Rumination – 02 – Animal Snippets

     I have been working on my writing lately. Though to be honest I haven’t been writing a whole lot, I started a short story this past weekend using a prompt that I found online and today since I didn’t feel like writing more of that story today I wrote a couple of quick snippets. There are two of them and they both are focused around an animal character instead of a person. The first is about a stray fat cat who begs for food from all the neighbours, and the second one is about a large dog who has a good meeting with a mailwoman. These probably won’t become whole stories, but at least I have them in case I want to use these characters somewhere else.

       I actually worked on organizing my writing folder on my computer. I started a couple of years ago, but I stopped because I have so many unfinished projects. Like I have a finished projects subfolder and there are only two stories inside. Both have been published, but I’m not proud of either of them. I guess that’s what happens when you put your work out there. I also guess that I should finish some of these projects so that I can move them over to my completed projects subfolder.

     I read somewhere that September is a good time to submit stories to get published. If I start now I may be able to complete a few. I just don’t know if I will end up writing any. It all depends on multiple things.

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     He was a stray best known for the way he would sit in front of the screen door and meow until someone brought him some food. His stomach hung low, nearly rubbing against the concrete of the road as he prowled to the next house. His fur was grey. It was light grey with dark stripes that started at his forehead and trailed all the way to the very tip of his tail. He was a small well-fed monochrome tiger. His tail which ended abruptly moved back and forth as he walked. He had clearly been in some serious battles as evidenced by shortened tail, the notched ear, and the scar above his right yellow eye. He never showed any fear, not even during that one time a local dog ran at him with a snarl. He fought bravely back with a hiss of his own before the dog’s owner came and retrieved it. The cat watched as the dog was punished with a smug look. He licked his paw and drew it over his forehead. Yet another victory in the life of the local stray cat.

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     The black doberman ran out the end of the driveway as the mail truck approached the house. He had been outside with his mother, sleeping on the step as she cared for the flowery bushes, when the truck arrived. His mother watched in horror as he jumped at the truck and barked at the mailwoman inside. She ran over to grab his collar when the mailwoman got out of the truck with a package. She wasn’t scared of the doberman, in fact she smiled as she gave him several head pats as though she was an old friend. The doberman happily barked as she handed the package to his owner and had her sign for it. She got back in her truck after a wave and another head pat to the Doberman before driving off. The doberman whined before returning to the step to continue his nap.

Rumination – 01 – Zero Escape

     I have been playing through the Zero Escape series lately, whilst also doing other things such as watching Studio Ghibli movies on Netflix, playing Dungeons and Dragons, and working. I am enjoying the games. I especially enjoy having the ability to easily switch between different plot paths through a flowchart. It makes it very easy to find all the endings and as you get closer to getting the true ending all the jumps between plotlines kind of form a plot of their own as the amount of options to continue gets smaller and smaller.

     So far I have played Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, and Virtue’s Last Reward, and I have to say that I like the first one a lot more. I had a few small problems with VLR, mainly the strange way that you move throughout a room during an escape sequence while scrolling, long passwords that you actually need to write down to continue, and the animation. I preferred the art style of 999 more. I feel that another problem with VLR is how much the conflicts exponentially escalate. This isn’t really a problem, but may be a good reason why I liked 999 more. It was much more down to earth. Now I just need to play through Zero Time Dilemma, but to be honest I’m taking a break from Zero Escape to play other games, maybe even write a little. I have already started Valkyria Chronicles 4 which I’m enjoying a lot.

     From playing these games I have come to realize that I actually enjoy games like this. They are simple and you are only able to influence a few decisions that the protagonists make, but the unravelling mysteries behind their plots and the usage of historical and scientific references kept me interested. They made me want to try out one of these real-life escape rooms that are everywhere, though now is not a good time and even if it was I probably wouldn’t be able to find enough people who would want to come with me to do one. Escape rooms aren’t something you can do alone.

     A while back I played Ai: The Somnium Files and enjoyed it quite a bit. I didn’t realize that it was related at all to the Zero Escape series. I wanted to play these games for the longest time but I found it difficult to find them until I found them on sale during the Steam summer sale. Now I just need to get The World Ends with You on Switch, because there is going to be an anime based off it and for some reason my mind always connects that game with Zero Escape.

This is basically something that I’m trying to get back into blogging. I’m just going to be writing these little essay things and posting them. I hope you enjoy. I know that I said my hiatus was maybe ending like two months ago, but literally right after I made that post some things happened which made it difficult to blog, especially after not doing so for a while, but I should be fine to continue now.

