I Can't Believe What I'm Seeing

I really appreciate Jerry Jewel’s voice acting for Kyo, especially in episode 9. It’s too bad they can’t get more episodes out, as the sub is blazing ahead by eight weeks (Isuzu’s episode was surreal, like the manga was jumping off the page). I hope they can keep going at a regular pace instead of having these mini-droughts. I looked into Fruits Basket Another, which I’d originally passed on because I didn’t want to go for another emotional rollercoaster ride with the characters’ kids. Apparently, it’s only three volumes, so that makes it more manageable. I read the character bios on the wiki, and I’m bothered by a couple things: Momiji is a businessman and not a musician, Arisa and Kureno don’t appear and instead Akito is friends with Tohru and Saki – what?! The new protagonist’s mom is basically my mom but worse, and Ren is still around trying to stab Akito and her daughter – what?! A lot of the content is digital or online only, such as one-shot bonus chapters going forward and a miniseries for the Mabudachi Trio called Three Musketeers. An interesting detail is that Haru likes video games so much that Isuzu let him name their kids Sora and Riku. Either Takaya likes Kingdom Hearts or Haru does in addition to the Final Fantasy game he was playing in the anime. Speaking of Kingdom Hearts, KH3 manga is starting to come out at the end of this year. And on the soundtrack, the Radiant Garden theme is “Sound of Reassurance,” which is also Ienzo’s theme “New Scent of Silence.” My boy got his own theme music! Yay!!

Lay’s is doing flavor icons this year. I started with the carnitas one, which I was looking forward to the most. It tastes amazing. Philly cheesesteak just tastes like a savory cheese chip. I like the pizza one the best, which is not surprising. They’re superior to Pringles pizza chips because they’re kettle cooked and have oregano flakes on them. The hot chicken will probably be my version of the one chip challenge since I can’t handle spicy things (even things that didn’t bother me before give me trouble now). I bought that one mostly for my husband and his friends anyway.

Robot Chicken seems to be over, and the scientist finally spoke. There's going to be a special episode later in the year, but it has been neither renewed nor cancelled. They also finally got around to a Yu-Gi-Oh! skit like they’d been talking about years ago. Nothing special, just a quick look at an adult Yugi’s gambling addiction. The game had also been name-dropped in a song by Santa’s elves, but nothing like we were hoping for way back when. Not that we had much hope to begin with, since their stance on anime is that it’s weird, and nothing they would make of it would go beyond the surface.

Make It So

Fruits Basket dub came back, but for one episode. Then they took a break again and came back with another episode, hopefully more soon. The student council episode is the start of me not liking Kakeru. Who kicks a bunch of seedlings? Might as well have been a puppy. His reason for hating Tohru is kind of dumb, but they’ll get to that later. Digimon also came back, which was pretty good. Sora and Biyomon have a solid relationship going, but I don’t like that Izzy and Tentomon met offscreen. Next time is Mimi – she’s already here too. I wonder when Matt’s coming back. They’re off to find light and hope, which will eventually bring Kari and TK into it too. We’re also waiting on Joe, whom we've only seen a quick cameo of in the brief camp scene. 

Power Rangers aired the rest of its episodes in the UK, minus any clip shows for Halloween and Christmas. It was nice seeing Jason again, but most of the rest of the episodes sucked. Although I didn’t like it, I must commend Nate’s actor for essentially playing an episode-long game of Dubbing. And, as was foreshadowed then forgotten, Evox is in fact Nate’s fault. It was nice to see Dr. K again for a second time, and I like that Power Rangers history lessons are a thing with textbooks and such. Moving between dimensions is super easy now if everyone has one of those devices (communications via computer as well). Evox has been played by three people now – Evox’s voice actor, Mayor Daniels, and Venjix’s voice actor. The ending felt especially rushed, but it wasn’t too terrible, and it was cool to see Colonel Truman again too.

Nomura has told us in no uncertain terms that we should not get attached to Xehanort and Eraqus’s classmates because they will be dead by the end of Dark Road (assuming this isn’t just a timeskip and we continue on from here without learning anything else about their four years together). I know we’ve seen the Keyblade Graveyard before, but this looked like Arlington National Cemetery. It’s honestly what I thought a graveyard would look like in this series before we found out people just turn into hearts and join Kingdom Hearts without leaving behind a body bury. I also saw joshschorcher's (The Fiery Joker) video about fixing 358/2 Days by turning it into a Persona game where Roxas has social links with the other Organization members (and maybe Fire Emblem-like supports between characters who aren't Roxas, like Vexen and Xion specifically). I laughed, but that might be the most amazing idea for a fan game I've ever heard. Someone should make that.

I was looking into the Ascendance of a Bookworm books, but it seems like the series takes off from here. Based on the titles, Main’s situation looks like it escalates to godhood by the end? So far, my favorite part of the anime is watching everyone adopt the use of Main’s shampoo one by one. It’s kinda weird that Main likes to smell the ink of whatever books she’s able to get her hands on. Like, I get it, but she has a problem. Someone needs to make an abridged series at some point, even though the pandemic has caused most if not all of them to go on hiatus indefinitely.

