Nothing jumps out at me at all for the summer season; I like the character design for the female lead in Mysterious Maid, but nothing about the concept, and I liked Weird ScienceMagic better when it was called Macademi Wasshoi!.

As for fall, so far all that looks promising is Flatcat & Sword. Shield Hero season 3 is supposed to be coming in October as well, but they did such a terrible job on 2 that I’m not interested. And I dropped Spy×Family pretty early, so its second cour isn’t on my list.

Maybe I’ll just have to spend the next few months cheesecake-blogging…

(Macademi Wasshoi! is still streaming on Crunchyroll, fortunately, since if it ever got a US DVD release, I can’t find it anywhere used; there are still a few seeded torrents, though…)

Unrelated,

Just noticed that Steven’s brother let the denbeste.nu registration lapse, so it now points to an ad-infested page with boilerplate anime contents in a language I don’t speak.

Shield Hero 2.11

The return of Our Scenery-Chewing Asshat, an awful lot of talking, and a sudden cliffhanger. Blah-blah-blah. Only good part was the introduction of a luscious redhead with a ponytail, who’ll probably never show up again now that she’s served her single role in the plot.

RPG Real Estate 11

Too. Much. Plot. And I’m not a big fan of spontaneous melodrama.

Next week, posthumous exposition!

Skeleton Knight 11

I could do with less scenery-chewing over-the-top cackling villains this season. Pretty sure this one will be dead soon, fortunately.

In other news, if you had any doubt that Our Lung-Hung Elf Gal wants the B, in this episode she gets prickly after catching Our Bony Hero in the arms of another woman.

(related fan-art is finally showing up that does not involve the early-season gang-rape scenes)

Demon Girl Next Door 2.10

In which Our Demon Girl trains hard, both really and virtually.

Bonus: “You got your tanuki child bride in my demon girl!”

Komi 2.8

Field trip! Pillow fight good, homoerotic muscle-boys bad.

Dear Adobe,

Did you hire away Apple’s QA VP? I ask because the latest Photoshop update failed twice and then pretended it had succeeded, leaving me with a thoroughly broken app. Fortunately the uninstall still worked, and preserved my preferences for the reinstall.

Count Dr. Olaf Horrible vs Who?

Neil Patrick Harris has been announced as the antagonist for new Dr Who Ncuti Gatwa when Russell T. Davies takes the show back over.

They’re really trying to signal that they’re going to make a decent show this time, bringing back David Tennant, Catherine Tate, and possibly even Bernard Cribbins for the 60th anniversary.

Recently overheard…

Someone on an executive search team: “I’m sorry we weren’t able to hire a diverse candidate”.

I’d have been strongly tempted to reply, “so you hired di-better one instead?”

Shield Hero 2.8

I’m losing interest fast, here. What this really feels like is a highlight reel rather than an attempt to tell a coherent story.

RPG Real Estate 8

Y’know, Our Boobie Newbie’s sleepwear looks a lot like what Alizee wore in the classic night-elf J’en Ai Marre video. Fits about the same, too. Just sayin’.

More of the usual, with Our Agents getting a bit of sticker shock while shopping, then quickly and accidentally resolving a new client’s housing problem. There’s even room for a tiny bit of plot advancement, although I honestly don’t think this is really going anywhere. I kind of hope not, in fact.

Next week: hot springs!

Skeleton Knight 8

The Tale Of The Ninja Flatcat, leading Our Bony Hero to go all otaku, to the bafflement of Our Rescue Kitten and Our Bountiful Elf. We really need to move the plot along to a hot springs episode. Yes, that means that we’ll probably flesh out the main character, but as long as the girls get some bath time, it will be worth it.

(I wasn’t kidding about giving up on trying to find related pictures…)

Demon Girl Next Door 2.7

Summer festival, summer homework. Our Demon Girl will be fine as long as she’s got one leaf on.

(classical reference)

Komi 2.5

Winter is comingall over this episode. I could have done without the blow-by-blow games of Hanafuda, though.

