The Rising of the Shield Hero season 3

 Back into his lands, Naofumi, Raphtalia, Filo and their new companion from last season Rishia are readying themselves for the arrival of the Phoenix guardian beast in 3.5 months.

So that means we can enjoy our beloved Shield Hero once again, and his witty remarks!

Arriving in the Kingdom, he learns from the queen that the three other heroes have gone missing after fighting a Catastrophe Wave that was created while he fought in the parallel world.  He needs to bolster the defences for his lands as well, and goes looking for the missing slaves of the village he freed and now governs.  Melty and Eclair will take care of his lands and teach the inhabitants, while he goes looking for others.  This leads him into the fighting pits of Zeltbone, where he heard rumours of one of the demi-human slaves being auctioned, and earning gold that way to buy it's freedom.

In those pits, he meets Nadia, who is a shapeshifting killerwhale demi-human actually called Sadina, and who decides to join him in his mission.  In the slaver's pen, he meets Fohl and his sick and injured younger sister Atla.  He uses an elixer to bring her back to health, and buys them their freedom, taking them with him to Sardeena, where the defence works are in progress for the coming of the Phoenix.  But slavers attack the demi-human village when Naofumi is out on a trade mission, yet before being captured Fohl manages to send out a signal flare.  

The demi-humans are all captured and the village damaged, but as they prepare to leave the Shield Hero and his companions arrive, quickly defeating the slavers and sending them off to slavery themselves in Siltvelt, the city he is worshipped as the Shield God.  resetting Fohl and Sadina's levels, they now become a part of his group, and in a meeting with the queen he is informed they located the Spear Hero, who wanders the lands now as a broken man.

S'yne, the murder clown from the fighting pits, arrives in his village wanting to find a home, but is rebuked and leaves.  Motoyasu the Spear hero, having hit on lower fortunes, is traced down by Naofumi, Rapthalia and Filo, while they also encounter an embittered Ren, the Sword hero, who has seen all his companions die in battle.  But Myne (Bitch), the fallen princess appears, as she is clearly influencing Ren and shifting all blames on the Shield hero in the presence of the Spear hero.  As the Sword hero flees off with Myna after wanting to use a skill in a crowded inn, which Naofumi manages to deflect, the Spear hero begins recovering from his depression.

Back on the way to their village, they are ambushed by some powerful bandits, only to be saved in the last moment by S'yne.  She reveals she is one of the Vassal heroes from a now destroyed world, and looks to join forces with Naofumi.  While not entirely believing her, he none the less allows her to stay on his lands as he takes the young heroes of his people to upgrade their class.   As they go out to hunt a group of bandits that roam his land, he finds Ren engaged in a duel with Motoyasu.  As they face Ren, we get to see what had transpired with the Sword hero and how he was also betrayed by Myne.  These events led to his Sword's cursed mode becoming active and taking him under it's influence, the friends banding together to stop him causing mass destruction.

Rat, a royal alchemist specialised in the study of monsters and demi-humans arrives in the village to offer her services, bringing along a dragon egg.  Breeded out with the help of Wyndia, the little dragon is named Gaelion, but when he accidentally swallows the Emperor's Dragon Core Jewel, he grows and breaks out.  Linked to Filo, he starts stealing levels from her, and the hero and his friends seek him out at the dragon's den.  Calling Filo to him, the two linked beasts merge as he swallows her, becoming the Emperor dragon.  Wanting to dominate humanity, he takes control of Naofumi's shield, raising the dragon's defensive powers, but with the aid of Atla's power and Wyndia's true link to the zombie dragon of the first season they overcome him, saving Gaelion and Filo and retrieving the jewel.

 

 

They locate the fourth hero, Itsuki the Archer, as he is fighting in the arena's scooping up price money.  Having fallen under Malty's poinous words, he believes that only the things he did where right and the others have been in error.  Rishia enters the battles to face Itsuki and bring him back to his senses, making him join Naofumi in the village as well.  But when Rapthalia dons a seemingly innocent miko cloth, she is revealed to be born of noble family and heir to the throne of Q'ten Lo, an island country that immediatly send assassins after her the moment she does so.

