Blog Archive

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Amon P defeated:

I've now defeated the light element Orb Boss III level 3.  The heroic seraph squad that tackled this challenge was swimsuit Tama, tuxedo Tsukasa, light Megumi, swimsuit Yuina (with the Saintly Smite ability introjected from base Yuina), base Erika and ninja Mari.

Erika, Mari and Yuina were the same memorias who defeated the dark Orb boss, but Tama, Tsukasa and Megumi were exclusive light warriors recruited for this mission alone.  And swimsuit Yuina is only good in dark and light fights, so she was basically an exclusive character for this mission too.

Only by equipping all six of my seraphs with damage down bracelets was I capable of surviving this boss' attacks, so it took a long time farming the elemental resistance bracelets before I could undertake the real challenge.  But I beat the boss on the first try once those bracelets were equipped.

Now all that's left is the ice Orb Boss III level 3.  I don't have any decent ice memorias so I think I'll just ignore this challenge for now.  I'm just happy my dark and light memorias saw some actual use in a high-end battle -- I didn't handle everything with the same 'power squad' but actually branched out a bit and got creative.  I also beat the boss at the rating I was supposed to beat it at -- the recommended rating was 19,000, and my memorias clocked in at 19,113.  I didn't brute force my way through this boss, I used the proper tactics and won fairly.

Clevatass, Turkey and Kaoru Hana dropped:

These shows may have passed my first impression, but they didn't pass my second impression.  Their second episodes were stupid or overly gritty.  The summer season looks like this in order of quality:

1.  Summer Pockets
2.  Koujo Denka no Katei Kyoushi
3.  GaCen Shoujo
4.  Kimi to Idol Precure
5.  Tate no Yuusha S4
6.  Tsuyukote New Saga
7.  Outcast's Restaurant
8.  A Couple of Cookoos S2
9.  Ruri no Houseki
10.  Jidou Hanbaiki S2
11.  Water Magician
12.  Isekai Myrnoghra

Twelve shows is better than I expected.  Koujo Denka and Gacen Shoujo especially surprised me by how good they were.

'Kaoru Hana' may be a bad anime, but Kaoru from Major is a wonderful fictional character.  She's Goro's childhood friend, then girlfriend, then wife, then Daigo's mother as the story progresses, one of the most important and well-characterized heroines in fiction.  (Major is a very long series).  She replaces Hitomi from Changeling, my own work.  Whenever possible I should avoid self-promotion, and Hitomi is only a minor character so this is an obvious upgrade.

I'm rewatching Major for two reasons -- the new bluray release just came out, and I finished my rewatch of One Pace.  In bluray Kaoru is cuter than ever.

I've played through all the Rewrite Harvest Festa routes, and none of them aside from Kotori's are any good.  I'd actually say Noble Works is better than this nonsense.  They're all 'alternate realities' and silly gags.  Kotori's route was an actual sequel to the actual game taken with all the seriousness as the original game.  I feel like they should have never made Harvest Festa, and instead just added this Kotori after story to the original game.  That would have made a lot more sense.  I guess there's still hope that the minigame is good.  Nevertheless, Kotori's route is well worth the $20 on its own.

In Heaven Burns Red, my persistence finally paid off and I received Yingxia Li's SS Memoria through a lucky roll using free quartz.  That was the final SS I wanted but didn't have.  Well, wedding dress Mari and Santa Misato would have been nice from a looks perspective, but I already have a perfectly serviceable SS Mari and Misato so it's no big loss.  This is Yingxia's first and currently only SS version so it was much more important.  Fan forums and AI agree Yingxia is one of if not the strongest character in the game.  Her qipao is beautiful, and I've always liked her personality.  In a sense I just won the game.

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Rewrite Harvest Festa is finally available:

For the low price of $20, I bought the steam translated version of Rewrite Harvest Festa.  This game was released in Japan in 2012.  It's taken 13 years to translate this key work into English.  A newborn could become a teenager in the same time as it took to see the ending to Kotori's route.  I waited, and waited, and waited for this day, to learn more about mai waifu, everything I could about her.

The wait was well worth it.  The new Kotori content is magnificent, earnest, heartfelt, down to Earth and beautiful.  (Be sure to select both available options, the fallout from the second one is quite a bit longer than the first).  I hardly care about the rest of the visual novel.  All I ever wanted was to see this Kotori route.  Now I can officially declare that nothing in '100 Waifus' is incongruous with the Kotori storyline written by the original authors.  They're married in '100 Waifus,' and married in Harvest Festa.  It all checks out.

I can also say that the divine guidance of providence still hasn't erred -- my initial impression that Kotori was one of the 100 greatest girls/romances imaginable was dead on.

If you buy Harvest Festa, be sure to also download the free patch from Sekai Project that restores the original Japanese version to the Lucia route.  The patch can be found via a link at the visual novel database website.  Apparently to the very end America tried to screw us out of Rewrite, but justice prevailed.

