I got a stomach flu at the start of April. By the time I felt better, I decided to skip April and make May the next month for sharing my hopes and dreams for the blog. It’s May now so here you go.
Real quick, I’ve read the official post about WordPress shutting down Twitter support due to the insane fee for the latter’s API. I don’t blame WordPress or any other company for not wanting to pay for that nonsense but yeah, it sucks. I probably should look into other platforms but I still plan on using Twitter and I’ll do the extra stop of manually linking my blog posts.
Anime
Recently Finished:
Currently Covering:
- [Backlog] Horimiya – 1/13 eps.
- [Backlog] Love Live! Sunshine!! (Season 1) – 4/13 eps.
Since both Love Live! Sunshine!! and Horimiya are returning in the summer, I’ll be catching up on both shows. While Horimiya is long overdue, I am prioritizing Sunshine!! by virtue of it being longer. I’m not committing to covering Horimiya – piece just yet but I’d like to finish the parent show ahead of time just to be safe.
That said, I’m not very confident that I will be fully caught up with both shows. I haven’t been very good at juggling shows as of late. Progress is also getting tougher due to HonkaI: Star Rail (as silly as that sounds). Still, I’ll try to work on episode reviews whenever I can. I could review some episodes in bullet points but I’ve always felt hesitant to do that for backlogged shows so I’ll save that as a last resort in June.
After thinking it over, I decided to not cover a new show for Spring 2023. It’s a risky move for the blog but I decided to do it to better my chances at catching up with Horimiya and Sunshine!!. Maybe I’ll retroactively pick something from this season but one thing at a time.
Up Next:
- Love Live! Sunshine!! (Season 2) – /13 eps.
- Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie: Over the Rainbow – /1 ep.
- Love Live! Superstar!! (Season 1) – /12 eps.
- Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club (Season 2) – /13 eps.
- Love Live! Superstar!! (Season 2) – /12 eps.
- The Quintessential Quintuplets 2 – /12 eps. (Will re-date Ep. 1 review)
- SSSS.Dynazenon – /12 eps.
- Lycoris Recoil – /13 eps. (Will re-date the Ep. 1 reviews)
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica – /12 eps. (Will re-date the Eps. 1-9 reviews)
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica Movies – /3 eps.
- Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story Season 2 – The Eve of Awakening – 8 eps.
- Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story Final Season – Dawn of a Shallow Dream – 4 eps.
- Granbelm – /13 eps. (Will re-date the Eps. 1-3 reviews)
- Restaurant to Another World 2 – /12 eps.
- The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady – 7/12 eps.
As mentioned last time, this list is subject to change and I’m not necessarily going to tackle everything in this exact order. I may also cancel covering one of these shows for whatever reason I may see fit.
This is a much longer last list compared to the previous version I shared. I’ve been giving the backlog a lot of thought over the past two months. Ultimately, I decided to mostly settle on shows that are returning at some point in the future. I feel those would be the best use of my free time and give me playing catch-up some sort of direction and topicality. I’ve jotted down at the bottom of the list some shows I’m willing to make an exception, for one reason or another. Otherwise, I don’t think I’ll revisit certain shows if they don’t fit my criteria.
There are a bunch of movies and OVAs for other shows that I plan on covering in episode reviews. I just don’t have them listed here but the list is pretty long as is.
Video Games
HonkaI: Star Rail launched last week and I started playing it. Advancing through the story and getting accustomed to the grind has been taking up a lot of free time, hence why I said it’s getting tough to cover anime. I’m enjoying the game quite a bit though I’ll admit that I haven’t reached the endgame so we’ll see if my affinity will last. I’d like to write a review of the game at the end of 1.0. As for guides, it’s too early to say. I think it depends on how much I enjoy the game and how much I whale in it.
Regarding other games, I’ve been on and off with Genshin Impact so I haven’t felt very motivated to write or update guides. Truth be told, I’m thinking of phasing that series out but I don’t want to commit to any decision just yet. I also haven’t been logging into Goddess of Victory: Nikke all that often but I still plan on reviewing the game at some point.
Xenodude's Scribbles 
You probably already know this, but the first two Madoka movies, Beginnings and Eternal, are straight scene-for-scene recaps of the TV series. The recap movies have a lot of new music, touched up animation, and almost completely rerecorded dialogue, but the only brand-new visual content in them is a new OP, flashier magical girl transformations, and some dialogue-free transition scenes to smooth out where the episode breaks used to be. The recaps are certainly worth a watch if only for the improved animation and new music (I use the recap movies when introducing Madoka to people who aren’t much into anime) but I don’t know how much sense it makes to actually review them.
Seasons 2 and 3 of Magia Record diverge from the source game’s plot into an original story which is less episodic (you could really see the seams between each of the “quests” in season 1). I won’t say more about them because I can’t actually remember much *except* the spoiliest stuff–the Magius origin story and the ending. I remember being disappointed by the show, but some part of that was probably because I had my hopes too high due to the Madoka name.
I’m sorry to keep spamming your blog with talk about NoWaYu, but I feel the need to report that I’ve just read through the manga adaptation and it’s very faithful to the novel. It omits some mythology about each of the heroes’ weapons and fairies, and skips a segment that takes place from Hinata’s perspective when she temporarily leaves the group to do miko things at Taisha HQ, but those are the only omissions I noticed. If I have another complaint, it’s that the deaths in the manga fly by just a bit too quickly and aren’t as emotionally impactful as in the novel. However, I’ll praise the manga by saying that seeing Wakaba drawn on every page helped to remind me that for all her incredible qualities she’s just a 14-year-old, which I sometimes found myself close to forgetting while reading the novel. The manga is a perfectly good way to experience the story if you prefer that format.
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Yeah, I haven’t seen the Madoka movies even though I love the TV show. Am aware the first two movies are compilations/recaps. I have them listed in the to-do list because I think it’d be fun to go over the differences and how it stacks up to the original show. That said, I could very well change my mind once I get to the movies. I was disappointed with Magia Record at just the first season but I still want to see it to the end.
No worries on the NoWaYu spamming. My plan is to give the novel a whirl someday but I was curious about the manga adaptation.
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