'In Another World with 100 Waifus' read and edited for the 51st time:

The remaining edits were all name changes for the various sons and daughters of Christopher.  I added in Kotone, Inori, Yuuma, Nozomi, Miku and Tina from Senmomo, Medalist, Demons Crest, Cafe Stella, Limelight Lemonade Jam and Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi respectively.  I had to take out Chisato, Yamucha, Mitsuki, Hinowa, Kaoru and Mai to keep the number of names, and the number of unique names, balanced.  But this way I got to represent all of my top 200 anime in '100 Waifus' again, even the anime that hasn't started airing yet like Demons Crest, so the book is future proofed.  All my hall of fame visual novels are also covered once more.

The name galleries are a sort of side quest of the book.  Getting the name galleries right is important to me, because it represents the best fictional works and fictional characters people should be paying attention to after they finish my book.  It's like a waymark for what fans should do next.  The best art in the world should have a spotlight put on it so no one misses out.

Other than the new Misuzu description, 99% of the edits ended up being name related.  That's because the content of the book really is solid, and doesn't need poking any further.  The names could be improved, and I had to edit the book anyway, so it was a good time to improve all the names I could.  Now the names are good enough that I can leave the book be.  Even if new great art appears and isn't represented in '100 Waifus,' the great art that is represented in '100 Waifus' is still great enough to satisfy the most voracious of appetites.  People could consume the art listed for decades and still have more to do.  And no matter how many high quality works come out in the future, the works listed in this book will definitely be competitive with them.  I guarantee it.

Even on the 51st readthrough it was still sexy.

I know virtually everything that's going to be said word for word before I read it by now, but the story still brought a small smile to my face constantly.  The wordplay, the witticisms, the flirting, it was all so delicious to devour that it didn't really matter that all the drama had been leeched away (by the fact that this was my 51st time.)  This is an inexhaustible resource.  The book is fun as poetry long after you've become accustomed to it as prose.

With all the changes (99% name-related, but changes nonetheless), I'm on the hook to read the book for a 52nd time.  But I don't mind when it's still this fun.

Skullfeather down:

Money can buy power!  After a year of spending and playing, spending and playing, spending and playing, the moment has come -- I've beaten the last boss of the game.  (as it currently stands.  The game is still expanding piece by piece, so maybe a stronger boss will appear eventually, but for now I've won.)

As I explained long ago, all I needed was to get snow white Yuki into fighting shape by giving her a limit break.  This limit break increased her toughness and sp regeneration rate, which was absolutely vital to my eventual victory.

Diva Ruka was also a requirement, and it helped that she was limit break level 2 now.

Of course phantom thief Jamie was a requirement, and it helped that she was limit break level 3 now.

Skullfeather is a unique boss that has to be fought in two different places with two different squads.  The buffs and debuffs on the boss carry across both fights, so what happens in one place affects the other place.  The boss is constantly buffing itself in both places, so you need a seraph with a special ability to strip those buffs away in both locations during the fight.  Phantom thief Jamie wasn't enough, I needed snow white Yuki to do her part too.  They both had the ability I needed, so I cultivated them both to be battle-ready.

Snow white Yuki's squad had the tough sledding, because at limit break 1 she really wasn't up to standard.  I ran through all 4 of my buff-wiping abilities and the boss still wasn't broken yet.  That's living on the edge.  In a few more turns Skullfeather would have buffed its defense, and all hope of victory would have faded away in a logarithmic curve.  I ran through all 4 of samurai Inori's super-powerful tadamusa attacks, and Skullfeather still wasn't broken.  I ran through all 4 of Yingxia's 7th stratagem buffs, and Skullfeather still wasn't broken.  I ran through all 4 of Hisame's Munezuka techniques, and Skullfeather still wasn't broken.

Miya's new skill evolution, Radiant Nova+, was necessary to permanently lower Skullfeather's defense (a new ability it didn't have until the skill evolved, which I accomplished just three days ago.)  This helped weaken the boss even when my other squad was attacking it, because the debuff carried over (because it was permanent).  But she also used all or almost all of her Legend of Inari exclusive attacks.

