Sledgstone

Funimation put up Your Name. I remember all the hype behind this film and how it it became the highest grossing anime at the box office. After watching it, it was kinda a letdown. I mean it wasn't bad, but Spirited Away is immensely superior to this movie. Its worth watching, but I wouldn't grade it above a solid straight to Netflix feature.

The French Open... freakin' Tennis out of all things is going to cause a 2 week delay for Fruits Basket, literally the highlight of my Fridays. UGH I can't blame Cartoon Network this time....

I started Revisions on Netflix. The first episode has awful and janky CGI but it gets a lot better after that. The premise is great, but for fucks sake the main character is so damn annoying. He makes Asta from Black Clover look like a good character. Mecha series have the absolute worst main characters the majority of the time. I just don't get it. Mikazuki Augus, Sousuke Sagara, Lelouch Vi Britannia, and Van of the Dawn are the only ones I can think of that I've ever liked. But here we don't have your typical emotionless husk, or pacifist crybaby... you'd only wish for that once you meet Daisuke Dojima. He's ultra full of himself and a selfish idiot. Holy cow he should be a side character. All his friends aren't that great either as they all bicker with Daisuke's douchness. Why am I even watching this?

Netflix put Code Geass up. Rewatching it reminded me what a badass Cornelia was (ultra best girl), and how savage Euphemia's death was. Damn it was so gut wrenching. It will always be the moment I'll never forget about the series. 
Also, how I yearn for a return drawn mecha battles. Even the most degraded model quality in motion is so much better than wonky slow CGI. The Lancelot is such an awesome design. 

I"m loving owning a lawn tractor. I've used it only twice so far, but its great. I can get my entire lawn mowed in just under an hour and a half. The cup holder seems so pointless.. lawn tractors don't have shocks, its only the seat that has springs to save you from getting your ass and back wrecked.. I could only imagine someone putting a beer in that cup holder and driving off on the yard, that beer would last maybe 20 seconds before its all over the tractor.  Now I need to buy a weed trimmer to trim around the trees and the ditch.. and 3 ceiling fans. I hate the light fixtures in 3 rooms. Time for an upgrade.

The Warclaw mount is the best thing to ever happen to WvW, at least for casuals like myself. You can't be trolled by roamers making YT montages, you can escape fights you don't want to be in, and you can get back to the action pretty fast if you die in a zerg v zerg fight. It eliminated the downtime of a boring long trek back to the front lines that could have ended up in death before you even got there. That was the biggest turn off of WvW for me. Also, with how many people are running support firebrand, scourge, and chrono, the heals are so good I rarely die with my glass cannon PvE builds. I can see myself starting to farm some more gifts of battle now, and actually enjoy it rather than seeing it as a chore.

Hands down, tonight's episode of GoT was their crowning achievement. I can't see the last 3 eps topping it. Simply incredible.

Finished Ultraman on Netflix, the story was good but it left too much unanswered... and the biggest travesty was the CGI. Holy cow it was wildly inconsistent and mostly all bad. The distance shots looked like some PS1 stuff, like they didnt know what shading was. They spent all the money on the final fight which was awesome, and then the last few minutes got really bad.

I never watched the original Fruit Basket because the description just sounded too silly. The premise of all anime is that at least one of the protagonists has a flaw. Luffy can't swim, Inuyasha turns human on the full moon, etc. I just generally dislike when a flaw is so overwhelming it's a massive inconvenience. BUT Since the simuldub started Friday I'll be watching the reboot. It seems to have a huge following and the first ep was quite good.

Watched Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse tonight and I have to say the movie was spectacular and definitely lived up to all the hype surrounding it. Probably one of my favorite superhero movies now and I fully understand why it won an Oscar.
Story was great from start to finish, though I really don't know what to think of the animation style it certainly worked in this movies favor (a little jarring at first but I was definitely starting to feel it toward the end), and while I'm not usually into the music used into the show I have to say the soundtrack is fucking awesome. Kinda wish I would of went to see this in the theater but that didn't really diminish my enjoyment of the movie.
Really hope we get another one like this (seems there is a sequel of sorts in the works and a few spin-offs as well) because it definitely deserves one. I also have to say the Spider-Man Noir is probably going down as my favorite Spider-Man.

Anthem isn't perfect. It probably should have been delayed another 6-8 months, but its a hell of a lot of fun. I just find it funny how Destiny can rack up big review scores with the similar issues and significantly less content. The popular thing to do right now is crap on EA, and its justified... but it'll be a shame if this game gets the plugged pulled on it early. There is a lot of potential here to fill the gap until the next gen consoles come. Arekkz has the most realistic take on the game, the rest of the YT community is just spitting out talking points which is kinda sad too see since they're suppose to be the alternate to big game sites.

