Books & Shows - First Half of 2026

Since I don't watch a lot of TV shows, I've decided to lump them in with the books I've read and muse on both. Revolutionary Girl Utena - This is what I was watching already from the end of the year and into the start of the year. I took time out from my books so I could watch more of it, and my ultimate conclusion is that it is... fine. It is an extremely repetitive and formulaic show; a character's backstory is introduced along with the B-plot, they decide they have to fight Utena over it, action rises until the lengthy sequence climbing towards the castle, and Utena defeats them in a sword duel. See, I thought Utena would be a romance anime with occasional sword duels, but it is actually a sword duel anime that pays lip service to an ultimately uninteresting romance - if you can even call it that, as they barely even seem to consider one another their beloved. My main issue with Utena is that Anthy, the second half of this romance, is an uninteresting character that gets almost no…