August 27, 2022
I feel misled...
Eight episodes into Harem in the labyrinth of another world and there's still only one girl.
But hey, it's taken me this long to get to episode 17 of Jahy, and finally something interesting happened.
But hey, it's taken me this long to get to episode 17 of Jahy, and finally something interesting happened.
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August 15, 2022
Engage Kiss
This surprised me by being better than it deserves to be.
The hero, Shu Ogata, lives on Bayron City, a floating city over the largest underwater Orgonium mine in the world. Orgonium (who remembers "Orgone Energy"?) is a powerful energy source that has made Bayron City insanely wealthy. Yet somehow Shu is broke all the time.
Bayron City is also beset by Demons, something the local government is trying to keep secret. Classed A through D for their power levels, most of them Contract with and possess a human and, well, that generally doesn't work out too well for the human but they keep doing it anyway. Because of some international anti-weapons treaty, the cops are underpowered for dealing with the menace, so the mayor sends out contracts to the various PMCs, or Private Military Contractors to take out the demons when they appear (another part of why it generally doesn't work out too well for the human involved). One of the biggest is AAA. Shu used to work for AAA, and was dating Ayano, the daughter of the president of the company and a captain among the troops. But three years earlier he left the company and started his own PMC. And even though it's just Shu and Kisara, they are extremely successful and piss off all the other PMCs because they regularly underbid them, and they reluctantly admit he gets the job done. Yet somehow Shu is broke all the time.
Now Kisara appears to be a school-age girl with pink hair, but she's actually the only Class-A demon out there. And Shu made a different kind of contract with her where instead of trading his soul for one desire, he parcels off chunks of his memory (Typically a month at a time) and gives it to Kisara to power her up in the form of a kiss.
Ayano still carries a torch for Shu, but given her Tsundere nature, she must have traded her wooden rake to another villager for it. She's been bailing Shu out with money and information all the time (yet somehow Shu is broke all the time.) And at first she doesn't understand why Shu infuriatingly doesn't seem to remember how much they meant to each other. And all he can do is make empty apologies for the things he doesn't remember he did. But by the midpoint, she learns exactly what the contract with Kisara means, and she doesn't like it one bit.
Bit of background. When he was a child, Shu's dad was participating in a safety inspection of the mine, that was more of a PR outing. He and many dignitaries brought their families, including Shu and his little sister. Then there was a disaster, everyone but Shu died, and Bayron City covered up that it was Demons, and scapegoated Shu's dad. So one of his motivations is to restore the family name. Another is to get revenge on the demon who did it, and the third is that he believes his sister is somehow still alive and wants to save her.
It's kind of interesting because of the way the story and background slowly peel like the layers of an onion. It's a little annoying with the juvenility of Kisara and Ayano dueling over Shu's affection. Especially when it turns out that Shu was also fucking the nun-like demon hunter who shows up to try to kill Kisara about halfway through. (And how he gets out of that mess is just... you have to see it.) Apparently he was seducing his way through the demon-hunting ranks just to get to the point of accomplishing his goals, and that included capturing and contracting with Kisara.
It also reminds me a bit of takt op.Destiny in how the girl's power comes at a cost to the guy.
It also reminds me a bit of takt op.Destiny in how the girl's power comes at a cost to the guy.
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August 06, 2022
Isekai Meikyuu de Harem o - Harem in the labyrinth of another world
In the market for a trash hentai isekai? We've got right what you're looking for here.
Hero McProtagonist blows right through the warning screen on this new VR game that says he won't be able to log out, and wakes up in his track suit in a barn. (Sheesh, even Al Sharpton eventually gave up his track suits). He's barefoot though, and he sees a pair of sandals in the corner of the barn, puts them on, and is rewarded with the Thief job class. (The game has multiple job classes that you can equip up to 5 of, in a ranked order). Fortunately he spent a lot of his character creation points on a hugely overpowered sword, and a few other skills he wasn't sure what they were for. Apparently there's no tutorial stage.
