Muv-Luv Alternative season 2

 Time for some brutal mecha action science fiction in the next series I take on from my MAL "plan to watch" list!

 

And that is the second season of the excellent Muv-Luv Alternative, putting mechs against alien invaders. 

 

But unfortunatly, this season isn't by far as good as the first one, though the personal stakes for Takeru are upped, it becomes a bit of a mess to be honest is the first half of the season.  After their first post-graduation mission Marimo is killed by the BETA, causing Takeru to travel back to his own world.  But here Marimo in return is murdered, as becomes the fate of people that come in contact with him.  So to try and stop this he rturns, and a plan is also formed to stop the major hive in Japan.

 

This revolves around the 00 unit, an AI lifeform looking exactly like Sumiko, but only having hatred for the bETA as emotions, to pilot humanity's newest superweapon.  The operation in the end turns out succesfully, though at the expense of the squad's captain Michiru, who leaves personal messages for everyone before self-destructing and destroying the Sadogashima hive, ridding Japan of all BETA.  The victory of humans over BETA is still far away, but a first step towards this has been made, even though many sacrifices have been made.

 

Now, the second season is a bit of a mixed bag for me personally.  It's initial emotional load is huge, but then it all moves to the background for a hardcore military show in the final 5 episodes of the 12 episode counting season.  But while this does what it does, it also feels like Takeru can shrug it all off pretty easily, then suddenly in the last episode it seems to try and tie up those knots just to fast.  A bit like an old puzzle that you haven't touched in months and then take back out of the kabinet in my opinion...

 

Still for some mecha vs alien action, this has nicely done sequences, so it defintly has that going for it! 

Repainted Gachapon Gundam X10-A Freedom

 It has been quite a while, but I finally have gotten back to painting one of the many 1/400 scale soft plastic gachapon Gundam I have lying around.

 

And what better mobile suit then to start again then the Freedom itself, my absolute favorite Gundam over all franchises. 

 

The model is about the scale of a "true" 28mm figure, so about half as big as the upcoming Gundam Assemble range but perfect for some very special game projects I have lined up.  It does have crisp details even for a 5 dollar "gacha ball" toy though, with the face plate and all having the mouth plate sculpted on and such.

 

But that is a story for another time, just keep your eye on my YouTube channel just for that near the end of september... 

 

 

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These - Collision

 Following the Stellar War arc, the awesome science fiction series continues in Collision.

 

And like the previous instalment in the franchise, it was once again released as both three movies as well as a series.

 

But for this part of the story, I had the serialized version, so sat down for 12 episodes of hopefully space war goodness!  And the Church of Terra is coming into the equation as could be seen in the last movie of season 2's post credit scene... except it really isn't in the season, nor is the Fezzan dominion gaining influence in the Empire, but it seems pieces are being placed to have this story evolve in the next season.

 

Central to this seasons story are the renewed hostilities between the Alliance and the Empire.  While the reforms within the Empire are building up towards a more democratic government compared to the nobility, the Alliance has democracy on the brink of shattering, including an inquiry on Yang Weng-li which forces him to leave Iserlohn and travel to the capital world.  And right at that moment, the Empire attacks the corridor with a huge fortress of their own.  But thanks to the defensive strategies of "guest admiral" Merkatz who defected to the Alliance last season, they hold the line until Yang returns and starts turning the tide of battle.

 

And then the season ends on a cliffhanger, as only three of the four acts of the battle between both fortresses are in this season, meaning we will have to wait until we saw season 4 to know how it concludes!

 

Once more a fantastic epic, and I can't stop recommending this series to anyone that is looking for a good science-fiction series, even if they aren't into anime or so.  It just is one of those classic things you should just watch. 

The Haul Report 442: Waifu? Waifu!!!

 Time for another update on the collection additions for the past period...

 

... and it is all about my beloved waifu, Lunamaria Hawke!

 

With the release last year of Gundam SEED Freedom, she received some attention from BanDai, including a couple of new price figures.  And now they are appearing readily available here on the market, and I managed to add some to the Waifu shelf!

 

The first is the Glimmer and Glamour Racing version, which I personally think is an awesome looking figure of my girl.

 

While the second is the one in her regular uniform, as she is depicted in the Freedom movie. 

 

And then I also got the third one released since the movies, also in the Glimmer and Glamour series, but then the regular swimsuit edition. 

 

Rounding out the waifu segment for the period, I got my Dragon Shield custom sleeves for my Commander deck as well this week. 

 

That is not everything I got however over the past weeks.  Due to an event, on which I'll be telling a lot more about in a month or two, I won't be painting and gaming big games a lot, and to that end to get my fix I am reaquainting myself with an old past-time... 

 

The final haul for the period is some reading as well, as I got one of my "subrscribed to series" boxes from Archonia this month.

 

Now off to open some boosters and cuddle some waifu while reading! 

Drifting Home

 A movie from 2022, this one can be currently found on Netflix, and Noshi and me picked it for some evening entertainment.

 

Now, I must say in front, it is weird, it raises questions, and it put me often on the wrong foot.

 

This movie is about two 11 year old friends, Kosuke and Natsume, who have spend their entire childhood together in an appartment building.  Those buildings are set for demolishment, but they often return there.  One day, Natsume in a discussion with Kosuke seems to fall of the chimney, as a sudden burst of rain sweeps the building away.

