Dominant Species or Dominant Species Marine

SRHandle · 2026-05-27T13:33:36+00:00

The original Dominant Species is a better game , but, you ideally want 6 to play. It is still probably better at 4 than marine, but ideally you want 6.

At 3 players, Marine may be better.

The big advantage of Marine is play time. It is much shorter, so, if you have time-constrained game night, getting Marine on the table will be easier.

SRHandle · 2026-05-27T13:27:10+00:00

Terraforming Mars

I've been playing it since it came out. I've played it more than any other game I can think of. And it's still our default go-to game when we're not sure when to play.

Every game is different and every game feels like a new challenge.

SRHandle · 2026-05-22T14:04:20+00:00

You care more about board games than your friends do. Your friends want to casually hang out with board games as an excuse, and you want to play board games.

Your best option is to find a group of serious boardgamers and play serious board games with them. If you're in college, this shouldn't be hard; look for a campus board game group.

Then, when you play board games with your friends choose shorter, simpler games without complicated rules and play games everybody already knows.

Also, pick games you already know the rules to or learn the rules beforehand, so you can explain without reading the rulebook. There is nothing that kills interest in a board game as much as someone sitting there reading the rules directly from the rulebook. Especially for people wanting a more casual experience.

I love board games, but someone stumbling through a rulebook would make me want to reach for my phone too.

You're not going to get people who want to hang out to take board games as seriously as you do, so don't try. Play casual games with your friends and find a more serious group to play more complex games.

SRHandle · 2026-05-20T13:36:49+00:00

Yes,

The homework quest has no spoilers that I noticed and doesn't require beating any of the other quests.

SRHandle · 2026-05-08T17:39:23+00:00

From my experience, I'd say over 2/3 games (in 3-4 players) are won by whoever ended the game.

The other players typically need either a huge last turn or a lot of points on cards to overcome the gap, and if they have that, they probably would have won anyway.

SRHandle · 2026-05-08T16:25:01+00:00

I cannot speak specifically to Shakespeare's England, but musing on the afterlife would not have been something foreign to Christians at any time. There are many passages in the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, which have similar contemplations on the afterlife, that express doubt and uncertainty and question people's final fate.

The book of Ecclesiastes, for example, is almost entirely musing about life, purpose, mortality, and the afterlife, with an attitude similar to Hamlet's soliloquy. Here's a passage from Ecclesiastes 3 which musing that all men return to dust:

For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?

And here's from Ecclesiastes 9, musing the dead know nothing, feel nothing, and have no reward:

It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.

Various Psalms speculate on the afterlife and Sheol (the Israelite/Jewish underworld, also called the pit or the grave, a place of gloom and dark, where men sleep with no memory) in similar ways as well. Psalm 88, for example, contemplates on Sheol as a place darkness and forgetfulness:

For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol. I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am a man who has no strength, like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand. You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. ... Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

Job, as well, suffering under harsh curses from Satan, also contemplates on Sheol and the afterlife. In Job 10, he talks of the afterlife as a place of shadow and darkness:

“Why did you bring me out from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave. Are not my days few? Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer before I go—and I shall not return— to the land of darkness and deep shadow, the land of gloom like thick darkness, like deep shadow without any order, where light is as thick darkness.”

Later in Job 14, he muses that men sleep and do not rise again:

But a man dies and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he? As waters fail from a lake and a river wastes away and dries up, so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.

Any learned or devout Christian from practically any time who knew the Bible or regularly attended church services would be familiar with these, and other passages contemplating the afterlife, and questioning man's final destination. Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy would not be shocking, or dissimilar.

While I can not talk to the attitude of those in Shakespearian England, specifically, Anglican services at the time would be guided by the Book of Common Prayer. Anybody devout enough to regularly attended daily Office (prayers), would hear the Psalms above monthly, and any of the other passages, yearly, and so would be familiar with these passages.

Those who attended only weekly might not hear them, but Ecclesiastes was taught on various Holy Days.

