#want to join the hype train if only because the band looks like fun and the few songs i heard are absolute bangers

[gottagetgogottagetattahere]

anytime i see mcr trending I go in the tags just to see what outfit gerard way is wearing and its always a banger.

[neptuneofthesky]

MCC 16 WINNER’S POV [RECAP]

PINK PARROTS

BADBOYHALO

DREAM

F1NNE5TER

SEAPEEKAY

Dream’s skin had a purple ribbon on it (everyone else was wearing it), I saw it on 5upp’s stream, at first I was just switching, because there was a lot of time left, I was on Bad’s munchy mc stream first, then I was on Fundy, Punz, Jack, etc, and also, George looked so freaking cool what? Then I stayed there and watched George training ponk, it was so fun to watch lmao, he literally had a stopwatch and whistle with him, then Quackity joined the server, and he was using that demonic autotune and then Quackity and Ponk and a speed bridge race, which was just chaos, and then Quackity asked for Ponk’s meat, and then they had fun in the fun zone, then Quackity turned off his autotune, and then George said that if then had fun in the fun zone he’ll give them a prize, and as you expected they had fun in the fun zone, it was really fun to watch lmao.

“Forfeit Deez Nutz bitch” - Quackity to Ponk, 2021

And then I went to Wilbur's stream for a second, where he was talking about fart spaces, then I went to Ranboo’s stream, where he was talking about that he will turn off his face cam while the actual game.

Then I went to poop.

Then I went back to George's stream, where they were just fooling around, I mean, practicing, and then Quackity said George's headband and wrist bands look like Italy but George said it was Germany.

Then George did a very very terrifying demonic laugh, I actually got scared, and then Callahan also joined the server.

“Wel,” - Quackity, 2021

“Come.” - Ponk, 2021

And then Callahan killed quackity and left the game.

And then they started fooling around, Callahan joined the game again.

“Ponk, I'm sorry I slept with your mother” - Quackity, 2021

And then Quackity and Ponk started a duel, Ponk won the first round.

“He slept with my momma!” - Ponk, 2021

Ponk also won the second round, but Quackity won the last round and then George played sad music.

And then I joined Bad’s stream, who was playing hole in the wall with Tommy and fell every. Single. Time.

And then he said that we literally don't know how much he practiced, and he said he muffined up his first mcc. And then he was just hyping himself up, he said he kind of had food poisoning.

“It’s victory or death, or maybe- maybe not death, or maybe, if I don't win, no muffins for one week.”- Badboyhalo, 2021

And then everybody left to go to the main server, and he was all alone, he didn't know there was a main server, and then he joined the main server.

“Victory tastes so much like Gatorade.” - Badboyhalo, 2021

And then he went to the burger shop, it was adorable lol.

“Everybody needs a little bit of violence in their life.” - Badboyhalo, 2021

“Violence with the spatula!” - Badboyhalo, 2021

I got scared, so I went to Dream’s stream.

Everyone was being so supportive in the chat I got emotional.

“Mcc is like Christmas morning.” - Dream, 2021

And then Seapeekay joined the call, then Bad also joined, Finn was just vibing.

And then Seapeekay gave an interview and then George and Sapnap were twerking on each other, Dream paused as he stared at them, Bad came in between them, and then George and Sapnap pretended like nothing happened.

Finn joined the call.

“I'm mugging you for your crown!” - Badboyhalo to Dream, 2021

Badboyhalo woke up and chose violence.

Also, Ranboo had 200k + viewers!

And then Dream distributed burgers and they all went to the decision dome.

Seapeekay boo-ed at build mart.

They decided to vote for grid runners, almost everyone wanted grid runners.

1st Game: Grid Runners

Dream said that he was the narrator and read the whole guide.

They decided if they had to split, Bad and Dream, and Seapeekay and Finn will stay together.

1st Challenge: Jungle Temple

They had to kill all the mobs

2nd Challenge: Bakery

They had to eat all the cakes present in the bakery

3rd Challenge: Sawmill

They had to push the gold; there were a couple of red stone powered buttons, and they had to push them at the same time to complete the challenge

4th Challenge: Wild west

They had to shoot the targets(mobs)

5th Challenge: Kitchen

They had to gather the items, like bread, steak, fish, etc

6th Challenge: Golf

There were four towers, and they had to punch each other on each tower, for example, Callum punched Bad in a tower, Callum also punched Finn and he also punched Dream to Finn, then Finn punched Dream to the final tower.

7th Challenge: Tower

They had to unlock the exit; they had to pull levers for the blocks to push ahead, as Dream complete a parkour course to reach a top to get a key and finish the challenge

8th Challenge: Prison

They had to copy a sculpture; Dream and Finn directed them, Bad and Callum placed the blocks, kind of like build mart, but the sculpture is in another room.

9th Challenge:

Just a simple race to reach the end

They ended up in 3rd place in this game!

Overall, they end up in 3rd place again.

Dream predicted that red will end up in dodgebolt.

Then he did an ad for mcc, promoting grid runners.

And then Callum and Dream went to watch the greens.

And then went to watch blue bats, who were stuck on the tower challenge. Then they hyped them up, but sadly blue couldn't complete the course, but they still did well!!

And then Rat made a barking appearance.

Niki was in the first place!!!<333 Good job Niki!!! (i smiled so hard)

And then Finn expressed excitement about mcc merch.

And then they went to decision dome,

2nd Game: Sky Battle

1st Round

They told they had a special strategy, their communication skills were looking good

Dream got 4 kills.

Bad got 1 kill.

Finn got 0 kills.

Callum got 2 kills.

They got 3rd place!

2nd Round

Ponk killed Bad

And Dream got George.

"I was a little too aggressive there." Dream, 2021

Dream got 5 kills.

Bad got 1 kill.

Finn got 1 kill.

Callum got 2 kills.

Then they re-strategized.

2nd round was really fun to watch

They ended up in 4th place!

3rd Round

The chemistry of Callum and Dream was amazing this round.

Dream got 6 kills.

Bad got 2 kills.

Finn got 2 kills.

Callum got 5 kills.

They got 6th place!

Dream was in 5th place in this game!

They were in 4th place overalls!!

Dream had a special strategy including the lava bucket, but the lava bucket was removed so it threw them off.

3rd Game: Parkour Tag

Ponk had to pee so they had to wait a little.

“You could pee on a desk!” Seapeekay and Dream, 2021

1st round

Dream was the hunter, he got them alL

Unfortunately, all the runners got hunted.

But since Dream hunted the opposite team quicker, they won this round.

2nd round

Dream was the hunter again, he also got them all quickly

This time all the runners were alive!!

They were also in the first place in the game.

3rd round

Seapeekay was hunting this time, he got them all!

The runners except Dream got hunted.

They were still in first place.

4th round

Seapeekay was he hunter again, they did the bait and switch (dream pretended he was the hunter), but he couldn't get George,

"Gogy didn't miss any jump." - Seapeekay, 20221

Finn was suddenly CRACKED in this round.

They tied but overall ended up in first place.

5th round

Seapeekay was the hunter again, he got them all

All the runners got tagged.

It was tied again, but they still won because they tagged them quicker.

They were in first place again overall!

6th round

Dream was the hunter he got them all really quickly,

All the runners got tagged by Sapnap (good job Sapnap<33)

But the pinks still won because they got them quicker.

they were in the first place again!

7th round

Finn is hunting this round, he only got 2 of the runners

All the runners got tagged by Quig!

They end up in 3rd place overall.

8th round

[Finn was doing a dream cosplay]

Seapeekay was the hunter this time, he got them all

All the runners got tagged too

But the pinks still won because they got them quicker.

They end up in second place overall.

9th round

Dream was the hunter, he got them all. (all of the reds)

All the runners were tagged too by Tommy. (good job Tommy!!)

Wilbur and dream had a… weird interaction lol

They won this time too for quickly tagging them.

They did really good this game!!

Dream was in the first place in this game!!

They ended up in 3rd place overall!!

Seapeekay complimented George's jumping skills.

They also complimented Captain Sparklz.

4th Game, TGTTOSAWAF

Seapeekay was determined to beat Philza Minecraft

Round 1

Callum - 1st (suck it Philza Minecraft)

Dream - 21st

Bad - 29th

Finn didnt get to finish, (it's alright!!<33)

Round 2

Dream - 1st

Callum - 10th

Finn - 20th

Bad - 33rd

“Knowing Tommy, he probably got in a punching match, he punched the wrong person and they were like, 'oh Tommy you are going down.' " - Dream, 2021

Round 3

Bad - 4th

Finn - 6th

Callum - 9th

Dream - 15th

They were the first team to finish and were in first place overall!!

“Where is my 1.7 trillion luck?!” - Dream, 2021

Round 4

Dream - 3rd

Callum - 11th

Finn - 15th

Bad - 18th

they were the first team to finish this time too and were also in first place overall again!!

also, Scott punched Niki off, but then he also apologized

Round 5

Finn - 10th

Callum - 12th

Dream - 20th

Bad - 39th (he could've finished early but a 'blue muffinhead' punched him off so he just bridged from the start lmao)

They were in first place overall!!

Round 6

Dream - 7th

Finn - 11th

Callum - 10th

Bad - 22nd

Their team was the second one to finish after aquas!!

They were in first place overall in the game!

Seapeakay was in 1st place, Dream was in 3rd in the game!

They were in 2nd place overall!!

Seapeekay was in all pink (he looked banger honestly)

Dream was in 2nd place overall!

Seapeekay got 3rd place overall!

5th Game: Survival Games

The twitter voting one, they told everyone to vote build mart, but then changed to sands of times (very rigged lmao, I got confused at the end)

everybody went to pee/water/etc, Dream was alone so he just stayed silent for the first minute then complemented Sapnap, and when everyone was back,

“Spinach slaps.” - Finnester, 2021

“Spinach is in the way of my screen.” - Finnester, 2021

When the game started, they did the buddy system, Seapeekay and Finn, Dream and Bad, and they technically decided to stick together.

Their communication and coordination were phenomenal.

Dream’s leadership skills, oh my god, just, perfection.

Even tho they lost, their communication was very very good.

“This whole game sticks on me” - Tommyinnit, 2021

Red rabbits were “arguing” in the chat lmao, what was really happening??

They ended up in 7th place in the game and 3rd place overall!

They all got crossbows as they all shot build mart chickens.

6th Game: Ace Race

Bad made sudden chicken noises out of nowhere making everyone laugh.

“What noise does a chicken make?” - Seapeekay, 2021

“Gobble gobble.” - Badboyhalo, 2021

“What noise does a chicken make? 'Hi I'm George.'” - Dream, 2021

“What is the national anthem for the UK?” - Badboyhalo, 2021

“Take it away Finn.”- Seapeekay, 2021

*Finn bursts out laughing*

Also, Dream did a skip at the starting of the course which got him from 18th to 3rd!

Dream - 3rd

Callum - 4th

Bad - 9th

Finn - 24th

They did really good!!

Dream had the fasted lap!

They ended up in first place this game!

They ended up in 2nd place overall!

Seapeekay in 5th, Dream in 4th overall!!

7th Game: Build Mart (tubbo cringe /j)

Tubbo fell in the decision dome and punched the chickens in build mart even tho most of the teams didnt want build mart.

"sapnap: tubbo SUCKS

tubbo: hi sapnap"

I was so confused the whole time, I kind of spaced out lmao, like build mart makes my head hurt not even joking.

They got 7th place in build mart!

They got 2nd place overall!!

aquas dunked pinks lol

8th Game: Sands Of Times

I don't really know how to explain sands of times, but it was super fun to watch, so I suggest you go watch it!! Their coordination and communication was super cool

"badboyhalo looks at a ravager: it's the rhino thingy! Is it a triceratop?"

And that sudden music in it, my soul left my body not even joking

Their team coins were 5439!

Dream three 3 tomatoes at Tommy,

Dream asked Niki if she wanted to throw tomatoes at anyone she wants, but she was beating herself up, Niki you did good<33

They got second place overall!! (8th place reddit? really?)

then something happened with dream's nails

The Final Showdown: Dodgebolt

Purple Pandas vs Pink Parrots

First-Round

Punz, Puffy, and Ponk cheered Bad up through the chat.

Fruit got Seapeekay

Dream got Fruit (get the birthday boy lmao)

Scott got Bad

Dream got Scott

Punz cheered Dream up through the chat

Then Dream also got Grian, and Joel (smallishbeans)

Puffy cheered up the pinks through the chat

Pinks won the first round!

“I'm putting my blood sweat and tears into this!” - Dream, 2021

Dream was literally bleeding and laughing at the same time lmao

Second-Round

Fruit got Dream

Grian got Bad

Fruit got Seapeekay

Ant and Spifey cheered Finn up through the chat.

Finn got Fruit

Finn got Scott

Joel got Finn

Jack cheered up Finn thought the chat

Purple won the second round!

Thrid-Round

Dream got Scott

Fruit got Bad

Callum got Joel

Dream got Fruit

Grian got Dream

Grian got Seapeekay

Dream told Finn to take his time, and immediately after he said that Finn got Grian

Pink won the third round!

Final-Round

When Dream was taking his time to shoot Fruit, Tommy said, "time wastr"

Joel got Bad

Callum got Scott

Dream got Grain

Callum got Joel

And then Dream fucking fell in the lava

Great birthday present Dream

Everyone was very surprised as Dream just said that game was too hard and he wanted to make it easier for Fruit

Fruit got Callum

And then Finn got Fruit immediately!!

PINK PARROTS FOR THE WIN!!

(its 3 20 am here but i still silently screamed lmao)

[Dream will donate 21000 dollars to cancer research! Sam, Skeppy, Tapl, Finn, are also gonna match/donate!]

“I’m shaking very very hard.” - Finnester, 2021

Sapnap joined their call, Scott also joined their call, and then just discussed the game.

And sadly Scott won't paint Seapeekays’s coin pink.

Puffy and Punz raided Bad.

And they again talked about the event and stuff.

Then I may or may not have switched to George's kinoko kingdom 'lore' with Karl 👀

Then I went back to Bad, who was thanking everybody, and Bad, you were not the dead weight, you popped off, no one was the dead weight, everybody did very poggers!

Then he called skeppy, and then they talked, their 'muffiny talks'

It was honestly so cute

And then he joined the call of others, who were just discussing the game, then they talked about Sylvie popping off, I kind of stopped paying attention, I was very very sleepy.

Then they talked about how the four muffinteers should team up for the next mcc.

I'm sorry, I would’ve elaborated more, but my health wasn't the best sorry :(

They just discussed the game and all.

And

What

The

Fuck

was happening on George’s stream?

Well, it was just plain chaos, but I was still watching it.

It was 4 am by then

and I was very much sleep-deprived.

when dream fell in the lava in dodgebolt, most of the other teams thought he did that on purpose

they really popped off in parkour tag (Dream and Seapeekay were CRACKED) and the way Finn suddenly cracked in the fourth round was phenomenal,

they ALSO popped off in tgttosawaf (Bad did so good except in the 6th round lmao)

their communication was good in survival games, but they were more on the defensive side, and they just jumped in when there was a crowd, like seapeekay said, they should’ve just waited for clean up.

but they crushed sands of times!! (Bad especially)

their communication in grid runners was really good, they figured everything out really quickly

their chemistry in sky battle was also good, maybe if lava bucket wasn't removed, they would've popped off more

and I wasn't really sure about ace race, but they all popped off, like seriously

and build mart just made my head physically hurt

I wasn't really feeling well, but I had really fun watching it!!

And once again,

CONGRATS PINK PARROTS!!!

[queenof-literature]

Gerudo - LU Request

Hi all! Thank you to my first request! @anantisocialpeopleperson​ who requested Wild telling stories about his time in the Gerudo Desert. This is based off of Jojo’s comic when Warriors finds Wild’s vai clothing. It’s going to be a little different though :). Apparently Oases is the plural for Oasis? The more you know. I also wrote this hyped up on energy drinks so that was fun.

The entire camp was laughing at him, and Wild was an odd mixture of hurt, embarrassed, and pissed. Even after he had poured Goron Spice into dinner, they were still chuckling and smiling. Even Twilight, who when Wind “informed” him of the situation when Wolfie disappeared and Twilight came back instead, laughed his stupid head off. Wild didn’t really mind his vai clothes. It was nice to pretend to be a different person sometimes, even if that other person was a girl who happened to seduce men for boots…

Wild didn’t really feel comfortable talking with all his friends laughing at him, so he decided to whistle slightly to get their attention, and sign a quick dinner’s ready.

Wild smirked slightly as some heroes looked at the dish in disgust, while others tried their hardest to eat it and not hurt his feelings, aka Sky.

“Wild you can’t expect us to eat this!” Warriors squawked, and Wild’s smirk only grew from there.

“Wild.” Time only had to use half of his “I’m Time so you better listen to me” voice for Wild to dump out the food and restart a quicker dish.

“Whose clothes were they anyway Wild? I had no idea you had a lady friend.” Warriors wiggled his eyebrows.

“I don’t have a lady friend.” Wild sighed out.

“Ohhh I see. Multiple lady friends! Wild you sly dog!” Warriors yelled suggestively.

“No that's not it either -”

“I told you Warriors it’s probably a gift for someone.”

“Either way Wild is still getting out there!”

“Why are you being such a pervert Warriors-”

“Pervert? Legend I swear to Hylia I’ll-”

“Enough!” Time commanded. Thank Hylia. At least he could see Wild’s slight discomfort at the attention directed at him. “It is none of our business what is in his bag. Wild is welcome to tell us if that’s what he wants. I won’t stop him if he pours Goron Spice in our meal again. I can handle it at least. Can the rest of you?” The heroes gulped and went quiet for the first time that night.

“Time is right Cub. We’re sorry if we made you uncomfortable, but you’re welcome to tell us if you want to. If not that’s okay too. That is totally up to you. No questions asked.”

Wild bounced the idea in his head. He didn’t like talking about his scars, or his past, or the Shrine of Resurrection that much, he didn’t want to be a burden. But the Gerudo Desert was kinda fun. There were the sand seals, the beautiful oases, the weird fight against Master Kohga… The rest of the boys told fun stories about their adventure around the campfire, and Wild felt his voice would work well enough. Maybe sharing his stories with his new-found brothers would be fun.

“Okay. But let me finish dinner.” Wind cheered which startled Wild slightly. He hadn’t noticed the heroes looking at him with badly concealed hope. Wild barley ever talked long about his adventure! And judging by his Hyrule it had to be entertaining!

Twenty minutes later, the band of heroes were all sitting comfortably around the campfire, looking at Wild as they began to eat.

“So… you know I had to free the Divine Beasts. Naboris, Urbosa’s camel, was the last one I got to. Which is probably a good thing considering the Ganon Blight in there was the hardest of them all.”

“What’s a Ganon Blight?” Hyrule asked, tilting his head. Wild felt something cold strike his heart.

“U-um. W-well when my friends fe-fell… it was because of those things. Ganon made them. They’re why the other champions are dead.” Wild said the last words of the sentence with a mundane voice, as if he tried to feel no emotion when thinking of them.

“Oh… I’m sorry Wild I wouldn’t have asked if I had known.” Hyrule and the rest of the camp looked somber.

“Don’t be sorry. It was a perfectly fair question.” Wild smiled slightly at Hyrule to show that no apologies were needed. Hyrule smiled back at his best friend.

“Anyway, before I could gain control of the Divine Beast, I had to figure out how to get on it. So I had to talk to the chief of the Gerudo, who I later found out was a 12 year old named Riju.”

“12?” Warriors coughed out. “What a young age for such a large amount of pressure.” Warriors trailed off. Everyone could tell he was thinking about his own situation when he became a captain.

“Yeah, she definitely feels pressured. But she is a wonderful chief for her people, and she grows more and more into her role everyday.” Wild stated, pride lacing his voice. “I tried and tried to sneak in, but no matter what wall I climbed or what entrance I tried to sneak into, they caught me everytime and threw me out. I could sneak into the Yiga hideout no problem. But Gerudo Town? Forget it!”

“Wait, what in goddess’ name is a Yiga?” Twilight questioned his protege.

“Oh, um, they come up later in the story.” Wild glanced slightly in Legend’s direction, who knew about the Yiga from a late night heart to heart when Wild couldn’t sleep and Wolfie wasn’t around. Wild never wanted to wake Twilight up if he didn’t have to.

“So I had to find another way in. That’s when I heard that there was a man who would sneak in dressed as a woman…” There gasps from the groups and muffled laughter when many realized where this was going. “Yeah, yeah. The clothes aren’t for a girl. They’re for me. I bought them off the man, er, I actually don’t know if he wants to be called a man or not. Anyway, I didn’t have any other choice!” Wild huffed, avoiding eye contact with the group.

“Well now I see why you seemed so uncomfortable when I told you how I got in.” Time winked at Wild, who flushed further.

“Keep going! I want to hear more!” Wind cried enthusiastically.

“Um, okay.” Wild wasn’t used to people being so enraptured with what he had to say. It actually felt kinda nice. “So I got the vai clothes, and the next morning I finally got into Gerudo Town! It’s really beautiful. There’s a whole market, and a secret store for voe clothes and a place to rent sand seals - oh! Sand seals are seals that you can ride with a shield and they’ll pull you behind them! - and there’s a giant statue above the chief's room with water flowing down and going around to the rest of the town. There’s also a jewelry shop that I got all my earrings and circlets from. There’s also a whole place for the chief’s prized sand seal that will tell a prophecy if you feed her fruit! And there’s the place where the guards train and the throne room which is also so colorful and pretty and-” Wild grew embarrassed and trailed off. He got excited talking about the beautiful town in the desert. Sometimes while he was there he could forget about the looming threat of Ganon for an hour or two. Never more, Zelda needed him. But it was nice there. They welcomed him with open arms, even if he had to be dressed as a girl.

“Um… sorry.” Wild didn’t notice that around him as he rambled on, the smiles of the group only got wider. Wild had come such a long way from the shy and jumpy teen who had barely said a word to them. Wild slowly coming out of his shell was a relief to the entire group.

“Don’t be embarrassed Wild. We love hearing about the things you love about your Hyrule.” Surprisingly, Legend was the one who spoke what the rest of the group was thinking. He hated seeing Wild scared to talk. Scared that they would leave him if he talked too much and “annoyed” them. He’d be damned if Wild thought that he couldn’t talk to his heart's content after being almost completely silent for years.

“Yeah Wild! I wanna see it one day if I can sneak in too!” Wind confirmed Legend’s statement, along with the other boys. Statements of how they enjoyed hearing his thoughts. On the inside, part of him was doubtful, that they were only being nice to him. But Legend had started the conversation, and Legend didn’t say things he didn’t mean if he started the conversation. So most of Wild was bursting with happiness. It felt nice to share the wonders of his Hyrule.

“Oh, um, thank you.” Wild spoke out awkwardly. Not quite knowing how to respond to people caring for his thoughts. “Well once I was finally in, I went to talk to the chief. Her guard’s name is literally Buliara. She is terrifying. They figured out almost immediately I was a voe, but Riju knew that I was someone her people needed. She sent me after the Thunder Helm, a treasure for the Gerudo that was stolen by the Yiga.”

“These Yiga again. Who are they?” Time asked Wild. Time had his usual stoic and mischievous face but on the inside, he was truly happy Wild was talking so much. The more questions they asked, hopefully, the more Wild would talk.

“The Yiga are a group of assassins that are devoted to Ganon. I believe they were once Sheikah who joined forces with Ganon long ago. Their symbol is the Sheikah symbol but upside down. They dress as normal travelers, and get you to stop and talk to them. Then they jump out of their disguise and attack you. And their main goal is to well… kill me.” A beat of silence.

“They what?”

“Wild why didn’t you tell us?”

“You’re being hunted by assassins?”

“Oh my Hylia have they gotten to you at all? Have they hurt you?”

“Wild are you okay?”

“Are they still after you? Are you in danger?”

Wild waved his hands to quiet them down slightly, which they did reluctantly, their worry that Wild would stop talking overcoming their questions.

“I’m okay. I’ve gotten into fights with them before, and some are harder to defeat than others. They are still active somehow even though Ganon is dead, but whenever we’re in my Hyrule I keep my eye out and have us travel off road as much as possible! I promise.” Wild seemed slightly nervous they would get mad if they thought he put them in danger.

“Wild they didn’t ask if we were okay. They asked if you are okay.” Legend reprimanded gently.

“Wait, Legend, did you know?” Sky asked.

“Yes I did. Wild told me one night. I also helped Wild keep and eye out for them in his Hyrule. I wasn’t going to break his trust.” Legend huffed.

“No one is mad at you two. We just want you to be safe, Wild.” Time voiced, calming everyone down significantly.

“I’m okay. They mostly stayed out of cities.” Wild stated, relieved no one was mad at him for keeping that to himself. He didn’t mean to outright lie to them, it just never really came up.

“Is this why you don’t like main roads and crowds, Cub?” Twilight questioned gently.

“Um that’s one reason yeah…” Wild rubbed the back of his neck. The rest of the group looked at each other, relaying a silent message. That was another thing to work on. Getting Wild to grow more comfortable in civilization without chipping away at his instincts. No one minded. It was the least they could do for Wild.

“Um, I’ll continue now if that’s alright?” After a few words and affirmative noises, Wild continued with his story. “The Yiga hideout is kinda built into the mountains near the edge of the desert. It’s a pretty amazing place without all the murderers.” Some chuckles came with Wild’s observation.

“I got there with the help of a sand seal and some rare sand boots that I - um - acquired.” Wild had that look of mischief in his, which only peaked their curiosity.

“Nope. Wild you do not get off that easily. I know that look. How did you get the boots?” Twilight urged.

“Uhhh. I kinda seduced a man who thought I was a pretty woman?” Wild voiced tentatively.

“NO WAY!” Warriors doubled over laughing heartily. The rest of the heroes were laughing so hard, half of them were out of breath within the first few seconds.

“You did what?” Time looked genuinely surprised, also laughing merrily at the image of Wild playing up his disguise.

“Well he was kind of creepy. He kept flirting with me when I didn’t show interest. I made it clear I didn’t want to go out with him, but he wouldn’t have it. So he then bragged about his sand boots that he was showing off for oncoming girls.” Some people in the group gagged at that. “He explained that they were rare and they spread your weight out across the sand, and the inventor died. I asked if I could buy them and he said that he would trade them for a picture of the missing Eighth Heroine Statue. He lended me his snow boots that worked in a similar way and I went into the mountains. I found it, but when I returned he admitted he was worried sick and that he made up the whole thing! He just wanted a chance to bond with me! But I got the picture so he had to give me the boots.” Wild finished proudly. The other heroes were in a mix of awe and pride.

“I am so proud of you.” Legend spoke with a smirk. Wild blushed at that.

“What happened next?” Warriors was still struggling to control himself and stop laughing.

“Well I wanted to keep the snow boots and the Heroine had a missing sword-”

“Oh my Hylia!” Time face palmed while the rest of the group fell into fits of giggles.

“Go back to the Yiga Clan!” Four demanded. He wanted to know what happened at the hideout for Hylia’s sake.

“I found a captured Gerudo guard within the hideout, along with a lot of bananas. The Yiga are obsessed with bananas. Don’t ask, I don’t know either. She warned me that the guardsmen would be too powerful to face on my own, and that I needed to sneak in if I wasn’t going to run away. I snuck all throughout the hideout. Climbing ladders, using stasis and bananas as a distraction, using my runes to cause some damage without them knowing. It was actually a lot of fun.” Some of the older members rolled their eyes. Of course Wild thought sneaking into a highly secure assassin base and wreaking absolute havoc was fun.

“After weaving my way in and finding all sorts of treasure, I found a secret metal door. I used magnesis, only to come face to face with a large open area, blocked by the cliff surrounding it. And in the middle was a giant bottomless hole!” Wild paused for dramatic effect, causing Time and Twilight to look at each other and chuckle quiet enough that Wild wouldn’t notice. It was nice to see the cub having so much fun. Looking around, he wasn’t the only one. Wind had his head in his hands, eyes sparkling up at Wild in excitement. Legend, Four, and Warriors had perked up, waiting with anticipation in their eyes. Hyrule and Sky looked on in both excitement, and worry for their friend. Obviously he was still alive, but hopefully he didn’t get any scars from the ending of this story.

“Then in a cloud of smoke, a yiga clansman in a weird jumpsuit and a big belly appeared! Ranting about being the great Master Kohga, fumbling around, and barely having the balance to strike his ridiculous poses!” Wild finished off his pause with a small laugh. There were mixed reactions. Some of the older heroes grumbled about how anticlimactic it was, to which Wind shushed them since he was still expecting a fight. The rest of the group laughed at the image of Wild facing off against the man he had described.

“He starts to fight me by disappearing behind conquered walls, and summoning giant spheres over his head to throw at me. Then when that didn't work, he hovered over the bottomless pit and summoned metal balls with spikes to throw at me. We battled for a while, I luckily had my runes so I could crash his own weapons into him and attack him while he was stunned. He kept conjuring walls so I had to crash his spheres down onto him over and over and keep attacking. Finally he got fed up. He was going to use the sacred art passed down from yiga master to yiga master. He summoned a giant sphere! One ten times my size! I probably couldn’t use my runes on it. But he kept going on and on. Checking to see if I was there, talking about getting rid of me. I was a little intimidated by the size I have to admit. But suddenly, with the slightest nudge of the wind, the ball rolled into him at the slowest pace I’ve ever seen and he got thrown into his own bottomless pit by his own ‘secret ancient art’.” Wild finished with a loud, light hearted laugh, that caused fondness to grow in all the members of their group. Wild’s laugh was carefree and young. It was like the wind ruffling the grass and the rapids of a stream mixed into one. It was a sight and a sound they all burned into their memories.

“I grabbed the Thunder Helm and left. After Master Kohga’s death, the hideout was completely abandoned. Not another member in sight. The Gerudo guard managed to escape with no one watching and returned safely. I got the helm back to Riju and together we rode sand seals to Naboris and shot bomb arrows at its feet. Naboris could shoot lightning, and Riju’s helm could only protect the area around her. So I had to control my sand seal to stay in her range, and also shoot at the giant camels feet, while not getting crushed!” Wild threw his hands in the air as he talked, a giant smile adorning his face. It pulled on his scars, so it was a little uneven when he grinned that wide, but it was still a beautiful sight for his brothers.

“Finally I could board Naboris and solve the puzzles. I defeated Thunder Blight and I finally had all the Divine Beats free again!” Wild finished off his story with a smaller, but equally happy smile. It seemed the dawn on him how much flare he had put into his story, and he once again realized how much attention was on him. Before he could be too embarrassed though, Wind threw himself at Wild’s middle. Wild tensed for a second. Sky was slowly getting him used to human contact, but it was still a little strange. Not bad or unwelcome anymore, just strange. Slowly Wild’s body relaxed and he gently hugged Wind back, much to the delight of the younger hero.

“That was amazing Wild! You have to tell us more stories! What about the other divine beasts? What other big enemies did you face? Are there any more ridiculous ones?” Wind threw his questions out like a hurricane, eyes shining and smile beaming. It always warmed Wild’s heart to see Wind excited. Wind was capable and brought a variety of skills to the group, but he also brought fun, youth, and happiness. Wild really enjoyed and respected it.

“That’s enough for tonight.” Time said gently. Wild silently thanked him. He enjoyed telling his story, but his throat hurt slightly. He hadn’t talked that much for that long in… well... As long as he can remember actually.

“What? I can’t sleep now! That story was awesome!” Wind cried out, still attached to Wild like an octopus.

“Then you can take first watch.” Warriors teased. Wind squawked in indignation and threw himself from Wild to Warriors, both beginning to play wrestle on the ground. The band of heroes looked on in amusement. Twilight looked at Wild and smiled, winking at him like Time had done earlier that night. Wind was right. Perhaps Wild would tell stories more often.

[bl4cklabyrinth]

Documentary Film -Zenshin- Pamphlet Translation: Q&As

Disclaimer: Please do not retranslate my work into other languages, as my translation may not be accurate. I am no Japanese or English native.

Originally posted on my Twitter.

Photo by Suzuki Kohei

We collected questions for the members from fans on Twitter from 2016.12.30 to 2017.1.13. We handpicked some questions from the bunch and answered them!

Which song hypes you up the most live?

Teru&Kid'z: Monochrome Effector!

Kid'z: I have so much fun playing it that I burst out laughing.

Nob: Probably Black Rail. Because it's the first song I have a bass solo in.

Hiro: Love Letter or Monochrome Effector. Love Letter is a ballad that isn't too heavy, it's just right. There's a J-pop feel to it that gently touches the hearts of the Japanese.

The line "Nothing is impossible, so you're not going to give up, right?" from Black Rail has helped me several times. Do you have a favorite lyric or a line you're emotionally attached to from a MFS song?

Hiro: I don't remember which song I used it in first, but I've come to like using the phrase "fall apart", and I've used it a couple of times after that in other songs.

Kid'z: I was just working on Tomorrowland and The Puzzle when I joined the band. They left a mark on me.

Teru: I love the line "I must say it, even though it won't reach you" from Still.

Nob: It's Saishuukai STORY for me. It's the first song that Hiro worked on the backbone of, and I think it was a turning point for him. It made an impact on me and made me feel that he was out there to win.

When did you decide to play music seriously?

Hiro: I started thinking about it and acting on it on my first year in high school, but it wasn't until my third year that it started to take shape.

Teru: I thought about it seriously probably on my third year in high school. When I was deciding on what course to take after graduation.

Nob: While at my job. When I was still working as a painter, I was coating a wall when I suddenly thought, ".....What the hell am I doing?" After that, I immediately said, "I quit." I met Sho-kun about three days later.

Kid'z: I started playing the drums when I was 3, but I think I thought about doing it for a living when I was in middle school or high school... But when I visited my parents' house the other day, I saw that I had written "I'll go to Tokyo and become a drummer" in my grade school yearbook. It came true, I thought (laughs).

A question for Hiro. Since Hiro was at the core of making the album ANTITHESE, what do you look for in terms of guitar, bass, and drums respectively?

Hiro: "Overwhelming personality". For each part, how will you rearrange the songs I made with only the basic chord progression and melody? How well do you think it will synchronize with my image? Those are what I'm looking for.

When you toured around the 47 prefectures last year, was there a place where you thought, "I want to live here~"? Also, is there another country you would want to live in?

Teru&Kid'z: Okinawa!!

Kid'z: Actually, I flew there about a week before the show. I've always loved that place, so I had a great time.

Teru: If we're talking about a country to live in, Japan is nice.

Kid'z: I think so too. To tell you the truth, I'm quite the clean freak (laughs), so if it's not as clean as Japan then it's probably not for me.

Nob: Fukuoka, Sapporo. The food is delicious! And Osaka. Its liveliness is amazing. I'm really dull (laughs) and I spend my time quietly during my off days, but when I'm not doing that I want to be in a place that's still bustling with people until midnight. Foreign countries are scary.

Hiro: I think Osaka and Fukuoka are good too. If we're talking about another country, America.

What do you always do before a show?

Hiro: Doing a simulation on the day of the show is a must.

Kid'z: Stretching, mental preparation in a place with no people. 

Teru: During the 47-Prefecture Tour, Hiro would slap me on the back before every show. It somehow gives me motivation.

Nob: I walk around the area all the time. Like what a track and field athlete does before the real deal. I do it on instinct to boost my spirits.

What do you think is the coolest thing about each member?

Teru: Hiro's voice, Nob's moustache, Kid'z' nose.

Kid'z: When Hiro sings, when Nob plays the bass, when Teru plays the guitar (laughs). Everyone's at their coolest when they're performing.

Nob: Hiro's face. Kid'z when he's playing the drums, and maybe how he looks like when he's driving. As for Teru... He would casually say a few striking words from time to time. Whenever that happens, I think "This guy's really solid".

Hiro: (thinks) Nothing really... Seriously nothing (laughs).

If you had a time machine, which would you rather visit, the past or the future? Also, what would you do there?

Teru: Future. I wanna see what I'll be doing 30 years from now.

Kid'z: Exactly the same as Teru. I want to ask my future self what it's like.

Nob: It's the past for me. I want to restart my life all over again, or to try living a different life.

Hiro: I'd choose the past too. It'd be nice to go back to the 90s, for instance, when music was selling like hotcakes, and see how well my own music would fare in that era.

A question for Teru. During the 47-Prefecture Tour, where do you think you had your best MC?

Teru: Well, Niigata left an impression on me. If I remember correctly, Kid'z was talking about things that didn't make sense during the MC, and I got seriously angry. That was funny, but it was in no way my best MC.

Please tell us your aspirations for this year!

Teru: I decide to take on a new challenge every year. Anything would be fine, even something small.

Kid'z: To do my best without overdoing things, probably. Because I pushed myself too hard last year (laughs).

Nob: I want to get rid of some neck fat, chisel my abs and train my body. And I want to be featured on a musical instrument magazine like Bass Magazine.

Hiro: To take things slow but get things done. I want to add more intensity to my current pace this year.

What's one song that changed your life?

Teru: For me, it's Ozzy Osbourne's I Want To Change The World. I heard the song while my dad was watching Ozzy's DVD and thought, "How cool, I want to start playing the guitar!"

