Could I interest you in everything, all of the time?
A little bit of everything, all of the time?
Apathy’s a tragedy and boredom is a crime,
Anything and everything all of the time.
Today we’ll be doing something different from normal. Yesterday I had the pleasure of sitting down and watching Bo Burnham’s latest special: Inside. I’ve been a big fan of Bo’s brand of comedy for a long time. His song art is dead is one of my favorite pieces of commentary of all time, on top of being very funny. I’m particularly fond of the way he performed it on the show The green room in a room full of talented comedians. I implore you to check it out for yourselves. But the topic at hand for today is his new special. Before sitting down to watch the special I had seen the song Welcome to the internet which Bo has posted to youtube. Let’s jump into what I thought then.
If you come into this special expecting a lot of laughs then you’ll likely be disappointed. I expected it to be funnier than it was, but I suspected it would be more introspective than funny, and I was definitely right in that aspect. We spend about 90 minutes watching Bo go through lockdown during the pandemic. He’s spending this time on making his new special, the one we’re watching. His hair also grows throughout the special. I didn’t mention this yet, but he made this entire special on his own. It looks like it’s produced by a full crew but instead it’s just him in a room with some cameras and lights. It’s a strange parallel to some of his early work in which he was just a kid sitting in his room making youtube videos.
So what do I think of the special itself and the topics it covers? Bo talks a lot about different issues currently happening in society. The internet being the amazing yet terrifying beast that it is has its own song (this one you can find on youtube). He plays the role of the internet personified and definitely does so from a villainous outlook. He also talks about wealth inequality and makes fun of Jeffrey Bezos. The main theme of the entire thing though is him slowly losing his mind in the pandemic, just like I assume most of us did. I definitely lost my mind over time and right now I’m dealing with heavy stress related issues. You can see similar things happening to Bo. He admits when he’s near the end of the special that he’s scared to be done with it, because it’ll mean he has to go back and live his normal life. He doesn’t want that, this special is his coping mechanism. How do you cope when your coping mechanism isn’t there anymore?
If you want to know more about the special I recommend watching it yourself. It’s definitely worth your time, and although I think it’s not his best special, it’s still really good and often painfully relatable. With the pandemic coming to a close (I’m getting my second shot soon, the end is in sight) I’m worried about going back to normal life. I think I’m more excited than worried, but it’ll be a challenge to go back. How do you all feel about this? And having watched this special, does that change your outlook in any way? Thanks for reading.
So far the tone of each volume has been set by the intensity of the volume covers. So when I initially saw the dark colors of this volume cover I was worried it was going to be a particularly dark volume. And sure, there’s some dark moments and story beats in this volume but I think this cover is more an indicator of the wintery, christmas atmosphere that this volume has. On that note, let’s jump into it, shall we?
Chise sneaks away from the house to go and meet up with Alice. Alice had sent her a message and she wanted to get out of the house. They took the bus and train to the big city and met up with Alic. Obviously, Elias realized she was going away and sent something after her to keep an eye on her. Later on he reveals that the charm would also allow him to keep tabs to an extent. They meet up and Alice reveals that she asked her to come to shop for Christmas gifts for Renfred. They’re both outcasts in their own way and even though alchemists and mages don’t normally match well, they seem to be getting along alright. They talk for a while over dinner about what they should get someone. They even get some advice from the centaur mailman that we saw earlier. What’s the most interesting thing about these chapters is Alice’s backstory that we now get.
Chise and Alice run into some hoodlums who recognize Alice from her past as a junkie. Apparently Alice’s parents were both highly addicted to drugs and got Alice addicted too. When Alice’s parents died from drug overdose Alice was already too deep into this life. As luck would have it, she had some magical abilities and Renfred found her and picked her up. He gave her some disgusting potions to slowly help fix her addiction. Eventually he taught her to read, and after she accidentally opened a book that turned into a monster, we finally learn how Renfred lost his eye. This is the moment where Alice softened up a lot more.
It’s an interesting parallel to Chise’s backstory and I’m sure the author did so on purpose. Both these apprentices came from a difficult background, abandoned by their family. Both of them were then picked up by a kind powerful person and helped out. It’s a two sided coin though. On one hand both women absolutely benefited from the situation and were lucky to get into a more loving household. On the other hand, the only reason they were so lucky was because of their latent abilities. Make no mistake, for both Renfred and Elias it was a lot more of a business transaction and a lot less of random kindness. So what do I think about their relationships at this point? All is well because it ended up well? There are many other junkies or miserable young children who were completely abandoned just like Alice and Chise, but neither Renfred nor Elias did anything for these people. They only picked out the downtrodden ones that were of use to them. I think this is a topic I’ll revisit later, since I’m sure it will come up again, but I think it’s interesting food for thought. They end up buying something for their respective masters and Chise goes back to learn that Elias was well aware where she went. They exchange gifts and Chise is surprised that she herself gets a bunch of gifts as well. It’s her best Christmas, which is both happy and sad at the same time.
I believe that the arc after this was in the anime as well since it’s very familiar. Chise is approached by Stella, a young girl who is chasing after her brother. Her brother suddenly went missing and her parents and everyone don’t even remember his existence. It turns out her brother, Ethan, has been taken away by someone called The Ashen One. Elias, Ruth and Chise confront this person, who claims that Stella didn’t want Ethan anymore, so she had no right to complain. They then propose a game in which Elias and Ethan are locked away and hidden, with Chise and Stella having to look for them. Chise uses the pelt that almost tricked her earlier on in the story, if you guys can remember that. She finds them without much issue, and Ethan and Stella make up. The next chapter has Stella visit Chise and Elias to bring the snacks she promised them. They talk for a little bit and it ends with Elias experiencing jealousy and leaving the house. Chise follows him using the pelt once more and brings him back.
