We open to the explanation of what this series is supposed to be all about. When a disaster looms, the goddess calls for six heroes to awaken and save the world. This happened six hundred years before the current story as well as three hundred years before the story. There are always exactly six of these braves. Then why are there seven heroes this time around? That can only mean one thing, there is a traitor among us. But first we need to establish the seven candidates who are claiming to be members of these six heroes.
Adlet as a character is definitely on the more abrasive side at times.
The first one is Adlet Mayer who proclaims himself the strongest man in the world and summarily interrupts a duel in front of the king. He does so by fighting dirty, but putting his methods aside, he is very effective. Then again, bringing a bunch of tricks and poison to what is supposed to be an honorable duel is a pretty shitty thing to do and Adlet soon ends up imprisoned. The second brave is the princess, Nachetanya, who is also known as the saint of blades. When both get chosen as braves, she frees Adlet from his prison and the duo set off towards their destination in the west. There they will meet up with the other four braves. Or five, as the surprise twist of the series ends up being.
Everyone’s favorite sad girl who has a deep secret and is just sad all of the time. Her character felt deep and well developed to me the first time I watched the show, but seeing it again now she seems much more shallow than back then.
The other five braves are an eclectic bunch too. The first two that we meet outside of the princess and Adlet are the princess’ personal knight Goldov as well as the presumed hero killer, the white haired sharpshooter Flamie. Where Goldov is ready to help the princess immediately, Flamie quickly proclaims herself an enemy and does not wish to join up with the rest of the gang. Separating from Nachetanya, Adlet now follows after the mysterious new girl. At the temple where they get stuck they meet the rest. Chamot, saint of the swamp, Maura saint of the mountains and finally a weirdo named Hans Humpty. It’s a colorful cast for sure, but this is the moment they all start to realize something’s wrong. That’s one too many. And all of them have the crest that makes them heroes. This is where the real story starts, a mystery to figure out who is the fake.
The gang’s all here, just imagine Hans off to the left, he’s just off screen after all.
So we have a locked room mystery. The moment Adlet encountered the fiend at the outskirts of the temple, he tried to break open the door, and when he did so, the barrier activated. No one was seen entering or exiting the room after he entered it, and we know that Adlet didn’t activate the barrier. We’ve seen him get his crest, we’ve followed along his journey and he is the only person we know for certain that is accounted for at the time of the betrayal. Knowing what the solution is to this puzzle – as I remembered it while I was rewatching it – makes it seem super obvious, but I remember being fully unable to figure it out the first time around. With all the pieces in play, we now have to deduce who the real betrayer is, deal with them, and then continue on the journey to actually deal with the fiends.
Oh, there’s Hans.
Upon rewatching this show, I found myself having mixed feelings about it. I like the concept a lot, but both Chamot and Goldov were getting on my nerves as characters pretty early on. There are some inconsistencies in the storytelling as well that feel more like red herrings than good writing, but these are minor complaints. Flamie and Adlet, the two we spend a majority of the time on, are both fun characters in all their bravado and teenage angst. It’s a real shame this never got a sequel, as it’s based on a light novel and we all know that most anime fans can’t read. I remember wanting to read the novels back in the day, and I still may one day, but it’s not high enough on my priority list right now to start on anytime soon. As for if you should watch it, yeah, probably. It’s a fun mystery with a colorful cast that doesn’t overstay its welcome. Although the twist at the very, very end kind of sucks and is the main thing people ended up remembering from the show. I do like reading light novels from time to time, and if you’re like me and every time you think back to this show you kind of want to see where it goes from here, at least the novels have been translated to English, although I did see that the physical editions are rather pricey. Ebooks are much cheaper if you’re one of those people, but I’ll leave it up to you. For now, if you like a good mystery, give Rokka no Yuusha a watch and if not, well, at least thanks for reading.
At the time of watching Orange for the first time, there were not very many drama romance shows I was familiar with. I didn’t really start my (shallow) dive into romance manga yet, and shonen action was definitely still my preferred genre (alongside Isekai). So a really solid drama like Orange – although not my genre per se – was always going to leave a big impression since the comparisons to other shows weren’t there yet. Which got me to wondering, how will I feel about this show if I rewatch it a decade later. By today, shojo romance manga are a staple in my manga consumption with series like The Fragrant Flower, Horimiya and Skip & Loafer all being favorites of mine. So with that all in mind, let’s take another look at Orange.
The cast comes together in the future to read the letters from their past selves.
Let’s start with the two parts of this series that are the most memorable for me. The two things I could still remember after all these years. The first one is the core plot point, which involves the main character Naho sending a letter to herself from 10 years in the past. Apparently their friend Kakeru – who Naho has not met yet when she receives the letter from her future self – was going through a lot more pain than they realized at the time, and ended up dying tragically. Her future self then implores Naho to do things differently, in an attempt to save Kakeru. To prove that the letter is actually from herself in the future, she adds several diary entries about things that have yet to happen, and Naho watches as these events unfold in front of them, the first big one being the new transfer student; Kakeru.
From top left to top right: Hagita, Takako, Suwa From bottom left to bottom right: Naho, Kakeru, Azu
The second thing that has always stayed with me about this show is the opening song: Hikari no Hahen by Takahashi Yuu. The tranquil and melancholic pop song has never quite managed to leave my consciousness completely, coming up in my playlists from time to time or while I’m watching anime opening compilations. It even sometimes randomly pops up in my head simply due to how incredibly catchy it is. The accompanying shots of the main cast are melancholic in a way that fits the music and it does its job of getting you in the mood for an emotional story.
The first thing I noticed that I don’t think registered with me the first time I watched Orange is the backgrounds. This show does take place in a city, but it’s a more rural city than something like Tokyo – where Kakeru is from – and that’s very well conveyed by the backgrounds. Many of the gorgeously drawn shots have trees in them and the surroundings that the cast often finds themselves in feels much more open and tranquil than many other stories with similar settings. Skip & Loafer actually touches on this from a different angle, where we leave the city to visit the countryside later in the story and that really hammers home the difference in lifestyle. Orange is somewhere in the middle of the two.
This is what the town looks like a lot of the time, but also interspersed with more “modern” buildings and city streets, which brings for a very cool looking city that I’d love to walk around in.
Then the characters themselves. We look at this story through the eyes of Naho, but there is a group of six characters that we end up spending most of our time with. Naho is timid and kind, Suwa is popular and athletic, Azusa’s family owns a bakery and she is very outgoing as well. Meanwhile Hagita is much more introverted and spends as much of his time as possible reading, but he usually does so around his friends and joins them in any activities either way. Takako is more stoic and quiet. Lastly, we have Kakeru, the transfer student from Tokyo and the reason this story is happening. Kakeru is an interesting character due to how we learn some of his tragedies without seeing them clearly reflected in the character. Let’s dive into the story.
As mentioned earlier, the future versions of the friend group – minus Kakeru – met up long after the current timeline, and future Naho sends a letter to her past self detailing some mistakes she made due to being timid, that she would like her past self to avoid, in hopes of creating a better future for their friend. Although Naho is very sceptical – and still understandably timid – she quickly realizes that there’s definitely something to this letter, as it’s doing a great job at predicting the things that will happen in the next couple of days. After she fails to do anything different when Kakeru first shows up, the transfer student stays away from school for a while. We later learned that the reason Naho’s future version didn’t want her to invite Kakeru on their day out was because his mother committed suicide that afternoon, and that is why Kakeru was absent for a while.
