astromantic

毎日grind, 毎日rhymes

Author: astromantic

  • Spring ’24

    Spring ’24

    Me? Writing a drama roundup post? We are so back! A little late, but better than never.

    (more…)
  • Music Rotation #2

    Music Rotation #2

    TV Asahi recently surveyed 1,740 overseas anime fans to determine their favorite anime theme songs and Oricon News shared the top 20 here. The results are interesting… I think there’s a lot of recency bias going on. Idol and SPECIALZ over Tank! is crazy. A Cruel Angel’s Thesis is well placed. I have never watched Evangelion (and won’t) but it’s a classic that I listen to regularly.

    (more…)
  • Ore wa Shinjimatta ze! (fin.)

    Ore wa Shinjimatta ze! (fin.)

    One day, Sakurada Kazuhiko, a host at a club who was run over by a garbage truck, notices himself at the scene of an accident and staring at his own body. Sakurada realizes that the people around can’t see or hear him, but encounters another ghost (Momo) who takes him a ghost “sharehouse”, which is actually a rundown soba store. Besides Momo, there’s Saki (former nurse), Rin (high school girl), Sen no Rikyu (that one), and the living owner of the soba store who, despite being human, seems to notice their existence.

    Before watching, there’s a few conditions you should accept first:

    1. Ghosts in this universe exist in an in-between state until they can come to terms with their past life and move on to Nirvana. Makes sense.
    2. Ghosts can communicate with the dead and the living. Believe it or not, ghosts have cellular service providers lol
    3. There are some limits, but ghosts can also interact with the living and vice versa.1

    If you can live with all that, this is the drama for you!

    (more…)
  • Now Playing #8: The Great Ace Attorney

    Now Playing #8: The Great Ace Attorney

    That’s a bar.

    I’m so glad I waited until I could dedicate some time to play this game. I last tried to start it in in April 2022, but couldn’t make it past the first case for some reason. Well, I know the reason. Tutorial cases are a slog! I ended up getting just past where I stopped last time, and it gets so much better after that.

    (more…)
  • Music Rotation #1

    Music Rotation #1

    When I was a young(er) person on the internet learning more about j-pop, my lifelines were the various mp3 rotations scattered around self-hosted domains on the web. Eventually those died out (who even has a personal website anymore? haha… 😬) and transitioned to places like LJ. Of course, they were legally dubious, but fans had to do what they had to do back then.

    These days you can stream just about anything, which is great, but playlists don’t really hit like the old mp3 rotations do. So I thought it would be pretty cool to share on a regular basis all the current stuff I’m listening to.

    No playlist, just YouTube links. But you can find these songs on your favorite streaming services.

    (more…)
  • A year in anime (2020-2023).

    A year in anime (2020-2023).

    I started watching Netflix like a lot of other people at the height of the pandemic. But, like I had mentioned before, this translated into watching a lot of anime. A lot a lot. Renewed-my-Crunchyroll-subscription-a lot.

    (more…)
  • Trip Report #1: Persona 25th FES in Osaka

    Trip Report #1: Persona 25th FES in Osaka

    (“New” series! But this might be the first and last one because I don’t know what else is going on for me to visit 😂)

    I may not be the biggest Persona fan… but I’m still a big fan! I happened to be going to Osaka when I first saw the announcement on Siliconera, so I had to do whatever I could do go, even if it meant going immediately after spending most of my morning in another city. It was a looooong day, lol. I think the way it worked was that you had to get tickets the day of, so that morning I went to a Lawson convenience store and bought my ticket there. I wanted to get the limited edition goods, so I went for the more expensive option (~$30).

    (more…)
  • Now Playing #7: Pokémon Violet, Part 1

    Now Playing #7: Pokémon Violet, Part 1

    Sharing my thoughts a whole year later, but with the DLC out this is still pretty relevant to… whoever cares. Haha

    (more…)
  • Now Playing #6: Pokémon Shield

    Now Playing #6: Pokémon Shield

    A few words on SwSh… I wrote all of this on a particularly inspired night in December 2022 and I had to get this post off before I can talk about Violet!

    (more…)
  • A year in dramas (2021-2023)

    A year in dramas (2021-2023)

    Better late than… yeah, nevermind.

    2021

    JAPAN
    Cold Case 3*
    Ore no Ie no Hanashi
    Rikokatsu
    Talio Fukushu Daikou no Futari*
    Zenra Kantoku (Naked Director)*
    Zenra Kantoku (Naked Director) 2
    Raise de wa Chanto Shimasu*
    30-sai made Doutei da to Mahouzukai ni Nareru rashii (Cherry Magic)*
    #Cold Game
    Ichikei no Karasu

    2022 and 2023 under the cut.

    KOREA
    D.P.
    Squid Game
    Hellbound

    (more…)