Posted on by Alexander Case

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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Posted on by Alexander Case

Anime Review: Dead Dead Demon’s DeDeDeDe Destruction

I have heard very good things for quite some time about mangaka Inio Asano’s work – and I’ve also heard it’s tremendously bleak to the point of absolute nihilism, so for a while, I’ve been hesitant to read his stuff. When I learned his manga Dead Dead Demon’s DeDeDeDe Destruction (henceforth DeDeDeDe) was getting an anime adaptation and that it was one of his more… approachable works, I figured I would give the show a watch. The resulting show is interesting and messy – messy in some intentional ways, and some ways that may not be (and if those other ways are intentional it doesn’t reflect well on him).

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Posted on by Alexander Case

Anime Explorations Episode 24: Moyashimon & Moyashimon Returns

This month we’re taking a look at both seasons of Moyashimon. Moyashimon is available for streaming on Crunchyroll.

Episode 24: Moyashimon & Moyashimon Returns

This month we’re taking a look at both seasons of Moyashimon. Moyashimon is available for streaming on Crunchyroll. Next month we are discussing Dark Gathering, which is available for streaming on Hidive & Hulu/Disney+.

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Posted on by Alexander Case

Dragonlance: Shadows of the Dragon Queen: Pt 1 – Funeral For A Friend

Here we have the beginning of my Actual Play for the D&D 5e campaign, Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen, my first time running a game in several years, my first time running for people I wasn’t related to, and my first time running 5e. As I mentioned earlier, I’m running the game using Foundry VTT because my players are fairly geographically widespread.

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Posted on by Alexander Case

Anime Review: Spy X Family: Code White

Spy X Family has joined One Piece and My Hero Academia in the annals of (at the time of release) currently running Shonen Jump (or Jump+) anime adaptations that have gotten non-canonical (or mostly non-canonical in the case of MHA) anime film tie-ins. In this case, we have Spy X Family: Code White, which sends the Forger family on a weekend vacation to the mountains, leading to some Bond-Film-level shenanigans.

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Posted on by Alexander Case

Film Review: Ford vs. Ferrari

I have relatively recently gotten into motorsports after years of really not being interested, because all I had access to was NASCAR. The NASCAR variety of “regular oval track of regulation size with everyone just turning in the same direction” never grabbed me. When I played racing games on consoles, I played games which, well, had turning to both the left and right, and consequently that’s what I wanted in motorsport. So, I was curious about things like Formula 1 and – even more than that – the 24 hours of Le Mans. An endurance race that required a car to run for 24 hours straight, requiring them to go very fast and to have a good fuel economy so you don’t need to pit as often to refuel. Having access to Formula 1 through ESPN+ has got me watching that (the Shift+F1 Podcast also helps), and this has also lead me to seek out movies on motorsport – particularly the docudrama Ford vs. Ferrari.

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Posted on by Alexander Case

Manga Review: We Started A Threesome Vol. 3

Volume 2 of We Started a Threesome put a lot of time into developing Emito and his backstory, along with the setting up that Emito was bisexual and also loved Suisei – who so far hadn’t shown any signs of being bi, and was also dealing with some of his own jealousy. So, theoretically, the ending that has been established for the final volume was – “What’s Suisei’s own backstory, how will he handle his own jealousy, and is he closeted bi, or is he heterosexual and this volume will be about how nested polycules handle situations where two members have incompatible sexual orientations, where one of those members is into the other, and both have a common person who they’re both compatible and romantically into?” The question becomes – how do they handle that topic (if they do), and will they have enough time to do it justice?

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Posted on by Alexander Case

Documentary Review: The Dreams in Gary’s Basement

A couple years ago I reviewed Secrets of Blackmoor – a documentary about Dave Arneson, and the development of the Blackmoor campaign leading up to the development of the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Kickstarting around the same time was Dreams in Gary’s Basement, a documentary focusing on the life of Gary Gygax. I’ve covered a couple of biographies of Gygax’s life in the past – Empire of the Imagination and Rise of the Dungeon Master. When Dreams in Gary’s Basement went up for Kickstarter, I felt that this was an appropriate documentary to back as well. Well, now I’ve received my physical copy and I’ve watched it – so now it’s time for my thoughts.

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