Yeah, he’s a sad boy
Without going into spoilers, there is a lot of focus on being who you are and then changing that person to a different version of themselves that still includes some of their initial characteristics. In particular Naho is trying her best to become more outgoing and more confident. We slowly learn more as the series continues and later on there is a twist revealed to us that is pretty well foreshadowed, but I definitely didn’t catch it on my first watch through.
I’m not a big fan of time travel shenanigans usually and I mind it a bit less when it’s explained as separate worlds. The reality here is still true, but things are happening different in another timeline. Still, it’s a topic that I struggle to believe in.
Considering all of that, I think it’s safe to say that giving Orange a watch – if you haven’t yet – is definitely worth the time. It’s a well crafted melancholic romantic drama with well written characters and an interesting plot hook in the time travel shenanigans with the letter. It’s not going to reinvent the genre by any means, and it can be a bit slow at times, but I really enjoyed rewatching this series.
The first time I ever even really heard about Sailor Moon was through an Achievement Hunter video back in the day. Ray – who is now a Twitch streamer that I still watch after more than a decade – had a Tuxedo Mask skin in Minecraft and that was the first time I heard of the character and that it was from Sailor Moon. I sound so cool right now, don’t I?
Maybe not quite as suave and brooding as the real thing, but they got the rose right.
Years later, when I was well into my anime watching phase, about to recognize that it might not even be a phase at all, but more of a permanent illness, I knew very well what Sailor Moon was. A Shojo manga about magical girls and cats, and one of the most well known manga and anime out there, an inspiration for the modern generation. But I’d never actually watched an episode or read a chapter. For one, it was very old by the time I got into anime and although there are definitely older anime that I really love – Rose of Versailles comes to mind – I’m not quick to pick one up unless it really piques my interest. And second, I’m not a teenage girl, so I figured I wasn’t the target demographic.
Even before ever starting to read the manga, these were the characters I remember seeing, and I will say that seeing some of the other sailors throughout the series threw me for a loop. It’s also interesting how much I didn’t know. Like how Twitch streamer Ironmouse got her name from this series and how Amalee – whose musical covers I used to listen to and now sometimes pops up in streams I watch – voices one of the later sailors.
Having said all that, I am a pretty big fan of a lot of shojo romance manga. There’s something about how drama and character flaws are written in shojo manga that just feels much more real and tangible to me than a lot of shonen alternatives. Exceptions on both ends of course. So when I saw the announcement of the Naoko Takeuchi collection – a deluxe version of the entire manga at a lower price than the fancier box sets – I figured it was a good moment to jump in and give the story a shot. At the very least the box would look good on a shelf and the art prints would be a nice little thing to have. So I ordered both boxes, and then read through the entire story, extra volumes about Sailor V included. Let me give you my thoughts on the whole thing.
Let’s start with one of the biggest selling points for me, the art style. Obviously it’s a very recognizable art style, the classic old shojo drawings with the big eyes is one that will always be pleasant. There are some incredible artists out there who create panels that far outshine anything you’ll find in most weekly series. I for one really like Ishida Sui’s art in Tokyo Ghoul and Choujin X (although I couldn’t really get into the story of the latter) as well as SIU’s art in Tower of God. Another great one – and I will admit I had to look up the author for this one – Park Jin-Hwan from The Breaker. But there’s something just really nice about the classics too.
There’s also some fun attention to detail in this manga that really gives it a lot of personality. One thing that comes to mind is that when the main character – Usagi – is speaking off screen, her text bubbles contain a little image of a bunny, since that’s what her name means in Japanese. Usagi translates to bunny. There are also a couple of really funny moments in this manga that catch you off guard. A big one is that at the end of the first big arc, we start off the second arc with a toddler pulling a gun on the main character. If that’s not funny to you, I don’t think we can be friends. Of course that gets resolved pretty quickly, but it’s still a great moment.
This is what the Naoko Takeuchi boxes look like. This is not mine, I took this picture from Google. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t live in a white void.
Let’s talk about the characters next. The main sailors are great. Sailor Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Mercury all have their distinct personalities. You have the classic bubbly popular girl in Mina (Venus), the smart girl in Ami (Mercury), the stoic temple maiden Rei (Mars) and the transfer student Makoto (Jupiter). Of course Usagi herself is the titular Sailor Moon and she is your classic clumsy middle school girl who wants to marry her knight in shining armor – not an uncommon dream among the sailors – who ends up being the mysterious Tuxedo Mask (Mamoru Chiba/Mamo-chan/Prince Endymion). There are a lot of different names and titles for some of the characters. They each have their own history and future, and we later meet many more sailors in Pluto, Neptune, Uranus and Saturn. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t as invested in some of the later sailors. Pluto still seemed fun enough, but some of the subplot of these sailors having their own separate missions and being borderline hostile to the main group was grating at times. And of course in the final act we get a ton of different sailors from all around the universe which was fine for the story, but not particularly memorable.
The plot itself is a rather simple one. Some dark force is trying to kill all humans, drain their energy, take over the earth, the moon or both, destroy the future, whatever evil things you can think of. They start by sending some minions to deal with the sailors until they all get defeated and then the big bad is taken out. This repeats a couple of times until we’re at the center of the universe fighting the biggest bad out there. It’s not a particularly memorable plot, but it’s there mainly as a way to convey the moral of the story. And that is – of course – a coming of age story about young girls trying to find their way through puberty, boys and their dreams for the future. It’s a well executed story but the issue that plagues it in my opinion is a similar issue that plagues Bleach. I know, very different manga with a different demographic, but bear with me.
The first arc in Bleach is a group of teenagers dealing with an oppressive force of adults that is forcing their will upon them. The second arc in Bleach is a group of teenagers dealing with an oppressive force of adults that is forcing their will upon them. The first arc of Sailor moon is about a group of teenage girls who are trying to find themselves while dealing with boys, puberty and still trying to follow their dreams. The second arc of Sailor Moon is about a group of… you get the point I’m trying to make. Although the paint job is new each arc, it’s the same story just repeated a couple of times. By the time we get to the final arc, I was pretty bored of it. If this manga was half the size it was, I think I would be remembering it far more fondly.
Despite not being the target audience of this manga series, I really enjoyed taking a look at something that isn’t my normal cup of tea but is considered one of the greats. I doubt I’ll ever reread it, but I’m happy I gave it some time.
Lastly, let’s have a quick look at Sailor V as well. The prequel manga that follows Minako Aino before we ever find Sailor Moon. She is the titular Sailor V, the first of the sailor scouts to awake and a crimefighting teenage girl who wants to be an idol. With her cat Artemis – husband of Usagi’s cat Luna but we only learn about that later – she deals with all sorts of problems. We are introduced to Sailor V in the original story as well and she goes through the same trajectory there, but here we get a bit of a peek into Mina’s own life as a sailor scout before the group gets bigger. I didn’t enjoy the first of these two volumes. The second one was much better. There was more of an overarching story, the stakes were higher, and Mina was starting to come into her own as a character.
All in all, I’m glad I took the time to read this classic. It’s not going to ever be one of my favorites, as I’m clearly not the target audience, but I can see that a lot of love and talent went into creating this series, and at the very least the art is still really nice. I love the incredible animation in some of the more modern shows (and the latest arc of One Piece) but there is also something special about the charm that 80s/90s manga have. (and even older if we look at Rose of Versailles). If any of this piqued your interest, I recommend looking at the Naoko Takeuchi collection. It wasn’t too expensive (comparatively) and looks great on a shelf. Thanks for reading!
With a rather large school arc now seemingly behind us, we returned home to the cottage at the end of the last volume, where it’s time to wind down and relax a little bit, having dealt with Philomela’s grandmother and the accompanying corruption. Yet trouble stirs almost immediately again as the actions that Chise took by turning into a red dragon and swimming underneath the land have alerted the church and its allies, who are now investigating the incident to figure out who or what is responsible.
