Parchment & Wolf volume 12 read:

The latest Parchment light novel came out recently, so I dug in.  The book is short enough to read in half a day.  The story this time is quite simple -- a bunch of people are doing various things to prepare for the ecumenical council, which includes Col and Myuri planning how they'll live after it's done.  It's all very sweet and wholesome.  Sadly short and sweet stories aren't much grist for the soul.  Hopefully the next volume will have some more serious, eventful moments to talk about.

Recently Zero Hedge had an article about a poll showing that only 35% of women aged 25 or below had a generally favorable opinion of men.  These are the women men most want to date, and they hate our guts.  Pursuing women is a waste of time and energy, as proven yet again.

The same article, or another one, had a poll showing that 23% of younger Americans were LGBT+.  The overwhelming majority of these deviants were women.  Which means yet again there is a huge surplus of men who want to be with women but can't, because women don't want men.

The real solution is a law mandating all women marry by the age of 20, which would match them up with men perforce, but so long as we live in the current social environment, the solution is for men to give up on women and pursue vicarious romances to be found in books, visual novels, video games, anime, manga, etc.  The vicarious romances are free and voluntary and they'll never betray you.  It's such an obviously better deal than real life American women.

Anyone who argues that women would like men more if they behaved better should take a look at South Korea and Japan.  The men behave much better over there -- less likely to do crime, take drugs, sleep around, be homeless, whatever -- but women hate the men there more than they do here.  They're even less likely to get married.  Women's assessment of men has nothing to do with the actual worth of men.  It has to do with the anti-male propaganda in today's climate, and the slanted law code that favors women over men when it comes to education, employment, divorce courts, etc., which leave men with less socioeconomic status than they would normally have if they were allowed to compete evenly with women.  After World War II, when all the men were college educated or well-employed but few of the women were, men easily found young wives to marry and have lots of kids.  Those men were not special or better than Japanese men are today.  The difference is now so many laws have been passed that benefit women that the relative sexual market value has drastically changed.

If we got rid of all the government programs and regulations that keep women employed (like public education and health care and anti-discrimination laws), they would suddenly be very interested in finding a husband.  But it's impossible to do this, either, because women are the majority of voters in universal democracies, another stupid innovation that men suicidally did to themselves.

Since men aren't willing to do anything about the trap they've put themselves in, the alternative is to do nothing.  We're still allowed to do nothing.

While not doing anything in particular to attract more views, this blog reached a new record high of monthly views: 275,589.  So doing nothing really does seem to work.

Happiness 2 read:

I've finished all the routes including the 'grand story' route that unlocks after you complete all the routes.  All that's left is the after stories which are basically sex romps with little story content.  Of course I will get to the after stories eventually, but for now it would be more productive to play Tenpure!!'s actual story content, and Amairo Islenauts' actual story content after Tenpure!!, instead.  Story over sex.

I do like in the 'grand story' route you get to hook up with Mizuki, so my decision to include 'Shizuki/Mizuki' in my wonderful hall of fame is all the more justified.  Now Mizuki is as important a character as Shizuki.  There were hints Mizuki also liked her onii-chan in the other routes but it was never clear to what extent until now.  It turns out Mizuki and her onii-chan, Kazuki, are actually star-crossed lovers who shared a similar bond in a past life that they can now remember.  It reminds me of Ricca in Da Capo 3.

Anyway, I enjoyed Happiness 2 from start to finish, which is why it earned two slots in my wonderful hall of fame.  Tenpure!! has also earned two slots, with Shio and Sena already represented, so I expect similar or better from Tenpure!! now that I can concentrate on it.

On top of that, the college football season is underway, and the NFL regular season starts in two weeks.  Fall is going to be busy.

In Heaven Burns Red, I secured swimsuit Satomi for free, which is nice, because she's quite pretty in a swimsuit, unlike her base form.

Bleach returned to sanity as it's revealed that Ywach can manipulate which worldline becomes the future, allowing him to completely negate the worldline where Orihime sacrifices herself to defeat him.  She's been returned to the battlefield safe and sound.

Manga's Fading Star:

Out of the 29 still ongoing manga in my hall of fame, what exactly is going on with them?  How much value is still being generated?

3.  Saki:  Like usual this manga is released in a slow and sporadic manner, but it's covering the climactic ending of the nationals tournament, so every chapter is excellent.  Shinohayu and Toki, the spinoffs, are also very good, but they also come out in a slow and sporadic manner.

