I’m always up for catgirls, but I didn’t put The beast tamer who was kicked out of the hero’s party and met a super cat girl on my watchlist because it sounded like a second-rate mashup of Pharmacist & Princess and Slime-killing Witch, complete with fight-happy red dragon girl.

I was, however, bored and sleepless due to a minor reaction to the bivalent booster and a flu shot, so I watched the first episode (“Dear Crunchyroll, buy some streaming bandwidth”), and Our Cheerful Loser gets one of the most contrived meet-cutes of recent years, jumping in to rescue a catgirl from a tiger, except he can’t fight it at all and she was capable of killing it with a single blow at any time. And then she begs him to tame her, without any explanation of why this is useful or beneficial to either of them, and goes on to praise his super-duper awesome taming power that he thought was nothing special.

Coming soon: Our Taming Hero collects a busty dragon-waifu, twin loli fairy-waifus, and a loli foxgirl-waifu, all extremely powerful and inexplicably susceptible to his super taming power. There’s also a lady knight who joins up to restore the reputation of her order, but it doesn’t sound like she’s on the taming list.

Voice notes: Catgirl = Senko-san, Dragon-girl = Lola from Hidden Dungeon (also the lead catgirl in Futoku no guild and the guild receptionist in Flatcat & Sword), Fairy#1 = Lily from Zombieland Saga, Foxgirl = Kaede Foxia from Realist Hero, Knight = Emilia & Megumin & Sagiri. Our Hero’s most notable role was as Yuito in Iroduku.

Reincarnated as a sword is definitely based more on the manga than the light novels, although it’s thankfully not a page-for-page adaptation. Not that I’ll object to seeing Our Guild Receptionist And Friends providing full-frontal nudity in the bath. Just keep the Fran-service to a minimum, please; she’s 12.

No idea how far they plan to go with the story in only 12 episodes, but there are plenty of long-winded RPG-mechanic discussions in the books that can be chopped. Sword-dad is really obsessed with the stuff, but you don’t really start to get any answers about his nature until around book 9 or 10.

I’m happy with the performances of Our Heroes, but I’m not sure how much of Amanda I’ll be able to take, based on the trailers.

(unrelated catgirl is waiting for better Fran-art)

Futoku No Streaming

The cheesy fan-service harem comedy Futoku No Guild (“Guild of Depravity”), whose first episode aired today, has not been picked up by any streaming service, and there don’t even seem to be any raws floating around yet. I’m not sure if that’s a good sign, given the crap that does get licensed.

I mean, I fully expect it to be absolutely terrible based on the trailer, but that doesn’t make it worse than, say, Dungeon Slave Harem.

Why refer to Management of a Novice Alchemist by this title? Because while it didn’t come up in this episode, once she makes friends with girls closer to her age (starting next episode), she develops a major case of a-cup angst.

This episode is all setup, as every element of Our DFC Prodigy’s backstory is touched on, so they can get on with the show in episode 2. Which, given they only have 12 episodes total, is going to have to move briskly. I’ve skimmed the fan-translation that’s available, and I have no idea what they’ve picked as a stopping point; it kinda just drifts along, with the occasional crisis that they never really have trouble resolving.

(there’s basically no fan-art of this show yet (this is from the cover artist), merchandise is limited to unlicensed shipped-from-China crap, and it doesn’t look like the source has been licensed)

Demon Girl Next Door 2.12

The big finish, with Our Demon Girl bringing everyone together to solve Our Other Magical Girl’s bad-luck problem once and for all.

Special bonus Crisis Management Form transformations included:

Komi 2.10

Valentine’s Day went so well that even the presence of Katai couldn’t ruin it.

Super Harem Version + OVA

Kadokawa’s solution to releasing a new isekai show where the whole point of the original story is Our Slavehumper banging his fantasy-race slave harem every chance he gets is to release it in three versions: broadcast, harem, and “super harem”. The Bluray/DVD box sets will contain the super harem version plus bonus I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-hentai OVAs.

(platonic not-a-slave-harem is unrelated)

Cast Off!

What cheat power hasn’t been given to an isekai hero yet? I was going to say the Most Common Special Attack, otherwise known as effortlessly stripping women like anime figurines, but then I remembered Those Who Hunt Elves…

Down to the wireACH…

I got a call from the title company that cleared up the current state of the house sale: the buyers simply didn’t understand how long it takes to get money out of a 401K, their loan officer didn’t explain it to them, and their explanation to the realtor (relayed to me) reflected this cluelessness. To put the cherry on top, the 401K provider didn’t wire the money to the title company’s escrow account this morning, they’re sending it via ACH, which adds at least another day… as we go into a three-day bank-holiday weekend.

So they asked me to extend the closing date until the 6th, while hoping to be able to do it on the 5th. Their loan is approved, all the paperwork is signed, and the deal is done… as soon as they hand over the money.

My mortgage payment on the old house is due today, but not considered late until the 15th, so we don’t have to redo all the numbers based on a change in the balance. Yet.

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.