Anime

Now, I could do probably a whole list that is just anime, there’s a whole genre of anime, slice of life, that tends to be less heavy and more light hearted. Granted, some of them deal with heavier things, but a lot will be happier. But let’s focus on two of them.

Dagashi Kashi

Now, maybe we shouldn’t be sitting on our couches just eating candy the whole time, but Dagashi Kashi is all about that Dagashi. Dagashi are basically cheap candies and snack foods in Japan. The main character works with his dad in a little Dagashi shop that a big company wants to buy and take over. His dad makes an agreement, but only if the company can convince his son to take over the shop instead of becoming a manga artist. The show takes you into the history of a lot of Dagashi and will make you want to get some, but it’s generally a really good and light hearted romp that is worth checking out.

Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun

A new one that we just started recently, this one is about two high schoolers. Chiyo who has a crush on Nozaki, who is in her high school. However, she can’t ever get the words out right to him. She finds out that he’s a manga creator and accidentally gets roped into helping him with his manga. It’s a very cute story and has lots of weird characters and light hearted moments in it. Definitely a bit all over the place, but that’s what so many slice of life anime are.

Movies

I could pick a lot of kids movies in this category because a lot of them do have good wholesome and up lifting messages, and I could pick a lot of animated movies in general because again, they tend to be made more for kids, but I wanted to give a couple of different options, so only one kids movie.

My Neighbor Totoro!

It’s an animated movie from Japan and it definitely has a slice of life feel to it. Two girls move with their father to a place in the country. Life is fine there, but they are really waiting for their mother to get better and join them. However, there are some unique spirits living around them, most notably Totoro. Totoro is a goofy seeming creature, but is often there to help them and to help them through the times ahead. It has some moments that do have some emotion, but mainly this movie floats through on it’s iconic moments and pacing of a story that really doesn’t go anywhere. It’s nice and short as well, which makes it easier to sit down to in an evening.

Stardust

Now this movie is a bit different, based off of a book by Neil Gaiman of the same name. It’s about a fanciful world and the real world where they meet up, and what seems like true love and real true love. The story has some epic fantasy moments, some final face offs of characters, but overall, it’s done very well and tells what is generally a very light hearted story. In the end it’ll definitely leave you feeling like you’ve sat through an enjoyable romp in a crazy fantasy world.

Television Shows

Now, I could just go back to more slice of life anime for feel good watching, but I don’t want to do that, and I split anime out for that reason. So many TV shows focus around some sort of drama, we have a ton of procedural cop shows out there, but what are some shows that leave you feeling like you had a good time after watching them.

Dirk Gentley’s Holistic Detective Agency

Of course, I’m starting out with Douglas Adams, or at least something vaguely adapted off of a couple of books of his. This falls into that camp of completely absurd humor, but it does it in a great way. Add in Elijah Wood whom we know was Frodo from Lord of the Rings, and that’s a fun little addition as well. This show, both seasons, won’t make a ton of sense always, but it does all come together and it is all light hearted fun after a fashion, it just might be a little bit absurd as well. It has a mystery element to it, but that even keeps you wanting more.

The Great British Baking Show

Now, I didn’t mean to do two British shows, but if you are a fan of reality TV, but the drama is getting to you during the winter months, this, and the SyFy channel show Face Off will give you a couple of options to watch, The Great British Baking Show is just on Netflix so easier for me to tell you were to find it. This is a baking competition where they make all sorts of glorious things to eat, but that’s not all that is great. We have shows in the US like that, but generally there is some drama around it, in this show you can genuinely tell that they care about each other and they want to win, but they want everyone to do well as well.

Board Games

You know me, I love my board games, though, this is harder part of the board game section is that not all games are going to work well with a limited player count. While we’ve never been told during the pandemic to see no one in Minnesota, naturally in Minnesota during the winter, less people go visit people because it’s cold, dark early, and often the roads aren’t great. So what are some fun games that can be played with not a ton of players.

Marrying Mr Darcy

Now, being a Jane Austen fan might help for liking this game, but it works well as a light hearted and light little game that can play from two all the way up to six or possibly more. This game is all about playing one of the characters in Pride and Prejudice and getting paired up and marrying your perfect match. The game has very simple mechanics, draw a card and do what it says, and some set collection card play. That’s about it, but the cards keep Jane Austen’s dry and sarcastic humor on them. I think this works better with more players so everyone is laughing about it, but it can play at a lower count and be a lot of fun.

Second Chance

What, I put a roll (flip) and write on the list, who’d have guessed. This game is very peaceful to play. You flip two cards and fill in one of the shapes on your board, you repeat, repeat again, and so on until no one can fill in anything. What adds to the peaceful nature can be how you fill in the shapes. You don’t just box them in because eventually you’d lose track, so I doodle mine in, my wife makes patterns by filling them in in various directions. You can really do whatever you want, and even with the doodling the game plays so quickly, so there’s no need to feel like you’re rushed.

What is Your Nerdy Mood Lifter?

I could have gone into books and comics as well, but these are four things that I know pretty well, so I wanted to focus on them. What are some of your favorite light and fun things to watch, play, or read?

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Cosplay as a concept came into being a long time before Comic Con was a thing (this article states that the first cosplayer donned his first costume in 1939), and it’s a pretty broad concept at that — essentially, anyone who dresses up in costume to attend a fan convention or other large fan event (like a movie premiere or a video game release) can be termed a cosplayer.

At its heart, cosplaying simply means dressing up as a fictional character — and that (very vague) definition allows for just as much variety and nuance as you’d expect. Cosplaying can be as simple as purchasing and wearing a pre-made costume, or as elaborate as creating a handmade one from scratch and putting your own unique spin on an existing character (Totoro-inspired ball gown, anyone?).

There are many hot topics when it comes to cosplay — what determines how good a costume is, how much work should go into one, whether or not you need to have made a costume yourself for it to “count,” what is and isn’t appropriate when it comes to reinterpreting a character according to your own vision, and many more.

But I’d advise those of you who are new to the cosplaying scene not to get too bogged down in all of that. That’s because the best thing about cosplay is that just about anything goes as long as you’re enjoying yourself and being respectful both of the character you’re cosplaying and of your fellow cosplayers.

Aside from the many and wildly varied opinions about it, cosplay can also seem overwhelming due to the sheer investment of time (and, let’s face it, plain ol’ money) it requires. It’s easy to see pictures of the awe-inspiring cosplays out there and just think, “That’s it…I’ll never be that good!” And maybe you won’t — but guess what? That’s completely okay! Cosplay is one of those things that you can work super hard at and spend a ton of time on, or approach in a more casual and lighthearted fashion, and have just as much fun with it either way.

But don’t sell yourself short, either. Maybe for your first cosplay, you stick with something simple and just get a feel for it before you throw more time and energy into it. But who knows — maybe as you get into it, you’ll find that you’re really passionate about it, and before you know it, you’re the next one to take home a 1st place award from your favorite con!

But again, whether you jazz up last year’s Halloween costume or decide to make your own chainmail, if you have a good time with it and dress up as a character you love, you can’t go wrong.

This is just a quick overview to give you a better idea of what cosplay’s all about, but as we know, there’s a ton more to talk about where cosplay is concerned! So be on the lookout for more articles from me about cosplay during the next couple of weeks — we’ll cover things like cosplaying on a budget, some of the cultural/historical aspects of cosplay, and more! And as always, let me know if there’s something in particular that you’d love to know more about, and I’ll add it to the docket.

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