Should we tell her that DSLRs are passé? Ayumu Niikura CITY the Animation, Episode 1

I used to start every anime season with an orderly sampling of every new show – and begin the evaluation of which shows I’ll follow through the season. I no longer have the time nor patience, and my schedule is highly stressed this month. At the moment I’m just randomly viewing shows, looking for quick decisions. Orderly, this is not.

However, there are some continuing series that I will definitely be watching. Most will fall into my Time Permitting list. Later on, I’ll figure out my mandatories. I don’t even have to sample the shows. So I’m seeding the Time Permitting list with:

Dan Da Dan S2 (Thu)
Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus (Sat)
My Dress-Up Darling S2 (Sat)
I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince... S2 (Wed)
The Rising of the Shield Hero S4 (Wed)

Special note for CITY the Animation. KyoAni is one of my favorite studios, and Sakuga Blog has done stellar work in doing a deep dive with CITY the Animation Production Notes 01. As always, their stuff is worth reading.

( New Shows I’ve Sampled, Below This Cut )

I’ve been too busy to do my final writeup for the Spring Anime Season. Sorry!

Bonus: Looking ahead – New Trailer for Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End S2

Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust

[Goodreads | Storygraph]

3.5 / 5 stars

( More under the cut )

The Berry Patch Portland Farmers Market • PSU Campus Portland, Oregon • July 5, 2025 Nikon Z8 • NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.8 S f/2 @ 85mm • 1/750s • ISO 100

I’m trying to do too many things at once. And then I look up and the year is half over. I keep task lists – but tasks get deferred or ignored because I can’t possibly do everything.

One of the items that kept sliding down my task list was to go into Portland and photograph the Farmers Market and the Saturday Market. This wasn’t just because I like to do this every year – it was also because I needed to learn how to use my new Nikon Z8 in the field. The Z8 is very complicated. I needed to be able to shoot very quickly at OCF. And then, all of a sudden, OCF is next week!

A last second mad dash is all that’s left.

( Nikon Z8 Photography, Below This Cut )

I'll be reporting on the actual results of voting and stuff in the next SMOF News, but here are some personal impressions of the WSFS BM.

( Skip if you're not interested in Worldcon stuff )

Introduced to this by my stepmom.

Salad ingredients:
-4 cups shredded cabbage
-1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds
-2 tbsp roasted sesame or sunflower seeds
-1 pkg Maruchan Ramen Chicken Flavor (broken or crushed) - just the noodles here

Dressing ingredients:
-3 tbsp white vinegar
-ramen seasoning packet
-1 tsp dijon mustard
-2 tsps sugar
-1/2 tsp pepper
-1/2 cup "salad oil" - ???
-2 tsp chopped cilantro

Mix salad ingredients.
Whisk dressing ingredients.
Add dressing to salad, toss.

While there are still a few weeks before we actually begin construction work, I’m having to relocate my existing bookcases – some will be repurposed and some will be given away (probably to ReStore).

The first step is to pack up all the books. It’s like moving, and I hate moving.

( Photos, Below This Cut )

Library / Kitchen Floor Plan, Proposed Extracted from my requirements / vision proposal

At the start of 2025 I vowed to finally restart the home library remodel that got put on hold when the pandemic began in 2020. The interior designer I had selected had moved from Portland to California, and I basically had to start over.

Instead of describing everything in detail, I’m simply listing the chronology of events. Excluded is all the email correspondence I’ve had with my designer, Hannah Lichtenthaler at Allison Smith Design. Also, for now, I’m skipping over all the design decisions. In short, here’s how I got to where we are today:

Library Remodel, Chronology of Events

The Floating World by Axie Oh

[Goodreads | Storygraph]

3.5 / 5 stars

( More under the cut )

Today I Learned... that Atsumi Tanezaki is amazing! (Also: Her Wikipedia Entry.) I confess I’ve been doing a poor job of keeping up with star seiyuu in recent years. (I used to know all the greats from the 80s, 90s, and 2000s.) I did not know that this one actress is responsible for the voices of Chise in The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Frieren in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Anya Forger in Spy x Family, Uo-chan in Fruits Basket, Murasaki in Grisaia: Phantom Trigger, Tinasha in Unnamed Memory, and Vivy in Vivy - Fluorite Eye’s Song – among dozens and dozens of other notable roles.

She was brought to my attention as she has a medical issue which is causing her to Cut Back on Work. She seems irreplaceable for numerous shows.

Last Tuesday evening I prepared to bake bread for the Wednesday gathering, and I discovered that I had not evenly divided the dough in half, and the half batch of dough remaining was much smaller than it should be. I baked the bread anyway, but the loaf was too small. I happened to weigh the first loaf, and it was 21 oz. The second loaf was only 11 oz. If I had divided the dough evenly, I would have had one pound loaves.

Anyway, this wouldn’t do. So I made another batch of dough, let it rise, and then refrigerated the dough. I had to get up very early Wednesday to prepare the loaf, bake the bread, and make sure it cooled for three hours before our lunch. I forgot to weigh the loaf, but this time when I divided the dough, I bisected the dough in bowl with a bread knife – so it definitely was evenly divided.

