Cooked up the Teriyaki Cockatrice burger from last week's Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill! I'm not sure about kids being able to eat this without slopping the whole burger out of the buns. Pretty tasty, maybe toast the bottom bun, so the chicken doesn't soak through it?

Paprika (2006) Apparently it's free on YouTube. There are times when the spectacle outweighs everything else but it's such a fine spectacle. The condescending box quote cut into the trailer about Western animation being for kids. Oof. Wish we could drop that supposed culture war/rivalry nonsense.

What are folks watching this Anime season? Aside from Dusk Beyond the End of the World starting up then Gachiakuta & Tougen Anki continuing I feel like I'm not really digging the other new series I'm following.

The last short for Part 3 of Star Wars Visions, Black. Is a cool look at what I imagine is a sort of messy collective unconscious pooled amongst the countless Storm Troopers across the galaxy that are forever getting wrecked. All set to a rollicking Jizz score.

The top hat makes it fancy violence though.

Aside from connecting with friends & mental health professionals (assuming you can afford it). I'll make two media recommendations. One heavy but hopeful, the other not too heavy + it's anime & has cats in it. Ordinary People (Film or Novel, TW suicide) Insomniacs After School (Anime/Manga)

Drop something (eternally) blue.

Star Wars Visions: The Bird of Paradise tries to pack a lot into its runtime, namely a full spiritual journey from petulant immaturity to calm enlightenment. Sonoya Mizuno's Nakime really showcases a lot of range in not a lot of time. Also, what is this? A cross over episode!?

Re-watching some No Guns Life, the Noir/Hard Boiled vibes really fall away in the moments that Juzo has his silly anime reactions to the provocations of any of the beautiful dames that come to call on the gun headed PI. The style & design is nice & Chris Ryan's Juzo nails the Hard Boiled quips.

Star Wars Visions: The Smuggler is more reserved than Trigger's last short, The Twins, I think to the benefit of an albeit familiar story beat. Gotta love it when a Jedi has to deploy the poker face as people around them lament the fate of the Jedi Order. Judith Light's Gleenu is great.

Star Wars Visions: The Lost Ones bringing us that beautiful sort of evil. I'm curious how much gas is left in the tank for F's journey, if the Visions line of Star Wars continues. I certainly hope it does. I think F would make for a great instructor of other Force sensitives.

Star Wars Visions: Yuko's Treasure, a cuddly bear droid doing the best he can to raise a kid. Some character designs gave me Doraemon vibes. I can't help but wonder, how many grandparents do you think there are in Star Wars? Seems like most adults die fairly early in their kids' lives.

Taking my time going through Star Wars Visions 3. The Bounty Hunters from Wit Studio with the wearable Droideka and Ronny Chieng as a literally two faced medical/assassin droid was fun.

Going to round out the Spooky Season anime recommendations with Otherside Picnic. Two young women scouring liminal spaces & the other side for artifacts & a missing mentor. Not easy to find the OP for it either. Really feels like this series was overlooked.

Finished The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope. I love Teto's cuffs! Such a little gentleman.

Selling your soul to a demon is some solid Spooky Season behavior. Selling your son to a demon is what Iruma's parents did instead. Luckily Iruma finds himself the newly adopted grandson of one of the most powerful & silly demons in Demon World. Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun, is a lot of fun.

If you see this, quote with a robot that isn't from "Star Wars", "Star Trek", "Doctor Who", or "Transformers".

Post something 90s.

Master of Mosquiton might require a little tracking down to watch so maybe this is more of a Spooky Season recollection than recommendation. Still, part screwball comedy, part Indiana Jones & part vampire romance this series is some late 90's silliness.

A vampire that's not Dracula.

One episode into Star Wars Visions Part 3. Visions remains one of the best calls that Disney has made with the Star Wars franchise. The continuation of The Duel was fun, that grayscale, crosshatched style is excellent & our new Twi'lek Sith is a lovely design. Looking forward to all the fan art.

Heavenly Delusion is a lot of things but there's enough mystery, menace, monsters & misfortune to make it a good Spooky Season watch. A couple of post-apocalyptic travelers try to survive as they figure out where it is they're supposed to be going, with hazy clues but clear dangers from the past.

Alright, next Jamsel Quest has been roughed out. It's time we DANCE

Akiba Maid War. For a few seconds. Then I said some swears.

Ghost Hound is a bit of a slow burn but Spooky Season is a fine time to check it out. In a quiet & remote town three lads & a little lady find themselves linked by trauma & a connection to a world just past the edge of normal human perception.

Pepesha the eternally buzzed Russian hero Spirit from Shy.

Spooky Season Court. With Virgin Punk hitting this year, seems appropriate to look back at another of Umetsu's works. Blending magic with our familiar world, the series considers the legal ramifications of a section of the population being magic wielders & the legal system designed to corral them.

