My top anime rankings now, yet again, account for over 10,000 24-minute long stretches of anime goodness, whether it's in episode or movie or whatever format. This translates to about 167 days of straight anime joy. I can personally guarantee every one of those 10,000 episodes is great because I've already watched and rewatched all the series involved and they were great both times.
Since people can't actually watch anime for 24 hours straight, and have to do other things like eat, sleep, or make money, great anime can now entertain people for at least three years all on their own. This is the top of the entertainment food chain, there is no more worthy experience to pursue than watching these shows to the last jot and tittle. Luckily life expectancy is 76 years so everyone can fit all this great anime into their schedule however busy they might be. Any life that doesn't take advantage of these shows is a deprived individual losing out on spiritual sustenance necessary for a good life and a good character. You could say they're not only deprived but also depraved, because the same spirit that could reject anime this good inevitably rejects all other holy and sacred things in this world and turns to Satan one way or another.
The good news is 10,000 isn't the finish line, there are so many sequels to great anime already announced that I'm confident that number can reach 11,000. Two of my ranked great anime haven't even started airing yet, Sousou no Frieren and 100 Kanojo, but they're both massive reinforcements to the quality of this list, who like Spy x Family won't be sitting around at #200 once they've actually started airing. You have to understand that Sousou no Frieren is regularly cited as the best manga of all time. 100 Kanojo is of an equally grand scale in terms of humor, romance and ambition as Frieren is in terms of emotional depth and maturity. They both have so much to add to this list and are just rarin' to go.
Then there's series like Fairy Tail 100 Years Quest and Bleach 1000 Year War that are getting animated that are already in my top 10 anime before this stuff came out. When you improve upon an already magnificent beast you end up somewhere around divine. And we're on the cusp of seeing the conclusion to many epic shows like Shingeki no Kyojin and Sailor Moon that we've been waiting for seemingly forever. Finally, in 2023, it's actually going to happen.
Other things that are ending soon -- Hills of Silver Ruins only has two chapters left to translate. It won't be long now to see the true ending to 12 Kingdoms, no thanks to the filler anime that stopped halfway through.
Choyoyu is slated to release its final manga adaption volume in two months, and another fantastic isekai story will come to a close. Most importantly, Kanojo mo Kanojo's manga ends in just two chapters. The author really pulled through for his fans, he didn't betray the premise of his story, he expanded upon it, and switched from two-timing to four-timing, rather than trimming it back down to monogamy again. It was the only way everyone could be happy, and because the author chose that way I'm so happy for them and viscerally as a part of them. Polygamy has triumphed in a story that addressed all the possible objections to polygamy and defeated them, convincingly, debunking them all and showing the light and the way. After this triumphant story's conclusion no sane person could ever object to polygamy again. It's case closed.
Meanwhile, I watched the old Venom movie and it was okay. Way too many boring, protracted one-sided fights, combined with a terrible romance that never clicked from the very start, but at least it was funny and I liked the lead actor. I'm looking forward to Ant-Man 3 coming out in just a few days, and then my Disney+ subscription will have fully paid for itself.
I've made tremendous progress in Octopath II. The gameplay is brilliant as expected of a turn-based RPG. I also like the music, setting, plot and characters, but not as much as, say, the original Octopath. But I think the gameplay improvements of this game do make it better than the original. I also think it's just a bigger game with more to do in general than the first. My biggest complaint is, like usual, how vague and obscure the hints are on how to solve the various side quests. World of Warcraft tells you exactly where to go to get whatever you want done and where all your quest objectives are. This game just leaves you to hang in the wind. My second biggest complaint is the incessant random encounters. The enemy is too weak to even hit me and has been for most of the game, but I still have to spend endless time taking out the trash, fight after pointless fight, even though the outcome is predetermined. Final Fantasy 8 Remastered, which turned off all random encounters, was such a better game. Why can't I turn off random encounters in this modern game too? Haven't we learned our lesson and that's why FF8 Remastered included the option as an upgrade to the original game?
Anyway, Octopath Traveler II has earned its place in my video game hall of fame, and very rightfully. I can play it day after day and never get tired of playing it some more. And all the content is genuine plot progress with dialogue and scenery and everything, it isn't a waste of your time like a Tactics Ogre Reborn 'deep dungeon' or something.
Once I beat the game I'll start on perhaps the more important part of the equation, and that's listening to its soundtrack 100 times so that it can be included into my music hall of fame. I have no doubt there will be many gems worth harvesting, and with them I can repair all the failures in my list that don't really deserve to be there. With Octopath II on my side I can make a truly flawless music hall of fame to go alongside my flawless anime hall of fame. 5,500 melodies of pure joy.
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