Nob: Sigur Rós' GIósóli. The video also made an impact on me.

Kid'z: One by B'z. I've always loved B'z, but that song and its lyrics just hit me differently.

Hiro: I don't know if it changed my life, but I felt like my values have changed since I listened to TK from Ling tosite Sigure's music. It made me see things from his point of view, made me ponder on the meaning of the lyrics and interpret them myself, and had me yearning for approval and self-confidence. It was at that moment when I realized that there are ways of making this kind of music, and that I had another option in life.

[eternaleve]

Watching A Broken Frame music videos for the first time!

Carrying on with my Depeche Mode video rewatch project with the vids for A Broken Frame (first post is found here https://eternaleve.tumblr.com/post/624649762286780416/ive-spent-the-course-of-covid-lockdown-cycling)

I looked through my vinyl and found I did not steal my mother’s Depeche Mode singles from this album (I only stole all her Elvis Costello and Joy Division and a bunch of Japan singles which I suspect she snuck to me in hopes of making me like them) but they are all mysteriously gone. My abusive stepdad recently moved out and I have thoughts about what property he took, but this just seems petty. 

Anyway, let’s talk about A Broken Frame! Vince Clarke left the band to go and be the Paul McCartney of 80s electronic music, forming Yazoo and Erasure. Apparently he did not like success and touring and stuff, which is far because it’s a lot of pressure, so he’s out and Alan Wilder is in after responding to an ad in Melody Maker. Remember music journalism? He joined as a tour keyboardist and appears in the videos for the album, but didn’t contribute to the album.

 A Broken Frame was released eleven months after Speak & Spell, which doesn’t seem to be enough time to me for a band to create another whole album's worth of material. It just seems that a band spends a few years perfecting their sound and a selection of songs, and then a record label says, ‘Great! Now do the same thing, but in a much shorter timeframe, under much more stress, and in snatched moments between being shuttled from gig venue to gig venue!’. I understand there’s a ~hype train~ that music acts have to follow, because bands can slip out of notice so fricking quickly, but the pressure does not seem set up to maintain the mental and emotional well-being of people. I’m sure nothing like that will happen in the history of this bad though!

This album cover is considered one of the world’s greatest photographs for a reason. It’s stark and beautiful and has echoes of socialist realism and is just a really striking image. I don’t know who has final say over art direction in the band but whoever does has a great eye for images. The picture is taken over by Duxford and as I’m from the Midlands I have been to Duxford on a hundred school trips (it has a big air centre with WW2 planes and things and bits of the Berlin Wall), so I’ve probably been past this field an uncountable number of times without even realising it.

See You (Jan 1982, No 6 UK charts)

I like how it looks like fuzzy felt. It feels very, very different from the singles art from the last album, I guess to indicate a clear difference in direction? Maybe? This is the first single for the band written by Martin Gore and starting his reign as songwriter.

All the music videos for this album were directed by Julien Temple and are Not Liked by the band. I generally quite like Julien Temple’s work and watched a lot of it as a teen (stepdad being hugely into the Pistols), so I am intrigued to say the least how these will turn out to be.

This does give me a bit of a nostalgia kick for an old-fashioned style train station. It’s pretty much what my home station used to look like before everything was privatised, bought out by Virgin, turned bright red and full of commuters. I like how the station sparks to the beat of the music and that someone okayed an actual spending budget for this time around.

YOU HAVE TO LEAVE THE STATION THE PHOTOBOOTH IS HAUNTED

Not going to lie, this looks 100% like my Dad’s first ever passport photo. I like the addition of the bowtie. It adds a real ‘First Communion’ vibe to the whole look. The nose stud… well, I had a nose stud at the exact same period of my life. Same age too, I think, only mine stayed around a lot longer when it definitely should not have done.

It was at that moment he knew he had made a grave mistake in confronting the ‘Telephone Box Killer’ on his own.

Insert a standard ‘Original Selfie’ joke here. The use of the photobooth gives a cute little through line in the video, as well as giving other band members a chance to be present. I remember using photobooths to take fun photos, before they started costing so much goddamned money and put them only in the most inconvenient places. I still have a bunch that I keep in my purse.

… And now everyone’s working an office job? To show the passage of time? Or because it’s now a bit with music, so we’re showing the use of keyboards through office equipment that sort of requires you to make similar hand movements?

Something, something, statement about technology? The photobooth theme was fine! It was cute! It said something about the regret and passage of time from teen to young adult romance! Why are there now a lot of calculators?

Just in case you forgot - the single’s out now. Wink, wink.

But let’s go back and check in with our corporate overlords. Bob, how are you doing on the spyware floor?

… is this Julien Temple? Is it a music video within a music video? Did he put himself in the video? Could this part not have been done by a member of the band? Like, y’know, that new one who was clearly added in partly through this video?

I like the main core storyline of the video - thinking about a past relationship and then happening to run into them again unexpectedly - but I can see why this is perhaps not well thought of. Next one!

The Meaning of Love (April 82, No 12 UK charts)

This reminds me a lot of the cover for the first Adrian Mole book which was published the same year. It does not match the first single at all or the album, but I guess the album art was yet to be done? Or maybe two different departments handled them, because I would have gone with a different single cover if I knew that one of the greatest photographs of all time was in the wings for the album.

Reader, my heart dropped. I knew we were in for some deeply 80s bullshit. And, like, not good 80s bullshit.

This is the lounge act in the cruiseship of my nightmares

Martin Gore there looking like 99% of the lesbians on the DIY punk scene.

What the fuck is going on?

What, and I must reiterate, the fuck is going on? Are those pies? Pie eyes? Pie eye glasses? What does it mean?

Now’s not the time for your science homework, it’s time to film a music video.

Great, I know what image will be repeating in my night terrors tonight. Martin Gore’s face earnestly singing at me from the depths of a paramecium.

THIS JUST GETS WORSE AND WORSE. THERE IS NO SITUATION ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET MADE BETTER WITH PUPPETS.

No, my night paralysis nightmare will be Dave Gahan’s face turning into a fucking pie over and over and over again.

Oh, I see, the Meaning of Love is that your wife will turn into a bitter harpy that won’t let you live your dream and also your life is ruined because she keeps letting the puppets sleep in the bed.

I guess the video has a sort of XTC vibe? It does remind me of the video of ‘Making Plans for Nigel’, which I do like, but also this video is fucking awful should be seen to be believed. I liked the band’s awkward choreography which was four men showing how much they did not want to be doing any of this.

Leave In Silence (August 82, No 18)

The font is nice. That’s about all there is to say for this. It doesn’t match the other two singles. I’m not saying everything has to be matchy-matchy, but it is nice to have visual similarity and consistency. This looks like the record label gave up on trying.

Okay, so we’ve got the album art sorted and starting out with a - I guess you could call it ‘low rural farming vocalisation’, and neither of these two things match the other singles or music videos, which have had a very poppy, teen girl, Smash Hits vibe. 

This week on The Generation Game, you could win a stainless steel bowl, a cuddly toy, and the lead singer of Depeche Mode!

This video started with a group of people vocalising while pouring out grain and looking very plaguecore, now we’re all playing around on a conveyor belt because I think Julien Temple has run out of ideas and is being artsy and surreal and weird to cover that up.

Ladies and gentleman, I’m sad to say that ‘The Fanciest Little Cowboy’ competition will not be running this year due to a lack of other contestants. This is a very fancy Little Cowboy though.

…. I…. what? 

I have seen many bad, bad, bad cursed images in my time, but this is going straight up to the top. What the fuck does this say about the song? The band? The image the record label is trying to project? This pointless weird imagery for the sake of being pointless and weird.

It’s okay, Jess. Bright Red Martin Gore can’t really hurt you. Only haunt you.

And now spacehoppers. Because of course spacehoppers!

The players from Pathologic show up to make a cameo appearance, matching nothing in the video, and seeming wildly out of place with everything else. Pick a theme or story, Julien! It is EITHER the Generation Game OR a terrifying children’s show OR guttural Soviet inspired plaguecore. You can pick one! Not all of them!

The Blue Man Group really had a rough start. The wheat is… just there. Because I guess Julien Temple couldn’t think of how to organically weave it an advertisement for the album. So there’s just a bundle of wheat for no good reason.

By this point, same, mate. That is the only reaction I am having.

These videos were… not great. I think ‘See You’ is the best and most cohesive - it tells a cute little story that ties in with the themes of the song and provides an emotional resonance. And then things just go off the bloody chain a bit. They get weird and experimental in a way that does not work in selling the band or the song. They seem pretty disconnected from what a music video should be and Julien Temple seemed to just run out of ideas by ‘Leave In Silence’. C- Mr Temple, must try harder.

And then onto Construction Time Again! ... well, when I get round to it. In a few days maybe.

[wvrmtails]

(  and what loneliness is more lonely than distrust?  )

( keiynan lonsdale, twenty one, agender ) my goodness, is peter pettigrew back? it’s been a few years since the halfblood has been around the castle, but i’d recognize he/they anywhere. rumor has it the seventh year spent the past few years aligned with the order. they’re stillallocentric & cunning and obsessive & passive, though. and the gryffindor still reminds me of ketchup stains on band shirts, an incomprehensible minute long string of curses, tracing the veins in your wrist, the smell of breakfast and fresh coffee, card tricks at three in the morning. well, then, i guess some things never change. 

links:  playlist.  pinboard.  stats. 

triggers: child abandonment, eating disorder (specifically bed/bulimia), depression, anxiety, weed. there’s a heads up before every bulletpoint!

history.

child abandonement mention |  peter grew up in glasgow, scotland and was raised by his mother, a halfblooded witch called daraja pettigrew. his dad wasn’t in the picture, hadn’t been from the moment his mum had told him that she was pregnant. | end of mention

which meant peter learned how to be alone from a young age. his mother worked a lot, after all, so she could pay the rent of their small flat and give peter the bare minimum, the things he needed. peter delved into fictional worlds: he read books. comics, mostly, but also a lot of roald dahl. he also watched a lot of telly, because tv is the bomb.

went to muggle elementary, where he was kind of? an odd one out. his clothes were always a bit lumpy, his words a bit jumbled, his eyes shifty. was an outsider on good days, a target on less good ones. he spent many lunch breaks eating alone, and most of the time he didn’t mind — being alone meant he could let his mind wander.

still, it fucked with his self esteem. no kid likes feeling alone, or like an outsider.

and then hogwarts rolled around and! friends! marauders! peter felt so at home! oh my god okay listen. he loves the marauders so much and he was so hyped and happy to be part of this little group and there was a Lot of hero worship there, esp in the early days?

peter always loved heroes. he loves comic books and people who save the day and get the girl and do it all. i think he kind of … projected that onto james and sirius especially? did not know how to do this friendship thing as an 11 year old tbh, was a mess, was blinded by their amazingness damn

also. re: being sorted into gryffindor! peter admires heroism and bravery and chivalry, and it’s your values that get you sorted some place. and he does try to be brave, and he IS, because he becomes a damn animagus for his bud! i mean! he was not a hatstall btw  — i choose to ignore that stupid bit of post canon. it took a while for the hat, sure, but no more than two minutes. 

pete was & is a shit student, not bc he was dumb, but just because school was not. his thing. his jam. the system was just not for him. deadlines? exams? homework? no thank you. anyway, peter’s skills flourished a lot more in different settings, like … using charms for convenience. or becoming an animagus for his bff. making potions against hangovers. etc.

becoming an animagus for remus was ! important ! to peter ! he did it for remus, not because of peer pressure, or anything else — he did it because it was right, and his friend deserved it and ! he did it, too, because he could. sure, his transfig grades may have been more than poor, but the kid did have some skill. he just needed motivation, which mcgonagall didn’t give (bc. she scared him.) and this situation? motivated the hell out of him. 

peter would be lying if he said he wasn’t taken a bit aback when he learned about remus’ lycanthropy — not because he was scared of him, to be honest, but he was just ? shocked ? he was more scared for remus, and so sad? so fucking sad for him? : (

collects chocolate frog cards like it’s his damn job. i mean, he did it before hogwarts, but once he arrived and there was more opportunity to trade and a whole club dedicated to it, peter grew more and more driven to complete his collection, lmao. peter also really likes playing gobstones and is pretty good at it? same with chess & card games — he loves games!!!! so much!!!

weed & anxiety tw | peter started smoking pot in the summer between his fourth and fifth year, and never really stopped. it made him slack more at school, but also eased his anxiety, which had started to develop in his fourth year. as months passed, peter became more and more of a stoner, which made him both more relaxed and funnier, but also ... a whole of a lot lazier. | end of weed tw

peter had always been a bit ... fidgety, easily on edge, a bit nervous, but he’d never really known anxiety until around fourteen years old. his insecurities grew, as he started comparing himself more to his friends and finding nothing but things he lacked in comparison to them, and questions as to why they put up with him. | end of anxiety tw

so his schooldays mostly looked like ... doing nothing, playing games, having fun with his mates, getting high, forgetting his homework, stressing about homework, and somewhere, in a tiny corner of his being, worrying about the war. whenever those worries started coming up, though, he was able to push them away, because the war was not yet there, not for him at least. there was graduation to worry about first, and once that was done, then he could worry about the war.

and then the war came to hogwarts. peter was shocked. peter had been in denial about the war and how close it could hit him, because in his mind he and his friends would be safe at hogwarts, would be safe until at least graduation, and then that was all gone. peter didn’t do much during the battle. i can imagine that he just hid, that he tried to stay out of trouble, that a side of him showed itself that he did not like at all. he worried about his friends, hoped they were safe, but didn’t go looking for them, didn’t try to protect them: he clung to safety and hid. like a fucking coward. he prayed, for a moment, and then cursed god to hell and back. probably smoked a few cigarettes, too.

post battle & currently.

peter is ashamed. ashamed of his cowardice, ashamed of his passiveness, of his incapability to stand up and fight, like so many of his friends did. a disgust grew in his chest for himself, and yet he was glad, somewhere, that he had hidden. he’d not seen as much as others had. he’d not gotten hurt. he had not died.

he did join the order, along with his friends, in an attempt to make up for his earlier lack of bravery, but he finds himself incapable to do much. he’s not good at dueling and while he’s able to be strategic and cunning, his mind seems to shut down whenever he tries to apply himself. he’s terrified, frankly, and he’s angry, because he should just be at fucking hogwarts. 

that idea i mentioned earlier, that the war wouldn’t be real until after graduation, and then graduation being postponed significantly, kind of froze peter up. rather than dedicating himself to the order in his own ways, as he would do in a canon verse, or eventually deciding to walk over to the death eaters, peter just became passive. i think peter hung around hq a lot, cleaning up and cooking food and making sure there was always enough tea/coffee/beer/liquor around for when there were meetings. would rather clean a dirty toilet than go on a mission. The Order’s personal MAID! 

depression & weed & eating disorder (bed/bulimia) tw | peter feels useless. he feels like a shitty person. he feels like he’s a burden. he hates himself. peter starts secluding himself, hiding in his mother’s home. he smokes more pot. he sometimes goes a week without seeing someone besides his mum. he watches too much telly and reads comics and drowns in fictional worlds and he becomes depressed. he sinks into it without noticing and can’t come back from it. his eating habits ( which have always bordered on unhealthy ) turn worse; peter binges, and then restricts, falls into a cycle. it’s the only routine he has.

when he’s around his friends, he lives up a little. he cracks jokes and wants to play games and laughs and feels a bit more alive, but he always craves his time on his own. that’s his new way to feel safe: to stick to his newly found routine, hidden in his room, away from reality. | end of tw

and then, finally, he was able to return to hogwarts. the three years spent away from school feel like a blur, if you ask him now, a useless blur, and peter’s laughing when he steps on the train. he’s glad. he’s glad. he can return to his plan to graduate and then, maybe, find the power in himself to face the war, rather than still, kind of, deny it. peter just wants to return to his last year and make the most of it, and return to the way life once was. ( that that’s kind of impossible is, well, yet another thing he’s in denial about. )

random facts & ramblings.

peter parker is his favourite superhero just because ... they share a first name and because peter parker is a bit of an underdog too and peter is just like! amazing! he named his owl parker.

he hates cats. used to love them --- he was allowed to take the cat from home with him to hogwarts when he was eleven, but he brought him back home after an unfortunate incident where his cat nearly ate him while he was in his animagus form. “sorry ma, i don’t love him any more. here. have him.” 

peter is actually a solid cook. this is because he learned to make some basic food when he was still a kid, first with his grandma, and later on his own. he liked doing it for his mother and he was. .. good at it? peter is also just passionate about food and finds comfort in cooking. breakfast food and baked goods are Prime Food Categories. 

he is asexual af, panromantic. has kissed both guys and gals and nb pals but did not like it??? confused. does not understand sexuality and all that jazz but tries not to think abt it because like! he’s got enough stress! doesnt need to think abt this!

peter is also agender, but i think he’s a lot less aware about this, because it’s confusing and so he just tries not to think about it. he does feel okay with he/him pronouns, but just doesn’t feel connected at all to being a boy/man

peter has abandonment issues because his dad, well, never even bothered to be there. not even for a second. he’s just constantly scared that people will leave and it’s funny, because he will probably end up abandoning all of his loved ones KDJFHSDF.

peter is quite non confrontational but also not ... meek? he just avoids it, either by physically staying out of people’s way or by dismissing most of the things said and getting out of there. a Passive Kid. will, however, defends his friends honour, because damn it, he loves them so much.

he’s such a fucking dork i swear to god. but he’s funny! peter is really funny. i deeply believe in this. he makes great puns and is able to just come out of nowhere and make a comment that just. hits the nail right on its head. 

peter curses a lot and has a scottish accent and sometimes he will have a minute long cursing session that no one rly understands.

listen i have such a wide array of hc’s im not going to list them all here just ask me

possible plots.

tutors. someone help peter graduate bc that is like. something he does want to do. he’s taking his newts in transfig, potions and herbology.

fellow collectors. please trade chocolate frog cards with peter and help him finish his collection before he loses his gd mind.

let’s play a game! peter rly likes playing games and tbh he’s usually in for one ( though it does depend on who you are, lmao ) so! maybe your character and peter just like hanging out and playing some Games.

i will add more im just so tired of typing rn KSDFHSJKDFHKJSDFKDSFH

[manjuhitorie]

Hitorie nexUs Tour 2018 comment translations

source: https://twitter.com/hitorieJP/status/1001070624226263040 A new two-man tour with Hitorie has begun! With, androp, go!go!vanillas, FIVE NEW OLD, a flood of circle, Frederic, Buzz Mothers, Village Man's Store, THE ORAL CIGARETTES, ... there's much curating and much music curing to be had, If you're interested in any of those bands' relationships with Hitorie members, please read their comments to each other below! thank you abababa, 

Osaka Umeda CLUB QUATTRO w/ androp One day, the bassist, Mae-kun, messaged me asking “Where do you often go to get pizza?”, and that gave me the courage to invite him to a crossover.

Back in the year 2011, androp’s music probably gave me strength, for me to become Hitorie, I admired them to become the person I am today,

And I’ve become a fan again, in seeing their determination to perform with us.

-ygarshy (Hitorie)

When did I first meet igarashi-kun anyway… I can’t even remember exactly but, I think our auras just clicked or something.

At some point he just became a good friend.

Personally there’s not many other musicians I can send private messages to, so I’m really happy that one of my few friends, igarashi-kun, invited me.

I look forward to what kind of show him and Hitorie will give. 

-Maeda Kyousuke (androp)

Tokyo Mynavi BLITZ Akasaka w/ go!go!vanillas The first time I ever talked to Maki-kun was during a new year’s party last year I think.

I have a vivid memory about how happy I was that there’s no difference between the music he performs and his person himself.

I was having such fun that I just drank until I ended up knocked out asleep but… 

I had gone out drinking with him again, just the two of us, to ask him to join us for this performance, but,

We ended up talking to each other about music for a straight four hours and a half. 

Just as I thought, from his attitude to his core, he was the epitome of man.

I felt it from the first time I listened to him, the lucidity of his voice, how I can almost smell the earth and it’s charm, and then his physical form which strongly reinforces all of that. Even though our means are differed, the goals that we aim for seem to be something similar, I feel.

They’re an amazing band. Already I want to see what they’re capable of.

-wowaka (Hitorie)

When I drank with wowaka-san and the more and more we talked, 

I started to see Hitorie’s music from the depths out, and I came to love it.

They’re so rock. Yeah.

From their tasteful performances to their rough humanness, Hitorie are the like the spitting image of Dio from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

Let us both put on shows that surpass humanity. 

Please join us!

-Maki Tatusya (go!go!vanillas)

Gunma, Takasaki club FLEEZ w/ FIVE NEW OLD I played a gig with HIROSHI-kun (Vo.) at a convention once, 

and that was when I first saw the appeal in his beautiful voice,

I hope we can have a battle of the bands that’s like a match of mixed martial arts. 

They’re a band that I’ve personally been listening to for 2 years,

So to have a joint concert with FIVE NEW OLD makes me feel emotional.

I can’t wait to bask my body in their pop music.

-Yumao (Hitorie)

Yumao-kun and I had met for a gig session at Shimokitazawa,

and as we played music together, we immediately came to understand a lot about each other.

From there did this crossover take form.

As one musician there’s no other person I’d be happier to be invited by.

Even if the sounds we release are different, our love for music is the same.

I’ll show off the sounds of FIVE NEW OLD as best as I can!

-HIROSHI (FIVE NEW OLD)

Miyagi, Sendai darwin w/ a flood of circle He’s my senior and my friend, Kazutaka-san, I always have many chances to meet him, so when we meet we chat a lot,. 

As long as we have a short amount of time to talk we’ll always just be sharing new information on drums and music.

So if we have this close of a relationship

then it’s about time I challenge him to a serious match, 

Or such was my thought process, when after we had drank through the night, right before the south ticket gate of JR Shinjuku Station was where I invited him.

I’m sincerely happy to be able to do a joint concert with them again.

-Yumao (Hitorie)

I thankfully accept this challenge.

Yumao and I share the same principles, between the things we like to the things we’re moved by,

He’s a valuable person to me but,

As a performer, his output and his means are extremely different from mine. 

Yet maybe that’s just the reason why, he’s someone who can I seriously respect, to the point of delight do we have such a special relationship.

I think that’s reflective of the band, Hitorie, and us, a flood of circle, our relationship as well.

I want to fight this special opponent with all my strength and more.

Their last tour final at EX THEATER was spectacular.

So I look forward to this.

-Watanabe Kazutaka (a flood of circle)

Niigata LOTS w/ Frederic I think it’s been about 3 years since we first met and started talking to each other…

Except about 6 years ago, I coincidentally found “The Ghost on the Pass” on Youtube, 

Ever since then, I’ve always been a fan of theirs. A while after that, “oddloop” was released and I had listened to it literally immediately but, the happiness and the frustration I felt then was beyond belief, really.

I vividly remember how the other members and staff of Hitorie were going around the studio hyping over how sick of a song it was.

Then after that was when we came into contact and started talking.

I’ve shared a drink with Kooji-kun in a hotel room we were staying at while touring, I’ve gone to the aquarium early in the new year with Ken-chan. 

The personalities of these people are the appeal of Frederic. I like music of which I can see their faces. 

Their music and their will are super high-dimensional, like they’re firmly holding it all in their hand.

They’re such a strong band.

I’ve been hearing that their concerts are amazing these days, so us too have to start training.

-wowaka (Hitorie)

‘A two-man show with Hitorie’, I’m so honored. 

Back in our indies era, before I moved up to Tokyo, 

when I was riding the night bus back down to Osaka alone, the music that fired up my fighting spirit was Hitorie’s.

This is a two-man with Hitorie, the band who brings a new wave, who pushed me forward, who influenced me like hell. This is crazy.

I’m going to enjoy this more than anyone.

-Mihara Kenji (Frederic)

Aichi Nagoya JAMMIN’  w/ Buzz Mothers May I have your attention everyone. Buzz Mothers have joined nexUs.

They were the ones who invited us to take apart in their joint concert projects in the past,

and last December we had discussed how “We should do continue to do this once a year~”.

But I feel bad making them wait until winter so, 

This time I thought maybe I should be the one who starts our third fight. 

First was Tokyo then was Osaka, and now it’s the town where my and Buzz Mothers relationship all began: Nagoya. So, the third times the charm huh.

It’s about time we settled this eh Ryou-chan.

That said, I’m not sure why I have such belligerence for these guys but 

Buzz Mothers are a band that strangely make me feel this way.

-Shinoda (Hitorie)

The first time I went to a love-hotel was when I was a high-schooler.

I was the one who had asked my partner back then to go,

Still in our school uniforms, I held her hand as we went. When I think about it now it was a pretty radical sight,

The lady at the front dest, she admitted us a room like it was nothing, surely she had something wrong with her morals.

The second time we went to a love-hotel, of course again, I was the one who asked.

We were both wearing our casual clothes. I was wearing a Nirvana T-shirt, and she in a lovely one-piece dress.

Only after many dates from then,  for the first time, with an embarrassed look on her face did she ask me, “Why don’t we go somewhere where we can be alone?”

I felt like I actually lost my virginity for the first time that day.

When Hitorie invited me to join them for a concert, I just sort of remembered that time.

This is the first time I’ve ever happily accepted a fight.

The third times the charm, you say? Don’t you mean everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time eh, poor Shinoda?

I look forward to this.

-Yamada Ryouichi (Buzz Mothers)

Hokkaido Sapporo DUCE  w/ Village Man's Store May I have your attention everyone. Welcome, Village Man's Store.

“When are you going to do a joint concert with Village? Why haven’t you done one with Village? Where are Village?” I’ve heard all of your voices but,

But please! I’m the one who wanted to do this the most y’know!!

Village and I have known each other for a long time, ever since we both had booths at Nagoya and were both swindled out of our high sales quota by the most fishy event organizer,

It’s been 10 years, more, since then,,, You gotta be kidding,,, It’s been so long,,,.

Then I joined Hitorie, and even after I left Nagoya these guys continued to overcome various trials,

They haven’t thrown away their hot sweaty looking bright red suits,

And they’re even, they’ve even grown even more hot and sweaty.

I finally get to face these guys head-on, I honestly feel so happy about this.

We don’t get to do it in Nagoya but.

Shinoda (Hitorie)

Hitorie, when I met Shinoda-san I was in my teenage years.

Whenever I would hang out at a certain music club, for concerts I didn’t really understand the points of, put together by a certain crooked event organizer,, for some reason Shinoda-san would always be there. Even though I was young and still faintly smelled something fishy, I couldn’t help but enjoy those concerts. 

Well, because I got to see Dr. Right (the old band Shinoda-san used to be in). 

Thinking about it now, as the shitty country brat I was, for me Shinoda-san was the first “guitar hero” I ever met in my life.

The guy who was ridiculously skilled at guitar even since then, Shinoda-san, the Shinoda who would always praise other people like crazy, the Shinoda who somehow 100% of the time would always perform at the same shows we would, the Shinoda who would always be kicking the other performers or be the one getting kicked around on stage, the Shinoda who would at a 60% chance have sound issues mid-show, or break his guitar mid-show, for one of my support members to lend him their guitar only for him to just break that one too, the Shinoda who looks like an unhealthy Dave Grohl, the Shinoda who used to be the butt of nonsensical rumors about how the air conditioner in his room made air that smelled like shit, the Shinoda who performed a street show on Christmas and then somehow was never able to get home… No matter how you look at him he’s a guitar hero.

If Shinoda-san was in a part of the music industry that never let him see the light of day, I probably would have stopped playing music.

I’m always behind Shinoda-san’s back chasing him, buying his CDs,

I’ve completely turned into a Hitorie fan, and now my wish of a joint concert is finally coming true. 

It’s even a two-man show, it’s the day of my dreams. I’m glad I’ve continued to play music.

-Mizuno Gui (Village Man's Store)

Fukuoka DRUM LOGOS  w/ THE ORAL CIGARETTES To have another crossover with THE ORAL CIGARETTES, 

That has always been one of the biggest motivations for me to continue on with Hitorie. 

3 years ago,

You summoned us to your “Kuchibiru Taiban TOUR 2015 ~ORAL’s indebted repayment and mixed martial arts selfish greedy volume~”. This time we summon you.

Thanks for your consent. I love you on and off the stage.

-ygarshy (Hitorie)

We respect Hitorie’s music so much, for that reason we want to continue fighting with them forever.

This joint concert is based on those emotions alone!

There’s definitely things we’ve both forgotten, or never noticed about each other,

So we’d be happy if this could be a concert of discovery, to aim for higher and higher places.

We look forward to working with everyone!

THE ORAL CIGARETTES  

[duncanbarker-blog]

We’ve been travelling the world full-time as digital nomads for nine years!

Our ninth year on the road was unusual—we spent the entire year in expensive countries and could afford to do so because we had a surprisingly extraordinary year for our business (more on that below).

We also spent much more time in the UK. We enjoyed seeing more of friends and family and having an easy base between European trips. Nine years of travel is tiring—pretty much every other nomad we know has now set up a home base—and we appreciated being in a place where we know how things work and found we could be more productive. Plus we got to explore more of our home country which really is a beautiful place (especially when the sun shines).

So do we have any plans to settle down? Nope. We are feeling tired right now after a busy two months and do need to slow down—in Year 9 we only spent more than one month in a place once (Austin for two months), which is unusual for us. But we still appreciate the freedom of this lifestyle and don’t want to be tied to one place between trips or have to bother with the hassles of setting up a home.

Year 9 was another fantastic year that took us to seven countries. While only one of them was new to us (Iceland), we visited two new states in the US (including Hawaii!) and enjoyed digging deeper into some of our favourite places in Italy. We also got out of our comfort zone with an unexpected long distance hike that turned out to be one of our favourite ever travel experiences (and in our own country too).

United Kingdom

Running the London Landmarks Half Marathon

In last year’s nomadiversary post I discussed our strangely enjoyable winter in the UK. In March we finished our time there with housesits in Stratford Upon Avon and London and I completed my training for my second half marathon.

Running the new London Landmarks Half Marathon was a fantastic experience. I loved running past the sights of London—both major and hidden—with lots of entertainment along the way. It was a treat to experience the city without any traffic as all the roads were closed for the race.

The benefit of being back in the UK was that my parents were able to join Simon as my cheering squad and due to the loops and switchbacks of the route, I saw them multiple times which helped keep me going and get a new PB (1:56:30). I also raised £1000 for the Alzheimer’s Society.

Going to the Theatre

Being in an English speaking country meant we had the opportunity to go to the theatre which isn’t something we often get to do. We saw the Duchess of Malfi in Stratford Upon Avon and Animal Farm later in the year in Brighton, but best of all was finally getting tickets for Harry Potter and Hamilton in London which were both brilliant! The trick we found to getting tickets was to check the website a few days before for last minute returns (they also have lotteries but we had no luck).

France

The Perfect Day in Paris

Cherry blossoms at Jardin des Plantes in Paris

In early April, after a wonderfully chocolate-filled Easter in London, we began our train trip to Italy, stopping as we always do in Paris.

We only had time for a day in the city, but we made the most of it with an epic 14-mile walk to classic sights and hidden gems that included our favourite croissants, beautiful parks, grandiose buildings, breaks for thick hot chocolate and macarons, and strolling along the Seine. It was an exhausting but perfect day. See our Paris in a day itinerary for details.

Italy

Bologna

The view of Bologna from Asinelli Tower

We never get enough of our beloved Italy and on our 12th trip there we began with a week in Bologna. It’s a beautiful, less touristy city with a rich food culture (balsamic vinegar, parmesan cheese and Parma ham all come from the region).

We did a fun food tour, climbed medieval towers, visited a traditional balsamic vinegar maker in nearby Modena, and ate a huge amount of fresh pasta and gelato. We have more tips in our best things to do in Bologna post.

A Month in Lecce

Our street in Lecce

On our previous two trips to Lecce, a small University city in Puglia, we’d commented on how liveable it felt and this time we finally returned for a full month.

We loved having time to get to know all the delicious restaurants and wander the gorgeous golden Baroque streets. The weather was perfect in April/early May and sitting outside with a glass of rose for a leisurely lunch was just wonderful.

We ate a lot in Lecce!

Road Tripping Around Puglia

Us in Otranto

From Lecce we rented a car for a two-week road trip up the length of Puglia to a mix of new destinations and old favourites.

We started with a few nights on an olive farm near Ostuni, Il Frantoio, which is our favourite place to stay in all of Italy. It’s rustic but stylish, full of character and history, and the meals are amazing—all made with produce and oil from the farm.

Masseria il Frantoio

We explored more of the Valle d’Itria from our next base in the off-the-beaten-track town of Ceglie Messapica before continuing up the coast to beautiful Polignano a Mare and the Gargano Peninsula.

Monopoli in Puglia

We’ve updated our Puglia guide with our new favourite places. We highly recommend this beautiful region of Italy.

A Month in Rome

At the Trevi Fountain

We’ve visited Rome many times before and it was just as glorious as we expected to have a full month living in our favourite neighbourhood Testaccio. We were a few minutes walk from the excellent Testaccio market as well as one of the best pizzerias in Rome (and we went there often!).

We spent our time seeking out unusual things to do in Rome to avoid the crowds which was surprisingly easy to do and even managed to have a Caravaggio painting to ourselves!

Another highlight was seeing a screening of the Gladiator film with a 200-piece live orchestra in the Circus Maximus, an ancient Roman chariot-racing stadium (Russell Crowe even made an appearance!).

View of Piazza Navona from the Eitch Borromini rooftop terrace bar

United Kingdom (Again)

A Hot Summer in Brighton

Brighton beach on a sunny day

Our focus for the summer was getting work done so we accepted a housesit in Brighton, an artsy beach town on the south coast of England. What we didn’t expect was that the UK would actually have a summer (and therefore distractions from work)!

It was the longest period of hot weather that we ever remember having in England and it was rather lovely. We enjoyed beach picnics and festivals with friends and even swam in the English Channel!

We were also in training so we did quite a few day hikes up at Devil’s Dyke and best of all, from the Seven Sisters to Eastbourne which is just gorgeous!

The Seven Sisters

Unfortunately, our housesit was interrupted as the sweet elderly dog we were looking after got sick and the owners decided to come home, so we moved on. It ended up being a more disruptive time than we needed and we were sad to leave our lovely dog and housesit behind.

Selling Our House

In the meantime, we sold our house in Manchester which we’ve been renting out since we left in 2010. Things were always going wrong with a 100+ year old house and it was a relief to finally rid ourselves of it. Surprisingly it sold very quickly and for over the asking price.

We’re now very grown up and have an investment portfolio of low-cost index funds for the proceeds (after reading Millionaire Expat by Andrew Hallam). We hadn’t thought about retirement before (because it certainly won’t look like the average retirement), but saving for our old age seems like a good idea and we’re now contributing to the fund regularly.

Friends and Family

A family reunion and birthday dinner

It was lovely to have so much time with friends and family in the UK this year. We were able to attend birthday parties and a family reunion that we’d usually miss, visit friends in Worthing, Bristol, London and Manchester, and Simon even recorded a song with his occasional band Velocitiger.

Hiking the Dales Way

Simon on the Dales Way

Doing a long distance hike was not on our radar until Simon’s stepmum walked the Dales Way and the idea stuck in our heads. While walking 80 miles over six days was definitely out of our comfort zone, it was made easier by a luggage transport service and the lovely B&Bs and pubs we stayed in along the way.

It ended up being a wonderfully relaxing week and a real highlight of the year. The Yorkshire Dales is a gorgeous part of the country and exploring on foot is the perfect way to experience a place that feels like you’ve stepped back in time.

At the end of the Dales Way in the Lake District

Iceland

Road Tripping Around Iceland

Kirkjufellsfoss waterfall

Iceland lived up to the hype! It’s a truly stunning country and we spent a fantastic 12 days road tripping to the less visited areas of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula and remote Westfjords.

September in Iceland was ideal as there were fewer crowds and no snow on the roads but some starting to appear on the mountains. We often had hidden waterfalls, hot springs, and dramatic beaches to ourselves.

See our Iceland itinerary for details of where we went.

On the huge and empty red sand beach in Iceland

Seeing the Northern Lights

The Northern Lights outside our cabin at Bjarkaholt in the Westfjords.

The highlight of our Iceland trip was seeing the northern lights for the first time. We didn’t even need to take a tour to see the magical light show—we just stepped outside our cabin in the Westfjords.

United Kingdom (Yet Again)

Cosy Life in a Welsh Village

The view from the top of Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons

As we discovered in the summer, it’s easier to be productive when you’re not also trying to get to know a new place and figure out what to eat and where to go for basic supplies. So in October we decided to rent a cottage in a tiny village in the Brecon Beacons. While we’d never visited that part of Wales before, being in the UK was easy and familiar.

We spent most of our time working by the fireplace and taking long walks along the canal, but we also took a few day trips to nearby Hay on Wye to browse its many bookshops and eat lunch in quirky cafes, and we climbed the Pen-Y-Fan mountain. We would love to return to explore more of the area (and maybe take a canal boat holiday!).

USA

Disney World

At Magic Kingdom!

Disney is Simon’s happy place so when we had the opportunity to visit for his birthday, of course, I couldn’t resist. We stayed onsite at a value resort for the first time and enjoyed the convenience of the free buses rather than driving ourselves.

