DanSora 9

In which Lefiya’s hormones go viral, infecting Filvis, and we once again discover exactly where we are in Bell’s story.

Also, I didn’t check the credits, but Hestia’s voice sounded off. Different seiyū for this cameo? [Update: no, it’s her; maybe she just didn’t get back into character for such a brief scene.]

Eromanga-sensei 10

Muramasa takes center stage, and takes over the ED with bikini shots, but what the hell is up with her face in profile? Cute from the front, WTF from the side.

Note to Pete: based on her instinctive use of her left hand to bonk Elf on the head, Love Rival Muramasa is definitely a southpaw, and since she’s such a traditional gal, I think the reason her right hand is always bandaged (besides “character design”) is what my Japanese teacher told me when she caught me with a brush in my left hand:

“Shodō is right-handed.”

DanSora 6

Newsflash: Aiz displayed a new emotion. Okay, it’s a pout, but that’s more than she’d shown in the previous series. Surprisingly, leveling up only took 1/3 of the episode, leaving time for her to pet Bell, pout over his flight-or-flight instincts, then rescue him from prum treachery. And have Loki and her senior staff discuss The Plot.

Eromanga-sensei 7

In which Fierce Rival Muramasa displays all of the emotion that she lacks as Aiz Wallenstein. Seriously, Saori Ōnishi must feel like she’s coming back to life when she switches from recording the wooden princess to this role. On a related note, am I the only one wishing for more editor-san?

Doctor Who 10.6

This episode felt a lot longer than the others. Maybe it’s because it wasn’t written by interns, and actually goes somewhere. Maybe because Moffat realized we all knew who was inside the box. Maybe because Nardole got an opportunity to do more than nag. The villain still feels derivative, but at least there was some variety in the sets.

No, I’m not talking about Jens, although she is the platonic ideal of the trope.

DanSora, episode 5

Big battle! Plot crumbs! Busty villain! Lefiya crushes! Lefiya gets jealous! Loki is 50% less annoying! Aiz shows third emotion! Cliffhanger ending that connects to main story!

Eromanga-sensei, episode 6

“We’ve secretly replaced Our Heroine with the cameraman from Agent Aika; let’s see if anyone notices.”

In the opening scene, bookstore-chan’s relationship level with Our Hero is firmly established: he calls her Tomoe, she calls him Mune-kun. So, childhood-friend level of intimacy, which means she doesn’t have a chance against any of the Strange Cute Girls who’ve entered his life. Speaking of which, this episode adds another one, and There Is Conflict.

In many anime, the “buy the Bluray” hook is “uncensored nudity”. In this one, it looks like it’s “animated Elf scenes”. Last episode had the fat jogger filler, this time they just panned over stills and added some audio.

DanSora, episode 4

In which it is revealed that Aiz once had a full range of emotions, before something as-yet-unspecified happened to her parents. Less time is spent on Lefiya’s desperate crush, but instead we get Tione going vigorously dere-dere over their pint-sized boss.

Speaking of which, I saw someone commenting that he had trouble remembering which name went with which amazon. The answer is simple: the last letter is their cup size. Tiona, DFC; Tione, boin!.

What really doesn’t work is splitting the party and having the annoying Loki annoy the annoying Bete. Their scenes advance the plot, but I just don’t enjoy the voice acting for either character.

By the way, this episode puts them about halfway through the second light novel, and it looks like book 3 wraps up the current plot. At the current pace, I’m guessing they’ll make it through book 4, at least, which includes Bell’s minotaur fight from their point of view.

Eromanga-sensei, episode 5

Okay, so Sagiri is a creepy middle-aged man in the body of an adorable loli, Our Hero is her pimp, and they both really need to get out more. The episode improved once Elf arrived, as usual.

Oh, almost forgot. WTF is up with the time-wasting shots of the fat jogger? Could you not find a better way to pad out the episode, like maybe animating the Elf-catch instead of showing a still?

Doctor Who, episode 10.4

Honestly, the best thing about this season is that it’s Steven Moffat’s last as showrunner. I don’t have a lot to say about this episode, except that, like the previous one, it feels like they’re just filing the serial numbers off of stories they did a few years ago and adding in a likely-disappointing season arc.