Totally hyped for the new expansion for FFXIV, Shadowbringers, after this mornings announcements at the Fan Fest in Paris. We're getting a 24-man raid devoted to Nier called YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse and Yoko Taro is overseeing its creation, fucking sweet. It's supposed to further the Nier story as well (and if the concept art is to be believed it's sometime after the Automata storyline).
Say what you will about FFXIV but god damn do we get some awesome shit due to Square-Enix properties and their connections. I just fucking hope I can finally get my 2B glamour I've been wanting for my character. This just mean I need to quit being lazy and beat Automata before October (when this should probably launch since the expansion comes out in July).

I finished Fate/Zero and I'm into season two of Fate/Stay. I really hate how Saber keeps getting screwed over. She's such a nice and honorable character. :( I'm waiting for her overdue redemption.

2018 was an interesting year. Here are my picks for best of the year.
Game of the Year
God of War
Runners up GOTY
Red Dead Redemption 2
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana
Anime of the Year
Violet Evergarden
Runners up AOTY
Mob Psycho 100
My Hero Academia
Movie of the Year
Deadpool 2
Runners up MOTY
Ready Player One
Avengers: Infinity War
Podcast of the Year
The Joe Rogan Experience
Runner up PCOTY
83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff
Biggest Letdown of 2018
Diablo Immortal Announcement
Runner up BLOTY
Battlefield V

Happy new year!

So after counting the cash and gift cards I got for my birthday in Oct and for Christmas I finally just broke down and ordered a Switch today all because I want the new Smash Brothers (damn you Nintendo, why do you do this to me. You know I have an obsession with SSB).
So yeah, I now get to start the journey of being a Switch owner (I just wish it didn't cost so much freaking money x.x).

I remember when I use to be a huge fighting game fan. I always like to read about the old series I use to play. Apparently 2B is way too strong in Soul Calibur 6. She launched yesterday and people are crying about her already... I'm like no shit, shes OP as hell in the game shes from. I called it when I saw the trailer. I honestly wish she'd be a new Smash Bros character.
 

Black friday sales started early so I bought a 4k HDR 50 inch samsung tv. I'm pleased with it. The blacks this tv gets still blows my mind. I doubt I'll buy a PS4pro, but in the mean time my regular PS4 has HDR.. but I only have one game that actually takes advantage of it and thats Uncharted 4. I don't think I'll be replaying it any time soon just to see the graphical difference, but regardless this tv upscales like a champ. Everything looks significantly better. Thats a hell of a lot better upscaling than blu ray players do for dvds. Its a night and day difference.
I put on Rise of the Tomb Raider last night and Battlefield 1 and the quality is top notch. Game mode works with HDR for this tv, so I can put on game mode for reduced input lag which is nice without affecting quality. It also has bitstream audio pass through which works great with my old receiver for surround sound.
The tv has Motion rate 120 instead of true 120 hz refresh rate which I didn't know was a different thing when I was buying the tv. But thats ok, I doubt the PS5 when it eventually comes out will even come close to 60 fps at 4k and my current pc graphics card will no way in hell do any better than 60 fps at 4k so I'm pretty much set for future proofing at the moment.. at least for the next 4-5 years probably. And motion rate 120 is a bit nuts. I had to turn the judder down on that. It makes everything so fluid its like everything was filmed like a soap opera.  I never realized more fps on a movie would look so different.  But the biggest downside is for animated titles. It cause a bit too much of a blur effect as the tv basically fills in the games to increase the fps.. its not good for animated shows.

R.I.P. Stan Lee. You will be missed.

R.I.P. Stan Lee. You will be missed.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a testament to what single player games can be when you spend years developing them rather than 1-2 years and throw them out there with endless sequels. It would take me a few hours to hammer out my initial thoughts on this game. The level of detail is truly spectacular. My one concern was having to juggle all the health/stamina and weapon maintenance, but somehow Rockstar made it very uncumbersome to where its there, but you don't really have to worry about it every few minutes... I've gone hours without having to rest or use consumables. I've found myself getting lost in just tracking/hunting for hours. The amount of random side content is astonishing. After I get off work tomorrow, I'll have a whole week to dive into it and get lost. I'm really looking forward to it.

With the summer simuldub season coming to a close, it played out like I predicted more or less. I'll wait a bit longer before I post my review. Pretty lackluster overall. But for me, the Fall Lineup is pretty stacked. Fairy Tail, SAO Season 3, and Black Clover continues which has become a lot more promising after this last arc I just watched... by far its strongest and most compelling. I watched the first episode of Double Decker! Doug & Kirill which was entertaining, and SSSS.GRIDMAN seems to be a Pacific Rim clone. Overall a return to more action adventure series, and lighter on the fan service heavy series.

Finally got our house today. All the legal paperwork is done and keys in hand.

Finally got our house today. All the legal paperwork is done and keys in hand.

The last two chapters of One Punch Man have been the best action/fight scenes I've seen in a manga in years. Flashy Flash's fight was epic and focused on speed and technique. Huge props to the artist for how he drew a speed battle in manga form. Very impressive.