Binged on Frieren. I really like the more subdued style of storytelling than the usual over-the-top style that animes usually are. This is why it’s hard for me to try shonen animes again (unlike it’s Hunter X Hunter, HXH will always be in my heart)
Nice to emphasise the difference of perception of time between an Elf and others. I like that
i swear down, yeah, she’s gonna go through all these adventures to reminisce only to realised that shes married to Himmel this whole time 
Yeah, nice premise, but I hate the ways they infantilise Frieren and contradict things.
I was just watching a TV news story about a new animated Middle Earth film, telling a story preceding the LOTR trilogy.
Reporters, repeatedly: “There’s never been an animated film in the LOTR franchise before!”
Me: “You mean apart from the animated film of LOTR?”
I mean… I know it’s not very well regarded, and was only half of the story; but it certainly exists.
GASP I will not stand for this ignoring of Ralph Bakshi!
There’s also the Rankin & Bass version of Return of the KIng.
Huh, why are the IMDB previews coming up in German?
If anyone fancies an intersting watch about the Ralph Bakshi film:
Because the server fetches them itself, and the server is in Germany, so IMDb sees a German IP address as the source of the query.
I infiltrated IMDB
I binged on Apothecary Diaries on crunchyroll this week. It’s just 24 episodes of 20 minutes each. Lots of gratuitious female assets but that was to be expected when there are courtesans and concubines… … I really enjoyed the snarky apothecary, her poison addiction and the way her looks can make sparkle guy’s charm go away 
I also liked how most of the mysteries tied together. Another season is announced for next year, I think I’ll watch that, too. It’s definitely on the light-weight side, perfect for binging quickly.
We are also almost finished with the Alabsta ark of One Piece and will then take a bit of a break to explore some more of the watchlist we created.
I watched Black Doves on Netflix and it is a very silly, pulpy London spy / crime series that was a lot of fun (by the guy who did the amazing Haji/Giri).
Then I watched Interior Chinatown on Disney+ (or Hulu for those who have Hulu) and it’s genius. In the running for best show of the year. Absolutely loved it, watch the first two episodes and see what you think.
We watched the first series of Ludwig, a detective drama/farce starring David Mitchell as a puzzle designer investigating his police detective twin brother’s disappearance by secretly taking his place – and getting regularly distracted by all the murders that his new police colleagues expect him to investigate.
It’s fun! The case solving does lean rather heavily on the murderer confessing, but that doesn’t spoil the enjoyment.
Jonathan Creek is an obvious comparison in a number of ways, and while the puzzles here seem less robust to me, I think that if you enjoyed that then you ought to give this a go.
I’ve been on a crunchy roll lately…
We’ve hit the 150s in our attempt to watch all of One Piece. I think this part is called the Sky Island Arc.
In the meantime I have watched a bunch of shorter anime:
All of these are pretty easy to binge through. I seem to have a thing for those “reincarnated as” stories. Or maybe my brain just needs a break from everything.
Tv-Tropes is terrible at putting major developments behind spoiler tags. My fault. I knew this before I went to check out details on tropes about snarky AI companions. Of course I also have the ability to spot the super-spoiler instantly. Every time.
Finished Squid Games 2. I tried to do one episode a night, but ended up binging episodes 3-5 one night and just did 6-7 last night. I don’t think the following is spoilery, but …
I watched the canonical film-noir Double Indemnity, which had been languishing on my watch list for years.
I knew what the phrase meant, and as a result I had sketched out in my mind what the plot of this film would be. The plot twist was learning that in fact I’d never known what that phrase meant, and so all of my guesses were wrong :).
Loved it.
A great film.
One of my all time faves. ‘Yes, I killed him, I killed him for money, and a girl. I didn’t get the money and I didnt get the girl. Pretty, isn’t it?’
Let’s put that quote in spoiler tags, just to be safe.
But there’s a thing about it that’s lost on the modern audience: Fred MacMurray at the time was typecast as the idiot young man type, who gets drawn into shenanigans and comes out of it all with the girl on his arm.
Fred MacMurray is also in The Apartment, of course, which is another absolutely perfect film.
And one everybody should watch around this time of year.
Basically, I am on board with anyone watching any Billy Wilder film.
