himebushou

[himebushou]

Tsubaki Sasuke is a BUFFOON and I love him...!

I'm currently watching SKET DANCE and, so far, I'm finding it really charming. There have been some genuinely funny moments and I've cracked up a few times. I love Momoka and the samurai guy and Yuuki-san and Roman and Chiaki — honestly, it's fantastic when an anime is able to ensnare us with side characters.

I watched SKET DANCE when it was originally airing but I dropped it around the school rock festival or something because that plotline was dragging on a bit... but it's one of my friend's favourite series so I'm hoping to make it to the end this time!

(Although, wow, 77 episodes is long.)

I was honestly tearing up at Episode 6. The play they put on for the kids was so heart-warming!

[himebushou]

I'm really enjoying my Cromartie High School rewatch! 🥲 There are definitely some aspects that haven't aged well – but I'm about halfway through and I think I've laughed aloud pretty much at least once per episode. Maeda's righteous indignation is so funny and man, I genuinely feel for Yutaka Takenouchi... and flipping heck, Hokuto? Noburo Yamaguchi and his pain over the stupidity that is Pootan? Everyone's hysterical! The English dub is so, so good.

[himebushou]

The first opening of Hunter x Hunter is called Departures

But it should really be called

GON VOYAGE

[himebushou]

Not me crying at the GBBO result this week!

Spoilers below!

I skipped GBBO last year for the first time in about a decade — so it was really nice to return to it this year. I love so many of this series' bakers! It feels like they have quite a lot of bakery banter and that's a ton of fun.

Also, Allison is such a fantastic addition!

But man, Nelly. What a lovely woman — the sort of person you'd want to know in real life. She's been one of my favourite contestants on any reality show, ever. I think what she said about being unforgettable is absolutely true.

Guh. I'll miss her. I think she definitely deserved Star Baker in the week that Dylan got it...

It was also nice to see cake as the Showstopper; I saw a few people critiquing the high number of structural Showstoppers, which I thought was a fair observation.

[himebushou]

Whoa... as games go, the new interactive Google Doodle, Rise of the Half Moon, is absolutely charming.

It's a card game where you play against the moon! There are basically three ways to score points: two of these methods involve pairing cards while the third method has you playing lunar cycles. You can also collect some cool wildcards by clearing stages. Once you've got the wildcards, you can also use them in subsequent playthroughs.

I really love the art! But man – look at how vengeful the moon looks when you lose (5th picture)!

I have a few tiny complaints:

You always draw first. I think it would be more fun if you and the moon alternated

There's a slight glitch with the Hunter Moon wildcard; it displays the wrong text

I think the board layouts could be a bit more varied? I think I've seen... 5?

So far, I've managed to get up to Level 12. The last image shows the moon absolutely obliterating me, lol.

[himebushou]

S4 of The Umbrella Academy was so garbage.

Geez. Why limit the season to 6 eps when every other season has had 10... even a runtime of 8 eps would have probably helped with the pacing issues, at least a bit.

It felt like nothing had any payoff. The CIA turning out to be Keepers? Shrug emoji. Nothing of consequence. The whole subway system came out of nowhere — it turns out that there were other ways to travel through time after all. The whole Gene and Jean thing was stretched out for so long and we got zero insight into why Sy knew so much — unless he was Abigail in disguise the whole time? But who cares?

There were some nice moments between the siblings: Allison and Klaus were mostly pretty sweet (except WHAT the heck were Allison's powers supposed to be? Also, Klaus didn't get to do anything except get locked up and buried alive) and I like that Luther and Diego got some time to bond (though, again, their skills were wasted).

Ben was. Odd. Poor kid just gets to die multiple times. And props to Viktor for actually trying to reason with Reginald and finally getting some validation from him.

The whole Lila and Five thing was so gross and completely unnecessary... I've always had issues with the way Lila was written (those 'kooky for the sake of kooky' characters can get pretty boring and I felt the same way about Klaus throughout a lot of the show). Five was my favourite from the start and just. Eurgh. #noonewantedthat

And the dialogue was so BAD. Some of the lines made me cringe so much. "To be honest I can't stop thinking about her" like. Okay Ben.

And even worse were these poignant moments happening in front of audiences and all the other characters on set just standing around completely wooden... like. What? Lila's family are in the background hearing that her marriage has fallen apart and they don't even act remotely shocked? What?