As always we had a fun-filled week—see our favourite things to do at Disney World and our tips for visiting Disney on a budget.

Austin

Kayaking past downtown Austin on a sunny day in December

We really needed to settle down by this point, so we decided to spend two months in Austin, Texas because we have good friends there (Tom, Jenny and Abraham of Till the Money Runs Out) and we’d heard it’s a cool city. Our friends had a great Airbnb apartment we could rent in the quiet and attractive neighbourhood Hyde Park.  

I haven’t written about Austin as we spent our time there more as locals than seeing the sights. Things we loved about the city: queso (oh my!), cheap margaritas, tacos, kayaking past downtown, running around Lady Bird Lake (10 miles of uninterrupted trail! I even managed a half marathon by myself), the ultra-comfortable Alamo Drafthouse cinemas, and Central Market supermarket (yay for bulk buy!).

I got to take a yoga class with the fabulous Adriene of Yoga with Adriene—as I do her videos every day it was amazing to practice with her in person. 

Simon took part in his first ever poker game and won!

Mostly we loved Austin because we got to spend lots of time with our friends who made us feel so welcome. We spent Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas (we cooked Christmas lunch and made mince pies for the first time!) and New Year together and were even in town for the birth of their new baby.

Us with Jenny, Tom and Abraham at one of our Christmas events—the Luminations at the Wildflower Centre

Christmas was especially lovely as it’s always a difficult time for us to be away from home, but we did so many fun activities—buying our first tree in a decade (which Simon brought home on an electric scooter!), making tree ornaments and gingerbread houses and mulled wine, decorating cookies, wandering through various light trails, and seeing the Nutcracker ballet.

Texas winter weather is weird, though—close to freezing one day and 75ºF and sunny the next.

Us on our way to see The Nutcracker on a sunny day a few days before Christmas

Hawaii

Erin at Waianapanapa State Park on Maui

Our month in Hawaii was as glorious as we hoped! The scenery was stunning, the weather perfect (hot but not too hot—A/C wasn’t necessary), and most places we stayed had an ocean view which always makes me happy.

It was the most expensive trip we’ve ever done, but it was worth it. We enjoyed the tropical vibe but with all the comforts and conveniences of the US (although it was hard to believe we were still in the same country after a six-hour flight from LA!). ⠀

We focused on the islands of Kauai and Maui (with one night in Honolulu at the end) but already want to return to explore more of the islands.

Helicopter Trip over Kauai

The stunning Na Pali coast from a helicopter

The highlight of our time on Kauai was taking a doors off helicopter ride over this stunning island—we flew over waterfalls and through canyons and along the Na Pali Coast which has the most beautiful sea cliffs we’ve ever seen.

Whale Watching on Maui

Whale breaching in Maui on our Makai Adventures boat trip. Photo by Jill Niederberger as my camera broke a few days before.

Our favourite experience on Maui was seeing so many whales—on boat trips, from beaches, and even from our condo’s balcony. We saw them breaching, tail slapping, with babies, and even singing while we were snorkelling—magical! It really was a dream come true because we’ve wanted to see whales for ages but have never had any luck.

Hawaii in general was rich in sea life—we often saw turtles and seals sleeping on beaches and dolphins swam alongside our boat on Kauai. ⠀

Japan

Osaka

Us at Harukas 300 in Osaka

Back to one of our favourite countries, Japan! Honestly, chilly Osaka in February was a shock after warm and easy Hawaii, but we soon adjusted to the wonderful confusion that is Japan.

Highlights were visiting Harry Potter World at Universal Japan, the beautiful 360º view of the city from Harukas 300 observatory, the vibrant Dotonbori area, and eating our way around the city (so many fantastic vegetarian options!). I also bought a new camera—the Sony A7iii!

Harry Potter World!

Singapore

A Family Wedding

We took a week-long side trip from Japan to Singapore for Simon’s brother’s wedding and it was a wonderful day. It was great to catch up with family and we even dragged them to Universal Singapore for a fun day out (yes, we’ve been to lots of theme parks in the last few months!).

Japan (Again)

Finally, we’re back in Japan for a few months where we’ll be revisiting some of our favourite destinations as well as exploring new ones, experiencing the sakura (cherry blossom) season for the first time, and continuing to hunt down the best vegetarian eats.

Business Growth

In last year’s nomadiversary post I wrote about how we’d been experiencing a worrying decline in our blog traffic. It was a wake up call and we refocused our efforts on the blog—Simon finished the new website design and I learnt more about SEO in order to increase our Google traffic to the blog (which has always been our number one source of visitors).

I updated old posts and wrote new posts based on what people were actually searching for (rather than what I thought they might be interested in). The website Digital Nomad Wannabe and the KeySearch tool have been particularly helpful.

Well, the work paid off and our business has grown hugely over the last year. Traffic doubled in Year 9 with 1.7 million visitors to the blog and our income more than doubled. Our income is entirely passive (from affiliates, advertising, and our app and book), so if we take a few months off work, we continue to earn.

After many years of needing to balance inexpensive and expensive destinations, this has given us a lot of financial freedom and we’ve been able to visit wherever we wanted this year (without any press or sponsored trips).

In addition, it has enabled Simon to realise a dream and work on making an adventure game without worrying about money. He’s also had time for creating fantastic artwork on Instagram and venturing into video game streaming on Twitch. 

Simon’s illustration of a pub in Brighton

It has been another fantastic year and we look forward to seeing what Year 10 (!) brings.

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us this year by reading the blog, recommending it to friends, and buying our Trail Wallet app and The Carry On Traveller book.

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[syncogon]

Some Chinese Cartoons

[Disclaimer: this was addressed to one specific person. I’ll make a better post one day.]

One day I’ll add pics and make this actually formal and stuff. But for now...

我为歌狂/Music Up:

Summary: Two musically talented, insanely popular high school guys - but that’s about all they have in common. In fact, they hate each other’s guts. And yet, through complicated circumstances, they and two others join to form a four-man band, “OPEN.” Both individually and as a band, they face a variety of problems: financial, academic, familial, romantic, and everything in between, in order to pursue their dreams. (52 eps)

Commentary: This is set in modern(ish) day, real world. Made in 2001, so keep that mind when considering the animation quality. They do have a lot of good songs, since this IS a show about singers and pop bands. Overall the tone is pretty light. Some things are a lot more dramatic than they need to be but that’s fantastic. And a lot of the problems are highly relatable. Development of characters and relationships is def one of the selling points. HUGELY nostalgic for me and a lot of Chinese people it seems haha

Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLkMLYnt73g the second opening.

战龙四驱/Go For Speed:

Summary: Two years ago, the genius high schooler Fei won the minicar (4WD) racing Nationals. But only shortly afterward, he disappeared, with only a short note hinting at why. Now, his younger brother Dragon follows in his footsteps, designing and creating his own minicars to compete in the tournaments and steadily working his way up through the rankings. Along the way, he meets many people, makes friends and enemies, and struggles to find Fei and his reason for leaving. (64 eps)

Commentary: Modern/slightly future-day, real world (Shanghai!!). Okay so this show is based around like the gimmick of “minicar racing” - not sure what to really call it. The races are surprisingly fun to watch actually imo, with the technological abilities of the minicars, interactions between players, and obstacles to pass... but you’d probably have to decide that for yourself. For me, the biggest draw was probably the surprising number of subplots, which explore the complex relationships between all the characters - literally every single side character is well established and developed. Family and familial relationships play a pretty big role. Revenge and forgiveness are there too. I got hooked into this show when it was airing on TV solely because of one character haha. Caveat that it starts slow, I don’t know how much you’d actually like this, there needs to be some suspension of disbelief, and the animation quality isn’t fantastic… rip

Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb0tHRbyaek&index=30&list=PLQukwpGC9a0wfDv0ymEgGX-LydTKbZY_s (a trailer, in english for some reason even though i’ve never found an english dubbed version of this and don’t want to. It mostly focuses on the racing aspect, but as before, don’t let that fool you, it’s surprisingly deep. Come for the races, stay for the chars)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQukwpGC9a0zqrmIGCXOW1QVlfh6svY7y since when was this on youtube?? :o WAIT HOLY SHIT SINCE WHEN DOES THIS HAVE ENGLISH SUBS THIS IS A GAME CHANGER AAAAA NOW LIKE I MIGHT GO REWATCH THIS - just kidding, only the first episode. Man what a letdown

弹珠传说/Danzhu Legend:

Summary: This is a world where people have Danzhu battles: competitions involving channeling your magic energy into Shooters to launch marble-like Danzhu at targets. These objects have great power, but, so far, no one has decided to take advantage of it… until now. One day, a young boy who has always dreamed of becoming a Danzhu battler is chosen by one of the five Legendary Shooters. He journeys into the mountains to seek training from the Danzhu Master, where he meets the other four Legendary wielders and learns that their job is to stop the evil threatening to take over their world. (52 eps)

Commentary: Fantasy world. So this is like your pretty standard “boy discovers power and works to save the world” story, but still enjoyable in its own right. The gimmick of this are the aforementioned Danzhu. The Guardians are also very important; all Shooters are linked to a spiritual animal/creature/something that’s the basis of power. The battles are all very cool! Quick disclaimer: for various reasons I am more familiar with this show than maybe any other of the ones here. This fact made me appreciate how much potential this story had, but also made me realize all of its flaws. There are a lot of things it could have done better - character development jumps to mind, because aside from the MC and one of the antagonists, most of them don’t change all that much. Also there’s lots of recycled animation. Just keep these caveats in mind. However, I still found the adventure/plot/magic very exciting to watch, a healthy dose of idealism and humor as well as tension/smarts/raw courage, so if you’re interested in that aspect more, I’d recommend this!

Links: ALL THE EPISODES ARE ON YOUTUBE ONCE MORE PRAISE this is very helpful for me because when i needed them to be on youtube, someone had like taken all of them down, which was very upsetting, but now they are back again, glorious

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvQUvsPwKA0&list=PLZKi4aAqJS8dbVOUrKnDqNU4F4rnm8Ott playlist isn’t in order but you should watch the opening theme to get a feel for it - if you want even more of a feel, watch to 4:50, which is kinda like a prologue and a better summary of what I said above lol

开心宝贝/Happy Heroes:

Summary: Just read what’s on tvtropes tbh haha (link below) (Ongoing, 10 seasons, 52 eps each (except season 8 which was 40 eps) )

Commentary: Imo the best seasons were 3, 5, 6, and 8. After 8 the animation style changed a bit and the humor quality kinda went down…well, that might just be me, though. Either way, though, there are so many amazing earlier episodes, and I’ve gotten really attached to all the characters. It being a kids show, there’s no super deep plot or lasting impact of anything (aside from the last arc of season 7, heh. I remember watching when it came out in 2014 and flipping out bc I did NOT expect that, knowing HH) but it’s still thoroughly enjoyable. There are also two movies: the second movie is kinda confusing and meh but the first movie is pretty good and I think you can find it on youtube. In fact I believe all the episodes are on youtube, but I imagine you have those links already

Links: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKA3CuHXUxHflv9KAgEJyKQ is the channel with everything. Watch the trailer for season 8! It’s v epic and got me hyped when it released.

Tvtropes: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Animation/HappyHeroes

Movie 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUiA3nue22Y. (there are english subs too! haha)

Movie 2 isn’t worth watching trust me

星游记/Rainbow Sea:

Summary: Years ago, a man dressed in all red made a declaration to the universe: behind the largest black hole was a mysterious place called Rainbow Sea, a place where any dream could be fulfilled. Enchanted by the stories, people from across the universe joined the man in red in his journey. Unfortunately, no one ever returned. Rainbow Sea was scoffed at as a myth and a lie. The man in red was cursed, nicknamed by people as the Red Demon. The sinister organization known as the Galactic Eyes quietly gained control of the Solar System and numerous other star systems, sealing off the planet where the Red Demon had come from, Earth, and forbidding any ships from entering or leaving. Now, ten years later, the Red Demon's son Maidang has reached adolescence and is determined to fulfill the pinky promise made to his father before he left: to reunite with him at Rainbow Sea.

Commentary: Quality stuff right here. Best part is the backstories of all these characters, there’s some really moving stuff. The characters are p great - Maidang is so inspiring, Gudong is highly relatable, Diya is awesome... The art style (esp for their eyes) is really nice. ...Not much else to say off the top of my head, esp since the story is far from over, but even if it starts off slow, this is definitely worth your time!

Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiB_oZBdi7k&list=PLF068DA90359EDE0D all the episodes. The opening theme/sequence was what got me hooked, you should def watch it (up to like 1:20 or whatever, then if you want like a prologue watch to like 3:07)

26 eps so far. Season 2 and after are apparently going to be “web movies” instead of episodes, something like 60 minutes each, and will cost money (rip) but I’m sure they’ll show up for free somewhere eventually. Fingers crossed this’ll be soon. Wanna join me in hiatus hell :DD

神魄/Zinba:

Summary: Kan is happily chatting with his closest friend on an ordinary school day when, all of a sudden, he finds himself pulled into an alternate fantasy world. This world is filled with Zinba, large and powerful creatures that may form bonds with select humans, called Linkers, for immense battle power. After becoming a Linker with one of the strongest Zinba ever to exist, Kan joins the peacekeeping Dux force of the kingdom of Toria and fights against the various evils threatening the land, all while trying to find his way back to his own world. (52 eps)

Commentary: Okay, so you know, I wouldn’t recommend this as much as some of the others on this list, esp since it’s the most recent Chinese show I actually watched, but it made enough of an impact on me to have it worth talking about. I started watching bc a) it showed up as recommended for me on youtube, b) the opening is SICK as HECK, and c) the protag of this is voiced by the same person as the protag of DZL, and generally looks/acts kinda similar haha. Anyway, overall thoughts: basically, it had a lot of unrealized potential. The world and the character designs are AMAZING. I liked the animation. The plot is interesting, with a surprising number of plot twists as to who’s the real ultimate villain. But there could have been So Much More development – we could’ve gotten more thorough backstories for the main crew, for example, or seen more of the world/magic/tech, but instead a lot of the people as well as Zinba just… exist, as static and boring entities. There were like two interesting characters total (Kan’s aforementioned “normal” friend being one of them heh). Kan himself was suuuuper annoying, esp at the beginning. (can you tell I really appreciate/prioritize the characters of a show?) However, some moments were quite well done and epic, and I wrote some fanfiction and commentary on basically every episode, so it holds a place in my heart. Also, there is a full English dub lmaooo (the voices suck but the translations for names/places/etc are interesting) (episode 1 has 318k views??? That’s a TON for a chinese cartoon)

Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G83STZ9xcc the opening which is good and worth watching, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQukwpGC9a0xatMI-KGO9SILZ5sSWfWXX full playlist, syncogon.tumblr.com/tagged/zinba lol

[projectocdfanbook]

“Fixed Engine” Tour 2017 Nippon Budokon Night 1 & 2

So, this report is ALMOST two weeks late. Which makes me SO sad to think that it has been that long since one of the best nights I could have asked for. (report below line)

On day one of the shows, I got up bright and early to head to the venue and wait in line for merch. I was forward that there would be A LOT of people waiting as well. Even that did not prepare me to see as many people as I did. I’m sure it was probably half the venue already there! I got there around 6:30-7 AM, and the line was already INSANE! More arrived after. The sales didn’t even begin until 11 AM! I didn’t get to make my purchases until around 1 PM. The wait was so worth it though! It definitely added to the experience. In the end I got the backpack (that was my number one goal!), the picture book, and the venue exclusive pin for myself. I knew I would regret not getting more, and I do, but budgets man, not fun. Ha ha! On day two, I didn’t wait, but still managed to get that dates pin; I was SO happy for that!

When I returned for the show, I was so blown by the amount of people and the view of the venue! Everything looked SO cool! I was in love with all the flower arrangements that they received! They were all so beautiful, and it showed how cared they are by the people they work with. Got to take a picture of the canvas Yorke made. That was so cool to have that close as well! It was roped off, but still, the distance wasn’t too much and you could see the awesome details it had. Well. . . Sometime in that process, I actually lost my ticket. Yes, good ole, moron Mitzy managed to misplace her ticket. I was in full panic mode! There was NO way I knew how to properly ask if anyone had seen it. Somehow, we managed to at least get it across to one of the staff that I had lost my ticket. But they wanted to know where I was seated so that they could confirm it was mine. That kind of took a worry off my heart cause I knew they had one, and no one would be as idiotic as me to go an loose it. Sadly, I only knew the section, not the row or seat. Another blessing was that the person who sold me the ticket was sitting right next to me. I managed to get in contact with her, and praise the Lord it WAS my ticket. I almost cried of both happiness and sadness. Happy because I was going in, but sadness because I could not believe I managed to put myself in that situation. 

Finally in, the boxes for letters and gifts were just at the entrance, so, I quickly got the book out and dropped it off. Truthfully, I actually lingered a little more that I should have had. Ha ha! I was so happy to finally have it at it destination, but kind of sad that it had come to an end. i worked hard on that, and now, it was no longer going to be with me. I thankfully held it together and as quickly as I could headed to my seat. I waited a total of about 7-10 minutes and the lights went out.

They started the show with a form of montage of all their songs while they all got onto the stage. As soon as they were settled, HEAVEN started playing and I lost it! I had actually told the person I was with to let me know if I was doing something out of the ordinary, so that I wouldn’t stand out too much or offend anyone. But truth be told, it just took a few seconds of that song for me to forget that. I wanted to just enjoy them. I mean, I obviously still didn’t want to be too abnormal that it may distract others, but I also knew that if I focused too much on that, I wouldn’t on them, and that was not gonna happen. Heaven was followed by flag on the hill and Lead Me Not. 

Feed A made me tear up, on both nights. Not only was it the song that Tatsun was within the crowd at the AX show in LA, but because of what that song means to me. I gave it as much energy as I could to keep it together and see them perform it. I think all my emotions came out, but thankfully everyone was too focused on them to even see the mess that I was. Ha ha! Meteor Train was performed after, and I was able to calm a bit before their first MC. Sadly, my Japanese is still too beginner and I didn’t catch much of what was being said. Nonetheless, I was captivated. Tatsun could have talked for days and I would have been perfectly fine with it. Ha ha!

Cold Hands, The Misfit Go were played, and I was not prepared for what followed. They bloody played Calling! It is a newer song and I don’t have too much a connection with it, but I think that it’s the song in which Tatsun’s voice shines the absolute most! Live was no different! He sounded so incredible and I was once again in complete awe. They finished that part of the set with Harsh Wind and Dried Up Youth Fame. I went nuts once again. I mean, it just took me back to the Free! days full on!

Honestly, the part of the set that contained Lantana, Milestone, bund, (Blue) and Aching Horns, was a blessing. It gave us a bit of a rest from all the dancing. Although, feels just completely flooded again, so I was an internal emotional wreck again. Ha ha! Hearing Milestone was so amazing. I actually was hoping that they would open the LA show with that one since it was when Fixed Engine had just been out. But what they did with it for these performances was amazing! Yorke was complete center of attention for it all. His creativity knows no bounds, and I freaking love it! And without a doubt, hearing Aching Horns live again was perfection. The song was the perfect ending to the “feels” section of the show. Once the MC following this section was done, we were in for a night of none stop craziness.

Deal With live exceeded my expectations! I was so unbelievably excited to see this song played live, and they did not disappoint one bit. As soon as the MC was over, they turned on the neon laser and I was going insane. It was just like in the video. I loved every second of that song, it definitely brought me back to life after the previous songs. we were kept moving witThe Experience, Scribble and Beyond, and Anthem following suit. 

After their second to last MC, the crowd went insane with WALK. I think it might be their most interactive song? In my opinion at least. But again, Kuroko No Basket feels came up and I was going crazy. At this point I was realizing how loud I was being and hoping that I hadn't been so bad. Ha ha! Night Flight is such an amazing treat to hear live. I think I might like it better as so rather than the recording. Landscape and

カタルリスム kept the mood going, and just when I thought I was about to run our of energy, they played it. Rage On!!!! The song I was introduced to them by. The song that intrigued me with its music and insane vocalist. I was watching that band at, live, in their home territory. I nearly cried again. Well, on the first night. The second night I just went crazy. Ha ha! Once it was over, they bowed and stepped off the stage. I knew it wasn’t over, but oh how it hurt to see them step away for even just a bit.

The crowd began chanting “OCD, OCD, OCD”, and it was sort of magical. I mostly just gazed out into the venue and wondered if it was really real or not. I guess I was in a bit of a shock at that point. Ha ha. After what seemed forever, (it was quite a while though), they stepped out again. Both went on to talk some. Apparently something about how in Budokon it’s not as simple to get a fan on the stage. Next thing I knew, two girls were being brought onto the stage. They were SO adorable!! For the second night, it was a girl and guy. They were all the winners of who got to sing Kick Out with them! I thought it was so rad that their tradition wasn’t broken since they couldn’t really pull people from the audience, and found a way around it. I thought it even more awesome on the second night, because the guy that got pulled up, he was actually sitting near where I was. And I was up high, and he was higher, like nose bleed seats. I found it SO rad since he went from there, to actually being on stage with them! It was no surprise that Kick Out was so AWESOME! Everyone that joined them did so well! This was only done on the second night, but they turned on the lights during the song, so everyone was very visible. So I was so intrigued by how much everyone got into it. Almost got more lost in watching everyone than them. Ha ha! 

On the first night, their second to last song was reel and I was so hyped! I actually got into this song more recently, seeing as how they were playing it on some of the earlier dates, and fell so hard for it. Live was no exception. I loved hearing it so! While they played Eyes in the Chase, all I could thing was of their awesome vid. It was one of the first that I watched and I was caught in more emotions since it was taking me back in time. When it was over, all I could do was scream and clap until my hand hurt. I think it really hit me the most on the second night since I was towards the top and I had the view of the Japanese flag along with them bowing and Tatsun yelling his “ありがとうございます” out. I had done it. I had spent two incredible nights watching, dancing, singing, crying and overall feeling new with one amazing band in their home. I like many bands. Like, some would think too many. Ha ha! But in reality, I only loved 4. The reason being, that is the number of bands that have helped shape me to who I am now by being there when I needed it the absolute most. In 2016, OLDCODEX joined in and made it 5. I was so amazed when they performed in LA, because in a million years did I think I would be seeing my favorite foreign band in my home turf. But that was nothing to what I experienced those two nights. They are so deserving of all the success they are receiving.  All of them put their absolute all into their shows and giving us, their fans, an incredible performance. 

Thank you OLDCODEX, for being so kind to your fans and giving it your absolute all. Also, thanks you, my trip to Tokyo was even more unbelievably perfect. Even got to meet the incredibly kind @sincerely-shine and @tatsutako. Them, along with the rest of the audience, it definitely didn’t feel like I was going to these shows “alone”. I am so sad that it’s all done, but it definitely gave me an encouragement that these were not my last shows seeing them. Wether it be in Japan or America, I know that I will be trying my absolute best to see them once more in the very near future! Also, once HUMONGOUS THANK YOU to everyone that participated and gave constant support to ProjectOCDFanbook. If it were’t for you all, my one lonely letter might not have stood out as much as this book filled of love from all over the world will!

These are a few of the pics I was able to take. 

This is me! After the second show! Sorry for how awful I look. I danced and cried too much. LOL.

[kpopgerapitico]

Song of the Week

This week’s song of the week is brought to you by indecision and comeback season coming together to make my life hard.

Oh, and some procrastination. Because why work when I could be writing about k-pop.

Honorable Mentions:

Taemin is a really good dancer, so of course his performance video for Thirsty is great. I might actually prefer the song to Move, which doesn’t really surprise me, as Move hasn’t stuck with me like I thought it would.

I didn’t think 10cm voice would go so well with the upbeat Bye Bye. And I didn’t think I would like it as much as I do. Though it does help that my favorite EXO vocalist is the other half of the duet. My favorite part is the part where they actually sing together, because I’m a sucker for harmony.

If you really like alternative stuff, Soma’s Someday and Face Me might be just the thing for you. For me, not so much. They are musically interesting, but I can’t see myself listening to them again.

If Fall’s Coming was only a ballad, or only a rap, I don’t think I would like it. Luckily, it isn’t, so I can enjoy an on point rap over a jazzy beat. And then David Oh sings the chorus hauntingly. Roodatam is now someone for me to maybe keep track of, if everything will sound this easy.

I want to like Block B’s Shall We Dance more than I do. The beat is super cool (unsurprisingly, with Zico involved), but the chorus doesn’t really go anywhere , and the verse spends more on its cool beat than anything else. I was really hoping the last hook would save it, but it didn’t really do much, even with Kyung getting his chance to shine. Though to be fair, by the end it had grown on me quite a bit.

I’m such a sucker for a band sound. And I’m glad to have heard Love, Love even if it isn’t available for the win. It reminds me of mid 2000s me, and all the music she listened to; a little distorted, very heartfelt. Maybe HU will join my indie band list, whose songs have their own playlist on my phone that I adore.

For some solid female rapping this week, look no further than Jeon Soyeon with Jelly. The song is fun, if not special. It feels a little bit like summer in November, which would normally bother me, but in this case is just really cute. Actually, that’s the whole song and video: cute.

I almost missed EXID because my source is still down, so I can’t trust it. DDD is good, but the hook is a different song from the verse, which is a different song from the chorus. Sometimes that transition doesn’t feel weird, but sometimes it does, which sort of ruins the song for me.

The fight this week was between 4 songs, which is probably the most to ever go for the top spot ever. And boy was it a hard choice, even letting myself have 2 winners. The first place came quickly (I can’t help my bias), but the war of second was rough.

So, a long time ago (like 2 years ago . . . so not that long ago), I didn’t understand the Seventeen hype train. I was mistaken, and I’m am absolutely in love with Clap. It is all the fun of a Seventeen track, with the funk that they seem to always bring. I’m glad that their actual comeback is so much more my speed than the unit songs were, so that I can join their die-hard fans in supporting this comeback. This all combines for 2nd runner up for them, and a spot on my phone asap.

I bet Super Junior sweeps the music show this next week, because Black Suit is a bop mixed with idols who make it all look so damn easy. And just like last week, I am behind them 5000% percent. Especially since the dance is so fun. Black Suit is just fun, which is exactly what I want from Suju. It was hard not giving them a win, but I feel better since they won last week, and the songs that beat them out are so on point.

Day6 has done it again with a ballad that tears at your heart. And as per usual, All Alone has an amazing chorus line that is at once predictable and not, and uses harmonies to perfection. This is what happens when your group has 4 vocalists, who are all above average. For the chorus alone, it gets the 2nd place, or 1st winner spot.

Guess what? Monsta X killed me with Dramarama. The first listen, I wasn’t sure. The 3rd listen and I couldn’t get the chorus out of my head. 2 days later and my brain will start chanting “Dramama ramama ramama hey” and add the chords in post. I love it. The raps are on point, Hyungwon gets to sing for once (and sound great doing it), and their choreo is on point as always. They get 1st place in my heart, even if them getting their first win is unlikely with Suju having a comeback at the same time. The win curse continues as Starship manages to guess the comeback date for other groups exactly in order to ruin Monsta X’s chances.

[networkingdefinition]

Networking Quotes

Official Website: Networking Quotes

• A good browser, apps, good camera, and fast networking in your smartphone is just expected today. – Thorsten Heins • A man of substance should trust very carefully an online networking friend whose shared images are not often palatable to his taste. – Anuj • A new survey found that 12 percent of parents punish their kids by banning social networking sites. The other 88 percent punish their kids by joining social networking sites.- Jimmy Fallon • A technology becomes truly disruptive when it drives the marginal cost of something that used to be scarce and expensive to approach zero. Thus, it used to be to deploy software at scale, you had to fund a data center, buy a set of servers, storage, and networking gear, build an in-house IT management capability, and buy an expensive stack of enabling software before you could even get started. Now you can get all that from Amazon or Microsoft on a pay-as-you-grow model. – Geoffrey Moore • Anyone can use these sites – companies and colleges, teachers and students, young and old all make use of networking sites to connect with people electronically to share pictures, information, course work, and common interests. – Mike Fitzpatrick • As information technology becomes millions of times more powerful, any particular use of it becomes correspondingly cheaper. Thus, it has become commonplace to expect online services (not just news, but 21st century treats like search or social networking) to be given for free, or rather, in exchange for acquiescence to being spied on. – Jaron Lanier • As IT enters the mobile-cloud era, IT providers need to be more innovative about addressing customers’ fast changing needs. Over the past two years, Cisco and Citrix have collaborated to deliver significant innovation into the market. Now we are excited to accelerate our partnership into cloud, networking and mobility. – Padmasree Warrior