All things considered, I really enjoyed this volume. Maybe it’s because I’ve been going through stuff lately, but I felt quite emotional while reading it. I teared up here and there as well. How about you? Did you enjoy this volume as well? Please let me know your opinion down below, and I hope to see you here again next week.
Last week we talked about Bam and Rachel arriving in the tower through unusual means. They went through the first test with Headon, in a sense, and made it through the initial tests. We met a lot of the important characters for this story and now it’s time for everyone to do their individual tests. It turns out that everyone is divided into five different classes. I’ll be honest, these aren’t that important for the story. It’s pretty much abandoned for a lot of the story, and in the cases where it’s relevant it’s clear who fills what function. To run it down regardless, let’s quickly go over it. You have your classical combatants in fishermen who are like melee combatants. Spear Bearers are ranged attackers. Scouts are speed oriented fighters.
The two that differentiate a little bit are the wave controllers and the light bearers. Wave controllers use Shinsu, the energy that is found in the tower, to attack. Light bearers operate the lighthouse and tend to be the brains of the operation, so to speak. They gather data and devise strategies. Khun is one of the more important light bearers in the story.
This arc feels quite nice. It’s like a breather in between the more heavy material. Anaak and Endorsi do get into a fight, and we learn that Anaak is the daughter of the former Jahad Princess by the same name. Princesses aren’t allowed to have kids and are akin to shoes in a display case for the king to have on display. Anaak’s mother was murdered by a royal assassin and Anaak has sworn vengeance ever since. The scouts have to make 10 friends for their assignment and Shibisu and Hatz convince Khun and Bam to be their friends among others. It is at this point that Khun betrays the test, but we’ll get to that later. There are now two tests left.
The first test is a game of tag with the ranker Quant. Quant is a boastful, slightly dumb guy whose arrogance is definitely his weakness. The goal of this game is to catch Quant or have the runner make it to the exit of the battlefield. We’ve heard some talk of rankers, but they’re people who have made it all the way to the top of the tower. They’re much, much stronger than regulars, not to mention those in the test floor. You’ll see regular large time skips in this webtoon, because characters require a long time to grow, get stronger and climb the tower. I digress. This entire test is meant to rank the remaining people and pick who out of which class gets to pass. We all know where this is going. The unknown characters are going to be weeded out and the named characters are going to continue. And everyone will happily go up the tower as a team. Right?
Not quite. Hoh receives a letter telling him to take care of Rachel so Bam will lose his reason to keep climbing up the tower. While Khun is busy double crossing all the double crossers there is something way more nefarious going on. One of the test examiners is secretly one of Jahad’s assassins. A powerful ranker from the Lo Po Bia family named Ren. I haven’t talked much about the ten families, but they’re the ten most powerful families in the tower. If memory serves, Khun and this examiner are the only people introduced from these families. And Yuri, but I don’t know if that’s made particularly clear early on. Ren has shown up to deal with Anaak and Bam. And his first trick is to get Rachel killed by Hoh, who is desperate to get a spot to go up the tower. Unfortunately things don’t go as Hoh planned and because Bam is an irregular with powers that border on cheating, Hoh gets stopped and ends up killing himself. Serena is so shocked by this and it’s what ends up making her decide to stop going up the tower. This is a very brave decision honestly. It takes a special kind of person to persevere in the tower. Many die on the way up, and lots give up on the way. The test ends kind of abruptly and the remaining regulars have to choose if they want to support the final test.
Lo Po Bia Ren (It’s hard to find good pictures of the webtoon)
Bam requests a special test from the administrator, which is something he can do as an irregular, to allow Rachel to go up the tower with them. Big mistake, but we’ll get to that. The administrator accepts and Hansung Yu prepares a new test. The test is complicated and mostly irrelevant. If you’re here for the recap just know that a strange creature named the Bull is running amok during the test and Ren uses this to almost take out both Endorsi and Anaak. Luckily for both of them, big sister Yuri shows up with her gang in tow, and they take out Ren without a sweat. Not before Ren sends the Bull to take out Bam. Bam just barely manages to take out the Bull and then he and Rachel are ready to go up the tower.
Except they’re not. Rachel betrays Bam at the very last moment, pushing him into the water as she escapes alone. Bam is presumed dead and Khun and everyone else vow to go up the tower with Rachel’s in Bam’s stead. But there might be more to this story? Want to find out what more there is? Read the next entry. Or better yet, read the webtoon. It is free in its entirety on the Webtoons app (barring the latest 3 chapters), and recently continued its run. This current summary ends at the end of season 1 in the Webtoon which was completely covered by the first season of the anime. If you are planning to get into the story after only reading this I highly recommend picking it up from the start and I’ve personally been having an absolute blast rereading the story, so I can recommend that too. The arc I’m talking about next time is one of the more boring since it’s mostly set up, but it does introduce some very fun characters, so do look forward to that.
With the very exciting news that Tower of God will soon return (30th of May on the Webtoon app), I figured it would be a good idea to read the entire thing from the start again. It’s been over half a year since I read it, and I’d been looking for an excuse for a while now. For those of you who have read it before and just want a bit of a recap, well look no further. Today I’m here to recap everything that is considered season 1. This is the material that the anime covered as well. I plan to cover more in the near future, so make sure you drop a like and a follow for more content like this. Just so I’m clear, this spoils things from the entire first season, as well as some mild spoilers for later chapters due to being more aware of certain characters’ motivations. I’ll try to keep the latter to a minimum though. For longevity sake I’ll divide this into two posts. The first one mostly covers up till the end of the crown game, and the second part covers the crown game until the end of the test floors.
