Wulff

As I'm sure you're all aware, a pretty momentous occasion in video game history took a couple of months ago when the official port of Persona 4 Golden launched on PC through Steam.  Megami Tensei games and their spin-off game titles (like Persona and Catherine) are notoriously rare on the PC platform. As far as I'm aware the only games that ever made it onto PC during their original launches was the very first Megami Tensei game back in the late 80s and the very first Persona spin-off title in the mid 90s, along with a pretty obscure MMORPG that never saw much success beyond the borders of Japan in the mid 2000s. The franchise exists largely as console exclusive, the most prominent platforms being PS2, PS3 and the Nintendo 3DS. Chances are that if you're a fan of RPGs, especially the Japanese kind, you've at the very least heard of SMT/Persona. It's one of the oldest JRPG franchises to exist and has inspired a myriad of other titles throughout the decades, the most notorious and recent one being Undertale. 

But have you ever played it? I hadn't, not really, though I had a brief stint with Persona 5 back in early 2018.

Growing up I was never big into Japanese media, be it anime or video games. It wasn't until 2013, at the age of 19 going on 20, that I actually decided to give anime a real shot... And subsequently fell in love with it, but that's a different topic for a different time. As such I've missed most of the 'classics' of JRPG/Japanese media and I'm now on a bit of a quest to catch up on all the nerdy shit I missed during my teenage years. 

At the top end of that list was Persona 4. Considered by most of the people who've played it to be close to the definitive JRPG experience and one of the best games released... ever! Existing in the video game corner of the internet for over a decade, I've seen and heard a lot about Persona 4, though somehow I managed to steer clear of major spoilers. With the unrelenting praise that gets heaped onto this title, it had some pretty big boots to fill in my mind and still I found myself cautiously optimistic when I launched it on Steam for the first time a few months ago.

First impressions were... Not great. 

The PC port ran flawlessly for me and the older stylized graphics of the game were quite clean and endearing, there wasn't anything wrong on the technical side of things. The issue stemmed from me being inexperienced with JRPGs in general. Persona 4 is as much a visual novel as it is a video game with gameplay mechanics, inventory/party management and boss fights. The beginning of this game is slow, like really slow. I can see this being an issue if you're a person who prefers open world/sandbox type games or if you don't like a lot of reading in your video games, but I don't fall into either of those categories. The issue I had personally is that the game tells you very early on that you're on a timer. You have a limited amount of time to spend in Inaba, the town at the center of the events of the game, and if you spend your time 'wrong', you might not get to see all the aspects of the game you'd like.

I hate time trials in video games and Persona 4 is one giant time trial. Every day the player gets to make decisions on what to do, which characters to hang out with, which quests to pursue, which dungeons to visit/revisit, which part-time jobs to take on and which social parameters to work on raising. Performing an action causes time to pass until you eventually hit a new day and the cycle begins again. Certain characters can only be accessed on specific days of the week (like Thursday/Friday/Sunday) and they won't show up during certain weather. Some characters require your social parameters to be raised to a certain level in order for their social link to be progressed, some characters become unavailable past a certain point in time (due to story developments) and some characters require you to talk to unmarked NPCs around town before their social link is unlocked. The game doesn't tell you any of this, by the way. Pursuing the social links you're most interested in can be a real puzzle at times.

As a new player, I was feeling stressed out. I got obsessed with min-maxing my time spent in Inaba and on many occasions I found myself googling optimization guides for the game before ultimately closing the browser tab and resolving to experience my first play-through blind. On top of this, the game kinda feels like a tutorial for a long time and I don't just mean an hour or two, I mean the first 10-15 hours of me playing the game. When I'm already stressing over my in-game time table, having the game railroad you into certain events/conversations that causes time to pass in order to introduce you to new area/mechanic is really damn frustrating.

At this point you might think that this post is to tell you just how much I dislike Persona 4 Golden, but it's actually the complete opposite. After roughly 75 hours, the latter half played obsessively over the course of three days, I finished my first play-through of the game, achieving the True/Golden ending.

Without a shadow (hehe) of a doubt, I can say that Persona 4 Golden is one of my top 5 favourite video games of all time.