Not Nearly Enough

Finding a Black Lives Matter donate playlist and running that in the background is the easiest thing you can do unless you have adblocker. And while you’re doing that, maybe educate yourself a little.

The first few episodes of Power Rangers after the hiatus were pretty funny. I especially liked Scrozzle’s line of “Oh, and Vargoyle’s back” and Steel’s “I miss Spot.” Betty saying “mac and cheesy” instead of “lemon squeezy” was cool too. Captain Chaku looked like a cross between Robo-Cop and Cyborg.

The new trailer for Phase 2 of Kingdom Hearts games has me thinking about how this story could’ve been told differently. Imagine if Kingdom Hearts 1 had started with Kairi running from Xehanort and then cut to then-present day on Destiny Island where she has no memory of what happened and is setting off with Sora and Riku to find out. Birth By Sleep (and by extension all of the mobile games) could still be a prequel. I’m just annoyed with the holes in KH3 being filled by the Re:Mind DLC, only to cut off abruptly and continue in this new game we’re getting with Kairi’s flashback and mission with Riku. That’s not good storytelling. I just hope we finally get a clear picture of what happened to Kairi (and the rest of the Radiant Garden group) a year(?) following the events of Birth By Sleep. I will be glad to see them again, no matter how briefly. Dark Road started before Union X finished, so I’m waiting on the translation on that.

The Fruits Basket dub did three more episodes and then stopped again. Oh well. Pokemon came back but Digimon didn’t, even though the article I read said they would. Devimon was supposed to make an appearance. I’ve also gotten into Ascendance of a Bookworm even though Isekai stories are hit or miss for me. Main characters dying in the first episode isn’t something I enjoy, even if they’re transferred or reborn somewhere else. Death by book avalanche reminds me of the Boy Meets World episode “And Then There Was Shawn” where it happened to Wil Friedle and Jennifer Love Hewitt. Since we don’t spend much time if any on her previous life, it feels less like that anyway and more like Spice and Wolf like one reviewer said. Like the clip I found that got me into it in the first place, it's all about that library science. I'm not sure if I like the main character yet, but I'm enjoying the anime immensely. To quote Travis Willingham (though he was talking about Ouran), "What is this show?"

Lucky Charms Honey Clovers is more like Kix rather than Honey Nut Cheerios, but that’s all right.

Delayed Update

Cooking tofu didn’t go as well as I’d hoped the first time. I did not see the results that I wanted using the soy sauce, so the second time I used olive oil. That time I got the results I wanted, but the sweet and sour sauce I opted to use was too bland. The jerk sauce made my husband’s diverticulitis act up, so that’s out, unfortunately. I also ate some of my Sakura pocky; it has a subtle flavor, and I could taste the salt on the stick more.

If nothing else, the music this season on Survivor slaps. While Natalie didn’t necessarily HAVE to win the whole thing, she definitely deserved to. I was disappointed at the old-school mentality of not voting for Natalie simply because she had been voted out first. That’s not how this twist works. It’s how Chris won last time they did this (unless his boldness at fire-making when he didn’t have to was what really won everyone over). Natalie earned her way back and then some. She made extinction her bitch. The only way Tony was losing this was if he lost at making fire, which sucks. Tony winning was whatever, but it was sad to see Ben step down for Sarah only for her to lose at making fire. I would’ve liked a different final three: Natalie, Sarah, Tony; Sarah, Tony, Ben; or Sarah, Natalie, Michele. Okay so maybe I wanted Sarah to win more than I previously thought. I would love to see a buddy cop show starring Sarah and Tony in the same vein as Castle.

The Fruits Basket dub started up again. The sub is still three episodes ahead, so I’m watching both now. I do like Tohru’s new Japanese voice actress. Laura’s voice acting during the haunted house scene was epic; if she recorded it from home, I imagine Travis had something to say about it, seeing as how she ditched him in a haunted house run by their friends as part of a fund-raising stretch goal. Speaking of Critical Role, they are four episodes into their Narrative Telephone series, and it just keeps getting funnier with each installment as they flub and forget details and make up new ones. The Digimon and Pokemon anime are also returning in Japan next week, and people are speculating that the fall lineup will mostly consist of cartoons as well considering that they have been the least impacted by the pandemic. Some people are saying this with snobbery and others are pretty excited for it.

Joel Heyman finally said something crazy enough to get himself cancelled, or maybe it was just the final straw. I know none of the details for certain, but there are more important things going on right now, and if his politics differ from that of the rest of the company, then… Well, it's been compared to them letting Vic go and the crunch scandal that saw Gray fired, but I don't think any of them are comparable. All bad situations, but all of them are different. Me, I'm just tired of everyone's bullshit at this point.