Apophis down:

After playing the game for over a year and spending thousands of dollars to get extra SS Memorias and limit breaks, I finally defeated the strongest boss in the game -- Anachrony Apophis.  I used two squads to fulfill the task, each with their own designated vital task:

My first squad was the 'shield' squad.  It fought Apophis for the first 155 turns or so.  Its job was to break Apophis, get Apophis' devastation rate to max 999%, and get my overdrive bar to max level 3.  Vritika and Chie were the core of my strategy, as they both had autoheal abilities that restore a percentage of your dp at the start of every turn, the only way to fight a boss that did so much damage per attack for an extended length of time.  (If you use active heals you'll run out.  Though of course I used Vritika and Chie's active heals too, until I was totally out of them.)  Assisting Vritika and Chie were Ichiko, Seika and Erika, three more defenders, for a total of 5 defenders in the same squad.  Seika would give everyone auto-crit with her Stardust Trajectory, and Erika would assist with her Angelic guard, provoke, and basic damage dealing when Vritika needed a break.  Ichiko's main task was to damage the boss, though all her abilities also raised the party's defense or lowered the enemy's attack, like a proper defender.

Assisting these 5 defenders was a single buffer, tuxedo Tsukasa.  Tuxedo Tsukasa can produce a fire and a light field, which could indefinitely cancel out Apophis' most dangerous ability, Sandstorm.  She also did a lot of damage, reduced the enemy's fire defense (which let Ichiko and Erika do more damage), and enhanced everyone's skill damage.  But Tsukasa was mainly meant to weaken the enemy's attack, the same as the 5 defenders she was working with.

By keeping Apophis' offense generally below the capabilities of my defense and autoheals, I was able to drag the fight out for the 155 turns required to put the boss in a vulnerable position.  I could have held out for a few more turns, but I was out of powerful heals so I figured it was time to move on to phase 2 of the fight -- i.e., squad 2 of the fight, the people designated to actually kill the boss.

Squad 2 consists of fox Miya, base Muua, samurai Inori, phantom thief Jamie, base Yingxia and pajamas Hisame.  Hisame fared poorly in this fight.  Her Munechika attack is too dangerous because it simultaneously lowers her defense by 100%.  Against a boss like Apophis that could have been lethal, so I couldn't actually utilize her true power.  The others worked as intended, though.

Muua also has the same autoheal ability as Chie, and she's an actual healer so she had some active powerful healing skills as well.  Her job was to keep my lethality squad alive for the ten turns they needed to bring Apophis' health bar from basically full to nil.

Fox Miya can produce light fields, so her job was to counter Sandstorm in case Apophis cast it again.  As it turns out Apophis didn't cast it again, so Miya just concentrated on debuffing the boss, which multiplied the damage Jamie and Inori could do.

Yingxia's job was to buff Inori so that she could unleash her ultimate attack, Tadamusa, in its ultimate form.  She performed that job exquisitely, but she also managed to buff a few other people and debuff the boss for that little extra bit of damage.  Yingxia really is one of the strongest characters in the game.

Jamie's job was to hit the boss as hard as she could with her critical penetration technique, but she also gave extra sp to Yingxia so she could buff Inori faster.  Jamie did a lot of damage, but it was still nothing compared to Inori.

Inori's job was to kill the boss with two swings of her mighty Tadamusa blade.  I'm afraid to even say how much damage she was doing because I feel I must have read it wrong.  Either it was 23 million damage a swing or. . .230 million damage. . .  And still it took two swings.  She can use Tadamusa 4 times, but honestly Muua couldn't have kept the party alive long enough for her to use the technique all 4 times, so it was either those two shots or bust.

Looking back it would have been better to use an extra healer instead of Hisame in the kill squad, but *shrug*, who cares, it worked!  And this way my beloved Hisame can claim she helped defeat the game's last boss.

Apophis isn't actually the last boss though, there's another Anachrony called Skullfeather that I have to beat next.  But according to all reports, it's much weaker than Apophis, so next week when I get my next anachrony pass (that gives me the right to challenge an anachrony boss), I'll truly defeat the game by taking Skullfeather down too.

