Re-reading Chapter 58 of '100 Waifus' let me discover three grammatical errors with easy solutions. I originally had a singular 'boy' matched with the plural pronoun 'their,' so I switched it to 'boys' so they would match.
The next mistake was using the adjective 'great' in a place that called for an adverb, so I substituted in 'well.'
And the third mistake was using a chemistry metaphor with the term 'alloy' when chemistry deals in 'compounds' not alloys so I switched the word out for the correct one.
All very minor but when trying to write the perfect novel and edit it to perfection there's no reason to stop short of error-free. Obviously there are more errors to be found in the newest chapter that's only been edited a couple times compared to the older ones that have been edited 35 times.
Nevertheless, the actual content of Chapter 58 is marvelous. I only wish there were more of it, but I used that chapter to tie up loose ends, so it would be kind of paradoxical if there were still more to talk about.
I also reviewed the list of names in Chapter 56 and they all look like reasonable role models. There are 405 good men and 702 good women listed there, give or take a few, so let's say 1100 role models. I'm an open minded fellow, I don't mind a dash of diversity, you would be an okay boy if you mimicked any of these 405 examples, or any combination of their good traits, creating someone inbetween. Likewise it would be okay if a girl were like any of the 702 women mentioned, or some mix of them. That's quite a range to pick and choose from. A smorgasbord of admirable behavior. There should be no problem restricting a community to 'people who act like them.' Imagine a painter's palette with a choice of 1100 colors to mix and match with before painting on a canvass. He could obviously create anything good under the sun with that many options.
Variety is the spice of life, so it's fine if people vary between these fixed poles of admirableness. But variety beyond these fixed poles would just mean people acting like jerks or idiots, as that's all that's left to vary further towards, which doesn't add any decent new experiences to anyone (they themselves or their neighbors).
It's actually astonishing that I've gotten to know 1100 distinctly different people in my life well enough that I can judge them fair or foul. The new communication tool of the internet has allowed an unprecedented ability to contact and converse with foreign minds, all of whom have spent their life picturing the ideal man or woman, and then write them up into a story. These are the best of the best -- the ideal men and women from the greatest thinkers all across the world. There is no reason to be emulating anyone other than these folk, and nothing that needs to be emulated beyond these folk. As Mussolini would say, "everything inside the book, nothing outside of the book." There is no need to go searching for anything or anyone more than what '100 Waifus' already contains.
One of the good things '100 Waifus' references is Xanth, but re-reading Xanth for just the second time is a much more burdensome chore than rereading '100 Waifus' was for the 35th time. I had more fun a couple weeks ago. I've now reached 'Harpy Thyme' in my re-read and the book is still good, I like that it still connects back to the original book, 'A Spell for Chameleon,' by giving roles to Trent and Crombie, despite their advanced age. But compared to Chapter 58 of '100 Waifus' it's so ridiculously inferior. Most of a Xanth book is endless descriptions of scenes, so that you can 'see' the world around you sufficiently to solve the puzzles and riddles which are mostly what the characters in this series do. Solve magical riddles and puzzles that the puns of Xanth constantly throw up at them.
Most of my book, alternatively, spends no time on description and focuses purely on dialogue -- inter-human relations. What I find fascinating about life is positive interactions with other people, not solving puzzles or riddles. And especially not puns. Most of the dialogue in Xanth is necessary stuff like "I am X, who are you?" And the rest is helpful suggestions on how to solve the latest puzzle or riddle. Like, "maybe if you use this magic or this item we could traverse this difficulty?" The dialogue is still the best part of the book, but it's so short, simple, and seldom compared to '100 Waifus' it's like I'm breathing through a straw.
Normally I would object to how easily men get girlfriends and wives in Xanth, but I can't complain about that given Christopher got them even more easily. It turns out that sometimes plots are better when we skip over how difficult women are and get to the good parts once they're more accommodating.
