Wow, it’s December already. Hopefully, I can keep blogging well into 2026.

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My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s Ep. 9

To kill, or not to kill. That is the quest-… oh, just get over it already. You’re an assassin, are you not? Anyway, to kick things off, Akira tells his classmates that he can’t join them yet. After all, he needs to make sure Gram doesn’t target his woman ever again! Yeah, by killing him right? Right…? Well, no, not exactly. Which is why Amelia is now training to become stronger under Crow’s tutelage. If she becomes strong, then Akira won’t have to kill for her! Yeah, never compromise your values! Not even for the woman you love! But this philosophy runs him into trouble, because when they meet Igsam, the king of the beastfolk wants our not-quite-an-assassin to assassinate Gram. By refusing, Akira has insulted Igsam greatly. The king has been besmirched! Akira thus ends up having to fend off the beastfolk’s greatest warrior. Alright, sure. Our MC has proven that he’s super strong, so now nobody can tell him what to do! Yay! But then he learns from Crow that Gram had a hand in Saran (Wrap)’s death. So now the urge to kill is back? Dude, make up your mind. And if you ultimately decide not to kill — if you just want to skulk in the shadows like an Edgy McEdgelord — then change your fucking class to like… I dunno, special agent or whatever. An assassin assassinates. It’s in the name.

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Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill S2 Ep. 9

Ah, our protagonist is fighting off plants with herbicide. So funny. Anyway, Mukoda decides to leave Dolan for, uh… lemme check my notes… the small city of Nijhoff. I don’t know why I bother to remember any of these locations, because it’s not like he forms any meaningful relationships with anyone in any of these cities. Well, I am glad to rid ourselves of Elrand. The dragon-loving elf is a bit annoying. But the new city has a guy with a Hitler ‘stache, so I dunno…

In general, however, I just get the feeling that Mukoda shuns people. Maybe he doesn’t do it purposefully, but the end result is the same. He seems friendly enough on the surface, but his interactions with his own kind are cursory and shallow at best. He sticks to himself and his familiars, and that’s a bit boring.

Something else that’s boring — besides the show’s complete lack of a plot — is just how no one has really changed or grown at all. And no, I’m not talking about their character levels, but this does remind me of my bigger issue with the show. Apparently, Sui has evolved and can now become a really big slime! But that’s just a game mechanic. In terms of character development, none of these characters have made any marked improvement. Mukoda’s character arc is a flat line.

Anyways, nothing too exciting on the food front this week. We just meat stacked on top of meat. Literally mounds of them. And when they’re not eating mountains of meat, they’re eating mountains of carbs. Well, he does make Japanese curry for the gang, which contains some veggies. In the process of making it, Mukoda even remarks that he’s tried all sorts of curries, but he’ll always return to the Japanese variant. I’m the opposite. Korma is fantastic, and I love the spiciness and aroma of an authentic Thai green curry. I enjoy Japanese curry fine — I’ll even make it at home from time to time — but it’s definitely at the bottom of the curry totem pole.

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Yano-kun’s Ordinary Days Ep. 10

It’s Yano’s birthday, so the kids go over the top with it. Not only does he get a ton of snacks, they’ve even organized an elaborate treasure hunt with multiple clues. At the very end, he gets a box with his own very special girlfriend inside! I wonder if the gang will put in this much effort when someone else’s birthday rolls around. And if not, why? I’m sure Hashiba would love a box of Kiyoko too!

In the latter half of the episode, Kiyoko and Yano does an exchange diary exercise. It’s kinda like penpals except with a notebook that you pass back and forth. You’re supposed to take the notebook home before you read and answer the question that the other person wrote, but they’re sitting right next to each other. Oh well, I guess it’s a cheap way to animate the episode.

Kiyoko eventually asks Yano why he still wears his eyepatch. Has his injury not healed by now?! Well, the boy gets all insecure about it. He even runs and hides from his own girlfriend every time their class goes on break, which is a bad habit he still hasn’t outgrown. Bro, where’s the character development?! We’re ten episodes deep, and you’re still doing this? Well, guess what? It turns out he just has homophobia heterochromia. See? Nothing to be embarrassed about.

Right before the episode ends, however, he teases the possibility of other potentially friendship-ruining secrets he might have. Ooooooooh. Then we get a glimpse of a gloomy-looking girl who recognizes Yano. A new character? At the 11th hour? A portent of things to come?! But in all seriousness, this is a light-hearted show with low stakes and an even lower budget. I doubt Yano’s “secrets” are anything particularly life shattering, especially considering how he made a mountain out of a molehill about his eye colors.