4.  Fairy Tail:  100 Year Quest comes out in a slow and sporadic manner, but every new chapter is perfect.  Verdure Wendy is one of the most beautiful manga panels of all time.  There's supposed to be some new chapters drawn by Hiro Mashima floating around but I haven't seen them.

8.  100 Girlfriends:  Due to maternity leave, this manga has become slow and sporadic as well.  The quality of the new girlfriends is pretty random so it's hard to say how good this manga is from day to day.

9.  Sousou no Frieren:  This manga is almost always on hiatus.  It's currently on hiatus.  The chapters are nice when they do actually arrive.

11.  Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha:  There's currently a manga prequel of Gun Blaze Vengeance which should be ending soon.  It doesn't add much of value.

15.  Berserk:  The actual author is dead, and the people who inherited the story are currently on hiatus.  The chapters that do come out are always welcome.

18.  Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun:  Nobody's translating this anymore.

21.  Shadows House:  Shadows House seems to be approaching its dramatic conclusion.  It's become more combat than mystery oriented and thus lost a lot of its charm.

23.  History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi:  Kenichi has made an explosive comeback and is currently one of the highlights of my week.  Unfortunately the release schedule of this work is also sporadic.

25.  Futari Ecchi:  Nobody's translating this anymore.

26.  Rurouni Kenshin:  This manga is always on hiatus.

30.  Railgun:  The main story is finished.  All that's left is the Item and Mental Out spinoffs, which should be ending soon, except that they don't release very often which drags things out.

31.  Mao:  This manga is reliably good, as expected of Rumiko Takahashi, and usually comes out every week, which is better than all its competition.

36.  Mix:  Mitsuru Adachi is a God of manga, but he's getting old, and that means Mix chapters only come out slowly.  Hopefully Mix ends before he does.

47.  Dead Rock:  This is an excellent manga by Hiro Mashima, but it's currently on hiatus.

49.  K-On!:  The Shuffle spinoff is still ongoing, but it isn't much good and isn't being translated.

51.  Chihayafuru:  Some sequel spinoff is still ongoing but it isn't translated.

52.  Major:  Neither Major nor Major 2nd is fully translated, but occasional chapters are released.  It's pretty frustrating.

53.  Joukamachi no Dandelion:  The translated releases of this series are sporadic, but good when they happen.

58.  Yuru Yuri:  Another series with a sporadic release schedule.  Most of its chapters are cute and funny but the formula has gotten a little stale by now.

60.  Yume ka Utsutsuka:  The translation is far behind the original and will stay that way for many years.

63.  Hunter x Hunter:  This manga is currently, briefly, releasing new chapters again.  But as expected no plot progress has occurred, so inevitably it will go back on hiatus with nothing really having happened.

70.  Release that Witch:  Nobody's translating this anymore.

71.  Shikkakumon:  The original work comes out in a slow and sporadic fashion.  The spinoff seems to no longer be translated.

74.  Goblin Slayer Year 1:  This manga is excellent, but the translated releases are slow and sporadic.

As you can see, only a handful of great manga is coming out in a timely fashion and being translated into English.  I feel like there was an era where manga was a pillar of my life, with Bleach, Fairy Tail, One Piece and Naruto all coming out weekly.  The only weekly manga coming out these days is Cuckoo no Iinazuke, which is slated to end soon.  This is a crumbling pillar.

I can't make up the difference with light novels, because they have also stopped being translated into English, and aren't coming out as often even in Japan.  SAO novels are being written at a crawl.

The amount of great anime coming out per year is on a continuously decreasing parabola, so I can't rely on it either.

But I can still stay busy thanks to visual novels and video games.  They seem to be releasing at a rapid pace, such that I can't keep up.  So long as I still have these two artistic categories working for me it will all work out.

As for visual novels, I finished Shizuki's route in Happiness 2.  Shizuki is exceptionally beautiful, with light purple twintails and deep purple eyes, her breasts are the perfect size, large enough to notice but not imposing, and she has the voice of Mai Kadowaki, the same as Illyasviel.  Like Illya she's an imouto who's in love with her onii-chan, which is how all imoutos should be.  Throughout the route she kept making bad decisions, which left me torn about whether she qualifies as a wonderful fictional character.  But I solved the dilemma by adding in her twin sister Mizuki to the equation.  Since Shizuki and Mizuki are almost always together, it's fair enough to treat them as one character, like I do Nakururu and Rimururu.  Shizuki/Mizuki is a worthwhile entrant to my hall of fame.  Mizuki is pretty and cheerful and nice and has a good sense of humor, so she puts Shizuki over the top.  I gave Shizuki/Mizuki the theme song ANGELUS, which is the final 4-star rated Inuyasha song in my hall of fame that hadn't yet been assigned a character.  ANGELUS has both a peppy and a combative element to its music, which perfectly fits Mizuki and Shizuki respectively.