What perfect timing.  Right before the new year, I'll clear the entire Heaven Burns Red game, defeating every last boss it threw at me.  And of the 12 Seraphs who brought Apophis down, only Tsukasa was from Squad 31-A (the main characters of the story).  I went way off the beaten path and used a very eclectic mix that no sane person would have put together for a boss fight.  But I saw a path to victory using autoheals, using defenders and healers in the first half -- and critical penetration attacks in the second half.  And after trying and failing to beat Apophis in a fair fight for months and months, this was the only path I could see.  I've been building my troops up for this moment, for this solitary path to victory, for months.  At least for fights like Apophis with no time limits, autoheal and critical penetration are the best abilities in the game.

Now that I've defeated Apophis maybe I won't have to spend any more money on the game.  It can be played for free, so long as you're willing to not get remotely as strong as fast as before.  I felt like I was desperately playing catchup until now, because I couldn't beat Apophis.  But now that I can beat Apophis, I can coast from here and still be strong enough to handle anything the game throws at me.  It's like reaching the peak of the mountain.  The rest of the game is all downhill.  I'm already stronger than the game thinks I am, so none of its remaining challenges will faze me.  I'm finally ahead of the curve.

God I hope Skullfeather isn't somehow harder than Apophis. . .that would ruin everything I've worked for up until now. . .  I guess we'll see next week. . .  One more fight and I'm free and clear. . .

Sherry is 1404:

The precocious lady of GATE, Sherry, who schemed to use her own pitiable plight as a method to drag Japan into a war with her primitive enemies, is the best part of the series.  The fact that she was strongly in favor of 'underage' marriage, considering herself not underage in the least, is also to her credit.  Her beauty doesn't hurt either, or the fact that her seiyuu was the divine Rina Hidaka.  Altogether, it's weird that she hadn't joined my wonderful hall of fame earlier.  Sherry gets 'You Take my Breath Away' as her personal theme, suitable since her story was a love story anyway.

Meanwhile, the college football playoff spots have all been chosen.  After Duke beat Virginia in overtime, something crazy was bound to happen, and the selection committee didn't disappoint by putting in Miami from the ACC instead of Duke, and adding in James Madison and Tulane instead of poor Notre Dame, BYU or Texas.

All in all I think the selection process was fair.  I also think the top four teams -- Indiana, Ohio State, Georgia and Texas Tech, are so much better than the remaining 8, that we didn't really need a 12-team playoff this year.  But it's still fun to get to watch more high-quality games.

Not many bowls outside of the playoff are compelling this year.  SMU vs. Arizona seems fun.  There's also Penn State vs. Clemson.  Michigan vs. Texas should be easy for Texas.  BYU vs. Georgia Tech should be easy for BYU.

Russia has lost ground in Kupiansk and other sectors, which is annoying.  The moment I think they've turned the corner, it's back to stalemate again.  There's no sense of urgency to win the war.  It's bizarre.  Nobody decided to relax and take it easy during World War II.

President Trump made a great speech about no longer wanting any immigrants from third world countries and looking for ways to deport the ones who have already come here.  That's what I've been saying all along, it's nice to be vindicated by the most powerful man in the world.  Likewise, he deplored that Europe's policies of mass immigration and low birthrates would lead to 'civilizational erasure' within 20 years.  That's a nice turn of phrase.  Of course I've been complaining about this too all along.  Blogger considers this hate speech and censors me for it, but they're not powerful enough to censor the President of the United States, so now they're in a bit of a pickle.  Why is it okay when he says it but not when I do?

China isn't paying attention to all this woke vs. populist hubbub in the West and is quietly building new thorium reactors, new fusion power reactors, vast seas of renewable energy, AI data centers and electric cars powered by all this cheap energy, hypersonic missiles that only cost $100,000 a pop and could thus be used to so saturate the battlefield that nothing can possibly stand against them in conventional war, and is basically moving into the 22nd century.  China needs to rescind its draconian 1-hour a day rule and let their people play fun video games, but other than that, they've basically shown the entire world how adults could get things done.  There are so many exciting inventions coming out of China these days that Hua Bin can spend his entire literary career documenting them, and it's always a pleasure to read.  To know that someone, somewhere, is still forwarding humanity.

