Seto Kaiba

Been a long day... let's see what Crunchyroll's found anything in the Summer '25 simulcast season that's actually worth watching. New Saga has a new episode today... Tedious in the extreme. I'm strongly considering dropping this one. Betrothed to My Sister's Ex has a new episode... which I am feeling MUCH more enthusiastic about! Still fun, I have a feeling this one's going to be my favorite for the season. Secrets of the Silent Witch also has a new episode... For what it's worth, when I read (and later watched) Attack on Titan I felt that the sense of mystery surrounding the Titans and the Titan Shifters and the foreboding that went with it was an essential part of the story. It was the very embodiment of Nothing is Scarier. (I am admittedly a great big fan of horror as an art form so my bias is going to be on full display here...) The idea that the world within the Walls was all there was of civilization made the entire rest of the setting into one massive liminal space. The sense of isolation within desolation and oppressive emptiness of the world was the fuel for a great sense of horror and foreboding throughout the first half. This was made doubly effective by the Titans themselves. Normally seeing a person on the horizon in such an isolated space is cause for great relief. Attack on Titan turned that on its ear and made it cause for terror. Anything remotely person-shaped outside the Walls is a Monster that will Eat You without a moment's hesitation. Not knowing where the likes of Ymir, Grisha, Reiner, or Annie came from helped maintain that sense of mystery and oppressive horror. Was there some other, isolated city out in that vast desolation? Did the Titans have a civilization? Are these monsters really as mindless as they appear or was there malice behind them? These mysteries helped keep the story engaging. IMO, the Big Reveal that history as it was known to the protagonists was one huge lie, that the world of Attack on Titan was largely similar to ours in terms of its geography, culture, and technology aside from the existence of the Titans, and that the rest of the world was not only not utterly desolate but positively thriving really fatally punctured the horror with mundane explanations and real world familiarity. The only thing that remained mysterious was the Titans themselves, and that was demoted to essentially "just magic". Eren being a completely unrepentant heel for the entire second half of the story really was a poor creative choice, IMO. I know it's that kind of story, but it'd have been nice to see some progression or the idea that he was at least struggling with what he felt was his preordained destiny to destroy the world. Instead, he just kind of flips from a tyke bomb who hates the Titans with a thoroughly understandable passion to a Misanthrope Supreme and Omnicidal Maniac all at once. It would have been nice to see more of a moral spectrum besides just "awful person" and "extremely awful person"...

The development history of the Sv-303 Vivasvat given in Variable Fighter Master File: VF-31AX Kairos Plus - which to date remains the only source to talk about the fighters in the second Macross Delta movie at any reasonable length - describes the Sv-303 as an offshoot/rethink of a series of manned fighter developments that Windermere IV's Chancellor Brehm commissioned from the Epsilon Foundation. According to Master File, the original request (with the working designation Sv-300) was for a new manned fighter to supplement or replace the Sv-262 with better performance than the New UN Forces new VF-31. Both the overtuned FF-2999/FC2 Stage IIG engine and the Twin Quartz Drive system used in the Sv-303 were originally developed for use in the Sv-300. Changing priorities on the customer's (Windermere IV's) side led to the program being abruptly cancelled shortly before Sv-300 prototype No.1 was scheduled to be delivered for testing. Two other related manned fighter programs, Sv-301 and Sv-302, were also cancelled at the same time. Exactly what drove Windermere IV's government to change its mind and cancel the development of manned Valkyries in favor of a next-generation unmanned fighter controlled using newly-developed biological fold wave communications technology is left unstated. Well, the overtuned FF-2999/FC2 engines and Twin Quartz Drive were originally intended for use in a twin-engine VF with performance rivaling or exceeding the VF-31, so that's a big part of it. They reused the existing modified engine design for the unmanned fighter. The rest of it is on the addition of the sub-engines. Windermere IV must have asked for Dian Cecht to design the most balls-to-the-wall bonkers thing they could make if cost wasn't an overriding concern and they had no shortage of high quality fold quartz. For their part, Dian Cecht seems to have used as many high-spec off-the-shelf parts as possible to get the job done quickly. Of course, the substantial weight reduction caused by abolishing the cockpit block and all of its attendant support systems and the de facto replacement of other equipment like radars, radios, energy conversion armor, active stealth system, etc. with the Mirage Package no doubt helped them push that envelope as far as they could.

