Buddy Daddies

 Time for some light-hearted, fun anime this time round, or so we hoped when we selected it from our immense MAL Plan to Watch list as the next series to go through.

Centering around a formed family of two hitmen and a little girl that accidentally ends up with them, as they assassinated her father, and Kazuki telling her he is actually her dad to protect her from the truth.

Kazuki is a con artist while his roommate and partner in crime Rei is a hitman.  Steered by their handler Kyutaro, as a 4-year old girl called Miri intervenes accidentally in their latest job.  They find out their target was her actual father, after Kazuki had told her he was it to save her.  Never having met her dad, she believes him and stays with the two hitmen.  Kazuki goes in search of her real mother, but when he tracks her down she is a down-on-her-luck backroom bar singer, who hates her daughter for being always happy.

Kazuki and Rei decide to keep Miri with them, as they need to mingle their job with parenthood, something they know next to nothing about.  Rei also starts bonding with Miri, as he held this off due to his own abusive childhood, and the two become her Papa's.  They find a daycare for her, allowing them to do their job (more or less) still while she is at school, though this also needs some adapting from Kazuki to have her blend in and make friends.  But once settled, she is happy at the daycare, and they decorate a spare room into a real room for Miri.

When babysitting her, Kyutaro quickly realises the two are becoming attached to the girl, but doesn't mind as long as it doesn't interfere with their work.  Karin, the former sister-in-law of Kazuki, comes to visit to return all the money he has been sending her, but in the meantime Miri develops a fever leaving Rei in a panic attack, but he pulls through on helping her.  Rei is summoned by his father, a the head of a major crime organisation who wants his son to become his successor.  But a job he does for his father leaves him disgusted instead.

As Miri competes in the daycare's sports event, her mother reappears, wanting to spend some time with her daughter before she will die of throat cancer.  It turns out Kyutaro needed to call her, as Rei's dad had threatened to either kill Miri or his son ascends his place.  They take Miri on a last day of fun activities before returning her to her mother, but learn Rei's dad send an assassin anyways.  Kazuki rushes there, finding her mother fatally wounded but managing to save Miri.  Kazuki wants to send her to a safe orphanage, but Rei stops him, vowing he will solve this.

They go to the Organisation, where they take out the prime assassin before Rei confronts his father, crippling his own arm so he can never be a hitman again and allowed to walk out.  Reaching Miri's daycare christmas party just in time, they decide to change their life.  Ten years later, they run a diner together as Miri goes to high school, living happily with her two Papa's.

Darn, this was one good series, and highly enjoyable.  Miri immediatly grabs you with her personality, and the reformation of two criminals into father's is a very lovely journey to watch.  Definitly highly recommeded anime!

Vongalazthag Violators versus Greedy GrabberZ Blood Bowl match report

 Time for the next League game, and it'll be a tough one.

Because the rating of these rats is almost 300 points higher then mine, and they sit in a second place at the moment in the League.

So, that meant I needed a plan, and that plan would be... pure sneaky brutality!

While the Blockers and some Hobgobs will have to try and hold the front against a Rat Ogre amongst other beasties, it is in the outfield that I want to make a massacre, by keeping a defence with the Bull Centaur for smashing anything coming through, and the Flamesmiths and Stabberz to take down ball carriers without needing to block.  In an ideal world, I'll spend the first half of the game hospitalizing half his team, and go for the win in the second half.  Or that's the plan at least...

... because even with the Inducement of a Biased Referee (furthermore I got a Weather Wizard, a Keg and an Assistant), my first block of the game came double skulls, meaning out went my re-roll.

 

 

Never the less, my Hobgoblin Numbers managed to pick up the ball as my Bull Centaur The Raging Trainwreck was trough his lines.  All he needed to do was make a dodge and give a short pass, and off we would be. 

 

Only to fail the first roll immediatly, and with that re-roll already used up...

 

 

The Skaven immediatly swarmed the ball with their immens speed, and a Gutter Runner set off towards the End Zone. 

Only to put the 1-0 already onto the scoreboard in a razorsharp counter.

 

 As the lines formed again, the Violators went immediatly to the job of bowling some rats over. 

 

But somehow my 2 dice block The Raging Trainwreck managed to roll my second double skull versus a measly lineman, and instead of breaking open his line, our attack went sour for the second time in a row.

