I think this episode shows that the production team is lacking in budget, but also shows that they care about the source material and are trying to do their best within their limits - and decent direction and voice acting can go a long way towards it.

That Atou face was just perfect.

Finally started this season, only two shows so far.

• 7th Prince: The MC’s design will keep turning people away from this series, which is a shame because of how consistently fun it has been to watch. Production is also really good, the magic spell effects are beautiful.
• Mynoghra: Isekai+Nation Building+Strategy Games is a combo of my favorite genres, so it was impossible for me to resist this one. They definitely don’t have a great budget but have been doing a decent enough job, Atou+Takuto being dorks is really fun, and the small bits of horror have been quite interesting.

Unexpected, but I’m in for another season of Yuke x Rain flirting.

Arifureta S1.

I asked for recommendations on something trashy ,“so bad it’s good”, and ended up with this. And it worked perfectly - I was in just the right mood to laugh out lout at the horrible CG monsters and chuuni bullshit.

Some series not mentioned yet.

• Tonikaku Kawaii
• Aharen-san wa Hakarenai (more focused on comedy but has surprisingly good and wholesome romance parts)
• The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity (upcoming)

“wow anime is really popular right now”

CR’s success is pretty much that + not having any real competition.

I’ve already noticed a few groups that stopped posting to MD and are using other sites. And at least one big group (LHTranslation) that started deleting recent chapters from MD.

I’ve been really impressed with this series so far.

The initial premise is fairly boring, but once they kicked off the secondary plot with Mia it instantly became of one of my favorites. There’s a really great dichotomy between the “healing” story from Philia’s side and the struggles Mia is facing, and the loving relationship between the sisters is one of the most wholesome things I’ve seen in a long time.

This comparison with 0079 is really cool. https://bsky.app/profile/yuyucow.bsky.social/post/3lmv6zp2gc226

Though I suspect anyone new to Gundam will be feeling rather confused after this episode.

Also Cyberpunk.

The first half of this episode was amazing.

Ooh, nice, looks like they skipped ahead to get the second part of the plot started.

This is a great choice as that part of the story is IMO far more interesting, and I think they’re going do both in parallel which will provide an good balance.

And my wife loves smokey drinks so it’s way up high on her list as well.

Adding a small update based on this: Maybe she’ll like a Homely Smoke.

I’ll try diluting more

The recipe mentions “a few dashes” of water but I usually go higher using ~10ml for mine, maybe try something like this?

I probably won’t use sugar cubes moving forward (simple syrup instead).

Yeah, making the angostura-saturated sugar is a fun thing to do a couple times, but syrup is way faster and more practical. I use ~5ml when making mine.

The Teresa was a great suggestion for me! Crazy how close it is to a Negroni even though it kinda comes from a different direction

This is a problem I feel with Campari drinks - its flavor is very overpowering so at least for my tastes most drinks using it end up a bit similar.

Speaking of which, I remembered another one of these - the Americano is a “lighter” Negroni with less booze. I definitely recommend adding way more than “a few dashes” of Soda Water though, I tend to go with 30ml or each ingredient in mine, pretty much like a traditional Negroni.

I definitely recommend a second try at an Old Fashioned, our tastes seem to have quite a bit of overlap and it’s by far the drink I make the most - just start with the the IBA recipe since most you find around the web add way too much sugar. Also, you may want to test different types of whisky, I prefer mine with Scotch instead of Bourbon, and I also suggest adding a couple drops of Orange Bitters if you have them.

Since you mentioned Sazerac I imagine you already have some Absinthe, so maybe try a Monkey Gland? It’s by far my favorite Gin drink, the balance between sweet (from the Grenadine) and sour/herbal (from the Absinthe) is fantastic.

A friend of mine who is a huge fan of Negroni also loves the Teresa. It’s an interesting one to taste since it feels very sweet at first due to the Cassis… but then the Campari hits and overpowers that with its sour flavor.

Playing Xenoblade X!

Finished Chapter 6.

Got two Skells so far, the one that you get for free after getting the pilot license, and another from the “New Skell on the Block” mission… but that’s only because I need to get to Level 30 before I can buy more of them. I’ve got something like 3.5M sitting in the bank due to all the passive income from FrontierNav so I’m ready to spend big bucks into buying+upgrading mechs once I get there.

Have been focusing mostly on Primordia and Oblivia, though I also got some reasonable progress exploring the goddamn labyrinth called Noctilum. I took a quick trip to Sylvalum and Cauldros but only unlocked a fast travel point on each to make life easier, haven’t really started exploring those yet.

Currently doing sidequests and leveling up, will probably move on with the story once I get everyone past 30. Might try to unlock a few more characters too, I there’s 2 or 3 available and just waiting for me to do their recruitment mission.

Not OP, but dropping my $0.02: In terms of map design and gameplay Engage is Top Tier in the franchise. Story is mediocre, though I did enjoy the cast way more than I expected.

I think the only FE game I’ve played that I rank higher on gameplay is Fates: Conquest.

I played it earlier this year. It’s Persona with a fantasy setting and the SMT battle system.

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I came here to suggest that exact image. 😀

Shield Hero as well. And his music is definitely the highlight of that series.