Thoughts of Something or Other

A combination of thoughts about media, personal venting, and whatever else strikes at me.. 30s. Self-dxed AuDHD and depression, it's been a ride. Polyamorous, quoiromantic, demisexual, bisexual. Icon by FuwaFawn.

[katrani]

Akane-Banashi ep 9 is so solid it makes me mad, what an excellent example of contrasting pacing for the characters and the audience.

Because we get all this stuff over Hikari trying to prove herself, and she's doing Shibahama, which she doesn't know has a lot of history to it from Issho, but we the audience and some other characters know. So she's putting her all into this performance while we have this undercurrent- and then it's fine! Issho fusses a bit but isn't too mad about it. So that's a little relief for us but not enough.

Then Akane's senior is worried about her, and she plays it off. No need for him to have been, really!

Then there's her relaxed Jugemu. Which is immediately so different!!!!! It feels weird, to an audience, even though other characters make it clear that this is actually a smart choice. It might work in the moment, but considering how lively she usually is, it still leaves us feeling odd.

But oh!!! We are smart, we the audience, we know this is a story. We know Akane's skill is in her pacing and her ramp ups. So clearly, clearly, it's not just to help provide contrast from Karashi and Hikari's performances, but so that when she does let loose it'll be an even stronger moment.

So we're waiting for it, it's got to come soon, there's only so much time in an episode, the show's pretty good at picking the key sentences for each story, Akane's senior is talking her up a little, everyone in the audience is getting more and more relaxed so it's got to be time to jolt them...

And I knew we were probably gonna cut off but I still felt so frustrated by the end of episode because I WANNA SEE WHAT SHE'S ABOUT TO PULL aaaaaaaaahhahahaha It's a wonderful way of making the adaptation carry the tension, even knowing there was no way we'd get the full thing in this ep I still felt a little shocked by hitting credits cause the flow was there and I had to laugh at it myself honestly.

[katrani]

to no one's surprise, Mina the Hollower is good, but I think what I'm most enjoying is the sense of play in the game design, and a lot of what feels like Yacht Club looking at convos around other metroidvanias and taking it to heart. The most obvious of which is how they handle corpse runs. For anyone that doesn't care much for soulsbornes and those that take inspiration from this, this is when if you die during a game you drop some amount of resources, currency, whatever, and then get it back if you make it back to where you died. If you die before collecting your stuff then it all goes poof! (Sometimes this also goes with "an enemy that kills you will hold your stuff so you gotta smack them to get it back") Theoretically this encourages players to try new things or approaches but in reality it just seems to be "get real good at one part so you can get your stuff back then play cautiously as you make progress". Mina incorporates this with a lives system, in a way, because she can carry orbs that she drops and you still have your currency with you so long as you don't die while orbless. You start with one so the very beginning is still like typical corpse runs, but I found a second within four hours of play and a third not too long after that. Which basically means I have 3 attempts at any given point before I lose my stuff, and if you level up before you collect them you automatically get them back anyways. This means I am in fact actually likely to try new routes, or even go to a completely different area, or keep attempting a boss because it seems the bosses have a limit to how many of the orbs they can take from you. Which is great!!! It's retro and innovative on the idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then there's just the world design- so I did Crypt first, which really felt like a typical first dungeon. A little bit of a lengthy lead-up, but the route was showcasing some very obvious "oh I'll have to backtrack with more skills" moments so that's fine. Then I went into Bayou, and I felt like I was probably doing water puzzles to eventually reveal the dungeon? Like we were dredging to find the entrance maybe??? But nah, I eventually ran into the boss, and turns out it was basically an outdoor dungeon. That's fun!!! That makes curious about the rest of the structure!!!!!!!!!!! And that's not even getting into the enemy movement variety or the music or anything. It's just! Fun!!!

[spitzonthefritz]

this is going around twitter rn but im also super curious: please tell me your top four comfort movies that you’re always down to watch bc my friend thinks mine are ridiculous and now we’ve realised everyone’s version of “comfort” is hilariously different

[katrani]

i am up to the Prancing Pony section of LotR and i am laughing so much actually cause

Frodo pettily putting on the ring because Tom Bombadil was joking around actually really adds to the sense of him as a young adult, very know-it-all younger-than-23ish air, especially with the justification being "how dare Tom when Gandalf was worried". It's very "stop disrespecting my family" but still in a naive kind of way