Once I got about 25-30 hours into the game, struggling to understand the mechanics of the game and all the options available to me, both in combat and in social links, something clicked. Persona 4 Golden is a huge game filled with secrets and mysteries and there's absolutely no reason to get stressed out over the timer the game hangs over your head from the very beginning. Even as a complete newcomer to the series (and a novice in terms of JRPGs in general), I managed to max out 17/21 social links before the end of the game, romance the character I wanted to romance, max out all of my social parameters, fuse the most powerful personas of their respective types, beat the fairly difficult and completely optional sidebosses, and achieve the True/Golden ending, without ANY guidance. As much trouble as it was giving me initially, I firmly believe the best way to experience P4G is by going in completely blind on your first playthrough, even if it causes you a bit of stress and frustration.

Once I got over that hump of worrying about time management and just doing what I personally wanted to do in-game, uncaring of optimization, the game really really REALLY grew on me. While obviously dated (original release of P4 being in 2008 and P4G in 2012), the graphics are clean, crisp and really makes the rural Japanese town of Inaba come to life in a believable way. The game packs a serious punch in both style and flair, something that continues into the presentation of Persona 5. I don't know if Persona 4 started this trend or if it's a carry-over from Persona 3, but I absolutely love it. Combat animations are flashy and cool and knocking all enemies on their ass before unleashing an all-out-attack with your entire party is extremely satisfying. Another stand out feature of P4G's graphics/style are the various dungeons you crawl through during the length of the game. They exist as manifestations of a person's true desires/feelings, only they've been warped due to certain events that take place during the game. I won't get into too much detail here due to spoilers but they're really interesting from an art design perspective.

Supporting a game that's already oozing with style is an absolute banging OST. I find it hard to describe music in details, so instead I'll just link one of the battle themes from P4G and let you judge for yourself. It didn't take long before I was singing/whistling along to the OST whenever I loaded up the game for another session.

With all of this said, the best part about P4G is without a doubt the characters and the story they take part in. It is extremely rare that a game manages to make me attached to every character associated with the MC/Player character and yet somehow P4G did it. Do I have characters I like more than others? Of course, but I don't dislike any of them and that is pretty fucking rare for me. Not only do I not dislike any of them, but their development and the shit they go through over the course of the game is extremely believable and in the case of a couple of the characters, extremely relatable. I'd be lying if I said I never felt a twinge of emotion during the later parts of the game. Beyond the characters, the overarching plot of the game is a pretty refreshing murder-mystery story and while who/whydunnit stories are by no means an original concept, Persona 4's spin on it is enjoyable from start to finish and keeps you guessing. Several of my friends can attest to the fact that I've confidently declared myself close to the end of the game only for another twist to appear on the story that threw me into disarray and left me hungry for more. The Golden ending especially is pretty damn interesting.

Is it a groundbreaking, life-changing and completely original story? Obviously not, but it's still a league above the things we usually see in video games.

I could go into more minute detail about why I enjoyed this game the way I did, but this is already REEEEEALLY long. The game also has minor flaws that I haven't touched upon beyond my initial hurdle getting into it, but they're pretty minute so I'll skip them here.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading. I mostly write these long blog posts when I have something I need to get off my chest, not necessarily for others to read. Though obviously I'm happy if they do, otherwise I wouldn't post it publicly.
 

 

I didn't watch very much anime this year, at least not a lot of stuff that aired in 2018. I'm not really why but I felt especially apathetic towards anime these past 12 months. It's not that I've grown to dislike the medium or anything, I just didn't quite have the drive that I feel I've had in previous years and this resulted in a lot of shows I was had initially been wanting to give a try getting completely skipped over and a lot of shows I started watching getting dropped, not necessarily because I disliked them (though a few of them were definitely subpar), but because my motivation to watch was at an all-time low. A moment of silence for the fallen shows of 2018

- Darling in the Franxx
- Mahou Tsukai no Yome
- Overlord II
- Overlord III
- Violet Evergarden
- Takagi-san
- Steins;Gate 0
- Megalo Box

- Full Metal Panic: Invisible Victory

- Uma Musume: Pretty Derby
- FLCL: Progressive/Alternative
- Goblin Slayer
- Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai
- SSSS. Gridman

These were all shows I wanted to watch, give a try or even started watching but didn't end up finishing. RIP.

Anyway, let's initiate blogging!