 

With Naofumi deciding to solve the matter before the Phoenix arrives, the others start training and gearing up for the ensuing battle which is now looming closer then 2 months... but that will be for next season.

 

So after a weaker second season, we are back on track with the series in my opinion, though it still strikes a bit odd with all the big reveals suddenly in the final episode, and why these things never been brought up or even hinted at in all the previous episodes.

Saintia Sho volume 5 - Masami Kurumada and Chimaki Kuori

 Time to get to the next instalment of Saintia Sho!

 

 

And with Athena brought before Saga, as she was captured by Aphrodite at the end of volume 4, the truth behind Sanctuary might be revealed!

 

Here she is met by a Saga in total duality, as his sane side begs her to kill him, while his evil side threatens her not to approach him, but she can`t bring herself to deliver the strike. But before his evil side can attack her, his good side sweeps her away through Another Dimension, where Aphrodite delivers her back at the mansion.  In the arena, Katya reveals it was all part of the plan, and that she is actually loyal to Saori, instructing both silver saints to protect her as well.

 

While still in the hospital recovering, Shoko is visited by Aquila Marin.  She brings the grave news that Saint's Academy, where aspiring saintia are trained, has been destroyed by Cancer Deathmask.  Cassopeia Elda, one of the saintia's that is present, engages him but is no match for the gold saint.  He brings her to the mouth of the Underworld, where he reveals that Eris's followers still lurk around, and wanted to posses the bodies of the students, so killing them all was the fastest way to stop him.  Enraged by his cruel methods, Elda is left behind frustrated in the ruins of the academy.

In the meantime Saori sends the other saintia's to train with Marin, in order that they get more powerful for the battle to come, while the pope gathers the gold saints to put Sanctuary on full alert.  As the battle for Sanctuary is about to begin, Mayura meets with the trained saintia's near the ruins of Eris's temple, where evil souls are flocking.

As Athena is struck by the golden arrow, the battle has now begun in earnest and Seiya and his friends fight their way to the Pope's room.  Here Seiya overcomes Saga and saves Athena, but when she later confronts him, he kills himself in shame of what he had done, his evil side driven out by the light of Athena's shield... but it seems this side is ressurected at the ruins where the others wait.

And so the fifth volume ends, and we are already near the end of the (sadly only one season made) anime.  Considering there are 18 volumes in total, that means there is still a lot to discover for me in this series, and I'll happily read along!

 

 

Fall Fantasy Anime League 2023 result

 So, here we are again, the weekly points tally and movements in my effort to get a decent result in.

I already gave up longtime on immortal glory, I just ain't that good in these prediction things as I always go by what I would watch instead of studying the numbers...

But, how did my picks perform this season?

 

Kingdom of Ruin: 11th place

Tokyo Revengers Tenjiku-hen: 7th place, which is lower then I guessed

Overtake: 24th place, okay for a very niche anime

Uma Musume Pretty Derby season 3: 30th plqce

The Faraway Paladin the Lord of Rust Mountains: 21st place

Dr Stone New World part 2: 3rd place

Dead Mount Death Play part 2: 17th plqce, also about 5 spots lower then I estimated

FLCL Grunge: didn't even get ranked...

And the weekly progress in the ranks went as follows:

Week 1: 1361 th place, 116277 points, succesfully aced Tokyo Revengers

Week 2: 2255 th place, 284205 points, swapped in Dr Stone for Derby Girls, succesfully aced Kingdom of Ruin

Week 3: 3574 th place, 612022 points, swapped in Dead Mount for Faraway Paladin, succesfully aced Dr Stone

Week 4: 8686 th place, 699624 points

Week 5: 13307 th place, 854617 points

Week 6: 14654 th place, 962215 points

Week 7: 15351 th place, 1240501 points

Week 8: 15891 th place, 1316088 points

Week 9: 16588 th place, 1506490 points, swapped in Faraway Paladin for Overtake

Week 10: 16926 th place, 1767380 points

Week 11: 17231 th place, 1877053 points

Week 12: 18061th place, 2058924 points

Week 13: 18289th place, 2597863 points, used Wild Card points bonus, swapped Kingdom of Ruin for Overtake

So as expected, while with the aces I could hold up a bit in the first weeks, starting after week 4 the freefall began, losing about 15-20% per week from the top spots.  This season was pretty simple, if you didn`t have Sousou no Frieren, you where out as it scored more then double of the second anime on the ranking, Dr Stone New World s2 (which I had in my list).  But with Tokyo Revengers (relatively) and Dead Mount Death Play underperforming, my chances where slashed for any decent ranking in this Fall contest.