What would you desire at the top of the tower? The 25th Bam doesn’t have any big desires like that. He just wants Rachel, his one friend, to stay with him in the dark underground cave that he lives in. Unfortunately for him, things aren’t meant to be like that, as Rachel is summoned through a doorway into the tower. Bam quickly follows her, opening the door himself. Immediately jumping ahead to the end of the first season we learn that the door actually opened for Bam instead, and Rachel entering was a mistake. This makes me a little bit confused as to why Bam is an irregular if he was invited like other regulars, but I suppose him opening the door after it took the wrong person might count for that. I digress though.
Here we meet Headon, the Administrator of the first test. Now Headon confuses me a little bit and if people can tell me a bit more about him and his position and allegiances in the tower then I would love to know. Is he the big boss of the tower? Either way, he’s not on team Yuri, as he clearly doesn’t like her interfering with Bam’s test. He capitulates though and lets Bam use the Black March. This definitely helps him over the edge and he manages to succeed at his test. What neither Bam nor the reader know at this point in time, is that Rachel is actually looking on at the test. She was too scared to fight the fish and Bam did not hesitate. I love this scene later on in the prologue, because it perfectly shows us why Bam is so likable. He goes after what he believes, scared or not. Either way, both are sent on to the group test floor in their own ways. Headon leaves Rachel with a parting gift in the form of Ghost though.
I’m going to keep the first few tests short since anything before the crown game isn’t particularly interesting for the long term story. It introduces many interesting characters. Bam meets up with Khun and Rak, the former two tricking Rak into being on their team. We also find Hatz and Anaak squaring off, then joining up immediately with Shibisu managing to sneak in. Shibisu is shown to be a bit of a joke, but over the course of the test arc definitely impresses. Endorsi is with Rachel and Ghost in the other test and doesn’t show up until later. The shinsu wall introduces the magic concept to the world and keeps out the weaker leftover candidates. At this point we’ve trimmed it down a lot, but we’re not quite there yet. The next test tests characters’ guts and ability to trust others. Khun clearly fails this test. Rak and Shibisu shine (as well as the religious guy). It’s the next part where things get a bit more interesting.
The crown game is when we really start to focus on the important characters. The main ones left at this point are Team Anaak (Shibisu & Hatz), Team Endorsi (Ghost & Rachel), Team Laure (Serene & Hoh) and obviously Team Bam (Khun & Rak). All teams compete for a bonus game. There are five rounds to get on the throne. The later you join, the less fights you have to win, but sitting on a throne already gives you somewhat of an advantage. The teams need to decide when to fight. Anaak is ready to go and they end up on the throne first, with Anaak lazing around until she finds out that Bam possesses the Black March. I forgot to mention this before, but Anaak has the Green April, a weapon of similar notoriety to the Black March. She confronts Bam and they eventually agree that if Bam’s team ends up on the throne he gets both weapons, but if they don’t the weapons go to Anaak.
We then have a chaotic final round in which team Laure, team Endorsi and some randoms fight. Khun’s trump card was the squads he managed to sneak in in his bag of holding. During this fight we get to see Hwaryun for the first time as she gets hurt. We don’t know a lot about her at all until later this arc. The fight goes chaotic but it ends up with Bam getting seriously hurt protecting Rachel and no one ending up winning the crown game. At this point the motivations of the players in the game seem fairly straightforward still. There’s no sign of any trickery going on except for the fact that the random team with Rachel and Endorsi was suddenly added to this test group. As a reader we get a hint at something going on, but not quite enough to worry about it.
We’re down to the last big group that’s going into the final tests, and this is where several of the characters can really shine. But that is for next time. I hope you enjoyed this little summary and if you did, please leave a comment and a like, and consider following this blog as well, it means the world to me. Until next time!
We’ve all been stuck indoors for a long time now. Personally I’ve taken the covid-regulations very seriously. Maybe too serious from time to time. I just do well with order and rules, and less so with chaos. If there are clear rules, I’m going to follow them. Especially if they also make sense to me. Wearing masks, not leaving the house more than necessary and keeping your distance are all very reasonable things to do when other people might have a deadly disease. This has led to me being at home a lot more than normal. I haven’t even seen my university, or a group of my friends since early 2020. I still remember the week before schools closed down in the Netherlands. I was feeling a bit worried and decided to take the week off, just to be safe. I had some classmates tell me it was stupid to not go to school because of this strange disease, and maybe they were right. I just didn’t feel like going into a crowded train that led to a crowded Amsterdam metro and straight into a very crowded campus. In hindsight it probably wouldn’t have made a huge difference, since cases were still very low at that point, but I don’t regret it. So with an unreasonable amount of time on my hands and no real outdoors activities to fill the time, I had to fill up the space with video games. Let’s have a look at 5 video games that managed to get me through this pandemic.
Animal Crossing
I never played the previous Animal Crossing installments. I didn’t even really know what the game entailed until I bought it. I just knew that all of my friends were going to buy and play the game, and I had a Nintendo Switch already, so I figured why not? What followed was an adorable gameplay loop that definitely didn’t reek of capitalism at all. I had a lot of fun building up my island and getting different villagers. I kind of stopped playing after a while though, and I’ve been thinking of picking it up again. I should decorate my island some more, and maybe even get some of my friends to play again. If you like an adorable game with one of the most relaxing soundtracks there is then I recommend you give this one a go.