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Network', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_network').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_network img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Being in New York and having worked at Time Out New York and then being at Time, living in New York for a long time has helped because I know everybody. And they’re the people who call me and give me jobs. So that kind of real networking, which is just living in a place and having jobs where people around you are extremely successful, has helped me tremendously. – Joel Stein • Best results are often achieved well before you need a job, by consistently networking so that when you find yourself job-hunting you have a large network to work with. – Erik Qualman • Brooklyn is where I primarily developed. I had an opportunity to make records and perform in clubs here and there, and I started networking with the right people in the right places. – Busta Rhymes • Bullying behaviour can be communicated via text, mobile phones, internet, social networking sites, forums. But we can’t limit it because these messages are then reinforced by television which glamorises yelling, swearing and vulgar behaviour as the way to walk the red carpet of acceptance. – Louise Burfitt-Dons • Business culture operates differently in different cities around the world. But I don’t think it’s possible to design one system that incorporates all social norms for networking. Human beings are just too diverse. – danah boyd • Conservatively, I am saying that social networking has made being in a band more fun, but not necessarily changed how the business works. – Chris Cain • Create a website that expresses something about who you are that won’t fit into the template available to you on a social networking site. – Jaron Lanier • Despite all the hype about local or green food, the single biggest impediment to wider adoption is not research, programs, organizations, or networking. It is the demonizing and criminalizing of virtually all indigenous and heritage-based food practices. – Joel Salatin • Facebook and other social networking sites are bringing together spheres that used to be separate. People no longer have private and public lives; the line between the two is becoming blurred. – Paul Achleitner • Facebook is shaping a broader web. If you look back for the past five or seven years, the story about social networking has really been about getting people connected… But if you look forward for the next five years, I think that the story people are going to remember five years from now isn’t how this one site was built; it is how every single service that you use is now going to be better with your friends. – Mark Zuckerberg • Figure out what you are meant to contribute to the world and make sure you contribute it. If this requires public speaking or networking or other activities that make you uncomfortable, do them anyway. But accept that they’re difficult, get the training you need to make them easier, and reward yourself when you’re done. – Susan Cain • First, you have to be visible in the community. You have to get out there and connect with people. It’s not called net-sitting or net-eating. It’s called networking. You have to work at it. – Ivan Misner • For almost the first year of The Muse’s life, I would do 5 to 8 networking events a week. And I don’t necessarily think that’s the right path for everyone, but I realized that as an entrepreneur, one of my strengths was finding the right people who could help us. I didn’t come into startups with any network. – Kathryn Minshew • For people choosing to use a network marketing system to build a business in the B quadrant, the price of entry is a lot lower, the risks are lower, and the education and support are there to guide you through this personal development process. – Robert Kiyosaki • For the music business, social networking is brilliant. Just when you think it’s doom and gloom and you have to spend millions of pounds on marketing and this and that, you have this amazing thing now called fan power. The whole world is linked through a laptop. It’s amazing. And it’s free. I love it. It’s absolutely brilliant. – Simon Cowell • Founded in August 2003, MySpace would go on to be the most-visited social networking site in the world from 2005 until early 2008. – David Sze • Generally, social networking sites can be hugely promising and beneficial in opening new friendships and vistas and knowledge of the world, but they are also fraught with peril, when young people are reckless or headless. – Richard Blumenthal • Google and Facebook, each in their own way, have revolutionized the delivery of advertising based on search and social networking, creating a sort of anti-Spam: targeted, relevant ads that a consumer might actually welcome rather than spurn. – Marcus Buckingham • Googling is not spying. It’s social networking.- Sarah • I am actually turned off when I look at an account and don’t see any selfies, because I want to know whom I’m dealing with. In our age of social networking, the selfie is the new way to look someone right in the eye and say, ‘Hello, this is me.’ – James Franco • I am often asked if Network Marketing is a Pyramid Scheme. My reply is that corporations really are pyramid schemes. A corporation has only one person at the top, generally the CEO, and everyone else below. – Donald Trump • I believe strongly in writing groups such as Romance Writers Of America that offer support, information and networking. – Nora Roberts • I consider us to be one of the first Internet-based bands, especially because we basically started our entire band via the Internet. Before MySpace Music even existed, we had a band MySpace page. We were one of the first fifty bands on PureVolume(.com), and we really built everything from the Internet. That’s how we started talking to record labels, that’s how we booked our first tours. Without the Internet social networking, like Twitter, we definitely wouldn’t be where we are today. It is a huge part of the band.- Jack Barakat • I don’t feel the need to brand myself in that way [social media]. But as a means to share information and raise awareness of things, I think these social-networking platforms are unprecedented. – Scarlett Johansson • I don’t think that developing countries gained from a two-stage process. A single phase summit (which is, after all, a two year process, not a three day event) would have built awareness, and would probably have led to more substantive conclusions at the end of the first summit meeting. Civil society may have gained a bit more from the networking experience, but it was less effective at networking in the second phase. – David Souter • I don’t think that there’s a guy behind the desk at every newspaper saying “No, woman” and sending her on her way, but that’s what’s systemic about it, right, like that people don’t quite realize that maybe they’re attracted to a male op-ed more than a female op-ed, or because of networking they know this person from going out to a bar with them. – Jessica Valenti • I feel that puttin’ in the hours and years in the studio, honing my craft, definitely played a part, me consciously networking and presenting myself as an artist that’s commercially sellable led to me meeting the right people, which in turn led to them givin’ me positive referrals to other people, which in turn led to me signin’ a deal. – Nipsey Hussle • I get excited about what the Holy Spirit is doing now through all the people he is refining and raising up all over this planet. I love connections and relationship and networking but it must be led by the Spirit.- Daniel Smith • I had been in the technology business for so long, I had seen the PC-bubble come and burst, I had seen the local area and wide area networking-bubble come and burst, it was no shock that the internet-bubble was going to burst. – Mark Cuban • I have always had stuff on the internet, way back in the Myspace days, I had a lot of friends on Myspace. And it is just all about like networking – contacting people and showing people, like, your mind. – Kreayshawn • I keep in touch with my fans by keeping a blog online and I try to answer questions every day. I also have a twitter and a facebook. I think that social networking gives authors a unique insight in the minds of their fans and for me that is very valuable. – Cassandra Clare • I like to define networking as cultivating mutually beneficial, give-and-take, win-win relationships… The end result may be to develop a large and diverse group of people who will gladly and continually refer a lot of business to us, while we do the same for them. – Bob Burg • I love networking. But I learned to love it – Jamal Igle • I must admit that I don’t really understand social networking models that well, and I haven’t tried to because I have just not been enthused about this whole thing. – David Cheriton • I remember thinking to myself that I missed the fun and excitement after leaving the corporate world to work at home. Seek camaraderie through networking. Schedule time for it; if you don’t, you’ll never make it. – Ryan Blair • I should tell my story. I’m also unemployed … I’m networking. I have my sight on a particular job. – Mitt Romney • I talk to my readers on social networking sites, but I never tell them what the book is about. Writing is lonely, so from time to time I talk to them on the Internet. It’s like chatting at a bar without leaving your office. I talk with them about a lot of things other than my books. – Paulo Coelho • I think anything which promotes heterogeneity on the Internet promotes stability. Diversity in services, service providers, and separating the layers of the networking stack are all important. – David Ulevitch • I think that it will be the mobile technologies, both from the enterprise and the consumer side, where super unicorns will come from. I still believe that social networking in combination with mobile will create opportunities for super unicorns. – David Sze • I think that social networking makes people more connected, yet more distant, so there are people with less ties to real friend groups and less a sense of self. – Lena Dunham • I think the whole aspect of social networking is vulgar and repulsive in a lot of ways. – Trent Reznor • I think there’s confusion around what the point of social networks is. A lot of different companies characterized as social networks have different goals – some serve the function of business networking, some are media portals. What we’re trying to do is just make it really efficient for people to communicate, get information and share information. – Mark Zuckerberg • I think women are really good at making friends and not good at networking. Men are good at networking and not necessarily making friends. That’s a gross generalization, but I think it holds in many ways. – Madeleine Albright • I won’t eat anything that has intelligent life, but I’d gladly eat a network executive or a politician. – Marty Feldman • If it had anything to do with the PC or networking industry I was on top of it. I bought manuals. I read every book and magazine. Then I would get involved with industry conferences and put myself out there. – Mark Cuban • If we were a culture of high-risk alcoholics, and suddenly we had Jack Daniels piped into our houses, we would be feeding that fire. Social networking, and the internet as a whole, seems to have simply landed in an extremely fertile place in an extremely fertile time in history, when we all have these narcissistic tendencies anyway – you can go further back into the self-esteem movement, and Dr. Spock, and the ‘everybody gets a ribbon at the track meet’ sort of thing, which preceded the internet – and then you drop the internet into the middle of this, and we’ve all gone haywire. – Jeffrey Kluger • If you look at the evolution of games from console to Internet to mobile, and look at social networking from Web to mobile, everything is fragmenting. – Chris DeWolfe • If you’re not networking, you’re not networking. – Denis Waitley • I’m a very optimistic person. I have the chance to listen to so much phenomenal music. Connecting with social networking to create music is a progression of what electronic music does anyway – it connects people. – Paul van Dyk • I’m good at marketing myself through the columns. But compared to other people I know, as far as networking and pushing yourself out there, I’m not very good at that. – Joel Stein • I’m no good at anything but comedy, which I think I’m good at. I’m absolutely no good at networking; I’m terrible at acting; I’m terrible at dealing with executives; I’m terrible at collaborating. And I say whatever I want to say. But I think I’m good enough at comedy that I can survive. And I don’t really have an ambition for money. – Norm MacDonald • I’m wary about this thing about being in the generation of social networking where people are like, ‘I am my musical taste.’ I am not just a collection of music. Or a collection of movies. I think that’s a thing that people romanticize: ‘Oh my God, she likes this band so she is a dream.’ – Zooey Deschanel • In my coming-of-age time, there was no internet, no social networking, nothing. It was just show after show, hoping one day somebody would notice you. – Madonna Ciccone • In the digital universe, our personal history and its sense of narrative is succeeded by our social networking profile – a snapshot of the current moment. The information itself – our social graph of friends and likes – is a product being sold to market researchers in order to better predict and guide our futures. – Douglas Rushkoff • Instead of telling the world what you’re eating for breakfast, you can use social networking to do something that’s meaningful. – Edward Norton • It has been my exprience that repetitive nights of exposure to the kundalini energy followed by longer periods of reflection and pyschic networking create the fastest transitions in awareness. – Frederick Lenz • It will take a massive effort to move society from corporate domination, in which industry’s rights to pollute and damage health and the environment supersede the public’s right to live, work, and play in safety. This is a political fight. The science is already there, showing that people’s health is at risk. To win, we will need to keep building the movement, networking with one another, planning, strategizing, and moving forward. Our children’s futures, and those of their unborn children, are at stake. – Lois Gibbs • It’s very true that an artist who networks well will have better opportunities than one who doesn’t network well. But great networking skills without great art won’t change art history. – Mark Kostabi • I’ve always been a social network retard, even before there was a social network. People would say, “You want to go to this party and do some networking?” – Lewis Black • Man, Farmville is so huge! Do you realize its the second-biggest browser-based social-networking-centered farming game in the world? – Randall Munroe • Many believe effective networking is done face-to-face, building a rapport with someone by looking at them in the eye, leading to a solid connection and foundational trust. – Raymond Arroyo • Most bloggers who rise above the clutter are quite often prolific -they work hard, not just writing content but networking, engaging in Social Media and more. – Darren Rowse • My Golden Rule of Networking is simple: Don’t keep score. – Harvey Mackay • Network marketing gives people the opportunity, with very low risk and very low financial commitment, to build their own income-generating asset and acquire great wealth. – Robert Kiyosaki • Network marketing is the big wave of the future. It’s taking the place of franchising, which now requires too much capital for the average person. – Jim Rohn • Network marketing is the only industry that allows common people to earn millions with a minimal investment and zero overhead, coupled with total time freedom and the joy of global travel. There are three magic words that worked for all of us who have made it to the pinnacle and they’ll work for you: ‘Just don’t quit.’ – Mark Yarnell • Network selectively. Nothing says “business newbie” like shotgun networking. “You never know when someone might say yes” is marketing for dummies. Take the time to build a profile of your ideal customers, and target your networking activities to reach them. Speak to those who are already predisposed to want what you offer. Almost any profile is better than “anyone with a pulse.” – Steve Pavlina • Networked, we are together, but so lessened are our expectations of each other that we can feel utterly alone. And there is the risk that we come to see others as objects to be accessed—and only for the parts we find useful, comforting, or amusing. – Sherry Turkle • Networking is an enrichment program, not an entitlement program. – Susan RoAne • Networking is an essential part of building wealth. – Armstrong Williams • Networking is marketing. Marketing yourself, marketing your uniqueness, marketing what you stand for. – Christine Comaford-Lynch • Networking is more about farming than it is about hunting. – Ivan Misner • Networking is not about hunting. It is about farming. It’s about cultivating relationships. Don’t engage in ‘premature solicitation’. You’ll be a better networker if you remember that. – Ivan Misner • Networking is rubbish; have friends instead. – Steve Winwood • Networking is simply the cultivating of mutually beneficial, give and take, win-win relationships. It works best, however, when emphasizing the “give” part. – Bob Burg • Networking is the No. 1 unwritten rule of success in business. – Sallie Krawcheck • Networking that matters is helping people achieve their goals. – Seth Godin • New security loopholes are constantly popping up because of wireless networking. The cat-and-mouse game between hackers and system administrators is still in full swing. – Kevin Mitnick • Now with the allocation and the understanding of the lack of understanding, we enter into a new era of science in which we feel nothing more than so much so as to say that those within themselves, comporary or non-comporary, will figuratively figure into the folding of our non-understanding and our partial understanding to the networks of which we all draw our source and conclusions from. – Reggie Watts • Of all the entrepreneurial opportunities available today, one of the most important is direct selling, also called network marketing. – Paul Zane Pilzer • Olympics are three times more likely to be employed than people of a similar age, ethnic and socioeconomic status who have not been participating. It’s a correlation, not a causation as far as the statisticians go, but the fascinating question is; Is there something in participation in sports, in community-building, confidence building, self-image-building, strength building, social networking – that greatly enhance employability? – Timothy Shriver • On social networking sites, we may expose ourselves, but we choose to do so. We are in control and, often wrongly, we do not feel we are giving away tradable data. – Julian Baggini • Once upon a time … the only autonomous intelligences we humans knew of were us humans. We thought then that if humankind ever devised another intelligence that it would be the result of a huge project … a great mass of silicon and ancient transistors and chips and circuit boards … a machine with lots of networking circuits, in other words, aping-if you will pardon the expression-the human brain in form and function. Of course, AIs did not evolve that way. They sort of slipped into existence when we humans were looking the other way. – Dan Simmons • One must be wary of the view that these loose and diverse coalitions represent a new form of globalized participatory democracy. The dissent industry is largely a product of the Internet revolution. Inexpensive, borderless, real-time networking provides advocacy non-governmental organizations [NGOs] with economies of scale and also of scope by linking widely disparate groups with one common theme. – Sylvia Ostry • One of the challenges in networking is everybody thinks it’s making cold calls to strangers. Actually, it’s the people who already have strong trust relationships with you, who know you’re dedicated, smart, a team player, who can help you. – Reid Hoffman • One of the issues of social networking silos is that they have the data and I don’t. – Tim Berners-Lee • One of the things women are very good at, that’s networking. Women are not afraid to say, “I need.” They’re not afraid. Men won’t even ask for directions. Women will tell each other when they need something. Women will tell each other when their husband is having an affair. Men don’t do that. – Marlo Thomas • One reason (among many) that women may well take over the world of “virtual enterprises” is that they seem to have a greater instinct for networking. And the unfettered-by-machismo males who have taken to networking will do better than those who shun it as “sissy stuff.” But truth is, it has always been the age of “networkers”; and in an era where organizations depend more and more on tenuously connected outsiders to get the job done, it will only become so. – Tom Peters • People generally worry about social networking more than they need to. In kind of consumer internet investing and on social and professional networks, I kind of look at time spending and time efficiency. You know, time saving sites. So on time spending sites, things where you play lots of games or that sort of thing, you might worry about a productivity loss if people are spending a lot of time doing that. So if there’s a lot of kind of addictive gaming going on during work hours, that won’t be as helpful to you. – Reid Hoffman • Personal relationships are always the key to good business. You can buy networking; you can’t buy friendships. – Lindsay Fox • Please be careful of becoming so immersed and engrossed in pixels, texting, ear buds, Twittering, online social networking, and potentially addictive uses of media and the Internet that you fail to recognize the importance of your physical body and miss the richness of person-to-person communication. Beware of the digital displays and data in many forms of computer-mediated interaction that can displace the full range of physical capacity and experience. – David A. Bednar • Pubcon is always one of the first shows I put on my calendar. Content is excellent, social is excellent, networking opportunities are excellent. – Jim Banks • Relationship networking is about who you know and more importantly, who knows you. Building the right network can open new doors to future success in your business. – Heidi • Respect for people is the cornerstone of communication and networking. – Susan RoAne • SDN is a major shift in the networking industry. At Juniper, we think the impact of SDN will be much broader than others have suggested. It will redefine networking and create new winners and losers. We’re embracing SDN with clearly defined principles, a four-step roadmap to help customers adopt SDN within their business, and the networking industry’s first comprehensive software-centric business model. We’re incredibly excited about the value that SDN will deliver to our customers and are committed to leading the industry through this transition. – Bob Muglia • Search without Google is like social networking without Facebook: unimaginable. – Evgeny Morozov • SixDegrees.org is about using the idea that we are all connected to accomplish something good. It is my hope that Six Degrees will soon be something more than a game or a gimmick. It will also be a force for good, by bringing a social conscience to social networking. – Kevin Bacon • Social networking helps reach people easier and quicker. – Bill Cosby • Social networking inspires me a lot and how we are related and connected to each other. – Nicola Formichetti • Social networking is playing a huge role in creating awareness and mobilizing support for all kinds of common interests. What better way to use this remarkable tool than to change the world? – Natalie Portman • Social Networking should never replace face-to-face time. – Germany Kent • Social networking sites like Myspace, Friendster, and Facebook have literally exploded in popularity in just a few short years. – Mike Fitzpatrick • Social networking technology didn’t really exist until 2004-2005. I had the idea to use this technology to bridge this gap between a general interest in addressing social issues and the practical action. – Ben Rattray • Social Networking that matters is helping people archive their goals. Doing it reliably and repeatability so that over time people have an interest in helping you achieve your goals.- Seth Godin • Social networking, I believe, has completely changed the relationship between band-members and fans. – Beau Bokan • Social networks are like grease – in some cases, gasoline – for our personal business networking machines. If you aren’t plugged in, you will be out-done by better-connected, hyper-networked colleagues and competitors. – danah boyd • Sometimes, idealistic people are put off the whole business of networking as something tainted by flattery and the pursuit of selfish advantage. But virtue in obscurity is rewarded only in Heaven. To succeed in this world you have to be known to people. – Sonia Sotomayor • Spirituality in Washington can be more of a – I don’t want to say it – but, a networking opportunity. Religion is often used opportunistically in the political conversation. – Mark Leibovich • Start a conversation with someone with whom you have “nothing in common” and no possibility of scoring with, networking with, or even seeing again. In other words, a conversation just for the civilized hell of it. – Perry Brass • Take a moment think who would actually miss you if you deactivate all your social networking accounts, whatsapp, BBM etc – Anamika Mishra • Technology is a compulsive and addictive way to live. Verbal communication cannot be lost because of a lack of skill. The ability to listen and learn is key to mastering the art of communication. If you dont use your verbal skills and networking, it will disappear rapidly. Use technology wisely. – Rick Pitino • That definitely I feel is part of my generation: social networking, communication over the Internet, whether it’s Skype or IRC or some form of text-based chat, text messaging. – Duncan Jones • That is vaguely conspiratorial, in a networking sense. We have published their meeting notes. – Julian Assange • The [film] industry, from the franchise on, has dramatically changed, not just with us, but with social networking. The social working has changed dramatically, especially in the way you promote films. It’s instant. – Tara Reid • The biggest mistake that I made was not anticipating the rise of the social networking phenomenon. – Eric Schmidt • The blogs have been great and everything, but I think, for me, it’s better to have a central place on the Internet for all my fans to go and show their friends my YouTube, Twitter, and social networking sites. To have that spread all on its own and have a central station to get everything Mac Miller. – Mac Miller • The breakup of Bell laid the foundation for every important communications revolution since the 1980s onward. There was no way of knowing that thirty years on we would have an Internet, handheld computers, and social networking, but it is hard to imagine their coming when they did, had the company that bured the answering machine remained intact.- Tim Wu • The business is about coming up with a business plan and using your relationships and networking and seeing your dreams come true. Everyone on this show has their own business. Fifteen minutes of fame is fleeting. It’s about learning the business and creating a new business. – Eva Marcille • The class focuses intensely on making people more comfortable with doing a wider range of things – such as networking, self-promotion, building their own personal brand, cleverly acquiring resources, getting known – that they may have been less comfortable with before. – Jeffrey Pfeffer • The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity. – Keith Ferrazzi • The future of network marketing is unlimited. There’s no end in sight. It will continue to grow because better people are getting into it . . . soon, it will be one of the most respected business methods in the world. – Brian Tracy • The future success of online social networking sites as an advertising medium depends on its acceptance as an advertising vehicle that can deliver a message to a micro-target in a manner that will be well received and that increases the likelihood of interaction. – Mary Louise Kelly • The idea that hardware on networks should just be caches for movable process descriptions and the processes themselves goes back quite a ways. There’s a real sense in which MS and Apple never understood networking or operating systems (or what objects really are), and when they decided to beef up their OSs, they went to (different) very old bad mainframe models of OS design to try to adapt to personal computers. – Alan Kay • The internet and social networking are new avenues for the next Bob Dylan to be born on. – Jon Bon Jovi • The more complex the network is, the more complex its pattern of interconnections, the more resilient it will be. – Fritjof Capra • The more you enter, the more you become locked in. Your social-networking site becomes a central platform – a closed silo of content, and one that does not give you full control over your information in it. The more this kind of architecture gains widespread use, the more the Web becomes fragmented, and the less we enjoy a single, universal information space.- Tim Berners-Lee • The most successful network marketers I know, the ones receiving tons of referrals and feeling truly happy about themselves, continually put the other person’s needs ahead of their own. – Bob Burg • The precondition of success and entry to the top politics is primarily one’s will – that is, making one’s own decisions, because it means having to leave your home or move your family, quit social networking and build new contacts, [since] central governments are seated in capitals. – Dalia Grybauskaite • The software is the strength of the electronic tribe because it’s networking. It’s creating oneness. It’s creating tributaries that link together into a singular river. – Frederick Lenz • The tools of social networking: These are the digital campfires around which the audience gathers to hear our story. – Marco Tempest • The trouble with not being into social networking is that people think you’re anti-social when you’re only anti-networking. – Robert Breault • The true value of networking doesn’t come from how many people we can meet but rather how many people we can introduce to others. – Simon Sinek • The value of networking is not measured by the number of people we meet but by the number of people we introduce to others. – Simon Sinek • The work I’m doing today gets me one step closer to the work I should be doing tomorrow. And that the way I learn this is by trying, failing, networking and experimenting. I’ll stop doing that when I’m dead. – Lewis Schiff • There’s a fast-track if you can do the networking. For some personalities it works, but for mine it doesn’t. – Idris Elba • There’s some people that obviously abuse social networking or whatever, but I think it’s a fantastic idea. I’ve never had any bad encounters with any of it. – Maisie Williams • This social-networking thing takes you to crazy places. – Bill Gates • Time is our most precious currency. So it’s significant that we are being encouraged, wherever possible, to think of our attention not as expenditure but as consumption. This blurring of labor and entertainment forms the basis, for example, of the financial alchemy that conjures deca-billion-dollar valuations for social-networking companies.- Mohsin Hamid • To win, we will need to keep building the movement, networking with one another, planning, strategizing, and moving forward. Our children’s futures, and those of their unborn children, are at stake. – Lois Gibbs • Try never to be the smartest person in the room. And if you are, I suggest you invite smarter people… or find a different room. In professional circles it’s called networking. In organizations it’s called team building. And in life it’s called family, friends, and community. We are all gifts to each other, and my own growth as a leader has shown me again and again that the most rewarding experiences come from my relationships. – Michael Dell • We are at a crossroads in the music business: with the rise of the internet, the world we live in has changed, and the past is not coming back. But I see the glass as half-full: the internet and social networking are new avenues for the next Bob Dylan to be born on. – Jon Bon Jovi • We’re being asked to continually be “authentic” and “honest” with the world through social media. There’s a demand to post our wedding pictures, baby pictures (only minutes after the birth), our relationship status, and our grief and joys on Facebook and Instagram. Similarly, we construct persona through dating apps and networking sites. All of these social media networks exert pressure on us to share the personal details of our lives with unknown masses. So the pressure on the characters in “Openness” isn’t merely romantic, but public/social as well. – Alexander Weinstein • We’re currently living with a generation of established novelists who are embarrassingly out of date with respect to social networking, internet skills, and so on. – Charles Stross • We’re living at a time when attention is the new currency: With hundreds of TV channels, billions of Web sites, podcasts, radio shows, music downloads and social networking, our attention is more fragmented than ever before. – Pete Cashmore • We’ve done this before in other worlds, in other lives. It is our strength, law, medicine, entertainment, and computers, the networking of energy. All of these are arts. – Frederick Lenz • We’ve had such a close relationship with the fans. Through social networking and the internet, we have much more contact, and we did go to things like Comic-Con. So, I think people know most of our secrets. – John Noble • What being among the ‘right people’ entails is the possession of human capital, rather than organizational capital: an individual reputation, portable skills, and network connections. Career responsibility is squarely in the hands of individuals, a function of their knowledge and networks. Transferable knowledge is more important to a career than firm-specific knowledge. – Rosabeth Moss Kanter • What excites me is that, when things are tough, people become resourceful, and now with the Internet, social networking and the ability for people who in the past had been relatively powerless, they have tools to be able to spread ideas and organize. The urgency is there and the tools are there and I think that the possibility for really, really powerful results is there. I think it’s all brewing, it’s all bubbling up right now. – Shepard Fairey • What makes a great standalone piece of hardware is not the same thing as what makes a great networking device. One can work as an essentially closed system. The other is absolutely dependent on its openness. – Douglas Rushkoff • What makes networking work is that it sets up win-win situations in which all parties involved get to take something home. Networking is a sharing process. Until you understand that, you won’t have much of a network. – Earl G. Graves, Sr. • What you do is ultimately pointless. You could be replaced any day of the week with the first moron who walks in the door. So work as little as possible, and spend a little time (not too much, though) ‘selling yourself’ and ‘networking’ so that you will have backup and will be untouchable (and untouched) the next time the company is restructured. – Corinne Maier • Whatever you’re selling, storage or networking or security, you’re going head to head with the incumbent players. – Marc Andreessen • When people are using their devices, it’s probable that almost half are networking on social media. – Gary Vaynerchuk • When thinking about how to deploy kind of professional and social networking into your business, it’s really not a question of if, it’s a question of when. And the reason is, just think about the fact that those businesses that adopt new technologies to operate efficiently and use them to get a competitive edge are the businesses that in fact, you know, it becomes one more competitive advantage. Whether it’s a fax machine or a mobile phone or a new way of doing financing or any of these things, you know, these are key things to do. – Reid Hoffman • Wikis and social networking are just tools. – Jimmy Wales • Will the social networking phenomenon lessen? I don’t think so. – Marissa Mayer • With my wife Camille’s help, I took to social networking. I’m working with the computers. – Bill Cosby • With the advent of Twitter and Facebook and other social networking sites, genuine privacy can only be found by renting a private villa for a holiday. Hotels are now out of the question for my wife and I. – Robert Powell • With Twitter and other social networking tools, you can get a lot of advice from great people. I learn more from Twitter than any survey or discussion with a big company. – Daniel Ek • You are already leaders. Your ideas, your actions and your decisions make a difference. More than any other generation, you have a voice. Social networking is changing how we interact – and it can change our world. You are in touch with peers from around the world. You understand the power of instant communication. I appeal to you to use that power for the common good, the power of communication and the power of networking. – Ban Ki-moon • You thought you could figure that out online? Somehow I don’t think hellions are much into social networking. – Rachel Vincent • You try and nurture the relationship. This day and age we have to do a little more networking than we used to do. All that does is make sure you befriend the people you are working with on a project so you hopefully carry it over to the next one. – Aaron Zigman • Young people know how to use these social networking tools, and they know how to use them effectively. – Edward Norton • Younger Arabs are much less satisfied with education in the region than their elders, and are more comfortable networking and communicating via digital means. – Joe Saddi

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[equitiesstocks]

Networking Quotes

Official Website: Networking Quotes

• A good browser, apps, good camera, and fast networking in your smartphone is just expected today. – Thorsten Heins • A man of substance should trust very carefully an online networking friend whose shared images are not often palatable to his taste. – Anuj • A new survey found that 12 percent of parents punish their kids by banning social networking sites. The other 88 percent punish their kids by joining social networking sites.- Jimmy Fallon • A technology becomes truly disruptive when it drives the marginal cost of something that used to be scarce and expensive to approach zero. Thus, it used to be to deploy software at scale, you had to fund a data center, buy a set of servers, storage, and networking gear, build an in-house IT management capability, and buy an expensive stack of enabling software before you could even get started. Now you can get all that from Amazon or Microsoft on a pay-as-you-grow model. – Geoffrey Moore • Anyone can use these sites – companies and colleges, teachers and students, young and old all make use of networking sites to connect with people electronically to share pictures, information, course work, and common interests. – Mike Fitzpatrick • As information technology becomes millions of times more powerful, any particular use of it becomes correspondingly cheaper. Thus, it has become commonplace to expect online services (not just news, but 21st century treats like search or social networking) to be given for free, or rather, in exchange for acquiescence to being spied on. – Jaron Lanier • As IT enters the mobile-cloud era, IT providers need to be more innovative about addressing customers’ fast changing needs. Over the past two years, Cisco and Citrix have collaborated to deliver significant innovation into the market. Now we are excited to accelerate our partnership into cloud, networking and mobility. – Padmasree Warrior

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Network', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_network').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_network img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Being in New York and having worked at Time Out New York and then being at Time, living in New York for a long time has helped because I know everybody. And they’re the people who call me and give me jobs. So that kind of real networking, which is just living in a place and having jobs where people around you are extremely successful, has helped me tremendously. – Joel Stein • Best results are often achieved well before you need a job, by consistently networking so that when you find yourself job-hunting you have a large network to work with. – Erik Qualman • Brooklyn is where I primarily developed. I had an opportunity to make records and perform in clubs here and there, and I started networking with the right people in the right places. – Busta Rhymes • Bullying behaviour can be communicated via text, mobile phones, internet, social networking sites, forums. But we can’t limit it because these messages are then reinforced by television which glamorises yelling, swearing and vulgar behaviour as the way to walk the red carpet of acceptance. – Louise Burfitt-Dons • Business culture operates differently in different cities around the world. But I don’t think it’s possible to design one system that incorporates all social norms for networking. Human beings are just too diverse. – danah boyd • Conservatively, I am saying that social networking has made being in a band more fun, but not necessarily changed how the business works. – Chris Cain • Create a website that expresses something about who you are that won’t fit into the template available to you on a social networking site. – Jaron Lanier • Despite all the hype about local or green food, the single biggest impediment to wider adoption is not research, programs, organizations, or networking. It is the demonizing and criminalizing of virtually all indigenous and heritage-based food practices. – Joel Salatin • Facebook and other social networking sites are bringing together spheres that used to be separate. People no longer have private and public lives; the line between the two is becoming blurred. – Paul Achleitner • Facebook is shaping a broader web. If you look back for the past five or seven years, the story about social networking has really been about getting people connected… But if you look forward for the next five years, I think that the story people are going to remember five years from now isn’t how this one site was built; it is how every single service that you use is now going to be better with your friends. – Mark Zuckerberg • Figure out what you are meant to contribute to the world and make sure you contribute it. If this requires public speaking or networking or other activities that make you uncomfortable, do them anyway. But accept that they’re difficult, get the training you need to make them easier, and reward yourself when you’re done. – Susan Cain • First, you have to be visible in the community. You have to get out there and connect with people. It’s not called net-sitting or net-eating. It’s called networking. You have to work at it. – Ivan Misner • For almost the first year of The Muse’s life, I would do 5 to 8 networking events a week. And I don’t necessarily think that’s the right path for everyone, but I realized that as an entrepreneur, one of my strengths was finding the right people who could help us. I didn’t come into startups with any network. – Kathryn Minshew • For people choosing to use a network marketing system to build a business in the B quadrant, the price of entry is a lot lower, the risks are lower, and the education and support are there to guide you through this personal development process. – Robert Kiyosaki • For the music business, social networking is brilliant. Just when you think it’s doom and gloom and you have to spend millions of pounds on marketing and this and that, you have this amazing thing now called fan power. The whole world is linked through a laptop. It’s amazing. And it’s free. I love it. It’s absolutely brilliant. – Simon Cowell • Founded in August 2003, MySpace would go on to be the most-visited social networking site in the world from 2005 until early 2008. – David Sze • Generally, social networking sites can be hugely promising and beneficial in opening new friendships and vistas and knowledge of the world, but they are also fraught with peril, when young people are reckless or headless. – Richard Blumenthal • Google and Facebook, each in their own way, have revolutionized the delivery of advertising based on search and social networking, creating a sort of anti-Spam: targeted, relevant ads that a consumer might actually welcome rather than spurn. – Marcus Buckingham • Googling is not spying. It’s social networking.- Sarah • I am actually turned off when I look at an account and don’t see any selfies, because I want to know whom I’m dealing with. In our age of social networking, the selfie is the new way to look someone right in the eye and say, ‘Hello, this is me.’ – James Franco • I am often asked if Network Marketing is a Pyramid Scheme. My reply is that corporations really are pyramid schemes. A corporation has only one person at the top, generally the CEO, and everyone else below. – Donald Trump • I believe strongly in writing groups such as Romance Writers Of America that offer support, information and networking. – Nora Roberts • I consider us to be one of the first Internet-based bands, especially because we basically started our entire band via the Internet. Before MySpace Music even existed, we had a band MySpace page. We were one of the first fifty bands on PureVolume(.com), and we really built everything from the Internet. That’s how we started talking to record labels, that’s how we booked our first tours. Without the Internet social networking, like Twitter, we definitely wouldn’t be where we are today. It is a huge part of the band.- Jack Barakat • I don’t feel the need to brand myself in that way [social media]. But as a means to share information and raise awareness of things, I think these social-networking platforms are unprecedented. – Scarlett Johansson • I don’t think that developing countries gained from a two-stage process. A single phase summit (which is, after all, a two year process, not a three day event) would have built awareness, and would probably have led to more substantive conclusions at the end of the first summit meeting. Civil society may have gained a bit more from the networking experience, but it was less effective at networking in the second phase. – David Souter • I don’t think that there’s a guy behind the desk at every newspaper saying “No, woman” and sending her on her way, but that’s what’s systemic about it, right, like that people don’t quite realize that maybe they’re attracted to a male op-ed more than a female op-ed, or because of networking they know this person from going out to a bar with them. – Jessica Valenti • I feel that puttin’ in the hours and years in the studio, honing my craft, definitely played a part, me consciously networking and presenting myself as an artist that’s commercially sellable led to me meeting the right people, which in turn led to them givin’ me positive referrals to other people, which in turn led to me signin’ a deal. – Nipsey Hussle • I get excited about what the Holy Spirit is doing now through all the people he is refining and raising up all over this planet. I love connections and relationship and networking but it must be led by the Spirit.- Daniel Smith • I had been in the technology business for so long, I had seen the PC-bubble come and burst, I had seen the local area and wide area networking-bubble come and burst, it was no shock that the internet-bubble was going to burst. – Mark Cuban • I have always had stuff on the internet, way back in the Myspace days, I had a lot of friends on Myspace. And it is just all about like networking – contacting people and showing people, like, your mind. – Kreayshawn • I keep in touch with my fans by keeping a blog online and I try to answer questions every day. I also have a twitter and a facebook. I think that social networking gives authors a unique insight in the minds of their fans and for me that is very valuable. – Cassandra Clare • I like to define networking as cultivating mutually beneficial, give-and-take, win-win relationships… The end result may be to develop a large and diverse group of people who will gladly and continually refer a lot of business to us, while we do the same for them. – Bob Burg • I love networking. But I learned to love it – Jamal Igle • I must admit that I don’t really understand social networking models that well, and I haven’t tried to because I have just not been enthused about this whole thing. – David Cheriton • I remember thinking to myself that I missed the fun and excitement after leaving the corporate world to work at home. Seek camaraderie through networking. Schedule time for it; if you don’t, you’ll never make it. – Ryan Blair • I should tell my story. I’m also unemployed … I’m networking. I have my sight on a particular job. – Mitt Romney • I talk to my readers on social networking sites, but I never tell them what the book is about. Writing is lonely, so from time to time I talk to them on the Internet. It’s like chatting at a bar without leaving your office. I talk with them about a lot of things other than my books. – Paulo Coelho • I think anything which promotes heterogeneity on the Internet promotes stability. Diversity in services, service providers, and separating the layers of the networking stack are all important. – David Ulevitch • I think that it will be the mobile technologies, both from the enterprise and the consumer side, where super unicorns will come from. I still believe that social networking in combination with mobile will create opportunities for super unicorns. – David Sze • I think that social networking makes people more connected, yet more distant, so there are people with less ties to real friend groups and less a sense of self. – Lena Dunham • I think the whole aspect of social networking is vulgar and repulsive in a lot of ways. – Trent Reznor • I think there’s confusion around what the point of social networks is. A lot of different companies characterized as social networks have different goals – some serve the function of business networking, some are media portals. What we’re trying to do is just make it really efficient for people to communicate, get information and share information. – Mark Zuckerberg • I think women are really good at making friends and not good at networking. Men are good at networking and not necessarily making friends. That’s a gross generalization, but I think it holds in many ways. – Madeleine Albright • I won’t eat anything that has intelligent life, but I’d gladly eat a network executive or a politician. – Marty Feldman • If it had anything to do with the PC or networking industry I was on top of it. I bought manuals. I read every book and magazine. Then I would get involved with industry conferences and put myself out there. – Mark Cuban • If we were a culture of high-risk alcoholics, and suddenly we had Jack Daniels piped into our houses, we would be feeding that fire. Social networking, and the internet as a whole, seems to have simply landed in an extremely fertile place in an extremely fertile time in history, when we all have these narcissistic tendencies anyway – you can go further back into the self-esteem movement, and Dr. Spock, and the ‘everybody gets a ribbon at the track meet’ sort of thing, which preceded the internet – and then you drop the internet into the middle of this, and we’ve all gone haywire. – Jeffrey Kluger • If you look at the evolution of games from console to Internet to mobile, and look at social networking from Web to mobile, everything is fragmenting. – Chris DeWolfe • If you’re not networking, you’re not networking. – Denis Waitley • I’m a very optimistic person. I have the chance to listen to so much phenomenal music. Connecting with social networking to create music is a progression of what electronic music does anyway – it connects people. – Paul van Dyk • I’m good at marketing myself through the columns. But compared to other people I know, as far as networking and pushing yourself out there, I’m not very good at that. – Joel Stein • I’m no good at anything but comedy, which I think I’m good at. I’m absolutely no good at networking; I’m terrible at acting; I’m terrible at dealing with executives; I’m terrible at collaborating. And I say whatever I want to say. But I think I’m good enough at comedy that I can survive. And I don’t really have an ambition for money. – Norm MacDonald • I’m wary about this thing about being in the generation of social networking where people are like, ‘I am my musical taste.’ I am not just a collection of music. Or a collection of movies. I think that’s a thing that people romanticize: ‘Oh my God, she likes this band so she is a dream.’ – Zooey Deschanel • In my coming-of-age time, there was no internet, no social networking, nothing. It was just show after show, hoping one day somebody would notice you. – Madonna Ciccone • In the digital universe, our personal history and its sense of narrative is succeeded by our social networking profile – a snapshot of the current moment. The information itself – our social graph of friends and likes – is a product being sold to market researchers in order to better predict and guide our futures. – Douglas Rushkoff • Instead of telling the world what you’re eating for breakfast, you can use social networking to do something that’s meaningful. – Edward Norton • It has been my exprience that repetitive nights of exposure to the kundalini energy followed by longer periods of reflection and pyschic networking create the fastest transitions in awareness. – Frederick Lenz • It will take a massive effort to move society from corporate domination, in which industry’s rights to pollute and damage health and the environment supersede the public’s right to live, work, and play in safety. This is a political fight. The science is already there, showing that people’s health is at risk. To win, we will need to keep building the movement, networking with one another, planning, strategizing, and moving forward. Our children’s futures, and those of their unborn children, are at stake. – Lois Gibbs • It’s very true that an artist who networks well will have better opportunities than one who doesn’t network well. But great networking skills without great art won’t change art history. – Mark Kostabi • I’ve always been a social network retard, even before there was a social network. People would say, “You want to go to this party and do some networking?” – Lewis Black • Man, Farmville is so huge! Do you realize its the second-biggest browser-based social-networking-centered farming game in the world? – Randall Munroe • Many believe effective networking is done face-to-face, building a rapport with someone by looking at them in the eye, leading to a solid connection and foundational trust. – Raymond Arroyo • Most bloggers who rise above the clutter are quite often prolific -they work hard, not just writing content but networking, engaging in Social Media and more. – Darren Rowse • My Golden Rule of Networking is simple: Don’t keep score. – Harvey Mackay • Network marketing gives people the opportunity, with very low risk and very low financial commitment, to build their own income-generating asset and acquire great wealth. – Robert Kiyosaki • Network marketing is the big wave of the future. It’s taking the place of franchising, which now requires too much capital for the average person. – Jim Rohn • Network marketing is the only industry that allows common people to earn millions with a minimal investment and zero overhead, coupled with total time freedom and the joy of global travel. There are three magic words that worked for all of us who have made it to the pinnacle and they’ll work for you: ‘Just don’t quit.’ – Mark Yarnell • Network selectively. Nothing says “business newbie” like shotgun networking. “You never know when someone might say yes” is marketing for dummies. Take the time to build a profile of your ideal customers, and target your networking activities to reach them. Speak to those who are already predisposed to want what you offer. Almost any profile is better than “anyone with a pulse.” – Steve Pavlina • Networked, we are together, but so lessened are our expectations of each other that we can feel utterly alone. And there is the risk that we come to see others as objects to be accessed—and only for the parts we find useful, comforting, or amusing. – Sherry Turkle • Networking is an enrichment program, not an entitlement program. – Susan RoAne • Networking is an essential part of building wealth. – Armstrong Williams • Networking is marketing. Marketing yourself, marketing your uniqueness, marketing what you stand for. – Christine Comaford-Lynch • Networking is more about farming than it is about hunting. – Ivan Misner • Networking is not about hunting. It is about farming. It’s about cultivating relationships. Don’t engage in ‘premature solicitation’. You’ll be a better networker if you remember that. – Ivan Misner • Networking is rubbish; have friends instead. – Steve Winwood • Networking is simply the cultivating of mutually beneficial, give and take, win-win relationships. It works best, however, when emphasizing the “give” part. – Bob Burg • Networking is the No. 1 unwritten rule of success in business. – Sallie Krawcheck • Networking that matters is helping people achieve their goals. – Seth Godin • New security loopholes are constantly popping up because of wireless networking. The cat-and-mouse game between hackers and system administrators is still in full swing. – Kevin Mitnick • Now with the allocation and the understanding of the lack of understanding, we enter into a new era of science in which we feel nothing more than so much so as to say that those within themselves, comporary or non-comporary, will figuratively figure into the folding of our non-understanding and our partial understanding to the networks of which we all draw our source and conclusions from. – Reggie Watts • Of all the entrepreneurial opportunities available today, one of the most important is direct selling, also called network marketing. – Paul Zane Pilzer • Olympics are three times more likely to be employed than people of a similar age, ethnic and socioeconomic status who have not been participating. It’s a correlation, not a causation as far as the statisticians go, but the fascinating question is; Is there something in participation in sports, in community-building, confidence building, self-image-building, strength building, social networking – that greatly enhance employability? – Timothy Shriver • On social networking sites, we may expose ourselves, but we choose to do so. We are in control and, often wrongly, we do not feel we are giving away tradable data. – Julian Baggini • Once upon a time … the only autonomous intelligences we humans knew of were us humans. We thought then that if humankind ever devised another intelligence that it would be the result of a huge project … a great mass of silicon and ancient transistors and chips and circuit boards … a machine with lots of networking circuits, in other words, aping-if you will pardon the expression-the human brain in form and function. Of course, AIs did not evolve that way. They sort of slipped into existence when we humans were looking the other way. – Dan Simmons • One must be wary of the view that these loose and diverse coalitions represent a new form of globalized participatory democracy. The dissent industry is largely a product of the Internet revolution. Inexpensive, borderless, real-time networking provides advocacy non-governmental organizations [NGOs] with economies of scale and also of scope by linking widely disparate groups with one common theme. – Sylvia Ostry • One of the challenges in networking is everybody thinks it’s making cold calls to strangers. Actually, it’s the people who already have strong trust relationships with you, who know you’re dedicated, smart, a team player, who can help you. – Reid Hoffman • One of the issues of social networking silos is that they have the data and I don’t. – Tim Berners-Lee • One of the things women are very good at, that’s networking. Women are not afraid to say, “I need.” They’re not afraid. Men won’t even ask for directions. Women will tell each other when they need something. Women will tell each other when their husband is having an affair. Men don’t do that. – Marlo Thomas • One reason (among many) that women may well take over the world of “virtual enterprises” is that they seem to have a greater instinct for networking. And the unfettered-by-machismo males who have taken to networking will do better than those who shun it as “sissy stuff.” But truth is, it has always been the age of “networkers”; and in an era where organizations depend more and more on tenuously connected outsiders to get the job done, it will only become so. – Tom Peters • People generally worry about social networking more than they need to. In kind of consumer internet investing and on social and professional networks, I kind of look at time spending and time efficiency. You know, time saving sites. So on time spending sites, things where you play lots of games or that sort of thing, you might worry about a productivity loss if people are spending a lot of time doing that. So if there’s a lot of kind of addictive gaming going on during work hours, that won’t be as helpful to you. – Reid Hoffman • Personal relationships are always the key to good business. You can buy networking; you can’t buy friendships. – Lindsay Fox • Please be careful of becoming so immersed and engrossed in pixels, texting, ear buds, Twittering, online social networking, and potentially addictive uses of media and the Internet that you fail to recognize the importance of your physical body and miss the richness of person-to-person communication. Beware of the digital displays and data in many forms of computer-mediated interaction that can displace the full range of physical capacity and experience. – David A. Bednar • Pubcon is always one of the first shows I put on my calendar. Content is excellent, social is excellent, networking opportunities are excellent. – Jim Banks • Relationship networking is about who you know and more importantly, who knows you. Building the right network can open new doors to future success in your business. – Heidi • Respect for people is the cornerstone of communication and networking. – Susan RoAne • SDN is a major shift in the networking industry. At Juniper, we think the impact of SDN will be much broader than others have suggested. It will redefine networking and create new winners and losers. We’re embracing SDN with clearly defined principles, a four-step roadmap to help customers adopt SDN within their business, and the networking industry’s first comprehensive software-centric business model. We’re incredibly excited about the value that SDN will deliver to our customers and are committed to leading the industry through this transition. – Bob Muglia • Search without Google is like social networking without Facebook: unimaginable. – Evgeny Morozov • SixDegrees.org is about using the idea that we are all connected to accomplish something good. It is my hope that Six Degrees will soon be something more than a game or a gimmick. It will also be a force for good, by bringing a social conscience to social networking. – Kevin Bacon • Social networking helps reach people easier and quicker. – Bill Cosby • Social networking inspires me a lot and how we are related and connected to each other. – Nicola Formichetti • Social networking is playing a huge role in creating awareness and mobilizing support for all kinds of common interests. What better way to use this remarkable tool than to change the world? – Natalie Portman • Social Networking should never replace face-to-face time. – Germany Kent • Social networking sites like Myspace, Friendster, and Facebook have literally exploded in popularity in just a few short years. – Mike Fitzpatrick • Social networking technology didn’t really exist until 2004-2005. I had the idea to use this technology to bridge this gap between a general interest in addressing social issues and the practical action. – Ben Rattray • Social Networking that matters is helping people archive their goals. Doing it reliably and repeatability so that over time people have an interest in helping you achieve your goals.- Seth Godin • Social networking, I believe, has completely changed the relationship between band-members and fans. – Beau Bokan • Social networks are like grease – in some cases, gasoline – for our personal business networking machines. If you aren’t plugged in, you will be out-done by better-connected, hyper-networked colleagues and competitors. – danah boyd • Sometimes, idealistic people are put off the whole business of networking as something tainted by flattery and the pursuit of selfish advantage. But virtue in obscurity is rewarded only in Heaven. To succeed in this world you have to be known to people. – Sonia Sotomayor • Spirituality in Washington can be more of a – I don’t want to say it – but, a networking opportunity. Religion is often used opportunistically in the political conversation. – Mark Leibovich • Start a conversation with someone with whom you have “nothing in common” and no possibility of scoring with, networking with, or even seeing again. In other words, a conversation just for the civilized hell of it. – Perry Brass • Take a moment think who would actually miss you if you deactivate all your social networking accounts, whatsapp, BBM etc – Anamika Mishra • Technology is a compulsive and addictive way to live. Verbal communication cannot be lost because of a lack of skill. The ability to listen and learn is key to mastering the art of communication. If you dont use your verbal skills and networking, it will disappear rapidly. Use technology wisely. – Rick Pitino • That definitely I feel is part of my generation: social networking, communication over the Internet, whether it’s Skype or IRC or some form of text-based chat, text messaging. – Duncan Jones • That is vaguely conspiratorial, in a networking sense. We have published their meeting notes. – Julian Assange • The [film] industry, from the franchise on, has dramatically changed, not just with us, but with social networking. The social working has changed dramatically, especially in the way you promote films. It’s instant. – Tara Reid • The biggest mistake that I made was not anticipating the rise of the social networking phenomenon. – Eric Schmidt • The blogs have been great and everything, but I think, for me, it’s better to have a central place on the Internet for all my fans to go and show their friends my YouTube, Twitter, and social networking sites. To have that spread all on its own and have a central station to get everything Mac Miller. – Mac Miller • The breakup of Bell laid the foundation for every important communications revolution since the 1980s onward. There was no way of knowing that thirty years on we would have an Internet, handheld computers, and social networking, but it is hard to imagine their coming when they did, had the company that bured the answering machine remained intact.- Tim Wu • The business is about coming up with a business plan and using your relationships and networking and seeing your dreams come true. Everyone on this show has their own business. Fifteen minutes of fame is fleeting. It’s about learning the business and creating a new business. – Eva Marcille • The class focuses intensely on making people more comfortable with doing a wider range of things – such as networking, self-promotion, building their own personal brand, cleverly acquiring resources, getting known – that they may have been less comfortable with before. – Jeffrey Pfeffer • The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity. – Keith Ferrazzi • The future of network marketing is unlimited. There’s no end in sight. It will continue to grow because better people are getting into it . . . soon, it will be one of the most respected business methods in the world. – Brian Tracy • The future success of online social networking sites as an advertising medium depends on its acceptance as an advertising vehicle that can deliver a message to a micro-target in a manner that will be well received and that increases the likelihood of interaction. – Mary Louise Kelly • The idea that hardware on networks should just be caches for movable process descriptions and the processes themselves goes back quite a ways. There’s a real sense in which MS and Apple never understood networking or operating systems (or what objects really are), and when they decided to beef up their OSs, they went to (different) very old bad mainframe models of OS design to try to adapt to personal computers. – Alan Kay • The internet and social networking are new avenues for the next Bob Dylan to be born on. – Jon Bon Jovi • The more complex the network is, the more complex its pattern of interconnections, the more resilient it will be. – Fritjof Capra • The more you enter, the more you become locked in. Your social-networking site becomes a central platform – a closed silo of content, and one that does not give you full control over your information in it. The more this kind of architecture gains widespread use, the more the Web becomes fragmented, and the less we enjoy a single, universal information space.- Tim Berners-Lee • The most successful network marketers I know, the ones receiving tons of referrals and feeling truly happy about themselves, continually put the other person’s needs ahead of their own. – Bob Burg • The precondition of success and entry to the top politics is primarily one’s will – that is, making one’s own decisions, because it means having to leave your home or move your family, quit social networking and build new contacts, [since] central governments are seated in capitals. – Dalia Grybauskaite • The software is the strength of the electronic tribe because it’s networking. It’s creating oneness. It’s creating tributaries that link together into a singular river. – Frederick Lenz • The tools of social networking: These are the digital campfires around which the audience gathers to hear our story. – Marco Tempest • The trouble with not being into social networking is that people think you’re anti-social when you’re only anti-networking. – Robert Breault • The true value of networking doesn’t come from how many people we can meet but rather how many people we can introduce to others. – Simon Sinek • The value of networking is not measured by the number of people we meet but by the number of people we introduce to others. – Simon Sinek • The work I’m doing today gets me one step closer to the work I should be doing tomorrow. And that the way I learn this is by trying, failing, networking and experimenting. I’ll stop doing that when I’m dead. – Lewis Schiff • There’s a fast-track if you can do the networking. For some personalities it works, but for mine it doesn’t. – Idris Elba • There’s some people that obviously abuse social networking or whatever, but I think it’s a fantastic idea. I’ve never had any bad encounters with any of it. – Maisie Williams • This social-networking thing takes you to crazy places. – Bill Gates • Time is our most precious currency. So it’s significant that we are being encouraged, wherever possible, to think of our attention not as expenditure but as consumption. This blurring of labor and entertainment forms the basis, for example, of the financial alchemy that conjures deca-billion-dollar valuations for social-networking companies.- Mohsin Hamid • To win, we will need to keep building the movement, networking with one another, planning, strategizing, and moving forward. Our children’s futures, and those of their unborn children, are at stake. – Lois Gibbs • Try never to be the smartest person in the room. And if you are, I suggest you invite smarter people… or find a different room. In professional circles it’s called networking. In organizations it’s called team building. And in life it’s called family, friends, and community. We are all gifts to each other, and my own growth as a leader has shown me again and again that the most rewarding experiences come from my relationships. – Michael Dell • We are at a crossroads in the music business: with the rise of the internet, the world we live in has changed, and the past is not coming back. But I see the glass as half-full: the internet and social networking are new avenues for the next Bob Dylan to be born on. – Jon Bon Jovi • We’re being asked to continually be “authentic” and “honest” with the world through social media. There’s a demand to post our wedding pictures, baby pictures (only minutes after the birth), our relationship status, and our grief and joys on Facebook and Instagram. Similarly, we construct persona through dating apps and networking sites. All of these social media networks exert pressure on us to share the personal details of our lives with unknown masses. So the pressure on the characters in “Openness” isn’t merely romantic, but public/social as well. – Alexander Weinstein • We’re currently living with a generation of established novelists who are embarrassingly out of date with respect to social networking, internet skills, and so on. – Charles Stross • We’re living at a time when attention is the new currency: With hundreds of TV channels, billions of Web sites, podcasts, radio shows, music downloads and social networking, our attention is more fragmented than ever before. – Pete Cashmore • We’ve done this before in other worlds, in other lives. It is our strength, law, medicine, entertainment, and computers, the networking of energy. All of these are arts. – Frederick Lenz • We’ve had such a close relationship with the fans. Through social networking and the internet, we have much more contact, and we did go to things like Comic-Con. So, I think people know most of our secrets. – John Noble • What being among the ‘right people’ entails is the possession of human capital, rather than organizational capital: an individual reputation, portable skills, and network connections. Career responsibility is squarely in the hands of individuals, a function of their knowledge and networks. Transferable knowledge is more important to a career than firm-specific knowledge. – Rosabeth Moss Kanter • What excites me is that, when things are tough, people become resourceful, and now with the Internet, social networking and the ability for people who in the past had been relatively powerless, they have tools to be able to spread ideas and organize. The urgency is there and the tools are there and I think that the possibility for really, really powerful results is there. I think it’s all brewing, it’s all bubbling up right now. – Shepard Fairey • What makes a great standalone piece of hardware is not the same thing as what makes a great networking device. One can work as an essentially closed system. The other is absolutely dependent on its openness. – Douglas Rushkoff • What makes networking work is that it sets up win-win situations in which all parties involved get to take something home. Networking is a sharing process. Until you understand that, you won’t have much of a network. – Earl G. Graves, Sr. • What you do is ultimately pointless. You could be replaced any day of the week with the first moron who walks in the door. So work as little as possible, and spend a little time (not too much, though) ‘selling yourself’ and ‘networking’ so that you will have backup and will be untouchable (and untouched) the next time the company is restructured. – Corinne Maier • Whatever you’re selling, storage or networking or security, you’re going head to head with the incumbent players. – Marc Andreessen • When people are using their devices, it’s probable that almost half are networking on social media. – Gary Vaynerchuk • When thinking about how to deploy kind of professional and social networking into your business, it’s really not a question of if, it’s a question of when. And the reason is, just think about the fact that those businesses that adopt new technologies to operate efficiently and use them to get a competitive edge are the businesses that in fact, you know, it becomes one more competitive advantage. Whether it’s a fax machine or a mobile phone or a new way of doing financing or any of these things, you know, these are key things to do. – Reid Hoffman • Wikis and social networking are just tools. – Jimmy Wales • Will the social networking phenomenon lessen? I don’t think so. – Marissa Mayer • With my wife Camille’s help, I took to social networking. I’m working with the computers. – Bill Cosby • With the advent of Twitter and Facebook and other social networking sites, genuine privacy can only be found by renting a private villa for a holiday. Hotels are now out of the question for my wife and I. – Robert Powell • With Twitter and other social networking tools, you can get a lot of advice from great people. I learn more from Twitter than any survey or discussion with a big company. – Daniel Ek • You are already leaders. Your ideas, your actions and your decisions make a difference. More than any other generation, you have a voice. Social networking is changing how we interact – and it can change our world. You are in touch with peers from around the world. You understand the power of instant communication. I appeal to you to use that power for the common good, the power of communication and the power of networking. – Ban Ki-moon • You thought you could figure that out online? Somehow I don’t think hellions are much into social networking. – Rachel Vincent • You try and nurture the relationship. This day and age we have to do a little more networking than we used to do. All that does is make sure you befriend the people you are working with on a project so you hopefully carry it over to the next one. – Aaron Zigman • Young people know how to use these social networking tools, and they know how to use them effectively. – Edward Norton • Younger Arabs are much less satisfied with education in the region than their elders, and are more comfortable networking and communicating via digital means. – Joe Saddi

