Fear and Isolation

The end of season 2 of Ascendance of a Bookworm circles back to the head priest mind melding with Myne to see where she (Urano) came from. I thought he would be the noble to adopt her (which makes the title of the next arc make sense) in order to keep the other nobles from trying to kill her for being a commoner, but instead he has the other knight commander do it. As with Beno almost adopting Lutz, I thought her family would be very much against it, but they don’t even know about it yet other than she needs to stay for the winter anyway (which they were also very much against). Given what almost happened at the end of season one, I thought something would’ve happened to her family, but I’m glad that’s not the case. As for Urano, the best we get is her reading at the table and being rude to her mom. Assuming she has friends, she’d probably do the same to them. Not all bookworms are like that, I swear! No reading at the table! Eat your dinner! I’d find it more relatable if she had been excluded from being a librarian because established librarians are no longer shushing old ladies but grown-up mean girls and their chosen. Maybe there will be another OVA to bridge to the next season. I want the Seteth character to come back. He wanted to meet Myne, so let him come back already. Iggy too; Myne made sure to voice her concern for his safety. Forgot to say this last time, but during her rage over the library, an abridged version would’ve evoked Yami’s censored rage at Yugi from that abridged series. “Sideways!” BlueDrakmaVA, who made Fate Apocrabridged, cancelled his series due to similar burnout to Team Four Star (and LittleKuriboh, but he's got bigger issues), and he expressed the notion that abridging was dying. The pandemic certainly didn't help, but Journeyman Abridged is still moving forward with its Naruto and Digimon full arc abridged series, so check them out if it suits you. I plan to join them later as Yolei when they get to Zero-Two.

“Sorta Cinderella,” or “It’s Cinderella-ish,” made for the best episode so far this season. It perfectly encapsulates what’s going on in Fruits Basket right now. It was amazing to see the play in color and in motion. Such attention to detail! Then there was Machi’s episode, which ended in Akito injuring Yuki at the New Year's Banquet. And of course they ended the season with the reveal that Akito is actually a woman. The dub is now eleven episodes behind. We’re finally through with the summer vacation arc and getting down to the nitty-gritty. Laura’s younger Tohru voice used for the flashback really got me. Can relate. Wanting to see your dead loved ones is fine, but don’t go after them. Speaking of, Molly has risen from his grave on Critical Role, so we'll see what Matt and Taliesin have come up with for him.

DuckTales season three finally came back from hiatus. Scrooge is one of those characters who knows magic is real but still thinks it’s bullshit. The girls all but said “Friendship is magic,” to which Magica said, “Gross.” Magica has her amulet back now that Lena has harnessed her own magic via the friendship bracelets, but I was enjoying the de-powered, pathetic Magica. She was very funny in this episode.

Inspired by the ruby chocolate Kit Kats sampled by Phelous and others, I tried the ruby cacao Haagen Dazs bars. It was like if red velvet cake was an ice cream shell. It was worth trying once.

Trying to Catch Up

I watched the four-episode prelude to Recorded by Arizal, which took an unexpected turn. She wanted to do this with her friends, but the record-keeper she interviewed warned her that it was a solitary experience (and you need lots of toilet paper – topical), and then one of her friends…died? It was left vague. My husband and I have been watching more of the Achievement Hunter livestreams when we can, and I discovered their archive so I went back and watched Lindsay play Stardew Valley by herself. It was also interesting to see Chris, Gus, Barbara, and Blaine race to kill their Sims families first by either drowning, burning, starvation, or a combination thereof.

Mayuko’s voice actress hit it out of the park in episode 12. Can’t wait til the dub of 20 where Laura Bailey gets to say something along the lines of “I’ll be more evil than the devil himself” when referring to the play they’re doing. Episode 23 of Ascendance of a Bookworm is where that clip I saw came from. It was good, but it could’ve been better too. It definitely would’ve been even funnier if someone did an abridged series: “I cleared a shelf just for your magic books. Where are they?” “I lied, they’re not here.” “But my OCD!” Good boy Fran is like Dimitri but without the murderous issue. I would ship him and Vilma if she could move further past her issues. Almost at the end, and it’s definitely taken a turn. Damuel sounded like Ignatz too, but I can’t confirm.

The Melody of Memory box art looks good. I was looking forward to seeing most of the lab scene voiced, but I thought it was Yen Sid talking at first because Cory Burton doesn’t differentiate between him and Ansem enough. Ansem’s character model also looks more like Flynn from Tron, who he may or may not have met in canon. It was nice to hear them reinvent Dearly Beloved as a jazz tune. In the Union X update, Maleficent sums up the story in a nutshell: “How convoluted.” Nomura is Darkness confirmed, lol. Meanwhile, the conversation between the Master of Masters and Luxu is starting to sound like a conversation between Rick and Morty. Even Luxu saying “Sigh” over and over reminds me of a fan comic where Demyx said “Pout” in the same way, adding “I SAID POUT, DAMMIT!” at the end.

I’m trying to think of a royalty-free Christmas song I can use this year, but even music that should be in the public domain gets copyright claimed, including the ones in my video editor. This year’s holiday video will try to focus on Fire Emblem Three Houses, including at least one Seteth Says.

The Nashville hot chicken chips were fire, just as I expected. I ate one and could do no more, though suffered no adverse effects. Just smelling the bag burned my nose. My husband and his friends loved them. I also got to try the regular apple pie Kit Kats, which are cream colored and do not evoke the taste of a McDonald’s apple pie but are just as good.

Top 5(ish) Jim Carrey Movies

This was a really tough one to do since there are a lot of these, but I didn’t want to make it a top 10 list by adding movies that are well-known just to add them. I will give an honorable mention to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind even though I haven’t seen it because I hear it’s really good. I will also give an honorable mention to The Cable Guy because I always liked when it came on TV as a kid (although I can’t remember much about it). I will not be putting A Series of Unfortunate Events or Sonic on here because I haven’t seen them, but I assume I won’t like them (because Olaf is creepy and Sonic probably still sucked plot-wise).

5. A three-way tie, because they're somewhat related: A) Horton Hears a Who – Great character interaction between him and Steve Carrell B) How the Grinch Stole Christmas a.k.a. The Grinch 2000 – That’s right, I liked it, fuck you. C) Batman Forever – The best part is at the end where he thinks he’s Batman, but he made for a decent Edward Nigma the whole way through.

4. Bruce Almighty – People like to talk about the part where he makes the moon bigger, but the part where he’s reading all the prayer emails is really what stuck with me. Morgan Freeman is God, who is testing him to see if he can do better (as opposed to giving Steve Carrell’s character Noah's task in the sequel).

3. Fun with Dick and Jane – I watched this with one of my roommates in college and had a blast with it. The scene where he’s drunk in the bar and the heist are great. Tea Leoni and Alec Baldwin are also in it.

2. Liar, Liar – Achievement Hunter referenced the “I’m kicking my ass!” scene, and I recently saw a WatchMojo video about the Top 10 freak-outs which included trying Jim Carrey's character to say the pen is anything but blue. Plus, a kid wishing their parent wouldn’t lie to them is relatable to everyone, I think. As a compulsive liar forced to tell the truth, Jim showcases a lot of his spastic skills here.

1. The Truman Show – This and Liar, Liar are what made me want to make this list in the first place. I think I watched it in school, probably for a media studies course in college or in high school for some reason. I loved the ending where he says his catchphrase, takes a bow, and walks through the door to his freedom. And yes I did also see the video done by The Take on it.

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.