Yeah, I got nothin’…

…in the way of anime to watch next season.

(overclocked girlfriend is unrelated)

Extreme demand

At the grocery store a few nights ago, every variety of two-liter soda was marked “limit 6 due to extreme demand”. You could still stock up on cans or smaller bottles, which suggests that it’s the supply that’s the problem, and they don’t want to run out going into the holiday weekend.

Smokin’!

I haven’t bought a grill yet at the new house, because I’m waiting for the sale of the old place before ordering a deck with a built-in natural-gas grill. So I tried the simplest of indoor steak methods: a cast-iron skillet on the stovetop.

The over-the-range microwave/fan combo unit was as spectacularly useless as I expected it to be. Fortunately we had put screens in a few windows, so I was able to vent the smoke outdoors before all the alarms went off.

Unrelated, I briefly met another neighbor, the city councilman across the street. Seems nice.

Offered and accepted

On the one hand, the offer is $24K below our asking price. On the other hand, it’s the first offer in the 9 days the house has been on the market, and many of the other houses in the area just dropped their prices that much or more, out of fear of inflation-driven fiscal incontinence. On the gripping hand, it would still net more than enough to pay off the new house. And upgrade it.

Deals can fall through, of course, but we’ve got a pre-approval from a decent lender (that is, Not Cooper), so it’s worth getting started.

Coincidentally, I got a call yesterday from Mr. Cooper, apparently trying to get me to refinance my new house through them. I really wish I had a classic Bell landline phone, so I could have hung up with an appropriate level of force.

AppleTV, Go, Go, Go!

No, really, just go; don’t inflict a JJ Abrams live-action Speed Racer series on the world.

(picture is unrelated but froggy)

(classical reference)

Shield Hero 2.7

Theme song: Whole New World

In which the slate is wiped clean, and we are spared the presence of the bozo villain from last episode. And we get one small bonus: the return of L’il Raf.

RPG Real Estate 7

Theme song: Burning Down The House

After succeeding by failing, Our Boobie Newbie takes Our Dragon Loli home to meet her parents. And her little sisters, who were happy to show off their character growth.

(picture is unrelated)

Skeleton Knight 7

Theme song: I.L.B.T.’s

In which the side view is most impressive, and…, um…, oh yeah, Our Bony Hero raises the dead and gets to meet the ninja catgirl again. Sorry, gotta keep my priorities straight there.

(I’m not even looking for related pictures for this one any more)

Demon Girl Next Door 2.7

Theme song: National Brotherhood Week

Delayed. I guess that’s fair, since they really pulled out the stops last week to wrap up a big story.

Komi 2.4

Theme song: Deck The Halls

In which Christmas is Merry.

Next-Gen Forger

This is a very nice adult version of Anya.

Unrelated,

I had a big batch of incomplete-Edge-downloads due to the way it flags supposedly-insecure images it’s already displayed to you, and I wasn’t looking forward to clicking through the download-anyway-dammit dialog box 100+ times, so I went to see what they were actually storing in the .crdownload files.

Answer: the completed download it thought was too scary to download. A quick rename and the problem went away.

Speaking of scary and unrelated:

NSFW

Quick, drop her into a volcano!

Electrical Happy Dance

Scary warnings about rolling blackouts are not just for California and Texas. But I’m in Ohio now, and we’re apparently fine. Which is good, because it gets pretty darn hot and muggy in the summer, and I’m not used to that any more.

Shield Hero 2.6

Finally, the turtle story is over. Sadly, the scenery-chewing villain (more annoying than the OP song) ran away to fight another day, and Our Heroes came tumbling after. And is it just me, or did Our Noob Girl’s sudden competence come completely out of left field?

RPG Real Estate 6

In which Our Overworked Agents scramble to house a bunch of refugees. Then it’s Our Warrior Gal’s turn to pull the perfect property out of her back pocket, while Our Boobie Newbie frets about the trouble with half-dragons. In the end, the two halves are tied together quite tidily with a ribbon labeled foreshadowing.

