Media

I watch a lot of anime seasonally and play the occasional videos game, and I often have a lot to say. I'll articulate my thoughts and feelings on the digital media and franchises I consume by sharing my analysis, critiques, and other reviews.

Currently watching/reading

Anime: Fate/Strange Fake, Jigokuraku 2nd season, Jujutsu Kaisen 3rd season, Freiren 2nd season

Manga: Fall in Love You False Angels- chapter 20

Thoughts on Seasonal Anime- Fate'/Strange Fake

January 21, 2026

Wow. Wow wow wowww!!! I thought I'd be writing about Frieren, but nope! All my thoughts are Fate pilled right now hahaha! UGHHHH Fate/Strange Fake episode 3. What an episode. As I mentioned before, Fate is the series I have the least knowledge about so I don't know what to expect, but it's now become the series I'm most looking forward to each week. Episode three was simply amazing. It was an absurd level of amazing. Spoilers, but it continues from the fight with Jeter and Hanza, and just wow. Their interactions are initially very silly. Throwing cups of coffee, kicking a couch into the ceiling, but it gets better. In fact it just keeps escalating. Jester throws cars with his bare hands, Hanza pulls out the executioner's black keys, Jester creates a fire tornado, HANZA IS PARTIALLY METAL. HE CLIMBS A BUILDING WITH A CHAINSAW IN HIS LEG. JESTER HAS A GUN!?!? It just doesn't stop. And then of course, Jester being a vampire has to leave because of the sun coming up. He makes a grand exit by jumping off of a building in a high backflip and then Hanza extends his metal arm to attack only to be just short. But he has a trick up his sleeve, literally! His hand flip's back Franky style and reveals a compartment with a bullet that flies into Jester's face. LIKE HELLO??? And then Jester gets away by pretending to be a child. Watching it was insane enough, but writing it out like this is making me question if it even happened. The fight started so silly and as it escalated in intesnity, it went back to being so silly that it was just awesome. It was just so ridiculous and over the top. Dare I say it was Jojo levels of bizarre! Maybe even more than that. I thought three days would have been enough for things to marinate into my head so I can articulate my thoughts, but I'm seriously lacking words. The animation as a whole was just so clean. Both Hanza and Jester are so expressive in character, differing only slightly in how they present themselves. Hanza being more laid back and Jester being much more outwardly flamboyant, but they're also so animated. I mean their movements even while just having a conversation was so... I don't even know! Even their dialouge was so entertaining. They're both farming aura but they're so cool. That scene is going to be imbedded into my mind for real. There's a handful of scenes from various anime that I think of because of how beautiful or cool, or exciting it was, but this might just be my favorite thing to ever see in an anime ever! My sibling said this and I agree, but I wish I could experience the feeling of watching that for the first time again. And she said that after JUST watching it. There were also a ton of other enjoyable bits from that episode like Gilgamesh being weirdly ikemen, Waver's reaction to seeing Gilgamesh again, Hanza's quartet girliess, the fact that there is a SECOND HOLY GRAIL WAR GOING ON AT THE SAME TIME!? You're telling me in addition to the currently summoned heroic spirits, there's going to be more!? Like that's so cool. I wonder who they'll be. Maybe someone I recognize from playing FGO. I'm already familiar with Enkidu, but I don't think the rest are in the game right now. Assassin is so pretty and cool, while Caster is funny as hell. I want to know who they are based on. Ah, I think Ishtar will be one of them though because I saw her being listed under the cast list on My Anime List. Man, I'm so excited. I thouroughly enjoyed the episode, and now my expectations for the next episode are so high. Like that fight was already so insane, and it's ONLY episode 3. How much more grandoise will it be the further we go? Anyway, I love Jester Karture. The vampire man makes me laugh.

I just rewatched the episode in dub, and it's actually really good. I knew Saber was voiced by Ben Balmaceda(Kaveh hehehe!) but it still caught me off guard! I can't take it seriously! I also noticed a few more details that I hadn't before. Hanza's body being mechanical was subtly hinted at in a scene where he clenches and unclenches his fist, but it makes the sound of turning gears. Gilgamesh also hinted at it, but the gear noise was such a neat way to show it! Ughh I want episode 4 to be out already!!!

Thoughts on Seasonal Anime so Far

January 16, 2026

Ahh, January means it's the start of winter seasonal anime! The lineup for me this season is pretty crazy. JJK, Jigokuraku, Freiren, Fate, and Fire Force! Excluding fate, all of them are a continued season. I'm most excited for Fate/Strange Fake and probably Fire Force. I've finished the manga a few years ago so I'm looking forward to how the final arc will be adapted into the anime, and as for Fate... well I know nothing lol! I mean I have watched Unlimited Blade Works and Zero, and played bits of FGO so I am familiar with the franchise, but regarding the plot of this series, I know very little. That being said, The first two episodes so far have been very exciting! I'm already fond of Jester Karture, what a silly little freak. His dramatic entry and reveal was so cool, and I adore Assassin. JJK is always a bit of a funny one to watch because of my sibling. Having almost every volume of the manga, and being so deep in the narratives and lore, I end up hearing bits and pieces of spoilers from them, but then I forget about it immediately. I will say, the first episode was already quite cool(I'm not over Choso spinning in that room like an astronaut doing space training in a low gravity chamber). The second episode having a lot of exposition presented in succession all at once was a bit overwhelming, and I'll probably have to ask my sibling what it was over and over again, but it seemed like necessary information for the events of the culling game. Jigokuraku is in the same boat as JJK where my sibling read it, so they're definitely anticipating the upcoming arcs more than I am. I have neutral, leaning good opinions on it, but not as much compared to the other anime this season. Now Freiren on the other hand... ugh! I loved the first season. I love the natural progression of it, the akward and emotional explorations of being alive. Of having memories and connections, and losses and progress, the way things change and continue forward through the passage of time. It's portrayed so well!! In a time where so many people are more interested in action shounens with epic fight scenes and hyped up battles, I love the slow easy going nature of Freiren. It's a different slowness from slice-of-life genres where it's more about everyday life. I find Freiren to be a great blend of the mundanity and complexity of human interaction in a fantasy setting. Anyway, I'm supposed to be talking about the new season. Since the episode comes out tomorrow I don't have much input on the actual show so far, but I know there's going to be an arc with Denken involved. He's a great character so I'm looking forward to seeing more of him. I'm also glad they ending is bieng sung by Milet again. The first ending and the second opening of the first season have become favorites of mine and I think about them all the time. The opening for this season is going to be done by Mrs. Green Apple, a favorite band of mine. I haven't been listening to their newer stuff, but I still like the general feeling of their music and I think it would suit Freiren really well! Maybe I'll write about it tomorrow after watching the episode hehe~

