lvxferre

It’s not just uncensored loli porn. It got censored in the LN from spy cam footage of his niece in the shower (the main reason why his brother gets so violent).

[Rudeus on Sylphy and Roxy]

The anime and WN are a bit more explicit on that, but even the LN is crystal clear on Rudeus being a paedophile. And I think the folks doing mental gymnastics to claim otherwise also lack basic media literacy, just like I criticised the “third way” ones.

In the meantime I find your “option 3.5” fairly reasonable. It’s completely fine to criticise the work for not doing a good job of calling out shitty behaviour, specially in the light of its theme.

Rudeus does mention once that Paul (isekai father) is scum, and that’s why they understand each other, but… that’s it. In the meantime Paul cheats on Zenith (who’s monogamous) with Lilia (who’s employed by Paul, so Paul is in a position of power over her), and gets away with it.

I’ve also seen an interesting discussion about how much of the author’s personality is reflected in their works.

It’s somewhat clear for me that Magonote doesn’t really care too much about social causes, such as the role of women in society. And that he caves in to readers’ pressure a bit too easily. But past that, I don’t know, really.

Yup, they are. Fixed — thanks for pointing it out. (I was in doubt on where to rank it, and accidentally split both names apart.)

IMO it’s a series with a damn good worldbuilding, and it got some good animation; for me it was way more enjoyable than Higeki no Genkyou, surprisingly so because I like Pryde’s story way better in the manga (The Barbarian’s Bride gets a bit stale over time IMO). But at the same time I couldn’t see myself being as excited with it than I was with Bertia.

Ongoing, will keep watching because I’m having a great time with all three:

• Mairimashita! Iruma-kun 4
• Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken 4
• Re:Zero 4

Watched / finishing, top of the list:

• Jishou Akuyaku Reijou / Bertia
• Dr. Stone: Science Future 3
• Hime Kishi wa Barbaroi no Yome

Finishing, I don’t regret watching it:

• The Barbarian’s Bride
• Isekai Nonbiri Nouka 2
• Higeki no Genkyou 2
• Jidou Hanbaiki 3

Deserved a better adaptation:

• Honzuki no Gekokujou: Ryoushu no Youjo
• Saikyou no Ousama 2

Dropped:

• Reincarnation no Kaben

Nina, why don’t you help your dad with his job? Alexander can come too!

The insult is probably older than English.

Cross-linguistically speaking, if something is seen as bad, you’re bound to see people using it against things and people they dislike. Doubly so with the imperative or the volitive, as if expressing a wish; like, “may bad things happen to you”.

So odds are “fuck you” and similar expressions (like, say, “fuck thee") are as old as the verb “to fuck” itself. And the verb has cognates all across the other Germanic languages; see German “ficken” to fuck¹, Swedish “focka” *to copulate, Icelandic “fokka” *to mess around, to rush². This shows the word is most likely present already in Proto-Germanic (500 BCE ~ 200 CE), so it predates English. (It’s usually reconstructed as *fukkōną “to copulate, to assail”.)

And odds are it was already vulgar for a long, long time. That’s because it is barely attested in older times; even being such an old word, it’s first attested in English in 1475, almost yesterday. This mismatch between being an old word vs. barely recorded shows it was something people would say but not write down³.

1. Perhaps not surprising you can use “fick dich” fuck you in German pretty much like you’d use it in English.
2. Icelandic “fokka” likely went through a semantic shift like “to copulate” → “to copulate promiscuously” → “to do things haphazardly” → “to mess around”, “to rush”. It’s similar in spirit to the English expression “to fuck around”.
3. You see the exact same mismatch with Latin “merda” shit. We know it’s inherited from Proto-Indo-European *(s)merdh₂ “stench”, and Romance speakers still use it all the time; and yet you barely see it being written down in Classical times, I think it’s only attested from Martial (whose whole shtick was to be offensive).