Skeleton Knight 6

In which Our Bony Hero gets his pelvis handed to him by someone who actually knows how to use a sword, but in a good way. Once again, His Dark Secret is accepted without any difficulty, leading to that most precious of moments, Our Busty Elf Maiden walking in naked while he’s bathing (buythebluraybuythebluraybuythebluray).

(picture is unrelated; you know the drill)

Demon Girl Next Door 2.6

In which Our Demon Girl scores a significant victory and moves forward toward a new goal, with her best girl by her side.

Komi 2.3

Nothing demonstrates more clearly the difference between koi and ai than trying to read Our Komi’s mind. Our Pyscho Lesbian and Our Chuu-ni both fail to learn the lessons being taught by Our Hero, because their passion for Komi is self-centered, while his relationship with her has always been about understanding her feelings.

Sadly, this is followed by another round of Our Misunderstood Giant failing to communicate in awkward and embarrassing ways, which I just can’t get into.

So, on Sunday, instead of catching up on last week’s anime that I wanted to watch, instead I watched the available episodes of Virgin Road. It’s a real mixed bag. As much as I approve of the concept, the premise has massive holes in it, (apparently eventually explained in the novels, in a likely retcon), Our Psycho Lesbian is shallow and annoying, Our ExeCutie’s lack ofsubdued personality is handwaved away by her backstory, and Our Bubble-Headed Tit Queen is More Than She Seems. It looks like there’s a very slow reveal of what’s really going on, slow enough that this season is unlikely to catch up to anything that’s teased in the OP.

Now, let’s write up last week’s anime, two hours before this week’s episodes start showing up!

Shield Hero, episode 2.5

Are we there yet?

No, seriously, how long is this turtle story?

RPG Real Estate, episode 5

Let’s play house… in bikinis! Our Boobie Newbie excels at this game, despite assigning the Mama role to someone less top-heavy. Then Our Agents are bullied into finding a free house for a spoiler, and Our Dragon-Service Loli (or Loli-Service Dragon) hints at hidden depths. Or something like that. Fluff and cheesecake.

Skeleton Knight, episode 5

In which Our Bony Hero and Our Busty Elf free more slaves from mustache-twirling rapists, bond over their shared desire to cuddle the fluffy mascot, and head off to adventures in elf-ville. Oh, and apparently she likes her men stiff, since the revelation of his dire secret bothers her less than missing a meal.

The tone shifts continue to be jarring, with Miss Nearly-Nude Canada bouncing between crushing testicles and snuggling the fluffball. She’s kind of like the love child of Emma Peal and Benny Hill, constructed of equal parts Action Girl and Comic Relief.

(and, yes, she really is from the village of Maple in the forests of Canada; this world has been isekai’d many, many times)

(picture is completely unrelated, for the usual reason)

Demon Girl Next Door, episode 2.5

I like it when Shamiko spends time in Crisis Management form.

Komi, episode 2.2

This one was a pretty random collection of unconnected short chapters, with Our Komi being scared of a storm, several boys imagining date scenarios with their classmates, Our Psycho Lesbian obsessing over Komi’s panties, and a visit to a cat café.

Unrelated,

At first, I thought my dishwasher was broken. Then I found that it’s controlled by the wall switch right next to the one for the garbage disposal. I’ve never seen that before. It works, but is loud enough that I’ll be ordering a Bosch Real Soon Now.

The fridge is not just old and loud, but contagious. When the compressor kicks on, it generates vibrations strong enough to cause the toaster six feet away to start vibrating in sympathy, adding even more noise. It’s also set up for a man in a wheelchair, so I have to reach down even for the top shelf. Fortunately it’s currently only holding Diet Pepsi, lunch meat, and leftovers, but it’s now at the top of my list for replacement.

The washer and dryer are functional, and blessedly IoT-free, but they’re energy hogs. Hopefully they’ll hold out long enough for me to get new gas lines run, because I’d rather have a gas dryer.

