Maria Event Cleared:

Heaven Burns Red dropped a lot of new content on top of the main story expansion, so I've been doing all the side content first.  I spent $19 to most efficiently use my remaining paid quartz, and it paid off handsomely, getting me shrine maiden Megumi limit break level 4.  Now my entire plot party, Squad 31-A, is max level limit break.  And they're all fire element, so they work magnificently well together.  They're probably also my strongest party.  I'll be wielding them, at least, for the main scenario that's coming up next -- magical girl Tama, diva Ruka, red riding hood Karen, swimsuit Tsukasa, shrine maiden Megumi and fireworks Yuki.  This would be a great time to stop spending money on the game, since my main squad is already at full strength.  >.<.

I also got ninja Monika, a brand new SS Memoria.  I got really close to collecting every single SS Memoria in the game.  I think I'm only missing streetwear Yingxia, magician Isuzu and imp Yayoi.  Out of hundreds.  *sigh*.  So close and yet so far.

I also got base Yotsuha to limit break 3.5.  She's strong so levelling her is genuinely useful.  I maxed out ethereal Kozue's memento.  I acquired Charlotta's, Sumomo's and Adelheid's master skills.  I got base Charlotta's exclusive skill to introjection level and base Vritika's exclusive skill to skill evolution level.  I also gave Charlotta and Vritika 5 reversions, which gives them an extra skill slot, to accommodate their newly introjectable base skills.

I upgraded all my luck charms to max, got a full set of max power dark and thunder bracelets, and have almost maxed out my spirit charm levels.

I improved a lot of characters' title badges via the new 5-round endurance arena challenge.  Miya is the latest seraph to reach level 10 title badge and get a new skill slot.  It's embarrassing that my secondary fire party actually got a higher score in the score challenge than my primary fire squad 31-A party managed.  But that has to be nothing more than a coincidence.  >.<.  I kept getting close to the black trophy high score of 100,000, but everyone fell just short.  96k, 92k, etc.  But it's high enough to get all the practical loot available.

The plot of Maria's event was pretty simple.  She was an orphan who ended up being taken in by a church, so she became a nun by default.  Then Cancer attacked and everyone else in her church was killed.  She has survivor's guilt and takes it out on the Cancer, but true healing comes from her friends in Squad 31-X, who tell her it's okay to live.  Given that Charlotta has survivor's guilt a hundred times worse than Maria, Maria's story is kinda trite.  Charlotta is part of Squad 31-X too.  If I were Maria I would realize how silly my guilt looks in comparison to Charl's life and get over it already.  As expected I still don't like Maria.

The new song that played during the event, Melancholic Blue, is pretty catchy though.  I've listened to it before and rejected it, but now I've warmed to it, now that it's been incorporated into the story.  I'll kick out some sad 1-star song to make room for it in my hall of fame.

I'm only one player rank away from my next eternal daphne, which I'll probably give to wedding dress Ichiko.  Tomorrow I get a free SS Memoria, which will be the all-new wedding dress Seira.  And next week I get another free SS Memoria.  The benefits from Chapter 5 Part 2 Act II aren't done yet.

Normally speaking it would take months to get all these limit breaks, master skills, reversions, title badges, etc.  It's so fun for all this to happen in a couple days.  Like my opportunities are boundless.  New content is so fun.  It's well worth all the money I've spent on the game.  This remains the best game ever made.  And I haven't even played the main scenario yet. . .

Ayaka Route Cleared:

Ren'ai Karigurashi is by Asa Project, the same people behind Ren'ai 0 Km and Ren'ai Karichaimashita (who would have guessed?).  So I knew with high probability this would be a good game, and it was a good game.  I've already cleared the route of the best girl, Ayaka, and promoted her to my fictional character hall of fame.  She received 'It's a Beautiful Day' as her theme song, and Ren'ai Karigurashi made my silver rankings.