Claire was definitely one of the best parts of this season. She was a sweetheart.

Urgh. Overall, the whole thing just felt incredibly sloppy, poorly explained (WHY did Jennifer get the durango?) and as though the creative team had run out of ideas. There were so many moments where the Umbrellas acted with no urgency at all (like sitting around enjoying a Christmas party when they were supposed to be looking for Ben, or going to work as normal when they'd promised some random guy that they'd find his daughter within 24 hours). Powers morphed at the drop of a hat for plot convenience. Everyone got on board with the idea of being erased from existence without much fuss (apart from the whole thing about where the kids would end up). What was the significance of the giant squid? How were there so many Keepers? And what exactly were they keeping?

Also, I'm annoyed that they used 'Map of the Problematique' (a song I adore) to no effect; the lyrics didn't match the scenes of the Keepers arming themselves and it didn't fit the mood and just!

Anyway, two of the biggest issues I have:

If this version of Reginald is as callous as the others (after all, he did have Ben shot), then why did he waste all that time creating a fake world for Jennifer to live in?

Presumably, the only reason the Cleanse worked is because the creature eventually found the other kids that had marigold in them? Or, in this timeline, did only the Umbrellas have marigold? And in 150,000 timelines, are we supposed to believe that the Cleanse only happened once?

It's so stupid, oh man. The show's refusal to bring in the other marigold children outside of the Umbrellas was always so stinky — I thought we'd get something interesting when the Sparrows were introduced last season, but half of them died within a few episodes and geez, so much wasted potential.

Pretty glad the show is done now if that was the trajectory, lol.

[himebushou]

It's been 5 days since I started watching Hikaru no Go and I just finished Ep. 56 and. And. AND.

That was incredible.

Edit: Okay, I just finished Ep. 60 and THAT was unexpected...!

[himebushou]

I've now watched 19 episodes of Hikaru no Go in two days... I'm basically liveblogging the whole series to my friend by sending her copious voice notes because wow, there is so much to discuss!

One thing we keep coming back to is: Touya Akira is unwell! Meeting Hikaru made Touya so unwell! The way Touya became so obsessive and did nothing but fixate on Hikaru is so... like, Touya needs some kind of intervention because the anxiety he developed was INTENSE.

[himebushou]

I just finished Ep. 5 of Hikaru no Go and Kaga is so ridiculous but so much fun 😭

It's really nice to see that Hikaru is already developing a desire to play Go!

Sai can be so adorable, lol

Edit:

Phew — I finished Ep. 7 and this series is so addictive? I'm just thinking about the characters' interactions and how they have so much going on in their heads and... wow.

[himebushou]

I just watched the first two episodes of Hikaru no Go!

One of my best friends has recommended this series to me for years. I love sports anime and I didn't look into HnG too deeply — so imagine my surrpise when I found out there was an ancient spirit involved! I absolutely love stories that involve duality as a central theme (Yu-Gi-Oh! my beloved) so this was a welcome revelation.

The first opening is so good? It's very emotional, ahhh.

So, first impressions — Hikaru is a sweet kid and I think Sai is going to be a lot of fun. It was really sweet to see his reactions to aeroplanes and vending machines, lol. He did seem pretty intense in the first ep, so I think that's going to get balanced out.

But, phew, I clutched my heart when they said that Akira was waiting for Hikaru to reappear! Poor boy! In his shoes, I would be devastated by the loss to a complete newbie — and I'd also be inclined to think that Hikaru was a big liar!

I wonder how important Go is in Japanese society nowadays? It was cool to see the Igo school and discussions about how the game had developed as well as the very serious sessions by the Igo masters. However, at this stage, I'm as clueless as Hikaru, so a lot of terminology is going over my head.

I'm looking forward to getting into this one!

[himebushou]

Man! Thinking about the potential Tachibana v. Tezuka match in the District Tournament finals if Fudomine v. Seigaku had got to S1 — I think that Tachibana would have probably been the victor?

By the time we get to Ep. 35, Tachibana has already been hyped up a lot (and, honestly, this rewatch has highlighted that Konomi-sensei's storytelling can be so stunning: the amount of foreshadowing where Tachibana is concerned is amazing). Inui looks at Tachibana at the end of Districts and says that he'll have to look into him since the name is familiar. A few episodes later, Sengoku starts when he hears the name 'Tachibana'. Then, Akazawa has a ! moment when he sees Tachibana's face and recalls that he played at last year's Nationals. Finally, Atobe is shocked when he sees Tachibana, calling him "one of the two strongest players in Kyushuu".

