We're here. This is the first full anime season I've covered from start to finish, too! How exciting! Most of my closing thoughts were on Week 12's post because most shows were ending then, but here are a few of the holdouts. I look forward to seeing you all in Spring 2024 next week!

Figure 1 Synduality Noir, Episode 24

Noir and Kanata look out and space, wondering when they will be able to return to Histoire.

We made it. The finale. Synduality Noir: Episode 24, END — "My Name is Noir". Beginning right where we left off, Weisheit has ordered all Magus to shut down, and is surprised to see Noir still functioning. Weisheit explains that Noir is nothing but a Histoire bug, clad in Ciel's corpse. Noir reflects on how she didn't know who she was until she met Kanata, and gained all her memories, then she became "Noir". Tokio and Macht stall Weisheit, while Kanata rushes to Mystere, who awakens and helps him fight Weisheit. They both use a dual magus skill to break through Weisheit's shield, and Kanata finishes him off. Afterwards, Weisheit (again) explains Magus are disgusting. A non-human parading around in human form is, to him, disgusting. He asks Histoire if it's possible to erase and enders and restore humanity, and Histoire responds it would be possible with a great leader. With Magus, it may be possible to do it more efficiently. Everything depends on humanity's choices. Weisheit then allows himself to get sucked out into the vacuum of space. While losing consciousness due to a lack of oxygen, he has a flashback to Ciel singing him to asleep.

Meanwhile, back at Histoire, Mystere tells everyone their fighting damaged the orbital trajectory of Histoire itself, and they need to retreat. Mystere explains that she has to stay while they escape to control their escape pod, and deal with the fact that every Magus is still deactivated. Kanata explains that he will on day come back for her. As Kanata and crew fall back to Earth, Mystere issues a reactivation order to all the world's Magus.

We then get a time skip to everyone in Rocktown hanging out in peace. We also see Ada and Alba (I believe they're the main characters of the game I'm about to play on Thursday and Friday) hanging out. Macht and Schnee are running around saving people. Ellie says she's not worried about Kanata falling for Noir. Tokio and Mouton reflect on crossing the sea. Kanata is examining rockets, and claims the one they found is bust. Noir explains they'll make it back to space one day, if they just keep trying.

This was a serious contender for AOTS. I'm also looking forward to trying the game on Thursday/Friday.

Figure 2 Gushing Over Magical Girls, Episode 13

Enormita and Tres Magia playing at the beach!

Whelp. We're here. We've made it. The 13th and Final Episode of Gushing Over Magical Girls. There were those who said an overt yuri ryona show with underage girls wouldn't air on Japanese television. What are they to say now? We can only hope the popularity of this show leads to more like it.

Episode 13 began with all the girls in Enormita going to the beach as a reward for all their hard work. Just as well, Tres Magia were also there too! While there, Azure watches Utena apply sunscreen, and struggles to bring up what happened last episode with the molestation massage. She realizes that Utena is a Tres Magia fan, and Utena asks if she (Azure) is a Tres Magia fan, too (but of course she can't say she's a member). While Utena is trying to buy drinks, she harassed by some drunk girls, and Kiwi transforms to defend her, leading to a fight.

Utena summons and Octopus that tentacle rapes them. Kiwi of course loves its (feeling Utena's love), but Magia Azure arrives to free them, and challenges Utena directly. She transforms into Magia Azure, Maiden of Hoarfrost, and Utena is in awe of her beauty (I as well). Utena grows wings, longer hair, and more stars, and begins to fight. The narrator explains that she wants to be punished, but Azure's ice cold demeanor prevents her from showing it (A magical girl has to have her pride, you know?). Sulfur explains that it's effectively two perverts going at it in broad daylight. As other members of Enormita join the fight and hurt Azure, she takes in all the pain ("love) an decides to return the pain ("love") to them, and actually defeats them!

The episode ends with Utena and Tres Magia lighting fireworks on the beach at night, reflecting on how much fun they had during the day. Utena, reflecting on all the friends she's made, tells Azure things are about to get a lot more exciting. As Utena glances up at the sky, multiple bright color objects are visible. In the closing scenes, Tres Magia defeat more monsters in the city, and Utena and Enormita fight them. Roll credits.

Figure 3 The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magica, Episode 13

Felm about to kick Usato in the shin for not recognizing how much she likes him!

I had no idea there was going to be an Episode 13 of The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic. Now I feel like an idiot for calling Episode 12 last week the finale, but I suppose one extra surprise episode is never too bad. Anyways, it begins with the fox girl, Amako (an Oracle of Time), asking Usato to save her mother. Amako explains that she left Beastkin territory because only humans can use healing magic, so she asks him to come to Beastkin territory and save her mother. Rose says it may be possible.

The cute demon girl continues her training with Rose, and she also watches Usato fight Rose for "training". After his training, Usato finally asks the demon girl her name, and she responds it's Felm. The next morning, Felm sneaks out. At the palace, the King explains that his job to deliver missives will end in the Beastkin kingdom, so he should be able to honor Amako's request. The heroes will also accompany them. Meanwhile, Rose catches the Felm who was trying to escape... but not really! She was planning to hide and accompany Usato on his journey. Before leaving, Rose tells Usato to beat anyone to a pulp if they question healing magic. The episode, no, the series, ends with a musical recap of the series while Usato reflects on how much he trusts Rose. We then get some shots of all the characters and places we'll never see because the show is over!

Figure 4 The Witch and the Beast, Episode 11

Ashaf speaking to Falvell, the Mystic Witch, after arriving in town the same day.

Episode 11 of The Witch and the Beast begins with Ashaf and Guideau on a train to a "completely unremarkable" village where a hitherto incognito witch is only now, for whatever, reason, making a problem. Or, at least that's what the village things. They're not even sure if it is a witch, and they find themselves blaming each Falvell Farmington, a small girl who can't caste a single spell. Ashaf intervenes, and asks to speak with the small witch, but Guideau shows up and tries kill the witch, but a spooky monster appears and protects the witch, and the whole town sees it.

We then get a jump cut to Ashaf with the witch, her brother, and her friend drinking some of the tea she prepared. Guideau is magically tied to a chair, and pretends he doesn't her. Owent, her brother, explains Falvell can't speak (no witches in her family can). As such, she can't cast spells, either. Ashaf explains that magic works by writing runes, but their are exceptions, and Falvell, the Mystic Witch, is one of them. Ashaf explains that Falvell is being framed, and Ashaf will protect her, if she returns with Ashaf to the Order of Magical Resonance. Ashaf gives them a day to decide, and leaves. Owent asks Falvell if she trusts Ashaf, and shakes her head, "Yes".

Ashaf explains to Guideau that Falvell, like her, probably also has a mark on her body from The Origin Witch. That she, too, is under a type of curse. Voice magic is powerful, and it's possible another witch placed her under a curse. While talking, Ashaf runs into Craig and a finds the mayer killed. The town claims the girl is a witch, and an executioner appears with a mob outside Falvell's house. Ashaf then shoots Craig, realize he's one of the executioners. Craig, wounded, Ashaf, wounded, then begin to fight. This is actually a really good show now.

Figure 5 The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil, Episode 12

Lily realizing she loves Akutsu, and she'd enjoy it if he loved her back, too. Lily a CUTE.

Beginning right where Episode 11, Episode 12 of The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil begins with Lily's avatar (Lilya) thanking Akutsu for freeing Lily from Heaven's rules. In return for saving Lily, her Avatar offers to let Akutsu squeeze her breasts (he declines). Lily wakes up in different clothes, and realizes her clothes are different, and assumes Akutsu stripped her naked while she was asleep and changed her. Lilya explains that it was actually she who did that. Lily asks what happened to her brother, and Akutsu explains he left her brother physically safe, but gave him a warning. He goes on to explain he doesn't know why he turned into that form. Akutsu thanks Lily for helping him snap out of it.

Lily asks to stay over in case the angels set a trap at home, and we get a rather sweet melodic number of Lily and Akutsu getting ready to go to bed like they're some sort of married couple (angelic music plays while they go through their routine). While Akutsu was asleep, Lily thanks him, her one and only servant, her one and only demon, came to save her from her brother. While he's still asleep, she apologizes for being so cowardly she can't tell him while she's awake, and kisses him! We got a kissu! I know! And episode finale where there is a kissu! The fun angelic music keeps playing during the closing parts of the episode (I need to find this OST!) as they all walk to school. Lily realizes she loves Akutsu, and in her thoughts explains that she'd be happy if he had the same feelings for her, too.

In the end, Lily's brother explains to her older sister that there's no need to worry about Lily. In a post credits scene, Akutsu points out that Lily forgot her ribbon. When she arrives at his apartment, his cute demon handler is there on top of him, happy he's alive. Lily sees it and panics, and the show ends.

Figure 6 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess, Episode 12

Hime-sama teaching Vanilla how to ice skate.

Episode 12 of 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess began with Vanilla (loli-vampire) desperately wanting to hang out with Hime-sama, and deciding she wanted to go ice skating. She tells her father, who then tells her mother, who both agree to book out the entire rink. Vanilla spends a lot of time picking out an outfit to wear when she hangs out with a friend for the first time. Hime says she won't be swayed but this "torture", but Vanilla knows its not torture, and when she tries to skate on the ice she struggles and falls. Hime-sama rushes onto the ice and saves her from falling. Vanilla explains that today wasn't supposed to be torture, she just wanted to hang out.

The next day Hime's torture is canceled due to a fever. Tortura took care of her. After being nursed back to health, Tortura explains there are personal changes coming, and this may be the last time they see each other. Tortura then assembles for their "final" torture everyone who've they seen in the show earlier. The next day, Tortura keeps her position, and Hime thanks her, and they both say they look forward to seeing each other again. In a post credits scene, Hime-sama and The Hell Lord have been isekai'd and reincarnated into another world. The Hell Lord says to return to their own world, they must defeat The Black Monarch. Which he did. And he returned to Hime-sama, and they both return to their home world... to play a game of basketball.

Overall, a mixed bag. While it wasn't a truly terrible show, it wasn't really fun to watch, either. It really felt like a chore a lot of the time, but only because the story never progressed. Oh god. They announced a second season.

Figure 7 7th Time Loop, Episode 12

Arnold placing Rishe's wedding ring on her finger.

The final episode of 7th Time Loop began with Rishe speaking to the professor, who explains that at 6 o'clock that evening he'll do something destructive to show the strength of black powder to Arnold. However, Rishe intercepted the explosives, and replaced them with fireworks she created. All of the characters watch the colored flames in awe. Rishe tells the professor that "not every poison has to bring pain". Afterwards, Lawvine arrives to arrest the professor for his earlier threats, but Arnold intervenes and tells him to stay the arrest. Arnold then announces a technological partnership with Coyolles!

After the professor and Oliver leave, Rishe announces the ring she had commissioned is finished. Arnold explains she's not required to wear it, only that he wanted to have it made for it. Rishe explains that she wants to wear it, and she wants him to put it on her finger (as is tradition in the country where she's from). Arnold gets on one knee, kisses her finger, and puts the ring on. She holds her hand up between her and Arnold's face and explains the gems, as intended, match Arnold's eyes. Afterwards, Rishe asks to go on a journey with Arnold. A journey all over the world. Roll credits.

7th Time Loop was yet another dark horse anime of the season. I'd argue easily the best one, actually. In terms of story, animation, and general direction, it's a shame so many people slept on this show. Some would argue that it was because it's a shoujo, but to be honest I don't think that was the main reason. I just think a lot of people never picked up the first episode, then it was never able to snowball. There is a timeline, where the kaleidoscope of society turned to the left, and not to the right, and this show was significantly more popular. Alas, that was not the direction it turned. Also, there was unfortunately no season 2 announcement. A shame, because this show looked good. Was good.

Figure 8 Villainess Level 99, Episode 12

Dorkness and company working together to defeat undead after the fall of the Demon King.

Well. Here we are. Dorkness, Episode 12: Villainess Level 99 The Hidden Boss Battles Against The Demon Lord. Tons of 3D CGI monsters this episode. The strategy is all the students fight The Demon Lord's army while Dorkness, Alicia, and crew head directly to The Demon Lord's castle. They immediately walk into a trap, and Dorkness is able to break several trapped members free, but the King immediately one-hits multiple members, shattering their protection amulets. Dorkness realizes she'll have to fight him herself. The Demon King explains that, in the past, he worked with the king, but the king feared his power and tried to kill him. His "attack" on the human world was self-defense, and Dorkness explains he is correct, but things now are different. Dorkness made friends, and she'd never betray the, nor the King.

The Demon King explains that his hatred for humans burns too strongly, and vows to destroy all of them, summoning a black hole. Dorkness kills the King, and Alicia shields them all from the black hole. Afterwards, they tell Dorkness a new saint is born, but immediately Alicia stabs her in the back (she still as a protection amulet, so it's no big deal). The plot of the game still drives her to kill Dorkness. In the end, her madness is broken when Edwin says she loves her. After wards, the clean up the Demon King's remaining forces. While the credits roll, we see Dorkness and Patrick on their way to a dungeon to get rare items. Average show. No season 2 announcement (probably for the best).

Figure 9 Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!, Episode 12

Shiki and Fuyuki talking to each other after Fuyuki finished her 2-week study abroad.

Episode 12 begins with Shiki and Fuyuki missing the last bus home and having to stay overnight in a hotel together. Of course, nothing happens and Tsubasa falls asleep. Meanwhile, Sayuri is told she'll never get a boyfriend by playing games all the time (lol), and catches a glimpse of Fuyuki leaving. She tells Sayuri she's planning to study abroad. She explains she's going to study makeup, and one day become as cool as her (and Rena-senpai). Shiki explains that he wants to see her, but can't summon the courage. He finds her hairpin, and realizes that's his "courage" to see her again. His dad, who is suddenly here this episode, drives him to the airport to see her (she planted it). He arrives, and while she's departing explains that he's grateful for coming to Hokkaido and meeting her (and everyone else). Fuyuki explains she's only leaving for two weeks (what a bombshell), and she looks forward to seeing him and she gets back.

In an after credits scene, Sayuri asks to spend time with him this weekend (he accepts). Thereafter, Fuyuki bursts into the room late. The teacher yells that Fuyuki for arriving late, and then yells at Shiki for talking during class. Overall, a fairly generic harem. It didn't really make me want to go to Hokkaido. Rena-senapi still a best.

Figure 10 Metallic Rouge, Episode 12

Naomi about to get Rouge her Id she she can fight Silvia who stole hers earlier.

The episode begins with The Puppet Master speaking to a masked incapacitated Cyan about how all the actors are in play. After the opening, Rouge punches "Gene" in the face because she knows it's not him, but the le-Joker clone, who then informs Rouge and Naomi that they will be great actors in the upcoming play, and tells him he'll lead them to Gene (he doesn't). The two other characters we don't know and don't care about fight, end the fight, and the loser tells the winner to stop Silvia. Meanwhile, le-Joker encounters Silvia and is killed (deserved it).

Meanwhile, The Puppetmaster tells Cyan she's in the leading role with no script. Silvia tells Rouge she's a decrypter whose Id can't be removed, and it's her job to help Neans. Silvia explains that Neans on Venus only live three years before dying, and war between Neans and Humans have continued since the Immortal 9 were born. Silvia impales Rouge and steals her Id. Naomi leaves Rouge and rushes to the reactor control room (le-Joker, who is still alive for a second time, helps her). Noami's goal is to blow up the reactor and kill everyone, before running back to Rouge. Naomi gives Rouge her Id, telling her she has limited time and needs to end it soon.

Gene and Noir recover Code Eve data. The Detective reveals The Puppetmaster is Dr. Roy Junghardt. The Doctor removes his mask, and asks Rouge if she's free. Credits roll. Still no idea what is going on. One more episode left, though.

