Anime Roundup

It's time for another Anime Roundup! (warning: spoilers)

Orb: On the Movements of the Earth

Wow. I have to admit, I did not expect that I would like this one so much. At first, the premise seemed mildly interesting: a historical fiction drama about a 12-year-old prodigy who learns heretical teachings about the Earth and the Sun and then goes on a quest for his new master's hidden research while trying not to get caught by the Inquisition. I figured, "Okay, sure. Why not." After the first episode, I was like, "Well, this is not bad, but I can see where it's going." Boy, was I wrong. Capital "W" Wrong. It ended up being jam-packed with (mild spoiler alert) shocking twists, gut punch moments, and all kinds of thought-provoking dialogue about philosophy, life, and related topics. It also left me with some unanswered questions, which I'm pretty sure was done on purpose. On top of all of that, it provided direct inspiration for parts of Volume Eight. Like a lot of great anime, I'm glad I stuck with it.

(And if the creators are reading, I would love love love a Jolenta spinoff.)

Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story

Speaking of spinoffs, this show is a spinoff of the brilliant 2011 series Puella Magi Madoka Magica (which I talked about in this previous roundup post) that actually started out as a video game and then turned into a manga, anime, and even a stage play. It's not quite as mind-blowing as the original, but there is still a big twisty reveal along with (spoiler alert) major appearances from the original characters. Throw in some of the same trippy, fantastic artwork, and it all adds up to a decently good time.

Shiboyugi: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table

Dark and artsy, this one is about a young woman who plays death games (think "Squid Game" or "Alice in Borderland") for a living and whose goal is to complete 99 of such games. It kind of felt like watching a psychological horror video game or a visual novel, and it had surreal moments and time jumps that made it a little confusing but still very compelling. Also, I love how blood turns into polyfill.

Kamisama Kiss

A homeless high school girl saves a man from an angry dog. To thank her, he gives her his house, which is actually a local shrine. On top of that, she inherits his position as the god of said shrine (surprise!) and now has to deal with her new fox familiar, a sullen and broody ikemen (hunky dude) who seems to resent her presence. Will they embark on one of those "enemies-to-lovers" kind of arcs that you often find in paranormal/supernatural romance stories (are those called "romantasy" now? I've been having a hard time keeping up)? If they didn't, then why are we even here in the first place? Although I guess you'll just have to watch to find out for sure...

There's No Freaking Way I'll Be Your Lover! Unless...

This one is a bright, shiny, candy-colored rom-com about a group of high school girls who may or may not like each other. Like, like-like (this is a subgenre of manga/anime known as yuri, or "girl's love." The boy version is appropriately called "BL.") I started watching it for the title, and I continued watching it not only because it was fun (especially once I moved it to my evening post-a couple of beers viewing slot) and had a super-catchy theme song (muri muri!), but also because I half-expected it to suddenly turn ultra-dark and disturbing a la Doki Doki Literature Club (spoiler alert: it never did).

Until next time, mata ne!

Cat Picture Placeholder Post

Because sometimes, we all just need pictures of cats sleeping peacefully to remind ourselves not to freak out so much.

The arm over the face is a nice touch.

This is the inverse, with the face over the arm.

I will write more next time, I promise! (or not)

Eating On A Budget, Part Two

Remember this post from 2019 called "Eating on a Budget"? Probably not. But I do! And I am here to once again talk about tips for cutting corners on food so that you can spend your money on more important things like new phones and game consoles.

(And, like back in 2019, I offer the disclaimer that I am not a doctor or nutritionist, so I don't endorse these ideas as being part of any kind of special diet. This is coming purely from a financial perspective. Remember: don't take health advice from authors, musicians, or especially author/musicians. It will not turn out well.)

Buy Reduced-Price Stuff

In an episode of Extraordinary, a sort-of superhero comedy on Hulu, a couple of characters (Kash and Carrie, I love those names) talk about saving money by buying only reduced-priced food items and then making a meal out of whatever those things are. I heartily recommend this idea! I've found that at my local Fred Meyer, there are often good deals on good stuff, like meats and vegetables. Whenever possible, I like to stock up and freeze them for later use (confession: I did not know this was something you could do until the drummer in my band told me about it).

Beans, Instant Ramen, Tuna

Beans are amazing! They're cheap, filling, and apparently nutritious. Instant ramen is also cheap, and to make it at least somewhat healthy-ish, I don't use the flavor packet but instead add seasoned tuna, which is also usually cheap at around a dollar per pouch when on sale.

Coupons, Etc.

You probably already do this, but if not: take advantage of coupons (including digital ones), loyalty programs, and other promotions, like senior discounts (I was reluctant to admit that I qualified for such discounts, but since it helped me save a few cents, I swallowed my pride and signed up). 

Hope that helps!

Band Update

Confession: the last time Second Player Score got together as a band was when we played a benefit show for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention last September. Yes, SIX MONTHS AGO.

Funny how time works, huh? But anyway, we are now on the cusp - I hope - of starting back up again. As a musician, when you don't play music for a long time, you start to really miss it even if you don't realize it. It's a great way to relieve stress, even if some of that stress paradoxically stems from the act of playing music (as much as I love performing, especially for a good cause like supporting the AFSP or Autism Empowerment, there's all the other stuff that goes into it: loading gear! Finding parking! Staying up past my bedtime! Are people going to show up? Etc., etc.)

