Finished up The Water Magician. An Isekai'd OP hero does the hermit thing for awhile until a friend crashes in & we get the start of our hero Ryo's life as a woefully under-ranked adventurer. The Dub is solid. Nothing groundbreaking but a fine fantasy adventure Isekai.

There are times I see art in my feed & it's lacking any sort of artist signature or watermark, which makes me a bit nervous about reskeeting or quote skeeting it. I want folks to get the credit & attention they deserve. Plus AI seems to be fairly sloppy with signatures & watermarks, a helpful tell.

Caught the 1st ep of Dusk Beyond the End of the World on HiDive. The style seems good, I suspect there'll be more action in the eps to come so we'll see how the animation holds up. I'm curious where the series will land on the scale of cautionary tale vs unconcerned fantasy. Probably cautionary?

One last escape before then, but first? Pets.

As I read The Lord of the Rings trilogy to my kiddo I can tell I've done a particularly amusing job of voicing a character when there's a bit of lament when it becomes obvious that we won't be hearing from them again. Farewell Ugluk, we hardly knew ye.

What's your favorite black and white movie? Peter Boyle got up to so much before Everybody Loves Raymond.

As the Spooky Season approaches, I think my first on Bluesky, I'll make my usual recommendation of checking out Otherside Picnic. My elevator pitch is: Velma & Daphne say "Forget this van, these boys & the dog, we're outta here!" Then promptly make their way to The Backrooms & other Liminal Spaces.

Watched Ant's response then watched Layne's 'Safe Evil' vid. Ant is pretty spot on in his response. I think she has a real axe to grind with intellectuals, institutions & modern writing/society? Glancing at another of her vids, I don't think I'll find anything but disagreement with her opinions.

Honestly I'd have preferred they just hired a Skrull or there have to be some absolutely stellar Stan Lee impersonators out there. For a man who put forth such a boundless enthusiasm for Marvel & its fans for my entire nerdy life, I hate seeing this soulless technological amalgam with his face.

It's Saturday!📺 Post a cartoon TV series you love It's Batman day so probably fitting to take that into consideration. JLU's season finale 'Epilogue" remains one of my favorite depictions of Batman, well, Batmen. I think for many folks JLU provided the essential version of a lot of DC Characters.

Happy Batman Day

Since Hades II is hitting 1.0 soon I've been going back through Hades, still my favorite offering from Supergiant. Spoilers for Hades I guess? The character design is great across the board but Persephone's Queen of the Underworld garb is fun because she's still such a bright & cheerful figure.

Glad to see we're getting another story out of Gate. As a nerd that classic Fantasy vs Modern Tech debate was always amusing & Gate answered it in some pretty cool ways. With a bit of Harem hijinks & political drama layered on top of the Spec Ops/Military engagements.

Reading the Lord of the Rings before bedtime. One down two to go. The kiddo seems keen to get The Two Towers started. Really looking forward to hearing more about Orthanc.

Checked out the 1st Dub episode of Rock is a Lady's Modesty, maybe the heaviest of HiDive's girl band anime. No surprise, Luci Christian & Natalie Rial delivered great performances as our usually prim & proper leading ladies Lilisa & Otoha. Looking forward to the rest of the band mates joining in!

I'm not on Rotten Tomatoes much, it was fun finding movies I liked thinking, "Folks said this was a real stinker when I went to see it in theaters." Only to find it nice & fresh. Mortal Kombat didn't let me down though. I'm also heartened that Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker is sitting at 100%

Catching up on Sword of the Demon Hunter. This one has been a slow but enjoyable burn. It lacks the flash & flare of Demon Slayer but that's fine, it seems more interested in drawing out its meditation on Jinya's long journey towards his fate & what he gains or loses along the way.

Another season of Chained Soldier? Looks like our guy Yuuki is in for more housework to do & even more deadly ladies of the Demon Defense Force to try and stay on the good side of.

Black Clover didn't miss once with its OPs.

A quick look at the evolution of continuity from a fun nerdy thing to an ever growing list of boxes to check to cash in on nostalgia & keep the 'super fans' from getting angry on social media. I wish the people overseeing these franchises would just get weird, even just a bit, with 'em more often.

