Release that Witch begins:

An epic Chinese animation has begun adapting an epic Chinese web novel series, Release that Witch.  I had no clue this was happening until the first episode landed.  Having read the web comic adaption and included it in my manga hall of fame -- despite not actually being a manga -- I can guarantee everyone we're in for a treat.  Like 'Who Made me a Princess?,' only the very best of non-Japanese works get my attention, so if it has my attention, it's guaranteed to be great.

This was so far off my radar I didn't even imagine it could happen, it wasn't even on my anime wishlist.  A bolt from the blue.  What a great time to be alive.

Hopefully Release that Witch airs for a long time because the source work it's based off of is very, very long.  If it covers enough of the good material in the source work, it will definitely reach my top anime rankings.  The first episode was already amazing.

Meanwhile, I finally maxed out all the skill levels of all my seraphs in Heaven Burns Red.  What a long time it took, I wondered if this would ever happen.  Sort of anticlimactic since I've already defeated Skullfeather and don't need higher skill levels, but whatever.  I'm just happy I accomplished something so difficult.

I also got tuxedo Karen's first limit break using the delimiter.  That first limit break is the most important one, because of the extra sp it grants you per turn, and tuxedo Karen was the only SS Memoria I had deployed in any squad that still lacked that first limit break.  The light squad is becoming more and more competitive with my other squads due to upgrades like these.

Tucker Carlson had a good monologue about the Iran war that lasted for nearly 2 hours.  He's right on the details but misses the larger picture.  The larger picture is that Iran is evil and it's a good thing to destroy it.  The larger picture is that America's credibility was on the line, and that credibility helps us prevent wars in the future.  If we say we'll do something, we have to do it.  By creating that reputation we can cow all the potential dictators of the world into two important deeds that lead to world peace -- don't slaughter your own people, and don't attack your neighbors.  These are the basic rules America's reputation upholds all across the world.  Iran was defying both of those rules, and so it had to be punished.  Now thousands of dictators all over the world, now and in the future, are rethinking whether they want to cause trouble and draw America's ire next.

The moment Trump demanded Iran disarm or we would disarm them, America was committed.  Iran refused to disarm, and so the only possible course of action, at that point, is for us to disarm them.  It's a shame Iran didn't listen and obey when we asked nicely, but the worst possible thing we could have done is threaten force and then back down.  After that the whole world would have spit in our face for the rest of time.  Once your reputation is lost it's a dozen times harder to get it back, than if you had just protected it in the first place.

Should Trump have started making demands of Iran in the first place?  No.  Iran wasn't our problem, we should have ignored them and let Israel fight it out if they wanted.  But Trump made it our problem, and after that we had no choice but to fight and win.

It's the exact same reason I told Putin to invade Ukraine.  He gave an ultimatum and the west rejected his ultimatum, so he had to put up or shut up.  Thankfully he put up and preserved Russia's reputation.  Unfortunately he ruined Russia's reputation by not committing enough forces to get the job done -- but maybe someday he'll salvage Russia's reputation by ultimately achieving victory.  If he had simply backed down Russia would have been ignored for the rest of time -- none of its interests would have ever been consulted again.

The lessons that apply to individuals apply to nations.  Cowards are treated with contempt.  Never say you'll do something and then don't do it.  Especially never say you'll use force and then slink away when the other side stands up to you.  That's the absolute worst, most contemptible act a man can do.  As with men, so with nations.  America must fight because we said we would fight.  And we must win so that next time we say we'll fight, we don't have to fight.  There are much worse wars than war with non-nuclear Iran.  The ability to deter those worse, future wars, for the small price of a war with Iran, is priceless.

My greatest fear is that Trump will sacrifice America's reputation by taking the easy way out for himself and cut his losses.  So far we haven't had many casualties, so if he runs away he can avoid the bad press of all that 'unnecessary loss of life.'  But that's a siren song, the quick and easy path, that doesn't take into account future ramifications.  It doesn't matter how many Americans die in this war.  In fact, the more deaths we take, the more we prove our resolve, which actually enhances our bargaining position in the future.  "When we say something we mean it, look how many Americans died to beat Iran, we'll fight that hard to beat you too."  Unless we lost so many men that it actually crippled our productive capacity, losses are meaningless.  And in America today we have massive underemployment of fit men, tens of millions of people basically playing video games all day for lack of something better to do.  We have no shortage of men who could replace the losses we take today.

