(that’s “Houkyou No Fern-chan”, for the kanji-allergic)

Fern’s full breasts are two of the most popular characters for fan-art this season, to the point that they can easily fill a full cheesecake post. Honestly, you’d think they were the leads, when they barely get any screen time at all.

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S-Rank Daddy’s Girl, episode 7

In which Our Stalwart Daughter plays a bullet-hell game to win, Our Vengeful Loli is defeated by Deus Ex Elf-Juice and Dad Power, The Maltese Doughball gets what he deserves, and Our Daddy-Hungry Countess rises to the occasion.

Verdict: Helvetica is dangerously close to overtaking Miriam for Best Girl status.

(cute dragonette foodie is unrelated, as usual)

Frieren, episode 10

Do not meddle in the affairs of Frieren, for she is subtle and quick to anger plays the long game. As she was taught.

Verdict: I am now officially Hot For Teacher.

Why I don’t really like Baldur’s Gate 3

So I made it to Act 3, started to accumulate side quests so that I could finally get into the titular city, and… went off to read a book instead. I just didn’t want to do the things they wanted me to do, and there was nowhere else to go. It’s made very clear that you’re in a Race Against Time to Stop The Bad Guys and Save The City, but you have to run around talking to pretty much every named NPC in each region to make sure that you stumble across half a dozen plot coupons to get the thing to do the thing that unlocks the thing that opens the door to start the fight to see the guy to get the other thing, and half of it isn’t actually necessary but you won’t know that until you finally trip the flag that lets you progress the plot.

Meanwhile, most of the people I helped in Act 1 died horribly in Act 2, and the ones who didn’t are worse off, and most decisions I got to make ranged from Kinda Evil to Mostly Evil. And for all the apparent freedom in experiencing the content, you’re welded to the rails of this story, unable to even revisit the earlier areas if there was something that you missed.

For instance, in Act 1, you have the opportunity to rescue a young tiefling girl who stole something (for a pretty good reason). If you do so, you reunite her with her loving parents. If you stumble across her in Act 2, she’s been separated from her parents and asks you to find them. If you don’t find them before moving to Act 3 (and they’re hard to find even if you know what building they’re in), that quest gets auto-closed with a poor outcome, because you can never reenter the region and locate their tortured-to-death corpses. But you want to find them and shatter her hopes, because then you can recruit her for a plot fight later.

Honestly, the most positive thing I was able to do recently was tame a flesh-eating monster so that I could pet it at my camp. It still goes out and eats anything and anyone it can find, but who am I to make moral judgements, some kind of hero?

The most annoying thing that happened in Act 2 was that I didn’t talk to everyone on the first floor of the inn before going upstairs to see the Very Important NPC that I was specifically directed to speak to right away. As a result, one significant quest chain was closed off by the ensuing massacre, but I didn’t find out until several hours later when I groveled over the map searching for things that would be closed off by advancing to Act 3. There’s even a special cutscene where you lament the fact that you couldn’t make the world a better place.

Oh, and when I met the little girl, well after the massacre, I could tell her to wait for me at the inn with a friendly NPC. Who was dead, along with most of the people she knew from Act 1.

I’d like to play a game that used their D&D engine but had completely different writers and less grimdark epic railroading.

(true story: I gave up on the original Baldur’s Gate for a long time because I missed one tiny little corner of the map that contained a flag I needed to trip in order to enter the titular city; there was literally nothing left for me to do until I found it, and it was boring)

Tearmoon, episode 5

In which horses are freedom, but the road to lunch is lined with traps.

Verdict: four girls who’ve never cooked? What could possibly go wrong?

Potion Loli, episode 5

At this point, I think Our Potion Loli’s surprisingly-effective Office Lady Logic is as likely to lead to long-term positive outcomes as the phrase “at last C-ko will be mine”.

Verdict: …and next week she’s setting forth to destroy an army. I think I’m about done here.

(Coffee Loli beats Potion Loli)

The Apothecary Diaries, episode 5

Eunuchs, you say? With muscles like that? If they hadn’t already made it obvious that there was something fishy about Our Harem Manager and His Number One Man, the opening scene of this episode would have done it.

Then again, the OP animation has Our Painted-Lady Medicinal Heroine looking glamorous while dancing sexy in a very non-period dress, so it’s not like they’ve really been hiding things.

Verdict: slow-burn romance, eh? I can go with that direction.

Rerun’s Special Magic, episode 5

The Tale Of The Purloined Rapier went pretty much as expected, with Our Hero-Worshipping Bunnyboy learning the true worth of his legacy and getting a chance to show off his sword-bunny skills. Meanwhile, Our Obnoxious Twintail has trained herself into a better person, and Our Beefcake Asshole Noble reveals the trauma that made him that way (the asshole part, that is).

