#they share same cn va and that's what my point is

[psychopomparia]

Timely Zhao Lu voiced Hoyomen on my feed

[subaru-meteorlight]

I’m delusional about phaicae (hsr 3.0 spoilers)

I loooooveee the trend of cae always comparing phainon to himself and pointing out how alike they are, it’s soo cute…. I’m really glad that the devs acknowledge the fact that they’re both kevins in a way - it gives me hope that they’ll do something interesting with the 2 of them. For the first screenshot I’m aware that for Stelle players the 4th option just doesn’t show up but I don’t know if the dialogue choice in the 2nd screenshot changes- I asked my friend to check but if anyone else can check it for me it’ll help a lot!

It makes me happy that the devs are playing around with it in game… there’s already so many parallels between the 2 of them I’m kind of delusional about it.

The perfect hero, the perfect vessel for divinity- it matches well with cae who was made to hold the stellaron. The way they’re both bound by fate and exist to carry out their one duty, and are reduced to that one trait by other characters. And in phainon’s case, he himself is throwing himself into and leaning heavily into his hero role to give himself a purpose - vs caelus who tries to break out of this script by forging his own identity (insistence on using his galactic baseballer name), being more than just the stellaron’s host, consistent bizarre and unpredictable/rebellious behaviour just to prove his own free will

Anyway a bunch of phainon related things I wanna yap about and record somewhere:

Ouuughg. I love his eyes soooo much. It’s perfect… so bright and blue… it’s so unique too, w the ring and yellow centre… I interpreted the ring as clock marks at first but more accurately they’re sun rays, esp with the yellow pupil- it really looks like a sun in the sky. I love it. The ring pattern is also reminiscent of kephale’s symbol- that speaks for itself. It sorta contrasts mydei’s eyes as well… phainon feels like the daytime sun while mydei gives the impression of a harsh sunset. I really like how the sun ray patterns are inverted, too- phainon has his ring that surrounds the centre while mydei seems more like sunlight radiating out from the centre. If that makes sense lol. I don’t even ship them hardcore but seeing red and blue next to each other activates my neurons in a special way (I’m insane) also I’m phaicae main but even I can admit the entire castrum kremnos map was us third wheeling their gay fucking rivalry. It’s so amazingly funny. Incredibly hilarious.

We can also talk about this right. What the fuck. Hey. Why do you. Why do. Why are you. Why would you name yourself dark swordmaster. Hello. Phainon. Do you have something to share with the class. Hey. Of all names. Why would you call yourself dark swordmaster. Mr flawless hero deliverer and saviour of humanity. I’m watching you.

Besides that the whole battle dialogue was soooo fucking cute ARHHGHGG phainon and caelus doing their silly role playing goofing around mid battle 😭😭😭it’s so adorable, phainon was the one who initiates it and caelus plays along while mydei just gets pissed in the background leading to phainon talking over him. It’s comedic gold. Beautiful. I win. Even funnier is cae and phai having the same cn va so it just sounds like he’s talking to himself… actually listening to it again caelus does sound lighter and more joyful similar to high school kevin…. maybe the real kebin was the caelus along the way… ue

His design is great I really love the combined knight/hero/prince theme… his eyes being bigger compared to other male models also gives this friendly open welcoming vibe it’s ouughhh. so cute. so youthful. I hope the horrors get to him. There’s really no better word to describe him than ouppy. The first time I saw his design the one thing that really stood out to me was the asymmetry of his shoulder guards giving a light/dark half n half look to it… it’s interesting. his arm guards/gloves also have the same inverted black/white asymmetry to it (reaching). Choker. That’s all I’ll say. Actually no sorry the choker has me in a trance. I was gaslit into it by my friend because he would NOT stop pointing out the choker. Now I can’t not pay attention to it. Anyway. The design of the choker itself is pretty unique too, I like how it’s a strap(?) instead of the typical solid band, and the sun tattoo under the strapped parts giving the impression of the sun peeking/bursting through the darkness.

Second pic: I’m insane. I used to stare at Kevin’s design for an extensive period of time and I did the same w phainon. I have their designs burnt into my retina. Apart from them literally having the same colour palette I do like how phainon’s design is mostly white vs Kevin’s black base. (One of) my fav parts of kevin’s design is the lopsided blue belt. It adds sooo much. u get me. (deranged) phainon also having a somewhat lopsided belt made me laugh a lil (a lot) when I first saw it. As a normal person does. The belt along the bottom of the coat too……. wow……. welcome back…….. those 2 are my fav design aspects on kebin it’s crazy that they brought back those 2 elements in particular. crazy. you can make an argument for the boob window being vaguely the same shape too w how phainon’s belt goes across the low v neck. I really like that element on phainon btw. lopsided belt cutting across the chest and breaking up the light colour of his neck. scratches my brain in a good way

(From the verax leo statues) it’s sooo funny. he can’t get anything right 🔥 he really gives kicked puppy in these shots.

Misc: I went back to check Acheron’s trailer - the one with kevin’s voice - the eng va for kevin there is different compared to phainon’s eng va despite the jp/cn being the same. food for thought. Maybe union strike issues?

Future predictions: he’s obviously failing the nikador trial. Like no shit atp. I hope he has a catastrophic mental crash out from it. 🙏 3.1 probably big mydei focus as he accepts the coreflame. Excited for that… I do like what we’ve seen of mydei so far despite initially not caring from his design. Phainon better be 3.4 and not a late 3.7 like ppl are recently saying or else IM the one with the catastrophic crash out. Please. I hope we meet anaxa soon… I really wanna learn more abt him. Design wise- didn’t interest me at first. My interest in him solely hinges on the fact that he’s su, lol. On the surface he seems more like a haitham type…? Win for me, I love haitham… had the same process w haitham too- I liked him initially only cuz su but he ended up growing into a surprisingly high tier fav after I got to know him… I sorta have high hopes for anaxa too, I’m sure I’ll grow to love him too lol. Either way I can’t even pull any of these people. I need to lock the fuck in for e6 phainon. Tho- if I end up liking anaxa a lot I suppose I wouldn’t mind pulling him on debut- we’ll see how he is. Tangentially related: phainaxa pleaseeee please please please talk. please. Insane that kevinsu isn’t happy in ANY world. I remember the days of kaveh possibly being a kevin from his name but turns out he’s a new character - which I’m glad for, I absolutely love the kaveh we have now and wouldn’t trade him for the world - but holy shit dude. Back on topic: I hope phainon has the most disgustingly busted game breaking meta defining kit. like come on now. You have to. I’m not accepting anything less than stupid ridiculous numbers and scaling and game altering mechanically impossible unnecessarily bloated skill descriptions and all in game content gets centered around him for 7 months like firefly. It’s the least you can do.