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[animeindoblog-blog]

Spring 2018 Preview!

New Post has been published on https://animeindo.org/blog/2018/03/25/spring-2018-preview/

Spring 2018 Preview!

March is said to go out like a lamb, but the next season of anime apparently never got the memo. After several strong showings we are looking at one of the most stacked springs in years, as the hotly anticipated sequels for Shokugeki no Souma and Boku no Hero Academia are accompanied by the return of Tokyo Ghoul, the wildly successful visual novel adaptation Steins;Gate, and incredibly surprising—but no less hyped—continuations of Full Metal Panic, WIXOSS, Amanchu, the ever popular harem High School DxD, and fighting anime’s star Souten no Ken. Not to be outdone are the latest adaptations for Sword Art Online and the Persona series, and even a remake for one of anime’s most influential OVAs in Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Plus, if we weren’t spoiled enough for choice already (hint: we aren’t), there’s a slew of promising newcomers, from the violent magical girl series Mahou Shoujo Site to the psychic comedy Hinamatsuri, the quirky monster family slice of life Jikken-hin Kazoku, and the latest otaku romance in Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii. Spring has never looked stronger, and we are here to tell you all about it. This is the Random Curiosity Spring 2018 Preview!

This season we’ll continue using the Excitement Levels we introduced in Fall 2017. Don’t recall why? Because trying to anticipate how a show is going to turn out is a fool’s errand, but we can definitely tell you how excited we are! Just remember that these levels reflect our own subjective excitement for each show, and do not necessarily reflect how each will pan out. For more information, check out the Overall Impressions section at the bottom, which includes an expanded explanation of each category and a list of all shows by excitement level.

Disclaimer: Back in ye olde year of 2012—which is practically ancient history now—previews were done by a single writer, Divine. Since none of the current writers are superhero enough to take time off of work or school to solo this thing, we’ve divided everything up among our staff (Cherrie, Choya, Guardian Enzo, Pancakes, Passerby, Stilts, Takaii, Zaiden, and Zephyr) in order to maintain the quality of this preview. We will try to point out what appeals to us in each series, in the hope that it will help you determine if it coincides with your tastes.

Disclaimer #2: Please note that this list does not reflect all the series airing this coming season. It is meant to be as comprehensive as possible, but omissions have been made for shows that stray from the anime norm or seem to be oriented toward young children. Please check out MOON PHASE for complete listings, syoboi for specific air times, and Fansub DB for a list of potential sources for each series.

As always a big shout out to the entire Random Curiosity crew for banding together to finish this preview. With work obligations, family plans, school responsibilities, and more than a few epic moves across country (or the world) interfering with things, this was a fun preview to put together, but everyone has persevered and the result couldn’t be better. Thanks as always to Xumbra and Divine for encoding the PVs; Zephyr for doing early prep work; Stilts for editing, people wrangling, and for being a slow bad person; Passerby for proofreading and the shorts section; and of course Cherrie for handling all the formatting, links, pictures, and any other nagging issues. Also, thanks to everyone who wrote previews. You all rock! Sometimes.

Last but not least, thank you to you, dear friends and readers of Random Curiosity. I (Pancakes) have only been here a year and a bit, but the fun of chatting with you in the comments and the use so many get from the weekly ramblings is what keeps me (and the rest) coming back every time. Also we might be closet masochists who get a kick out of unpaid labour, who can say? If it wasn’t for you we wouldn’t be doing this, so once again thank you for being a part of this amazing community, we love you all!

Technical Note: The chart below is ordered by the date and time that the shows premiere. The links in the schedule will take you to a series’ corresponding entry and the “Top” links on the right will bring you back. You can also use the back/forward buttons in your browser to jump between links you’ve clicked. All times are given in a 24-hour, relative-day format where times are extended to show which day they belong to. For instance, Friday morning at 1:30AM would become Thursday at 25:30 to show that the episode aired late Thursday night.

Preview by Zaiden

An investigator buries two Ghosts, ghoulish humanoids who were the very last of their kind. He keeps the terrible secret of their existence, out of pity for their plight. But a small and decrepit figure digs its way out of the grave, and makes itself known to the world. That would be Kitarou (Sawashiro Miyuki), the last survivor of the Ghost tribe. Despite being physically deformed, Kitarou has a heart of gold, and tries to help both humans and youkai alike. Fortunately, he is not alone in his endeavours. His father, Medama-Oyaji (Nozawa Masako), reincarnates as an eyeball after dying to an incurable disease, and wanders around looking after his beloved son in spite of his minuscule stature. In facing off against monsters who might threaten the harmony between humans and youkai, they are joined by Nezumi-Otoko (Furukawa Toshio), Neko-Musume (Shouji Umeka), and a few other legendary creatures who might haunt the average Japanese nightmare.

Gegege no Kitarou’s generational influence cannot be understated, given how it essentially revived the popularity of classical folklore in Japanese mainstream media – effects which are still felt within the industry today. The jitters and creeps imparted by these horrors mesh delightfully with some hearty wholesomeness, resulting in a cult classic, complete with well-received reruns. Every decade or so, Toei Animation seems to enjoy busting out a new anime adaptation of Gegege no Kitarou, though this isn’t without reason. Since its original publication from 1960-69, Gegege no Kitarou is a series that has withstood the test of time by remaining truly beloved in Japan, even if it never made any impact in the international market. If you enjoy dark humour and supernatural action, you might be in for a pleasant surprise if you give this series a chance.

Watching This: Choya, Guardian Enzo, Zaiden Excitement Level: Average

Preview by Pancakes

In a Taisho era that went on for an extra twenty-five years, the young girl Kuze Tsugumi (Kimura Juri) is in the throes of courtship. Needing to marry a man to save her family’s fortunes, Tsugumi is desperate to make the right choice, but runs headfirst into personal disaster when her younger brother commits suicide. Shocked and confused, with only a book clutched by her dead brother as any clue to the tragedy, Tsugumi’s upheaval worsens when Fukurou, an imperial investigation service, requests her assistance with the case. Tsugumi learns that the book is a Maremono, a special tome capable of exerting significant influence over its readers, and she just happens to have an ability able to decipher the sentiments (called Auras) residing within Maremonos. Wanting answers and with nowhere else to turn, Tsugumi agrees to help Fukurou in their investigation, but as she’ll soon find out, the truth can often be more painful than never knowing why.

Did someone order an otome game adaptation? Because we’ve got the next otome game adaptation right here. Nil Admirari no Tenbin is the latest adaptation from Otomate’s catalogue, and like all others of late harems of pretty boys is the name of the game. Expect plentiful amounts of romance and chivalrous swooning amidst the undeniably unique mystery drama and you won’t leave disappointed. The only concern for otome fans will be the execution. Zero-G is a hit or miss studio at the best of times, and director Takada Masahiro has no prior experience at all with full length shows. Nevertheless, should Nil Admirari no Tenbin faithfully adapt the source game story and keep the rushing to a minimum, it’s certainly capable of being a fun bit of mystery-tinged romance. Considering this one has been in the works for over two years, a little leeway is rightfully deserved.

Watching This: No one yet Excitement Level: Limited

Preview by Choya

Special Week (Waki Azumi) is an equine girl who aspires to be an athlete and idol. To follow her dreams, she transfers to Traincent Academy, where other equine girls go to train in racing and singing. Along the way, she becomes acquaintances with colleagues such as Silence Suzuka (Kouno Marika), Toukai Teio (Machico), and Vodka (Ohashi Ayaka), who share her goal of utilizing their talents to become stars. With all of the competition she faces, can Special Week hold a candle to her fellow classmates? Can Special Week withstand the competitive environment that awaits her in Traincent Academy? Find out in Uma Musume: Pretty Derby!

Uma Musume has had quite the journey. It’s supposed to be a mobile game project that Cygames is developing for this year, but has only had promotional material. If you recognize the image of horse girls sprinting on a track-and-field ring like they’re in gym class, it’s because the promotional ONA has been floating around the Internet since 2016 as one of those grand concepts that gaming/anime sites tout as the latest outlandish idea to come from popular anime. In Uma Musume’s case, it combines horse-racing with idol phone games, with your choice of horse idol sprinting across a track to obtain victory and glory. To the series’ credit, they stay true to the spirit of horse racing with all of the funny race-horse names they came up with for the girls. The fact that the girls are only visibly horses by their ears and tails also adds to the moe appeal that could make such a concept seem more normal than people give it credit for. The premise of the show is pretty straight-forward, but P.A. Works’ involvement and the direction of Oikawa Kei does build confidence that we’ll get a competent, well-made project. You’ll know if the idea alone is enough to reel you in, but only time will tell whether you’d want to say “aye” or “neigh” to Uma Musume.

Watching This: Choya Excitement Level: Limited

Preview by Passerby

Uno Saki (Ohashi Ayaka) had figured out her life. She’s a fledgling idol. She had formed a unit with her best friend, Mikage Sakuyo (Misawa Sachika). She nursed an innocent crush on said friend’s brother, Mohiro (Toyonaga Toshiyuki). They’re mundane things that a normal 15-year-old girl may be expected to deal with. But one day, Mohiro is kidnapped by demons and there are none who can help him! Saki is offered a chance: ‘Make a contract with me and become a magical girl!’. What choice did she have? She accepts. With the power of love, Saki swoops in, rescues Mohiro, and saves the day! Mohiro swoons for his saviour. Textbook happy ending. But wait—why is her magical girl form a guy (Ishikawa Kaito)? Well, a rather built and handsome guy—wait, why does he still wear the frilly skirt? What on earth is going on? What happened to Saki’s normal, 15-year-old-girl life?

In anime, girls transform. Boys transform. Sometimes, boys transform into girls. Girls transforming into boys, why not? Well, besides it being stupid, but it’s okay for anime to be stupid. In comedy, it should even be encouraged. You can’t have absurdity without at least partially short-circuiting the frontal cortex, and Mahou Shoujo Ore, based on a digital manga by Moukon Icchokusen, takes that philosophy and runs with it. Why cross-dressing magical girl idols? Because it’s dumb. Why is the mascot character a yakuza gangster? Because it’s dumb. And dumb is funny. And is humour not born of wit, and wit born of insight? Underneath Mahou Shoujo Ore’s giggles about the downstairs plumbing and the confused sexual tension is a cutting commentary about preconceived gender roles imprinted upon us by socio-eco—no, scratch that, it’s stupid. Mahou Shoujo Ore knows it is stupid. It revels in the stupid. Enjoy.

Watching This: No one yet Excitement Level: Average

Preview by Pancakes

From the manga of the same name, Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi tells the story of the university student Tsubaki Aoi (Touyama Nao). Born with the inherited ability to see ayakashi (ghosts), Aoi strives to take care of her supernatural brethren, feeding those in need and ensuring none go without. All of that quickly changes one day, however, when Aoi is snatched away by a demon named Oodana (Konishi Katsuyuki). Claiming Aoi’s deceased grandfather owed him a substantial debt, Oodana states Aoi must pay the collateral, and must do so through marriage—to him. Naturally, Aoi refuses such a vulgar demand, but out of respect for her grandfather she offers to pay Oodana back by working as a cook in his private inn Tenjinya. Now stuck serving up hearty food to all manner of supernatural beings while dealing with the whims of one fierce and cranky demon, Aoi’s simple and pleasant life will never be the same again.

Supernatural and anime, like peanut butter and jam it’s a classic combination, and whether as a serious romp through mature themes or a more gentle meander in slice of life, the shows we get seldom disappoint. Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi won’t be breaking that trend. With a humorous and lighthearted romance plot, this one won’t be lacking in character, and with a noticeable foodie flair spicing things up the show is bound to get more than a few stomachs rumbling. In a way KnY is the supernatural form of Isekai Shokudou, where food becomes the means to explore the various memories and relationships of Tenjinya’s clientele, Aoi and Oodana included. It’s excellent relaxation material, although considering Gonzo misses more than it hits and director Okuda Yoshiko has little experience with such series, it’s a shot in the dark just how good it will be. While it would be a good idea to keep expectations in check, if you have a thing for supernatural romance and food, I’d give KnY a chance. It’s on the right course to be more than a simple tale of wining and dining.

Watching This: No one yet Excitement Level: Average

Preview by Choya

Elementary school student Oozora Tsubasa (Sanpei Yuuko) has a love for soccer that completely encompasses his thoughts and dreams. He started playing at a very young age, and while it was just a fun, recreational sport in his friends’ eyes, it developed into an obsession for Tsubasa. To excel further in his favorite sport, he moves with his mother to Nankatsu City, which is known for its schools with prestigious soccer teams. Although he was the best player in his hometown, Tsubasa has his work cut out for him in Nankatsu, where he will need all of his skills and talents in order to stand out from the tough competition he faces. In Nankatsu, he not only meets new rivals, but also new friends like Nakazawa Sanae (Hara Sayuri) and goalkeeper Wakabayashi Genzo (Suzumura Kenichi), whose shared interest in the same dreams as Tsubasa drives him to help his valuable friend reach his goals. Tsubasa’s ultimate goal is representing Japan at the FIFA World Cup, but it will take more than talent and ambition to live the dream.

To say that Captain Tsubasa is iconic would be an understatement. The manga, which started in 1981, has gone on to inspire professional footballers like Lionel Messi, the film Shaolin Soccer, and was included in the promotional material for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo as a symbol of prosperity in Japanese pop culture and sports. While this reboot is two years shy of the next Olympics, it aligns with the next FIFA World Cup in Russia, and will help to promote Team Japan in their efforts this year. They couldn’t have chosen a better staff to helm such a reboot as David Productions has a track record of doing justice to the source material of older, highly-beloved manga. Director Kato Toshiyuki’s efforts also ensure that the Captain Tsubasa reboot will be in great hands. While many David Productions fans are getting antsy about wanting the Vento Aureo adaptation to just be announced already, there’s no doubt that their take on Captain Tsubasa will create that same spark of magic that readers worldwide have felt when they flipped to the first page of Tsubasa’s story.

Watching This: Choya, Guardian Enzo Excitement Level: Optimistic

Preview by Choya

According to Gundam Build Divers, the Gundam franchise hasn’t even begun to peak! At least, not until the near future, when the popularity of Gundam and Gunpla has skyrocketed to such incredible heights that it inspires a new Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online (VRMMO) Game called “Gunpla Battle Nexus Online”. In GBN Online, players can upload themselves and their Gunpla to the internet and battle with players from across the world. The player assumes the role of a Gunpla Diver, and with their chosen Gunpla model, they can take part in the annual Gunpla Force Battle Tournament to test their strength with other Divers and determine who’s the best. Our main protagonist, Mikami Riku (Kobayashi Yuusuke), is a junior high school student and an admirer of famous Gunpla Diver Kujo Kyoya (Kasama Jun). He and his friends Yukio (Fujiwara Natsuki) and Momoka (Hieda Nene) love Gunpla and play GBN together. However, his life is turned upside down when he meets a mysterious Gunpla Diver named Sara (Terui Haruka). As strange events unfold, Riku is guided by his new allies as he forms his first Gunpla Diver group, embarks on epic adventures with his friends and a ferret, dives further into GBA to face off against other Divers, and seeks to become the very best, like no one ever was.

With the success of the Gundam Build Fighters series, Divers has large shoes to fill, and faces questions such as whether it will be better than recent Gundam shows or whether there will be an attractive mom character. Rather than try to continue where the originals left off, this foray into online gaming is a good way of going about it. It lends itself to the conversation on how digital media has overtaken the old ways as the crafting of Gunpla for combat is overtaken by the talent it takes to handle a controller. It does look like it is shamefully capitalizing on the popularity of virtual game anime that are as plentiful as ever in this day and age, but it also looks like a ton of fun and offers a lot for fans of Gundam and Gunpla fans who want more of their Gundam Build fix. Models from Turn A, ZZ, 00, and Age round out our main cast as they go forth and use their mechs to become number one, and it might just be as much of a fun, exciting breath of fresh air as Gundam Build Fighters was when it came out.

Watching This: Guardian Enzo Excitement Level: Optimistic

Preview by Pancakes

A long time in the future, in a galaxy quite the same, two rival interstellar powers—the absolutist Galactic Empire and democratic Free Planets Alliance—battle over the right to rule all of humanity. Locked in a stalemate for over 150 years, both states continuously seek ways to overcome the other, but it’s only when a new group of leaders emerge that the board is finally wiped clean. While the intensely ambitious Reinhard von Müsel (Miyano Mamoru) ascends through the ranks of the Empire’s decadent Goldenbaum dynasty to rescue his sister-made-concubine, the lazy and reserved historian Yang Wenli (Suzumura Kenichi) finds himself thrust into an Alliance wartime command he very much could do without. Winding up leaders in the only conflict they have ever known, Yang and Reinhard will soon find themselves fighting not only each other, but their own sides as the desires of each man run headfirst into the harsh reality of interstellar politics.

At some point every anime fan will have heard of Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu, i.e. Legend of the Galactic Heroes. This is a series with no equal, adapted from a set of novels by the famed Tanaka Yoshiki into the longest ever OVA series featuring the largest ever assembled voice acting cast. More than Space Battleship Yamato or Gundam, LotGH defined modern Japanese space opera, arguably creating the closest version of Star Wars to date with political and philosophical intrigue that left every competitor in the dust. Any sort of remake was always going to have problems living up to LotGH’s larger than life image, and so far all the signs do little to ease concerns. Besides only one confirmed cour (and three follow-up movies) leaving little chance of getting through all the material, all original character designs have been completely (and controversially) altered, and Kuroko no Basket’s flamboyant Tada Shunsuke has been left in charge of directing. There’s nothing to say the new LotGH cannot live up to the hype, but it’s just as likely to morph into promotional pandering as much as proper (re)adaptation. Much like with Star Wars’ recent return, truly anything is possible here, so until we can see the results in action, keeping those expectations in check is firmly advised.

Watching This: Pancakes, Passerby, Stilts, Takaii, Zaiden, Zephyr Excitement Level: Optimistic

Preview by Zephyr

Hidden in the shadows of Tokyo are man-eating beings known as ghouls. Indistinguishable from humans, they blend in to society, hunting humans for food. In response, the Commission of Counter Ghoul (CCG) is formed to investigate and exterminate ghouls. After being involved in a certain incident, previous protagonist Kaneki Ken finds himself implanted with Ghoul parts, turning him into a half-human, half-ghoul hybrid. As he struggles to maintain his psychological balance and to find a place for himself, CCG launches a raid on Anteiku, Kaneki’s former workplace and a cafe rumored to be the hiding place of a legendary ghoul called the “One Eyed Owl”. Taking place two years after the Anteiku raid, Tokyo Ghoul:re is a sequel to the original series. The fight between CCG and a group of ghouls calling themselves Aogiri Tree continues, with many of the raid’s participants now missing or confirmed dead. To turn the tide, a special Quinx Squad is created composed of members capable of using ghoul abilities. They are led by a half-human, half-ghoul named Sasaki Haise (Hanae Natsuki), who is tasked with managing a squad filled with difficult personalities while grappling with his own powers and lost memories. Pierrot will reprise its role, with Mikasano Chuuji returning for series composition, and Watanabe Odahiro in his second directorial role.

Following the reference to :re at the end of Tokyo Ghoul √A, many of us expected a sequel to arrive eventually. What we didn’t expect was that it’d take three years. Since then, we’ve gotten an English dub of the anime, a live-action adaptation, and even an official English release of the manga! Thankfully the wait is over, and given how well :re answers the original series’ questions while building on its foundations with new characters, the expectations are high. The problem is that Watanabe Odahiro doesn’t have significant experience as a director, and his resume—while lengthy—is filled with key animator or episode director roles that rarely go past a few episodes. We also don’t know if they’ll just adapt :re as is, or alter it based on what happened in the adaptation’s second season, which shuffled and omitted events in an attempt to reach the original series’ ending in a single cour. The expectations based on the source material are there, but I’m hesitant to say that they’ll give the series the adaptation it deserves, especially if (given the ending of √A) they extend this to multiple cours in future seasons.

Watching This: Pancakes, Zaiden, Zephyr Excitement Level: Optimistic

Preview by Choya

Natsuno Hanabi (Tsuda Minami) is moving back to her hometown for high school, assuming that she would return to a wonderful life back where she came from. However, she didn’t know what she signed up for when she chose to live in Tachibana-kan, a dormitory close by. What she thought would be an easy dorm for her to settle into and make her commute much simpler turned out to be much more chaotic than she expected. With a crew of unruly roommates, each with their own personality and quirks, Natsuno’s dorm life is about to be crazy, adventurous, and perhaps a little spicy.

The story that Tachibana-kan to Lie Angle is looking to tell is in the tradition of a multitude of fun dorm-ready anime. Which is a good reason to look forward to it, as it centers on life among a cast of hilarious characters who all have to find a way to cope with living with each other, differences and all. One fascinating thing to note about this anime are the list of genres that it falls under. It’s a shoujo-ai comedy, but also associates itself with ecchi and harem as well. It will be nice to see some comedy from the yuri genre given that the recent surge of yuri shows have been all about the spectacle of relationship drama. It has potential to fall into that dramatic territory with director Hirasawa Hisayoshi, but hopefully it’ll steer more toward a fun route by emphasizing the eccentricities of Natsuno’s roommates. With all the toxic relationships that have stemmed from recent netorare-inspired yuri stories, Tachibana-kan to Lie Angle has the opportunity to brighten up the genre with some humor, quirkiness, and even a little fanservice along the way.

Watching This: Stilts, Takaii, Zephyr Excitement Level: Average

Preview by Passerby

Back in 2015, the venerable swashbuckling adventure Lupin III finally got a new anime series. Now, after a much shorter two-year-and-change wait, here’s more! After a stint capering around Italy, the titular thief Lupin (Kurita Kanichi) and his trusty partners, the crack shot Jigen Daisuke (Kobayashi Kiyoshi) and stoic swordsman Ishikawa Goemon XIII (Namikawa Daisuke), are now going to be traipsing around France. That’s exciting, since the original Lupin III manga by Monkey Punch is loosely based on Maurice Leblanc’s French novels about the gentleman-thief, Arsène Lupin, with Lupin III being, as one may guess by the numbering, the legendary heister’s grandson. So what to make of the new rival, Alber d’Andrezy (Tsuda Kenjiro), who shares the family name of the mother of Arsène Lupin I? In France there will be both history and homeland, and a past that Lupin may not care to face.

While the Lupin III franchise has had a long run, with the manga debuting all the way back in 1967, it was usually fine to jump into the anime whenever one wanted. It was mostly a series of episodic escapades and self-contained stories, with Lupin himself being a something of a timeless creature, a free spirit who always lived in the present and stayed true to his adventurous whims. Lupin III is a constant that has stood the test of time, so why change it? For this 2018 edition, though, I hesitate to offer that same advice. Lupin III (2015) actually had a semblance of continuity, and this new season may be building on that. Lupin is still wearing his blue coat, and the entire anime staff more or less returns in full for production. This includes the voice cast, who are all reprising their roles. So if you’re new to Lupin III I would suggest you at least watch the 2015 series first to get yourself up to speed. If you’re a returning fan, you already know what’s up. It’s Lupin. Even if there may be a bit more narrative this season, it’s still going to be everything we know and love about anime’s most famous thief.

Watching This: Passerby Excitement Level: Established

Preview by Zaiden

The subject specimen, Tsuitsui Hikari (Uenishi Teppei), is a reclusive otaku. Itou Yuuto (Aoi Shouta) is his sole companion, a fellow otaku cast from a similar mould. Both are social outcasts due to their nerdy interests, laughed at by popular girls who dismiss their otaku hobbies as being ‘uncool’, which causes them to develop an aversion towards womenkind. But fortunately, things don’t stay this way in a romance series. One day, Tsuitsui is made to clean up a dirty swimming pool with Igarashi Iroha (Serizawa Yuu), a girl who seems to epitomise all the things he hates in the opposite gender. She skips school, comes across as bitchy, and is rumoured to constantly hang out with guys in a promiscuous fashion. However, after spending some time with her, he comes to realise that not all the things said about her were true. Behind her blunt and beautiful exterior, she’s a person who has complex reasons for her behaviour. Above all, she chooses not to judge Tsuitsui for his hobbies, and even defends him from his tormentors. Can a social misfit like Tsuitsui, who has a deep distrust of women, fall in love? Or is he going to become a mere plaything to satisfy someone’s momentary whim?