On that note, it appears the school fears the power of Gainax, which is the only reason I can think of that Romantica’s formerly-bouncy bust is so much smaller and well-restrained than in her initial appearance.

Verdict: one more, but if the tournament turns into a tournament arc, I’m outta here. Hopefully they’ll spend some time on Our Giant Blonde With Weird Eyebrows, who’s been hanging out in the credits without much screen time.

Shy, episode 6

For Those Who Came In Late… our first several minutes will be a recap, accompanied by a brief villainous monologue.

Following that, Our Shy Heroine Shy will be pulled away from a chat with Our Best Friend to become one of Santa’s helpers, without a chance to find a winter wardrobe or learn to use her fire powers to stay warm in the arctic cold. Also featuring Our Drunken Russian Heroine, and introducing Our Chinese Femboy Kung-Fu Hero, who’s kind of sensitive about that.

Verdict: the silliness is starting to clash with the dead-serious villainy, but I’m still rooting for our gal.

(Pete, I kind of miss the main feed that started returning 401 errors recently. It’s more fun than trying to track you through multiple feeds. 😁)

(Saturday update: ...and back, for now; and yes, there's RSS at /users/anime/feed/, but not for the top-level /main/public, so I visit that one by hand every few days to catch up. As for signing up for an account somewhere, I'd need to have more than one person to follow before I bother to figure out how... 😁)

S-Rank Daddy’s Girl, episode 6

In which overconfidence is bad, whether you’re a retainer with an obvious crush on your mistresses or a top-rank adventurer who’s never had to deal with mind games. On the bright side, Our Best Catgirl is happy to go wild against a bunch of generic mooks, which works for me.

It takes a while to get to the action, but Chubby Snidely Whiplash’s plot is now clear, as is the way he’s being used by Our Abused Child Prodigy (who is herself being used by Our True Villain, who made a brief tragic-backstory appearance). It still doesn’t feel like they’re really committing to a big fight, even though everyone knows that The Maltese Doughball is traitorous scum who wants everyone dead.

Verdict: Our Noble Sisters deserve the loyalty of their people. But if Helvetica ever finds out that Sasha got picked up…

(and, yes, there’s a touch of foreshadowing in that mind-game scene, but it will take some time to unpack)

Frieren, episode 9

In which much is explained and the JV goes to war, with more success than they expected. Frieren’s fight comes next week.

Verdict: take your time, we’ll still be here.

Related, fast woman fan-art

There’s a lot of nice story-compatible fan-art out there for Frieren, as well as the usual crude porn, but Fern has attracted attention not so much for her talent, intelligence, spellcasting speed, and quiet humor, but for “boooooooooobs!”. For instance:

Not Safe For Stark

Starfield break, playing modded Baldurs Gate 3 for a while

Karlach is Best Girl, for looks, voice, and story; how can you not love a cheerful demonic berserker who keeps a teddy bear in her tent? And, yes, I turned on mods right before they released a massive patch, so I’ve disabled downloads until the basic dependencies get updated for the new release. I didn’t go crazy with mods, I just wanted to go back and get Karlath into my party early, unfuck some quests that I could no longer complete in my first run, and do a bit of min-maxing and power-leveling to reduce the annoyance of the do-it-again-stupid quests.

Playing as a half-orc monk, by the way, with a hireling halfling bard in the party; I haven’t ditched Shadowheart yet, but I’ve been thinking about trading her in on a warlock. Or at least pulling out the Gith-ho to do the crèche before passing through the next Door Of Warning; I’ve scoured the surface and the Underdark pretty thoroughly, and that seems to be the last thing left, now that my party is at level 6.

(unrelated little hellions did not deliver their trick-or-treats to my house for Halloween)

A Day In The Life of Our Shy Heroine Shy, where a visit to the stationery store leads to adventure and enlightenment. And shouting, as Our Shouty Super Gal drops in for some physical therapy and secrets and shouting. The adventure involves trying to keep up with an old lady on a mountain hike, because Teru’s not the outdoorsy type. The good news is that Miss Shouty actually stops shouting, and even gets a little quiet when she reveals that she’s not completely feral.

The enlightenment continues as Our Best Girlfriend is upstaged by The Strong Silent Type, who lures Teru into the world of zen brush calligraphy, where she gets some surprisingly relevant advice about focusing her heart to unlock her fire powers.

Verdict: a nice change of pace from the costumed adventure, even with the shouting.

First-World (Gaming) Problems

Fallout 76, which to my surprise is a thing that still exists, is steeply discounted at the moment, but that wasn’t enough to convince me it could be worthwhile. However, it turns out to be free with Game Pass Ultimate, so I went ahead and downloaded it to try out.