Add-on: I hit the picture limit. You just gotta trust me on this one.

1) In the starting of the nameless faces op - the topless phainon- yeah. I watch it frame by frame on x0.25 spd as a normal person does but anyway what I wanna talk about is when phainon gathers the gold? Ichor? To splash on himself, the wounds that appear- those are definitely wounds, the direction it appears in doesn’t even match up to the flow of the way he splashed himself, isn’t that weird- the wounds bear an uncanny resemblance to nanook- it’s honestly way too close to be a simple coincidence. Food for thought!

2) the scene of Stelle changing into phainon as she turns around means sooooooo much to me. Sooo much. So much. Admittedly sorry I’m projecting caelus in this slot because wouldn’t that be so insane.

3) the ending where Stelle is praying(?) in the same hall that started the video, where soldiers were kneeling before phainon. I dunno there’s something there. Trust me on this. At the end of the story everything will be gone? Empty? Never existed? Take phainon’s place as hero? There’s something there.

4) the part w Stelle grabbing the quill and the arena collapsing in black and white goes crazy hard. I do think the overall amphoreus arc would be smth about rewriting the story/past - given the quill as a weapon - that’s genius btw, the weapon of remembrance is something that records and immortalises stories. I went off track. I mean to say, I feel the fact that the arena collapses to black and white has significance to it as opposed to it just getting destroyed in colour- gives a sense of time stopping, the fabric of reality itself collapsing, black ink on white paper being erased and rewritten- you get it.

[xtremedespair3d]

Anime Fall 2019 Final Impressions + Plans for Winter 2020 [FINAL]

Before I start reviewing every anime I watched this season, I want to address this first: As the title suggest, this is gonna be my last post, but not my last post overall (as I’m still working on my 2019 review with a little bit of my history from the last 10 years to celebrate the end of 2010 and the start of 2020), this is the last post of the seasonal anime review series.

This may be a one-time thing since it’s the last post, but I’m gonna keep my opinions as short as possible because, here’s a story: right after I published my previous Summer 2019 anime review post, I started by sharing my post on a Discord server, someone pinged me about reading my post I just shared as well as my retirement post (finally, someone who reads my stuff), I later started talking about my issues with making these posts, such as inconsistent formatting, don’t really have much opinion on what I saw or looking forward to, and my least favorite: post-publish editing, about the part of not having much thought on the shows I watch or gonna watch next, this guy from the Karoshi Discord server who atually read my previous Summer anime review post responded with this:

Well, I’ll gladly try not to write lengthy paragraphs when in reality I don’t really have much to comment, but at the same time, it’s going to be rather weird how there’s one entry with little to no comments and another with lengthy paragraphs whenever I actually feel like commenting. I’ve always been forcing myself to make lengthy paragraphs because I needed to make these posts look even as much as possible. (And I still ended up having a little bit of forced opinions, but at the same time, there are some small things that I needed to get it out of my heart, and there are other lengthy things for the same reason)

However, there are some things that I do really feel like making lengthy reviews, so I’ll point them out with a * representing “Lengthy review written by heart.”

The only things I ended up having no commentary at all were three anticipated anime in contrast to literally everything else which I still ended up making lengthy posts, though I guarantee some of these were from heart.

(Let me know if I should change my ShareX image quality settings to .png or .jpg because I’ve been using .jpg for a while and now I started to notice that the quality is absolute crap. I should have pasted it when I cropped it for sure, but I just wanted to formally upload this, so I can make this post look “formal”, even though there’s a little bit of informal writing, sometimes.)

(Also, check the end of the post for my birthday thanks)

Ranking every anime I watched this season from best to worst

I should also address why I do these posts from top to bottom even though it should be the other way around, it’s because I like keeping track of what’s my highest and what’s my lowest, although now that I think about it, I should have made outlines of these lists and the moment I start making these posts, I could go from the lowest to the highest like many sites do, but whatever. Also, if that wasn’t enough, the thumbnails already spoil what’s my #1 AOTS.

Let’s get right to the rankings!

1.- Azur Lane: The Animation*: I’m super addicted to Azur Lane, I even play it a lot more than FGO, and when the anime was announced, I defintely was absolutely hyped for it! And now, it’s finally here and boy, it absolutely didn’t disappoint! So let’s get right to it! (Also, expect me to draw comparisons with Kancolle a lot. inb4 y’all gonna tell me “Try to bring Warship Girls for better comparison” and all that jazz and honestly, I don’t even care about lesser known shipfus properties as much as I do with Kancolle and Azur Lane)

For starters, the anime uses the “Azur Lane vs Red Axis” storyline which is a reference to the guild menu.

(Screenshot from the Azur Lane Wiki with the old UI)

(My screenshot of the guild menu with the new UI, for comparison)

As someone who always plays Azur Lane a lot, this is one thing I overlooked for the most part and I feel kinda stupid for it.

There’s just like a ton of easter eggs I understood, I could make posts after posts from each episode or just make like a compilation post about every single easter egg from the game in every episode, I was literally geeking out on all of them.

The animation wasn’t the greatest, sadly, and even Kancolle looked better than Azur Lane does, but I’m not really mad about it nor I care! Even so, there were still some interesting sakuga moments! However, for the last time about the visuals, Kancolle has a uniformal character designs (calling them same faces would be a stretch), but Azur Lane does a pretty good job on capturing the different art styles the characters have, at least from their facial structures. It’s still no Chain Chronicle-tier (nor there will be anything with the same animation and character designs as the Chain Chronicle OVAs EVER!), but I’m impressed!

Speaking of the animation, episodes 11 and 12 will be delayed UNTIL MARCH while the entire series will be rebroadcast in January so we could lead up to the finale episodes in March. Well that’s certainly going to be quite a while to wait but they’re doing this to deliver the best animated finale episodes as possible, so I’m totally down for it!

Perhaps my big problem with the story is that the subplot focused more on trying to befriend Ayanami and there wasn’t much of Z23, but I think it’s more like they’re pulling from the JP server’s starter ship roster with Javelin, Laffey and Ayanami while Z23 is an unlockable. But it doesn’t matter, we do not point out issues or think of what I didn’t like which I had no problems, it always leave me a sour taste in what I’ve always been hyped for, so forget what I said.

Not to mention there are a little bit of elements that are completely new in the series and I wish they added them in the game, like Kaga’s giant fox ship and Unicorn’s flying U-chan (I didn’t know U-chan lives, I thought it was a simple lifeless stuffed animal), Hornet and Laffey in swimsuits (Come on, Manjuu, give them these swimsuits), etc.

