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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It’s been a while since I’ve seen someone use footage from Hyper Police and DearS. The extensive use of AsoIku came as no surprise, of course.

I don’t care for the music, but… catgirls!

As expected, they dodged the usual solution. It is a pool episode with the girls in swimsuits, but it’s not a fan-service filler afterthought.

Not only does the DanMachi Sword Oratoria spinoff anime start in a few weeks, but there’s another spinoff series starting, Familia Chronicle, in both light novel and manga formats.

The first volume focuses on the enigmatic Ryū, and to make sure everyone takes notice, her bustline is considerably more impressive than in the anime. Apparently the Protagonist package includes upgrades.

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