Hiatus Ended, maybe?

Hi!

I guess this is as good a time as any to start blogging again. When did I last post? Christmas 2018? Yeah… it’s been a little while… (Nervous laughter)

Anyways… I guess this post is just me saying hiatus ended, I guess. Part of the reason why my posting showed down so much is because I lost motivation, and also because I started playing a lot of Dungeons and Dragons. Maybe I’ll write a little bit about that.

To help me keep this going again I’m not going to write something about every piece of media I ingest. Instead I’m only going to go over the things I feel really motivated to talk about. I may still review things, but not as often. I’m going to try posting at least once a week.

So until my next post, see you later.

The series I’m most excited about that are returning in 2019 #12daysofanime

I guess today is the last day of this thing. Merry Christmas. For the last day I wanted to take a quick look at the returning series that I’m excited for next year. There aren’t tons of series but there are still a few. So here are the returning series that I’m most excited for in 2019.

Chihayafuru is a series that I watched a couple of years ago and I loved it, the only problem is that it ends in the middle of an arc. This is a good series about a girl named Chihaya who becomes a professional karuta player in order to pursue her childhood friend. It makes a game that has never been that well received outside of Japan look very interesting and I hear that it has helped the sport out a little. I’m so happy that season 3 is coming this year.

I’ve known that Mob Psycho 100 would have a second season since the first season was both really good and well received. I don’t think I need to really explain why I’m excited for this series. I just can’t wait to see Mob be a totally normal teenager.

My Hero Academia season 3 is coming in the fall of 2019 and I’m super excited for it. This is a world that really interests me; partly because of the social importance of quirks in this world and also because of the varied ways that people deal with the way their world works. I’ve already written a post about the corrupted hero system and I really want to write multiple more posts about this series. Its so interesting.

The final series I want to talk about is the new Fruits Basket reboot. This is an important series to me since its one of the first manga that I ever read its entirety. I didn’t watch the original anime though, mainly because it never got finished. I can’t wait to re-experience this series.

So those are the series that I’m most excited about that are returning in 2019. Again merry Christmas. I hope to have a post done sometime soon detailing my plans for 2019.

A Little Post on Tsurune #12daysofanime

Tsurune is a drama from this season that I started watching a little late but enjoy anyway. I guess that’s a common motif of this season since over half of the series I’m watching I started partway through the season. I am enjoying this series so far.

This is a good quiet series with plenty of emotional moments and from the past two episodes it is clear that it covers a couple heavy things. There is one character who annoys me a little, that being Kaito Onogi, but even he has become an interesting character as the series goes by.

One of the parts I like most about this series is how its a series about growing up, but not only centered around the guys in high school but also around their instructor Masaki Takigawa. If you haven’t started watching this series yet and you like this type of series, I highly recommend giving it a try.

A Little Post on Openings #12daysofanime

Since I am running out of both ideas for posts and days where I need to decide on post topics I figured I may as well write a little bit about some of my favourite openings and why I like them.

One of the main reasons I like an opening for a series is because of the song. There are several openings that I like mainly for the song. There is Peace Sign from My Hero Academia, Rain from FMA, and several more. Also an honourable mention goes to the Mob Psycho 100 opening which is super catchy but not something I would want to listen to all the time.

Another reason why I tend to like openings is because of the visuals and symbolism of at least a few of the shots. This is why I enjoy all the March Comes in Like a Lion openings, Re:Call from Twin Stars Exorcists, and several others. I’m just the type of person who enjoys seeing metaphors that are obvious but not too obvious.

So those are just a few of the openings that I have enjoyed thus far. I know I will find more. This season I refused to ever skip the opening for Bunny Girl Sensei for instance and last season there was Fatima from Steins;Gate 0. I can’t wait to see what openings 2019 brings.

Characters I’ve Liked #12daysofanime

One of the things I’ve noticed about this year in anime are the multiple characters who are relatable through experiences that I don’t often see in fiction either due to them being thought of as not that dramatic or because they are often overlooked. In a couple of these instances the experiences are from characters are from groups that have never seemed to be well represented in anime in the past and were made a bit of a joke.

Anyways today I thought I may as well write about a few of these characters, just briefly. I still have a couple of things I have to do tonight after all.

