yaksha's reminiscence

Like with the readings entry, there's a lot to update on this time...

BanG Dream: Ave Mujica (Episode 13)

I understand the songs talked about their circumstances, but to leave the very last episode as a performance-only one was very disappointing. There could have used up the time better, and the conflict was too out of pocket, but all in all, it wasn't a bad season; I just wished it'd had closed better, like MyGO did. Fortunately, there seems to be another season in production, so I hope they wrap up things better by then.

Maebashi Witches (Episode 1)

I'd been wanting to watch this anime since I saw a post about it circulating around Twitter, and the very first episode was slightly surprising. Everything was pretty surprising, but I think it has potential, and the songs were pretty good! There's one thing that's a little unsettling, however, and it's that it somehow gives off Wonder Egg Priority vibes (not just because of the plot), and I'm not sure if I can get behind that, lol. But again, it's just the first episode!

Medalist (Episode 13 + Rewatch)

And it's over! Man, I'm really gonna miss this anime. In fact, my mother wanted to watch it, so I rewatched it over again with my parents and they also liked it. I'm really happy it instantly got a S2, because it only gets better from now on.

Nana (Episodes 35-41)

I finally set aside some time to watch it, and wow, this anime is pretty good, even if I space it a lot. I hope Nana and Hachi can reconcile in person somehow, though it doesn't seem like it's going to happen anytime soon with all the scandals. That being said, am I thinly one who didn't catch on Yasu's feelings? He's always been like, the most decent man out of the entire cast, so his behavior towards Nana just struck me as him being a decent person, lol, but I guess the last episodes I watched made it more obvious, huh. I'm also curious about what's going to become of Layla and Shin's relationships, because... it's definitely not good, but that e-mail Shin sent Layla was so moving, lol. We'll see...

Promise of Wizard (Episode 12)

I'm REALLY going to miss this, as well... It wasn't a perfect adaptation, as it usually happens with these games, but I loved every second of it, and it gave me something I'd been waiting for 5 years, so I can't help but love it. It's definitely not getting a second season or anything, as much as it pains me, but I'm so happy we got an anime. I feel like the animation in the latter half was also much better than the first one, or maybe it just had more memorable moments? I don't know...

Solo Leveling (All episodes)

My dad really insisted on watching it after seeing it on the front page of Crunchyroll, so we ended up watching it together and... I really don't like it, oops. It's not extremely boring as something to watch during meals (which is when we watch it), but everything else is. The characters feel one-dimensional and I'm not very fond of Jinwoo's development, either, and the videogame mechanics made no sense at all. I see people comparing it SAO, and while I watched SAO when I was 9 (very first anime), at least the mechanics made sense there, because, well... It was a videogame... I don't know, it's just not my thing, although the OP and ED are amazing — I have to give it that, at least.

Solo Leveling S2 (Episodes 1-3)

I haven't watched much of it yet, but this season seems slightly more promising since it looks like it'll touch in some world building details, which is probably the most intriguing part of the entire plot. It was easy to guess that powerful hunter would be Jinwoo's dad, though, especially after Jinwoo and Jihoo's conversation about them being brothers after spending so much time together. Thank god it's only 13 episodes....

The Apothecary Diaries S2 (Episodes 12-14)

Finally, some truth about Jinshi's identity! It was pretty obvious he was going to be someone important, but I didn't expect the full name reveal — and I also didn't expect me to not get spoilered on it until now, actually. The second half of the season seems like is going to be lore-heavy again, and I really hope that one new eunuch is the girl who faked her own death in the first season, because I haven't stopped thinking about what had become of her since then. Can't wait for next episode!

Hello, everyone! I finally have some time to sit down and write about what I've been up to these weeks! I have one Genshin entry in the backlog as well, but I'll get to that at a latter point since it's a very short log (I just did some anecdotes and that's it.)

First of all, regarding uni, the semester is getting tougher so I had to dedicate more time to studying. As it says in my profile, I'm a Translation student, but I think my translations skills are really lacking and since the only thing we do in classes is practice and correct the errors that come around, I've been trying to read books on theory of translation by myself. I understand that a practical approach is the better way to learn, but how am I supposed to improve if I don't know how to do things in the first place?

Sadly, this means that most of the time I dedicated to reading books for leisure has been replaced by academic books, but I have a lot of things in my backlog. I have some manga I still need to read (but not many); SVSSS, which I said I'd read after finishing MDZS, and a few classics I picked up on a book fair at the city centre. They were extremely cheap (3€ each!) so I got 4: Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, Goethe's Faust, and Bronte's Wuthering Heights. I'd already read the first two in the list for my World Literature class in 11th Grade, but the copies I had were crusty photocopies and PDFs, and I wanted to get them physically! And as for the last two...

... I just got really into Mahoyaku/Promise of Wizard again! I've been a long time fan of the franchise, but I'd been dissatisfied by the event stories writing for the last two years, so I'd left it on stand-by. However, the anime showed visuals for a character I'd been wanting to see animated for AGES (all the way back in 2020...), and that reignited my passion and motivation to continue with the second part of its Main Story, which I never finished due to lack of translations... And wow, it was amazing! Tsushimi Bunta's writing is no joke, and so I've been paying more attention to Mahoyaku lately. The characters in this game are all based around classic books which you can see in their names, and Faust and Heathcliff are some of my favs, so I became curious about the stories they came from, as well. I might make a separate post on my thoughts on MS2, because I have a lot to say about it!

Other than that, I've been doing... okay, I think? My physical health is kinda meh, which I think it's partly because we've had weeks of rain, rain, and more rain — extremely uncommon in the south of Spain, as well as the change from winter to spring, which isn't particularly to my body's liking, lol. Also, Synthesizer V Pro 2 was released yesterday, so I've messing around with it, as well. I haven't talked much about it here, but I'm a huge vocal synth nerd, and this engine is pretty good, though I've already noticed a couple of bugs...