Recently Playing...

December 26, 2025

Huzzah! It's the first entry in the mdeia section. How cool. The library is really growing into a proper collection of texts. As I mentioned in the archive entry with the same date, I'm going to share my thoughts on two games of vasty different genres: Hollow Knight and Stardew Valley! Now this isn't some kind of game review, but just my experiences and feelings on each game.

I suppose I'll start with Stardew first. It's probably THE farmsim ever for who knows how long now. It's a game I've been wanting to play for a while and I'm very pleased with it so far. The first farmsim I played is Harvest Moon for the DS... sort of. I had it as a kid but in Korean so I never really played it properly due to my lack of reading skills. I lost the game, but I bought it again as an adult(in a language I can read fluently). It's fun but oh... Stardew is wayy better in terms of playability. For one, it's a lot easier to see on a bigger screen lol, but somehow Stardew feels faster paced despite the in game days feeling longer. Harvest Moon also has a lot more limitations because of how old the game is. I learned very quickly that to romance the guys I need the Harvest Moon Cute version, so I'm stuck playing as a guy, but to be honest none of the guys look romanceable... so I'm fine sticking to the cute girls tee hee~ BUT this is a Stardew review not a Harvest Moon one so let me stop from getting furhter sidetracked. Stardew is fun. SO fun. I'd imagine some people might not enjoy it due to the repetitive nature of running a farm and planting crops each month, but for my autistic brain that kind of repitition feels so good. Keeping a mental list of what I plan to do each day is a lot more stimulating for my brain than I expected. I admit I'm not the best at socializing with the other characters, but I'll get there... Right now I'm on Spring year 2. I have my little animals, and my barn is being upgraded so I think I get pigs and sheep soon? I'm also so close to finishing another bundle of the community center (WHEN WILL MY FRUIT TREES FINISH GROWING). I've gotten to the bottom of the first cave and I really need to unlock the desert soon. Most of my knowledge of Stardew comes from watching RT Game's playthrough of it. It's a very entertaining series that I recommend if you also enjoy Breaking Bad(I need to watch that show sometime soon). I think I literally spent one day playing Stardew Valley from noon to night and I got through the entire month of fall that day... ah unemployment

Okay okay, now for Hollow Knight. So I technically started playing like threeish years ago and I picked it up again because of my friends. Apparently I hadn't even fought Hornet yet, but now I'm so far into the game. I was advised to explore more of the Soul Sanctum, which I did, and I spent a good chunk of time fighting the Soul Master... It was surprisingly not as long as I was expecting. I really thought the second phase would take a while, but I took a break of not playing for a few days(which is when I started Stardew) and when I came back to the game, it only took me like 5 attempts before beating it. Continuing from there, the last thing I did(literally yesterday) was explore more of the map, and now I have so many more places opened up. I defeated the Dung Defender, unlocked the right half of the City of Tears, went to Kingdom's edge and kept dying in there for a while, and then I got up to Resting Grounds. I was actually there before and got the dream nail but I had no idea how to get back down from Crystal Peaks. Hollow Knight is SUPER fun. I personally love just running around aimlessly in open world games and while Hollow Knight isn't open world, the same thing applies. Now there are definitely more concrete goals to progress like going after certain bosses and such, but I like that I have the option of doing something else and coming back to it. I think my one struggle is dying and losing geo, the currency of the game. It's not to hard to accumulate a lot of it, but whenever I die and lose it, it hurts a part of me. I know I can get it all again over time, but hrrggg... I find the game to be really challenging at times, but in a good way. There were several times while fighting bosses that I got frustrated, but I could tell I was capable of beating it if I just did some things better. Soul Sanctum in particular puts me on edge whenever I hear the music. I hate it. I think I just dislike that area as a whole. The game itself is very charming though. I absolutely adore all of the characters I've encountered so far, and the atmosphere of the game is so well presented both visually and audibly. I really can't remember the last time I played a single player game like this that required so much attention, focus, and skill. I mean I don't play that many games and even the ones I do play, I barely finish them to completion. Even games like Pokemon I can kind of just brute force them through revives and switching out my team, and there's not too many difficult puzzles or battles when you're overleveled. I think I play more multiplayer or party games which aren't so much about technical skills as it is relying on luck and other factors. For those reasons Hollow Knight is really refreshing to me. It's not just a fun casual play before bed kind of game, and I want to play a lot more games like that. I mean I have tons of games that are waiting for me to boot up, but I'll get to them slowly.

My Anime List