Mahoromatic Review

Overall Rating 7.4 out of 10 - Nice show about a very cute lovable maid

I recommend watching.

In a better future we will be able to manufacture cute sexy robotic maids and we will give them pure innocent perfect hearts. Just like the one Mahoro has.

Mahoro is almost perfect waifu material. She cares about Suguru and does anything he wants. She looks cute and gentle in both maid outfit and in her battle suit. Even her insecurity about her breast size is cute and adorable.

The show itself is a mostly pleasant ride as well. By sum of good scenes vs not so good one it beats DearS and Hand Maid May even if not every episode is perfect.

At first it focuses on Mahoro role as maid but later more about her past is revealed. Story is simple and without complex twists, but enjoyable, nonetheless.

It is a simple show, it has no complex plots, subtext, between-the-lines ideas and such. Neither it has some sophisticated issues that would take many paragraphs to explain. It's just all good pleasant and simple ride. Kind of like Nutella, Guy Lian chocolate or Haribo Goldenbears: awesome and you want more of Mahoro's pure heart and her sexy maid outfit clad body.

Overall, I can certainly recommend it for everyone. From this show you can learn what a good dateable woman is like. I definitely recommend watching.

One Ring Metaphor

There is a saying that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. One Ring from Lord of the Rings is an embodiment of this metaphor. It is that one part of this story where this book is not just a plain fantasy like many other books but rather a literary fiction that describes real world in a metaphorical allegoric way.

One ring is a metaphor of power that one might wield in life. CGPGrey would put it as: take the throne and it will act upon you. One ring is not just a piece of jewelry with some magical powers, created by Sauron. Ring is an embodiment of his power over Mordor and orcs. All that makes one a Dark Lord is contained in the ring.

It is the ring that gives one power to rule Mordor. Essentially the ring makes Sauron. Even if the original wielder and creator, Sauron is defeated and killed, the ring will still exist. It will be able find someone else to be next Sauron and rule over Mordor. Thus, Mordor and Sauron's system will endure even if he himself is dead. Sauron managed to create for himself an immortality of sorts.

Notice how Sauron just disappears the moment Isildur cuts the ring from his finger. Sauron is not a person with evil intentions. He is an embodiment of the system. For as long as power exists and used, the Sauron will exist.

The better one understands what this ring is and what power it has, the faster this ring will turn them into the next Dark Lord. That is why people like Gandalf and Galadriel refused to take this ring themselves. They knew that if they take the ring, it will corrupt them and by the time they will reach Mordor they will be there not to destroy the ring, but to rule as Sauron the second.

Thus, One Ring produced a catch 22 problem that prevented forces of good from defeating evil. As long as One Ring exist so is Mordor and its system. However, if one of the knowledgeable and powerful were to take this ring to destroy it, the ring will corrupt them and turn them into next Dark Lord. No matter what they do, the evil cannot be defeated. Elrond hoped that humans, clueless of what One Ring does might be willing to destroy it, but humans were too greedy to simply cast the ring into the fire.

The solution came unexpectedly, the Hobbits. Hobbits were too simple and unable to understand the true power the One Ring had. Even when a greedy homicidal hobbit, Smeagol (Gollum), had it, he could not utilize most its power and did not manage to become next Dark Lord. Bilbo got this ring by accident and its corrupting powers did not manifest in him at all. Gandalf noticed that and came up with the plan to destroy the ring.

Since by that time Ring corrupted Bilbo enough to at least not wish for it to be destroyed, Gandalf made him pass it to Frodo who was so oblivious as to what this Ring does, he would have no objections to destroying it. Then there was a need to arrange a for an escort party to make sure he makes it to Mount Doom alive.

In real life power works much in the same way. Take the throne and throne will act upon you. Reality of having power makes people into evil lords. 

That is why for example attempts to root out corruption in post-Soviet states often turn anti-corruption activists and revolutionary leaders into corrupt dictators the moment they take power. System is so cunningly crafted by some original dark lord in the past, it manages to recreate itself no matter who takes power.

Tolkien did not make this up, he just described how it works.

If you think this is farfetched then ask yourself that: if you had the power to rule over something and use this power to your advantage, will you just throw this power away out of moral considerations and desire to be a good guy, or will you use it for personal gain or perhaps to achieve some moral vision of the world you have dear...

In the end only well-designed systems can endure good governance and decent life. Unchecked power and opportunities for corruption will lead to dark lords.

Oppositional Russian Music

Like any country Russia has its own pop music that is favored and endorsed by establishment and in theory popular with majority. Names like Alla Pugacheva come to mind. 

However, I am not pro-Putin and most music I listen are non-mainstream, anti-establishment or oppositional. Both Russian and English language. 