Now I just need a Kud Wafter translation and my key waifus will be fully covered.  There is a group working on it, and it's the same reliable group who translated Summer Pockets, so this shouldn't be an impossibility.  It too should happen eventually, even if it too takes decades.

Between Heaven Burns Red, the Summer Pockets anime and Rewrite Harvest Festa 2025 is becoming entirely about key works.  I don't mind one bit.  I honestly can't imagine a better use of someone's time.

Monday, July 14, 2025

Amon W level 3 defeated:

After trying to defeat the dark orb boss III level 3 all day, I finally managed to do so.  The squad contained magical girl Tama, base Erika, maid Hisame, swimsuit Yuina, ninja Mari and swimsuit Tsukasa.  Only Hisame and Yuina were dark aligned, so I had to give them lots of buffs and debuff the boss' dark resistance before they attacked, so that the two could deal enough damage to the boss with just their 4 attacks each.

I tried defeating the boss without debuffing and it ended in failure.  I ran out of steam, then ran out of heals, and eventually died on turn 44.  When I used the debuff strategy I won on turn 30 or so.  It made a world of difference.

I tried to beat Amon W without fully guarding my party in down to damage bracelets, but all attempts ended in failure.  The only seraph who could afford to go unprotected was Tama, my level 4 limit break girl.  Everyone else could be one-shotted without a bracelet, so I gave in and farmed bracelets for all of them.

The important thing is I made use of swimsuit Yuina and maid Hisame.  They finally had an important role to play that justifies all the expense and limit breaks I gave them.

Afterwards I beat a flathand anachrony (like usual) and used the nordstrom crystal I looted from it to introject Saintly Smite, base Yuina's exclusive ability.  That let me equip the skill on swimsuit Yuina, who is limit break level 3, 2 limit break levels higher than base Yuina.  Next swimsuit Yuina has to beat the light orb boss III level 3, using her newly introjected light element ability.  But before I can even try I'll have to harvest some down to damage bracelets from the level 2 version of the boss.  I've learned my lesson about that.

Meanwhile, through lucky rolls I received Idol Ichigo for free.  She's pretty cute, but I have no use for her as a combatant.  It does mean I now have a nice round 70 SS Memorias, quite the collection.

The big news of the day is Mao is finally getting an anime.  That's been on my anime wishlist for years, but now I can take it off, because my wish has been granted.  I put Futari Ecchi back on in its place.  It's slated for spring of 2026, so once it airs I'll slot it into my top anime rankings, probably at the expense of poor Koujo Denka who just got in.  But we'll see when the time arrives.

Saturday, July 12, 2025

Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi is a great anime:

Summer Pockets is an anime that's been long in the making from a product almost a decade old.  Technically it's a new anime for 2025 but not really.  Koujo Denka is the first great new work of 2025.  Koujo Denka is the first time it was clear the anime industry had any life left in it.

This anime caters to boys who like young girls who like older boys.  It's in the same vein as Ro-Kyu-Bu! and Tenshi 3p -- the boy is wholesome and has no perverted intentions towards the girls, but you can't say the same of the girls, who all have hearts in their eyes.  It creates a fun dynamic of lots of girls competing over the same immovable wall guy and blushing when their intentions become too clear.

What makes this series stand out is the extra elements -- a well fleshed out magical world setting, great art and music, solid animation and great voice acting.  I assume the plot is also great but the story has barely started so I wouldn't know.

I wouldn't say this anime is the best thing since sliced bread, but all it had to do was beat Sora no Otoshimono, which is plagued by filler and gigantic abridgements of the actual manga plot.  Realistically Sora no Otoshimono never should have been a great anime, the adaption was so botched, but until now there wasn't any alternative.  Well now there is.  Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi is a beautiful work with wonderful characters that properly follows its original source.  That's what I've been waiting for all this time.

At the same time as the anime's promotion, I promoted its opening theme 'Wish for you,' (a very clear love song, which proves my interpretation of the girls' feelings isn't off), to 3-star in my music hall of fame, and made it the theme song of Tina, the main heroine of the series, who enters my Fictional Characters Hall of Fame.  Ellie also enters my wonderful characters list, as she's almost as perfect as Tina.  Both Tina and Ellie are loving, cute, dutiful and strong.  I can't find any fault in them, they're the ideal mahou shoujos.

Tina and Ellie replace Glen and Rain, characters from my own book, The Twin Spires, which is also booted out of representation in the silver 60 by Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi.  Whenever possible I should avoid self-promotion so this kills two birds with one stone -- I honor those who should be honored and don't honor those who shouldn't be honored.

I gave Hinowa 'Dark Caverns' as her new theme song and dropped Fight! out of representation, since it's a 4-star song with no particular thematic link to Hinowa and thus could be dropped.  Ellie inherited Rain's theme song which is 'My Quiet Forest Home.'  Ellie is a very domestic, demure maiden so it fits her too.