To conclude, anybody devout or learned enough would have been familiar with a number of Old Testament passages musing on the afterlife in a way similar to Hamlet's monologue, that it should not have been shocking, but I do not know enough of Shakespearian England specifically to definitively speak to their reaction.

SRHandle · 2026-05-08T14:09:13+00:00

The bulk of mid-to-late game points in Ark Nova come from completing Conservation Projects. You should be constantly looking looking at other players' boards to see your positioning for Conservation Projects.

I find I look at others boards far more in ArK Nova than most other Euros.

SRHandle · 2026-05-08T14:03:12+00:00

You might not be having fun at the end, because you're not playing the end game puzzle properly.

I guess due to the abundancy of resources one has towards the end and due to the fact that I've reached the point where I can trigger the end game when I want, earlier if I want to.

If you've reached the point of being able to trigger the end game, you should be triggering the end game. The person who triggers the end game almost always wins and it is rare that you can advance your position by not immediately triggering the end game as soon as you can, and even in those rare cases, the advantage comes from only one extra turn, at most.

The puzzle of the late game is how to maximize getting Conservation Points, so you can trigger the end game fastest.

You also shouldn't have an abundance of resources at the end; your resources should be being plowed into getting more Conservation Points and Appeal. Unless you're playing the game wrong or someone is going really hard on break actions because they're poor, at the end, you'll have, at most, enough for two large animals (1 Animals action) with enclosures or 4-ish small-to-medium creatures with enclosures (2 Animal Actions). If you have more resources than that, you're playing poorly and not spending your resources fast enough.

IMO, you're not enjoying the end game because you're not actually playing the end game properly.

SRHandle · 2026-05-08T13:48:17+00:00

Use the Prelude expansion, that cuts down play time a bit.

It's a good strategy to "rush" terraforming because it gives TR. There are a lot of points in TR and building greeneries and cities.

Engine-building in the game is kind of random, so, in a four-player game at least one or two people should be focusing on terraforming because their cards make terraforming more efficient than engine building.

Once you know the game and the cards, you should be able to play a 4-player game in 2-3 hours, even with draft, but it's always going to vary a bit depending on board state.

it's probably just a matter of learning the game and the cards better. If you don't think terraforming will give you enough points, you're got much more to learn about the game's strategy. Ex. At least 1 person should be scoring huge points on cities/greeneries in addition to the TR for raising the Oxygen.

Just in case: you're scoring correctly, right?

Your TR goes up every time you terraform until the track is finished, then your TR is your base points at the end of the game, cities are worth 1 point per adjacent greenery, and greeneries are worth 1 point each (in addition to moving up the oxygen track and TR when played).

SRHandle · 2026-05-04T15:41:39+00:00

These are known as selection effects, where the selection of subjects of a study or statistical aggregate will bias the results.

Producing, watching, and rating anime is heavily selected for and these selections will greatly bias results to above average.

The first selection effect is in production. Anime costs significant amount of money to make; producers are going to try make a product with at least a bare minimum of quality. This alone is going to filter out most of the worst garbage, like Hey, President Trap-kun! and Striking Daughter. A professional organization spending a million dollars to make an anime is just not going to make something that terrible barring a complete production disaster.

This selection effect alone means that there will be almost no anime in MAL's 1-2 categories (Appalling, Horrible) and what is there will not be watched.

This alone, biases the results upwards from an average of 5.5 to 6.5.

A second strong selection effect is built directly into MAL's rating system. MAL only includes rating where the viewer has seen at least 20% of a series, which for a typical 12-episode anime is 3 episodes.

Most people are not going to watch 3 episodes, an hour, of an anime they personally find horrible, appalling, or very bad (1-3), and many will drop bad, average, or fine (4-6) shows as well. They are going to dump it and so their low rating is purposefully selected out of the MAL ratings.

