The Best Anime I watched in 2021

The Best Anime I watched in 2021

Koe no Katachi (A Silent Voice) [Anime and Manga]
The manga is a deeply emotional experience, and it has a single panel with Shouko, one of the major characters, laying on a bed that I consider one of the most heart wrenching moments in a manga I’ve ever experienced. It’s a story about bullying, redemption, friendship, and hardship. It’s very heavy, as it revolves around a deaf girl who spend a part of her youth being bullied. But told from the perspective of her bully. The movie will make people cry, but it’s just a cliffs’ notes version of the manga. Definitely one of the most impactful things I’ve read and seen in a very long time.

Arcane
This isn’t an anime, but it is in the same vein. And it’s unbelievable. No animated show that is based on a videogame like League of Legends, made by a first time television production team has any right to be as good as this is. The show is fantastic for those who have never played the League games, and absolutely unreal for those who have. You don’t have to know a single thing about the lore, or the world, or the characters to get the full impact of this show, as the stuff for the actual players is more window dressing or sprinkles on top of the icing of the cake. It’s deeply character driven, gorgeous and unique animation, fantastic soundtrack, and I really cannot recommend this enough.

86 – Eighty Six
This is a fantastic war story. It shows the war from two perspectives, one from a homogenous “utopian” republic and the other from the people forced to fight for them. The first season of this is brilliant, because there’s an undercurrent of mystery going on, and once it starts to unravel it starts to hit hard, and you start to notice things (especially in the end credits scenes) that suddenly make more sense, and build up a bit of dread as to what’s going to happen in the next episode. If this were just a single season it’d probably be one of the most incredible anime ever made. But it’s not, and so I think a lot of the emotional impact gets lost in the next season, even if it does still remain really good. I actually went out and bought all the Light Novels that were available that this was adapted from, that’s how much I enjoyed it.

Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou (Daily Lives of High School Boys)
This is a show about High School Boys being High School Boys. Think of the stereotype, crank the comedy, and you got this anime. It’s hilarious, fun, and even a little wholesome. There’s so much innocent fun here. It’s just a classic feel good anime.

Grand Blue Dreaming [Anime and Manga]
Grand Blue is ostensibly a diving manga. The main character Iori Kitahara lives with his uncle in a dive shop while he’s attending university. But it’s mostly a comedy slice of life drinking and party manga with a diving backdrop. And it’s absolutely hilarious. All the characters have some absolutely ridiculous attribute to them that gets played up into some side splitting scenarios. The sheer shenanigans Iori gets himself into had me rolling. This is probably my favorite Comedy Manga of of all time. The anime has proven to be completely faithful to the source material, and I really wish it has more than just the one season.

Manga Current Reads January 2022 Edition

Manga Current Reads January 2022 Edition

DanDaDan
DanDaDan is weird. Really, really weird. In a WTF is going on I need more kind of way. I don’t really know where it’s going but I am really enjoying the characters. Momo Ayase believes in ghosts and supernatural, due to her grandmother (who is hilarious) being an exorcist. She does not believe in the existence aliens/ufos/etc. Ken Takakura is the exact opposite, he believes in aliens/ufos/etc, and does not believe in the existence of the supernatural. They challenge each other to visit a specific place that is ‘well known’ to (in Ken’s case) be a supernatural hotspot or (in Momo’s case) be an alien sighting spot. Turns out aliens exist, and the supernatural is real, and they wind up fighting for their lives. This manga goes from 0 to 100 really quick, with a fast pace, horror elements, and comedy wrapped into a coming-of-age adolescence story. I am really enjoying this one.

Oshi No Ko (“Favorite Girl” or “My Idol’s Child”)
This manga starts out extremely bizarrely, and really messed up. As in, a Japanese Idol singer comes in to this rural-ish doctor’s office about a pregnancy checkup, to avoid any PR complications should word get out that she’s pregnant. However, he’s a massive, massive fan of hers, and this is the first he’s heard of it. Turns out she’s going to have twins. Things happen, and the doctor gets murdered and reincarnated as one of the twins (keeping his memories, and his ability to speak and think like an adult even as a baby). Oh, and the other baby is also a major fan who also died and was reincarnated. Really. Freaking. Weird.

But after that bizarreness, the rest of the story is a scathing critique and look behind the scenes on Japanese Entertainment Culture as a whole, focusing primarily on Idols and Child Actors, but also dipping over into Theater Acting, Reality TV, and Manga. I am finding Oshi No Ko to be very thought provoking, occasionally heavy, and really really good.

Usotsuki Satsuki wa Shi ga Mieru (Liar Satsuiki Can See Death)
Satsuki Minazuki can see the illusion of a corpse 24 hours before a person dies. She spends her time trying to figure out the cause of death of the person, and then tries to save them before the death happens. Due to the way in which she goes about handling this, her classmates consider her to be a compulsive liar. It’s straight forward, and well written and drawn, and I’ve found it solidly entertaining.

Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute! (The Eminence in Shadow)
This is an isekai about a guy who wants to be the mysterious shadowy figure who is pulling the strings of power behind the scenes.

The thing is, he’s a chūnibyō, except his delusions actually turn out true, usually to his surprise. He says whatever sounds the most impressive at the time, and all the supporting characters take it completely at face value. And it’s hilarious. It spends a lot of time poking fun at the isekai genre, and because there is a lot to make fun of, it has yet to get old. Later chapters start to take the One Punch Man approach, and begin focusing on the side characters, which keeps the main character’s gimmick from growing old or stale.

I Bought My Dream Gun

I Bought My Dream Gun

I bought a Whitney Wolverine. It’s a .22LR pistol, and the first gun I’ve ever purchased for no other reason than ‘I want it’. They have one of the most unique and beautiful designs I’ve ever seen in a pistol and I was over the moon about finally being able to get my hands on one. This particular one is in near perfect shape, even though I am pretty sure the original owner’s idea of cleaning it was to dump a little more oil into it. Not that I can really blame them, because these little dudes are not exactly easy to take apart and put back together, and they’ve got a bunch of tiny parts to them.

If I could change one thing about the Wolverine though, I would get something not plastic for the grips.

Superhero Comics Require Gun Control

Superhero Comics Require Gun Control

Superhero comics take place in a world post-gun control. The only people with guns are law enforcement, common criminals, or the occasional antiheroes (the Punisher, for example). It’s clearly not because guns are ineffective at fighting various powered-people related crime, after all a gun is far more capable than an arrow, and archery is effective enough for multiple major superheroes to build an identity around it.

Alternatively, this may also explain why, by and large, only the east and west coast US cities tend to have superpowered problems -the ol’ flyover states and rural areas are still free and only the already gun-control heavy states have disarmed the general populous in the world of superhero comics. If such were the case, I think it’d be hilarious and fun to have a Marvel or DC comic about some alien invasion that hits the midwest, and be about a group of Good Ol’ Boys blowing the crap out of them before the big league superheroes arrive to find the day has already been saved by way of judicious use of high speed projectiles.

Though ultimately I suppose the writers consider it necessary for this to be the case in Superhero comics, because otherwise every villain and alien threat bent on some kind of public domination would have to be completely bullet proof.

Quote of the Day, 10-21-2021

Quote of the Day, 10-21-2021

“But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.” ~John Stuart Mill

An Old Friend

An Old Friend

Let me tell you about James.

James is probably the oldest close childhood friend I had, and probably one of the most influential. I’m pretty sure the first good friend I had that wasn’t a family friend (that is, my parents weren’t first friends of their parents). He introduced me to one of the greatest JRPGs ever made: Golden Sun. I bought a Gameboy advance just to finish the game, and I only ever owned three games on it: Golden Sun, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, and LotR the Two Towers. And yet I still consider that little handheld console to be one of my favorite purchases. It even it still works…barely.

He also introduced me to anime, starting with .hack//sign (still the best ‘stuck in mmo world’ anime, suck it SAO) and Hellsing. He was also a movie aficionado, especially where martial arts and action was concerned. He introduced me to Lethal Weapon, Jet Li, and Equilibrium. We watched Jet Li’s The One multiple times, because it was awesome. His collection of movies, and his movie trivia was unparalleled.

He’d come over, we’d play videogames and chat as nerdy adolescents do. We talked, argued and discussed everything, including girls (which added to my shock when he eventually came out as gay)

When I went to college we went mostly our separate ways, only keeping a minimal amount of contact until Facebook became a big thing (yes, I am old, and as I said, we knew each other from way, way back in the olden days). We reconnected through Facebook, and throughout the years you may have seen a few of our many jokes, discussions, debates, and arguments on the old wall, ranging from objectivity in art, to religion, to the “is Eragon\Twilight\etc” any good (he said yes, I said no) as stories.

In the past few years Discord became the hot new communications channel for nerds like us, and he dropped off Facebook. I eventually found my way onto his Discord server that was set up for his family and friends. That’s the latest place we’d hang out and post the memes, latest music interests, have discussions, etc. as one does on discord servers. Which finally brings us to the present.

On Saturday at 7pm, James killed himself.

2021 Road Trip: Grand Tetons

2021 Road Trip: Grand Tetons

The final part of our trip was driving to Jackson, WY and having morning rafting experience down the Snake River, followed by a hike into the Cascade Canyon Trail. The drive down was beautiful, the Grand Tetons are absolutely grand, and they dominate the landscape. Every picture I took of them seemed like something out of a painting.

The first afternoon we were in Jackson, we went up Josie’s Ridge, where we got a great view of the city, and watched a helicopter hauling timber around, which was really neat. We splurged and had by far the most expensive meal of the trip, at the Gun Barrel restaurant, and it was worth every penny. I wish they had t-shirts.