Having read the manga, I can tell you that 3D Kanojo has a character-driven story that distinguishes itself from your run of the mill shoujo series. Common archetypes are generally avoided, and each character is substantially fleshed out through the chapters. You may also find it easy to relate to Tsuitsui’s struggles, since he is bullied for having a keen interest in anime. I suspect some of us can relate. Feelings are also dealt with in a mature way and come across as quite realistic, which is successfully maintained even through periods of melodrama. I can’t guarantee an exceptional adaptation though, because with only twelve episodes to work with, either the anime will be incomplete or cuts will be made across the board. I’d prefer the former, because I hope a studio wouldn’t attempt to adapt a single volume per episode. What I can guarantee is that 3D Kanojo is a unique and refreshing story about friendship and love, that also tackles the topics of prejudice and acceptance within a high school setting.

Watching This: Choya, Stilts, Zaiden, Zephyr Excitement Level: Average

Preview by Zaiden

Not to be outdone by last year’s imouto-based rabble, the spring season graces us with Alice or Alice. So how does one do the unthinkable? Quick math tells me that 1 + 1 = 2, so logic dictates that we must have two sisters instead of one. Older Brother (Matsuoka Yoshitsugu), an aptly named protagonist, leads a truly blessed life. Everyday, he looks after his beloved twin sisters, Airi (Hidaka Rina) and Rise (Sakura Ayane). It certainly helps that he harbours a huge sister complex. What’s more, his sisters certainly love him back in their own way. Prepare for trouble, and make it double, as our eccentric family and friends entertain us with their daily antics!

A year on from Eromanga-sensei, an unassuming newcomer is determined to take the spring by storm through the power of incest! Making the step up to a full directorial role, Kobayashi Kousuke seems intent on tackling the taboo from the offset. Fortunately he has capable seiyuu in the main three roles, including the voice of Masamune Izumi from Eromanga-sensei and the Hidaka Rina/Sakura Ayane pair, both of whom have played the little sister role many times. Reading the source material, it would seem that the degeneracy runs particularly deep this time around. While this older brother does the household chores, and smiles all the time, don’t be fooled! He actually dotes a little too much on his younger sisters, to the point where you would consider him to be a creepy pervert. This is mostly played for laughs, so take it as you will, but I understand it can be off-putting for many. However, for those who enjoy a nice bit of incest or moe, this will probably become your weekly source of guilty pleasures.

Watching This: Choya, Stilts, Zephyr Excitement Level: Limited

Preview by Passerby

The Singularity is here. Biological humans have been made obsolete. This happened by neither design nor serendipity, but disaster. In the year 2031, the Quantum Reactor, a revolutionary new power source meant to solve the world’s energy problems, suddenly explodes. The fallout reaches across the world with bizarre side effects. Animals start mutating spontaneously and rapidly. Machines merge with the wildlife. New hybrid lifeforms rise in dominance and wage a war on humanity that drives them almost to the brink of extinction. But when faced with monster threats mankind always has one fall-back: giant mecha. In the city of Neo Xianlong, one of the last bastions of humanity, maverick scientist Leon Lau (Maeno Tomoaki) and his sister Chloe (Touyama Nao) continue to devise new weaponry and countermeasures, but their efforts may be for naught. How can technology that requires human progress compete with technology that can progress itself?

Every once in a while, Kawamori Shoji decides to make a mecha anime. And out pops something Macross or Aquarion or … Basquash. That’s the great thing about being the executive director of an anime studio, you can make what you want. It’s not like Satelight has done poorly out of that though; no matter one’s opinion on the latest iterations of Macross and Aquarion, it’s undeniable that Satelight has built its mecha-anime bona fides by the hand of Kawamori. That said, Kawamori is not going to be in the director’s role for Juushinki Pandora, instead bringing in Sato Hidekazu from Aquarion Evol with Nemoto Toshizo from Macross Δ on series composition. Unfortunately Sato has a weak record and Nemoto is somewhat inconsistent, so there’s some cause for pessimism, but at least we still have Kawamori doing the mecha designs. Yeah, the mecha are CGI again, but they’re interesting nonetheless, and they also reflect the setting, which is definitely the main draw. We can never get enough apocalyptic science fiction in anime, and Juushinki Pandora looks like it might explore some interesting areas about the relationship between nature and technology and the obsolescence of homo sapien biology. It’s certainly a more interesting human extinction event than the usual great floods and zombie hordes, and if that’s the kind of cheer you enjoy in your anime, give Juushinki Pandora a try.

Watching This: Pancakes, Passerby Excitement Level: Average

Preview by Stilts

Tada-kun Does Not Fall in Love is an original romantic comedy from the folks at Doga Kobo. The story starts when Tada Mitsuyoshi (Nakamura Yuuichi), who is taking pictures of blooming cherry blossoms, meets Teresa Wagner (Iwami Manaka), an exchange student from Luxembourg. Upon arriving in Japan, Teresa got separated from her travel companion. Mitsuyoshi helps her and brings her to his grandfather’s coffee shop. Other characters include Tada’s best friend Ijuuin Kaoru (Miyano Mamoru), little sister Tada Yui (Minase Inori), sempais Sugimoto Hajime (Umehara Yuuichirou) and Hasegawa Hinako (Ishigami Shizuka), kouhai Yamashita Kentarou (Shimono Hiro), and Teresa’s fellow transfer student Alexandra Magritte (Shimoji Shino).

Did you enjoy Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun? Because this original is from the studio (Doga Kobo), director (Yamazaki Mitsue), and script writer (Nakamura Yoshiko) of that series. Heck, Nozaki’s seiyuu is even in the lead role again! I would counsel caution though, because there was more that went into Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun’s success besides studio and staff, including more seiyuu with killer comedic timing and the original mangaka Tsubaki Izumi. This time Nakamura-sensei has to write with no source material, so will it turn out as well? At least the seiyuu crew seems solid, with co-lead Iwami Manaka having proven her cute-and-comedic chops after her performance in Gamers! The vibe here seems to be going more toward romance and less hijinks (there are four girls and four boys—convenient!), which is totally fine in my book, but it is different. I do have a good amount of faith in this staff, the premise looks fun, and the promos so far look really pleasant. If you go into this wanting more Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, you may end up disappointed, but if you’d like something slightly different but hopefully with that same level of quality and execution, Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai might be for you. I know I’ll be watching, and hoping for another dark horse win from a series that has all the markers of a great time.

Watching This: Choya, Passerby, Stilts, Takaii, Zephyr Excitement Level: High

Preview by Choya

This adaptation of a 4-koma comedy manga tells the story of the daily lives of up-and-coming female mangaka who must face the trials and tribulations of living together in a dormitory. One of the new girls, Moeta Kaoruko (Akao Hikaru) hits close to home as she is a 4-koma manga artist who writes under the pen name Kaosu. Many of Kaosu’s roommates, however, vary in genre and expertise, such as Koizuka Koyume (Hondo Kaede), who works as a shoujo manga artist under the pen name Koisuru Koyume. Meanwhile, they share their living space with shounen manga artist Katsuki Tsubasa (Takahashi Rie), who’s pen name is Wing V. Finally, they meet one of the more peculiar roommates in Irokawa Ruki (Oonishi Saori), who is the artist behind ecchi manga under her pen name Bakunyuu♥Himeko. Differences in work ethic, stylistic preferences, and personality cause our leading ladies to butt heads as much as they find common ground.

This sounds like quite the fun series, given how it takes subsections of artists behind different genres of manga, and gives them a living space to bounce off of each other, whether its in agreement or adversity. Comic Girls has the potential to explore different facets of manga fandom with how broad they’re able to work with 4-koma, ecchi, shoujo, and shounen genres all at once. Additionally, it is always fascinating to see how anime adaptations of 4-koma manga fare, as each one takes an entirely different approach to how they adapt the material. Some are straightforward in retaining their format as individual segments with little variation to the material, while others adapt the four panel comics into 24-minute episodes that are fluid and integrated naturally enough that you could barely tell they were adapting several strips. Where Comic Girls will lean toward is anyone’s guess, but the finished product looks like it will be as fun and zany as it sounds.

Watching This: Choya, Stilts, Zephyr Excitement Level: Average

Preview by Stilts

Megalo Box is a spin-off, tribute, and celebration of the 50th anniversary of the classic boxing manga and anime Ashita no Joe. This sci-fi boxing series stars JD (Junk Dog) (Hosoya Yoshimasa), who participates in fixed underground boxing matches in order to make a living. At the beginning of the story he enters the ring once again, but he encounters a certain person. JD decides he wants to take on a challenge that risks everything.

“Sci-fi boxing anime” is a pretty cool idea, though there are a lot of details you’ll need to know before committing to this series. First of all, while I haven’t read or watched Ashita no Joe myself, it appears to be a classic sports story, complete with a sports anime-style protagonist who trains hard, confronts all sorts of difficulties, and wins through grit, spirit, and wanting it more than the other guy. Now take that idea, and move it to a dystopian cyberpunk future where boxers utilize metal prosthetics in the ring, because what boxing clearly needs is more brain damage. The art style is pointedly retro, so viewers who can’t abide by the old school Lupin III-type animation should steer clear. Nostalgia is a helluva drug, though, so I suspect old Joe fans are already tuning in, and sports anime aficionados could be well served by giving this a try. For everyone else, I can only say that I don’t typically go in for retro series, but the dystopian cyberpunk sci-fi boxing got my attention. I may give this a shot after all.

Watching This: Passerby, Zephyr Excitement Level: Optimistic

Preview by Choya

The story focuses on the two main characters, Gaius Sorel (Shimazaki Nobunaga) and Gigina Ashley-Bufh (Hosoya Yoshimasa), the only two employees of spell formulist dispatch office Ashley-Bufh & Sorel Co. They are met with a variety of requests from a variety of clients, all requiring the adept use of spell formulae, which are essentially chemical reactions augmented through Magic Staff weapons that cause a magic spell-like effect. The two leading men use spell formulae to fight against Beasts of Abhorrent Form, natural creatures that use spell formulae and pose a threat to humans.

Don’t be too intimidated by how much detail and description pops up when you look this one up, it should be an easy series to get invested in. The show appears to be a compelling dark fantasy anime that builds off the deep lore of the universe as well as the friendly rivalry between Gaius and Gigina while they work together to survive in this harsh universe. With highly polished visuals and the promise of magic sword fights, it’s bound to be a neat anime to watch if you’re looking to scratch that itch. It looks like enough fun, drama, and action to keep anyone engaged in the jobs and assignments of the Ashley-Bufh & Sorel Co.

Watching This: No one yet Excitement Level: Average

Preview by Zaiden

Sticking to the old formula, Inazuma Eleven: Ares no Tenbin focuses on a group of boys who love to play football. Or as Americans might call it, ‘soccer’. However, their club is suddenly disbanded, and they are given a single condition for its reinstatement: winning the prestigious Football Frontier. To compete in the tournament, Inamori Asuto (Murase Ayumu) and his friends leave the island they had lived on for their entire lives, enrolling at a high school in Tokyo. However, their first match is against the number one team, Seishou Gakuen. Will Asuto and his friends have their dream come to an end, or is this where it all begins?

Inazuma Eleven is adapted from a series of games made by Level-5. As someone who is not acquainted with the franchise, my general impression is that it looks like an animated version of Shaolin Soccer, dialed up to eleven. The director Hino Akihiro deviates from his norm of being an original concept creator for Level-5, being the brains behind other games like Danball Senki and Youkai Watch. Ares no Tenbin is in fact his first foray into directing anime, but if I had to guess, he’s probably good at catering toward the demographic targeted by his games. Longtime fans of the Inazuma Eleven franchise might get a kick out of this new series, but I wouldn’t expect newcomers to have an easy time finding a comfortable foothold.

Watching This: No one yet Excitement Level: Average

Preview by Pancakes

As head of the yakuza Ashigawa Group, the young and intelligent bachelor Nitta Yoshifumi (Nakajima Yoshiki) has it made. The jobs are simple, the payout is good, and by god does no one ever come to him with any annoying problems to solve. All of that changes one day when Yoshifumi is literally hit over the head by a mysterious object containing a girl called Nina (Tanaka Takako). Normally Yoshifumi would quickly rid himself of such unwanted surprises, but when Nina displays awesome psychic powers that could come in handy for business—not to mention kill him in the blink of an eye—Yoshifumi is left with little choice but to take the impulsive and lazy girl in. Now stuck playing father to a nuclear bomb of a daughter in the midst of Japan’s chaotic underworld, Yoshifumi’s easygoing yakuza life will never be the same again.

Gentlemen, say hello to the new Mob Psycho 100. Much like that romp through hilarious psychic shenangians, Hinamatsuri is a tale of crazy mental powers combined with an even more outrageous cast of characters. Any “serious” plot here is firmly sidelined in favour of comedy and slice of life as Hinamasturi’s story revolves around bite-sized story arcs focusing on the ridiculous (yet endearing) relationship between Yoshifumi and the hikkikomori-esque Nina. It’s a perfect kick back and laugh story, and with over 13 published manga volumes so far, there’s plenty of it to go around. While adaptations of ongoing manga can have their issues, considering studio feel. has plenty of experience with similar series and director Oikawa Kei is well-versed in the art of easygoing anime, it’s not that unreasonable to expect something amazing here. We won’t know how well it works until the first episode drops of course, but given the story and crew at work, I would expect Hinamatsuri to be one of this season’s top comedy contenders.

Watching This: Choya, Pancakes, Passerby, Stilts, Zaiden, Zephyr Excitement Level: Optimistic

Preview by Takaii

Akkun to Kanojo revolves around the quirky relationship between male lead Kagari “Akkun” Atsuhiro (Suzuki Tatsuhisa) and female lead Katagiri “Nontan” Non (Suwa Ayaka). On the outside the two look like a normal couple, but their everyday lives couldn’t be anything further. On the one hand you have the extremely tsundere Akkun, who is awfully cold toward his girlfriend but in reality is so madly in love with her that he’ll engage in activities that most people would consider borderline stalking. On the other you have Nontan, a levelheaded, down-to-earth individual who gracefully ignores Akkun’s terrible outward personality and loves him with every fiber in her body. Together, the two form an awkwardly lovable duo. To help round out the cast are Masago Matsuo (Ueda Keisuke), Akkun’s partner-in-crime, and Kagari Chigo (Kouri Arisa), Akkun’s younger sister. Two side characters who are anything but, as they try and work out just how in the world people like Akkun and Nontan could exist.

If you’ve been looking for a romantic comedy with a twist, Akkun to Kanojo could be the one. It’s almost eerie how different it feels when you flip the genders of character types you’ve seen countless times before. Besides the slight paradigm shift, there’s definitely some charm in watching Akkun do his thing. As the main tsundere of the show, it’s really funny to see him have such a cold exterior toward his girlfriend. Especially when you realize just how much he’s into her! Paired with Nontan’s ability to look completely past all of Akkun’s awkward behavior, you end up with this interesting pattern of expecting one thing only to be pleasantly surprised with what actually happens. Toss in two strong secondary characters who help balance things out and you have a story that’ll keep your attention without wearing you out. When it comes to its adaptation, Akkun to Kanojo has some strong people working on it. With Katagai Shin (Eyeshield 21) leading the charge at Yumeta Company works (Tamayura, Yuruyuri) and Yamada Yuka (Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon) handling the writing, it’s tough not to get excited thinking about what a team like this could do. It may be a bit early to call anything, but you can bet I’m excited for this one.

Watching This: Choya, Guardian Enzo, Stilts, Takaii, Zephyr Excitement Level: Optimistic

Preview by Pancakes

After a two year break, the WIXOSS franchise returns to anime with a brand new sequel in Lostorage conflated WIXOSS. Centered on the wildly popular in-universe trading card game of the same name, WIXOSS involves a group of girls called Selectors who battle one another with LRIGs, living cards serving as in-game avatars. While victory in WIXOSS can see Selectors obtain their most cherished wishes, experiencing three defeats inflicts a curse on the loser designed to ruin any chance at happiness. With last season’s heroine Suzuko (Hashimoto Chinami) proving victorious by saving her childhood friend Chinatsu (Iguchi Yuka), attention now turns to tracking down the new mastermind of the games while some familiar faces from Selector Infected WIXOSS wind up caught in the chaos. As two generations of Selectors and LRIGs find themselves back on familiar [battle]ground, the only goal now on everyone’s mind is putting a stop to the madness once and for all.

Ahh WIXOSS, it’s certainly hard finding a more imaginative anime advertisement. When it first premiered in 2014, WIXOSS quickly became known as the Madoka of TCG, utilizing Okada Mari to forge a psychologically grimdark story of suffering that took conventional card game tropes and thoroughly upended them. It wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but those who stuck around got treated to a wild ride of plot twists and even crazier climaxes. While the follow-up Lostorage Incited WIXOSS unfortunately lost some of the magic—in part from staff changes—it left plenty of openings for a new season to take advantage of, and that indeed is what looks to be happening. With both Selector/LRIG casts featured, it’s very likely this season will answer many outstanding mythos-based questions, and with the franchise focus on psychological suffering remaining you can bet even more outrageous twists await us in the future. While most viewers probably already know where they stand regarding WIXOSS, if you have the curiosity I’d give this one a shot. For all we know this season could end up being the best WIXOSS iteration yet.

Watching This: Pancakes, Zephyr Excitement Level: Established

Preview by Pancakes

For Asagiri Aya (Oono Yuuko), life truly sucks. She’s viciously bullied at school, beaten and tormented by her devil of a brother Kaname (Okamoto Nobuhiko), and ignored by anyone afraid of her pariah status wearing off on them. More often than not suicide seems to be Aya’s only solution, but all that changes one day when she stumbles across the mysterious website Mahou Shoujo Girl. Granting her a magical device capable of making anyone disappear permanently, Aya thinks the website has given her the solution to her misery, but it’s just the harbinger of a more radical transformation. After fellow classmate Yatsumura Tsuruno (Akaneya Himika) catches Aya using her power, Aya rapidly discovers she’s not the only girl with a magical device, and that many are willing to kill over their powers. Now caught up in a world far more insidious than her old tumultuous life, Aya is about to learn what it really means to be a magical girl.

Magical girls and suffering is a well-trodden theme these days; thanks to Madoka’s overwhelming success we receive a variation or two every other season, with only a few ever truly standing out. In this regard MSS is nothing special, but it does have one thing going for it: this one gets violent. Really violent. Compared to Madoka or even Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku, MSS goes all in on the suffering and agony as every character takes twisted and disgusting to the absolute limit, with some like Kaname providing a showcase in reprehensible immorality. It’s textbook torture porn, which means MSS’s success is going to be heavily determined by its handling; if it skips on the violence or overdoes the censoring it could easily become the cutie breaking version of Terra Formars. Thankfully, however, with Tokyo Ghoul’s Matsubayashi Tadahito sitting in the director’s chair and confirmed Amazon simulcasting (i.e. likely no censorship), all signs point toward a fun bit of bloody, suffering-injected entertainment. As long as MSS doesn’t stray far from its pulpy, violence-driven source material, there’s no reason to doubt it being anything but a wicked ride.

Watching This: Choya, Pancakes Excitement Level: Optimistic

Preview by Zaiden

As a time traveler from the future, I’m here to tell you that studio Bones is producing the one and only show that’s set to sweep the Crunchyroll Anime Awards for 2018. You guessed it right, the greatly beloved My Hero Academia is about to receive a highly anticipated third season! In a world where 80% of the population possess Quirks, a genetic mutation bestowing superpowers to next generation humans, it just so happens that Midoriya “Deku” Izuku (Yamashita Daiki) is among the 20% born without one. But that doesn’t stop our young boy from striving toward his dreams of becoming a superhero, even if he’s met with crushing difficulties that would make anyone else give up. As fate would have it, Deku ended up having a chance encounter with All Might (Miyake Kenta ), the No.1 hero, with a secret behind his superpower that Deku becomes privy to. Seeing something in the boy, All-Might chooses Deku as his successor and takes him on as his personal disciple. And so Deku’s journey begins with the passing of a torch, and the inheritance of an all-mighty legacy. Plus Ultra!

Given their recent struggles, it’s no secret that Weekly Shounen Jump is fully invested in sorting out their flagships for the next generation. At this point, it’s become pretty obvious that Boku no Hero Academia is the chosen one, destined to save the shounen genre from utter destruction. Through combining a dynamic mix of western comic norms and the conventions typical to the shounen tag, Boku no Hero Academia succeeds in capturing the hearts of many by turning in a refreshing take on Japanese-inspired superheroes. The quality and execution of the story is consistent across the board, and is in fact some of the best in recent years. As outlined by Stilts last year, the series proves to be ‘a masterclass in tension, reversals, justified twists, and well-earned victories’. Since Nagasaki Kenji returns as director, alongside most of his fellow production staff, you can be certain that this will continue to be the case, with much more to follow. With season 3 starting so soon, my excitement cannot be understated for the triumphant return of Boku no Hero Academia. YOU’RE NEXT!

Watching This: Choya, Guardian Enzo, Pancakes, Passerby, Stilts, Takaii, Zaiden, Zephyr Excitement Level: High

Preview by Takaii

For those of you out of the loop (like I was), this show is actually a spin-off of another baseball show called Major where the story followed Honda Gorou throughout his life as he became a professional baseball player. Fast forward a couple decades and now the story has transitioned from Gorou to his son Shigeno Daigo (Fujiwara Natsumi). That said, if you were expecting a fairy tale story of a professional’s son rising throughout the ranks, you’d be wrong. Unlike the monster of a player that his father was, Daigo didn’t inherit any of his father (or older sister’s) athleticism. Through a lot of hard work and love for the sport, he was able to be just about as good as your typical player except with one fatal flaw: a terrible throwing arm that could probably be out thrown by a three-year-old. Which in turn caused him to be the butt of every comparison the public could think of, leading to Daigo giving it all up and abandoning the sport that he cared about so much. That is, until one day when a transfer student by the name of Satou Hikaru (Nishiyama Koutarou) shows up and manages to flip Daigo’s view of himself upside down.

After ripping myself away from the source material because I was spending way too much time reading it, I have to say that Major 2nd checks all the right boxes when it comes to a sports anime. With the focus equally revolving around the characters and the sport, you avoid the fatal flaw of not caring about the characters who are actually doing the playing. For Major 2nd though, I think it’s greatest strength will come from the rivalry between Daigo and Hikaru. With the former troubled by his status as the son of a professional player (and also putting way too much weight on that notion), and the latter also the son of a professional player who could care less about the implications that the title carries, I can’t wait to see just how exciting things get as Daigo lets go of his inhibitions and becomes a force to be reckoned with.

Watching This: Guardian Enzo, Takaii Excitement Level: High

Preview by Zephyr

Following a nearly two year wait, Amanchu! returns with its second season in Advance. Based off of Amano Kozue’s (the creator of ARIA) scuba diving manga, the series follows Ooki Futaba (Kayano Ai), a young girl who has recently moved to Ito, a rural town by the sea. Having come from Tokyo, Futaba finds herself in an unfamiliar place filled with few of the conveniences she had in the big city. Combined with her shy nature, she finds herself not looking forward to her first year of high school until she meets fellow first-year Kohinata Hikari (Suzuki Eri). A veritable ball of enthusiastic energy, Hikari drags Futaba out of her shell, introducing her to underwater diving and a group of divers that would become close friends. Through her participation, Futaba finds herself falling in love with a world she never knew existed, all while coming to love the town and life in general. J.C. Staff will return to produce Amanchu! Advance, with Satou Junichi (also of the ARIA series), Mieno Hitomi (Arakawa Under the Bridge, Flying Witch), and Gontiti returning to take roles as director, script writer, and music composer.

As my personal choice for 2016′s best slice of life series, Amanchu! Advance comes in with high expectations. Its first season was every bit the “healing” anime we expected it to be, and given the pedigree of the staff behind it, that says a lot. The magical combination of Satou Junichi, Mieno Hitomi, and Gontiti yielded a feel good story that had virtually everything. Great character interactions, mouth-watering visuals, memorable compositions for its soundtrack and OP/ED, and unique perspectives on life and the sea were all part of Amanchu!’s package, and despite the fact that we seem to get multiple great slice of life series every year now, Amanchu! still sticks out as one of the best in recent history. To say this is a must-watch for fans of the genre is an understatement, and here’s to looking forward to a series that should continue the greatness of its much lauded predecessor.

Watching This: Passerby, Zaiden, Zephyr Excitement Level: High

Preview by Takaii

Devil’s Line could be one of the best stories I’ve ever read when it comes to vampires and the difficulties they face when you integrate them into the real world. The story revolves around human Taira Tsukasa (Ishikawa Yui) and half-vampire Anzai Yuuki (Matsuoka Yoshitsugu), and it dives into a scenario that resembles something of a modern day Romeo and Juliet. Backtracking a bit, in Devil’s Line’s world vampires are nearly indistinguishable from humans and they don’t need to consume blood to survive. However, there is one distinct difference: their bloodlust, which comes out whenever they sense blood. Be it from a tiny paper cut or a gash on someone’s arm, once a vampire’s bloodlust has been triggered they turn into less of a human and more of a demon. Their eyes change shape and color, their nails grow into claws, and their mind focuses on one thing: how to suck the most blood possible from wherever it’s coming from. In order to protect the public, society has created a secret task force composed of humans and vampires to keep everyone safe. With a vast set of rules and regulations, Devil’s Line dives into what happens when you picture a perfect world but have to deal with the problems that arise when that vision collides with reality.

I’m really excited for this show. It’s tough to pinpoint exactly what it was that caught my interest, but everything from Devil’s Line’s source material was just so damn fun. Maybe it’s how the story manages to juggle three vastly different ideas as it tries to tell a coherent story. If you peek at the genres for this show, you’ll notice that it has Action, Drama, and Romance listed—which is exactly what you get from Devil’s Line. At any point in time you could be experiencing a tragic love story between a human and half-vampire that’s frowned upon, a thrilling police story that tries to fairly police vampires who may or may not be falling victim to their own genetics, or a societal analysis on just how shaky the whole idea of persecuting vampires is and the idea of whether or not it’s fair to persecute some to save the “whole”. In fact, the only uncertainty about this one might be the studio that’s producing it, but a new studio doesn’t mean they can’t do things right! Anyway, don’t let me spoil any more of this one for you—be sure to check it out if anything above managed to grab your attention!

Watching This: Pancakes, Takaii Excitement Level: Optimistic

Preview by Takaii

For those of you who haven’t heard of this little series called Sword Art Online, boy do you have a bunch of stuff to catch up on. Revolving around a certain person who goes by the handle Kirito, the show follows a group of characters as they spend their time in various online virtual worlds tackling problems that tend to have real world implications. HOWEVER, Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online has very little to do with the main story of SAO, due to this being a side story that takes place in Gun Gale Online, a virtual online shooter that played an important part in the main series. This story instead follows 183 centimeter tall Kohiruimaki Karen (Kusunoki Tomori), a college student who has a height complex due to all the bullying she dealt with growing up. That made it difficult for her to interact with people face-to-face. In order to escape from the real world, she enters the world of Gun Gale Online where she ends up making a character named Lleen who’s 150 centimeters tall, likes to wear pink-colored gear, and is a beast at lighting up other players.

With the popularity of SAO, it’s no surprise that the audience for a show like this would be polarized. Based off what we’ve seen thus far, it’s safe to assume that many would blow this off as another spin-off that’s trying to capitalize on the original’s success. However, those people couldn’t be more wrong. Unlike the original show, Alternative Gun Gale Online feels more like a show made for gamers who dream about experiencing the virtual world we all hope will become a reality in the future. Toss in a main character who has to deal with their own problems and finds a way to break free from some of her stress through playing GGO and you have an experience that I think will appeal to just about anyone who’s ever played a video game. If I were to throw out a word of caution, I would say it’s best to set aside your SAO and approach this as its own thing. With new characters who aren’t bound by the already established story, I think there’s a high chance this could become another fan favorite for all of us who really enjoy gamer anime.

Watching This: Pancakes, Stilts, Takaii, Zaiden Excitement Level: Optimistic

Preview by Passerby

Shujin Academy appears to be a normal high school in modern Tokyo, and Amamiya Ren (Fukuyama Jun) appears to be a normal transfer student. But he’s actually a criminal. Made to unjustly take the fall for an influential socialite, Ren is assigned to study at Shujin as part of his probation. There he finds himself ostracised, his criminal record leaked to gossiping students by abusive teachers. But Ren finds a chance to strike back at the powerful and unaccountable. He stumbles upon the ability to enter the mental landscapes of these twisted individuals and summon forth a Persona, a spiritual manifestation of his psyche, with which he can ‘steal hearts’ and force his target to have a change of conscience. He and a group of like-minded youths decide to form a team to take down the wicked who are otherwise untouchable by conventional means, and the Phantom Thieves are born.

The Persona franchise by ATLUS is one of the most popular series of Japanese role-playing games, especially with the release of Persona 5 in 2016. It took the industry by storm and still stands as one of the most critically acclaimed titles of recent history. It seemingly had it all: some picaresque here and some dating sim there, deep mythology with an approachable narrative, a power fantasy and a stealth fantasy. How does it translate to an anime, though? Video game adaptations are notoriously inconsistent due to the difficulty of translating game mechanics into a non-interactive medium, and the previous Persona anime have ranged from decent to mediocre. Again, the Persona games are very busy and hard to fit into limited episode time, and the mechanics are often abstract and hard to capture visually. Good news though: Persona 5 the Animation comes with new staff. Shin Sekai Yori’s Ishihama Masashi will be directing, joined by Akatsuki no Yona’s Inotsume Shinichi on series composition. That’s cause for optimism, and as long as Persona 5 the Animation is not treated as just another tug on the cash cow and actually as a valuable investment in the value of the franchise, we may have a good video game adaptation on our hands.

Watching This: Choya, Passerby, Takaii, Zaiden, Zephyr Excitement Level: High

Preview by Zaiden

Hell is overflowing with dead souls, who cannot find rest. But in the depths of Japanese Hell, there lurks an effective administrator at the heart of a bureaucratic system, infamous for his demonic efficiency. Feared by his subordinates and superiors alike, our cool-headed Hoozuki (Yasumoto Hiroki) pulls the strings from the background, as he spends every waking moment trying to resolve Hell’s numerous problems.

In the current industry, it seems that splitting a second season into two separate cours has become all the rage. It’s understandable that production teams sometimes require a break in the middle of their projects, and as such, Deen is returning to complete this particular venture. You can be rest assured that the overall quality should be maintained over this break. For the uninitiated, Hoozuki no Reitetsu relies on dark and dry humour to sustain itself, which can be pretty hit or miss. Old fans of the series will know what they’re getting, but if you’re interested in stuff relating to afterlife, you might find this conception of Shinto hell to be worth your while.

Watching This: Guardian Enzo, Zephyr Excitement Level: High

Preview by Stilts

Lost Song is an original anime from LIDENFILMS and Netflix. It tells the story of two young women in a fantasy world of music and war. One is Rin (Suzuki Konomi), an energetic girl who loves to eat and who lives in a verdant frontier village. The other is Finis (Tamura Yukari), a songstress who spends her lonely days deep within the royal palace. Both share a special power no one else has, a miraculous power that can heal wounds, create water, and stir the wind—the power of song. Guided by destiny, the two young women each face an arduous journey. The shadow of war looms over the kingdom, and loved ones will meet their deaths as silent screams echo through a stone prison. As their destinies intersect, will the final song be one of despair or hope?

This series instantly calls to mind Symphogear or Macross, where the very premise seems designed to put two or more female seiyuu in a position to belt out songs (and sell CDs) in a world that was fashioned so that this would make sense. In this case it’s because songs are the pathway to incredible magic, at least for the two main characters. That first sentence sounded pretty cynical, but there’s a long history of music intertwining with magic, so I’m cool with that. Where it doesn’t work so well is with the glaring CGI the series segues into once the song and dance numbers begin, which reminds me of watching the first episode of Love Live! (“Whoa, sudden CGI!”), without the silly self-awareness to make it work. This is a more serious fantasy tale, with swords dripping blood and the fate of kingdoms hanging in the balance. I do appreciate that one of my favorite anime OP/ED singers (Suzuki Konomi) is going to be in a lead role, and a Yukarin is always appreciated. Lost Song will begin airing on March 31st in Japan and will be be released all at once to the rest of the world later this year, because apparently Netflix doesn’t realize how this is all gonna go. I’ll admit that I might check this out for the music (I’m a sucker for catchy pop songs), though the story is going to have to do some work to get me interested. Hopefully it gets there, because if Netflix is going to be the future of anime, I’d prefer they at least make good anime. And release it all around the world at the same time, you daft fools.

Watching This: Zephyr Excitement Level: Average

Preview by Choya

Honey Flash! The story of Cutie Honey revolves around a normal school girl, Kisaragi Honey (Sakamoto Maaya). She was your average girl until her father was murdered by the Panther Claw organization, who were seeking something known as the Airbourne Elemental Fixation Device. She then finds out that she is actually an android that her father created with that very device embedded within her. Upon learning about her and her father’s secrets, she aims to strike a balance between her ordinary school life and her quest to avenge her father as she pursues the Panther Claw. While the story and lore of Cutie Honey Universe could differ from Honey’s classic origin story, it aims to recapture the same fast-paced action and erotic fanservice of Nagai Go’s classic 1973 series, only this time, there’s more than one Honey!

This new project, alongside DEVILMAN crybaby, commemorates the 50th anniversary of Nagai Go’s works, and helps to revitalize the interest in his series that crybaby helped to cultivate. Nagai himself has explained that the main theme of this particular adaptation is “Kakko Kawaii Onnanoko” (Cool and Cute Girl), so Honey, her friends, and her foes will undergo a certain stylish flair that is specific to our modern times. Promotional material has steered towards highlighting a certain blonde cohort to Honey as her dakimakura will be available to coincide with the anime’s release. With that alone, it’s easy to see that we can look forward to the series’ trademark tongue-in-cheek fanservice to go along with our cool and cute themes. Universe already has some connection to crybaby, as a staff member (Yokoyama Akitoshi) who assisted with numerous Yuasa Masaaki productions will direct the new adaptation. Although his directorial credentials might raise flags with some viewers, his experience could do justice to both the stylistic choices that made crybaby a success and the titillation that makes Cutie Honey Universe a fitting entry into the classic franchise.

Watching This: Choya Excitement Level: Average

Preview by Pancakes

From the RPG of the same name, Caligula takes place in the future where the downtrodden masses can escape their pain by reliving their high school lives in Mobius, a virtual reality program. Simply find meaning in the songs of μ (Ueda Reina), Mobius’ virtual idol AI, and before one knows it one is enjoying life at idyllic Kishimai High School. There’s just one catch: when you enter Mobius, you stay. Forever. For some like second year Shikishima Ritsu (Sawashiro Chiharu), being a student for life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, so with fellow like-minded Mobius members they form the Go-Home Club for the sole purpose of escaping the program. With μ herself opposing their actions alongside a group of Mobius loving oddballs called the Ostinato Musicians, the Go-Home Club has its work cut out for it, but with the promise of Mobius losing its lustre by the day, these kids are determined to break through back to reality once again.

Video game adaptations are an anime crap shoot a lot of the time. Between representing game mechanics and dealing with a different storytelling approach, the results can prove underwhelming, and Caligula isn’t likely to be any different. With the original game releasing to less than stellar ratings and the anime coming out the same time as Caligula’s remake (can someone say promotional material?), it’s hard imagining this being the new Shingeki no Bahamut, but there are some positive signs. Studio Satelight (Log Horizon) for one has good experience tackling similar adaptations, and with SukaSuka’s Wada Junichi handling direction there’s a decent chance at seeing Caligula’s main story at its best. Plus with all of the game cast (who are all seasoned idol anime veterans) reprising their roles, this one won’t be lacking for the complementary array of catchy idol song tie-ins. While always a good idea to remain cautious on any video game adaptation, should Caligula align its pieces right, there’s nothing stopping it from being one of this season’s potential surprises.

Watching This: Pancakes, Zaiden Excitement Level: Average

Preview by Zaiden

On the edge of a city, inside a sleepy forest, lies a broken piano that has lost all trace of its sound. The kids at school create rumours that it’s haunted, and attempting to play it at night becomes a test of courage. Amamiya Shuhei (Hanae Natsuki), a transfer student hailing from a lineage of distinguished pianists, resents the expectations laid upon him of seeing his family’s musical legacy through. He experiences peer pressure from bullies to try and take this test of courage, in order to prove his manliness. However, Shuhei’s life takes a turn when he meets Ichinose Kai (Saitou Souma), the son of a prostitute. Although Kai has never had any formal musical training, he is able to remember any song he’s ever heard and reproduce melodies from the piano within the forest. This earns him the respect of Ajino Sosuke (Suwabe Junichi), a former master pianist who lost all ability to play following a terrible accident many decades beforehand. Kai firmly refuses to hone his techniques under Ajino’s tutelage, but once he hears Chopin, and discovers that he’s unable to play it with unrefined finger techniques, he returns to properly pursue the path of the piano. Can the wild beauty in Kai’s talent be tamed? Through his encounter with an incredibly prodigy, Shuhei’s previously uninspired path is about to change forevermore.