We start off this volume with Torrey giving Chise a bit of a history lesson about Britain and the witch hunts, which of course immediately triggers Chise’s visions and she almost ends up adding another curse to her long list of problems. Her being a Sleigh Beggy will never stop putting her into serious trouble whenever she is near anything even remotely magical, but she has good friends and allies here as Ruth jumps in to protect her. Back at Elias home we meet Jasper, the owner of said home and a long time patron of Elias due to a peculiar curse that runs through his family. His sister in law’s baby is currently the latest victim of the curse and they’re here to ask Elias to fix it. We learn about their history in a fun little side story and I wonder if we’ll return to this at some point with Chise putting a permanent stop to the curse. Oh right, and Zoe grows wings.
Josef and Elias meet at the information market where rumors spread. The aforementioned red dragon has been seen swimming under the British Isles and this is not a good sign, with a red dragon having the power to tear the earth apart into little pieces. Not many people and neighbours would appreciate that, but what they don’t know is that Chise is the one responsible. Josef ponders why he’s been left to stay here despite the horrible things he does and Elias basically informs him that he’s so unimportant that it doesn’t matter to him, which pisses Josef right off. Returning to the home, we learn that the first visitor of the year is underway.
The head of the St. George house is here with the official request for Elias and Chise to investigate the dragon, with Simon present to mediate for the church. Elias considers his options for a bit, which is a clear sign of growth for the mage. What’s even more important is that not only does he consider Chise’s safety, he also considers that of some of the other friends he’s made in recent memory, which is a completely new feeling to him. The duo confer and decide to help out with the investigation as long as nothing unsafe happens to Chise. That’s when we learn that Violet and Jasmine are also present, and Chise quickly figures out that there’s something odd about the twins.
This is where the different storylines start to slowly diverge into a common thread. Chise is likely undergoing a form of atavism. It’s a change in mythical creatures which was demonstrated by the dragon that went berserk as well as Zoe earlier in this volume suddenly growing wings. It’s a rare thing that can happen and it might be what is happening to Chise, allowing her to turn into a red dragon. Alongside all of this chaos, the St. George twins reveal that they have their own weird creature to deal with. It seems to be a newborn creature of unknown origin that has grown fond of the twins. They hid it from their father who found out within seconds, then they all hid it from Elias who also found out within seconds. They’re not very good at hiding things, but they think they are.
Lastly we zoom over to Lindell and the dragons, where a stranger approaches and danger lurks. Fortunately, it does seem like this stranger has no ill intent and is instead coming with a request. Hilda St. George asks him to come with her to England.
It seems like we’re still going to learn more about the different alchemist families, focusing on St. George now. They seem like good people and their house being responsible for dealing with all sorts of dangerous creatures probably means they’re pretty capable too. If only this doesn’t end in a tragedy for the twins or another curse for Chise. We can only hope. It looks like we will not have to wait nearly as long for the next volume, as the breaks around the last few volumes were quite long, but it looks like Volume 22 should be out in February or March. Look forward to another run through that volume when I get my hands on it and as always, thanks for reading!
Welcome to a new series I’m starting in 2026 in which we will revisit old series that I personally remember fondly to see if they hold up or not. This won’t be a weekly series, but there will be regular uploads. We’re starting with Rage of Bahamut: Genesis today.
2000 years after a disastrous battle with the ancient dragon of Bahamut – who was sealed by the angels and demons working together – the dragon stirs once again, and strange machinations are afoot. At the center of this conflict we find a quartet of characters who have to somehow navigate a war between angels and demons. Rage of Bahamut is based on a social card game by Cygames studio and is one of three anime to be made as a promotion for the game. Although the English version of the game shut down a decade ago, the Japanese version is still going and out of the many different anime based on games that I’ve seen, this one definitely stands out to me. Let’s talk about it.
As it has for years, this opening sequence has stayed in mind until today. It always gave me a Pirates of the Carribean kind of vibe and it’s stored in the same memory bank as Jack Sparrow running on the water wheel.
Favaro Leone and Kaisar Lidfard are two bounty hunters who are at odds. Kaisar blames Favaro for the death of his family and his fall from nobility and Favaro’s personality as a drunkard, pervert and general lowlife doesn’t help much with Kaisar’s perception of the red afro wearing bounty hunter. Bounties in this world are put on demons and collected in the form of cards, which only bounty hunters can collect and then hand off to Bacchus, the drunken god of wine and slacking off. Bacchus and his duck companion Hansa are returning characters in the series as well and develop a rather close bond with the main cast.
FAAAAAAVAAAAAAAAAROOOOOOOOOOO
One faithful day when Favaro spends the night boasting, he meets a young woman named Amira, who is trying to get to Helheim to see her mother. Favaro quickly proclaims he can bring her there for coin, with absolutely no intention to actually do so. Unfortunately for Favaro, Amira curses him in return, forcing him to accompany her on the harsh journey to this Helheim place. We soon learn that there is more to Amira than meets the eye, as she seems to possess demonic powers and perhaps even something more. She accompanies Favaro on the journey north, being chased by Kaisar.
Former nobility, reluctant bounty hunter Kaisar Lidfard, one of the four characters that make this show so much fun.
After dealing with Rita, a necromancer who lives in a city of zombies due to an old curse, but is sick of her lot in un-life, the quartet of main characters is complete although they’re definitely not all on the same page yet. Of course we learn more about Favaro and Kaisar’s complex history as the story continues, as well as what is the deal with Amira, but I will not get into spoilers for this.
Rita rounds off the main four and she’s a very fun character.
In the midst of this war between angels and demons for the keys to Bahamut, to either keep him sealed or release him and unleash mayhem on the world, there is a holy knight crowned by the archangels in the form of Jeanne D’arc. It wouldn’t be a fantasy story if there wasn’t a depiction of Jeanne D’arc after all. Hero of the people, chosen of the gods and hellbent on saving the world from certain destruction, she and her army are after Amira as she is a demon with one of the keys to Bahamut’s trap. Betrayal and death are around every corner as everyone on all sides of the conflict converges on Helheim for the finale of the story.
When I decided to pick this anime to rewatch, part of me wondered how well the quality would hold up. I remember enjoying the characters a lot – and even on a second watch the main quartet are an absolute joy to spend time with, Favaro most of all – and I remember it having a surprisingly high quality for a game adaptation. I think that quality definitely holds up after more than a decade. It doesn’t look like One Piece during the latest arc, sure, but the animation is serviceable and the darker than common art style fits really well for the dark themes and foggy and dangerous world we find ourselves in. The rest of the production also holds up, although it doesn’t stand out as amazing at any point, it never detracts from the show and I found myself quickly wanting to watch more of it. I’ll definitely cover the sequel anime at some point in the future as well.
This poor girl has not gotten much luck with her lot in life, but she has good friends at least.
So should you watch this show 12 years later even when you have no desire to play the game it’s based on? Yeah, I’d say so. I never played the game either, but I thoroughly enjoyed every second of the original run and my rewatch. Favaro, Rita and Kaisar are incredible characters with quite a lot of humor to them. I feel less strongly about Amira, but she is also more or less just a plot device given a voice. She’s not bad, but also the least memorable of the quartet. Supporting cast are fun, animations and art are solid, and the ending is satisfying. There isn’t really anything bad I can say about the show, so if you like fantasy stories with angels, demons and talking ducks, then definitely check out Rage of Bahamut: Genesis.
If you came here for another scathing review about the dumpster fire that is One Punch Man season 3, I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you. While I did watch it, I don’t think there’s anything I can say that hasn’t been said already. Instead I want to talk about another anime that involved punching, which I did enjoy very much: May I ask for one final thing?