What matters is our honor.  Honor is worth dying for.  Honor is doing what you say you'll do.  It's extremely simple.  Everything in life is extremely simple.  Everyone can understand this.  We said we would disarm Iran permanently, so that they could no longer threaten anyone ever again.  So that's what we should do.  That's the bare minimum of what we should do.  Ideally we should install a new Iranian government that treats its people like human beings instead of punching bags.  But at the very least, we must do what we said we would do.  The whole world is watching, looking for weakness, seeing if they can get away with their own atrocities.  We must show them there are still consequences to bad behavior.  This could buy us another 50 years of peace.  And it's especially important after we ran away from Afghanistan and Yemen and Vietnam.  A lot of people are wondering if they can defy America and get away with it, like those other countries have.  We must provide a decisive answer to those questions.  We must wipe away the stain of our past defeats and replace it with a clear and decisive victory.  We must re-earn the reputation we earned in World War II and Desert Storm, or there will be much worse wars, with much greater casualties, suddenly breaking out everywhere like a blizzard.  We'll all wish we had fought harder against Iran when we had the chance, when we could have nipped this all in the bud.

The war has already begun.  At this point there's no point talking about whether we should've fought it or not.  There's only one thing left to do, and that's dedicate all our energy towards victory.

Prince of Tennis ending in six chapters:

Did Prince of Tennis ever really need a sequel?  No.  Has the past ten years of extra content been fun?  Yes.  But all good things must come to an end, including the endless Prince of Tennis.  I predicted the end of Prince of Tennis would be one of 2026's milestones, and here we are.  Another prediction that's come true.

Prince of Tennis started in 1999, around the same time as One Piece.  It's one of the longest manga of all time, with 88 volumes so far.  We've seen every tennis match imaginable, including horseback tennis.  This is a good time to stop.

America doesn't get to enjoy the end of the Prince of Tennis manga, because it isn't being translated.  But the anime has reliably adapted the manga so far, so we'll eventually get to see the ending in anime form, so having the ending in manga form gets us one step closer to that goal.  Perhaps in 2027.

The monthly refresh in Heaven Burns Red didn't yield me much in benefits.  I got wedding dress Mari to level 2 limit break and maxed out thundercat Byakko's memento.  Well, it could've been worse.

Iran is a nation of 92 million people, the USA can't be expected to defeat it in a single day, but we've already made sizable progress by taking out their 'supreme leader.'  I honestly don't know what will happen.  We know Trump likes to fold and run away because he already did that with Yemen.  But we also know Iran likes to fold and run away because it already did that last year.  When both sides are cowards who like to give up immediately, who wins?  Nobody knows.  I hope Trump perseveres until the Iranian regime is overthrown, but I have a sinking feeling we'll soon be back to 'ceasefires' and 'negotiations.'  God I'm so tired of negotiations.  In Iran, in Ukraine, everywhere.  Things should be settled with unconditional surrender.  If you can't get that through conventional means then just nuke your opponent into submission.  No quarter for the enemy.  Complete victory.  Why are we afraid of a bunch of barbarians without nukes when we have nukes?  Tell them to obey or die.  By the way I support Russia nuking Ukraine into submission too.  I support all wars being fought seriously across the board.  I'm against fake wars.

It's because everyone's too afraid to use nukes that pissant countries like Ukraine and Iran defy superpowers with nukes in the first place.  If everyone understood upfront that defying a nuclear power meant getting nuked, there would be no wars at all.  People would just take their marching orders quietly and obediently from the beginning.  Imagine if, on October 7th, Hamas had raided across the border into Israel, and that very day, all of Iran evaporated into nuclear flame.  Do you really think Hamas would have attacked?  Would the last four years of war in the Middle East have ever happened?  Acting seriously has serious benefits.

This entire century has been dominated by pointless wars because nuclear powers didn't use nukes.  Al Qaeda wouldn't have dared to attack us on 9/11 if they knew the entire Muslim world would disappear in response.  There goes the entire war on terror, the endless wasted trillions that has put America into so much debt.  We could have spent it all on free health care, or solved our social security insolvency problem, or given all children a free house upon reaching age 18, with that money.

