Something compelled me to watch Baccano! It just never caught my interest before even though Merla's seen it back when it was on Netflix. I saw a clip on YouTube and decided to watch it. Anyway, I liked it. Didn't love it, but I liked it. Needed more Claire. Some of the other characters are annoying. Graham whoever was fucking obnoxious as shit. I was sad he didn't die. He was supposed to be another Ladd but came off as "Dollar Tree Ladd." The thieves sometimes wore out their welcome but they did make me chuckle at times. Jacuzzi was... Jacuzzi. But at least most of the annoying characters that were not Graham were given enough heart that I didn't loathe them like him. Oh, oh, and I skipped a whole-ass episode by accident. I got to the end of the specials and then they're talking about shit I never saw. Because the story's so non-linear, I didn't notice until five minutes or so before the end. And because it's so non-linear, I just went back and watched it. Then I watched the end. And the order didn't feel weird or anything. Odd that this show's not on any streaming service.

Oh and I actually watched it dubbed because the clip I saw was dubbed. English seemed to fit the setting better anyway.

A Playthrough of a Certain Dude's VRMMO Life was entertaining enough. I'm interested in seeing where this goes.

I watched the Disgraced Noble Lady Getting a Crash Course in Naughtiness or whatever. It's not terrible and I guess the general concept is sweet in a way. But the execution is meh. It's paint by numbers with no sweetness, no spicyness, no laughs, no anger or sadness. This guy's mansion isn't scary or cozy. Nothing's cute nor sexy nor dynamic or bold. It's all just... there. I still gotta rate it higher than Helck because this show didn't manage to annoy me like that one did. Voice acting and design of the main guy is decent. But it's a very shrug-your-shoulders scroll-on-your-cellphone anime.

Are you an Initial D fan, or are you just watching for Ren?

I forgot who Ren was and had to Google. I don't really have names down yet. I'm an Initial D fan. First season is best season though. And I couldn't bring myself to finish after Stage 4.

I hear the eyes are wonky-looking. Which they were in the trailer. But I haven't watched the show yet.

Saw one ep of Frieren. I liked it but I shouldn't have started the manga and just went in fresh. It would've kept my interest longer. I meant to marathon all four eps on CR and have a cozy Frieren night. Instead, I quit after one ep and will resume it later.

My Happy Marriage ended. Don't know if we'll get more but I doubt I'll watch more. It nosedived imo. Nowhere near the nosedives of Ousama Ranking or I'm the Villainess so I'm Taming the Final Boss where those went from A to F-tier. But the cozy vibes were gone to have forced melodrama separating our couple and then Miyo, who never knew she even HAD powers, just decides she knows how to use her powers and saves Kiyoka. Kiyoka Kudo, who this story decided was so OP until he was suddenly fucking wasn't for some random fucking reason. It felt like bullshit.

I think the worst part was there were some easy fixes for the story.

-have Miyo's dreams still torment her but also have her slowly learn and come to terms with her powers in each subsequent dream to make the ending less of an ass-pull

-the Usubas should've been shown to be a craftier family. They couldn't even kidnap her properly and them pretending to bargain with Kiyoka was stupid. They should have lured her to their house and Miyo makes the choice to not stay with them and deal with her nightmares herself to be with Kiyoka. That way it's her direct choice. It's her progressing as a character and making clear decisions for herself. Then she could've used what she learned from her nightmares to push through and save Kiyoka when he needed her. The ending with her own cheer squad as she uses powers she never knew she had was stupid.

-the Usubas should've been the ones to directly attack and inflict Kiyoka with a dream-thing that Miyo needs to save him from. Even in retaliation for her choice.

I'd say this went from A to C or something.

I've been listening to audiobooks versions of The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen... well, I think that's what they are. It's like an AI reading the story so I doubt it's a true audiobook. But I appreciate who made these none the less. The story's quite good. The anime is very faithful to it. Not that there aren't flaws.