Among Us
Now I didn’t really enjoy playing Among Us that much. It’s a very stressful game and although I’ve played a bit with friends and this was definitely fun, I always felt like I had to take a shower afterwards because of how much I sweat when I’m stressed. Among Us was definitely a craze for a while. It was kind of fun to see my students at my teaching internship play the same games as I did. Makes you seem like the cool teacher while you’re actually just a nerd that plays video games way too much. Luckily most of my students weren’t crazy hyperactive about Among Us, so it mostly made for some good pictionary prompts. And as an English teacher I like to motivate my students to do more in English, and some of them played in random lobbies with people who didn’t speak Dutch, so good on them for that!
Minecraft
Minecraft has to be one of my favorite games of all time. I’ve put more hours into this game than I can count. I remember playing the Tekkit mod back in the day before most big mod packs were even a thing. Earlier this year some friends of mine set up a vanilla server, so I played quite a bit of minecraft. I am bad at finishing build projects in this game though, so I ended up building about half a wizard tower. I used to love playing this game, but I feel like nowadays it comes and goes in waves. Luckily there was another game that has been keeping me sane throughout all of this:
Apex Legends
I’ve played Apex Legends on and off ever since it was first launched. I started a little bit later than the launch, mainly because a bunch of my friends were playing it. I love the fast gameplay of a battle royale like this. I always like to compare it to Overwatch, which I used to play a lot. With a game like Overwatch you often quickly realize it’s going to be a bad game. Either the enemy team is really good, or some people on your team are bad or toxic. Or in certain cases just straight up throwing. The problem here was often that you’d still be stuck in the same game for another 5 to 15 minutes. Apex doesn’t have that problem. If you encounter a squad that’s better than you they just kill you and you jump immediately into the next game. The game also has a lot of downtime while you’re looting so you can chat with your friends and talk nonsense for an evening, only to now and then focus on the game.
Stardew Valley
I don’t think a perfect game exists, for for me personally Stardew Valley comes pretty damn close. For those of you unfamiliar with Stardew Valley, it’s a farming simulator. You sit in your office and you one day are sick of it all, so you go to the farm that you inherited from your grandpa. From here you travel to a lovely village in which you get to talk to all the fun villagers. You get to befriend them, farm crops and even explore the local mine. Or in my case, fish a lot. Fishing is great in Stardew Valley. The best thing about this game for me is how relaxing it is. You can’t really lose in Stardew Valley. You can die in the mines, but it’ll just bring you to bed and you lose the progress for that day. Not the end of the world. If you ignore the mine, or have a good enough grasp on managing your health, then it’s a super relaxing game with a fantastic soundtrack. I’m normally not a huge fan of this graphics style, but for a game like Stardew Valley it just works. I’ve played this game on both PC and switch, and enjoyed it every single time.
Honorable Mentions
I want to put a few honorable mentions here really quickly. Most of them are on the Nintendo Switch. First I want to mention Forager. It’s a very fun game where you slowly expand your islands by getting resources and includes some fun puzzles. Second game I want to mention is Path of Exile. I played this for a hot second back when it first launched, and then didn’t touch it until recently. With the announcement of a Path of Exile 2 it seemed like a good moment to get back into it, and it’s been quite fun, although very complicated. The last honorable mention is Black Desert Online. I love and hate this game at the same time. I recently quit it for a second time, but it was a very fun game while it lasted. It just turned into too much of a grind near the end.
I hope you found something you enjoyed among this!
The covers and color pages in this manga are beautiful every single time.
I know I’ve been slacking when it comes to both reading and writing but I can only apologize. The little time I did devote to reading this past week ended up on starting a reread of Tower of God. I heard from a good friend that it is continuing soon, and I’d like to read it again from the start. Don’t worry, I’ll hopefully get some good writing material out of it as well, since there’s a lot of things that Tower of God does right. But that’s not for today, that’s not why you’re here. You’re here to talk about Chise and Elias, are you not? Then let’s go ahead and do just that!
I’d forgotten where exactly we had left off, but I’m quickly reminded. Joel, the old man from a few chapters ago, was dying and the Leannân Sîdhe that was watching over him went to Chise in desperation. Of course with Chise being the kind-hearted soul she is, she immediately rushes over to check on Joel, with Elias following her shortly after. Unfortunately Joel is nearing the end of his life. He’s an old man after all, at a certain point in life people just reach the end of what they can do. Elias, while looking like his human form, then asks Joel if he’s scared of dying. Of course he is, but it is inevitable. He’d just like to see his muse one more time.
If wishes were horses, huh.
I wasn’t familiar with this proverb so I had to look it up. According to wikipedia (never let your teachers tell you wikipedia isn’t a good source, just learn how to use it properly) “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride” is a nursery rhyme first recorded in a collection of Scottish proverbs in 1628. It means “if wishing could make things happen, then even the most destitute people would have everything they wanted.” Wouldn’t that be great? But then again there would be people who would abuse their wishes. What if you could only wish for good and positive things then? Well, then who gets to decide what counts as good and positive? Why is this so difficult. Moving on.
Chise then thinks of something she’s read about: Fairy Ointment. If rubbed on a human’s eyelids it allows them to see Fae creatures. With Elias’ hesitant approval she goes to work. It takes five days to make it and Chise ends up being completely exhausted, but it allows Joel one last chance to see his muse. He then passes away in her arms, giving over his life to her. It’s the first chapter in this manga that truly made me cry, it’s beautifully written and illustrated.
Unfortunately, all things come at a cost, especially when a Sleigh Beggy is involved. Chise collapses while coughing up blood at the end of chapter 22, with Oberon and Elias worried for her immediately.
Next we meet Shannon and Shanahan. A changeling and the human that she was changed for. I had to think for a moment who Shannon reminded me off, but it’s Umeko from the currently airing Mashiro no Oto.