Sakura, Saku read:

I found a website that hosted the fully translated Sakura, Saku manga and finally got to read the ending.  This is one of my hall of fame manga so it's a pretty big deal to see it to fruition.  The last few chapters were simple and sweet.  Since everyone in the story was a good person, all that was needed to erase the drama was some honest communication.

Io Sakisaka's latest manga is Yume ka, Utsutsuka.  But it's no longer being translated because it's been licensed.  I'm okay with Io making a little more money by selling her works outside of Japan, but it means it will take years before the 'official' version catches up with the 'unofficial' version, so essentially we as fans just lose out on a product we could have had by now.

Yume ka, Utsutsuka is also in my manga hall of fame, so the long wait for this manga simply replaces the previous long wait for Sakura, Saku.

I finished the Akatsuki no Yona epilogue, which now officially ends the series, a year after the series already ended.  It was excellent, as expected of my 6th favorite manga.

I also finished some more manga that were hosted on the same site that I couldn't find anywhere else --  Saikyou no Tsue, I Will Survive Using Potions and Tensei Kyuuketsuki Ohirune Shitai.  These series were more about the art quality than the plot quality, but it's nice to finish anything no matter how trivial.

More importantly, I caught up on Demons Crest, 100 Girlfriends and a few other series that other manga hosting websites weren't updating but this site was.  I wonder if the Demons Crest anime will get to the material I'm now reading in the manga. . . it's all so awesome, I hope it does.

It's nice to see Orihime fight valiantly against Ywach, but I won't accept any change to the manga canon, where Ichigo lives happily ever after with Orihime, marries her and has a son named Kazui.  '100 Waifus' is based off of that canon ending.  That is the true ending of Bleach, whatever this anime does next.  They can kill Orihime off in the anime if they want, it means nothing to me, because I know the real ending already, and that doesn't happen.  The anime is so bad about Orihime they don't even get her eye color right -- her eyes are gray, not brown.  How can you mess something that simple up?

There are dozens of valuable manga that aren't being translated at all anymore, which is a crying shame.  Zettai Karen Children is a huge loss to the English speaking world.  Other notable losses are Release that Witch (so now we're doubly screwed, with no anime or manga), Futari Ecchi, Kenja no Mago, Tales of Crestoria, Tales of Eternia, Tales of Destiny 2, Hyakuren Haou and Sore ga Seiyuu.  I wouldn't even need to buy Tales of Eternia Remastered if someone had translated the manga in full.  I would have been perfectly happy to experience the story in that manner instead.

At least I'm able to make progress in Heaven Burns Red.  I got all six thunderbolt rings to max level, which powers up my critical penetration and thunder squads.  My thunder squad promptly got a new high score in the score challenge via leveraging the new rings, which gave new title ranks to my squad members.  Sumomo reached the pivotal rank 10 which gave her a new skill slot, which she can actually use effectively.  My ice squad also got some title rank upgrades fighting the latest score challenge, but nothing as notable.  I got feral Chie to limit break level 2, which helps out my light squad.

Vritika Event Cleared:

The new Vritika-focused event in Heaven Burns Red was excellent, featuring the quiet girl amidst all the troublesome loudmouths of 31-X.  It turns out quiet girls are thinking a lot about the people around them, even if they don't say it out loud.  And this time she'd had enough and decided to say everything that had been bottled up since they met, which gave 31-X a needed reality check that brought them together just in time to defeat a powerful Cancer that was menacing their farm.

Vritika was already in my wonderful hall of fame before now, but this event cements that reputation as well-earned.  She isn't just a beautiful super genius, she's also passionate and compassionate.  31-X is one of the best squads in Heaven Burns Red.

I also secured swimsuit Kozue's limit break level 3, which should help out my dark squad, and got my 2nd thunder ring to max upgrade.