The show was great. Faithful to the manga, in both events and spirit: it’s a short story and not-too-deep story about love. I really enjoyed the ride.

I think it’s both because I’ve seen people also dissing Ascendance of a Bookworm, simply for being an isekai. Even if its worldbuilding is extremely detailed and well-thought, like:

• magic being seen as a resource, and its ties to the class system
• poor and rich people having completely different mindsets
• Myne’s mindset being alien to both, as an Earthling
• poor people being close-knit communities and suspicious of outsiders
• temples being basically an “out of sight, out of mind” bin for children
• "I have ties to that powerful person!" corruption
• the impact of tech over the social structure
• etc.

And it does those really well IMO.

That said, I do agree with you that Mushoku Tensei also puts people off because of the main character; probably more than for being an isekai.

I’m quoting the LN but the anime does follow fashion.

At least for me it’s clear why Mushoku Tensei does this: it goes out of its way to represent the main character’s start as the rock bottom, because it helps to deliver the theme. MT’s theme is *“persevere and try to become a better person, regardless of your failures; it pays off” — and if even scum like Rudeus can do it, the reader (who’s likely better as a person than Rudeus, it’s hard to not be) can do it too.

His attitude towards his family in the LN volume 12 (second half of the second season) shows that rather well IMO. In no moment the reader is told “Rudeus has changed! He is not the same as that Earthling, he’s a better man!11one”. But his actions show he cares about his isekai family in a way he never did about his Earthling one, and yet they feel natural because he has been becoming a better person over the course of the years.

From that, you can go two ways, I think. The first one is to accept the MC is shit trying to become less shit, and enjoy the story and worldbuilding. The second one is to skip it; I don’t blame anyone for doing it, if they want a more relatable main character, I think different people want different stuff and that’s completely fine.

Additionally there’s a third way: some people instead lie / bullshit / assume that the work defends NEET-dom, or paedophilia, or not caring about your parents. I think it’s lack of basic media literacy.

Sorry for the wall of text!

People look down on the idea Mushoku Tensei and Ascendance of a Bookworm would have good worldbuilding, because both are isekais, but unlike a lot of later series they aren’t simply copypasting stuff from earlier series, and they got a lot of original ideas.

::: spoilers Take MT for example. (warning: actual spoilers, some heavy ones) A creator god made six worlds, all of them unstable, and patched them together into a die-shaped one. Then split his soul into six, each becoming a god.

Orsted’s father was the original Dragon God. As he died, the title went to his child. He’s also the grandson of the Human God. The series has a literal god as a villain-then-ally. (told ya I’d mention spoilers!)

You know who is not a god, though? Hitogami! Born in the seventh world, the void formed within the “die”. He killed and usurped the role of the actual Human God (Orsted’s maternal grandpa, BTW). He’s also responsible for the death of the first Dragon God, and the Demon God’s soul splitting into two (one half being murderous). No wonders Orsted hates him so much.

Hitogami always does his shit indirectly, through three or four “apostles” — people whom he shows visions, and automatically trust him. He tried to do it with Rudeus but it backfired, since Rudeus’ soul is not from the six-sided world the “you’ll automatically trust me” gimmick didn’t work.

For example, his intervention against Laplace was to make the Fighting God an apostle and have both fight. You’ve seen that Fighting God; he’s that huge four-arms “WAHAHAHAHA!!!” guy, Badigadi.

The evil half of Laplace fooled the Superd into madness, creating their bad reputation… and the discrimination against people with green hair, like Sylphy. Additionally, people who have green hair are likely to have the Laplace Factor, it’s like the other half of Laplace is slowly tweaking with the inheritance of multiple people, to create a perfect vessel for his reincarnation over the course of millenniums.

There’s at least one religion in the world, the Milis faith, but it’s clear not everyone follows it. It preaches monogamy, while apparently most people are fine with polygamy. The difference in mindset becomes clear near the end of the second season, look at who gets pissed at Rudeus for bringing a second wife home — not his first wife Sylphy, but his sister Norn! Guess who follows the Milis faith? It went worse for Zenith, though, since the guy violating her religious principle was her husband Paul. (And then her son. Poor Zenith. Nobody cares about your faith.)

