Wow I didn’t update my blog for like, a month. I did get a lot of rest that I promptly had to “use up” though LOL.
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Omonomono Newsletter, 2021-11-17
I’ll save the personal updates later in the relevant section, but I’m mostly back to your regular operating schedule. A lot of minor-ish interruptions did happen since I last wrote but, anyways.
Just as a note on COVID in Japan, but the vax rate is over 75%, and as of this writing, the highest among G7 countries. Helps when the biggest nerd event requires it basically.
That Erii Yamazaki music video is 4k. But hmm.
These Past Weeks
A bit more business as usual. COVID is basically stopped in its tracks there, but distancing and thinning of audience still is happening in public events.
Miyu Kobuta, photobook next year.
Utada has a new studio album next year?
Demon Slayer WF-1000XM4 earbuds woo. Along with SAO. These Side-M ORB IEMs sold out real fast.
Oh yeah, Halloween was a thing–full of gaijins in Ikebukuro.
Ghibli Museum 20th celebration
This bothers me only a little. I should write up Cowboy Bebop… At least I’ll watch it once dubbed.
Damn, I want these but no way I’d fit them.
Maybe I’ll watch Belle again. I should also write it up.
It’s not a surprise when a brand reveals a vtuber for marketing, but Sanrio? They make characters…for a living. It is all that they do.
I really want one of these…just don’t know which one. Super Groupies can drain my wallet real fast so I better watch out lol. I mean, they are serious business.
Yuri Komagata finally releasing a full album? Other than her Million Live connection, she is on my radar for being a bright, pretty hafu soul that does a Maaya Sakamoto the best, while not being Maaya Sakamoto. She will also wipe the floor in Apex.
Yoshino Nanjo to graduate fripside next year.
Genius wins recognition he deserves.
22/7 continues turnover. It’s like what she vibes all the time.
The ZLS movie announcement sure is something.
Rest in peace. Rest in peace. Rest in peaceeeee. Rest in peace…
Ai Fairouz doing a cooking show.
A Grendizer game??? Also US release???
Yet Another Bandai Namco Restructure.
Animate International continues to sell goods from shows that doesn’t even stream overseas if at all.
This is a thing now, and I am vaguely curious…assuming I ever get done with Starlit Seasons.
Live long and prosperous, you old Gundam dude.
More of this Married Couple anime next year.
Macross Plus movie in US theaters.
Akari Kito album and photobook to be released.
Umamusume at Kohaku? A maybe.
What is Youtube Anime Weekend, and more importantly, is it geolocked?
On the Mind
Just to make the remark I started last post, but Runa is on hiatus due to health, and the only other news since is the various cancellation of her appearance and the fact that she has to drop out of SoundOrion.
I had a whole blog post to go with this, but maybe another time.
The aforementioned Cowboy Bebop on Netflix? Also a post on its own but this is just that Netflix, and Hollywood in general, just doesn’t cut it.
Anime-wise I am still somewhat doing ~10 shows this season. Mushoku Tensei tops my list of comfort shows, but the Vampire Cosmonaut anime is surprisingly great. Or not, because it’s not that surprising–more about my ignorance than anything left field. The production and the project should have spelled out all the potential.
The robot anime this season are all pretty okay except maybe 1 or 2. Did I say I was watching 10 shows this season? If this includes shows I want to drop maybe. I should watch more of that fruit isekai anime and less of, say, Takt.OP. Faraway Paladin is a bit of a treat but a chore almost, mostly because it’s fun to reverse engineer the RPG mechanics. Praying for Bread! That’s quaint. I had some good bread in Berlin. Douki-chan and Tawawa are not real shows I guess? But wow, those are fun.
On my list of to-play includes now SRW 30 and Starlit Season. I want to get a dent into SRW 30 before Advance Wars come out for the Switch, but not holding my breath there. I had to break on Starlit Season because of traveling, but I have yet to get a chance to make a dent.
So yes, instead I got into EN Blue Archive and kind of enjoying that game. It’s best thing is all the polish but fundamentally BA is a “grindy” Korean game. Maybe this is their take on QOL but it feels like chud versus BA’s clear inspiration, Priconne. The characters are kind of, I hate to say it, not that well written. If you say “Priconne is for lolicons” then the joke for Blue Archive is that it’s for folks who dig traditional Korean gender roles?
I did travel to Berlin for about a week since the last post, and as my first trip to Europe in general it fits in a neat piece of the puzzle about my experiences traveling in Japan. For one, the way bread is made in Berlin (and Germany generally) sure is the Japanese definition of delicious. German bread game is on a different level for sure. But other than gastronomy, many other things, too. I’ll elaborate later.