I’m not a fan of the electric oven/range combo unit, but replacing it also requires running gas lines, so I can install a dual-fuel unit and have a gas range and electric oven. Since I’m still just starting to settle in, I’ve only used the range to boil water for the good ramen I brought from California, and it at least did that well, but I had to unpack some Le Creuset for it, since the only other pot I’ve unpacked doesn’t have a flat bottom that’s stable on the ceramic smoothtop.

And I really hate the “over the range” microwave oven/fan combo unit. In fact, I hate it more than I expected, even though it’s the only recent appliance in the kitchen. They’re astonishingly popular in new and renovated homes, but they’re just not very good. They’re too high up to use regularly as a microwave, and they’re simply poor range hoods. I’d rather buy one of the high-end countertop microwave/convection ovens; I’ve got plenty of counter space now.

While they’re installing gas, I’ll also have a line run to the back porch, so that when I get around to having a deck built, I can have a built-in gas grill that’s free of the tyranny of propane tanks. That’s a late-summer, post-old-house-sale thing, though, like replacing all the flooring and window shades.

Speaking of which, the old house goes up for sale on the 15th. It got thoroughly cleaned last week, staged, and power-washed, and I had the landscaper do some touchups to the yard as well. I haven’t seen the pictures yet; it probably looks like normal people lived there. 😁

Now to hire an adorably-precocious orphan and a lethally-gorgeous spinster to be my fake family…

Dear Expedia,

I’ll be traveling from Dayton to Salinas and back soon, so I went to book flight, hotel, and car rental. If I say “I’m going to Salinas”, then the only airport available is San Jose (San Francisco almost always has better flights). If I say “I’m going to San Francisco airport”, then the only available hotels are in and near San Francisco. In order to fly into SFO but stay near Salinas, I had to make two separate orders, one for air/car, one for hotel. I could find no way to put it all into one.

…and now for last week’s anime, which I did not watch at 70 MPH on a truck.

Shield Hero, episode 2.4

Oh, look, more characters from last season that I’m supposed to remember! This came after most of the episode was focused on Our Noob Girl, and most of the rest was about Our Doomed Royal Ho, while Our Shield Hero and Our Raccoon Child Bride didn’t have much to do, and Our Big Bird was just transportation. This… isn’t going very well.

RPG Real Estate, episode 4

Oh, no, another customer with a hard-to-satisfy-no-wait-that’s-perfect living requirement, this time mixed with a bit of inter-personnel conflict. And by conflict, I mean slapstick comedy, or at least slap-tail. Then Our Ambitious Priestess learns that her childhood home is being demolished and replaced with condos, and we get a trip down memory lane with a detour on the road to yuri. Fluff, perfect for recuperating from a four-day drive followed by an awful lot of box-shifting.

Next week: bikini beach-house, with Our Boobie Newbie attracting jealous and/or hungry eyes from her co-workers.

Skeleton Knight, episode 4

Yeah, so in this world even the mooks twirl their mustaches to show off how cartoonishly evil they are. And someone apparently told Our Curvy Hot Elf’s voice actress to go full dere-dere for Our Bony Hero right away. I think they spent more time on her boobs than on the story, which may be for the best; at least that might inspire some decent fan-art.

Not yet, though.

(picture is completely unrelated)

Demon Girl Next Door, episode 2.4

In which Our Demon Girl sets out to find more info on Momo’s Missing Mentor, but ends up becoming a waitress in a café. I fell asleep during this one. Not necessarily the episode’s fault, but it just didn’t hold my attention as much as usual.

Komi, episode 2.1

In which Our Komi recaps her friend list, and Our Latest Misunderstood (and Misunderstanding) Weirdo is quickly sorted out by Our Hero’s well-honed interpretation skills. Then it’s a battle to the… whatever as Our Psycho Lesbian crashes a study party in Our Chuuni’s bedroom. Finally, Our Hero and Our Komi silently show their awareness of each other’s difficulties. The days are just packed.

