Anime – Luna By The Lake With Cake

Burlington Anime Fest 2025!

I went to Burlington Anime fest this past weekend and had a great time! It’s a tiny con that’s only one day long and 20$ to attend. It was very well organized and I saw a few of my comm members there! I had intended to vlog, but had so much fun catching up with people I hadn’t seen in awhile that I didn’t get enough video for a YouTube video. I thought it would be cool to still use that video for a mixed media post so to speak!

Arrival time!

I ended up mainly shopping there as I had some Venmo money a friend sent me from a shared vacation of ours I had completely forgotten about. So, I was able to purchase some presents for my husband and some things for myself. I think my favorite vendor was Adorkabows. The bows were not cheap, but every single one was unique! I ended up buying the black and pink “Brat” bow that I’m hoping to use for a gyaru code.

The vendor was really nice!! I enjoyed chatting with her. She told me about a girl who is on a mission to buy all of her Sailor Mercury bows. If that’s you, good luck!

Here’s her store link

https://www.adorkabows.com/

The next place I bought from was Snowbug Art! They made these really cute adorable earrings. I bought my husband Gengar earrings as those are his favorite pokemon. I got some Cheez it earrings myself. (Cheez its are my absolute favorite snack)

The shop keeps were once again, super nice! My friend and I had a great time buying from them.

Here’s their link!

https://www.snowbugart.com

The next place I bought from was called Leveling Up Designs! They had these amazing crochet plushies. I ended up buying the grim reaper plush for my hubby! She was super fun to talk to, and we hung out at her booth for awhile. I didn’t spring for any of the stickers, but those were adorable. I’m currently in a pokemon ttrpg with my friends, so I have a big soft spot for pokemon.

Here’s their link!

https://www.facebook.com/levelingupdesigns/

Last artist I bought from had these adorable bear ears with mushrooms and strawberries I’m hoping to incorporate into a coord sometime this summer! That shop was called 222.lumina.love.

Her link!

https://www.222lumina.love/shop

I had a great time walking around the con and hanging out with friends I hadn’t seen in awhile. The main event I participated in was anime Trivia which I rocked as long as the anime’s were between 2005 – 2015, outside of that I really struggled. So, I didn’t win anything, but it was a super fun event.

I also got to meet Tiffany Grant! I didn’t think to take a photo with her but since there wasn’t a busy line, I had a lot of fun talking to her about her voice acting career, I let her know one of my best friends thinks she’s the best character in the show. She appreciate that. I also talked to her about my aspirations as a voice actress. I am currently in a Halo machinima but that’s my only project. I haven’t auditioned in a long time, but I’m feeling more motivated to. Hilariously, I actually met her in the lobby of the hotel as we had both parked on the wrong side of the building and had to walk aways to the con. I had no idea who she was by looking at her. When I came up to her booth she said “Oh! It’s the tiny hat lady” and said she had a feeling I’d be coming by. It was a really nice experience. I actually ended up buying a signed sweater of Asuka from her booth.

Overall, the con was super well organized, simple and sweet. If you’re in VT and want to do an affordable con, I’d reccommend going!

Anime

Revolutionary Girl Utena

I just finished watching Revolutionary Girl Utena today and it is a great anime! Before I continue this I want to give major trigger warnings

TW/ Discussions of Incest, Pedophilia, Rape and Homophobia

All of these triggers honestly apply to the show as wells

This show was amazing but a really difficult watch, the themes it got into were extremely dark and difficult to handle emotionally at times, however the show was also hilarious at times. It explores themes of gender and violence in ways that I have never truly seen a show get into before. A lot of what I have seen has felt surface level and pandering whereas Utena using its abstract symbolism and fairytale deconstruction gets to the emotional core of a lot of these issues.

I relate a lot to Utena herself throughout this show, I too want to be a prince. This desire has complicated my relationship with gender in recent years and I have even questioned if I may be trans due to my desire to care for and protect others and be a hero. Getting to see that desire itself ruthlessly deconstructed in this show was an experience and helped me reaffirm that I do in fact feel like a woman and that those desires to do or be in society don’t have to be gendered.

I found it interesting that Utena is constrained with the potential princes throughout the show who on the surface look like they could fill that role but are shown to be horrible incestuous people in the end, leaving Utena the only one with a seemingly pure desire to be a prince but even that ends up being deconstructed by the end as a symptom of her hero complex and only once she overcomes those ideas entirely she can be free of them.

Another interesting aspect of this show is that all of the potential heterosexual partners are siblings with only the homosexual pairings being non incestuous which is something I find interesting. It shows the way that almost anything is preferred to queerness in society in this abstract over the top way. I have yet to fully unpack this part because to be honest Utena is the first anime I have ever seen that unflinchingly looks at and explores the repercussions of those actions with no glamour and pure disgust.

I have major respect for the writers for keeping something that is so often sensationalized in writing in the dark where it belongs. There are absolutely heartbreaking scenes and the cinematography of the shots always seems to show the victims as if they have been murdered.

I don’t think I’ve fully gotten all of my thoughts about this show out but it will definitely be on my mind for years to come. I think it is an unbelievably important part of queer history and so many shows take from and reference this show and it’s nice to see the compared and contrasted progress, I loved that once I released that the finale of She-ra takes almost shot for shot a scene from the finale of Utena but gives their girls a happy ending. I think it’s a sign of things slowly but surely getting better

Anime

Why Madoka Magica is One of my Comfort Anime

I am an avid anime fan who is also a lolita, I think it comes as no surprise one of my favorite genres is Magical Girl Anime as my daily aesthetic is trying to look like a shoujo protagonist post transformation at all times. But one thing that does come as a surprise to many is which magical girl anime I lean on most for comfort. When things get super rough which honestly, as this pandemic drags on it has been increasingly harder to hang on to hope somedays I decided to rewatch Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

This show is undeniably sad and tragic so I surprised even myself when I reached out for it as I realized that it had been getting harder for me to get out of bed again. I have often reached out for more melancholic media when I have felt my mental health declining a good example would be Violet Evergarden, however that undeniably has themes of hope and growth and positive change for the main character whereas Madoka Magica is often a tale that is interpreted as the deterioration of these characters over and over again until Madoka Kaname makes the ultimate sacrifice at the end of the series. It isn’t considered a happy show.

However, given the current state of the world I think there is something relatable to being trapped in a cycle that you have to fight to survive in over and over again. Becoming an adult in the pandemic has been difficult, I’ve had to change jobs due to my medical bills being too high, I’m isolated from my closest friends from college due to the pandemic, and it feels like an uphill battle and so unfair. I know everyone is going through similar things right now but it’s still so frustrating and there is very little help being offered to the general population. I think the sentiment of either work or die, but working is hazardous to your health is very relatable at the moment.

I find that in that situation I often beat myself up for having negative emotions or feeling like I’m feeling but when I rewatch Madoka seeing these girls in these impossible situations and feeling nothing but love for these characters I am better able to have compassion for myself and be grateful that I wasn’t literally tricked by a little demon creature. (Kyubey is pretty cute and I want a plushie of him even though he’s evil) I think being able to compare yourself to characters and sympathize with them can help you be kinder to yourself and recognize value in yourself that you didn’t see was there. So I’ll continue on my kick and rewatch this Bad Apple AMV for the 50th time