Figure 11 Wonderful Pretty Cure!, Episode 8

Mayu talking to her cat after he first day of school.

Episode 8 of Wonderful Pretty Cure! started with Mayu Nekoyashiki (a CUTE) practicing introducing herself at school (very reliable, I assure you). Meanwhile, Komugi wants to go to school with Iroha, but can't (because she's a dog). Mayu, a transfer student, arrives and introduces herself, but flubs her last name and panics. Iroha swoops in and saves the day. Meanwhile, Komugi transforms into a human and follows Iroha's scent to school. Komugi gets sidetracked, and ends up at Yuki's house. Iroha shows Mayu around the school (which has a lot of animals), but a Gyaru-gyaru spawns right at school! Komugi arrives, and after the henshin they both lure the Gyaru-gyaru away from school with a game of tag. Cure Wonderful uses her friendly wand to (partially) transform into a lion and gain speed and catch up, and they're able to return the Gyaru-gyaru to Niko Garden. At the end of the episode, Mayu speaks to Yuki and explains that she's happy she made a friend, and she's looking forward to school tomorrow.

Figure 12 Solo Leveling, Episode 12

Jinwoo raising Igris to fight for him.

Well, here we are, the finale of Solo Leveling Season 1, Episode 12. I'm sort of surprised this is the finale because it feels like the plot hasn't really progressed too much since the start of the show. I'd say I hope for a season 2, but the show didn't actually seem too popular on /a/ (perhaps it was popular elsewhere and we'll get lucky). And we did. Between the time I spent typing that last sentence and this one, there was indeed a season 2 announcement.

Episode 12 began right where we left off, with Jinwoo losing the instant teleportation stone and having to fight the infinite waves of enemies that kept spawning. After a bizarre sequence where he spoke with his past self who taunted him as weak, but because he forgot his dailies he's transfered to the penalty zone. The giant desert centipedes appear, this time only orange in name, and he fights them. He levels up, fully recovers, and buys a weapon that lets him fight Knights. After the penalty timer expires, he returns to the room fights them again, this time prioritizing the mages who are summoning all the mobs Afterwards, the quest completes, and he's assigned to the Necromancer class due to the number of people he's killed. He accepts.

After a rather impressive henshin, and being awarded bonus points, he's immediately promoted to "Shadow Monarch". He extracts the shadows of all the defeated enemies, including Igris. All the shadow knights bow before him, and the credits roll.

The raid on Juju island continued. Hunter Choi and his squad arrive to the island as morning breaks. Not much to say on this front, besides when there's a season 2 it may be something we'll learn more about.

Figure 13 Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included, Episode 1

Towa showing Shintaro her wings.

This is technically a Spring show, but it snuck in right at the end of the week (today on Saturday) so I'll have to discuss it today lest next Saturday get krangled with two shows. Episode 1 of Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included started with what was very obviously the angel (Towa) falling from heaven and ending up in Japan. The main character (Shintaro) finds the angel on his balcony the next morning, asleep. After waking up, Shintaro explains to Towa that he lives alone in his apartment alone. Next, in a style akin to The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten, he immediately starts cleaning up his apartment and trying to cook for him (eye roll).

Towa explains she can't go home because she's an angel. She came to Earth on God's orders to study humankind. After work, Shintaro finds Towa walking around with a fat old man rapist whose trying to drag her to a hotel to rape her. On his way home, he collapses because he is still sick. Shintaro offers to let her stay at his place, and afterwards she shows him her wings. Later, they go to the mall to buy regular clothes and general supplies for Towa now that she's staying with him. At the end of the episode, Towa finds the mug she wanted (Shintaro bought it for her), and she thanks him.

Pretty boring episode. Should have been yuri.

Other Remarks

I finally got fiber optic internet at my house (after years). The internet, with a static IP, costs more than the previous plan, so I may lower the speed to save money at a later date. For now, I'll stick with this plan and give it a shot. I also potentially wasted money on a WiFi relay for the upstairs, which I sort of doubt will give me more speed now that I test things, but I'll give it a shot regardless.

I have really made a post about Within a Budding Grove in a while since Madame Swann at Home, but this isn't due to lack of interest on my party. On the contrary, I've been making steady progress every night before bed, but I must say it remains slow going (it'll take about 30 minutes to get through maybe 10 pages, as I often have to double back and ensure I understood what I read).

The narrator has been in Balbec with is Grandmother for a while now. They met and spent a lot of time with Madame de Villeparisis, and the narrator is now good friends with Robert de Saint-Loup. He's still talking to Albert Bloch, who comes off as a complete retard in this novel (although he didn't in Swann's Way). At the moment, he still hasn't met Albertine (although her name has been mentioned). At the moment, every reasonably attractive girl he sees he immediately imagines spending the rest of his life with her, which appears to be a quite common feeling among people ("They smiled at me? That must mean they want to spend the rest of their life with me!").

Figure 1 An AI generated anime girl reading a book at the beach.

As I've been reading I've logged a few quotes that I like. To be honest, there's a lot of quotes I like, but as is often the case with Proust many of the quotes are so long they don't compact into a single blurb. These are some of the recent ones that do compact (albeit slightly) that I've liked.

"Besides it seems that our attention, always attracted by what is characteristic of ourself, notices that more than anything else in other people. One short-sighted man says of another: "But he can scarcely open his eyes!"; a consumptive has his doubts as to the pulmonary integrity of the most robust; an unwashed man speaks only of the baths that other people do not take; an evil-smelling man insists that other people smell; a cuckold sees cuckolds everywhere, a light woman light women, a snob snobs."

"Even among the lower orders (who, when it comes to coarseness, so often remind us of the world of fashion) the woman, more sensitive, finer, more leisured, is driven by curiosity to adopt certain refinements, respects certain beauties of sentiment and of art which, though she may fail to understand them, she nevertheless places above what has seemed most desirable to the man, above money or position.

"There are a certain number of people whom we admire in our boyhood, a father with better brains than the rest of the family, a teacher who acquires credit in our eyes from the philosophy he reveals to us, a schoolfellow more advanced than we are."

I have about 200 pages left. Which, at the rate I'm going, will still probably take a month or two to get through. One issue I've noticed with Proust is that he never sets the scene. For example, instead of saying "Sam walked into the room and began talking", Proust will just suddenly have Sam talking to several other people in the room, whose names also haven't been mentioned yet, and then it's up to the reader to reverse engineer who's in the conservation, what the conversation is about, and whether or not this will be principally important to the remainder of the story. That being said, I do feel like Within a Budding Grove has been far more coherent and understandable than Swann's Way. That's not to say Swann's Way is bad, but the narrative structure of Within a Budding Grove is significantly easier to follow. There's also far fewer, if any at all, long digressions on flowers or cathedrals (although he has visited two cathedrals so far).

Other Remarks

Figure 1 120 Cooking

I got 120 Cooking in Runescape by cooking Sharks from 99 to 120. It was slow, but very cheap (I probably only spent 50M in all for all the materials from 99 to 120). I'm shocked the Wiki didn't recommend this message, because it's only slightly slower than Sailfish, but far cheaper.

I got 120 Cooking in Runescape yesterday! This was a bit faster than I expected, as I thought I would get it this week, not on Sunday. I also got a closed beta invite to SYNDUALITY: Echo of Ada's closed beta test. It starts this week on Thursday and goes next week until Monday, I think? I won't really be able to play on Thursday (I will be teaching), but I can make time on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

I also made French Onion Soup and Beef Curry for the first time yesterday! I forgot to take pictures of both, but I'll try to remember next time I make something! I'd like to be able to document it and post it on Morganna's House for future reference.

We're beginning to wrap up the season, and boy this was a rough season for me. It was really hard finding time to watch 20+ anime a week, but we managed! And I look forward to doing it again next season (although I may be a bit more liberal with dropping overtly bad shows, we'll see). For now, though, there were some big standouts this week. Frieren ended. Foolish Angel had a strong episode, and Noir's very boring show still, somehow, is putting out great episodes. Oh, and did I mention Gushing Over Magical Girls ended, too, with Azure getting molested in a public park? Let's get into it.

Figure 1 Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Episode 28

Frieren, Fern, and Stark about to continue their journey. Fern is showing off her new spell that cleans any clothes for her (she got it from Serie).

Well. Here we are. The finale. Episode 28 of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. Episode 28 began with Serie immediately passing Denken and Ubel. The four eyes never actually set foot in the exam area, using only clones, also passed. In fact, all the remaining people passed. After the test, Denken asked Fern to tell Frieren how she made him find joy in magic again—he was impressed by the feats of the party of heroes. Another test-takers further thank Frieren (and Himmel and the party of heroes) for their past feats. Fern invites Frieren as a guest to the award ceremony, but Frieren is barred from entering any mage association building for the next 1000 years per Serie's request. Regardless, Frieren watches from outside, reflecting on Fern's growth.

While speaking to Stark, one one of the continental mages approached Frieren, said he wanted to be remembered by Serie, and tried to kill Frieren in order to be remembered by Serie. Frieren explains that Serie will remember him, but she has trouble expressing her emotions. Frieren, Stark, and Fern leave the city. Fern asked for a spell that will clean clothes, which seems incredibly stupid given that she could have asked for anything. In a flashback, Frieren tells Himmel he's always quick to say goodbye He says "Tearful goodbyes aren't my style. After all, it'd be embarrassing when we meet again." In a post credits scene, Frieren repeats the same line.

If MAL is to be believed, Frieren is the best anime of all time—all anime before pale in comparison to this masterwork. In truth, it was good, but still lacking in some major areas. The first and most obvious is the "on-going work" issue where an anime, regardless of how good it is episode to episode, has a weak ending because it's based on an ongoing manga the the author will never finish because it's their only source of income so their only strategy is to continue pumping out chapter after chapter, week after week, year after year, lest they starve on the streets.

Figure 2 The Unwanted Undead Adventurer, Episode 12

Rentt telling Lorraine that he's home (after becoming a vampire).

Episode 12, the final episode of The Unwanted Undead Adventurer until forever (I doubt we're ever getting a second season), began with Lorraine asking why Rentt wants to by a mithril class adventurer (a tacit throwback to Episode 11, where she explained she'd be find with him staying as he was now forever). Rentt explains that it was for revenge or, more properly, he wanted to the ability to stop tragedies from happening. Rentt recounts a tale where, as a child, his family was killed and he and his friend ran from the monster that did it. The monster, a large wolf, them, and his friend sacrificed herself to protect Rentt. In the end, Rentt was saved by a mithril class adventurer, but only after his friend, and the rest of his family, died.

Rentt drinks the vampire blood and immediately had a violent reaction, and transform into, you guessed it, a vampire. He wakes up who knows how long later with Lorraine reading over him a book on vampire ecology. Rentt has regained his skin, and now has vampire wings. Lorraine explains she's never seen a vampire with wings, but she'll look into it. In a post credits scene, Rentt and Lorraine gather flowers much akin to how they did years ago. Rentt says he still wants to meet the adventurer who saved him, and Lorraine says she'd love to tag along. Roll credits.

The Unwanted Undead Adventurer was most certainly one (or several) dark horse anime of the season. That is to say, one that was far better than expected (whereas others were far worse). While the story, the characters, the setting, nothing individually were themselves remarkable, the execution of each of them was so strong this really becomes a prototypical example of the whole being more than the sum of its parts. Overall, great. If there was a second season, I'd look forward to it.

Figure 3 The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic, Episode 12

Usato grabs the fox girl who warned him of The Black Knight.

The finale of The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic began with Usato being summoned to the castle. On the way there, he's swarmed by people thanking him for saving their family members. The King apologizes for calling him back so soon, and explains that he, again, needs his strength to interrogate the Black Knight that he captured. Specifically, the Knight requested to see him directly. The Black Knight is still injured from their fight, and Usato heals her, and her armor slowly melts off (healing magic removes the armor!).

The next day, Rose personally trains Usato again, explaining that the The Demon Lord's army will attack again. Rose says he's going to practice punching him because he needs to learn to dodge. Usato continues to visit the Black Knight (who is still imprisoned), who wonders why he continues to see him. Rose drops by and says she's here to turn this demon into an upright person. Rose puts a collar her to seal her mana. The plan is to start training her as part of the rescue team. The King requests Senpai, Kazuki, and Usato should be representatives of their nation to form alliances with nearby nations. Usato finds the fox girl who gave her the vision, and the fox girl asks Usato to save her mother. Credits roll. Show ends.

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic was most certainly another dark horse anime this season. One of the reasons why I like watching everything is because you'll find rare hidden gems like this. There was no after credits scene or "thanks for watching", alas, but it was still fun!

Figure 4 Chained Soldier, Episode 12

All the girls thanking Yuuki for his performance—this dinner's for you!

We're here. The finale of Chained Soldier. Episode 12. Starting with a brief flashback of Kyouka as a child being attacked by Shuuki, we then get a jumpcut to continue the fight that began at the end of Episode 11, where Kyouka and Yuuki are fighting the unihorn, the same one from her childhood that destroyed her entire village. She destroys it, and the snake girl flees. Afterwards, Aoba explains that Coca and Naon are gone, as such she can't lead a revolt. Kyouka and Tenka offer to protect Aoba, but she declines, explaining that while she can trust them, she can't trust other members of their organization. They all arrive back at their dorm, and Kyouka tells Yuuki to take a shower before coming to her room for his "reward". His reward is sleeping in the same bed as her. But "sleeping", in the anime sense, means exactly that.

Afterwards, the girls all have a meal together. Kyouka explains she'll become the Supreme Commander of the Demon Defense Force, and change the policies so that Aoba and her friends can live safely among them. The next morning, Tenka appears and tries to get her reward, but Kyouko intervenes. At the end of the episode, more Shuuki appear, and they, along with Aoba, fight them while the closing song roles. Overall, I'd say this was a pretty fun show. All the girls were reasonably interesting, and I thought it only improved after the first episode, which felt pretty good. There's quite the intricate plot here, and I can see why the manga is ongoing.

Figure 5 Pon no Michi, Episode 12

All the Pons celebrating their fixed Mahjong table!

Episode 12 of Pon no Michi began with their Mahjong table being broken! Riche immediately tries to call for a repair, but they say that could be expensive so instead they decide to try to fix it themselves (seems like a bad idea). Riche, of course, realizes they drew all over her face and is very upset (I would be too, again, that seems like a pretty mean thing to do to a close friend).

Told concurrently then afterwards with the broken table is Nashiko reflecting how she's drifting apart from her friends. After the table broke and school continue and Haneru was busy, etc., they haven't really done much in several months. The girls don't want to use a different table (even though there are other ones in the parlor that work), and they play with regular tiles and online instead of using an automatic table. Nashiko further reflects on how they hang out after playing Mahjong. (As an aside, these scenes were quite well drawn and it felt a bit weird. It's like the entire budget went to these sequences.) Of, Riche eventually demands that the bring the table back to life. Nashiko makes the call for a repair, and they come over right away. Nashiko embarrassingly says she doesn't have the money (about $120), but the Pons agree to chip in to pay for it.

The company arrives and tells them they need to order a new sensor, so they'll order it, come back, and replace it to fix the table. Nashiko further reflects on all the friends she made, along with the premise of the entire show, which is a bit more introspection than I'd expect from a Mahjong/tourism anime. Nashiko explains that it was not uncommon for her to be unhappy before she made all these friends at the Mahjong parlor. At the end of the episode, the table is fixed and they all sit down to play a game. The episode ends with extraordinarily vivid and detailed shots of Onomichi in the spring, where a new girl, Oho, comes to play with them.