Tsukimi is 1403:

The 1403rd member of my fictional character hall of fame is Tsukimi from Limelight Lemonade Jam.  She has blonde hair and blue eyes, which almost automatically makes her great.  In addition she's one of the top pianists in Japan, with the ability to memorize and play back perfectly any song upon just hearing it.  She also has a strong will and won't let others push her or other people around.  She defied her parents, she defied Yukitaka when he wanted to delete a song he had composed, she jumped into the band uninvited, she'll race across town in an evening gown in order to make two scheduled events on the same day.  She has the vitality to double her workload as compared to everyone else and still get it all done.  She's also kind to her friends and gets along with classmates and is especially understanding towards Yukitaka, (her eventual boyfriend).  She doesn't hold others to her own exacting standards, but coaxes them into doing whatever they can do.

Between her beauty, talent, and strength of will I have no further complaints.  This is why constraining the fictional character count to 1400 is impossible.  Girls like Tsukimi deserve recognition too.  Tsukimi got Luca as her personal theme song.

Meanwhile, I upgraded the Bleach song 'destiny awaits' to 3-star, which meant it was eligible for wonderful representation.  I made it Soi's theme song, gave 'Grief of Leylia' over to Camyu, and dropped 'You Take my Breath Away' at least for now from any representation.

Demons Crest anime greenlit:

Reki Kawahara is on a roll.  For some reason he likes to write lots of stories, not just SAO, and Demons Crest is steadily acquiring the industry's main attention.  From what I've read of the Demons Crest manga, it would easily make my top anime rankings once it airs.  It isn't as good as SAO, but then again what is?

Sort of like how Edens Zero is a great anime despite not being as good as Fairy Tail.  Some creators can spin out endless hits, their well of creativity is seemingly endless.  I sure wish I had that ability.

Anime in 2026 is looking good.  The long awaited season 2 of Youjo Senki has now gotten a release date of 2026.  A new season of Precure has been announced, 'Star Detective Precure.'  SAOAGGO S2 has finally come out subtitled in bluray.

As for what we can look forward to next month:

Continuing series:

Kimi to Idol Precure/Star Detective Precure

Returning series:

Oshi no Ko

Sousou no Frieren

Fate/Strange Fake

Jigokuraku

Medalist

Boku no Hero Academia Vigilantes

* * *

In addition there are many series that might be good, but the only way to find out is by watching their first episodes.  I'll go ahead and report on the successes while ignoring the failures when the time comes.  But the winter 2026 season will be great even if the only shows airing are these 7.  We've got one of the best lineups of all time here.  With a second season, Medalist will have a strong case for entering my top anime rankings as well.

No Nanami:

I rolled on all the paid quartz options to acquire Nanami and failed.  I rolled on the free quartz options to acquire Nanami and failed.  I guess I'm just destined not to get Nanami.  I did get some other useful limit breaks though -- level 3 Red Riding Hood Karen, level 2 base Karen, level 2 tuxedo Ruka. . .I got thundercat Byakko level 2 but I'm not sure that should be classified as useful.

My fire squad's weak point had always been Karen, but with this upgrade she should be as strong as the rest of my most reliable squad, and elevate the squad as a whole to new heights.

The monthly refresh gave me a chance to level all my recently-limit-broken characters, and now I've reached the full potential of people I invested in long ago.  Inori, for instance, is level 170.  Yingxia is 180.

My dungeon runs are now with the characters furthest from having any realistic use -- the 4 Angel Beats collab characters, plus Iroha and Kanata.  Once I'm done with them all of my characters will have at most 1 skill that isn't at maximum.  I guess dungeon runs to improve even 1 skill are still worthwhile, though it does feel like a lot of work for little gain. . .

In Limelight Lemonade Jam I've finished the Miku and Ririko routes.  I'm most of the way through the Nayuka route.  Miku is as lovable as I expected from my initial impression of her, well worthy of my fictional character hall of fame.  I finished the Wakaba route in Tenshin Ranman.  She's basically worthless.  But Sana had a lot of hilarious lines in Wakaba's route, so there was still some value in it.  I've finished my favorite characters from both games, so reading the rest feels more like a chore than a privilege.  But maybe someone will surprise me.