Even Saitama is bored with being there.
A young Scarlet El Vandimion has been betrothed to the second prince of the Kingdom of Pallistan since childhood. But her prince turned out to be a real piece of work throughout his youth. That’s what you get for naming your son Kyle, I suppose. At a party for nobles he announces that he’s breaking the engagement with Scarlet, who has been silently bearing with his abuse. Now free from her shackles, she asks for one final thing. To punch both prince Kyle as well as his new girlfriend, Terenezza in their faces. She dons her punching gloves – which have studs on the knuckles because we don’t do things half-assed here – and punches the crap out of the many nobles in attendance as well as prince Kyle and Terenezza.
To the despair of her brother, this is far from the only nickname that Scarlet earns during this series.
This show really shines when it does exactly what it promises at the start. Scarlet punching the crap out of people who are written to be disliked is a very satisfying plot hook that is definitely a breath of fresh air. We have many villainess anime where someone is transported to another world to be the villainess, but to have the actual villainess beat up the person from another world for being a whiny person is a new one to me. Together with prince Julius (Kyle’s older brother) and the weredog Nanaka, this trio deals with all sorts of trouble throughout the kingdom as Terenezza is plotting to take over the entire place with her newly founded religion.
This poor guy can’t catch a break.
Where this show falls off a little bit for me is when we get into the second half and we start to actually develop a plotline about wars, alliances and different gods and powers. If I’m perfectly honest, the storylines surrounding that are rather boring, but the show manages to quickly regain your attention by having Scarlet ignore all protocol and just beat the crap out of whoever is in their path. Julius’ annoying provocations and the despair of Scarlet’s older brother about having to deal with his little sister add some nice light comedy to the show. With solid art, vibrant colors – especially when it comes to Scarlet’s design, who embodies the color that her name suggests – and decent animation, this show stands out above similar shows for me. If you like a show that doesn’t require you to do much thinking, but has some very satisfying moments, then I would highly recommend you check out May I ask for one final thing?. If only to get rid of the bad aftertaste that One Punch Man season 3 left. Thanks for reading.
Do not be fooled by his fake smile, this guy cannot be trusted.That is the correct response.
This review contains big spoilers for the original Bioshock game, basically revealing the core plotline. If you are just here to see if you should play it, then the answer is undoubtedly a resounding yes.
Would you kindly?
Powerful words. A polite way of asking someone to do something for you. On the surface it’s a completely innocent phrase, and on its own it is nothing more than that. But the writers of the 2007 game Bioshock use it to manipulate us and show us one of the most incredible stories that video gaming has been able to share with us. In my journey to make it through my gaming backlog I have included a couple of games I wanted to replay again since it has been many years, and the Bioshock series is part of this. Mainly because I never got the second game to work on my computer back in the day, so I only played the original Bioshock and then Infinite. Now I’m replaying the entire trilogy.
Bioshock takes place in the underwater city of Rapture. Built by an oligarch named Andrew Ryan, it is supposed to be a paradise away from the regular constraints of society. No pesky government to take your taxes from you, no pesky morality, no one bossing you around, just working hard and expressing yourself in the ways you want to express yourself. What could possibly go wrong? That’s where we come in. At the time we first make our way into Rapture, things have already gone horribly wrong. Most of the people living in the underwater city have fully lost their minds and the culprit is a substance named Adam. Without going full midichlorian on you, Adam is a substance that allows you to alter your body and give you superpowers. It rewrites your DNA and it is used to power up the protagonist in the games. The problem with Adam is that most get addicted to it and it makes the person unstable. This results in the addicts we fight throughout the game known as splicers. They were once humans who – due to using Adam on their body – have totally lost it. Then we also have the big daddies and little sisters, who go around harvesting the Adam from deceased splicers. Big daddies are guys in big suits that walk around protecting the little sister, a genetically modified little girl that can harvest Adam from corpses. In this crazy underwater world, we need to find a way back to safety and our only ally in all of this is a man by the name of Atlas.
Atlas tells us that his family is stuck and he’s trying to escape with them to the surface, and if we would so kindly assist him in his escape. We’re a good guy, so we obviously do and we soon come face to face with our first little sister, making the most important decision of the game. Do we harvest her or do we save her? We’re a good guy, so we obviously saved her. In neither of my playthroughs did I have the heart to go for the bad ending. We now get a little bit of Adam and the thanks of Tenenbaum, the person who seems to be responsible for these girls’ condition but is now trying to fix her ways. We continue our journey through Rapture and meet all sorts of strange people, most of whom are trying to kill us. Eventually we get to the escape pod for Atlas’ family but Andrew Ryan kills them. Now fueled by revenge, our goal is to go after the man himself, the capitalist anti-government creep named Andrew Ryan. After making our way through parts of Rapture, fixing up some systems and disabling some guard systems, we go into Ryan’s office and “kindly kill the son of a bitch.” It is here that Ryan reveals to us that we were a sleeper agent all along, working for Atlas – nay, Frank Fontaine – and being activated by the phrase would you kindly. On my first playthrough I did not expect this twist at all. Ryan manipulates this phrase to get us to kill him and we’re now at the mercy of Atlas who tells us to kill ourselves, but fails. It turns out that Frank Fontaine (Atlas), Tenenbaum and a scientist by the name of Dr. Suchong were the ones who created us and faked our personality while putting the activation phrases in our head. Tenenbaum feels remorse and removes some of the damage from us, while Suchong was killed by a big daddy during an experiment. Most of this lore we learn through audio logs that you can find throughout Rapture and it’s really nice that you can just hit play on those while you continue the game or choose to listen to them and wait. This is a feature more storygames need to add. Either way, we now have a new task. Deal with Frank Fontaine and save the little sisters.
The gameplay of Bioshock is mostly a lot of fun because of the resource management. You get money and ammunition from enemies as well as health and Eve hypos (mana). Yes, you need Eve to use more of your Adam powers. What makes it fun is that if you aren’t great at shooters – like me – you need to plan ahead, especially when fighting a big daddy. So put down some traps, make sure you have some grenades and anti-armor rounds and look for a spot where you can kite the enemies enough to have some cover. That last part feels like it is often a lost cause. The game isn’t so hard that it’s a problem, but I do remember struggling a lot more on my first playthrough. I didn’t play games as much as I do now, so I was really bad. Now it wasn’t that hard and the final boss fight felt very easy, but none of that detracted from my enjoyment at all.
What stands out in Bioshock to me isn’t so much the gameplay – which is solid considering it is a 20 year old game – but most of all the atmosphere. The combination of often somber and intense music with the dark environment, the beautiful ocean floor and the real feeling of Bioshock being a space that was once thriving – we get to see some of this in a DLC for Bioshock Infinite – makes this a truly haunting experience. I will never forget a scene early on in the game where we first get our shotgun. Right after picking it up from the corpse of a splicer, the lights turn off and we’re stuck with only a small spotlight. In the dark we can hear other splicers moving around and taunting us, before they attack us in waves. That scene genuinely freaked me out both times I played through it. The vending machines have some of the most memorable marketing tunes and add onto it a sometimes fun, sometimes very frustrating hacking minigame and you even managed to make shopping a tense experience.
There is much more to talk about when it comes to this game, which is impressive considering you can get through it in less than 10 hours if you rush things, but I recommend taking your time. I am not one who cares much for story in video games. I find that it’s often hard to tell a truly good story that can compete with movies or books in the setting of a video game, since the gameplay can sometimes take you out of it. But the way Bioshock feeds you information while you play, doesn’t force you to stand still and listen, but really lets you experience things at your own pace, while constantly keeping you occupied and tense really works wonders. Even if you did play this game when you were younger, I would recommend you play it again if it has been a while. Or let me rephrase that. Would you kindly (re)play the Bioshock series? Thanks for reading.