My definite anime of the year was 'Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho' or 'A Place Further than the Universe' in English. The show had flown completely under my radar because frankly the premise seemed a bit odd and I had assumed it was just be your typical moe-moe-kyun SoL with some weird gimmick. The gimmick in this case being that the main cast of girls wanted to travel to Antarctica. I eventually decided to give it a watch because a few friends were interested in watching it, namely Huff and Silent and what followed was one of the most fun, heartwarming, meaningful and at times sad and melancholic anime I've ever seen. SoraYori is not your typical moe show, at all. It's a fully fleshed out story with a clear red thread all the way through it. It doesn't drag on with meaningless filler and has a clear beginning and ending. It's cast of characters are all people with their own circumstances and emotions rather than just cardboard anime stereotypes and the climax of SoraYori is actually really emotional, much to my surprise. Without going deep into spoiler territory I whole-heartedly recommend Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho, it is one of the few anime I've rated a full 10/10 in the past couple of years.

With that out of the way, I'll briefly summarize a few of the shows I watched and enjoyed this year, though not all of these will be anime that aired in 2018!

Pop Team Epic was a wild ride. I ultimately did enjoy it, though not all of the skits hit their mark, but that's OK. I'd recommend watching it just because of how fucking zaney it is. Boku no Hero Academia continued its golden streak with a third season that delivered as well as I could have hoped for. I'm pretty sure I've been droning on about this show for the past three years so I'll keep it short. The fights are great, the characters are great, the soundtrack is great, the animation is great. Still one of the best shounen anime currently on the market. The ONLY complaint I have about Boku no Hero Academia is that unfortunately its villains don't get the development they deserve in order to really captivate me. Yuru Camp was a very cozy watch. You could tell it was made with the intention of sparking interest in outdoor camping for people in Japan but it didn't go overboard with the infomercial bullshit unlike certain other shows (cough Dagashi Kashi) and overall was just a really cute and warm and comfy little show. Perfect to wind down after a long and stressful day. I can also recommend watching it in bed and falling asleep to it. It's very nice.

Because I have some kind of Stockholm Syndrome I continue to consume Sword Art Online anime as they're released. I've watched all of them, even though I didn't particularly care for the series. Don't ask me why. Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online was different though, because this anime was a pure spin-off and did not involve any of the characters from the mainline SAO story, outside of them being casually mentioned in conversation once or twice. Initially I was really happy with how this anime was turning out, because it seemed they were gonna skip over all the stupid 'if you die in game, you die in real life!' bullshit that made the original SAO so fucking tedious to watch. Instead it seemed they were embracing the idea of these characters simply playing a VR MMORPG and that was honestly quite refreshing. UNFORTUNATELY they crawl back to that tired trope about halfway into the anime and somehow it's even dumber this time. The show was still a fun watch overall but the contrived drama that started halfway through definitely cost it some marks. Hanebado! is a sports anime centered around Badminton. A friend asked me on a whim if I wanted to watch it, because both of us have enjoyed sports anime together in the past and neither of us knew what we were getting into. Overall, Hanebado! was... alright. The show has some real fucking nice animation, especially during the Badminton matches but unfortunately the stakes of the show didn't quite match the tone and most of the characters got sidelined to make room for a story arc between mother and daughter that was... Well it was kind of stupid. It had a Danish girl in it though, which came as a surprise to me because Denmark never fucking appears in any kind of media, let alone anime. Overall I'd only recommend it if you really like sports anime or if you really like badminton. Finally we had Zombieland Saga, which was another anime I hadn't intended to watch but decided to join a group of friends in watching. The first three episodes were really, really good. They made some great comedy playing on the zombie gimmick and there were some genuinely great moments and I was laughing my ass off. Unfortunately the show took the direction I had hoped it wouldn't and started becoming more about interpersonal drama between the characters and a lot of the standard tropes that come up in idol anime. It wasn't bad or anything, I just thought it got kind of boring in the second half.

 

Fate/Extra: Last Encore was a thorough disappointment. I'm a massive fan of the Fate franchise and have consumed most of what there is to consume surrounding it, be it visual novel, anime or video games. It was hard to follow, even for someone like me who's actually played Fate/Extra and I can't imagine anyone unfamiliar with the game/franchise understanding anything of whats going on in this anime. I didn't quite know what to expect going into the anime adaptation of Junji Ito's horror manga work: Ito Junji Collection. I really like Junji Ito's stuff but it didn't translate into animated format unfortunately.