Watched a few more episodes of Dandadan, because the neighbors are still setting off fireworks like 4th of July wasn't a week ago. 🙃

In a bid to rescue what remains of my fragile sanity after a day of bureaucratic tedium, I took a whack at the section of Variable Fighter Master File: VF-0 Phoenix given over to talking about the VF-3000. Much of what it has to say is the same as what's said in Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Valkyrie, such as that the VF-3000 program got its start as an offshoot/continuation of VF-1 program at Stonewell Bellcom before the merger with Shinnakasu Heavy Industry and Shinsei Manufacturing that formed the modern Shinsei Industry in 2012. Unlike the section in the VF-1 Master File, the VF-0 Master File actually discusses the VF-3000's design too. As Master File has it, development of the VF-3000 was a bit of a speedrun on Stonewell Bellcom's part after the First Space War. Stonewell Bellcom's design team deliberately kept its design as conventional as possible, to minimize the number of risks taken during development and to facilitate the reuse of development and test data from the VF-0 and VF-1 in the simulation and practical test phases. Keeping the same basic structure, albeit with a size closer to that of the VF-0, facilitated the inclusion of all kinds of quality-of-life improvements like additional propellant tanks in the legs for space use, expanded life support equipment for space use, larger energy capacitors for the laser weapons, and room for future upgrade hardware of all kinds. The cockpit block was set up as a two-seater by default, at the request of the UN Forces. It was designed to be operated by a single pilot, but it seems the UN Forces considered the VF-3000 a possible candidate for use in interstellar research fleets due to its excess of internal space. The second seat was theoretically earmarked for use by research personnel who would operate any optional research equipment installed on the aircraft. It was also tentatively considered a potential fighter-bomber, with the rear set able to be fitted out with the necessary controls for a RIO. It's said that the first prototype - internally codenamed MD-3000-01 - rolled off the line at L5 in September 2011. MD-3000-02 followed it off the line shortly thereafter, with Unit 01 being used for atmospheric testing and Unit 02 for space testing. Initial evaluations were satisfactory, with its longer operating time/range in space being particularly praised. What the UN Forces weren't entirely pleased with was the longer time required to change modes... being 30% longer than those of the VF-1 Valkyrie. This was considered to be a bit of a deal breaker by the UN Forces, who asked that this be improved if possible and contracted with Stonewell Bellcom for nine prototype aircraft tentatively dubbed VF-3000 Crusader according to Stonewell Bellcom's internal codename for the program. Stonewell Bellcom didn't consider that point to be critical, since the problem was mainly due to the movement needed to store the tail, and ultimately opted not to change the design. The initial type that borrowed part of the VF-1 production line was considered to be VF-3000A. A later refined version that eliminated the problems of the early model with a refined tail, main wing, and auxiliary propulsion system design was designated VF-3000B. The parts are, however, said to be interchangeable and it is possible to mix-and-match. The asymmetrical armament on the monitor turret is described as an attempt to provide a balance of long and short-ranged firepower. The single large-bore pulse laser cannon is meant for long range engagements and the twin laser machineguns are meant for short-range ones. The apparent justification for this is that research fleets were expected to find unknown potential threats and would need every edge. There is also mention of a VF-3000C type, which has symmetrical weapon mounts on the monitor turret, though apparently with the ability to pick either twin pulse lasers or quad laser machineguns rather than having a set configuration. The VF-3000's gunpod is also described as an enlarged version of the GU-11 with greater ammunition capacity. It's noted to have three hardpoints per wing, and to be compatible with all VF-1-era armaments. Hardpoints were also added to the center fuselage to facilitate use as a fighter bomber. There was also apparently a proposal for a delta wing variant, which MD-3000-01 was modified to test in 2013. In terms of service history, Master File asserts that about 40 total VF-3000s were delivered to the UN Forces by the end of 2013, though their deployment destinations and actual numbers are indicated to still be classified. (Presumably this is a reference to their use by Special Forces units like the Dancing Skulls.) It's noted that some remained in our solar system as aggressor training aircraft for escort fleets until 2032. There is mention that some emigrant fleets toyed with the idea of adopting the VF-3000 and conducted tests of their own, though none seem to have adopted it in any numbers. One particularly interesting note is that the VF-3000 is said to have been purchased by some of the early private military companies formed in the wake of the First Space War, as government restrictions prevented them from acquiring the military's latest models (the VF-5000 at the time). It's said that they were produced in small numbers in the 2010s, and that the total number produced is believed to be less than 100. There is also an interesting point all the way back at the beginning of the piece, which talks about how the VF-3000 was for a time a popular choice of stand-in for the VF-0 when war movies were being filmed. Its similarity in size and design apparently made it ideal for the purpose, and on one notable occasion it also doubled for the SV-51 with a simple coat of black paint. It's said that movies that did this have become invaluable historical documents... not for their artistic merit (or lack thereof) but because they contain some of the only footage of this rare aircraft in operation. One squadron operating the VF-3000 is mentioned several times in marginal notes. The SVF-115 Armors transitioned from the VF-1 to VF-3000 in early 2014, and were changed to being a special mission squadron at the same time. They were deployed to a planetary reconnaissance fleet for two years starting in 2015. The Armors are said to have appeared in publicity magazines and regular carrier squadron, and that their status as a special forces unit directly under the New UN Forces Command was not made public until 2038, 10 years after the unit was disbanded.