 

They find the building adrift in an ocean, and together with their friends and a mysterious boy named Noppo need to find their way home.  They have to learn to work together in a coming of age story, and make peace with their past.  When the building is damaged by another one, it starts making water and they leave aboard a raft.  But Noppo can't go with them, as he "is" the building's spirit, Natsume returning to his side.  This makes the other ones leaving the raft to save her with the help of a floating Ferris wheel and it's spirit.

 

Arriving at an island, they learn the voyage was all about Noppo getting there, a place where the children spirits of the buildings live in peace, and the building itself magically transports back to the now.  The children can't explain what happened, though they have pictures of their adventures that Kosuke took with his deceased grandfather's camera, adding to the mystery.

 

Now, the movie gave me serious Studio Ghibli vibes in the magical voyage, but somehow I was steeling myself during the movie for a "Your Lie in April" ending (if you know, you know.  And cry...) as I thought it would be a dying Natsume living out a final dreamstate adventure with her friends as she was last seen falling of the chimney in the "normal" world.  But luckily, it wasn't that, and it seemed they where indeed swooped away before anything could happen to her.

 

A really lovely story, and well worth the watch.  Definitly far better then anything that can be found these days on western streams in my opinion. 

Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer on Lamassu

 And so my general for the 750pts Battlemarch tournament in september is completed!

 

What better way to lead a small expedition then a Sorcerer on their faithfull mount, if only for the visual aspect in such a small force.

 

The model, a 3d print from the Fabelzel line, is a nice size to use on the tabletop, the wings not overhanging to much on the base while the whole body remains in those confines perfectly.  Spell wise, I guess I'm going to go for the Dark lore of Magic, aiming to get Doombolt must imporantly onto the table.  

 

With a force consisting for the rest of two infantry blocks and some support, but more on that in a later post, this adds some mobile redeployment possibilities.

 

So with that paintgoal now completed, let's move on into Age of Sigmar some more and get that army ready as well by november... 

 

On Tour to the Frituur 24: SnackPunt De Schatberg in Sevenum

 I would say I'm living healthy as this is only the third frituur review of the year, but truth is I just keep visiting the same one every week.

 

But during our holidays, I did manage to visit the local one in the camping / bungalow park De Schatberg.

 

SnackPunt De Schatberg is located in park De Schatberg in Sevenum, the Netherlands, and is one of those typical park frituurs: a rather limited but mainstay frituur menu, some pizza's, that sort of things.  It's located in the main building, behind the bar area on the way to the swimming pool, and has a really nice and clean look to it, and service was pretty fast.

 

Our order

 

We ordered a special family pack, which contained fries for 3-4 people, as well as any combination of 4 between frikandels and kroket's, both rather typical snacks.  This bundle only knocks you back 16 euro, so that is good value for sure.  We added two more extra snacks, taking the bill just over 20 euro.

 

The fries where very well baked (well, that region is called "back up Belgians" so they learned the art hehehe), crisp and dry, why the snacks not much can be done to make those exceptional, but they didn't do anything wrong with them either, so a good experience for sure.

 

Conclusion

 

For a park frituur, it is definitly one of the better ones I ever visited.  Sure, the menu is limited, and if you want to eat in you will be seated in the (in high season) busy main hallway of the building, but foodwise I can't say anything wrong about this place.  I would rate it as such a solid 7.5 out of 10.

 

And if you are there, take those family bundles! 

Lord Ipsqueek's Adventures: Landal De Schatberg in Sevenum

 Hello followers, it is I again, and I bring a daring tale of exploration and grave illnesses during my latest vacation!

 

We went to Sevenum this year, 20 kilometres from the German border and more importantly, 3 kilometres from Toverland! 

 

 

 

 

And our place of residence?  The Landal Parc De Schatberg, and boy what an awesome park that was.   It had an indoor playgarden, fun bouncing pillows and of course a swimming pool!

  

Our house had this huge playroom for myself, including an own little private slide from one of the beds.  

  

And it also had a playground right in our garden!

  

Now, the park itself also has a nice collection of additional playgrounds all around, and I explored a nice selection of them. And donkeys!

  

On sunday, we went to a local car booth sale, and it was huge.  But not huge enough to prevent my rummaging skills finding me some dinosaurs I didn't have yet in my toycollection! 

 

But I'm distracted, that illness.  Right before we left, I got an earinfection, and while I managed through like the tough guy that I am, on the monday though the fever peaked and I spend all day on the couch unfortunatly.

 

 

So that brought along a bit of a change of plans, and on tuesday as such we went to DippieDoe Park, a small amusement park where there was next to no people that day.  This meant I could ride all the coasters without waiting, and we where allowed to remain seated in a lot of attractions to go one more time, super super.  

 

And I even showed mommy how to jump on a bouncing pillow, and tought both of them how minigolf is played! 

 

I swear though, that old geezer pushed my nose in my icecream!

 

 

On wednesday then we went to Toverland, a park I'm getting familiar with as this is the third time we visited this.  And I am getting to know the inhabitants rather well!

  

Of course, Merlin's Quest was the ride I jumped in the most, but I also conquered my fears and went back into Expedition Zork after skipping it last year.  Because it was nice and warm, and it has a great splash.  

 

Well, for daddy that was, because he came out of every water ride soaked... seems he attracts it. 

 

Thursday, which was our final day as they gave very masty weather in the evening and next morning, I went out to do some more "local playing" at the vacation house.  You know, get those energy levels in check before driving back home after another great fun vacation.

 

Now to just brood on a plan to get back at daddy for that icecream...