Rynling R&D

How the Retro Boom for the Showa Era in Japan is Shaping Urban Tourism
https://www.omu.ac.jp/en/info/infocus/entry-94577.html

This is a 2k-word narrative interview with an Associate Professor of Cultural Management at Osaka Metropolitan University who talks about why "Showa retro" nostalgia (for the postwar period) has become popular with Gen-Z adults. This article has a bit of a PR odor, but I appreciate the photos and descriptions of what the aesthetic entails in terms of real-life urban landscapes.

I Don't Need Unlimited Options, I Need a Scheduled Cartoon Block
https://innerspiral.lol/Blog/toonami/toonami

This is a 2k-word blog post written in the style of a literary autobiographical essay. The pseudonymous Millennial author discusses the nostalgia surrounding retro media and technology, arguing that part of the appeal is a fatigue with contemporary social media. The format of the blog post is a work of art, as the author has painstakingly recreated the aesthetics of an early-2000s Geocities website. I would put this in a museum if I could.

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TLDR: All of this news broke in the past week, but I've been feeling it since around 2023 or so. What happens is that there's a genuine concern in the culture that gets blown wildly out of proportion by inauthentic user activity and then picked up by traditional media outlets. This is one of the main reasons why I no longer share political posts or contribute to what might be considered "culture war" discourse on social media. I participated in these sorts of online conversations in the 2010s, but at this point it feels deeply irresponsible. Idk man. It's a difficult situation.

Bloodborne Video Game Getting R-Rated Animated Movie Adaptation From Sony
https://variety.com/2026/film/news/bloodborne-video-game-r-rated-animated-movie-adaptation-sony-cinemacon-1236720936/

PlayStation’s Bloodborne is being developed into an R-rated animated feature for Sony Pictures that the studio says will embrace the carnage that made the game so popular. Sanford Panitch, president of Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, promised during the studio’s CinemaCon presentation that the long-rumored film will be “very true” to the gory spirit of Bloodborne, which follows a traveler who journeys into a gothic city full of nightmarish creatures.

Not gonna lie, they had me at "animated."

Moonlit Waters
https://nocmar.bandcamp.com/album/moonlit-waters

This is very chill and ambient dungeon synth that's largely unremarkable save for how relaxing it is. Still, I will always prefer human-made lofi dungeon beats over the madness-inducing AI slop that has infested YouTube.

My favorite track is "7. Ancient Birchwood."

First Image of Charlie Day in 'Kill Me'
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1qvzecq/first_image_of_charlie_day_in_kill_me_jimmy_wakes/

Jimmy wakes up after attempting suicide, or at least that's what it looks like. Together with Margot, the 911 operator, they set out on a mission to solve the mystery: did someone try to kill him or is the specter of depression haunting him?

I am mainly here for the top comment:
Weird way to film Luigi’s Mansion but I’ll keep an open mind.

WHISPERS
https://www.neilburnell.com/whispers

Burnell was inspired by a visit to Wistman’s Wood, a remote, upland area of old, gnarled oak. Burnell’s images offer a glimpse of moss-coated limbs and fern-covered forest floors that seem to freeze time.

Dartmoor National Park advises visitors to avoid walking through Wistman’s Wood to allow it to heal from damage caused by overtourism during the pandemic, but the children yearn for moss-coated limbs and fern-covered forest floors.

The Final Kakariko Reveal
https://www.instagram.com/p/DTlCE3tkcnA/

"I don't need Ocarina of Time to be remade with current-gen graphics," I said, like a clown.

Vermis: Sounds of the World
https://radagasttenderofbeasts.bandcamp.com/album/sounds-of-the-world-vermis-vol-1-melodies-of-the-unknown

The top comment on this album says it best:

Every track fits that book like skin on bone. Same fever-dream vibe. You get that ache again—nostalgia for a game you never played.

Also: I got the cassette, but no cassette player. Therefore, the cassette tape lays untouched until a future adventurer pulls it from my clasped, mummified hand; it is an object of puissance.

はじける光 by Amalume
(on YouTube here)

Because I unironically want my life to have the soundtrack of a PS1 game, I spend a lot of time seeking out lo-fi instrumentals. This one in particular has gotten me through the past few days, when the roads and the grocery stores have been especially intense.

If you celebrate Christmas, I'm sending love and good wishes for your family to behave. If not, I'm sending love and good wishes for tasty Chinese food and a nice movie. ☕

Velvetyne
https://velvetyne.fr/

Velvetyne is a collective dedicated to researching and disseminating typography and typeface creation. Together, we give life to fonts and graphical objects under open licenses, allowing for their use, modification, and redistribution.

This is a cool collection of free-to-use fonts. The website design is quite nice too.

I learned about this resource via a fantastic work on AO3 (here) in which the artist used some of these fonts on postage stamp designs showcasing the flora and fauna of Breath of the Wild.

This piece was created for the doodle4doodle exchange, which just went live yesterday and has been incredibly successful. There's a lot of interesting art in this collection, and people have been leaving tons of super-positive comments. What a joy, honestly.