Looking back on it, Pon no Michi was a bit of a mixed bag. While the story wasn't remarkable, and while it didn't really make me too interesting in going to Onomichi, the girls were really cute, so I mean who cares. That and my lovely wife Riche was the cutest. It was cool to see all these friends hanging out (of which I have none myself), and did I mention Riche was cute?

Figure 6 Synduality Noir, Episode 23

Noir and Kanata in Histoire about to fight Weisheit after all other Magus have been disabled.

Episode 23 of Synduality Noir started off with Weisheit inside Histoire, which we know is a satellite (as expected from earlier episodes), asking various commands with Mystere as the key to open it. Afterwards, Kanata and Tokio buried the hatchet with Macht and used the back up rocket to reach Histoire themselves. While there, they explain that Histoire is a collection of all human historical, cultural, technological, and scientific progress (much like the immortality drive I expected it was in earlier episodes). If humanity went extinct, Histoire could be used to revive everything about it. Eventually they encounter Weisheit is "paradise", and he explains that he will use Histoire to reclaim the surface for Humans. He will eradicate Enders and Magus alike.

Macht tells him that he will not allow him to abandon the Magus, his friends, and they all stand to fight him. During the fight, they're shocked to see how well he fights without a Magus. Weisheit explains that "Magus" are disgusting and they make his skin crawl. However, Weisheit is only stalling. He's waiting for Histoire to deactivate all of the Magi on Earth. Weisheit says he will forge a new humanity without the help of Magi. In the final seconds Noir, who is still activate, attacks Weisheit. Also, I guess the theory that Mystere was actually a fake last episode was wrong! Oh well. Oh, and did I mention I signed up for the closed beta? To be honest, the game doesn't look too impressive, but the anime was so good I feel almost obligated to give it a shot.

Figure 7 The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil, Episode 11

Lily protects her brother from Akutsu.

This week's episode of The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil began with the other side of Akutsu's dramatic phone call where he told his handler that he had been "found" by an angel. After the opening, we saw a recap of Lily having her false wing's cut off. In a rage, Akutsu broke free of his capture and threw one of the avatar's holding him down, before beating the remaining into the ground. Akutsu grows black wings (of which both angels were completely ignorant such a thing was a possibility), and Lily's brother realized he could never be as mad as a demon. Lily intervenes to stop his brother from getting beaten to death. Lily's brother sacrificed four of his wings to remove four of Akutsu's, and Lily used her power to break the final one, releasing him from his demonic furor.

Afterwards, Lily's avatar (for some reason) help Lily take off her clothes and go to bed. While Lily was asleep, Lily's avatar spoke with Akutsu, explaining that Lily retrained her and refused to to let her fight against her brother. The Avatar explains of all the demons she's seen, Akutsu is the most revolting, and the brutality of his earlier fight was proof of that. Her avatar explains that Lily is struggling in heaven, and that she worked hard to win people's approval. Her Avatar explained that Akutsu ruined everything by jumping in front of her, she now has nowhere to go. And her avatar thanks him for freeing her. Overall, an extremely good episode. Easily a standout for this week, along with Noir.

Figure 8 Gushing Over Magical Girls, Episode 12

Utena opening Magia Azure's vagina in a public park after helping her rebuild.

The Episode 12 began with Utena being promoted to the Supreme Commander of Enormita. Afterwards, Utena decided to help rebuild portions of the city she destroyed, and met Magia Azure. She broken into tears of joy when she realized Azure was fine, and she would continue to be a magical girl. She then offered to massage Azure, during when she lifted of Azure's skit, slid her pantsu aside, and inserted her fingers into her. Azure, as expected was completely into it, and found the way she used her fingers "familiar".

The next day at Enormita headquarters, Utena appeared as Magia Baiser, and told everyone the plane was to fight them, make them suffer, but them pull out at the last minute. The next day, Utena bought some toys for Korisu-chan to make up for some of the ones she lost in the battle, and ran into Haruka while toy shopping. Unfortunately, Korisu transforms into Nero-Alice and turns a toy dinosaur into a large one and starts going through the city. Tres Magia intervenes, but Nero-Alice transforms Magenta into a large magical girl to fight the dinosaur, and everyone takes photos of her pantsu from the ground (this explains that one large scene we all saw posted on /a/). Kiwi and Baiser slowly remove Magenta's clothes while fighting, and Tres Magia fight along her body against Kiwi and Baiser, before they all end of stuck in her panties, which fall off. In the closing, there was an announcement for an Episode 13, which I did not expect, but I'm nevertheless glad to see! So it looks like the finale wasn't this week, but it will be next week!

Figure 9 Sasaki and Peeps, Episode 12

Futari confronts two of the magical girls that ambushed the headquarters.

Episode 12, and what is hopefully the last I ever hear about Sasaki and Peeps, began with two magical girls ambushing the headquarters of whatever weird organization Sasaki was working fork. The magical girls construct a barrier that Sasaski fills with water, and they have to break the barrier to avoid drowning, and Futari incapacitates the Pink magical girl, but both magical girls retreat. Afterwards, Futari joins the organization, and placed under Sasaki's care. Sasaki's boss asks for a debrief, and what comes next is a Sasaki and Pii-chan classic where a retarded author spends an ludicrous amount of time trying to imagine what smart people say in conversation, failing to understand that smart people understand the important of being concise. Anyways, Sasaki arrives at his apartment only to find child-neglect yandere rape girl waiting for him outside his neighbor's apartment. He has a dinner with his bird, he reports that the time dilation between his world and the isekai is shrinking, and will soon reach parity with Japan. Meanwhile, in a post-credits scene the yandere rape-bait is approached by some rando who I don't care about anymore because I ain't watching the second season, if we are ever unfortunate enough to get one.

Overall, this show was terrible. There were just so many trash episodes. I'd say it was just as bad as My Instant Death Ability, and its narrative structure of completely discordant concurrent plots definitely gave it a similar fill. I can only wonder, truly, who reads the light novel this is based on and thinks "Yup, this is good". Rumor has it on /a/ it's getting a second season, and I may seriously consider not watching it because this show is going nowhere and has no redeeming qualities. Why did I spend the entire season watching it? We shall never know.

Figure 10 Ishura, Episode 12

The princess telling an advisor that they should create a tournament to name the hero.

Well. We're here. The Finale of Ishura. I still question whether or not it was worth watching watching this entire snoozefest series, but I could just as well say the same about many other shows this season which I nevertheless stuck with and toughed out. The final episode began with the Angel-bro (Kuze) explaining to Taren that he couldn't save Curte. Taren explains that the goal of the war was to gather all the monsters in the world and have them destroy each other. Kuze then explains he's going to kill Taren, and his guardian angel appears. Kuze reflects on how not everyone can be saved, and that a true hero would, perhaps, have been able to stop all the bloodshed.

As day breaks, we get a partial conclusion to Lana's arc. After being spared by the professor and Kai, she wonders through the city realizing that, now that demon king is dead, everyone is a monster. She then collapses on the floor, realizing that the professor did not spare her. She instead gave her a slow acting poison several episodes ago. During the cleanup, people wonder why the fire suddenly went out. Kia reflects on how she could have done more to stop the rampage (indeed she could have, just as well if her powers are to be believed she could just reverse all the damage). Sojirou and the girl he was with (whatever her name is) decide to stay together. Meanwhile, Hidow is ambushed by Alus, and asks to be endorsed for the upcoming tournament (which, like blade dance, we will never get to see).

We then get a jump cut to a scene one year earlier, where people reflect on how they don't know who the hero was who killed The Demon King. They discuss the plans to make the true hero appear, but they realize this isn't necessary. Instead, they can just hold a tournament and the winner will be decreed the one who killed the Demon King.

Figure 11 My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, Episode 12

The characters right at the end of the show being approached by a loli vampire.

It's impressive we've made it to the end, the final episode, Episode 12, of My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered. This anime is terrible. Not as terrible as Bravern or Dungeon Meshi (which were so bad I had to drop them), but still terrible. I stand by my earlier claims that Instant Death is a schizophrenic helter-skelter aggregation of discordant story lines. "ADHD: The Anime" is too charitable, as that phrasing alone wouldn't convey how ridiculous the show actually is. This show is a parody to isekais, but not a particularly funny one at that. Not funny enough to be a parody. Not good enough to be satire. The only joke is the show itself.

The episode starts right where Episode 11 left off, with a large explosion and Yogiri telling everyone to get behind him. The Dragon girl who ran around killing everyone else on the bus is injured, then comes back as a dragon using Dragon Heal. Yogiri explains a bomb went off and he can't tell where anything is. Yogiri kills the dragon girl. Afterwards, Sion the Sage appears to talk to Yogiri, and Yogiri kills her left ankle so she can't run, and her right hand so she can't attack. He explains that he wants to return home, and Sion explains he'll need several philosopher stones to return home. When Sion tries to live, a Dark God Mana appears and disables all her abilities, and consumes (or kills?) her? Dark God Mana appears and spreads throughout the city as Yogiri, Dannoura, and crew arrive back on the surface level. Mana tries to kill him, and Yogiri, of course, immediately kills her. Dannoura outfit changes (to a more lewd form) and gets the ability to fly, so she and Yogiri leave the city. The episode ends with a vampire loli appearing and offering her philosopher stone to Yogiri. The episode ends with a flashback where Yogiri, held in the containment facility, is told to use his power for good.

Figure 12 The Witch and the Beast, Episode 10

Angela speaking to Guideau in the executioner's domain.

Much to my surprise, Helga-CUTE was tagging along at the first part of the episode. Ashaf escorted her... somewhere ("The Corridors", whatever those are). Meanwhile while Guideau was alone still in the town, she overheard children talking of a witch, and asked to be escorted there. She confronts the witch alone, but fails to attack her, and the witch explains she's not a witch, but a humble herbalist. Meanwhile, Ashaf gets a black litter from The Order, indicating a witch mission.

Guideau, while speaking with speaking to the herbalist, is ambushed by an executioner. This executioner was working with the one in the previous episode, but couldn't be detected because he's using a forbidden instrument (a cloak) that allows him to vanish from the world. However, while questioning Guideau, we learn that The Hateful Witch, the one who cursed Guideau, is in the city. She approaches Guideau and told her she'd like to ask her a few questions as well. Ashaf explains that Guideau is in trouble given that she's still recovering from her fight with against The Demon Sword. Helga-CUTE offers to help. The Hateful Witch explains she spread rumors throughout the town that only Guideau would follow (it worked), and The Witch, Angela, explains that Guideau must chase her. Ashaf arrives to find Guideau badly beaten, and explains that Angela, the Origin Witch, a witch that lives forever, is responsible.

The next day Guideau attacks Ashaf because she realized he intentionally healed her incorrectly, that's why her hand and legs gave out during the fight. The episode ends with Ashaf slowly healing himself after being attacked, while explaining how they fought like this three years ago. Overall, amazing episode. This show is improving significantly, and it's a shame I know we'll never got a second season because no one is watching the first. While this show started off a bit slow, the last 5 episodes have all been great.

Figure 13 7th Time Loop, Episode 11

Rishe, Oliver, and Arnold debating a possible alliance to avoid war.

A very intense episode of Rishe's very exciting show in this week's episode of 7th Time Loop! The episode started with Rishe watching fireflies outside her window, only to have Arnold join her on the balcony. He explains he thought the fireflies looked like distant torches and the night. Afterwards, Rishe and Oliver attempt to negotiate with Arnold, explaining that Oliver's kingdom has many gems and great pieces of technology. As such, they should form an alliance. Arnold, being a complete idiot, explains that it would be easier to just invade and take all the gems and technology. Meanwhile, Theodore appears all tells Rishe that The Professor has broken away from the people trailing him, Oliver gets surrounded by guards, and Rishe finds the professor inside the castle walls, waiting for her. (I think we get fireworks next episode!?).

Figure 14 Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!, Episode 11

Shiki and Fuyuki on a deito at Higashimokoto Shibazakura Park.

Starting off with Fuyuki getting ready for her deito (where, last episode, she said she really had something to tell him), Episode 11 of Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! began with Fuyuki being dropped off at a train station to meet Shiki. They take a three hour train ride to a place that definitely doesn't look as snowy as Hokkaido, but I believe it still was. After some walking (while Shiki had his eyes covered by Fuyuki), they arrived in a large flower field: Higashimokoto Shibazakura Park. Fuyuki said earlier he wanted to see Hokkaido's cherry blossoms, so Fuyuki took him there! (While watching the episode, I quickly looked it up on Google and found that the show did a pretty accurate job of showing what it looked like.) Meanwhile, Rena-senpai tried to drop by the neighborhood bulletin (some Japanese custom, it seems like from previous episodes), only to learn he was out at the moment. We then got some strange thing where the OP song played while at the festival. It felt a bit weird, but I guess it wasn't too bat considering the probably do play music at the festival normally. At the end of the day, Shiki gives Fuyuki a promise bracelet (again, seems like some sort of Japanese tradition), and Shiki flubs the ending where he says they're "good friends". Fuyuki tells him he's going away starting next week to study abroad—that was the important thing she wanted to tell him. Afterwords, Shiki doesn't go in for the kissu, but does go in for the huggu, which is still more than I expect from a beta-harem MC. The episode ends with Tsubasa in tears.

Figure 15 Villainess Level 99, Episode 11

Patrick kisses Dorkness under the light of exploding fireworks.

Episode 11 of Villainess Level 99 started with several failed assassination attempts on Dorkness. Even her maid tried to poison her with tea, explaining that Count Dorkness, her father, kidnapped the maid's sister and blackmailed her to attempt to kill Dorkness. Dorkess, but autistic as ever, ignores her and goes to free the maid's sister. So she and her maid hope on CGI dragon and fly there. After saving her sister Sara, Dorkness explains she won't punish the maid, and she goes to meet her parents, who don't even recognize her. The parents admit to trying to kill her own daughter in order to prevent the king from preparing for war. But they think it's war against them, not against the soon arrival of The Demon King. Dorkness explains they're mistaken, but both parents still nevertheless despise her and her black hair. Dorkness then threatens to kill them but they surrender to her demands, agreeing to house arrest and handing over their royal title, making her a Countess. Dorkness this asks to adapt Patrick to make her part of her family, and says she won't ever pick on his future wife (keep in mind, this show is a documentary about autism). At the end of the episode, the King announces The Demon King will return, and he's been building an army to counter it. The episode ends with Patrick explaining he's been leveling up because Dorkness said that she's only into men who are stronger than she is. Dorkness says that was a lie, and the episode ends with a kissu, which took me totally by surprise. In the end, the students left for The Demon Lord's castle?

Figure 16 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess, Episode 11

Tortura, in a younger version, feeding Hime-sama a handmade lunch.

Episode 11 of 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess started with a torture session where Hime was tortured by playing fetch with a small puppy. Hime traded a map of the Empire's secret passageways for more time playing with a small dog. The Demon King allows a ninja in his army to quite his job to become a children's book author. Meanwhile, Hime-sama announced tons of secrets while sleep-talking, and thanked Ex and Tortura while asleep (they both overheard). Afterwards, researchers in the Hell-Lord's castle made a mistake and released a spell that turned everyone into a child (except Hime, of course), and Tortura tried to torture her while as a small child with small candy. Thereafter, all of the other torture officers showed up, of course as small children, and wanted to play. Tortura returned, this time slightly older (the spell was slowly fading) and offered her more food. At the end of the episode, the Ninja's hard work paid off, and won an around for his picture book, and the Demon Lord congratulated him.

Figure 17 Wonderful Pretty Cure!, Episode 7

Cure Friendly and Wonderful with their working magical wands.