Events
I’m going to AnimeNYC most likely, still working out for when exactly. The main motivation is to rep Aniwaza’s panel on Saturday, but also kind of want to watch the screening for JamPro movie and the ZLS show (which announced the aforementioned movie, and is also a show I watched real time the first time). I also have other obligations that weekend so hmm.
The ongoing Love Live Liella tour…
Songs of Tokyo Festival this weekend. Umamusume, Akari Kito, Kana Hanazawa!
This weekend is also eufonius.
This weekend is also Animax Musix 2021
Last weekend but Hibiku Yamamura archive is still up.
The GamiP book release event is still up. So is this.
Tamashii Nation has some stuff streaming on Youtube this weekend.
Kana Hanazawa stream 11/21. Again?
CG 10th Chiba over weekend after Thanksgiving
Dialogue+ Live Tour? There’s a tour now? Stop on 11/28.
Yoshino Aoyama solo live?? 12/4.
Is that too far into the future? Lol.
Personal Note
I went on vacation for 2 weeks, and I enjoyed my time out there. The traveling was fun. I splurged there (points run for status?), so it wasn’t tiring. I didn’t push myself too much but I think I did walk a lot, maybe too much, in Berlin. I think even if I was in top eventer shape, and I am far from it, I probably still should stay away from 20k+ steps a day for 5 days straight. I ain’t to spring chicken no more.
Berlin was both very new and nothing unusual? It’s like a more…New York-y Montreal? It’s more Europe than Montreal…yet it isn’t more stereotypically European than a lot of other more scenic spots on the Continent. I can see why it’s a very fun town to be in with a lot of youthful energy, a lot of German pride, or what’s left of it from the last 70+ years of not trying to repeat the mistakes of the 1930s. It’s insightful to me, because a missing emphasis in my own American education about the rise of the Third Reich was the massive unpopularity of the Weimar Republic, that I so picked up hardcore while browsing the museums and landmarks there. The Weimar regime is a direct contributing cause of…just about all of that. There is a simple, easy lesson here about, basically, what drives us astray as a society. It is also a multi-dimensional lesson. Maybe the US Democrats can learn it.
The big thing about Berlin as a tourist is that is a historically rich city. As a part-time New Yorker the prices there are about what I’m used to. Some things are cheaper, others are more. I can see how “gentrification” of East Berlin and growing foreign immigration and investment are driving the tension in the city. It’s the kind of thing that makes my Americanized soul feel at home. I visited Berlin to see some relatives out there, after all. That said, despite all the walking, I barely left Mitte, so there’s still a lot I didn’t see.
The second half of my vacation, I went to chill in Seattle. Really to just get away and relax, and hang out with more friends who I haven’t seen in ages. I didn’t do much besides splurge on expensive food and see how prices there puts Berlin to its places, in this post-pandemic hellscape. Like, yeah, it’s not bad living in the EU, if you just want to do your own thing, at least in terms of cost of living.
Since I returned from my vacation, I basically have to, uh, not put out the fire in my house, but light one? Basically I got hit by minor flooding and now I have to fix a few things, which just gets me back to pre-vacation shape in a flash. Now, I guess there’s a con I can worry about too, not to mention the work catch-up I had to do, or that I got my vax booster just the other day which took me down for a while.
Excuses, excuses. These blog posts don’t write themselves. The ideas in my brain don’t become words by themselves, at least not without this effortful writing activity.
As a postscript, this would make a good secret santa or someone’s present to me, lol.
Long Reads
A lot of them this time. A month’s worth.
Nerz is an interesting operation, but just a link to a translated interview between Mikku and Satoshi Hino about Takt.op.
Kelt and others on BBC Sounds podcast about Japan (Sep 10 2021). Notably before Suga resigning?
Minori Chihara is hanging up the singing towels at the end of the year, here’s a great primer for her final show and retrospective from Brandon! She’s still doing character stuff though.
Squid Game Discourse final form? Also.
I still don’t know what Denonbu is, and I watched Asobinotes lol.
Mel Kishida on Fanservice (and why would anyone take what he says…well).
The unlicensed Gundam UC anime episode.
Huh, a web version of Fate.
Mayu Mineda, Vocaloid Otaku, belting out karaoke.
One last one: not an anime related thing, but on bitcoins and human rights. Maybe it’s time for that NFT post too?
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