Boxxo’s Rival Can’t Communicate Either, episode 9

Unlike Our Vending Hero’s limited vocabulary, Our Special Guest Good-looking Cool Hero’s problem is the classic Komi. Note that his story is tamed down from the source material, where his magic sword was of the cursed and bloody type. It was a nice touch to show Lammis’ absolute confidence that no matter how powerful he was, he couldn’t possibly break Boxxo’s shield.

While they’re on the road together, Boxxo shows off new forms convenient for that time of the month, thanks to helpful exposition provided by the female tasmanian devil. Once the word spreads about 21st century feminine hygiene products, he’ll be more popular in town than ever.

There’s also an amusing post-credits vignette where the earlier chain-restaurant villains take advantage of Boxxo’s absence and the villagers’ gullibility.

Verdict: good clean fun, with both a washing machine and a car wash.

Gate manga, volumes 4-6

English translations released (4, 5, 6), one month after 1-3, which I kind of expected. The publisher hasn’t used Amazon’s metadata system to link them into a series, so you have to search by author.

The Demon King in the Back Row: Down In Flames

I always felt the anime (which covered the first five novels) was so rushed that it was basically a highlight reel, but I liked the characters. So, since the 13 light novels are on Kindle, I just read them.

TL/DR: the anime stopped at the correct point. There’s some Wacky Hijinks™️ in books 6-10, but not much in the way of interesting story arcs, and in the last three books the author ended up killing everyone off and destroying the entire universe, effectively making it all “just a dream”. He did allow Akuto to finally boink three of his haremettes (Junko, Fujiko, and one who wasn’t in the anime), but only in the afterlife, and then he wiped that out, too. (and, yes, the sex scenes were awkwardly-written tab-a-in-slot-b)

(unicorn chaser supplied by Rory Mercury)

The less you’re injured, the more it helps

When I was looking at first aid kits on Amazon, I found this nonsense:

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