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February 2026 Happiness
Mar. 10th, 2026 08:21 amThis is what made me happy last month (better late than never):
With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day is Fun (on Crunchyroll here) is a 24-episode anime from 2020 in which every episode is exactly one minute long. The anime is exactly what it says on the label, which is cute slice-of-life comedy about pets. It’s a great way to turn off your brain and relax.
Paranoia Agent (on Crunchyroll here) is a twelve-episode anime directed by the legendary Satoshi Kon. It originally aired in 2004, and it’s got an edgy obsession with urban psychological horror that was popular at the time. The quality of the episodes is somewhat uneven, and there are aspects of the writing that come off as slightly silly here in 2026, but I still consider it a miracle that this anime exists. And the opening theme song is super catchy.
Yokohama Station SF (on Amazon here) is a three-volume seinen manga about a postapocalyptic future in which a train station has expanded to cover the entirety of Japan’s main island. The uncanny architecture and liminal spaces are fantastic, and I also love the worldbuilding and character stories.
The Historian (on Amazon here) is a 720-page monster of a gothic novel originally published in 2005, and it’s about four generations of an academic lineage traveling through Europe in order to hunt down Dracula. This is the third time I’ve read this book, and every page still feels like a masterpiece.
How We Survived Communism & Even Laughed (on Amazon here) is a short essay collection from 1993 about the author’s career as a journalist in Yugoslavia. A lot of what The Historian is actually about is Communism in Eastern Europe (particularly Hungary and Bulgaria), and reading the novel made me nostalgic for Slavenka Drakulić (the journalist)’s writing, which is in fact as entertaining as I remember.
With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day is Fun (on Crunchyroll here) is a 24-episode anime from 2020 in which every episode is exactly one minute long. The anime is exactly what it says on the label, which is cute slice-of-life comedy about pets. It’s a great way to turn off your brain and relax.
Paranoia Agent (on Crunchyroll here) is a twelve-episode anime directed by the legendary Satoshi Kon. It originally aired in 2004, and it’s got an edgy obsession with urban psychological horror that was popular at the time. The quality of the episodes is somewhat uneven, and there are aspects of the writing that come off as slightly silly here in 2026, but I still consider it a miracle that this anime exists. And the opening theme song is super catchy.
Yokohama Station SF (on Amazon here) is a three-volume seinen manga about a postapocalyptic future in which a train station has expanded to cover the entirety of Japan’s main island. The uncanny architecture and liminal spaces are fantastic, and I also love the worldbuilding and character stories.
The Historian (on Amazon here) is a 720-page monster of a gothic novel originally published in 2005, and it’s about four generations of an academic lineage traveling through Europe in order to hunt down Dracula. This is the third time I’ve read this book, and every page still feels like a masterpiece.
How We Survived Communism & Even Laughed (on Amazon here) is a short essay collection from 1993 about the author’s career as a journalist in Yugoslavia. A lot of what The Historian is actually about is Communism in Eastern Europe (particularly Hungary and Bulgaria), and reading the novel made me nostalgic for Slavenka Drakulić (the journalist)’s writing, which is in fact as entertaining as I remember.