Oh my god ya'll were not kidding about Aragorn being introduced like some kind of romantic fantasy love interest, like. Close enough to overhear Frodo and friends, brooding in the corner but also stretched out to show off just how shapely his legs are in these boots and calling Frodo over immediately when Frodo's by himself, like. my dude. did Tolkien get some fun reading mixed up with his research notes

[katrani]

Spring 2026 anime, initial thoughts! Completely new stuff covered under the cut, spoilers up to the first 3 episodes: Akane-Banashi Daemons of the Shadow Realm Even A Replica Can Fall In Love Mao MarriageToxin Rooster Fighter (actually spoilers to like ep 6, since it started early) Witch Hat Atelier Continuing shows, spoilers through first few eps of (listed): Dr Stone (s4) Mission: Yozakura Family (s2) Reincarnated as A Slime (s4)

Akane-Banashi: Rakugo!!! Modern rakugo, with a girl, that isn't set in a high school!!!!!! Idk why I am so compelled by "single-actor story-telling", but I am, and so rakugo series are an easy sell for me. This one is very shonen-coded, with Akane being so hot-blooded and a very easy set up of revenge and rivals. I really like that she's driven by a captivation with her father's performances, and anger that he was treated poorly. Love that she's had her entire teenage years to simmer on it. The directing choices are very stylish, love the like. Slots in door panels as a way of giving us the overview of stories, and the first episode's consistent use of narrow strips of light to evoke Akane's viewpoint from the sidelines is really compelling. Daemons of the Shadow Realm: New Arakawa work finally getting animated! Fuck yeah!!! I thoroughly enjoy that Yuru is just deadpan enough that he could be the sassy kind of hero, but at the same time he's generally respectful. Arakawa continues to serve up really excellent character designs and feeding the bisexuals. Lots of immediate mystery- why did Asa and Yuru's parents only take her, why did the remaining villages feel the best course was to make a fake replacement twin for Yuru, is the organization Asa's with run by their dad or someone else, why is the village secluded anyways, etc. etc. The sound editing is a little rough, I'm having to watch this at a higher volume than for most shows cause the voices seem too quiet. Hana is maybe my favorite character of the whole season. "It has horses in it and goes fast!" makes me laugh way too hard.

Even A Replica Can Fall In Love: Actually dropped it as of episode 3! So the premise here is that a really anxious gal somehow magically called up a copy of herself, and she makes the copy do things she doesn't want to, like go to school when she isn't feeling well or go to apologize to people she's fighting with. Which of course compounds the anxiety problems. But!!! One of the boys in class comes to talk to her on a day when it's the replica, and a romance starts, except they have to come up with coded ways to engage with each other so that the actual girl doesn't have to deal with him, because she really doesn't want to, and replica doesn't want to explain the whole situation. But then episode 3 reveals that the boy's also a replica. Like. What. Way to undermine the compelling nature of the premise? To me, the interesting part is going to be when the whole thing breaks open, right. How does he find out, can she explain it in a way that he understands, is there any way for the replica to exist without being at the whims of the girl, will he accept that she doesn't have a normal existence, all this kinds of stuff. And we just......... bypass all of that??? Combined with the weird white border around the whole thing which felt weird to be watching with, I can't.

Mao: Inuyasha v2! Well not really, but there's enough here that it feels like Takahashi going "I had fun doing that one, let's revisit some of the ideas from it." So far the characters seem slightly bland, but I like it's not immediately "oh this will be a romance". There's tons of room for where Mao and Nanoka's dynamic might go. I mean, it's a Takahashi piece, it's probably romance, but the start of it is slower-burn than I'm used to from her. I'm at least giving this one the whole season, but idk if I'll watch past that. Have to see how much curiosity it builds.

MarriageToxin Was waiting SO long for this one, because it started a little later and then the dub is running 3 eps behind, so I'm a little disappointed by the execution of the first episode? The pacing was SO dull. But I do like a funky romance set-up! Even if it winds up trope-heavy! And "I'm going to look for a fiance so I can become head of the family so my sister doesn't have to break up with her girlfriend to pop out kids, also I have no idea how to act like a normal human being because I'm an assassin" is definitely a funky set-up! I mean, there's like. SO many other ways about this- IVF or surrogacy or anything like that, sister does marry someone for bloodline reasons but she and the husband are free to continue other romantic pursuits, whatever- but sometimes you just gotta put the logic down and roll with it. Gero is such an intense lead character, he's doing research about how to approach girls at a speed dating event and still fucks it up because he cannot be anything other than 100%, and I love that I'll get to watch that. I'm not sure how I want this balanced on the romance to assassin action scale, and it's hard to guess based on the first ep, but I am definitely here to enjoy the ride! Even if it's bumpy (badly paced).