The anime is also making me like some characters more, I kinda like Sheffield more because she’s badass (and doesn’t wear panties), but I’m liking Belfast a lot more than I have before, her chemistry with Enterprise is just amazing, I really love seeing these two together.

To top it all off, the first volume of the Blu-Ray has a really awesome unlockable of a new Enterprise costume! Which I’ll probably never get of course because I don’t think I could ever buy the BD.

I also didn’t know I needed and find it strange to hear English dub in the anime when the game has 100% Japanese voices, and I really wonder how much of the VAs know about this game and if they play it themselves (I’m sure they might not). This is a common thing with mobage adaptations (and even Kancolle), and Azur Lane is no exception.

Azur Lane The Animation is truly a love letter to the people who play the game, especially me because boy, I couldn’t stop pointing out references galore! It’s sad that the series only has 12 episodes, but I really hope it gets second seasons and even a movie like Kancolle did... Alright, what I’m saying is that I want Azur Lane The Animation to straight-up copy Kancolle The Animation. (Speaking of which, season 2 of Kancolle The Animation is coming and it’s an absolute joke that it’s happening) I want more storylines, I want more ships, I want more Azur Lane anime to exist!

But if this is really gonna be a one-off series, I’ll be forever sad because I won’t get more animated Azur Lane related stuff, I want to see everything being brought to life. Since it’s a big franchise right now, I hope it could get the Fate/Grand Order treatment where there should be different anime by different studios, that’s what I’d love to see!

UPDATE - December 24th: It seems like my dream of more Azur Lane anime is finally becoming true, as they announced an adaptation of the 4koma series!

10/10 - 100% - Rank: S++, I don’t give a shit about what anyone might say about the series’ story or even the animation, I just loved it!

(I’m glad I don’t visit 4chan and I have seen nothing but praise towards Aur Lane The Animation (mostly from Japanese people to see negative comments everywhere so my mind becomes broken and giving me the idea that the general consensus being the series is absolutely terrible, inb4 I share this and tell me otherwise.)

2.- Girls’ Frontline Healing Chapter (JP)*: Yes, I know I already talked about it on my last post, but it’s the Japanese dub we’re talking about and it’s relatively solid. However, there are quite some big changes, starting with the first episode where there’s more sound effects to the battlefield scene where it made the CN version feel poor in comparison, future episodes were having slight changes to the camera as well. Although there are things in the Japanese dub’s acting and scripting that I’m not really satisfied with, but it was still good regardless. Also, forget about “English sub vs dub”, now it’s “Chinese dub vs Japanese dub” now. Though the last few episodes didn’t have much of big changes, other than Chinese text written to Japanese.

The most important thing I have to talk about are these weird post-credits scenes, I have no idea what do these scenes even mean, maybe they just made these scenes as fillers to fill the maximum 4-5 minute run on Japanese TV.

Also, I have to go back to the CN version because, at the time when the first episode of the JP dub aired, the CN dub premiered its final episode and my god, I’m really sad this is over. And now we’re moving on to the other series, Madness Chapter (which you’ll find out as you scroll down this). Man, I really want more of this, I love the art style, but I wish some characters had more screentime and let RO shine!

Goodbye Healing Chapter, it was nice knowing you! ;_;7

Supposedly ShouKin (one of the uploaders for the two Girls’ Frontline anime series, the other being Berizou) found that season 2 for Healing Chapter was confirmed. Sounds awesome but I think I’ll have to wait for more and reliable information about it. Not that ShouKin is not a reliable source, but I really hope we get to hear more of it.

10/10 - 100% - Rank: S++ (Even with the JP dub, you continue to be great)

3.- High Score Girl II*: Supposedly I’ve always been following Moetron’s news about its release and I thought the first 3 episodes were gonna come out on my birthday, it indeed happened in Japan but there has never been any torrent of them and I was seriously disappointed about it! It came out like late October and I was like “What took you so long for this to come out or something?”, there might have been stuff I may have missed that explain these weird releases.

Anyways, moving on talking about the series and all I can think of is that the series continues to give me a big smile, seriously, every time I watch High Score Girl, I always smile for 24 minutes, that’s how powerful this show must be. (Even though everything shown is from the 90s and I was born in 1999, so I’m a 2000s kid, so I probably won’t have any idea of its historical accuracies and references).

Seriously, out of everything JC Staff they made this year, including the absolute garbage that was One Punch Man season 2, High Score Girl is obviously the winner for their best looking anime of the year!

100/100 - 100% - Rank: S++

4.- Fate/Grand Order Babylonia: For the last time, Fate anime adaptations have become quite a hot sensitive topic for me since 2017′s Fate/Apocrypha and 2018′s Fate/Extra Last Encore (And I enjoyed them both), but with Fate/Grand Order Babylonia, I’m qutie impressed, especially with the animation. This is probably the only two-cour series consisting of 21 episodes, it’s a weird number but it’s decent enough, and it’s a very long chapter of the game.

The Type-Moon community seems pretty hateful on other Fate series adaptations, but they’re very chill with Ufotable’s Stay Night adaptations, and nobody really seems to complaint with the New Year’s content and I’m glad for it. (Which by the way, the New Year’s stuff continue to be great! I definitely want it to be a tradition forever.)

5.- Tokunana: This was a relatively fun cop drama with stellar performances, and perhaps it was definitely the most underrated show of the season. The art style reminds me of Shirow Miwa in a way as well.

8/10 - 84% - Rank: A

6.- Beastars: I don’t know much about the story, but my big focus is the animation. Orage continues to deliver great CG animation post-Houseki no Kuni but it suffers the same problems as Sanzigen with the hand-drawn background characters and that shit is seriously annoying.

8/10 - 82% - Rank: A-

Between Beastars and High Score Girl II, I wanted HSGII to be the better looking CG series without blatant hand drawn parts, but I guess it even includes hand drawn parts at times, so having to find which CG anime look better is a hard stretch, perhaps I’m asking too much on what kind of CG anime do I want. Also, I hate to admit, I have to give props to Studio Polygon because they definitely make everything 100% CG. (Or do they? Gah! I don’t know anymore!)

7.- My Hero Academia season 4: Well, I read the manga, it’s no surprising about what even happened with these arcs. (even though when I’m at the current chapters, I forget what happened the previous volumes).

7.5/10 - 75% - Rank: B+

8.- Psycho-Pass 3*: If Tokunana wasn’t enough of a cop drama, then here comes Psycho-Pass 3 which it’s the true definition of a cop drama with the 40 minute runtime.