Ayaka is a beautiful girl with pink hair and yellow eyes, who styles some of her long hair into a braid around her head like a circlet.  At Takuma's insistence, she calls him 'Onii-chan', despite them being childhood friends and not relatives.  She's a good cook and nice to those around her.  She's a little crafty and manipulative, getting people to do whatever she wants because they all like her, but that's the reward for being nice.  For instance, she gives baked snacks to her friend, and cooks a cake for her father.  Then asks them for favors.  ^_^.   Cute girls who call people Onii-chan can have all the favors they want, if you ask me.

The other girls in the visual novel aren't bad -- Rito, Hiyori and Kyou.  I can probably play all their routes to completion like one is supposed to play a visual novel.  But I'm already looking beyond their routes to my next Asa Project game -- Futamata Ren'ai.  Nekonyan has been translating Asa Project games and bringing them to America one after the next, and I've liked all their other entries, so I suspect Futamata will be great too.

It's like last year's explosion of Yuzusoft games all over again.  Though Yuzusoft is superior to Asa Project, Asa Project is reliably good and that's good enough.

Meanwhile, Heaven's new main story expansion has been released.  So many ancillary events have been unleashed at the same time that I haven't even touched the main story yet.  I've already gotten four new SS Memoria -- kimono Akari, photographer Irene, sports car Maria and wedding dress Charlotta.  I also got red riding hood Karen and thundercat Byakko to limit break level 4 (max).  Swimsuit Megumi reached limit break level 1.  I also gave Byakko an eternal daphne, and upgraded the mementos of waitress Kozue and yukata Isuzu to max.  My first two characters have reached title badge rank 10, which gives them a new skill slot, Hisame and Megumi.

Onii-chan Dakeshimete read in full:

I've been having a rough time with visual novels lately -- I chose not to read all the routes in Tenshin Ranman or Ren'ai 0 Km.  Nevertheless, Sana and Misaki were such good characters within said vn's I still included them in my wonderful hall of fame.  Sana even showed up in '100 Waifus.'  But the first visual novel to break this curse isn't Tenshin Ranman, it's Onii-chan Dakeshimete.  Kohaku, who is in my wonderful hall of fame, is by far the best girl in the game.  She's beautiful, hardworking, diligent, and an incredible caretaker of the rest of her family.  Not only does she do all the cooking and cleaning, she also notices when people are misbehaving and lectures them, or are out of sorts and helps them.  She tends to everyone's needs, from the basics to emotional counseling.  Aside from a dumb flaw I won't get into she's perfect.

What's impressive about this game isn't Kohaku, though.  Sana > Kohaku.  What's impressive is that the other routes are also worth playing.  Sora, Akane, Sumi, and the Harem route are all worthwhile.  Of course, it helps that Kohaku has great scenes in all the routes, but Sana also has great lines in the other routes of Tenshin Ranman.  It isn't all Kohaku, the other girls are much more appealing than the alternatives in Tenshin Ranman or Ren'ai 0 Km.  I end up smiling no matter which girl I'm currently romancing.

Onii-chan Dakeshimete isn't for the faint-hearted.  There's lots of sex with lots of imoutos.  But Imouto Paradise was also all about that and I enjoyed all of them too.  Aya and Koharu from Imouto Paradise are also in my wonderful hall of fame, as is Kurumi from Life with a Flirty Step-Sister, which is also focused on sex with an imouto.  If I cared about those things I wouldn't have been reading these sorts of visual novels for years.

This visual novel isn't all about sex, though.  Nor was Imouto Paradise.  Mainly it was about how affectionate and kind and good the whole family was, how they spent time together and got along with each other.  Not only the onii-chan gets showered with affection, but the sisters get along brilliantly while the onii-chan watches on, half the time.  It's those warm moments that make you fall for the girls, more than when they treat you specifically well.  Ren'ai 0 Km was also about a group of sisters, but they didn't get along nearly as well, and it really hurt the product as a whole.  Of course, it would be hard to get along with the sisters of Ren'ai 0 Km, since most of them were such oddballs, but oh well.  It also helps to not be a deliberately annoying person, that too is a way to show kindness to the family around you.