Rooster Fighter: It's dumb! I love it!!!! Just. Rooster fighting giant demons, along with a precocious chick and an ex-girlfriend, who carries a battery-charged sword???? And the whole time it's taking from like, 80s shonen writing styles???? It's so fucking goofy. I will have 0 analysis for this except that it's my popcorn of the season. Though i will give it that the pace for the world-building, with the demon variants and now Morio as a "good" demon is slowly teasing in a bit of intrigue.

Witch Hat Atelier IT'S SO GORGEOUS I LOVE IT I ADORE IT AAAAAHHAHAHAA SEASONS ARE ABSOLUTELY GOING TO BE LIKE 3 YEARS APART AT THIS BUDGET BUT IT'S OKAY I'LL SUFFER THE WAIT. I know the manga's very well-received but I haven't made time to sit down with it. Regardless of it's good adaptationally, I am so ecstatic over this one, each of the first 3 episodes had a moment that took my breath away. The attention to the backgrounds feels very ghibli-esque, and Qifrey is... well, he's definitely a caring mentor, but I have a feeling his arc is going to be about being mindful of that role alongside his passion for finding the masked witch. Like, I can absolutely see him going tearing off on a lead and leaving his students in danger, and having to make a choice about what is more important. I just hope it comes with the good good angst alongside it. What I've learned of the magic system has me so curious already too! Like, can you make a sigil across two edges/along a corner? We saw that the ink can be diluted and still work at the DaDah Range, so can it work in other formats? So could Coco have a dye made instead, and apply that to thread, and have that be how she makes magical artifacts? I'm glad to have a multiregional voice cast but it is also throwing me off, because pronunciations are just different enough that I'm not 100% of most of the Proper Nouns the show's thrown at us haha. Like, okay, I went to look up the girls's names, but I could not be sure if the pink-haired one was Tatia or Tetia based on listening.

Dr Stone: It's deep into it's fourth season, you either like it or you don't. It has been highly consistent in what it is and I appreciate that. For me, I'm here to see how certain tech can be broken into its component parts and worked up to. Really wish we had concurrent cours cause I hate having to regain momentum in this final arc, but that production nitpick aside, each episode is one of the easy joys of my week.

Mission: Yozakura Family Season 2!!!!!!!! Again, another easy watch. It's solid, in what it is- like, I actually buy that all the Yozakuras are in fact family to each other and have grown up with each other. And it's a comedic action romance around that, and that's all it really has to be. It's very sit-com-y, you know? There'll be some weird situation, that might turn into an angsty one, and I get to see whose bullshit skill will handle it this time. No real danger, and sometimes stuff like that is fine.

Reincarnated As A Slime: Much like Dr Stone, we are in season 4. You either like it or you don't and you know if you're intrigued or not by now haha. It is interesting though, most of these "reincarnated so let's build a society with modern knowledge" shows don't grab me, but this one's kept its charm throughout? Something about Rimuru's character is just really adorable. Helps that the voice performance is actually allowed to show a ton of emotion, when I'm used to a lot of these leads either being way too chill or way too over-the-top. I am so glad we have a much better opening in season 3, the first quarter of that just dragged and I almost dropped it. Glad to be here for Rimuru just playing around with his friends in their dungeon!

Stuff that's continuing from winter season that I'm watching but don't want to repeat myself immediately about: Digimon Beatbreak Scum of the Brave

[katrani]

Middle-ish season update, spoilers up to episode 7 of all the above, except Replica which I dropped in the first 3 eps, and Rooster Fighter which started early and is up to ep 9.

Akane-Banashi More shonen should really just jump straight into the tournament arc, it's a very good way to set the stakes lol. Joking aside, this is a VERY brisk pace! I like that the senior apprentices are mostly kind of grumpy about her joining, it means we don't have to learn all of them at once and can take our time meeting them, and means that each one has space to have a thing, judging by the context nerd only coming in as a way to ease into the Cup. I like the overviews of the stories, and I really enjoy that even my bad-at-hearing ass can pick out what's going on in each voice performance to kind of understand what each person's gimmick is. I both love and hate that Issho is kind of compelling and charming. Like, heck yeah, maybe villain has some nuance? But also oh nooooooo I kind of just want him to be mustache-twirling. I'm very excited to see how this plays out!

