Cho Desu

Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya being promoted on the top banner of Anime News Network

Fruits Basket: The Complete Box Set manga is being advertised on Anime News Network (ANN) - available soon from Yen Press #shoujo

My main complaint is this definitely felt like a 20-page children's book stretched out to a 90-minute movie. If this were, say, 70 minutes, I think it probably would've won me over fully. Regardless, I get why this is a well-loved classic now—it certainly feels different, if nothing else.

The stop-motion animation, as is so often the case, is just wonderful (or fantastic, I should say). And this time a lot of the jokes landed for me—not really "laugh out loud" funny, but more "sensible chuckle" funny. Lots of dry humor.

Screenshot from the film "Fantastic Mr. Fox." It's him, leaning against a tree.

#movies
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) • rewatch — The first time I watched this I felt confused, not really sure what was or wasn't intended to be a joke. Just wasn't ready for it? It helps that I have since watched a couple Wes Anderson flicks, so now I at least get what sort of vibe this is going for.

I really need to get back to it... I was enjoying it fine, but got distracted by other things, and then felt super intimidated by its length to jump back in. Oh well, at some point I'm sure I'll be in the right mood for it.

All in all I'll still call it solid horror fare that succeeds at getting under your skin, at least (warning: some gross imagery not for the faint of heart!).
Also cool to see a film from Argentina — I certainly need to check out more from South America in the future. (Maybe something happier next.)

I have really mixed thoughts on a number of plot elements in this, which are a bit hard to delve into without spoilers... I'll say it loses steam in the final act though, and I found its choice to not end a few scenes earlier than it did to be odd.

Screenshot from the film "When Evil Lurks." The protagonist in a scary situation, a bloody hand touching his forehead.

#movies
When Evil Lurks (2023) — Talk about a brutal and mean horror movie. A demon possession flick whose main goal is to kill its characters violently on-screen, and no one—and I mean no one—is safe. One of those films that makes you go, "wow, everyone is screwed," and you'll be right.

Pro Tip: a lot of those novels you were assigned to read in middle and high school? They were (most likely) written for adults. Consider giving some of those classic works a second chance, now that you can relate a bit more to the characters.

It isn't surprising that many of the Letterboxd reviews are along the lines of "my dumb fat cat would doom the whole city five minutes after its next mealtime" 🙀

All in all, I'd call this one a decent disaster flick that happens to have two or three really thoughtful drama scenes, and now it might be time for a Pig rewatch...

There's also a cat, which is incredibly photogenic (and apparently doesn't meow). On one hand it's heartwarming, but on the other hand it kinda ends up feeling like it's hogging the spotlight. Well, at least if you're a cat person, you'll be very worried about it in every scene!

But it is still a Quiet Place movie. So there's a lot of being scared, running around, hiding from the aliens and trying to be super quiet but inevitably making a slight noise and then having to run around some more. It's... okay.

Would this disaster flick have anything in common with Pig, I wondered? Turns out yes and no. It's definitely more thoughtful than your average disaster flick, more focused on character drama. And I think the parts that hone in on her (Lupita Nyong'o) and her personal struggles are the best parts.

Screenshot from the film "A Quiet Place: Day One." The protagonist and her cat, likely hiding from an alien.

#movies
A Quiet Place: Day One (2024) — I watched A Quiet Place last year and thought it was okay. Wasn't interested enough to check out its sequel. But I *was* curious about this prequel, mostly because the director (Michael Sarnoski) was the one who handled 2021's Pig, one of my favorite films.

Really ought to catch up on my movie mini-reviews, before I start forgetting what I thought about them...

Kamen Rider ZETZ's protagonist on his talking motorcycle. This series went back to basics by having it focus on a single rider, not a whole team. There's also a secret agent motif, so his code name is Seven

caught Kamen Rider ZETZ on TV (the 36th kamen rider). This one's themed around sleep, with catchphrases like "GOOD MORNING" and "RECOVERY" and I have to wonder how tired the creators were when they came up with this one

I appreciate how there's 36 of these, how they all seem to have a name like ZETZ for the title, and how each one has to come up with a new gimmick to add on top of the bug theme and motorcycle theme

I guess it's a shot of him from behind, but I thought that was Daft Punk for a second

The beloved fantasy manga Mushishi Collector's Edition is back in a hardcover omnibus edition.

Invisible to most, mysterious mushi influence human lives in strange ways. Wandering mushishi Ginko journeys through the countryside to unravel their haunting mysteries.

https://ow.ly/2I5m50XlW4T

Me forced to say hi to every customer 😁 Literally every customer 😐 Management 😀👍

As a meme so succinctly put it:

That said...
Rest in peace, Ross
and rest in peace, Franz

(I have comparable units to them still, so I think I'll be okay. Just can't let my lone archer, thief, or pegasus knight fall in battle...)

Gameplay is what you'd expect of a grid-based tactics game of this era. It has the classic Fire Emblem weapons triangle, and its classic perma-death. I'm letting my soldiers die for good in this playthrough. 💀 From what I hear this is one of the easier entries in the series, so I think I'll manage.

It's not a deep plot, and I don't imagine it'll have a lot of twists and turns—but the plight of siblings Eirika and Ephraim and their troubled kingdom is enough to get me invested. It's still a mystery at the moment why their long-friendly neighboring nation randomly invaded so out of nowhere.

I decided to check out some of the older entries instead, and ended up bouncing off of "Fire Emblem" (the first Game Boy Advance one, without a subtitle). Kept trying to get into it, but just found it kinda dull. The story for "Sacred Stones" has hooked me much better.

My experience with the series at large:
Back in the day I played "Path of Radiance" and "Radiant Dawn" (the two with Ike), and thought they were amazing. Some of the best-written RPGs out there. The more recent games didn't pique my interest at all though, despite their greater popularity.

Fire Emblem - The Sacred Stones

#games
Been playing "Fire Emblem - The Sacred Stones" off and on the past couple weeks. Think I'm about a third of the way through (chapter 7, out of 21 it looks like). It's been nice to play a bit before going to sleep, on my Anbernic.

Klein became to one who did the fight without everyone noticing it.

Real ones will remember

In other words, the moment it gets out that a light novel publisher is using gen A.I. is the moment they lose a whole lot of readers... and they also won't be winning over anyone from the crowd that *would* be fine with it, because chances are fair they have already read it—for free—and way sooner.

Everyone who is fine with gen A.I. for their light novels has already been consuming machine-translated slop for over a decade now. They're getting all their Narou web content Day One for free. No point in trying to get them to pay money for *your* machine-translated slop that releases way later.