 

But in the end, I came to a top 75% score, which is actually less dramatic then I feared at the outset...

Guess I`ll have to try and strike back with a vengeance in the upcoming Winter edition then...

 

 

Fafner Dead Agressor: The Beyond part 2

 Finally I've gotten around to watch some more of this excellent mecha series, Fafner in the Azure.

It really has been to long, yet it is imprinted so much on my otaku memory I know precisely where I left off.

And that is with Lady Ruby wanting to protect the island refuge.  Azrael lures the enemy away, as they want the weapon technology of the island for themselves.  Opposed by the Fafner, the enemy is held to a standstill.

Realising their location is no longer a secret and communication between humans is the hardest, they have to figure out what to do with the defeated machine.  Life returns to it's normal pace for now, with the enemy pilot in medical custody.  They decide to put the island in motion, sailing it through the Pacific Ocean as their allies will keep the other nations in check.

With the enemy pilot, the brainwashed Soushi, acting as their guide, under surveillance by Maya.  But the Benon fleet is readying itself as well.  Maris manages to make contact with Soushi, putting him asleep, but he is stopped by the power of an Element and is stopped as the Festum approach.  Soushi slowly but surely returns to the fold of his former friends, being treated and trained as one of their comrades.  

 

With the arrival of the red moon, they  realise the enemy has arrived.  Soushi receives a vision, that he has the power to stop the Mir, if he comes together with his Fafner.  He joins the battle, but can't prevent Maris managing to take out control and as a result a lot of the adults.

So the battle rages, time to get to part 3 and see how this unfold!

JK Haru is a Sexworker in Another World volume 6 - Ko Hiratori and J-ta Yamada

 Time for the latest instalment in perhaps one of the best isekai, if a bit of an unorthodox twist, I have been reading in the past years.

And not because it is ecchi or something, because it barely is, but it just has this damn good story of the strenght of a girl, who has to use her body to survive in a male-orientated fantasy world.

And in this volume, JK Haru is out for a vengeance for what happened to her friend in volume 5!  So what happens when the rain stops?

Unleashing her true combat skill level, she kills her first soldier, one she used to like before, to get into the camp.  Far above their skill level, she cuts a swathe through the force, even taking out the famed decurion Subaya effortlessly.  She recalls her very first customer was God himself, and he granted her a skill that absorbed the experience and skills of all the men that came in her.

Decurion Bisque arrives, but she removes his Emotion Killer skill moments before avengening Shequraso, making him feel all the pain of loss in his dying moments.  Facing the centurion, who was nothing but a low level fraud, she wiped out the entire garrison and now faces the monsters on the border alone, a piercing gaze following her movements.  

But while Shequraso only gets a modest burial attended by the girls of the brothel, the soldiers are granted a heroes funeral.  Haru takes up singing and the guitar, as she believes she must fill her departed friend's shoes to keep the shop running.  As it rains outside, the strange silverhaired guy appears in front of the shop, stating he just wanted to see Haru's face when she goes out to meet him.  He tells her a strange story about how she is the one from the past that will end his tale in the future before disappearing in the rain, but not after inviting her to visit his place next time.

Later that night she is purchased by an older, dual sword wielding man who wants to figure out what happened to both the soldiers and the monsters.  He tries to trick her for information, but she diffuses the situation by sharing her views on the world and being a sex worker.  As they consumate, he tells her he wants her to become his next and final woman, as he invites her to come along and slay the demon lord.

 

And so the volume ends with some tea time between the girls, and the sad news that the next volume to come out will also be the final one...