I've finally finished a project, but my schedule is still infinitely crowded.  A promising new visual novel came out, Ren'ai Karigurashi, which I definitely want to try.  There's also Happiness 2, which I've been waiting forever to start.  Majikoi A+ got a full translation patch, but that was on April Fool's, so I'm not sure if it's real.  Furthermore, the patch is useless without a copy of the game, so as much as I'd like to prioritize Majikoi I can't.  Maybe some kind soul will eventually post a patched version of the game for download.

Speaking of visual novels, I'm almost certain Heaven Burns Red Chapter 5 Part 2 Act 2 is coming out tomorrow.  I benefitted from the monthly refresh already, getting Admiral Aoi to limit break 3.5.  In a couple weeks I'll have her up to max limit break 4, and then the two strongest SS Memoria in the game will have reached peak power.  From then on I'll be invincible.  I'm so lucky I was able to get diva Ruka and Admiral Aoi to full power at relatively low expense -- compared to the thousands of dollars I was spending last year. >.<.  I can actually envision never spending another dime on Heaven, considering how strong I've already become.  I don't actually need to throw any more money at it.  I've got all the characters and abilities I want and need.

Kanteishi's anime adaption is horrible.  I've decided to not bother watching the anime and be content with the manga, which is infinitely better.  Nigetsuri was good, though.  I like noble ladies with blue eyes and blonde hair, or purple eyes and blonde hair, either one works for me.

The new Idolm@ster ova was nice.  But a single ova obviously doesn't do much for the quality of the series as a whole.  Love Live! is offering a whole new season, starting in January of 2027, with a new group of girls.  I'm looking forward to that a lot more.

The new Kenichi manga is amazing as expected.

According to science the brain comes to a decision before it is even aware that it has come to a decision.  But obviously something had to cogitate on an issue, weigh its various sides, and come to a decision, before a decision can be made.  So what was doing the thinking?  Science says the decision generated spontaneously, for no reason.  Religion would say the first mover was the soul.  The soul relaying its decision to the brain makes a lot more sense to me.

I've transmuted so many 'copper' series to 'silver' by mentioning them in my wonderful hall of fame, I wonder how many 'copper' series remain?  

As for visual novels, anime and manga, every single hall of famer has a mention in my wonderful list.

It appears from video games:  Warlords, Heroes of Might and Magic, Master of Magic and The King of Dragons.  

From books:  James Clavell, Harold Covington, Samuel Richardson, H.G. Wells, John Steinbeck, Ludovico Ariosto, Murasaki Shikibu, Arthur Conan Doyle, George Orwell, Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle/Steven Barnes, Jim Kjelgaard, Jean Respail, Charles Murray, Thomas Paine, Boswell/Johnson, Rousseau, Pascal, Ann Coulter, Darwin, Marx, Craig Winn, Malthus, Voltaire, Adam Smith, Xenophon, Rushton, Jefferson and Spinoza.  

From movies:  Braveheart, The Patriot, Hero, Curse of the Golden Flower, Fearless, Beauty and the Beast, Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, Lady and the Tramp, The Fox and the Hound, Wreck-It Ralph, Peter Pan, Snow White, Singin' in the Rain, My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof, Grease, 7 Brides for 7 Brothers, Roman Holiday, Dancing in the Dark, Evita, Midway, Tombstone, Gettysburg, Black Hawk Down, 13 Hours, Zero Dark Thirty, Gladiator, 300, The Mexican, Once upon a time in Hollywood, Tetris, The Fugitive, Witness, Working Girl, Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai, Apollo 13, The Martian, The Right Stuff, Ikiru, The 7 Samurai, Kagemusha, Rashoman, Yojimbo, Casablanca, Jurassic Park.

