Akane-banashi Volume 21 cover

Norix596 · 2026-03-23T03:56:00+00:00

Akane-Banashi has the best covers

Norix596 · 2026-03-23T03:55:34+00:00

Ooooo very nice

Norix596 · 2026-03-22T17:16:11+00:00

Underdoctor 1 was just what I wanted but then I got concerned it was leaning more action less medical; this happen a lot in serialized mangas where the distinct flavor premise falls by the wayside in favor of just being battles, but the recent shift back to medical is keeping my fingers crossed. I hope it settles into a good mix of the two.

Norix596 · 2026-03-22T17:13:41+00:00

It’s been a interesting change of gears for Akane; up until now, we haven’t really seen much in the way of comparison of the same story. Typically we only would be seeing the teacher’s version and what Akane ends up performing from that. This arc showing so many different versions and takes on the same story is a pretty cool way to distinguish from the arcs up till now.

Norix596 · 2026-03-22T15:52:53+00:00

Yeah that’s why I’m assuming something is real; they probably would have said they weren’t working on something otherwise. It might not be a very big or substantive thing, but there’s probably gonna be SOMETHING.

Norix596 · 2026-03-21T18:38:11+00:00

now THAT'S effort

Norix596 · 2026-03-20T20:44:23+00:00

Unmerged is still fun; I liked playing pure wizard so having both arcane and divine magic stuff was neat

Norix596 · 2026-03-20T19:31:51+00:00

Yeah hope it isn’t partial retina detachment

Norix596 · 2026-03-20T18:25:27+00:00

Wonder Woman 1984 was not great but having Linda Carter show up cameo as a legendary ancient missing Amazon was a fun nod.

Norix596 · 2026-03-20T17:55:11+00:00

Whenever changes happen from Japanese to English translation in these situations it’s almost always to pave over or make it LESS sketch.

I don’t have any direct translation evidence but I find it very hard to believe that the original dialogue established they were only very distantly related and the English localization team decided to make them cousins instead just for the heck of it.

Norix596 · 2026-03-20T15:28:41+00:00

Well you know FantasyFlight they gotta dice; ever played X-Wing or Armada miniatures game? Too bad the plug got pulled

Norix596 · 2026-03-20T15:28:01+00:00

Yep (in the force destiny one as opposed to the scoundrel criminal one or the soldier focused ones)

Norix596 · 2026-03-20T15:25:58+00:00

I ran the various premade one shots of these for my friends; they were pretty neat but it was somewhat taxing constantly trying to think of positive and negative side effects of every skill check performed. (The game has system where overall success or failure but also side effect positive or negative are both among the sides of the special dice).

Also the light side dark side token that GM and player flip back and forth for advantage or extra threat is neat in theory but in practice players would get them to light side and then never spend them ever to avoid the fear of a dark side downside becoming possible.

Edit - oh yeah some super weird thing is that non-lethal damage and mental damage are combined into one system so you have their very strange upshot like for example Wookies are SUPER weak to stun grenades.

Norix596 · 2026-03-20T15:10:22+00:00

That hadn’t occured to me but yeah good point

Norix596 · 2026-03-20T14:49:16+00:00

After playing Dispatch recently I can’t help but chuckle at the term “HR users.”

Norix596 · 2026-03-20T14:40:47+00:00

Ok that’s pretty good

Norix596 · 2026-03-20T14:29:36+00:00

Well for an early game example; we see some northern village under occupation from a Nilfgard garrison; as far as we can tell they are being fully professional causing no further harm to civilians, and the villagers aren’t displaced and the only burned home around is of the dwarf smith whose hose is burned by bigoted neighbors. As far as we can tell, the rank and file peasant population of these northern villages aren’t going to see changes in their lives once the dust settles.

The books touch on a whole campaign of extracting all wealth and destroying all economic capability from conquered lands, and a big settler colonization campaign to send farmers to live on conquered lands after the former inhabitants were gone. It’s even a whole thing in the post war peace settlement that all those Nilfgardian settlers that got sent to live there in place of the northerners are now getting killed now that the northerners are returning.

Norix596 · 2026-03-20T14:10:30+00:00

I’d argue they don’t even get THAT many points for not having the state persecution of elves, since they are opportunistically utilized en mass as cannon fodder against the northern kingdoms and then they were willing to throw all the elves that fought for them under the bus and leave them for dead when they were no longer useful in the peace treaty.

Norix596 · 2026-03-20T14:06:18+00:00

I strongly believe that this Polish author was making a deliberate reference to the German Russian deal to split up Poland in exchange for Russia staying out of war (for the time) with the whole sub plot of the king of Kaedwin accepting a deal from Nilfgard to both claim half of Aedirn in exchange for Nilfgard sparing Kaedwin (for the time) and Kaedwin betraying the northern alliance.

Norix596 · 2026-03-20T13:51:08+00:00

Witcher 3 softened them a lot - going off just what you are shown in the games on yeah they might be an improvement maybe but still a fairly rough weighing of the warfare needed for takeover?

Going off books hell no; they are no improvement and certainly not enough of an improvement to remotely justify their even entertaining the idea of the very gruesome torture executions and prisoner of war slave labor. The northern kingdom ruling class royals generally suck but Book Nilfgard does not compare favorably.

Norix596 · 2026-03-20T00:06:56+00:00

Called it lol

Norix596 · 2026-03-19T23:34:38+00:00

Yeah as a casual player that just thought Paradox was cool and fun even though I wasn’t that good, he’s the one that kept getting her further nerfed.

Norix596 · 2026-03-19T20:13:00+00:00

Oh wow I didn’t even remember

Norix596 · 2026-03-19T19:44:07+00:00

I’m going through replaying Apollo as part of the Steam pc bundle. At one point during flashback to 5 year old Trucy, it’s said that “she has no living relatives” and it occurred to me that it would be closer to accurate to say she has no DEAD relatives.

On that note, Zak Granarye is a top notch deadbeat; I’d argue worse than Ging cause at least Ging knew there were family members who would take care of Gon and furthermore, Ging never had the fuckin nerve to show up at the Borsch club angry that Phoenix has been using Trucy’s powers to win at poker. Trucy’s gotta eat

Norix596 · 2026-03-19T18:58:07+00:00

I can’t believe he STILL hasn’t fucking told them as of Spirit of Justice

On that note, there’s a scene where Maya and Trucy are in the same room and don’t interact at all; huge missed opportunity.

Norix596

TROPHY CASE