This year's Women's Rumble was definitely a showcase of the future of the division with both Sol Ruca and Lash Legend being the stand outs of the match. They really held on to that Sol Snatcher for ages. It's such a cool move.

While watching AMVs and discussing ideas Blossom has we remembered how one time when we were browsing in EBgames we heard Arcadia from Smash Into Pieces on their playlist. We agreed it would make a good song for an SAO AMV and also introduced us to the band. Thanks for that EB.

We're watching AMVs on YouTube and so many imitate the style of that one done to Man on a Mission from Oh The Larceny with a focus on transitions and the same cuts of animation across multiple anime. So I see that basically established a meta.

Royal Rumble is tomorrow, been thinking about who would win each Rumble. I would have picked Sami Zayn for the Men's Rumble, but he has a championship match at the event already. So maybe Gunther? For the Women's it's probably Liv Morgan.

Blossom and I celebrate 17 years together today. So I made Teppanyaki inspired wagyu steak with green beans and fried rice for dinner. She was working tonight so we're doing a proper celebration tomorrow.

I see articles about how Netflix has cancelled future seasons of Alice in Borderland due to poor reception to season 3 and all I can think was "They intended to make more seasons after season 3?" The story ended in season 2 and season 3 was completely unnecessary, a season 4 would have been awful.

The latest episode of Trash Taste has them trying to guess the age and nationality of their audience based on their anime 3x3 and it's really making me think about what my anime 3x3 would look like now. While a lot of my favourites haven't changed I felt like mine lacked personality when using them

It's kinda funny watching 3 servants fighting each other just outside the city while Ayaka and Saber are just vibing this week in Strange Fake.

Remembrance The Frieren Glasscape Figure set. We picked these up during our Japan trip last year. They were a really pretty set of prize figures. My favourite of the ones we saw of the series.

I think I have more or less sorted out what I will watching this anime season. Surprisingly Sentenced to be a Hero is not on my list. Something I kinda realised with Gachiakuta last season is that I'm becoming less interested in the popular dark fantasy action shows, or at least not in the mood.

Fight, Megaman! For Everlasting Peace!

Oh, Lore Olympus is getting an animated series? I should probably watch that.

What are they watching?

Got tickets to go see Eddie Izzard in May!

Blossom went to have afternoon tea with old work friends today. She got home just before midnight because it inevitably turned into girl's night and she was the designated driver.

Blossom asked me what the plot of Cat's Eye was since I was watching the remake I explained that it was about a trio of sisters stealing art from a crime syndicate of art thieves that stole their Dad's works to try profit from them and she was like "This was from the 80s, wasn't it?" Yes it was

Happy Frieren Season 2 Day!

Every time I get reminded about AI cosplays I just scream "What is the fucking point?" Your costume literally doesn't exist, you can't wear it to a con and interact with other fans while wearing it, there is no cos or play involved. You have literally sucked all the fun out of a hobby for clout.

New Year, new figures. LLENN finally has her squad to join her.

I just started the 2nd Great Ace Attorney Chronicles game and I know it's cause they're probably reusing the animations for the player model, but I think it's really cute that Susato is copying Ryunosuke's mannerisms in court.

So I showed Blossom a trailer for Road to Empress since she was interested in a full FMV game after watching someone play Five Hearts Under One Roof She has since purchased the game and played it for 6 hours straight today and every time I look at her she's glaring at her laptop with intent.

I was thinking the new season of Frieren started today so I was excited to watch it again, but no it starts next week.

So I binged and caught up with the Gnosia anime yesterday just in time for the 2nd half. So glad I opted to finish the game first because the 1st half covered a lot of the events I didn't unlock until I was near the end game. Excellent adaptation so far. Highly recommend even if you haven't played

It's my New Year's Resolution to try get through my video game backlog and play more games. Finished my first game of the year: Gnosia Was not expecting the gameplay loop to be as short as it was, but got hooked to the pieces of the puzzles connecting. Now I can go watch how the anime does it.

So I watched some of the Hana Kimi drama back in the days I ran an anime club but never actually finished it but since it got an anime airing this season I decided to go back and rewatch the drama. I forgot how anime 2000s dramas based on manga were.

I have the week off, so I think I'll catch up with the new anime season since it started last week, what do you mean 23 series have already started airing?

After years of owning the game, we finally played Pandemic and after winning our first game relatively easily by virtue of having a Medic in our intro game eradicate diseases quickly, we proceeded to lose pretty badly during our standard difficulty game.

Our plate isn't big enough for all the gyoza I made.

Played a couple of games of Sushi Go! today. Really quick and easy game to pick up. Would love to play a game with the maximum 5 players to see how chaotic the plays can get.

Ok, flights booked for Taiwan in March/April

Close Encounter with the Meerkats at Wellington Zoo

Tuatara at Zealandia

After continously failing Duolliste, I decided to use OG Simon as a training exercise. I still haven't been able to parry him, but I managed to get to 3rd phase using my default setup. Honestly, I'll take that.

Happy New Year!

Highlights of my 2025: - Planned & went on our 3rd trip to Japan, exploring Kyushu - Attended Overload for the 2nd year in a row, slowly getting back into cons. - Playing & completing more than a couple of games this year, including Clair Obscur Expedition 33 - Finishing the Zero Escape series

Kainé arrived today, so I have now rearranged my NieR shelf so that it's more evenly spread out since they were encroaching on the MonHun figures.

I was going through the list of Onsen Musume and realised that Beppu had one and I did not see her. Probably because asides from the ryokan and the 7 Hells, I didn't actually go anywhere that would have promoted her. Unless I missed her at the Info Center at the train station?

Finished the first Great Ace Attorney Chronicles game. So now I am at a crossroads. Do I continue on to the 2nd game or do I play Gnosia so that I can watch the anime?

Walked along the Red Rocks Coastal Walk today.

Of all the things to find while browsing Pop Stop today, I was not expecting the first vol of Imaizumi Brings All the Gals to His House. Didn't even know they licensed the manga version.

2 years ago I tried photoshopping my Monster Hunter figures to look like an in game hunt. I wasn't entirely happy with the end result, but after reposing the Kirin Hunter I decided to try again now that I have a light box and more experience with editing. Much happier with this one.

For a day where I spent most of it in the kitchen, clean up was surprisingly quick and painless, which is unusual for Christmas.

As a present for Chika and Rii, I framed the two portraits we got of them from @meoskyan.bsky.social at Overload this year.

Merry Christmas from Aotearoa!

I appreciate that I can predict when Barok van Zieks will object to my arguments and exactly what that objection is. Because if I as a player can see the flaw in my own argument, surely he's already locked onto that.

Ah, the true Ace Attorney experience of losing 4/5 penalties because you were one step ahead of the case logic and so was presenting the right evidence a step before it was relevant. I do not miss those moments.

It's getting to that time of the year where people say what their favourite anime were of the year, so here are my anime 3x3s for 2025. New series on the left, Sequels/Spinoffs on the right. Titles are in the Alt Text.

With pretty much all my ongoing manga ending this year and no season 2 announced (yet) maybe I should pick up Cinderella Gray?

Been playing Great Ace Attorney Chronicles and every time I interact with Inspector Gregson I get a craving for Fish & Chips

All the discourse around the use of GenAI in concept art and idea planning has really made me realise how uncreative I am. Because while I could see how someone could justify their use of it from a business perspective but was constantly learning new ways in how it hurt creatives.