Sting, Chris de Burgh, Chris Rea, Blackmore's Nights or Loreena McKennit is not per se oppositional, but neither they are mainstream. These artists look at the world from a different angle and enjoyed by people more sophisticated than average.

There are similar bands in Russia. I already wrote a separate article about band Kino and Victor Tsoi. Tsoi died in 1989, and his band is inactive since, but he remains very popular with general public. His songs are very melancholic and reflect sadness of life in Russia. There are more here but somewhat hard to navigate.

Something more sophisticated that I personally like is Aquarium. Their songs sound nonsensical at first but they are actually full of references and tell a complicated and compelling story albeit in a very cryptic way. However, language they use is hard to understand even for someone very knowledgeable in all the songs, books and cultural ideas they so extensively reference in their songs.

Each song probably has to be explained in detail, but here are few examples:

For something more accessible is Sector Gaza. Unlike Aquarium Sector Gaza uses words that are easy to understand. So easy that it produced a push back and desire to ban it from a more moralistic section of society. It can be considered Russian AC/DC of sorts. If they managed to become as popular as Kino and Tsoi they would probably create as much controversy and shockwaves as Donald Trump.

Despite extensive obscenity of many of their songs for which they are known, they make songs that many can relate to and enjoy. These songs reflect reality of life in Russia for a significant section of society.

There are some explicit anti-Putin and anti-system songs, for example Anthem of the Doomed that mocks government and its supporters by calling them orcs and their leaders' ghouls. Half of the lines of this song probably needs additional clarification for its actual meaning. For Aquarium mentioned above every single line need explanation.

I will end this article with Aria. Unlike the other two, Aria is more wishful and instead of reflecting reality writes long, descriptive and poetic songs often about unfulfilled dreams and aspirations. They have wonderful guitar solos and unique sound.

And probably the best of them:

One thing that unites all these bands is the profound sadness at the fact that life is not as good as they all wish it was. They all shift between criticizing reality as it is and dreaming of a better life somewhere out there. Even the otherwise very obscene Khoy from Sector Gaza is like that.

Shugo Chara Review

Overall Rating 6.0 out of 10 - Children Friendly Show Concerned Parents Talk About

Watch if you want to know what a Children Friendly Show is

Evert so often you hear from certain parts of society that video games, movies or something else influences children in a bad way. Often such people call for ban on media they deem inappropriate.

Did you however ever wondered what kind of show such people would deem suitable for children? There is Disney, there is Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki and there is this show.

Labelled for kids, it's not actually what children themselves would enjoy. Rather it's all about what parents want their kids to be. 

Most episodes are about some kid who faces some setbacks in life and lose faith in their hobby or career. However, the protagonist, Amu, plays a role of cheerleader and restores their faith in their activity and returns them to "the right path". 

Such a simplistic world view that claims everything depends only on hard work and your own effort overlooks facts that there is a lot more to success in life. In real life luck, opportunities, connections and such often play a higher role in success than hard work. A lot of people are rich are simply because their parents were rich and left them with a lot to enjoy life.

However, this show is not for parents who give their children enough to enjoy life. Instead, it's for the kind of bad parents who want to burden their children as much as possible and then blame them when they fail. After all, "God forbid" (many such parents are religious in a bad way) you blame society or parents themselves for a failure.

This show panders to these bad parents' views and produce them a show about the kind of kids they want their own children to be. It further lulls their critical thinking by giving them simple easy to understand and wrong solutions to a problem when their kids fail or refuse to continue. Simply cheer them up and push them to continue like Amu does in the show. 

I have enough critical thinking to not claim shows like that produce bad parents. GTA does not makes people murderers after all.

Aside from being a circle jerk for concerned parents this show has some redeeming qualities. Amu herself has her own complex personality with her own problems. There is also an overreaching plot that connects individual episodes. Many recurring characters, connected to the whole process in some yet to be revealed way keeps you intrigued enough to learn more. However, show is very long and its unlikely the plot will unravel fast enough.

Overall, I will not recommend or not recommend this show. It has a specific purpose.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear XV

Overall Rating 6.7 out of 10 - Best season of flawed in many ways Symphogear

I recommend watching.

By the 5th seasons Symphogear creators finally understood what they are doing and how to make a waifu show. 

This season begins with best story premise so far: mysterious ancient civilization custodians who are behind many events that happened in the show. An intriguing plot for a change. It is a partial return to the original story premise that got me interested in this series to begin with, but it feels surprisingly fresh.

There is more. Three new antagonists are much more interesting than many of those who came before them. They use clever tricks to fight and overall, their story is more interesting than of those who came before them. They have regrets and self-consciousness instead of desire to serve humanity and sacrifice themselves to help others that often unites both protagonists and antagonists of this show.

