Trump leads Clinton in the newest Rasmussen poll. He's going to win Indiana later today and wrap up the Republican nomination. It seriously looks like Donald Trump is going to be the next president of the United States. With his victory will come validation and respect for his worldview -- anti-immigrant, anti-muslim, anti-black lives matter. No longer will sane and reasonable people speaking common sense be maligned and ostracized by the powers that be -- our president will be in charge and repeating what we just said from the oval office.
From eight years of a black president who spent most of his time attacking white police officers for doing their job, we will go to the most conservative president since at least Eisenhower. Now that's making America great again.
Trump's victory in November will be the highlight of 2016, but it's not the only highlight. The Rio Olympics are just 94 days away now. The whole world is participating and then some (even random island dependencies like the Virgin Islands get to fly their flag in this festival.) The summer Olympics bring the world together like no other event. Most everyone has been disqualified by the time the World Cup starts, and the Winter Olympics only appeal to nations with plenty of money, snow and ice to play around with. The Summer Olympics is the real deal, the great equalizer, the greatest sports event on Earth.
Wheel of Time, as a novel series, is infinitely better than A Song of Ice and Fire. Plot, setting, characters, dialogue, sheer creative epic scale imagination, Jordan has Martin beat in any field imaginable. There are few written works that surpass Wheel of Time, and most of them are much shorter than Wheel of Time, which means in terms of just sheer entertainment time delivered nothing can beat this series. WoT also has a proper ending, so we won't be left hanging or wander off into filler like Game of Thrones (and so many other series) has/have. If we can just get an even halfway decent rendition of Wheel of Time, it will be the best tv series ever made. That's how good the source material is they have to draw upon. If Wheel of Time is a good show, 2016 will be remembered for that alone.
On the other hand, Tomohiro Matsu, author of PapaKiki, died at just age 43 today, due to an 'unspecified illness'. So, it's not all happiness and rainbows. On the bright side, he finished PapaKiki before he died, and, if the books were ever translated, they would definitely live on forever due to their astounding quality. God always takes the best of us away and leaves all the rotten refuse to thrive and multiply. It's so absurd.
In Bleach, Ichigo is already confronting Ywach, which is totally unexpected. Why the rush? Hirako still hasn't revealed his Bankai. Tons of lieutenants haven't fought yet. Ichigo's dad is still MIA. Aizen's still stuck in a chair. Ukitake has never done anything in the whole damn series, much less reveal his bankai. If Ichigo takes out the last boss now, with all these plot threads still left hanging, it will be a major disappointment. We've been waiting all series long for these people to show what they're made of, only to have the rug pulled out from under us and all of our anticipation annulled by a swift easy victory for the good guys? Tite Kubo has been meticulous in his development of his captains so far, I'd hate to see him growing rushed/and or bored and just ending the series now, when he's almost done and we can all see the light at the end of the tunnel. There's only a few bankais left to reveal and a few captain's fates left to reveal before the last battle is suitable. If he'd just written about Soul Society for a few more months, everything would be perfect, but now he's risking the legacy of his series by ending it prematurely. I sure hope he knows what he's doing.
2016 hosting the ending of the Naruto anime would be huge if it actually happens. There's a good chance the anime simply continues adapting light novels and eventually the new Bolt manga, which I very much hope is the case. But even if this does happen, the ending of the original manga series in anime form will be a huge deal. It will be one of the longest anime of all time, and the first anime of this length to actually reach its proper ending and tell a full story from beginning to end. A world historical accomplishment for a story of this magnificence and scale. Dragon Ball never managed to do this because the Kai, filler-less revision did not include the original 1/3 of the manga. Naruto has virtually no filler for its first 130 episodes, and took care to divide the filler arcs from the real arcs so that people can still have an uninterrupted canon viewing experience once all is said and done -- a gift Dragon Ball animators did not feel fit to provide us fans.
There's 20 chapters of the mainline manga to go. This could all be over in just ten episodes. Even faster if they wanted. By the time the Rio Olympics come around, this will all be over. The most epic anime production of all time will be in the books in just a matter of months.
As I remarked in my 'what ended in 2015, what began?' post, last year was skeletal in terms of impact. Barely anything ended or began, it was a total washout year. But now we're getting the most exciting presidential election in over a century, the ending of the #1 anime of all time, Naruto, and the beginning of the #1 fiction series of all time, Wheel of Time. Plus the 2016 Rio Olympics. Plus Rewrite, Planetarian, New Game, Berserk, Love Live Sunshine, Tales of Zestiria the X, Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 3rei, and more all airing this summer.
Gokukoku no Brynhildr has already ended. Bleach may be ending. Fairy Tail may be ending. Hayate no Gotoku may be ending. Akame ga Kill may be ending. Shingeki no Kyojin may be ending. Zettai Karen Children may be ending. Btooom! may be ending. Assassination Classroom has already ended. Boku Dake ga Inai Machi is ending. All these mangas are in their climactic finales, but that may well spill over into 2017 or 2018, depending on the pacing.
Final Fantasy XV, which has been in development for ten years, is finally coming out, the best looking video game ever made, later this year. Da Capo III is finally going to be translated, one of the most important visual novels out there. Utawarerumono 3 will put a capstone to this amazing series this fall. Code Geass has ended for good this time. Tamayura need only be translated to end as well. Gilmore Girls might end this year, or next, depending on how soon Netflix releases this final season.
Hai to Gensou no Grimgar, Boku Dake ga Inai Machi and Dimension W are three new anime greats that started just this year. Once the summer season starts Rewrite, Planetarian and New Game will join those ranks. At which point already we will have more great debuting shows than 2015 had, before the fall season is even announced.
More is starting and finishing this year than a dozen 2015's. This is a year like no other. It will go down in history. Trump winning in 2016 is the biggest event in US History since freaking World War II. Add in all these other events and wow, just wow.
To hear tell, Captain America: Civil War is the best Marvel movie ever produced. If that's true, just chock this one up to 2016 as well -- best superhero movie ever. Does it get any better than 2016? Well, maybe if Alicization is adapted, we'll get to see. . .
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