On the 20th anniversary of its first serialisation in a magazine, Piano no Mori receives a proper anime adaptation, which will hopefully cover the full extent of its 26 volume run. Coming from someone who has read the manga, the source material is truly a masterpiece, and once won the Grand Prize for best manga at the 12th Japan Media Arts Festival. Two boys from completely different backgrounds aspire to be piano maestros, all while overcoming despair and hopelessness in regards to their respective circumstances. Dark and dramatic moments are successfully contrasted, with emotional freedom delivered through a love for music. And much like Nodame Cantabile or Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, it’s able to elicit a musical appreciation for the classical style by sheer virtue of the story alone. Worryingly, Fukushima Gainax is a mere offshoot of Gainax that has never handled a full TV series before. For the good of the anime world, I hope that they can live up to the reputation of their founding father and bring this remarkable series to life.

Watching This: Guardian Enzo, Passerby, Zaiden Excitement Level: High

Preview by Zephyr

Following a brief hiatus, Shokugeki no Souma’s third season returns with the latter half of its two-cour run. The first cour saw the beginning of Toutsuki Academy’s Moon Banquet Festival, an annual gala and competition where students’ profit margins determine victory. Those who found themselves unable to profit found themselves with the threat of expulsion, naturally bringing Yukihira Souma (Matsuoka Yoshitsugu) into the fray. While competing against Elite Ten member Terunori Kuga (Kaji Yuuki), the return of a dark figure from Erina’s past culminates with a threat to the existence of the Polar Star Dormitory and a plot to overturn the very foundations of Toutsuki Academy. Having weathered the initial wave, Yukihira and a growing group of friends now find themselves caught in between the machinations of the food world’s elite. As one group seeks to keep Toutsuki open to all with talent, another seeks to turn Toutsuki into a haven for select culinary creations and techniques. J.C. Staff will return as the series’ production studio along with the first cour’s main cast and staff.

The Shokugeki train continues and we all know what that means. Mouthwatering culinary creations, cooking showdowns, and foodgasms are the expectation, as is the steady rise of Yukihira Souma to the top of the culinary world. Now shouldering the hopes of those wishing to preserve Toutsuki as the institution it was previously, the stakes are higher and the level of competition more challenging than ever. The Elite Ten have taken center stage as the targets to beat for everyone involved, and it’s hard not to get excited for a series that’s been enjoyable throughout its entire run and continues to add more to its shokugeki formula while maintaining the development of its side characters despite a growing cast. With the same studio, cast, and staff returning as well, look for Shokugeki no Souma: San no Sara – Toutsuki Ressha-hen to be one of the better offerings of the spring season.

Watching This: Guardian Enzo, Pancakes, Passerby, Stilts, Zaiden, Zephyr Excitement Level: Established

Preview by Takaii

Oh boy—after a one season break we have the return of a magical boy classic. Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu HAPPY KISS is the continuation of the Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu series that concluded things in an hour long OVA toward the end of 2017. However, the spirit of Binan High School’s Earth Defense club lives on in this new sequel. For the uninitiated, the Earth Defense Club specializes in doing just about nothing. As more of a joke club (or a way to escape the “going home” club), its members lounge around after school while chatting over a nice hot cup of team. Afterwards they frequent the Kurotama Bathhouse where they enjoy a rather luxurious hot-bath experience. That is, they used to enjoy this type of life, up until they were magically whisked away (naked mind you) by a mysterious prince from the country known as Honyara Land where our five boys end up taking part in deciding who the next heir of the country will be.

I know the intro to Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu HAPPY KISS probably sounded ridiculous, and to an extent it is. But you’d be wrong if you didn’t think this show was taking it every bit as seriously as every other show out there. Because when it comes to execution, the people behind this show manage to do a pretty damn good job at parodying a ton of genres at once. It’s tough to know whether to recommend shows like this which rely so much on comedy, since different things are funny to different people. But if you’re looking for a show that is definitely different from traditional offerings, goes all the way when it comes to executing its ridiculous premise, and somehow found enough commercial success to have two prior seasons and an HOUR long OVA to close out those seasons, there’s nothing wrong in giving Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu HAPPY KISS a shot.

Watching This: Guardian Enzo, Takaii Excitement Level: Average

Preview by Zaiden

Having long inhabited Japan prior to the arrival of Japanese people themselves, the Ainu are discontent with becoming second-class citizens. As they stockpile a reserve of gold, preparing to fund an uprising against the Japanese government, a brazen criminal murders some Ainu tribesmen. But with justice catching up to him, the thief hides his ill-gotten gains before being captured by the police. He most certainly will not be let out of prison, at least until he reveals the location of the gold. However, he concocts a plan whereby the details of said location are tattooed across the backs of 24 prisoners. Sugimoto Saichi (Kobayashi Chikahiro), a survivor of the Russo-Japanese war nicknamed “Immortal Sugimoto”, now seeks the riches promised by the gold rush, hoping to save the widowed wife of his now deceased comrade. Through pure chance, he encounters one of the 24 prisoners, gaining his first hint toward the legendary treasure. After partnering with an Ainu girl named Asirpa (Shiraishi Haruka), who is looking for her father’s murderer, they go on a bizarre adventure to discover the stash. Along the way, they fight against powerful factions such as the Japanese army, as well as a powerful criminal syndicate that is also interested in acquiring this sizable wealth.

Crazy and energetic from its inception, yet thoroughly compelling, Golden Kamui has been making waves within manga community. With 4.6 million copies in print and having won the 9th Manga Taishou award, which has previously been awarded to Chihayafuru, 3-gatsu and Gin no Saji, the quality or popularity of this series isn’t in doubt. Particularly impressive is how it doesn’t get too self-important, nor does it pull cheap tricks to keep our interest. It’s also has an admirable dedication to accurately depicting the Ainu culture. It pulls together a mishmash of conflicting genres that just shouldn’t work together, but somehow, they do. Without further spoilers, let’s have a look at the production team. Studio Geno has really impressed me with its exciting adaptation of Kokkoku, which proved itself to be a dark horse of its season. Nanba Hitoshi lacks an inspiring CV as a director, but it seems like he can generate a fair bit of hype and excitement through both his storyboarding and directorial vision. Is this worth a shot? If the prospect of a bloody battle royale between hardened badasses tickles your fancy, then hell yeah!

Watching This: Guardian Enzo, Pancakes, Passerby, Stilts, Zaiden Excitement Level: High

Preview by Choya

Imagine, if you will, a family slice-of-life, except most of the family are mutated! This is the premise of Jikkenhin Kazoku, otherwise known as Frankenstein Family. A scientist couple had children they raised in their laboratory, four of which have been mutated in different ways such as gaining telepathy, plant genes, spider genes, and dog genes. The youngest child, Dannis, is the only one who grew up as a normal human, and tries to find the medicine to give the rest of his siblings their fully human forms back. One day, the couple is arrested for conducting illegal experiments, allegedly for performing genetic modification on their children. How will these family members who grew up in the laboratory survive in the outside world?

This series is particularly interesting because of how bold it looks as it tries to see what obstacles and perks there can be for the kinds of mutations these kids have to live with. It’s described as a slice-of-life, but wants to explore more of its deeper themes such as trying to find a sense of belonging after being shut away from the world for most of their lives, or what to think of their parents for doing Shou Tucker’s big no-no to almost their entire family. It sounds like an intriguing story that combines the serious undertones behind the origin stories of the cast’s mutations and the mellow slice-of-life adventures the cast has as they grow adjusted to their new place in society. Will they be welcomed by people who pity them? Will they be able to apply their powers to their daily activities? Do they want to get rid of their mutations, or has it become so much of a part of them that it feels like they’re getting rid of themselves? These are interesting ideas that it appears Jikkenhin Kazoku will explore.

Watching This: Choya, Guardian Enzo Excitement Level: Average

Preview by Zaiden

There was once a man named Kenshiro, who was famed for saying ‘Omae wa mou shindeiru‘ while poking down bad guys, right before they disintegrated into a pile of mush. If we delve into the specifics of things, we can trace everything back to his namesake: Kasumi Kenshiro (Yamadera Kouichi). Known as ‘The King of Death’. Kenshiro Senior roams the streets of 1930s Shanghai, subduing any villains who come across his path. This becomes a frequent occurrence, since the place is embroiled in a power struggle between various factions, each seeking to carve out their own brand of laws and governments. As the 62nd successor of the Hokuto Shinken, it is down to Kasumi Kenshiro to restore peace and justice to his troubled locality.

The access threshold for Souten no Ken REGENESIS is ridiculously high. It’s a sequel to Souten no Ken, which is a prequel to Hokuto no Ken, and takes place in between. Therefore, if you want to watch this show with all the required context, there’s a whole lot of content to crunch through. Alternatively, it can serve as a simple action flick for those who want a quick way of satisfying their fighting itch. There is no production experience to speak of from the staff, but as the industry leader on adopting CGI, Polygon Pictures (Ajin, Sidonia no Kishi, Blame) merges 3D animation with a very old art style to bring us this new series – though this type of combination hasn’t always gone over well with manga fans. Nonetheless, Souten no Ken REGENESIS promises to be an action flick about gangster rivalry and territory wars, that happens to feature the beloved Hokuto Shinken fighting style.

Watching This: Pancakes Excitement Level: Average

Preview by Choya

This slice of life manga’s translated title, Railroad Crossing Time, helps to explain the premise that encapsulates the vignettes captured in the series. The story is told through a series of omnibus short stories featuring conversations from women who are waiting for the next train to arrive. Many topics surface along the railway crossings, from bittersweet talks among high school girls to elementary school students gossiping about occult events they’ve encountered. The idyllic times that these girls and women encounter in their daily lives are the central focus of this anime.

Fumikiri Jikan is a mysterious anime in that it has a plentiful list of characters and voices, but it is a fairly new manga for a fairly new production company, EKACHI EPILKA, by director Suzuki Yoshio, who was previously but an assistant director. Although the details for this anime are relatively mysterious, its status as a slice-of-life, and its interest in creating a small anthology of stories interconnected in their relation to railroad crossings is fascinating. It offers up a level of mystery and nuance that leaves your expectations with something more to hold onto than any projected, preconceived notions of what exactly to expect from each of the characters’ stories. It will be interesting to see how each of the stories is adapted or whether the tone will be toward straight-up comedy, cozy warmth, or the naturalistic feel of just seeing a group of friends talking among themselves.

Watching This: Passerby Excitement Level: Average

Preview by Stilts

The Oppai Dragon is returning for a fourth season! This series once again stars Hyoudou Issei (Kaji Yuki), a shamelessly perverted high schooler who was killed by a girl on his very first date. Fortunately he was resurrected (as a demon) by the beautiful and busty school idol Rias Gremory (Hikasa Yoko). Now Issei is one of Rias’ “chess pieces”—her Pawn—along with her flirty Queen Himejima Akeno (Itou Shizuka), taciturn Rook Toujou Koneko (Taketatsu Ayana), ikemen Knight Kiba Yuuto (Nojima Kenji), ditsy Knight Xenovia Quarta (Taneda Risa), gentle Bishop Asia Argento (Asakura Azumi), ultimate trap Bishop Gasper Vladi (Sakura Ayane), and hopeless Valkyrie-turned-teacher Rook Rossweisse (Kakuma Ai). This season will cover the 9th volume “Pandemonium at the School Trip” and the 10th volume “Lion Heart of the School Festival” arcs.

For anyone who hasn’t heard of High School DxD yet, here’s the long and the short: it’s action fanservice done right. It’s one of the better magical-fantasy-action-harem-ecchi series because it leans into the fanservice (it’s shameless, but that’s endearing), it doesn’t neglect the action (it’s not top tier on its own, but it hits all the right notes), and there’s actually some effort put into the plot. As a bonus all the haremettes are cool with the harem setup, which avoids tiresome drama and lets the wish fulfillment silliness take hold. There are some big changes coming to this season, though. The previous three seasons were all animated by TNK, directed by Yanagisawa Tetsuya, and with series comp by Yoshioka Takao, while this one is animated by Passione, directed by Sueda Yoshifumi, and with series comp by Konuta Kenji. Whether that’s a good change remains to be seen, but the TNK crew arguably earned their firing, because after two and a half good seasons they totally botched the (anime original) ending of BorN. It also means we’re in for new character designs, which are perfectly fine if a bit jarring after so long with the old ones. We’re back to adapting two light novels per season, which is a good pace, so if the new team can just execute on the source material then they’ll be all right. That plus provide plenty of bouncy, booby fanservice. What? The ecchi comes first and foremost with High School DxD, and I’m sure fans wouldn’t have it any other way.

Watching This: Stilts, Zephyr Excitement Level: Average

Preview by Choya

At the popular Japanese-style tea house Rokuhoudou, customers can count on receiving services far beyond your typical expectations. Guests are not only served excellent food and exquisite drinks, but are treated like family. If customers wish for a helping hand to solve any issues that plague their daily lives, the staff at Rokuhoudou are more than happy to assist. The tea shop is run by four men, tea expert Tougoku Kyousui (Suwabe Junichi), latte artist Gregorio Valentino (Ono Daisuke), patissier Nakao Tsubaki (Yamashita Daiki), and chef Nagae Tokitaka (Nakamura Yuuichi). Together, they are consummate professionals who use their talents to serve the best tea and plates that Rokuhoudou offers, and ensure that their guests leave with a positive outlook on life.

The premise may sound familiar as a blend of the feel-good hospitality of various series and anime’s recent fascination with food and drinks. As a tea fanatic, it’s exciting to see a show that could potentially dive into the nuances and details behind types of tea and methods of brewing that match the quality of traditional Japanese tea shops. For those into attractive men, this is also a must-watch as it has Ono, Suwabe, Nakamura, and Yamashita all in the same place as the voices of the suave, sophisticated men behind Rokuhoudou. For anyone who loves the feel of shows centered around cafes, it is nice to see more material like Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori surface, and hopefully, it spares no expense in capturing what makes the dishes and cups at tea shops delectable and refreshing.

Watching This: Choya Excitement Level: Average

Preview by Stilts

Last Period: The Story of an Endless Spiral is an adaptation of the mobile game of the same name from mobile developer Happy Elements. The story takes place in a world where fantastic beasts called Spirals are born out of isolation. Those who can defeat the beasts are called Periods. 14-year-old Haru (Hanae Natsuki) is one such Period, an apprentice assigned to the Arc End 8th Branch. However, after a mysterious theft sinks the division into bankruptcy, the Arc End headquarters abandons the 8th, leaving it with only three Periods, Haru included. Haru and the others set out to rebuild their branch by completing quests.

I’m a sucker for these semi-generic fantasy adventures, where the world is all about quests, monster battles, and bands of friends struggling together. It was actually a pleasant surprise to find that the premise works for me, because this series originally caught my eye mostly because of the art. The character designs are just so vibrant and full of personality, and the promos show smooth animation that can really suck you in. Story-wise I would go in expecting a light-hearted affair, both because of the art style, the palette choices, and because the main character is 14 years old but looks younger. I doubt this will go grimdark. I’d also go in expecting a fair amount of comedy, because when there’s a trio who looks like Team Rocket with a goofier fashion sense, I don’t think serious business is on the table. Video game adaptations are generally pretty fraught, so approach this with all due caution, but if the art style or the upbeat fantasy adventure appeals to you, consider giving this one a shot.

Watching This: Stilts Excitement Level: Average

Preview by Passerby

We usually spend the first paragraph of these previews giving a summary of the story, but it’s impossible to talk about the story of Steins;Gate 0 without spoiling the original Steins;Gate. This is a direct sequel, and completely without context if lacking the first series. I’ll give the blurb in the second paragraph, and those who have already experienced the original or don’t care about spoilers can jump there. If you’ve never watched the first Steins;Gate, though, I highly recommend it. It was an adaptation of a highly acclaimed visual novel, and a very solidly executed anime in its own right, still one of the top offerings of its genre. It managed to tell well, in a linear medium, a story about time travel and its consequences, and those are always complicated because messing with causality opens a can of worms and the possibility of incoherent timey-whimey balls. That said, Steins;Gate 0 is even more convoluted and is definitely a difficult adaptation. If that wasn’t concern enough, there’s also been a staff shift. I would say that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, but unfortunately Steins;Gate 0′s director has been changed to Kawamura Kenichi, whose only prior experience in the main director chair is Qualidea Code. Thankfully, we still have Hanada Jukki held over to oversee the scripts, which will hopefully help the story maintain the same standard as the original. If you’re wondering what it’ll be about, here’s how it goes:

[Spoilers for Steins;Gate] In the year 2010, university student Okabe Rintarou (Miyano Mamoru) accidentally invented a time machine. No good comes out of it. Even with extensive use of the time machine Okabe could find only two possible futures: one where his childhood friend Shiina Mayuri (Hanazawa Kana) is killed and international research organisation SERN takes over the world using time machine technology, or one where his love interest, genius researcher Makise Kurisu (Imai Asami) dies and World War III breaks out. After a recent failed attempt to save Kurisu, a mentally and emotionally drained Okabe finally decides to give up and forswear meddling with time forever. But one day, Okabe attends a presentation by a professor from an American university. His lab, the Brain Science Institute, had invented a method of copying and digitising human memory, which could then be used to create an AI simulation of a human being. One such AI has already been created, based on someone Okabe knew well, someone whose knowledge of time travel theory was responsible for global dystopia in a different timeline, someone who should no longer exist in this world: Makise Kurisu.

Watching This: Choya, Guardian Enzo, Pancakes, Passerby, Stilts, Takaii, Zaiden, Zephyr Excitement Level: High

Preview by Stilts

This quasi-original anime centers on two protagonists. First is Jinguuji “Jay” Kouma (Suzuki Tatsuhisa), the smart and handsome student council president of Koyomi Academy, whose elegant smile captures the hearts of all the women. The other is Hayakawa Tsubasa (Satou Takuya), the talented and gentle shop assistant at a charming cafe, whose cafe latte with owl latte art is very popular with female customers. But the two men have a secret: they’re Butlers, guardians of a clan which has one thousand years of history and a peculiar destiny. They’re also from one hundred years in the past, and only arrived in the present due to an errant timewarp. Together the two men travel through time to fight their archenemy, while also experiencing a slapstick comedic school life.

Do you like bishounen? How about anime based on Chinese mixed media projects? If you answered “yes” to one of these, keep reading. This quasi-original series is based on the mixed media project “Intouchable Butlers” produced by China’s SUMMERACG, and it’s populated almost entirely by pretty men (and one pretty, plot-significant imouto). I’m unsure what tone it’s going for, since some of the promotional material talks about goofy slapstick comedy, but the promo videos are all dire dramatic music and self-serious battles. What’s definitely true is that the boys are pretty, and I appreciate that a woman is doing the series composition for a series aimed squarely at women, even if Shimizu Megumi doesn’t have anything else on her resume. After that, just ask yourself this: Do you want to watch an anime where each character has an image color? (Emerald green, light brown, indigo, etc.) I feel I’ve told you enough.

Watching This: No one yet Excitement Level: Limited

Preview by Stilts

This original series by BONES stars the straightforward and innocent Amakasu Hisone (Kuno Misaki), a rookie with the Air Self-Defense Force who’s stationed at Gifu Base. She’s been struggling with how she sometimes unintentionally hurts people with her words, which is why she decided to join the Air Self-Defense Force in the first place, hoping to keep a certain distance from others. This decision led to a fateful encounter, because it was there that she met an “OTF” (Organic Transformed Flyer) dragon hidden on the base, and it chose Hisone as its pilot. When Maso-tan soared into the sky with Hisone, her fate as a dragon pilot was sealed. What’s more, it is said that dragons have a key to the future of the world…

What if a story about fighter pilots, but their planes are also dragons. But there are also jets too! That’s the quirk to the world of Hisone to Maso-tan, and it’s both deeply weird and intriguing. It’s not an idea that would get my attention in a pitch meeting, but now that someone’s actually made a whole anime about it, I’m curious as to what they know that I’m not seeing. I’m getting vibes of those stories where a small kid befriends a big friendly beast, though in this case Hisone is an adult, and the proceedings are wrapped in a military setting. I actually get an almost relaxing vibe from the the promo videos—let’s call it deliberate—which hints at more low-key drama as opposed to adrenaline-fueled action. The big goofy face on the dragon Maso-tan sure hints at that. As befitting a BONES production the animation is more kinetic and free-flowing than the current norm, something it shares only with Trigger in the modern industry. The staff features some old hands, including an occasional Trigger director and an old Gainax legend, but the most notable (and infamous) is Okada Mari, who at this point has an almost M. Night Shyamalan-esque reputation even though she’s been straying from her old tricks and still doing good work (unlike M. Night Shyamalan). Which is to say, I wouldn’t go in expecting melodrama just because she’s involved, though I might enjoy it if that happens. This is a weird enough idea that I can only say, “Try out an episode or two,” because who knows if it’ll be any good. The pedigree is there, so now we just have to see how it turns out.

Watching This: Choya, Passerby, Stilts Excitement Level: Optimistic

Preview by Takaii

Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku isn’t your typical romance story. Revolving around the love life of Momose Narumi (Date Arisa) and Nifuji Hirotaka (Itou Kento), the story asks the question, “How difficult could it be for a fujoshi and a gamer to fall in love?” A question that may seem pretty obvious at first, but in reality is a little more difficult than you would have originally thought. Luckily, Narumi and Hirotaka make for fantastic leads with a back story that could make any romantic’s heart swoon. Childhood friends who lost contact after middle school, the two are reunited when they realize they work together at the same company. Except Narumi (somewhat) tries to keep her otaku tendencies under wraps while Hirotaka couldn’t care less who sees him grinding out dailies on his phone or his PSP. Together with their respective work-senpais—Koyanagi Hanako (Sawashiro Miyuki) for Narumi and Kabakura Tarou (Sugita Tomokazu) for Hirotaka—who also have a history of their own as former high school classmates, Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii takes a slightly more mature and nuanced look at just what it means to be in love with somebody.

Boy, I haven’t been this excited for a romcom in a while, and I’m the type of person who will leap at the opportunity to watch one. For Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii, I must say that the lure of otakus dating reeled me in, but the overall story and the presentation of it all is what kept me coming back for more. As with any romance, the characters and their supporting cast are what make or break a show, and I can only see great things for this one. Keeping things small with a core cast of four characters, everyone gets ample time to develop and become something more than what they started as. Toss in the super relevant material of otaku-related activities (Comiket workshopping, cosplaying, game nights) that are integrated into the “romance” part of the show and could mirror a lot of our own real life’s pretty well. But as if that wasn’t enough, we have the one and only A-1 Pictures leading the charge. Something that in itself doesn’t mean much, but when you look at their track record, there’s definitely something going on there that’s fostering a healthy production environment for a show like this. Which for us (the viewers) should be good news! So, if you’re looking for a romantic comedy that has a fun premise, great characters, and a lot of material to keep you coming back for more, why not give Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii a shot?

Watching This: Choya, Pancakes, Passerby, Stilts, Takaii, Zephyr Excitement Level: Optimistic

Preview by Pancakes

Slavery. Maybe you’ve fantasized about it in some form or another, being able to make your most hated enemy do your bidding or have that crush reciprocate your feelings. In Dorei-ku’s world, such things are reality. Thanks to a small wearable device called an SCM, people can turn others into their permanent slaves, with the only requirement being to beat a fellow SCM wearer at any agreed upon game. Win, and the loser’s life is yours for the taking, but lose and you may never taste freedom again. As word of SCM spreads, many like Oota Yuuga (Suzuki Ryouta) naturally begin turning to the device to solve their problems, whether that be for revenge, attention, or in Yuuga’s case, a simple test of mettle. Everyone has their reason for putting on the device, but as all SCM users like Yuuga will eventually learn, the consequences of use can be far greater than they ever imagined.

Oh boy, now here’s a hot potato. Fetish anime are a dime a dozen any day of the week, but Dorei-ku takes the concept and runs with it all the way. Everything from perverse sexual fantasies to outright physical torment is on the table here, and the manga doesn’t flinch at showing each act in disgustingly brutal detail. It’s truly a cornucopia of psychologically crazy and ridiculous pseudoscience (no magic shenanigans), but the series also has a surprisingly calculating side at work, as every character interaction comes down to a game of some form or another. In effect, Kakegurui on steroids. How well it works will naturally boil down to execution, but with TNK (and Zero-G) animating, and Tsugumomo’s Kuraya Ryouichi directing, you can firmly expect that every ribald and heinous act will be played to its fullest. Excessive censoring, chopping, or simple budgetary constraints can of course sink this show, but if Dorei-ku sticks to the path of pure popcorn entertainment, there’s nothing stopping it from being one hell of a wild ride.

Watching This: Choya, Pancakes Excitement Level: Niche

Preview by Passerby

There is something off with the world as we know it. Anachronistic military technology, decades more advanced than what should be currently possible, have been trickling in since the Cold War, and modern warfare has become defined by improbable super-weapons like giant robots and cloaking devices. This ‘Black Technology’ is made possible by individuals who, unbeknownst to even themselves, contain in their head scientific knowledge of inexplicable origin. They are collectively known as the Whispered, and include people like Chidori Kaname (Yukino Satsuki), who would be an average high school girl if not for her intuitive knowledge of recondite physics. Such knowledge puts her under many crosshairs, and thus international mercenary organisation Mithril dispatched lifetime soldier, professional mecha pilot, and amateur teenager Sagara Sousuke (Seki Tomokazu) to infiltrate Kaname’s school and act as her bodyguard. But Mithril is opposed by a shadowy paramilitary organisation calling itself Amalgam, which seems to have access to Black Technology similar to Mithril. Amalgam has designs for the Whispered, and their reach may be greater than anything Kaname and Sousuke can hope to resist.

Full Metal Panic! has come a long way. Sixteen years ago it was an anime adaptation by the now probably-deceased-but-strangely-not studio Gonzo, later series were picked up by a fledgling Kyoto Animation, and now Xebec will be animating Invisible Victory. Xebec may not be a bad pick, as traditionally they have had, if nothing else, plenty of experience with mecha anime. When one thinks of Xebec, one thinks of mecha and fanservice, and FMP! has always served up both with aplomb. It was half mecha drama, half romantic comedy, and half fish-out-of-water slapstick, 150% anime, with wide appeal. That said, the best of FMP! was arguably its humour—Fumoffu still stands as one of the tightest comedies in anime—but if Invisible victory continues following the source novel, the humour will have to take a back seat. That’s not saying there will be no comic relief, just that it will noticeably recede as the plot moves further into Serious Business. Perhaps we should temper our hype slightly, especially since director Nakayama Katsuichi is relatively fresh (though Planetarian was pretty great). However, original author Gatoh Shouji is going to be doing the writing himself, which is usually promising. And let’s face it, not matter the predictions, we’ve waited more than a decade for more Full Metal Panic! The hype is real.

Watching This: Guardian Enzo, Pancakes, Passerby, Stilts, Zephyr Excitement Level: High

Technical Note: As of the Fall 2016 Preview onward, short one-cour series that are being broadcast with irregular duration times (under the 24 minute per episode norm) have been separated from the main preview into their own section. This is to account for the increasing number of short series and to allow for ease of viewing for those who have a preference for one type of series over another. While the list should be complete, there are short series that have been announced very close to the start of a season, in which case they may not have made it onto the list. If you notice an anything missing, incomplete, or incorrect, please feel free to point it out in the comments or e-mail Passerby directly.

Technical Note: OVAs are sorted by the date they are released. For series that have multiple episodes coming out over the course of the season, please refer to the Notes column for additional dates. More information on each OVA can be found on their respective websites, including promotional videos in some cases. Movie premiere dates are not included since they don’t mean a whole lot to viewers outside of Japan. BD/DVD movie releases are, however. This list is likely incomplete and will be updated as more titles surface (usually by the next season’s preview). If you notice anything missing or incorrect, please feel free to point it out in the comments or e-mail one of us directly (Stilts, Zephyr).

There’s only one word for this season: wow. It would be a lie to say I (your ever tasty lovable Pancakes) am not ecstatic for a huge number of shows, and that’s before getting into stuff that aren’t a sequel. Spring is always labelled as anime’s best season year over year, but this one takes the cake with the number of nostalgic series returns and new adaptations of popular franchises. We are truly spoiled for choice this time around, and I suspect that the blogging picks for us are going to be a vicious battle when it comes to some of these hard hitters. No guarantee some or all won’t blow up in our faces (it’s been known to happen), but until that occurs we are going to thoroughly enjoy slobbering over the potential of these very tasty morsels.

As for levels, we’ll continue with the Excitement Levels introduced in Fall 2017, which includes four main levels plus Established and Niche for special cases. Our goal with this change was to make it easier to use the top and bottom of the scale, and to take away the incentive to hedge our bets—after all, we’re not saying these shows will be good or bad, we’re just saying how excited we are. Exciting things can be flawed, and unambitious things can be fun! Hopefully this guide will help those of you with limited time understand which shows to try first, based on our preliminary examination of each show’s staff, seiyuu, and source material. Failing that, it’ll give you another reason to laugh when we get all hot and bothered about a show that ended up splattering spectacularly against the wall.

As usual, these levels were arrived at by our regular (and reliably shady) “Excitement Council” of Passerby, Zephyr, and—the boss man himself—Stilts. While we’ve gone to great lengths to consider multiple viewpoints and not get swept away by their own proclivities, these aren’t predictions, and shouldn’t be taken as such. Take these labels with a liberal helping of salt.

Note: Lists are sorted in alphabetical order.

High excitement shows are the ones we’re truly pumped about. These are the shows we want to watch the most, and which we think have a good chance of being exemplars of their kind — or at least come close. Shows in this category might be sequels to excellent anime, adaptations of highly regarded source material, projects with stellar pedigrees, or even originals that just light up our minds. They don’t have to be perfect, but they do have to feel like something special. If you consider yourself a casual fan who only gets your toes wet every season, then these are the shows we feel you should most keep an eye on.

Optimistic shows are ones that we’re hopeful will be really good, and which we have good reasons to think they might be. The underpinnings of these are generally strong, with a lot to suggest in each of them, but with one or two elements that give us pause and keep our enthusiasm from boiling over. They still have most of the makings of very strong series, though, and many stellar anime will arise from this category. If you’ve exhausted all the High shows, or want to delve deeper into your favored genres, check out these as well.

Average excitement shows look middle-of-the-road to us. They could be good or they could be bad, but they don’t provide much immediate indication that they’ll be amazing in retrospect. This is often the case with shows that are firmly ensconced in their genres’ tropes, or which overly rely on some of anime’s overused plot devices. It can also apply to shows that seem deeply flawed, with elements that could make them amazing, but with so many potential pitfalls that we’re not getting hyped up. However, in many of our experiences these shows still provide a great deal of entertainment, and may turn out a lot better than they appear. Personal taste comes heavily into play, so your mileage will vary.

Limited excitement shows are ones that we simply aren’t all that excited about. They often don’t seem to be striving for much, and choose to focus on more frivolous aspects such as senseless humor and fanservice. Other times they’re doing the same thing we’ve seen a thousand times, with few mitigating signs that they’ll rise above their tropes. That doesn’t mean they’re the bottom of the barrel and shouldn’t get any consideration, but simply that they’re not doing a lot to suggest themselves. Keep in mind what kind of show they are, though, and you might find something you enjoy amid this cohort.

Niche shows break away from the norm by being slower-paced, extremely dark/grotesque, or even controversial. In most cases these shows are oriented towards older audiences or those who feel that anime has become far too repetitive and want something different. Shows of this category tend to be highly under-appreciated, but can turn out to be hidden gems for that very reason. Includes some works oriented toward younger audiences.

Established shows are any series that has aired for more than 40 episodes or has been previewed three or more times. This can include anything from never-ending shounen and decade-spanning dramas to that quirky comedy that keeps getting renewed season after season. The only commonality is that they’ve aired a lot of episodes, and that they’re the kind of show that most viewers will want to catch up on all the previous content before watching the new. Spin-offs and remakes don’t automatically qualify, since they’re considered new series.

[westfallingforchaol]

I’m incredibly conscious now of the fact that I start every monthly wrap-up post with a generic line about how the year is flying by so fast, and that I can’t believe it’s X month already, even though it’s always true. So, I refuse to do that from here on out. But then… how do I start these posts? I’m in sort of a sticky situation.

July was a month of ups and downs in my personal life.

It started with a bang – quite literally. For the first time since I moved to the US, I was actually in New York City for July 4th, so my parents and I headed over to Manhattan to the East River to watch the legendary Macy’s fireworks show. Getting there a few hours early just to score a good spot was worth it – the show was absolutely beautiful, and I loved a nice outing with my family. My parents are always so busy with their business, and I’m almost always away for school, we rarely get to spend time together. The occasion was nice, if only for that.

I’m such a lazy person, you have no idea. I can spend days inside the house, watching TV, reading books, listening to music for days without a care in the world, so it’s surprising how many times I actually got off my ass and headed into the city this month. I live quite far away when I’m not dorm-ing for university. I need to take a train for forty-five minutes, then a thirty-minute ferry just to get into the city… then, the Manhattan travel is another story completely. But one day, I set aside everything and headed to the city to hang out with a friend. We saw The Big Sick, I broke my book-buying ban for just a little while and bought four books from the Strand, and then I saw Spiderman: Homecoming at the iMax in Lincoln Square. I honestly thought Spiderman: Homecoming wasn’t worth the hype, but I still enjoyed the film; The Big Sick was wonderful though.

I finally joined the gym, much to the glee of my parents, lol. I’ve been meaning to lose weight for a really long time now, but I hate exercising – especially if it’s the gym. I like to swim, but there aren’t any good pools around me, so the gym is always my last resort. I almost never want to go willingly. But hopefully I’ll start making a change to my lifestyle. It’s needed.

In memory of Chester Bennington

Perhaps the one thing that hit me hardest this summer was the lead singer of Linkin Park, Chester Bennington’s death. When I was nine years old, I had just lost my younger brother to cancer, and my parents and I moved across the world from London to Pakistan to start over, for all intents and purposes. I had suddenly become an only-child, my parents’ relationship was fraying at the edges with more fights than I could handle, and I found myself in a surrounding that was completely foreign to me. At that time, I relied almost entirely on music to get me through the day. And when Linkin Park’s music came into my life, suddenly I felt that there was someone in the world I could relate to.

Ever since, I’ve turned to the band’s music – in its always-evolving creativity – to get me through some of my hardest times. The band wasn’t something that was there for me during my childhood or teenage years – they were there for me now. They were the first celebrities I decided to properly fangirl over, to the point of watching backstage videos of them goofing around, having fun. I sat through hours and hours of concert footage, in complete awe. I’ve cried with them, I’ve laughed with them, I’ve hurt with them… and then, to suddenly get the news that the person who literally saved your life has passed away by taking his own? That broke me for a while.

I spent days mourning Chester. I cried for him, and I’ve never cried over a celebrity death before- it just hit me so deeply in a place that hadn’t hurt for a long time. I spent days beating myself up: 1) I didn’t even know him, so how in the world could this hit me so hard, and 2) if he really did save my life, I strangely felt guilty that I couldn’t do anything to ease the pain he was in. But then I realized a few things – Chester’s music touched me because he was open about what he was going through, and by sharing himself, his heart and soul, he helped a lot of people. This became apparent as millions of people around the world mourned him, and wrote thinkpieces about how much Chester meant to them in their teenage years. And I realized that I wasn’t alone in mourning someone I didn’t know; he wasn’t just a singer, just some celebrity. He was my support system in my darkest of times, and I had come to consider him a friend. For me, losing him was like losing a friend, and it hurt. A lot.

I’ll miss Chester a lot, because for a while there after his death, I felt lost. Back in that nine year-old body. A kid who doesn’t know what to do anymore. How are you supposed to live in a world where the person who saved your life ends up taking his own? But with the support of my friends, the community and Linkin Park and Chester themselves, I’ve learned that it’s okay to hurt. It’s strange, but ever since he passed, I’ve shared more about my insecurities with my friends than I ever had before, and I’m slowly starting to learn that it’s alright to be vulnerable with people. We’re all human beings who hurt and suffer, and it’s so important to tell people what you’re going through. Ultimately, I’ll always be thankful to him, and the band for making me who I am, for staying with me when there wasn’t a light to hold on to. I’ll be… always thankful. And I’ll always remember Chester, both for what he’s done for me, and for the kind, funny, wonderful, brave person he was.

But you’re all here for my reading wrap-up, so enough of this, and let’s get into the books!

I read a lot this month. And by a lot, I mean a LOT.

