like a star, like a firefly

It's been a little over two weeks now since I actually did it, but I finally beat Tales of Vesperia! \o/

I'm so happy to have finished this game at long last. I've had such a fun time with it, even if I did miss out on some stuff thanks to the game being infamous for having a lot of easily-missable sidequests and whatnot. There were a good amount of missables I did get to see, though!

Now I just want to write some manner of ficlet for Rita/Estelle before I fully move on to a different game, because that's my OTP by far. I have a decent enough idea for it, but I need to get my writing muse into gear so I can actually do it...

As for what game I want to go for next, I might replay Star Ocean 1 through the R version on the Switch. Yes, yes, I talked about potentially getting right back into the SO series about a year ago and ended up not doing it at the time, but this time I've actually been thinking about Ioshua and Erys again after all these years, and there's no motivator for replaying a game quite like having feelings about favourite characters. Whether I replay it now or end up shelving it for another time again, at least it's a relatively short game -- which, if I do start the replay sooner rather than later, would make it possible for me to finish a playthrough before The Hundred Line releases near the end of next month.

Speaking of upcoming games, a new Nintendo Direct just got announced for tomorrow, which is a bit of a surprise to me considering we're getting the Switch 2 Direct next week. Makes me wonder what they'll announce now, near the end of the first Switch's life... No, I do not have clown makeup on, unlike a good chunk of the rest of the Fire Emblem fandom. I'll laugh if we actually do get the much-rumoured Genealogy remake after all this time, but I'm not betting on it at all.

It's my birthday today, so let's blog about happy things!

First up, I seem to have started the year in a CLAMP kind of mood, and I'm largely chalking that up to the fact I picked up the TV anime of Magic Knight Rayearth on Blu-Ray in a sale. I'd seen the OVAs (radically different as they are) and read the manga before, but this is my first time seeing the TV version. So far I've finished the first set, which puts me seven episodes into Part 2.

Once I've finished watching Rayearth, including revisiting the OVAs afterwards, I'm thinking of rewatching the X movie and finally watching the TV version of that all the way through while I'm on a bit of a CLAMP kick.

Secondly, I resumed playing Tales of Vesperia again a few days ago, for the first time in nearly six years! I'd been meaning to come back to it for ages, so it's just as well I finally did so. ^^; I'm hooked on it all over again, and I still love this cast. Estelle remains as cute and loveable as ever, Yuri remains as great a protagonist who's easy on the eyes as ever, and Rita remains as gay and tsundere as ever.

I've just hit the Sands of Kogorh now, and I'm aiming to at least get as far as I originally did in the 360 version (Mount Temza, according to my own notes) before I remotely think of putting it aside again.

threesentenceficathon is back again this year! \o/

I've been looking forward to this! Sadly, I don't know how much I'll be able to participate this time because I had the rotten luck of injuring my right arm in an unpleasant slip-and-fall accident the other day, but I'm still taking stock of prompts that catch my interest and thinking of what I'd like to do if I can.

Episodes 31 and 32 still hurt. Poor Nanami.

I want to throw more bricks at Akio. I've got ep 33 next, so I'll want even more bricks for that. Bastard.

I just got to episode 25 in my Utena rewatch, and it's made me glad I decided to watch it on its own, because it's fucking me up right now. ;.;

Just two points among many:

1. I'm having feelings about Anthy, just as I'm pretty sure this is the episode where Anthy herself caught real feelings for Utena.

2. I want to throw a fucking brick at Akio. There are two major reasons why and other reasons besides those.

There's several episodes from the Black Rose arc I have a lot of feelings on, too.

Whumptober 2024

Angstober 2024

Mostly posting the links here for reference and easy access, though I haven't decided yet if I'm actually going to do anything for either of them. That said, I do fancy the idea of doing something, even if it's just a single fic! I have a particular character in mind to have as a whump subject at least once, too. *ahem*

After I'd first started watching it about five years ago and only gotten halfway through before wandering away from it, I've finally started Yuri Kuma Arashi again with the aim of finishing the whole show! I've now just finished episode 9.

For now, I don't have any further comments on the first six episodes to add to what I previously wrote about them, so here's my scattered thoughts on eps 7 to 9.

( Spoilers for up to ep 9 of YKA, with relevant warnings (particularly for rape and murder) and some cranky feelings about a certain villain )

I'm intending to watch the last three episodes in the next few days, and this time I definitely won't wander off from it like I did before!

I also started rewatching Utena recently, which I think was long overdue, especially with it being one of my favourite anime series ever. That's what inspired me to restart and finish YKA now, actually. I'm considering rewatching Sarazanmai while I'm at it, too, as it's been a while since I was watching that while it aired and it's only 11 episodes.

Pokémon Legends Z-A releasing next year!

Getting a new Legends game was my biggest hope for this year's Pokémon Presents, but I didn't expect my wish to come true in this way! (I'd been expecting something Unova-based, if anything, given the references to it in the Scarlet/Violet DLC and the fandom rumours about Black/White remakes... which surprisingly ended up not being a thing here, even if I think it's a bit too soon for them right now anyway.) As someone who actually enjoyed X/Y and really liked Kalos as a region, I'm happy to see it finally get some more love.

