[Muinarc]

One more anime season coming to a close. When the current shows end I should have hit 1600 completed anime series. Who knew I'd be able to keep going with seasonal viewing this long but cable and streaming companies continually raising prices for less content than they used to offer has made it easier. MAL is indicating that I'm 5 anime movies short of 300 so maybe I'll try to knock some off of that backlog this weekend

 

[miceblue]

I didn't like Spy x Family season 2. It was 90% filler and 10% story, TBH. Spy x Family secret ride and treasure hunt at Universal Osaka was pretty cool.

What is considered filler for the series? There was spy stuff and there was family stuff. That is Spy x Family.

Anyway, Kura Sushi restaurants have gashapons for Spy x Fam prizes. Apparently you can just buy the gashapons instead of dining-in and eating 15 plates of sushi to play once.

^ EcoPon is a thing too: https://kurasushi.com/newsroom/ecopon

 

[miceblue]

Also I bought my first manga ever (I've only checked out manga from the library before, or read series online).

^ came with a nice shikishi board

Of course I had to go to the tofu shop afterwards.

 

[castleofargh]

Highspeed Étoile => Haisupîdo Etowâru
"Look mom I did a translating!"


I didn't watch much this year, usually 1 episode, just to check if I thought it was worth being turned into anime, and then having no desire to check episode 2. I guess I'm really getting old(or the studios are pushing for releases so fast that nobody has time to do things well anymore?).

I watched nearly all episodes of Ninja Kamui, not because it was good, but because if there is something about ninja, samurai, or vampire, I must watch it. It is the law!
It should have been called "always unprepared Joe Rogan Higan". There are some visual efforts, but that can't save a bad scenario.

Solo Levelling seems fine, I pick up an episode at random from time to time, so I can't really say if the entire thing is good, but I didn't stumble upon anything horribly bad or stretched to the point of just being boring.
I might check Re:monster. At least the beginning where leveling up isn't yet ludicrously OP for MC, that should be fun.

About Asian whatev, I watched some more Tokyo Vice, the story of a white dude in a non-white-dude country, who ends up with a job that nobody thought he should be doing. Getting close to a woman that's involved in stuff with gangsters, he tries to help everybody and fight injustice, a big boss helps him and people warn him not to accept anything, he still does and that doesn't end well. Some girl gets kidnapped, he takes too many risks and the baddies take action, he chickens out, in the end he can't do anything, or can he? No, he really can't. Or can't he?
You think I'm spoiling the story, but what if I tell you I wrote this thinking only of Shantaraman? Is it still a spoiler?
Well, yes, because "they're the same picture".

 

[Muinarc]

As the new season airs, I've been trying to sneak in a few binge watches of shows I put on hold the past few seasons. I just binged Shangri-la Frontier and it was quite fun! It has an above average sense of humor for me. Yet another game-world type show but at least it isn't an isekai. If you're looking for something with some action, not really too dissimilar from SAO, I'd recommend giving it a shot. It really picks up once the main character collects his first side-kick.

 

[deadlylover]

Y'all have like 15 minutes to veto my homepod mini purchase, kinda getting sick of listening to YouTube or podcasts through the iPad speakers when exercising (and I hate wearing earbuds and getting them all sweaty).

Can't put a price on health riiiiiight if I make exercise more pleasant I'll do it a little moooore hopium copium?

 

[Muinarc]

Y'all have like 15 minutes to veto my homepod mini purchase, kinda getting sick of listening to YouTube or podcasts through the iPad speakers when exercising (and I hate wearing earbuds and getting them all sweaty).

Can't put a price on health riiiiiight if I make exercise more pleasant I'll do it a little moooore hopium copium?

Sounds like a good plan to me. Find whatever works for you.

 

[deadlylover]

Sounds like a good plan to me. Find whatever works for you.

7/10, it's good for what it is. I got it for the equivalent of USD86 and that included our 10% tax, I'm pretty chuffed with that considering a fifth of the cost is the 20W USB C charging brick which I can make use of.

It's a touch mid bass or boomy stock (I didn't try the reduce bass option yet I couldn't find it lol), but vocals are surprisingly decent for something that lacks a real tweeter. Being omnidirectional is nice so I don't have to stay in the "sweet spot". Excellent for podcasts or listening to YouTube react content which is 80% of my usage.
It doesn't get toooo loud at 100% but the surprising thing is that it doesn't start to distort or break down, it's still very clean sounding.

As for the negatives;
For heavy music like some J-rock it can be hit and miss with the guitars blending into the vocals but it's still worlds better than on-device speakers.
Bass doesn't go deep but it's no surprise the things only slightly bigger than a tennis ball.
You get some weird AirPlay shenanigans with the YouTube app (or even YouTube in Safari), sometimes it takes a second or three for the video to start playing because it's trying to sync to the HomePod, so that means there's a few seconds delay before an ad starts to play, the same for the second ad, then finally the video lol.

The alternative was an Echo 4th gen (not the dot, the midsized one) which has much bigger drivers but it's directional, and I'm already deep into the Apple ecosystem so what the hell.

Tim Cook really has a grip on me huh, I have an iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad + Pencil, AirPods Pro, HomePod mini, Mac Mini M1, Magic keyboard+trackpad hoooooo boy what's next hahahaha.

 

[Muinarc]

Tim Cook really has a grip on me huh, I have an iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad + Pencil, AirPods Pro, HomePod mini, Mac Mini M1, Magic keyboard+trackpad hoooooo boy what's next hahahaha.

My condolences