Friday, July 11, 2025

Idol Erika:

For the low price of $20, I bought 3 brand new SS Memorias -- Idol Erika, Blazing Ignition Ruka, and Wedding Dress Ichiko.  They're all fire type, so I had to make a lot of Oubliette of Tears runs to get them their fire tear enhancements.  But I got lucky and lots of fire tears came my way, so I was able to upgrade all three of them to full.  I now regularly go down to floor 35 then back up to floor 50.  The strategy has shifted away from saving energy for the last boss.  Instead I use 3 bonus rounds from overdrive and kill the boss while at 0 energy.  I'm so much stronger than the boss now that I can actually do that.  It makes the Tears runs very low stress when before they had me on adrenaline the whole run.

I also got enough Protean shards to purchase Yuina's level 3 limit break.  Sadly it still isn't enough to challenge Amon W with.  It might be easier to take on the dark Orb Boss with my fire crew and just ignore the elemental vulnerability.  Though that would make all my work promoting this group completely wasted. . .

The Protean shards were a reward for the latest event.  This event is a comical take on Erika's life set in an alternate universe.  In this version she becomes an idol and sings the Crimson Vertex into pacification, and then we all live happily ever after.  It was pretty funny but I prefer the real setting.  The biggest benefit from this event wasn't the story but the new SS Memorias that look great.

Idol Erika has an awesome exclusive ability that rewards all the other members of her squad (so long as they're also fire elementalists) +5 sp.  Tama is already awesome with an ability that does the same for +3 sp, so +5 is crazy.  I already have so many powerful fire users but now I want to somehow squeeze in Idol Erika too.  She also gives the entire party +50% defense for the first 4 turns of a fight.  For Orb Boss III's that might not mean much, but for most fights that's the entire fight, or at least a large portion of it.  With that kind of defense who needs healing?

I don't think wedding dress Ichiko or Burning Ignition Ruka are playable, but Burning Ignition can be introjected and skill evolutioned -- so you're not supposed to actually play her, just scavenge her ability and give it to another, stronger Ruka.  And who doesn't want to look at Ichiko in a wedding dress?

The event also expanded the floors of the clock tower.  This let me climb to the new top floor and unlock the Memento Mori skill evolution.  Now it adds an extra buff to skill attack buffs, and more importantly the price has been reduced from 12 to 10 sp.  That might not sound like much but it means I can use it on turn 2, and then follow up with a silky flare attack on turn 3, when before I would have had to choose one or the other technique.  In the clock tower every extra turn wasted counts and reduces your score, so the skill evolution proved very useful.

I also got a new high score on the score challenge boss, over 473k.  That's almost the max score of 500k.  You only get a pointless trophy if you reach that score, you actually get all the loot available at 450k, so basically I smashed the score challenge this time.  It's because the boss was vulnerable to fire and fire is my strongest crew.

Thanks to the new event I was able to play Heaven all day and get stronger in a myriad of ways.  It really is Heaven on Earth.

Thursday, July 10, 2025

16 Songs Flipped:

I demoted 16 Final Fantasy instrumental songs to 4-star and replaced them with 15 vocals and 1 instrumental from the 4-star list who were promoted.

The demoted songs don't matter much anymore, though I can say they ranged throughout all the entries.  But the promoted songs are pretty cool and deserve their new moment in the sun:

Managarmr Sequestration Primal is the one instrumental that got a promotion.  I've wanted to promote this song for a long time.

Tsumugi's Summer Vacation became the new theme song for Tsumugi from Summer Pockets, because it's her theme song, which in hindsight was pretty obvious.

Kryptonite became the new theme song of Gohan, because I like Kryptonite based on the music video that featured cool scenes throughout Gohan's life set to this song.

Open Your Heart, Kryptonite, Ironforge, Natsu no Hi to Kimi no Koe, Hikari no Suashi, Will to Fight, Chase the World, Spirit Crucible Elpys, Particle Effect, Burn my Universe, shiniyuku kisetsu de boku wa, Distorted Flash of Light (Battle), Death of the Divine Dragon, Reunion and Sign (Spice and Wolf) were the vocal songs that got promoted.

8 of the promoted songs already featured as theme songs for my fictional character hall of fame.  8 are new entries and thus some names were shuffled around to them.  The demoted songs no longer had a guaranteed hold on their names so that's where the names came from.

All in all my Wonderful Playlist, featuring a song for every wonderful fictional character in existence, features all 1100 of my newly minted 5-star songs, 123 3-star songs and 200 4-star songs.  The 123 3-star songs are all there due to thematic reasons.  Of the 200 4-star songs, only 6 aren't there for thematic reasons, but just because they seemed like good and fitting songs for their characters:  Luca, Theme 12, Singing Mountain (unreleased), Dragonship Destiny, Shadows Dance in the Darkness and Ride On.

I now have 549 vocal themes and 551 instrumental themes in my 5-star playlist.  My plan had been to get vocals on top, but Managarmr ruined everything so instrumentals still have a 1 song lead.  Well, close enough. >.<.

For anyone interested in all the details, the Good Music and Wonderful Fictional Characters permaposts are the places to go.