Thank you to everyone who commented in last entry! I missed you guys too :)

I did watch one more anime this week besides my usual ones, but nothing new here, honestly. We're nearing the end of a few, though...

BanG Dream: Ave Mujica (Episode 8)

Okay, I like Mutsumi and Mortis, but I feel like this is starting to be a little too much... Thankfully, last episode brought forth an opportunity to focus on Umiri and Nyamu (and hopefully Uika next episode), so I wonder what'll happen from now on... Obviously, they'll end up restoring Ave Mujica because that's how mobile game franchises work — the question is, how?

Dandadan (Season 1)

This aired a season ago, but as with most popular things, I watched it now when the hype has gone down because I'm not a huge fan of shonen. All in all, I liked it — there were a few things that surprised me, both positively and negatively. On the one hand, the characters were actually interesting and funny: I liked Momo since day one, and I like how she and Okarun bicker back and forth about almost everything, even if they're awkward around each other more often than not. The animation was also different from other anime I've watched, and I liked it. On the other hand, the latter episodes weren't as interesting as the first ones, except the ones in which they explained the story behind the spirit that transferred her life force to Aira. I knew romance was one of the aspects of the show, but I just wasn't a fan of it when it took the spotlight. I think that, when S2 comes out, I'll watch it, but I don't think I'll read the manga.

Medalist (Episode 8)

Since I'd caught up with the manga, I was expecting Inori's program to be shown, but I guess that'll have to wait until next week... Sigh... At least, the scenes with her and Tsukasa running back to get her skates were very emotional, and they included some monologue that I really liked from the colored pages of Volume 3.

Promise of Wizard (Episode 7)

At least, the Northern Wizards show up! However, as a long-time fan of the game, the highlight of the episode wasn't that for me, but rather the fact that they showed us Shino and Heathcliff as kids!!! In 5 years of being a fan, I'd always hoped for cards showing the characters when they were little, and it has finally come true, in a way... And I hope they animate a few more flashbacks!!

The Apothecary Diaries (Episode 7)

This episode was pretty cool! I was expecting a little more about Jinshi, since it started with a flashback of his childhood, but I liked the idea behind the doors and the fact that most of the nobles' family were colorblind, which would allow them to get through the maze effectively.

Time for my updates on the seasonal anime I'm keeping up with!

BanG Dream: Ave Mujica (Episode 4)

I know I say this every week, but man, what an episode... I'm not very fond of Mortis so far, but I understand her desperation — she took over Mutsumi to save the band she loved because Avemuji was being scouted more and more for guest appearances at shows and magazine shots, but now that the group needs to perform again, everything has shifted... And she can't do anything because she doesn't know how to play guitar, unlike Mutsumi. The seiyuu have advised us to take all the time we need watching it because it'll only get worse from now on, but also urged us to keep watching until the end... Man, I'm scared...

Medalist (Episode 4)

Meikoh Cup time! This was still within the scope of the manga volumes I read, so I knew what happened, but Inori's performance was even better animated — I think the CGI was pretty okay! It also felt really good to see Inori's mother finally accept her daughter's ambitions. About time!

Promise of Wizard (Episode 3)

We're almost at the point in which we'll see the rest of the wizards! That being said, I don't know why they keep showing the Sage's thoughts and notes on the journal instead of having them be voiced lines. I don't think there's enough time to read them in Japanese, and much less in the subtitles. Besides that, everything good!

The Apothecary Diaries S2 (Episode 3)

So, the first mystery has ended as soon as it started. Granted, there's a lot more to the conspiracy, but I was still surprised by how quickly everything went on. I don't have much to say either, but I generally enjoy a lot these episodes.

More anime from the season have started!

BanG Dream: Ave Mujica (Episode 2)

If I thought last episode was already pretty intense, nothing would have prepared me for Episode 2... I saw on a post around Twitter that there some psychological horror elements behind some of the scenes, and I can totally believe that. I hadn't thought much about Mutsumi's parents before, but I sure do now after whatever that was... Worst of all, they don't even look like they're bad people, but their parenting is still questionable — and no one in the episode saw Mutsumi for who she was, only as Wakaba or Minami Mori's daughter, which says a lot.

Medalist (Episode 1)

I assume they will expand on Tsukasa's backstory later, but the beginning of the story doesn't hit the same with that background, though I'm quite impressed by the animation (in spite of the CG — I don't know why people insist so much on that the usage of CGI must mean the anime is low-quality when MyGO and Avemuji anime exists, but oh well). Inori's funny faces were just as funny as in the manga. That being said, I haven't read too far, so most of the stuff in the anime will be new content for me, and I'm very looking forward to it!

Promise of Wizard (Episode 1)

After 5 years, it's finally time for the Mahoyaku anime to be on air! I feel like this episode didn't cover everything I was expecting for a first episode, but it's a good start as any. I think that, unless they completely make up the plot (I'm looking at you, Paradox Live The Animation...), I'll be satisfied with any quality of production, because I just love the source material so, so much! Faust, my oshi, will definitely show up next episode, although in a less than favorable position — I wanna see him already!

The Apothecary Diaries S2 (Episode 1)

It's finally here! This first episode didn't show much, but it reminded me how much I loved this anime. The part where Maomao went on describing how she disliked cats to Jinshi, who changed his own mind when he realized Maomao's description was exactly like herself, was the best moment of the episode. I hope both of them get many funny moments this season, too, but also for the plot to get back on track, as the murder-mystery aspect is one of the things I like the most about the show itself.