Hazbin Hotel - Season 2 #
Once again, a musical theater masterpiece with spectacular animation and character designs. Loved every second.
10/10
PS. Gravity is an absolute fucking banger.
Managed to upgrade hugo and my blowfish theme in one fell swoop. It doesn’t help that I have customized branches for both (and for hugo I need to produce an ARM binary for local development and x86-64 binary for CI deployment). I almost gave up a few times, but glad I pushed through to the end.
Having to use a custom build of your static blogging engine always has me eyeing the greener grass on the other side of the fence. If I were to start from scratch at this point, eleventy would probably be my first choice, but that requires a huge amount of work at this point. It would be less daunting if I was starting something from square one, but having a back catalog using at least three different file structures and frontmatter conventions… just, ugh.
And if I’m being honest, if I truly was starting from square one I would probably go with a self-hosted ghost setup, so I could keep using Ulysses for writing.
Look Back #
How bad do you want it? Will you do what it takes? What does art mean to you?
This film is a love letter to what it means to create. The animation is raw, visceral, and incredibly moving. Highly recommended, but give yourself some extra time to sit with the experience after it’s over (you will definitely need it).
9/10
Seishun Buta Yarou wa Santa Claus no Yume wo Minai #
After a quick detour through three movies, Bunny Girl Senpai is back for a cour (before diving right back into another movie). I enjoyed the mysteries in this season, as well as the new university setting. The links back to Sakuta’s elementary school days felt a bit tenuous (let’s explore new friends and relationships) but the formula works for me.
8/10
Ruri no Houseki #
The folks at Studio Bind are just flexing at this point — this show felt like an animation showcase. Ernest and interesting, this quintessential slice-of-life story was a fantastic show for the summer season.
8/10
DanMachi - Season 5 #
Not quite as good as Season 4, but entertaining nonetheless. It’s not often you zag away from your harem troupes to explicitly reject one of the interests. The events of Season 5 is about where I exhaust my hazy knowledge of the source material, so I’m going in blind from here on out.
7/10
Lycoris Recoil: Friends are thieves of time #
All the charm of the first season in an appetizer form to hold us over until they hopefully announce Season 2. Waiting with bated breath.
9/10
Re:ZERO Season 3 #
More excellent villains, but a little less character growth than we saw last season. Unfortunately, it will probably be another year or two before we get Season 4, so nothing to do but wait patiently.
9/10
KPop Demon Hunters #
Unbelievable amounts of fun! Great music and dance choreography that I’m sure will be replicated all year. Perfect summer faire.
10/10
