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Cake day: November 3rd, 2023

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  • I do think the animation for the Anaak/Ran fight was a step up from some earlier low points, but that is a pretty low bar to clear. I wholeheartedly agree about the rules of these games though. I have stopped trying to keep track of the rules for these things since that team-building game earlier in the season. The rules always end up getting changed, people exploit some loophole, or they are just ignored entirely.

    The second half of the episode (post fight) felt like three episodes in one it moved so fast. They literally only showed one panning shot of Endorsi before she was sneaking around again. Like, what is the point of even showing that party if nothing happened there. Then we conveniently have a group of major characters literally run into each other. For elite warriors, they seem to be pretty clumsy.

    As for Lero Ro, I was waiting for him to show back up at some point. At the end of last season, he had quit his role of administrator because he knew something wasn’t right with how that last test went down. He took Quant with him and decided to climb the tower to try to find answers. As an aside, what does climbing the tower mean to somebody that is already a ranker? Anyway, after this season got underway and we learned more about FUG, I figured he was going to be investigating them behind the scenes since they are the ones that organized Bam’s apparent death in season 1. So, I am pretty excited to see him return.





  • For research into this subject, Anime Herald was fortunate enough to interview…prolific anime writer and critic Borealis Capps

    Haha, I feel like you posting this article is a bit of a humblebrag.

    Thanks for sharing though. I think that Dumbbells was a really fun show and I would love to see newer, better takes on a series like it, since I feel some of the things discussed in this article are totally fair. The one in particular that you brought up is how much the girls don’t want to be too muscular, but rather just slim. This is something that is a recurring joke with Darkness in Konosuba as well. I mean, her role is to absorb damage for the party, muscles are kind of a prerequisite. That hangup of Darkness’s never really made much sense to me.

    I think it is interesting to compare Dumbbells to a series like Plus-Sized Elf. They both are ecchi as well as try to be educational, but they take things in very different directions (and not just the body-types). I eventually dropped the manga, but as it went, Plus-Sized Elf seemed to lean more into ecchi and less into education, probably because none of the characters hardly even tried to put those lessons into practice. Also, when the anime adaptation released, it was even more ecchi than the manga was.



  • Some quick thoughts on what I watched this past week:

    • Dan Da Dan - Continues to be the standout of the season. Lots of intense and unpredictable fun.
    • Orb - More amazing drama this past week. More people should watch this. Hopefully after getting lots of praise in the recent Gigguk Nutshell video, more Western audiences will check it out.
    • Tower of God - I am up through episode 18 and it has not been great, even after the start of the workshop battles. Maybe it will get better after the early rounds? Right? Right? Please…
    • Appraisal Isekai - I have continued to enjoy my time with this show. It has done enough to keep my attention though I wouldn’t call it a standout in any particular way.
    • Loner Isekai - This is my guilty pleasure for the season. It’s pretty dumb and super tropey, but if you turn your brain off, it is fun to laugh along with the stupidness.
    • NegaPosi Angler - Really great episode this past week. We seem to be just starting to scratch the surface of the more serious thematic elements of this show.
    • Villainess in History - Another stupid fun show. If you are able to either laugh at or look past the skeeviness of the prince courting a child, then this is a pretty humorous villainess series.

    Non-seasonals:

    • Look Back - A visually beautiful and touching movie that is worth checking out now that it is globally released. At only ~1 hour long, it isn’t too much of a commitment and it justifies every minute of its runtime with beautiful animation and an excellent soundtrack. The story might not connect with everybody, but I enjoyed my time with this movie.
    • Trigun (1998) - Just finished the series this past week with my wife. I haven’t read the manga, but based on the show, the end is…alright. Overall, the show is really kind of split into two parts. The first half of it is basically all goofy villain of the week episodes. Then, after we meet the character of Legato, the whole story transitions into a serious sci-fi story about humanity’s role and place as it explores the stars and the human will to survive (trying to avoid spoilers). The two parts of the show just felt disjointed.

    The last thing I wanted to write about this week is that there is a new community for sharing anime videos, !avid@ani.social, founded by @kiri@ani.social. There have been a couple videos posted already, so make sure to check them out and contribute if you have anything you want to share. I have added a link to the community in the sidebar of this community as well. In an effort to help out, I will be crossposting at least the next several clips that I make for this community over there as well.