Time for an update and some reflections. As always, nothing is entirely set in stone and everything here is subject to change.
Blogging got off track in May and I apologize for that. Without going too much into detail for now, I’ve just been feeling stressed and down lately. It also happened that almost every weekend of the month had something that had me preoccupied. I’m hoping to get things back on track this month.
Something you might notice today is that I’ve slightly renamed the blog to Xenodude Scribbles. To be frank, I thought a couple years ago that “Xenodude’s Scribbles” sounds awkward the few times I’ve had to say it out loud to friends so I once considered changing the name. I never got around to it however because work often drained the life out of me and I had other priorities for the blog. With this month being the anniversary of the blog, I figured I should finally make an alteration. Nothing too drastic for now to avoid throwing anyone off but I think the slight change makes the name roll off the tongue more and it kind of now pays homage to one of my favorite video games of all time.
Anime Episode Reviews
Currently Covering:
- Food for the Soul – 5/12 eps. ( ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
- Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX – 4/12 eps. ( ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
- Ave Mujica -The Die is Cast- – /13 eps. (starting on June 14)
I’m sure I can finish the seasonal shows by the end of June but yeah, not going to pretend I’ll be following a precise schedule for now. As for Ave Mujica, I probably could cover the whole show this month but I must admit that covering MyGO back to back was kind of exhausting, due to the show being so dramatic. Part of me wants to settle on covering at least half of the show this month.
Backlog:
- Girls’ Last Tour – /12 eps.
- The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady – /12 eps.
- Violet Evergarden – /2 movies (monthly; starting this month…or July…¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
So after some inner debating, I decided to finish my episode reviews for Girls’ Last Tour and Magical Revolution this summer (maybe even this month). Neither show is topical but you know what, I got pretty far in covering both shows so I feel I may as well finish what I wrote for them. Some of my Magical Revolution posts were written as Quickies and I think I’ll redo those as I revisit the show (I do plan on keeping the Quickies published, though).I might add some other stuff. Depends on how efficiently things go.
I think this summer will be the last giant push I make with tackling the backlog. I feel like I’ve said that last year and the year before but I really do mean it this time. This initiative has been going on for almost three years now. It’s been a lot of fun and satisfying for me but yeah, I need to move on. Maybe I’ll tackle a show here or there during a vacation later this year and I can see myself possibly going back to finishing my Fruits Basket posts in 2026 but as far as crossing off a myriad of anime, I want to stop that for real this summer.
#AniTwitWatches Archiving
So I decided to “protect” my X (formerly Twitter) account last month. I don’t want to delete it just yet but you know, I’ve almost entirely ditched X in favor of Bluesky so I don’t see much point in leaving an inactive X account visible for now. Now, because the account is protected, I think I need to finally repost my threads for Jon Spencer’s #AniTwitWatches event here on the blog. Those are posts I actually do want to hold onto so I’d like to keep a version of them should I delete my X account (or X deletes it because I forget to log in every 30 days and yeah, it’s a silly rule but whatever).
I want to begin archiving my #AniTwitWatches posts in the latter half of June. These will be re-edited for grammar and spelling. I don’t want to include anyone’s replies to my original posts without permission so I’ll also re-edit to accommodate for that. If you remember replying and you’re cool with me including your comments, then let me know in the comments. While I first participated in #AniTwitWatches with The Perfect Insider, I’ll be archiving my Girls und Panzer threads first, to open the door for a possible revisit in episode reviews that’ll continue on with the movies (which Jon did not include for #AniTwitWatches).
Video Game Reviews
For the foreseeable future:
- Alan Wake II (PC)
- Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition (NS2)
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (NS2)
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (NS2)
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GCN/NSO)
- Pokémon Scarlet (NS)
- Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma (NS2)
- Stellar Blade (PC)
No idea when exactly I’d write, finish, and publish any of these reviews but they’re something on the table. With the Switch 2 launching, I’ve been hankering to try my hand at video game blogging again. I imagine Mario Kart World would be the big Switch 2 game to talk about but I don’t know, I prefer story driven games so it’s a good fit for me to review. Maybe I should at least try a draft and see where it goes.
I’ve actually beaten Alan Wake II a month ago but I didn’t really get cracking at my review because I want to go through Final Draft mode. I’ll just go ahead and say it: I did not like the base ending of the game and I think it’s bull crap that I have to play the game twice or give up and search YouTube to see the true ending. But whatever, playing the game twice might better inform the review.
Regarding Cyberpunk 2077, I plan on trying the Edgerunners anime and if I like it enough to watch the whole thing, I’ll of course consider writing about it. I think with the Alan Wake posts, they can feel a bit jarring since this blog has primarily been about anime. Covering games and their respective anime tie-ins might be a good idea to more smoothly branch off into video game blogging. I’m leaning towards a series review for Edgerunners but since the show is a one-off cour and it’ll be the first show in this plan, I’m not too opposed to writing episode reviews for it.
Xenodude Scribbles 