As for anime I watched this year that didn't air in 2018, there were a few. I watched the entirety of Haikyu!, a shounen sports anime about Volleyball. It was fucking great and everything I hope for in my sports anime. I watched Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokyou or 'Girls' Last Tour' in English. It was a really entertaining and slightly bizarre/surreal watch that overall I enjoyed a lot. Had it aired in 2018 it would've definitely made the list somewhere. I finally got around to watching the new Devilman anime, which really surprised me at how interesting and different it was. It pains me to say that it falls apart at the end though. It might be true to the original manga but that didn't make it any less abrupt and poorly executed, which is a real shame because it was super neat up until that last episode. I also watched 'Senjou no Valkyria', which is the anime adaptation of the video game 'Valkyria Chronicles'. I've played and enjoyed the first Valkyria Chronicles video game and the anime does not live up to the game at all. The plot is all jumbled up and fan favourite characters are killed off with no fanfare left right and center. One could argue that it's a better representation of what a war might be like with all the death and destruction, but it completely fails to capture the spirit of the game it's adapting and thus falls completely flat. Would not recommend. Finally I watched Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya (or 'Prillya' in short). This is a spin-off from the mainline Fate series set in an alternate universe where one of the characters from the original Fate story, namely Illyasviel von Einzbern, ends up as a magical girl. This is show is infamous for it's aggressive fanservice of characters that are underaged and in general has a certain notoriety to it. I'll admit right now that I'm completely unfazed by most fanservice in anime. Sure I think some of it is pretty distasteful but if whatever story is surrounding it is good enough, I can deal with it. That's exactly the case with Prillya because behind the relatively uninteresting Slice of Life aspects and the frankly unsavoury fanservice lies a really decent story with some really cool fight scenes that explores a lot of characters from the Fateverse that didn't quite get the attention they deserved in the mainline anime. It's not something I would recommend if you are new to anime as a medium or if you're not a devoted fan of the Fate franchise, but I was genuinely surprised at how good the show was when it got serious.

And that's it! That's been my anime year of 2018 in review. If you made it through my blog, good job! Thanks for reading!
 

Many, many years ago, we're talking 2008-2010, I was a member of a website known as 'WeGame'. It was fairly small at the time and eventually got sold out to the Chinese but to be quite honest, it was pretty ahead of its time back when it launched. It was a video hosting website that was competing with YouTube and it even had its own video recording software that was free and pretty damn good for the time. On top of that it had extensive community features like forums and very customizable personal profiles and channels for uploads. I used to post regularly on that forum and I'd participate in their weekly game nights and have a lot of fun. I made a few friends on this forum, most of who I lost contact with over the years after the site itself warped into something completely different, but I still maintain contact with a couple of those people. One them is a Scottish lad called Grier who a few people on here know very well and another was a person we'll call TM because if I gave you their actual online handle you could probably google yourself to a bunch of their stuff in a few clicks and I don't think that's necessary.

Now TM was always a bit more impersonal with me compared to Grier. With Grier I'd regularly Skype with him for hours back in the days and we played video games together quite regularly even after WeGame ended. All my communications with TM happened via various chats or private forum messages and it was pretty much all about video games we both liked and nothing more than that. After WeGame died off I lost contact with TM for about half a year until we completely randomly bumped into each other on a totally separate forum. I recognized their username and they mine and after exchanging a few PMs we realized who each other were. So we were back to chatting about random dumb shit. It felt a lot like having a pen pal except this was all PMs rather than actual letters. Fast forward a while and things had gotten fairly personal between us. I now knew that TM was actually a girl in real life, one year younger than myself and that she'd been going through some struggles in life with very strict parents who she complained about a lot to me. I'd also shared quite a lot of personal stuff about myself including a picture and so forth. This was back in my second year of high school and about 3-4 years since the death of WeGame.

Now everything was fine for the longest time, in fact it wasn't until a few months ago with the beginning of 2018, almost 10 years after we originally met on WeGame, that things started to get fucking strange.

