Finishing off the week
The Three Behemoths, episode 11
Wish I could say they left out “Anna” again this week, but at least it
was brief, and they compensated with a mother-daughter melon bath and
some symmetrical docking kitten-smothering.
Anyway, after an obviously-telegraphed betrayal by a character added for precisely that purpose, The Big Bad arrives with his army and immediately makes a mockery of the elves’ defenses (Maginot Line much?). Big fight next week.
Verdict: one more episode, which has to include The Biggest Battle Ever and a catsexual harem wrapup? Somebody’s ambition is bigger than Aria’s chest.
(printable Vulcan model might make a good side project, if you’re up to gluing all the parts together; I think I’ll stick to Stable Diffusion)
Solo Leveling 2, episode 10
The Japan/Korea duel sets up some important things, but fortunately it doesn’t take very long, leaving time to show most of Our Hero’s Friends And Family And Rescue Babes (and Schoolgirl Hunter seems to have settled on Earnest Sidekick as Backup Best Boy…). Then it’s off to Ant Island, where the raid goes as planned, until it doesn’t. Whoopsie.
Verdict: better paced than I expected, given how close we’re getting to the end.
(a Hero’s Reward moment that should have happened)
A-Rank Adventure Harem, episode 9
Our Eager Eavesdropping Catgirl’s a tad overdressed when she’s not kitted up for adventure, but Our Legendary Elf Receptionist makes up for it with a cleavage cuddle.
Then it’s Our Little Blonde Titty-Witch’s turn to overdress; pity, I’d been hoping her taste in street clothes matched her “professional” (coughcough) costume. Our Core Trio is in their usual civvies as well, hosting a party for the least surprising event of the season: permanently adding two new haremettes, exactly as promised in the episode title.
On the relationship front, Our Legal-Loli Healer is so far in the lead with Our Multi-Beloved Hero that she’s nearly unbeatable now; fortune favors the bold, indeed. Our Hot Dark Elf plays the ha-ha-only-serious card in an attempt to recover some ground. Hopefully these issues will be resolved in a shared bath scene soon.
Character art wasn’t consistent, but the show didn’t fall off the cliff, at least. Next week, it’s Party party time! Cleverly disguised as a clip episode.
Verdict: did we really need to show Dickhead’s End one last time (I hope) and then waste screen time talking about The Late Losers? Yeah, yeah, Yuke & Jamie needed closure, but we didn’t. I’m really looking forward to them never being mentioned again during the next cour.
(good luck catching up, Silk!)
Shangri-La Frontier 2, episode 22
I Do Not Care What Happens In This Other Game. And their version of Western comic-book art doesn’t do it for me. As for the real-world game, Gal Gamer’s crush on Pro Gamer K is now obvious enough to be seen from space, but not from the chair next to her.
Verdict: not thrilled with the pacing coming into this finale, especially since the undersea quest was built-up as much more interesting.
Unrelated,
I drove to Chicago to spend some time with my sister and help her out post-surgery, and thanks to some jackass cutting off a semi, the trip took 90 minutes longer than it should have. So much for carefully timing the trip to avoid bumper-to-bumper traffic on Lake Shore Drive. Anyway, I got to see her new place, and spent some time sitting on her enclosed balcony that you could fish in Lake Michigan from, if you had a 25-story reel. And you didn’t mind the snow being blown into your face.
Speaking of Stable Diffusion…
I was just cleaning my catgirls, when they suddenly went off:
These were generated with InvokeAI, installed through Stability Matrix, using only the resources of my M2 MacBook Air. Much, much slower than my gaming PC’s 4090. I find the last one particularly striking, so I’ll have to see if I can manage to generate that style consistently.
The prompt was “a sexy robot catgirl wearing only a frilly apron. sexy pose, smiling, in fancy bedroom. photography. portraiture. catch light in eyes. one flash. rembrandt lighting. Soft box. dark shadows. High contrast. 80mm lens. F2.8.” (the bit in italics was supplied by a preset, and you can see it ended up dominating the style in an unexpected way)
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