Three quarters past: the goal end sprint

 Summer has past, and we enter the last stint of the year to see what goals we can achieve this year, and which we can already start to abandon.

And did we manage to put some goals already in the "green" during the past period?

Well, yes.  The first one (unsurprisingly?) to reach the achieved status is the anime to watch goal, which was set at 25 series.  That has been passed, with the counter now on 30 already finished, but we are still watching the 200+ episodes Hitman Reborn "not officially a goal" but which I still want to finish before the year is up.  I`m currently at episode 76 of 203, so that will require still some effort, but it has been improved significantly in the past quarter towards this goal.

The other big goal of the year, the read 100 books, is still a decent amount away from achieving, but it has been bumping my manga collection strongly the past months so far.  I`m now at 35 out of 100, meaning some serious end of year shopping might be required still.  Probably starting out with completing a couple of series (or up until their recently released volumes) for series like the Quintuplets, Saintia Sho, Terra Formars or Reincarnated as a Slime.

On the series and movies front, with respectively 15 and 10 finished, it will all depend a bit on Noshi's mood on what we will be watching the coming months still if I get to the movies goal, but the series at least we nailed for this year.

So, let's get to the painting level: I worked some more on Gundam gachapon's, and as a result 5 are now finished bar some rebasing.  And I actually might complete a GunPla this year, bar perhaps it's MechaTop suited basing.

The battle with the scales however seems to have stagnated, as I keep hovering around the 89 bar the past weeks, no matter the salads amount.  Guess we will have to break past a certain metabolic point in order to get it going downwards again.  Time to finally make use of that gym pass I guess, ouch my aching bones.

See you all in 3 months for the end of year tally!

That time I got reincarnated as a Slime volume 7 - Fuse and Taiki Kawakami

 So we are back with the next volume of our favorite monster, Rimuru.

And he certainly has his work cut out for him, with the demon lord Milim, who is one of the most powerfull out there, having decided to stay in the city of Jura.

Because with her proclaiming herself Rimuru's bestie, this might upset the balance of power between the other demon lords, turning their eye to the newly formed Monster Nation.

After a delegation of the demon lord Carrion arrives, Rimuru learns from Milim about a plot of 4 of the lords, including herself, to set up a puppet demon lord in order to get their ideas the majority of votes, which was supposed to have been the Orc Lord Rimuru defeated.  In the meantime, the kingdom of Falmuth tries to strengthen her borders with Jura still thinking the Orc Lord is roaming at large.  They send a mercenary force headed by captain Youm, who is saved from a huge spider together with the adventuring band of before and guildmaster Fuze, by Gobta.

 

 

They forge a plan together to make Youm a champion, to tell the world he defeated the Orc Lord and as such make the Jura Forest nation less of an imposing force that might catch the unwanted attention of other nations, as monsters defeated another monster, and having them seen as an even bigger threat that way...

 

And now, it's the search for volume 8 to read further in the adventures in our Slime and his band of unlikely allies he gathered around him.

Fantasy Anime League: Fall 2022

 So MAL is running it's next Fantasy Anime League, where you can try and predict the best scoring anime's of the coming season.

And as my previous results showed, I suck at these.

Last year's fall edition put me in the "top 97%" while I improved a bit in this year's spring edition, ending in the "top 96%" of the participants.  Rock bottom in other words.  Though I estimate the total misuse of my Ace did play part in that so far.

Now, for this edition, hyper anticipated series like Chainsaw Man or SpyXFamily part 2 can`t be selected, so you had to pick one of three probably very popular series, and then 4 mains from the list, as well as 3 reserves to put on the bench.

Of course, I couldn't make myself NOT taking the new Gundam series, so my selection ended up as follows:

 

Of the popular expected series, I picked the second season of To Your Eternity, I have no clue about this series but it had the highest rating so far, and I want to try and score some points at least this League.

 

Of course, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch of Mercury HAD to be on my team, I`m a bit of morally obliged to that and Gundam can always turn out to become a breakout series in ratings. 

The 2022 version of Urusei Yatsura was my next pick, because Lum.  Nostalgia galore for this series for me.

Shadow Garden was the next one I added to my core team, it seems intresting and is already on my plan to watch list for a long time.

And finally I took the fourth season of Golden Kamui, a series I still need to begin watching but which comes rater highly rated in reviews, so this might turn out to be a points grabber.

On my bench, I have installed the following three series as such, to try and swap in should there be a series that seems to explode into the ratings:

The second season of Muv-Luv Alternative, and even though I still have to watch season 1, the original years ago was a good series.

The second season of Megaton, because, well, mecha.  I know this is a serious niche in the anime community, but one day mecha will become dominant and I will swipe the tables... I might also be a tat delusional but heck.

And finally the second season of Kan-Colle, because who doesn't like battleships that are girls.

So that's it, my team that will go and try to get me at the barest minimum into the top 95% this time round.  Now to just figure out that use of ACE cards this time and get it right for once...

 

 

The Way of the Househusband season 1 part 2

 Our favorite Yakuza houseman is back, in the second part of Netflix's original series first season.

