Tsukimi is 1403:

The 1403rd member of my fictional character hall of fame is Tsukimi from Limelight Lemonade Jam.  She has blonde hair and blue eyes, which almost automatically makes her great.  In addition she's one of the top pianists in Japan, with the ability to memorize and play back perfectly any song upon just hearing it.  She also has a strong will and won't let others push her or other people around.  She defied her parents, she defied Yukitaka when he wanted to delete a song he had composed, she jumped into the band uninvited, she'll race across town in an evening gown in order to make two scheduled events on the same day.  She has the vitality to double her workload as compared to everyone else and still get it all done.  She's also kind to her friends and gets along with classmates and is especially understanding towards Yukitaka, (her eventual boyfriend).  She doesn't hold others to her own exacting standards, but coaxes them into doing whatever they can do.

Between her beauty, talent, and strength of will I have no further complaints.  This is why constraining the fictional character count to 1400 is impossible.  Girls like Tsukimi deserve recognition too.  Tsukimi got Luca as her personal theme song.

Meanwhile, I upgraded the Bleach song 'destiny awaits' to 3-star, which meant it was eligible for wonderful representation.  I made it Soi's theme song, gave 'Grief of Leylia' over to Camyu, and dropped 'You Take my Breath Away' at least for now from any representation.

Demons Crest anime greenlit:

Reki Kawahara is on a roll.  For some reason he likes to write lots of stories, not just SAO, and Demons Crest is steadily acquiring the industry's main attention.  From what I've read of the Demons Crest manga, it would easily make my top anime rankings once it airs.  It isn't as good as SAO, but then again what is?

Sort of like how Edens Zero is a great anime despite not being as good as Fairy Tail.  Some creators can spin out endless hits, their well of creativity is seemingly endless.  I sure wish I had that ability.

Anime in 2026 is looking good.  The long awaited season 2 of Youjo Senki has now gotten a release date of 2026.  A new season of Precure has been announced, 'Star Detective Precure.'  SAOAGGO S2 has finally come out subtitled in bluray.

As for what we can look forward to next month:

Continuing series:

Kimi to Idol Precure/Star Detective Precure

Returning series:

Oshi no Ko

Sousou no Frieren

Fate/Strange Fake

Jigokuraku

Medalist

Boku no Hero Academia Vigilantes

* * *

In addition there are many series that might be good, but the only way to find out is by watching their first episodes.  I'll go ahead and report on the successes while ignoring the failures when the time comes.  But the winter 2026 season will be great even if the only shows airing are these 7.  We've got one of the best lineups of all time here.  With a second season, Medalist will have a strong case for entering my top anime rankings as well.

No Nanami:

I rolled on all the paid quartz options to acquire Nanami and failed.  I rolled on the free quartz options to acquire Nanami and failed.  I guess I'm just destined not to get Nanami.  I did get some other useful limit breaks though -- level 3 Red Riding Hood Karen, level 2 base Karen, level 2 tuxedo Ruka. . .I got thundercat Byakko level 2 but I'm not sure that should be classified as useful.

My fire squad's weak point had always been Karen, but with this upgrade she should be as strong as the rest of my most reliable squad, and elevate the squad as a whole to new heights.

The monthly refresh gave me a chance to level all my recently-limit-broken characters, and now I've reached the full potential of people I invested in long ago.  Inori, for instance, is level 170.  Yingxia is 180.

My dungeon runs are now with the characters furthest from having any realistic use -- the 4 Angel Beats collab characters, plus Iroha and Kanata.  Once I'm done with them all of my characters will have at most 1 skill that isn't at maximum.  I guess dungeon runs to improve even 1 skill are still worthwhile, though it does feel like a lot of work for little gain. . .

In Limelight Lemonade Jam I've finished the Miku and Ririko routes.  I'm most of the way through the Nayuka route.  Miku is as lovable as I expected from my initial impression of her, well worthy of my fictional character hall of fame.  I finished the Wakaba route in Tenshin Ranman.  She's basically worthless.  But Sana had a lot of hilarious lines in Wakaba's route, so there was still some value in it.  I've finished my favorite characters from both games, so reading the rest feels more like a chore than a privilege.  But maybe someone will surprise me.

SS Angel Kanade get:

The 1-year anniversary awarded a lot of free quartz, so it was inevitable that I'd eventually get a lucky roll and acquire angel Kanade.  Her ability does massive damage so long as you can get her health up to 150% of her normal maximum, which is a little tough to do, but it's still a cool ability in theory.  Mostly I just like her halo look as she rains down judgment upon her foes.