TL/DR: it sucks. I was willing to overlook the graphics and UI issues for the $0 price, but I never even made it to the bottom of the hill outside the vault, because I kept getting rubber-banded back to the top. If this is what it’s like now, after all the widely-praised improvements, at launch it must have been an even bigger clusterfuck than I imagined.

(apparently one of the ways they’re trying to stay afloat is adding an optional monthly fee to allow you to play with just friends, not Random Internet People)

Related,

I had to revert to a previous save in Baldur’s Gate 3 after getting stuck in a conversation loop with an NPC. And it wasn’t any good the first time. I’m still not loving the do-it-again-stupid quest design, but this was a minor glitch compared to F76 (or some of the things I’ve run into in Starfield that require console hacking or reverting to much earlier saves; being trapped on an exploding starship is almost as bad as not being able to board it in the first place).

First-World (Wireless) Problems

When my sister came to town last week, the first thing she commented on was that her Zoom meetings were a little choppy. Which was surprising given my trouble-free business-class Internet connection, and the fact that she was in the middle of the house right between the high-end Orbi base station and satellite.

After much fiddling, I discovered that the latest firmware update broke the connection to both satellite APs, so the only active wireless was in my office. In between her meetings, I moved the base station to the middle of the house and spent a few hours trying to get the satellites to sync back up. No luck yet, so I’ve left them unplugged until I find the time to factory-reset the whole system and build it back up from scratch. It knows that it has satellites, and I can connect directly to them via ethernet, but they think they’re fine while the base thinks they’re missing.

I’d been wondering why the Sonos speaker in the living room kept going offline; now I know.

Tearmoon, episode 4

Just so we’re clear, this will not be the last time a horse sneezes all over Our Occasionally-Elegant Princess.

Anyway, if you were wondering how seriously the production team is taking this show, the ballroom dance scene should answer that rather definitively. Of course, Mia’s self-centered plotting backfires in the usual way, this time aided and abetted by Our Heroine-Worshipping Twintailed Redheaded Freckled Maid and A Retainer Who’ll Be Turning Up Rather A Lot. On that note, remember when Anne was a total klutz? It seems her coordination problems were cured by Mia-Worship.

Which reminds me, I should dig up the video where a member of Korean girl-group Girls Generation was booked to tango for a celebrity dancing show; her stable-bred life had clearly not prepared her for so much close contact with a man, and every time he touched her during practice, she teleported across the room. 12-year-old Mia might want to recoil from the touch of Our Perfect Prince, but she doesn’t let it get in the way of her dancing.

Verdict: if only horse sneezes could cure her of shouty internal monologing…

(Best Girl Anne is Best Girl)

Potion Loli, episode 4

This week’s highlight: not changing the entire supporting cast again, and even bringing back some characters from the credits. Downside? My willing suspension of disbelief is foundering on the rocks of Our Potion Loli’s continued ability to confound nobles, royals, and priests with Office Lady Logic.

Verdict: her cheat power is not potions, it’s Axel Foley’s fast talk ability, goddess-enhanced. And it’s wearing thin on me.

(I’d have an easier time putting up with Kaoru if she looked and dressed like Thighza…)

Rerun’s Special Magic, episode 4

In which I am taunted by their decision to insert Our Cute Little Redhead Senpai into this episode as part of a panned still. Meanwhile, Our Tsuntsuntsunderedere Twintail manages to wrap herself around Our Manipulative Hero without even a moment of gainaxing. Rats. In other news, Our Gay Bunnyboy Shota should not be allowed to shop without adult supervision.

Verdict: I keep finding myself distracted by the odd way they color the hair of the Core Trio, especially the way it doesn’t move with their heads. That I’m noticing this at all is a pretty good clue that the story isn’t holding my attention.

(unrelated distractions that I’d prefer…)

The Apothecary Diaries, episode 4

The OP and ED songs do not belong to this show. Other than that, I’m enjoying this. This week, Our Unflappable Heroine’s reputation forces her to Heal or Die, but it takes the intervention of Our Pretty-Boy Harem Manager to get her to the patient’s bedside. Whereupon she quickly discovers that someone has been undermining the foundation of her previous work. With foundation.

Verdict: watching Maomao get literally bounced out of the room by haughty ladies-in-waiting adorably lightened the mood of an otherwise serious situation. Bonus points for blowing her top and putting them all in their place. Double bonus for growing up in whorehouses and learning things that will blow the mind of a veteran concubine.

(Vermeil: “hey, I wonder what Maomao whispered in her ear?”)

NSFW

Unrelated, Yui 유이

I’m generally disappointed with Korean glamour models; so much potential, sadly wasted. So when I find one who’s actively participating in the shoot, showing multiple realistic facial expressions, and revealing that her skin is free of plastic, steel, and ink, I take note (site is NSFW and full of nasty Javascript!).

