Macross Delta Zettai Live:

Now available for download at nyaa.si, this was a tremendous movie.  Half music, half romance, all heart.  It kept me crying for about half the airtime.  Right when you think you've recovered they hit you again with overwhelming emotions.  The music does it, the visuals do it, the plot does it, and the dialogue does it.  All guns blazing.  This was on level with Clannad or Planetarian.

Ordinarily I'd say Macross Frontier was my favorite Macross, but this movie takes the cake.  This is the apex of Macross.  I don't know if this is the ending of Macross but it was good enough to be.  I'm completely satisfied after reaching this pinnacle.

Meanwhile, I finished reading SAO volume 25.  It had some great moments, mainly when Yui saved the day in an inter-guild battlefield, but mostly passed the time casually.  Before you knew it the book was over, and nothing much had actually changed from when it started.  This is a good way to keep extending the series, but it can't create emotional scenes like Zettai Live did, so this style of writing isn't my favorite.

The last thing I want is for SAO to start resembling Index. . .

I think it's pretty clear the USA blew up the Nordstream pipeline.  Biden and his secretary Victoria Nuland said they'd blow it up, so usually if someone says they'll do something, and then it's done, then you know who did it.  In addition, America benefits from expensive liquified natural gas being needed by Germany, and it keeps Germany from backsliding and buying Russian gas again in the future, when we want maximum sanctions pressure on Russia forever.  America knows it can operate with impunity because even if Germany finds out we did it they'd never dare say it out loud.  We're too much of a 'precious partner and ally' for them to ever accuse us of a war crime against them, so they'll just swallow the humble pie and blame Russia regardless of the truth.  Lastly, lots of US warships, submersible drones, and helicopters were in the area of the pipes recently, which establishes the means by which the deed was done.

There will never be any proof, though, and any proof found will be covered up because the investigators are on the side of America and anti-Russian.  So no matter what evidence is found the end result is Russia is going to be blamed for blowing up its own pipeline.  An absurd accusation, but what else is new?  They also accused Russia of shelling their own nuclear power plant.

In a sane world Germany would invoke Article 5 of the NATO pact and demand all participating nations to declare war on America for this act of wanton aggression against them, but instead everyone will condemn Russia and pass a new round of sanctions on them and that will be the end of it.  The entire matter will be shuffled away and in a few months no one will remember or care.  It's nice being a hegemon.