Speaking of puns, 'Hirogaru Sky Precure' is a pun. The Japanese term Hirogaru is just there by convenience, the true meaning of the title is 'Hero Girl Pretty Cure.' So they do things like 'hero girl punch' to take out the enemy. It's all very clever. Perhaps in keeping with its English name, it tries to appeal to an English audience by having the girls act like boys and a boy become a Pretty Cure girl. Go figure, this is one of the worst seasons of Precure, just like its transgender predecessor. Japan is throwing transgenders into everything. There's an annoying trannie in Fire Emblem Engage who looks exactly like a cute girl but has an awful grating male voice named Rosado. It's a farce because trannies do not actually look as good as Rosado does, nowhere close, so by trying to teach us to be accepting of trannies the Japanese covertly admit that trannies aren't acceptable, because it doesn't even pretend that it can make you like a real trannie, but only a fantasy one that looks and acts exactly like a woman.
In the most recent chapter of 'I'm a middle-aged man who lost his adventurer's license,' they randomly meet a tranny who was sadly rejected by his family so ran off into a mushroom forest and died, but not before being able to use mushroom magic to create an illusion of himself as a pretty girl. Yet again Japan relies on magically realistic transgenders because they know the real deal looks awful and repugnant. And yet again it tries to guilt trip us into accepting trannies so they won't die in mushroom forests anymore. But guess what, if you're a transgender I'm glad you're dead. You're an affront against nature and a cancer on society who tries, immediately, to convert more and more children to your mentally ill ranks. I'm glad he died in his stupid forest before he could ruin anyone else's life in addition to his own.
It's getting to the point that I wonder if the Japanese government has secretly required all new anime, manga and video games to introduce a sympathetic trans character so everyone on Earth 'gets with the program.' But none of this will convince me to embrace transgenders, all it will do is turn me off of Japanese culture. Japan has failed every recent test of its wisdom and morality. It has nearly full vaccine compliance with what has turned out to be an unsafe and ineffective vaccine. It sides with Ukraine against Russia even though everyone should have the right to self-determination and Ukraine has committed endless proven war crimes against the innocent suffering people of Donbass, and ignores the fact that Ukraine started this war by overthrowing its elected President in a coup and the portions of Ukraine that don't want to be ruled by unelected tyrants have every right to be free of said usurpers. And it is churning out endless gay and trans propaganda and clearly targeting this stuff towards kids. It's in kids shows like Pretty Cure! There's no ambiguity as to Japan's intentions here.
You would think that a nation that can create so many great morality tales with so many great role models would not be morally mistaken on every current issue on Earth. But they are. Why is this? First off, the people who create these stories are a small minority of the Japanese population, most of whom don't like it or agree with it. Second off, the creators of these stories are only correct about the specific situation they're writing about, whenever they start straying off into other tangents they tend to be as stupid and delusional as everybody else. For instance Reki Kawahara's insistence that everyone is born with exactly the same IQ. People can sound really smart when they talk about their specialty, but God help them when they talk about anything else.
This creates a bizarre situation where the characters in the stories are admirable but their creators aren't. Japan has created many beautiful things but Japan itself is a doomed dystopia. I have less hope for it than any country that bucked the trend by not getting vaccinated or not supporting Ukraine or not indoctrinating children to mutilate their bodies. Unless you are a nation that has done all three of these recent things correctly, I have no hope or respect for you at all. Also, as the people who endorsed vaccines, Ukraine and trannies become more prevalent and take over from the old guard which did not advance these things, I expect the artistic pipeline of Japan to slowly dribble out until nothing good is made anymore. A lot of the best art coming out of Japan today is by people who were famous for good art 30 years ago. But soon that entire generation will die out and all you'll be left with is tranny propaganda 24/7. At that point it will be time to turn off the Japanese multimedia and take solace solely in the masterpieces of yore '100 Waifus' helpfully lists out.
This year, right now, anime is still adapting ancient classics like Sailor Moon, Bleach and Rurouni Kenshin, so we're currently fine. It's only new stuff, not newly adapted stuff, that's the problem. There will still be plenty of new old stuff for some time.
Meanwhile, Octopath Traveler II is sitting on my bookshelf ready to play, like many other PS5 games, but I'm still working on Fire Emblem Engage so there's no time to actually play it. I assume I'll get to enjoy it someday. Oh well, it's not like I played Octopath Traveler 1 immediately upon its release either.
Also, 'I shall survive using potions' is getting an anime, which is good news, considering how good '80,000 gold coins' has been. It's almost the same story by the same author.
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