News

Deadly Fight in Hiroshima Video Review Blocked

As a quick heads up – my video review of Deadly Fight in Hiroshima has been blocked internationally by Toei. My written review is still up, but the video review is done. I might try re-recording the review as video only, but honestly, the video has had a pretty good life. This is the problem with trying to discuss a visual medium in another visual medium – sometimes the people who own the works want more control of the dialog around the work than the people doing the talking – which is even more of a situation if you’re working with creators from countries which don’t exactly have Fair Use protections enshrouded in law. Ah well.

Please support my Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor
Buy me a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/countzero
Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor
Check out my Let’s Plays at https://www.youtube.com/@CountZeroOrPlays

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I’ve changed my web hosting from WordPress.com to Bluehost, and I think it’s important to talk about why.

Please support my Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor
Buy me a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/countzero
Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor
Check out my Let’s Plays at https://www.youtube.com/@CountZeroOrPlays

Donation Links…

Let's Play, News

My Next Two Let’s Plays

We’re coming up the end of Mark of the Ninja, so it’s time to announce my next couple games – if you’ve been watching my Twitch Channel (http://twitch.tv/countzeroor), you’ll already know what these are, but if you haven’t (and you should) here’s the picks – determined by a semi-unscientific poll on one of the Discord servers I’m on, since I didn’t get any responses on the Patreon. Both of these are games on my Video Game New Year’s Resolution List.

Next up is probably one of the biggest shames on my Pile of Shame—a game that I’ve played extensively, including for Nintendo Power Retrospectives, but never got around to beating (at least not that I remember)—Super Mario World. This Let’s Play is already completely in the bag, with all the videos recorded as of this writing.

After that, continuing my pincer strategy of making my way through both ends of the Final Fantasy series, it’s Final Fantasy XVI, including the DLC.

Please support my Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor
Buy me a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/countzero
Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor
Check out my Let’s Plays at https://www.youtube.com/@CountZeroOrPlays

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News

Why I Switched My Hosting from WordPress.com

You may have noticed, in the past few weeks, that my site has been looking a little weird. That it’s had a few visual hiccups in terms of how it looks and is presented. (If you’re only reading everything I write on Patreon, you probably haven’t noticed). That’s because I’ve switched my web hosting from WordPress.com to Bluehost, and I feel it’s worth mentioning why.

A smaller reason why is, honestly, it’s slightly cheaper. I was paying about $300+ a year for my hosting through WordPress.com, in order to get a plan that allowed for advertising (in an attempt to finally reach my Google Adsense payment threshold). I’m paying about $250-ish a year with Bluehost, so that’s significantly less expensive.

The larger reason is that the person who runs WordPress.com, Matt Mullenweg, has been, frankly, acting like a git. He’s been harassing hosting providers and alienating plugin authors. It’s been involved enough that TechCrunch had to write an explainer article. In short, he’s he kind of git that, candidly, is causing problems for the WordPress platform as a whole – to enough of a degree where I can sincerely see WordPress forking, the way that OpenOffice forked to LibreOffice. If that happens, and the fork comes, if I’m still on WordPress.com for hosting, I can’t go either way. So, I’m off WordPress.com, and am now on Bluehost on the foreseeable future.

As a quick note – this has broken Email Subscriptions. In the interim, I’d recommend using RSS, or following my BlueSky or Mastodon accounts.

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Anime Explorations Episode 25: Dark Gathering

We have some horror anime this month with Dark Gathering, which is available for streaming on Hidive & Hulu/Disney+.

Episode 25: Dark Gathering

We have some horror anime this month with Dark Gathering, which is available for streaming on Hidive & Hulu/Disney+. Next month, we’ll cover the first three Garden of Sinners films, which are available for streaming on Crunchyroll. Series Music: Kakuriyo by luz Used under fair use.

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News

The election is coming up in the United States – and in many states there is an option for early voting. In Oregon we do Vote By Mail (and also with ballot drop boxes), so have voted in the comfort of my home with a hot cup of coffee. This does mean we don’t get neat “I voted” stickers – but that’s okay. Instead, this weekend I’m going to borrow a custom from Australia, and have a homemade Democracy Sausage (though probably in an actual roll instead of a slice of bread – blasphemy, I know). So, this is my encouragement to you, if you are registered to vote, to go vote. And then have a yummy sausage, and maybe post a picture in the comments.

Go Vote! (In the US)

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News

Anime Review: Spice & Wolf (2024)

I absolutely missed the boat on Spice & Wolf when it first aired – which probably may have worked out for the best, since the main series of novels was still ongoing at the time, so the original TV adaptation was never quite able to provide an adaptation of the big emotional climax of the story and its core romance. Fortunately, the series is back with a reboot, with much of the original cast returning, making for a good time to jump on board and see the story told once again.

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Anime Review: Sand Land

For decades, the gateway to the works of Akira Toriyama in the US has been Dragon Ball Z – the point where Toriyama’s opus shifted gears from gag manga with fighting to shonen fight manga. In 2024, the year in which he sadly passed, we got an anime adaptation of another work, one which I think serves as a better jumping on point to Toriyama as an artist – Sand Land.

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