✶ Hey hey hey! ✶
Here is a little non-exhaustive list of what I have enjoyed reading, watching, discovering, or revisiting in recent months. Hoping to help you discover some gems!
── DOCUMENTARIES ──
✶ ARTE | Animals: Sex in Total Freedom ✶
Pansexual primates, hermaphroditic leopard slugs, clownfish that change sex: in the animal world, sexual behaviors are much more diverse than you might think. Adding nuance to Darwinian evolutionary theory, a panel of scientists offers a modern interpretation of the sexuality of the 11 million existing species.
We discover the gay penguin couple Elmer and Lima, a coalition among kings of the jungle—a sort of "trouple" of the savannah—or the pleasures enjoyed by Japanese macaques in the hot springs they love. Both funny and touching, this remarkable documentary illustrates the diversity of the animal sexuality spectrum, which allows them to survive in hostile environments and "make family" in their own way.
✶ Available until 06/30/2028 on Youtube ✶
✶ NETFLIX | Dancing with the Birds ✶
Whether displaying their majestic plumage or performing flawless courtship dances, birds show the full range of their talents to seduce.
✶ I was simply amazed the whole time. A real favorite (bird lover, you know) ✶
── VIDEO GAMES ──
✶ ALBA: a wildlife adventure ✶
Join Alba, who is visiting her grandparents on a Mediterranean island. As she prepares for a peaceful summer exploring nature with her friend Inès, she spots an animal in danger and realizes she must act quickly.
If you look past the scattered trash here and there, the region is a real paradise in the heart of the Mediterranean! From idyllic beaches to the ancient castle overlooking the town, the whole island awaits you. With your friend Inès and your bird-loving grandfather, you start a campaign to save the island—and maybe even the world.
✶ Made by studio ustwo games (Monument Valley and Assemble with care), Alba has been my comfort game for several years. To me, truly an essential to have in your game collection when you need a peaceful moment of discovery and a breath of fresh air. It's also a big boost to my creativity, and playing it always makes me want to keep creating to inform and raise awareness about the Living ✶
✶ ESCAPE FROM MYSTWOOD MANSION ✶
In this first-person escape game, you are trapped in the mysterious Mystwood Mansion. Explore the mansion, solve puzzles, and decipher codes to find a way out. Will you escape, or will you stay to uncover the mansion's final secret?
✶ Made by Lost Sock Studio (there are only TWO of them!), it's a gentle escape game, without jump scares, stressful music, or morbid story. You explore, solve the puzzles, and try to get out of the mansion. A really good time! (we played it as a pair, it was great) ✶
── FILM ──
✶ GHIBLI | Only Yesterday ✶
1982. Taeko Okajima, a young office worker in Tokyo, is bored at her job and decides to spend some time in the countryside, in the rural region of Yamagata, to work on her brother-in-law's farm harvesting safflower (benibana in Japanese). Raised in the city, she has always dreamed of the countryside since childhood but has barely stayed there. During the trip preparations and train ride, memories of her childhood, when she was ten (in 1966), gradually resurface and give the story its distinctive structure, alternating between flashbacks and real-life moments.
✶ A comfort treat that always makes me feel good - Available on Netflix ✶
── BOOKS ──
✶ DAISUKE IGARASHI | Little Forest ✶
Ichiko lives peacefully in Komori, a hamlet whose name means "Little Forest". She uses local products from the land and nature around her for cooking. Through the various dishes she enjoys preparing, her entire personality is expressed and freed. An ode to contemplation, sharing, and the poetry found in the small things of everyday life.
✶ It made me want to cook even more, prepare more homemade products, grow things, and walk barefoot in the grass. Oh, and to draw even more in my journal! ✶
✶ CEDRIC SAPIN-DEFOUR | His Scent After the Rain ✶
This is a story of love, life, and death, between a man, Cédric, and his dog, Ubac, a Bernese mountain dog whose presence quickly becomes essential. But the true hero is their bond: unique, universal, transcending many human relationships.
For thirteen years, they share laughter, worries, and fleeting moments of intensity, until death imposes its absence. A genuine ode to life, this story explores unconditional love, life that goes by too fast, and those persistent memories, like a beloved scent that remains imprinted, even after the rain.
✶ I cried like a baby, honestly. But I also smiled a lot. TW: Grief ✶
✶ GEOFFROY MONDE - MATHIEU BURNIAT | Furieuse ✶
King Arthur, the legendary one? A decrepit old drunk who spends his days slouched on his throne. His glory, now a distant memory, he owes to the magic sword Merlin forged him to vanquish the invading hordes of demons. Now a witness to his downfall, the enchanted weapon is bored stiff, while Princess Ysabelle fumes because her wreck of a father has promised her in marriage to the loathsome little Baron of Cumbre.
Both determined to find a better fate, Ysa and the sword join forces to flee the castle and set out in search of Merlin and Maxine, the long-lost older sister. But the big wide world can be cruel for a princess who has known only palace life. And the sword’s intentions may be less noble than they seem…
✶ A good time, I loved Mathieu Burniat's illustrations and the overall comic’s tone ✶
── MUSIC ──
✶ GEN HOSHINO | Pop Virus ✶
✶ A Japanese artist we've listened to for several years and whom I still love just as much ✶
And that's it for this list (which isn't so small after all!) of my recent favorite random things! I really like this format, I think I'll keep doing it without the pressure of "favorites of XXX month” but just when I feel like it.
I hope you enjoy this format!