The bratty twins from FF4, Parom and Palom, are pretty cool in that they sacrifice themselves to save their companions, even though they were only there to spy on us and weren't really our friends. But that's about the only thing that can be said about them. They are minor characters and not good looking. I'd rather have Valya and Kanami in my wonderful fictional characters hall of fame, both main characters in their works.
Valya is the protagonist of Dune: Prophecy, the reverend mother of the bene gesserit. The most powerful woman in the galaxy, and the inventor of the Voice that bene gesserit use to mind control others. When young she is very pretty, and when old she's still very effective as a leader and warrior. It's especially cool to learn she's a Harkonnen, and it was actually the Atreides who were duplicitous and Harkonnens the victims in the early history of Dune. Nothing is black and white -- generally both sides in every conflict have a good reason why they've taken to fighting. It makes sense. Fighting requires a great deal of sacrifice, if there wasn't a good reason to do it no one would bother.
Kanami is an empress, which is almost as cool as reverend mother. But she's a fake empress put on the throne by the Republic to control the Empire, a puppet Empress like the Emperor of Manchuria the Japanese installed. Nevertheless, she tries her best to improve things for her subjects and for herself within the limited means she has. Most of all, she's extremely beautiful and graceful in her demeanor and manner of speaking. Even though she's a false empress she maintains the dignity of the Empire magnificently. (I am speaking, of course, of Sen no Hatou, Tsukisomi no Kouki). To top it all off she's a doting imouto. A doting step-imouto, which means romance is in the air. The best possible imouto. (And the same as Sachi on that front).
This gets my wonderful list to nigh perfect. I'm really proud of the 325 additional names I've scrounged up on top of the list found in '100 waifus.' They're every bit as deserving as the original 1100. It's hard to believe I know and admire 1400 fictional characters, when most people stop at around 100 personal acquaintances. I have a strong relationship with 1400 of the best people ever imagined, I remember them all. That's some next-level hyper-tension thinking right there.
With Parom and Polom gone, I didn't have to stick to FF4 songs as character themes, so I dropped their songs. I gave Kanami Cid's Theme (FF9) because of its stately, regal tone. And I gave Valya Fight! because she's definitely got a lot of fight in her. There's also a lot of majesty to the Fight! music, which fits Valya like a glove. Now my wonderful playlist is also nigh perfect.
I watched the Last of Us Season 2 and it was really good. Perhaps better than Season 1, honestly. I have no pity for Joel and Ellie, they got what was coming to them, but they're still fascinating characters to follow. I'm looking forward to Season 3. Every good tv series is on HBO these days. Disney has nothing in comparison.
I watched the first two eps of the new fall anime season, and they were both unappealing. I think rather than reviewing every show I'll just give a blanket condemnation of the fall season and only mention if a show is good, which would be the true surprise. 2025 has been a shit year for anime and the fall season is no exception. From what I can tell, anime as a whole is a dying art form. Once all the famous old series are finished, like Kimetsu no Yaiba and Bleach, nothing will replace them. Anime will disappear off the radar like how Disney animation slowly stopped mattering.
Mao is by Rumiko Takahashi, who is 67 years old. It's a new great anime slated for 2026, but it isn't by a new author. It's by an author who's about to keel over, like Akira Toriyama or the author of Berserk. Only old hands in the industry are making new great works, which means it's all going away soon. I doubt there will be any other great new anime in 2026. Sequels to old great works, yes, but nothing new.
Luckily I have enough new visual novels and video games that anime no longer matters either way.
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