Hanaukyou Maid-tai Review

Overall Rating 6.6 out of 10 - Nice maid show with mostly likable maids but rather poor art.

I recommend watching

If we take protagonist and outfits from Kore ga Watashi no Goshujin-sama and add them to maids, story and overall vibe from this show, then we will have perfect maid show. By itself as it is it still beats Kore ga Watashi no Goshujin-sama by more than a point.

By itself it is a nice maid show a be it with somewhat basic art. 

This show is all about living a dream in huge mansion and having a whole organization of maids to take care of your every whim.

Maids are mostly cute and caring. They are willing to do anything for male protagonist, which is a very important quality for maids. 

There is a fair bit of nudity as well, which would be even better if art was better.

It is mostly episodic in nature, where each episode is mostly standalone with little to no connection to other episodes.

Story is basic and mostly exist just to so that something happens on screen.

Overall, despite its flaws, it's still a solid show that tries to cater to my needs as much as it can. I can value and appreciate its efforts. 

Kore ga Watashi no Goshujin-sama Review

Overall Rating 5.5 out of 10 - Show that promises more than it delivers

I do not recommend watching past episode 3 or even at all.

Kore ga Watashi no Goshujin-sama is a show that looked very promising in the first 3 or so episodes. A well written male protagonist who is selfish, perverted, exploitative and seemed very relatable at first. Two girls who had no choice, but to agree on his conditions and work as his maids. Third girl who looked very promising at first. Well designed and sexy maid outfits. Good art that fully takes advantage of that. Depend on how it would end it could even be as high as 8 out of 10.

Then middle part that felt more like a treadmill of the samey contests over trivial things. Looney Tunes in maid outfits and occasional fanservice. Fanservice was getting worse and worse and violence against male protagonist worse and worse. It was no longer about Yoshitaka fetishes but about contesting Izumi with endless rivals that popped from everywhere. It was no higher than 6

Then came the finale where maids left, Yoshitaka nearly lost everything but was saved by Izumi in what was supposed to be climatic happy end. Instead, this "happy end" felt more like another snub at Yoshitaka. 

By end its only higher than 5 because of good maid outfits design and fanservice. Yoshitaka lost nearly everything that made him relatable. Maids were not any better than at the beginning of the story, if anything they got even worse due to all the fortune and admirers they managed to collect.

Maid trio each has their own problems. Best thing about them are their maid outfits designed by Yoshitaka. Izumi ended up being irredeemable tsundere, early episodes gave me hope she will change and become nicer but that did not happen. Mitsuki is nice and sweet at first glance, but she actually manipulates the whole show behind the scenes and is the reason for other character's struggles. Finally, Anna-chan was nice and sweet when she was ready to do anything for Yoshitaka but show decided to take it away and made her into being lesbians with Izumi instead.

Unusually for slice of life, this show is mostly story driven. Despite that is not fulfilling, plot twists merely give you the false hope, things will turn to better in next episode only to disappoint you in the end.

Overall, it is probably the biggest disappointment of the year.

Nier Replicant vs Nier Automata

 

Very popular and critically acclaimed Nier Automata actually has a rather obscure predecessor. Nier Replicant. There is also Nier Gestalt, but it is the same game but with a different main protagonist. Automata references its predecessor every so often, encouraging players to play that game as well. I tried to watch the playthrough several times in the past but could not get into it. Finally, recently I managed to sit through the whole playthrough of the remastered version of the game.

While Replicant clearly has a signature Nier feel to it, overall, it is a much lesser game that its acclaimed sequel. Automata set expectations high, but Replicant often failed to deliver. There was constant hope that it will get better sometime later and reveal something grand, yet these expectations never truly materialized. Unlike Automata, Replicant drowns in repetitive side quests, most of which are about finding and delivering some cure for someone. I often found myself in agreement with Grimoire Weiss on many things in the game. Main quest incidentally is also about finding cure for Yonah. In general, Replicant covers the same issues about "pain of solitude" and attachment to friends and relatives over and over again, to the point of nausea, 2 out of 3 bosses and side quests are about that. 

Repetitiveness extends even into game mechanics: Automata was infamous with the fact that after reaching ending A, you had to run through most of the same game again to reach ending B. The only saving grace was the fact that during second run you played as 9S and got to see some events from a different point of view.

Replicant, one ups it and makes you play the same sequence 3 times with much less differences between playthroughs.

Not all is bad, however. At times Replicant did manage to be as deep and profound as its successor. Facade Kingdom and Barren Temple had interesting ideas. Forest of Myth had some potential, even if it was somewhat poorly implemented. Second playthrough showed many of the same events from the point of view of antagonists. Finally, I could pity the mermaid shade and at times Kaine as well. Your time will not be wasted playing or watching the playthrough.

Overall, however Replicant feels much smaller than Automata. If Automata left you with the sense that there is more than what the game could cover, then Replicant instead made you feel trapped by making you constantly wander between few locations both literarily and metaphorically. 

Mahoromatic: Motto Utsukushii Mono Review

Overall Rating 6.8 out of 10 - Somewhat flawed sequel of the original Mahoromatic.

I still recommend watching.

