Koujo Denka volume 18 read:

Only two volumes left to go before I'm all caught up with the English translation of this great fantasy franchise.  Volume 17 was about the hero Alice weakening from some vague illness and passing her status and sword over to Allen, which is a good thing because this series has way too many heroes.  Now Allen has a noble title on par with the duchesses and princesses who all want to marry him, so he no longer has the excuse of being a commoner to turn them down.  The new excuse is that this is no time for romance because they're in the middle of a world war, but eventually that excuse will also disappear once a few more villains are defeated.  I'll certainly be interested to see who he gets with then.

In volume 17 the second apostle was killed, and in volume 18 the prime apostle was killed.  The only real threat left is the Saint, so hopefully the series ends soon.  In volume 18 the long-sidelined pointless character with big breasts and glasses, Felicia, is forced back into the story.  A story about romancing cute little girls doesn't need flabby career women.  But at least the volume served some purpose because there was a full color picture of Stella bathing.  Also Tina got to flirt with Allen a bit back at the old nostalgic greenhouse they first met in, which was nice.

Volume 21 of this series will be translated into English this coming November 20th, so I can seamlessly read volume 20 and then dive right into the next volume without delay.  I picked the right time to get interested in the light novels.  I'm still confused why the anime didn't receive a sequel, though, given how popular the light novels are, with over 1 million sales.  There's plenty of content so it can't be that they're waiting to announce a sequel -- and Allen refuses to romance any girl so it doesn't actually violate any taboos.  My only guess is the first season had poor sales, but that doesn't make sense to me either, since there are obviously plenty of fans worldwide of this series, or the light novel wouldn't have 23 volumes and they wouldn't have all been translated into English by a formal company.

Unfortunately Japan never tells us what their sales figures are per series, so we never find out why they decide not to renew great anime series.  It's an eternal mystery why popular works go unadapted all the time.  At least we have the light novels, which do include beautiful illustrations of all the charming lasses.

The new Heaven Burns Red event appears to be a Persona 5 collaboration.  Not my favorite topic but any new HBR content is always welcome.

The second episode of Ken Tensei had an amazingly well animated, fast-paced sword fight with great musical accompaniment.  The seiyuu for Fran, Ai Kakuma, continues to delight.  Tomorrow Item, the Railgun spinoff, which itself is an Index spinoff, will join the lineup.

Tenpure!! read:

I've completed Myori's route, which means I've completed the full Tenpure!! (or Template! in the English title translation) visual novel.  Myori is a pretty girl and more reasonable and nicer than I expected given how things started with her.  Nevertheless, she doesn't hold a candle to Shio, who's the real purpose of this work of art.  I like how innocent and sincere Sena is, so I'm fine with including her into my fictional character hall of fame, but she doesn't hold a candle to Shio either.  Shio is comparable to Nemu, Da Capo's ace, a much better game than Tenpure!!.  She's far and away the star of this show.

Any work of art which produces two fictional character hall of famers is a great addition to humanity's collective worth.  I said from the beginning to expect good things from Tenpure!! and I was right.  Now I've backed up those words with actions, by following through and reading the full work myself.  But Tenpure!! was worse than Happiness 2, which was worse than Happiness 1.  It can't possibly make my top 25 visual novel hall of fame.  There are many visual novels more worth reading than this one.  It's a shame Kagami Games decided to translate this one into English instead of the many other, better options they could have gone with.  Tenpure!! was not a higher priority translation than, say, Kud Wafter, which to this day still remains Japanese-only.

With this, I've cleared the path to play my last remaining visual novel, Amairo Islenauts.  But playing it would be a real chore since it only works on my old broken computer.  At the very least I won't bother until I've finished reading Koujo Denka.  Yuzusoft visual novels are always so good, though, that I'd hate to ignore Amairo just because it poses a few difficulties.

Koujo Denka, Amairo, Fortune's Weave, Fantasian, the fall anime season, football. . . whirling and whirling. . . at least I finished one of my juggled balls. . .

I Want to Love you Till Your Dying Day manga:

Originally this story was a manga, before the anime adaption.  The anime stops adapting the story with chapter 25 of the manga.  There's now 42 chapters of the manga and still growing, so I spent a wonderful afternoon reading the rest of the available story.  Sheena and Mimi become lovers, they go up a year in school, we learn the cause of the war -- foreign nations want to seize the forbidden, hidden magic spells that Mimi's nation holds but refuses to use because they genuinely think the spells are better off forbidden.  Lots of important moments and character growth.  Like the anime, the art is beautiful.