(And Tachibana destroys poor Shishido in elss than 15 minutes... how painful, lol)

Someone then produces a picture of blond!Tachibana from nowhere (either Inui or Inoue) and says that he didn't recognise him since his hair was different. Wow.

I feel like Tachibana'd strength gets overshadowed a lot in favour of some of the other captains (Tezuka, Yukimura, Atobe and Shiraishi) but it's definitely worth remembering that he is a Tough Cookie who had the respect of many esteemed players.

[himebushou]

Okay, I think this is happening -- I've been drawn in and I'm now rewatching The Prince of Tennis.

Thoughts on Episodes 2 through to 6 below.

Ep 2 - Samurai Junior

Inoue appears! This guy is so important for the audience as he explains so much tennis teminology to us (at Shiba's expense, whoops) but the fact that he works for a (presumably) well-known tennis magazine yet spends so much time covering the middle school scene is... odd. Like, he's there for the entirety of Seigaku's ranking tournament? What about the other Kanto schools?

HE TALKS ABOUT NANJIROU and says how Nanjirou 'might have even won the Grand Slam'. To my memory, Nanjiroh was one match away from becoming World No. 1 (is that possible without winning a slam?) but suddenly quit because, y'know. The boy.

Ryoma does this lil glower after the first time he meets Momo and it's so funny, lol

Ryoma's contrary nature is RIDICULOUS. Arai demands that the freshmen introduce themselves, which the Ichinen Trio do, but Ryoma? Just stands there. Like, CHILD. He asked for your name! these are not state secrets!

So of course, we have the whole thing with Arai trying to con the freshmen and Ryoma gets pretty mad about Arai trying to fleece the freshmen -- he gets pretty heroic (?) about the whole thing and, with it, very bratty: "If I hit the can 100x, do I get 100,000 yen?"

Then Momo is there and it really seems like he just wants to beat Ryoma up!

Rather adorably, Horio umpires the Ryoma v. Momo match. When Ryoma's about to serve, the Triple Counter OST starts playing (I really don't remember any of the titles from the OST -- except Yuugure -- but I'm sure everyone knows what I mean). It's very cool.

Tomo-chan sees Ryoma serve ONCE and calls him Ryoma-sama -- MY GIRL.

And then we get our first Nanjiroh appearance! And it turns out that he even has an umpire's chair at the temple, so? Who is umpiring his games against Ryoma? Nanako? RINKO??

Ryoma also tells the Ichinen Trio that he learnt to play tennis at a temple. Um. Ryoma is a big liar because he has only lived in front of said temple for about 5 minutes. What a DORK. In the best way!

(The temple is absolutely gorgeous by the way.)

Ep. 3 - The Seigaku Regulars Make Their Debut!

Man -- so we see Sakuno and Tomo-chan in one of the classrooms overlooking the courts and they comment on how cool the team is -- and then the camera pans up to Tezuka who's on the floor above, watching silently and I just enjoyed that so much. Like, at this stage, Tezuka is a bit of a mystery, so it's so fun!

Then Horio brags about how strong Momo is and Ryoma spends an eternity tying his shoelaces. Many moons ago (we're talking about 15 years ago, at least), I read this blog post about how much screentime is dedicated to Ryoma TYING HIS LACES and, honestly, I've never been able to get that post out of my head. Truly incredible stuff.

Guhhh I hate the obsession with heirarchy at Seigaku... Hyoutei and Rikkaidai are a heck of a lot more flexible, whoops.

Oishi! Beloved Oishi! Until he gets to the courts, the freshmen are just running around doing Tasks -- then Oishi arrives and tells them to practice playing because he wants them to get a good feel for the way things run at Seigaku. And it's so heart-warming! Oishi recognises that these kids are there because they want to have fun and he does these little things throughout the early eps to build camaraderie -- like when the freshmen are cheering for Seigaku in episode 8 or 9, Oishi teases, "Freshmen, we can't hear you!" and it's just... wow. Oishi's not there to pull rank: he's there to encourage the team. Tezuka honestly could not have had a better VC.