As someone who wasn’t really offended on Psycho-Pass 2, I’ll have to assume that Psycho-Pass 3 is definitely a breath of fresh air for the series after the movies, perhaps even more.

I’m glad that most of the familiar faces have returned, although it was probably always expected, but there’s just something about Akane, Ginoza and Kogami’s returns from the first few episodes that made me fanboy a little bit, not gonna lie. It’s just that I was really stuck to the marketing and promotional images of the series.

If Psycho-Pass 3 is still somewhat received negatively like Psycho-Pass 2, I don’t know what do you really want from this franchise at this point. At this point you’re definitely thinking that Psycho-Pass should have been a one-off series, but no, most of the fans begged for a second season and so on, they delivered. Don’t try to mess with the creators’ efforts and stuff.

Though my only problem with this season is that I wish the original characters had some more screentime, and then episode 8 didn’t really feel conclusive but I guess that helped to lead up to the upcoming film--which turned out to be a compilation film which gives me a sour taste in my mouth. However, it does confirm that it will indeed conclude the story, for a “compilation film” I don’t know how that might work, but if it’s indeed gonna conclude the story, that’s the main thing I wanted to hear.

7.5/10 - 75% - Rank: B+

First there are anime with 40 minute premieres, movies are a different thing, but a full-fledged TV anime series with a 40 minute runtime? That sure kinda sounds revolutionary but at the same time it’s a total overkill for animators. Besides, I never have the energy to watch anything in 40 minutes, so let’s keep things the way they are with usually having to watch anime series in 20 minutes.

9.- Phantasy Star Online 2 Episode Oracle*: You think that a PSO2 anime that’s actually set in the game’s universe and it’s more serialized could be better than PSO2: The Animation? Well, part of it yeah. But for me, honestly, this was WAY WORSE than PSO2: The Animation for one major reason: This was absolutely rather dark and I wasn’t too comfortable with it.

The animation is kind of alright, it’s not very great but at least Gonzo has definitely improved since the maximum garbage that was 18if.

Is the actual game this dark? Even if I haven’t really seen any story mode (?) cutscenes, from what I’ve seen, I just don’t see it in that light. I haven’t played the JP version (I’d like to but I have difficulties with the download) but I am gonna try to play the English version next year (Can’t believe it’s finally happening).

I just read on MAL that it does adapt these episodes from the actual game but they have anime original content in the process, since I’m not a PSO2 player, I really can’t say for sure if it is indeed faithful but with the anime original stuff, but if it is, well shit.

Surprisingly I haven’t seen some friends I know who play PSO2 talk about Episode Oracle. They have talked about PSO2: The Animation when it came out and they certainly hate it but I can defintely tell they don’t watch Episode Oracle at all (I think it’s for the best).

Anyways, I want to forget this garbage and I want to go back to PSO2: The Animation, it wasn’t that offensively bad after all.

(As of the writing in November 11th, Firefox crashed and I wrote parts of this review a little differently, so I had to rewrite it and it might be different from what I remember, but it’s still decent)

5.5/10 - 53% - Rank: C-

10.- Girls’ Frontline Madness Chapter: Now that Healing Chapter is over, it was time to move on to Madness Chapter, and with the first episode alone... I wasn’t feeling it at all, I’m not super impressed.

Quick info drop, this series is an adaptation of Girls’ Frontline’s in-game 4koma which can be found in the Cafe, though I only play the English version and I assume that the Chinese and Korean servers must have the 4komas like on volume 10 or so.

With that being said about that Madness Chapter adapts the 4koma, there’s just something really off about the animation, it’s just that it’s way too quirky and over the top. It looks more like it’s the true definition of a Chinese anime or something, not for the dub, but for the talent.

Though I have to say, the last few episodes have been really growing on me, but my first impressions will probably remain.

Once Healing Chapter in Japanese ends, I’m definitely expecting Madness Chapter to have Japanese dub as well.

4.5/10 - 45% - Rank: C--

11.- Granblue Fantasy season 2*: A second season with an absolute stepback on animation and decent storyline, everything else is rather forgettable. The Vira episodes were interesting but I couldn’t get myself to care for everything else.

I seriously don't like the new animation at all. A-1 did a very good job on how it looks, but even so, people seem to hate the first season, so the animation in S2 is an absolute downgrade and won't do any favors for me. As for the story so far, I can't really tell if this is from the actual game's campaign (like I said, I stopped at Chapter 17), but I guess it's alright. The most absurd thing about this is that armored characters like the Empire solders and even Apollo are all CG and they look terrible. (Were they CG in the first season too? I can't remember already).

I'm not really one who should be like those "These people shouldn't make cashgrab adaptations doing the story from the very start and instead spend all their money on making OVAs or whatever on their most popular events, like What Makes the Sky Blue?" nazis and I don't give much of a crap about it, but I do really feel like GBF shouldn't really need to be adapted from zero and instead just do any of their popular events or something. I mean, just look at FGO where they only did about one adaptation of the prologue and later they're adapting Babylonia and Camelot, the most popular chapters.

On October 26th, I made a small TwitLonger post detailing my complicated history with GBF and why I’m feeling like I want to walk away from it. (It’s kind of dumb really. And yes, the first paragraphs of this where I gave my first impressions with GBF S2 were straight-up copied from the post).

The most heartbreaking thing that happened in this series is that they showed a Halloween special on November 8th WITH THE FIRST SEASON’S ANIMATION, my god, look how better it was before they went to this crap! This is One-Punch Man season 2 all over again! (But certainly doesn’t top it)

3/10 - 31% - Rank: D

Overall:

Honorable mentions

BLACKFOX*: I barely had time to watch it exactly on my birthday, but when I saw it the next day, it was a relatively solid and entertaining comic book-like narrated film. Although it may not be the greatest film like I wanted, but it may be for the best because at the time, my brain was absolutely burned from seeing Joker last night to even care for everything else, it’s a masterpiece.

One problem I do have is Melissa, at the end of the film, we see Rikka, Mia and... surprisingly Melissa with a costume and everything. What’s the origin behind it? What about her character development?

I really hope there’s more Blackfox because the teaser at the end seems too good to pass to make a full-fledged series of it.

(Mia best girl.)

8/10 - 85% - Rank: B+

Fire Force: My opinion on the animation, at least in non-action moments, probably remain, but I really like these arcs more, not that I didn’t like the beginning arcs but I’m really liking this direction.

(I don’t know how to define “better” anymore without using “I like X better just because. It tops, it exceeds, etc.”)

7/10 - 72% - Rank: B

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection*: This one’s a little funny because it’s a movie that came out about months ago, but it came out in Mexican theaters on October 11th, since it’s October and it falls into the Fall category (”Falls to Fall” lmao), I’ll have to include it.