 

We did manage to push the Rat Ogre down near the sidelines (magically morphing it into a tiny rat for ease of laying it down), and prepared to foul the big beast before the Gutter Runners broke through. 

 

Which those rocket powered vermin immediatly did of course, we just couldn't hold the rushing speedsters back.

 

 

The fouling on the Rat Ogre didn't take the beast of the field, as one of my Blockers, Arsham Hallvar was shoved into the crowd, without harm though. 

 

And so the same Gutter Runner as before scored the 2-0, and we had a half to put things right, or bash around trying.

 

Setting up for the second half, as I needed to kick, my Sure Hands hobgoblin Numbers was substituted for another one, Duey, whom was then duly send off due to the result on the kick-off table.  Shortest game ever for poor Duey... he never got to show is lack of talent.

The rats started to force a way over the side of the field, the Gutter Runners sneaking through once more.  I in the meantime had already managed another double skull, so that would be another half without re-rolls sigh.

 

As one of the Hobgoblins, Huey, was KO'd, I was actually now at a serious numerical disadvantage, and the rats began to push back my line of scrimmage due to sheer numbers. 

As the Gutter Runner neared the end line once again for a hattrick, the center became a big pile-up of Bull Centaurs and Rat Ogres...

 

... before the Gutter Runner completed his hattrick with the third touchdown of the evening. 

We set up for another drive, and we where starting to get the numbers due to players being knocked out and all.  We might even try to score at least one goal now, or do some serious hurting for some star player points.

 

Which we had already been doing, with a lineman and a Gutter Runner injured, while another Gutter Runner had been cleanly killed.

 

 The blue wall set up before the rodents, eager to start knocking them down. 

But yet for some reason and a lot of dodges one of the remaining Gutter Runners got through, and we surrounded him immediatly.

 

 

Even then, those pesky rodents are terrible, he actually managed to escape the enclosure, putting the 4-0 on the scoreboard!  The Skaven didn't fail... a... single... dodge roll tonight.  Not even needing their skills re-roll.  For that same matter, neither did they fail any pass, catch or pick up rolls bar one (which he succesfully re-rolled) while my Hobgobs couldn't even manage a simple handover.

 

 

 So with three turns to go, once again we set up and got going.  The opening drive immediatly KO'd three more Skaven, on a 9, so so very close to more injuries.  But that also meant they where safe from injury in the closing stages as a result.

 

The raging Trainwreck had an opening and the time to score at least the honour saving goal, with nothing between him and the end zone... only to fail the hand-over.

 

 

And so the lines pushed each other a little, but nothing more happened except the hobgoblins picking up the ball and FINALLY making a pass, but fell 1 turn short.  I probably would have failed the going for it anyways though as I saw how the game went.

 

Adding insult to injury, his Rat Ogre (which actually was kept rather ok out of the game) became MVP, while on my side Arsham Hallvar, a Blocker, received the award.  Still, I managed to get 85k of income and my Fan Factor remained the same, so that was nice.  That Minotaur is coming close to join the ranks now, IF GW would like to release their official model.  I'll probably start converting one up just in case soon I guess...

 

I did obtain a bunch of skills (I love rolling random skills for some reason) , with The Dude gaining Fend and Dievanons gaining Wrestle (might be handy against Block skilled runners).  Two of my Blockers got Pile Driver for some more dirty play, while another Blocker obtained Juggernaut.  All in all, the team came out better, and somehow still hangs on in 8th place of the League and the qualifiers.

 

Should I manage to keep that spot after next week's outmatched game again, and with the three top teams they having passed on the calendar, I might actually start grabbing League points and qualify at least for the play-offs, though keeping 5 teams behind me won't be to easy a task...

 

 

 

 

On the Painting Desk 319

 So we have been painting away at the next round of the Escalation League, as my next game is up in 3 weeks.

 

That means the Handgunners and the Pistoliers need to be finished by then...

 

Now, taking into account that I'm having a couple of tournaments lined up as well in the coming period, the paint time is a bit cut down, and I'll have to squeeze it in when possible.  But for this week, progress was okay with the Pistoliers at least.

 

 

Once they and the Handgunners are done, the next round sees me needing only 8 models to finish, with both cannons, and allows some breathing room for the Marienburg army at least... only to have that spend on some other urgent models to finish with the Emmissary and the Soulscryer.

 

Let's see how far we get next week...