SS Angel Kanade get:

The 1-year anniversary awarded a lot of free quartz, so it was inevitable that I'd eventually get a lucky roll and acquire angel Kanade.  Her ability does massive damage so long as you can get her health up to 150% of her normal maximum, which is a little tough to do, but it's still a cool ability in theory.  Mostly I just like her halo look as she rains down judgment upon her foes.

I also got red mage Tenne and magicat Tenne to level 2 limit break, despite not wanting them.  The curse of Tenne continues.  Equally useless is wedding dress Mari reaching level 1 limit break.  Ninja Mari is already at level 4, and swimsuit Mari has an eternal daphne, so there's no room for wedding dress Mari in any scenario.

Thanks to the delimiter I finally got phantom thief Jamie to level 1 limit break.  Ideally when she confronts Apophis she would be level 3.  Now all my daphne'd characters have at least 1 limit break.

Meanwhile, Russia has taken Pokrovsk and encircled its sister-city Mirnograd.  They've also taken Kupiansk and encircled the cities around it.  And they've taken Shakhove, closing off that pocket.  They've entered Siversk, Lyman, Konstantynivka and Huliapole.  Everything is going their way.  Trump's 28-point peace plan was rejected by Ukraine, so Russia will continue to gain everything by direct force, which is what I wanted to begin with.  This is a reputational war.  Russia must prove it can win the war by actually winning the war, not some dumb negotiation.  I want the Russian flag flying over the Rada in Kiev like how the Soviet flag flew over the Reichstag in Berlin.  Only then will the rest of the world respect Russia, and Russian threats, in the future.

SAOAGGO volume 14 read:

I hate puzzles and riddles.  The information is never sufficient to actually solve the puzzle/riddle, but the crafter of the puzzle/riddle then gets to mock you as they reveal the answer and say 'why didn't you figure it out?  Look at all these clues.'  Which are all ambiguous and could mean anything.  The latest volume of SAOAGGO is one big riddle, wrapped in a series of small puzzles.  It's the worst imaginable scenario.  There's zero characterization or plot progression in the story, it's a one-off episode about a meaningless side character, Vivi.  The only merciful aspect of this book is that it marks the end of the series.  Due to Unital Ring destroying all independent Seed VR games, GGO is also destroyed, so the series about people who enjoy playing GGO is per force also destroyed.

Reki Kawahara unknowingly saved us from any more boring GGO sequels.  Thank goodness for his intercession, because after this I didn't want to read any more GGO.

This doesn't mean the series as a whole is bad.  It's very good.  Everything up until this book is good.  I demand a season 3 of the anime to cover Squad Jams 4 & 5.  But this was the time to end the series.  There's nothing worthwhile left to say.  The story has played itself out.  It's time to move on with our lives and explore something else.  SAOAGGO has outlived its welcome.

One of the great things about '100 Waifus' is the story starts and ends in a single book.  It covers the entire story.  There is nothing left out.  When it reaches its conclusion, it ends.  It doesn't drag things out for another pointless volume about a pointless side character, or start nettling the reader with mysteries to solve or whatever just to bloat things up.  When it's said the last useful thing to say, it ends.  The end.  Because there isn't a single boring line in all of '100 Waifus' I was able to enjoy re-reading it 50 times.  I couldn't enjoy reading this novel even one time.  The whole time I read it I was wishing I was reading '100 Waifus' for the 51st time instead.  That would have been more productive.

Nevertheless, all great franchises must be absorbed in full in order for me to be able to proclaim that I've absorbed them in full, so I don't regret reading the last book of this series.

With this project done, all that I have left to do is finish Senmomo, Limelight Lemonade Jam, Tenshin Ranman, Lunar 2, Ren'ai Karichaimashita After Hours, Mega Man 11, Sea of Stars, Yakuza 0, Fantasian, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Happiness 2, Rewrite Harvest Festa, the bonus content in FF7 Rebirth, beat Apophis in Heaven Burns Red. . . you get the idea.

2025 has swamped me with more worthwhile activities than I can possibly keep up with.  My only hope is that 2026 is really boring and empty.  The problem with that is 2026 features the Olympics and the World Cup, so, umm. . . maybe 2027 will be boring?