Russia has lost hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of men in a war it could have ended on day 1 with the threat of nukes.  It's now five years into the war and no closer to achieving its original objectives than when it started.  NATO still intends to deploy armed forces into Ukraine after the war is over.  Ukraine still intends to build up a huge army and retake its 'lost territories' at some later date.  Ukraine still has entire divisions of troops with Nazi banners and Nazi tattoos running around.  The Russian language and the Russian Orthodox church is still banned.  The people of Donbass still aren't safe from shelling -- the people of Belgorod aren't safe from shelling.  All because Putin is too much of a pussy to use the one effective weapon Russia has in its arsenal.

Israel and America need to man up and use their nukes too.  Enough is enough.  Oppose a nuclear power and die.  That should be the new 'international law.'  Why are we taking casualties for no reason, when we could win this war instantly, with the flick of a wrist?  Why should a single American die for the sake of sparing Iranian lives?  Give them a clear ultimatum, surrender or perish in nuclear flame.  Then if they refuse to surrender their deaths are on their own insane heads.

I can sort of understand why we didn't use nuclear weapons in Korea or Vietnam, because there was fear of the USSR reprising with nukes.  But that situation no longer exists.  Iran isn't under anybody's nuclear umbrella, and neither is Ukraine.  In fact, we can make a deal with Russia, openly and publicly -- you can nuke Ukraine without reprisal, and in exchange we get to nuke Iran without reprisal.  That will make everything clearly safe for all.  That would also bring instant peace to the world, as both the nations without nukes would surrender instantly.  We could have eternal peace all across the world with this one neat trick.

The Price is Paid, so let's at least get a benefit:

I predicted that Trump would bomb Iran with a 95% certainty last month.  Two days ago I told Trump to get on with it because negotiations had obviously failed.  Today Trump bombed Iran.  My prescience is established.

I opposed war with Iran because I like the idea of international law -- a set of requirements before you're allowed to attack another country.  Iran had not met those requirements, and therefore was not a legitimate target.  But now that America has violated international law and there's no getting it back, now that we're in this new anything-goes world of might-makes-right, I want the war to actually achieve something.

Iran has been a thorn in America's side for 50 years.  It's time to remove the Iranian government and put in an American ally, like we did with Venezuela.  Alternatively, we can smash Iran into a million different pieces, the Azeri Republic, Kurdistan, the Arab Iranian Republic, etc.  The point is Iran should no longer be our enemy at the end of this war.  Remove this piece from the chessboard, permanently.  I don't want to think or worry or care about Iran for the rest of my life.  50 years is enough.

Iran oppresses its own people.  The same as the brutal Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, it's constantly mass murdering to put down rebellions.  It keeps its women in garbage bags and beats women to death who attempt to escape their garbage bags.  It promotes terrorist attacks abroad, mainly against Israel but also in Iraq.  It stupidly keeps enriching uranium which has no point except to nettle its neighbors.  Iran has a bonanza of fossil fuel resources, but due to channeling all its GDP into military spending, the world has had to keep it under sanctions the entire time.  It would help out the world economy if we could create a peaceful Iranian government and thus remove all sanctions and trade freely with them for the first time in 50 years.  Iran is one of the only countries with emigration control, like East Germany it does not let its people flee its tyranny.  Iran is a theocracy, and the worst type, a Muslim theocracy.  Islam is an evil religion and all its adherents are evil.  An entire country whose ethos is to devote themselves to an evil religion is not a good thing.

We don't need boots on the ground to achieve regime change, which should now be the explicit goal of this operation.  Anything short of regime change means we'll be facing these exact same issues next year, five years from now, ten years from now, and fifty years from now.  50 years of trying to negotiate an acceptable equilibrium with this government is enough.  No more.  All we need is to support regional revolutionaries in their desire to be free of Iran.  Kurds, Azeris, emigrants who have already fled Iran, whoever.  Everyone.  Anyone.  These people can be our boots on the ground.  Give them air support and destroy the Iranian military so that random militias can handle the rest.

However, if we need a limited duration invasion with boots on the ground, perhaps helicopter landings of special forces or whatever, then that's fine too.  Whatever it takes to get the job done.  The worst possible result of this war is another inconclusive nothing burger, where Iran is ready to blow shit up again in a couple months, and all we did is stir the dirt around a bit.