It is not an easy task to create a proper top 10 anime. As of writing this, my anime list has well over 1250 entries and it is ever growing. To choose my all time favorites was not easy, and I will start off this post by telling you all that this list will likely change over time. As a matter of fact, In the month or so I’ve been working on it, I have changed one of the entries and adjusted the positions of three. But I am pretty happy with how the list turned out. There are some asterisks here and there throughout but I will explain those as we get to them. At the very least this will be a great list of anime and I hope there are at least one or two shows on the list that you can check out for yourself after reading this. So let’s not waste time and start with number ten.
10. That time I got reincarnated as a slime
This show has many great moments, lots of them more emotional than this one, but the pure joy I experienced when Rimuru let this attack go is indescribable. This is my favorite shot of the entire anime for that reason.
I have made no secret of my love for the Isekai genre. The concept of being transported to another world through some means has always drawn me in. I think it comes from a very clear longing in the current day for something different. Now this isn’t a cry for help, I’m medicated these days, but wouldn’t it be great if one day you woke up as a little slime and started building your own kingdom while making lots of friends along the way? Just me? Well Rimuru gets to live that life after being stabbed to death in modern day Japan. He finds himself in a dark cave and quickly gains some pretty impressive powers through what seems to be divine intervention followed by becoming friends with a dragon. As Rimuru makes his way through his new world he turns wild monsters into friends, builds his own city, joins a council of demons and even starts his own kingdom while toppling others. While doing all of this, a lot of the focus of this show is also on the quieter moments that are in between the fighting. For this reason some people have called it slow and boring at times and if that’s not your favorite type of content then I definitely understand that sentiment. But as someone who loves a slower story that pays off everything it sets up this show hits all the right spots. Some parts of the worldbuilding were so quiet and lovely that they made an entire spin-off show for it that is basically just a fantasy slice of life show. I have never been more comfortable laying in my bed watching an anime than while watching that spin-off. I highly recommend this show to anyone who likes the Isekai genre and I am excited to one day start reading the novels as well. If I can ever make it through my backlog.
Destroying your enemies without mercy is important, but festivals are even more important!
9. Ore Monogatari
Sometimes, being Sunakawa is suffering
Oitsukenaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaai, Oitsukenai noni, totsuzen monogatari. When I just think about this show, the first line of its beautiful opening by artist Trustrick – who are as unfamiliar to me besides this song as they probably are to you – immediately jumps into my mind and I can’t help but belt it. It’s honestly hard to believe that this show is a decade old already, it feels like just yesterday when I first fell in love with the romance anime genre through watching this show. That might be a bit unfair, there were other romance anime I enjoyed before watching this one, but this show taught me that shojo romance hits my feelings in a way I didn’t think was possible. It’s since been followed up by incredible shows like Horimiya, Skip & Loafer, Sakurasou and more recently a sign of affection, but as the first in the genre to truly make me cry tears of joy this show will always hold that special place in my heart. Gouda – a high school student, not the city I used to work in or the cheese named after it – is a big man but he’s not particularly popular with the girls. His friend Sunakawa is much more popular but he’s not all that interested in romance. One day, Takeo (Gouda) helps out a schoolmate named Yamato when she’s being harassed on the train. Not long after, the two start dating and we get to experience all of the joy and worry of budding love among two teenagers who have absolutely no idea what they’re doing. It’s a very funny show and the romance between the two characters starts pretty early on, so we don’t spend an entire season waiting for something to happen. Misunderstandings often get resolved pretty quickly and the characters actually communicate pretty well for anime characters. If you like shows like Horimiya and Skip & Loafer – which both could have made this spot as well – then you’ll enjoy this one too.
They’re somehow the most perfect pair
8. Ace of Diamond
The seniors have got to show the rookies who’s boss at least once per sports anime
For the first five spots on this list I also looked at what genre of anime I really enjoy and then which of the shows within that genre have stuck with me the most. For traditional sports anime that has got to be Ace of Diamond. A baseball anime about a team that is a powerhouse within their own region but struggles to make that next step that will bring them to nationals. With enough members to have a full first and second string as well as numerous bench players this allows for many different characters to be introduced. We follow a young Sawamura who has talent but needs a lot of time and work to get polished into being an actually good pitcher as opposed to a predictable pitcher with one good throw that eventually gets figured out. And he is not even the only talented pitcher within his team, as several others are also gunning for this position. In a team this competitive you need to constantly improve or you’ll soon be benched for the guy behind you who is working harder than you. Lucky for us, Sawamura is a hard worker and although it definitely takes some time, we get to see him perform on the stage of his dreams. On his road there we learn about the personalities of his seniors, the other people in his year, the management team and the coach and we even start to root for some of the other teams in the competition as many of the teams you face have their own charm and backstories, and it sometimes even becomes difficult to choose which team to root for. On top of that, the matches in this anime are quite unpredictable at times. Sometimes you think the protagonists have to win for the story to continue and then they lose and we follow someone else for a while as Seirin goes back to the drawing board. The characters are fun, the matches are very tense and the story just flows really well. If you like sports anime and haven’t seen this one yet, do yourself a favor. There are over 100 episodes of it, so you won’t be bored for a little while.
Everyone’s favorite scheming catcher; Miyuki
7. Bakuman
Although I don’t think I’ve seen any of my students draw their classmates yet – at least not in a flattering way – I’ve seen many of them doodle instead of do their work, so this is pretty accurate.
The feeling of wanting to make it big by bringing your stories to life is a relatable feeling to me. Having a family member who also told stories is also a relatable feeling. My grandfather – who I never met unfortunately – wrote a book before I was born. Reading a story about two kids who work really hard to become manga authors is something I can relate to. This story follows two high school boys as they work together to create manga and get them published and turned into anime eventually. We watch their growth as authors, their meetings with the people from Jump and their competition with others from their own age and older. As talented as the two are, they are also trying to write manga at the same time that another boy who is a once in a generation genius is trying to write manga. He is their main competition and I’m pretty sure he’s based on Oda. The manga was written by the same duo of authors that wrote Death Note and a good part of the story is based around their own experiences, so they know what they’re talking about. There are a few other anime that I would consider to be in the same genre about creating some form of art. I almost put one of them – Shirobako – in this spot. Other similar shows you could watch are New Game, Keep your hands off Eizouken and Sakura Quest. But out of all these, I think Bakuman still feels the most well rounded and was the most enjoyable. It’s not always super accurate of course as a lot of the story is heavily romanticized, but if you like learning a little bit about how manga publication works, this is a great show. Definitely give it a watch.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned throughout the years it is that most manga authors are at least a little bit strange. I think Bakuman does a good job of portraying them as such.
6. The Ancient Magus Bride
I promise you that this isn’t that sort of anime, it’s actually pretty wholesome most of the time.
