melworks

Welcome to the Outcasts Restaurant - Action/Comedy/Fantasy/Slice of Life Anime about a guy who kets kicked out of his adventuring party by the jealous leader. He goes off to follow his dream and open a restaurant. Along the way he buys a slave girl to save her from a pedo. - The first ep was pretty standard for this type of anime. Characters are super generic which is sort of soothing in a way. Will check out next episode.

Dan Da Dan, Season 2 - Action/Comedy/Drama/Romance/Sci-Fi/Shounen/Supernatural anime - Second season picks up where the first season ends. - I watched the first season of this and thought it was okay but still don't get why some people are just so into it. *shrug* It's watchable, and the character relationships are entertaining. Will watch again, but wouldn't be surprised if I just bing then when its all over instead of watching the weeklies.

Kamitsubaki City Under Construction - Action/Mystery/Supernatural anime - It opens with a disasterous event called the Blackout that kills off a large portion of humanity then jumps forward seven years. The protagonists have the ability to destroy monsters with their songs. - I didn't know what to expect when I sat down to watch this one and was pleasantly surprised. The first ep jumps around a bit much. The world is interesting, where a city runs on the literal power of an idea and people spontaneously turn into monsters because of negative feelings. Will watch second ep but don't know if this will keep me invested or not.

The Water Magician - Action/Adventure/Fantasy/Isekai - Starts off with a typical isekai hook, Ryou dies in an accident and is reincarnated, for some reason, in the magical world of Phi , where he begins to master water magic. What he doesn't realize is that he also has the Eternal Youth blessing. - Typical isekai. First ep is set up and intro to the protagonist, Ryou. Did like how he used his water magic in unconventional ways, and the appearance of the dulahan and the interactions with the dragon surprised me. Will watch more.

So, that's eleven new anime total in the first three days and more in the wings.

New summer anime season has begun and I thought I'd just make some notes on stuff I'm watching.
Okay?
Okay!

Detectives These Days are Crazy! - mystery/comedy anime about a guy who was a detective prodigee in high school, but now he's an adult detective and his life is pretty much crap. Enter, a spunky high school girl looking for a job as a detective's assistant. Hijinkx ensue. - Yeah. Not my cup of tea. Pass.

Necronomico & The Cosmic Horror Show - a game/horror anime about a bunch of social media influencers who get invited to take part in a new virtual game. Turns out a bunch of Elder Gods are inhabiting this VR game and the influencers who survived the first round now have to try and beat them, to save the world. - The concept was interesting, but didn't care for the animation. The story might be a slow burn, but it just didn't grab me. Pass.

I went by My Local Gameshop this afternoon, not really expecting to find anything, so, of course, I did. There, sitting on the shelf, was a box set for Daggerheart, the new RPG from the folks at Critical Role. I was curious about it, so I picked it up. It cost me $63 for the box which included the core rule book and the cards.

I just finished reading through it, skimming some parts, and it's a pretty decent book. It definitely has Matthew Mercer's voice throughout, which can be good or bad. Your personal milage may very.

I'll be honest, I'm probably never going to play this game. It comes with cards, which are convenient for some people but distracting to me personally. They encourage the use of tokens. The Hope/Fear dice mechanic is a bit of a twist and, honestly, just another thing that I don't really want to have to keep track of.

The race descriptions (Dwarf, Elf, etc) are concise and to the point, and they include some nice sketches with additional info. They are, conceptually, heavily influenced by the last few seasons of Critical Role.

The class choices and descriptions are equally as concise. Honestly, though? I found the classes to be kind of flat. Most are just reskins of already existing D&D classes. Each class gets a number of Hit Poiints, an Evasian number(which functions like Armor Class), a unique Class ability and then you choose from two subclasses for additional benefits.

Backgrounds, I think, are where they get a bit weak. Backgrounds are meant to reflect a PC's upbringing, and the writers are a bit schizo with their choices. They go from purely geographic locals (Ridgeborne = Mountain Dwellers) to social status (Highborne = Rich/Nobles).

The game has cards and tokens, which I've never cared for in a TTRPG. Just another thing to track. Also, there's this Domain thing tied to Classes affecting things like abilities, spells, etc. you can choose.

