The argument of "just watch subs" falls flat when they're using AI to do soulless subtitling too.

Jesus fuck I hate AI so much. The other day Google AI literally gaslit me. I remembered a joke I had heard in a movie but couldn't remember the movie title. Google used to be really good at this kinda thing so I Googled it. The results were wrong and the AI was like "It's Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates".

Now, I've never seen Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates so I knew that couldn't be the movie so I told it "no that's not it". And what did the AI do? Did it say "oh, well then maybe it's this?" Did it say it didn't know? No, it doubled down insisting it MUST be Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates.

I COMMANDED it to stop suggesting it was Mike and Dave because it was definitely not it and it STILL kept saying that was the movie.

So I asked ChatGPT. Yeah, I know it's another AI but I was at my wits end here and Google was undeniably wrong. Anyway, ChatGPT figured it out instantly.

So I went back to Google and was like, "ChatGPT figured it out. It was 'The Art of Racing in the Rain' you stupid AI."

Rather than admit it was wrong, Google then gaslit me saying I was misremembering the movie and that it was Mike and Dave Nerd Wedding Dates.

I was furious so I told Google to prove it to me. Then it got all vague like, "well, I searched my database and web records." I asked for the specific records. It gives me a link to the movie script for Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates on some website. I do a simple word search and do not find the joke anywhere in the script. Nothing even remotely close.

When I point this out to Google it was like" well, maybe it was adlibbed or not in that early version if the script, but it's in discussions of the movie so I know I'm right."

"Show me these discussions"

"Sorry, there are no discussions"

"So you hallucinated the whole thing and completely made it up?"

"Yes"

Fuck you, Google.

Imagine if they found the one piece in 1045.

Sorta. Each book is about $10-15, which isn't a lot by itself. But A full series can be dozens of volumes which quickly adds up. And you can consume it at a pretty rapid pace.

Created an Ani.Social account SPECIFICALLY to talk about this episode. OMG, what a masterpiece of animation and storytelling.

At the start, we care very little about Acrobatic Silky. At the end of the episode, we care about Acrobatic Silky so much it brings tears to our eyes. All without lengthy dialogue or any narrative exposition. And the visuals... just mindblowing.

So much media uses cheap tricks to try to convey drama or pull at the audience's heartstrings. Dan Da Dan achieves it with quality storytelling.

The opening argument between Momo and Aira reminded me of Get Smart or maybe FLCL. It was just so wacky with giant text across the screen as they talked with their mouths full.

Then this majesty happens:

I love how for Okarun, getting his ball back is a big deal but everyone else is just messing with him, especially Turbo Granny.

Then we get the love-triangle story arch with a "No, I won't listen to you and will keep the misunderstanding going" trope. It's interesting that Aira went from making fun of Okarun to falling for him. Okarun harem incoming?

At the end of the last episode, it was pretty clear that Aira was going to get powers from Acrobatic Silky. But I love how they introduced it with just enough going on that it comes as a bit of a surprise. And damn does she look cool.

Oh, and how they used the water ripples to build tension between Not-Godzilla and Momo. Jurassic Park levels of tension build there.

I hate the boys and girls can’t be friends trope that pops up in media.

Same. I think if the title was just "Can Friendship Between Men and Women Exist?" it would be fine since it's leaving it open, but the "(No, it doesn't!)" answer spoils it.

Also, I feel like the characters look just like characters from another anime. Or it could just be that they're so generic as to be indistinguishable from other blue-hair anime girls/black hair anime boy.

Giving me Ossan Newbie Adventurer vibes. Or my Daughter Left the Nest and returned an S rank adventurer. Will have to check it out.

Cool. I remember how much this anime blew my mind back in the day.

Nice. Season 1 was a very pleasant surprise.

It's funny because you can tell when an anime is from a Japanese light novel or not based on the length of the title.

Solo-Leveling: Korean Light Novel

True Beauty: Korean Webtoon

Blue Lock: Japanese Manga

A Sign of Affection: Japanese Manga

Oshi No Ko: Japanese Manga

Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon: My Trusted Companions Tried to Kill Me, But Thanks to the Gift of an Unlimited Gacha I Got LVL 9999 Friends: Japanese Light Novel

Banished from the Hero's Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside: Japanese Light Novel

My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me!: Japanese Light Novel

IIRC it's because the dominant Japanese light novel website doesn't do descriptions well so the authors make the title the description.