Whenever you do something, it should be all in.  This is my exact same complaint with Putin.  Because Russia didn't go all in, they're stuck in a Ukraine quagmire.  Now America faces the exact same question.  Now that we've started a war, are we going to go all in or not?  Are we going to do what it takes to actually win a war, or are we just going to chicken out again like we did with Yemen?  Note that Yemen is still as fucked up as ever, because we gave up on that war.  Do we want that result with Iran?  Or do we want a decisive military victory and a clear change in the vector of history?

No more 12-day war bullshit followed by ceasefires and 'negotiations.'  Smash them into the ground.  Utterly obliterate Iran.  The people of Iran don't even like this government, they're our biggest allies in this war.  Destroy the military, the regime, the national apparatus, and the people will greet us as liberators.  Nobody likes Iran.  Their own people hate Iran.  We hate Iran.  All their Arab neighbors hate Iran.  Even China and Russia hung them out to dry.  Put a stake in them.  Wipe Iran from the world map.  Nobody wants them, nobody needs them.

Railgun manga concludes next chapter:

In one month, one of the many milestones of 2026 will be reached.  It's taken 19 years, but Railgun is finally ending.  The Railgun anime's upcoming fourth season should be able to cover the remainder of the manga, creating one of the only long and fully adapted stories in anime.

Unfortunately, Mikoto's adventures continue in Index, which isn't even close to being done, and feels like it will never be done, so we don't actually get any emotional closure from the conclusion of Railgun.  I partially wrote '100 Waifus' so Mikoto and Touma could finally get together, because I saw the original author was never going to get around to it.  After watching and reading the last of Railgun, I suggest people read '100 Waifus' next, so that they can finally get the closure they deserve.

I've embarked upon my 52nd reread of '100 Waifus' with the goal of showing the book is complete and doesn't need any additional editing.  So far so good.  This, along with my defeat of Skullfeather, is one of the two personal milestones I wanted to reach this year.

The end of the Winter Olympics is another milestone.  It was fun while it lasted.  March Madness starts in three weeks so sports are doing a good job extending throughout the year.  The World Cup kicks off in June.

The newest addition to my wonderful fictional character hall of fame is Sophia from Kiyoubinbou.  Just as her older sister says, she's a maji tenshi.  A loli in love sporting red-haired twintails.  She's hardworking, conscientious and considerate but still willing to state what she wants.  It's a shame Japan and the censorship system in general will never allow her love to come to fruition with the protagonist, she's clearly the best girl by far, but I can at least celebrate her while Japan drops the baton.  The series as a whole isn't that deserving of recognition, but it's like Sana from Tenshin Ranman.  She's so good it doesn't matter what series she's in.  Sophia receives the song Prophecy from Shakugan no Shana because of its appropriate tone of longing.

The same can be said of Katniss in Hunger Games.  Hunger Games is at best a decent series, but Katniss is more than decent.  Her heroic decision to volunteer for the gladiatorial combat, with a survival rate of at best 1 in 24, to replace her drafted imouto Primrose, is unforgettable.  Then her acumen in combat and her judgment in who is worth her allegiance and who isn't is also praiseworthy.  She also looks good and has good fashion sense.  I also like that she ends up being a wife and mother.  I can only say good things about her through and through.  She receives the fitting song titled 'Hero of the end'.

Michio and Miria from Isekai Meikyuu also made my wonderful list.  Michio for his boldness and decisiveness to acquire what he wanted, and Miria for her cute catgirl looks and love of fish as well as desperation to get noticed which is a form of courage in and of itself.  Miria gets 'Judgement Day,' fitting since she's a criminal facing judgement.  Michio gets 'Pain in Rain,' fitting due to the extremes he went through to afford his slaves.

In other fantastic news, Tenpure!! is getting an English translation in a couple months.  This visual novel is by Circus, the makers of Da Capo, so is almost guaranteed to be great.  It's been on my visual novel translation wishlist for a long time (the game came out originally in 2018), but now it can properly transfer over to a game I eagerly play.

It's clear that Iran isn't going to give up its nuclear program no matter how many rounds of negotiation there are, so I wish Trump would just start bombing already and prove my prediction correct.  What is he waiting for?  Nothing is going to change no matter how long he waits.  Either do it or admit it was all a bluff and slink away.  Stop wasting everybody's time.

