Natterings From Nepantla

I finished 8 shows this season, which is a new record for me.

( And there was some very good stuff! )

Next season is, um, less stacked. In fact it looks like a good time to catch up on a few things. The only premieres I'm currently planning to check out are Tetsuryō!, because trains, and The Seven Knights of the Marronnier Kingdom, because it's one of those rare cases of a medieval-ish fantasy world not looking like like a total visual mishmash.

Featuring the revelation of a belatedly discovered numbering error. Plus, an index to volume 5.

You've heard of the light rail coyote? Now we have goats on a bus.

Yesterday I made it to the last-day party at Lloyd Center mall.

Lloyd Center opened in 1960 and was the first mall to feature an ice skating rink. Most of my memories of it come from when OryCon and GameStorm spent some years at the Doubletree next door and the food court had some good options for lunch and dinner. It was a bit awkward getting in, though. One had to walk in through a parking garage entrance, dodge possible traffic, duck in through a side door, and navigate through the Macy's housewares department to reach the interior of the mall.

And that gives an idea of why Lloyd Center was in decline: it was a shopping palace built for the peak automobile era, already losing tenants by the time the pandemic hit and really hollowed malls out. While there were attempts to adjust (like finally adding a proper pedestrian entrance facing the hotel and the MAX station after the section with the Macy's was demolished) it would never regain its former glory.

It did have a final burst of energy, becoming a home to a number of experimental spaces, community groups, and geek stores in the last few years, but the plan for some time has been that it would be demolished and affordable housing built in its place.

Yesterday was its last day of operation, and it was turned into a big party. It was packed with crowds like I haven't seen in any mall in a long time. There was a craft fair all over the food court, a collectible card show in one wing, and ice skating performances in progress. The local paper was running a live blog. The couple of places still serving food where overwhelmed. I was thinking about getting something from Joe Brown's Carmel Corn one last time but the line was an hour long.

I did pick up a couple of books from someone who was selling used sf and fantasy books at the craft fair. I played pinball at the pinball museum. I looked at all the art exhibits, the best one being a mixed-media project from an artist who had accompanied some scientists to Puerto Rico where they were studying anoles. As I left, the rink had switched to open skate, with people circulating to the Macarena and attempting to do the dance moves with varying degrees of success.

There was a lot of love for what Lloyd Center has lately become. Even a graffiti artist had left their own tribute, a big "VIVA LA LLOYD" up on the second floor, easy to see from the south entrance.

It's unclear what happens next; a specific plan for the housing development hasn't been approved by the city yet. A lot of people hope the skating rink will be salvaged in some form, but we'll see.

In The World is Dancing, the setting is beautifully realized, the animation is excellent, and the writing is... serviceable. I'm going to keep watching this for the history lessons and the lovely dance scenes, but it's not going be one of my top picks of the year.

Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia, though, is the complete package. It's another great setting, combined with a unique art style, and it may not get as auteur-y as The World is Dancing but the script is an order of magnitude better. This one will probably be on the list on the best things I've seen this year. (Not on my Hugo ballot, though, since this is straight historical drama, no actual witchcraft.)

Sparks of Tomorrow got picked up by Netflix, which I don't currently subscribe to.

Recommendations from Iwamoto-senpai turns out to be about bishōnen with flower-themed supernatural powers, so already not my thing. Bishōnen who are allegedly in middle school, though the title character looks and acts like he's about 30. Plus the school is run by the military, this is a few years before Japan kicks off WWII in Asia by invading Manchuria, and the writer seems quite enthusiastic about the characters getting into uniform and using their abilities for the greater glory of the increasingly militarized state so nope nope nope nope nope.

Red River is actually in Anatolia, not Mesopotamia, but still, an interesting and unusual setting. It's a question of whether it can become the grand sword-and-sandals epic that the OP promises before I get too annoyed by the heroine who has to repeat every new piece of information back in her internal voice, distracted by the off-brand Vivaldi incidental music, or driven away by the "misdemeanor assault is the first step on the road to true love" school of romance writing. I'll try one more episode.

The Ghost in the Shell is almost a period piece too, being a re-adaptation starting from the beginning of the manga and tearing away the '90s cyberpunk vibe to return it to the look and feel of the 1980s. And it does an excellent job. I'm not sure I ever saw all of the first movie; I only recognized one scene in the remake, but like the new version of that scene much better. It really reminded me a lot of Patlabor, which shouldn't be surprising since they're of a similar vintage.

Other things there were moments that reminded me of that were more surprising: The Italian Job and The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.

Saga of Tanya the Evil is still Saga of Tanya the Evil. There's been a movie in the interim, which I should watch since Crunchyroll has it available, but it was easy to pick up the thread again.

Goodbye, Lara is billed as a tribute to the Hans Christian Andersen story, but it steers midway between that and The Little Mermaid in the premiere. The sea witch in particular looks like a Disney villain and borrows Ursula's line about how she's just helping, when she clearly has an ulterior motive. Unlike Ursula, though, she seems genuinely disappointed by how Lara's first try turns out. I think the main thing to worry about is I'll be much more interested in what's going on with her and certain other undersea events which are barely explained than I am in the potential teenage romance that this story is going to focus on.

Dara-san of the Reiwa Era is a comedy about a pair of gender-nonconforming siblings and a newly reawakened half-snake goddess with giant boobs. If you think this is going to be one of those shows which consists of being crass and loud as a substitute for being funny, though, it's about as far from that as possible. The humor is mostly observational and the whole vibe is more like a solitary retiree starting to open up to a couple of neighborhood kids. If this season weren't so full of good stuff I would probably watch more of this.

Also if this season weren't already so full of good stuff, the buzz about Kaiju Girl Caramelise and Grow Up Show would get me to check them out.