(I'm honestly just loving this so much... everyone's regarding Ryoma as this potential problem and sussing him out and being in this privileged position of knowing how much this team will grow to love him -- and how much he'll grow to love them -- is really special. It's really incredible to see this journey again.)

Arai behaves like a dork, gets scolded by Tezuka and told to run laps, questions this, and is then told to run more laps. Ryoma just dutifully runs his laps without any argument (the slight contradictions in his personality are so funny -- like he will sometimes rail against authority and, at other times, just accept it without question).

Come to think of it... Ryoma and Gon Freeccs get pretty similar treatment, I think, in that we don't get a look-in at their literal thoughts? Compare that to how often we're in Killua's head, for example, or Inui's or Oishi's or whoever's and... it's a very interesting way of storytelling.

Eps 4 & 5 - The One Named Viper & Snake Shot

AND SO, THE RANKING TOURNAMENT IS UNDERWAY.

Man, there are so many girls watching the ranking tournament? The tennis club is so popular lol

WE SEE RINKO FOR THE FIRST TIME. Of course, her face isn't shown, but!! She's there!

Ryoma's match against Kaidoh is a lot of fun. Momo's on standby to provide commentary to the Ichinen Trio (and they correctly determine that he's so knowledgeable about Kaidoh's playstyle on account of having lost to Kaidoh, which is hilarious). Ryoma impresses everyone by pulling off his own version of the Snake Shot -- the Buggy Whip Shot! -- and phew, good stuff. There's a lot of technical tennis talk.

(I hate how Kaidoh hurts himself at the end of the match. Both Kaidoh and Sanada need to be seen by school counsellors or something.)

I love seeing Ryoma get squashed by the Ichinen Trio -- he looks slightly bewildered, haha.

Ep 6 - That Man, Echizen Nanjirou

OOFT, probably my favourite episode so far! Nanjirou has become my second favourite in The Prince of Tennis (no prizes for guessing my favourite) and this episode is wonderful.

Inoue barges over to the Echizen house and ends up playing a game with Nanjirou -- the stipulation is that Nanjirou will only answer Inoue's questions if Inoue manages to get a point past him. Despite this, Nanjirou ends up telling Inoue a lot: he explains that he quit his pro career because playing with the 'impudent' Ryoma is a heck of a lot more fun than playing his pros and geez, Nanjirou loves his son SO MUCH. Nanjirou also explains that Ryoma's tennis style is currently identical to his and, to go further, there are some things Ryoma has to achieve. We get to see some of Nanjirou's skill.

The only question Nanjirou doesn't answer is when Inoue suggests that Ryoma's being trained to go pro. Nanjirou's pretty dismissive of this idea (AND WE KNOW WHY! YAHOO!).

Ryoma has a conversation with Sakuno and says that he doesn't know when he started playing tennis -- it's been part of his life for as long as he can remember and he couldn't quite even if he wanted to because there's something he has to do. So, once again, this episode sets up one of the major themes/conflicts of The Prince of Tennis.

(It turns out that the temple is behind the Echizen's house! Nanako -- the sweetheart -- explains that the monk is currently on a retreat and that Nanjirou just made a court without permission. This is one interaction I desperately want more information on.)

So... yeah. I'm genuinely having a whale of a time.

[himebushou]

Man... because I'm in a tennis-y mood (what with the Wimbledon Men's Final today and rediscovering my old fics and whatnot), I just rewatched the first episode of The Prince of Tennis and!! My heart!!

Ryoma and his dorky little attitude and his match vs. Sasabe and Sasabe ATTACKING HIM and the whole thing with Sasabe cheating when he was calling his own shots... then the reveal that Ryoma is ACTUALLY left-handed! Guh! Ryuzaki wasn't kidding when she said, "Things are about to get interesting," at the end of the ep!

Also, the anime reveals that Nanjirou sent Ryuzaki a letter from a (very questionable) address in New York so — it would appear that the Echizen family moved from Los Angeles at some point (possibly after Nanjirou's retirement?).

And then... 'You Got Game'. Wow. WOW MY FEELINGS.

