Oshi no Ko rewatched:

In order to reach my rankings, every anime must be watched and rewatched in full, and still admired the second time around.  Oshi no Ko isn't quite done yet, but I've rewatched everything available (episodes 1-8).  It was excellent the second time around, but it's kind of interesting, this time the first episode was the best episode by far, driving me to tears.  Maybe because I was already prepared for all the crazy plot twists which distracted me the first time I saw it, this time I could concentrate on how wonderful a mother Ai was and how awful it was that she couldn't enjoy the rewards of all her parenting by dying so early.  It reminds me of another anime that made me cry, Kodomo no Jikan, when a young mom died of cancer despite trying so hard to stay alive for the sake of her young daughter.  (Though Ai takes the cake for dying as a very young mother).

Oshi no Ko is very good, and it's only going to get better from here.  The manga already has 120 chapters, so there's going to be a 2nd, 3rd, 4th season of this show.  There's really no limit to how high it could be ranked by the end.  My instincts for what makes a great show are dead-on, as usual, rewatching the show has confirmed the quality I saw in it the first time through.

I've also rewatched all the Vinland Saga available, though there's still a couple episodes left of that show as well.  I hope Vinland Saga also gets a 3rd season, the next manga material is better than the stuff we're currently on.

I finished rereading Esrever Doom, book #37 of Xanth.  A lot of this book reuses old material so it wasn't up to par with the previous books.  Another man from Mundania, another demon contest, lots of recapitulations of older book plots, lots of visits to the same old Xanth regions we've navigated before, etc.  However, I'm now pretty well convinced that Xanth stays high quality all the way until the gay/transgender stuff gets pushed.  Of course, book #36 already had a transgender, but at least in that case the sex change was involuntary and treated as a curse.  (Ranma 1/2 had that idea in the 1980's and I love that series).  It won't be long before I reach the gay/transgender arc of Xanth, so my reread of Xanth is almost over.  What a shame that such a great series that stayed good for so long had to be thrown away for the sake of wokeness.

Macross is getting a new anime, which is always welcome, as it's the oldest great anime, and apparently still going strong.  There's a reason the show is ranked #27, with this many years to work on it it's become quite the long space opera.

I think the Kherson dam broke down due to natural causes.  It had already been weakened by HIMARS attacks that Ukraine admitted to doing to it in the Washington Post, and then a great deal of water pressure was put on it because the upstream dams, controlled by Ukraine, released tons of water that poured down onto it, and the dam just couldn't hold any longer.  I'm not sure either side actually planned for the dam to break, but clearly Ukraine is to blame for weakening the dam last year.  It hardly matters, the damage is small and can be repaired after the war is over.  Now Russia can think about retaking Kherson again because the dam can't be busted twice, they can no longer be flooded and deprived of a secure supply line on their way to Odessa and Transnistria any longer.  I'm heartened by the fact that Tucker Carlson released a video blaming Ukraine for the dam that's gotten 100 million views.  Clearly the one-sided support of Ukraine is at an end, even the dimwitted are slowly catching up to my position.

Meanwhile Ukraine is shredding its reserve mechanized brigades in Zaphorozia province.  Their counteroffensive so far has just been a really good way to get Ukrainians killed.  Russia couldn't ask for anything more -- a cheap and efficient way to take out the entire remainder of the Ukraine army.  Once Ukraine has committed all its reserves and wasted all its men Russia can go on the offensive and take the entirety of Ukraine effortlessly.  If Ukraine keeps attacking heedless of losses like this, the war could all be over this year.  Keep it up, Ukraine, I'm cheering for you!

A new trailer has been released for FF7 Rebirth.  It's now been delayed to a 2024 release, but it looks amazing.  It's going to be a wonderful, life-changing experience once it arrives.  Games like this only happen once or twice in a lifetime, the completed saga will be unparalleled.