Time loops are an actual thing in MT, and the reason Orsted has such an odd reaction towards Eris when they just met. Or he says Paul Greyrat was supposed to have two daughters, not a son. There’s also a second “loop chain” where Rudeus visits his past self, to tell him to not trust Hitogami; in that timeline Roxy died, Sylphy left Rudeus, and he never married Eris. He did this because Rudeus and Roxy’s daughter Lara has a pivotal role on defeating Hitogami.

Orsted’s curse doesn’t apply to Rudeus descendants, by the way. Now imagine all three of Rudeus’ wives terrified of Orsted… while their children are like, “dad’s boss! He’s a cool guy and doesn’t afraid of anything”. :::

I didn’t even scratch the surface of MT’s worldbuilding with the spoilers above, by the way. I could’ve talked about politics of the kingdom of Asura; or what exactly was the Mana Calamity; or the role of Nanahoshi into the story. The more you dig, the more you find, it’s frankly addictive.

Practically non-existent.

Give this map a check. As you can see the two countries with the least worse infrastructure in this regard are Argentina and Brazil; even then it’s mostly around Buenos Aires province and São Paulo state, and it’s mostly cargo. And at least in Brazil it seems to me it’s getting worse over time, as people rely more and more on aeroplanes for long distance travel.

My personal experience fits the above, by the way. I live in Curitiba; it’s in a 4M inhabitants metropolitan region, 1300km from Buenos Aires and 400km from São Paulo. And it’s a rather important connection between Paraguay (600km to the west, if counting from Ciudad del Este) and the port of Paranaguá (100km to the east).

So, note: metropolis, with important N-S and W-E connections, you’d expect it to be a train hub, right? Well… no. If I were to travel to any of those places I mentioned, there’s no reasonable way I’d take a train:

• Sampa - Bus or plane.
• BBAA - Plane. Or bus, if I was a masochist. Because seriously.
• CdE - Bus. I think planes might be an option too, but last time I was there it was by bus.
• Paranaguá - well, there’s a touristic train line, so… yay? Expensive as fuck. Car or bus.

So not even in the conditions you’d expect trains the most you’ll find them. (inb4 metropolitan trains became a political joke here, although it’s for another matter.)

Good catch on the minerals. Potatoes also have vitamin C, but I think chuño loses it (vitamin C is rather fragile, odds are it doesn’t survive the process). Protein-wise I just checked it; 3% in potatoes, 8~12% in wheat.

I suppose if I ever go back, I might try chicha again. Was really unimpressed the last couple times I tried it, heh.

It’s a lot like grain beer, in the sense taste varies wildly, depending on a thousand things. For example, I had a friend from the region sharing his homemade chicha with me once; it was quite sweet and sour, but barely any alcohol. But when I tried my hand at it, the result was way sharper, and way stronger than grain beer.

Plus the freezing — you need ice crystals to form so they rupture the cell walls, and let the water flow out. That’s why chuño was originally made around those times (June, July) and in high altitude fields, to increase the odds the taters would freeze through the night and thaw back in the morning.

Even better than bread and beer storage of grains, and potatoes are more nutritious than either, to boot.

Yup. At least in raw calories. I think potatoes have a lower protein content, but that (and fat) can be supplemented with some dried meat, legumes, fresh veggies and fruits.

That said they did have maize beer; called chicha de jora (Spanish) / aqa (Quechua). But it was more for the booze during festivals than as calorie storage.

You know, when people say the Nile is not the jewel of Egypt, but Egypt is the jewel of the Nile?

So. The Inca Empire did not create chuño; chuño created the Inca Empire. It was what allowed the relatively small kingdom of Cuzco to feed its troops for long-term war, and eventual conquest of neighbouring peoples, forming the Inca Empire.