Daemons of the Shadow Realm Arakawa knows what she's doing at this point and Studio Bones can make action sing. I'm very curious about the Seal and Break stuff, and I do like that Yuru being new to the modern world is the constant tension-breaker running gag. It works much better than say, the Edward Elric short jokes. There seems to be three factions running in everything? Four if we count Yuru as his own existence in all this. Especially with the Kagemori seeming to have some kind of splintering, it'll be fun to see how all the moving parts crash together. The immediate trust between Yuru, Left, and Right is absolutely going to give us some grade-A angst later on when things eventually get much more personally fraught. Hana is best girl and I love her and her crush on Jason Statham.

Mao You know, I think the quality of the writing is about the same, but there's something about Takahashi writing non-tsundere romance that just isn't clicking for me. Mao and Nanoka just... don't have much chemistry? Like I'm fairly certain they are gonna end up as a couple, I have seen some basic-ass romances before, but I just find myself less invested than I am to Ranma and Akane or Inuyasha and Kagome, or any of the secondary couples from Inuyasha. Now that we're getting Mao's other apprentices I hope the thrust of this will pick up. As it stands, I know Takahashi can have some slow burn story so I'm much more willing to let this just be kind of boring through the first season, but I definitely need it to start getting better fast at this point.

MarriageToxin (actually only spoilers to ep 5 cause the dub started late) I AM IN LOVE THIS IS SO SINCERE AND CUTE. Definitely picked up after ep 1! Like, Gero's not just typical-narrative-awkward where it's like, just get over yourself, he actually has issues! That means he has a hard time just existing!!!! In ways that make sense!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Like, I love that he feels he needs to put his "salary" in his speed-dating intro cause he doesn't think he has any redeeming qualities, but like. My dude, you stress clean!!! Just put that as a hobby and you're a hit!!!!!!!!!!! Or what he thinks is a party trick is way out of line with what anyone else would expect, so it blows up in his face, but he still tried! And again, Bones knows how to work their budget, and the supporting cast is just delightful. Sound Master just making that violin out of nowhere? I had to pause the video I was laughing so hard. And that's contrasted with Shiori trying to find her strength but also being so out of her depth, which gives Gero space to step in and cheer her on. It's very clear how Gero can eventually be a proper romantic lead, but for now he's an action lead, and we'll have to wait and see how Kinosaki can build him up.

Rooster Fighter This arc we're in the middle of, with the Devils and all? Very consistent way to up the stakes. I like that we're getting more lore about Keiji's family, and while I wish the show put a bit more time/angst to it, I do like how Elizabeth and Keiji are consistently having to shift their views on the demons.

Witch Hat Atelier So episode 5 is just. Art, plain and simple. I did a standalone post but I was absolutely crying at how beautiful it is for like half its runtime, and not just in the action sequences! And it got me very curious as to how the adaptation was so I binged through the manga in like a week at that point, oops. I am absolutely invested, the slow burn of whatever's going on with Qifrey is excellent. Like, it's very clear that he will do anything to protect the girls while also having some absolutely buckwild bullshit going on in the background. Olruggio sounds perfectly grumpy in the dub, best boy. And while it takes a while to get interesting stuff about the girls, that's really fine and I appreciate that none of them have a parade of trauma that would make us question the timelines or how so much has happened before they're like (anime ages are fake) 12? Like the anime just gave us a glimpse of Agott's self-esteem issues but it seems tied to one major event and probably a related run-up, or Coco has the starting issue with her mom and the childhood festival but not a series of mysterious events that would make us wonder full her life has been.

Dr Stone: We've definitely hit scope creep! Idk if it's rushed or what but all this stuff with the rocket building just doesn't feel as exciting as them getting stuff together from season 2, and Why-man is such a distant threat that he's not quite pushing the plot like Tsukasa or the island vizier really did as enemies. Still gonna finish it out, still like it when it's in front of me, but I'm not burning to watch it every week.

Mission: Yozakura Family The silver test arc is kind of a slow start but that's fine for how long it's been. Do wish the confrontation with Dandelion leader was more of a 2-ep thing, I feel like we could have gotten more information on how this Thousand Blooming or how the ancestor's semi-immortality situation is working. Still a popcorn show.

Reincarnated as A Slime STILL A MUCH BETTER FIRST CHUNK OF THE SEASON THAN S3. We were hitting the cluttered point, but I think the shift from the dungeon shenanigans to the not-UN is just the right breath of air. I'm not sure what I expect but the charm is so back and I really hope we get some more time on the political side again rather than the action side.

[katrani]

"Things had gone awfully, terribly wrong, but Darrell couldn't understand why."

