilding for plot + major hxh spoilers
though nanowrimo no longer officially exists, there are still plenty of people who embark on an unofficial nanowrimo during november and attempt to write 50k words a month. i learned long ago that nanowrimo was not for me, for various reasons, and so i didn’t even try to attempt it this year. i did, however, commit to something like rebecca mix’s gentle nanowrimo, though even that i did not entirely succeed at. basically, i worked on worldbuilding.
worldbuilding is a tricky thing. you don’t want to fall too deep down the worldbuilding hole, because then you risk just becoming obsessed over tiny details that won’t really matter in the long run, instead of actually writing. but it’s a fine line, because you do need some amount of worldbuilding to write. you can’t write a story when you don’t understand the world you’re writing it in. it’s high fantasy, after all — the world/magic/history should influence the plot.
sometimes i get very in my own head about how much time i’m spending on worldbuilding — i’m the type that can spend an hour trying to come up with a fantasy name for a group of people, and so i often feel that i should be spending that time writing, but the thing is, sometimes, you have to spend that time worldbuilding. you just do. even if you feel silly spending all that time just trying to come up with one term, well, that’s still time you’ve spent thinking about your project rather than just faffing around doing something else.
and so, this month, i gave myself permission to just focus on worldbuilding, and to think carefully about how i wanted that worldbuilding to influence the plot, even if that meant i didn’t get to write. and lo and behold, it helped! once i sat down and actually spent time to write out all of the various worldbuilding threads (i.e. magic, religion/afterlife, history, rule of law, gender dynamics, geography), i felt the story become much clearer, and i had a better sense of what i wanted to write.
anime;
hunter x hunter (episodes 75-148);
chimera ant arc —
hunter x hunter fans will tell you this is one of the best arcs in all of anime. it also happens to be one of the longest. reader…it is not the best arc in all of anime. not even close. for most of the episodes that make up this arc, i was watching on 1.5x speed, and skipping around, because i simply did not care. i understand the themes this arc was attempting to explore, and yes, those themes were interesting, but — just because the themes are interesting doesn’t mean the story is well-executed.
there are some moments that are very well done (mostly, gon facing off against pitou and acting more like a villain than a shounen hero and killua’s relationship with gon, some of the scenes with meruem and komugi, reina reuniting with her mother) but this was an arc that was way too drawn out and spent too much time on fights and events about people i did not care about. there’s an entire episode dedicated to the backstory of a character named gyro, who we then never actually meet, and his inclusion doesn’t factor into the story at all. like, it’s a great backstory! the episode, stylistically, is brilliant! why do we never meet this man!!!
then there’s meruem. fans will praise his development and complexity, and while i can conceptually understand this, i just don’t think it was conveyed as well as it could have been. part of this is because of komugi, who spurs almost all of his development, not being a real character. i will die on this hill. komugi is ridiculous and insufferable. i cannot take her seriously, and this, for me, saps any depth their relationship might have had. i am also annoyed because i don’t understand why she is characterized in this way — she could have been absolutely incredible! a blind girl who is the national champion at this world’s equivalent of chess! but instead of having any semblance of personality, she’s just kind of…there. (i am not heartless i teared up during their final moments together but still.)
and finally — this is just an aesthetic thing very particular to me — i just cannot take seriously shows with talking animals or human-animal hybrids. like, i’m sorry, if you’re trying to get me to feel pathos for a talking octopus or a stuffed bear, it’s just not gonna happen. i don’t like it when my anime feels like a cartoon, and that’s what i felt for much of this arc.
chairmain election arc —
the final arc of the hxh anime has a very different vibe. it’s very killua-centric (which is excellent because i love killua), brings back the dynamic duo of illumi and hisoka (a sublime matchup, what complete freaks), leans heavily on political intrigue, and finally shows gon meeting his father, ging. a lot happens! paradoxically, it’s also the shortest arc of the show! it’s wild, because this is an arc i would have wanted to be longer, but instead it wraps up almost too quickly. it’s not my favorite arc of the show (that’s probably yorknew), but i liked it a lot; it benefits greatly from bringing the focus back to our main characters rather than random ant-human hybrids, and the chaos that hisoka always brings to any scene he’s in is so entertaining to watch. i also love the relationship between killua and his sister alluka; it’s so adorable to see killua in an older brother role.
there is of course some ridiculous stuff that happens too — for example, kite, whose death is what spurred a massive development for gon, is actually not dead. instead, he’s now in the body of a young girl. why, you ask? who the fuck knows. gon basically gave up his life because this man died, and then it’s revealed that he’s not actually dead, he’s just a girl? don’t piss me off.
something else that render’s gon’s sacrifice null: alluka. at first i loved the concept of this very creepy character, but the more we learned, the less i liked: it’s revealed that she is not as sinister as she initially seemed, which would have been fine, if she hadn’t also had powers that make her on par with god. basically, alluka can grant any wish. she can do literally anything, including heal gon after he makes a life-altering nen contract, with absolutely no side effects. she’s a literal deus ex machina. i don’t understand how she can fit into the story. maybe togashi has better plans for her further along in the manga, but who knows.