I frequently criticize sequels for changing and detracting from formula that made the original so compelling. This one unfortunately was not an exception. Mahoro's cuteness, kindness and care for Suguru was the hallmark of the original Mahoromatic. The sequel instead decided to make her more assertive and bellicose for some reason. I almost felt like dropping it during first two episodes. 

Fortunately, the show returned back to its normal self in the middle episodes. They are about as good as the original, with the added benefit of the new cute maid, Minawa.

The endgame is once again a dramatic twist. In the original Mahoro suddenly had to return to her battle duties to fight her longtime rival. In sequel there is instead complicated conspiracy and rivalry between Saints, Vesper and Management. While it was interesting to learn more about these organizations, the way new authors handled it was rather unpleasant. Reasons why Suguru's grandpa took on Management were not compelling, and Saint did not get enough screentime or development.

Despite all that the middle episodes are good and there is more Mahoro and now also Minawa in there so it's worth watching. 

History of Contemporary Music

Nowadays there are many genres and subgenres of music: so many it sometimes too hard to understand what each genre even about or how say trash metal differs from first wave of death metal or second wave of the same. 

That was not always like that, there were times where there were just two genres and even just one. However eventually they split up into so many different ones.

A brief dive into history of contemporary music would allow you to understand why it happened as well as better understand genres.

Pop

At the beginning there was just pop. Pop is short for popular and that was its intention and agenda: become as popular as possible. Before pop there was jazz, blues, bebop and many more; before these there were classics like Mozart and Bach. However, you would not call them contemporary. They have their own history that needs their own article.

To that end pop had catchy tunes with simple lyrics, that were often about love. Songs were typically performed by a good-looking singer who sometimes danced but almost never played any instruments. Physical appeal of singer's looks was often more important than quality of songs or their singing ability. That was further enhanced with selling posters and various merchandise with the likeness of the artist. Producers clearly counted on singer's appearance being the selling point of the whole outfit. The genre revolves around this single singer or sometimes a group of singers who are called stars, idols or celebrities.

To support the singer there was often huge crew of various assistants. Musicians, dancers, make-up artists and so on. Professional composers wrote music and lyrics, professional arrangers arranged it. Professional dancers danced and professional musicians played. All of that was managed by producers. The singer was only the face of the huge machine and the industry behind it.

With some borrowings here and there, mixed with token efforts to change, that are superficial in nature, this genre continues to exist to this day. It is the genre that "keeps changing in order to stay the same".

Its popular mostly with women. Female psychology is wired to like popular things, and it is what keeps this industry running. That applies equally to both female and male pop artists. Male pop singers are popular because their physical appearance appeal to female listeners. Women wrongly assume that female pop singers should be equally popular with male audience but that it not the case. Female singers are also becoming famous through their appeal to female listeners. Women watch and listen to a female idol; assume she is popular with males and dream of being as popular and loved by guys as she is. Reality is that typical pop artist is only popular with other females most males are indifferent to most pop singers.

Rock

Rock was the second genre to emerge. Meaning of its name is ambiguous. Maybe it's from the verb rocking, because it shakes the industry and establishment. May be its from phrase rock solid, because it's not as fake as pop. Rock is not popping as bubblegum bubble, its fully solid. May be its short from Rock'n'roll dance and related music. 

Rock emerged in protest to pop and aimed to be everything pop was not. Rockers blamed pop for being fake and wanted to be true and real. To that end they would write their own songs and lyrics, play them on stage and do everything else themselves. Unlike pop they will not have anyone behind the scenes. To credit everyone who contributed to the effort and not just the singer, they would organize themselves in bands. Often such bands would have catch names. To show they are not faking it and actually able to play instruments and sing, they would perform life on stage. Often there would be one dedicated singer, but some bands, like Beatles would take turns singing.

Songs and lyrics were different too. Not satisfied with sanitized and docile lyrics only about love, rock would expand topics, war, politics, social issues and many more. Often, they would have deliberately controversial lyrics to protest something they dislike about society. Sometimes they would take deliberate jabs at pop, mocking the genre for its various traits, rockers have issues with.

Melodies were similarly different, rock had less musicians to work with, but they were often willing to experiment with instruments and produce more radical and never before heard sound. Often that sound would be much heavier and angrier in its character compared to pop. Other times desire to showcase personal provenness as musician and ability to play would make certain musicians to compose and play complicated solos. Jimmy Hendrix particularly famous for it.

All of that made Rock both much more diverse and sophisticated than pop. 

It also brought love of fans who disliked pop for one or the other reasons. Gradually rock had about as much fans as pop and most of these were new people who used to shun pop. Who had more fans at any given time is too hard to evaluate now. 

However, many rockers are remembered much more roundly and by many more people compare to their pop equivalents. Pop was always in the now and artists who stopped releasing albums or performing would often be forgotten soon enough. In contrast rock had legends that endure long after they either disbanded or even literary died. Beatles, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Viktor Tsoi of Kino are ever remembered by their diehard fans, something pop artists cannot brag about. Unlike pop, rock could create this lasting voice of generation effect, not just fashionable this year passing fancy.

Because of rock, term rockstar rather than popstar is now associated with musical success, fame and things that go with it.

However, pop continued to be popular with its core demographics. It was not that its formula did not work, it was that it did not work on everyone.