-Fear and Fury, by Heather Ann Thomspon

[shochmonster]

Prints of the inner senshi are availble in my Etsy shop, outers coming probably next month, or at least once I get around to Saturn.

Please check them out!

[shochmonster]

Amano Venus

[katrani]

Got those workbooks today! Huge huge HUGE thanks to (making reasonable assumptions of usernames based on donation names, apologies if I'm mistaken @docholligay @automatuck9 @madegeeky @amhrancas @vassekocho @beefsaladthethirtythird

and everyone else that contributed!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is SO helpful really, these kids made me want to cry when they promised me they'd do some work to keep themselves sharp over the summer then ya'll made me cry by being so generous!!!!

I can't tell ya'll any kids's specific reactions for very understandable privacy reasons, but I can at least show what I got!

I specifically went with the Spectrum brand of books, because they seemed most aligned with our overall curriculum from the school year. Cause while I did look for some new stuff, to help stretch the kids, I mostly want them to keep in practice so they can hit the ground running with our curriculum when we come back in the fall!

Other features (and forgive the absolutely terrible pictures, my phone is more than 5 years old and has been dropped multiple times so the camera SUCKS and won't focus properly at this point)

Overall vocab and idea review at the start of each chapter, and a "you should be able to..." list

Breakdowns and explanations of the type of problem. AND- this was the main thing that got me excited- students in my school system use a program called IXL for some digital modules, it gives them answer-reactive questions on a topic (so if a student is doing well, difficulty ramps, and if they're not it levels out). These books provide IXL codes for the topic at hand! I think it'll be nice for them to have a tie in to something they're already familiar with, especially to get more practice in!!!

And an answer key that follows the layout of more visual questions, so it's much easier to check their work! A lot of these sorts of items will just give the numbered list in the answer key so it can be overwhelming to check if you really are truly correct, as I recall from being their age.

And because everyone was so helpful I was also able to get everyone notebooks (basic, the store didn't have enough nice ones for me to get for all 21 students), 6-packs of pencils, and some pencil sharpeners. So they should be all set, AND I should be at this school again in the fall so I can update on if the current 6th and 7th graders at least stuck to their word.

[atompalace-official]

Moon Cosmic Power 🌙💝✨ Make Up!!!

[katrani]

weh people are so nice i might be crying a little today

[katrani]

was asked to wait until today to buy those books for my students for some last-minute donos, which is cool, there's a sale running until tuesday.

cause of sale we are definitely in. "with donations i already got and what i originally budgeted, i can buy everything" space. any more will be so i can get faster shipping, getting the kids extra (fun?) notebooks to encourage them a little more, and probably extra pencils cause they're constantly forgetting this stuff for class so who knows what they got at home or not. maybe highlighters??

[katrani]

there's no reason for me to be stressing out about doing con panels tomorrow, especially since i essentially do public speaking as a job, and Y E T

[katrani]

panels went really well actually!!!! one of them was standing room only which was scary, but we had a lot of good energy in the rooms i think

i don't have nearly enough time but i kinda wanna get back to the con circuit off of this haha. maybe just one or two a year.

[katrani]

there's no reason for me to be stressing out about doing con panels tomorrow, especially since i essentially do public speaking as a job, and Y E T

[katrani]

weh people are so nice i might be crying a little today

[katrani]

so uh, gonna rattle the tip jar real quick, not so much for myself, but for the students i work with

I offered some of the high-motivated students in the classes I work with some workbooks they can take over the summer to keep their skills fresh, so they don't have as much of a start-of-year slump. Most of the time I only get a handful that say yes, they'll take them and actually use them. This year though, I offered to 25 students, and twenty of them said yes! This puts me in a bit of a tight spot. To be clear, I can buy stuff myself, but my position can't get reimbursement money from the school and since I'm about to go from 40 hours a week to 10 hours for the next couple of months, I have to be somewhat frugal. I might have to pick some smaller books or ones that don't have as good of answer explanations, having to buy like double what I expected would actually be taken up on.

So!!!! If anyone wants to help make sure some middle schoolers have decent materials to keep themselves sharp while they're on a break from school, it'd be appreciated!

[katrani]

am i motivating myself to finish this con panel presentation by making dumb-ass jokes? absolutely

it's only a bad idea if it makes the procrastination worse

[katrani]

being an adult is wishing you could speak to animals not so you can be friends with them

but so you can explain to the robins that have made their nest beneath your front door's awning for the THIRD YEAR IN A ROW that no, you are not going to do anything to their nest, and really why do they think it's a good idea to build where we're walking through multiple times a day