Little Witch Academia is one of my favorite, Trigger series. Too bad the OVAs are in licensing limbo. Witch Hat Atelier is also on the way. You can check out Reign of the Seven Spellblades as well, more Shonen of course but it considers things that wouldn't be allowed in some other Wizarding World.

Augmented reality Spooky Season. Den-noh Coil is a solid kids adventure/mystery that offers virtual ghosts & spaces that aren't any less unsettling because of their technological nature. If you can find the Dub? It's got an incredibly stacked cast. Netflix just has the subs, still worth a watch!

Took me longer to get around to making gyoza so I'm way behind Campfire Cooking in Another World with my Absurd Skill! now. No orc general so I went with a beef/pork mix. The gyoza really stretch the meat & veggies. I think I splashed a bit too much water in so mine weren't quite as crispy looking.

Hard to imagine Spooky Season without witches. They've all got to learn that witchcraft from somewhere right? Still one of my favorite Trigger series, Little Witch Academia is an easy recommendation.

No cape!? How's he staying up there?

More investigations fit for Spooky Season with The Marginal Service. A team of talented & pinup worthy agents take on X-Files-esque assignments, while being pretty aware of the pop culture references that relate to the situations they find themselves in.

Stop scrolling and post 2 characters who bring you happiness. Isaki and Ganta (Insomniacs After School, 2023) I love its empathic depiction of two kids living with the layers of anxiety that come with chronic health issues both mental & physical, while managing to find & make happiness amidst it.

Set in the summer but fitting for Spooky Season. Summer Time Rendering is not for the squeamish & it comes with a massive warning for depictions of self harm. A remote island & a tight knit community are well suited to a sort of 'trust no one' conspiracy that newly returned Shinpei must unravel.

A nice look at one of the less alarmist voices from a time when there was a lot of pearl clutching about Anime. Ebert did represent a very specific & privileged class but one that some parents emulated & so 90's teens like me might've had less trouble explaining tapes to parents who watched Ebert.

Like the treats kids collect at the end of Spooky Season, The Grimm Variations is kind of a mixed bag but there's likely to be something in there you at least enjoy. Some less horror themed than others. The Town Musicians of Bremen was my favorite as a kid & as an adult as well it turns out.

Who's solving the Louvre robbery? Right answers only Previously I said Cat's Eye pulled it off so. . . (While Ryo may solve it, catching the ladies of Cat's Eye is another thing entirely.)

Checked out the Dub for Tojima Wants to be a Kamen Rider. Patrick Seitz as our wannabe Kamen Rider & Colleen Clinkenbeard as Tackle II. With as over the top as this series seems to be? I suspect it's going to be a lot of fun to hear them really get into it, hopefully it wasn't too hard on them.

Soul Eater's Death City is another place that feels like it could always be Spooky Season especially with how many witches seem to be lurking in the shadows. Maka & her living weapon Soul attend the Grim Reaper's DWMA & hunt for the souls of evil humans & the occasional witch. The Dub is great.

Dead Mount Death Play, reverse isekai for the Spooky Season. The Corpse God makes his escape to another world. Japan's criminal underworld to be precise. The terrifying denizens of which aren't quite ready for the necromantic powers now residing in the body of young Polka.

Who robbed the Louvre? Right answers only. Can't be a coincidence that Cat's Eye returned this season.

A key part of Spooky Season is all the masks & costumes. Usually it's for tricks & treats not brutal Kamen Rider inspired beat downs. Tojima Wants to be a Kamen Rider has been a lot of fun & nonsense. I do wonder what more die hard Rider fans think of this one so far.

Spooky Season is fleeting. Not unlike the lives of Draluc in The Vampire Dies in No Time. Ronaldo the vampire hunter/author, Draluc the immortal vampire & John the armadillo are in for a surprise when fate brings them together to face the weirdest vampires that stalk the city. Solid dub.

The captive killer & questioning detective is a solid setup. Gesicht (Jason Vande Brake) & Brau1589 (SungWon Cho) really nailed it, it isn't easy to pick favorite scenes from a series like Pluto but I really enjoy this one. Might be time to re-watch.

Reject modernity, embrace tradition.

Spooky Season is a fine time to look into Mysterious Disappearances. Just don't let Sumireko catch you peeping! A lot of urban legends, creepypasta & liminal spaces to investigate in hopes of finding items of value to whoever or whatever resides in a particular subway ticket counter.

It's #portfolioday! I make all kinds of cute stuff and am totally available for design and illustration work

I'm really happy that Campfire Cooking in Another World with my Absurd Skill maintained this sort of storybook style for the ending theme. I've still got to make some gyoza this week to keep up with Mukōda in this new season.

Spooky Season school romance. Easy to read Asahi walks in on his crush with her… Wings out!? If he lets her vampiric secret slip Youko will leave the school. Just ONE girl's secret shouldn't be impossible to keep right? Actually, I am... is pretty silly & not quite tame. Full eps on TMS' youtube