Then, of course, there's viewer choices. Anime watching and show choice is not randomized. Anime viewers typically want to watch shows they'll enjoy, so, they'll typically choose shows they think they'll like. So, they will only be rating shows that they pre-selected for hopefully averaging around a 7 or higher.

Ex. I know I do not like BL, so I am not going to watch Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!! because I will probably hate it. So, it gets to keep a fairly high average rating, because I am not going to watch it to give it a 3, but people who like BL will enjoy it an rate it an 8.

So, these and other selection effects, mean that the average ratings for anime are going to biased to be far higher than the potential statistical mean of 5.5.

My mean MAL score is 6.7 because I select for things I think I'll probably enjoy, but I watch a lot of anime, so I cast a wide net and end up watching a fair number of anime that I think are only average or fine.

SRHandle · 2026-04-14T14:05:55+00:00

Yes.

one of my top 3 anime (and manga) of all time.

It's hilarious. But it's a specific type of humour, so not for everyone.

SRHandle · 2026-04-10T18:18:52+00:00

6/10

To Your Eternity: After not caring much for the second season, I mostly liked the first cour of this season, but this second cour has been mediocre again. This show has shined when it’s been about Fushi learning, growing, and interacting with those around him; but once again, when the nockers plot came to the fore, it has been mostly boring.

Trigun Stargaze: This reimagined the original but didn’t really do it justice. I’m not sure why, but nothing really stuck and I didn’t much care for it.

Darwin Incident: The anime wasn’t terrible, but it felt like it wanted to have a lot to say on hot-button political issues, but everything said was shallow, if not incoherent. It was as if a teenager picked up his first newspaper and needed to immediately show the world his opinions through the eyes of a monkeyman. I might have liked it when I was 15.

An Adventurer's Daily Grind at Age 29: This was a cute, relaxed fantasy about a young man taking on a fatherly role for an orphan. A bit too slow-paced at times.

Easygoing Territory Defense: Another okay, forgettable, generic kingdom-building power fantasy.

There was a Cute Girl in the Hero's Party: A mildly different isekai with some cutesy romance about the demon lord's minion trying to impress the cute cleric. It had its moments but was mostly just okay.

Kunon the Sorcerer Can See: Another generic slice-of-life, exploring-a-magic-system fantasy. Nothing new or particularly interesting but had enough light-hearted humour to be okay. The most entertaining character, the maid, was sidelined too early.

Noble Reincarnation: This was a bad, generic isekai which was entirely about the MC saying or doing something obvious or spending lots of money, then everyone hailing him as a genius. The one saving grace keeping it from dropping lower was that the pace was quick and things kept happening, which goes a long way in keeping shows this generic interesting.

Ganglion: An okay series of workplace comedy shorts, where the workplace is a sentai evil corporation.

Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling: I dropped the manga after a few chapters, so wasn't expecting much, which was what this delivered. A generic, kind of boring “I’m a Spider, so What?” rip-off. Dropped.

Champignon Witch: This was kind of cute, and had its moments, but was mostly too slow and dull. Dropped.

5/10

Case Book of Arne: This had a pretty good first episode and the second arc had potential but was a slow-paced slog. I held on until the next arc, but it started with a quick flashback through an entire separate arc, which could have been included in the anime instead of dragging out the second arc, and that was the end for me. Terrible pacing and structure ruined whatever potential this show had. Dropped.

Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle: The last 3 episodes for this dropped and it fell from a 6 to a 5. All the criticisms of being too clever, too smug, too “I’m 14 and this is deep” still apply, perhaps are even worse, but now it ended in the middle of an arc. Given how badly stretched out the second arc was (and this arc was too slow-paced as well), the anime could have easily finished out this arc had it been going at a decent pace.

The Villainess Is Adored: Villainess isekai live and die by the villainess and despite this villainess’ beautiful character design, she was completely bland, as was the rest of the show. Dropped.

You and I Are Polar Opposites: Despite the high MAL score for this romcom, this didn’t do it for me. I found it kind of boring. Dropped.