I also got red mage Tenne and magicat Tenne to level 2 limit break, despite not wanting them.  The curse of Tenne continues.  Equally useless is wedding dress Mari reaching level 1 limit break.  Ninja Mari is already at level 4, and swimsuit Mari has an eternal daphne, so there's no room for wedding dress Mari in any scenario.

Thanks to the delimiter I finally got phantom thief Jamie to level 1 limit break.  Ideally when she confronts Apophis she would be level 3.  Now all my daphne'd characters have at least 1 limit break.

Meanwhile, Russia has taken Pokrovsk and encircled its sister-city Mirnograd.  They've also taken Kupiansk and encircled the cities around it.  And they've taken Shakhove, closing off that pocket.  They've entered Siversk, Lyman, Konstantynivka and Huliapole.  Everything is going their way.  Trump's 28-point peace plan was rejected by Ukraine, so Russia will continue to gain everything by direct force, which is what I wanted to begin with.  This is a reputational war.  Russia must prove it can win the war by actually winning the war, not some dumb negotiation.  I want the Russian flag flying over the Rada in Kiev like how the Soviet flag flew over the Reichstag in Berlin.  Only then will the rest of the world respect Russia, and Russian threats, in the future.

SAOAGGO volume 14 read:

I hate puzzles and riddles.  The information is never sufficient to actually solve the puzzle/riddle, but the crafter of the puzzle/riddle then gets to mock you as they reveal the answer and say 'why didn't you figure it out?  Look at all these clues.'  Which are all ambiguous and could mean anything.  The latest volume of SAOAGGO is one big riddle, wrapped in a series of small puzzles.  It's the worst imaginable scenario.  There's zero characterization or plot progression in the story, it's a one-off episode about a meaningless side character, Vivi.  The only merciful aspect of this book is that it marks the end of the series.  Due to Unital Ring destroying all independent Seed VR games, GGO is also destroyed, so the series about people who enjoy playing GGO is per force also destroyed.

Reki Kawahara unknowingly saved us from any more boring GGO sequels.  Thank goodness for his intercession, because after this I didn't want to read any more GGO.

This doesn't mean the series as a whole is bad.  It's very good.  Everything up until this book is good.  I demand a season 3 of the anime to cover Squad Jams 4 & 5.  But this was the time to end the series.  There's nothing worthwhile left to say.  The story has played itself out.  It's time to move on with our lives and explore something else.  SAOAGGO has outlived its welcome.

One of the great things about '100 Waifus' is the story starts and ends in a single book.  It covers the entire story.  There is nothing left out.  When it reaches its conclusion, it ends.  It doesn't drag things out for another pointless volume about a pointless side character, or start nettling the reader with mysteries to solve or whatever just to bloat things up.  When it's said the last useful thing to say, it ends.  The end.  Because there isn't a single boring line in all of '100 Waifus' I was able to enjoy re-reading it 50 times.  I couldn't enjoy reading this novel even one time.  The whole time I read it I was wishing I was reading '100 Waifus' for the 51st time instead.  That would have been more productive.

Nevertheless, all great franchises must be absorbed in full in order for me to be able to proclaim that I've absorbed them in full, so I don't regret reading the last book of this series.

With this project done, all that I have left to do is finish Senmomo, Limelight Lemonade Jam, Tenshin Ranman, Lunar 2, Ren'ai Karichaimashita After Hours, Mega Man 11, Sea of Stars, Yakuza 0, Fantasian, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Happiness 2, Rewrite Harvest Festa, the bonus content in FF7 Rebirth, beat Apophis in Heaven Burns Red. . . you get the idea.

2025 has swamped me with more worthwhile activities than I can possibly keep up with.  My only hope is that 2026 is really boring and empty.  The problem with that is 2026 features the Olympics and the World Cup, so, umm. . . maybe 2027 will be boring?

Golbez and Rhett:

Golbez and Rhett are two wonderful characters who were taken out of my hall of fame, but upon further reflection should be in it.  In Golbez's case, it wasn't really Golbez who was to blame, but Golbez's theme song, which I was tired of listening to.  The solution was to demote 'Golbeza, Clad in Black' to 2-star, so I could give Golbez a better theme song according to the rules.  Golbez got FF4's 'The Final Battle', which meant Palom/Porom got a new theme song for themselves, 'Tower of Bab-il'.  'Tower of Bab-il' is a cheerful but determined song that suits the twins, whereas the serious tone of 'The Final Battle' better suits Golbez.  If people recall, Golbez actually participated in the final battle against Zeromus, having at the very end shaken off Zeromus' mind control and become a hero like his brother Cecil.  Golbez is one of the coolest villains in Final Fantasy because of his complicated allegiances, so I'm glad to welcome him back, even though I just kicked out Setzer days ago.