Upon expecting it, not as much of a similarity as in my head, but we’ll leave it in anyway.
And while Chise healing with Shannon in the Faerie Kingdom we finally get something I’ve wanted for a while now. We get a chapter centered on Silky. It turns out she gets rather lonely when the rest of the house is absent. We learn that Silky used to be a banshee, but the house she belonged to is now gone. After wandering for a while she finds someone who leads her to a new house, and turns her into more of a caring spirit. And just in time, Elias and Chise return and Silky embraces them happily.
It is my duty to nurture the light that shines within my home.
And just like that it’s Christmas! I mean Yule, it’s Yule day. The shortest day of the year, and preparations are in order. Chise, Ruth and Elias go out into the forest to collect holly, ivy and mistletoe for the house, whilce Elias teaches Chise about the cultural differences among the fae. They also adjust to where they live, and like Elias says, having ivy in the desert doesn’t make much sense. We then get to see two fickle gods walk by and they give off a scarier aura than anything else has so far. For once this volume doesn’t end on a big cliffhanger. We do see what looks to be a messenger bird arrive at Alice’ place, but that could mean anything. Maybe it’s a New Year’s invitation. Yes, that’s probably it. We also learn in the afterword that Elias sleeps sitting up or on his stomach because he has horns. The more you know.
As usual, this was a great volume and I can’t wait for the next one. We’re past one third of what is available right now, so we still have a little ways to go. I hope to see you all again next time!
Most anime seasons I end up getting obsessed with at least one or two shows. And for this particular season that is definitely Slime Diaries, or Tensura Nikki. For those unfamiliar with Tensura let me give a quick explanation. Our main character, Rimiru, died while protecting a coworker from an attacker with a knife. He was then reborn as a slime into this new world. He spends some time getting stronger before he ends up establishing his own village. Several nearby monster races, including orcs, lizardmen, goblins and dire wolves end up joining him and he establishes his town of Tempest. There are nearby countries who are not all equally fond of them which causes an array of problems. If you haven’t seen the first two seasons of Tensura yet, I highly recommend you do so. But that is not what we’re talking about today. Tensura Nikki is the slice of life spin-off which follows Rimuru and friends in their downtime. And wow, did I get blown away by how good this spin-off is. Since all these episodes have their own contained story I want to look at the episode I just watched specifically, because I think it perfectly encapsulated what I love about this anime.
I would love to own art like that, the designs really pop. Good job old guys!
I really wanted to go in depth on episode 5 of this show. I will do a full review on it when the season ends, but this episode stood out. We start out with Rimuru talking to the rest of the village and getting everyone excited for the festival. Everyone starts working on the preparations immediately and there’s an air of excitement in the air. I’m immediately reminded that if I ever stop being a broke as all hell student I should get some Shuna and Rimuru figurines. They both have fantastic character designs. Everyone in this series does, it’s a very fun and diverse cast. We get a nice shot with the sun getting low where all the goblins are hard at work in town, with Shion and Rimuru watching over them. This brings us right into the opening theme song. I’m still waiting for Milim to show up, by the way.
Where is she at?
And then it’s here, the return of the summer festival. Of course the mask stall only sells Rimuru masks. If they weren’t so adorable, these people would most certainly be a scary cult. Rimuru is their one true leader after all. Also, is it me or does Gobta look like squirtle?
Squirtle gang rise up!
We move over to the women and Rimuru wearing Kimono. Kimono? Yukata? I did some quick googling and I couldn’t get a great answer. I did find an article saying a Yukata is a very casual kimono often worn in the summer. So seeing as this is a summer festival they’re probably yukata then. I’ve always thought they look amazing, it’s one of the things I’d love to wear one day. The article I read said that it’s becoming more normal for men to wear them, so maybe there’s a chance. Either way, I digress. Shuna scarilty proclaims that big chests get in the way of dressing. I think she’s saying it three times in an attempt to curse Shion, but I’m not sure.
Monster Takoyaki
The food stalls seem to be a success, just look at this delicious Takoyaki. What did you say? That’s not octopus in those balls? Then what is it? What do you mean you won’t tell me. What’s going on. It tastes just like Takoyaki right? You’re scaring me.
Moving on.
Ignore this.
We then moved on to the shaved ice stall. And Benimaru has decided to join us for this. This part of the episode was where I realized how much younger they made the characters look in this spin-off. Ignoring the fact that Rimuru definitely looked different later in the most recent season, even Benimaru looks a lot less scary here. On the note of scary, I wonder if that ice is really safe to eat, like Benimaru is asking about.
Look at the little babies.
Of course Rimuru has a recommended flavor that everyone immediately dubs as Great Rimuru flavor. I’m not saying they’re part of a cult, I’m just saying that cults would look at them and probably worry about them.
Nightmare Fuel
Hakuro on the other hand set up a fish scooping stall with the help of Gobza. Hakuro also looks a lot kinder in this verison of the anime. I always love scenes with Gobta in them, he’s such a fun character. Also, is it just me or do the monstrous goldfish in this scene remind me of Hozuki no Reitetsu? If you’re unfamiliar with that show, it’s a show about a demon working in hell’s middle management. It’s a very funny anime that I’d highly recommend. It also has strange large goldfish.
The next scene coming up is great too. Souei throws a kunai at a Gabiru statue and immediately gets reprimanded. Who brings a knife to a toy gun fight. He gives it to Souka who happily proclaims about the gift to her father. Her father remarks that it’s a statue of her brother with a knife stuck in it. I always forget that the two are related. They’re so very different in their personalities.