So me and Noshi binged this one as well, still giggling from the jokes of the first season part.

But as it counts as seperate entries on MAL, I`m keeping that counter for recordkeeping sake.

And our former topgangster Immortal Dragon, aka Tatsu, is back for more serious problems that need to be tackled in everyday life.  Like how to make tapioca bubble tea together with his former gangster rival Steel Fists of Tiger, or a school project for his cousin.  Not to mention the ultimate challenge of beach volleybal with his wife!

This leads to all sorts of hilarious situations on how he solves the problems still using his yakuza language and style, and how this scares the people at times around him, but never the less keeps his manners and ways as a normal househusband going.

Another short but fun season, again in that special sort of artstyle but not to distracting at all, and good fun to watch.  If you are in your 40s as well, it also feels very relatable on the part of the situations he has to deal with.

Great fun!

My Dress-Up Darling volume 2 - Shinichi Fukuda

 The pressure is on, as Gojo found out at the end of volume 1 he only has two weeks to complete a costume for Marin.

So now he needs to be as creative and hard-working he can be, as he wants to fullfill his promise and make sure she can attend the convention in her favorite character outfit!

So now faced with this extreme pressure, his grandfather getting in a slight accident and school work on top, he certainly has a high cliff to mount.  However, when Marin passes by, it seemed to be all a misunderstanding as she didn`t mean to attend exactly that convention, but told him as an example of there being many.

But with the costume completed, they go and fit it never the less, and as it is ready Gojo joins her for his first anime convention ever with his newly found friend.  At the event, Gojo is mentally saying his farewells to her as he figures their friendship will end now that he fulfilled his promise of making her a costume.  She seeks him out, and on the train back tells him he must make many more for her though.

Later at dinner with Gojo's grandpa, Marin realises she is falling in love with Gojo though.  But a bit later, a strange girl arrives at their workshop...

And just like in the first volume, there is this one panel that captures just what an awesome person Marin is and how she became such a community favorite.  We need more Marin's in our world!

 

On the Painting Desk 213

 Well, a busy period with not much "free" free-time the past weeks.

But never the less, I managed to sneak in a few painting sessions.  Not much, but some minor work was managed to be done on the Freedom.

And that precious little time has been spend on doing some of the blue already on the (mostly) wing sections of the mobile suit.

I hope to get the whole blue sections completed in the coming days, but that will depend a lot on how that thing called life rears it's head.

 

Now, apart from trying to get some painting done, I have also been building some kits, namely the ones from Super Mecha Champions.

The first one I tackled was the cute teddybear mech Caramel, to get a good idea of how those kits build up and how much glueing was required.

 

 

So after all, some progress was made as such, and that is always a good thing.  I might even kind off finish the Freedom this calendar year...

Unboxing Super Mecha Champions Caramel

 The third and final SMC kit I`m unboxing from my recent AmiAmi arrival, and it is none other then the cute Caramel mech.

A big boom style, lumbering mecha in the game, it's teddy bear head makes it so adorable.  And it actually isn`t half bad in game either.

So, let's open the box and have a look inside:

Now, as with the other two I unboxed recently (Arthur and Hurricane), I once again will be trying to get those incorporated in MechaTop.  Should be fun to see how these would perform against for example the Freedom Gundam...

Keep an eye on this blog, for when I started building the sets, I`ll be of course be reporting on them as well...

The Way of the Househusband

 A Netflix original, this anime was highly awaited when announced by the streaming service.

So recently, me and Noshi tackled the first season, counting 5 episodes, of the series.

Now, a word of warning first, the animation style.  It holds somewhere between a picture drama and an anime, with not all of the frames being animated.  It wasn`t as distracting or bad as some reviews stated, but it does take a bit of getting used to.

But the story is great fun!  The story goes about the greatest gangster of the Yakuza, Tatsu, nicknamed the Immortal Dragon, has turned househusband.  But this makes his life more eccentric as well, as he uses the skills from his former life for example to do DIY chores, use them to bargain prices on fleamarket's, or when he goes grocery shopping.

Yet his past follows him, as the police try to catch him doing something wrong, while young thugs are unknowing of his reputation as they bully the neighbourhood... albeit shortly if they run into him.

A short but awefully fun series, as well as the intermezzo's of the household cat and the neighbourhood dog, and surely worth a watch.  Just try to get past the weird form of animating, and you will certainly have a good laugh!

Terra Formars volume 9 - Yu Sasuga and Ken-Ichi Tachibana

 Time again for some action packed manga reading, as I obtained the 9th volume of Terra Formars.

Loved the anime, really like the manga, and so let's continue the story.

The various teams are trying to regroup and recuperate after the battle between the Russians, supported by the Japanese / US divisions on the one side, and the betraying Chinese on the other.  But the bugs have obtained the Bug Procedure medicine, which can increase their powers by tenfolds.

Akari and Michelle face some evolved bugs, trying in the meantime to unravel and comprehend their odd behaviour, as they seem to try and develop... a culture of their own.  As Akari duels his opponent, the bug suddenly pulls out... a gun.  Akari is nearly taken, but an elaborate plan brings his salvation in the form of a sword, for whom someone of the Russian division gave his life to deliver to him.