Ichitaka used to have 'Tower of Bab-il', so he got the song 'Wild Stars' instead.

Rhett is the male lead from 'Gone With the Wind', an incredibly good movie about an incredibly good culture, the South, before, during and after the Confederacy.  I took Rhett out originally because I considered him too much of a historical figure instead of a fictional one, but Suzu from 'In This Corner of the World' is in my fictional character hall of fame, and she's based around the historical events of Japan during WWII, so if she can qualify so should Rhett.  I also think it's crazy for 'Back to the Future' to have a representative in my hall of fame but not 'Gone With the Wind,' considering the difference in quality of the movies.

Rhett got the obvious theme song of 'Dixie.'

This breaks the 1400 ceiling of wonderful fictional characters which I'd held onto for so long.  But what can I say, there are over 1400 fictional characters worth honoring, so it would be silly to restrict the list to some artificial number.  Hopefully the artists of the world produce many more great characters so the list can grow and grow.

'Yume ka Utsutsu ka' is now in my manga hall of fame at #60.  That list remains at 75, though, because all I had to do was combine the Miyuki manga with the Touch/Mix manga to make room -- the same maneuver I did for the Miyuki anime.

Meanwhile, I promoted 'Flowers of Love Dancing in Moonlight' to 5-star, demoting 'Ultema -- The Perfect Body' to make room.  Then I gave Camyu a new and better theme song, 'Take my Breath Away' by Sarah Brightman.  I went through my entire wonderful playlist and reassigned any song I felt was less fitting to a more fitting holder.  I'm very happy with the playlist, it feels like every character has the song most suited to be their personal theme now.  Either the song comes from the same franchise as the character, or has a name that describes the character well, or has a tune that matches the character's personality or situation.  There's always some connection.

'Kaze no Toorimichi,' 'Predicament,' and 'Doomsday' were promoted to 4-star at the expense of three Final Fantasy songs ('Another Moon,' 'The Lunarians,' and 'Battle with Gilgamesh') which were demoted to 3-star.

I threw another 3,000 free quartz at angel Kanade but failed to recruit her yet again.  *sigh*

Miniboss down:

Heaven Burns Red is seeding some of its events with powerful bosses that can be avoided while still completing the event.  There are rewards for attacking them head-on, though, plus bragging rights, so I always wanted to be strong enough to defeat them.  Well now I am.  Thanks mainly to Inori's critical penetration technique and Yingxia's Seventh Strategem buff, which does the lion's share of damage to these foes.  Only one event boss remains, and not because I can't beat it, but simply because I haven't bothered to fight it yet.  I'm confident Inori can take down any of these minibosses at this point.

The latest Angel Beats event had one of these bosses and I beat it too.  I finished the event and the first suppression mission event, so I'm all caught up with the plot.  While I was happily playing the game I also received base Risa's level 1 limit break, idol Erika's level 1 limit break, and base Misato's shards which gets her to 2.5 limit breaks.  It's nice that these are characters I actually use so strengthening them has meaning.  I also recruited Miyuki's newly released SS Memoria, the first SS Memoria of her in the game.  I used her in the latest score challenge and she was pretty good, scoring over 500k.  I used a lot of free quartz in the hope of getting the new angel Kanade but no luck.  Oh well, Miyuki was a pretty lucky get already.

I earned over 600k gp in the Oshima Family Tales event, which unlocked Muua's master skill.  It's a great skill too, but I don't have the rare items necessary to actually learn it.  So far I've only managed to acquire Megumi's master skill.

The event had a pretty warped plot, about this guy named Kirisaki who was suicidal ruining this girl Hisako's life by relying on her for everything.  Not really my cup of tea.  I would've just abandoned him immediately.

The suppression mission was much better.  It was all about Squad 31-A going on a long and fun adventure with Nanami out in the desert as she tests out her new hoverbike.  Any time with Nanami is precious, and this was a lot of time.

Next week I'll use the delimiter to give phantom thief Jamie her 1st limit break, at which point all my characters with eternal daphnes will also have at least one limit break.  My plans to make this particular group of girls strong will finally come to fruition.

I maxed out Karen's skills.  But most of my characters are still missing at least one skill, so the dungeon crawling continues.