Isekai Nonbiri Nouka is a great anime:

I can't deny the evidence right in front of my eyes any longer, Isekai Nonbiri Nouka is a high point of the week and a beautiful, humorous delight.  The manga adaption of this light novel series was only mediocre, but the anime adaption is spectacular.  This might be the best anime adaption ever -- the best value added to a product.  Or maybe that's Hibike! Euphonium, the amount of work Kyoto Animation did on that series is phenomenal.  But in any case this anime is way better than I think anyone expected.

For now Nonbiri Nouka can stay at rank #200, displacing Azumanga Daioh, which I planned to replace with Sousou no Frieren anyway.  (Now Sousou will replace Ginga E Kickoff when it arrives instead).  Once I've watched and rewatched the whole series I can give it a more permanent ranking.  Also it would be nice to see if a sequel is announced at the end of this season, which will of course change the value of the anime greatly.

I love the idea of starting from scratch a new community as a lone guy surrounded by umpteen beautiful girls.  Nonbiri Nouka and '100 Waifus' share a lot of the same premises, though they ultimately go in different directions (My book is way more political, philosophical, ecchi, and religious, Nonbiri Nouka is more practical and doesn't delve into any controversial subjects.)  If people are wondering, no, I wrote '100 Waifus' before I read Nonbiri Nouka, so it didn't inspire my book.  I also wrote '100 Waifus' before I read '100 Girlfriends,' so that wasn't an inspiration either.  I just tend to like stories that are similar to the best story ever written, go figure.

Add to this splendid setting/plot music by Yasuharu Takanashi, the same composer behind Fairy Tail, and an amazing art budget which makes everyone look so great compared to their manga versions, and you get a great anime.

Speaking of '100 Waifus,' I updated the book to reflect my new top 200 anime rankings.  Hiraku, the male protagonist of Nonbiri Nouka (a very Christopher-like figure), is now Aoba Suzukaze's son, replacing Rob Lucci who previously served the role.  Hiraku is an amazing guy, creative, hardworking, considerate, forceful, handsome and of course super strong.  He's everything you'd want in a man, which is why it's no wonder all the girls in the village fall for him and he achieves his polygamous dream naturally and easily.  (The anime hasn't really exposed his polygamy but the manga makes it clear).  Hiraku is definitely a good guy, building a habitable landscape out of the 'forest of death' and feeding the hundreds and thousands of people who eventually flock to his economic hub.  He's a saint.

Compare that to Rob Lucci, who other than being handsome, disciplined, intelligent and strong has spent his life torturing, kidnapping, lying and murdering.  Everything he does is at the direction of his dirty government, so you could think he's just a James Bond type servant of the people -- except he explicitly says the reason he joined the Secret Police is because it let him do what he always wanted to do, which was kill.  He also occasionally takes delight in licking other people's blood and the like, making it quite clear that he enjoys the means more than the ends.  It's a great relief that '100 Waifus' now has a replacement for this leopard monster, and Christopher's son can now have a role model to be proud of being named after.

It isn't a strict rule, but I'd like to contain the number of great franchises I endorse in the book to 300.  As a result, with Ginga E Kickoff soon to be no longer a great anime, I wanted to replace Erika from said show as well.  Erika, the cute ponytail girl soccer player, also is problematic in that her name overlaps with Cure Marine's.  Isekai Nonbiri Nouka offers a solution to this problem as well.  Lulucy, the vampire he meets in the second episode, could be described as the 'main heroine' of the show, and boy does she do her part.  She's beautiful, and capable of freely changing her age from loli to mature, so viewable in her full range of beauty.  (heh, come to think of it, the vampire Shinobu also does this.  Is this some sort of special benefit to associating with vampires?)  She also has a great voice.  Her triangular elf-like ears don't hurt.  But the best thing about her is how vividly she lives life.  When she's afraid she's very afraid, when she's mischievous she's having a great time, when she's excitedly fulfilling her curiosity even a cucumber looks like a diamond, when she's blushing it covers her whole face and ears a wonderful flush of red, when she's friendly she's ready to share everything with her friend, even her husband.  For someone that old (an immortal vampire) to still be that excited about life is a prize beyond all hope or expectation.  Most of all her willingness to love and marry a boy she met that very same day (never regretting her decision for all the days forward) speaks of her sincerity.  She can honestly like what she likes and trust what she trusts.  She mentioned all the demerits marrying her would bring honestly and forthrightly, and when all of those were accepted, she accepted him in turn.  There was nothing left to complain about, he'd met all her wishes in a single day, so why delay any further?  Girls could learn a lot from Lulucy's example.  I'm sure Christopher's daughter would be honored to borrow a name like that.  And it's a unique name, getting the unique name total up to a nice round 805.

In a week the next Pretty Cure anime will air, so I suspect '100 Waifus' will be updating its name gallery again soon.  There are only 2 boys and 2 girls left in need of replacement.  If Fire Emblem Engage is any good I could finish editing in February.

In other anime news, I dropped Hikari no Ou.  The second episode was full of people treating each other like garbage, which drives me crazy. (How hard is it to be nice to people, even when you don't mean it?  This is the basis of civilization!)  Also the art and animation budget fell off a cliff on the second episode, making the first ep similar to false advertising.

Many other series haven't been dropped by me, but by Japan.  Citing Covid-19 of all things, half the season has been postponed --  Ayakashi Triangle, Nier Automata and Kubo-san so far.  But the surprising quality of Nonbiri more than makes up for the missing mediocre shows.

The "Hell's Best" movie, basically a documentary by Wagner group of the battle of Popasna, is very impressive at conveying what the Ukraine war is like.  Unfortunately, unlike the battle of Midway or Stalingrad or the like, it's just a meaningless fight like every other day's meaningless fight, indicative of the quagmire this war has been.  Spending an entire movie to display not a historical turning point, but a minor squabble, probably isn't the best use of people's time.  Still better than most movies the west produces, though, and it's free to watch on YouTube, so that's a good deal.