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Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits- Season 2 Ep. 9

Aoi heads north where it’s full of snow, sky pirates, a literal ass yeti, and her former employee Kasuga. Her husband Kiyo intends to support Odanna in the upcoming vote, but he wants Aoi’s help in return: boosting the region’s flagging tourism. As you might’ve expected, this means whipping up a specialty dish using local ingredients. And while we’re here, we’re also embroiled in an assassination plot. Aoi and Kasuga were about to sit down to a delicious meal when the tanuki notices that the ice plates are actually made from frozen poison water. Basically, some of the people here aren’t her biggest fans. Even her own husband is kinda frosty with her (pun fully intended).

I dunno, the whole thing feels somewhat uncreative. Ah, we’re up north so here’s a palace made out of ice, plates made out of ice, etc. And since they couldn’t enjoy the local delicacy, which wasn’t that exciting to begin with, Aoi whips up Japanese curry. Curry in anime? Whoa, what a shocker.

By the way, I love the animation of the tainted food being thrown out.

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Hero Without a Class: Who Even Needs Skills?! Ep. 10

Arel impresses more magical schools by… let’s see here… creating a kickass golem, zapping the undead with his holy magic, and enslaving a demon he found in a book. Just another day for our blasé hero. But there is a plot… sorta. The Black Institute of Magic is about to lose a huge chunk of its funding, so its headmaster goes and summon the supposedly greatest monster from the demon realm! Which is just a dark, indistinct blob. Well, it quickly swallows him up, so I guess Arel will have to clean up his mess in next week’s episode. Yay, so exciting.

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Dusk Beyond the End of the World Ep. 9

Next week’s episode is the big lore drop, so I almost don’t even care to talk about this week’s episode. Basically, Akira isn’t human; he’s an android and he’s been an android all along. Yugure knew this whole time, but she didn’t tell him because… well, she expected him to have a mental breakdown, and that’s exactly what’s happening. He’s calling himself fake and artificial, and he’s losing his reason to exist. So only now is Yugure finally ready to reveal the truth… next time on Dragon Ball Z Dusk Beyond the End of the World. Sigh, of course.

The narrative tries to draw an equivalence between that cheating husband and Yugure’s lie by omission. Y’see, this is what happens when someone you loves lies to you! It hurts this bad! Eh, I dunno about that. Look, if Yugure knew he couldn’t handle the truth, then I get it. A lie is a lie, but if someone might kill themselves over the truth, it’s better to just shut up. And it sure as hell looks to me that he can’t handle the truth. Meanwhile, no world exists in which you should cheat on your partner for their own good, so it’s not the same.

Oh yeah, Amoru keeps looking at the “camera” with a hurt expression every time she sees Akira and Yugure grow closer to one another. Girl, you sit at the kid’s table when the adults talk. Do you know what that means? Of course, her heartbreak would be lessened if Akira had drawn strict boundaries with from the start. But he’s not a reliable adult; he’s just a newborn android.

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Pass the Monster Meat, Milady! Ep. 9

Apparently, Melphy’s hair looks unkempt here. Well, coulda fooled me. Nevertheless, Aristide can’t help his dear fiancée with this problem ’cause men can’t comb their wives’ hair…? As a result, he summons a female-only knight corps. So… do they fight in those poofy shirts? Unfortunately, there’s little to talk about in this week’s episode. It’s nice to see Melphy make new friends, but there’s nothing else to chew on. It’s the same ol’ schtick as with the men. Melphy says she eats monster meat, everyone acts surprised, then she swears that she’ll will win them over if they would just try her cooking. Ho hum.

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My Gift Lvl 9999 Unlimited Gacha Ep. 9

Christ, how many setup episodes do you need to get your revenge? At the very end of the episode, the bad guys lure the even badder guys (everyone sucks here) into a teleportation trap that sends everyone to different locations. I’ve seen this same thing in a billion shows before. Most notably, this is how they kicked off the final series of Demon Slayer movies, yeah? So I mean, the same stunt but executed shoddily hardly raises an eyebrow here.

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A Wild Last Boss Appeared! Ep. 10

Lufas has been looking for another player, but it turns out they were right next to him this entire time. Unfortunately, Dina isn’t a villainess. She’s just one of the game’s beta testers, and she has been trying to manipulate Lufas into defeating the demon king, which he was probably going to do anyway even without her. Why do some of the servants remember her though? Because Dina can alter people’s memories. In that case, I think making her a former developer would have made more sense. I’m not sure a beta tester would have the know-how to do so such a thing, buuuuuuuut I guess this isn’t all that important.

