dr. b

You got that right Eizan!!! The Jays have for the most part been a very good team since basically late May / early June. Seemed like it might have just been a mirage for a while there. But they kept it up for so long it's starting to feel real. The last week was a bit of a struggle for them. But now they finish the season at home in Toronto against Boston and Tampa. They don't have as easy of a schedule as the Yankees (also at home, and playing the Chicago White Sox and then Baltimore) so the division isn't settled yet. The Jays need to win a good chunk of the remaining games this week. The nice thing is all they have to do is win. Easier said than done, but at least they don't also need other teams to lose. It's good to be in control of your destiny. I'm super happy to see the M's have been on a nice run recently too. I'm stoked for you and a few other friends of mine that are M's fans. If/when the Jays are out of the picture, I'll be on board the M's bandwagon right away assuming they can go on a deeper run than the Jays. Outside of good stuff happening with our ball teams, how are you doing these days? As of today, our squads are #1 and #2 and get the byes But there are six games left to play and the Yanks might still be a problem for the Jays. If Toronto tumbles down into the Wild Card bracket, it's gonna be painful. The pitching staff could really use the rest.

Don't mind me. Just needed one more post and there weren't any good threads to bump. * * * It is done

Feels good

I have been on a major new wave kick lately. So much DEVO, among other things

and a Happy New Year! Seriously though happy very belated birthday @Psycho666Soldier 35 is a bit of an interesting milestone. I hope you're doing well.

I will once again reign supreme over the Portal!

Oh man... so many series to comment on... Manga is the one thing I've really kept up with. Undead Unluck had a solid ending. I enjoyed it. I still wanted more Beat & Motion in my life but I agree it was a good place to end it. That was a special series. The recent ending of Kaiju No. 8 kind of caught me off guard. Knew it was coming but I thought maybe there would be a couple more chapters. It was an OK ending. Not bad but could have been better. Show-ha Shoten! on the other hand, I thought stuck around just a bit too long. Probably could have been one or two chapters less. But it was a pretty satisfactory ending all things considered. The final competition was great. Wild Strawberry got worse and worse as it slowly worked towards the end. Only 50 chapters so I think it's worth a look in any case. Started with quite a bit of promise but didn't get a great finish. Kill Blue is one I started binge reading just a couple months ago. Then it ended rather abruptly only a few weeks after I got caught up I really enjoyed this one. Lots of fun and likeable characters, and a kooky premise. The ending wasn't super smooth but it worked well enough. Give it a look if you haven't tried it yet. A couple more I picked up and quickly binged to current on, similar to Kill Blue, were WITCH WATCH and Hima-Ten!. Both series are extremely fun. So many likeable characters. Hima-Ten! is a bit more fanservice-y than I would typically go for, but it's tasteful enough. Honoka is absolutely the best girl Not that Himari or Kanna are bad choices either Spy x Family continues on at its weird pace. Recent chapters have been good. I'm curious to see if the story ever ends or if it stays mostly episodic and has a non-ending whenever the author is done with it. I wouldn't mind that. We can use our imaginations. The Elusive Samurai is approaching the end now. Not sure how many chapters will be left. I love this series and it's consistently been really good. The anime was a lot of fun too. I'll be bummed when it ends. Sakamoto Days has been a wild ride lately too! A bit hard to keep up with all the stuff, but at least that keeps it exciting. Anime was pretty solid so far too. Akane-banashi is #2 behind Elusive Samurai for my favourite on-going series. The time skip that happened felt a bit weird at the time but it worked in hindsight. The thing with Shiguma was a bummer. I am hoping so badly that Akane wins the event she's in right now. Kagurabachi is another one I'm quite high on. Great newer series with lots of action. Choujin X is almost done... I think? Lots of twists and turns, and it gets really confusing at times, but overall I still enjoy it. Dandadan is getting to a point for me similar to Jujutsu Kaisen during the Culling Game arc where I'm sort of just ready for it to end. Which is a bit of a bummer because it had been so good for so long. I still like a lot of the characters, but the current arc isn't as good as previous story arcs. Speaking of JJK, the new spin-off Jujutsu Kaisen Modulo is probably going to be bad. I wasn't thrilled by the first two chapters. I guess I'll stick with it a while anyways. I am also frequently confused by what happens each week in Chainsaw Man It's not bad but it's not great either. I might have had enough. I'm enjoying a couple of newer sports series: Harukaze Mound (baseball) and Ekiden Bros (running). Harukaze Mound especially. I love an underdog. I hope it sticks around a while. I'm not sure about Ekiden Bros' longevity. Last week's new title, Someone Hertz, had a strong start and I think I'm going to really enjoy following it. I also got into some longer monthly titles over the winter. I read through Twin Star Exorcists shortly after it finished. Kinda weird but at times very good and it held my attention at least. Then I got caught up on Seraph of the End a few months ago. It is chugging closer to the finish, but since it's a monthly, that is probably still a few months away. I remember trying the first season of the anime literally 10 years ago. This series has been going forever It gets confusing and dumb but somehow I like the manga anyways.