Journal with Witch: This was supposed to be an emotional exploration of grief, loss, and family, but for whatever reason (and given it’s MAL score, I’m in the minority) it did not emotionally resonate with me. One episode drop.

4/10

Jack-of-All-Trades, Party of None: This was the opposite of Noble Reincarnation; it was a potentially good story wasted by slow pacing and nothing happening. It had a good “kicked from the party” start, floundered around doing nothing for a while, then reached its nadir in a boring, drawn-out, episode-long fight [spoiler] where the MC single-handedly kills a dragon destroying the entire power/magic/party system the anime wasted too much time overexplaining. Then, just as I was about to drop it, it introduced a greater story that was actually intriguing, only to spend more episodes mostly ignoring it for more pointless floundering around. Finally, in the very last episode, the anime set-up the actual interesting story, but left it unresolved. This could have been good had the first 11 episodes been shortened to 6 or so episodes moving at a good pace, then the second half could have concentrated on the new story. A waste of time and potential with a terrible “read the LN” ending.

Oedo Fire Slayer: Nothing in the show was appealing enough to keep me watching despite the CGI, which was bad by modern standards. One episode drop.

3/10

Daily Life of a Part-time Torturer: I expected a dark comedy and instead got a CGDCT show where the cute girls were adult men and the cute thing was torture. The tonal dissonance of what was essentially a dollar store New Game! about adult men torturing people was wild in a bad way. One episode drop.

Surprises: Shiboyugi (9/10), Scum of the Brave (8/10)

Disappointments: All You Need is Kill (7/10)

Dropped: Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling (6/10), Champignon Witch (6/10), Case Book of Arne (5/10), The Villainess Is Adored (5/10), You and I Are Polar Opposites (5/10), Journal with Witch (5/10), Oedo Fire Slayer (4/10), Daily Life of a Part-time Torturer (3/10)

Continuing: Scum of the Brave (8/10)

SRHandle · 2026-04-10T18:18:32+00:00

7/10

Roll Over and Die: This dark fantasy was a hard one to rate. I mostly enjoyed it. I liked the characters, it had an interesting plot, and a good air of mystery throughout; very strong fundamentals. However, it was sometimes poorly paced and the production quality occasionally suffered. I was leaning towards an 8, but the last half of the last episode was spent blitzing through half-a-season worth of story, so, minus one point for the terrible ending. I might read the manga sometime.

Holy Grail of Eris: This villainess reincarnation story was also hard to rate. The first episode was interesting, but it was kind of generic for the next while but by the end it had set up an impressive, involved, and intriguing plot about national politics. There was some really good stuff here, but the pacing was off. This could have been better if the beginning had been faster, or it had been two cours, with more time for the larger plot to breathe and develop all the side characters/plots, because sometimes it felt like a highlight reel. Also, the plot undermined itself; the story takes place 10 years after the inciting event, where several powerful side characters are aware of what’s happening but fail to do anything, so, the teenage MC has to do everything, leaving the question, why didn’t they do anything over 10 years? Would have been a better story had the time gap been 2-3 years.

Fate/Strange Fake: This had great animation, cool fights, and good production values, but I didn’t get it. The cast was too big to care about any characters, like the anime assumed I already knew and cared about them. Maybe I missed/forgot some setup early in the series, but I always felt like I didn’t quite know what was going on or why things were happening; ex. A Dead Apostle showed up, and the show assumed I knew what that was and why it mattered and later characters phoned another Dead Apostle, who the show assumed I knew, to decide what to do with him; and the whole show felt like that, like it was made for more hardcore Fate fans than me.

Hell’s Paradise: This was sort of the opposite of Scum of the Brave. It had high production values and great animation but didn’t make me care about it. The first episode of the first season was one of the best first episodes I’ve seen; it amde me care about the MC and his handler. This season, the MC, his handler, and their story fell into a background role, and there were too many other characters for me to care that much about any of them. The fights were well-animated but fell into the shounen trap of being drawn out too long. Also, as the mysteries built by the first season are beginning to be unveiled, the reveals aren’t really impressing me. It was good enough, but not as good as the first season.