Synthesis

Hoverer while rock build itself around the rejecting everything pop was, that feeling was not mutual. Far from it, pop actually say rock as a form of pop, that does the same thing as them, even if in a somewhat different way. That sentiment would make more purist rockers churn and spit. However, being popular was good enough credo in the eyes of pop industry and rock certainly was popular.

Because of that pop decided to imitate rock and learn its secrets in order to be even more popular than before. Thus, pop rock emerged where pop artists would adopt look of the rock bands and would sing holding guitars and such. That did not manage to win any rock fans over to pop but was popular enough with the pop crowds for several bands to do it.

What had much more enduring and lasting success however been rock musicians going pop. Sure, it was unacceptable from rock purists' point of view, but pop had something to entice popular rockers and that something was money. Sure, purists would turn back on you, calling you a sellout to big corporations' dirty money. However, so what if your old friends, with whom you started your career now curse you when you are millionaire and living a blast of a live.

There were even natural tendencies towards this development. No matter how much rock wanted to share fame and credit equally among all band members, public would still remember the lead singer much better than the guy who sit behind the drums. They will see him as leader and the rest as followers. That would allow "leader" to ditch his bandmates for hired musicians and a career under their own name. 

Even Beatles, where all four members composed songs and lyrics and took turns singing were not immune it that tendency. Public grew to see John Lennon as leader, Paul McCarthy did not want to stay in Lennon's shadow, so he quit Beatles to start solo career. Much to McCarthy charging, Lennon remained the most popular of four in his solo career as well.

That happened many times over, Black Sabbath grew both Ozzy Osbourne and Dio, who after being vocalists there for some time, quit and continued as solo musicians. There are many more solo musicians, who started in a band that few remember nowadays and then quit to become solo artists. Sting is a good example.

Such "gone solo" musicians would be best equipped to be successful in both worlds. Rock origin would allow them to keep their rock credo together with many of the original fans. They will also have unique inside knowledge of rock world and what it takes to be successful with the rock fans. 

Because of difference in attitudes towards each other, pop world would welcome such defector with open arms, and they will have a head start towards stardom.

To keep their original rock fans from dissipating, many would continue to perform with their new hired band on stage. They will also make their new songs sound as close to those of their original band as possible.

To keep pop fans engaged, there will be more show on stage interviews posters and other merchandise.

Do this right and your career would be as never-ending as that of Ozzy Osbourne and you will be super-rich embodiment of a rockstar. That is far more that what pop rock could possibly achieve, no one could possibly remember a name of a successful pop rock musician.

Diffusion

While rock fans are united in their mutual dislike for pop, when it comes to what they like about rock they are not united at all.

Many rebel movements, that succeed in overthrowing the regime, end up splintering into several smaller groups, that each fight for their distinct vision for the country. Sometimes these are political fights like in the US. between states and federal government and them between federalist party and democratic-republican one. Other times it is a continued armed struggle, like in Libya between Islamists and secularists.

Same with rock. Once unified movement eventually begun branching out into several different movements, who themselves later developed many subgenres of their own.

The most prominent offspring of rock is of course metal. Metal was a logical continuation of enhancing the sound. Metal takes that hard rock sound to its complete extreme. Even early rock often had heavier sound than pop with guitar riffs, distortion and many other sound effects that made sound harder and angrier. That branch first became hard rock, then metal and finally branched out into innumerable subgenres of said metal.

Each subgenre of mental differs in lyrics, appearance, ideology. Some sing about death, others about violence, some about occult stuff or devil, others about legendary warriors or even fantasy worlds They have differences in sound as well, but all of them sound much heavier and angrier than pretty much every other genre. Metal also developed a specific form of singing, called growl, that half of metal bands use. Other instead scream or yell and some sing in more normal voice.

Metal fans are typically people angry antisocial people. Some want to at least listen to songs about destroying society if they cannot actually destroy it. Other instead indulge themselves into escapism about legendary warriors, distant lands and fantasy worlds. Leather jackers, aggressive colors (particularly black) as well as aggressive fonts are typical among both fans and bands.

Metal fans are less concerned with opposing pop compared to expressing their anger with society, so they are not opposed to commercialization. Certain metal bands, that clearly begun as commercial projects, are as popular as more underground ones. Normally, metal does not deliberately aim to be an affront to social norms but often ends up being one due to being generally as extreme as possible.

Other much smaller branch decided to double down on ethics of being authentic and not selling out. They came to not only oppose pop as genre, but also popularity in general. They double down on lyrics and sing about issues they find meaningful for them. In their lyrics they often criticize pop, society and entertainment industry in general. Skyclad is an example of such band.

Unlike metal, who takes sound to the extreme, such bands have more toned-down sound and emphasize lyrics instead.

As much authentic rock would rather "be bitter than a flavor of the week", pop and hipsters came enjoy imitating them and their anti-popularity stance and created various indie and hipster bands to make dubious claims to authenticity.

Hister bands deliberately try to go against trends in hope that would make them popular instead. While fans of authentic rock would scoff and these hipster efforts, these efforts actually worked for some of them, and they gather support from likeminded fans who listen to such bands in order to look edgy and cool to their peers. For hipster it does not matter if lyrics matter, or band just act this way.

