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So far, the Winter 2026 Anime Season has been a very mixed bag.
I sampled a lot of stuff and dropped a lot of stuff after only a few episodes.

Anime I Am current watching:
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End Season 2 - The first season was great and, so far, the second has not disappointed. Currently watching the sub but when the dubbed version comes out in October, I'll probably rewatch it.

Sentenced to Be a Hero - An interesting twist on the concept of 'hero.' It's not a noble title, but an endless prison sentence given to convicted criminals, forced to fight on the front lines against monsters called 'fairies.' Even if they die, they aren't released from their sentences. They're just resurrected and sent back to the frontlines. This is definitely this years Solo Levelling.

Journal with Witch - A slice of life anime about a teenage girl, Asa Ikumi, who loses her parents in a car accident and goes to live with her distant aunt, Makio Koudai. It gets very raw and emotional at times, but that's what makes it so good. It's probably one of the more honest depictions of grief and loss I've seen in an anime outside of 'March Comes in Like a Lion.' Highly recommend, but it could be triggering.

Easygoing Territory Defense by the Optimistic Lord - A pretty typical isekai story where a guy gets reincarnated in a fantasy world, and remembers his past life as a child. In this world, nobles value elemental magic. Sadly, the mc, Van, has no affinity for elemental magic, but is great at production magic. His father exiles him to a remote village where Van starts to come into his own. The MC and supporting cast are very likeable.

Hellmode: The Hardcore Gamer Dominates etc. - Gamer otaku gets transported to a fantasy world and chooses to live a life in 'hellmode' for the challenge. I thought this anime would be a lot grimmer from the title, but it's pretty typical. It is interesting to see a serf social class in an anime. Normally, people are justs commoners or nobles. And watching the MC figure out his class and the world-system is entertaining enough to keep me watching.

Roll Over and Die - Definitely not for the faint hearted. Very grim and violent. The mc, Plum, gets betrayed by a member of the heroes' party and sold into slavery. While in slavery, she discovers her real power and escapes, rescuing another slave with her. She becomes an adventurer and starts to discover the world isn't as she has been taught to believe. Violence. Drama. Pathos. Mysteries. This one's got it all.

Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling - Some lighter fair, thank God. A guy gets reincarnated in a fantasy world as a dragon hatchling. Most of the first ep is him rolling around as an egg trying to figure things out. By turns funny and intense, it's generally very watchable.

Anime I Lost Interest In:
Jack-of-All Trades, Party of None - cool name, but boring story
There Was a Cute Girl in the Hero's Party etc. - barely lasted two episodes
Noble Reincarnation: Born Blessed etc. - More meh story/characters.
Kunon the Sorcerer Can See - Has possibly the most irritating MC of the season
Isekai Office Worker - Hated the MC sooooo much dropped it after the first ep.
Dead Account - surprised this one faded on me; it has an interesting concept, but just didn't grap me
Champignon Witch - this one was just too slow for me oddly enough
An Adventurer's Daily Grind at 29 - irritating child characters; HARD pass.
Dark Moon: The Blood Altar - watched the first ep; clearly vampire reverse harem animes are not for me.
A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendations - watched the first three eps then got bored
Scum of the Brave - watched the first two eps, but rapidly lost interest
The Daily Life of a Part-Time Torturer - I didn't make it past the first episode

Older Anime that I Finally Finished!
DanMachi a.k.a. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? - I finally got the chance to finish watching all the seasons and am very happy they've announced production on a new season. I will be there for it. Despite the ridiculous English name, it's actually a really good anime.

Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy - I started watching this a while ago and finally finished the second season. I like the story. Misumi Mokato is summoned to a fantasy world to be a hero, but gets kicked to its edges by the goddess because he's not handsome enough. Definitely not your typical isekai story. Again, a third season has been announced and I am there for it.

The Rising of the Shield Hero - Finally got to finish season four, which, I will admit, did drag a bit in certain parts. I loved the craziness of the Spear Hero, who has gone completely off the rails, and am looking forward to his reunion with the MC and the other Cardinal Heroes.

Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun! - I honestly did not think I would like this anime, but it's actually very entertaining and - shockingly - the main character, Iruma Suzuki, actually gets more interesting as time passes. Looking forward to season four later this year.

Older Anime I Am Currently Trying to Finish:
The Ancient Magus' Bride - I'm not even through with season one yet, but the story, animation and characters are all wonderfully done. This is one of those shows I don't want to binge, because then it would be over too soon.

Between bouts of writing false starts and dubious porn, I've continued to watch anime. Just wrapped up 'Shangri-La Fronteir' season one and about to dive into season 2. The show is genuinely interesting and has moments that are funny as hell. The main character, Sunraku, is a VR player whose avatar is a shirtless dude wearing a bird mask. Events happen in the game that prevent him from wearing any kind of armor, so he's basically stuck wearing the bird mask and relying on his game stats to survive. This isn't really as big a problem as you'd think, since Sunraku has spent years playing trash VR games and learning to compensate and exploit bugs in those games to win, which makes him a brilliant strategic gamer.

