dr. b

The final episode of Stray Dogs was going quite well, I thought. I have enjoyed this story quite a bit, but at the same time, I feel like I've had enough. And this season in particular was getting a bit too random for me. It could have ended rather nicely. Then came the final minute or so with the brief time skip and mysterious bad guy and the dreaded "To be continued" text on the screen. Hopefully the show takes a break for at least a few season---maybe until next summer?---before coming back. Otherwise I'm just not gonna be able to get hyped up for it.

Well, things are looking a bit better for the Jays now. Not exactly a slam dunk just yet, but I am more confident now about their WC odds. The lose the tie-breaker with the M's (and Rangers) though so if there's a tie for the 2nd/3rd WC spots then the Jays come up last. Seattle shouldn't try to get cute and play for the 6th seed. Just gotta get in no matter the position.

The M's are back in the win column after a couple games against Oakland. Seattle and Texas are tied for the third WC spot, only a game behind Toronto  Gonna be a close finish! Baltimore has been beating up on the Astros the last couple days too, so the ALW division race is getting super tight again.

You guys check out the new series this week? (Kagurabachi)

I thought the first chapter was pretty rad.

Yeah, Alternative and Progressive were a mixed bag. I could find parts to like about both, but neither stands up to the original which is very special to me. On the other hand, they could make almost anything--dumb story, shitty animation, whatever--but put those classic songs by The Pillows in the soundtrack and I'll watch it and talk myself into liking something about it. The nostalgia overpowers me. I listen to the OG FLCL soundtrack a ton. Fucking love those tunes.

Kencho is the best    Bea is a great addition to this cast of characters but Shizuka is still best girl. Gotta love that strong desire from Bea and Akira to pig out on sushi though  Rather random that this sushi place is still in tact, but whatevs. Like, no shit of course they can drink all the sake in the house, the place is surrounded by the living dead and you're probably never going to see paying customers again anyways  Party like it's the end of the world! The dynamic for this story seems to be heavy / light-hearted / heavy / light-hearted / etc., so after this episode... I feel like it's gotta get dark again soon. Are they gonna show up in Gunma to find Akira's parents already turned into zombies?

Only one week left of MIX  And Horimiya  This week's episode of Horimiya was great. Loved the flashback to Hori's parents in high school.

I think Stray Dogs wraps up this week too (only 11 episodes). Very curious how it all comes together. 

JJK was effin' rad this week. Can't wait to keep seeing the Shibuya Incident played out in anime.

I haven't looked too closely at the fall season yet. I'm going to try to watch less this season. I will for sure continue with Spy x Family and Dr. Stone. I will also give Undead Unluck a look, and if I like the first couple episodes then I will binge read the manga (and stick with the anime too of course ). I don't know if I want more Shield Hero. Maaaaaybe if it's confirmed to be only one cours. I'm not signing up for more than 12 or 13 episodes of that.

I will eventually watch the new FLCL when it hits the Crunchyroll app... setting the expectations very low because it might be bad. At least we will always have the original to re-watch  

It's really hard to say with this Jays team. Offensively, on paper, they ought to be so much better... but these guys seem to have no power. They take walks, they get lots of hits (singles), but struggle with the "big" hits (RISP or HRs). It sucks watching them and say they're down by 2 or 3 runs in the 6th inning, and it's like, "Well, they can't possibly come back from that!"  Previous Jays teams never had trouble scoring, and you instead had to worry about the 'pen maybe blowing it if the lead wasn't big enough. Looking back, that is a lot more fun to watch compared to this team that just can't score enough.

They have 6 games left vs. Tampa, and the Rays could still win the division, so they'll be competing in those games. And 6 games vs. the Yankees, who are quite bad this year, but they'll still be trying to win just to play spoiler.

I hope the M's can start racking up wins again and get into the WC.

I read about 10 chapters of YuYu Hakusho last night. Feels good man. I love the anime too. It's a shame that Togashi can't finish things properly, but the not-so-great ending doesn't ruin the rest of it for me. Such a great story.

Also, totes agree re: Akane-banashi  

I DO NOT LIKE THE RANGERS

Hoping for a win tonight, but the Jays really haven't given me anything to be optimistic about since this series started... I definitely won't be shocked if they get swept  

Bummer. That's a lot of backlog to catch up on!

YuYu Hakusho just hit the vault in the Jump app!

Commence binge reading in 3, 2, 1...!

I can't stand the damn Rangers...