The dough was a little bit wetter/stickier than the previous batch, and I probably needed to let the loaf rise longer and bake longer. Instead, I used the same times I did for loaf #2, and loaf #3 didn’t rise as much as it should have in the oven. I guess it was OK, though, as my friends liked the bread very much.

The event was an annual gathering of old co-workers. Kris was my boss, who hired me, and Bill was my teammate. We were joined by Bill’s partner, Anita. We noted that I started at the company in 1986 – a little shy of 39 years ago. It’s sort of amazing that we’ve known each other for that long – and that we stay in contact. Kris was one of my favorite bosses, though, so I’d be sad if we didn’t stay in touch. Bill and Anita hosted a fine lunch in their home, and we all had a delightful conversation. I’m glad we were able to meet up.

Tsundoku Stack, June 30, 2025

There’s been not much progress on my tsundoku stack since Last Month. I decided I should dispatch the local guides to Portland books, since it’s summer, and this is a good time to be out and about, exploring the city. I did achieve that goal – as well as consume some late entrants not actually in the tsundoku stack.

For the remainder of the summer, work on the stack is in jeopardy, as I am diving into the library remodel – which effectively requires a move/vacating of the entire room – a major undertaking. I don’t think I’m going to get much reading done for a while.

( The Books I Read in June, Below This Cut )

Framed Madoka Ukiyo-e After Materials Upgrade

I’ve been having custom picture framing done since the 1990s, when I began collecting and occasionally displaying anime cels.

( My History of Frame Shops Below This Cut )

( A New Project Below This Cut )

The new art piece has to be compatible with the Ukiyo-e Madoka, so I brought the framed Madoka Ukiyo-e in so that the framer could see nuances in the Akihabara Premium frame. Tony said it was a good thing that I did as the photos I showed were insufficient.

As we had wrapped up discussion, Tony noted that the framed Madoka had a plexiglas front. I tapped the clear panel, and, yes, it was plastic. I hadn’t even noticed. (I don’t normally touch glass in frames.) I asked if he could replace the plexiglas with Museum Glass. He said, sure, no problem. I don’t remember what led us to do this, but Tony then removed the back panel – and we both were surprised to find a thick block of styrofoam. That’s bad, commented Tony. He didn’t have to tell me twice. This was not archival quality work. Tony offered to add an acid-free foam core sheet behind the print to protect the print. He wrote up a ticket for the glass and the foam core – and it came to $117. Cheap yet important protection. This was a no brainer.

At 11:00 am the next day (Friday) I got a call from Tony saying the work was done and that I could pick up Madoka. Awesome! In less than a day my Ukiyo-e framed print received a pro archival upgrade. At the store, Tony said that with the new glass and the foam core, the original styrofoam block no longer fit. He had extra foam core that he used to pad the thickness, and we scrapped the styrofoam. I said I’d pay extra, but he waved me off.

Madoka is now back home on the wall. The Museum Glass is super clear (and more importantly, UV resistant). This is now truly an Ultimate Madoka!

Apocalypse Hotel was great. Just great. Go watch it. It's definitely on my Hugo ballot next year.

Kowloon Generic Romance ended very well, even if the finale didn't quite have time to spell out every last detail of what was going on. Presumably the manga, which is ending soon, will be able to explain better. Recommended with some disclaimers: there are some very male-gaze camera angles at first but they stop after episode 2, and there is someone who initially appears to be a depressingly stereotypical queer villain but ultimately becomes three-dimensional and far more sympathetic.

Zatsu Tabi continued to be exactly what it appeared to be, a low-key story about travel and introduction to some of Japan's lesser-known tourist attractions.

Sword of the Demon Hunter is continuing into summer, but I have to say this: The choice to fridge someone in the first episode wound up feeling more and more out of place as the story went on. The subsequent story isn't grimdark at all; eventually it's about a guy hanging out in a soba shop with his friends and taking on jobs with an emphasis on how his work heals the community. Even the demons are mostly sympathetic at this point. So I'm not sure why the author chose to do that, other than he couldn't think of another way to get the protagonist out of his comortable village life and out into the world.

For next season, the shows I'm looking at fall into three categories:

Shows I am truly interested in checking out: Bullet/Bullet, Necronomico and the Cosmic Horror Show, The Earthbound Mole, Onmyo Kaiten Re: Birth Verse
Show I would be checking out if it weren't on Netflix: The Summer Hikaru Died
Shows I should be excited about on paper but am not really: Cute High Earth Defense Club Haikara!, Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun season 2 part 2, Ruri Rocks

VenCo by Cherie Dimaline

[Goodreads | Storygraph]

3.5 / 5 stars

( More under the cut )

Madoka Ukiyo-e Framed Print #153 of 300

Nearly a Year Ago I pre-ordered a Puella Magi Madoka Magica Ukiyo-e Woodblock Print. There were many delays and sparse correspondence. But, finally, this morning I was able to go to the post office and sign for the package from Akihabara Premium Collection.

The actual print is beautiful – exactly as advertised. I am delighted.

Akihabara Premium Collection Box

Framed Madoka Ukiyo-e Print and Certificate of Authenticity

Detailed Information about this Artwork.

The limited edition print run of 300 is sold out, and I feel very lucky.