I suppose the show falls into the isekai genre, since it involves a different, albeing digital world. But the brightness of the dialogue and the character iinterractions make it a nice change of pace from most of that genre, which, I must admit, gets really repetative, really fast.

So, that's 2023 in the can.
It was, I believe, a fairly maudlin year. It could have been better, but it also could have been much, MUCH worse.
Depending, I suppose, on where you were at the end of the year.
But it's done and over with and now 2024 stetches out ahead of us, a tabula rasa, waiting for us to make our mark upon it.
Here's hoping we don't fuck it up.

Sllooowwww day at the Store. Skip came up and worked on toys in the back; it's always nice to see Skip, he's the most down-to-earth and equanimitable person that I know.

After work, I went by Ye Olde Game Shoppe and bought a book that caught my eye, Ragnaock: Gods of Metal. It's a tabletop RPG inspired by movies like Heavy Metal and Wizards, and books like Bloody Rose and Kings of the Wyld. I thought it would provide some inspiration for my own gaming, but all it's done is inspire irritation. Whoever was doing the editing/proofreading on this book should be flogged. Misspellings gallore, identical information repeated in different sections, and oddly constructed sentences. That last has made me think that either the writer or the editor did not speak/write English as a primary language.
In any event, I shall be donating this book to the Store.

I realized that Burning Man started today. Or, I guess, the construction of Black Rock City started today? Not sure how it all works, to be honest. I used to think it would be fun to go to Burning Man, but now I'm not so sure. I find myself looking at it and becoming very critical of it, regarding it more as an 'event' catering to self-indulgent elitists veering more and more toward corporate sponsorships. How soon before it devolves into just another White Party in the desert?
And, thinking of Burning Man, I couldn't help but think of Slab City, near the Salton Sea. Whereas Burning Man is a transitory art event, here today and gone tomorrow, attended by people with money, Slab City is a down-and-out community that exists year round, expanding during the winter months as northern snowbirds descend upon the Slabs. One is like a dark mirror of the other, but I'm not sure which is which any more.

And, I think I've had too much bloody wine.

Good night, all.

This afternoon, I had a romantic interlude with a lovely lady named Margie.
Afterward, we had an interesting conversation about the transactional nature of sex.
I could not, for the life of me, tell you how we got on that subject. I think we veered to it from a conversation about OnlyFans porn. *shrug*
Anyway, I said that I thought that all sex was transactional in nature. Just because the transaction doesn't involve goods or services or cash, doesn't mean that the giver/receiver isn't getting something out of the act. Physical pleasure. Mental fulfillment. Spiritual satisfaction. Whatever.
Margie said that she could see my argument, but that she didn't agree with it. Margie said that she felt there was an unquantifiable link that occurred between people who were intimite that couldn't be reduced to a purely transactional nature. A spiritual connection, if you will.
It was interesting pillow talk, and we resolved nothing whatsoever, but I think it gave each of us more insight into the other, which I suppose is a good thing.
But I have this sneaking suspicioun that we will never have sex again, because of that conversation.

I went and saw the Barbie movie today.
I thought Margot Robbie was excellent.
I was surprised that Rhea Perlman was still alive.
I thought Will Farrell was completely superfluous (a living manifestation of Ken, if you will).
And, ultimately, I did not think the movie was very good.
This movie is definitely female-oriented (It's Barbie. Big shock.), but they tried to address far too many serious topics, and it was NOT very funny.
If you go into this movie expecting comedy, you aren't going to get it. And the poignant scenes are handled so heavy-handed, telegraphed from so far away, they don't have any real punch.
Also, the ending joke just made me shake my head and sigh.
On a scale of 1 to 5, I would have to give Barbie a one. It's just not worth seeing in the theater or paying for it on-stream.
Your mileage may vary.

The last week or so I've been playing around with AI Art on MageSpace. Unlike most other AI Art sites, you don't need to register or anything to use MageSpace, and what you get access to is versatile enough that you can make all kinds of stuff. Paid versions allow you to make NSFW art, if that's your kink, but from what I've heard you have to really work at creating stuff like that. If you just want to create fantasy landscapes for your RPG or maybe some concept art for your next e-book cover, or pics of hot shirtless guys, the free version is more than enough.
But today, I realized something.
After I've typed in my prompts, as I'm hitting the generate button, the feeling I get is akin to that one when I'm pulling the lever on a slot machine.
Will I get anything useful? Will I get something close to what I want? Will I get something I really like?
It's this rush of adrenaline and seratonin in the brain that, I believe, is somewhat addictive.
Which should be giving me pause, but it's not.
At least with this stuff, I'm not losing money.
Just time.
Is that better or worse????