All I had left was the lingering effects of Miya's debuffs and two exclusive abilities -- Hisame's Dreaming Desire and Inori's Yo-arashi.  So I used my overdrive and threw my last techniques left at the boss before it buffed its defense again -- and broke Skullfeather.

After that red riding hood Karen blasted its devastation rate up to 999% instantly, and then my attackers went to town on it -- diva Ruka provided the finishing blow with a fitting blazing ignition+ skill evolved attack.  My fire squad still had plenty of power left in the tank, but it turned out they didn't need it.  The debuffs Miya provided the squad as a free service meant I was way stronger than Skullfeather imagined I could be.

Skullfeather provided an eternal daphne as a reward, which I eventually decided should go to ethereal Kozue.  That gives my ice squad three eternal daphne holders out of six, which is pretty good.  That's the same amount as my thunder squad has, which I generally consider my second best elemental squad.

This would definitely be a good time to stop spending money on Heaven.  I'm stronger than the last boss, I don't need to buy superfluous strength.  My squads are close enough to their idealized forms.  Now I can relax and play the game for the plot.  The game is actually free to play, only the power-hungry have to pay up, and I'm satiated.

As expected the Seahawks dominated the Super Bowl.  Their defense is too good.

Team America won the team figure skating competition in thrilling fashion.  They were tied with team Japan going into the very last skate, and our skater only scored 6 points more than theirs in the last skate, 200 to 194.  That's only a difference of 3%.  So we won by a 3% paper-thin margin on the last skate.  Incredible drama, and incredibly great figure skating by both teams.  This is what the Winter Olympics are all about.

Heaven Burns Red's new event was profitable:

Using the paid quartz I bought previously I was able to get lots of SS Memorias -- including two of the three new ones on offer, Spica Yuina and hacker Yuki.  I also got vendor Chiroru to level 1 limit break, snow white Yuki to level 1 limit break, santa Misato to level 4 limit break, base Misato to level 3 limit break, christmas Yayoi to level 1 limit break, fortune teller Seira to level 1 limit break, admiral Aoi to level 2 limit break, and phantom thief Jamie to level 3.5 limit break.  A lot of these characters I intend to use against the last anachrony, Skullfeather, so this worked out perfectly.

Spica Yuina immediately came in handy against the new Score Challenge boss, who was especially weak to totem users and light users.  Obviously the game designers were incentivizing people to get this memoria so they could fight the boss with it, but Spica Yuina is a powerful warrior who was good enough to make it onto my light squad as a permanent fixture.  She gives auto-crit to all light skills for five turns per exclusive skill use.  For normal length fights, that's auto-crit for the whole fight.  She also regenerates SP for the whole party after the first few turns, so in any serious fight is a great asset.  I've already gotten her to limit break level 1.

I improved the mementos to max on two more quality SS Memorias -- santa Misato and datenshi Chie.  I also got Miya's skill evolution.  Strangely, there are now items for sale at the badge exchange, but I haven't been awarded any badges so I have no currency with which to buy them.

The event itself was subpar.  It was a fanciful story about what if Yuina had joined Squad 31-A in Chapter 1.  It was explained by another, even larger stretch of the imagination, which is that everything that's happening is just the simulation of an AI seeking entertainment.  I choose to believe this whole event story is fictional, like the one about idol Erika.

But when the rewards are this great when it comes to pure powering up, I don't mind if the plot lags.  I am thirsty for more powerups until I can beat Skullfeather.

Meanwhile the Olympics have officially begun, with some very pretty figure skating sessions already done.  It's nice that my home team, USA, is #1 in the team figure skating competition and my favorite country, Japan, is #2.  The opening ceremony was okay, but nothing compared to the Paris Olympics.  Winter Olympics tend to be lowkey compared to Summer Olympics, naught to be done about it.

DanMachi S6 has been announced, which is great news.  DanMachi was on my anime wishlist, so I replaced it with a wish for Futari Ecchi (which will never happen.)