I also read volume 16 of Koujo Denka.  Four translated volumes left to go.  In volume 16 we have yet another inconclusive fight, with the only difference being Princess Cheryl Wrainwright joining the fight (and the girls who love Allen.).  For such a long series, a lot less happens than in the relatively short 'I Want to Love You.'  I'm not complaining though, every volume is mildly entertaining with lots of cute artwork of the leading ladies, and it's a good way to while away the time.

In Heaven Burns Red, I got classy Isuzu, a brand new (to me) SS Memoria, and got wedding dress Yingxia to limit break level 3.  I also got some other limit breaks of no importance.  The monthly refresh was rewarding, but it's a shame I couldn't get steampunk Irene because that would have directly strengthened my frontline squad, the critical penetration squad.  Oh well, I'm already strong enough to get the max rewards on score challenges.

I've gotten all four main characters in Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave to Chapter 6.  Just to see the basic mechanics of the characters, to see which ones you like, it's necessary to play them all at least this far.  But I should probably concentrate on a single route from here on, because it saves me from having to repeatedly do the same quests and explore the same world map over and over if I can complete at least one route.

The fall anime season has begun.  Two great series, Prince of Tennis and Ken Tensei, have already begun.  There's plenty to like this fall even if all the debutantes suck, so I'm looking forward to this closing chapter of the year.  Especially since the last two episodes of Bleach were delayed into this season.

My recent posts aren't important, long or inspiring, but I continue to get new high records in pageviews.  This month saw a dramatic increase to 359,481.  I suspect a lot of people are discovering the lengthy and inspiring posts of the past 20 years and reading them rather than the day-to-day updates I put out now.  Better late than never. ^_^.  I also suspect a lot of AI training is using my website as a resource, but I consider AI trained on my material to be perhaps more important than humans reading my website, so those pageviews are also very welcome.  The future belongs to whoever influences the superintelligent AI of the future today.

Happiness 2 full clear:

I finished the final after story in Happiness 2.  That's one project down, a hundred more to go.  While Happiness 2 is leaving the scene, the new Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave game has entered it.

So far I've only played a bit down the dancer's route, enough to get accustomed to the game and its various mechanics.  For now the story, characters and music aren't nearly as compelling as the previous Fire Emblem entries.  But I've barely touched the surface of all the content this game has to offer, so who knows.  As for the gameplay, it's fun but too easy.  With all the skirmishes and dungeons you can run during free time, you're way overleveled by the time you reach a main mission.  I don't know what they were thinking, rendering their own carefully crafted stages trivial like that.  And now that normal weapon attacks don't cost durability, you can use your best equipment at all times, again making life far too easy.

For some reason the number of units you can deploy per fight is also much lower than Three Houses, so the game isn't as strategic as it used to be.  The graphics are impressive, but I like the character designs from Three Houses better too.  Three Houses is one of the best games ever made, so it's no wonder Fortune's Weave can't match it.  But it's surprising how thoroughly worse this game is to its predecessor.

I can take my time and play Fortune's Weave as well as all the other projects I'm juggling, then I'll probably enjoy it more.  Next up I can finish Tenpure!! and my Koujo Denka light novels.

As for Koujo Denka, I finished volume 15.  Tina and Stella got to hang out with Allen for a little while without Lydia getting in the way, which is always nice.  Nevertheless, he so obviously prefers Lydia that their affection is wasted on him.  No matter how many girls flirt with him, he only treats Lydia tenderly.  It's obvious where this series is going.  More and more powerful characters keep getting introduced, until it reads like Marvel comics, with heroes so numerous they could rival a nation's population.  And no matter how many fights the series has, none of these multitudes of heroes ever die.  It makes the whole story feel like a nonthreatening game on easy mode.

The earlier books, before this endless, repetitive war, had a lot more heart.  Emotional heft.  Oh well, it's earned a slot in my rankings already so it was a fruitful exercise no matter what happens in the remaining volumes.

Index GT 16 read:

Index GT volume 16 was recently fully translated, so I took a break from Koujo Denka to read it instead.  It was an excellent volume, letting Touma enjoy his time with girls at school instead of putting him into combat and a hospital like he usually suffers.  A grounded volume with minor stakes is the mark of a superior author.  If you can get people interested in life without risking the end of the world, then you're on to something.  Sadly near the end of the book a new world menace is unveiled, Reflex, another girl like Index, but the book ends shortly after so it doesn't do much to mar the volume's charm.