Bandits attack the village, and while the villagers try to fend them off, he debates entering the fray, but after identifying the leader, he jumps in and beheads him with his overpowered sword and proceeds to one-shot most of the other bandits, even as they're running away. The village elder puts him up for the night, and reveals a storehouse full of the loot from the bandits, although our hero notes that the special bandana the leader was wearing was replaced with a plain one. The Elder brings forth the culprit, and our hero finds out that regular justice is the guy is to be sold into slavery. He'll get half the proceeds as the victim, and the culprit's family gets the other half as compensation for their loss of a strong back.
Yikes!
The elder also shows him how they summon someone's character card from their left hand with a chant, but if you can't do that, well, chopping off the left hand and presenting that to the knight's guild will let them retrieve it and determine if there was a bounty on it.
Double yikes!
The elder gives him a lift to town with a wagon load of booty, which they sell off, and their thief, whom they also sell off. He warns him off the dangerous parts of town, and the Brothels. Although for a virgin gamer like him, the prospect sounds very enticing. After the Elder departs, McProtagonist gets invited back inside by the slave trader, who sees him as a pigeon ready to be plucked, er, as a potential customer. Figuring him for an adventurer, he tells him about two ways to make money. Either the labyrinth that recently sprung up outside of town, or hunting bounties. Bounties being possibly more profitable, but more dangerous, he suggests the labyrinth. Adventurers, he tells him, often buy slaves to fill out their party. Then the trap is baited by the pretty wolfkin slavegirl in a maid outfit named Roxanne who serves them tea. Then he springs it by pointing out that slaves can't betray their masters (As in they die with you unless you have a will that frees them), that since she's a wolfkin he can fuck her without her getting pregnant or any diseases, and that she's already consented to getting freaky with her master. This apparently pushes all of his buttons. She can be had for a mere 422,800 "Nars". Mind you, they only got 30,000 for the village thief - good thing nobody asked him where he got the sandals... That price also includes the maid outfit.... And he gives him 5 days to raise the money.
(Strangely, the subtitles asterisk out the translation of "Onna Dorei" (Female slave) even in the supposedly uncut version I found.)
So he goes into the labyrinth, kills a bunch of 1st level tree monsters, retrieves the stick remains they drop, and turns them in for cash, and quickly figures out he'll never make the price at that rate. He does learn a bit about some of his skills and the costs of the game system. So he decides to go into the slums and kill some bandits. But first, he does some scouting.
One advantage McProtagonist has is that he is fully into "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" and has absolutely no moral compunctions brought with him from Japan. After all, he wants to buy himself a big-titty slave girl to bed and adventure with, so getting into the bandit gang's house and killing a bunch of them asleep in their beds and lopping off their hands is no big deal.
Needless to say, he makes enough cash, buys the girl, and is quite a bit nicer to her than she expects. He even asks her consent when he shifts from foreplay to the main event. And is only momentarily bothered when he wonders if that really counts when she can't refuse him as a slave.
She is useful in the dungeon. She's great at sniffing out monsters.
And that's about how far we get in 5 episodes. Which doesn't leave a lot of time to fill out the rest of the harem.
I have questions though....
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July 24, 2022
Call of the Night - Yofukashi no Uta - Ep. 1
Although they don't say it out loud, Ko Yamori (14) must be an Aspie. He doesn't get people's emotions, and barely has any of his own. This comes to a head when a pretty (and busty for 14!) girl at school confesses to him, and he rejects her because he feels nothing. The other girls gang up on him and give him shit for rejecting her. He finds solace by sneaking out of his apartment late at night and enjoying the dark world with no people in it. He hints at wishing it could always be that way and quitting school. Severe insomnia doesn't hurt either.
He's not as alone as he thinks. Just as he works up the nerve to buy a beer from a vending machine because he read about alcohol helping one get to sleep, SHE appears. She promises to help him sleep, but as she leads him to her place, she expounds upon the philosophy of the world at night, the freedom from inhibitions. When she finally gets him to her apartment, it is completely barren but for a Futon - with two pillows.