Home, SweetNeglected Home

The previous owner of my home was a widower in his nineties, in a wheelchair. I knew this, but had not thought through some of the implications. Home inspections focus on major defects, and do not necessarily test every little thing. Like the garbage disposal that had rusted in place after years of non-use, or the clothes dryer that worked but did not dry due to being clogged with at least a decade of lint.

I did know about the 12-inch-tall toilets, and had them on my list, so when I had a plumber come out to replace the disposal, I threw the other items at him as well, and got it all taken care of at once. By the end of the week, I’ll have a Toto Washlet seat to go with the new comfort-height toilets, and as soon as the electricians come out, I can add them to the other bathrooms as well.

While I wait for the POD to be delivered on Tuesday (hopefully to the top of the driveway…), I’ll be dealing with a flooring guy and a locksmith. I’m going to replace all of the wall-to-wall carpet as well as the tile and vinyl, and the locksmith is fixing one of the deadbolts that was mis-drilled so that its bolt has only been secured by the thin strike plate rather than the full-depth hole. Ironically, it’s the kind of deadbolt that has keys on both sides, so that someone couldn’t smash out the side windows and unlock it from inside. (I’m not fond of that, either; I’m thinking Level Bolt)

Meanwhile, Molly Maid will be doing a move-out cleaning service this week at the old place, so the realtor can bring in his staging people and get pretty pictures made for the listing.

Comcast Business: piss-poor customer service

Nowhere on their web site or call tree do they mention what hours customer service is open. In fact, the web site says 24x7, and the folks at the local Xfinity believed that as well. I had to call the corporate offices at 215-286-1700 to find out. I’m sure they blame Covid, but I’m smelling deliberate efforts to make it difficult to stop being a customer.

Also, nothing on the web site tells you that they require 30 days notice, so the rat bastards are going to bill me for another month, when I’m 2,400 miles away and the house is empty and up for sale.

I have nothing but nice things to say about the technical support I’ve received from Comcast Business. I have no nice things to say about their customer-reaming service. Fuck ’em with a rusty chainsaw.

Monday’s Lesson

I wanted to know what day they came by to pick up my trash and recyclables, so when I opened the door to go out and run some errands, I was happy to spot the truck about twenty yards from my driveway, and quickly took the first batch of move-in trash down to the street.

Unrelated,

I really need to do something to shift the R-18 Discovery page on Pixiv. Despite it being Not My Bag, Baby, the page has started to suggest an awful lot of shota and otokonoko content. This is odd, because until recently it was heavily biased toward your most recent bookmarks, and while I’ve had a few traps sneak into the cheesecake roundups when it wasn’t obvious, I’ve definitely never made a habit of actively clicking the like button on that stuff.

My tastes bend over lean towards… something else.

Journal of the Mysterious Creatures

Idly skimming through Amazon Prime video, this collaboration between a Japanese game company (MAGES) and a Chinese streaming site (bilibili), with character designs by an unknown company called Children’s Playground Creative and production by Children’s Playground Media, features a number of recognizable voice actors (ex: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) in supporting roles, while the nice-but-dimwitted male lead is someone who is inexplicably missing from the credits of the only other two anime series he ever worked on.

The girls are cute and the werewolf possesses Gainaxing powers, at least until the budget ran out; her transformation also features the white-hair/dark-skin combo that some find appealing (although like most of the art, how dark her skin is varies from scene to scene).

Other than that, it’s shouty and derivative and based on a Chinese web novel that just threw a bunch of tropes in a blender, the animation is low-budget with plenty of shortcuts and frequently-off-model character art, the end-of-episode chibi chats are done by the Chinese voice actors with Japanese subtitles, and the low-quality English subs are randomly out of sync and injected with lines from the Spanish sub. So, quality all around.

If you’re really bored some night and you have Prime, it’s… oddly watchable, in a likely-accidental retro-cartoon Scooby Gang sort of way. Note that fan-service is basically limited to the occasional cleavage closeup, and it’s a purely platonic harem.