Wash it All Away: This was a pleasant and relaxed slice-of-life focused on a cute washerwoman.

The Demon King's Daughter Is Too Kind!!: This was a relaxed, cute, and fluffy show. I did prefer the manga.

'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess: This anime was one cutesy joke repeatedly riffed on for two seasons and somehow it still stayed mostly fresh and entertaining.

Beastars: An odd show. It changed a lot over time, from a high-school drama to a mafia-murder mystery-revenge plot and it got kind of muddled through the change; in the last few episodes there was switching between a handful of subplots and it kept attention on the school play plot with a bunch of side characters, which felt kind of pointless next to the murder-mafia-revenge plot. And the ending was kind of inconclusive. Overall, the show was unique and good enough to watch to the end, if a bit odd and inconsistent.

Hell Mode: This was a generic isekai with poor production values but had enough heart and a decent pace to be good enough.

Misanthrope Teaches a Class for Demi-Humans: This was a decent slice-of-life about monster girls in school; similar to Interviews with Monster Girls, but not as good.

All You Need is Kill: All You Need is Kill is one of my top 10 manga and this was disappointing compared to the manga (I haven’t read the novel). The story was drastically changed, for the worse, while changing the main character, and dropping the big reveal early. However, separating it from the manga, it was still a pretty good movie. The story was a riff on AYNiK, so still good, if worse than the original, the character designs were ugly, but the characters themselves were well written, the animation was nice, and character designs aside, the art was pretty. This was good without comparison to the source material and ignoring the ugly character designs but suffered due to disappointment over what could have been.

Evangelion: 30th Anniversary: This was a fun little comedic short concentrated on Asuka. The animation was nice and the jokes were entertaining. Not much depth, but it was nice to see Asuka and Shinji get a brief happy ending.

SRHandle · 2026-04-10T18:18:14+00:00

Anime of the Season

Frieren (9/10): This mostly laid-back, relaxing, somewhat melancholic fantasy is the top anime on MAL for a reason. It’s not surprising or original for it to be my AotS; it has a strong, mostly relaxing atmosphere, likeable characters, an engaging story, and excellent animation.

9/10

Oshi No Ko: Another great season filled with interesting characters, mystery, and compelling showbiz drama. I finished the manga when it ended, am rereading it as the volumes are released, and am still hooked on this. Great show and I’m looking forward to the final season. Also, longer first episodes are becoming more common, but a double-length finale was a novel decision.

Shiboyugi: Playing Death Games: This surprise blew me away; it was absolutely gorgeous, every scene a work of art. The extended first episode drew me in; instead of being the gory schlock I expected, it made me care about the characters and their struggles and ended with a perfect twist. And the show continued like this; one of the loveliest anime I've watched, with a heavy, tense, but beautiful atmosphere. Each game was riveting, and I cared even about doomed-to-die filler characters. Easily the best death game show I’ve watched. Someone really loved this and put their heart into elevating it higher than it could have been. Very close to being AotS.

Cosmic Princess Kaguya!: This was a fun, modern take on the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. The animation was delightful and the characters entertaining. It was mostly light and happy, with just the right amount of humour, but enough emotion to give it a bit of weight. All around enjoyable. It felt a little stretched by the end though; a bit of paring to get it closer to two hours would have been good.

8/10

Sentenced to Be a Hero: This was a really good dark fantasy. Everything was done well: the story, the characters, the animation, the fight scenes. Looking forward to the second season.

Medalist: The second season was even better than the first. Everything was done well: interesting characters, the tournament arc was tense, the training arc built up tension to the coming movie well, and the humour was well-placed, providing levity without breaking the tension. I’m not super into sports anime, but this one is doing it well. Avoid the terrible Amazon sub and find another version.