Many of these 'copper' series are still 'copper' because they're non-fiction.  It's hard to include them into my fictional character hall of fame or mention them in '100 Waifus.'  So by one measure there are 79 copper series, but from another, series that could possibly qualify but haven't yet, there are only 45.  That's a pretty good job of inclusion.  If I find good songs that I feel I must promote to my wonderful playlist, I can consult these remaining 45 options and represent one of them.  For now they're fine staying copper works, though, because they really are less impressive than the silvers and golds.

Wonderful +20:

I wanted to turn more 'copper' hall of fame entries into 'silver' hall of fame entries, so I honored names from various movies in my hall of fame, giving each of the new inductees their own theme song.

Stardust's Yvaine got People without a hope.  Apocalypto's Jaguar Paw got Primitive Mountain.  Airplane's Ted got Silvard (Epoch) ~Wings That Cross Time~.  Tremor's Valentine got Hydraen's Wrath.  Harry Potter's Luna Lovegood got Under Beberu.  Far and Away's Joseph got The Emigration Tunes.  Jack Ryan's Jack got Delita's Theme.  My Cousin Vinny's Vinny got Battle 2 (Unreleased).  Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' Robin got Ultema - The Perfect Body.  House of Flying Daggers' Xiao Mei got E. Honda Stage.  Xena:  Warrior Princess' Xena got wings of sorrow (pyrrha's theme).  World Teacher's Sirius got Beginning of Tale.  Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival's Alicia got Billow in the Dark.  NEET Dakedo HELLO WORK's Masaru got U.M.N. MODE.  Ant-Man's Scott got Enishi.  Empire of the East's Ardneh/Orcus got incarnation.  Warhammer's Morgan got God's Fist.  Frozen's Elsa got Frozen.  Zootopia's Judy got Magical Weapon Nash.  The Incredible's Violet got FLASHMAN STAGE.

Xena is a tv show, Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat is a video game, Empire of the East is a book, whilst NEET Dakedo, Otome Game and World Teacher is a manga to be precise, but they left a lasting impact on me so I wanted to honor them too.

This let me use up every last 4-star Chrono Trigger song.  Chrono Trigger has such good music it would be a crime not to include every last tune in my wonderful playlist.  Of course all the other 4-star themes I included are also amazing.

I felt the same way about Street Fighter 2's 4-star songs, Heaven Burns Red's, Ogre Battle's, Lunar's, Xenogears', FF 4's and Xenoblade 3's.  Sometimes a game has such a good soundtrack everything must be included.

Grand Prize: Unrivalled Harem is not a very sophisticated story, but it's an entertaining enough manga to escort me to the Final Four.

$19 Heaven:

Heaven was offering a deal that was too good to refuse -- 10 protean shards, a ten roll recruitment ticket, and a guaranteed SS-Memoria with a resonance skill ticket.  So I bought it for $19, and boy did it pay off.

The guaranteed ticket got me Diva Ruka, one of the two best memorias in the game.  I then used the 10 protean shards I got, combined with these newfound Diva Ruka shards, to get her to max limit break level 4.

But it was the ten roll recruitment ticket that surprised me most.  I got both base Adelheid and base Charlotta.  Adelheid moved up to limit break level 2, and Charlotta to 2.5.  Earlier, for reaching a new player rank, I got a recruitment ticket that luckily turned into base Misato, which gets her to limit break level 3.5.  And today I got a free SS-Memoria recruitment ticket just for logging in, which netted me thunder Yuina limit break level 2.  That's a lot of SS for $19 bucks.

I added Doctor Strange to my wonderful fictional character list, seeing as how I've liked him in every Marvel movie he's featured in.  He received WOODMAN STAGE for his theme song.  I also added Ichika and Ciel back from Precure, figuring if Ayumi qualifies surely they do too.  Ichika received the theme song GO! GO! MANIAC.  Ciel received the theme song Watashi no Koi wa Hotch Kiss.  I'm really enjoying my new expanded wonderful playlist, full of amazing 5-star songs and above-expectations 4-star songs.  They mesh perfectly.