I woke up one morning to find a VERY long private message in my inbox from TM. If you think this post is long multiply the length of what I've written here about five times and you'd roughly have the length of that PM. In this PM she'd basically had a complete mental meltdown and just dumped a ton of really personal stuff on my lap because she couldn't bear holding it in anymore. The dam had burst so to speak. I already knew that TM's parents had been very strict with her as she grew up, but she'd been living on her own for a couple of years at this point and I was under the impression that it'd gotten a lot better between her and her parents due to that circumstance. Unfortunately it would seem that this strict parenting had left their daughter feeling extremely ashamed and embarrassed with herself due to some of her sexual desires. Turns out that TM had come to the realization that she was interested in certain fetishes that go a fair bit beyond just sex in the missionary position for the sole purpose of procreation. These realizations about herself had made her feel ashamed of her 'deviancy'and it turns out that she'd been walking around hating herself for the past 7-8 years ever since she first found herself aroused by these things. She couldn't take it anymore so she let it all out to the only person she felt that she could tell the truth... Me apparently.

I was pretty floored by this message. I had never quite dealt with something like that before in my life and I've dealt with a lot of pretty personal stuff. Now while I might jokingly kinkshame people online for reactions, the truth is that I actually don't give a flying fuck about what turns people on. All my friends could collectively tell me that they were into hardcore anal vore tomorrow and our friendship wouldn't be any different. I really don't judge. So I told her as much and as carefully as I could in my reply and as you might imagine she was very relieved and so happy that she was crying (her own words).

Believe it or not, the story gets even weirder now. In the weeks that followed her confession and my reply telling her that it's fine and that we're still friends regardless of what turns her on, she started getting weirdly sexually active. She'd tell me about her fantasies in a little more detail than I was comfortable with, she'd link me to things she'd bought or planned on buying from amazon and other various websites to indulge herself and it was just like... Really weird in general. Once again I was pretty stumped about what to do, because I wanted to make her understand that I didn't want the fucking play-by-play of her sexual activity/fetishes/fantasies while also making sure she still understood that it wasn't because I was judging her and that we were still very much friends. It got really bad eventually when she started sending me unsolicited pictures of herself. It wasn't anything sexually explicit, it was just pictures of her face and a few of her legs. That was around the time where I realized I had to put a stop to it because I was not interested in a relationship and I felt like that's sort of what she was fishing for in some odd manner. After consulting a few friends very discreetly, I spent a whole evening writing a very tactful message explaining that she needed to chill with the details of her sexual activities. Now for some people on this website who're fully aware of how unashamed I am to talk about sexual stuff like this in general, it should give you a good idea of just how much she was messaging me about this shit. I was getting uncomfortable, ME of all people.

So I shot her that message and for a few days I didn't get any response from her and I started to get worried. Luckily she eventually got back to me and apologized PROFUSELY and explained to me that after seeing my request to chill with the details, she'd gone over all our PMs and been mortified at how much she'd been talking about this stuff. She excused herself by saying that she'd been repressed for so long and after finally finding someone willing to at least entertain a conversation about it, she'd just not been able to help herself... Which I suppose I can understand. So she admitted that she'd gone too far and apologized to me and ever since then our relationship has basically been the same as it used to be. EXCEPT she's now started a personal blog where she posts fetish art she draws herself (she's not bad actually) and even posts pictures of herself 'indulging' in her sexual fantasies... Which she also felt like she needed to link to me.

So that's basically where we're at right now. Our conversations have gone back to the same old stuff we used to talk about, mostly video games, anime and life except she'll sometimes talk about how she's feeling following all this stuff and it seems she's genuinely happy to have found this outlet online and that she's very quickly grown confident with her sexual desires and so forth, so I guess it was a happy ending after all?

Fuck me dude my head is so fucking scrambled regarding all this shit, but at least I got to write it all out. If you made it to the end, thank you, you get a sticker for your efforts. God bless.

 

Oh boy people that aren't me making long blogposts about anime! Guess that means I'll have to step it up.

 I always hate filling out charts like the one above, at least I hate it while I'm in the middle of it, then when I'm done I look at it and think 'Hey, I actually watched all of this last year, cool!' and it feels worth it. Unfortunately I always end up half-way through completing the chart and then I remember that one show I think also deserves a spot somewhere on said chart and I find myself redoing half of it over and again until I suddenly realize that I've been staring at the fucking image for the past hour and then some. 