I also finished Koujo Denka volume 12.  All the kingdom's enemies other than the church are finally defeated in this volume, but the church remains untouched, so the war continues.  As for the romance Lydia remains the focus of the story, making the romance suck.  If the next 7 volumes travel down this rut Koujo Denka will never surpass Spice & Wolf in my rankings.

Myori's route in Tenpure!! was better than expected because the cute loli ojou-sama Matsuri had a larger role than I expected.  It turns out Myori is Matsuri's older sister.  But the route isn't over yet.  I also need to complete one more after story to finish Happiness 2.  The abundance of projects I'm simultaneously juggling. . .

Ultimate Unison Karen:

Unison Karen has reached limit break level 4.  Since base Karen is also level 4, essentially this means unison Karen is limit break level 5.  She also has a fully upgraded memento, 10 reversions, my highest title rank: 13, and my highest rating of any seraph in my army by far.  Her supporter is the strongest supporter in the game, shrine maiden Risa, which gives +50% to her skill attacks and devastation rate.  With this unison Karen on my side I can't imagine my critical penetration squad losing to anyone.

I also got two new SS Memorias, king Kanata and demon Mari.  They're neat but nothing special.  What I really wanted was steampunk Irene, but she continues to elude me.

A second season of Futsutsuka na Akujou has been announced, so my #121 ranking of it in my top anime rankings, which requires an anime to be of at least 12 episodes in length, has proven prescient.  Thank goodness.

I finished volume 11 of Koujo Denka and have started upon volume 12.  I also finished Rinne's route in Tenpure!!, leaving only Myori's route left to conquer.  This in the midst of a weekend full of exciting football games.  Frankly I'm not getting much sleep these days.

Kanata event cleared:

There's little hope an event in Heaven Burns Red will be good if it's about Kanata and Mion.  But the scenario writers made the best of it by including cool scenes with Isuzu and Irene.  Isuzu and Irene badgered Tenne and commander Saki into revealing the truth, that all the seraphs were actually narby impersonators of dead people.

The problem with this bombshell is narby impersonators are perfect, they maintain the looks, personality and memories of the original.  The only difference is they have heightened combat powers and eternal youth.  It's all upside.  So learning the truth of your nature should only make you feel lucky.

Alongside the event there was a new score challenge, a new astrarium, and lots of loot.  I got a bunch of limit breaks but most of them weren't useful.  The only good thing that came out of all that loot was getting swimsuit Erika to limit break level 3.  I got magicat Tenne to level 4 limit break, but I don't like Tenne so. . .  I'm close to getting unison Karen to level 4 limit break which is actually important, but I'm not quite there yet.

Meanwhile, I've read volumes 8-10 of Koujo Denka no Kateikyoshi and am working on volume 11.  The war continues, and now Allen is spending all his time with Lydia, practically the only girl in the series I don't like.  I have no idea why the author is favoring this least likable girl in the series as his main heroine.  It's a total waste.  You could say it's because Lydia is older than Allen and therefore not a taboo romance, but Stella and Caren are also around his age, and either of them would be infinitely preferable.  So it isn't just the age issue at work here.  The author is simply making bad decisions.

It's a long series, so maybe he'll spend future volumes with other girls, but the problem is Lydia is clingy and jealous so she monopolizes all his time.  There's no way to spend time with other girls so long as he tolerates her.  And what are the odds Allen will finally grow a spine and tell Lydia she's a nuisance and he wants to date other women?

Lydia reminds me of how Ginko ruined Ryuuou no Oshigoto.  Of course the series is still elite, but it's never been as good as the first three volumes.  That's true of both series and it's such a waste.

The economy is doing well for most Americans, median household income has reached a new inflation-adjusted high, except for the effects of the Iran war -- higher diesel prices are driving up inflation, which drives up interest rates, making the US debt unservicable.  This one decision by Trump has undone all the progress he's made in all other fields.  Trump without the Iran war would have been such a great presidency.  Too late now.  The aftereffects of the war will drag on for years even if the war ended tomorrow.  The food and fuel shortages are here to stay.

Americans may not be the primary sufferers of these shortages, maybe the fuel will hurt Europe and the food will hurt Africa, but that's no excuse.  We're talking billions of people damaged or outright killed for the sake of a completely pointless, unwinnable war.  It's a blight upon our reputation.