Anime Explorations Episode 29: Fate/Zero

Fate-uary has come back around again, and it’s time to take a look at Fate/Zero, the prequel to Fate/Stay Night.

Episode 29: Fate/Zero

Fate-uary has come back around again, and it’s time to take a look at Fate/Zero, the prequel to Fate/Stay Night. Next month we’re discussing the romantic dramedy Toradora, which is available for streaming on Crunchyroll (https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/G6P8PXJW6/toradora), Amazon Prime (Affiliate Link – https://amzn.to/4k7tkBT), and Tubi (https://tubitv.com/series/300007492/toradora-dubbed).

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Book Review: The Ghibliotheque Guide to Anime

It’s been a while since I read a nonfiction book about anime. A couple of years ago, I read Anime: A History by Johnathan Clements and found it enjoyable (though admittedly, I never got around to doing a prose review here—just a video review). Well, I’ve ended up coming across another overview book on Anime—this time from the hosts of the Ghibliotheque podcast, appropriately titled The Ghibliotheque Guide to Anime, so I figured it was worth a read.

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Video Game Review: Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition promotional art showing Mechonis from the fields of Bionis

Playing the first Xenoblade Chronicles game was an interesting experience, especially after having played some of its sequel before it. It end up giving me some new context on how the series has progressed, how the sequel improved on its predecessor – and some ways in which the predecessor was better. Now that I’ve beaten the game in my Let’s Play, it’s time to give my thoughts.

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Anime Review: Majestic Prince

At the end of 2024, having missed the submission date for regular Anime Secret Santa, I decided to take part in AniList’s Secret Santa event (my AniList profile is here, by the way). The show I ended up getting in my pick was Majestic Prince – a show that had ended up on my watchlist anyway due to it showing up early in Super Robot Wars 30. So, after finishing my rewatch of season 3 of Thunderbolt Fantasy for the Anime Explorations Podcast, I moved on to this.

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Book Review: Emmanuelle II

A while back, I reviewed the first Emmanuelle novel, a book which, through its film adaptation, kicked off what was, for a time, a mainstreaming of erotica. I’ve now finished reading the sequel, titled Emmanuelle II, and it almost addresses some of the problems that I had with the first book, but ends up re-introducing them late in the book, and introducing some new ones.

Content Warning: As with the first novel, I will get into some frank discussion of sex, sexuality, and some of the sex acts that are depicted in this novel.

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Video Game Review: Trails in the Sky 3rd

Trails in the Sky 3rd is the final installment of the Grancel Trilogy of what has become the larger series of Trails games. While the narrative focus for this game moves away from Joshua and Estelle Bright (their time in the spotlight finished in Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter) – the third installment instead serves as something of an epilogue for the series, and with it sets up not only the Crossbell arc (Trails from Zero), but also the Erebonia (Trails of Cold Steel) and Calvard (Trails from Daybreak) arcs as well.

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