I wondered how much liberty the anime took with interpreting other character's feelings outside of Pride, the main character. But the story just flips perspectives. Some reviews I read on the books had some people put off by this and I could see why. You're not given any sort of warning. Maybe this is different if I actually read the light novel. Like font changes or something. But with it in audio form, I had a bit of a tough time with it sometimes. It also can feel like a bit much. Ultimately I liked seeing events from a different perspective but it could border on excessive.

But when it worked, it worked very well. Like when we first get insight into Arthur's perspective.

I'm almost done with volume three. That one got a little silly with a dude whose big secret was that he just loves his kingdom so damn much. It's like a job interview where someone's flaw is that they're such a hard worker. Give me a break. The writer worked with that concept the best they could but, man, that guy was a weak-ass character.

You have guy torn from his mother who was forced into slavery and made to kill his mother himself because of the evil queen; and then you have guy shut down from his dreams who watched his dad die due to the evil queen and gave up his identity in pursuing his revenge; and then there's the semi-immortal guy who wallows in depravity to save the love of his life and is so desperate he deals with slavers and would sell out the kingdom he serves; and then you have half-breed abandoned and abused rock-powet bandit who has never known love and suffers once he gains and almost loses his Found Family; and then you have... "derrrrr I luv muh country too damn much!!" There were other things to the character like his brothers conspiring against him but it wasn't enough. I've had communion wafers with more flavor than this ass-clown. At least he loooooves his country so much his ass is staying there. Hopefully this means he won't appear as much in the story in the future. I like all of the other characters but not him, lol. At least the other characters--the GOOD characters--made the rest of the story enjoyable.

I didn't like old FLCL so I don't have an opinion on new FLCL other than it looked bad from the teaser/trailer. Is it ugly both inside and out or is this strictly a looks-thing?

I didn't see the whole thing but I was able the click to watch it on YouTube and watch it over there. Which is totally dumb because YT turns around and tracks every vid here in my watch history but forgets I'm an adult?  If you can access my watch history, you know damn well I'm an adult. 

I watched a playthrough of Chained Echoes. Mostly as a Sea of Stars palette-cleanser, to be honest. This is a homage to 90s-era jrpgs done right.

It doesn't have SoS's gorgeous bg art but the art here is nothing to sneeze at. The character art could be nicer. Sometimes a few of the characters could come off a tad bland in personality. (Looking at you, Glenn.) But I found the story gripping and combat system interesting. The music overall is better than SoS. It is overall less light-hearted than SoS but still manages many moments of levity. And, other than hiring a composer, like, basically ONE person made this game. Fucking amazing. I felt the love here.

I can't wait to see what the dev does next because there's supposedly another game or something set in this universe in the works. And unlike SoS, there's more story to tell that I'm actually interested in seeing. The game doesn't try to tie every thread but still concludes in a satisfying way. I read some reviews not liking two things: the crystal system, which can be mostly ignored; and the ending. I understand other people's mixed feelings but I thought it was perfect.

The name makes me picture an angry Jon Arbuckle in space, shaking his fist and going "Starfield!" 

So I have to rant about something I have no business ranting on. But it's bothering me. Re: Sea of Stars.

I've been seeing a lot of buzz about this game. It's got really high ratings and a couple of streamers I really enjoy are playing this. I looked at some screenshots and the pixel art for the world looks beautiful so I decided to give it a watch from two different playthroughs.

What the fuck tho'?

Firstly, this game is supposed to be an homage or whatever to 90's era JRPGs. But there's "homage" and then "there's taking too much." I don't think they took enough to be called a "rip-off" or anything that extreme but it's to a level that makes me uncomfortable. On Chrono Trigger alone:

Fight Gato? Here's Gato at Home.
Fight Lavos? Here's a Lavos worm-thing.
The Kingdom of Zeal? Here's Zeal at Home.
Fight Flea the Magician in a magical void? Fight our guy in a magical void.
Remember Slurp Kiss? It's an enemy tech, how cheeky.
Remember the Bubble Burst? Hee hee.
Remember the kiwala on the mountain who calls you nosy and gives you a stat booster? We have him at home.
Remember how Ayla had a tech where she'd throw whole-ass enemies and make the earth shake? At home.
Remember how the last chapter is named the Fated Hour. So's ours!  Tee hee.
Remember Yasunori Mitsuda? No? That's okay, we have him at home. Literally. We paid him to be here.
Remember when Chrono died and you had to go through a stopped moment in time for you to save him? Here's the less interesting version of that same concept!
Remember Lavos again? We have a world eater!  Ooooo.