Finally, they began sexualizing gear users properly. How they have transformation sequences, just like in Sailor Moon, where they show their bodies in revealing way. Kirika doing a pole dance on handle of her scythe is by far best and Shirabe is second close. Once again, these two carry the show.

Also, there is more Miku in this season, however they do not show her as her usual soft and gentle poor man Haruka, but rather as someone as driven by the ideological drivel as Bikki.

Closer to the end we sadly go back to usual Symphogear themes or sacrifice for others, struggle and willful suffering. These themes are like a spoonful of Marmite in what could have been a nice cake.

Final battles are as flashy as always, but about as much hollow. They substitute flashy action for substance, tactics and ideas. It,s the opposite of Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto could make movement of shadows feel tense and intriguing as one wrong move could easily mean death in Naruto universe. Here an explosion that eliminates half of the city feels like another Tuesday.

Overall, it's the best season of Symphogear.

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Review

Overall Rating 6.7 out of 10 - Mediocre romantic comedy, entirely carried by its female protagonist.

I recommend watching.

Yet another romantic comedy, most of them are bad. Here however I saw that cute poster girl with her large warm trusting eyes and immediately wanted to watch it.

I will be being with Haruka is she is the only reason to watch it. Haruka combines many of the qualities I like with some that I do not. On one hand she is well mannered, polite, gentle, friendly, warm, calming, soft, passive, caring and supportive - the things I like in women. Haruka is almost perfect.

However, there is one problem, she is far too dependent on Yuuto and other people around. Something upsets her and she just stops functioning. Yuuto then has to figure out how to fix her. The delicate flower far too delicate. She cannot find her own ass without Yuuto or her maids. Sometimes she feels even more helpless than blind and crippled Nunnally. 

In contrast for example Chise from Saikano, despite being slow and weak, handles all her shit herself and does not burden Shuji too much. Also, in contrast to Haruka who has little to now extra responsibilities, Chise has a huge war to fight, and she does not complain.

There is one other character like Haruka, who is almost perfect but there is one problem: Chintanda Eru from Hyouka. I also liked Chintanda initially but grew wary of how she drags male protagonist around for her curiosity bouts. Both Haruka and Chintanda are likable in themselves, but dynamics of relationship she has with male protagonist are not likable. 

Aside from Haruka that for the most part makes it worthwhile; the rest of the cast are not likable. Maids and Haruka's little sister are part stalkers part trolls. Maids do have redeeming qualities, but Mika does not. Then there is Yuuto's alcoholic sister and teacher who only serve as an example of unlikable women to make Haruka look good. Then Haruka's parents with hotheaded psycho dad and unlikable dominant mom. Finally, there is that redheaded girl that was somewhat of Haruka's rival for Yuuto affection, but they just made her a friend in the end. Then there is posse of snobbish rich kids who harasses Yuuto for being poor. I think authors were out of ideas and were just adding stuff to fill episode count.

Yuuto himself is not relatable at all. He clearly crosses the somewhat fine line that divides politeness and fancy manners from submissiveness and self-deprecation. He is more concerned with following rules for rules sake rather than because he finds purpose in then. He seems wants to help Haruka with her problems more than interested in her for her feminine qualities. To reference Saikano again, wise and cynical Shuji much more like me and Yuuto is nothing like.

Overall, however Haruka is nice, and the show is enjoyable around half of the time.

Russia's Conflicting Priorities Problem

In his Rules for Rulers video, CGPGrey clearly outlined that the most backward dictatorship are very stable and the most free and advanced democracies are stable. Only countries that fall in between these two extremes are constant unstable ground for revolution. Because when people somewhat educated and somewhat connected, they have more opportunity to rebel and overthrow a dictator.

However, in places like Russia, China and Iran we see a consistent attempt to create people who would be educated enough to build spaceships and computers yet at the same time, too backward to desire democracy or freedoms.

The idea is absurd in itself. How would you prevent people from understanding what a freedom and democracy is, when you expect them to understand physics and complex math.

Predictably enough it goes not work. Computers they attempt to make do not work and to prevent them from rebelling a huge army of riot police is constantly employed. All three of these countries are plagued by constant problems, brain drain, protests, insurgencies and so on. Smart people emigrate to real democracies or if they can't, simply do not use their talents to help the state and rulers they detest. 

Dictator Inc rockets cannot fly as well as democratic ones. Iran and North Korea try to build nukes and consistently fails. Russia tried to create its own Silicon Valley, and it get them nowhere. Reality constantly reminds the rulers of these countries that the contradiction they attempt to achieve is impossible, rulers constantly ignore it.

Despite that rulers entertain themselves with fairy tales about ascetic genius Perelman and hope one day another such genius would build them weapons better than what Americans have.

Meanwhile the country suffers the bullshit of these rulers.