The Railgun manga came to a satisfying end, after a long 19 years of serialization.  On the other hand, Fate/Strange Fake was a disappointment.  The series ended on a cliffhanger and there was no announcement of a second season, despite there being plenty of source work material to work with.  I added a new season of Fate/Strange Fake to my anime wishlist because this should be a high priority for the anime industry.  Fate/etc. is my #11 favorite anime, and many other people would rate it higher than that.

P.S.:  Okay, now they've at least added a 'to be continued' video to the series, which I guess is the same as announcing a second season, so I'll take it back off my wishlist.

The winter anime season has almost come to a close, and the spring season has already begun.  Spring has a lot of stuff to like, but I'm already looking forward to the summer and fall seasons, which are going to be jam-packed with hits.

Sousou no Frieren S3 announced:

Like Oshi no Ko S4, Frieren S3 is not a surprise.  This is a popular series with plenty of additional manga material, so making another season makes eminent sense.  In addition, the next season of Frieren covers a great portion of the manga, it will be much better than season 2 was.  Frieren S3 starts airing in October 2027.

When I added back in all the fictional characters from my own books, I had forgotten Marcellus from Illyria.  So I added him today and gave him the excellent and appropriate song Fatal Struggle from Lodoss War.

The previous owner of the Rise song, which the Tachikomas got because it's a Ghost in the Shell song, was given Enemy Attack (FF10) instead.  Since Yoji is the protagonist of GATE, and the first thing that happens in that anime is an enemy attack, the song is perfect for him.

When I recruited those 7 new SS Memoria, momentarily I didn't have all my characters at full skill levels again, but now they're all up to snuff.  I also have all the skill evolutions in the game.  The latest score challenge was tackled by my thunder squad, who scored 1,485,000 points.  They blew the opponent away in 4 turns.  That felt pretty good.

By combining all of Mitsuru Adachi's baseball romance anime into a single work, I made room for two more anime to enter my top anime rankings.  For now, Mao will be ranked at #180 and Demons Crest at #67.  Mao starts airing in a week, Demons Crest won't be here for a while, but I may as well rank them now since I know they'll be ranked once they start.  Unless something surprises me with its quality, this should be the full gallery of my ranked anime.  This is a future-proofed list.

Tsugimonogatari read:

There's an intriguing aspect to Yotsugi's creation, which is the curses all the specialists received from bringing her to life.  It turns out no foreign entity cursed them, it was a restriction they put on themselves to fuel the necromancy.  They called it sharing a part of their souls with the corpse.  We also learned the precise nature of everyone's curses -- Kagenui can't step on the ground.  Gaen can't look away from any problem.  Kaiki can't be a good person.  Oshino can't sleep in a bed or with a pillow.  All of this was mentioned in passing or hinted at in the past, now we get the precise rundown.

Why did all these specialists get together to do such a difficult thing?  It turns out they were trying to revive Gaen's imouto, but accidentally revived the wrong corpse, due to a case of mistaken identity.  So we got the completely irrelevant Yotsugi instead.  It's a cute twist.

This book was particularly good because it was hilarious and very informative about characters heretofore shrouded in mystery.  A prequel that reveals all secrets.  A series of events that beggars belief but has a satisfactory explanation.  It's pure genius.  The book was so good I moved the worth of the light novel series, overall, up to my 4th favorite.  I like when Oshino met all the loli versions of the girls Araragi would eventually end up helping when they were grown up.  This prequel is not set in the distant past, only seven years before the beginning of the series.  Yotsugi is not very old.

I had hoped Chapter 5 Part 2 Act II of Heaven Burns Red would start today, but no such luck.  Maybe next week.  For now there's March Madness.