Natterings From Nepantla

I've been thinking a lot recently about Revenge of the Sith, and all the reactions at the time about how dumb a plot twist it was to have people just voting to hand their semi-democratic government over to a dictator, because obviously people would never do that!

Well, it turns out that Revenge of the Sith is getting a 20th anniversary re-release. One week, starting April 25. So I'm curious to see if anyone will be rethinking their reaction on watching the movie again.

I also expect that Jar Jar Binks will not have improved with age.

Ohayocon gets its restraining order. Two weeks ago, actually, but this story is moving at the speed of updates to a county court's site.

Big new revelations about the damage to Ohaycon, and Substack still looks like the least awful place to publish this newsletter. I sure am finding new reasons to be glad its inbox is hosted by a company in the EU, though.

Costume-Con in trouble and Vic Mignogna somehow not in trouble. If you're looking for some relief in a terrible week, maybe skip this one...

I seem to be getting back into the rhythm of anime viewing. Shows I have checked out so far:

Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective is about a genius medical professional who, you guessed it, also solves mysteries. The first one was weird enough to get me to stick around for episode 2, but all the writing around it was terrible and I don't like a single one of the characters, so that was enough.

Momentary Lily is the latest from GoHands, done in the distinctive GoHands style which doesn't bother me one bit, since I am largely immune to animation style (and actually, I thought the mysterious enemies looked kind of cool). But it is also a show assembled entirely from overused tropes and I stopped after episode 1.

Tasokare Hotel is another mystery show, set in a place between our world and the afterlife where spirits go to try to remember who they are and whether they're supposed to be alive or dead. I've seen some negative reviews of it which seem to start from the assumption that it must necessarily be a detective show, and it's terrible from that standpoint, because it isn't a detective show. The main character is there to serve more as a therapist, finding clues to prompt the spirits to tell their own story. I wouldn't normally expect to enjoy a show quite this chill, but I am.

Aquarion: Myth of Emotions is a mecha show trying to go big or go home. So far we've got a big ball of New Age stuff like ancient high-tech civilizations, past lives, and maybe a ghost; quantum weirdness; elemnts from the wilder end of the mecha spectrum including improbably technology, shouted attack names, and ludicrously complicated launch sequences; and all this wrapped up in a most un-anime-like look. Currently it's all what I believe the internet haters call Cal Arts style, but the trailers have promised substantial content with character animated in CGI.

I worry that this series has bitten off more than it can chew (and, apparently, previous Aquarion series have established a tradition of falling apart and disappointing) but man, this is sure not going to be boring.

The excellent if unfortunately named Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun is back for a second season at last, and it's good to see the old gang again, even if I did see the first episode's twist coming a mile away.

And The Apothecary Diaries is back and... I'm not sure if I'm going to keep watching it. I do like historical fantasy costume dramas, but I hate cozy mysteries because the mundane details of the characters' lives tend to start crowding out the parts I find interesting after a while, and the first episode of the new season is 100% slice-of-life hijinks. There are supposedly actual mysteries coming soon, so I don't know, I'll give it another couple episodes.

It was approximately this date in 2020 when I read a New York Times article that followed up up its initial report on a mysterious new pneumonia that was filling up hospitals in Wuhan, China. It was believed to be due to a novel virus that might have an incubation period of up to 2 weeks and might be able to spread asymptomatically. And I remember thinking, if either of those turns out to be the case, there was probably no hope of containing it.

I meant to get a COVID booster last October, but the run-up to Orycon and the onset of the SO's health crisis immediately after Orycon got in the way, and then COVID levels were very low in the US for a while. Now they're on the upswing, and I had a weekend free, so I got vaccinated yesterday and am staying home and doing some cooking while I ride out the comparatively mild side effects of Novavax.

The SO's mother, who passed away in 2022, lived in La Cañada Flintridge, one of the communities up against the hills on the north side of the Los Angeles area. Every few years, when there was a fire up in the hills, we could easily check that she was in a safe area by seeing that the high school a couple blocks away from her house was listed as an emergency shelter. It's ironic to see that this time all of LCF has been evacuated.

(The SO still has other relatives living in SoCal, but they're all far away from the current fires. Hoping everyone I know down there remains safe.)

I wound up just watching two continuations in the summer cour, and then dealing with the household health crisis meant I didn't have the energy to keep up with a continuing storyline for most of fall.

I finished watching Yatagarasu in the summer, and while the last arc wasn't quite up to the same standard as the main one, it was still the best thing I watched this year, and I am about to become very tiresome by recommending it absolutely anywhere someone implies that they might be interested in Hugo recommendations.

I also watched season 2 of Oshi no Ko, which is mostly about Aqua acting in the stage play adaptation of a shōnen manga. It was good, it left me wanting more of the story, but on a week-to-week basis it felt like it had absorbed a little too much of the shōnen aesthetic. The run of episodes covering opening night probably took longer in total than the actual play would have, much like shōnen battles that can take five episodes to cover 5 minutes.

I also watched 3 or 4 episodes of Bye Bye Earth before losing interest.

In the fall, I caught the beginning of the latest season of Re:Zero, and it seemed fine, and I believe I'll go back and watch the rest of it sometime soon. And in late December, I tried Dan Da Dan before noping out after episode 2.

Dan Da Dan makes an interesting contrast with Undead Unluck. They're both shōnen manga adaptations which both came with a reputation of getting good after a rough start, they both start with a male and female hero being thrown together in immediate peril and forced to work out how to make their powers work together while shouting a lot and enduring a bit of forced intimacy. But one of the reasons I stuck with Undead Unluck was that I was immediately ready to root for Fūko, whereas I don't like either of the leads in Dan Da Dan at all. Also, while some awkwardness between the characters in Undead Unluck is a side effect of Fūko's power working best with direct skin contact, Dan Da Dan is just obsessed with naughty bits and with subjecting its female lead to creep-o-vision camera angles. So no thank you.

My overall top pick for the year is Yatagarasu, as I said, and if I had to round it out to a top 5, I'd add Undead Unluck, Astro Note (shout-out to this review at The Glorio Blog which pointed out there was more going on than met the eye, without which I might not have gone back for episode 2), Oshi no Ko S2, and Train to the End of the World.

2024: The year we lost Phosphor and both his feral sisters; I watched OryCon go through an organizational near-death experience, recover, and then be discontinued as of the next event; and the SO developed severe health issues for a while. Also, that election.

I'd say 2025 has to be better, but that election.