That is, changing a long string of weak seasons into a strong one!

(running behind because I had to clean house for guests)

S-Rank Daddy’s Girl, episode 5

Enter The Loli! In which it’s all fun and games until someone looses the plot. Our Favorite Dad pays the price for his failed attempt at stern parenting, and then goes on a leisurely trip with Our Adventure Gals to visit Our Noble Sisters, while the power of loli stirs up unrest. Next week, action!

Verdict: a light-hearted transition episode. If you were wondering who three of the chibis were in the ED animation, now you know. Bonus points for Helvetica refusing to give up easily.

(No new fan-art for this show, so here’s an elf who likes bone. I had hot elf chicks on my mind because there are two of them in book 10 of this series, which came out this week; only one of them has boobs even vaguely competitive with Arianne, though, and she will not be appearing this season. Or dressing like Arianne.)

Frieren, episode 8

Fun fact: Our Villainous Villain Lügner shares his voice with Our Favorite Dad. Watching these two shows back-to-back was a little disconcerting.

This week, Frieren’s little smile says an awful lot about what she thinks of her party’s potential. What she doesn’t tell them says something about caring enough to not make them worry about where’s she’s going while they’re off dealing with the threat they know about.

Verdict: aaaaah, that’s the spot. Right there.

(this one needs an “Ex Libris” caption…)

Honou No Haramase Dosanko-Gyaru?

ANN links to two teasers for an upcoming winter harem anime about Gals in Hokkaido who gather around our recently-transplanted Tokyo Potato-kun.

I would swear on a stack of titty-mags that they hired the staff of SQUEEZ (NSFW!) to produce the teasers, if not the actual show. That is, the music and character-introduction style are straight out of a hentai game, and there’s at least one SQUEEZ-scale bust; it’s just missing the nipples, and you know how stingy they can be about that these days, until the Bluray release.

(unrelated cute dragonette foodie is probably not from Hokkaido)

Related…

I broke down and bought the Bluray of Immoral Guild, because for all that it’s a trash-tier ecchi harem comedy, Our Frustrated Hero is actually a decent guy who cares about His Constantly-Molested Companions, and there’s some actual character development in their relationships, especially between him and Our Remarkably Busty Separated-MILF Guild Receptionist.

(the receptionist is married to perhaps the stupidest man in their universe, who ran out on her as soon as she had the kid, and in fact only slept with her once, a fact that runs through her head when she ends up in Accidental Cowgirl position atop Our Stiffened Hero while wearing nothing but a men’s white shirt)

(her 11-year-old remarkably busty daughter, who very deliberately dressed her that way, walks in on them and shouts “make me a little brother!”)

The Bluray uncensoring mostly consists of nipples and how monsters suck on them, but there are also more close-up panty shots (and how monsters infiltrate them), and a few scenes that I think were added or redone. For instance, I don’t remember the pure-souled priestess recreating one of her molestations at home by experimenting with auto-asphyxiation while humping her magic staff; if that was in the broadcast version, it must have been heavily censored.

I agree, but not the way they think…

“AI risk must be treated as seriously as climate crisis, says Google DeepMind chief” – headline from The Guardian

(the only kind of AI I can get behind…)

Starfield landing issue

It seems I misdiagnosed the problem in the Freestar Ranger quest where your ship lands about 5 kilometers from the target. It is sending me to an unrelated Point Of Interest, but that’s not the actual problem:

My ship’s too big to fit on the landing pad.

If you stick to the starter ship or another small fighter-type, you get to land near your target. If you acquired something relatively large, you’re forced to land waaaaaaaay the hell out in the boonies. But your quest marker still says “land at X” until you walk right up to it; the left hand isn’t on speaking terms with the right.

(I learned this while experimenting with minimalist ship design; the UI for the ship editor is horrible even by Bethesda standards, so it takes a while to get a handle on it, and you have to travel to multiple shipyards to get all the good parts)

Glasses Girl…

Dear Coco, while I’m definitely interested in girls wearing glasses, it had never occurred to me to specify where (site NSFW and filled with obnoxious Javascript):

Y’know, I was looking forward to the introduction of the black-haired twintail from the OP, but it turns out she brings all the shouty. Let’s keep her seen-but-not-heard from now on, okay?

Before that, though, is the fight we’ve all been waiting for, or at least for it to be over with, since the failure condition set by Our Sociopathic Rockstar Hero would basically end the show. His methods will never make him any friends, but his goal is to light a fire under Our Shy Heroine Shy’s cute little ass, and he succeeds. As a bonus, her powers are no longer generic.

Verdict: the big fight is full of tell-don’t-show, but it still manages to move things forward and develop Shy’s character. I’m still enjoying it. Also, “Praise Conflict!”