Archive - Icons - Previous 5/18/26 Looks like it's going to be a light month for entries. I've been occupied with a lot of stuff. Did another interview today. Yeah, I don't think I'll be following up on that one. Some places, you just get the vibe and you're like, oh hell no. The LB/YT experiment has been coming along. It managed to help me refind something I saw on XHS once that I couldn't find again, haha. Still tweaking it to be better. I'm getting some junk in waves, but I'm being very aggressive with not interested and straight up blocking according to the rules I set for the experiment. Dropped some books off at the library we initially signed up as our main and it's so empty of actual books in there. What is there is like most used brick & mortal bookstores, full of the bottom of the barrel junk absolutely no one ever wanted to read kind of crap. We went to another library that turned out to be even closer to the house (I don't know how I missed it before) and they had a lot more books and much better ones too. I checked out five books to read: three short story collections, a poetry/prose collection, and a novel. I think I'll just keep going to that one. The biggest library in the county is mostly the biggest because it holds most of the counties records and they count that in its "book" number. A lot of the space of the library has been converted into "makerspace" junk of empty counters with no books. You can tell that was some gimmicky coroporate bullshit. So many books thrown out so libraries could add 3D printers patrons weren't even allowed to operate and had to pay for to use or pay for supplies. Money, money, money. They really thought 3D printers were going to be hot shit, but all they're mostly used for is novelty trash gifts no one wants. At one of my previous jobs (ed related), they had us buy these stupid expensive robots for STEM shit that no one knew how to use and ZERO kids had any interest in and this really expensive 3D printer NO ONE EVER USED. No one even knew how to use it and no one was ever trained on it. No supplies were bought for it. Meanwhile, they were penny-pinching us on hours and all kinds of bullshit. Such a waste. I love how the push for STEM stuff has always been done by people without STEM degrees just throwing bullshit at the wall to blow through a tight budget instead of...IDK, doing any research on anything. So much of the education field is corporate/business snake oil, terrible textbooks, and garden variety woo (learning styles, personality types, magic songs for education, all BULLSHIT, gifted kids are PSYCHIC lol remember that shit...it was still in teaching textbooks the late 00s and beyond, I could go on honestly...) Libraries often have the same problems of falling for obvious bullshit anyone familiar with whatever is being sold would see a mile away, but our current world revolves around pingeonholing everyone so we're easier to make suckers out of. Don't want any polymaths! They might smell the bullshit! It's my opinion every human on earth should strive towards being a polymath, for their own protection. Made some good progress on a story I was stuck on for months because I hated where it was going. I think I'll be able to get through that part pretty soon so I can move on to much more interesting chapters in the story. I kept wanting it to go a different way, but that's just not how the characters are leading it. It's gotta be how it's gotta be. I'm still sick. Still coughing from time to time. That's about the only real symptom left, beyond general tiredness. Mao is taking forever to get to the other characters. I forgot how long that too. Finally, next week we get Hyakka, Kamon, and Sana! 5/8/26 Finally got around to archiving last month. I've been...busy. I'll get into that in another entry at some point when things are more settled. It's been quite a week. The other day, I finally sat down and read Maison Ikkoku. I don't care much for Rumiko's early stuff. The characters and plots drive me up the wall. It's like LOUD NOISES ~titties~ ACTION. But a lot of people have said this one was a really mature work with lots of adult themes and godo het romance, possibly the best het romance in manga. So, I figured okay, maybe this one's different like a lot of her shorter works. Hahaha, no. LOUD NOISES ~titties~ ACTION. That sums it up. Lots of sexual harassment too, even from the main character and so much creepy leering from so many male characters toward the romantic interest. There's just something so specifically slimey about this manga. And that's not getting into all the times the regular ass dog is used for sexual comedy and I don't mean in the haha dog humping someone's leg kind of way. I'm sure it was mostly for shock value more than anything, which feels like a lot of her early work can be summed up as loud, sexually charged, violent shock comedy. (Haha, I'm not even trying to make a Lum reference there.) There were some bits underneath it all that were interesting, but there's just so much ick in the whole thing that it's hard for me to enjoy. For all the fanservice on women, you can definitely tell a Japanese woman wrote it though. The adult women feel very much like they could be at home in a nihilistic josei. Reminds me of the dynamic you'd see in CLAMP stuff. Girls are wild and strong and powerful, adult women are subdued and submissive or evil, unless they're kinda skanky maybe then they might have a little bite but it's because they're not "proper" women. A lot of women in CLAMP don't feel very powerful in their own right, and I feel like a lot of josei hits that same thing too. I'm sure it's something to do with Japanese women feeling the pressure of society, and that not fully hitting during the teen years or the teen years being nostalgicly seen as a freer time and all, but it makes for a depressing read how many women in a lot of Japanese media seem to be moved more by the men around them and the plot than being active forces. I don't remember waht josei this was, but it sticks out in my mind. This dude was basically badgering this woman, and is the ultimate endgame romance, and there's a point where after he pushes for a lot of interaction between them where she's mentally thinking "I guess I'll have to have sex with him eventually" and it's like...you...you know you can just...not do that, right? So creepy. And yes, of course she does. I find a lot of josei works I've read struggle to come up with happy endings even with an obvious way to do so, and even when they do, oh here's a special extra chapter that undones the happy ending. Because a lot of these women really, really need to go to therapy. A lot of other female