[himebushou]

Out of curiosity, I had a look at The New Prince of Tennis (it's at 420+ chapters and still shows no signs of ending; Sensei, pls) and got an incredible shock because:

Ryoma and Ryoga were just starting a tennis match and Ryoga succeeded in knocking the racquet out of Ryoma's hands and then Nanjiroh, who I think hadn't wanted them to play in the first place, suddenly fainted on the court — except he didn't just pass out and apparently had an aneurysm??

So now, the Echizen bros' match has been postponed and there's a doubles match taking place in lieu of their singles match. And Ryoga is apparently some super-powered player who can absorb The Pinnacle of Perfection (HOW?) and... yeah. Apparently, Ryoga makes some comment about how there were signs Nanjiroh was unwell?

This is what I'm (sort of) gleaning from the commentary around the chapters but, honestly, I think back to when Konomi-sensei said that the Niou/Yagyuu switch was the moment he decided he wasn't going to just write a regular tennis manga but a more fantastical one and wow, TeniPuri has been a full-blown supernatural series for so long that I shouldn't be staggered by these developments but I still am.

(Also, I don't know how the readers keep track of all these high school players lol.)

[himebushou]

I've been watching X-Men Evolution for the last two weeks and I just finished the finale and I'm WEEPING it was so good

[himebushou]

Flipping heck — Episode 4 of The Big O was captivating! My jaw actually dropped at one point. I'm excited for these mysteries to unravel!

Update: Episode 6 hit those emotional beats so well, oh man.

I think the presentation of the series is really good, so far — parts like Episode 5 established thst Roger is perfectly competent on his own while Episode 6 further explored the type of duo that he and Dorothy could be.

It'd be good to get an explanation about how he came to obtain Big O. Hopefully, that's coming soon.

[himebushou]

So I watched Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury in 24 hours — some scrambled thoughts below.

Ep 1.  The visuals of The Witch from Mercury... wow.  And I had such chills when Aerial used the shield.  What a gorgeous Gundam!  And ahh — the tomato stuff was so cute.

Ep 2.  The worldbuilding!!  It's amazing that they literally explain nothing to the audience fjdkdm and wow the way they play with gravity is something (though a bit inconsistent).

Ep 3.  I love this soundtrack and WOW PROSPERA IS SULETTA'S MOOOM — I felt sorry for Guel in this ep and I liked the strong stance against AI LOL but wow, Guel taking Suletta extending her hand as an opportunity to propose marriage is just.  BOY.

And phew, the mobile suits are stunning... I really want to know why the Cathedra Agreement outlawed Gundams.  Poor Gundams are always punished for some reason or other.  :(

Ep 4.  Bloody hell Chu-Chu nearly KILLED those girls FUDIKDK

Ep 5.  Some Elan character development and SHEESH IT'S DARK.  Also, I love how diverse the character designs are.

Wait.  HOW is Elan allowed to use a Gundam without people freaking out fhdjd like hello???  And is is a witch anyone who pilots a Gundam?  Who are the enhanced human beings?  What is going on!!!

Ep 6.  Okay I love the little slumber party at Earth House tbh these girlies are so sweet and supportive — WHOA WHAT.  CLONES?  FACE STEALING?  HUHHHHH????

I thought Elan was gonna die in front of Suletta or something but they just killed him??????

Ep 7.  Man, Miorine forming that company and getting investment was really moving... and we finally get confirmation thar Aerial is a Gundam.  Tbh, I'm pretty surprised that the lives of pilots are prioritised so much in this world.  Hmm.

Ep 8.  It was cool to see all the business stuff being taken seriously and to finally get sort of confirmation that a witch is anyone involved with Gundams (honestly the title is a massive chunk of the reason why I picked up the show; it's so cool).  But man, I'm wondering what direction they'll take for the last few eps of the season... that's obviously too short a time to have any significant progress in developing medical tech.

Felt bad for Guel in this ep... and what is Shaddiq's deal, anyway?

Ep 9.  Yahoo, another battle!  All the Grassley House drama was interesting to watch (the name makes me think they should be running a gym in Pokémon).  The nature of Suletta's bond with Aerial seems to be changing... interesting.

Ep 10.  Flipping heck, the new Elan is a lot??  I'm glad that we got this lil timeskip to progress the plot — the prosthetic legs are definitely v. cool.  BUT WHAT IS THIS INTRIGUE with Shaddiq and Nika?

Ep 11.  Hot dig there was a lot happening in this but flipping heck I'm honestly so sad that Suletta didn't get to have lunch... and that might actually impact her piloting skills if she has to use Aerial in the next ep because she needs to be in good physical and mental condition?