One of the first manga I bought when I first started collecting manga more avidly. I just fell in love with this anime from the first second that I watched it. The gorgeously drawn British countryside, the fascinating mythology that I love to learn more about, fictional or real and the interesting character dynamics. At a surface level, the relationship between Elias and Chise is incredibly messed up, with one being a teenage girl and the other being a borderline eldritch horror that’s already lived for many long years. But the more time we spend with these characters, the more the roles almost start to reverse as we learn Elias isn’t nearly as mature as you would expect and Chise is much less a weak little girl than she seems at first. Not to mention the fact that Elias’ idea of marriage is very different from how we see it and has no creepy undertones at all. Despite me mentioning all of these things, the story follows a complicated relationship between two fundamentally broken people that try to navigate a confusing and magical world filled with danger around every corner. As the story continues, Chise and Elias enroll in a university for sorcerers where they get embroiled in a much larger plot and have to be very careful to get out of this unscathed. If you like fantasy, mythology and a slow but never boring coming of age story, then this show has to be on your radar, it’s one of the very best in the genre. Unfortunately there will likely not be a third season anytime soon, considering there is only one (translated) volume out beyond the end of the season 2 anime since the author took a bit of a break between volumes. Still, the story is continuing and the anime finished most things up quite nicely so it’s far from a bad spot to end the story for now. Treat yourself to some wonder and watch this show.
This anime – and the manga – loves using flowers to make the environment really pop, and they’ve done a great job bringing that to life with all this color.
Intermission with some honorable mentions
It’s been so long since I’ve seen these nerds, what a blast from the past and a reminder how cozy this show was. Well, until shit hit the fan, that is.
There were so many shows that could have made this list but didn’t. I considered the recently popular Solo Leveling, but since it didn’t get to the point of the story that I really love yet I decided against it. When it gets fully animated it might make this list. I considered classics like Fullmetal Alchemist, Steins Gate and Attack on Titan, but none of them give me that urge to rewatch them as much as the others on this list do. And although some of my top picks are definitely the same as the most popular anime of all time, I think there are very few shows that are recommended more often than FMA, so that one really doesn’t need a spot on a list like this.
I think I’ve made it pretty clear by now that I like shows that play with my emotions, and Vinland Saga 2 does just that, and it does an incredible job of it.
Vinland Saga season 2 would make the top 10 with confidence, but I didn’t really enjoy the first season nearly as much, which is why it failed to reach this top. A place further than the universe, Shirobako and Yuru Camp all almost took the spot of Bakuman, but I think the tenure that Bakuman has put it over the edge for me. Yuru Camp will be in my manga top most likely, so look forward to that in the future. Many of you are probably wondering where One Piece is on this list, but I find that the anime has too many flaws for me to put it on this list. I almost put the One Piece Fan Letter OVA on this list instead as a standalone episode, that is beyond brilliant. The incredible seinen action show Mononogatari is probably the show I would put in 11th place, so if there’s none on this list that you haven’t seen yet, give that one a watch instead. But with the honorable mentions out of the way, let’s dive into the 5 best anime I’ve ever watched. Drumroll please.
These two make for such a great duo
5. Ranking of Kings
One episode in and he’s already getting scolded by his stepmom
This is probably the most divisive entry on the list. Putting aside reviews on anime websites – as those are generally the most stuck-up people on the internet finding every little flaw in a show and making them as big as they can – there are quite a few people who find this story boring, think the writing is sloppy and say it’s not a really good anime. Despite all that, I think it was relatively popular in its time and it struck just the right emotional nerves for me to firmly jump into this top list. Ranking of Kings follows Bojji, a young prince who was born deaf. Not only that, he’s far weaker than his brother and seems to be all around not very talented. In a world where the kings of different nations are quite literally ranked and the most powerful ones get to take some very special treasures with them, Bojji seems to be lost. He doesn’t let it bother him all that much though as he’s a very positive little boy, despite getting hurt at times by the people around him. We follow Bojji as he goes on a quest with Kage, his newly made friend who is from a race of persecuted shadow people. The two become quick friends and go on a journey. While this is all happening, the kingdom is in the midst of a conspiracy that involves everyone that Bojji cares about. The protectors of the realm are divided, the king has made a deal with the devil and throughout all of this a monster is approaching fast. Bojji and Kage need to navigate this web of intrigue to save the kingdom and their family. Bojji’s stepmom is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction writing and an incredible example of how to write a strong female character that isn’t physically all that impressive. The opening Hadaka no Yuusha by Vaundy is also an incredible song and combined with the stellar animation and art style this show makes for a fantastic experience that I believe to be very underrated. I will add that the story itself does feel a little bit forced at times, it’s not the perfect story, but I think that all the other aspects of this show more than make up for that, and I would never say the story is bad.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the shadiest of them all?
4. Chihayafuru
Studying time.
Had I made this list about two years ago, this show would have been in the number 2 spot. That might give you some hints about the upcoming picks in the top 3, but let’s first talk about an anime that doesn’t get nearly as much attention as the rest of the top 5. Chihayafuru is a strange anime. It tells the story of Chihaya, a high school girl who is obsessed with Karuta. Karuta is a Japanese game of memorization and speed where poetry is read out by someone and it is up to the two players to then tap the correct cards on the ground in front of them. The poem read is the first half and the text on the cards is the second half of this poem, so you need to know these poems to be able to play the game. If you’re not sold on the concept by this description then don’t worry, neither was I when I first heard about it. The sole reason I started to watch this anime in the first place was because I heard the opening song by 99RadioService. They did the openings for all three seasons and the vocalist has a very pleasant voice. Chihaya and her club gather more members, compete in tournaments and meet all sorts of players from across the region. Nestled between all of these games – as some of the show is structured like a sports anime – is a romantic subplot that really tugs at the heartstrings at times. Chihaya is a very likeable character, but she would probably be quite the frustrating person to be around at times. Dense as can be and very little regard for social cues she often makes the people that fall for her suffer due to her lack of understanding. Despite this pretty big flaw in her character, the story never feels very frustrating and I think a lot of the romantic subplot is handled quite well. This one is definitely a comfort anime for me and I’m probably rewatching it after I finish this blogpost.
This show can get quite tense and competitive at times, like a proper sports anime, which makes the downtime feel much more comfortable in exchange.
3. The Apothecary Diaries
This is how it all starts, the awkward servant girl who is much more clever than your average servant gets immediately spotted by the scheming eunuch.
This show caught me completely by surprise. When it first aired I didn’t immediately watch it because it didn’t seem all that interesting to me. Yet I heard the buzz around it soon after so I gave it a shot and I was incredibly surprised. Apothecary Diaries follows Maomao, a young apothecary who is kidnapped and forced to work in the rear palace, a place where the emperor lives. In this part of the palace the only people allowed are the Emperor and his family, women and eunuchs. After quickly catching the eye of Jinshi, an attendant who is a beautiful young man, she is put in his employ. She helps with the medical issues in the palace and soon gets caught up in all sorts of problems. Her love for poisons gets her in trouble more often than not and she ends up working for several of the high ranking concubines throughout her time in the palace. She becomes good friends with two other servants and her relationship with Jinshi gets more complicated as time goes on. Even the eunuch doesn’t seem to be exactly who he says he is. This show gives the viewer just enough information to figure some things out before they’re revealed but also doesn’t assume we need our hand held at every step. Maomao is a fun main character and none of her flaws make her unlikable. The supporting cast complements her well and there isn’t a single boring episode. With season 2 diving much deeper into some of the political upheaval in the region we get a much better insight into the world of Apothecary Diaries and with a third season already announced for 2026 there is no good reason not to watch this one. The fact that the number 2 and 3 spots aired during the exact same season shows what an incredible season it was.
This is the same girl as the one in the previous screenshot, I promise.
2. Frieren: Beyond journey’s end
Because that’s right, the next entry on this list is Frieren, which originally aired alongside Apothecary Diaries in the fall of 2023. This one I was much more interested in from the start since I watched Gigguk’s video that he made on the manga, recommending it. The concept seemed interesting but I never expected to love it as much as I ended up doing. Frieren is an elven mage who has lived for over a millennium and has learned much in those years. Despite that, she’s still considered to be relatively young for an elf and the way she ages differently from those around her makes her a bad fit for joining up with communities. Still, she ends up joining Himmel the hero on his journey to the northern continent to deal with the demon king and end the war between humans and demons. The 10 year long adventure ends with success and Himmel and his party are crowned heroes of the realm. They split up after a job well done and agree to come visit now and then.