Aside from his stupid, voluntary war with Iran that 80% of Americans are against, I liked the rest of his state of the union speech.  I'm in favor of a booming economy, tame inflation, a gigantic drop in crime, the end of illegal immigration, stopping transgender surgeries on kids, voter ID laws, etc.  I'm pretty sure most Americans are, and in fact the polls show 64% approval of the speech.  These really aren't controversial goals.  Trump represents the mainstream, down-to-Earth American.  I like his boasting over getting to host the Olympics and the World Cup during his term, something I pointed out the moment he was reelected.

Perhaps it's just the bitter cold of winter, but Russia has not been advancing the front lines for months.  It's been pretty pathetic following the daily military updates.  We're now into the fifth year of the war.  If Putin had mobilized like it was World War II, as I had advised, this could have ended four years ago, but he chose to keep it a 'special military operation' with low military spending and low recruitment/mobilization, so here we are.  I'd like to tell him "I told you so," but I suppose Putin doesn't care so long as he eventually achieves victory, however long that will take.  We won't know if his plan was good or bad until the war is over and somebody has won.

The Astrarium finally matters:

Heaven Burns Red didn't have a new event today, but it did unlock the badge exchange feature.  The Astrarium let me earn badges which could then be exchanged for powerful new necklaces.  I purchased both the new necklaces on offer and am up to full equippable strength again.

The new score challenge was no match for my thunder squad, which got a blazing high score of 1.6 million, enough to earn all the rewards on offer in one go.  It's all thanks to Nanami and Byakko joining my thunder squad, I'm so much stronger now than when I relied on Yingxia.

Speaking of Byakko, thanks to my leftover paid quartz, I got her thundercat limit break up to 3.5.  I also got phantom thief Jamie up to level 4, max limit break.  Tuxedo Ruka went up to 2.5.  Waitress Kozue also reached 2.5.  Spica Yuina reached limit break level 2.  Hot springs Niina reached level 1.

I stripped Yingxia's extra reversions away from her and gave them to Ichiko instead.  Ichiko needed the extra skill slot because I had her learn her new master skill, which gives +10 stats to all sextuplets.  With Ichiko's support Squad 31-E may actually be strong now.  Misato also reached the crucial +5 reversions that gives an extra skill slot.  I slotted in her North Wind's Boon skill that improves her ice attack.  Sadly I failed to recruit the new Misato SS Memoria which probably would've given me access to a better skill, but I can't have everything.

Hisame also learned her master skill, which gives +1 Sp to all allies whenever Hisame breaks an opponent, something pajamas Hisame already wants to do, because Dreaming Desire rewards +8 sp to the entire squad whenever she breaks an opponent with it.  I'm giving Hisame all the support I can to keep her viable because she's so cute I want to keep playing her.

I also got 2 more mementos to max -- Spica Yuina's and base Nanami's.  If they're going to be the headliners of the thunder and light squad I need for them to be appropriately equipped.  That's +20 stats to the two of them.  Thundercat Byakko's memento isn't far behind, granting her +16 stats for now.

Spica Yuina's almighty skill, Bluestar Iridescence, is now max level. 

I taught Miya her skillful means orb skill.  Every serious character needs to know this skill, it's so useful.

Olympic women's individual figure skating resulted in an American winning gold, followed by two Japanese for silver and bronze.  I admit Alysa Liu did a perfect skate, but she didn't perform any hard jumps like the bronze medalist Ami did.  Ami landed two triple axels.  No one in the competition landed a quad, which is a huge regression from the previous Olympics where three Russian girls could.  So we're watching a bunch of phonies pretending to be gold medalists when they wouldn't even be bronze medalists 4 years ago.  To add insult to injury, when Alysa Liu was younger she was landing triple axels and quadruple lutzes, so the 'gold medalist' you see before you today is infinitely worse than her own younger self, who couldn't win gold.  Women's figure skating should be so much more splendiferous than this.

First, age limits need to be removed, so that younger girls who can land quads are allowed to compete.  Then Russia needs to be invited back to the Olympics, so Russian girls who can land quads are allowed to compete.  That will get us back to the ground level of quality skating we used to see in the sport.

Congratulations to the women's and men's hockey team for beating Canada in overtime for the gold.  The ice hockey gold and the women's individual figure skating gold are worth a lot more than the gold medal in moguls.  With those medals, team USA moved ahead of team Italy in the medal count.