Caught the second episode of The Water Magician... and if I had to pick a word to describe it, I would have to pick "bland".

Welcome to the Outcast's Restaurant has a new episode and... Apparently I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince got a new season too? Dear god WHY.

Since this season's new offerings have mainly been disappointments, I decided to roll back into my backlog and take a whack at Dan Da Dan. That was certainly a string of things that happened. Not quite Jojo level weird, but it's up there. Lots of people took issue with the series after the timeskip. It became... problematic... in all kinds of ways. Yeah, a lot of folks did take issue with the ending where...

Second episode of Detectives These Days Are Crazy! is out... ... that was certainly something. Not sure what, exactly, but it was definitely something.

They missed one... "Knowing it's unlikely we'll ever get a pair of Star Wars titles this good ever again." Pretty weak article. I have to wonder who it's for... since most people wouldn't go to read a blog post on StarWars.com unless they were Star Wars fans, and to Star Wars fans those points would largely be screechingly obvious. Especially #3, since people watching the rest of Disney Star Wars would already know about Imperial exploitation and crackdowns on Ryloth, Lothal, Lasan, and a dozen others.

Summer 2025 seems to have a bumper crop of isekai slop and isekai-adjacent slop. Scooped Up by an S-Rank Adventurer is yet another painfully unoriginal isekai-adjacent series about a generic protagonist who is arbitrarily kicked out of a narcissistic Hero's party and has to make their own way in the world... a premise so overused it's the third one I've watched this season so far. On writing quality, this might actually be worse than The Shy Hero and the Assassin Princesses... a strong contender for this season's worst new anime.

Very likely. I am an engineer and an academic... overthinking things is practically my stock in trade! 😜 I do admire everyone else in the story having terribly on-the-nose naming sense though. (Made amusing on a meta level knowing the Naresuan is an Earth culture otaku... he quite intentionally gave his ship what he thought was a Cool and Meaningful Name with symbolic resonance and then probably had to weather a few weeks of "What do you mean it's not awesome?" from his crew.)