Knight's & Magic. Some Mecha series have that stage where our plucky young pilot regrets ever setting foot in a giant robot. The reincarnated Mecha Otaku Ernie is pumped about it the whole time. Has a nice Knight & Princess B-plot. The Mecha have a nice fantasy aesthetic. Pretty light-hearted fun.

I picked up Hades II when the Beta launched but I'll still consider this a fine birthday present. I think Supergiant fans all have their favorite game but Hades is definitely mine. Zagreus & Melinoë both exhibit a kindness to the other characters throughout their travails that I find endearing.

Summer Wars I think got some decent promotion at the time and Sakura Wars is an established franchise, but Seven Days War maybe less well known? I liked the rebellious school kids adventure/romance story.

Shelves and all the books, comics and anime that I can cram into it. Being able to reach through one of those little windows and pluck out something would be kind of fun.

The Manga Cafe moved to a new location, still pretty convenient though. Hadn't picked up a new volume of Witch Hat Atelier in awhile so I got Volume 8. I'm really glad that Louisville manages to support a local shop like this.

Pretty Derby Redemption 2? Modders are always full of surprises. Good Stuff.

Rolling into Friday like:

I like that in addition to their pointed ears that the Hideneans also have noses that sort of remind me of Goof Troop characters. Can't be all violence and mangled bodies in Clevatess.

Customs Officer: Sightseeing? Kanuka Clancy: No. Combat.

Fresa the Jamsel has a real head for fashion.

Hearing orchestral versions of Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon's score is interesting to see how they approximate a lot of the electronic elements of the original.

The Jamtastic Four

Without saying Voltron, what is your favorite giant robot?

Save Skeets.

Let's be real, with a main character like Nagi it was only a matter of time before there was a bit of explicit fanservice in the series. That said, it was pretty tasteful stuff. Ruri Rocks has been an enjoyable watch this season. Beyond the fanservice potential I really dig the character designs.

Ant with a stealth Tier List vid? A breakdown of the types of folks out there occupying the critical landscape online. I often wonder about the conviction of some who make themselves talking (or shouting) heads in a culture war. Is it sometimes just a path of least resistance to clout or profit?

Doctors I trust more than RFK Jr.

FOUND HIM! Call of the Night's Halloween episode is a little early but that's fine.

A friend put me onto The Rogue Prince of Persia soundtrack, which is how I learned that the game exists. Evil Empire did a 2D Prince of Persia? I'm in. I'm gonna suck at it but I'm in.

I won't say to watch Grimgar even if you dislike Isekai but I think it's a beautiful fantasy series that happens to be an Isekai. If anything it really avoids the power fantasy angle that some dislike in the genre, each battle feels incredibly hard fought. The Dub is solid as well.

Sailor Rusty

The Helldivers x ODST collab has put me in the mind of looking back at the decades of Halo we've had. While the original trilogy & ODST are classics at this point. I still have the softest spot for the UNSC Spirit of Fire & her crew. Halo Wars was an interesting RTS.

We've got the Cute Girls Doing Cute Things genre. What about Fashionable Women Doing Mundane Tasks? With You and the Rain is a chill little series about an author and her. . . Dog?

On the occasion that I cook some bacon, I'll every so often decide to cook some eggs like my grandma used to. Absolutely not good for you as an everyday breakfast but eggs cooked in bacon grease definitely hit different.

Random reminder that there are some surprisingly good mobile games on offer through Netflix. Into the Breach is one of my favorites, turn based Mech v Kaiju battles with a dash of time travel/multiverse from the same folks who made FTL.

Some solid anime recommendations are on the way so keep an eye on BT.

Another entry in the Isekai kingdom management genre, Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra has been fine so far, tough to beat Overlord when it comes to a nominally 'evil' faction being the focus of an Isekai. I do find the motherly bug monster Isla amusing, the kind or indeed loving monster is a fun trope

Lines are drawn. . . Because that's how you make Anime, cartoons, comics & manga. Ant looks at why folks are watching & reading Anime & Manga more than what Disney has on offer. In the 90's gratuitous violence, the occasional nipple & a style so markedly 'different' was more than enough to hook me.