A new Yuzusoft visual novel has been translated, Amairo Islenauts.  Every Yuzusoft work has been a treasure so far, so I'm sure this one will be too.  The only problem is it only runs on my half-broken old computer for whatever reason.  I'm not sure if many other people can make use of this translation when simply getting the program to run is this much of a hassle.  On that note, replacing my computer has been way too traumatizing and taken way too long.  It feels like getting everything to work only calmed down today.  One problem after another, with a high starting cost, and all I ever wanted was a quieter computer.  This shouldn't be too much to ask, or require this much effort to receive.

I'm currently playing two other visual novels so I don't have time for Amairo, but I'll get to it when I have the chance.

Meanwhile, I replaced Robin Hood in my wonderful fictional character hall of fame with Sena from Tenpure!!.  Robin Hood is too much of a historical figure to count as a fictional character, and besides he's a thief.  I have more respect for Sena, who is a very doting childhood friend, but when she sees the protagonist wants to get with Shio instead of her, she becomes their cupid and helps them get together, as opposed to acting in her own interest by trying to keep them apart.  That's true love right there.  Sena gets the theme song Labyrinthine and the T-1000 gets the theme song Ultema - The Perfect Body, with a menacing name and tone that perfectly fits it.

Heaven Burns Red 4.0:

Heaven Burns Red has released a new version of the game that makes a few things simpler and faster to do, while releasing a new event, a new score challenge, a new dungeon, etc.  It's so much content that I'm not tackling the event today.  Instead I concentrated on all the new recruiting and powering up chances.

I spent $165 to get a bunch of new SS Memorias and limit breaks.  Most of the limit breaks were useless, but there were some good ones -- I got wedding dress Yingxia to level 2.5, base Hisame to level 3.5, imp Yayoi to level 4, base Charlotta to level 4 -- and three brand new SS Memorias -- demon lord Bon Ivar, white suit Carole, and cook Vritika.  Cook Vritika is already at level 1 limit break.

I got Karen to title rank 13, the highest of all my seraphs, with a bunch of others at rank 12, by scoring a new high score record of 2.5 million points.  I got two powerful new thunder rings, one is already at max upgrades.  I could score higher than ever because imp Yayoi at limit break level 4 is stronger than ever, which makes my critical penetration squad stronger than ever.  I also got a new eternal daphne, which I'll likely use on demon lord Bon Ivar, because she's got a lot of potential.

Charlotta is my fifth favorite character in the game, so it's a relief to finally get her to max limit break/level.  It's crazy how long this game takes to do basic things.  Charlotta also got her skill evolution for the first time today.

Meanwhile, I watched Song of the Samurai on HBO Max.  It's a live-action adaption of the Chiruran manga, and excellently done.  I wish I could keep reading the manga but it's never been translated into English, so this adaption is all we get.  I wish they'd make a season 2 so I could see more of this riveting history of the Shinsengumi and the Meiji Restoration as a whole.

I finished Rino's route in Happiness 2 and am well into Shio's route in Tenpure!!.  Shio is basically a clone of Nemu but with higher definition art and beautiful rainbow eyes that fade from blue to green.  Nemu is mai waifu, so a character who is in much the same situation as Nemu and behaves the same as Nemu is also lovely.  I added Shio to my wonderful hall of fame.  It's okay for Shio to resemble Nemu because Circus made both games.  They have the right to plagiarize themselves.  Shio's wonderful theme song is 'Shinjitsu no Uta,' a love song from Inuyasha which fits her snugly.

I also added Cana back into my wonderful hall of fame from Fairy Tail.  She was kicked out mainly because her name overlapped with too many other characters, but that concern is relevant to '100 Waifus,' it isn't an issue with my wonderful list.  I gave Lyon the Girei theme song, which is a Naruto theme, not a Fairy Tail theme, but it's by the same composer as composed for Fairy Tail, so it still fits in nicely.  Meanwhile Cana got 'The Endless Adventure,' a cheerful and whimsical Fairy Tail tune that fits her.

My next route in Happiness 2 is Shizuki's, who is voiced by Mai Kadowaki, the voice of Illyasviel, who is also mai waifu.  Shizuki is also very pretty, but her personality is a little twisted, so she'll probably go down as a solid but not wonderful girl.

I'm also making good progress in Fantasian, beating a lot of new bosses and getting new powerful equipment and skills.  I'm juggling all these different projects while college football is slated to resume in a week.  The fun is non-stop.

Rino and Reirin:

I've introduced two new characters to my wonderful hall of fame:  Rino from Happiness 2 and Reirin from Futsutsuka na Akujo.  Rino received the theme song 'When the Northern Sky was Clear,' which has the same magical feel as Rino's life, while Reirin received the theme song 'In Paradisum,' which has the same august majesty as Reirin.