Anyways, having watched the compilation films as a road to get into the Code Geass series, Lelouch of the Re;surrection was good, but it did get me confused at times, I have a lot of questions about what was going on, but the post-credits scene got me the most confused, I don’t know if it was meant to be a teaser, but the way this scene happened is kind of ambiguous.

Even though watching the compilation films may or may not be the best method to get into Code Geass, I had to do it so I could have saved time, if I were to watch the series, it would have taken me forever. Besides, Lelouch of the Re;surrection is from the compilation films’ canon, so it’s something, I guess.

Moving on, the most baffling thing I have to talk about are the technical issues in my cinema. Like around the beginning of the film, the part where Lelouch blows up Shesthaal, the audio cuts off, they had to pause the run of the film a couple of minutes and rewinded some. People in my cinema, while thankfully not very loud with whistles and all, were definitely complaining about the issue, while my older sister and I were just laughing silently and smh’ing.

8.5/10 - 85% - Rank: A-

Lupin the 3rd Prison of the Past: I genuinely didn’t expect there would be another Lupin the 3rd OVA. It’s been months since I saw Goodbye Partner.

It’s probably unintentional but something tells me that releasing this OVA now is like a lead-up to the Lupin the 3rd CG movie in December in Japan.

There’s one thing I’m not happy about is that there wasn’t a memorial for Monkey Punch or anything (but does that “Monkey” branded chewing gum count? Sounds a little insulting), or this might have been made a while before Monkey Punch passed away, but they should have included something like that.

8/10 - 80% - Rank: A

Anticipated

This is the last anime season of the decade and now we’re gonna reach the first lineup of new anime in the new decade. I of course wouldn’t watch literally every single anime in existence, like I always do with every season, but here are some of the very first anime of the 2020 decade I want to watch!

(I’m surprised no one is hyping up how we’re getting our first anime of the 2020 decade)

I should also try to keep track on everything I want to watch because I think I may forget when they’re gonna come out.

Quintessential Quintuplets season 2 - January ???: A few months ago I binged the series and I seriously can’t believe I slept on this, it was hilarious and pure at times, so I can’t wait to watch more. Though I haven’t read the manga (but I’d like to some day) but it’s enough for me to go blind and enjoy the series.

Speaking of the manga, the series will end on its 14th volume next year and we’re so close on that happening because volume 13 will be released in January 17th 2020. I’ll be sad to see this series go but I’m interested to see what the creator will make next and if the anime keeps getting new seasons, we might actually see the series finale get adapted.

[UPDATE - January 4th 2020: As of now, there hasn’t been any news about Quintessential Quintuplets S2 lately, no promos or anything. I think at this point it’s probably delayed until Spring.]

Heya Camp - January 6th: It may not be season 2 of Yuru Camp (yet) but I’m glad there’s going to be more coziness with the short series lifted from the previews from the base series.

Isekai Quartet season 2 - January 14th: I’m definitely hype for more Isekai Quartet and that teaser with the new classmates at the end of the first season finale is not to be wasted, and those new classmates happened to be Naofumi, Raphtalia and Filo from Rising of Shield Hero. As of the writing this in December 1st, I’m planning to binge Shield Hero, I have pretty much watched every isekai series featured in Isekai Quartet, so I don’t want to be left out with Shield Hero. Regardless of what I heard about the series, I’m still gonna watch it anyways. (Finished watching on December 5th and... DAMN, I REALLY LIKED IT. FUCK THEM SJWs!)

Bang Dream season 3 - January 23rd: It would have been amazing if Sangizen were to do the Bubuki Buranki thing with the first season in Winter and the second season in Fall, but they deserve to take their time.

Madoka Magica Magia Record - January 4th: Fall 2019 was quite stuffed with anime based on gacha, Fate/Grand Order Babylonia, Azur Lane The Animation and Granblue Fantasy The Animation, but Madoka Magica Magia Record is the one show based on the mobile game that decided to not to join the party and it’s kinda funny.

Nekopara - January 9th: That’s right, there’s going to be a full fledged Nekopara TV series now. This is the most unnecessary anime to exist since there already was a plethora of OVAs, there’s no need to make a TV series of the VN now. I don’t have time to rush through the VN if I want to buy it (Most likely from Steam and buy the adult patch too) but I don’t have the money to do it, well, it may depend from my interest and time to try to play it because I’m a bit behind with Saya no Uta.

Speaking of adult content, I’m expecting a bit of fan service somewhere because they wouldn’t do the full blown hentai scenes. Pretty standard VN adapation rules.

Dorohedoro - January 12th.

Danmachi OVA - January 29th.

ID:Invaded - January 5th.

Ishizoku Reviewers - January 11th: I seriously haven’t watched any ecchi series in a long time, and reading the synopsis alone, I’m really intrigued in checking this one out.

There’s quite of anime to look forward to in 2020 but I haven’t been keeping track on what do I want to watch, though I know some that may come in that year, but I’m not gonna get into that since this is just for Winter 2020, I’ll address that in my “10 year journey” post.

The future of the seasonal anime review series

Since this is my last seasonal anime review post in Tumblr, I’ll probably continue making lists either by tweeting them out or will have to make a Discord channel in my private server, but it’s probably more about anticipated shows, for seasonal reviews, I’ll have to do Tier Maker images, probably for the best because I’ve been making a bit of a weird inconsistencies with ranking shows with scores and ranks, so I’ll probably have to stick to only ranks with Tier Maker from now on.

Although to be honest, I’m not sure if anyone would really care about what am I gonna watch, did I like a show or not, but at the same time, I forget people do really care as they’re quite the show-offs and ofcourse discussions galore. So I think I’ll keep doing what I’m doing but in a more simple way.

And that’s it, we’re done here. This is the end of the seasonal anime review Tumblr post series, though nobody had really read these posts before, but I finally got my first audition with the Karoshi Discord server from the beginning of this post. I’ve had fun making these posts, even if lately I’ve been getting burnt out but I still enjoyed writing these.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, thank you for the birthday wishes, a day early and even on the very same day.

With a day early, particularly from my Japanese friends, especially you @hinosuna0720/@hinosuna3D21 (NSFW content, viewer discretion is advised) for giving me sweet images with my Custom Maid 3D2 OCs, and you even gifted me VA-11 HALL-A and I’m seriously grateful. I also want to congratulate @ryuuunnji for giving me a picture too.