Russia got its first medal of the Olympics, in the new sport of ski mountaineering, a silver.  I watched the event and it was pretty fun but I wouldn't call it a very 'distinguished' medal.  Nevertheless, it's one more medal than Ukraine has earned.  I think it's ironic that Russia is banned from the Olympics and still gets more medals than Ukraine which has all sorts of institutional support.  It shows yet again that I bet on the winning side of this conflict.

Misaki route cleared:

Ren'ai 0 Km wasn't a terrible visual novel, but the only two appealing heroines are Sakuya and Misaki, and now I've played both their routes.  I don't feel like playing any of the others.  I'd be better served playing more Tenshin Ranman if I was deadset on playing bad heroine routes.

Rather than Tenshin Ranman, it would be preferable to play Happiness 2, which I haven't gotten around to in all this time.  So Ren'ai 0 Km is really far down the priority list.

In Heaven Burns Red, I got thundercat Byakko to limit break level 3, making her a viable candidate for my thunder squad.  I also got some useless limit breaks -- 2.5 for magicat Tenne and fireworks Miya.  For the low price of $20, the rolls were pretty rewarding.  I also finished acquiring every currently possible seraph's skill evolutions.  The first time I've caught up since the game started years ago.

One day before the next new event, I managed to grab all the loot available in the current event.  I'm certainly looking forward to which character will be featured in the plot tomorrow.

The main focus continues to be the Olympics.  It may feel like the USA is doing miserably this Olympics, because a bunch of medal favorites have failed to medal, but 3rd place is actually pretty standard for our winter Olympics standings.  Norway or Russia almost always win.  USA has only won once, in 1932.  Norway is set to win again these Olympics.  Norway has the advantage of lots of natural ice and snow, but that doesn't explain their dominance.  America, Canada, and plenty of other countries have ice and snow.  Alaska has more ice and snow than Norway.  I have to believe its Norway's high per capita gdp that allows them to have the hobbies of winter athletics no other country can afford to dabble in.  All winter sports are expensive to participate in, and most people don't have free time to get good at them.  Norway has so much money they can afford the winter equipment and ski resort rentals and the leisure time to train.  Everything lines up for them.

Still, it's a little silly that Norway, a country of so few people, can dominate the world in winter sports.  The next factor that goes into this equation is the fact that most young athletic prodigies around the world are steered into professional, high-paid sports like football, soccer, baseball or whatever.  The few remaining athletic youth dedicate themselves to summer Olympic sports like swimming or track.  It takes a weird person to get obsessed with snowboarding or curling.  Norway has leaned in to their natural advantage of being a winter wonderland and dedicates all their young athletes to winter sports.  So Norway's best are competing against the worlds' rest.

As evidence that anyone can become competitive at winter sports if they try hard, look at host nation Italy.  They've never done well at the Olympics, but when they knew they were hosting they put a lot more effort into winning, and here they are, 2nd place in the medal count, ahead of the USA.  If every nation tried as hard as Norway to win at the Olympics Norway would revert to its population mean.

Another example proving Norway isn't really as good as they look is ice hockey.  Ice hockey is a highly paid sport so serious athletes compete at it.  And when serious athletes are involved, the USA and Canada rise to the fore.

Nevertheless, winter Olympic medals denote greatness.  I'm very impressed with small countries like Norway, Austria, Switzerland and the like racking up giant medal counts.  The theory of Aryan supermen is very much supported by winter Olympic results.  Perhaps a lot of the blonde athletes in the Olympics are dyed, but nobody can argue with the blue eyes.  It's amazing how many blue-eyed athletes are winning medals, compared to their percentage of the world population.

The Aryan supremacy theory does suffer a bit from how beautiful the South Korean Olympians are, though.  I noted the same in the Summer Olympics.  There must be something in the water over in South Korea, because all their athletes are supermodels.  The Japanese tend to be more 'cute' than beautiful, but they're also a sight for sore eyes.

I've been watching all the alpine skiing, cross country skiing, figure skating, speed skating, and biathlon events.  I also like snowboard/ski cross races.  I don't like and don't care about the stunt-like sports, big air, moguls, halfpipe and the like.  I'm totally unimpressed with ski jumping or sliding sports.  Curling and ice hockey are kinda watchable if I have nothing better to do.