Back in 2014, there was a time when I was reading an average of one book every two days. Somewhere along the way, I lost my mojo – I blame Netflix and school, but after years, this month was an incredible one. I was reading constantly – in the form of audiobooks, backlist books, ARCs, whatever. I’m on a book-buying ban; I can only buy a new book after I have read five books that I already own, and in an effort to buy a book I’ve been looking forward to reading, I’ve been reading my owned books quicker. Does that make sense? So in total, I read a whopping sixteen books! A bunch of them were great reads –  some of them were bad eggs, so here’s the breakdown by the order in which I read them:

🌟🌟🌟🌟

🌟🌟🌟🌟 1/2

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🌟🌟

EARTH BOY (SON OF DJINN #2) BY SAMI SHAH // 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Earth Boy was an incredible finale to an incredible duology full of djinn, chudails, infused with South Asian and Islamic lore, full to the brim with genuine scares, beautifully constructed writing, dark humor, and complicated social issues. I am so deeply in love with the world Sami Shah has crafted, with the characters in these two books, and the fierce adventures they go on. It’s genuinely dark and delicious with creatures and myths from some of my worst nightmares, but not only that, Sami Shah also ensures that he discusses relevant things like intolerance, poverty and terrorism while he’s telling a fast-paced, action-packed story. I cannot recommend this duology enough. It’s so underrated, so please check it out!

Triggers apply for: Torture, rape, child abuse, terrifying scenes, strong violence.

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LITTLE & LION BY BRANDY COLBERT // 🌟🌟🌟🌟 1/2

Little & Lion was definitely my favorite book of the month. It’s a wholesome contemporary by definition of the concept with a strong focus on one girl’s relationship with her stepbrother, her family, her friends, her two crushes, and herself. It’s a book with a diverse cast of characters, tackling issues of racism, microaggressions, biphobia, mental health stigma, and figuring out who you are at an age where very little makes sense. It’s a book I will recommend for a long, long time. It releases on the 8th of this month, so please jump on it. Here’s my review.

Triggers apply for: Micro-aggressions for racism, biphobia, lesbophobic slurs, mental health stigma, anxiety, bipolar disorder.

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THE GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO VICE & VIRTUE BY MACKENZI LEE // 🌟🌟🌟

This was a book I was highly anticipating, and considering the hype monster around it, I was super excited to get to it. It’s a tome of a book with almost 600 pages with a diverse cast of characters on a road trip in eighteenth century Europe. There’s adventure, humor, romance, sex, scandal and some magic thrown in the mix, resulting in an extremely fast-paced, action-packed book that’s just incredibly fun to read. But despite enjoying it, I couldn’t bring myself to like the main character. He was too frat-boyish to me, and I understand he’s meant to be unlikable in order for the redemption to happen, but he says way too many things and does way too many things for me to be able to forgive him over the course of a hundred or so pages. Moreover, I felt the paranormal aspect fell flat, and the plot could’ve been more cohesive.

Triggers apply for: racism, homophobia, misogyny, ableism.

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THE 57 BUS BY DASHKA SLATER // 🌟🌟

Like most autobiographies/biographies, I’m uncomfortable reviewing this… It zooms in on a hate crime committed against an agender teen named Sasha, who’s skirt was lit on fire by a young black teen one fateful bus ride. Sasha’s story is a real one – they went through the very real physical and emotional trauma of the crime, while Richard – the person who uncharacteristically committed the horrendous crime – underwent the punishment. Dashka Slater, through real interviews, police files, news clippings, etcetera, pieces together a deeply intimate look at the failings of the justice system, how institutionalized and systematic racism is ruining black youth’s lives, putting them at a severe disadvantage. However, Slater – a white woman – uses the N-word several times in the book… and… that word is not for a non-black person to use. To me, while the criminal justice system’s exposé was important, I also felt the book was unbalanced and the emphasis was placed on the person who committed the crime over the person who was the victim. This made me uncomfortable.

Triggers apply for: use of racist and nonbinary-phobic and transphobic slurs, misgendering, hate crime against an agender teen, institutionalized racism.

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🌟🌟🌟🌟

🌟🌟🌟🌟

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🌟1/2

THE COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN BY HOLLY BLACK // 🌟🌟🌟🌟

This was the first Holly Black book I’ve ever read, and it definitely will not be the last. It was perfectly balanced with the right amount of romance, the right amount of action, and the perfect creep-factor. I’m not big on vampire novels, because most of them have already been done already… what’s new to be offered in the genre? But Holly Black makes them sexy and interesting again; I loved the characters, and I enjoyed the main character’s feisty yet compassionate, kind, vulnerable self too. I’m so excited to read other books by Black.

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GOODBYE DAYS BY JEFF ZENTNER // 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Goodbye Days was a book that took me by surprise; I became more invested in the characters than I thought I would, and I found myself mourning people that were dead before the book even began. I loved the concept of saying one final goodbye to people who’ve been taken way too soon, and I think Zentner deals with topics of grief, loss and guilt extremely well. I did, however, take issue with some of the unchallenged suicide/self-harm jokes in the book. You can read my full review here.

Triggers apply for: Racist micro-aggressions against a Filipina character, suicide/self-harm jokes, homophobic jokes (mostly challenged), grief, death.

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CARAVAL BY STEPHANIE GARBER // 🌟

The hype monster for Caraval was one of the biggest hype monsters I’ve ever seen in my four years of blogging. And because of this reason, this book was a massive let down. I hated the main characters, the sisterhood bond was nothing short of a joke, serious issues were used as plot devices without exploring potential psychological ramifications, and the writing was inconsistent and seemed try-hard. You can find my full review here.

Triggers apply for: Suicide, physical and emotional abuse by a parent, self-harm.

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THE LOVE INTEREST BY CALE DIETRICH // 🌟 1/2

This was probably one of the most disappointing books I’ve read this year – mainly because I’ve had my eye on it ever since it was announced! It sounded amazing: a satirical take on dystopians with a love triangle where the two dudes fall in love with each other? Bro, that sounds so cool. But the characters were extremely flat, to the point where the satire became laughable on its own. The writing wasn’t special, and it read more like a contemporary than a sci-fi dystopian. I DNF’d at 55%.

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🌟🌟🌟

🌟🌟🌟🌟

🌟🌟🌟🌟

🌟🌟🌟

THAT THING WE CALL A HEART BY SHEBA KARIM // 🌟🌟🌟

As a Pakistani Muslim, I barely get any representation in YA lit, so imagine my glee when I found out that this was a book that offered me just that. And while Sheba Karim does a great deal of things right in this book, much of it fell flat. It deals with open, frank discussions about religion, Islamophobia in the West, expectations from hijabis, assigning statuses and labeling people as “representatives” of a certain identity. I adored the main character’s best friend to the point where I wanted the book to be about her, rather than Shabnam, the protagonist. I hated Shabnam, and that was the point but her development and redemption doesn’t come soon enough to save the novel. The romance was cringe-worthy and cheesy too.

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THERE’S SOMEONE INSIDE YOUR HOUSE BY STEPHANIE PERKINS // 🌟🌟🌟🌟

There’s Someone Inside Your House was a delight to read. I read it in a couple of sittings, flying through it with ferocious speed. It was so incredibly fun, reminiscent of slasher flicks set in small towns. Stephanie Perkins is a talented writer, of course, and it shows because she strikes the perfect balance between her trademark cutesy contemporary (because the romance in this is adorable), while also doing justice to the thrill and horror of the serial killer storyline. The cast was diverse as well, and I enjoyed the atmospheric quality of the entire book. It would honestly make a great TV show.

Triggers apply for: some transphobic language was in my ARC, but I know Perkins has since addressed and amended it for the final copy; racist microagressions against the main character who is biracial black/Native Hawaiian; graphic depictions of murder & gore.

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THE EPIC CRUSH OF GENIE LO BY F. C. YEE // 🌟🌟🌟🌟

This was a book everywhere on Twitter, and rightfully so. The Epic Crush of Genie Lo is an incredible urban-fantasy inspired by Chinese lore with a feisty, relatable main character who’s trying to handle her schoolwork, her future plans for college, a separated family, and a bodyshaming yet loving mother… and now you’re throwing demons in the mix?! It was adventurous, fast-paced, action-packed, and at times laugh-out-loud funny, while never losing its charm of being subtly relatable with characters that you grow to adore. My only real complaint was that I would’ve preferred more balance between the action and the slower moments, even if that meant the book had to be fifty or so pages longer.

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SAINTS AND MISFITS BY S. K. ALI // 🌟🌟🌟

I set myself up for disappointment for this book, mainly because perhaps I was expecting a little too much. For one, there is so much this book does right. It’s true that Western media often only promotes Muslim books that fit their own version of what Islam should be like. Saints & Misfits is unapologetically Muslim, with a lovable, wonderful main character who takes pride in her culture, religion and is fully immersed in it, while never being defined by it either. I loved her relationship with her family and friends, and I loved seeing her develop over the course of the novel. But there was virtually very little plot, which will eventually be the downfall of the book for readers who enjoy a more cohesive storyline.

Triggers apply for: sexual assault.

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🌟🌟

🌟🌟1/2

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🌟🌟🌟1/2

FINAL GIRLS BY RILEY SAGER // 🌟🌟

After the magic of There’s Someone Inside Your House, I was in a bit of a thriller/slasher kick, so I decided to pick up Final Girls – which was a book I was absolutely certain I was going to enjoy. But I was left severely disappointed. It was exciting and unputdownable, that’s for certain, but the characters were flat, and it was more mystery than thriller or horror. The mental illness representation was awful, and there were so many insensitive remarks thrown towards someone who committed suicide- it made me stomach turn. The ending was cheesy and cartoon villain-y. It was just… a disappointment.

Triggers apply for: Poor mental illness representation, suicide, violent murder.

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THE SERPENT KING BY JEFF ZENTNER // 🌟🌟 1/2

After loving Goodbye Days by the same author earlier in the month, I decided to give his debut novel a go too, but it definitely wasn’t as good as his second. The Serpent King explores the South, religion, guilt and feeling stuck as well as I expected Zentner too, but most of the characters didn’t connect with me. Plus, I felt that Dill’s mental health was glossed over – more emphasis needed to be placed on therapy and recovery. I also didn’t feel a connection between the two people involved in the main romance at all. I’ll avoid saying more for risk of spoilers. There’s also a lot of racism and use of slurs in the book – these aren’t unchallenged, and they’re clearly not Zentner’s views but rather an authentic portrayal of the backwardness of many in the South, but I felt this could’ve been done without the use of slurs.

Triggers apply for: pedophilia, depression, religious intolerance, racism, homophobic slurs, grief, death.

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WHEN I CAST YOUR SHADOW BY SARAH PORTER // 🌟

Listen… I wish I could tell you what this book was, but I genuinely have no clue. It was so… weird and disturbing. For starters, the characters were all one-dimensional, flat and pretentious even when they showed the slightest bit of personality. The book was messed up on so many levels with some incest going on, some statutory rape that is never properly addressed, a dude possessing his own brother and then sleeping with his girlfriend, like… what the fuck was this book, and how was half this stuff greenlit?! It’s safe to say that I despised it, and I honestly cannot believe I made it through the whole thing.

Triggers apply for: vague incest stuff, sexual assault, statutory rape, drug use, death by overdose, suicidal ideations, self-harm.

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NEVER LET ME GO BY KAZUO ISHIGURO // 🌟🌟🌟 1/2

Never Let Me Go had been on my TBR for approximately 4459679456 years, and I finally got around to reading it – and I must say that I enjoyed it more than I thought it would. I couldn’t put it down; it was definitely a page-turner, and I enjoyed the personal way it was written. It felt like Kathy was sitting in front of me, telling me the story as it happened, rather than me reading it from the eyes of someone who lived it. I enjoyed the duplicity and multi-faceted personalities of the characters, and was invested in all their conflicts; however, for a large portion in the middle of the book during their time in the Cottage, I lost interest, and much of that interest never came back. Plus, the ending was super info-dumpey.

Triggers apply for: disturbing thematic content, grief, loss.

🌼

Apart from reading, I watch Netflix and listen to music.

I’ve been re-watching The Office over the summer, and I’m almost done with Season 6 now; if you haven’t looked into watching it, I highly suggest you do. The first season is a little dull, but it gets incredibly funny during the second season. I’ve been meaning to watch a new TV show before the summer officially ends, so if you have any suggestions, let me know.

Also, Game of Thrones is back! I loved the first three episodes, even though parts of them felt very fan-fictiony. I’m just so stoked that these storylines are continuing, and I’m getting to see some of my favorite characters be bad-ass. Just crossing my fingers and hoping for George R. R. Martin to hurry up with the sixth book.

As for music, I’ve decided that instead of individually linking videos like I do every month, I would construct a playlist of what I’ve been listening to for the month. So here’s my Spotify list of great songs you should maybe (definitely) check out, including some pop, some rock, some electronic. All over the place, like it goes.

So that’s it for my July wrap-up. Let me know if you’ve read any of the books mentioned above, and if you did, what’d you think of them? I hope July was a wonderful month for y’all, and I hope August is even better. As always – thanks for stopping by, and happy reading!

Monthly Recap: July ’17 I'm incredibly conscious now of the fact that I start every monthly wrap-up post with a generic line about how the year is flying by so fast, and that I can't believe it's X month already, even though it's always true.

[miniallumgames]

It’s Never Ogre...

Shrek 2: “It’s a real game”

Platform played on: Gamecube

Genre: A Joke

Allum’s Rating: 4/10 for loners, 7/10 for co-op

General Review:

So, this is mad late, even pushing into Mini’s week. This is also extremely long just to warn anyone. Mini’s gonna be pissed. Mini hasn’t seen any of this. If anyone cares enough, thank Mini because they recorded some of our conversations in the notes. Those will be spread out in the review. Oh sorry, I meant long ass shitpost.

It was originally a solo playthrough and as an avid Shrek fan, excitement permeated the air. Nothing was going to stop this hype train for this first review, except the game being clear pretty early on that it was for more than one person. So as the kind soul and partner it’s imperative that Mini was bestowed with [begged] the position as loyal squire in this arduous and rewarding journey of Shrek 2.

So Shrek 2 is basically the movie as a game. The game is unbearable at times and filled with puns. There’s a lot to this game especially in terms of gameplay. It changes its rules often, but in such a way it can be taken as refreshing instead of annoying. It’s far better than most movie/TV show video games and more effort is put into this game than necessary.

There is absolutely no reason for this game to have fully fledged out character models, boss fights, more than 5 world maps, voice acting, and a lot more. It exceeds all expectations that both Mini and I had. This game does have it flaws and an abnormally large difficulty spike. However, that will be evaluated in the main game summary.

The main set-up of the game is a beat-’em up with four characters available at any time. These characters can vary and each with their own unique abilities. The flow of the game is changed per chapter and per level. After a level, sometimes there is a mini-game, announced by the Magic Mirror, “It’s Hero Time” and it is just one player/character playing an entire game by themselves and the game will not continue until it’s completed. Some of these are rather easy and can be completed in one go while others will test your mettle and question your entire life as to why you are playing the same minigame from Shrek 2 for an hour and a half. Every chapter is something new and it can span upon the entire mainstream video game format list. It might not sound interesting now, but listen when I say Grand Theft Auto is involved.

The game’s menu is a storybook and when something is clicked, sometimes there will be a random voice line from either Shrek or Donkey. Imagine going to options and suddenly the thundering voice of Shrek shouting, “OGRE POWER!!!”. Anyway it’s a good presentation of the menu and far better than the usual title screen = menu deal.

[Allum: So menu’s pretty nice *starts exploring and clicking on stuff*

Mini: It’s Shrek, I’m surprised there’s no toilet humor-

Shrek (out of nowhere): OGRE POWER!!!

Mini: Excuse me?]

In the beginning the game starts with our lovely, playable main cast of Shrek, Fiona, Donkey… and the most important one of them all: Gingerbread Man, why is he here so early in the game? He doesn’t make an appearance in the movie until the third act, but now he is available in the first chapter of the game. It’s alright because his purpose of being in the party is to hit random targets placed all over the swamp and distract surprisingly timely alligators with cookies. As for the other characters, Shrek can lift various objects and either throw them or place them in their designated spots. Fiona can apparently slow down time with the use of an hourglass, while Donkey can burrow kick objects into submission.

The story for Chapter 1 is that Fiona and Shrek got an invitation from Fiona’s parents to meet the lucky man who Fiona married. Shrek isn’t going to go without supplying on some eyeballs for the road and the game becomes a beat-’em up/collectable. This is the main format of the game, but it changes itself every so often. Playing the game for the first few moments was pretty fun until characters started getting stuck and locking the camera in an awkward position. The AI is the same as the majority of escort mission AIs, dumb as bricks and likely to die.

Mini played as Donkey while Gingerbread man was mine and for some reason his candy cane is a homing jump attack. The first objective to continue with the game is to collect eyeballs for unsuspecting snails in the swamp. Simple and nothing really remotely interesting, until five minutes later… Robin Hood and his French out-of-the-closet men show up to fight.

[Mini: Is it just a collectathon?

Allum: I fucking hope not. I ain’t a completionist.

*moving to next part and then in game cutscene*

Robin Hood: OH MERRY MEN!

Allum (in stunned disbelief): Mini, please explain to me why Robin Hood is French?

Mini: He isn’t French? Maybe he turned French when Fiona kicked his tights so high up his ass.]

They were surprisingly hard. There were far too many of them and Shrek and Fiona died in the process. Afterwards, it was time for fairy collecting using time-slowing hour glasses and at this point, why didn’t they just leave after getting the eyeballs? Shrek just needed his disgusting trail mix for the onion carriage.

Anyway despite feeling as though much accomplishment has been made, Shrek 2 showed itself as Dark Souls with its map design. It circled back into Shrek’s home and it turned out that Lil’ Red took over the home to make chicken soup. The place was infested with chickens and the goal was to hit the chickens into the pot. Yes, when a chicken is hit, sometimes the chicken will fly halfway throughout the map to its boiling death.

Then our merry band of heroes was then somehow convinced to journey with Lil’ Red to her grandmother’s house. At this point, our merry band of heroes should be almost stupidly late to meet the King and Queen of the kingdom and this is probably why the King hated Shrek so much because he was three days late due to collecting eyeballs, capturing fairies, and hitting chickens.

After arriving to Grandma’s house, the chapter was still not over. It was mini-game ti- sorry, “It’s Hero Time” and this time it’s Fiona’s turn in the spotlight and this one throughout the entire game is the easiest one in the whole game, but no one told us. The goal of this one is to make birds explode with Fiona’s singing. It is basically DDR and with every button Fiona sings until the final button mash where she belted so high that the birds that were trying to keep up explode.

Finally, it was the end… of chapter 1.

[Mini: That was pretty fun. I guess. (referring to Fiona’s mini-game)

Allum: Yeah, the game has a pretty good feel to it. Music is good too.

*After intro to Chapter 2*

Mini: FUcK no. Are you serious?]

As to why Mini freaked a little, Gingerbread Man ditched us for a date and Lil’ Red joined in, but the main reason was that Chapter 2 is a giant escort mission. At this point, it should almost be obvious that Mini was my saving grace in this arduous journey and this was only Chapter 2 out of 11 and it only gets worse.

Yes, the second chapter is escorting the 3 blind mice throughout a horrible forest/graveyard. A witch wants them for one of her spells and turned the horses back into mice and so the gang has to help out. The mice are disturbingly fast and the cheese does almost nothing to distract them from the various death traps waiting for them.

The best way to win was to rush as fast as possible past the mice and the two party members whose abilities are vital to this stage were Donkey and Lil’ Red. Donkey uses his burrow blast to kick old trees and gravestones to use as paths. While Lil’Red can rings bells that open gates with her spin jump and throw apples at mouse traps and rats.

Apple throwing is the most infuriating thing since the apple’s direction is thrown by which direction Lil’ Red happens to be standing and the mouse trap doesn’t go off if the apple doesn’t hit directly on it instead slightly over it. In any case, that was the most troublesome part of the escort mission.

The game also introduces a drunk knight as another enemy and initial thoughts were that he was going to be an easy enemy just more health. Instead he can’t be stunned and can keep using his sword spin move until every character is rolling in their grave wondering how an idiot took them down. The answer to that is because each hit from the knight takes half of the health bar away and the game doesn’t have that wonderful boon of invincibility frames.

Finally in the end of the escort mission, the real villain shows itself, “It’s Hero Time”. It’s the start of something evil. This time it’s Dragon and Donkey’s turn to shine in Hell. Once the mice are escorted safely, Fiona gets into the onion carriage and right before Shrek can get on, the witch casts a spell on the carriage and sends it down a path where it will fall off a cliff. This Hero Time is just a dodger, but there’s a weird delay in the inputs and it might just take a couple of times until it’s finally over and Fiona is saved.

Now Chapter 3 is something real special.

[*plays Chapter 3*

Allum: Wow

Mini: It’s just a shitty version of GTA.

Allum: What are you talking about it’s magic.]

Yes, Chapter 3 of Shrek 2 is a really shitty version of GTA and received my complete adoration and Mini’s complete hatred. Shrek and the gang made it to Far Far Away and are suddenly given the positions of deputies to help out the old father-in-law. Shrek’s just there to suck up while the others are just… there. This part of the game is the buggiest as every time the camera tilted a certain way the screen would turn a pale blue and the only thing besides the screen looking like someone accidentally hit fill on MS Paint are the shadows of the characters as grey circles.

Anyway, the only thing that’s GTA about it is there’s a star system only up to 3 stars. The easiest way to get beaten up and to get those beautiful 3 stars is just to hit a knight. Sure it might be fun to hit random people with apples or kick them halfway through the block with a burrow kick, but isn’t having Shrek carry a knight the good old Shrek way.

The goal is to help out the kingdom with thieves, escorting princesses, and helping Humpty Dumpty in several mini-games. But it’s more than any one of us expected. This section is very easy to complete because it can just end once talking to the King, but no one told us that. We both assumed that every mini-game had to be finished and some mini-games took more than two tries, but they were all doable.

Every single mini-game was played to agonizing completion. One mini-game was to escort Cinderella while she goes shopping and beat up the 40-50 armed men ready to steal from her. There was one that included beating up the Pied Piper and his children stealing rats. Shrek has his “Hero Time” just throwing outlaws into a police wagon. Another one tests platforming skills to collect Humpty Dumpty’s body. Last ones include chickens and then following a troll stealing jewels to collect them. He instakills anyone in one hit and an ‘I hate you’ note written in orc’s blood. Blah, they’re done.

On to Chapter 4, no more dilly dallying. No more with Keeping up with the Cinderellas.

Chapter 4 is a godsend. Sort of depending on how well you can press buttons. There’s no map, it’s just a rhythm boss fight with Puss-in-Boots. Anyway the King hires Puss-in-boots to kill Shrek and Fiona is left behind in the castle and left out with Gingerbread Man. This is the first time that it follows the movie in the sense that Puss-in-boots just pops out of nowhere to fight. If you make one mistake, that character is dead and you move on to control the next character. It’s just dodge and parry, the button game with the cat in the pretentious hat.

Chapter 5: Back to the basics

This section is back to the simple get to the goal and beat things up along the way. This time Shrek and the gang went to Fairy Godmother’s house to get a happily ever after for him. When they arrive, Shrek doesn’t have an appointment and can’t get in, but Lil’ Red apparently had one and just leaves the group without a care in the world. Puss-in-Boots replaces her and not surprisingly very stealthy and agile. His abilities include walking on conveniently placed ropes to the switch and looking like a deranged orange when he jump.

[Gingerbread Man: “Things would be easier if I was brown”.

Mini: What kind was joke was that? A race one? A cookie joke? Is it even a joke? What was that?]

So they are headed to Jack and Jill’s farm to get a package so they can ‘deliver’ it to Fairy Godmother’s house. There is no reason to pad the game for this long and if they followed the movie’s route, it would have been long enough, but credit is given to inserting new places in the Shrek Universe. The only enemies are pumpkins infused with Fairy Godmother’s magic or drugs. Let’s be real she is the mafia. The rest of the map is just filled with easy puzzles using mostly Puss-in-Boots to solve them. This section is relatively easy and short, but that is only because it is just practice until Chapter 5 reveals its true self.

The real level is another “Hero Time” and this time it’s Puss-in-Boots turn. Platforming rears its disgusting face in the worst way possible. In platforming, it’s acceptable to have 5 to 6 platforms until a checkpoint, but there is no checkpoint in this whole thing. It consists of platforms, ropes, and piranhas. It’s all about timing on the ropes and which way is fastest to the goal because there is more than one path. It’s honestly not that hard, but that’s only because Mini did it.

[Mini: I’m done *walks out*

Allum: Where are you going?

Mini: To get coffee, so I can try to work out why you are trying to test my love.]

Chapter 6 and this time Mini is gone. Thank goodness this time, I didn’t need help.

It’s a pretty small map once again, but it follows the same format as Far Far Away. It is chock full of mini-games and this time they are not optional. These are far easier than the ones in Far Far away and are actually enjoyable. The music and the colors make it extremely fun and whimsical. There are cows, bees, and giant carrots in the map really adding to the farm atmosphere.

The story as to why Shrek and the others have to help out in the farm is because the Three Little Pigs are lazy and they won’t give them the package until Shrek and the others finish their own for them. This is probably one of the best maps in the game and most of the mini-games are rather fun. There are so many puns in this map that Mini would have left the city if they heard all of them. Every time the mini game begins or is complete, the pig who assigned it makes a pun. These puns are masterpieces and although the writing in this game is awkward most of time, this time it is A+.

A favorite would have to be the start of the chicken collecting mini-game.

[Pig: Now don’t go killing ze chickens, I don’t want Poultry-geist running around”

Allum: *snorts*]

This game has the party go around hitting chickens and then the chickens fly up into the air and then disappear into thin air, hopefully to their coop if not then into Lil’ Red’s pot of death. A small map with some enemies and roaming chickens. Simple and easy, nothing horrible about it. There is also an egg collecting game that is impossible to fail and is reminiscent of a Mario Party game. The needle in the haystack one is just a clusterfuck based on luck. There are either 16-25 haystacks and the needle is in one of them. The more haystacks are hit, the more rats are released. At one point there were so many rats, the poor slave called Gamecube started to make the worst crying sounds and the reaper named “Lag” showed itself.

As always there’s “Hero Time” and it’s Gingerbread Man’s turn. It has nothing to do with him being a cookie or any of his skills or acquaintances. This poor living cookie has to climb up a ridiculously large hill to get a pail of water while avoiding being crushed by giant tomatoes that want him decomposing for their future children. There is nothing sophisticated about it. It is just a simple ‘get to the goal’, but it is a waste of Gingerbread Man.

Finally, the Pigs give the gang the box to deliver to Fairy Godmother’s house. And guess who’s back! Mini came back to suffer with me. Oh yeah so is Lil’ Red.

Gingerbread Man left us probably because he needed a milk bath after the tomato incident and so Chapter 7 appears. Chapter 7 is when the game amps up the difficulty. It starts off easy in the first puzzle, which is just having Shrek move crystal orbs around until there are no more lasers in the way. If any of the characters hit the laser, a bunch of heavily armed men will show up. The best part of this section is that Smokey the Bear showed up sleeping on one of Fairy Godmother’s couches.

Now here’s where the game starts to flip its middle finger. “It’s Hero Time” with Lil’ Red and the Fairy Godmother. Now normally it only takes a couple of times to finish these mini-games, but NOT a full hour of my life. So this poor girl has to run on a 3 conveyer belts with giant spikes in between each one as a short magic-buffed grandma tries to sucker punch her into the afterlife with homing magic missiles. And all she has to defend herself are apples.

Eventually, Lil’ Red won and the chapter continues with our heroes finally making it to the potion room. It’s pretty much a team effort to get it and it’s fun.

Then it’s a mob fight. There are just so many. We lost a few times and the fight started from the beginning.

We wanted to just go to sleep, but there were only four more chapters left. We came too far.

There were at least more than 50 guys there and the feeling of death was washing over us. Still wasn’t over, Ryan Seacrest shows up as a boss fight. He hit pretty hard for a pretty boy, but he was no match for the patented, old ‘hit and run’. We beat him up and then his mommy comes to chase us out of their home. There was an actual chase scene, but far more manageable than her boss fight. But we did it, we got the potion.

[Allum: FINALLY!!!!

Mini: Don’t wake the neighbors.

Allum: They’re having sex again. Don’t even try. *sassy pose*]

8th Chapter is fine except for the “It’s Hero Time” segment. At this point in the game, Shrek and Donkey have transformed into a handsome guy and a white stallion. They’ve been locked up because Fairy Godmother sees him as too handsome. Now it’s finally time for new characters to have their time to shine.

This game feels new again because half of the party has been replaced. It’s jailbreak time with fairy tale characters. Gingerbread Man and Lil’ Red are back in action and finally on the team at the same time. They all have the same abilities as always. But there are two new characters, the Big Bad Wolf and Fairy. Starting with the Big Bad Wolf, he deals a lot of damage and his special is his blowing ability which helps with a lot of the puzzles. His animations and lines are actually rather nice and he plays similarly to Shrek as the tank except that he can stay in the air longer due to his dress.

Now onto the Queen herself, Fairy, she is amazing. Yes, her name is Fairy and no, she is not Tinkerbell. It says so on her character profile. Whatever, she’s so badass. She is the leader and drill sergeant of the team and she takes no BS. Her abilities include flying, granting others the ability to fly temporarily, and becoming a machine gun. Her normal attacks fire extremely fast and her movement speed is faster than anyone else. Her only bane is that because she is floating the entire time, she can’t press buttons or lift objects, but that’s what the others are for. She doesn’t need to do anything besides kill and float.

The actual level is a good old regular prison break mission. The goal is to break out 2 out of the 3 Little Pigs and Shrek and Donkey. There’s no big tricks or super aggravating things in this part. It boils down to bring something to somewhere to open a door, press a switch, or blow a giant boulder up/down a slope with Big Bad Wolf. There is actually some challenge with the game because if the characters are detected a lot of enemies will come to attack them and those enemies hit like a carriage. Overall, this is probably one of the best parts of the game along with Far Far Away and Jack and Jill’s Farm just because all the characters are really fun to play with.

“It’s Hero Time” is actually not rage inducing. It is far better than the previous one with Apple Thrower vs Magic Missile Caster. This time it’s the Big Bad Wolf’s turn and it’s technically the same as Puss-in-Boots’. It’s a simple get to the goal game except there is some platforming and instead of piranhas with predictable attack patterns, there are rolling bombs. Poor Wolfie has to do this to get the key to free Shrek and Donkey. We actually got it on our first try so that’s why this one isn’t so scathing as the others.

Time for Chapter 9 and now party switch-a-roo time!

[*Chapter 9 starts and playable characters show up*

Mini: You RUiNeD It! *Points at the screen* MY QUEEN.

Allum: More like your machine gun.

Mini: My Queen has fallen… *drops to her knees*]

Good-bye interesting cast of characters and interesting party chemistry. Welcome back Shrek, Donkey, and Puss-in-Boots. Interesting thing now is that Shrek and Donkey now count as one character because the whole time Human!Shrek is riding on top of Horse!Donkey. They are now the main damage dealers in the team and are extremely fast. Shrek now wields a giant lance and can throw an unlimited amount of damaging magic potions at enemies. They can break large objects and crystals. The two people from Fairy Tale Heist Team that stayed are the Gingerbread Man and the Big Bad Wolf.

However this stage is once again pretty good and rather easy. It’s just simply running through the map and slaying down enemies. The level is designed like a temple and looks like it was copy-and-pasted straight from a Lara Croft or Uncharted game. It’s a rather pretty level as it There is some pretty good background music too. It’s rather mystical sounding and pleasant to listen to.

There’s a pretty varied bunch of enemies here instead of just normal men. There are spiders, giant spiders, frogmen, and golems. The only real threats are the spiders and stone golems. The spiders have shown up before, but now there are more of them and if three of them gang up on any character, it’s basically instant death as there is no invincibility frames to allow the character to escape. The stone golems and the golden golem are probably the biggest threat because they have the largest HP bar and hit extremely hard, but can be easily taken down with Shrek’s magic potions.

“It’s Hero Time” and it’s almost the last one and it is genuinely a horrible experience. It is tiring and requires absolute focus, but it’s fucking hilarious. So Fairy Godmother surprises the gang and kidnaps Snow White in her glass casket. Then Shrek and Donkey chases after Fairy Godmother and Snow White as they’re racing down the in a mine cart. It would have been funnier if the controller didn’t go flying. Fairy Godmother takes at least 7 times to take her down and it’s a long mini-game for that. Shrek and Donkey are only allowed 1 hit and then they die. Never in my years have there ever been such pure, unadulterated hatred for a game and twisters in Harvest Moon exist.

After what felt like a lifetime, it’s over and the gang is back in Far Far Away. Chapter 10 and guess what, the gang are now firefighters and their mission comes from Smokey the Bear who turns out to also be Papa Bear. This was honestly the best part of this chapter. But also why isn’t Smokey helping out and if he was there to prevent fires, why are there several fires all over Far Far Away. No more bugging out into a pale blue death screen this time, thankfully.

It’s an easy mission of just putting out fires by using Big Bad Wolf or a water cannon and breaking down doors to let people escape. There wasn’t anything hard about it and is rather pointless. Smokey had no reason to stop these random group of people and tell them to put out all the fires and save all the people from the doors that won’t open from the inside. It contributed nothing and it was just to ease the player’s tension from the previous “It’s Hero Time” and to get them prepared for the next part of the level.

[Allum: It’s a trap. That giant gingerbread monster is going to appear and it’s going to be an escort mission.

Mini: That part’s obvious. Why are you freaking out?

Allum: I don’t know. One of us has still to react to this game.]

Surprise, it’s an escort mission. It’s even more aggravating this time. This time the gang is escorting Mongo, that giant Gingerbread Man, through the entire town. He’s such a huge target it’s not even funny. So the gang has to destroy the knights using water cannons/catapults that shoot disturbingly fast while running through roofs. Mongo is so easily killed and we actually had to turn up the brightness on the TV because we couldn’t see what we had to use to defeat the knights and if we actually got them.

After the roof section, it’s the same thing, but on the Far Far Away version of Beverly Hills. It is easier than the roof section as long as Shrek and Donkey are used correctly because now a bunch of enemies will come out and only Shrek and Donkey can knock them out easily. Mongo will be on one side of the street while Shrek and the others will be on the other. The Gingerbread Man can now direct Mongo to destroy obstacles on Mongo’s side of the road with his throwing cookies. It’s pretty creative and a test in multitasking and timing. Nothing feels better than throwing a cookie and more than thousands of dollars of property damage is done.

And finally the last “It’s Hero Time”, and who else would the last hero be in Shrek 2 than Mongo, the best character in the movie. This time it’s rather easy compared to the other ones because it is timed to be less than a minute and it is just a still turret section. The goal is to protect Mongo and it was the most exhilarating part of the game because the game was almost over. The banquet was almost upon us and we were not going to waste any more time.

So… Chapter 11… That lil’ old chapter. The banquet did not happen and we turned off the Gamecube and got coffee. Who cares about a sense of accomplishment? Neither one of us was willing to put anymore time on Shrek 2 for the Gamecube.

Let’s get this straight, WE DID NOT FINISH THE GAME. Because this section is such bullshit. It is a multi stage boss fight against Fairy Godmother. So Shrek and Donkey turned back to normal and Fiona is back in the party. GIngerbread Man and the Big Bad Wolf are nowhere to be seen. A part of me wished that we could finish it, but it’s just the worst thing ever. Fairy Godmother and Ryan Seacrest doesn’t fight fair. We got up to third stage and that’s it for the review.

So the first part of the boss fight is with the drunk knight that can take down half of a character’s health in one hit. But now there is 10 of them. And they surround the party in a circle. It took a while before we got the trick was just to wait in the middle because the knights can’t actually spin move all the way into the middle to hurt the party. They have an indicator to show when the knights will stop their spin moves and it’s that their armor will fall to their ankles. This took six times until we figured that out.

The next stage of the fight is with a troll that switches between running up to a character to hit them and throwing bombs. This troll showed up in previous chapters and is just as easy as the previous times. If anything this part is just to let the party heal up as there are health potions on platforms that only Puss-in-Boots can get to. This troll hits pretty hard, but goes down in 3 hits from a kicked back bomb.

The last stage that we got to is a pseudo fight. Fairy Godmother will come down to fight, but the fight stops after a little bit of her health is missing. The real part of the stage is when Ryan Seacrest shows up and makes a lame ass joke about Trolls and unleashes not 1, not 2, but 3 trolls onto the battlefield. We were probably just unlucky because 1 troll was throwing bombs while the other 2 came rushing at the party and easily took them all out every time. And that’s the end of our Shrek 2 journey.

In conclusion, play this game if you love Shrek or want to test the strength of your relationship. It’s a fun ride with friends, but it’s not the best game to play alone. Someone has to be there to share the rage and frustration. Most of the levels are pretty varied and no one level is the same. The music is rather whimsical and it’s clear that a good amount of effort was put into it. The cutscenes get worse the more you progress through the game and sometimes the AI will glitch out. Because we couldn’t finish the game, we found the credits in the menu and decided to watch it. It is fabulous and is better than any of the game’s cutscenes. Every name in the credits is accompanied by a renaissance caricature of the person and the background for the portrait is never the same. So the game is the same as the credits and the credits are the same as this review, far too much effort has been put into it.