overall —
i’m not mad i watched hxh. partly it’s because this is such a classic, and i love being in the know/being in tune with the zeitgeist. but there’s also part of me that enjoyed it. there’s no way i would have put myself through 148 episodes otherwise. clearly there was some kind of pull here that kept me watching. that’s the thing with hxh — it has some very high highs and some extremely low lows. it does a lot of interesting things in subverting traditional shonen archetypes, and i think it’s a show that lends itself well to analysis. i just don’t think the story is done as well as it could have been. with this world and magic system, there’s so many things we could have chosen to focus on, so many different paths we could have taken with our protagonists and antagonists. there’s so much unfulfilled potential. i also think it’s very tonally jarring — a lot of anime has extreme tonal shifts, and normally it’s fine, but something about hxh’s shifts with gon, in particular, just don’t work for me.
i’ll say one thing for hxh, though: its music is sublime. the ost has some truly gorgeous, epic pieces. the chimera ant arc’s saving grace was the beautiful music playing in the background.
and that’s that! the manga has been on hiatus for a while, with the mangaka, togashi, infrequently updating a chapter at a time due to health issues. the manga is only ahead of the anime by one single arc that isn’t even finished yet. given the popularity of hxh, i’m reasonably sure once that arc is finished we’ll get a new season, which, despite all my grumbling, i am looking forward to. like i said, there’s just something about this show that compels me.
gachiakuta (episodes 1-20);
gachiakuta, affectionately referred to as the trash anime, debuted this season, and it seemed to be the shonen everyone was talking about and praising, and its animation looked very unique, so of course i was in a hurry to watch it.
it’s pretty good! it’s very very fast paced and very fun, with a clear commitment to being artistically different; the character animation is very intense, often bordering on frightening, and there’s a lot of homage to grunge culture and graffiti art. i’m obsessed with the character designs and personalities and there’s a freakish villain (jabber) who feels like a mix of mahito from jjk and hisoka from hxh who steals the show whenever he’s on screen (and his voice actor is doing god’s work).
gachiakuta wants to do interesting things, clearly. it’s trying to be a commentary on class, and we’ll have to wait and see how that pans out. there’s also the character of amo — if you know, you know, and i won’t spoil it here since this anime is so new, but wow, i’ve never seen that particular storyline depicted like this in anime. i have some qualms with certain aspects of it, but overall i think it was a fairly well done depiction of something very traumatic; the show very subtly manages to convey the horror of it all in a way that had me feeling absolutely devastated.
there’s also a few female characters who so far seem pretty good! oddly, every single female character we’ve come across so far is dressed in revealing clothing that very specifically reveals her midriff, and at first i truly thought the mangaka was a guy with a fetish, but the author of gachiakuta is actually a woman! that doesn’t make the nonsensical outfits of the female characters, particularly riyo, any less eye-roll inducing, but it’s less irritating.
also, there’s two black characters in this anime, one man and one woman! so far they’re depicted pretty well, especially the woman, semiu (and we actually get to see her fight!), though they’re secondary characters. it’s extremely rare to see black characters in anime, even secondary world fantasy anime, so this was very cool to see!
also, he’s so far a minor character, but i’m obsessed with tansy caines (manga readers don’t tell me if i’m right but…this guy just gives budding villain vibes even though at this point he’s a friend):
the only critique i have of gachiakuta is just that it…doesn’t feel like it has a lot of depth, thus far? i’m not sure how to describe it, though i said to my brother it feels like eating chips — addictive and delicious but not very nutritious. it feels like a run of the mill shonen — a very well-done shonen, but thematically i don’t think it’s doing anything new (there’s amo, but it would have been different if she were a main character, she’s not at this point). i also want more from the characters — there’s so many we’re introduced to (so so many) but i’m struggling to connect with any of them because we don’t know very much about them (though we are starting to, like with zanka).
that said, the anime is only in its first season, and i haven’t even finished it yet. on the other hand, i’ve watched 12-episode shows that have had more emotional impact so…idk! i think gachiakuta has a ton of potential with its plot and characters, though, and i’m super excited to see where season two goes. i really hope this becomes a long-running anime!
dandadan (season 2);
i liked season 1 a ton, but i loved season 2. it’s just better at everything it’s doing — the absurdity, the relationships, the humor, the lore. it’s even more of a high-octane thrill ride with one crazy thing happening after another, but now our character relationships are more established, so we get to see our wacky squad (and i love a squad) dealing with shenanigans together, and i love it. momo ayase is one of my favorite female anime characters of all time. this season just gave me so much joy.
film;
bugonia (4.5/5 stars): i haven’t seen the original korean film this is based upon, but i strongly suspect i wouldn’t like it as much, based on all i’ve heard. i loved bugonia’s commitment to the bit and to its own shiny aesthetic (the jarring contradiction of ultra prestige and american poverty), how deeply american it felt, the performances, and the unsettling music.