Also starting Secrets of the Silent Witch... another series about a protagonist with crippling social anxiety. Is that this season's theme? This one doesn't seem like it's got much going on under the hood. I imagine the jokes about social anxiety are going to get old pretty quickly.

Giving another series a whirl while I wait for some automation processes to finish at work... The Shy Hero and the Assassin Princesses. Y'know, I'm feeling optimistic after Betrothed to My Sister's Ex. This series looks like it's going to be cringe-worthy harem fanservice material but maybe it'll have some substance after all. Aside from feeling like this series needs a counter for how many times the protagonist passes out standing up (the way Excel Saga did for Hyatt dying)... it really feels like an excuse plot wrapped around some fanservice and some barely-there character cliches.

A bunch more episodes dropped today... so I'm starting Betrothed to My Sister's Ex over lunch. NGL, my hopes for this one are not high. Crunchyroll's synopsis makes it sound like it's Legally Distinct Anime Cinderella, so the Walt Disney Corporation doesn't sue. I have a feeling I'm going to like this one. It's very cute and funny.

Very slick, well done! As a fun fact, some of the very oldest Macross setting materials mention a VF-1 Wolfpack in the UN Forces during/after the events of the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross TV series. It's implied to be a continuation of the famous US Navy squadron, which survived the war and was subsequently assigned to ARMD-10 Haruna alongside the VF-2 Bounty Hunters. (There was also a set of Wolfpack decals for the Yamato VF-0 toy, though by that point VF/SVF-1 had since been established to be the Skulls.)

"It ain't that kind of setting, kid." Star Wars doesn't run on that kind of logic. Not yet, anyway. Stories set after the sequel trilogy might have to, but only because The Last Jedi gave the First Order the technology to track a ship through hyperspace. The Rebels in Andor don't have that problem. Knowing a place's name isn't enough to actually get you there, you need coordinates. If your destination is uncharted, you're SOL (as seen in Skeleton Crew, The Bad Batch, etc.). Jumping to hyperspace is a de facto clean getaway. Ships can only be tracked between star systems by spaceport logs (in legit travel) or by installing a physical tracking device on the ship that can be detected, disabled, and/or removed as happens often. All that really needs to be done to keep the location of secret bases or facilities secret is to wipe the navigational computer's memory, a security measure we see implemented several times. (This is also one reason droids get periodic memory wipes.) The way interstellar travel works in Star Wars is massively, MASSIVELY convenient for the rebels. There is one example of the kind of security you're talking about, but it was for an Imperial program even more secret than the Death Star in The Bad Batch, and since the waypoint was fixed the secrecy was compromised fairly easily anyway. That is multiply acknowledged in Andor. Not only is that the reason that Luthen recruits/coopts a key member of her staff to serve as an ad hoc protection detail, it's also why the rebellion needed to urgently extract her from the Senate and get her offworld after her speech. She Knows Too Much and can't be allowed to be arrested by the ISB. I disagree that keeping that secret would mean instant doom. After all, there are plenty of politicians who are privy to classified knowledge about black sites and top secret plans who manage to keep that sh*t under wraps in the real world. Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, et. al. were, as directly acknowledged in-series, basically counting on wealth, status, and public perception of them as upper-class twits offended by the very thought of violence to remain beneath suspicion as anything other than possible rebel sympathizers. Whether those plans could've been studied anywhere is doubtful.

