Author Journey (December 20, 2021)

Here we go again! It’s the holiday season and things are ramping up once more. Unfortunately, it’s not the thing we all wanted. At least, we all know the drill by now. Stay safe and be considerate of others.

December 20, 2021

#Blogging

My parents made it, and a day before rumours of Canada shutting down the borders. Not bad timing, although we just hope they can make it home when their vacation is over! It would be great having them around for the support. It’s been just me and the Mrs for the last two years as none of our family lives nearby, so any help is great. The most troubling sign is the foreboding feeling that schools will switch to virtual learning again after the holidays. Virtual school was a complete waste of everyone’s time last year, so I really hope things don’t pan out that way once more.

Seasonal Anime

• Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation
• Takt Op. Destiny
• The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat

Anyhow, back to the seasonal anime which is inching ever closer to the end of the season. Takt Op. Destiny managed to do something that I wasn’t expecting. It turned those that were enjoying it against it. I’m just glad as it was only a matter of time before they realised what a hot mess the writing in this series is. And all it took was a kiss. Ironically, as most fans were hurling abuse at the show, I was oddly enjoying the episode. It was still terrible, but I guess I had already accepted that it would be. The fans of the show were not ready to accept my viewpoint.

Then there’s Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation. I don’t know what to say about this series other than it is fantastic. If you’ve been sitting on the fence about watching it and you enjoy fantasy stories, I implore you to watch it. It’s not often that we get a show with real characters who are just trying to move forward in their lives. Finally, The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat managed to tug on the heartstrings this week and it wasn’t for Lugh or Dia. Tarte is the best girl and that’s a hill I’m willing to die on.

Historic Anime

• Heaven’s Lost Property
• Hundred
• Jujutsu Kaisen

This week, I covered the final episode of Heaven’s Lost Property. It wasn’t as strong as a lot of the other episodes and focused much more on the absurd comedy side of things, which of course, left a lot of balls still in the air in terms of the story. Jujutsu Kaisen also took an interesting turn this week by having the next stage of the interschool tournament be a baseball game. It was definitely a much-needed break after the previous arc. It’s a moment to catch your breath before what I believe to be the best arc in the season. Hold onto your seats! It was another great episode of Hundred, showcasing how you do ecchi comedy well. Keep it light, funny, and absolutely awkward.

#AmWriting

I’ve been on vacation this week which has meant that I haven’t sat down for more than fifteen minutes while the kids have been awake. Which is usually most of the day. With my parents here, I’ve had a chance to get on all those chores that I can’t do when it’s just us… That’s right… yeah, vacation!

The upside of all this is that stuff is getting done and when I go on my bedtime walk with Gus, I have lots of ideas. As you may remember, I am planning to write the first book of four different trilogies in 2022 and have been able to focus my thoughts on those. It doesn’t feel like actual work as I’m not getting much of it down as writing, but I like to think through the scenarios a lot.

That way, when I do get to sit down, it flows out of me much easier. Often, I’ll have bits of conversations and single moments in time crystallised in my head. From there, it’s easy to expand those into interesting scenes that move the story forwards, while developing characters, and foreshadowing future events.

#Planning

I mentioned how I wanted to come up with a system that would reduce the chances of another Takt Op. Destiny hampering my positive attitude and so far, I don’t have anything concrete. However, I did have an interesting moment that’s worth exploring more. I’ve said before how I was disappointed that Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba was going to slice up the Mugen Train movie to make it seven episodes.

Well, the next arc began a week ago – the Entertainment District Arc. I thought I would check it out, maybe even prepare some reviews. I watched the first episode which was a double-length one and even put together a review. I wasn’t sold on the series as it had a lot of annoying moments where the tone shifts so badly from dark to comedy that you can get whiplash.

However, I continued and watched episode two with the idea to continue reviewing, maybe a couple of weeks behind. I didn’t like it. The whiplash was really bad and to make matters even more annoying, I can’t help but look at it and think about the missed opportunity had this been a serious horror series. So, amazingly for me, I decided that I didn’t need that sort of frustration.

I will continue to watch it and will eventually put out a season review. I might even put together an opinion piece about the tonal shifts because I’m certain that I’m not the only one affected by it. However, I will not review it weekly. I deleted my post of episode one and I feel a lot better for doing so.

This isn’t a conclusive victory just yet, but it’s a step in the right direction for me. I now know that I can walk away when I need to. Admittedly, it was easier as I hadn’t published the review of the first episode. I don’t want to be posting too far behind, definitely not more than a week from the release date, but maybe I will be able to use this to better recognise the shows that will annoy me.

Well, I hope everyone has a great holiday season, whatever they are celebrating. Just make sure to stay safe and thanks again for reading.

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