The first of these characters is Minato Narumiya from Tsurune. While this series has yet to conclude, its depiction of target panic is pretty good. Target panic is basically that cycle of self doubt and worthlessness that you get when doing anything, however in this case it has to do with archery. The thing I like about this is that his experiences are similar to those of many other people. I’ve felt this way before many times. It also shows how this is a condition that can be beaten and that it doesn’t mean the end of doing something that you enjoy.

Another character I’ve liked a lot is basically all the characters from Bunny Sensei, but I already wrote about them so I’ll move on. Anyways what I like about them is how they encapsulate common high school experiences universally.

The final character I’ll write about is Shirase Kabuchizawa from A Place Further than the Universe, who I’m adding to this list mainly so that not all the characters are from this current season. Her character arc where she refuses to give up no matter what anyone says in order to travel to a place where she could feel closer (and maybe find) he mother was well written and led to some of the most memorable, heartwarming, and emotional scenes from this series.

Anyways those are just some of the characters I’ve liked this year.

A Post About my Favourite Arc in Hunter x Hunter #12daysofanime

A couple of weeks ago I finished watched Hunter x Hunter. I enjoyed almost every minutes of it. I figured I might was well write a little post about it now while I’m still doing the #12daysofanime thing. This post is also late because I had to hand in a report today and there was still some work I had to put into it. If only I didn’t have school so close to Christmas, but hey, at least I don’t have to worry much about school until the new year.

Anyways this post will probably spoil the chimera ant arc of Hunter x Hunter. If you don’t know what a chimera ant is or you are at this arc but haven’t reached its conclusion you should probably not read the rest of this post.

You and Me: The problem with reviews #12daysofanime

A little over a month ago I discovered a cute slice of life anime about a group of high school boys who are close friends. The series I’m talking about is You and Me, and most of the episodes focus around simple moments in their day to day lives. There is even a little bit of really good romance mixed in. This is a quiet series in the same vein as series such as Natsume’s Book of Friends, and it is a good series to find in a collection of loud emotional series such as Violet Evergarden and My Hero Academia. By loud I mean that they contain a lot of dramatic moments and not that they are bad. These are two of my favourite series from this year.

The one problem with You and Me is related to a review that was written on Crunchyroll. Occasionally reviews are written by Crunchyroll employees with the intention of bringing some less popular but still pretty good series out into the open. This is great because a lot of these series deserve to be watched, however the review of You and Me claimed that the series was boring. It’s not, it’s just slow paced and doesn’t contain a whole lot of action. The problem with this review that these reviews are where some people discover series such as this one and the fact that this review claimed that the series was boring just because it wasn’t an emotional rollercoaster and instead a breath of fresh air was off putting. People tend to stay away from series that they hear are boring because they want to get something out of watching them. This could be entertainment, education, or something else They don’t want to watch a series that will waste their time.

I believe that the person who wrote this review is a person who usually watches either shonen or another action packed genre. I think that this is a problem with anyone who reviews anything for a large audience. It can be fixed by either only reviewing the genres that you enjoy or by pointing out that it is something unlike what you normally enjoy.

Anyways if you haven’t watched this series and like Natsume’s Book of Friends I highly recommend it for you.

Thunderbolt Fantasy: Not actually an anime, but whatever #12daysofanime

This year has been a good year for Thunderbolt Fantasy. Last winter there was a movie that was part recap and part a quick look at the relationship between two characters that was only mentioned briefly in the first season. The recap part of the movie was done really well and ended with a quick look at the new characters who were going to play a part in the second season. It also ended with a making of video during the credits which showed just how much work it is to film many of the action scenes in this series.

Then this season the second season is being released and it is everything I had hoped it would be. It is a very different story from the first season but it still has many twists and turns and surprises in store. Like I’ve already said this season is all about consequences and follows Shang bu Huan as he tries to protect the Sorcerous Index and ends up making a mistake that he needs to clean up the mess that was created. In many ways a lot of the characters are archetypal characters. You have the lazy hero, the trickster, and the paladin just to name a few. However the fact that most if not all the characters are based off of archetypal characters is not a bad thing, in fact most of the characters are much more than just flat recreations of archetypes.

I have seen some people say that they were off put by the style of this season, that is that this isn’t actually an anime but instead a puppet show, however Thunderbolt Fantasy is actually really good. Like I’ve said a few times already for other series, if you have yet to watch this series you should definitely watch it. You should start at the first season though as that is the best starting point.