On the Painting Desk 263

 Okay, so after two weeks finally some good painting progress on the projects.

I pulled out some time as I did the main goal I needed to complete in FF14 for the moment, and now it is back to questing and levelling as usual, so I can put up some paint time while waiting in instance lines.

And this week the Fomoroid had some strong progress, that much even I might finish it in the week to come if I can keep this rate up.

I also worked some more on the Mordheim warband, and especially it's greenskin informant henchmen as some work on their first layer has been completed, as well as the skin's first layer on the gaoler.

So with some forced off time ahead, I am going to commit myself to do some seriously painting in the next fortnight.

Check back next week!

The Haul Report 386: completing Quintuplets gachapon series

 So the first report of the year, and it has some nice little thingamabobs to share!

And it is a varied lot, the result you could say of christmas wrap-ups.

The first thing I obtained is another manga, in the form of volume 20 of Terra Formars which I purchased with a gift voucher that was also included in last week's Secret Santa (but arrived at the door a few days later).

From Yatta Japan, I had a box of gachapon being send, in the hopes of getting both the remaining Ichika keychain and Nino hugcot, and I got lucky as both where indeed in the selection.  The unboxing video is on my YouTube, with the doubles going into my trade pile.

I also received some christmas money from mom, and a quick trip to the city yielded me the following Underworlds warband, which just looks like fun band to try out some day.

 

A final piece that arrived this week was my Secret Santa from the Chaos Dwarf Online community, granting me the latest in the Secret Santa line they maintain there.

 

 

So a lovely and varied set of goodies, and this means I kick off the year with a nice pile of figures to paint as well as two completed Quintuplets sets, that's what I call a great start!

Warmuster volume 1

 Kicking of this year's goal of finally reading all those PDF magazines I collected over the years, wether they are official magazines, e-zines, digital scans of old magazines or beloved of all, Fanzines, the first one is Warmuster, an e-zine for the Warmaster game.

Released back in the summer of 2009, this magazine was created with the aid of the Warmaster playtester group, many of them still working on the lovely 10mm game through Warmaster Revolutions website.

Counting 17 pages, this e-zine starts of with an editiorial, telling on how the magazine came to be, and what the goals are.  

But the first article is already a great one, as it details on how to model the various fantasy armies, starting with the Dogs of War.  Garth Bragg converted this colourfull army, and how he created various famous regiments of renown for his force.  The next force we see is an Ogre Kingdoms one, sculpted around the Warmaster Ogres and BOFA Trolls as main sources.

Moving on, we get the mystical army of Albion, which in the main lore at the time was mostly known as a single Dogs of War giants unit and two characters with a felbeast from a summer campaign booklet, so it is always cool to see a force totally imagined by it's creator.

The other forces are tackled as well in this first volume, including even the Chaos Dwarfs, as many armies where not available 15 years ago.  Now, with the advent of 3d printing, companies like Forest Dragon bring out excellent models that make the game far more accessible to people though.

But in 2009, you got this nice little e-zine that just told you how to build it all for yourself!

Overtake!

 An anime about Formula racing... I'm game, big time!

Because F1 has been my favorite sport ever since 1991 (yes, the times of prequali's with Olivier Grouillard in the Fondmetal for example) and the year those beautiful 7Up Jordan's and a certain Michael Schumacher debuted in the sport.

So let's see what this series can bring to a long time fan as myself.  Kouya Madoka is a freelance photographer who is one day hired to take pictures of a car race, something he doesn't know anything about.  On the circuit he meets one of his friends, and only that day finds out he owns a Formula 4 team, Belsorisso, and starting to pick Madoka's intrest in the sport.  He meets Asahina Haruka, who drives for a small team, Komaki Motors, and decides to support him.

And so their lives, with highly different ages and personalities, start to interweave as he captures a moment of great disappointment of young Asahina, who fell out the race with a puncture the moment he was going to overtake for a podiumspot.  Madoka wants to become an official sponsor of the team, and get involved.  And then he gets the numbers of what a season of F4 actually costs...