Note: it is common in Japan to come up with a 4-mora abbreviation for just about any lengthy name, so the ridiculous mouthful Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatte-iru darou ka quickly became DanMachi. But what do you do now that there are two spinoffs? Familia Chronicle could be trimmed to FamiCon, but that one was taken a long, long time ago, and doesn’t reference the main series. Worse, there’s just no good way to abbreviate Sword Oratoria. A bit of web-trolling suggests there’s no consensus forming, so I propose DanFami and DanSora.

DanSora episode 3

As previously discussed, this DanMachi spinoff uses Dream Girl Aiz as the wooden totem pole that more interesting characters dance around. Genki DFC Amazon Tiona and Tsundere Kyonyū Amazon Tione provide most of the fan-service, while Delusional Yuri Elf-mage Lefiya is the protagonist whose inexplicable crush on Aiz drives the action. Not the action she wants, but they’ve basically decided to replay the “I want to get stronger so I can nail the cardboard princess” theme from the original series, this time with a girl.

This episode covers the Mosterphilia event, but since everyone involved is higher-level than Bell, quickly resolves the original problem to focus on a retconned fight against a much more dangerous monster, as more buildup for the new menace (no longer just Something’s Up In The Dungeon, now it’s in town!). Lefiya powers through her pain and fear with dreams of Aiz, and is rewarded with an indirect kiss (squeeee!). Loki is less annoying than in the previous two episodes, as she does more than drunkenly fondle the girls.

Streaming only on Amazon’s new “Anime Strike” channel, which is a mixed bag. Good that I can watch it on a big screen, bad that they don’t bother to tell you when new episodes will be available. You just have to guess the schedule.

Eromanga-sensei episodes 1-4

Best thing going this season. Not without flaws, but while the episodes feel a little rushed, they’re still satisfying. And all the girls are interesting and appealing.

Streaming on Crunchyroll and Anime Strike.

Alice and Zōroku

I’ve just started on this one, and I like it quite a bit. More after I catch up.

…aka Sword Oratoria, the DanMachi spinoff (streaming on Amazon Strike, the existence of which answers the musical question “how come Crunchyroll still isn’t available on the Fire TV?”​).

The DanMachi light novels are sufficiently popular in Japan that they not only got manga and anime adaptations, but two spinoff novel/manga series, the first of which has its anime debut this season.

The author had a problem, though: Dream Girl Aiz Wallenstein has all the warmth and charm of a block of wood. A shapely block of wood that’s really good at killing monsters, but still, wood.

His solution was to make it an ensemble piece about her Familia, putting lots of emphasis on the genki half-naked amazons Tiona and Tione, and adding the insecure-but-eager elf-mage Lefiya, who really, really wants to be Aiz’s friend. Or “friend”; she has a rather active imagination.

The first two episodes are heavy on cheesecake, yuri, and foreshadowing that Something’s Up In The Dungeon, plus cameos by Bell and Hestia that establish where we are in the main story. And way too much Loki.

Oh, and Ayako Kawasumi has taken over the role of elf-senpai Riveria. Apparently the original voice actress is off dealing with health problems.

After Steven Den Beste died, some of the (many!) people who were concerned about the loss of his old web sites reached out to the family to try to recover the data from his server. I was pulled in because I was physically closest when it seemed like we might need someone to go to Portland to pick up the machine.

That wasn’t necessary, but since I was the one exchanging email with his brother, I was the one who ended up with a shiny little thumb drive containing the old Chizumatic site, and between that and the Wayback Machine, managed to synthesize a complete, functional website.

I packaged it all up, sent it to my not-so-secret allies, and then… nothing. This is not a criticism or complaint; everybody’s busy, and after that one energetic weekend, I hadn’t done anything about it, either.

But now I have a brand new virtual server at Amazon, where bandwidth is silly-cheap and disk space ain’t no big deal. And I’d already figured out the Nginx config to get the old server-side includes working.

So, this may not be the official permanent home of Steven’s old web sites, but it is a home, for a welcome houseguest.

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