The Komugi being a whiny baby arc quickly resolved itself within the first few minutes of Episode 7 of Wonderful Pretty Cure!. Komugi explains that she felt helpless to help Iroha. Meanwhile, the dork cat girl appeared to give Iroha a gift, only to reveal that her arm was covered in cat scratches (so many, in fact, that I'd argue her cat really should be declawed given how aggressive the cat seems to be). Then, the confronted the Lion gyargyaru, purified it and sent it back to Niko garden, and Komugi managed to get her wand to work!

Figure 18 Metallic Rouge, Episode 11

Cyan approaching The Puppetmaster.

Metallic Rouge Episode 11 began with a flashback of Sliva being born from some weird pod, and Rouge's party was intercepted by Opera as they crashed through Venus's atmosphere as they landed atop some building. The Puppetmaster then explained that Code Eve was left behind in the immortal nine by Eva Kristella, who vanished for "love". Rouge has the final key to decrypting Code Eve, which Gene hid from the world. Silvia killed Gene's dad, and then there was a bunch of expository dialogue between the Neans that didn't make much sense.

Rouge, Naomi, and team get ambushed the moment they stop off the ship, but they still nevertheless race to the Carnival ship where everyone is. Silvia gives an order to kill Naomi, and Gene tells Rouge to kill the man standing before her. Silvia further explains that they can keep making Neans for decades on Venus to continue their fight. Cyan and the detective fight off more robots are attack them. Cyan hears the voice again, and follows it to The Puppetmaster, where he removes his mask, places it on her face, and they both vanish. Rouge is confronted by the shapeshifter, and The brown guy they're with gets his Id back and prepares to fight. Absolutely cluster of an episode that made no sense. God dang I don't know how this is going to end because I don't really know what's going on now.

Figure 19 Tales of Wedding Rings, Episode 12

Satou and all the princesses (plus the Grandpa, who is saving the show) returning home.

Episode 12 of Tales of Wedding Rings began with Satou and crew returning to the isekai, and immediately encountering imperial soldier's fighting The Abyss King and his army. Satou flanks the army and engages The Abyss King. The rings, speaking to Satou, merge into one and Satou unleashes his most powerful attack, but it fails to fell the Abyss King. Satou collapses from exhaustion, and the princesses run in to save him. The Abyss king summons more minions to aid him, but Satou is unable to draw any extra power from the rings, and passes out.

While unconscious, Satou images a future where he marries Hime in Japan, but a hand from the void rips him away from this dream. He regains consciousness atop a bird with all the princesses (and the Grandpa, who of course we knew would not die!) The Grandpa and Marse with both saved by the elf from the Wind Kingdom they were at earlier. The Grandpa explains he likely was not able to defeat The Abyss King in a single strike because Satou hadn't strengthened his bonds with the princesses sufficiently, and the Abyss King's black rings were also unaccounted for. In the past, The Ring King fought along side all the princesses, and that is what Satou will need to do.

The next say, Hime and Satou visit Hime's parent's grave (both still wearing their school uniforms, for some reason). At the end of the episode, Hime's "bridal" teacher, Morion, Hime's little sister, appears to train her. Overall, not a bad show. A fairly decent harem, if you can excuse all the common harem tropes, that is. It was pretty lewd. Saphir and the Amber were the cutest. I guess the Elf was fine, too. Oh my god. At the last minute, I just learned on /a/ they're making a season season! Well the show wasn't amazing, I will still nevertheless be watching it! See you then.

Figure 20 Solo Leveling, Episode 11

Jinwoo standing over the body if Igris, the Red Knight.

Solo Leveling Episode 11 began with Jinwoo accepting his job change quest. After fighting through several knights, mages, and arches, Jinwoo encounters the dungeon boss, and hesitates because the "aura" of the boss is the same of that from the double dungeon at the start of the show (in other words, its powerful). The boss, a knight in Red armor, throws daggers down at Jinwoo as an act of chivalry because his dagger alone can't pierce his armor. The knight also drops his own weapon, a sword, and attacks with his fists. But Jinwoo forgot about the daggers, I guess, then fought him with his fists, too. After a while, though, he picked up his dagger and stabbed the knight in the eye then throat. Afterwards, enemies begin to infinitely respawn and Jinwoo can enhance his end-of-quest rewards by surviving as along as possible. After about 5 minutes, he tries to teleport out, but gets hit and drops the teleportation stone. The episode ends with him being surrounded, unable to flee.

Meanwhile, one of the guilds assembles a very strong team to return to Jeju Island (I think this is the island we saw in the opening with the fire ants). The goal is to prod the enemy and test its strength. Jinho speaks to his father and brother, and his brother says all the C-Rank stuff he's doing is a waste of time, and advises him to to get in his way.

Figure 21 The Labyrinth Raids of the Ultimate Tank, Episode 12

The entire town holding up Rud after he defeated Greed, crowning him the ultimate tank.

And finally, at the end of the week, late Saturday afternoon, we have the finale of The Labyrinth Raids of the Ultimate Tank, Episode 12. We began right where we left off, with the fight against Greed. Greed is surprised to see Luna, and homunculus, present in Rud's party, and asks her to return to him. Luna draws a dagger and refuses, and they fight. Surprisingly, the fight against Greed is short, and they quickly subdue him and Rud places shackles on him that suppresses his magic. While incapacitated, Rud see's that Greed has a homunculus stone on his chest. He realizes that that the Greed he just defeated was a copy, and the real one appears. The real Greed appears and is significantly stronger, dodging most attacks, and throwing Rud around. The twins (Lilia and Lily) are knocked out, and Rud orders Luna and Samimina to carry them to Nin for healing. Rud's Life Conversion hit isn't enough to finish the fight. Rud tries to focus more many out of his body, but Greed breaks through his adsorb shield and falls. His party is wiped, and he struggles to even get up as he watches Luna get strangled to death. He focuses his remaining power, gets up, and knocks out greed.

Rud goes into a berserker rage and begins to pummel Greed, and is about to destroy Nin, before Nin brings him back to his senses. In a flashback, Amon reminds him that those who fail to control their mana become a monster. Rud decides to focus his powers into one final attack. He uses his sacrifice skill on the entire town, and then uses life conversion to defeat Greed in a single final strike. He returners to town, and everyone cheers for him, calling him the ultimate tank.

Overall, this show was fun. Despite it's incredibly cheesy plot, the characters were still nevertheless interesting, and the party building mechanics were interesting to see. To be honest, what sold this show was the passion of the animators. Despite the fact that they were clearly grossly under budget and handed a fairly generic story, they somehow pulled together a very coherent show. While it's never a show I could recommend, it was still a show I enjoyed. It was not a bad way to end the week on Saturdays. Good luck, Rud, Nin, Luna, Amon, and everyone else.

Other Remarks

I got 120 Divination in Runescape this week (finally). All that remains is Cooking and Construction, both skills are woefully slow, but Construction is definitely the worse of the two. As I type this, I'm 119 Cooking and closing in fast. As for Construction, I have fewer Protean planks than I would have thought (all of my Protean packs only gave me 4000 planks, which is far lower than what I was expecting), so I'll gave to ensure good use of bonus xp.

Figure 22 120 Divination in Runescape

I got there using a daily challenge reward, but a lot of my XP came from burning some loose protean items and cinder cores (as I already built up enough double XP to get to 120 over the course of the previous year).

I want to get better at cooking. Originally, my goal was cool bento lunches I could take when I travel for a day trip somewhere for photography around the state. However, this desire led to a broader cooking challenge and I'm going to try to make some cool things (for example, I made bread today!). I ordered a a ton of basic ingredients for bento lunches, and I also ordered a waffle maker. I was planning to buy a photo printer, but I think that can wait. I need to make space for the waffle maker in the kitchen (who am I kidding there's tons of space). The Watercolor hobby is sort of on the back burner for the time being. In terms of discretionary time I have during the day, it's limited maybe to an hour at the most. And for whatever reason doing Watercolor during that time is a bit of an ask. Instead, I may have to wait until Spring Break or summer and come back to that hobby (or just accepted Calligraphy and photography are a creative outlet enough!).

A big today. After several failed starts, I finally got my feet wet and recorded my first walk. I don't think the footage came out terrible, but I'm not a big fan of the GoPro itself. It'll suffice for now, that's for sure. And who knows, maybe I will get bored later. I also tried cooking in the Dutch oven I was gifted, but wasn't a fan of the first thing I cooked. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly what I expected (in my mind, for some reason, I was expected it to be similar to a completely different curry dish I ate yesterday, which was an unreasonable expectation in retrospect).

Figure 1 Sagittarius with the M11/Noctilux

There's a very small amount of star streaking, even at a 4.0s shutter speed. I may have to bring it down to 2.0 seconds to and perhaps up the ISO from 200 to 400. Also there's a plane in the image. I saw it going buy as I was taking photos by choice to ignore it.
Leica M11 / Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH — ISO 200 f/0.95 4.0s.

I started the morning with a bit more astrophotography attempts. I took more photos of Sagittarius and removed that heavy onion ring effect that was apparent in earlier shots. I think the target settings are ISO 200 f/0.95 4.0s (or below). I may finally try to look up on YouTube how to do it properly, but to be honest I just want to take out the Takahashi over Spring Break, which is in two weeks! Amazing!

I also tried to record my first morning walk with the GoPro/Volta setup and man, that was harder than I thought. Well, the actual walk and the recording wasn't, but everything else thereafter was. First, I wasted a ton of time trying to find a fast way to stitch together the 15 minute GoPro clips, and couldn't find any fast way so I had to download and use Adobe Premiere (lol). Then, uploading it to YouTube was a disaster. After a few failed uploads, YouTube only told me afterwards I needed to verify my account with a phone number (why couldn't it just tell me that at the start, I will never know).

The footage itself looks passable. My arm never really got tired from holding the GoPro, and while I felt nervous at first I got over it in about 2 minutes. Now, if it was a heavier camera (like a FujiFilm on a gimbal) my arm may get tired a bit quicker. But for now, the gimbal idea is on the back burner. Maybe in a few months I'll either get that, or the Leica MP and try out some 35mm photography! Still, I'll walk around some other areas and I think it'll be more fun. It'll give me an excuse to explore.

Figure 2 STAUB cast iron Dutch Oven

I was gifted a blue one (which I hate). I would have preferred a dark red one (even darker than the one shown in the image above), but my father bought it for me and he always picks the opposite of what I want, and even if I asked for red he went have sent blue anyways.

I also tried cooking with the Dutch Oven I was gifted for lunch. I thought I was making chicken curry, but the recipe made more of a chicken curry soup. I didn't taste terrible, but it definitely wasn't what I was expecting! I'll try a few more things later this week. I'm not a big eater, though, so I always end up making far too much and I can never finish it all. I'd like to try making French Onion Soup next. I had that many years ago and thought it was great, so I'd like to try to make it myself.

Other Remarks

Within a Budding Grove is going great. The narrator has met and is now good friends with Saint-Loup, and just learned that he, and Mme. de Villeparisis are Guermantes! Now only that, but there was a shocking 800 page callback to Swann's Way, where we learned Saint-Loup's uncle, Baron de Charlus, was actually the man the narrator saw Madame Swann with when he was looking at Gilberte all those years ago in Tansonville when Swann called her away in his garden. Just as well, I just examined Swann's Way again, and found that Saint-Loup's name is mentioned in the very early opening chapters of it. That's so crazy! I'm amazed at how many pieces of this book are coming together, albeit incredibly slowly.

There were several standouts this week. Frieren had a simply but shockingly effective episode for the third and final mage certification test. The Witch and the Beast's Demon Sword arc wrapped up (Helga a CUTE). And The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic finally had a fun episode after several episodes of depressive misery. Anyways, let's get into it.

Figure 1 Synduality Noir, Episode 22

Someone who looks like Mystere about to be taken by Wisheit... but is it actually Mystere? As someone on /a/ pointed out, it sort of looks like one of those service robot maid's Ellie's sister commonly uses around her compound.

I can't even begin to list all the crazy stuff that happened in Episode 22 of Synduality Noir! It was crazy. The first 3/4s of the episode was a length, surprisingly well animated and well-paced fight scene between the members of ideal and all the characters of Rock Town (including Tokio). The fight between Tokio and Macht took place as expected—they were both evenly matched until Weisheit intervened. But, in the end, Schnee overrode Macht's coffin and refused to kill Tokio, telling him he needs to remember how he felt years ago, when he wanted to leave with Tokio, but didn't. Meanwhile, Weisheit steals Mystere and blasts off into space with one of the two rockets they built, and all of Weisheit's team realizes they were fighting for nothing as their leader leaves without him. There was also some pretty cool abilities explained in the episode (e.g., how specific weapons and Magus powers work), which I imagine comes from the upcoming game (I signed up for the closed beta!). Honestly the only issue I have with the show now is because of daylight savings time it's now much harder for me to watch during the day while at work, but I'll have to find a way because this show is easily AOTS for me. Never would have expected to say such a thing after season 1.

Figure 2 Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Episode 27

Fern speaking with Serie for her third and final mage certification exam.

I thought Episode 26 of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End was the last episode (as they usually end at 26), but I was wrong. It looks like we're getting an Episode 27 and 28! Episode 27 began with Fern being a pouty whiny baby, again, because Frieren broke her staff and told told her just to buy a new one. She didn't want a new one, and instead went to great lengths to find the best repair service in town and repair the staff (the shop that repaired it was the Red Coat guy who got stabbed in the back by Sense's mimic during the second test). Meanwhile, Serie showed up to proctor the third test because an abnormally strong mage, Frieren, was present.

Serie explained Frieren has been suppressing her mana, and few would notice. Serie explained that the third and final test would be an interview with her. Serie then failed essentially everyone, explaining that all the mages who approached her couldn't visualize themselves as great mages, so they would never be one. She then fails Frieren, and then Frieren explains that she will be unable to fail Fern. Fern, upon approach, realizes that Serie's mana is fluctuating, the first human to do so. Serie asks her to be her student, and Fern refuses. Frieren told her beforehand that she'd pass her no matter what she says. In the end, Fern passed.

Figure 3 The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic, Episode 11

I'll be honest, I wasn't looking very forward to this week's episode of The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic. After the reflecting black knight at the end of episode 10, this fun show certainly turned dark in such a way where I would describe it as no longer fun. Anime is the business of fun (I think), and this show is in the business of misery.

Anyways, Episode 11 began with a brief recap of the end of episode 10 where the black knight wounded both heroes, then after the opening cut to a flashback of Senpai reflecting on how glad she was for meeting Kazuki and Usato. Immediately, Satou jumps in and punches the black knight in the face, landing the first attack to actually damage her (we know it's a hear now because his mask was damaged—and I guess that explained why her voice sounded a bit weird). He picked up Inukami and Kazuki, and run while healing them. Realizing his punch was the only thing that will damage the knight, he then starts fighting her directly. He defeats her with his ultimate healing punch, and after the defeat of the black knight the demons retreated. Rose congratulated him on staying alive, and Kazuki and Inukami both defeated the large snake from Episode 10. The episode ends with Usato being upset at the battle, but happen he could save so many lives. In the end, he collapses after exhausting all his mana and stamina.

Figure 4 The Witch and the Beast, Episode 9

Helga-CUTE grasping The Demon Sword after it was sealed by Guideau.

A very strong ending to The Demon Sword arc in this week's episode of The Witch and the Beast. We had an absolute city-shattering fight between Guideau and The Demon Sword, where Guideau's unleashed power alone was enough to cause The Demon Sword to hesitate. In the end, Guideau defeated The Demon Sword with only left-handed hits, so it's not dead. Just dormant. The Executioner was also captured and questioned, and Helga demanded he be tortured and killed for the crime of butchering her entire family earlier. We also saw a brief flashback of Helga meeting The Demon Sword for the first time, and how she was the only witch that was nice to him. Helga-CUTE was a really cool witch. It's a shame I don't think she'll come back in later arcs. The Demon Sword arc was by far and away the best one so far. It felt interesting and paced reasonably well. Maybe in the next four episodes we'll get another simple arc and call it a day. Who knows? Let's see next week!