Eromanga-ova

Somehow I missed the fact that there were two OVAs released in 2019 for Eromanga-sensei. I haven’t found subs for them anywhere, just raws, so I’ve just skimmed them a bit. The first one opens with Elf getting naked, so, y’know, same-old-same-old. This one is all about Our Manic Elf Dream Girl, including an Elf-themed ED set to the usual song. Cute touch: in the opening credits, her letter to her mom is addressed “Dear MyMother, 40 Example Street, London, England”.

The second one tests Sagiri’s boundaries as Her Beloved Brother catches a bad cold and she has to leave her room and take care of the cooking and cleaning. Also reenacting the ED animation and keeping the other haremettes from getting in to see him.

(bookstore-chan is still my favorite)

Shield Hero 2, episode 2

Another OP song I would be happy to never hear again. As for the contents, remember all the introductions and exposition we skipped last episode? Yeah, they put them here, mixed with a bunch of prep for an upcoming multi-national battle against a giant catastrophe turtle. I was amused to see Raphtalia snap to attention when Our Mysterious Royal Concubine offered Our Noob Girl advice on winning her man.

(…advice which boiled down to “put out early and often”…)

RPG Real Estate, episode 2

In which the first thing we see is that Our Newbie Real Estate Wizard has huge tracts of land. And don’t worry that she gets dressed right away; when the girls have a sleepover, the others will get a good look at how her square footage compares to theirs. As for the story, first their even-more-acreage boss tasks them with finding renters for some “challenging” rooms, which takes Our Half-Dragon about thirty seconds to solve. Then a little old lady serves up a softball that Our Boobie-Newbie hits out of the park thanks to a eureka moment in the bubble-bath. Also, Our Ambitious Priestess openly claims Our Scantily-Clad Warrior Maiden as her personal property.

…just in case anyone wondered if there were going to be serious challenges to be overcome rather than cute real estate agents doing cute home sales and yuri teasing.

(picture is unrelated)

Skeleton Knight, episode 2

(yes, I skipped the wretched OP)

It strains credulity that Our Bony Hero thinks he can somehow keep a low profile as he strolls across the countryside in massive shiny armor. It’s already getting a little old, so hopefully he gives up on it as soon as he joins up with the elf girl. In this episode, he acquires a fluffy companion while defending the right of little girls to pick herbs in the forest.

(the stuff on Pixiv that’s not from the official manga and light novel artists (official sample) is still mostly gang-rape of the entire female cast)

Demon Girl Next Door 2, episode 2

In which Our Story is interesting and funny. So, still getting what I’m looking for here.

In other news,

Elon Musk hasbends Twitter over a barrel.

Very safe safe

When I sold my motorcycle today and told the dealer who came to check it out that I was moving, he asked if I was selling anything else, and I mentioned the gun safe. He was interested, and we agreed they could come over and pick it up on Saturday.

Which means I need to empty it. And I can’t get the damn thing open. I know the combination and the correct number of magic turns, but it’s not working. After half an hour of this, I looked for local locksmiths, found one that was open after 5pm, and called to have someone come out. Half an hour later they called back to say they didn’t have anyone in my area.

Because they’re not a locksmith, they’re an online dispatch service with a bunch of fake “local” web sites. Their business address, which is about a mile from my house, is actually an Olive Garden restaurant.

So if I can’t get the silly thing opened tonight, I’ll have to call an actual locksmith in the morning. I blame Covid, since I haven’t been able to get to the range for two years…

(locksmith, wrench-wench, same difference)

Oh, by the way…

…the online “zero-pain” motorcycle sales brokers? Fucking useless. The first one kept me hanging for two days before saying “oh, 2005 is too old for us” (must be Hollywood Democrats), despite this being the very first field on their online form. The second immediately made an offer (low, but promising a quick wire transfer), then withdrew it in a phone call a day later, after having me upload full scans of my title, registration, driver’s license, etc. If I hadn’t checked them out to be sure they were legit, I’d be off buying identity-theft insurance right now…

The local dealer offered 50% more than the second online broker and wrote a check fifteen minutes after showing up to check out the bike.