Then there are, people who like to be rebels without a cause. They gravitate towards various forms of punk rock. Unlike metal that takes sound to extreme, punk rock instead takes debauchery and chaos to the extreme. To the extend it can be contrasted with both metal and authentic rock, because if metal cares for cause more than for rebellion then punk does not care for a cause at all and just wants to rebel for rebelling sake.

To that end punk is deliberately as offensive to public tastes as they manage to get. Appearance wise punk tries to stand out as much as possible. Unlike stubborn defiance of metal, punk is all about screaming and shocking. Piercing, colored hair, torn clothes and such are very common among these group.

I punk are rebels without cause, then metal is cause without rebels.

There are other offshoots of rock, such as psychedelic rock of Pink Floyd, that is liked some people due to their possibly eerie sound. Unlike metal they try to make their sound as strange as possible.

There are some that combines certain elements of these and other genres such as folk or even soprano singing to make unique sound and create a new genre in their own right. 

In addition to these and other offshoots of rock, there are many new genres that emerged completely on their own without particular connection to either pop or rock, techno for example. 

Finally, there is rap, for little girls who are into black people. In that regard its closer to pop than to rock, but it's not completely so.

Conclusion

Conflict between pop and rock ultimately produced diverse and multicolored contemporary music scene, where everyone can find something to their liking.

The common pattern between these developments can be observed in other events of the era. A new trend first unites supporters around itself, then produces opposition. Opposition typically wins but then splinters into several distinct groups. Eventually field diffuses into variety of different groups with many diverse characteristics. Many of these new groups combine traits of the original and the opposition in different proportions. 

For example, cold war begun because communism was created. Communists were one and united for a common cause and common ideology. In contrast their opponents were very different from one another and only united in their common dislike for communism. When communism was defeated, many went on to develop in their own, sometimes very different way.

More recently war in Libya showed similar trend.

Something less geopolitical is feminism. Feminists are united for the common cause, but opponents of feminism do not have common vision of what they want from relationship, only common dislike for what feminism is.

The principle of "thesis, antithesis and synthesis" works in all of these cases.

Moe and Harem Anime are Staple for Core Otakus

Harem amine is staple for core fans. It gave core fans precisely what they wanted: a selection of cute feminine females to choose from. IRL women are lacking in femininity because of fashion industry, wokeness, government policy, parents of daughters and other such problems with society. Anime was solving that by giving men animated women they could love, when real world failed to do the same. Love or hate nerdy otakus, they are core fans of the anime.

However, after some time, other demographics caught whiff and got themselves into industry. However, they had problem with this male centered approach and started demand that shows cater to their tastes as well. Christians and moralists want shows to teach their kids something. Women want some manly men in Shonen genre, because they cannot watch Josei for some reason. Old people, who hate youth, want shows that exploit youth for their enjoyment. And so on.

Now we, core demographic, cannot easily find the show that caters to our tastes.

Video game industry has the same problem.

Examples of Anime Characters that I Hate

Fley Allster from Gundam SEED for example. She is manipulative and exploitative bitch with father issues that would send Kira Yamato to die for some stupid shit.

Asuna from SAO. While she would not kill Kirito, she is still manipulative and will hurt him or people she does not like without batting an eye.

I dropped Eva before Asuka Langley even appeared in it, but from what I can tell from memes, she is collection of everything I hate in women in one character.

Rin Tohsaka from Fate franchise. Snobbish know it all who sits on her ass boss Shirou all the time and does little more. Fate/Stay worked hard to whitewash her, but that did not convince me. In Fate/Zero Kirei finally puts her in her place and tells her to shut up and obey men.

Tae Shimura from Gintama. She is cold and hurts people. She probably can be as bad as those above, but at least she has self-restrain and rarely appears or does anything on screen.

Malty from Shield Hero, but that one pretty much everyone can agree on.

Many of characters on whom Enma Ai or Keyaruga takes revenge, like Flare for example.

there are more, but I do not feel like listing them all.

Social Issues in Holy Britannian Empire from Code Geass

Society of Holy Britannian Empire in Code Geass have a lot of issues with it.

Just in the first episode Capitan of Clovis personal unit intended to kill Lelouch just because he was in the wrong place in the wrong time. In general Britannias' killing people casually and blaming it on terrorists, even if said people are Britannian students.

Then there is Clovis himself who kidnapped CC, kept it secret from the rest of the government and royal family. Clovis was running experiments on her in order to figure out how her immortality works and wanted to use this power to knife his way in power hierarchy.

Then when terrorists accidently captured the vehicle that was transporting CC, he ordered to slaughter all who got chance to witness her, because keeping his secret is more important that lives of many innocents.

Just from that alone one can conclude that it is a deeply flawed society that casually kills people for political reasons. When that nearly cost Lelouch his life twice, he decided to do something about it.

First time was when Charles decided to invade Japan, knowing Lelouch and Nunnally could be executed by Japanese in retaliation. Japanese spared him back then. In the Clovis Personal Unit incident, he only survived because of CC.

As I mentioned before Lelouch was using Nunnally as an excuse for his actions. The real reason is the one I wrote above.

Macross Frontier Review

Overall Rating 4.1 out of 10 - Show for fans of spoiled women.

I do not recommend watching.

It begun rather nice. Ranka was cute, space jets were awesome and much more advanced graphics (compared the original) made me think that it would be an awesome show. Many cameo references to the original Macross only made it this clearer.