I have even, for the first time in literal years, WRITTEN NEW SONGS. Three of them, in fact. Two of them were deliberate attempts to make anime-theme-song-style songs, and the third was a completely different animal loosely inspired by "Gotta Get Away" by The Offspring and "Catch These Fists" by Wet Leg. The anime-style songs still need lyrics (my goal is to write them in Japanese) and are pretty complex, so you probably won't be hearing them anytime soon. The third song, however, is a simple punk-rock jam (called "Edge Back" - yes, it has lyrics) that we may have ready by the time we play our next show.

Oh, did I forget to mention? Yes, we HAVE SHOWS BOOKED. One is in May, the next in June. Which equals the number of shows that we played all of last year. I will announce more details when it gets closer.

Will this represent a new beginning, a phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes revival of Second Player Score, the band*? We shall see! Stay tuned...

* the multimedia production team is something totally different and may have a cool announcement of its own coming up soon

Wavebow Comp?

Last Friday, I dropped by the Asian Arts and Culture Exhibit at the Vancouver, WA Arts Hub. There were, as you might expect, lots of amazing crafts and artwork, as well as some great musical performances. Some exhibits even combined craft, art, and music, like this one:

I found this stringed instrument to be so interesting that I had to take pictures of it. It kind of reminded me of a wavebow, or a possible relative of it (in case you're new here, a wavebow is the magical musical instrument that some of my characters from the Joel Suzuki series play). The back of it was even cooler:

As you can see, it had a carving of what I think is a dragon, which looks incredible. Confession: I had never thought of doing something like that for the wavebows, and now I wish I had! Maybe I can work it into Volume Eight somehow.

Anyway, there was no one manning that booth while I was there (I had to leave a little early), so I didn't get a chance to ask what the instrument was called. If you know, please tell me in the comments! And if you're in the Vancouver, WA area and have not checked out the Arts Hub yet, I highly recommend doing so. You can find out more information about it here.

Volume Eight Status Update

All right, you guys, this is really happening. I am (gasp) officially knee-deep in Volume Eight!

In the last status update from January, I reported that I was at 2,400 words. Which, you know, could have easily been the end of it. After all, I did write 9,000 words for Volume Nine back in the summer of 2023 and then stopped.

But this time around, I've kept going, and at a pace I don't think I've matched since the first draft of Volume One way back when. There have been multiple 2,000-word days (which matches but does not exceed my daily word count record, because my brain shuts down after that) and I've even been writing regularly on weekends. As a result, I am now up to 25,000 words, which is roughly equivalent to 100 pages, or (more gasps) about one-third of the way through the whole thing.

As far as where all this diligence has come from, I have to give a lot of credit to a certain social media platform that shall remain unnamed. Allow me to explain: since late last August, I've been posting daily to said platform, partly as an experiment and partly just for fun. For the first few months, my posts were mostly about the real-life history of the Joel Suzuki series, after which they moved into topics like worldbuilding and character profiles.

Then, once I started working on Volume Eight, I began to post status updates on the book's progress, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. So I kept doing it, and it eventually turned into almost a virtual book coach-type of relationship, where even if it was a Sunday and/or I didn't feel like writing and/or I would hit my daily goal of 500 words and think "that's good enough," I would push myself to crank out more words so that I would have something cool to report the next day.

Will it continue? Who knows! But for now, I'm having a blast writing on a regular basis again, and on top of that, this time I'm actually pantsing it, instead of working from an outline like I normally do. I'm also following my own advice and not stopping to edit much along the way, so I know a lot of what I'm writing is probably garbage, but that's what first drafts are for.

Anyway, stay tuned for the next status update!

Look, Ma, I Made A Video Game! (Or Two)

Since I was young, I've always wanted to make video games. In middle school, I learned the programming language BASIC on the (and I am seriously dating myself here) Apple II series of personal computers and went on to create crude approximations of those old Infocom text-only adventures like Zork and Enchanter. I also tried to learn assembly language, but all those ones and zeros were too much for me.

Much later, as an adult, I got my hands on an early version of something called GameMaker and created a game called "Flyball," in which you move a baseball glove around and try to catch baseballs falling from the sky. It was terrible, and is not pictured here because mercifully no records of it exist.

Then recently, I dipped my toes into the game development waters again, this time by just coming up with the concept and the gameplay and then letting someone much more talented than I am at coding - namely, my son - do the actual programming. These efforts resulted in the Hold My Beer minigame that I talked about in this blog post from last February (holy cow, it's been a year already).

Still, I wanted to make a game on my own. So to that end, I downloaded the latest version of GameMaker, which has either exponentially improved since that early version I used before, or my skills and understanding of game design have increased (I'm pretty sure it's the former). Either way, I found it fun and relatively easy to use, and I was able to create a version of the old Asteroids game (which is pictured above) by following one of their simple tutorials. You can even play it at this link (it's PC-only).

Emboldened by that success, I then moved on to my next goal: creating a real-time RPG. Fortunately, GameMaker had another tutorial and built-in assets for that, and although it was more challenging than the Asteroids-style game, I eventually - with the help of my son, who got me through one part where I was stuck despite the tutorial - was able to finish it. You can check it out here.

Does this mean I can now move on to the ultimate project, which is the Zelda-style game Zythos: The Legend of H.M.B. that I talked about in this blog post from last July? Probably not. But who knows! Stay tuned...