The biggest draw of the Winter Olympics is women's individual figure skating, and as luck would have it the top 5 competitors going into the free skate are Japanese, American, or Russian.  I can't lose.  They're also beautiful to watch, nevermind the medal results.  They're all performing at a level beyond what Inori can do in Medalist, which is satisfying.

I've completed my rewatch of 'Who Made me a Princess?', proving it's a great anime worth rewatching.  The only great series that isn't currently airing that I haven't rewatched is Spy x Family S3.  But Spy x Family is already proven great by the fact that I've rewatched the first two seasons, so all 200 of my ranked anime have definitively proven themselves.

As for great manga, it turns out all of Guyver is translated into English.  The problem isn't the translators, it's the creator, who refuses to continue the story.  It's another one of those series that the afterlife in Eden is required to fix.

Tamon-kun Dropped:

The bizarre personality of a fangirl of an idol not accepting that idol's actual love and desire for a romantic relationship is annoying and intolerable.  It drags the series on indefinitely when there was an easy solution from the beginning.

Meanwhile, I included Sumire Morohoshi in my anime voices hall of fame.  She's the voice of Athanasia from Who Made me a Princess?.  I dropped an unimportant seiyuu to make room.

Replacing people in limited slots was the name of the game in Heaven Burns Red as well.  After extensive playtesting, I learned that giving all your characters the ability to auto-crit every turn is worth a lot more than a buff that gives all your characters the ability to crit only once.  As such, I added Admiral Aoi, with the auto-crit passive ability, to my thunder, dark and ice squad.  She was already in my secondary fire squad.  Diva Ruka takes care of auto-critting in my primary fire squad, and Spica Yuina takes care of auto-crit in my light squad.  Erika is a good healer, in the sense that she can completely block incoming attacks, so your squad doesn't even need to heal, so I mainly replaced healers in my elemental squads to make room for her.  I took that ability to the extreme in my thunder squad, adding Nanami to the squad, who eats dp from the rest of the party.  If I take no damage at all during the fight, it's okay to be stuck at 1 dp permanently.  Nanami's ability to give around +200% to skill attack to everyone every turn is too good to ignore.  And she fits in perfectly with the thunder squad because her exclusive ability is a thunder attack.

I paid a lot of money to get Nanami, Admiral Aoi, Diva Ruka and Spica Yuina, plus the limit breaks to make them viable, so I should actually take advantage of having them.  They're designed to be stronger than easier to get SS Memorias.  It does mean the resources I invested into the likes of Goddess Yingxia will now fruitlessly go to waste, but that's already happened before with Idol Erika.  Live and learn.

My secondary fire squad swapped base Isuzu for hot springs Isuzu, and base Ichiko for wedding dress Ichiko, so that I could access their additional exclusive abilities.  (Base SS Memoria exclusives can be introjected into non-base SS Memorias of the same character, so you always want to move on from the base model as soon as possible.)

Ninja Mari was switched out for Admiral Aoi in my ice squad.  I got Ninja Mari up to max limit break, but she's still too weak to use, because she only gives crit once per ability use, and only to the frontline at that.  It's super-weak compared to critting every turn with everyone automatically.  Just by switching Mari out my ice squad instantly became my second strongest, after my fire squad.

In my dark squad it was Snow White Yuki who got the boot in favor of Admiral Aoi.  I can break most enemies with Hisame's Munezuka so Yuki was redundant.  Ironically, I got a second limit break for Snow White Yuki today, just before acknowledging she was useless outside of the Skullfeather fight.  But that second limit break will help me farm Skullfeather more efficiently moving forward, so I can't complain.

The Olympics have been fun, but I wish I could have seen Ilia land a quadruple axel.  It's a huge letdown how he performed on the big stage.  I feel like the latest episode of Medalist where Inori does a triple salchow is more impressive than anything the men did in their showdown.  Currently the medal table has Norway in front, then Italy, then the USA and Japan who are tied for third.  We're really underperforming considering how many athletes we sent to these games.

I'm still kind of reeling from having defeated Skullfeather.  I was supposed to level to max first, then fight Skullfeather, but I skipped all that and went directly to victory.  But that doesn't change the fact that I still need to level everyone so they can be prepared for whatever new challenge awaits them.