I love sharing what I do and what I think about the things I do. However, I’ve come to realize that I’m not really cut out for essay-length posts on those things. Too much work. Thus, I’ve come up with what I’d like to dub “media round-up” posts.
The way it works is every month I write up about the media I was consuming the previous month. From music to games to anime to books, anything and everything goes. That includes things I don’t finish or things I start as well (unless I want to keep them a surprise) The contents will range from a paragraph to many depending on what I want to say, and all spoilers will be hidden behind a spoiler tag. Though I wont be spoiling anything for this first post.
Games
Fate CCC – The fan translation which feels like it took eons is finally out. I’ve started playing this on my hacked PSVita. Not very far into it, but my impressions thus far are that the gameplay isn’t very fun and the story is nothing close to what Japanese readers used to claim was kamige. There’s of course still room for it to improve, but I’ve pretty much checked out on the gameplay and decided to cheat through it instead.
No clue on when I’ll finish it. Low priority right now
Baldurs Gate III – This won game of the year at several different game award shows, and while I recognized it was a smash hit based on the number of people I saw playing it, I didn’t quite understand at the time why it was. Now that I’ve started playing it though, I’ve started to understand.
It took me a little bit though. At first I was just content to check it out via a copy of my brothers game (DRM free), and in the early stages I had trouble getting used to the various systems. Over time though I got better at the gameplay and I noticed my game was having a ton of issues that had been patched out. I then decided to get the game on Steam so I could get updates and ever since then I’ve been playing a lot.
Currently I’m still on act 1 or part 1 or whatever it’s referred to as. Despite playing a morally ambiguous campaign, I’m surprised at how much I’ve been inclined to pick the good options. Maybe it’s because I’m too worried about Shadowhearts affection (which at first seemed like it was more neutral but now seems to favor more goodhearted acts)
My party is my OC (rogue), Shadowheart, Astarion, and the gith character. I wasn’t a huge fan of the gith woman (which might explain why I can’t remember her name) The first time I started playing I even rejected her “desire” to join me. However, I found myself needing a fighter/meat shield somewhat badly through my first campaign and thus recruited her my second time (I deleted my first campaign because of that and other poor decisions) Now she’s kind of growing on me a bit.
Right now I would say my biggest complaint is loading is kind of bad. I know it’s probably an effect of me save scumming, and I wouldn’t do it so much if it weren’t for the terrible rolls I seem to get constantly (Like a success rating of 10 and constantly getting single digit numbers multiple times) Maybe when I play through it again (and yes I can forsee myself doing multiple playthroughs at this early stage), I’ll try a game where I just roll with everything. Though for now I’m having plenty of fun doing things this way
Yosuga no sora – My last VN of 2023. Initially, I had been waiting for the English fan translation of this like Fate/CCC. Unlike Fate/CCC it was taking a much longer time, and at this point I had both the ability and tools to read it. I decided to go for it, and I’m happy that I did (for the most part)
I like stories that are set in the rural Japanese country. I think because it makes the relationships between characters feel a lot more intimate. Whether it is or not, I couldn’t say. Though I feel like the same thing also happens in real life too. Smaller communities are just more interesting.
Of course, if you Google Yosuga no Sora, you’re most likely going to see things about the anime and the incest in it. While I haven’t watched the anime, I feel like the amount of talk about the incest does the title an incredible disservice because that’s only one of the five routes, and while it does come at the end (where a true route typically would) it’s not necessarily a longer or more fleshed out route than the others (making me consider it less as the definitive story and more as just the last route I played) Though I guess technically her name is part of the title (Sora) So maybe they meant it to be, but again I don’t really see it as anything special
The other routes are pretty decent to good. The best, which I unintentionally started first, is definitely Akira to me. The worst depends on whether you’re talking about the character or the substance of the route. The worst character was definitely Nao for me, but the worst substance was probably Kazuha’s route.
I’d really like to post the full OST for the game because I found it to be quite good. Sadly I can’t seem to find any music from it aside from the title music or music used in the anime (which is entirely different)
Anime
Attack on Titan – Initially I watched the first season 10+ years ago. My first impressions of it were, to boil it down into simplistic terms, Eren sucked and Mikasa was a waifu. There were other thoughts, I’m sure, but I didn’t write any of them down for reference and I don’t really remember them. Apart from some vague things like the memes and general feelings.
The long wait for season two paired with the huge popularity kept me away from Attack on Titan for several years. I don’t like admitting it, but for a while there, I viewed Attack on Titan as a “normie” anime and didn’t want to associate with it. The reasons why are stupid, and maybe some other time I can talk more about my anime elitism phase. However, what’s important is that I’m no longer that way. I haven’t been that way for at least 6-7 of those 10 years since the original.
Since I didn’t watch the second season, I couldn’t watch the third when it came out. At this point I just decided I wasn’t interested in watching it until I could just watch everything. Something I had no idea would take as long as it had at the time. Though now I see that it’s only natural to expect long good things to take a long time (partly why I’ve wanted to get back into manga more than anime)
Anyway I liked Mikasa my first time, but on the rewatch of season 1 I actually came to dislike her character (a dislike that stayed for most of the series) I initially was attracted to how strong and cool she was, but I now realized that she was pretty much dependent on Eren (who I still didn’t like, but I came to appreciate parts of his character later) She wasn’t the strong female I admired.
I actually ended up liking Annie and Sasha more. Which I find funny in retrospect since Sasha at first is more of a meme character and Annie.. Well I said I wasn’t going to get into spoilers, but lets just say she doesn’t get nearly the screentime Mikasa does. Yet Annie feels like a much stronger character overall.
