tv set

A movie with incredible colors, cute lesbian romance, fun bits, and in which being born in France makes you gay. An all-time classic.

I’ve watched it several times but I can never fully remember how the plot develops. What I do remember is that I still can’t believe this movie was made in 2016 when the 60s aesthetics are so on point, and that I want Elaine’s incredible coat.

A classic for anyone interested in Lolita fashion. While the movie is not particularly revolutionary, it’s still a very fun watch, and I think about Momoko’s bedroom and the magically embroidered BTSSB dress all too often…
Update: I recently rewatched it, and actually it's a really nice time capsule of early 2000s Japanese aesthetics... It brought me right back to the first time I read FRUITS and my first Gothic & Lolita Bible, but Momoko's life philosophy also suddenly felt way more real and Anna Tsuchiya's futch character hits different... I definitely need to watch more of her movies lol

The ultimate and undefeated “girls just wanna have fun” movie. I’ll just add that it’s a surrealist Czech movie and that should be enough to convince anyone to give it a try.

It took me way too long to watch this movie, in part because of the very misleading French title (“Lolita in spite of myself”), and in part because in the 2000s I steered clear of any teen comedy movies, because I simply did not want to watch a movie about the mean girls in my class lol. But what an excellent lesson in not judging a book by its cover! Even 10-20 years later it’s still a very fun and relatable movie! I’ve watched a lot of other teen movies since but this one still remains my favorite.

Another prime example of a movie I immediately shut down when it came out because of its aggressively sexy marketing campaign, when in fact the content of the movie is the exact opposite of what I expected. Always fun to rewatch.

While working on this website I decided to fully immerse myself in the aesthetic and era I’m trying to evoke, so I’ve been watching a whole lot of high school comedy, chick flicks and so on (which I wasn’t doing at all when I was in that age group lmao so I had a lot to catch up on). Among those Jawbreaker is one of my favorites! The premise was dumb and silly enough to hook me in, the outfits are great, loved the humor, and that popsicle scene… cinema

I had never heard about D.E.B.S. before, so it was an INCREDIBLE ride between the Bratz-like cast in a spy action movie, the hopelessly lesbian villain who can’t find a date, the humor, everything. Took me a while to realize 2 of these girls would later star in Fast & Furious lol

A great tribute to the high school revenge genre… The colors and outfits are perfect, the humor is silly enough to feel early 2000s but updated with a 2020s flavor, and the twists!! An incredibly cathartic experience.

I knew about the whole Tonya Harding mythos but not in detail, so I was interested to learn more about the character (while knowing it’s not a particularly accurate biopic), but I didn’t expect it to be so entertaining! Both Tonya and her mother are super fun characters.

For the longest time I asked myself “Why does everyone like this movie anyway?” and when I finally took the bait I understood at last. It has definitely aged in its social commentary and romantic tropes, but the fashion industry still is today what it was back then, Meryl Streep is incredible, and the outfits are still amazing.

I can never remember if I’ve watched it in full, and I always want to rewatch it but somehow never do…I think I first watched it with some friends in middle school, and I remember being very confused when I spotted Converse sneakers in one scene, not sure anymore of what the tone of the movie was supposed to be lol. But the colors!!

This was first pitched to me as "it's like Game of Thrones, but Chinese and they throw shade at each other by using poetry". I first started watching the Netflix version, which was intriguing, but EXTREMELY confusing because someone thought that cutting and editing a 76-episode series down to SIX (6) EPISODES was a good idea.
Instead, please do yourself a favor and watch the original series on Youtube, complete with English subtitles.
A classic in Chinese pop culture, it still has a strong presence today (there's a 24h live broadcast constantly playing on Youtube, I still regularly find memes when looking at unrelated chinese social media posts). It's basically about women resorting to every trick they can think of to survive in an environment in which they have very little freedom, about how life inside the imperial harem is intrinsically tied to politics, about romance, old grudges, revenge, and indeed incredibly poetic lines.
I might make a shrine for it one day...

Yes, it seems that I love historical drama series. While the series itself doesn't take too many risks with its political and social commentary (which makes sense when you take a quick glance at the creator's bio), it still is a very interesting portrayal of how the events preceding and following the Great War have forever altered the foundations and perceptions of both the aristocracy and women in British society.
Mary and Violet Crawley are by far my favorite characters.

I haven't finished it yet (I think I'm at the end of season 3...? I didn't even know there was a 5th season wow) but this is a series I regularly think about. There's something very relatable about being a single woman in her 20s-30s trying to find a place for herself in the world while being constantly set back by, uh, everything. It's also interesting to watch two BFFs drifting further and further apart because of their opposite lifestyles dictated by their respective careers...
Everyone in this series also looks incredible, and everything you might have heard about how Insecure lights black actors properly is true!