Rimuru asking the important questions
Treyni is selling fortunes and Rimuru goes to try by ripping one of the vines. It turns out that the vines got tangled and the vines connected to Treyni herself are part of the ones hanging down. She definitely didn’t do this on purpose. She definitely doesn’t seem to be deriving pleasure from this. What a scary woman.
Next up is my favorite scene of the episode, and the reason why I decided to write this review in the first place. Geld, the former orc lord, has been an absolute joy to watch throughout this series. He was a total badass in the main series last season, and in this spin-off he is absolutely perfect as the silent kind man. We get a scene of the little goblin girl throwing a ball at him to “slay the beast.” She doesn’t quite make it though and gets sad. Geld, being the overly kind orc that he is, hands her the ball for another attempt. It’s the epitome of adorable. There are very few situations where I’ve wanted to protect a smile so much. The goblin children in this show are absolutely adorable and steal the show in every scene they’re a part of. Even the platelets from Cells at Work never reached this level of adorable.
I love these two with all my heart.
Gabiru spent a few scenes earlier in the episode sweating over some sort of notes, and I was wondering what that was about. It turns out he was preparing for the bon dance. As much of a comic relief character he is most of the time, he nails this performance. Well done Gabiru. Of course he immediately asks for Rimuru’s opinion on the dance who was completely oblivious to it all. Poor Gabiru. Ranga does a great job capping off the feelings I have about this episode. He does a quick brooding moment looking down on a city enjoying themselves before being fed piping hot takoyaki. I’ve said it many times during this review already in many different ways, but I adore everything about this show. Before we end there’s still the float being carried around, with everyone cheering for Rimuru. He’s still not quite used to being revered as much. I know that feeling Rimuru, I think many people have at least a mild case of imposter syndrome. Except Shion. Shion doesn’t have that problem whatsoever.
Shion, are you okay?Undo, unsubscribe, abort mission, cancel!
Please stop her Rimuru, I don’t think that’s something we need. Maybe in the main storyline, but not in a slice of life spin-off. This show has it all and I can’t really contain my excitement. A show like this doesn’t come by often. The feeling of nostalgia I get when watching the fireworks scene is great. I’m reminded of going to the beach in Scheveningen with a friend and watching the large fireworks show. I’m reminded of barbecues we used to have with the people from our neighbourhood. Lately, and especially during covid, the world has been cold. I’ve been dealing with many issues, both mental health and lately fysical health as well and it’s made me bitter. This show is reminding me about the important things in life. Family, friends, community and enjoying the moments we can. It’s a beautiful love letter to life and it’s making me so excited to experience things myself. It’s reawakening a joy in me that I thought I’d lost ages ago. Life and community can be whatever you want it to be. If Rimuru can build his dream kingdom with friendly monsters and dogs who are adorably scared of fireworks, then what’s stopping me from chasing my dreams? As you might have noticed I’m once again getting off track. I promise I’m not doing it on purpose.
Wise words from a very wise slime.
If there’s one note I want to this post on, it’s that having fun together is very important. Wether that is you and your monster friends in another world replicating a Japanese summer festival, or us back in the real world meeting up again when we’re all properly vaccinated. This anime brings me so much joy that I manage to forget about the real world for a moment. Please let me know if you enjoyed this anime as much as I did. Also, I apologize for being a day late, but as you can see, I overdid it when it comes to the length. It was worth it though. You’re not the boss of me anyway!
It’s a new season and it’s time for new anime to watch. There’s some good shows still going on, but there’s also a bunch of new shows airing. Today I’ll be looking at 5 shows I’m currently watching and giving you a quick opinion so you can decide if you want to watch them as well. These aren’t my favorite shows per se, I’m just picking out a few I like. I’m not going to talk about ongoing shows, nor am I going to talk about sequels. This includes the Tensura spin-off. If you want my full opinion on this you’ll have to wait for an upcoming post but the short of it is: It’s amazing. It’s my favorite thing ever and I love it. Either way, let’s dive into this season and see what’s airing.
5) Eden’s Zero
I’m writing this when we’re only three episodes in on these shows, so if you’re reading this later in the season know that my opinion might have changed. Having said that, the production on this show felt a bit weak. I’ve talked about Eden’s Zero before on this blog, you can check my review of the manga Here. I really wanted this anime to look and sound good, because I think Mashima deserves another shot at a popular anime. With Fairy Tail and Rave Master under his belt he’s now writing a space anime. I’ve referred to this show in the past as One Piece in space and I still think that’s accurate. Rebecca finds a young man named Shiki on an island full of robots. She then takes him with her on an adventure to go find mother, who is a massive floating woman at the end of space. (Not to be confused with One Piece, which is a treasure at the end of the ocean.) Needless to say there’s some parallels here and there but that’s fine. One Piece is fantastic, so you’d be right to take inspiration from it. All in all I’ve not been sold on this adaptation yet, but we’ll see where it brings us. If you’re a fan of Mashima’s other works you should check this one out, and if you’re craving decent shonen you should do the same. If neither of that is in your particular interest, maybe skip this one.
4) Shaman King (2021)
I vaguely remember Shaman King from TV when I was just a kid. I remember the English opening theme music and the core concepts of the show, but that’s really where it ends. A good friend of mine was quite excited for this show and since it’s a reboot of a classic I couldn’t just ignore it. One thing it has over Eden’s Zero is that the production on this looks a lot better. It feels well polished and sounds great. The character designs are very cool in this one. Definitely a step up from the average show. I specifically love Anna’s and Yoh’s design. Yoh looks like he doesn’t really care about anything half the time which fits his personality well. Anna doesn’t take shit from anyone and you can clearly see that in her design. Everything about her looks sharp and strong. She emanates a strength and I’m here for it. The story seems fine so far, it’s very much early days shonen in which it’s monster of the week, but it flows well. All in all I’d recommend this show even if you’re like me and haven’t seen much of the original show.