He tries to bolt, but she assures him nothing dirty is going to happen. He decides to pretend to sleep so he can slip out later. He fakes it well enough that she does what anyone who has read a synopsis, or who has even an ounce of clue could tell (what with all the shots of her fangs) - she bites his neck and sucks his blood. And apparently his blood is particularly delicious. However the moment she stops to marvel at it, he gets up and gives her the calmest WTF ever. After a round of lame excuses, he outright asks her if she's a Vampire, and she admits it. Then he starts quizzing her about it, has she turned him? No, it's just eating to her, besides, it would suck to have new family members every time she ate. He agrees, that would suck. Eventually she explains that for her to make him a vampire, he would have to be in love with her when she feeds. This is a twist on Vampire myth I've never heard of. I guess that leaves him SOL since he is so passionless.
But he DOES find a passion, he wants to be a vampire, so he has to figure out how to fall in love with this strange girl, Nazuna Nanakusa. She just wants more of his delicious blood.
Artistically, I'm of two minds. It's well animated, and the settings are fantastic. But the character designs leave me pretty flat. It starts with the eyes, which are often very large but with tiny pupils, placed close together, giving them a cross-eyed look. Although Nazuna has larger purple irises, with circles on them. I thought I had seen that before, and so I checked and I was right, the same style was in Dagashi Kashi. And it turns out they have the same creator, "Kotoyama". Nazuna also has the oddest bosom found in Anime. It also bugs me that her outfit alternates between being thigh-high stockings or maybe thigh boots with wedge heels.
And yet, it's different enough, that I find the character interesting. They're both fish out of water interacting, but they're both from very different bodies of water.
Obviously it won't continue to just be the two of them, based on the opening credits, so we shall see. This is the only new show I've started this season, although I'm also getting Overlord for the day I eventually get to watch it, or I lose everything on my video drive.... (There are a few other things I've tagged on the anime chart, but I haven't pursued them yet. There is SO much unwatched from last season.)
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June 04, 2022
I don't think they translated that title correctly....
Well, I suppose if I want hits, I should provide some content, eh?
One show I'm watching this season was recommended by a Spanish cartoonist I follow on Twitter, Kukuruyo - best known for illustrating GamerGate, and who still tweaks the wokanistas in Gaming and Anime, and other would-be art police.
Kono Healer Mendokusai has an official English title of "Don't Hurt Me, My Healer," when it pretty obviously is really "This Healer is Troublesome." The story follows Alvin, who is a first level adventurer with really poor luck, in fact, his lack of advancement has made him a Veteran First Level adventurer. One day on a "Gather Medicinal Herbs" mission he gets into a fight with an ordinary "Mostly Bear" and is overmatched, when a small, flat-chested, dark elf in the uniform of a healer comes upon him. She accidentally curses him such that if he goes too far from her, he will die (At least, that's what she tells him).
One running gag is you never see his face without his helmet.
Carla is not much of a healer, but she is very dryly sarcastic, sardonic, and the master of the left-handed, no, back-handed compliment, and she is always degrading Alvin. On the other hand, she fails cringefully at trying to be hip, and can't even wink properly.
Yeah, that's not quite working....
The animation is not top tier. But it doesn't need to be for this kind of show.
I'm kind of hoping Kuku lewds Carla. He recently did a 20-year-old version of Anya from Spy x Family in order to explode some heads, which it did so beautifully that he followed it with a Loli version of Yor.
I'm kind of hoping Kuku lewds Carla. He recently did a 20-year-old version of Anya from Spy x Family in order to explode some heads, which it did so beautifully that he followed it with a Loli version of Yor.
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May 25, 2022
Maybe a little....
I got minorly miffed when I saw a blogroll link here titled "Mauser is Lonely", but hey, at least I've been linked. But maybe it's a little true. It seems that virtually every single form of social media I have, dating back to LiveJournal, is extremely poorly trafficed. In some cases, like Facebook and Twitter, it's malicious interference by the bluehairs. On various alternate outlets it's because the audience is so small. On my Wordpress, it's because I set my goals for that so high, it's a long road to make a new post. Although thanks to Sarah, when I do make a post, I get an Instalanche.
I like anime, and I like to share. But it feels hard to share when nobody's talking. It would be great to get back to the days of 80 image episode-by-episode reviews of shows, and actual discussions about them, but I'm not feeling any interest.