What is important is that Dina’s still loyal to Lufas in the end, which is a groaner. If anything, this just makes her a prime waifu candidate. A Wild Last Boss Appeared! is surprisingly not a haremfest like a lot of similar-minded trapped-in-an-MMO anime series (this is still a subset of the isekai genre, right?). But if you have to pick at least one character to be crowned the waifu, then it’s gotta be Dina, right? ‘Cause when this is all said and done — if and when she and Lufas can return to the real world — they have the ability meet up. He can’t say the same about anyone else he meets. Who really knows what Dina looks like in the real world, but hey, it’s 2025! Love comes in all forms these days!

Elsewhere, a kingdom manages to isekai some poor sap into this shitty world. Judging by his uniform, he’s yet another Japanese high schooler. Really going out on the limb there. Imagine if they had snagged a Bostonian bro, though. But I digress.

If A Wild Last Boss Appeared! isn’t a haremfest, then why don’t I like it more? I mean, it’s kinda boring, isn’t it? The characters aren’t that deep, Lufas wins every battle without breaking a sweat, and the world-building is generic as all hell. What is there to love?

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My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me! Ep. 9

Iroha is still in a funk due to Mashiro confessing her love to the MC. As a result, Iroha’s stopped teasing the MC (as you can see from the screenshot above, she still has no problem teasing others), but she also can’t put her heart and soul into her voice acting. Basically, our MC has to put his big boy pants on and settle things with both girls.

First things first, he takes Mashiro out on a fancy dinner date only to reject her when it is all said and done. But she does that annoying harem shit move where she promises to keep trying forever and ever. Oh my god, please get a life. Normal people would just move on and date someone else. You’re going to graduate, go to college, meet so many interesting folks, and who knows? Maybe you’ll see the light and realize that most childhood romances are best left in the past where they belong. Granted, some couples make it work, but a vast majority don’t. And when there are so many fish in the sea, why would you waste your time pining over the guy who has already rejected you? A guy who has baggage in the form of another girl, who literally has a key to his apartment? Would you date someone whose BFF straddles them in the morning?

Anyway, the MC now has to turn his attention to Iroha, and it’ll probably play out similarly, i.e. he won’t completely shut the door on them potentially entering a relationship one day, but it’s still gonna be a no for now because he has to focus on his video game. After all, what kind of harem anime slop would we be if we actually picked a girl and started dating her in earnest while juggling the rest of our responsibilities because that’s what normal people do?

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The Banished Court Magician Aims to Become the Strongest Ep. 9

We get Ornest’s backstory, but he’s the member of the party I care the least about. I actually rather dislike his character archetype.

Meanwhile, Yorha is still a damsel-in-distress. In fact, the bad guys have made it to the dungeon’s core, whatever that is. It’s bad enough that our heroine is so helpless that she needs to be saved, but she’s been unconscious this entire time. You essentially remove one of the most important characters from the story just so she can be helpless and thus saved. As you can tell, I rather dislike this trope.

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Hands off: Sawaranaide Kotesashi-kun Ep. 9

Volleyball girl works her magic on the MC, and he’s surprised that she’s such a fast learner. Basically, volleyball girl could steal his job one day. Do it. Steal his job and his girls.

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Alma-chan Wants to Be a Family! Ep. 9

Looking at Alma’s grades actually reminds me of the first time I ever had a parent-teacher conference. Doesn’t it look like it’s full of zeros? Those are top marks, but my parents didn’t know that. They were expecting A’s! So when they saw my grades for the first time, they quickly assumed that I got a big fat zero on every damn subject. Thanks for believing in me, mom and dad!

Anyways, this show is normally a comedy, but for some reason, the first half of the episode is a vignette about a boy (probably a middle schooler) meeting an older-looking Alma and falling in love with her. Considering how Alma normally looks, this part wasn’t too comfy. Plus, I’m not sure what I am supposed to get out of it. Again, it isn’t funny, but it isn’t bittersweet either. It’s just a poorly done story about a kid’s first love.

In the latter half of the episode, Alma wants to spend time with her parents before her summer vacation is over, so they pack a bunch of activities into a very short time period. We even get a mini beach episode where Suzume shows up in a bathing suit but Enji just wears a shirt. Guys really don’t have to try, huh? Also, when a typhoon threatens to cancel a summer festival, Alma literally shoots the typhoon down with a laser beam. Well, would you look at that! I guess you can nuke hurricanes after all!