It's all just a bit fiddly to me, with way too many moving parts. Give me simple and straightforward.

So, I'll probably take it out to the Store soon and resell it.

I went back to the doctor's today to follow up on my visit a few weeks ago. As I said in an earlier post, the dizziness has improved but lately I've been having some disomfort in my right ear. It feels a bit like I've got water in that ear and it just doesn't want to come out. Which makes sense as according to my NP, I probably still have fluid in the ear. They suspected my eustacian tubes might be compressed, adding to the problem, so advised I use FloNase twice a day for three days. He also said he'd write me a perscription for antibiotics, which I'm surprised he did because he said my ear doesn't look infected.

So, I guess I'm just playing a waiting game at this point.

On another matter, my blood pressure was ridiculously hight: 160/105. Jeebus! That's high, even for me! I usually over about the 140/95 mark. I'm wondering if a combination of factors didn't lead to it being artificially inflated: a large meal the previous night with a lot of salt, an energy drink and then lack of hydration today? I don't know, but I guess I have to start walking again to see if I can get the damn numbers down to something better.

Ah, April. When the new seasons of anime drop. Here's some thoughts on the new shows that have dropped that I've watched so far.

Rock Is a Lady's Modesty - hmm. The premise is unusual. The adopted daughter of a rich guy gets sent to a posh school for the upper class and has to work hard to fit in, which means denying her true, more common, nature. She meets another girl, who is secretly a hardcore rock drummer. They have a jam session in the old abandoned school and Rich Girl 2 accuses Rich Girl 1 of being a lame-ass guitarist. Then leaves. As far as setup and character work goes, this was pretty good. I'll give the next ep a shot.

The Brilliant Healer's New Life in the Shadows - First ep was sort of meh. MC is an underground healer with an in-place harem. They spend more time with the harem girls than with the MC. It's sort of meh. Am curious about the ghost living in the MC's house though.

Your Forma - I get definite 'Ghost in the Shell' vibes off of this one. MC is a police detective who dives into people's brains to investigate their memories. Her partner is a genteelly snarky android. I honestly don't know if this one has legs. We'll have to wait and see.

The Too Perfect Saint - The MC is the latest in a long line of saints and supposed to be the most powerful one of her bloodline. But because she doesn't smile, people are freaked out by her. She's engaged to a Prince, who's a typical dick, who breaks off the engagement and makes arrangements with the saint's dick social-climbing parents to sell her to a neighborhing country. Nice character work in this one, especially regarding the MC's motivations. Will watch more.

Once Upon a Witch's Death - The MC is Meg, a witch's apprentice who gets told she's been cursed to die in a year, when she turns 18. The only way she can save herself is to collect tears of joy from people. MC seems like a likeable enough character, and the animation in this one is quite good. Will probably watch again.

Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentosho - in the past two children flee their abusive father and find sanctuary in another village where sentinal guard a holy princess. time passes. the brother grows up and becomes a sentineal to the princess. his little sister, who appears to be a demon, does not grow up but remains young and innocent. Until she thinks the princess is betraying her brother and she loses it, transforming into an adult form, and killing the princess. Her brother, now also a demon, loses his shit and swears revenge on his one-time sister. Time jump ahead to the modern era, where the brother is returning to the village, to complete his revenge quest on his sister. First ep was 50+ minutes long. Good story. Good animation. Will check out the next issue.

The Unaware Atelier Master - The MC, Kurt, gets kicked out of the hero's party because he sucks at combat. But it turns out he's got the highest rank possible in noncombat/crafting skills. He is completely oblivious to this, thinking its totally normal to build a log cabin house alone in a single night. This was very meh, and I hate the English dub, so if I watch more I'll watch with subs.

The Beginning After the End - MC is a king from another world who dies and gets reincarnated in a fantastical world. First ep is all about him being a baby and trying to understand what's happened to him. The MC is a clueless, unlikeable dolt who just kills it for me. Utter trash. May try ep 2 to see if things get better, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope.