I didn't know anything about ball culture before watching this, despite being very into some vogue-inspired Japanese dancers. I think about the first episode a lot... I too want to waltz in a museum and steal everything on sight.
Despite that, I wonder if it might not have glamorized the history of ball culture a little too much, like how everyone knows and loves drag now because of RuPaul. Some of the costumes are incredible, but when you watch Paris is Burning (1990) or The Queen (1968) you really start to wonder if anyone could realistically ever hope to afford them...
Either way, every character in this series is extremely lovable... except that one white guy. (I haven't watched the last season yet, so who knows)

The Great British Bake Off (since 2017)

Somehow I forgot to include it the first time I uploaded this page. Great show to have in the background while multitasking. I definitely prefer the celebrity episodes because the stakes are way lower and the disastrous results a lot more relatable lol (but the charity bits are a big downer so skip them if you want to keep the mood light). I don't care at all about the drama, I just want to watch some cakes being made and passively learn more about baking.
The first seasons I watched were when the hosts were Noel and Sandi, which imo still have the best chemistry to this day...

The Golden Girls (1985-1992)

So you might google this and look at pictures and think "wow this is an old show about grandmas, this isn't for me", but do not be deceived by this first impression! These grandmas are incredibly well dressed (for that time) and extremely romantically and sexually active, which strongly goes against the idea that women lose their charm and any chance at a long or short term relationship past their 40s. In short, it's empowering, it's comforting, it's inspiring, and it's also very funny.
While some jokes and references are more than outdated, there are episodes that are surprisingly daring and progressive in the context of that era, discussing LGBT issues, AIDS, systemic poverty, and finding resilience to keep on living when you're at the end of your life and everyone around you has already passed away.
After a while I was so immersed in their universe that it felt almost contemporary, and I had to do a double take when one episode was centered around one of the Golden Girls sending a letter to Gorbachev to end the Cold War lol

As cliche as this may sound, Rozen Maiden is what got me into Lolita fashion... I haven't rewatched it in a while so I imagine a lot of the moe tropes and other desu-based humor just doesn't fly anymore, but the character design, the incredible visuals and songs of the openings and endings, and the compelling story are things I still hold dear. I very much enjoyed the 2013 sequel too, despite the drastic change in art style! Maybe one day I'll read the manga...

I was looking for something to sink my teeth in that was "new" and different and I stumbled upon this series. The manga was written by Riyoko Ikeda, of Rose of Versailles fame, so I was interested in watching something not too long and in her style.
And what a show... It has all the over the top drama you'd expect from that art style, but it also dives deep into themes like bullying, drug abuse and suicide. One moment it's light-hearted and a little goofy in its depiction of romantic drama, the next you're seriously wondering how far the episode will go. All these problematic lesbians... The soundtrack is superb, the characters compelling, overall a very charming anime.
I definitely want to make a shrine for it in the future, if only to talk about the cute phone card designs that keep appearing throughout the series!

A very cute and fun show... I really enjoyed the art style and humor, and the lives of the Sisterhood become more and more relatable with each passing year lol...

I didn't know anything about ballroom (or dancing in general) before watching this, and I'm not even sure why I picked it up... But I got totally hooked on the art style with exaggerated, dynamic poses and elongated limbs and necks, and Chinatsu's lead completely seduced me. I started reading the manga too, but unfortunately the publishing schedule is a little irregular so it's been difficult to follow and stay hyped for it...
If you've enjoyed the art style of the first seasons of Haikyu!!, they share a lot of the same staff (like the character designer!), so do give it a try!

I first discovered Strawberry Panic through a German Animania magazine (2006 # 07 specifically) (can you believe they still exist 20 years later holy shit) and I was very captivated by the goth, lolita-esque uniforms of some of the characters... I was also a little curious to know what the story was because there were only girls and the camera angles on some of the screencaps looked... intriguing!
Unfortunately at the time I didn't have free Internet access (and still watched anime on Dailymotion...) so it took me some more years before I could finally learn what this anime was all abou-
What do you mean all these cute and cool girls are thirsting after each other. C-Can I watch this in the same room as my parents. Oh but it's kinda cute though... Actually I'm really into it......

So anyway, this was my first experience with yuri :) I rewatched it recently and it's still pretty decent, and the 2nd opening is still a banger.

A trashier version of Nichijou. A lot of the humor is straight up vulgar and not as family-friendly as its counterpart, but the voice actresses are really giving everything they have (just look at the ending!!) and I really like how with their performance alone they completely subvert the "cute girls doing cute things" genre, while at the same time making the series feel more "girl" than Nichijou.

While writing this I also learned that the creator might in fact be a woman, so. Checks out.

You're in the fitting room of your favorite Lolita store, trying on this super cute dress. Suddenly, your bf tells you he wants to break up. The truth is, he's really into pro wrestling women.
What do you do? Give up everything and become the cutest and strongest pro wrestler to win him back, of course.

I think this short perfectly encapsulates the Japan pop culture craze that swept through the West at that time. Cultural appropriation reaching fandom levels of obsession, used to depict the deteriorating relationship between a closeted waste collection worker and his overbearing weeb wife.

get bento'd lol