Maybe ever since SdB died, the energy has been off in the old gang. And everyone is dealing with their own health/aging/moving trials. Damn, am I the only one who hasn't grown up yet? :-)
Maybe it's because I throw stuff at so many outlets, my efforts are too diluted.
Maybe I'm just shouting secrets into holes in the ground all over the internet.
(I make that reference a lot. When I was a kid I saw an animation on TV about the Russian folklore story of a barber to the Czar. Many barbers before him had gotten the axe, literally, for commenting that the Czar had the ears of a goat. He held his tongue, and kept his head. But the pressure to say something was relentless, so he dug a hole in the ground, shouted "The Czar has the ears of a goat!" into it, and filled it back in. In this telling, some reeds grow on that spot, and someone (the barber?) makes a flute of them, and the tune has the same cadence as "The Czar has the ears of a goat." The Czar is infuriated but can't prove anything.)
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May 07, 2022
Too many shows....
Kono Healer Mendokusai - Something Kukuruyo said about it made me want to check it out.
Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu - I read a lot of the Manga. Oddly, I haven't really watched through the first season yet.
Spy x Family - The hit of the season for me. (Apparently you don't pronounce the X).
Koi wa Sekai Seifuku no Ato de - The Miss Kuroitsu of the season.
Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari - Haven't dug into it yet, but since the first season was so good, it's on the list.
Yuusha, Yamemasu - Only watched the first episode. I'm a bit afraid it will be Business Administration Lessons in fantasy trappings.
Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road - Interesting concept at the start, made even more interesting by the possibilities raised by the girl's powers.
I've started making uTorrent categories for seasons instead of my previous system of labeling things Watching, Watched Current and Completed and other leftovers from previous attempts at categorizing things.
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April 16, 2022
Dark, but awesome
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April 10, 2022
Love after World Domination
aka Koi wa Sekai Seifuku no Ato de
I laughed my ass off at multiple times during the first episode of this. Now, I in general have a liking for shows that kindly poke fun at genre tropes. (I still need to finish Miss Kuroitsu though), and this is definitely in that category.
When the Red leader of a Sentai force falls in love at first sight with the newest general of the evil organization, you know it's going to get complicated....
The animation could be a lot better, but the story has heart.
I laughed my ass off at multiple times during the first episode of this. Now, I in general have a liking for shows that kindly poke fun at genre tropes. (I still need to finish Miss Kuroitsu though), and this is definitely in that category.
When the Red leader of a Sentai force falls in love at first sight with the newest general of the evil organization, you know it's going to get complicated....
The animation could be a lot better, but the story has heart.
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April 05, 2022
Isekai are now snarking at each other....
Just grabbed the first episode of Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road (aka The Executioner and Her Way of Life) where our Isekai'd hero is tossed out when they find he has no powers. She presents herself to him as a priestess of an order that takes care of "Lost Ones" like him (but as you can guess by the title, she intends a different kind of "taking care of" him).
While she's giving him the score, we get this nifty little exchange:
Mutou Mitsuki: "Oh, I see, I get it now! This is where I use knowledge from home to make a name for myself! What stuff do I know...? Oh, What about Mayonnaise?"
Menou: "Ah yes, Mayonnaise. It's pretty tasty."
Mutou Mitsuki: "Eh, You know what it is?"
At which point she explains that Lost Ones have been coming for a long time and they all come from Japan, and leads him around a corner to a part of town with lots of Japanese signs. A lot of Japanese has merged with their culture. And then he realizes that she's been speaking to him in Japanese, not some kind of magical translation.
I'm sure the both of you who read this blog get the reference....
Mutou Mitsuki: "Oh, I see, I get it now! This is where I use knowledge from home to make a name for myself! What stuff do I know...? Oh, What about Mayonnaise?"
Menou: "Ah yes, Mayonnaise. It's pretty tasty."
Mutou Mitsuki: "Eh, You know what it is?"
At which point she explains that Lost Ones have been coming for a long time and they all come from Japan, and leads him around a corner to a part of town with lots of Japanese signs. A lot of Japanese has merged with their culture. And then he realizes that she's been speaking to him in Japanese, not some kind of magical translation.
I'm sure the both of you who read this blog get the reference....
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