Then it went downhill and kept going lower and lower until I ran out of patience.

Supporting cast was rather nasty. Michael even admitted he thinks hazing of male MC is his duty. The rest of the crew of the PMC called SMS, are mostly goofy and chaotic. They throw shit and run after each other for not particular reason. It is frustrating to see Alto put up with them. Even Ranka stopped being her cute cuddly self and became more hostile and unfriendly.

However, the worst character in this show had to be Sheryl. 

Min May from the original eventually got spoiled by her fame and stardom, but you could still sympathize with her because you remember how she was because she became famous and even by the end of the show, she still had enough redeeming qualities. 

In contrast Sheryl is spoiled and acts like she can get away with anything. She is both willful and stupid at the same time. She would have died many times over if not for Alto. I do not know if people who are into femdom like these kinds of women or not, but to me she is revolting.

Regardless Sheryl is clear favorite of the creative team. A much better Ranka gets constantly blocked out by her on every corner and does not gat a fair chance at anything. 

This show suffers from issues that make other shows of 2010s so bad and unlikable. I do not recommend watching.

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.

How to Reform and Replace Coring in EU V

Coring was part of EU since times immemorable. However, the game outgrew its coring system long ago.

During EU III it was a clever abstraction to represent both rightful claim on a foreign province and at the same time distinguish between provinces that were part of your country since forever from a newly acquired land.

Nowadays we have autonomy together with state/territory mechanic, years of separatism, claims and so on to represent these concepts. Compare to these coring feels ever more arbitrary and pointless.

25 years cores of EU III make more sense from practical point of view compared to click to core of EU IV. When you just conquered a province, people still remember that is was part of a different country and lingering separatist sentiments would continue for some time. It will take a while before locals would finally accept their new country and government. EU III coring represented just that.

Overextension is too arbitrary as well. Why having couple of extra provinces on periphery suddenly affect the entire country go haywire?

It would make sense to remove coring and overextension altogether (or make it represent end of separatist sentiment instead). Instead expand on reducing autonomy and make it a major system of internal management. Possibly rename it into integration as changes are rather extensive.

Reducing autonomy should go in stages, cost admin points to do, take time to do. In general, it should be much more central element of the game. Newly conquered provinces would begin at 100% autonomy (or 0% integration) and contribute nothing to the country. By spending admin points on integrating, it and reducing autonomy you finally get benefits from a province.

There could be a strategic depth and tradeoffs with that as well. If you blob a lot, you need to make choices what provinces you will reduce autonomy as your admin points will not let you do it everywhere so need to choose between say high value trade good and high manpower province based on what you need more at the moment, money or more soldiers for next war.

That would make internal country management more engaging and more important for the overall functioning of your country.

That is more realistic representation of differences in internal administration as some small countries are better managed and can field a better and bigger army. On the other hand, other countries maybe huge but most provinces there do not even know what country they are part of and contribute nothing to it. Thus, with this system better managed countries did better than poorly managed ones, this is a way to represent it.

Facial Expressions of Code Geass

 

Gode Geass is all round good anime and does everything right. One particular thing it head and shoulders ahead of other anime is its depiction of emotions and facial expressions. 

Emotions in Code Geass are both complicated and very deeps. At certain points in the show, Lelouch and other main characters, are happy, sad, angry, disgusted, focused, possessed, obsessed, intense and many more. Animators doing really great job at putting these feelings on faces of Code Geass characters. 

This is not a show where smug is the entire personality of certain characters. However pretty much every character can put a smug on their face when they feel it.

Here for example an aptitude of Lelouch. This is his happy and relaxed face when he is with Nunnally

Here is when he is stressed. You can clearly see intensity of his eyes.

Here is is deep in thoughts about his plans

Finally, here what he looks like when his plans working out and he revels in his victory

You can search for his name in any search engine and will get such a variety of emotions. 

Hardly any other shows can give you as many different facial expressions for the same character. 

Choujikuu Yousai Macross Review

Overall Rating 6.7 out of 10 - Interesting and original premise but inconsistent quality. 

I recommend watching.

Macross is a very interesting show. Just that fact that people still remember it 40 years after it originally aired suggests there is something extraordinary about it. Partially it did not disappoint. Sometimes it's as good as 8 and other times it falls to 5.

I will be being with the good. The story and premise. An alien spaceship crashed on Earth, humans rebuild it and used it as their own. However, Zentradi, opponents of the original owners of the ship, mysterious Supervision Army found it and do not know what to do with it. That creates an interesting dilemma. Zentradi have more sheer firepower but they want ship alive so they cannot just destroy it. That gives Marcross a asymmetric fighting chance as Zentradi get out of their way to capture ship alive.

As show progresses you get to learn more about Zentradi and their way of life. I will not spoil too much, but episodes that cover reality of Zentradi life and their surprising weakness are highlight of this show.

Finally, the Valkyrie transforming Jet. It can be a jet, a walking mech like Gundam and even something in between. A vert creative idea.