This moment from episode one was so powerful that I immediately knew I was in for a treat and it never disappointed for even a second after this.
50 years have passed since Himmel the hero defeated the demon king and Frieren suddenly remembers that he has something of hers and that they wanted to see a meteor shower that comes once every 50 years, so she decides to visit. To her surprise, both Himmel and Heiter – the humans in their party – are incredibly old and not long after their trek to see the meteors he passes away from old age, Heiter dying not many years later. Standing emotionless at Himmel’s funeral, the words from the onlookers that she’s not even crying hit her harder than she thought. It was merely a 10 year journey right? Not even one-one hundredth of her life. Despite it being only a short journey, she only now starts to realize how much she enjoyed that short journey and she wants to learn more about humans and about her friends that are now partially gone. She takes on an apprentice in Fern, who was adopted by Heiter, the corrupt priest of the party and they are joined by Stark, who was the apprentice of Eisen, the warrior of their original party. This trio travels north to find heaven, the place where spirits rest.
I had to include the scene that became a meme format, this girl is beyond dense sometimes.
I’ve talked a lot about the core of the story, but on top of these emotional and reflective moments, the series also contains quite a bit of action that is done incredibly well. This series is incredibly rounded and with great animation, voice talent and incredible opening songs by both Yorushika and Yoasobi – which are some of my favorite Japanese artists – the music is also fully sorted. There are few anime that make me feel the way that Frieren makes me feel and manages to tug on my heartstrings as much with both sadness and happiness. But if there is one anime that can compete, it would be the next and final entry on this list.
What makes a good anime feel complete is when the supporting cast feels not only interesting but also like they’re real people with their own story. Frieren nails that feeling as I want to know more about the lives of everyone in this screenshot.
1. March comes in like a lion
The quiet focus of a professional match, beautifully scored with calming piano music that picks up in intensity as the games do the same. Also look at my boy Nikaidou 😀 I love this kid.
The only entry on this list that has held its position for many years and to me stands head and shoulders above the rest. March comes in like a lion follows a young Kiriyama Rei. At 17 years old he is a talented and up and coming shogi player. Shogi is more or less a more complicated take on chess and I will immediately put you at ease that you do not need to understand the game to enjoy this anime at all. I still don’t fully understand most of it, but as long as you understand the basic goals of the game you’re fine. Kiriyama never really asked for these chances in life, but after his parents died and he was adopted by a friend of his father it felt like being good at shogi was his only path to belonging, so he fervently chased after it. Now he’s 17, skipping school and depressed in his own apartment. He doesn’t get along with his family in a healthy way, he pushes his only friend away due to not having the skills to get along with him and he feels most at home at the shogi hall just because he feels like he belongs. Kiriyama lives a lonely life.
Although Sangatsu has many incredible characters, these three are the heart and soul of the show.
Or that’s how it seems to him, and this is also why this portrayal of mental health struggles hits so incredibly hard. Many of us feel lonelier than we truly are. His stepdad cares for him in his own weird way. His friend Nikaidou cares for him greatly and pushes through his own illness to make sure his friend is okay and gets checked up on. The people at the shogi hall all feel responsible for him and make sure they keep an eye on him. But it takes until he meets the Kawamoto sisters randomly that he truly starts learning what his place in the world is. Kawamoto Akari is a hostess at the club where Kiriyama is taken one day by his seniors at the shogi hall. Fully drunk and passed out by the time the club closes down, Akari decides to bring him back to their cozy house where she lives with her two younger sisters and her grandfather. They get Kiriyama back on his feet and after realizing how lonely he is they start inviting him over. Despite not being his family, he starts feeling more and more at ease around them before the dark thoughts return. Still, they make sure to keep pulling him out of the dark place he’s in and it works. He becomes more and more at ease with who he is and we see Kiriyama’s journey from the darkest depths of his depression to a much better place. He gets all the help he needs from those around him and although it’s hard to see this when you are in this dark place, it is often true that there are people who care about us, even when we can’t see it. We’re social creatures after all.
All you need to know about this guy is that he’s a predator and we violently hate him
There are so many incredible characters in this story that just thinking about them puts a smile on my face. From his teacher who is a fan of shogi and makes sure that Kiriyama doesn’t fail school despite being a truant for most of it to the members of the science club that take him in as one of theirs and brighten his day. From his seniors at the shogi hall to his opponents who invite him to their club. And finally and most importantly the Kawamoto family is always there for him with Hina going through her own problems at school while the toddler Momo is a joy for sore eyes. The slightly weird art style that is often part of Studio Shaft products really fits this show well and the opening themes are all incredible. They have Orion by the powerhouse of Jpop that is Kenshi Yonezu as well as Bump of Chicken’s Answer. The later season has two songs by Yuki, out of which Sayonara bystander is probably my favorite. I will only give a warning that this is probably not a good show to watch when you’re in a dark place. The show gets much lighter as it goes on, but I think diving into the portrayal of depression could make your own mental health problems worse, so be aware of that.
Doofus 1 and Doofus 2
And now time for some closing thoughts. I’ve been thinking about making a list like this for a while and it was quite fun although it took a lot more time and effort than I expected. It wasn’t hard to find ten anime I loved, but narrowing it down to exactly ten and then figuring out their order was definitely a challenge. I’m happy with the result and although I’m sure that when you ask me in a year or so this list will look different, I’m happy uploading this post. There are many more anime that I really loved and didn’t mention in this post, so please do not crucify me that your favorite anime didn’t make this list. Feel free to recommend it to me in the comments below and I’ll let you know if I’ve watched it or not. And let me know what your own favorite anime are. For now, I recognize this was a long post, but hopefully you got some ideas on what to watch next. Thanks for reading!
It’s 2025. After all these long years I finally sat down and read Douglas Adams’ The Hitch-Hiker’s guide to the Galaxy. I first heard about this story when I watched the movie about it with a buddy of mine. That’s right, the one with Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent. I don’t remember too much about this movie except thinking it was very weird and complicated at times. Years later – when I was still quite young – I tried reading the book, but I could never really get into it. Despite this, I still bought the remaining books in the poorly named “trilogy” and since I’m both trying to read more as well as diversifying the sort of books I’m reading, it was time for me to give this book another shot. And I was pleasantly surprised.
For those of you unfamiliar with the book, The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide is a book based on a radio play about an Englishman who ends up traveling through space after Earth is blown up. His good friend Ford Prefect – which he thought would be a good cover name – is actually an alien from Betelgeuse Nine and he brings Arthur along when he escapes earth on a Vogon ship. The two later get picked up in a ship with Trillian – the only other earthling who happened to escape a few months prior – and Zaphod Beeblebrox, a strange fellow with two faces who was the president of the galaxy for a while and is also a cousin to Ford. The four of them make their way to a planet rumored to exist but considered a myth by most and meet some interesting figures.
What makes this novel ‘tick’ is the humor it uses. It will describe the most insane concepts that clearly make no sense at all with a seriousness that makes you believe they’re really thought out. It talks about how a phrase yelled into nothingness is sent through a wormhole millions of years back and happens to be the exact same as an insult that causes two races who were about to make peace wage war for many more generations instead. This story ends with them figuring out what happened and teaming up to attack earth, only to be swallowed by a single dog as they vastly misjudged the size difference. All of what I just talked about was only a throwaway side story in two pages before we return to the main story again.