The Russians explain the theory of Rahab to the other survivors in the meantime, and why they went after the pyramids first, as Michelle faces her past while fighting a Terraformar that inherited her father's abilities.  Giving it her all, she manages to overcome the monstrosity in the end and sort of manages to celebrate her birthday that way as the sun rizes on a new day on Mars.

But the chinese arrive, taking them hostage...

So, with the divisions plan now seemingly foiled to contact Rome division, the rest of the team are hiding, out to take the radio tower and send news of the betrayal... so I can`t wait to read that in manga version with volume 10 once it comes out.

Unboxing Super Mecha Champions Hurricane

 Today I`m having a look at the second of the scale model kits I obtained from AmiAmi from the SMC video game.

And that is none other then the transformable, fast airplane mecha Hurricane.

Quite a decent choice in game, I could get my hand on it together with the other two provisional pre-order (meaning they don`t get enough kits, so they are selected who gets them) kits Arthur and Caramel.

But, let's open the box and see the model first hand:

Just like with Arthur, they might eventually end up for MechaTop as well, if I can get round creating some decent stat cards.  Though I`ll have to figure that out first.

Lord Ipsqueek's Adventures: back to the seaside

 Greetings followers!

Here is your favorite pint-sized ruler again, and I went out to overview the lands.

Last year, I went to the seaside and liked it a lot, so I ordered my parents to book a stay there again this year.  This time, I picked Bredene, and we stayed at Park Merlo as such.

But that was not all, I allowed myself to be transported by one of those huge trams called trains.  I like trams, so I wanted to ride in one of those huge ones.  It was quiet a fun experience I must say.

Upon arrival at our week home, I immediatly went out to scout the premises, and this huge closed off sundeck was ideal for me.  Now I could constantly run in and out of the house, and I quickly mastered the step off from the door as well.

We went to see the sea that same day, and I must say my mommy was a bit of a spoilsport, I wanted to walk all the way to England and back, but she didn`t let me unfortunatly.

The second day we went first to the market, because we of course needed some food for the rest of the week.  But sadly, in the afternoon the rain came.

We went for a walk in De Haan as such, and this strange lady waded into an icecold and windy sea.  Well, at least she had no less then five lifeguards watching her, probably wondering what the heck she was thinking... and why they had to stand in the rain as such.

On wednesday morning, it still rained so we went to the Sealife resort, where sick seals are being cured, but also hoists a nice aquarium.  I loved looking at all the fishes, though I think it a bit sad you are not allowed to dip in with the lovely and colourfull fishes.

 

 

On the final full day, we went to Ostend.  Here, mommy and daddy wanted to have me drive one of those push car's again like last year, but I didn`t feel like it so we quickly abandoned that plan as such. 

 

 

You must understand, being insanely cute all the time is a very tiring job, and I just wanted to take a good nap instead.

 

 

And I needed to save up strenght because in the afternoon I wanted to go play in BOTH the playgrounds the park has to offer.

 

 

And so the vacation came to an end, as on the friday morning we went back on one of those exciting big trains and journey back to Antwerp.

 

 

Though the weather here was far worse...

 

 

So that's it for this adventure my loyal subjects, I will see you again when I go on a fresh adventure!

The Haul Report 336

 Even though I spend the week on the seaside, there is loot!

Because upon our return in Antwerp Central Station, we passed by the local Akiba store.

They have new gachapon machines, with a lot of cool series goodies in it, so I made this short clip of the new machine row.

And of course, we grabbed some coins and started turning the cranks!

 

So, a modest loot, but one that will be revealed at the end of the year with all the other gachapon we been collecting this year so far.

Unboxing the september Archonia My Box

 So, my Archonia box of this month (send the last days of august, so it arrived in september).

And it's a big one this month, as I went on a shopping spree.

 

Though it was an adventure to het the box finally in my hands...

Yeah, even a FunkoPop found it's way in there...

But because it is a rather biggie indeed this time, I decided to do an unboxing video for it, so sit back and join the ride.

So that is a nice stack of loot for this month.  next month, it'll be a big box as well, but that is because I ordered my Chirstmas present along with the regular releases I'm grabbing, so it won't be so immense a loot for that episode.

Anyway, here are the contents once again in a single picture...

The Haul Report 335

 Let's kick off the month with a biggie, as the My Box from Archonia arrived.

And it contained a nice stack of manga this month.

All the volumes of My Dress Up darling released so far that I still needed, as well as the next instalments for Terra Formars and Reincarnated as a Slime so I can continue reading. 

And actually a FunkoPOP, because I wasn`t going to let the LE Saint Seiya one slip away.  Talking Saint Seiya, I also grabbed a couple of gachapon from the series.

But the full contents in glorious technicolor will be shown next week after the holdiay trip, so I can calmly unbox the errrm, box.

And that was not all, as from TokyoCatch a parcel arrived containing my Tamjiro tissue holder.

 

 

A good week for sure!