characters are just "mom" types. There's a baby, so out goes the whole personality. Not josei related, but damn poor Videl in Super. One of the many reasons GT was better. Videl still had a personality despite having a kid! Back to Maison Ikkoku, I was told the ending was really good, amazing, blah blah blah. The ending is just and everyone lived heterosexually ever after, babies babies. That's it. It literally goes sitcom ending style, "and here's the random character this character is paired off with, and here's how many babies these two had, and here's the babies for these two", etc. I mean, yeah, it's at least a happy ending. But it's the most bland, predictable one possible. But hey, it's a lot happier than whatever the fuck most josei shits out. I'd give it a 4/10 in terms of ending. It feels so sitcom-y. Actually, the skeevy stuff aside, this whole manga feels like a sitcom that would air in that 7PM time slot. I tried watching the anime because some people said they toned down the fanservice stuff, but it was actually more obnoxious to watch than to read. And there was still loads of skeevy fanservice. I don't necessarily mind some fanservice, but goddamn the amount of time in just the first episode dedicated to the "camera" view staying focused on women's asses. Not even impressive asses either though, which was kind of funny. Damn, Miss fanservice for the series got a pancake ass going on. Like you made me stare at this ass for that long and there ain't even anything going on back there either? Why? Speaking of her, I did think it was hilarious that this woman is just perpetually nipples out at home. This part didn't skeeve me out because it's not really done in a weird, leering way. She just don't give a fuck. And I mean, dudes get to be shirtless. If a woman wants to walk around topless, I don't see why not. She's technically wearing a nightie, but it's see through and the manga and anime's like yep, everyone can see this one's nipples all the time. Building manga shows up, tits out. Guests over, tits out. Actual landlord, tits out. At some point, it's not shocking because it's so constant you just forget about it. I didn't dislike all of the characters. They feel mostly really dated at this point (and one dude is just disgusting with his sexual harassment and creepy behavior) and the skeevy parts of the fanservice is gross. It's not sexy, it's just weird most of the time. I didn't find the romance itself all that mature or interesting. It never goes anywhere too deep, because it focuses more on comedy. Overall, it reminded me most of Ranma, but was definitely more tolerable to read through. God, Ranma 1/2 and Urusei Yatsura are some of the most obnoxious pieces of manga/anime I have ever attempted to read or watch. I was pretty sad when Rinne ended up leaning more into being a comedy series. I just don't think Rumiko is good at comedy, and what good is in her comedy works is strangled by her really terrible comedy. I love that Mao barely has any at all. In the early part of the series, where you can tell she hadn't sorted out the vibe yet, there's some attempts at comedy and they land poorly. Since the series has gone in a completely serious, dark mystery direction, it's been so much better. The Inuyasha manga was always better than the anime also in part because there is less comedy and a lot darker elements in it. Post season two, the anime just tones things down more and more and adds in lots of "comedy" that's not really there. (A lot of people's complaints about Inuyasha are primarily anime-only, or were significantly less common in the manga.) Of course, there's the elephant in the room with Yashahime. God, creepy side aside (I don't even need to say what), you can tell that plot was made up by the anime staff. It has all the problems of the shitty IY movies and the shittiest filler episodes. Just pure trash. And clearly a few people on staff are pedos. Been thinking about how Rumiko specifically required there was no upskirts with Kagome, and then the mangaka they got for Yashahime changed Moroha's outfit specifically so he could do upskirt shots of her. Disgusting. I do wonder how much of the ick fanservice Rumiko really wanted in her works. She was a woman working in a male dominated field writing mostly for boys where she wouldn't have had to much power yet. Kagome herself has some nudity in IYs manga, but I've noticed since at least Rinne, a lot of the fanservice and nudity with girls has been heavily pushed out of her works. Given the thing with Kagome in the anime, I wonder if she ever really wanted any of that stuff in there and that was just part of the how you survived that industry. Who knows. Mao cerrtainly didn't have gore toned down in it, so it's not like her works overall just became more kid-friendly. Recently rewatched Excel Saga too, and wow, that really did not age well. The last episode especially just kind of made me sick. Looking back at some other popular works in that time period, there's a whole lot of "comedy" from that era that's really not aged well. Didn't think I'd sour on Excel Saga, but I've kind of avoided a rewatch for a while out of nostalgic reasons. Also, another LOUD NOISES kind of show right there. So much anime comedy from the past is BEING REALLY LOUD and then EXTREME SLAPSTICK VIOLENCE with some boobies thrown in. That really was just THE formula for a long time. Alongside weird pedo shit being everywhere. I remember when I was in my twenties doing a rewatch of GTO and I just stopped right at the start. Holy shit. Adult man becaomes teacher because he wants to see underage girl panties. Gokusen was another tossed in the garbage one. There's so much you don't think is weird when you're sixteen because you aren't old enough yet to understand why it's messed up yet. Feel like my pool of watchable anime will continue to dwindle as I get older. Haha, I say with my K Project section of my site. Sigh. I don't remember where I heard this or if I saw it as a commment when someone was describing anime they liked but having to make caveats about the occasional weird shit in it and it was something like "why do you sound like you're in an abusive relationship with your anime". And that's over the top, but damn. So much stuff is like "hey this is a fun show with great animation and interesting characters you just have to ignore the UNDERAGE PANTYSHOTS and PEDO relationships and RANDOM INCEST but other than that it's really good". Sigh. Of course, even the "wholesome" stuff isn't safe, when you did into the history of a lot of those directors. Surprise, more pedos! I've gone way off topic. Anyway, Maison Ikkoku sucks ass. Archive - Icons - Previous