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Dad is a hero, Mom is a spirit, I’m a reincarnator Ep. 9

A pandemic strikes, so Ellen has to don her apothecary hat and play doctor. She was… what? A chemist in her past life? Eh, I’m not sure I’d trust any regular ol’ chemist to whip up medicine, but we gotta suspend our disbelief for anime. Unfortunately, those royals are up to no good again. As a result, her cousin goes missing. The bad guys are so dumb, they targeted the wrong girl. Or their goons did. It doesn’t matter, because you’re responsible for your underlings’ actions. Sadly, I’m sure this incident will only exacerbate Rafilia’s inferiority complex, i.e. even the villains don’t want her.

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Mechanical Marie Ep. 9

In the first half of the episode, Marie tries her damndest to become friends with the Arthur fan club. Why? I have no idea. I get that she wants friends, but why them? I’m sure there are nice girls lurking somewhere in that rich, fancy school. In the end, Marie doesn’t even win them over. The leader of the fan club reluctantly accepts our girl as a rival instead.

In the second half of the episode, Arthur actually discovers Marie’s secret! And after spying on her, he accepts that he has fallen in love with a human. More importantly, he accepts that not all humans are untrustworthy. Progress, right? Well, no. Now he’s going to keep the fact that he knows her secret… a secret. Pathetic. But we still have maybe three or four episodes left. Let’s see if the show can finish strong.

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Li’l Miss Vampire Can’t Suck Right Ep. 8

We finally get the beach episode, and it’s about as tropey as you can get. Luna and Otori try to swim, but they can’t. So they eat good food, build sand castles, stare at the sunset, light fireworks, and tell each other how much fun they had. That’s it. The show pretty much lined up a bunch of clichés in a row and knocked them down one by one. This is is one massive nothingburger of an episode.

Well, there is one sweet moment. Y’know how Luna won’t show up on a camera because she’s a vampire? That doesn’t mean Otori can’t draw a picture of her. It’s no Van Gogh, but it’s still a nice gesture. Nevertheless, I still can’t root for the main “couple” to get together by the end of the series. I mean, just look at them.

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Tougen Anki Ep. 20

The Onis manage to lure the Momotaros into an ambush and thus have a numbers advantage. Nevertheless, they still split up to have 1-on-1 battles. What are the rest of them doing? Standing on the sidelines and watching. I honestly don’t get it. Remember when Evil Eye took on multiple people at the same time, and that was one of the hypest fights in all of Dandadan? Why can’t the Onis do the same? Are they stupid?

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Gachiakuta Ep. 21

So it’s a race against time. The Cleaners have to destroy the trash beast’s core before it crosses through the barrier, but not if the Raiders have anything to say about it. First, Bundus somehow slows down most of the Cleaners squad all by himself with his robo hands. In retaliation, Rudo promptly powers up and breaks through Bundus’s defenses, because that’s just what shounen protagonists do. Hate the commentary from the sidelines. It was better when everyone was all split up, because then people wouldn’t be tempted to over-explain every little thing. Alright, so Bundus is down for the count, but now Noerde is back for round two. It looks like she too has somehow powered up. I’m sure everyone will be happy to explain how this works in next week’s episode down to the most minute detail. Meanwhile, Zodyl and the rest of the Raiders are just gonna hightail it outta there without him even lifting a finger to show us what we can do. Weak.

There’s something I want to harp about. It’s clear that Riyo is expected not to kill if she wants to remain a member of the Cleaners. Personally, I don’t get it. Look, I’m not exactly bloodthirsty either, but there’s a reason for that: my world technically has the rule of law. Now, now, I know corrupt officials let bad guys get away with bad things all the time, especially if they’re rich. But it’s generally accepted that you arrest the baddies, you give them a fair trial, then you sentence them to a punishment that isn’t cruel or unusual. That’s what we’re supposed to do in a functional society. But in a half-broken world where the villains can be real scumbags — like, say, harvesting the organs of pretty girls (I’m not talking specifically about Gachiakuta if you’re confused) — then why would you not kill the bad guys? Why would you impose such a strict limitation on yourself? Do I think Riyo should’ve killed Jabber in saving Zanka? Yeah, I fucking do. What’s the point of keeping him alive? What value does he add to this trash-filled world? We’re going to let bad guys like him terrorize more people (like her allies) just so we can pat ourselves on the back for “not sinking to their level?”