They are on a tight leash. We're told directly that comings and goings from Yavin IV are strictly monitored, require authorization, and so on. We're directly shown that unscheduled/unapproved arrivals get intercepted and taken prisoner if they cooperate, and shot down if they don't. We also directly see General Draven chew out Cassian and his team for leaving without clearing the op they're headed out on for Luthen with command or filing a flight plan twice. It's strongly implied that Cassian's breach of regulations was only overlooked the first time because he had more or less singlehandedly rescued Mon Mothma from the Senate and delivered her safely to rebel agents after her speech denouncing the Emperor. The second time... even though he extracts a valuable rebel intelligence agent, his ship is escorted down by rebel fighters, he's greeted by a sizable unit ready to shoot him on sight, and is ultimately grounded and confined to quarters. Perhaps... but as we see in the series and in Rogue One, it's difficult to say "No" to the spoiled rich politicians who are literally bankrolling the Rebel Alliance's activities. Bail Organa does acknowledge that they were basically all supposed to go into hiding anyway and were relying on their status to keep them from being arrested and interrogated. Not using a codename for the base may be mildly excusable in the sense that one of Star Wars's favorite tropes is the idea that there are star systems so irrelevant or so far off the beaten path that they're either effectively unknown, forgotten about, or simply ignored on navigational charts.

Forgive me, but this doesn't quite make sense in context if you think about it. After all, the characters who know Yavin is the location of the Rebel Alliance's main base are all either: Alliance soldiers who are stationed on Yavin IV, and whose comings and goings are carefully policed by the Alliance's commanders. (e.g. Cassian, Melshi, K-2SO, Vel.) Rebel senators who are the Alliance's political leaders as well as its financial and logistical backers. (e.g. Mon Mothma, Bail Organa.) Luthen Rael and Kleya Marki, rebel organizers and spymasters who built the pre-Alliance rebel network from the ground up and without whom Yavin's base would not exist. O.G. rebel Saw Gerrera, leader of the first and most extreme anti-Imperial resistance and GFFA Not Getting Caught champion (20 BBY - 0 BBY) who only really uses that knowledge to periodically call Mon Mothma up and tell her she ain't sh*t. It might seem like "everyone knows", but that's only because everyone who's not an Imperial on the main cast is a highly placed rebel organizer or operative. Cassian, Bix, and Wilmon are basically Luthen's three best agents, K-2SO and Melshi are rebel soldiers at Yavin base in Cassian's unit, Kleya is Luthen's right hand man, and Mon Mothma and Bail Organa are the ones literally paying for it. The only folks who aren't part of that tight circle who ever hear about Yavin are the Maya Pei brigade, who end up there before the base was founded and get eaten by the local fauna, and Lonni who is shot dead within a few minutes of hearing the word for the first time before he can even get out of his seat. That's just truth in television.😆

Caught the second episode of Private Tutor to the Duke's Daughter... and oof, don't fail to miss it. It's developing exactly as I expected, as a low-effort lolicon harem series. Lord of Mysteries is also eminently skippable, as it turns out. The first new episode of My Dress-Up Darling dropped today, so that's some good news at least. Hm? You mean besides Legend of Crystania, Magical Warrior Louie (localized as Louie the Rune Soldier), and Record of Lodoss War: Next Generation? NGL, I actually rather like Louie for how incredibly irreverent it is as a fantasy series.

So, I have good news for you then... https://www.crunchyroll.com/news/latest/2025/7/4/gate-2-tides-of-conflict-tv-anime-announced There's a new Gate series coming.