Chainsaw Man #142

Another 14-pager... boo. But only seven days 'til the next one drops, and it looks like the sparks are really gonna fly in the next week. Time for Chainsaw Man to get his groove back!

Also, I can't tell if this chick is just messing with Denji, but if she was being sincere then the whole "I'm a Denji fan" thing was very sweet.

Also also, it's crude and very basic humour but the wiener talk always gets a giggle out of me  

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In other news, I guess I lied about putting JoJo on the backburner for a while. I haven't been getting good sleeps for over a week because I'm trying to save money by cutting back on booze. I have had some rather boring sober evenings (into nights) where I can't get to sleep, so I start reading manga. My early review on Golden Wind (only 20-something chapters in) is that it's not as good as Diamond is Unbreakable. Not bad, but clearly not as good so far. Hopefully it gets better. 

We successfully summoned Ma Jr ! High fives all around

13 hours ago, Vic Boss said:

I've asked for and have been (probably) granted a demotion. It may or may not free up more time for me, but at least I won't be on-call salary with no time to do anything

Are you watching Zom 100 this season? If yer getting overworked at your job then you'll totally identify with the the main character  

What kinda job are you working?

3 hours ago, Psycho666Soldier said:

Still gotta catch up on some of the rest from both this and last week, but I really liked Tenmaku Cinema:

  Reveal hidden contents

It's hard to tell whether it ended short because a lack of success or if it was always intended to be this short.  I had been thinking once this movie is made, there's not as much mileage on them making movies after being accepted.  So as a short story, I really enjoyed it.  I feel like it could make a good film/OVA, so I hope the short run was intended.

 

That was a bad look from Kirby for sure... but I think all the old guys getting outraged about it on X can just settled down. It's not such a big deal. The game isn't played and managed the same way anymore. It definitely would be a bad time for the M's to start falling apart though   

The Jays swept the Royals over the weekend. This week the Rangers come to town for four games. It's an important series for both teams! Toronto really needs to be ready for this.

Tenmaku Cinema

Elusive Samurai #125

Shojo Null went to a bi-weekly schedule. The mini-chapter to announce that was cute.

Akane-banashi #77

Asumi #12

New series MamaYuyu: I didn't exactly love it, but there were some really interesting pages with good art and nifty panel layout ideas. I'll give it a few more chapters to see if it hooks me.

On 8/21/2023 at 10:05 PM, Rulkster said:

 triangle strategy: I did really enjoy the game. Only issue i had was on my own end, when I was expecting it to be a new FFT and set myself up for a slight let down.

I've been meaning to try Triangle Strategy one of these days... but then I remind myself that I generally don't enjoy SRPGs. I buy them thinking, "This time it will click with me," and then I never finish the game  I'll wait for a good sale, I guess... then I won't feel as bad when I stop playing part way through  

I zipped through all the available chapters of Martial Master Asumi last night. I like it a lot! I will definitely keep reading it every week  I like Nito, great main characters. Also, I totally would have picked the girl with the glasses too   This reminds of lots of the things I liked in Neru: Way of the Martial Artist. Hopefully Asumi sticks around longer. It's an interesting contrast having just read a ton of JoJo. They're both shonen, and they boil down to dudes fighting other dudes (and dudettes!), but in JoJo you have stands and supernatural powers, special abilities with sometimes complex rules and all that stuff that you have to remember, whereas in MMA you've just got people fighting the old fashioned way. Makes me appreciate the simplicity of more realistic shonen, even though I do still love the more fantastical shonen series too (HxH being one of my all-time favourites, Nen is cool as anything... but also rather complicated!)

Polished off Diamond is Unbreakable today. Very solid overall. I enjoyed it. I guess it still more or less follows the "and here's another stand user!" formula that I didn't like at times in Stardust Crusaders... I just tended to like the new characters and stands in Diamond is Unbreakable better than the ones in Stardust Crusaders. Now I'll give JJBA a little break, but I do look forward to starting on Golden Wind eventually.

I'll take my first look at Martial Master Asumi tonight as my bed-time story  

Yeah, the Braves are super duper good. But we've seen lots of Dodgers teams in recent years dominate the regular season and then come up short of a World Series. You never know what might happen in October! I do like the Braves' chances though.

The Jays are mostly winning against the bad teams they're playing right now and are only 0.5 games back of a WC spot. I'm gonna be super bummed out if they miss a WC spot... but I'm feeling more hopeful right now, so that's good.

This week's episode of MIX was such a gut punch...

Chapter 87