This area was the perfect capstone for an absolutely fantastic trip. I can’t wait to someday just spend an entire vacation at each one of these places, because it feels like this trip just gave us the highlights of an area, and I’d dearly love to explore South Dakota, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons even more. Some places just have to be experienced, because no matter how hard one tries, it’ll never truly capture the feeling of it all.

2021 Roadtrip: Cody, WY

2021 Roadtrip: Cody, WY

We didn’t spend any significant amount of time in Cody, we drove from Island Park, Idaho to Cody through Yellowstone, stayed the night and then drove to Jackson, Wyoming the next morning. Our entire purpose of visiting was to go to the Cody Firearms Museum. And it, like everything else we did on our vacation, was absolutely worth it. The library of guns is absolutely life goals.

The entire Buffalo Bill Center of the West is worth checking out. I learned a ton of stuff about William Cody, his life and career and got to see a ton of artifacts of his life and show. They also had a museum for the Plains Indians which was fantastic and also a great learning experience. On top of all that, they also had a great natural history museum and an art museum. It was pretty insane just how much they managed to pack into a single building, and yet it didn’t feel cramped at all.

I came away from the experience with one thought: I need to buy more guns. A whole lot more guns.

2021 Roadtrip: Yellowstone

2021 Roadtrip: Yellowstone

We stayed a couple nights in Island Park, Idaho during the time we explored Yellowstone proper. We arrived in Island Park with enough daylight left to do the Box Canyon Campground to Rosie’s Waterfall hike, which was very pleasant and refreshing after a long day of driving.

We started the next morning at Running Bear Pancake House in West Yellowstone, and then proceeded to have one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had with the outdoors. Yellowstone National Park is one of the most incredible places on earth. The weather was perfect in the high 60s, low 70s, and crystal clear skies. We did the big Upper Geyser Basin and Old Faithful trail first, followed by the Mystic Falls, Fairy Creek, and Little Firehole loop, and finally Fountain Paint Pot Trail. I think people can spend their entire career trying to capture the feeling of this place, and consider it a success to be able to pass along just a sliver of the emotion and wonder this place generates. It’s one of the top five most popular national parks in the world, and every reason was on full, glorious display. We saw six geysers go off: Old Faithful, Grand, Lion, Sawmill, Solitary, and Grotto. Of these, the Grand Geyser was, well, the most grand. We waited an hour and a half into its expected eruption time window, and it was absolutely worth every second. I did get a fantastic picture of Solitary though, that is in the images below. During the walk along this trail (I hesitate to call it a hike because it’s mostly paved or wood paths) we unexpectedly got very close to a wild bison. Bison were everywhere in the park, we also saw a few elk, a bear, and a wolf. It was surprising just how much wildlife we saw considering how busy the park is.

Mystic Falls and Fairy Creek were beautiful but a little strenuous considering we had just done the large Upper Geyser Basin, and the Little Firehole had some beautiful pools in it. After that was Fountain Paint Pot trail, and I never thought watching bubbling mud would be so cool. I could have watched it for hours. The next day was a four hour horseback ride into the park, which was fantastic, and a visit to Artists Paintpots Trail.

I also included some pictures taken and various places like Artist Point, where we stopped while driving around or through Yellowstone, either when we were traveling to Cody or Jackson.

Yellowstone is one of the most unbelievable places on earth.

2021 Roadtrip: South Dakota

2021 Roadtrip: South Dakota

My wife and I had originally planned on going to Europe this year (well, for the last two years), but Covid craziness had other plans. So we decided to turn the time we had originally set aside for it into a road trip to Yellowstone instead, and it was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. Along the way, we decided to take a brief stop for a day in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and then overnight there again on the way back. Initially, the main attraction was Mount Rushmore, but we discovered so many other cool things to see there, that we felt it is definitely worth its own trip.

We visited Mount Rushmore and had Thomas Jefferson’s original recipe Vanilla Ice Cream, hiked the Little Devil’s Tower trail, drove through the Bear Country USA wildlife park, visited the Reptile Gardens, ate at Black Hills Burger & Bun and the Chute Rooster, stopped by Prairie Berry Winery and bought a bottle of Red Ass Rhubarb wine (their claim to fame), and generally did everything touristy it was possible to do in the space of a little over 24 hours.

We thoroughly enjoyed everything we did, but were the most surprised with the Reptile Gardens. It was incredible. I love reptiles to begin with, and it turns out they have the most species and subspecies of reptiles than any other zoo or animal park in the world at over 225 of them. Their collection of venomous snakes is incredible, and being able to get that close to the Giant Tortoises was a dream come true.

Driving through South Dakota we also had to stop at Wall Drug (which is a hilarious little place), and the Corn Palace, simply because they were there and we weren’t in any particular rush, being vacation and all.