Fate / Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works season 2

The story of the war for the Holy Grail continues, and the mystery about what is going on with Archer deepened.

And then I went out and made a bold theory with Noshi...

In that Archer is actually Shirou from the future, Lancer would be his sevant (at first I thought it would be the priest's) and that Archer intervened in Rin's ritual to appear in this world.  And it all turned out to be like that, except that Lancer was indeed the priest's and not Archer's servant.

Having completed 250+ anime series seems to form your way of thinking watching anime x-D

But in this second season, the antagonists start to fall as the road to completion is being taken.  Some emotionally like Berserker and his master by the hands of Gilgamesh, some rather relieving like how Shinji falls... to his own servant.

The battles are more epic in this second season, and the way Archer confronts his past self adds a great Cause and Effect loop to the storyline: Shirou copies the swords of Archer, who has them from his younger days when he started copying them from his older... you get it, the causual loop involved in timeline tinkering when one meets his past / future self.

This all leads up to the grand finale showdown... and the truth about what the grail actually is and how it was created, making for some gutwrenching emotional realisations.  A truly epic conclusion of this story indeed.  And talking epic conclusions, the girl fight of a jealous Rin in the ultimate "after the war" episode is hilarious...

Well, this was a good intro into the Fate franchise, and we will definitly be watching the other series as well!

Date a Live season 3

The hilarious harem anime is back in 2019, with the third season of the adventures of Shidou who has to seal spirit powers away by kissing them.

It has been 5 years since the second season was aired, but it was worth the wait as it is just as comical as it's predecessors.

The season actually has two arcs, and in the first a new spirit makes her appearance, a witch like one called Natsume.  Shidou is forced to save his friends from being erased to play in her magical game and to make her fall for him to seal her powers.

But the second arc is the mainliner, as Origami, hellbound on destroying all spirits, becomes one herself.  However, when she finds out the truth about who actually killed them, Shidou is forced to travel back to the past with the help of Kurumi.  He manages to change history, but in doing so doesn't get the result he actually hoped for...

And then there is the final episode where Shidou has to be the one to be swooned by the spirits...

A good season with a lot of laughs, as the various spirits each have their quirks causing Shidou to end up in awkward situations, and definitly worth a look!

No Game No Life 1 - Yuu Kamiya

Okay, I LOVE this anime, it's in my top 3 of best series together with Saint Seiya and Gundam.

But unfortunatly, it only was adapted for a single season and a movie... so to know how the story continues, one needs the novels, manga's and spinoffs.

In this fantasy world, everything's a game - and these gamer siblings play to win!

Meet Sora and Shiro, a brother and sister who are loser shut-ins by normal standards.  But these siblings don't play by the rules of the "crappy game" that is average society.  In the world of gaming, this genius pair reigns supreme, their invincible avatar so famous it's the stuff of urban legend.
So when a young boy calling himself God summons the siblings to a fantastic alternate world where war is forbidden and all conflicts - even those involving national borders - are decided by the outcome of games, Sora and Shiro have pretty much hit the jackpot.
But they soon learn that in this world, humanity, cornered and outnumbered by other species, survives within the confines of one city.  Will Sora and Shiro, two failures at life, turn out to be the saviors of mankind?  Let the games begin..!

So that's why I began buying the novels, because I really want to know the whole story.  This first volume tells the anime up to the assension of Shiro as the ruler of Immanity, so while it has been seen on the screen, it does tell some more background details (like WHY the Blank functions as well as it does) and it also has a bit of a different tone.

You see, the novels are classed as 16+, meaning "light novels", something that wasn't the case with the anime itself.  But as you can see from this pictures, it gets all a bit more frisky in the book then in the televised version, but without ever going into the realm of hentai / pornography.

So slowly but steadily I'm now collecting all the books, and will explore more of the realm of Disboard as I continue in ready them.

Ashente!

Fate / Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works season 1

So Noshi and me have finally started the whole Fate / Stay franchise, though it might not be chronologically on how we watch them...

Because Netflix has only a few entries of the series so far, and we started with this one.

The Holy Grail War is a battle royale among seven magi who serve as Masters. Masters, through the use of the command seals they are given when they enter the war, command Heroic Spirits known as Servants to fight for them in battle. In the Fifth Holy Grail War, Rin Toosaka is among the magi entering the competition. With her Servant, Archer, she hopes to obtain the ultimate prize—the Holy Grail, a magical artifact capable of granting its wielder any wish.