And on the actual day, I want to thank for @SALthePAL95 making me drawings of my new OCs! And speaking of drawings, my older sister made me one too (but I won’t show it, sorry), it’s been a long time since she made me one... ;-;

And I, of course, want to thank everyone else who has given me birthday wishes!

This 20th birthday was definitely the best I’ve ever had in my life, I’ve had some really sweet surprises that I’ve always been looking for, and I wish my future birthdays continue to be this good, especially in the next decade.

(Not you @kirishima_ss. Thankfully it was a day after my birthday but, come on... (he blocked me)) 🖕🔪 (Although that did teach me a valuable lession: I’m not gonna promote my birthday literally every day ever again, because I was seriously getting pretentious)

Anyways, it’s time for making these Tumblr posts to stop, but alas, there’s one more Tumblr post to make, it’s a whole different topic but it’s extremely important, it’s super long but I hope you’ll understand. See you there. Also, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in advance.

Check out my Carrd.

My retirement announcement for one last reminder. (And just fixed it to make it more readable)

[bloojayoolie]

Being Alone, Andrew Bogut, and Apparently: Are you here for me perhaps? Hi there I'm Nino Please take me home with you. xoxo Nino 53965.... an adorable little Chihuahua sweetheart, just 4 years old, only 16 lbs, waiting for you to save his life at the Brooklyn, NY ACC. For A New Family To Know: Little Nino is an affectionate fella who loves to play with squeaky toys, be around his family, & who takes a bit to warm up to strangers (he will though). Housebroken, wee-pad & outside, well-behaved when left alone in the house, fearful at the shelter like so many little pups are, this little cutie pie is rescue only meaning you have to apply with rescues to foster or adopt him. PLEASE, DO! Apply now to save his life! Nino 539 I'm a good little boy **FOSTER or ADOPTER NEEDED ASAP** Nino 53965.... an adorable little Chihuahua sweetheart, just 4 years old, only 16 lbs, waiting for you to save his life at the Brooklyn, NY ACC. For A New Family To Know: Little Nino is an affectionate fella who loves to play with squeaky toys, be around his family, & who takes a bit to warm up to strangers (he will though). Housebroken, wee-pad & outside, well-behaved when left alone in the house, fearful at the shelter like so many little pups are, this little cutie-pie is rescue-only meaning you have to apply with rescues to foster or adopt him. PLEASE, DO! Apply now to save his life! ✔Pledge✔Tag✔Share✔FOSTER✔ADOPT✔Save a life! Nino 53965 Small Mixed Breed Sex male Age 4 yrs (approx.) - 16 lbs My health has been checked. My vaccinations are up to date. My worming is up to date. I have been micro-chipped. I am waiting for you at the Brooklyn, NY ACC. Please, Please, Please, save me! ************************************** To FOSTER or ADOPT this little nugget, SPEAK UP NOW & Save a Life, APPLY with rescues OR message Must Love Dogs - Saving NYC Dogs immediately! ************************************** The general rule is to foster you have to be within 4 hours of the NYC ACC approved New Hope partner rescues you are applying with and to adopt you will have to be in the general NE US area; NY, NJ, CT, PA, DC, MD, DE, NH, RI, MA, VT & ME (some rescues will transport to VA). ************************************** You must apply to rescues already approved to pull from NYC ACC shelters. Rescues can't do anything without APPLICATIONS! If your application is approved, rescue will arrange transport. ************************************** Basic Information: Nino is a four year old small tan dog that was surrendered to the center due to the owner having medical concerns. She had him for the past three years. Nino doesn't have any known health issues and was not seen the vet recently. Previously lived with: Two adults How is this dog around strangers? As per owner, Nino might bark, growl or snap at strangers. She said that it takes him time to warm up to people. How is this dog around children? He has spent time with a nine and ten year old. He was very playful around them. How is this dog around other dogs? According to Nino's previous owner, Nino is nervous around other dogs. When off leash at the Care Centers, Nino greets a group of small male and female dogs with a nervous posture. How is this dog around cats? He didn't live with cats. Resource guarding: He is not bothered if his food, toys or treats are taken away from him. House trained: Yes Energy level/descriptors: Medium Other Notes: He is not bothered when he is held/restrained nor when he is removed from the furniture. The owner never gave him a bath, trimmed his nails nor brushed him therefore his behavior is unknown. He barks when someone unfamiliar approaches the house. Has this dog ever had any medical issues? No For a New Family to Know He was described as affectionate. He likes to follow people around and be in the same room. Nino likes to play with squeaky toys. He was kept indoors only and eats dry and wet food. He is house-trained and goes potty on training pads and grass. He is well-behaved when left alone in the house. He doesn't know any cues. Nino is used to slow walks on leash for exercise. Behavior upon intake: Nino has hiding underneath the chair and growled at the counselor when approached. He started to wag his tail at one point however he was not interested in treats. Nino scanned positive for a microchip. Date of assessment: 5-Feb-2019 Summary: Leash Walking Strength and pulling: None Reactivity to humans: None Reactivity to dogs: None Leash walking comments: Sociability Loose in room (15-20 seconds): Wanders, sniffing Call over: Does not approach Sociability comments: Handling Soft handling Exuberant handling Handling comments: Did not conduct due to aloof behavior Arousal Jog Arousal comments: Follows, distracted Knock Knock Comments: No response Toy Toy comments: Minimal interest DVM Intake Exam Estimated age: 4 years according to o Microchip noted on Intake? positive 985112007587848 History : o/s Subjective: BARH. Did not eat food this morning but likely due to nervousness Observed Behavior - very nervous, whale eyes, tense, urinated during exam Evidence of Cruelty seen - no Evidence of Trauma seen - no EENT: Eyes clear, ears clean, no nasal discharge noted Oral Exam: no oral exam due to behavior PLN: No enlargements noted H/L: NSR, NMA, CRT < 2, Lungs clear, eupneic ABD: Non painful, no masses palpated U/G: MN MSI: Ambulatory x 4, skin free of parasites, no masses noted, healthy hair coat CNS: mentation appropriate - no signs of neurologic abnormalities Assessment: Apparently healthy Plan: Continue to monitor while at BACC Start trazodone 50mg PO BID until 2/10, reassess Recheck appetite in 2 days +/- supportive care Prognosis: Excellent SURGERY: Already neutered Behavior Asilomar/TM - Treatable-Manageable Recommendations: No children (under 13)/Place with a New Hope partner. Recommendations comments: No children (under 13): Because Nino remains fearful upon interaction, we believe he may be best set up to succeed in an adult only home environment. Place with a New Hope partner: Due to the concerns reported in his previous home environment, we believe Nino would be best set up to succeed if placed with a rescue partner who can allow him to decompress at his own pace before seeking permanent placement. Force-free, reward based training only is advised. Potential challenges: Handling/touch sensitivity/Fearful/potential for defensive aggression ... NOTE: *** WE HAVE NO OTHER INFORMATION THAN WHAT IS LISTED WITH THIS FLYER *** - For more information, or to direct adopt, please EMAIL adopt@nycacc.org - SUBJECT Line: ** Dogs Name & ID# ** - Don't forget to add your email address and phone numbers where they can reach you to your email as well. .... ****************************************** RE: ACC site Just because a dog is not on the ACC site does NOT necessarily mean safe. There are many reasons for this like a hold or an eval has not been conducted yet or the dog is rescue-only... the list goes on... Please, do share & apply to foster/adopt these pups as well until their thread is updated with their most current status. TY! ======== Shelter addresses ====== - Manhattan Shelter: 326 East 110 St., New York, NY 10029 - Brooklyn Shelter: 2336 Linden Boulevard, Brooklyn, NY 11208 - Staten Island: 3139 Veterans Rd W, Staten Island, NY 10309 - Phone number: 212-788-4000 (is automated only) Operating hours: Monday through Friday 12.00pm to 8.00pm, Saturday & Sunday: 10.00am to 6.00pm. Closed on all Holidays. ****************************************** About Must Love Dogs - Saving NYC Dogs: We are a group of advocates (NOT a shelter NOR a rescue group) dedicated to finding loving homes for NYC dogs in desperate need. ALL the dogs on our site need Rescue, Fosters, or Adopters & that ASAP as they are in NYC high-kill shelters. If you cannot foster or adopt, please share them far & wide. Thank you for caring!! <3 ****************************************** RESCUES: * Indicates New Hope Rescue partner is accepting applications for fosters and/or adopters. http://www.nycacc.org/get-involved/new-hope/nhpartners ****************************************** https://www.nycacc.org/adopt/nino-53965 ++++ ++++ ++++ Beamer Maximillian Caro Hocker Carolin Hocker Jody Harris-Stern