A few tried to have a normal title AND a description in the title.

Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells: Japanese Light Novel

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest: Japanese Light Novel

Oh nice. I like this silly and wholesome slice-of-life meets fantasy anime. And it doesn't even have a stupid name like, "That One Time I Got Sold to a Demon by my Wicked Parents but the Demon is actually now my Loving Grandfather... As Long As I Don't Let Anyone Know I'm Actually A Human As They'll Kill Me For Sure!"

Oh, I love 86, but it is very emotionally intense. You're in for one wild ride. But don't worry, it's not all downers. Hedgehog dilemma is definitely an appropriate metaphor.

Oh man, it's so hard to pick just one. I'd probably have to go with Mem-cho from Oshi No Ko. It's not just her looks either. Her entire personality is cute.

A strong runner up is Kanna Kamui from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. She's absolutely adorable.

I hate that I know exactly what this is from...

Suzu and Kaede will always be together.

I never thought Turbo Granny would be a main character but it's so freaking cool having her along for the ride!

I'm getting Hi-Score Girl vibes. Definitely going to watch this.

Yeah, they're all these hypothetical arguments about perverts in public bathrooms that statistically never happen. FFS, gender neutral bathrooms exist without issues in many places. I remember one particularly stupid argument someone was making about wanting to protect their daughter and I was just like "wait, your argument is that you want to ban yourself from going into the bathroom with her? Did you even think this through? Because even in your fantasy land that doesn't make sense"

They need a black car so they can form Voltron.

I went ahead and finished up by binge of Reincarnated as a Sword getting through books 13, 14, and 15. It was actually my first time reading Book 15 and I had forgotten a lot of the things that had happened in 14 so re-reading that was good refresher.

Anyway, wow Book 15 was such a wild ride! There was definitely hints of stuff happening in book 14 to set up book 15 but when 15 hit it was SO FREAKING COOL! A huge chunk of the story was devoted to Teacher and Fran's relationship. Is he a sword first, or a guardian first? We had seen some hints of this before in the Fanatix arc but it really took center stage for the Magic Academy arc.

::: spoiler Minor Spoiler Fanatix went insane because a human soul shouldn't be kept in a sword. Yet Teacher is a human soul in a sword! But that's exactly why the God's sealed away his memories; so he wouldn't miss being a human that much and therefore wouldn't lose his sanity.

Some timey wimey stuff also happens, and I'm always a big fan of stuff like that. :::

::: spoiler Major Spoiler The timey wimey stuff allows us to see another timeline where things turned out different from the current timeline. Some characters were sent back in time and they changed the course of events. In the other timeline, Fran was a lot stronger! So much stronger that she won the tournament, unlocked godbeast form, and could even wield the Evil One's power inside Teacher. Teacher himself also became a Godsword! Except this alternate timeline Fran was miserable because Teacher ended up losing his humanity and Jet ended up dying.

It was super SUPER cool seeing this "what if" scenario, even if we only caught glimpses of it. :::

So yeah, seeing how things came together at the end, how all the pieces fit together in the end to create something new... just super cool. We got to see a LOT of different character's secrets too and meet some new faces along the way.

On a side note, book 15 confirmed that Season 2 of Reincarnated of a Sword would be coming. Since season 1 was books 1 and 2, I bet season 2 will be books 3 and 4, so still no tournament arc. Oh well.

Anyway, I finally got the first book of Bookworm and started reading it, so look forward to that next time.

I spent WAAAAAY too much time on MyAnimeList narrowing down my choices. I felt like there wasn't a whole lot of suspense anime to pick from, and Adventure wasn't a category. I also thought Isekai/Reincarnation would get its own category but I guess we can just lump that in with Fantasy for the most part.

Seriously though, in some categories I had a really hard time narrowing it down to just 3, and in others I left spots blank simply because there wasn't much I had seen in that category at all. I guess that's normal though.