The main story itself is interesting too. The concept behind it seems to be that these travelers are somehow influenced to go here and although we don’t quite learn all of what is going on, it does make for an interesting background. What really makes this book good for me is the final part on the planet of Magrathea. They meet an old man named Slartibartfast – yes it’s impressive someone made this up – and they then come face to face with the mice that were actually the smartest creatures on earth. They ran an experiment through earth, making it basically a giant super computer, but due to the Vogons’ interference they never got the result they needed. You see, researchers managed to build the second most intelligent super computer a long time ago and this told them that the answer to life, the universe and everything was ‘42’. But they never managed to figure out the question that this number answers. Since the second most intelligent computer couldn’t figure it out, they had to build an even more intelligent one. Now they need to start again from zero while our cast of weirdos make their way to the restaurant at the end of the universe.
One thing I took away from this story is how progressive it can seem at times. I want to look at one scene towards the end of the novel as a specific example of what I mean. While trying to escape from the mice on Magrathea, our fantastic four run into two cops that are chasing Zaphod for stealing the Heart of gold. Many years before the “acab” movement ever caught steam, this novel speaks about two cops who are just as violent as the other cops, but they’re the good apples because instead of bragging about shooting someone they go home to their wives and cry about not having another choice. Needless to say they still start blasting immediately. It’s a fun little commentary on the way the world works that I didn’t expect to find in a novel from almost 50 years ago. Also, Marvin depressing a ship so much it commits suicide is very funny.
I didn’t expect to talk this much about a book that’s only 180 pages, but it left more of an impression on me than I expected. I’m excited to read the other four books in the trilogy and I’ll share my thoughts on them as I go through them. I’ll be reading a lot more throughout the year and I’ll try and update you folks at times about what I’ve read and what I recommend. For now, I’m going to sleep since it’s already late and I have to teach first period tomorrow. Thanks for reading!
Volume 86 marks the 20th anniversary of the One Piece manga. For those of us who can do math, that’s about 4 volumes a year, with a little bit extra. Oda at this point in time admits that maybe he should start taking the series a bit more seriously. Which he then contradicts almost immediately by having a terrifying mafioso talk to his baby boy all cutesy. Anyway, the emperor assassination plan is in full swing as Bege tells us what the plan actually entails. It turns out that Big Mom is almost invincible but she has a weakness. She had a portrait of someone named “mother Carmel” which when destroyed causes her to scream out so loudly everyone gets disabled for a few seconds. With the help of CC’s rocket they’ll then take out Big Mom. And Bege – against all wisdom – has put Luffy in charge of destroying the picture frame. He already has ideas for a funny entrance. Poor Bege. I can’t believe the manga is going to make me feel bad for a bloodthirsty murderer because he’ll have to deal with Luffy’s crap.
Now we get to what I believe will be the most important part of this arc, although we have some time to get to the ramifications of what some of these characters represent. The underworld emperors all arrive at Big Mom’s territory for her wedding. There are several names but I want to focus on three of them. First up is Stussy. She’s the queen of the red light district although we’re not told what that means exactly. She’s a young woman who looks rather frail but knowing how Oda likes to draw his women, that’s not that strange. The second character I want to look at is Morgans. Morgans is a crucial character in this story who has been looming over us for a very long time without us really knowing much about him. The newspaper that gets delivered everywhere in the world is delivered by his company. He is in charge of the media and he decides what gets shown to the world and what doesn’t. He’s probably also the reason why it was so easy for Big Mom to mess with Sanji’s wanted poster. The company that writes these papers is called the World Economic Journal, which I’m assuming is based on the World Economic Forum in our own world. Lastly, a character that we know very little about to this day; Umit. Pretty much everything we learn about Umit, we learn in this chapter. But the reason I want to pay some attention to him here is because of his epithet. Deep Sea Current Umit. There has been a long running theory about the deep sea currents in the world of One Piece. Many questions are often asked about Shanks’ incredible ability to traverse the world at the blink of an eye, seemingly teleporting all around. We also know that there are some deep sea currents around Fishman Island, as the crew made use of one to get there. So a running theory is that there are certain people (pirates, underworld brokers) who know how to properly navigate these tremendously fast deep sea currents, getting across the world very quickly without being noticed. This explains how Shanks could intercept Kaidou in the New World before arriving at Marineford only a little bit later. It’s also suspected that the Moby Dick traveled a similar way and there’s even a running theory that the reason why Rayleigh became a ship coater is because the deep sea currents will end up being very important at a later date. I’m very curious to see where all of this leads but I recognize that we’ve gone off topic far too much, so let’s return to the actual story being told here.
One big roadblock will be Charlotte Katakuri, the strongest man in Big Mom’s crew whose Haki is so advanced he can even see a few moments into the future. His very first act is assassinating someone before they can start firing their own weapon, so you know he’s a badass. I still remember when we were first introduced to this character and he was so damn cool. This immediately poses to be a problem as his prediction sees how Pudding falls to the ground after Sanji calls her third eye beautiful and she’s shocked by this. He tries to fix the scenario but his deadly attack on Sanji misses, causing the priest’s gun to go off and allowing for Luffy’s funny entrance. Of course it was going to be funny, a whole host of fake Luffys jump out of the cake all at once, surprising everyone at the tea party.
From here on out, shit hits the fan and so much happens that I doubt I can cover it all, so apologies if I miss things. I’ll go over the important stuff. While Jinbe confronts Big Mom about leaving the crew, Brook – disguised as Luffy – shatters the picture of mother Carmel. It’s good that he went in as a backup since actual Luffy was defeated by Katakuri in about a moment. While Caesar is trying to find his moment, Bege pretends to be on Big Mom’s side and takes Luffy into custody. Many of the top officers of Big Mom’s crew get to work because Pudding failed to do her job. They all put their weapons to the heads of the Germa members, who can only laugh while Judge weeps. He caused his own downfall and none of his children really care, they mainly just respect the hustle. Elsewhere on the floor, Katakuri has a grim look on his face which Bege rightfully interprets as a disaster waiting for the Big Mom pirates. He lets Luffy go and he shows the broken picture to Big Mom, causing her to scream out, stunning everyone just like they planned.
We then learn about Big Mom’s past. She was abandoned by her parents at the age of 5, because she was far too dangerous. She outgrew everyone around her and had monstrous strength. She was left on the island of Elbaf where an orphanage fun by Mother Carmel was. This orphanage actually worked on creating spies and soldiers for the navy, but no one outside of Mother Carmel and the navy knew about it. Because the orphanage was on Elbaf, they interacted with the giants and during the period of fasting, Linlin got so angry from her hunger that she attacked one of the two village chiefs, killing him. The orphanage then had to leave the village and went elsewhere on the island where they eventually celebrated Linlin’s 6th birthday. It was during this birthday that Charlotte Linlin ended up eating her croquembouche, the table, her fellow orphans and even mother Carmel, gaining her devil fruit powers in the process. It also earned her the eternal hatred of all of the giants in the world. Back in the present day, she lets out a scream so strong that the weapons don’t work and their escape mirror gets shattered. With no real way out, everyone retreats into Bege’s body.
With no real way out, we have to regroup inside of Bege while Big Mom is back in control over her mind. Gathered here are the Tank pirates, the Straw Hat pirates as well as the now free Germa members who probably aren’t too happy about being saved by Sanji and his friends. I know this was a long one, but a lot happened in this volume. There are even some things I haven’t talked about, like what’s happening with the underworld broker, but we’ll get to that when it comes back in the next volume. I hope you’re enjoying this incredibly chaotic arc and I hope to see you all here again next week to see where the story goes.
Opal Kaharis 