Lights Off: Shower Thoughts (LO:ST)

Heyo, my name is Jared but I go by Zeph on the internet but since a lot of people also go by Zeph you will see me using ZephJDJ a lot.

I am an Austin-based filmmaker, producer, and write who has a lot of thoughts to share on movies/shows/games. I mainly have a passion for anything animation as a lot of my roots are from watching animated shows of varying quality growing up.

My current Top 3 pieces of media of all time are:

March Comes in Like A Lion

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Hence the banner on my site. This is just to give you some perspective on what I tend to like.

This blog will be mostly reviews that I would consider to be lower effort than the video essays I work on in my free time. If you are interested in those feel free to check out my YouTube channel where I rarely posted previously due to school. I also have a podcast! There will be the occasional think piece on things I may have already talked about or maybe don’t want to do a full review on.

I’ve been actively doing reviews for a while now in my own private Discord with my friends and I think I’ve gotten good enough to be willing to share these in a more public space now. That being said, these are still mostly writing exercises for me to stay sharp and analytical with the media I am consuming. I enjoy writing these reviews but my passion right now is my podcast and filmmaking. In the future, I hope to shift that passion toward making my own creative works.

A lot of my biases in these reviews will be around problematic family situations, mental health issues, and generally, just tough stuff to watch. That’s just what I’m used to and the more you read or watch from me, the more apparent that will become to you. Don’t get me wrong, I like my light watch here and there. But, a lot of what I recommend is pretty aggressively expressive in some shape or form and will cover dark topics. I’ve been branching out more but just know that’s where my bias lies. I do my best to put Content Warnings on reviews where I may be going over stuff that could be triggering or just unpleasant.

I also consider myself to be a socio-media reviewer in that I try to look at media through larger sociological perspectives and trends. This will come up on occasion and you don’t need to be too familiar with them, but just giving you a heads-up.

In other hobbies, I am a huge gamer outside of just the single-player games I review here. I play Super Smash Bros Melee competitively here and there, grind Team Fight Tactics occasionally, and follow League of Legends international esports closely. I doubt I will make any posts about these things but I may mention them in posts or do the occasional Twitch stream. I am also a huge JRPG player and a fan of games like the Trails series, the Persona series, and the Dragon Quest series.

If you don’t agree with my opinion that is totally fine, it is in fact your opinion. My goal is to share my opinion with certain thoughts, analyses, and biases about what I think of certain pieces of media. Just here to provide another perspective. I’m not saying it’s the right one, but I put a lot of thought into my reviews so I give you a lot to work with.

Subjectivity is very much implied with all of this.

For my reviews specifically, see the Scoring section where I explain how all this works and my spreadsheet. You can find everything else in the Links section.

And with that, welcome to my home for my detrimental overthinking.

And, thank you for entertaining my Lights Off: Shower Thoughts.

Enjoy your stay.

– Zeph