Also, since it's not coming out til 2025, hopefully that means it'll get the development time it needs and won't suffer from the same jank as Scarlet/Violet -- because as much as I love Violet, there's no getting away from the fact it is super janky in ways it really shouldn't be!

I should get back to Legends Arceus at some point in the meantime. I still haven't done the postgame storyline yet!

The funniest part of the Pokémon Scarlet/Violet DLC epilogue, in my opinion?

( Spoilers, especially considering the epilogue is so short )

I just finished the story part of the new Pokémon Scarlet/Violet DLC! \o/

To give my brief not-too-spoilery thoughts on the DLC as a whole: I enjoyed Ogerpon's storyline, I loved the challenge that the BB Elite Four offered, Lacey is super cute (especially when she does her "that's just not right" pose) and I like both Kitakami siblings thank you very much.

I'm not quite sure what to do next at Blueberry now, so since I've still got some loose ends to tie up in Paldea -- doing all the Gym Leader rematches, finishing some things at Uva Academy -- I'll most likely get those over with at long last before I look into doing certain things I can now do with the League Clubroom.

So the next Gundam series I ended up picking to watch next after IBO and Witch turned out to be... the original!

That said, it was a close call between that and Reconguista in G... to the point where, after 16 episodes of the original, I wound up taking a break from that in order to watch G-Reco instead! Now I've just finished G-Reco.

It's definitely not going to be my new favourite Gundam; the pacing and scripting are both pretty messy, the emotional moments don't really land like they should, and I think it could've done with a tighter cast and fewer factions considering it's about half the length of most Gundam shows. Still, I did have some fun with it and always liked how colourful the whole thing is, so I certainly don't regret watching it all and giving it an honest try.

I also wouldn't mind trying to write some manner of fic for it if I get any ideas for that, even if mostly because there's only two fics for it on AO3 right now! ^^;

Next I'll be going back to the original series and finishing that up; after that, if this Gundam kick continues I might stick with UC stuff for the time being and slowly chip away at Zeta then ZZ, since by that point I might have a bunch of current anime on my plate from the Autumn 2023 season.

Finished Gundam Witch from Mercury! (Did so almost a week ago now, actually!) I enjoyed it a lot, even if it might've done with even one more cour to help flesh out certain plot points and characters.

I'd put it in second place below Iron-Blooded Orphans, but I can't really rank the Gundam shows I've watched more than that because the only one I've seen any part of in the last decade is 00's first season! Wing, the movie trilogy version of the original, Seed and Seed Destiny were all a longass time ago for me, as is 00 S2. ^^;

While I won't be jumping into another Gundam show right away, I do have a few to pick between in terms of which one I want to watch next:

*Original Mobile Suit Gundam TV series. This would be my first time watching it in this form, and seeing it would let me follow it up with other things from the UC timeline; I've heard particularly good things about Zeta.

*Reconguista in G. I saw the first few eps of this back when it was originally airing, but don't remember much about them besides liking the oldschool-flavoured art style and the cheerful ED. Would be the easiest one out of this batch to watch in terms of episode count, being as it's only two cours, but I've heard the story can be tricky to follow. I'd also like to check if it fully stands alone as another AU Gundam, or if it expects any particular level of familiarity with UC going in.

*Wing. One of my firsts in multiple ways; as I've said before, this would be very interesting to revisit.

*G Gundam. This would be completely new territory for me. Most of what I know about it is that it's one of the most atypical Gundam series and that it's amazingly ridiculous.

I'm open to any recs as to which of the above to go for next!

It's several years late compared to when it was originally airing, but I've just finally finished watching Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans after having recently started over with it from the beginning.

I loved what I got to see of it before (not sure what made me flake away from it a third of the way into the second season; guess I was having issues watching the simulcast on Daisuki at the time) and I love it now after having finally seen the whole thing. Right now I'd consider it my favourite Gundam out of the ones I've watched, though since I'll be watching the second cour of Witch from Mercury soon after this, I'll wait to see if the standings change.

That said, it's occured to me that it's been a long time since I saw any of the other Gundam shows I saw. I might like to rewatch Wing and/or the original eventually (the latter being in TV format this time, after I watched the movie trilogy version of it before). Wing might be particularly interesting to revisit, considering that a) it was my first Gundam, b) it was among the earlier anime I started watching in general, and c) it was my very first online fandom.

I've also been thinking a bit of 00 again; in particular, I kind of wonder if my feelings about its second season might've been less salty if I'd watched it a few episodes at a time in quick succession, as opposed to watching each episode as it aired each week. On the other hand, I wonder if I'd still feel salty about how it turned out anyway, as I remember a good bit of my salt over 00 S2 was related to how it took key aspects I liked about S1 and tossed them out of the window near the end; in contrast, the things I loved about IBO's first season were still present in its second, so I still unabashedly love it even if there were a couple of things I was iffy about and I recall other people throwing salt around over it back when it was airing.

For now, I just wanna get some IBO icons and be emotional about it, and I'll start Witch's second cour before too long.