I've finally gotten around to playing the Happiness 2 visual novel, which I figured would be good because Happiness is great.  Happiness 2 isn't as good as the original, but at least one of its characters is worthwhile, and that's Rino.  I fell for her from the start, but wasn't allowed to play her route until I finished Karen's route.  So I finished Karen's route and started on Rino's, which is where I am now.  She's short but well-endowed, with red eyes and red hair that splays out into twintails due to a ribbon. I'd call her a classic beauty in that nothing about her character design is complicated or novel, but she's still incredibly eye-catching.  She's a bit of a tsundere, which makes her all the cuter, and the protagonist's long-forgotten childhood friend (though she never forgot.)

What I like most about Rino is her leadership skills.  She is always the first to volunteer for every task, whether tedious or difficult, and then excels in it.  She encourages others to put in similar effort and keep up with her, and everyone responds to her sincerity.  She's a stellar magician, but only due to all the hard work she's put in since childhood.  She doesn't hold her magical ability over others, instead she helps them cultivate their magical skills too.  All this while she works a side job as a cute waitress and gives people good advice.  She's a saint.  The only thing she's bad at is confessing her own feelings.

As for Reirin, I didn't expect Futsutsuka to be this good, but each new episode of the anime proves why she, and the franchise itself, is too good for me to ignore.  In the first few episodes I found her to be too nice and airheaded, but as the story progresses it turns out she can be vindictive against those who wrong her and stoically stubborn when she sets her mind to something.  She actually has every possible trait you could want in a woman -- the charitable and compassionate traits, the graceful and decorous traits, plus the steel spine to see things through when necessary.

There is a slight problem, in that 'Reirin' is only a soul, living in a different girl's body, who has a different name.  But when I say 'Reirin' I'm referring to the soul, not the body.  Reirin's original body is beautiful, but her new body isn't bad either, so it doesn't really matter what her body looks like.  I'm enamored with her soul anyway.  Which is of course the point of the whole series, that you can't keep a good soul down, no matter what body it inhabits (and with said body, no matter what initial circumstances one finds oneself in).

Not only Reirin is great, but the anime she's featured in is also great, with lavish attention to detail and quality animation.  The setting of a Chinese-style harem of absolute luxury where all the girls compete at being accomplished court maidens to please the one prince who has to choose between them is perfect.  The plot where Reirin goes from being the prince's chosen one to the most detested girl in the harem and has to climb her way back up again is perfect.  The only reason I'm ranking this series at #180 instead of higher is the somewhat limited scope of the story, with really only 2 characters in the story, the heroine Reirin and the villainess who switched bodies with her, Keigetsu.  Everything revolves around them and there's nothing much going on outside them.

To make room for Futsutsuka, I promoted Witch Hat Atelier up to #109 (now that it's getting a second season, and presumably more seasons beyond that.)  I promoted Honzuki no Gekokujo to #67 (after what's been a stellar season 4.)  And I combined Mao with Inuyasha, since it's essentially the same series.  The same time-slip romance central theme, with the same 'magic of ancient Japan' action vibe, by the same author.  At a certain point it may as well be a single series, much like how Demons Crest may as well be another season of Sword Art Online.

Honzuki's promotion makes it the premier isekai anime in my rankings.  Hundreds of isekai series have tried their best in the animation arena and Honzuki has emerged at its peak.  The fact that it's so different from the normal isekai fare, with a female lead who isn't interested in romance or war, is what quietly gives it so much strength.  It feels like everything that happens in Honzuki is interesting and new.  And the vast length of the anime feels like it hasn't exposed even a tenth of the story's potential.  It still feels like we're only beginning, with Myne still a young child after all this time.  There's no telling how much she'll transform the world by the time she's done.

Meanwhile, in Heaven Burns Red, I got base Karen to limit break level 4, which improves unison Karen in my critical penetration squad by 10%, as well as red-riding hood Karen, cute Karen, etc. other Karens in my other squads.  Karen is now my highest rated character in the game.  I also got base Akari to limit break level 3, for what good it does me.

I also downloaded the long-awaited Template (or Tenpure in Japan) visual novel.  From the little I've played so far it's excellent, especially Shio.  With Happiness 2 and Tenpure the month of August will be as fun as all the previous months of this year.  And with Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave coming in September, there isn't going to be a dropoff in the future either.