Now the bad. The drama. Show wants to prevent itself as love story in space, it takes a lot of time exploring its love triangle/quad between a few main characters. It's dragged out and mostly unpleasant. Both women in Hikaru's life are so short fused and emotional. No matter who is currently with him, the other one seems like a better choice. Both Minmay and Misa take too much undue advantage of Hikaru's kindness. Both first get angry when they see him with the other one, then cry long tears over him favoring their rival. At the same time, they both also like Kaifun and willing to run to him anytime, forgetting all about Hikaru. Then shamelessly coming back to Hikaru when things sour with Kaifun. This story is full of romance you want to avoid.

Kaifun is very annoying. Ever since he was introduced in the middle of the show, it turned worse. Only part of it is because of his anti-miliary pacifism. Kaifun is a slave drive, obsessed with a dubious sense of duty to society. He exploits Minmay to perform her songs to the point of exhaustion. He criticizes military and tries to rally the populace against them.

Finally, about length. The show it 36 episodes long. That is like three seasons. First 12/13 episodes are the best, overall. That is where show shines most. Middle 12 are the worst, they fell more like filler then a real show. The final 12 are mixed bag. Some of them very important plot developments and others just more of the same old drama.

Overall, it is a interesting and unusual anime. It gave birth the whole Macross franchise that has several more shows. I recommend watching, even if some episodes are better off skipped.

Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka III Review

Overall Rating 4.5 - Poorly written agenda show that feels like trolling.

I do not recommend watching.

How to Not Pick Anime to Watch III

The longest of my currently watching is finally over. I picked this anime over Weine. First half of it was not very inspiring, but at the same time very ambiguous as to what direction the show will ultimately take. Thus, I was postponing it for other shows, returning to it when I finish other shows. Finally, when I decided to clean up my backlog I started watching it more frequently. By the time I got completely disillusioned with it I was already three quarters finished so I decided to finish it to make a more informed review as there is a lot to cover.

This show puts everything that is bad with contemporary anime industry in one single show. I will list is here while at it.

It has many poorly drawn characters and unlikable characters. Not the characters the creators wished to make cute and likable but could not draw well, like in DearS. Instead, it has characters that are deliberately designed to be aesthetically unpleasant. Some designs are so hideous like that Freya's assistant, that it feels more like a prank show, that an honest attempt at making something good.

It has a lot of female characters with unlikable personalities too. Show has so many women, but none are really waifu material. Instead, they all remind you why you do not want to deal with women in the first place. Wiene is somewhat likable, but that is not enough to justify watching it.

The whole Xenos idea was so poorly implemented, it feels more like cheap propaganda of inclusivity. When a lizardman calls a literal unicorn or a mushroom man his kind, it's just silly. Line between monsters and people is blurry too, catgirls or elves are people, but bird girls or girls with scales are not. Go figure, why? 

There are better written shows that have inclusivity, for example Code Geass where Black Knights have their fair share of disagreement and mistrust over ethnicity but are intimately united by their common goal and faith in Zero. After all people do not unite just for the sake of diversity or inclusivity. People unite because they have common interests. Code Geass shows that just well.

In contrast here Bell and Xenos are willing to die for each other for no particular reason at all. it's just poor writing by a lazy scriptwriter.

Plot just throws random unpredictable curveballs to avoid being predictable. People just betray and switch sides with no real reasons or explanations. Just to make things less predictable. However, that fails as they make no sense either.

Occasionally show tries to be dramatic, like when Wiene would tear out here claws and wing when Ais accused her of using these to harm people. However, it does not work. Perhaps due to other faults of this show, you just cannot take it seriously. Perhaps something else.

Finally, the world is poor too. It has some families headed by gods, mostly from Greek but also other mythologies. There is Ganesha too, but <spoiler alert>, he just wears silly elephant mask and does not have proper elephant head. Who is in what familia is random and the whole organization system is not compelling. Why would you want to be a subordinate of some god or goddess? It calls for a Lermontov's quote about "blue suits" and their loyal people. Gods plot their own games with each other and so on.

One thing that shows occasionally is that this show could have been better. For example, architecture of non-essential buildings the city is very nice. Too bad good buildings are shown only briefly, and a lot of time characters spend in some plain dungeons or rooms. Ouranos lair, Bell's home and other named and important for the story locations are all very poorly designed.

Finally, Bell is an unlikable martyr hero.

This show feels like a deliberate attempt by creators to shoot themselves in a foot. It's not as bad as say Guilty Crown, but still a waste of time. Hopefully anime will get better. We need DearS and Hand Maid May remaster into full HD graphics. 

Saikano: Another Love Song Review

Overall Raing 5.6 out of 10 - A retconned insert an anti-Chise for different tastes in women.

I guess you can try this is you do not find Chise attractive.

This is a parallel OVA that introduces a new female protagonist and inserts her into original story.

Mizuki is a human weapon just like Chise. However, personality wise she is basically anti-Chise. I guess those who do not find Chise like girls attractive wanted their own weapon girl.

Compared to the original, this OVA somewhat retcons Chise and Tetsu. Around half of screen time is used for Mizuki's exposition and the rest is to connect her to the original story. Sometimes these efforts look ham-fisted.

Overall, however its watchable. Chise still gets good amount of screentime, she is somewhat different but not too much. Mizuki is not my type, but I do not hate her as say Flay from Gundam SEED. 

I guess if hard women are your thing, then you can watch it. I prefer Chise like girls.