I'm the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire - MC was a good person who got screwed by his wife and boss, then died and got reincarnated as the son of wealthy nobles in a sci-fantasy world. The humor in this segues into adult territory, which was sort of surprising, and the story got a bit darker than I expected, but this felt like a typical isekai. Very meh.

I went to bed at 1230 last night and didn't get out of my physical bed until 1 PM this afternoon. I was awake for a while, but just didn't feel like getting out of the bed. I just lay there in the dark, staring at the ceiling and listening to my roommate doing his weekly meal prep downstairs.

Eventually, I got up and went to the bank. Then I went by The Store, because it's Flip Day. Flip Day, for the uninitiated, is the last Monday of the month. It's the day I go in and flip all the displays so they look new. It helps stuff sell.

After finishing at The Store, I went by the grocery and grabbed some food for tonight, which included a very large slice of carrot cake. Because, well, it's the end of the month and I want fucking cake. That's the only reason I need to give. Right?

And tomorrow is a brand new day and a brand new month.

Tonight, after work, I met the lovely Hannah for supper at Inakaya Watanabe. It's been about a year since we've seen each other face-to-face, and she looked amazing. She'd lost wait and was less stressed and seemed genuinely happy. I'm very happy for her.

I'd never been to Inakya before. The atmosphere was a bit dark for my taste. I had to turn on my phone's flashlight to reach the menu. The food was good and the waitstaff was friendly.

They accidentally brought me the wrong entree, so I got free food. Yay! Didn't do any sake as I was driving home, and sake tends to hit me like a sledgehammer. I did have a glass of white wine.

Hannah and I talked for about two hours. She told me about her new boyfriend, who she's been with for about a year now, and who she's been living with for a few months(!!!). I had no idea. She told me about her business and her plans to diversify her client base.

We talked a bit about Jorg, as he is the reason we know each other, but she's pretty much over him.

When we left the restaurant, we promised we'd get together again without another year passing.

Here's hoping we can do it. :D

I really want to start walking again, but I really hate my nightborhood. It's just nothing but hills and dead ends, with minimal sidewalks. And I don't want to drive anywhere to walk, as I would rather just be able to leave my house and go whenever I feel like it.

*le sigh*

I'm trying to do better. I really am. But sometimes I feel like the universe is sabotaging me.

Or maybe I'm just looking for an excuse. :(

I've been doing some writing lately. Nothing particularly deep or profound, but personally enjoyable. And kinda porny, which should not come as a huge surprise to anyone who really knows me.

Now, if I could only use my writing powers for good, not evil. Ha!

In other news, I continue to watch a lot of anime. Currently, I am watching:
Shangri La Frontier, Season One
Our Happy Marriage, Season Two
The Rising of the Shield Hero, Season Two
Ubel Blatt, Season One
I Left My A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths!
Solo Levelling, Season Two: Arise
The Apothecary Diaries, Season Two
From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad's Been Reincarnted!
The Daily Life of a Middle-Aged Online Shopper in Another World
Possibly the Greatest Alchemist of All Time
Is It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Season Three
Flower and Asura
I'm A Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might As Well Try Mastering Magic!
The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of the Rust Mountains, Season Two.

Yeah, that's a LOT of anime. I have definitely fallen down the isekai hole.

Also, I got a couple of new TTRPG books! Yay!

The Break!!! TTRPG is 400+ pages of goodness. Its inspired by classic video games and anime, and every page in the book has some kind of art on it. Great book. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for something tonally different from standard fantasy TTRPGs like D&D or Pathfinder.

Punk is Dead is a new TTRPG from the guys at Mork Borg. It was, I admit, an impulse buy, and I haven't had a chance to really sink my teeth into it, but it's a Mork Borg product so just the internal art was enough to justify the purchase. :)

Finished reading 'Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands' the other day and have a couple of other books waiting in the wings: Liberty by Garrison Keillor and Yarrow by Charles deLint. Looking forward to sinking my teeth into both of them.

I think my laptop of seven years is about to crash on me.

I've got a ton of stuff on this thing that I would like to keep.

I'm gonna have to start saving stuff on my memory stick and go look for a new computer tomorrow I guess. :/