 

However, when he gets potential sponsors to visit a race, Haruka underperforms, causing none to jump onboard.   Never the less, he finds one through a friend, allowing them to get new tires and such for the car, even though this means a commercial has to be taped.  In the race, Haru seems on fire, as at the Belsorisso team is starting to suffer internal cracks.  Tokumaru, their second driver, wanted to go his own chance for once as he was better setup for this race, but got team orders to act as the windbreak for the first driver.  During the race, he comes in a duel with Haru with whom he has a feud, and who by using the slipstream beats Tokumaru for his new best result, 4th and just short of the podium.  

When the commercial is presented, Haruka isn`t to happy they used his crying picture.  During the planning for a photoshoot, Haruka learns more about Madoka and who he really is, while reflecting on his own childhood days.  Part of a team effort, Haruka and his team sign up for a charity run, with also the Belsorisso team featured in it.  It's a threeway tie for the win, Haruka being assigned second place by rock paper scissors.  But he just wanted to win a prize to give to the teammanager as a birthday gift.

 

But when Haruka qualifies his highest ever in fourth, rainy weather hits the track, making all teams ponder between slicks and rain tires.  Haruka wants the first option, but Madoka knows his father died in an accident in the rain. This brings a discussion about between Madoka and Haruka, as he sees Haruka is on a "high" mental state today and fears for his safety.  But the weather is fickle, and soon it starts raining hard.  Haruka makes the wise decision to not take big risks, throttling down and stopping the race realising an accident might happen on his slicks, as happens with number one driver Harunaga of the Belsorisso team.  

Luckily, he comes off with broken bones only, escaping a worse fate.  Madoka relives a trauma from long ago though as he sees the despair in his eyes.  His past is revealed, costing Komaki Motors their sponsor.  In his past, he took a picture of a young child during an earthquake, causing people to question his morals in not trying to save her and him having to adopt another name.  Haruka really starts to worry about Madoka, going to look for him and appologise.  

Haruka receives a test for the position of number two driver with Belsorisso, with the blessings of his team.  Harunaga in the meantime forces his recovery in the hospital.  He learns that Ena, the Belsorisso owner, goes a long way back with his late dad and Komaki.  During practice, Haruka forces his leadman Tokumaru to make mistakes.

Haruka tracks down Madoka, and goes to visit him.  He decides to stay with Madoka until he is finished doing what he has to do, and Madoka tells him te story of what really transpired 12 years ago.  He was accepted in the community, taking pictures of the people present, when an earthquake strikes and a tsunami approaches.  Using his camera he sees the young girl Momo run through the streets, moments before she is crushed by the rubble, and why he can no longer take pictures of people as her begging eyes are seared in his memory, even though he was to far away to help her.  

 

 

Together with Haruka, he goes to visit the girl's grandfather in hospital, who is dying of an illness, and brings closure to Madoka on his dying bed.  Haruka returns to his team, having turned Belsorisso down.  After a bad qualifying, Haruka makes his way up the field as Tokumaru leads the race, going all the way up to second and in the tail of Tokumaru.  But with his tires wearing out, he drops back unfortunatly.

But thanks to the local sponsorship search Madoka did early, they merchants decide to step in to sponsor Haruka.  This allows them to do a serious upgrade in parts and tires on the car, as Harunaga is slowly recovering and visiting the race again, and doing some practices showing he still has the speed.  But he hides the extent of how his injuries still play up though.  

The day of the race, Madoka gets a job to make a special about F4, Haruka promising he will get onto that podium and give Madoka that podium picture of him.  Qualifying 6th, he is not far behind the Belsorisso cars where the positions of number one and number two driver have been switched, quicly finding Haruka behind them in third.  As Tokumaru is hit by a lapped car, he takes the risk of not pitting, allowing Harunaga to pass him with the slipstream.  Haruka goes on the offensive, making a passing move on the final corners.  He takes that long eluded checkered flag, making up his promise to his deceased father, to the joy even of his rivals and everyone present. 

Okay, I loved this series, it was a great sportsshow, and it had some serious emotional rollercoaster moments to show the reasons of how the characters became who they are... go watch this stuff for certain!