Misuzu hole filled:

During my re-read of '100 Waifus,' I felt Christopher's explanation of his love for Misuzu was lacking, so I expanded upon it.  The new paragraph reads as such:

"Misuzu was really cute, how she preserved her childish wonder and friendliness towards strangers even though no one would ever get close to her. Plus she has the entire world beat when it comes to courage, willpower or determination. Disregarding her own frailty, when I was assaulted she instantly leapt to my physical defense. No matter how painful it got, no matter how weak she got, she would pretend to be strong and exude cheerfulness for those around her. And then I felt bad for her and wanted to help her, and of course her beauty." I reported.

By rewatching Air last year I was able to recall why I loved her more than before, and now that experience has paid off.  Misuzu finally gets her due alongside the other 99.

I also edited 'servile' into 'servant' and a 'could' into a 'would.'  Not even full word changes, just a letter changed out here and there.  But every little bit helps.

And I edited the section calling for a new Akatsuki no Yona anime out -- since Akatsuki no Yona is actually getting a new anime.  It's been replaced with a call for a new Ryuuou no Oshigoto! and Nanoha Vivid anime instead.  I'm fairly confident those will never happen in this world, and therefore will definitely be needed in Eden.

Honestly I could have left the Akatsuki no Yona section untouched, since it's extremely unlikely the anime will adapt the manga in full.  But I don't want to have to edit this book again, so if there's even a tiny probability that could happen it's better to replace the text now.

This 51st edition became necessary because of a single time Sophie's last name was left out in a place it should have been included.  But in for a penny, in for a pound, so here we are.  Maybe I'll have to make a few more edits before all is said and done, but I'm more than happy to do so.  I want this book to be perfect, good enough that God could have written it without shame.  If that takes yet another edition after I thought I was done, then so be it.

Koujo Denka no Kateikyoushi and Medalist rewatched:

There are only flashes of brilliance in the first season of Medalist.  The anime really kicks into top gear with season 2.  Medalist wouldn't be great without season 2.  The upcoming movie helps its case too.  What's important is I fulfilled my word by rewatching all anime I deem great, including anime I deemed great just a few days ago.

Koujo Denka is on another level compared to Medalist.  They're both about lolis, but the lolis of Koujo Denka are in love and that makes them superior.  The art and character designs of Koujo Denka are top level.  Almost Unlimited Fafnir level.  The animation is smooth and satisfactory, with very little cg.  It looks like a well-made anime from the past.  And the plot is awesome.  I love how Allen helps girl after girl improve their magic.  The end of the season where he helps Stella fight Tina is magnificent, showing how unbiased he is towards his own protege.  He just wants what's best for everyone.

Koujo Denka could really use some more seasons, so we could learn the mystery of the great spells and why only Allen can communicate with them.  But I have a sinking suspicion we'll never get any, because the show is about lolis in love, which Americans want to ban.  And most anime revenue comes from overseas these days, so Japanese are stuck catering to American taboos.

This means Koujo Denka can be far superior to Medalist ep for ep, and still fall behind Medalist in the rankings as Medalist keeps getting sequels and Koujo doesn't.  *sigh*

The monthly refresh is always meant to be a good time in Heaven Burns Red, but I got surprisingly little out of it.  Santa Misato moved up to limit break level 3.5, one step away from max.  Hot springs Isuzu moved up to limit break level 1.  That might genuinely be it.  I did get everyone's skill levels to max, except for underwater Aina, who still has one skill left to max out.  That's pretty close to a monumental achievement.  I also unlocked all the requirements for everyone's master skills -- except for Carole.  So again, close to an achievement.  The requirements are kind of meaningless though, because you also need 15 of this rare item to unlock a new master skill, and currently I have no way to get that item, so. . .

I did max out the item level of two new mementos -- swimsuit Sumomo and swimsuit Yuina.  I love swimsuit girls so I try to support them as best I can.  ^_^.  No but really these SS Memorias are strong, even from a gameplay viewpoint helping them makes sense.  A maxed out memento, as compared to a normal one, gives +20 to all stats.  That's an enormous boost, probably worth as much as a limit break.  Sumomo and Yuina are already at max limit break, so this makes them over max power.

The winter Olympics have begun, but all that's airing now is curling, which is kinda. . .

