Xenoblade Chronicles 3 music rated:

Ultimately 19 songs survived the 100-playthrough test.  Of those, 4 reached the vaunted 5-star status:  'A Life Sent On' by Yasunori Mitsuda, 'Eagus Wilderness' and 'Alfeto Valley' by Kenji Hiramatsu, and 'Underground Luster' by Manami Kiyota.

Three songs were 3-star in quality, 'A Formidable Enemy,' 'Keves Colony,' and 'Great Sword's Base.'

The remaining 12 songs were all 4-star:  'Agnus Colony,' 'Everblight Plain,' 'Dannagh Desert,' 'Rae-bel Tableland,' 'Erythia Sea,' 'Li Garte Prison Camp,' 'Chain Attack,' 'Elaice Highway,' 'Urayan Tunnels,' 'The City,' 'The Weight of Life - Hope,' and 'A Life Protected.'

Humorously, Manami and Kenji were tied at 80 points in my music hall of fame previously, but thanks to this game they're tied again -- at exactly 116 points a piece.  ACE+ didn't get any 5-star songs, but due to lots of 4-star songs his point total soared the most, to 212.  Yasunori got a modest bump, up to 2904, still firmly in 2nd place overall behind Nobuo Uematsu.

The four five-star songs that were demoted to make room for my new star pupils were 'Phon Coast,' 'Road of Dragons,' 'Walls of Sacred Beast,' and 'Lost Child of Time.'  Four instrumental songs giving way to four instrumental songs, so no change overall in that aspect.

There weren't many 5-star songs this time because there weren't many weak entries in my 5-star list that the new songs could conceivably beat.  The 5-star list is getting so strong and so competitive that it's hard to imagine how there will ever be any new 5-star entrants after this.  Since everything is graded on a curve, mathematically, yes it should be possible to demote more 5-star songs, but I have no idea which those might be since I already love them all.

After the 5-star list, which I only demote by choosing with care, all other songs I demote simply on the basis of length.  If you're only as good as the other songs but take twice as long to play out, obviously you aren't really as good as the other songs on a per second basis.  Using this approximate method I made room in all the other star ratings and ultimately kicked out 19 songs from the 1-star playlist.  Most of these were girl rock songs, but there were also a bunch of Motoi Sakuraba songs and, sadly, two songs by Walkure (it just goes to show how competitive my music hall of fame is becoming) 'Hametsu no Junjou' and 'Rune is glowing brightly'.  It's sad to see two Macross Delta songs be demoted right after I enjoyed the latest Macross Delta movie so much.  Saori Hayami was kicked out of my music hall of fame entirely with the deletion of 'orange mint.'  

As always you can check out all the details at my music hall of fame permapost.

I finished the 'Liberal Arts City' Railgun book.  I wasn't really convinced that electricity can genuinely let you fly on wings of ionized water but whatever, in the end I guess psychics can do anything if they set their mind to it.  (Get it, get the pun?)

There are 13 ranked anime series I haven't rewatched in full yet.  I'm watching them in a carousel order, one of each series before starting over from the beginning.  As of now I'm on episode 3 of this carousel.  The problem is Bleach's third episode isn't out yet, so the carousel can't even continue until it's released two days from now.  This is the problem with rewatching series that haven't fully aired yet.  But how else can I fulfill my oath to rewatch all ranked anime except by rewatching stuff right after they come out?  Otherwise I'm always a year behind.

Thank goodness Dragon Quest is finally over.  At least I don't have to watch that series any more.  There are more fake deaths in Dragon Quest than all other anime combined, and that was already a trope I hated in other anime.  Dragon Quest was nothing but that trope.

The latest SAO Progressive movie has screened in Japan, but sadly no announcement of a third movie came following the end of that film.  Nor was any other SAO anime project announced.  Has SAO's popularity fallen to the point that it's no longer profitable to release more stuff?  I find that hard to believe.  Either they're waiting a while before they announce their next project just to give themselves more time to work on it, or they're waiting for Reki Kawahara to put out more books so there's more material to adapt.  Sooner or later SAO will come back, I have faith.

Star Ocean the Divine Force releases in five days.  I'm sure it has excellent music too, which will cause even more trouble for my music hall of fame.  It's a never-ending battle.