[ourzentasmicharmony-blog]

Giving the Elbow to Moral Outrage

The following perspective has grown out of email exchanges with a friend as we communicated how we’ve been experiencing the current political landscape. What has it brought up in (and out of) us? How are we showing up to the issues and to our feelings about them? How are we showing up to others? How are we navigating the stormy seas of discord? Are we practicing self-care? Are we practicing compassion? In the “age of moral outrage,” how can we have meaningful exchanges with others on the “opposite side” of an issue?

Such written exchanges allow me to explore patterns in how we engage with others, especially on social media. Perhaps exchanges on social media are so often framed by such adversarial, “either/or” thinking (especially those of a “political” nature) because of the new frequency at which we gut-check the information bombarding us from everywhere, and measuring countless issues against our own moral compass, pointing towards our northern star, aligning our actions with our beliefs. “This is right, that is wrong. Therefore, I will do this, but I won’t do that. I admire this, but abhor that.” (And how many of these countless issues really count as meaningful and worthy of all the energy spent on them?)

Gut-checks on such issues can happen instantaneously, and by extension, so too can our judgment of others, especially of those who don’t see things as we do. How quickly, especially on social media, do we extend our judgment well beyond events and issues and onto other people, many of whom we know quite well? How swiftly and carelessly do we throw about labels, not just to describe or categorize things, but to define fellow humans, and end up judging each other? When we instantly judge the other, is it done with consideration of the values and experiences of the individual, or only by considering our own values and experiences, and our assumptions of the people who hold such different views? How often do we negate others with our judgments? With our speaking? With our actions? And not just negate their opinions on a matter, but negate their beliefs, their experiences, their very existence?  

Have we allowed our anger and fear over the dehumanizing of certain groups by other groups, to blind us to our own growing intolerance? Are we allowing ourselves to become intolerant of not just certain ideas, or the dehumanizing ideas promoted by specific groups of people, but of people themselves? Aren’t we showing an intolerance towards individuals, friends as well as strangers, and thereby creating foes, each time we show up to a showdown of words on social media, raining bullets all around us, and wounding others, even as we denounce such intolerance?

What are the consequences of negating the experiences and feelings of others? Of excluding the opinions and voices of those who place a different value on things than we do? (Have we forgotten that holding a different value is not equivalent to seeing no value at all in something? So why must we react as such?) What happens to our society when we cannot tolerate even hearing out the thoughts of someone with a different perspective? What does it cost us to hear them out? What does it cost us when we don’t? How do we communicate through such a sharp “political divide,” without sharpening our own weapons and brandishing them with moral superiority as soon as we’re baited? (And doesn’t our growing intolerance just provide people who disagree with our views greater opportunities to slap the label of “hypocrite” on us, and completely negate us? 

Is it even possible for us to experience civil discourse and truly discuss an issue through a real exchange of ideas anymore? I believe the answer to that question is a resounding yes. Yes, and it may not be easy, but it is possible. Yes, and it starts with taking personal responsibility. Yes, and I can begin with small steps. Yes, and it will take me responding to others in ways I’m not yet practiced. Yes, and I can show up to others in new ways to create this experience for myself and others. Yes, and it will take more effort, but I believe it is worth it!

To begin the shift towards creating a different experience, I’ve increasingly turned towards searching for the shades of grey in the issues that seem to be only “black or white.” Shifting away from declarations and pronouncements and towards curiosity and offerings, I’m taking small steps towards “the other” with less judgment and more compassion as I practice “the nudge” towards more common ground.

Elbowing with Empathy

The following is an example of how I show up on social media with small, shaky steps towards keeping judgment on the issues, not the people. A dear cousin of mine, who believes we should “free our minds” from what the media dictates (an opinion we share), posted an article on Facebook about media bias, (which pointed out to me some things about our own biases, including where and how they differ.) News stories posted by this cousin are most often from media sources with a conservative bias, ranging from slight to extreme bias. The article she shared in this example came from a site that is categorized as having “moderate to strong bias” by mediabiasfactcheck.com. Commenting in the manner I did below, I attempted to engage someone who holds a different view of what is considered “untrustworthy media” with a nudge rather than pounding my views on her like a sledgehammer. The screenshot below shows the article she shared and my original comment on it.