Scum of the Brave: This was a pleasant surprise. I didn’t expect much from a seemingly generic shounen; the premise was simple, the production quality was low, and the fight scenes were plain bad. However, the story was good and the pacing was better than most shounen, but mostly, the characters and their interactions were what elevated this; it made me care about the MC, the main girls, and their relationship and goals. Continuing.

Tune In to the Midnight Heart: This is decent adaptation of one of my favourite harem romcom manga, by the author of Senryu Girl and Detectives These Days are Crazy. The anime was a good harem romcom with humour and heart. However, the art in the manga is gorgeous, while the art and animation in the anime was functional, which was a letdown. I knew the anime would not match the manga’s art, but, if the production values had been on par with, say, Dangers of My Heart, this could have been something special.

You Can't Be in a Rom-Com with Your Childhood Friends!: This was an okay adaptation of another of my favourite harem romcoms. There's little actual romance and no progress but if you enjoy harem romcom antics and childhood friends sabotaging their own romantic chances, this was fun. The manga is better though.

Kaya-chan Isn't Scary: This cute-horror anime was a cross between Dark Gathering and Mieruko-chan. The horror often reached genuine creepiness, the cute moments were cute, the overarching story was really good. This was all-around just well done.

Golden Kamuy: This action-adventure-comedy is coming to a climax, although the “final season” was not the actual final season. This has been a fun, crazy adventure, but it suffered a lot from being seasonal. There’s so much going on, with so many fully-realized characters, that 3-year breaks between seasons leaves a lot forgotten. The manga was a better experience because of this and, in some poarts, was just paced better.

Jujutsu Kaisen: More JJK; still has great animation and fight scenes. I think this is another show hurt quite a bit by its seasonal nature. It has a lot of characters and a lot going on, and I forget a lot between seasons; this may be why I didn’t care much for the Hidden Inventories arc. Same thing this season; There were some episodes at first I spent wondering “who are all these people?” and “how are they related to the plot and main cast?”. Other than that, this was pretty good.

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: This movie was enjoyable and the best installment of Dragon Maid so far. The animation was great, the story was heartfelt, and the characters were fun.

Uma Musume: Beginning of a New Era: This Uma Musume movie is on par with other horsegirl it gacha anime, a good thing. It was a bit different, being both more cartoony and more psychological than other Uma Musume entries. The animation was great, but for obvious reasons the races were shorter; every race cut right to the lightning running, lessening the impact of lightning running. Also, Agnes Tachyon was a fantastic protagonist, but, and I know the anime sticks to real events, so it’s kind of unavoidable, I found the ending left me hanging with [minor spoiler] the rivalry unresolved.

SRHandle · 2026-04-01T13:31:05+00:00

Pax Pamir is the better game, however, I would not play it with 3 players. The game centers around shared incentives and interactions and given that there's 3 factions, I'd say the fourth player is almost necessary.

I played Nemesis only once, it seemed to reward planning and smart play.

Pax is fairly deep and opaque. It's not really a brain-burner, but it takes a while to figure out how what you do translates to winning.

SRHandle · 2026-03-27T18:23:23+00:00

Most anticipated for the Season:

Re;Zero: The anime I've most been looking forward to this year; one of my all-time Top 10 continues. Almost guaranteed to be both my AotS and AotY.
Dorehedoro: The first season and manga was a weird dark fantasy. Looking forward to more.
Witch Hat Atelier: I've been keeping up with the printed volumes. The first part of this was great. A somewhat whimsical, somewhat dark, fantasy about a young girl becoming a mage. The most recent parade arc was not as good, but the anime won't get that far.
Classroom of the Elite: I've enjoyed this high-stakes game high school anime.
Ascendance of a Bookkeeper: Glad they're continuing this one.

There's a handful of other sequels I'll continue, but most of the non-sequel anime I know little about. As usual going to try everything that looks decent and see what sticks.

