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.

So much to do, so little time:

Through a lucky roll, I got the new cook Charlotta SS Memoria.  I used my delimiter to give hacker Yuki her first limit break, and I gave eternal daphnes to hacker Yuki, king Ruka and swimsuit Erika, empowering my dark squad.  My dark squad got 1.8 million in the earlier score challenge, so they're actually competitive.  My new thunder squad got 2.57 million in the current score challenge, higher than my critical penetration squad got, so they're also impressive.  This got Hisame to title rank 13, and others like Ruka and Charlotta to rank 12.  I used the score challenge points to buy the permanent power upgrade relic orbs for a few characters I'm not currently using.  But maybe someday they'll come in handy.

I've read volumes 4-7 of Koujo Denka no Kateikyoshi and am working on volume 8.  I've already entered this series into my 'good books' hall of fame, kicking out Jim Kjelgaard to make room.  Currently it's ranked below Spice & Wolf, but we'll see how it fares once I've read all the books.  Allen and Caren have impressed me mightily in the volumes I have read, which is why I invited them into my fictional characters hall of fame.

So far the story has taken a violent turn into world war, but luckily the bad guys who instigated the war are much weaker than the good guys (Allen and friends) who are winning the war.  However, there are shadowy forces behind this war which might be stronger than the Kingdom's current foes, so I assume this war is going to continue for many more volumes.  What this war does is allow all our heroes to shine on the battlefield.  While they were fighting each other they didn't look very special, but when facing these weak opponents they start taking out tens of thousands of foes individually.  It turns out they were quite strong in abstract.  There's also lots of sickly sweet romance, except it's all one-sided because Allen has no intention of dating anyone.  But there's still a lot of romance in the air when 7 different girls all love the same guy and are competing for his approval.

In the end romance and war are the most popular topics in stories, so it makes sense why I'd like this story, and why it's such a popular novel series in general.  What's original about this author is his willingness to include young girls into the romance and war, which is why I particularly like this series.  He includes mainstays of popular literature to sneak in the fringe taboos.

I still have endless volumes of Koujo Denka left to read, and now Index GT volume 16 has come out and is being translated.  There's also the 'Another Eden Begins' video game that comes out tomorrow, and the Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave game that comes out on the 21st.  Next month FF Resonance comes out.  And I still haven't finished Happiness 2 or Tenpure!!, and I haven't even started Amairo Islenauts.  I still have to beat Fantasian too.  Obviously I can't do everything, so I'll save some of these projects for next year and try to at least finish some of the stuff I've already begun this year.

To top it all off football season has begun, and that means there are games to watch on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  >.<.  With football occupying half the week, how on Earth am I supposed to get anything done?

And let's not forget that the new fall anime season debuts in October. . .

Kojo Denka no Kateikyoshi light novels 4-20 are available in English:

I've long lamented the lack of an anime sequel to Kojo Denka.  There is a bevy of adorable girls in this series and I like the magical setting.  The manga adaption hasn't reached where the anime adaption ended, so it's useless.  However, the light novels have been translated far beyond the anime.  The anime covers volumes 1-3.  The English translated light novels already reach 20.  I know what I'm going to be doing this month. . .

Speaking of Koujo Denka, this is a good time to induct its protagonist, Allen, into my wonderful hall of fame.  He receives the energetic and resolute 'The Fire-Powered Ship' from FF5 as his theme song.  His doting imouto (non-blood-related wolfkin) Caren also enters my hall of fame with 'The Four Warriors of Dawn' from FF5 as her theme song.  

Before this windfall I was reading Fire Emblem manga.  It's all very good, but none of the manga fully covers the games, so it's also pretty frustrating.  Fortune's Weave is coming soon, so getting hyped with the older Fire Emblem content made sense.

I also discovered that the Release that Witch manhua has been fully translated, it's just that the manhua didn't fully cover the web novel, which is why it ends at such a random point.  Apparently the web novel gets worse and worse over time so we didn't actually miss much.

As for Shikkakumon, the last chapter of the manga came out today, and it fully covers the light novels.  It's an open-ended ending with Matthias and his friends promising to go on more adventurous battles deep into space together.  Not exactly what I'd hoped for from an ending -- Matthias and Lurie never officially get together, and it's unclear whether their homeland is even in peril anymore, or whether they're just fighting for fun at this point.

The startling aspect of this manga is that the anime covers 37% of it in only 12 eps.  Two more seasons would have been enough to fully cover the story.  But I do understand the problem, the remaining story arcs are just 'more of the same,' with no real character growth, so what's the point animating the rest?

Futsutsuka na Akujou is only slated to run for 11 episodes, so it might not qualify for my top anime rankings after all.  If it doesn't get a sequel announcement I'll have to replace it with Demons Crest and make it one of my top ranking movies instead.

Sena route read:

It was embarrassing for Sena from Tenpure!! to be in my wonderful hall of fame when I hadn't even read her route in full.  If I liked her that much, why wasn't I trying to get to know her?  But that hypocrisy is over because now I've finished her story.  She was as charming as ever in the additional content, asking to be Sora's wife and asking to have his babies.  She's very proactive, she was also the first to confess.  It certainly makes life easy for the boy.

In other wonderful hall of fame news, I added Robin Hood back in, represented by a new theme song, 'Fight it Out!,' which is much more fitting than his previous one.  Robin Hood isn't really a historical figure, no more so than Rhett Butler from Gone With the Wind, at least.  There was no reason for me to be so harsh on him.

I also gave Mikuru a new theme song, 'Warren Report,' which is a much more sonorous song than her previous 'Hare Hare Yukai.'  Hare was demoted to a 2-star song and thus ineligible to be in my wonderful hall of fame.  This demotion also means my music is back to 5 balanced tiers of 1100 songs a piece, like it should be.  The new 'Amore' song was given a 5-star rating, and every other tier demoted one song to keep things balanced, with 'Heaven's Door' from Front Mission Gun Hazard being kicked out entirely.

'Fight it Out!' and 'Warren Report' were the last two 4-star songs from Tactics Ogre, and Ogre Battle in general, that didn't have a fictional character attached to them.  Now this wonderful repository of music is fully mobilized.

The first full weekend of college football was super fun, with close games between ranked teams for three days in a row (Oregon vs. Boise State, Ole Miss vs. Louisville, and SMU vs. Florida State).  Georgia Tech vs. Colorado on Thursday was also close and fun.  It doesn't get much better than that.  I enjoyed the World Cup, but football is the one true spectator sport.

Tomorrow it will be the NFL's turn to dazzle.