3) Shakunetsu Kabaddi
I think I speak for many of us when I say I didn’t have a clue how Kabaddi worked before starting this show. I’d heard about it before, I believe it was the anime Chio’s School Road that featured it in a few of its gags, but I didn’t quite grasp how the game worked. From what I’ve learned so far it’s actually quite complex in its simplicity. Is that an oxymoron? Screw it, I’m leaving it in, you know what I mean. I’m no English major. Wait, I am. Shit. Moving on.
The main character is a very successful soccer player who got let down by his team and now hates sports. He’s found his new passion in streaming. Except life doesn’t always go as we plan it. The vice-president of the Kabaddi club finds out he’s streaming and blackmails him into joining the club. You know, normal wholesome anime plotlines. Either way, with a few episodes our main character, Yoigoshi, has become a full-fledged member of the team. What I love about this show is how unapologetically silly it is. It knows when to take itself seriously and when to be comedic. My favorite joke so far being Azemichi showing a picture of him with his pretty girlfriend and Yoigoshi getting mad out of jealousy. It works so well because of the characters’ well established personality. If you like sports anime and good comedy this show is a great one to watch.
2) Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou desu
Imagine this: It’s been a long day at work. Suddenly you are summoned to a strange land to be their savior saint. Then by accident two people are summoned and the person summoning you likes the other girl more so you’re just kind of told to do your own thing. The audacity. I would be angry but our main character doesn’t seem too bothered. Not having to deal with crunch time at work she’s going to enjoy her new life. And she’ll do so by making potions. The story follows Sei enjoying her new life being great at everything she touches while every man arounds her starts falling for her. Usual Isekai stuff. The characters seem fun in this show and Sei is extremely likable. It’s another one of those Slice of Life meets Isekai shows that just work really well. Maybe it’s just me, but I love this genre and I can’t get enough of it. To add one more recommendation here I also really recommend Slime Taoshite 300-nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Level Max ni Nattemashita. I’m not reviewing that one because I’d mostly be repeating myself.
1) Hige wo Soru. Shoshite Joshikousei wo Hirou.
Problematic as this kind of material might be, I have to admit I’m a sucker for these forbidden love situations. One of my favorite manga of all time is Love so Life. That is probably the best in the genre though. At least I would be surprised if there’s a better one, and I’d also love to hear about it. This anime though takes a slightly different angle. At least so far. The main character is not interested in the teenage girl but instead has fallen for his coworker. It seems to be about kindness and hopefully making it so this girl gets to a point where she’s happier, because it’s clear there’s something wrong here. Her behavior is definitely not that of a normal teenager, and I’m curious to see where this anime takes it.
I think that’s all for this one, let me know if I missed any good anime. I’m not watching nearly as much as last season because The Overwatch League has started up as well and that’s taking a large portion of my watch time each week. Let me know if there’s anything I absolutely have to watch, or if you disagree with my description and opinion of some of these picks. Until next time!
Volume 4 front cover. Once again a clever visual relating to the volume as both Chise and Elias experience a form of cold this volume.
So we skipped last week, since I was busy and had to go visit a hospital on Friday. For those of you who like oversharing, I have strange lumps all over my body. Some of which I’ve had for a long time, and some of which appeared more recently. Doctors have told me they’re fat lumps (Lipoma according to google) and they’re harmless. They just kind of happen. There was one small lump on my chest that felt a bit different though, which got me quite worried for a little while. According to the doctor doing the echo it just looked like a bit of limestone and should be harmless as well. I’ll still have to go to my GP at some point to get the results, but a lot of my worry has disappeared. With that out the way, let’s read some manga, shall we?
To start off we have another one of Silky’s 4-koma strips. This time she’s giving Ruth a good scrub. She’s very protective of her two mages so she doesn’t want the new visitor to be dirty around them. We then get reminded what the last volume ended on; an invitation to send Chise to Hogwarts. I mean wizard school. We then quickly go into a flashback about Elias’ past where he meets Lindel. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me that one of the first things he did is make Elias drink salty sea water for his own amusement. We then meet Lindel’s master, Rahab. She names Elias and sends Lindel on his way with Elias in tow as his student.
The next chapter I think really hones in on Elias’ personality perfectly even though it’s mostly focused on Chise and Lindel. Chise spends this chapter starting to make her own wand after Lindel tells her about Elias and his’ travels. It’s near the end of the chapter when we see Chise talk to Elias through a water mirror. The latter complains that it’s awfully cold with Chise being absent. He gets a bit annoyed at Lindel when Chise reveals that he spoke about Elias’ past but seems to quickly let it go when Chise tells him that she will talk about herself a bit more.
Then we see some of Elias’ thoughts. His plan was to buy some random human to observe, just so the other mages would leave him alone. That sounds very much like him. But when he found Chise and started living with her that quickly changed. He’s not really sure what these new feelings are. I think Lindel nails it though. Although Elias has been wandering for a very long time, by human standards he is still very much a child. He’s emotionally unskilled to the point that it’s almost sad. But Chise seems to reach him in a way that no one else has so far. I’ve read a fair few fantasy stories throughout the years and I’m willing to bet good money that Chise ends up being the one to truly unlock Elias’ emotions and make him a complete person. And honestly I can’t wait to read all about it.