Figure 5 Gushing Over Magical Girls, Episode 11

Utena in front of child-Lord about to get spanked as a punishment.

This week's episode of Gushing Over Magical Girls was really late! It aired so late at night I had to skip my daily calligraphy practice because of it (well, I skipped it because I was researching cameras, too. I think I may start a foray in vlogging with a FujiFilm camera on a gimbal, but more on that in the coming months).

Episode 11 started off with Kiwi finishing the fight she was having with Sister Gigant. It ended with Sister Gigant buried in the ground, and Kiwi about to fire all her remaining guns while she begged for her life. Of course, Kiwi didn't kill anyone. Explaining that she was out of ammunition and had been for a while. She just did it to scare Sister Gigant. Afterwards, we saw the fight between Utena and Lord. Lord was initially winning, but only because Utena wasn't sufficiently turned on by Lord. Utena, then progressively gaining more and more stars, converts Lord to a child (in her eyes), strips off all her cloths, and spanks and groups her ass. All this why everyone else watches. Afterwards, Lord asks in complete mortifying embarrassment why she lost, and she's told she's always been weak. Whereas her power was granted, Utena's power comes from within. In the end, Utena is offered the position of The Supreme Lord of Enormita.

Figure 6 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess, Episode 10

The White Knight encounters The Demon King outside his castle.

Episode 10 of 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess was the first episode I've enjoyed in a while, through and through. While previous episodes had individual gags that were, perhaps, mildly funny, in this one all the gags were pretty funny. The opener where Hime-sama defeated everyone in the beach sword fight was clever. The White Knight encountering the Demon King, then making a friend, was funny. And seeing the loli-vampire at the end of the episode was the icing in the keiki. I don't think the remaining two episodes will have such consistently good gags, but we shall hope and see.

Figure 7 The Unwanted Undead Adventurer, Episode 11

Laura, the head of the Latour family, watching Rentt fight the golem he accidentally activated.

In Episode 11 of The Unwanted Undead Adventurer continued right where Episode 10 left off, with Rentt attempting to complete some weird hedge maze labyrinth for the Latour family. There, he met some girl in the center of the hedge maze and had tea with her, where she explained the tea came from a teapot retrieved from a labyrinth that can emulate the flavor of any tea that passes through it (as such, it's worth 300 platinum). She then offered to buy Rentt's mask, which he refused because he can't take it off. It turned out later, after escaping the maze, that she was in fact Laura, the head of the Latour family! As a reward for escaping the maze, Rentt was offered any magic item from the Latour family collection. While there, he was attacked by on a magical golem that accidentally activated upon him touching it. He was then drawn to a vial of vampire blood, but instead picked up the cool little flying airship toy, which I must admit was a pretty comedic twist! Anyways, he still took the vampire blood, too. Or, more properly, he was offered it by the Latour's. The episode ended with him debating on whether or not he should drink it (I imagine he will in episode 12)!

Figure 8 The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil, Episode 10

Lily pinned to the ground by her brother while Akutsu is forced to watch.

This was definitely the best episode of The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil so far, and I can only imagine the remaining two episodes will be just as good. Lily's brother returned, as we expected he is a very strong angel (much stronger than Lily), and he began to torture Lily in order to figure our how she defeated the avatar her sister corrupted. Akutsu, seeing this, intervenes. He first calls back to his Demon handler, tells him he's been found by an angel, and rushes in to save Lily. But, of course, he's not nearly strong enough, and he's held down while Lily is further humiliated. Her brother then reveals she's a weak angel, and cuts off her "fake" wings in front of Akutsu. Then, while Lily is crying, Akutsu's eyes slowly become darker, and then the credits roll.

Figure 9 Chained Soldier, Episode 11

All the principle characters reacting when the gods showed up to fight.

Episode 11 of Chained Soldier was, in effect, one long fight scene. We saw all the girl's slowly defeat the half-human half-shuuki girls (the Himari and Yachiho fight was particularly fun because of the time-stopping/time-reversal mechanics that were used throughout). In the end, Aoba befriend Tenka after she refused to hurt her because it'd upset Yuuki. This led to a pretty funny day dream where Tenka imagined Aoba as her sister in law and they were all a happy family. Right at the end of the episode, however, the Snake girl (some sort of god, if she's to be believed) appeared and attacked everyone. So it looks like next episode, which may be the final episode, we're either going to see a fight between them, or nothing will happen because it's an ongoing manga so we won't get a satisfying ending unless it's anime original, or the manga just happened to have a arc wrap up at a convenient time.

Figure 10 7th Time Loop, Episode 10

Rishe in a flash back taking to the professor about the invention of black powder.

Episode 10 of 7th Time Loop is expanding the plot a bit more than I wanted (I mean, I wanted a Rishe focused plot and it seems like instead we're getting more of all the other characters and Rishe is just along for the ride). For starts, Rishe-CUTE was found out by Arnold, who knows she's been dressing as a boy and training with the palace knights. Meanwhile, the professor from Rishe's previous life informs her that he invented Black Powder (something she already knows), and plans to give black powder to Arnold. This is something Rishe wants to stop, but doesn't know how. We also learn a bit more about the Ice-prince, namely that he's nice, and Rishe's entire goal is to still prevent war.

Figure 11 Pon no Michi, Episode 11

All the Pons at a shrine on New Years (just LOOK at how cute Riche is!).

A New Year's Even episode of Pon no Michi, a bit strange, much like last week's Christmas episode, given that it's mid March. Regardless, it started with our Pons spending time at a temple and reading their fortunes, before going back to the parlor and making the first meal and playing the first Mahjong of the near year. Afterwards, my lovely wife Riche fell asleep, and the cruel Nashiko came up with a game where they played Mahjong and the winner of the match would draw on Riche's sleeping face. The overall tone of doing such a thing felt silly, as drawing on anyone's face when they're asleep feels like an extremely inappropriate thing to do. I mean, Riche trusted them enough to fall asleep around them and to betray her trust by drawing cat whiskers on her face feels wrong, even if it's speciously in good fun for everyone else. At the end of the episode, as I suppose a form of divine punishment, the table broke and they couldn't finish drawing on Riche's face.

Figure 12 Ishura, Episode 11

The angel guy standing over Certe hopefully about to save her.

The first half of the show was trying to be sad, and I'd say it was the saddest this show will ever be, where the only character I had any sympathy for was show killed by Alus the literally-no-one-cares. The blind girl who sang, who thought the Wyvern who saved her was an angel, was shot in the back by the absolute coward that was Alus, while Regnejee was shot by the guy with the beard who hasn't done much, but is certainly polite when he speaks. In the second half, Shounen the-self-insert of the Willow Blade killed Magpie the bandit. Perhaps one of the few kills in the entire show that felt satisfying, which is saying a lot because Shounen self-insert boy is absolutely a terrible character I'd never find myself rooting for, but here we are. Hopefully next week's episode puts this contrived convoluted mess to rest, and I'll never have to think about this crazy show or its dumb characters ever again.

Figure 13 My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, Episode 11

Naked Dannoura after her clothes got destroyed by a necromancer.

In keeping with tradition, Episode 11 of My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered contained so many concurrent and nonsensical plot arcs that it's difficult to even give an episode summary. I'd argue that it were a piece of modern art in its frantic schizophrenic nature, but I'm fairly certain the author (and the fans on /a/) take this show pretty seriously. Anyways, Takatou fell to the 7th layer, the demon king expanded and they escaped the layer they fell to. Meanwhile, Sion ordered all the Sage candidates to attack and kill each other over the course of an hour. Later, Takatou attacked Mei-tan the saint who attacked them, but killed the two cats who granted her power. Meanwhile, Dannoura hid in a tree and later got her guardian spirit stolen by a necromancer who pretended to be able to count, but actually had a weaker guardian spirit princess who could only count herself. Then got her clothes magically taken off, so we got to see Dannoura's fat body and flabby belly. Meanwhile, the necromancer had an awakening which meant nothing because Takatou just executed her the moment she tried to attack. Meanwhile, right at the end of the episode there was a big explosion.

Figure 14 Villainess Level 99, Episode 10

Dorkness healing Alica after Alica got one-hit for the dungeon's final boss.

After several absolute snooze fest episodes, Episode 10 of Villainess Level 99 finally was at the very least mildly interesting. It was mainly focused on Dorkness and Alicia leveling in a dungeon multiple times. Eventually, after failing to defeat the final boss several times, eventually she leveled up enough (Dorkness estimated she was at or above level 50) to defeat the final boss without much issue. In doing so, she got a Sword of Light, and Dorkness got a few other weapons, too. Afterwards, Dorkness and Alicia returned to the academy with all the rewards. Not sure where we'll go next episode, as there was no cliffhanger here. But we only have two episodes left.

Figure 15 Sasaki and Peeps, Episode 11

Futari talking to Sasaki after defeating some literal-who.

An incredibly boring episode of Sasaki and Peeps this week. Despite finally taking place in the real world which, I imagined, would have made it more interesting (which I'd say it partially did given that I didn't fall asleep while watching it, not that that would even be possible because I watched it while at work other people in the room). The episode was a long, lengthy, poorly choreographed fight between Sasaki and the leader of Futari's "organization". They talked for 20 minutes then threw a few spells and, in the end, Pi-chan won (was we excepted). Then even more talking, of which nothing important was sad and no character development took place. In the last minute of the episode, we found that Sasaki's organization was under attack from magical girls, and they were sending a helicopter to pick him and Futari up (forgetting, I suppose, that I can teleported, and did so earlier in the episode).

Figure 16 Metallic Rouge, Episode 10

Cyan and Rouge have a retard fight fit for small children.

Metallic Rouge Episode 10 was... how to put it? Retard-child Nean babysitting: The Animation? The episode was presented in two concurrent arcs. One, was Rouge and Naomi and Rouge's younger sister (Cyan, a CUTE too) on a spaceship on their way to Venus for the ultimate final battle, I guess. The other was Rouge's older brother talking to the Puppet-master in some sort of strange dinner where they discussed their memories. No idea what was happening. No idea what will happen. Won't really matter, regardless.

Figure 17 Wonderful Pretty Cure!, Episode 6

Cure Wonderful realizing her wand isn't doing anything.

In Episode 6 of Wonderful Pretty Cure Komugi and Iroha fought (Komugi was jealous that Iroha was spending time with people and animals other than her). She was also upset that her leash turned in a wand... a wand that she couldn't even really use. We also met the Cat girl's parents (her name escapes me, but when she becomes a main character I'll remember it). And we learned that school starts in a week. Meanwhile a Garugaru hatched—it was a large lion—and Komugi was so afraid she froze in place. Iroha tried to fight it off, but the Garugaru retreated into the forest. Then, at the end of the episode Komugi ran away!!! She saddly walked away into the night, in pouring rain!. It's over. Wonderful Pretty Cure is finished before it even started.

Figure 18 Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!, Episode 10

Fuyuki and Shiki becoming class president and vice president.

It's very difficult to watch Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! not because it's bad, but because it's just a bit... slow. And because it's bad. They're now in another school term, still in the same class together, but now Shiki and Fuyuki are the class president and vice president. Shiki and Sayuri then played games together, which was a bit cute because games are fun. Fuyuki comes on really strongly to Shiki, and Shiki never makes a move because it has a harem anime. And I like him because he's nice, as always. Overall, it's just a bit hard to watch because I know the story will never really progress. It's not like Love Hina where the harem will resolve itself in the end. Instead, we get nothing. It also doesn't make me super interested in going to Hokkaido, which is crazy to me because I love the romanticism of the snow land. The episode ends with Fuyuki asking Shiki to keep a day free next week during Golden Week because she has something important to tell him. Not that it matters. It never does.

Figure 19 Tales of Wedding Rings, Episode 11

Amber the Earth Princess opening a one-way portal back to the isekai. Also Amber a cute.

Episode 11 of Tales of Wedding Rings started out in Japan, where the Ring King and the other princesses initially not wanted to go back to Arnulus, and hoping to live out a happy peaceful life in Japan. But this "lets just ignore everything that just happened in the previous 10 episodes" let to a general melancholy among everyone who tacitly knew they couldn't abandon their home, and all their friends and family, to die. Meanwhile, Satou learns the Ring of Earth is actually in Japan, where he and Hime stumble upon the Earth princess at a shrine, who explains she (along with the ring) were placed there to protect it. After getting the Ring of Earth, the Earth princess opens a portal back to Arnulus, and the episode ends with everyone going back to seal the Abyss King.

Figure 20 Solo Leveling, Episode 10

Jinwoo and his one friend entering a C-Rank dungeon.

Episode 10 of Solo Leveling started with my lovely wife Jeehoo retiring from hunting. A bit sad, I must admit, but given everything she's been through it's probably for the best. Afterwards, Jinwoo started clearing C-Rank dungeons in order to get to the 20 dungeon limit to help that one construction company start a guild. They assembled a strike team of a bunch of randoms who stay outside, while Jinwoo effectively clears the dungeon himself. As a result, Jinwoo was approached by the White Tiger guild and they tried to recruit him, but he declined. He also scammed them out of money as a "punishment" for looking into him, which seemed a bit silly, but it's a self-insert power fantasy so whatever. Right at the end of the episode, Jinwoo rode off to complete a new job change quest he was offered.

Figure 21 The Labyrinth Raids of the Ultimate Tank, Episode 11

Amon explaining to Rud that a new labyrinth has likely formed nearby, that's why there's tons of monsters approaching the town.

Right at the end of the week, we have Episode 11 of The Labyrinth Raids of the Ultimate Tank. It started with the homunculi finishing the construction of the bath house. Unfortunately, the townsfolk were hesitant to use it because none of them really trusted homunculi. But after Rud and several other adventurers tried it, it seemed to win the town over. Oh, and while there we got to see the girls bathing, and the guys tried to peep, but Rud stopped it. So there's that. Afterwards, a horde of monsters attacked the town, and everyone had to get together to fend them off. Rud assisted the help of his town's Labyrinth monsters to help fight against the horde that approached. They learned the monsters were coming from Greed's labyrinth, and Rud told everyone they'd have to raid the labyrinth (keep in mind, Greed is also responsible for torturing all the homunculi taking refuge in the town). At the end of the episode, Rud splits up from the other half of his party (who is tasked with protecting the town while he is gone) and enters Greed's labyrinth only to find that it is empty. Or is it? There's no gate to the next floor, because they entered on the final floor. Greed then appears, and the credits roll. It looks like episode 12 will be a fight against him!

I have officially dropped Bang Brave Bang Bravern. It may come as a surprise to drop an anime an Episode 10, but to me the greater surprise was me containing to watch it until Episode 9. But following the death of Smith, and learning that Smith got sent back in time to be Braven just felt so absolutely retarded I simply cannot continue this show. Bravern along with Dungeon Meshi are easily the worst shows of the season. And the fact that people like either, the fact that either exist, is simply a testament to how far we've strain from god's light.

Other Remarks

So after much internal reflection this week (especially on Wednesday, where I spent so much time doing research and turning over conflicting thoughts in my head I wasn't able to complete my calligraphy practice), I've decide, at least for the time being, to use the GoPro + selfie-stick I bought many many years ago as my walking camera, at least for now. I said and wrote multiple times before how I was steadfastly opposed to the GoPro due to its severe fish-eye wide angle field distortion, but it appears that I can remove by removing the Max Lens mod that I stupidly applied to it (originally to reduce the field distortion itself), put on the original lens, then switch the filming mode to correct it (apparently switching to "Linear" will reduce and/or remove the field distortion).

