Ren'ai 0 Km wasn't a terrible visual novel, but the only two appealing heroines are Sakuya and Misaki, and now I've played both their routes. I don't feel like playing any of the others. I'd be better served playing more Tenshin Ranman if I was deadset on playing bad heroine routes.
Rather than Tenshin Ranman, it would be preferable to play Happiness 2, which I haven't gotten around to in all this time. So Ren'ai 0 Km is really far down the priority list.
In Heaven Burns Red, I got thundercat Byakko to limit break level 3, making her a viable candidate for my thunder squad. I also got some useless limit breaks -- 2.5 for magicat Tenne and fireworks Miya. For the low price of $20, the rolls were pretty rewarding. I also finished acquiring every currently possible seraph's skill evolutions. The first time I've caught up since the game started years ago.
One day before the next new event, I managed to grab all the loot available in the current event. I'm certainly looking forward to which character will be featured in the plot tomorrow.
The main focus continues to be the Olympics. It may feel like the USA is doing miserably this Olympics, because a bunch of medal favorites have failed to medal, but 3rd place is actually pretty standard for our winter Olympics standings. Norway or Russia almost always win. USA has only won once, in 1932. Norway is set to win again these Olympics. Norway has the advantage of lots of natural ice and snow, but that doesn't explain their dominance. America, Canada, and plenty of other countries have ice and snow. Alaska has more ice and snow than Norway. I have to believe its Norway's high per capita gdp that allows them to have the hobbies of winter athletics no other country can afford to dabble in. All winter sports are expensive to participate in, and most people don't have free time to get good at them. Norway has so much money they can afford the winter equipment and ski resort rentals and the leisure time to train. Everything lines up for them.
Still, it's a little silly that Norway, a country of so few people, can dominate the world in winter sports. The next factor that goes into this equation is the fact that most young athletic prodigies around the world are steered into professional, high-paid sports like football, soccer, baseball or whatever. The few remaining athletic youth dedicate themselves to summer Olympic sports like swimming or track. It takes a weird person to get obsessed with snowboarding or curling. Norway has leaned in to their natural advantage of being a winter wonderland and dedicates all their young athletes to winter sports. So Norway's best are competing against the worlds' rest.
As evidence that anyone can become competitive at winter sports if they try hard, look at host nation Italy. They've never done well at the Olympics, but when they knew they were hosting they put a lot more effort into winning, and here they are, 2nd place in the medal count, ahead of the USA. If every nation tried as hard as Norway to win at the Olympics Norway would revert to its population mean.
Another example proving Norway isn't really as good as they look is ice hockey. Ice hockey is a highly paid sport so serious athletes compete at it. And when serious athletes are involved, the USA and Canada rise to the fore.
Nevertheless, winter Olympic medals denote greatness. I'm very impressed with small countries like Norway, Austria, Switzerland and the like racking up giant medal counts. The theory of Aryan supermen is very much supported by winter Olympic results. Perhaps a lot of the blonde athletes in the Olympics are dyed, but nobody can argue with the blue eyes. It's amazing how many blue-eyed athletes are winning medals, compared to their percentage of the world population.
The Aryan supremacy theory does suffer a bit from how beautiful the South Korean Olympians are, though. I noted the same in the Summer Olympics. There must be something in the water over in South Korea, because all their athletes are supermodels. The Japanese tend to be more 'cute' than beautiful, but they're also a sight for sore eyes.
I've been watching all the alpine skiing, cross country skiing, figure skating, speed skating, and biathlon events. I also like snowboard/ski cross races. I don't like and don't care about the stunt-like sports, big air, moguls, halfpipe and the like. I'm totally unimpressed with ski jumping or sliding sports. Curling and ice hockey are kinda watchable if I have nothing better to do.
The biggest draw of the Winter Olympics is women's individual figure skating, and as luck would have it the top 5 competitors going into the free skate are Japanese, American, or Russian. I can't lose. They're also beautiful to watch, nevermind the medal results. They're all performing at a level beyond what Inori can do in Medalist, which is satisfying.
I've completed my rewatch of 'Who Made me a Princess?', proving it's a great anime worth rewatching. The only great series that isn't currently airing that I haven't rewatched is Spy x Family S3. But Spy x Family is already proven great by the fact that I've rewatched the first two seasons, so all 200 of my ranked anime have definitively proven themselves.
As for great manga, it turns out all of Guyver is translated into English. The problem isn't the translators, it's the creator, who refuses to continue the story. It's another one of those series that the afterlife in Eden is required to fix.
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