One of Rin's classmates, Emiya Shirou, accidentally enters the competition and ends up commanding a Servant of his own known as Saber. As they find themselves facing mutual enemies, Rin and Shirou decide to form a temporary alliance as they challenge their opponents in the Holy Grail War. 

It's a lovely series, and I really like the Archer character and his strange looking motives, even though I have a theory... let's see in season 2 if it is the correct one then!

But I guess he is there to protect Saber, Emiya's servant...

Konrad - David Ferring

Book 1 of the Konrad trilogy, this bookseries has reached a bit of a cultstatus amongst Black Library novels...

Originally published by Games Workshop in the late 1980s.

In a small village somewhere in the Empire, Konrad lives a bad life as an adopted son of the innkeeper.  His only friend is Elyssa, the daughter of the local nobleman.  But as they learn each other things over the years, they discover Konrad has the gift of foresight.

But then the village is burned to the ground, it's inhabitants slain, by vile Beastmen.  Konrad is the only survivor, and is soon taken on as a squire by a knight called Wolf.  For five years he pledges his alliance to Wolf, and together they travel to Kislev to fight Chaos and to find an ancient dwarven treasure...

A really good book that read as a knife through butter.

The Haul Report 189

The birthday edition!

While I had a lot of nice gifts past week to commerate the 41th age of my divine presence on this ball of mud... they aren't really all for the hobby.

A new tweet jacket now graces my wardrobe, italian dsigner ofc, to go to work and razzledazzle my sweet clients :-)

Not birthday related, my Brigade Games order arrived as well this week, containing the Neo Russian army deal.  These models will become the ground support for my FWC Gundam force, providing command models, infantry and AFV's to go along the mobile suits.

A small parcel from eBay also dropped in, containing an Arnor captain.

And finally, my give-away price from Archonia arrived, the Shura God Cloth model, so happy with this one as Noshi is a Capricorn and now he can stand side by side with my Cancer God Cloth Deathmask.

A most excellent week indeed!

On the Painting Desk 102

Okay, so this has been a good week, as I actually got a painting night marathon in last weekend.

And that resulted in some things being finished, like the 6mm Razorbacks, Pippin, and the dwarven battle company.

While the later ones passed by on this blog already, the 6mm models will be shown in the near future as I will be trying to finish the remainder that is currently on my desk first.

I also made some good progress on the elves for Noshi, as well as began some work on the Mordor orcs and the Tau commander.

Going into the coming week where time will be more restricted, I don`t really aim to finish anything, but get some advancement on bits and bobs instead.

Meanwhile at paintstation Beta

I did get some good painting done over at Noshi's, as the block of Morannon Orcs that are parked there got all their armour painted, washed and ready for a drybrush.

Until next week!

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Parodising the 1813 novel by Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies combines the lovestory set in victorian London with zombieslaying girls...

Yeah, I agree, that seems like a mighty odd concept...

Even though the movie went to production hell, as it originally would star Nathalie Portman, it still has a rather strong cast including Matt Smith and GoT illuminati Lena Headey and Charles Dance.  It follows the original storyline of the classic novel, but adds elements of horror and zombies into it as it goes along, making for an entertaining film.

Especially since it never becomes really dark or Walking Dead like.  As London is the last remaining city in England not overrun by Zombies, the Bennet sisters are trained to fend off zombie attacks.  But as a lady in that era was required, they also have to look for good husband to marry.

During the courting with various prospects, a charming soldier named Wickham shows Elizabeth that there is a chance to coexist with zombies, but his plan is quickly put down by the survivors of the zombie wars.  This leads to tensions between Wickham and zombie killer Darcy, who share a past with each other, and when zombies start overrunning London and Lucy, one of the Bennet sisters, is captured, the plan of Wickham turns out to be less noble then expected...

A fun movie, in which you don't have to think to much in all honesty.  Visually pleasing as London and it's surrounding area is nicely recreated, this was a good saturday evening flick to watch...

Durin's Folk Battle Company

The most recent battle company to roll off the table, and another one to go off the checklist of the forces that have to be painted up.

The Dwarves in MESBG are your typical ones, small armoured tanks that compensate speed with survivability.

The battle company as it starts out consists of 6 models, in the form of two each of dwarven warriors armed with a shield, a two-handed weapon and a bow respectively.

And it now gives another option in the pool for the people wanting to learn how to play the game!