I dropped Yuusha Party ni kawaii ko due to the protagonist choosing not to kill, but instead to let go, a murderous madman.  That basically makes the protagonist a murderous madman.  I'm so tired of this 'no killing, even in self defense' mantra that some childish anime go by.  It isn't reflected in any law code in the world or any ethical system, outside of dumb Indian religions.  So why must anime go by such a retarded rule?  Plus the anime looks awful due to having a low budget, so this was just the nail in the coffin.  The poor winter season is down to 23 shows.  ^_^.

I finished my first route in Ren'ai 0 Km, Sakuya's route.  The game is okay, but there's no standout girl I could love.  Sakuya and Misaki are decent, maybe Hana's route is playable, the other two are worthless.  The game was made in 2011 and yet somehow already has a transgender in it.  Talk about trendsetting, but not in a good way.  Of course, Fire Emblem Engage also had a transgender and I love that game.  Happiness! had a transgender and I loved that anime.  If you're good in other fields I can overlook a lot, but the problem is Ren'ai 0 Km isn't good in other fields.  Ren'ai 0 Km basically exists to escort people to the Winter Olympics, it has no other purpose.

Medalist is a great anime:

Medalist likes to troll the audience, like Kimetsu no Yaiba, with bad jokes and bad art.  It did so this episode as well, with a dumb moment where Inori and Tsukasa ate bananas.  But Kimetsu no Yaiba, despite that, is my #6 favorite anime.  It's about time I admit Medalist is one of my favorite anime too, dumb jokes and bad art included.

Come to think of it, there were dumb jokes and bad art in Rurouni Kenshin too.  Sometimes you just have to roll with it.

Medalist is great because it's about loli figure skaters, which is about as beautiful a combination as one can get.  Their figure skating prowess is only slightly below what you can see in the Olympics despite being pre-teens.  In truth, if young girls were allowed to compete in the Olympics, many of them would be competitive.  There's just a stupid biased regulation against young gymnasts and figure skaters that keeps them out of the competition, with no regard to merit.  This stupid bias, though, doesn't stop us from watching the girls perform in Medalist.  Here they get to strut their stuff and do their best, and we get to watch them, undisturbed by the stupid taboos of the wider world.

The figure skating performances of the lolis in Medalist are some of the finest dances/costumes/performances I've ever seen.  Both in the first and second seasons, the word 'wow' was made for this anime.  The second season's anime opening, where all the prospective novices do a dance together on ice, is incredible.  The gracefulness, the speed, the choreography, it's absolutely beautiful.

Just watching Medalist as a sport would be worthwhile, especially with the Winter Olympics only a few days away, but it also has some great human drama where good people seriously try their best and fret about all the bad things that happen to them, or could happen.  There's always a seesaw of emotion, a whirlwind of people rising and falling from grace, which is typical of figure skating.  The realism of this show permeates everything.  It feels like everything is a vignette of some real figure skater's life.  It feels like every performance has actually occurred before in the real world.  And for some reason, the mangaka of this work is really wise and squeezes in amazing lines of dialogue all over the place.  People say the perfect thing for the situation like it comes naturally to them, when philosophers would have had to sit down and think about it for a week before they could give the same advice.

Medalist has everything.  The art, the animation, the lovable characters (Inori and Hikaru are already in my fictional character hall of fame), the high stakes drama, the learnable lessons, the intense emotion.  If only it didn't have occasional intentionally bad segments it would be limitless.  But again, Kimetsu is at #6 so I can forgive a lot.

For now Medalist can stay at #199.  I kicked out Shuumatsu no Izetta to make room, which had been my intention for some time now.  We'll see how good this second season is, and learn if the upcoming movie is actually canon or not, before rating it higher.

Cold Night, the opening theme to season 2, is extremely catchy.  I added it to my music hall of fame as a 4-star song, and made it Inori's theme song in my wonderful playlist.  Various songs were demoted to make room.

Meanwhile, the Kimi to Idol Precure movie came out, so I watched that too, and it's also great.  It's a nice addendum to the anime as a whole, with a lot of songs, which you'd expect from 'idol Precure.'  As a result, for a brief moment, the total length of great anime in the world is exactly 10,700 standardized 24 minute episodes.  Soon enough anime will breach the 11k barrier.