I was, originally, planning to by the DJI Osmos 3 until I read reviews on it, and found that you had to download some Chinese spyware smartphone app just to activate it, which I really didn't want to do. So for now, I'll use the GoPro and give it a shot. Who knows? With the removal of the field distortion it and be that bad, right? Anyways, the later goal (perhaps after I recover a bit from buying the $12,000 Noctilux this month, lol) would be just putting a FujiFilm camera on a gimbal. But again, I ran into this problem where the best gimbals on the market are also made by that Chinese communist company DJI, who wants me to install that spyware phone app just to activate it. What an absolutely utterly deflating thing to learn. Had that not been the case, there was a nonzero probability I would have bought a gimbal from their company immediately and been trying it out this weekend!

Oh, and there was some other big news this week. The House passing the TikTok ban was interesting (although I expect it will just stall in the Senate). My state passed a ban on all phones and other devices that were Bluetooth capable in schools (I'm sure I'll have more to say about that next year when they expect us overworked teachers to somehow enforce that because, of course, the enforcement will fall upon us). All be honest, though, I simply won't enforce it in my classroom. It's not that I don't think phones are a problem, it's more so that I have a finite amount of energy to dedicate to things, and I simply cannot play phone police. As-is, my policy is if students want to use phones and fail, they can use phones and fail.

I've had the Noctilux for less than a week (and I've already lightly scratched it, bleh!), but it is easily my favorite lens so far! It's such a ridiculous behemoth of a lens it makes Photography really fun. Now, to be far if I actually go outside and walk around a nearby town I'll probably switch to the 35mm Summicron, but for now, let's talk about this.

Figure 1 Leica M11 with the 50mm f/0.95 Noctilux

As an aside, the FujiFilm X100F does really bad indoors. 14 second exposure time for this image? THIS is why I bought the Noctilux. Give me that better low light performance as soon as possible!
FujiFilm X100F — ISO 200 f/8.0 14.0s.

The curb appeal on the Noctilux is incredible. Just seeing that absolute unit of a lens on the small M11 body sends a message. I'm not sure what message it sends (given that most people won't even recognize it), but it definitely says "I have more money than sense", which is exactly the kind of message I want to send.

Figure 2 Sagittarius beginning to peak up over the trees.

My first attempt at Astrophotography. I was surprised to already see my favorite constellation Sagittarius already beginning to peak over the tree line in my backyard. I thought I wouldn't see that thing until March! I'll have to take out the Takahashi over Spring Break and take a peak.
Leica M11 / Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH — ISO 64 f/0.95 2.0s.

Early this morning I tried Astrophotography for the first time. I haven't read any books on how to do it, I was just guessing at the settings to use and checking the results. I immediately found out that long exposures (like the 6 minute ones I've done in the past) definitely won't work. Stars move way faster than I thought, and they'd move so much that I don't think anything greater than 1 minute will likely work unless I put the camera on the Takahashi equatorial mount. (Actually, as I typed that I just searched it and apparently 10 seconds would be able the limit before stars began to streak). My current setup was to set it to f/0.95, ISO 64, and set the exposure compensation to a low value so that the shutter speed was the order of 2 seconds. But if the 10 second rule is there, I may manually set it myself and check out the results. Overall, I'd say it's a pretty good first attempt for only 20 minutes of messing around in the cold before the sun comes up!

Although I just consulted the technical manual, but the Noctilux appears to not be able to focus at infinity at f/0.95. Unless I'm misunderstanding the charts. I may have to look more into it, but it definitely seems like it can't focus at infinity at or below f/5.6, in which case I might as well try out the 35mm Summicron as well. But hey, that's party of the fun.

Figure 2 Swarovski Snow White and Rapunzel

I bought these two Swarovski figures during the COVID pandemic using my government stimulus checks. What a good use of funds! They're so pretty!
Leica M11 / Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH — ISO 64 f/2.8 1/80s.

I don't find focusing with the rangefinder too difficult, but to be far the M11 does have a rudimentary live view (that's honestly much worse than the FujiFilm X100F) that helped me with some of the earlier shots. But the plane of focus on this lens at f/0.95 is probably a few centimeters (the manual says the plane of focus is 20 cm at f/0.95, but honestly it's closer to 2 cm at f/0.95 in my experience you have to be dead on). I've found you can physically move the camera forwards and backwards, and this is likely a bit easier than turning the focus knob on the lens.

Other Remarks

I'm strongly considering buying another camera, a DJI Osmo Pocket 3, to record some of my daily walks. The GoPro I bought for the same purpose has too much field distortion (something I absolutely hate and will do everything I can in my power to avoid). And the Sony camcorder I bought, while most certainly cool, is simply too large to carry around every day in my hands. I sort of knew that, too, when I bought it. I'm not sure why I wasted the money. Oh well. I always waste money. That's what I specialize in!

Body-snatcher Noir and the yuri sex scene between Loco and Leber definitely stole the show this week. Although the abnormally dark healing magic show did make an impression upon me. This week was, perhaps, memorable less for the anime but more for $12,000 camera lens I bought at the start, and received during the middle, of the week. Also, we have a three day weekend this week as well!

Figure 1 Synduality Noir, Episode 21

Body-stealing Noir stealing Ciel's body AND songs and performing them at Rock Town (at Ciel's canceled concert, which she also stole).

My hopes and dreams of ever seeing Ciel again were destroyed in this week's episode of Synduality Noir. The episode started with Tokio returning to Rock Town and briefly explaining about his past. Mystere is now on her way back to Carthage to scavenge rocket supplies and fuel. And Kanata was performing maintenance on his coffin. Then, during the "twilight" of Noir, she wondered aimlessly around town encountering residual memories of Ciel. At first, I thought this meant Ciel would return (somehow), but that is unfortunately not what happened.

For some weirdo reason, Noir-body-stealer decided she wanted to sing, much like Ciel. So a concert was arranged where she sung Ciel's songs (which felt really world given that she also stole Ciel's body, now she steals her words, too?). Everyone in Rock Town attended it and apparently liked it, and we got to see a cool sequence where Ciel and Noir were singing simultaneously Ciel's last song. But this felt more like a shallow tribute to Ciel's character more so than a beautiful send off (to the words of a love song). Also it feels a bit weird... Noir having Ciel's body. Noir definitely feels like a DFC character, but now she's got some of the biggest honkers in the show, and it doesn't fit her demure, timid, and aggressively shy personality. Oh, and I signed-up for the closed beta of the game on PC. I don't think it will be good, but here's to hoping I get in!

Figure 2 Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Episode 26

Frieren about to deliver the killing blow to her (already mortally wounded) Mimic.

Is this really it? Is this where Frieren: Beyond Journey's End... ends? They indeed conquered the King's Labyrinth, as expected. Multiple characters were severally injured in the process (including the one mage with a cool dress and white hair that I really liked). We learned that Ubel has the ability to cut through anything, including most defensive magic. In her fight against Sense's mimic, she cut clean through her hair and the fight was over in seconds (coming in a bit late, however, as many people already failed the test beforehand). Fern was hit with an extremely powerful spell from Frieren's mimic. One so powerful she couldn't even identify it as offensive magic. And the show ends with a cut outside the Labyrinth. People on /a/ said there's not enough content in the manga to justify another season. This may be true. But I must say there was virtually no ending here. There not even done with the mage certification test. It just ends there.

Figure 3 Gushing Over Magical Girls, Episode 10

Loco and Leber being forced to engage in yuri sexxo while Magia Baiser watches!

Episode 10 of Gushing Over Magical Girls may have been the most overt yuri I've seen in an anime in years. It started immediately with Utena trapping Loco and Nemo in an Alice-style dollhouse, the immediately forcing them to have yuri sexxo while she watched. After a brief flashback where we saw how they were always friends (and Nemo even listened to Loco's singing early on), Loco and Nemo were making out (with tongue and spit trial visible). Utena told them that wasn't enough, and forced them to have yuri sexxo while she watched. During the yuri sexxo, Nemo realize she'd been in love with Loco the entire time! Afterwards, Lord attacked and Utena went to fight lord herself. Meanwhile, Kiwi went to fight Sister Gigant herself, revealing that she is herself a 3-star, and transformed into a leopard.

Figure 4 Tales of Wedding Rings, Episode 10

Marse and the Grandpa "Great Sage" sacrificing themselves as the gate closes on Satou and the princesses back to Japan.

Tales of Wedding Rings went full "Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic" this episode where this fun, lighthearted show suddenly got extremely dark and extremely serious. After visiting The Kingdom of Earth and finding it completely empty, Satou and his party were ambushed by another Abyss knight. After defeating the knight, the knight's ring disappeared and the Abyss King fully resurrected, before Satou could get the final Earth ring. Marse and The Grandfather ("The Great Sage") then sacrificed themselves to open and close the gate back to Japan, protecting Satou and the princesses and preventing the rings from falling into his hands. Because this is a fun anime (I hope) I'm going to assume Marse and Grandpa make it out alive!

Figure 5 Solo Leveling, Episode 9

Jinwoo and Joohee on a deito?? after defeating the B-Rank assassin from The Hunter's Guild.

The fight scene in Episode 9 of Solo Leveling was a bit weaker than I expected at the end of Episode 8. We learned that the Hunter's Association guy was tasked not with hunting Jinwoo, but instead murdering the 3 convicts that were brought along. They were going to get released, but the father of their victim committed suicide and didn't want them to move on with their entire life like nothing happened. So he paid the Hunter's Associated guy to murder them in the dungeon. But some members of Jinwoo's party stumbled upon him, and they were killed too to cover the tracks. But then Jinwoo intervened, fought him in a strange fight, and in the end won. Jinwoo and Joohee agreed to keep Jinwoo's strength a secret for now, and it ends with absolutely nothing hinting at the next episode.

Figure 6 The Witch and the Beast, Episode 8

Ashaf and the Paladin Corp ice-bro watching the Executioner about to unsheathe The Demon Sword.

It doesn't look like my lovely wife Helga is going to get a boyfriend! In this week's episode of The Witch and the Beast we learned that the Executioner (who also completed destroyed the Paladin Corps) is using a forbidden artifact to mind control people. He used it to control the Paladin Corps, and also used to to control Helga's mom and murder her entire family (which felt a bit weird, given that we were told witches were supposed to be very strong). Helga escaped the massacre with The Demon Sword, but refused to draw it when one of her sisters said everyone in the family died to protect this sword from the world. Meanwhile, the Executioner takes control of Helga, steals the sword, stabs her threw the chest, and unleashes The Demon Sword upon the world. Then, right at the end of the episode Ashaf tells Guideau all the cards are down, and it's time to use their ultimate weapon. Then, Guideau kisses Helga (her first kissu, but with a god damn psycho like Guideau) and the episode ends! I imagine will see the impressive climax of The Demon Sword arc next episode.

Figure 7 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess, Episode 9

Loli vampire makes a keike all by herself! All for Hime-sama!

I will given Episode 9 of 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess some credit, it was actually quite fun. While the first episodes, which focused mainly on Hime-sama and Torture Tortura were fairly boring, the other characters (such as the Hell Lord and his family), and the other torturers (notably the Loli vampire) are at the very least interesting. Episode 9 started with the Hell Lord and his daughter, Maomao-chan, making cookies with his wife. The Hell Lord got burned when he grabbed a falling hot pan, and the cookies were later used to torture Hime-sama when offered with tea. Afterwards, the loli vampire came back with a cake she made herself, and Ex made fun of how ugly it was. Hime-sama said it was clear the cake was made with great care, and the loli vampire broke down crying.

Figure 8 Chained Soldier, Episode 10

Golden Hour time stop into shooting the god dang Yuuki in the head.

Episode 10 of Chained Soldier was far less interesting than I would have expected from the end of last week's episode. There was a bit of backstory to Yuuki's sister and friends, where we learned they were experimented on by allies of The Demon Defense Force, broke free, and now plan to counter attack against the people who treated them as test-subject guinea pig lab rats. Meanwhile, the girls (I can only remember Tenka) came and saved him, and we saw a glimpse of the other snake girl, and they planned to make some sort of entrance next episode? To be honest, I'm worried about next episode... we have more characters introduced I'm going to lose the plot thread even more so than I have now, and right now it already seems a bit thin.

Figure 9 The Unwanted Undead Adventurer, Episode 10

Lorraine getting mad that she wasn't called young by Rentt (I want an older woman like Lorraine!).

Episode 10 of The Unwanted Undead Adventurer was a fairly straightforward episode where Rentt returned the flower he collected (along with several others) to the orphanage. He returned the corpse of the monster he killed at the previous episode. And he pissed off then subsequently comforted Lorraine. Near the end of the episode, he was given an official summons from the family of the man he met collected flowers in the swamp along with him. At the end of the episode, Rentt gets stuck in that family's labyrinth (likely as some sort of test) and his magic map doesn't even work.

Figure 10 7th Time Loop, Episode 9

Rise and Arnold meeting that prince from the snow nation whose name I forget.

Episode 9 of 7th Time Loop was full of political intrigues! First, Rishe-CUTE met the alchemist from a previous timeline—the one where she learned herbalism and medicines (and, as we learned, potentially poisons too, although she wasn't interesting in ever using them, explaining that she'd prefer to use plants to help people). She also made the medicine that, hopefully, helped the chronically-ill prince from the Snow nation (I forget what his name was). We also learned that the entire reason for the Prince's visit was to attempt to form a political alliance with Arnold, but he declined. Saying he'd rather conquer their much weaker nation instead. At the end of the episode, Rishe-CUTE reflects on how she can possibly avert the upcoming war.

Figure 11 The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil, Episode 9

Akutsu, Lily, and Lily's avatar all together in her room.

Episode 9 of The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil was, as we excepted, very cute! It started with Lily's "avatar" appearing in school, and spending a day there while Lily herself was sick. Lily's avatar apologized for attacking Akutsu earlier, and after school Akutsu, the avatar, and one of Lily's classmates dropped by her apartment. While there, Lily felt even weaker after having to entertain guests, and went to bed. There, she asked Akutsu to hold her hand while she was asleep, that way she won't have recurring nightmares. The episode ended with Lily and Akutsu going on a demon hunt, right as her older brother (I think?) showed up. Posters on /a/ said the older brother will come off as a jerk if there's no a season 2, so we'll see what happens next.

Figure 12 Pon no Michi - 10

All the Pons together at the Mahjong table after eating Christmas dinner that they made themselves (I wish I had friends to make food with!!!).

A strange episode of Pon no Michi this week... a Christmas episode? I suppose they're showing all the holidays in Onomichi, and to be far they did play Mahjong! This episode all the Pons made a Christmas dinner while playing Mahjong together. My lovely wife Riche didn't really play, but she was so pretty I don't really care. We got to see my lovely wife Riche in her nightgown in her giant mansion!! Arrggh why can't I get a lovely Riche in my life?!

Figure 13 The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic, Episode 10

Senpai showing off her cute custom-made armor (to be far it is very cute!).

Holy guacamole, what a massively dark episode of The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic. Like I've discussed before, this anime used to be a fun! But the last few episodes of this show have been so dark I actually feel a bit uncomfortable watching it. This episode had the start of the battle between humans and demons. Humans immediately began dying, and Satou and to heal them. Then, Satou and Rose went out on the battlefield to rescue soldiers as they lay dying. Meanwhile, the two heroes encountered the black knight who can reflect attacks, and both of them were gravely wounded while trying to fight him. Maybe next episode Satou can heal the knight to heal all the people he injured?? Surely that would make too much sense, so we'll see what happens next! I hope it's something happy, though.