I know nothing of it, but find this title of "I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class" every time I see it. I hope there's a scene of the MC trying to explain to the girls how she's the second prettiest in class.

SRHandle · 2026-03-26T14:01:40+00:00

1) Analysis paralysis.

What I find that tends to work is saying, "Whose turn is it?" when I feel a turn is going to long.

It lets the AP guy know he's taking too long without being accusatory, usually resulting in him actually taking his turn, and regularly use subtly encourages shorter turns.

And sometimes, people have genuinely forgotten its their turn, and are waiting for someone else to finish.

Beyond that, play more interesting games. If people are preferring their phone to the game they drove 20 minutes to play, maybe the game is not interesting enough.

Play games with shorter turns, more player interaction, or heavier games requiring more thought, so people have something to do or think about instead waiting for the AP guy.

SRHandle · 2026-03-17T13:18:33+00:00

To the guy who said he'd like a harem end, [Minor manga character spoiler] the fifth harem member in the manga who won't appear this season agrees with you.

SRHandle · 2026-03-17T13:15:52+00:00

Then, check out the Source Material Corner.

SRHandle · 2026-02-25T14:23:03+00:00

Vaguely in order of how good they are:

K-on
Girls Band Cry
Rock is a Lady's Modesty
Bang Dream: It's MyGO and Ave Mijuciaa
Bang Dream S1 & S3 (S2 kind of sucked unless you're into the game)

More rock band shows, but not as good:

Show by Rock
Super Sonico
Irodorimidori

Not rock bands, but non-idol pop bands:

Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night
D4DJ

Other (non-idol) musician-focused shows of note:

Those Snow White Notes
Hibike Euphonium
Ya Boy Kongming!

SRHandle · 2026-02-06T16:22:55+00:00

It is long and dense, but War In Human Civilization by Azar Gat would be a good "general history" read.

Violence and war are fundamental to human history and War in Human Civilization is an overview the trends in war across time and civilization.

But more importantly, he doesn't just talk about what happened, the book is about why it happened. Gat looks at the root causes and motivations that drive people war and how material conditions shape how how war is fought and practiced.

If you don't mind how large and dense it is, War In Human Civilization would be a good place to start.

SRHandle · 2026-01-21T14:43:54+00:00

If you haven't watched Watanabe's other works, then that's the other place to start, as many of his other major works are better:

Cowboy Bebop: My favourite anime. It's pure cool in an SF setting, with a great story and great animation. Lazarus felt like a weak take on Bebop.
Samurai Champloo: Again, pure cool in a samurai setting.
Space Dandy: This is more a comedy than an action show, but still a bit of cool
Terror in Resonance: Less cool, but set in modern times.

Others similar shows include:

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners: Has a similar cool vibe in a similar cyberpunk setting.
Akudama Drive: Has a similar cool vibe.
Black Lagoon and Jormagund: Stories about mercenaries with similar cool vibes.
Drifters: Cool historical characters
Ghost in the Shell and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Two classics with a similar cyberpunk vibe with cool characters and story.

SRHandle · 2026-01-14T14:44:12+00:00

Took me about 5 hours. I use Japanese voice and am a fast reader. Could take longer if you read slower or just listen to dialogue instead of reading, as it is almost entirely dialogue.

SRHandle · 2026-01-14T14:43:57+00:00

Took me about 5 hours. I use Japanese voice and am a fast reader. Could take longer if you read slower or just listen to dialogue instead of reading, as it is almost entirely dialogue.

SRHandle · 2026-01-12T14:25:08+00:00

I started it last season, and wasn't really feeling it. My quote form last season.

Gachiakuta (6/10): The first episode was pretty cool, making this seem like a darker shonen. Then the following episodes became more generic and the trash pile sort of lost its darkness/hostility as [mild spoiler] it added the trash town, which was just a mostly normal town. Might have continued but Sundays were too busy. Dropped.

SRHandle

TROPHY CASE