Very happy to see that a third season of The Apothecary Diaries has been announced. Between that and the forthcoming fourth season of Ascendance of a Bookworm, the "weird girl with highly situational knowledge" crowd are going to be eating well indeed. Picked up a couple more of the Summer '25 simulcast offerings. Hopefully they'll have more to offer than the likes of New Saga or Private Tutor to the Duke's Daughter. Welcome to the Outcast's Restaurant! is yet another one of these isekai-adjacent form letter JRPG fantasy stories about a nice guy protagonist who finds himself being kicked out of The Strongest Adventurer Party because its leader is a cowardly and arrogant slimeball who clearly hasn't thought it through, and despite being a max level utterly broken demigod opts to leave his companions in the slimeball's care and quit adventuring altogether and go live a slow life boonies. Inevitably as the f***ing tides, the slimeball will slowly crash out during the season since he didn't realize how much he needed the protagonist while the protagonist lives his best life. It's nothing we haven't seen fifty times before over the last eight years. First impressions are that Welcome to the Outcast's Restaurant! is bland and inoffensive, lacking anything to really make it feel distinct in any sense. The Water Magician defies the trend of being isekai-adjacent j-fantasy in favor of just being a straight isekai story. 20 year old Ryou, a protagonist so generic he might as well have a barcode for a face, falls victim to legendary isekai serial killer Truck-kun and awakens to find himself in a featureless void with a being who professes to be an angel. He learns that he is to be reincarnated in a fantasy world, but not for any particular purpose, so he requests to live a slow life. The angel sets him up with a house in a peaceful area, several months of supplies, and leaves him to it after informing him he's compatible with water magic and leaving him a knife and two books on local flora and fauna. First impression... The Water Magician is unlikely to develop into anything interesting. The tropes it uses make it feel like its original web novel should be around a decade older than it is... apparently this series is from just five years ago, rather than the fifteen it feels like from how it's written. I was going to start Lord of Mysteries, but I realized after looking up its Wikipedia page that it's another bloody isekai and I'm overdosed on that trope for one night. Apparently this one is a Chinese isekai series instead of a Japanese one, with a fantasy Victorian England-inspired setting full of magic and steampunk instead of standard j-fantasy wilderness.

So, I decided to give New Saga a whirl... and it is as painfully generic as its title suggests. In a generic medieval j-fantasy world where Humanity has been at war with the forces of the Demon King for thousands of years, generic j-fantasy protagonist "Kyle" finally slays the Demon King but is fatally wounded in the process. As he lays dying, he touches a jewel guarded by the now-slain Demon King and awakens to find he has been sent back in time to four years before the invasion began. He must use his future knowledge to try to Save The World. Don't fail to miss it. In a world where we're increasingly worried about studios will be using generative AI to churn out poorly-composed, formulaic, derivative slop with no soul or value, there are still a few brave human authors who are unwilling to concede to GenAI tools in the writing quality race to the bottom. 😆

Is anyone really surprised? Every corporation worth a damn has spent the last year or so frantically trying to find a viable use-case for "AI" tools in their workflow and/or products because it's trendy and they're all terrified of being left behind should a competitor find a way to make the technology useful. Even companies or divisions where "AI" tools have no practical application or pose an enormous risk of leaking proprietary information. Lots of backpedaling going on there too lately. 'course the article's also been updated to say that it was an outside contractor using ChatGPT in violation of their contract. Admittedly, if you told me ChatGPT wrote Classic Stars, I'd absolutely believe it... it reads like AI slop.

Yeah, after a while they kind of run out of excuses... and even then it's not until UC 0096 and the aftermath of the Laplace Incident in Unicorn that the Federation bothers even trying to arrest anyone from Anaheim. It still doesn't stick in the end. Not that that gimmick doesn't get used... it's just not until like 10,000 years later in the Regild Century and Correct Century with the likes of Cumpa Rusita and Gym Ghingham trying to foment conflict because they firmly believe humanity needs it to survive and advance. Anaheim... eech... Anaheim just decided to be greedy in the stupidest way possible by absorbing assets from the dissolved Zeonic and Zimmad, making them an independent division within the company, and then trying to pretend they know nothing about the huge amount of war materiel that keeps falling off the back of a space truck anytime there's some Zeon remnant with dreams of starting sh*t.

Detectives These Days Are Crazy! is... certainly something. It's the story of a down-on-his-luck, chain-smoking, middle-aged private detective who was once hailed as a genius in his high school years who has spent most of his career barely making ends meet thanks to a spectacular case of gifted kid burnout. His rotten luck is changed when an extremely bossy teenage girl barges into his office with a years-old flyer demanding to be taken on as a part-time employee because she dreams of becoming a detective herself... and because his agency is closest to her house, so she won't have to commute as far. It's quite entertaining so far. I'm looking forward to more.