There's also good news for Isekai Nonbiri Nouka.  Season 2 starts airing this spring, not long from now.

I oppose the coming wars with Cuba and Iran:

It's ridiculous how many wars I have to oppose these days.  This is the second time I've had to oppose a war with Iran in less than a year.  I thought Trump had cleverly decided to only fake a war with Iran before withdrawing, but now he's deployed a new fleet near Iran and promised to bomb them if they don't permanently renounce nuclear enrichment -- a right every nation in the world has under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.  So basically Trump is demanding that Iran admit to the world that it isn't a real country and doesn't have real rights, but is a vassal which must answer to its betters.  Of course, Trump's demands won't end there.  If they give in on nuclear enrichment, he'll also demand they renounce the right to conventional missiles, the right to fund or arm or train foreign proxies like Hezbollah/Hamas/Houthis, and even the right to run their own government how they please.  He'll either demand a democratic puppet be put in hand-picked by the USA, or carve the nation of Iran into ten or so different ethno-states which will never again pose a threat to Israel.  No doubt he'll also demand a giant reparations bill from Iran for all the American soldiers they've killed in the past 50 years and for the 444 day hostage crisis of our embassy.  The point is Trump will never stop making demands of a weak person, because bullies never stop bullying weak people.  It's too fun and profitable to stop, so he won't stop.  Nothing stops a bully except a greater force.  This is basic psychology.

Iran has already revealed itself to be a weak nation, they allowed America to bomb them without reprisal.  So there's no point for them to bluff that they'll retaliate 'for real' this time.  Their threats are empty.  They revealed themselves to be complete pussies less than a year ago.  It's also pointless for Iran to give in to Trump's demands, because he'll just keep making more demands until there's nothing left to give.  In which case it's better to die with dignity -- at least make America take your country and don't just give it away like a pussy.  Learn from Afghanistan, Yemen and Vietnam.  Since the very first of Trump's demands is unreasonable and without merit -- where does America get off thinking it can decide other people's nuclear power intentions? -- there's no point ceding anything.

The most heroic thing Iran can do at this point is martyr themselves on the altar of international law.  Make it clear that America is a rogue aggressor nation that the whole world must unite behind, by never giving in and making America kill them all.  The same way Gaza beat Israel by exposing the genocidal nature of the Israelis and not surrendering no matter how bad things got.  It sucks to be an Iranian, but they've already cornered themselves with the decisions they made before now.  Their decision to not forcefully punch back against Israel and America last year, their decision to enrich uranium without turning it into nuclear warheads, their decision to be an Islamic theocracy instead of a democracy, their decision to not make a military defense alliance with Russia, their decision to storm the US embassy and take our diplomats hostage, their decision to fund proxy armies abroad in order to have a say in the geopolitics of the entire Middle East region instead of minding their own business, etc., etc.  At the end of this decision tree there are no good decisions left.  I'm 95% certain Trump will start bombing them at this point, because he'd be a fool not to.  Everything points to the fact that Iran is weak and can easily be subdued.  Why not bomb them?  It's like they're begging to be bombed.  Do predators see juicy prey nearby and choose not to bite?  At this point I don't even blame America.  If you make yourself this defenseless while also antagonizing powerful enemies, what do you expect?  Life isn't this forgiving world of sundrops and rainbows.  It's an eternal struggle, red in tooth and claw.  Everything born in this world is born hungry, with the wish to devour those around them and replicate themselves, taking up the newly opened space their killing created.  If you make yourself a meal don't whine when somebody eats you.

Nevertheless, I am against bombing Iran, because I don't like the principle, the precedent, that strong people can go around terrorizing and slaughtering weak people who have never done anything to them.  This precedent will have grave consequences for many more innocent people in the future.  It won't just be the evil and foolish Iranians who suffer from this precedent, it will be the rest of human history.

