baltakatei

Thanks for the info!

I’m looking forward to seeing the explanation connecting Diablo, Rimuru, and the mask.

Is Elmesia (?), the elf monarch, the head of state of the Sorcerous Kingdom? If so, shouldn’t it be Queendom? Also, besides the really short fights with Razen and some of the religious zealots, as well a Elmesia’s wariness, I still don’t have a good idea of Diablo’s capabilities nor the reason why he’s so interested in Rimuru. I recall Diablo was very interested in the mask Rimuru’s body’s previous owner used, but I fail to see what that has to do with Rimuru since he wasn’t around yet.

Utah: Monticello (Italian, but locally pronounced “monta sell-oh”)

You’re telling me there is no Walla Walla, England?

deleted by creator

“That all life beyond this planet never existed, no matter how irrationally improbable that may be.”

Luckily it’s been so long since I’ve read this part that I can enjoy what happens since I’ve forgotten this arc.

Based on my cheatsheet, GNU Coreutils, sed, awk, ImageMagick, exiftool, jdupes, rsync, jq, par2, parallel, tar and xz utils are examples of commands that I frequently use but whose developers I don’t believe receive any significant cashflow despite the huge benefit they provide to software developers. The last one was basically taken over in by a nation-state hacking team until the subtle backdoor for OpenSSH was found in 2024-03 by some Microsoft guy not doing his assigned job.

Imagine the water damage from rabbit stomach acid.

Also, is that meat-wrapped fruit that I spot?

Some kind of ceviche?

Dahlia must have some passive ability that summons perfect bishis to her if she ever feels sad.

Can’t wait for the day when Uncle Sam to turns brown.

Masayuki seems like the most relatable Otherworlder so far. All the others, including MC, seen to have been suffering from big red flags or depression. Masayuki seems like he’s genuinely a decent caring person who is just pleased to be here. Like a confused golden retriever.

Imagine if a lost Spanish armada finally arrived at Florida, centuries late, musket-wielding conquistadors raiding a coastal naval academy while a prominent political VIP was giving a speech, taking them hostage like Hernán Cortés did with Moctezuma II (Aztec Empire) or Francisco Pizarro with Atahualpa (Inca Empire).

I think it involved a planet called …

Just, buy a new iPhone and Mac every two years.

Termux, rsync and SSH.

Worked okay until I got overzealous and killed my battery from leaving Termux on for convenience.

The USB Type-C is useful for sharing files offline between smartphones while the USB Type-A is useful when you want to backup files to a PC at some point.

and then ends it, always leaving you wanting more

After several years of reading, I have realized that most of his books fall into the “Status Quo” genre, much like Marvel movies in which superheroes are cops that work to prevent relatable characters or governments from falling too out of sync with reality. The second their dystopian speculations start to imagine a society better off (due to redistribution of concentrated power or wealth), they immediately end.

Diamond Age (1994): corporations control society by controlling the centralized Feeds that supply matter compilers, justifying their monopoly by saying they keep society stable. MC publishes blueprints for compiling your own Feed. Story ends.

Anathem (2008): The government executes most scientists en masse and imprisons most survivors because technology was too disruptive 3000 years ago. A new global disaster forces the release of the scientists so they can wield ancient technology to solve the crisis. Story ends.

Cryptonomicon (1999) / The Great Simoleon Caper (1994): Some cryptographers think Bitcoin is a good idea even if it might topple governments. They publish it. Story ends.

Termination Shock (2021): Climate change can be solved by billionaires by getting governments addicted to shooting sulfur into the atmosphere. The story ends basically as soon as the operation begins.

Seveneves (2015): The moon blows up, forcing a crash course construction of a modern Noah’s Ark in the form of a fleet of spaceships in low Earth orbit. Eccentric billionaires sacrifice themselves to make the project work to save seven genius women who rebuild society with eugenics and a racial caste system. They discover some pre-disaster survivors whose culture is incompatible with the new society. Talks begin for reïntegration. Story ends.

Fall (2019): People upload and emulate their brains into datacenter computers. The first rich people to upload themselves gain an enormous first mover advantage in the digital afterlife and control the minds of newcomers whose surviving families pay ludicrous amounts of money to keep the dead billionaire-controlled Bitworld running. The system keeps running smoothly until the admin with the credentials to shut everything down dies, is uploaded, defeats the incumbent dead billionaire, thus making the world more equitable. Story ends.

The closest thing to an exception I can find is Atmosphæra Incognita (2014; part of Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future), in which a billionaire fights environmental regulations and NIMBY pushback to build a 20-kilometer steel tower to reduce space launch costs by acting as scaffolding for a mass driver. Although the story portrays most people as against the construction of such an audacious structure, and although the main beneficiaries are corporations wealthy enough to purchase space on the tower to install equipment, if you weigh your definition of “society” towards billionaires and their company org charts, then the story is about breaking the Status Quo (of NIMBY California landowners).

RIP the animation. I feel sorry for the original author.

I am glad the author of the original light novel got their story animated. If this story had been published before either Overlord (2010) or Sword Art Online (2002), then the story would have been groundbreaking. However, the only main advantages this show has over other isekai is the lack of any spiciness, beyond the usual smattering of damsels in distress and a blushing pair of twins. Everyone seems chaste, honorable, and hard-working. No sign of any harem development in sight. There does not even seem to be any political antagonist or obvious grievances against the status quo. The most likely source of conflict seems to be MCʼs overpowered state, yet the author has made him successful in keeping that off the plot table for now. Instead of Overlord’s murderous menagerie of a sexually frustrated succubus, underage loli vampire, skin-harvesting demon, etc., we have an elf maid, an elf, and a fox. Nothing complicated.

It feels like a television program designed by a public morals committee that I would show my conservative grandmother to fool her into allowing me to see more interesting shows.

Edit: dropped the series as of episode 8. Animation did not get better.