NieR Automata Game

In my recent review of Nier Automata anime I mentioned that it was an ultimately flawed adaptation that could not replicate everything that made the game so deep and compelling. I decided to write an article on reasons for such conclusion.

Partly anime simply did not have enough time to cover it all. However, the main issue is that anime focused on main characters and overlooked the boarder world in which the game was set. The game, after the prologue section, deliberately has a slow start to give players better feel just what kind of world Nier Automata is set in. It is a very compelling world. To see it for yourself you have to watch the game walkthrough that is available on Youtube. I can link two different ones by different players. Unfortunately, each have different flaws in it, one skips dialogues and the other sometimes struggle to find his way in the world.

Now on what I picked from the game, that was missing in the anime. Androids may be fight machines for humanity, but each of them is societies in their own right. 

Androids are programmed to respect humans and see them as advanced and sophisticated civilization that is worth fighting for. Because of that they wander among the ruins of apartment blocks and shopping malls like we do around some ancient Egyptian or Greek ruins. Their assistant pods narrate in dictionary definitions what this or that is, for example: "these structures are called apartment blocks, these were used by humans as dwellings" This is typically followed by a remark from android on how interesting and mysterious humans were. It's both curious and insightful to see them wonder over things ubiquitous to us as pen or shopping mall. When 9S asked what pen is for, the only thing pod could find is that is figures in phrase, 'pen is mightier than a sword.' meaning unknown. Pod knows neither what pen is for, not what the phrase means, but he connected these two together like that, just like archeologists would connect pieces of ancient civilizations that they dig out from the ground. It makes you think that ancient ruins we currently preserve were also ubiquitous and ordinary to people who build them. 

Androids in many ways are more advance than humans are, yet they revere past just as we do. That makes you think this reverence of the past is misplaced.

Androids are electronic devices, essentially robots or even computers. Because of that they have certain advantages and disadvantages. For example, they can back up their consciousness and if they die, their memories from the moment of back up will remain. On the other hand, removing OS chip can cause them to die. There are also other chips, that either enhance performance or display certain elements of GUI, if you remove them, you will not be able to see certain data on your screen.

Androids look down on their enemies' machines, thinking that latter are primitive, imitate human speech without understanding it and otherwise horrible inhuman spawn. This is just like propaganda of our times that used to dehumanize enemies in wars.

While machines indeed look much less human compared to androids, machines actually adapted many of the human structures such as factories and use them for their own needs. Much like androids they also strive to imitate humans in their own way. In certain behaviors they even seem more human than androids. For example, machines have religions, form kingdoms, obsess over beauty or even ponder over philosophy. In contrast android society is more militarized and regulated.

Then there is also Emil (his clone to be precise) who mourns his friends from original Nier (Gestalt and Replicant) games. He helps you at first because you found a flower that reminded him of his past. However later he goes hostile and if you later fail to defeat him, he will blow the entire Earth, turning it into lifeless rock floating in the endless uncaring universe. 

Language and phrasing they use throughout the game is unmatched. That alone makes it a work above others. Language conveys thoughts and feelings of greater world indifference to you and your happiness.

There is more. Blowing up bunker and thinking how commanders stern face probably float somewhere in the space. Eating mackerel. Deserting from duty like A2. Marx that fails to boot. Satre who talks on whether essence preceds matter or the other way around and then leaves to find himself. Satre's female fans, who do not get him, but love him because he treats them cruel. Plato, who fails to meet standards and stuggles with his own mediocracy; and many more.

All in all game is simply bigger than an anime could be. Watch it and see for yourself.

Saishuu Heiki Kanojo Review

Overall Rating 8.4 out of 10 - Rather unusual, but well written and very relatable love story

I recommend watching.

I tend to criticize various romance stories a lot. Most of them are unrelatable and unlikable. This however does not apply to this one. Saikano is good. For me its relatable on many levels. At times I even feel like it's written about me. 

Saikano is a good and well written romance. Some wild elements such as war in the background or the fact that she is a weapon might prevent you from taking romance seriously. However, romance is core of this show and its good. 

I gave Saikano slightly less than 5 cm per Second. However, 5 cm per Second is purely pleasant and sweet meanwhile Saikano is somewhat rough at edges and overall darker and sadder than former.

Shuji is one of few characters that do resemble me, especially in the early parts of the story. Just like me Shuji is aloof, cold and distant from people. In contrast to him however I do not blame myself for anything or help people much. 

In addition to Shuji, I find Tetsu to be relatable as well, I guess as I grew older became more like Tetsu. Chise and Tetsu's wife were involved with both of them.

Now the best part, Chise. She is very likable, just the kind of girl I like. She is cute timid and shy in a good way. She tends to blame herself for everything and tries to do everything on her own. She is adorably small, has very cute haircut and nice soft large soothing eyes. Also, she cries at many important moments, it's so cute and likable.

Chise's smile looks just like that of TrueHellDei. Several times in the series when the just show her lips feel like. Just like True, Chise is not stupid and knows various thing about the world and such. It's so interesting how she seamlessly switches between being an adorable girl and a killing machine.

Most importantly however is that Chise truly cares for Shuji. Everyone has their limitations, and she has more than others, but at least she is not indifferent to his happiness and wellbeing, like so many other girls IRL and even in anime are.