For the same reason, I have no love for Cuba.  Cuba's communists were terrible people who killed and imprisoned one of the largest populations per capita in history to attain power.  They're ruthless dictators who have made life miserable on their tiny isolated island for almost a century.  Cuba would be much better off if America pulled off a regime change operation like it's clear they're about to do.  But I still don't want America to do it.  Because I don't want strong nations to be willy-nilly changing out the governments of weak nations who have never done anything to them.  The precedent that sets will lead to infinite bloodshed, chaos and war in the future.  If every strong nation on Earth can go around replacing any government that offends them anywhere on Earth, where does that leave the majority of mankind?  Eventually the whole world would have to belong to a single sovereign, or the wars would never end as governments are toppled back and forth forever.  A single ruler of the world would be a disaster, because that would mean no progress of political philosophy could ever occur again.  Without competition humanity would sink into stagnation, like how Egypt never went anywhere under the Pharaohs.  Or feudal Japan.  Only by having dozens of different nations side-by-side do governments have any incentive to be efficient or beneficial to their denizens.  If there is no escape, no alternative, if all the government needs is to completely oppress its people and they'll be untouchable -- like North Korea does to its people -- then the result you'll get is North Korea.  It wouldn't even take long.  The moment the world ruler realized he could do it, he would, because what incentive is there not to?  Why wouldn't an elite class want to perpetuate their power and privilege for the rest of human history?  Who cares what this would cost humanity as a whole?

Ideally, the world would be composed of as many nations as there are people with differing utopian ideals.  There would be a nation for every single vision out there.  For every community of believers, there should be a nation that represents their beliefs.  This is the Greatest Vision I wrote a book about.  Within this Greatest Vision would be a nation I could live in that completely agrees with my beliefs.  I don't need this nation to rule everyone everywhere, I just need to be able to live my life in peace and security among my neighbors who agree with me.  I will happily forfeit my right to interfere with the domestic life of other nations if they agree not to interfere with mine.  If Cuba chooses to misrule itself, that's Cuba's problem, not mine.  So long as Cuba leaves me alone, I'm happy to leave them alone.  And so on for every nation on this fair Earth.

Eventually my nation would out-compete the world by delivering a better standard of living to its believers than everybody else on Earth, because my beliefs are right and theirs are wrong.  At that point we would easily have an economy big enough to settle the stars, and then whatever happens on Earth becomes insignificant in scale compared to the coming galactic history.  There is no reason to fight anyone.  If you believe in your beliefs, all you have to do is live them and you would win by default.  Why not allow such a peaceful competition for everyone?  This is the obvious path forward that everyone could get behind.

I'm opposed to foreign adventures not because of their short-term consequences but their long-term consequences.  A world of eternal war would quickly end in nuclear fire.  A world of a single world sovereign who got there by force/fraud instead of his beliefs working naturally because they are true will lead to eternal slavery and darkness for 99% of the population.  The only world with a good future timeline is the one where borders are respected, sovereignty is respected, and everyone agrees not to interfere with anyone else.  This means Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Greenland, Palestine, Canada, Panama, Russia, Columbia, Mexico, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria, North Korea, everybody, anybody, I'm against it all.  No foreign intervention anywhere.  I have no idea which country Trump will threaten next, sanction next, or tariff next, so I'll just say I'm opposed to doing that to any nation or region which wishes to become a nation on Earth.  I'm opposed to whatever Trump next says.  I don't even care what he's saying today, I'm sure it's something bad and I oppose it.

Meanwhile, the mangaka of History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi has announced the story's continuation starting this March.  I always complained this series didn't have a satisfactory ending.  I marked the work as incomplete in my manga hall of fame all this time, and now the author agrees with me.  The story will continue where it left off and actually defeat the villains of the story which so far are still completely fine and completely intent on destroying the world.  It's great news that a story that should have been so much better will now become so much better.  Kenichi was already great as an incomplete work.  With a proper conclusion there's no telling how good it could become.  I'm eagerly awaiting its resumption.

The mangaka of Couple of Cuckoos, on the other hand, is saying the manga will end soon.  I'm not sure if it will end this year, because it takes a long time to draw even a few chapters of manga, but I'm looking forward to this ending too.  This is a rare romance manga that managed to keep the plot moving, to keep feeling like every chapter actually mattered, while still being long.  It will be especially pleasing to read a satisfactory ending to a story that never got old before it finished.  (Unlike, say, Vinland Saga or Akatsuki no Yona, where one could only be thankful it was finally over.)