memories of murder (2.5/5 stars): i understand and appreciate what this film was trying to do — its depiction of the korean police is probably one of the best arguments for police abolition i’ve seen in media — but i found it tonally uneven and it was just way too unserious for what it was.
the end of evangelion (2.5/5 stars): this is not a standalone movie; it can really only be watched after watching the evangelion series. similarly, the evangelion series cannot really be complete without this movie. my verdict is…i don’t know, man. i wish i appreciated this more. i wish i understood why it resonates with so many people on such a visceral level. conceptually, i appreciate its willingness to tar and feather its characters so absolutely, but i just…i wish this had been done differently.
chainsaw man reze arc (5/5 stars): yes, this is in fact my third time seeing this movie. and i would see it again. the third time was interesting because it let me focus on so many details i just didn’t catch the first time around. i’ve never rewatched a movie three times in such a short span of time, and it definitely allowed me to sit in my very intense feelings. i love denji. i love reze. i love aki and angel. this movie is so much more poignant and emotionally affecting than it seems.
how to lose a guy in 10 days (3/5 stars): this was the only movie i (a horror head), my brother (a drama/action/comedy guy), and my mom (a hallmark girlie) could compromise on, and you know what? we all had a great time. generally i love 90s/early 2000s movies because i love nostalgia, and i find it fascinating to see just how much our culture has shifted in such a short time. this was ridiculous and funny in all the right ways.
pulse (3.5/5 stars): extremely unsettling and disturbing, and i’m not an easy person to disturb. the acting left a little to be desired, though, and i really wish the clarity of the plot was as solid as the clarity of the themes — as it was i had to look up a reddit explanation to understand what happened. led me to the epiphany that most korean and japanese horror films simply do not fuck with exposition at all, not even a little bit, which is a huge departure from american horror movies. not sure how i feel about that but it’ll definitely change my relationship to asian cinema (maybe i’ll appreciate it more?).
books;
soulswift by megan bannen
the year of the reaper by makiia lucier
asunder by kerstin hall
slewfoot by brom
with one exception (slewfoot, which…i really did not like) this month was a banger for books. i found two new favorites: the year of the reaper and asunder.
the year of the reaper is a YA that feels like an adult book; it’s a quieter fantasy very low on the action, about a young man with ptsd returning home in the middle of a plague. reminded me a lot of the curse of chalion, actually (a book i dnf’d three times). there’s not a ton of action and the worldbuilding is fairly minimal, so don’t expect an epic fantasy. it’s far more character driven — i adored cas, our pov character, along with all of the side characters. the author does such a fantastic job fleshing out characters in small scenes. i read this in three sittings and could not put it down because it was such a joy to read.
then there’s asunder. oh, asunder. i lost my mind a little bit over asunder. i’m going to share with you what i said on instagram:
there is a very particular, but rare, feeling i get when i fall in love with a book, when i know it’s going to be a favorite of all time. i like a lot of books, but i fall in love with very few. i fell in love with asunder from the first chapter, which is lush, eerie, unsettling, tense, captivating. beautiful writing, incredibly creative worldbuilding, characters that feel so real it hurts, devastating interpersonal dynamics, subtle humor.
some highlights to tempt you:
— what if you met the love of your life in a dark cave while running from an eldritch abomination that wants to turn you inside out?
— so much hurt/comfort you’ll lose your mind
— selling your soul to terrifying eldtritch abominations
— spider trains!!!
— oh for someone to see every single ugly and jagged part of you and love you anyway!
— this quote, forever and ever:
Pylades: I’ll take care of you.
Orestes: It’s rotten work.
Pylades: Not to me. Not if it’s you.
if you ever take a book recommendation from me, make it this one. PLEASE go buy asunder! or better yet, go PREORDER the uk release from Solaris, so that the sequel (yes, the author is writing a sequel but no publisher has yet purchased it which is criminal!!!) can be published! if you’re in the united states blackwell’s offers free shipping so PLEASE. do this for me. do this for fantasy. do this for us all!!!
other bits and bobs;
mynameismarines discusses romantasy partly in response to the kerfuffle on tiktok where one tiktoker basically called romantasy fans stupid — i generally love marines’ analyses, and i think her thoughts on romantasy being indicative of a shifting cultural moment (particularly with regards to cultural conservatism and trad wives) are quite interesting
a brief article on how stranger things got made specifically with regard to the craft of writing; basically, it’s a lot of work and discipline — i’m two seasons behind on stranger things but this article made me want to get back into it
some recent anime trailers for next year that have me very excited:
the rasputin dance
am i gonna watch this live action japanese bl about dancing?
my new skincare obsession is farmacy’s honey halo moisturizer — cheaper than tatcha, just as moisturizing and calming, and smells incredible (a touch of honey and milk)
cheers,
hadeer