Someone save Guel what the heck!

Ep 12.  Wow so much death in this ep!

- Miorine's daddy dies trying to save her (presumably — I don't think he'll live)

- Guel kills his own daddy in a weird twist of fate

- And Suletta???  I'd seen the mentions of Suletta killing someone in cold blood but that was GRUESOME.

What a way to end a season!

Ep 13.  Miorine seems to be keeping her distance following the last ep, which makes sense... Sophie is kind of an annoying character tbh.  I'm wondering how all of these different threads will come together, what with Earth folk vs Spacians, the Gundams' true forms and all the stuff with the Big Three.

Ep 14.  She turned her daughter into a Gundam?!?  What?!?!?

PROLOGUE.  I'm a goof djdjd I skipped the prologue because I figured it wouldn't really add to the story but I just watched it and everything makes so much more sense now fhdj what a dummy

Ep 15.  Man, Guel is shaping up to be a rly interesting character.  I feel for this boyo.

This ep was good; it was interesting to see the Earth stuff (although I am losing track of ppl's motivations).

NOREA IS SCARY.

Ep 16. Guel is back and taking matters into his own hands!

Man, seeing the extent to which Suletta is brainwashed is pretty scary.  I'm glad that Miorine confronted prospera directly...

Ep 17.  Oh geez, that duel!  Definitely emotionally-charged...

I really want everyone to find out the truth about Elan already...

Ep 18.  The Elan reveal dropped like a lead balloon and I'm mad that they didn't do more with that moment.

BUT WOW.  When the Gundam itself is accidentally the villain...?

This anime has so many themes linking to a notion of people only being important when they have utility and it's just so sad...

Ep 19.  I'm feeling a bit frantic because there are only 5 eps left and these chars are so bad at communicating with each other djdjjd like to this point there isn't anyone who knows the full story.

Ep 20.  Whoa... whoa.  The level of destruction in this episode?  All the feelings being aired?  All the death?  This was so —

And man, I didn't realise that I had been missing out on end of episode illustrations! This one of Norea and the fifth Elan is heartbreaking...

Ep 21.  Petra is alive!  For now, at least.

I cried a few tears when Suletta told everyone the truth about herself — and whoa, the power of Quiet Zero was SOMETHING.  But damn, I think they really wasted the Elan revelation AGAIN: Nika's outburst was so vague and there was basically zero reaction from the others, even when he barged in.  Considering the horror of Number 4's death sceen, they really just... kind of shrugged it off?  Even though there are so many parallels between Elan and Suletta.  Sighs.

Ep 22.  Finally... a conversation between Suletta and Elan, mostly off-screen, but at least it happened.

One thing that's odd is how everyone seems to have a secret Gundam hidden up their sleeve. Like it was weird enough to find out about Schwarzette but Calibarn literally came from nowehere lol

Ep 23.  I feel a bit dopey because a lot of technical stuff happened in this episode and I didn't really follow/understand it, lol... like Miorine recoding the password?  Huh?

Man, when I thought Landa had killed Guel I was SAD but then I was pleased to see Felsi for like the first time lololol

Ep 24.  A very flashy ending — the visuals were super cool!  And things ended well for everyone (except Shaddiq); the epilogue demonstrated that there was still work to do.  Guel working for OG Elan Ceres is pretty hilarious

AND MAN, dead Elan appearing was a welcome surprise!

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Hmm.

So yeah, on the whole, it was a very good and enjoyable show, though not one that really gripped me, I suppose (though I did watch the whole thing in a day, so maybe I didn't give myself enough time to absorb what was happening).  Some things felt a tad convoluted towards the end.

I thought the scenes where the characters were crying or having difficulties in their Gundams were really, really well done. And there was a lot of sweetness between different characters, especially Earth House. But yeah... I guess it felt like there were some missed opportunities (like we probably could have looked at the events of Episode 12 a bit more — there were some viewer theories that "Gain two" was some sort of trigger phrase for Suletta that sent her into a trance and this idea was glossed over pretty quickly, despite Suletta and Miorine having a heart-to-heart in the greenhouse).

The tech was freaking cool, so I enjoyed that aspect a ton!

It might just be that I'm currently on more of a nostalgia kick, lol.