Figure 14 Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!, Episode 9

Fuyuki blushing after Shiki told her he wanted her to stay with him.

Rena-senpai unfortunately was not really in Episode 9 of Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!. The first part of the episode had people making and exchanging treats for White Day, a Japanese holiday I've heard of but I'm still nevertheless not completely familiar with. Then, they went ice fishing which turn out well. They caught a lot of fish! But afterwards Shiki got sick, and had to stay in bed, while Fuyuki showed up to make him feel better.

Figure 15 Ishura, Episode 10

The World Word looking at the city no longer burning because of her words.

I'd be lying if I said I fully understand exactly what's happening in Ishura (there's too many characters, back stories, and various vaguely explained political motivations to really navigate the poor writing), but in Episode 10 we saw a continuation of the city battle. Magpie the Ikeman bandit killed Monster-musume, the sexy spider construct, after using a sword stolen from Mandrake the Manslayer, and stabbing it unto the hole made by Katana the Shounen self-insert headband man. In the second half of the episode, Kia the Cute Word World vanished all the fire in the city, and the evil professor agreed not to murder some random girl she was planning to murder two episodes ago, but forgot.

Figure 16 Villainess Level 99, Episode 9

Dorkness asking Alicia if she wants special training from her.

Dorkness's very boring show, Villainess Level 99, had a very boring episode. It started with Dorkness talking to the spy from the previous. I have no idea what they really said, and it didn't feel really important. Afterwards, Dorkness asked to be friends with Patrick (cringe). Then, Prince Edwin apologized to Dorkness, and Dorkness offered to help train Alicia, but Alicia ran away. Just a really boring episode overall. It felt like nothing happened.

Figure 17 Wonderful Pretty Cure!, Episode 5

Wonderful and Friendly Pretty Cures after saving the Garugaru.

In this week's episode of Wonderful Pretty Cure! they fought a penguin Garugaru and, in the process, received some new PreCure power wand that does... something? There was also a funny interaction where Iroha had to explain humans don't wear leashes, and they also discussed why young puppies don't usually like leashes (again, animal-themed PreCure). Overall, very little story progression and character development.

Figure 18 Sasaki and Peeps, Episode 10

All these dumb idiots talking all episode just to save Marc-sama the merchant.

Absolutely terrible episode of Sasaki and Peeps this week. It was just one long boring discussion of freeing Marc, which has easily been the longest arc in the entire show, and it contained all the absolute worse elements of the entire show. Slow talking. No cute girls. Dumb political intrigues written by a complete idiot hack author. I can't believe this is a light novel people actually buy and read. There's two parts of this show, and everything in the isekai is utter boring trash that is simple impossible to care about. And again, why didn't they just free Marc by force? It's like it's about the Starsage, but they forgot the Starsage even existed.

Figure 19 My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, Episode 10

The sister of the death god of darkness.

In keeping with what is effectively tradition at this point, Episode 10 of My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered was another ADHD inducing schizophrenic helter-skelter aggregation of more or less discordant narratives, characters, themes, and tones. This "plot line salad" makes it very difficult to summarize what happened in any meaningful way, because nothing that ever happens seems meaningful. But the Dark God's sister learned he was dead and stole someone's hands to remake him? Sion The Sage is causing another summoning ritual? The girl (who is now part dragon) who was killed in the first episode along with Takatou and Dannoura butchered some of the selfish classmates who tried to kill them all in Episode 1. Alpha Omega's second door "opened", whatever that means. The king is dead. Oh, and /a/ told me some major backstory was skipped, but it mean it's not like it would have mattered regardless.

Figure 20 Bang Brave Bang Bravern, Episode 9

Lulu crying after telling Isami to get up and be brave.

It's difficult to argue what the worst show of the season is. In some cases, it's a show that's executed so poorly it's never good. In some cases it's a show where you can't follow the writing. And in other cases it's Dungeon Meshi. In the case of Bang Brave Bang Bravern, it's a show that contains so many things I don't like it's physically painful to watch (which of course, begs the question "Why are you still watching it", to which of course the answer is "Just to suffer."). Anyways, in Episode 9 we learned that Smith did indeed die and is, in fact, Bravern, and after a bunch of weird transformation sequences and lasers and Lulu not being as cute as one would have wanted they finished the fight they started last episode. And I'm just left here thinking "God damn, retards actually think this trash is good?" I can only assume people are watching this show ironically.

Figure 21 Metallic Rouge, Episode 9

Rouge talking to the aliens about literally what is going on in this show.

In keeping with tradition, Episode 9 of Metallic Rouge was yet another string of barely legible poorly written nonsense. And, like always, it's a bit sad watching this episode not because the show itself is sad (the show itself is not much of anything), but instead we, the viewer, are left feeling upset because the show, the characters, the plot, is never really going anywhere. The characters say words, but the words never seem to many anything. The story seems to progress, but the story never seems to mean anything. Anyways, we have a fight between Rouge and her Sister was immediately ended. We learned that Naomi is herself the first Nean designed to interface between the visitors and the humans. The visitors want to move to Venus because they lost their home planet, and Neans are designed to be the slave labor to achieve that. But the Usurpers, a different kind of alien, also wants to steal Venus for largely unexplained reasons, and somehow Rouge and Naomi are going to Venus to stop that. Or something.

Figure 22 The Labyrinth Raids of the Ultimate Tank, Episode 10

Rud talking to Amon about Greed, a Demon King who is experimenting on Homunculi.

Right at the end of the week, we had Episode 10 of The Labyrinth Raids of the Ultimate Tank. The first part of the episode had Rud rescue a group of illegal Homunculi, one of which showed up in town and begged for help. Afterwards, Rud learned that Greed, a demon king from another area, made all these Homunculi just to experiment on them for fun. At the end of the episode, Amon informs him that even at fulls strength he may not be able to defeat Greed. While reflecting on this, Rud here's a wicked voice speak to him, and the credits roll.

Other Remarks

My custom order wax seal came in the mail today. I still haven't even begun the process of ordering the embosser, but it's not like I'm in much a rush anyways (as I don't have any friends to write letters to regardless). I'm a bit frustrated that my schedule precludes me from doing any watercolor practice during the week. At this point, it's relegated entirely to a weekend activity as opposed to a daily activity, which is going to significantly slow my progress.

There's a rather bizarre genre of YouTube videos I ran into recently thanks to being blessed by the YouTube algorithm, and that's the "4K video of people walking through streets in Japan" trend. I don't think the videos are too exciting, but it is nice to see how different the Japanese landscape is to ours. I'd say it'd be interesting to live there, but that's really only because it's different, not because it's better (the massive house I have now is only possible because I live in America anyways). Still, at least in watching them it makes me see I made a massive mistake buying that GoPro a few years ago. The cameras these people are using cost less than the GoPro, and have significantly less field distortion with overall better image quality. The DJI Pocket 2 looks pretty cool, although if I never used the GoPro I probably won't ever use that, too.

After months of waiting and a lengthy delay, AmiAmi finally shipped my combination Rei and Asuka figures on Tuesday, and the arrived today on Thursday. I'm still always impressed at DHL's breakneck shipping speed. Still, I had to pay an eye-watering $85 for DHL's shipping, but 2-day shipping from Japan to in my hands seems pretty reasonable to me. As for the figure, I'm actually not that crazy about it. I don't think it's particularly remarkable, plus I had giving Anno any of my money, but for how much I've discussed Evangelion with people over the years I figure I need to have at least one figure and/or memorabilia from it.

Figure 1 Evangelion Rei Ayanami & Asuka Langley Shikinami Whisper of Flower Ver. 1/7

I don't think the Lily's singlehandedly made me want this. But they do add to it. It's a shame the series ended so poorly with the rebuilds. Leica M11 / Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH — ISO 200 f/2.4 1/40s.

It's a cool figure, notwithstanding the terrible ending of the rebuilds. And my interest in Rei being cute has most certainly wained. Nevertheless, there was a time where this anime was a significant part of my life and thoughts so this figure will forever be a estimate to that time. It's currently set on a bookshelf behind me, where it will remain for decades, unless something unforeseeable changes my life circumstances.

Other Remarks

My sister graduation from FBI Academy today! I'm excited for her! I also watched several really cool videos today while the SAT was taking place. The Tokyo Senkawa Alley Walk was very chill—I may have to make videos like that myself! And the f0.7 – Ultrafast Lenses – Legends, budget options, modding, and testing – Epic Episode #13 really made me appreciate the Noctilux even more than before!

Well. We've done it. Late last week I got a restock notfication from B&H Photo that the Noctilux was back in stock and immediately, much like the insationable pull of The Demon Sword, knew I had to have. Or, more accurately, I wanted it for months once I learned of it, but it wasn't in stock and I was hesitant to buy it from random sellers on eBay that may have. So I put in a restock notfication request with B&H Photo and, much to my surprise, last week I was informed they had one in stock, ready to ship. So, after some turning it over in my mind for some time, I built up the courage Tuesday March 6th in the morning, liquidated a portion of my hitherto record stock gains, and bought it.

My rationale for wanting the Noctilux was initially quite simple: It was very expensive and it looked cool, so naturally I'm drawn to that. Later, once I actually learned what it did, I wanted it even more. As the name implies, it excels in low light situations, and many of my earlier photographs (notably those during the morning twilight) are low light situtations. So naturally a lens optimized for that seems up my ally (although, to be fair the astronomical cost of $12,000 hardly justifies however good its low-light performance will be). Oh, and it's big and heavy, but naturally I run around with a tripod in my hands anyways, during the mornings at least. So we'll have to find a way to get over it. Or, perhaps we won't, and I will agree with what the reviewers said about it.

Figure 1 Leica Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH. Lens

The Leica Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH lens. What a beast! Just look at this thing.
FujiFilm X100F — ISO200 f/8.0 9.0s.

After work I sped down to the local FedEx office location to pick it up. On other weekdays this wouldn't have been too inconvient, but because I paid extra for one-day shipping (which was a bit silly) it arrived on a Wednesday. This meant I had to watch Gushing Over Magical Girls at work instead of at school, which is risky given that it's an ecchi yuri ryona anime!

Anyways, after school I quickly picked it up, unboxed it, and these are some of the first photos I took with the Noctilux DREAM lens.

Figure 2 Swarovski Rapunzel on top of some calligraphy papers

There is such a long story behind the Swarovski Disney princesses, but the cliffnotes version is that I bought them with the COVID stimulous money we got during the pandemic. Some would say it was a waste of money, but I'm really glad to have them as sort of a pandemic momento.
Leica M11 / Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH — ISO 200 f/0.95 1/125s.

Let me open by saying my preliminary opinion on this lens is "damn, this was absolutely worth it—this is exactly what I was looking for in a lens". I wanted a lens that could shoot in low ISO indoors, and this lens absolutely can. When I saw the metered shuttered speeds at ISO 200 (especially compared to my FujiFilm X100F) I was floored! What is a 3 second exposure on the X100F is a 1/125s shutter with the Noctilux. At f/0.95 the plane of focus it's so narrow it's unreal. It's not too hard to focus, I think, because I can use the live view on the M11 screen (this is a new feature other cameras in the M series haven't had).

Figure 3 Close-up of my Statue of Lilith

It's a bit sad that Diablo IV sucks, but the statue and shrine to Lilith is still nevertheless cool!
Leica M11 / Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH — ISO 1600 f/1.2 1/125s.

From what I've read in the manual, the plane of focus at f/0.95 is on the order of +/- 10cm from the center of focus. Or, to put it another way, the plane of focus is 20cm wide. That's very narrow, and it leads to immediate blur before and after the plane, which even in small things (like the statue of Lilth) is immediate and obvious (notice how her wings and hands are blurred, and it's only her face is in focus).

Figure 4 Leica Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH. Lens

My World Dai Star plushies. God damn this show was so good. A yuri-themed stage musical. I greatly regret Morganna's House not existing when this was airing, as I would have loved to document it episode-by-episode. It was easily anime of the season.
Leica M11 / Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH — ISO 800 f/0.95 1/180s.

But the winner for me is the low light performance. When I was walking around the house with just the cieling lights on (at night, windows closed) I could easily get shutter speeds below 1/60s with ISO's below 1600 (honestly, usually they were below 800). I've just never had than in any camera in any lens. I had a really sour view of indoor photography after my first camera, the FujiFilm X100F did so terrible what seemed to be to be ordinary indoor shots. Ever since then, I've wanted faster and faster cameras and lens to get usable shots indoors without using flash.

Figure 5 Leica Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH. Lens

My lovely bird-wife Melia Antique and my Lily cup from Noritake. At this point this figure has sort of become a benchmark for testing new camera equipment on.
Leica M11 / Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH — ISO 800 f/1.4 1/80s.

I'll get out and take more photos soon (Spring break isn't too far off, it's at the end of April, and we have a total Solar Eclipse coming, too), so let's have some fun with this lens!

Other Remarks

Within a Budding Grove is going great. I'm more than halfway through it, and I'm almost in awe every night when I read it. Last night the narrator did an amazing job of describing the feeling where, when you see an attractive person very briefly (such as passing them on the street), you immediately imagine spending the rest of your life with them. He's actually done it several times in the novel, but last night while in Mme de Villeparisis carriage he really put pen to paper and made the emotion concrete.

I found some cool songs recently. I'm really enjoying This Silence is Mine that I encountered randomly on YouTube. The raspy singing, particularly in the end, reminds me a lot of Bjork. Oh, and my sister graduates from FBI Academy tomorrow. How cool is that!? I wrote her a comedic letter as a gift, I hope she finds it funny. I had to put some of my calligraphy skills to use!

I knew once school started this semester I'd have less time to complete things. And I was right. The anime and daily calligraphy practice alone consumes all of my free time (keep in mind, I have to work all day, and even then I'm watching anime during free time to keep pace with it as it all airs). I haven't been able to practice watercolor, much less photography, as much as I'd want. Alas, we always have breaks and free time eventually, so for now I'll stay the course. Despite such a busy schedule, I'm still having a blast these days! Anyways, let's discuss this week's anime.

Figure 1 Synduality Noir, Episode 20

Kanata, Noir, and Mystere listening to The Master's final message.

Episode 20 of Synduality Noir was a long-expected "this was the past" episode, but unlike other shows with similar formats Noir did a good job in justifying a narrative framework, at least for the first part of the episode, as to why the past is being explained. The first half was Noir and Mystere's previous master explaining why there's two of them. Originally, there was only Mystere, but the Master broke free and began to wonder the world with Mystere (this explains why her goals shown in previous episodes were so basic, like "see a rainbow!" I love how it all came together!). Eventually, almost by mistake, at Gaza, The Master and Mystere detected traces of Histoire in space, and Mystere attempted to hack in. But almost as some sort of defense mechanism Noir came down and "infected" Mystere, leading to another Magus living inside her. Shortly thereafter, The Master was ambushed by people hunting Type0 Magi with an intact black box (the last of which was Mystere). The Master was killed, and laid Mystere to rest in "safe mode" (Noir mode), before recording a final message for her. The first half of the episode ends with Noir asking where Ciel is.

The second half, a bit more confusing than the first, showed the Tokio, Weisheit, and Macht back story. Effectively, they were the most competent pilots who were given as a reward the strongest Magi. Weisheit wanted to overthrow all the adults and reach Histoire on his own, but Tokio didn't agree. Tokio escaped the facility, and Weisheit murdered everyone who would oppose him. I'm not sure I completely understood all the points, but I have a good enough idea to keep going. The ending was pretty closed, so I'm not sure what will happen next week!

Figure 2 The Witch and the Beast, Episode 7

Guidaeu trying to cave the cutie witch from the Paladin executioner core.