It even apes on some of the memorable scenes like encountering Magus on a promontory and at least two other boss fights. It's, like, can you stop now? I know there's nothing new under the sun so I don't want to be that person but Jesus Christ. It just feels like they took too much. And apparently there's other references and nods to other games.

Secondly, the lead characters are super bland. It's like this game thinks just because you bore me with their training montage that I'll believe they earned the outcome they got in the end. No. No they didn't. Nothing felt earned. I wanted to like them in general but they give me nothing to work with. I like the concept of them but they themselves aren't interesting. Also, their friend the cook was fucking annoying. The guy in the turban felt like someone's favored OC. He was interesting but I'd argue just make the game about him instead. He seemed to be biting into a little too much screen time. The other two are whatever, I guess.

Thirdly, the beginning part of the game is too damn long and too dull. Your game is short. More shit should be happening. Why isn't more shit happening? At one point, there's this flashback for a couple of bad guys. I liked the flashback, if only because I find those two characters way more interesting, but, again, WHY? There were multiple scenes that felt like padding.

Fourth, a lot of folks liked the music. I like a couple of the tracks but I'm not sure what anyone's talking about in regards to the rest it. Most of the tracks are kinda forgettable.

Fifth, art. The pixel art remains gorgeous. The character designs, I wasn't sold on. Some of the official art is still beautiful even with those character designs. In watching a couple of people play this game and seeing character portraits constantly, they just aren't my bag and I don't think the sprites fit the aesthetic. I don't know if I'm biased against the art style or several of the cringe characters rendered in that art style. (Pirates, I'm looking at you.)

Also, that giant memorial (for the kickstarter backers) felt ridiculous. But I guess that's also whatever.

It was the pig-flipping, wasn't it?

Also, looks totally out of place for the aesthetic to have Cu-Lancer just standing there in his bright blue suit. At least put him in a period-style outfit like Gilgamesh. But at least he didn't get Tamamo's derp-face.

I... thought he had already died.

So this trailer ended up on my feed.


I don't like the hair and there's something off about the faces, but I wanted to know what this was about and really liked the sixteen chapters of the manga I read.

So a few things...
-I have no idea why the fuck she's supposed to be a "villainess." She's not an isekai'd otome fan like all of the other villainess stuff I've watched. She's just a woman going through a bunch of loops and nothing had been explained in that regard. Her fiance/ex-fiance at the beginning of the story seems to imply she's a villainess but in 16 manga chapters she's a heroine figure. I guess " 7th Time Loop: The Heroine Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!" doesn't have the right ring to it?

-She is a Mary Sue but so far she's a Mary Sue mostly done right. Her wealth of skills come from her prior loops. I liked the more selfish aspects of her character: the young lady looking to live her own life for herself and be lazy for once. I do feel her character is tipping away from this towards the more altruistic type of female lead. This may damage my long-term prospects of enjoyment as the selfless "must save dem all" gets kinda annoying. But I can respect the big picture view since all of her loops are different and she knows she may not have another chance to get to the bottom of the war than the opportunities provided in her current loop.

-The "cool" ("cool" as in icy) male lead seems okay.  He's cynical and behaves in a cold manner that suggests trauma but also doesn't seem too edgy or vile.  Oh course he's secretly good or whatever but I feel the story isn't blowing its load too early. His brother was a little... much. 

Anyway, I look forward to more of the story. Will definitely chell this one out in 2024. I just wish the visuals (especially for the MC) were a little nicer to look at because it doesn't really do it for me.