Sad state of affairs here with the anime thread only having 3 posts I honestly haven't watched a ton of new anime this year, so I'm not doing any better. Mainly reading manga. You guys looking forward to anything coming up in the fall season?

I didn't know about the new Ninja Gaiden game..! I'm excited now to try it. I am still hooked on Diablo II: Resurrected. I'm up to 35 Pats/Mats/Guardians now and just started questing #36 last week. It's a sickness But I did manage to take a break from D2R for a minute this summer to complete two FFV Four Job Fiesta runs. I love FFV.

GT is not the best but I have a soft spot for it. It isn't all bad. I recently watched Dragon Ball Daima and I mostly enjoyed it. Gotta love it when old stuff like the nyoibo comes back I suppose I felt pretty similarly about Daima as I did GT. There is good a bad. Interesting decision towards the end of Daima to bring back the SSJ4 transformation. I guess it's canon now..? Still not totally sure how I feel about that. I think the first half of Daima might have been better than the latter half. My last post in this thread was about GTO, which I finished re-watching months and months ago. I really savoured that one. Just one episode at a time, here and there. Wouldn't want to OD on nostalgia It's so good. Also re-watched Uncle From Another World over the last few weeks. It's a modern classic. I love the obsession with SEGA, it's brilliant.

I was so tempted to snag a Switch 2 on release day, but I managed to hold myself back. Definitely gonna get one eventually. Not exactly sure when though

Thanks dude! Still alive and kicking

Dandadan is total quality. Like flawless. Watched the third episode last night. Still loving it.

I must say, I’m not super hyped for the winter season. But we’ve gotta have a seasonal thread, so here we are Links: MAL Winter 2024 AniChart I’ve looked over the MAL page a couple times now and honestly nothing is jumping out at me. Once I know what Crunchyroll will have streaming, I might take a closer look at a couple things. I think I would love to watch a good slice-of-life or light-hearted teenage romance story (e.g. something along the lines of Horimiya or Skip and Loafer) this winter. I’m not sure if anything new is going to scratch that itch though. This winter might end up being a backlog-catch-up season instead. Is there anything you are looking forward to?

Hey @Gardenstaff ! Happy belated birthday. Glad you stopped by here. Are things getting weird or weirder ?

New Beat & Motion today!!! 41.1 Special Illustration New chapter in 14 days! Let down.

Dandadan is really good. Can’t believe I slept on it for so long! I am also super enjoying the Ranma 1/2 remake. That is all I need to count this as a really good season (I’m still watching Tower of God S2 as well, but that’s almost more out of a sense of duty than for enjoyment )

This week's chapters. Lots of good stuff! Spy x Family #106 Sakamoto Days #185 Undead Unluck #226 The Elusive Samurai #176 Kagurabachi #53 Akane-banashi #130

Nice Kagurabachi gets really good! I have held back on trying any of the new series that debuted in Jump over the last few weeks. Don’t want to make my weekly reading listtoo long. But JJK and Shojo Null finished recently so I guess I have some openings. JJBA Stone Ocean only has about it a dozen chapters until it ends too. Dandadan will definitely be next in my list. Then maybe Hakutaku next. Your description of it sounds good.

I watched the first episode of Dandadan last night. That was something else! It's a winner. It's tempting to start binge reading the manga right away... but I'll try to stick with just the anime until the end of the season, and then really sink my teeth into the manga. I also watched the first episode of Blue Box on the weekend. It wasn't really what I was hoping it would be. Oh well. Might give it another chance later on if I get bored enough. Maybe I'm passing judgement too soon I guess this season I'm only watching Dandadan, Ranma 1/2, and the continuation of Tower of God S2.

Hunter x Hunter is back in the weekly rotation!!! I don’t know how long it will last until the next hiatus but I’ll enjoy every chapter all the same! Already hyped for the next one The Elusive Samurai #175 Akane-banashi #129 Undead Unluck #225

The first episode of the Ranma1/2 remake was a hoot! Great with by MAPPA. It’s a winner for sure.

Beat & Motion #41

Show-ha Shoten! #34

Never heard of that one. Maybe I’ll check it out. The last Metroidvania-style game I really enjoyed was Chasm. Might need to re-play that one sometime soon… That seems kinda short for such a high price tag game. I assume there’s more stuff to 100% complete it though. I’m still curious about it… but not at full price