 2017 was an interesting year of anime for me, mainly because of the same reasons outlined by Silent in his post. The first show he and I sat down and watched together was Bakemonogatari back in 2013 and since then regular anime watching has sort of just been part of our daily lives. I'm glad that we were both ultimately able to keep an interest in the medium, as it was something relatively new for both of us. The average western anime fan stays watching for a period of roughly two years before losing interest and moving on to something else and now Silent and I are closing in on five years of regular viewing. I personally attribute my continued interest in watching anime, at least partially, to Silent. I really like watching anime with friends because it sort of magnifies the experience of watching a good show and patches the experience of watching a really bad show. When you're experiencing something really good, interesting and entertaining with a friend, it's always a good time to discuss it together following a session. When you're experiencing something really bad, uninteresting and boring with a friend, it can be salvaged by just shooting the shit while watching. It has also been fun being there as our little circle of anime-watchers slowly grow over the years, from two people all the way up nine people.

 Thanks for being there!

 With all of that said, I don't think it should come as any surprise to people that my AotY was the Kizumonogatari trilogy. Over a decade in the making and with several release date pushbacks due to delays, finally we got it and it did not disappoint. It was a very different viewing compared to the TV-anime in terms of tone. While it had plenty of comedic beats to diffuse the tension of the story, Kizumonogatari feels a lot more serious or perhaps intense compared to the TV version. This is certainly amplified by the fact that it's animated in a pretty unique way. You can tell it's the same studio that did the TV series and the characters are all recognizable, but the lighting and colour palette are very, very different and lends themselves well to the more 'intense' feeling I described. While the trilogy in its entirety is well-crafted, I have to give a shoutout to the fight between Shinobu and Koyomi in the third movie. That whole scene can only be described as an experience I will not soon forget.

 Turning my attention to the four seasons that comprised the 2017 anime releases, it becomes clear that this year has been pretty good!

 In winter we got the continuation of a show that I very much enjoyed, KonoSuba, which dispelled any doubts I had about whether or not the original season had just been a fluke by Studio Deen. They absolutely nailed all the points that made the first season so enjoyable and I was both pleased and impressed that the second season of KonoSuba ended up being even more hilarious than the first one. The 'Isekai' genre has seen a crazy rise in popularity of the last three years and unfortunately most of it is completely uninspired garbage. KonoSuba takes what has now become a trope and makes fun this uninspired garbage Isekai setting by using well-developed, fun and to an extent hate-able characters interacting with each other as the foundation for a good comedic romp. Of course I can't go on talking about the winter season without mentioning Little Witch Academia, the anticipated TV series from Studio Trigger that enjoyed massive popularity in the west based on the two short-films that came before it. The TV-anime is a direct continuation of the second film and in many ways feels like a throwback to saturday morning cartoons for me. LWA is cute, colourful and fun, making it a great watch when you're looking to unwind after the daily grind. The second half of the TV-anime takes a bit more of a serious turn and actually presents a story that has a villain and a quest that the MC must undertake. The transition from episodic witch antics into a more serious story-telling perspective was a tiny bit jarring to me, but didn't detract from my viewing experience too much. 

 Winter also came with one of the biggest surprises of the year namely Gabriel DropOut. In hindsight I don't know why this show being as enjoyable as it was even came as a surprise to me. I feel like I should know by now that Dogakobo are masters of making slice of life shows entertaining, even for a jaded asshole like myself who has a tendency to dismiss SoL/Moe-centric shows outright. Excellent character design, excellent comedic beats and a great OP made Gabriel DropOut a show I looked forward to watching more of every time we finished a session.

 Spring season was fairly uneventful compared to winter. We were of course blessed with the second season of Boku no Hero Academia and even though it took us a while to get through watching it due to circumstances, it was ultimately an absolutely stellar experience. I like Shounen shows, I like Shounen tropes, I like the idea of the underdog rising to the top and defeating his opposition with the help of his friends, his teachers and a lot of personal growth. I like it when a show lets sidecharacters shine and get development. I like cool fight scenes, I like cool character designs, I like it when the hero is on the edge of losing and then powers up in a really cool way and smashes on through the bad guys. I like it when a show sets up these moments to be as rewarding as possible by having the hero fail time and again before finally letting him win when it really matters. BnHA does all of this and it does it with a GREAT fucking soundtrack to boot.