We then watch as Chise has another talk with Nevin at the intersection between life and death. He tells her to be a little more willful than she has been, and stop denying herself her right to choose her own fate. It’s a beautiful scene and I’m glad they brought the wise dragon back for another scene like this. Chise then uses her new wand to fly all the way back to Elias where she then, as is tradition, sleeps for multiple days. She does have a pleasant dream about her parents in a happier time. We don’t get too many glimpses into Chise’s life before Elias. If I remember correctly there was an OVA that covered some of Chise’s life as a child, but I can’t really remember what happened in that. I think she wandered into a library of some mage but that vanished after a while. I don’t know if this is canon or not though, so take it with a hefty pinch of salt. Perhaps we come across this later in the story, but I for one am very curious to learn more about Chise’s past. It definitely seems like she was loved in some capacity by her parents, so it makes me curious to see where it all went wrong. Maybe it’s more complicated than it seemed at a first glance. (Let’s be honest, it often is). Chapter 19 dives into this a little bit more, but doesn’t give away more new information than it wants to. There’s some shearing of wooly bugs which is used as a very good narrative segue into Elias feeling cold when he’s lonely. As a writer I was very impressed with that particular storybeat.
And as seems to be a tradition at this point, the last chapter of the volume seems to introduce the next story arc. We see that Elias has another visitor and we learn a tiny bit more about magic being strange. A being called the Ashen One then gives a strange gift to Chise, turning her into a fox that has the urge to run away. Luckily Elias isn’t about to let this happen and convinces her to come back. I think this was to show that both Elias and Chise do care for each other in their own way, even if that’s not always crystal clear from the story. Then right at the end Chise is visited by leanán sídhe we saw in volume three. Something seems to be wrong with Joel and she’s very worried.
The back of the manga showing the wooly bugs and the cold bugs with Ruth keeping a close eye on them.
This volume focused a lot on relationships and learning about emotions. As someone with autism I can definitely relate a little bit to this. My emotions and social skills took a lot longer to develop into what they are today than most people would require. Unfortunately I’m not a boneheaded mage, that would have been a nice bonus I suppose. Nonetheless, both Chise and Elias learn a lot about themselves in this volume and I can’t wait to see what direction this manga is going in next. Those of you reading along, what did you think of Volume 4? I think we’re nearing the end of what the anime covered, so it will soon be completely new territory for me. I’m quite excited about that. I hope to see you all here again next week for volume 5!
Hello everyone, good to see you back at round 3 of Quick Reviews. For this past season this will be the last quick review I’m doing. I watched a lot of good shows last season but if I spend all of this season reviewing old shows I’ll never be able to write about anything else. Let me know if you want me to do this series every season, I’ve certainly been enjoying it. Gives me an excuse to watch a few shows each season as well. Well then, let’s jump straight into it.
Kemono Jihen
This show surprised me. The premise is quite simple: Inugami has a detective agency and is called to the boonies to check on something strange happening. This is where he finds our protagonist, Kabane. Kabane is a Kemono, and after losing his place to stay with his aunt he comes with Inugami to Tokyo where he meets several other Kemono. Together they solve mysteries. The heart of the show is in how fun the characters are. The main thing I really appreciated about this show is how it doesn’t mind getting a bit darker. A lot of these shonen shows end up a bit on the light-hearted side, which is fine, but I appreciate the little darker tones this show has. Without going into spoilers, Akira’s backstory is brutal and very dark. I’d honestly recommend this if you’re a fan of decent shonen anime.
Log Horizon Season 3: Destruction of the round table
I wasn’t going to include this one initially because it’s a sequel and most people have their opinions on it by now, but after watching the show I did want to talk about it. When the first season of Log Horizon aired it was just off of the back of Sword Art Online’s massive success. It was right at the start of the wave of Isekai shows and it was a very enjoyable show. I rated it quite highly back then. Unfortunately it is no longer 2013. Yes, I googled it and it’s really 8 years ago, where did time go? Back then, Log Horizon was one of the better Isekai shows but since then a lot more shows have aired. And a lot of those shows were very good. Just recently we’ve had Tensura, Kumo Desu Ka and longer ago we’ve had shows like Re:Zero and Re:Creators. And I’d say all of those shows, and more, were better than Log Horizon. Now that’s not to say this show has no merit. It’s got an interesting set-up, but I’ve honestly forgotten half of it. I didn’t go back to watch the first two seasons, and honestly this season was mostly just confusing. It took me several episodes to get back into it and even then it felt a bit rough around the edges. I reckon if you watch all three seasons in a row it’s a lot better, but that is ignoring the fact that a large part of season 2 wasn’t too amazing. Overall I think that unless you’re starving for Isekai shows, I’d probably skip this one.
Jujutsu Kaisen
Now this was undoubtedly one of the hottest shows of the past season. Technically started a season before, but because it ended in the Winter 2021 season I’m reviewing it now. For the few of you who missed this bombshell of an anime, Jujutsu Kaisen follows Itadori Yuuji who swallows one of Sukuna’s fingers. Sukuna being the King of Curses who died and had his soul stuck in a bunch of relics. Yuuji, being the strange bloke he is, eats one for lunch and gets possessed by Sukuna. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but you get the gist. After this he goes with Gotou Satoru, a very handsome man with a cloth in front of his eyes to go to Jujutsu Tech. To make a long story short, they fight these curses while also fighting back Sukuna’s grasp on Yuuji. The characters are very well written and the story really pulls you in. This was easily one of the better shows that aired and I personally enjoyed it more than I did Attack on Titan. I like Attack on Titan, but there was something enjoyable about Jujutsu Kaisen that really sold me on it. I’ll definitely read the manga in the near future.
What did you think of these three shows if you’ve seen them? Anything you disagreed on with me? Please let me know in the comments down below. Thanks for reading and I hope to see you all here again next season!
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