Back after a one week delay, Episode 7 of the The Witch and the Beast was the first episode that I would call proper fun so far. It was nice to see Guideau not be a god damn complete psychopath. Ashaf just chilling was also fun. And, most importantly, the witch they're dealing with comes off as very likable. In fact, she's the first "villain" I think I like. I put "villain" in quotes because it's clear from Episode 7 she was framed. She wields the Demon Blade, but refuses to draw it due to the ruin it may cause. She's framed by a secret sect of the Paladin core for several murders (she just wants a boyfriend, but all the boys she meets dies, and she's blamed for their death!), and the secret sect of the Paladin core tries to still the sword. Guideau steals the sword right at the end of the episode, and the Witch begs to be saved (I know she'll get saved).

Figure 3 Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Episode 25

Frieren and Serie talking about the future of magic rests with humans.

At this point we're sufficiently near the end of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End to see how it ends (and we can only hope, nay, assume there will be a season 2 announcement at the end of Episode 26 next week). Episode 25 explained Fern's strategy to beat Mimic Frieren. Frieren stops detecting mana the moment she attacks, so Real Frieren attacked the Mimic while Fern attacked with Zaltrak. Frieren explained that Zaltrak is new the elves, and the Mimic won't be able to respond effectively to it. Near the end of the episode, we saw a large flashback where Frieren read Flamme's will, and explained that the next 1000 years will be the ages where humans advance magic. Serie explain to Frieren that she will either die at the hands of the Demon King, or at the hands of a human mage, as human's short lives mean they are perpetually near death, thus have to learn much faster than elves.

Figure 4 The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic, Episode 9

Aul's dying words to Rose to "stay the person we admire".

Episode 9 of The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic was so dark—I can't even believe what I just watched. This episode wrapped up Rose's back story arc where she was unable to protect her party and lost her right eye fighting against a powerful group of demons. The episode showed Aul sacrificing herself to save Rose. Worse yet, it showed Rose faltering and failing to kill the demon who was responsible for her party's death because she saw Aul in another demon that appeared. Afterwards, we saw the "twilight" of Rose where she lost the will to fight and carry on, only to recover and and realize her life goal was to create the Rescue Team, which is where we are now. The episode ends with Rose telling Satou that the war is about to begin (she said this before, mind you, but that was before the two episode long flashback sequence we just watched where we learned why Rose is the way she is).

Figure 5 Chained Soldier, Episode 9

Yuuki's older sister (and friends) enraged that Yuuki would request an alliance with the demon defense force.

In a surprise (at least for me, as an anime-only) episode of Chained Soldier we met Yuuki's sister who, as previous episodes hinted at, is indeed still alive. Now she as half-demon half-human... thing, and so too are all her friends. Unfortunately, they're still enemies of the Demon Defense Force (for reasons hitherto unexplained). Right at the end of the episode, we see the joint Demon Defense Force leaving their base to rescue Yuuki?

Figure 6 Gushing Over Magical Girls, Episode 9

Utena and Kiwi cheering on Loco Musica after her concert.

Episode 9 of Gushing Over Magical Girls was a really fun episode—easily the most fun one we've had in a while. Unlike Episode 8, it ended on a happy note, which only made the whole show feel better. The entire episode was, for the most part, a fight between members of Enormita (notably between Utena, Kiwi, Alice vs. Loco Musica and Leberblume). We saw Loco Musica playing a (bad) concert to a captive audience controlled by Leberblume. Magia Baiser, Kiwi, and Alice fought them, eventually capturing Leberblume in Alice's doll house, and forced Loco Musica to strip naked and sing on stage. Her singing actually got a bit better when she sang naked (despite the fact that she was completely embarrassed), and at the end Baiser, Kiwi, and Alice all cheered for her! Then, Loco Musica said they'd join Utena and company!

Figure 7 The Unwanted Undead Adventurer, Episode 9

Rentt meeting an unknown elf after entering the field of Dragonflowers.

In Episode 9 of The Unwanted Undead Adventurer is still doing various tasks outside the labyrinth (keeping in mind that if he goes there too often it was deemed suspicious). He took a quest from the guild that rewarded one bronze coin, a quest to get a Dragonflower from a nearby swamp. This pay was very low, but it was for a nearby orphanage which didn't have a lot to pay anyways, and because he himself was undead the swamp's poison wasn't as dangerous as it would be for human adventurers, so he took that job. While at the orphanage reviewing the details of the job, he was bitten by a mouse that, after ingesting his blood, become has familiar (ah, now that explains the mouse in the ED we've been seeing this entire time), who Lorraine named Edel.

Figure 8 Tales of Wedding Rings, Episode 9

Satou and Hime on a deito, while the other three wives follow along and watch.

Despite being a ecchi harem romance comedy, Tales of Wedding Rings still somehow (miraculously) puts out fun episodes. In Episode 9, Satou and Hime went on a deito while they walked around town (they're still in the Kingdom of Water). At the end of the deito, Satou kissed Hime, which took me totally by surprise. Afterwards, the left The Kingdom of Water for the final kingdom, The Kingdom of Earth, where not much is known about the Earth princess (or if she's even still alive). Saphir still the cutest wife, however. And the old man is actually really funny. His voice actor is killing.

Figure 9 Solo Leveling, Episode 8

Jinwoo's party from Episode 1, partially reunited, entering an obvious trap dungeon.

Solo Leveling came back from its week-long delay with a pretty strong build up episode for next week. As I was watching it, I actually felt frustrated because I could tell by the pacing we were not going to see anything good until next week. Put simply, Jinwoo and his surviving party members from episode were told to back to a dungeon together, along with three convicts, in what is very clearly a trap (in fact, we saw a brief cut of someone telling the three convicts to kill everyone in the party shortly before everyone arrived). At least we know, regardless of precisely what happens next, Jinwoo will of course murder everyone because that's how the show work. I suppose you could praise the writing a bit because I want to know what happens next, but unlike Returner's Magic last season I don't feel happy at the end of the episode, while looking forward to next week. Instead, I feel pissed at the end of each episode thinking, "Is that really all there is"?

Figure 10 The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil, Episode 8

Lily-CUTE listening to Akutu's conversation.

We had a mild filler episode this week in The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil where, after Akutsu and Lily were see "doing morning after stuff" after they left Lily's apartment, they had to devise a plan to convince the class they were not, in fact, dating. Their plan was a success, and then Akutsu was "tricked" into going on a fake deito with another classmate, while Lily followed them. At the end of their fake deito, Lily overheard Akutsu saying he'd never really date Lily because "it would never work out". His thought process was simple: she's an angel and he's a demon. Right a the end of the episode, we see some weird transformation sequence where Lily gets taller, longer hair, and a different eye color, and Akutsu meets her at school the next day. Or, I don't know if it was Lily, but more so an avatar of her? We shall see next episode.

Figure 11 Villainess Level 99, Episode 8

Dorkness and the Dragon she tells you not to worry about (that dragon's face is pretty funny).

For the first time in a while we had a fun episode with Dorkess in Villainess Level 99. Over the summer? break Dorkness was tasked with saving a classmate's town from some dragons. She did, and then stole a dragon egg and incubated it with Dark magic over the entire summer, ultimately hatching a black dragon in the process. She brought the dragon back to school and began to raise it (obviously all her classmates were terrified of it). The dragon grew really fast, and Dorkness tried to fly it, but failed. Afterwards, she decides to try to buy a saddle for it. While in town, a spy for a foreign nation approaches her and asks to speak with in private.

Figure 12 7th Time Loop, Episode 8

Rishe discussing the details of the wedding ring she'd like to commission.

In Episode 8 of 7th Time Loop, my lovely cute wife Rishe did indeed join the palace guards in their training program. She then went out on a deito with Arnold, where Arnold told her to pick out a wedding ring. She picked one that matched Arnold's eyes, but felt embarrassed when she said that out loud. Afterwards, a prince from a nearby kingdom showed up prior to her wedding in order to meet Arnold and Rishe. Arnold seemed to detest this prince, but Rishe seemed to have a somewhat positive opinion of him (and even offered to attempt to treat him because he's chronically ill). We'll see where we go next episode!

Figure 13 Pon no Michi, Episode 9

Izumi overcoming her free of Oni's at Onomichi's weird festival.

Episode 9 was the first episode of Pon no Michi in a very long time where they, to everyone's surprise, actually played Mahjong. To that end, it was perhaps the most boring episode in a while, because I prefer watching these gorgeous girls do other things (like walk around Onomichi)! Regardless, we learned about how Izumi was afraid of Oni's due to a tramatic experience as a child where, at an Onomichi festival, she was chased by one (as described, I too would find it pretty traumatic and mildly stupid as well, as the tradition requires small children to be chased and hit with a stick). They then played Mahjong with Izumi with Oni face masks, in order to get her over her fear. Izumi then cheated in the game in order to get back and them for cheating earlier, and in the end Izumi got over her fear. (It's still a dumb festival, though, in my eyes it didn't make me want to travel to Onomichi.) The next episode appears to be, for some reason, a Christmas episode? In March? Yeah I know it doesn't make sense to me either.

Figure 14 Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!, Episode 8

Shiki and Rena-senpai at the end of their deito.

Episode 8 of Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! had Shiki going on a deito with Rena-senpai (the only cute Hokkaido Gal so far) in traditional Japanese clothing (this is what Japanese men think will happen to them). During the deito, Fuyuki and Sayuri both followed them around. Afterwards, the all met up and, along with Fuyuki's mom, went on a group deito to a restaurant where they ate various meats they cooked themselves. It was okay. I guess. Rena-senpai is definitely the cutest, but I feel like we're not going to see too much of her after this episode. Equally well, I know because this is a Japanese anime we will never get any romantic story progress.

Figure 15 Metallic Rouge, Episode 8

Rouge's younger sister... ready to fight, I think?

A poster on /a/ claimed that Metallic Rouge has, and I'm paraphrasing, all the "right" elements but it just doesn't come together. But I believe this claim is being far too generous. All the pieces are not there. And the show comes off as a string of incomprehensible nonsense. This episode Rouge met her adopted brother, learned briefly about her past, how the Asimov code enslaved Neans, and how the immortal nine have the pieces to counter the Asimov code. I know reading this it may make sense, but I can assure you it makes no sense at all. Anyways, at the end Rouge and some other guy from a previous episode joined to fight, the detective's Neans was shot by mistake, but everyone forgot, and Rouge's younger sister appeared because the plot is made up, and the characters don't matter.

Figure 16 My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, Episode 9

I don't even know what's going on in this show anymore.

My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpower (along with Sasaki and Pii-Chan, for that matter) is, what an anonymous poster on /a/ has described, "ADHD anime". I considered calling them AI-generated anime, but I feel like ADHD anime more accurately captures the schizophrenic nature of this show. It can't even begin to explain the plot of Episode 8, because much like the previous it jumps around so much, there's so many characters introduced and immediately dismissed with prejudice, that it's hard follow what's going on. In Episode 9, we met a ton of the characters from the first episode (the ones who abandoned Yogiri, Dannoura, and a few others). They began to go through the... underworld dungeon? I think? And they're getting close to the king of the undead? Or something? I have no idea, man.

Figure 17 Wonderful Pretty Cure!, Episode 4

Cure Wonderful and Cure Friendly petting a Garugaru to death. Who am I kidding no one dies in this anime. They pet it until it goes back to Niko Garden.

In Episode 4 of Wonderful Pretty Cure! we were introduced to the cat girl whose name completely escapes me (but she is the dork loser of the season). Her Mom runs the Pretty Holic store in Animal Town, where you can buy all of Pretty Cure's finest Chinese-made makeup. One thing I found funny was how Iroha consistently ignored the Sheep's expository dialogue. The moment the sheep-bro attempted to explain anything, Iroha would just say "I don't have time for this, bye!" which felt pretty good. The fight scene was yet another "we're just going to hug the Garugaru to 'death' and send them back to Niko Garden". Oh well, I suppose it may yet to win me over.

Figure 18 Bang Brave Bang Bravern, Episode 8

Smith and Lulu announcing the "Brave Knights" task force.

Episode 8 of Bang Brave Bang Bravern was, in a effect, just a long fight scene with very little information given. Isami and Smith fought several Death-bots, and Lulu-cute was the copilot for Smith. Smith ends up sacrificing himself at the end to kill one of the bots... but probably not he's definitely still alive. This is just not a good show. I have no idea why it's so popular in Japan. Ah, who am I kidding I know why. It's because Japan has shit taste. Truly a nation of children.

Figure 19 Sasaki and Peeps, Episode 9

Lady Elsa happy to learn that some random merchant is okay.

Absolutely terrible episode of Sasaki and Peeps today. Much like My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, this schizophrenic ADHD anime has taken the shotgun approach to writing, whereby it introduced many characters and current storylines and, much like shot, are all small and lack substance. This episode, we continued a bizarre contrived narrative arc where some guy, the merchant Sasaki dealt with in earlier episodes, so for reasons hitherto unexplained and henceforward after the conclusion of this arc irrelevant, detained by someone we've just met reasons barely justified and now Sasaki is trying to save him by doing something I don't understand. Why it's so hard to rescue this random merchant I don't know, but I'm sure the author of the LN thought themselves clever when the created such a complex story.

Figure 20 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess, Episode 8

Hime-sama being friends with the loli-vampire after a day at the amusement park.

In the first part of the episode two of the torturers got promoted by using the Demon King's daughter as a "torture" prop. In the second half we got introduced to a loli vampire who took Hime-sama to a park to "make her scream". But the loli vampire was, herself, actually afraid of roller coasters, so Hime-sama had to comfort her over the duration of the ride. Another boring episode, perhaps better watched at 1.5x speed.

Figure 21 Ishura, Episode 9

Regnejee spends the entire episode talking just to die because he couldn't stop talking.

Quite an action packed episode of Ishura, and also an absolutely ridiculous amount of talking during each any every fight scene. Sojiro (Katana self-insert shounen battle hero) met with Spider woman, but not much happened besides a bunch of talking. Regnejee fought Atlus the Star runner, and spent the entire fight talking about how smart he was instead of actually fighting. It was quite a strange fight because both characters are completely unlikable. Atlus is supposed to be a smart person, but he's written by a dumb as bricks author. And Regnejee comes off as an idiot too who spent the entire fight talking about how clever he is for beating Atlus, only to lose because he just kept talking. And boy, despite all the talking, do these idiots have absolutely nothing of value to say. None of the dialogue was memorable, of even important.

Figure 22 The Labyrinth Raids of the Ultimate Tank, Episode 9

Amon Sloth, Demon King and the floor boss of Keild Labyrinth.

At this point, while we may be late in the season, I want to make it a tradition to put The Labyrinth Raids of the Ultimate Tank right at the end. Not because it's the worst (it definitely is not), but because it's the last show I watch on Saturday before I finalize the anime week-in review and post it on Morganna's House, so I figure we'll end it in the post exactly where we end it for the week.

Episode 9 was a long, poorly animated, but still nevertheless fun scene with the loli-vampire Amon Sloth, the floor boss of the Keild Labyrinth they started to clear last episode. After fighting her, she transformed into a large Fenrir and, in the end, as we all expected, lost to Rud and his party. And, as we expected since we saw she was a cute loli, joined Rud's party. Afterwards, they were able to ally with the other clans (recall from several episodes ago that was the entire point of clearing this labyrinth), and went back to their home town. All I can say is Amon a cute. A CUTE.

Other Remarks

I'm behind on my watercolor because I'm so busy. I paid my taxes for 2023 (it was a $4000 bill), which wasn't too fun. I paid for the Rei and Asuka figure on AmiAmi, but it still hasn't shipped. I paid for a custom wax seal I plan to use for calligraphy. This still hasn't shipped, either. I'll keep you posted.