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Everything else about everything else:

I finally tried Demonschool. I wanted to like it due to the obvious Persona 1/2 influences influences, but I sadly don’t. Pros? Pretty awesome backgrounds. The folks behind the game did a bang up job with the pixel art. The soundtrack isn’t half bad either. The combat system is kinda interesting. It’s like a tactical RPG, but you get to plan out five or six moves at once in order to create combos and wipe all of the enemies out within a certain turn limit. Unfortunately, there’s one major con that’s dragging the game down: the characters are just terrible. They’re trying too hard to be wacky. Also, an important component to any RPG are the NPCs. For the first few days, I went around the island and tried to talk to all of them. Sadly, they literally have nothing interesting to say:

Proud Dad: “I love my seven kids! It’s great being a dad.”

Confused Teacher: “How’d I get in here?”

Computer Misunderstander: “How am I supposed to use it when it’s so high up?”

Stylish Student: “Oh these? I made them.”

Tired Teacher: “Nothing like the fire of youth.”

Also, does this game take place in a university or a high school? The story can’t make up its mind.

I’ve played a bit of Hyke: Northern Light(s). It has a very RPG Maker feel to it. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, but it’s also not a great sign. I wish the game had a turn-based combat system where I could use all of the characters at once. Instead, it’s an action RPG where you swap between them as needed. Unfortunately, what usually happens here is that I’ll default to a character that feels comfortable to use and thus neglect the others.

As for games I did finish, I finally wrapped up my playthrough of Urban Myth Dissolution Center. It has a really neat concept, and the pixel art here is also fantastic. I somewhat enjoyed the first five cases. They weren’t brilliantly executed, but I had fun guessing who the bad guys were in each case. Unfortunately, the overarching plot felt the need to pull a massive twist at the very end, and I’m not sure the game sticks the landing. It’s one of those situations where I think being plain and ordinary would’ve been more satisfying. I’d rather see Zammy and her new bestie Jasmine continue going around Japan (or maybe even the world) solving mysteries rather than this multi-layered revenge story that also packs in a multiple personalities gimmick. It’s beyond silly. Still, the game entertained me for most of the ten hours I put into it, so I don’t regret buying it.

I also got the platinum trophy for Dredge. I picked the game mainly for the vibes. As much as I enjoy visual novels, I can’t really multi-task with them. It’s hard to read one thing and also listen to a video or stream on the side. Luckily, fishing up eldritch fish monsters from the deep doesn’t take much thought. Getting those last few crab aberrations was super annoying, though. I had to put eight or so crab pots down and sleep through multiple days just to fill out the last few entries in my fish journal.

At the moment, I’m not sure what to play next. Dave the Diver has been sitting on my PS5 for a while now, and I guess it would be a natural follow up to Dredge. But I also wanna finish Ender Lilies (didn’t get very far initially) and then start Ender Magnolia. Mostly for the Mili soundtracks, to be honest.

Onto non-game related topics, I publish links to my posts on other social media platforms. What I find interesting this season is that Facebook users mostly click on my posts about The Fated Magical Princess. Meanwhile, the Tumblr crowd is mostly into Sanda. SPY x FAMILY gets decent love from both sites. The contrast is kinda fascinating. I would talk about Bluesky, but it barely gets me any referrals. That’s alright, though. I mostly use Bluesky just to shout random thoughts into the void. Maybe things would be different if I actually tried to connect with others and thus build up my base of followers. But man, I hate networking in real life, and I hate doing it online as well.

Oh yeah, did any of you see the news about Amazon using AI to dub Banana Fish? It sucks that the world mostly runs on greed, but at least you can understand such a simple and straightforward philosophy: if it makes you more money, then pull the lever. But who on earth thought AI dubbing anime would actually make them any money? Not only is there a ton of AI fatigue going around, the AI dubbing isn’t even done well! It’s so bad that it loops back to being funny! Anyone who spends even 10 seconds listening to a clip of it should instantly come away with the conclusion that it’s an abject disaster. Therein lies the problem: some people are impressed by this. AI enthusiasts keep putting out stuff that they think are brilliant when it’s clearly not the case. “Whoa, check out this movie trailer generated completely by AI! We’re going to disrupt the film industry!” I look at the trailer and it’s complete shit. Even AI porn doesn’t look good. But some people are not only fooled by the false gold, they become evangelists for it. What is going on?

Y’know, I use a lot of em dashes. I wonder how many people think I rely on generative AI to pump out these posts.