You might call Chise emotionally dependent, but that is not that much of a problem. Much worse are women who see you as source of money or a gofer for their whims. In contrast Chise does stuff for Shuji as much as she can and asks for nothing in return.

There are also other characters with their own emotional considerations. They are well written and interesting in their own way.

Overall, it's a good show and one of few proper romance shows. I recommend watching.

Europa Universalis

I have been playing Europa Universalis IV for more than month now, but so far, I have not written anything about it. I wrote about my previous games a while ago; you can check it out here.

Here are screenshots and maps from two different playthrough. One is France and another is Ottomans in Caliphate into Devlet-i-Rum. 

I played France first, I got close to WC but had to finish off few straddlers after 1821 hit. As Otto to Devlet-i-Rum I did finish on time. In both cases I used a lot of subjects and vassal feeding tactics as I always do. 

With Otto I decided to play as long as it would take to integrate them all, which was almost more than 100 years past 1821 or around 170 years in total. Eyalet mechanic makes it somewhat convenient, I had so many of them at one point. 

With France I instead feed a few rather large subjects, I was over dip cap limit nearly always. Also, I had two strong allies, Spain and Commonwealth, HRE wars made me break with Commonwealth but Spain stick around to the end. Eventually I got to form PU when their monarch died with no heirs. It was the last country I got.

NieR:Automata Ver1.1a Review

Overall rating 6.7 out of 10 - A flawed adaptation of the original video game

I recommend watching a game walkthrough instead.

I often dislike various adaptations and alternative versions of various media. Typically, they end up dumbed down or adjusted for some agenda or moral mongering. Unfortunately, Nier Automata did suffer a similar fate. 

Compare to the original game this show adds certain new parts, removes certain others and overall overplays certain themes to the point of nausea. The game was tad more subtle and restrained. It maintained a sense of deep psychological and philosophical themes without overwhelming player or repeating itself. Perhaps a game environment allowed for a better paced and more spaced-out presentation of material. 

In contrast anime repeats certain key in director's opinion themes repeatedly. This does gets annoying every so often. Unlike the original the anime obnoxiously makes near everything about solitude, like it's a Naruto anime. 

No all is bad is this version however, every so often it manages to present certain material well. Overall and compare to other titles it's a somewhat flawed experience.

Material wise, anime adds the whole A2 backstory that was somewhat interesting to watch. 

On the other hand, it completely removes Emil, Satre, Plato, Marx, Engels the Machine Godzilla and many more secondary characters that filled the world and made it as detailed and complete as it was in the game. I do not remember if there was an Amusement park in anime or not. Sure to add it all we would have to have 3 or 4 seasons but things like that are essential for a show like that. It's the small characters that add to the whole story and make it whole.

Also, the renamed Anemone into Lily for some reason.

Overall if you do not want to watch game walkthrough for some reason you can watch this instead, it does manage to recapture some of the greatness of the original.

Jashin-chan Dropkick X

Overall Rating 5.0 out of 10 - Mixed Impression, some parts are good and others not so.

Somewhat OK for a filler show.

Another one of these mediocre shows that are not bad enough to just drop yet have too little going for them to watch them. Out of these Jashin-chan is better side. 

Like a typical comedy show its episodic and each episode contains a number of short sketches. Here some sketches are funny enough to make you want watch more, other make you want to drop the show instead. However, the show is diverse enough so you can keep watching in hope the next sketch will be good one.

In the middle of the show, they change the format to an ark where Jashin-chan travels Japan to escape loan sharks. This ark is best in the show overall. However, after several episodes it ends, and we are back to the old routine.

This show has a really large character cast. Most of them just fill the space, being nothing more than a simple stereotype or so. They have cameo like appearances every so often and that is all they do. For some reason Hatsune Miku also makes cameo appearances in every episode despite not even fitting the show theme.

Out of main characters Jashin-chan is likable enough and sympathetic at times. Yurine is mostly annoying, you can wish Jashin-can would kill her one day. Medusa is cutest of them all thought, almost waifu material.

Overall, it is ok if you have nothing else to watch, but there are better comedy shows out there.

Mushishi Review

Overall Rating 6.7 out of 10 - Nice and Relaxing show with few flaws.

I recommend watching.

People generally tend to rate Mushishi very highly. Many praise it like something deep, spiritual or insightful. That is of course exaggeration. This is a very simple but mostly pleasant and relaxing show with a somewhat original idea.

The show revolves around paranormal, but loosely based on actual unicellular organisms, beings called mushi. These mushi cause variety of things and our mushi expert protagonist fixes them.

The show is episodic so you can watch it sparingly at your own pace. I actually recommend that over binging it.

Colours are rather drab, but that is a deliberate stylistic choice to represent simplicity and rustiness of rural life. If you hate such things then best is to skip this show.

Overall, the show has a realistic Japanese vibe to it, which is its greatest strong point. If you like Japanese things, you should at least try it.

On more negative side there is occasional hippy overtones about it as well. Occasionally show tries to preach, which it not good. Reducing human activity, preserving nature and so on. Fortunately, only few episodes suffer from that.

After watching first 3 episodes a while back I gave it 6. Now, after completing the whole thing I can give it a little more 6.7. It is not groundbreaking, but it's mostly good and enjoyable. I can recommend watching.