Could I have phrased it differently or even posed it as a question or two or five? Yes. And had I done so, maybe her response to my comment would have been different. But this is the phrasing I used. And the immediate response by my loved one was a typical initial reaction, aimed to elicit a particular response through the use of baited phrasing (and almost all of us have done it in some form or another…)

But is her question the most pressing one to ask here? A few things caught my eye that made me think not…

Now I’m no expert on Congress, but I’m tuned in enough that I’m familiar with commonly known committees and I didn’t recognize the name “House Media Fairness Caucus.” (Of course, that’s because a caucus is not a formal committee, even though it sounds like one. It is an informal organization of Congressional members to discuss issues of mutual concern.) So, I clearly needed to learn more about this caucus, whose leaders have just stated (according to this post) that “the depth of bias by broadcast networks is putting the nation’s democracy at risk,” as was documented by this Media Research Center. (And that phrase sounds, well, alarming, doesn’t it?)  Of course, I’d learn more about this caucus before commenting about it on my cousin’s FB page, as well as learn about what the Media Research Center is (never heard of that one before either.) But first, I’d need to find out more about “CNS News” site to decide for myself how credible all this information really was.

Side note: After some basic research, here’s what I learned about the House Media Fairness Caucus: it was formed by “a dozen Republican members of Congress” in 2009 led by Lamar Smith (TX), and currently co-chaired by Smith and Alex Mooney (VA); and its purpose, as stated on Congressman Smith’s official house.gov page, is to “encourage the media to adhere to the highest standards of their profession, and to provide the American people with the facts, not tell them what to think.” Interesting though, that the source of this article posted by my cousin comes directly from the blog page of the Media Research Center. Yes indeed, that is the very organization that generated this “alarming proof” in the first place! How can that be?! Because “CNS News” is not a news source that adheres to the standards of journalism and its code of ethics. No, “CNS News” is really…(and yes, the following quote comes directly from their site…) “NewsBusters.org: a project of the Media Research Center, America’s leading media watchdog in documenting, exposing and neutralizing liberal news bias.” (My, what a gift this harmless, little writing project is, coming directly to me on Facebook from someone I love and trust, all wrapped up in a pretty bow of provocatively misleading phrases! I sure am glad this project adheres to such high standards, [whose standards?!] presenting us with facts rather than telling us what to think! Wait a minute... on second thought [can we have those?] this piece does seem to be trying to tell me what to think…Oh well, it’s not a liberal bias after all, so it’s all good!) I wonder no more about why this caucus was a new one on me as it seems to be the Congressional equivalent of a PTA meeting, only with fewer people…Ooops! I’m afraid this side note has shown more than just my sarcastic wit, but also my liberal bias! Oh dear…let me see if I can ever find my way back to my point…did I ever even have one?! (I’m such a flaky little snowflake…)

WWLD?

Of course, I have several points, and here’s my next one: just like the character Leo McGarry from The West Wing, I did not accept the premise of her question. Instead of following my cousin’s question to a place upon which she was ready to go (locked and loaded,) my next response was based in evidence that speaks to her belief in not allowing media to dictate one’s opinions. Why look at that, common ground, in a lovely shade of grey! (Until I’m struck down by the flick of an evil, magic wand for including the phrase “based in evidence.” Even so, I’d rather focus on this beautiful shade of grey, than shades of idiocracy.) Since this belief is also a part of the image reflected on her FB page, it left my cousin without a strong “push-back” towards me that squares with that image. Besides, she loves and respects me, so that is where she left it… But alas, a new voice chimed in!

There it is, right on cue, a friend who likely gathers his information from the same sources as my cousin, chimes in to show the opposition what’s what. How fun, new bait!  

BTW: I found his comment quite comical in its irony, and literally laughed out loud. (You’re about to get the joke too, I promise.) Apparently, I didn’t provide him with a sufficient reaction because when I laughed instead of biting, he didn’t laugh along, he just dangled juicier, more personal bait my way...

Yes, yes, I got a little “cheeky” there, but I wasn’t angry and hey, teachers like to have fun too! We get offered this kind of bait (in multiples) on the daily...

And that’s where this exchange ended. I didn’t hear back again on this matter from my cousin, nor her friend. There were many possibilities as to how this exchange could have gone. (Including no exchange at all, just judgmental silence on my part.) Yes, I could have done it better. And I could’ve done a lot worse too, including some damage to a treasured relationship with my cousin. Did I “win over opponents” to my “side”? Ha! As if that’s the point here! However, I believe I did achieve my goal of engaging someone who holds a different view from mine and did so in a different way – using a bit of a nudge without any moral outrage. I know, I didn’t achieve a true exchange of ideas, either. Yes, that is true. And communication did not devolve into a “tit for tat” match either, and this may all be part of laying the groundwork to get there. (There is no “one and done” in these exchanges. Just like good parenting and teaching of kids, it’s all about consistency.) No, I didn’t win over any friends either, even after sending him a “winky-face” while refraining from name-calling! (C’mon, that deserves a medal! I am a Snowflake after all, so I should at least get my participation trophy, right?) 

Seriously though, I also just may have influenced people too. Don’t know for sure, but since they both dropped the baiting tactics, let’s consider that a small victory on the road towards more compassionate communication, and keep traveling a more peaceful path. Because, well let’s get real here: neither “side” of any of these adversarial exchanges on social media are productive in the powers of persuasion. No matter how logically sound, or cleverly phrased an argument is, it’s still argument. How can we ever get to true civil discourse if all we’re doing is lobbing grenades at one another? We’ll even pick up grenades thrown at us and just lob them right back. Now is not the time of showing how right or how clever we are. It only looks ridiculous to the “other side” anyway. What is needed now is to use our words to build bridges across the divide and build relationships. With every exchange, express a little empathy. Sometimes all that takes is to lay down an assumption and get a little curious. So ask questions. What makes you say that? Why do you feel that way? What experience do you have with this? What information do you have that I don’t....

Bottom line: I’m not saying, “Why don’t we all just play nice?” because who cares about nice when everything else is falling apart?! Maybe we’ve “played nice” for too long already, with lots of judgmental silence just hanging in the air like odorless poison. Maybe now it’s time to get a little dirty, not with trickery, fraud, or even our cleverness, but in getting a little more comfortable with the uncomfortable. Let’s not wait another moment for “the other side” to change their minds. Let’s not wait another moment to reach out across the divide looking for allies instead of adversaries. Let’s not wait another moment to add more empathy, however awkwardly, into our “fierce conversations.” Let’s speak truth to power, and to each other, and temper it all with compassion. Perhaps if enough of us make such a shift even in small ways, we’ll all reap some benefits. Maybe just a little shake up in how we engage one another in each interaction, is the beginning of ensuring we’ll all come out of this time of divisiveness as a more united people. As more tolerant and understanding people. Maybe we are the ones we’ve been waiting for to ameliorate our collective wounds. Who knows? Anything is possible in world framed by Yes, and…

 Love & Peace,

 Z Harmony        January 4, 2018