I also liked the series overall. I do think there were parts where they dragged things out a bit much, and I do think there were characters (apart from just Mikasa) that could’ve used more dimension and development. I also think the way the author chose to have the characters resolve everything to not be the most interesting concept wise, but I guess they were probably going for what would be the flashiest most Hollywood-esque kind of conclusion.
RahXephon – If you were part of the anime community back in the late 2000s, you might have heard of this series being mentioned alongside things like Evangelion. That’s how I heard of it. Since then I’ve always meant to watch it because while I still don’t understand Evangelion, I still really enjoyed it.
In an explanation video I watched afterwards, I heard someone say that RahXephon is less like Evangelion and more like Revolutionary Girl Utena. I haven’t seen Utena, so I can’t really verify that claim, but I can somewhat agree that the Evangelion comparison is less apt. Though I’d be hard-pressed to really explain it.
The series is really confusing, and it is the type of show you need to give your full attention to, which explains why it took me so long to completely watch through it. The other two times I remember starting it and feeling too confused to want to continue. This time I stuck through the confusion.
I can’t say that if you watch and stick with it that the series will explain everything. I can’t promise the series will even give you everything you need to figure things out. Afterall, like I said a couple paragraphs ago, I had to watch an explanation video about it. Only when I did that did most of the stuff click, and I say most of the stuff because I’m positive there were some things I probably still didn’t get (But at that point I didn’t care)
I liked it though. I think what it does really well is the moments of tension between characters. I have not seen many works that can capture those moments half as well as RahXephon does. It’s like the saying about the tension being so thick you can cut it with a knife. Except you can actually see it.
The answers were also pretty interesting. I wont say that it’s mindblowing. Just interesting. Not a bad anime at all.
Oh and the OP is great. Though it might not be something that immediately catches everyone. I didn’t find it special until about the 3 or 4 episode.
Eureka Seven (rewatch) – Eureka Seven, when I first watched it via Adult Swim in the late 2000s, became quite possibly my favorite anime. That assessment though was based mostly on the adrenaline of seeing it weekly and the special editions of the DVDs I used to buy (Which came with a lot of cool stuff like the OST and T-shirts) Upon rewatching it in the past, I’ve come to lower my assessment somewhat.
It’s still good of course, but even this third time rewatching has been less exciting. Even watching it with Japanese audio for the first time hasn’t been novel enough to make it feel any fresher than the last time I watched it. I’ve come to think that maybe this series isn’t really meant to be watched multiple times.
I think something that illustrates this is that despite starting RahXephon at the halfway point of Eureka Seven, I ended up watching more RahXephon towards the end of 2023 (funnily enough, they’re both from the same studio) Eureka Seven I had three episodes I could of easily finished before the new year started. In fact I planned to do just that. Except I just found myself wanting to do something else instead. I’ll still finish it, but I don’t know. Unless I watch it again to show someone else, I think I might just leave it as a “good anime” rather than “the GOAT” like it was
The OST still is the GOAT though.
Books
Bakemonogatari – I think I might have mentioned this somewhere before, but I’ve been reading Bakemonogatari in English. I’ve actually owned all the Monogatari light novels for a while now, and I’ve wanted to see what made it such a hit with a lot of anime fans.
I’m mixed on it. I don’t mind reading it, and I do find some of it interesting. However, I find it lacking in a big hook. Right now it’s just seems to be Araragi (the MC) helping girls solve issues with unusual creatures/gods/demons. While that’s interesting in itself, most of the cases have been easily resolved and it feels more like a monster of the week type formula story.
I assume that it’s setting up things and it’s just being slow getting everything in place. The cases, while mostly resolved without much fuss, aren’t just forgotten about as the story progresses (the characters in them are so far continually showing up) Thus is why I assume it’s setting up for something more. Hopefully something I can get emotionally invested in.
Enders Shadow – Technically I’m listening to the audiobook and technically I’ve already read it before. Right now I’ve started listening to it again because I’ve been trying a new sleeping position and wanted an audiobook to listen to. Ended up getting a free trial of Audible again for it’s free audiobook and chose Enders Shadow because I was having a hard time finding something (Plus I assumed it would be better to fall asleep to something I’ve already read than something I was interested in reading)
Music
I don’t know how often I’ll have something to put in this section as I don’t seek out new music much. However every so often I’ll listen to mixes of music that YT gives me and find new artists and songs (primarily all Japanese music) When that happens, I’ll try to make note of them and share them in here (as well as maybe including them with regular blog posts)
I’m not sure whether I discovered all of these this year or last. I felt like I had discovered Sakanaction this year, but I saw on Discord I had posted videos back in 2022. Though for a section like this it doesn’t really matter. It’s more about sharing songs I think are cool.
I’ll also share them on normal blog posts as usual, but for these I’ll try to give a few with some impressions (though I’m not someone that can express music well)
I had difficulty choosing between this and another Vaundy song I really like. I chose this one for this month. Next month I’ll post the other
This is the only song from Cody Lee that I’ve heard. I think I might have tried listening to some others, but none of them gave the same kind of feelings this one does.
It’s actually really hard to pick one Chilli Beans song because they’re all really good. I’m actually kind of happy I discovered them when they were still kind of new and before they ended up doing a One Piece ending song (which is how a lot of other people got introduced) It might sound kind of hipster, but yeah I liked them before they were popular. I chose this one just because I find it the most universally appealing (though I’m not sure if it’s my favorite or not)