 Summer came with two anime that I really enjoyed, though I did watch one of them a lot later in the year after it had finished airing. Kakegurui was an anime that I admittedly picked up mostly for its style of animation and character design. I ultimately thought the show was above average in terms of plot and storytelling, but what really elevated the enjoyment for me was the character design. MAPPA made the clearly intentional decision of making the characters as attractive and sexy as possible and would play with juxtaposition in the most intense moments of the show by having these attractive characters show their 'true' faces at the peak of gambling ecstasy. I thought it was very well executed and added a level of enjoyment to an anime that would otherwise not have been too special. We also had New Game!! in the summer... You can tell it's the second season of 'New Game!' by the fact that it has two (2) exclamation marks!! This anime was truly anticipated in our little circle of anime-watchers and practically everyone but me ended up watching it as it aired. I ended up watching it about three months later... And it was good. Very good in fact. Dogakobo (who you'll remember from Gabriel DropOut above) have this uncanny ability to make characters so cute they're almost to die for. I've once heard moe described as a 'boner in your heart' and I think that statement didn't really settle with me until after I finished up New Game!! because that is genuinely how I feel about most of the characters in that show. They're just so totally adorable and I want to hug them. Sometimes I wonder why I'm like this. I feel like I shouldn't be like this. I'm twenty-four years old, I'm currently employed by my government to kill people in case of conflict and yet I find myself sitting in front my laptop with a dumb smile on my face as I watch these small anime girls go through their daily lives of creating video games....

 Finally comes the fall season of 2017 with three shows I watched that I would consider worth talking about. First we have Blend S, which I'm sure everyone recognizes because of it being the literal meme show of the season. It was enjoyable. I wish it had done some things differently, but it was a good watch overall. The OP was super catchy. Second we have Osomatsu-san season 2. It hasn't finished airing yet, but the first half of it came out in fall of 2017 and I watched it. The thing about Osomatsu is that I feel two ways about it. Some of the comedy in that show falls completely flat for me. Some sketches take up half an episode and I'm just not laughing at all. Parts of it is because there is a barrier of entry due to a lot of it being Japanese comedy that references Japanese pop culture that I'm not aware of as a westerner. Another part of it is that humour is subjective, right? But then the other half of the comedy in Osomatsu-san is really genuinely hilarious to me and has me laughing so hard that I feel light-headed. So it's a bit of a weird one for me, but ultimately I think the show is worth watching.

 And last but not least we Net-juu no Susume baby, hellllll yeah! This show flew completely under my fucking radar and the only reason I ended up watching it was because my good friend Marcus (RIP) asked me if I was interested. It turned to be really good! It's a show about a Japanese salary-woman who quits her job after having saved up a boatload of money to live as a NEET for a while and play video games. She loves MMORPGS and that's what she plays. A very basic premise that develops into one of the most heart-warming romances I've seen in a long time. It's cute, it's funny and most importantly THE ROMANCE ACTUALLY FUCKING GOES SOMEWHERE. Sure there are moments where you're teased as a viewer and you sit there exclaiming 'Oh come on, just fucking SAY IT!' but ultimately everyone's feelings do come out into the light and it's really good. I'm not normally a big fan of romance stuff, but the main character is very relatable and the show is only 10 episodes long and easily digestible. If you're ever looking for a feel-good romance show to pick yourself up after a shitty day/week/month/year/life, then I really do recommend Net-juu no Susume... Also fuck the English title for this anime, it doesn't make any fucking sense.

 Wow this sure has been a whole lot of typing and you're doing a whole lot of reading, good job! We're not done yet though.

 My disappointment of the year was without a doubt the remake of Kino's Journey. I fucking loved the original Kino's Journey anime. I thought it was clever and thoughtful and in general just not something you see very much of in anime as a medium. Philosophical undertones, questionable morality and logical absurdities are all present in the original Kino's Journey and it's very interesting to watch the various dilemmas that are presented in the show. So I was fucking READY to watch more Kino in the year of our lord 2017. I never thought we would get any more, but here it was, coming right at us, BOOM! Aaaand it turns out it was mostly just the old anime redone in a new artstyle with a pinch of new content sprinkled in here and there. Such a shame that they couldn't animate any new content really. Also the new artstyle is generic and feels modernized for the sake of it, rather than the people behind it trying to do something interesting and fitting with the setting. Boo.

 I was thinking about going into detail on my favourite characters of the season, along with my favourite OPs and EDs, but I think this is long enough already. I don't think I'll gain much from trying to explain why I personally really enjoyed certain characters or why I preferred certain OPs this year. All I will say though is that this year had a truckload of really great OPs that have all made their way onto my playlist. 

 2017 was a good time, hopefully 2018 will be even better.