@ReluctantZen - eviltoast
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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • Just a note before my comment: my reference is the Netherlands, which is struggling with too much cattle and too little land. I can imagine circumstances being different in Australia.

    Methane is a worse greenhous gas than CO2 though (28 times more) and just growing more grass, which gets eaten pretty much immediately again, does not necessarily compensate for it. Tackling methane emissions is also a pretty effective short term improvement for global warming, due to it not being nearly as long in the atmosphere as CO2.

    But methane is not the only problem with large amounts of cattle. The shit can actually become problematic in for the soil and water due to ammonia. This is a large problem in The Netherlands right now (and sadly we don’t have politicians in power willing to make actual changes here). Biodiversity and water quality are going down significantly and a very big contributor is cattle farming.

    And let’s also not forget that the grass used is for optimizing growing cattle and producing milk (because the farmers get paid like shit). It’s not a grass field full of flowers, herbs and other kinds of plants that are good for insect life. They’re more or less green deserts.




  • Finished Gundam GQuuuux. Even though I read in many places that was no prior knowledge was needed, I felt lost a lot of times. I don’t know the characters that were actually important in the end and I missed a looot of context. It felt more aimed at fans of the original. It assumed you know the world, the terms, power dynamics etc, but as someone that only watched Witch From Mercury, I did not know any of it.

    The characters that were posed as the leads were heavily underdeveloped, including their relationships to each other. I think they had potential (a duo of rebellious rich girl together with a refugee is an interesting dynamic to explore), but were shafted in favour of what felt like nostalgia bait. As a result, some of their actions made no sense to me.

    Animation was nice though.










  • Great final episode. A very good end of this arc, all things considered. The resurrection medicine was expected, but loved it nonetheless.

    This season was great, but hard to follow sometimes due to how much there was to keep up with. It’s been building since season 1 episode 1 after all. Loved it though. Would probably be great on a binge rewatch.

    I’m very curious how this continues. The status quo is very different now. Both Xiaolan (poor girl, she deserved to see them off properly!) and Shisui (or Tamamo I suppose) are out of sight, Jinshi is no longer just a pretty eunuch, Gyokuyou is empress (deserved!) and Maomao is back in the pleasure district. I’m sure Jinshi gets her back in the royal affairs somehow, but we’ll see. At the very least, he’ll get cockblocked again next season and I’m all for it.




  • This was a decent season! I watched the following:

    • Apothecary Diaries: not finished yet, but incredible season, but hard to keep up with due to how many threads there were starting from episode 1 season 1.
    • SHOSHIMIN: also really good season. This season focussed more on some larger mysteries, which was a nice change from the 1st season. The 2 leads have great chemistry. Amazing OP.
    • Apocalypse Hotel: so much fun. The big cast + setting make for a very entertaining and endearing show.
    • Witch Watch: it was… fine. Nothing that really excited me tbh.
    • Catch Me At The Ballpark: surprisingly fun. I do not care for baseball, but loved the vibe and the different characters interacting. Felt a little bit like a PA Works show for me. Speaking of which, I need to watch Food For The Soul.
    • NinKoro: also really fun. I’m repeating myself here, but I liked the chemistry between the characters. I also liked how it portrayed an awful occupation as something light hearted. Fucked up, but in line with the characters. Sometimes though, the seriousness of it all shines through. Very clearly a Shaft anime at times with some of the angles and shots.
    • From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman: also surprisingly alright. The main character actually acts like a reasonable adult. His constant self-deprecation gets a little bit old though. He’s regularly outperforming famed knights and adventurers but still thinks he’s not that good. For the first part of the anime, it’s understandable, but the latter part and especially the last ep it got a little unbelievable. The fights looked very well choreographed and the 3D animation looked good and was well-used.
    • Too-Perfect Saint: lovely, but too fast imo, especially near the end.

    Put on hold:

    • Zatsutabi: nice and relaxing, but nothing special.

    Dropped:

    • Can A Boy-Girl Friendship Survive: dropped after 6 eps. Cannot stand Himari.
    • Shiunji Family Children: dropped after 6 eps. Boring incest-but-not-technically harem.
    • Gorilla God’s Go-to Girl: really boring reverse harem. The lead is dumb as bricks and the support cast isn’t better. Also, for a reverse harem, I feel like the boys have very average looking designs. Then again, I’m not the target audience so who knows.
    • Once Upon A Witch’s Death: felt like a cheap way to get the audience to cry, which didn’t sit well with me.
    • Rock Is A Lady’s Modesty: dropped after 3 eps. Similar criticism as the manga, but worse. I could not get over the awfully toxic dynamic. Being a musician myself, I can’t imagine playing in a band with people like that. Drums and guitar competing in the way they do (or at all, really) in the anime makes no sense either. If you want to be a bad band, not listening to each other and trying to stand out more than the other is a surefire way to do it.

    I’m catching up on Gundam GQuuux, but now that I’m 4 eps in, I’m not too sure if I like it. I feel like I’m missing tons of context, it’s lightning fast pacing and it’s all very superficial still.

    I’ve seen a lot of praise for Umamusume, so I want to check that one out as well.

    I have no idea what’s going on next anime season yet.