The technique is probably way older than the chuño they found, from the 13th century or so.

Even after the fall of the Inca, chuño remained a staple food.

Even today. Here’s an example (chuño puthi, i.e. chuño with a peanut sauce). Interesting enough the folks in that region seem to treat it as an ingredient completely apart from potatoes, they aren’t interchangeable and some recipes call for both in specific amounts.

You’ll also see ground chuño being used in plenty soups as a thickener.

alongside other important Indigenous staples, such as dried meats.

Specially ch’arki. Originally made from llama meat and similar, but with the introduction of cows I bet it’s mostly bovine nowadays. It’s mostly sun-dried and salted, it doesn’t get all the fancy processing as the above, but it was damn important regardless, you can’t live just off potatoes.

Summer? See you guys in December… okay, sorry for the dumb joke. Here’s what I’m planning to pick up, roughly by order of how much I want to see it:

1. Mushoku Tensei III
2. Youjo Senki II
3. Otomege Sekai wa Mob […] 2
4. Black Torch
5. Ryoumin 0-Nin Start no Henkyou Ryoushu-sama
6. Tsuihou Sareta Tensei Juukishi wa Game […]
7. Koko wa Ore ni Makesete Saki […]
8. Hell Mode […] 2
9. Sekai Saikyou no Kouei
10. Reiwa no Dara-san
11. Suterare Seijo no Isekai Gohantabi
12. Rakudai Kenja no Gakuin Musou

I’ll also keep watching: Re:Zero, Iruma-kun, TenSura, Ascendance of a Bookworm. Then there’s the older stuff I’m only watching now, like Mahoutsukai no Yome and Highschool of the Dead.

So a total of 18 series, 12 being new ones. Two~three episodes per day.

My trouble is always ending up with too much leftover whey.

Add some fruit juice to it, and sugar to taste. IMO it’s delicious. (Note: this works better with sour fruits. Lemon, orange, passion fruit, cashew, pineapple, this sort of stuff.)

I’ve never made paneer, but I have made a lot of ricotta (well, this type of ricotta, there’s also leftover whey ricotta, which I haven’t made). I had no clue paneer was basically just pressed ricotta.

It’s possible what you made is paneer.

At least traditionally, ricotta is the one made from leftover whey; that’s why it gets this name (ricotto = recooked). You make some low temp cheese like pecorino, re-heat the leftover whey to ~80°C, add some white vinegar (and probably salt), transfer the curds outside of the liquid and here you go.

That’s me with Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo!

So that’s what made Emilia into the witch of envy!* Rem might as well not leave the coma now.
Congratulations Patrasche, Barusu!

(*inb4 that’s fan speculation, not spoilers)

Probably because I accidentally made chlorine gas.

You tried to electrolyse table salt, right?

I did the same as a kid. The chlorine reacted with the transparent plastic from my electrolysis apparatus, and made one side opaque and ugly, I hated it. (The “electrolysis apparatus” was a transformer, two pencil leads, two plastic bottles, a bunch of aquarium tubes, and glue. Lots and lots of glue. Even then it leaked a lot, it was hilariously unsafe.)

Then I learnt I should care about the electrolyte, and started using lye. (Nowadays I wonder what my parents had in their heads to let me play around this sort of stuff. It’s surprising I’m still alive.)

While Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles has its own rich lore, it is made even more enticing by its connection to the series xxxHOLiC. Both series were developed by Clamp and are set in the same multiverse. Characters are shared between the two series, and the interdimensional witch Yūko Ichihara plays an important role in both stories.

This. So much this.

You can enjoy them individually, but once you enjoy them together, both become far richer. It isn’t just about the TRC gang visiting the witch, everything is connected.

Mushishi and Hellsing also have great worldbuilding, but TRC/xxxHolic is more like a fractal of worlds tied together.

Can’t say about the other series, as I didn’t watch them.

With that out of the way, for people who want an isekai series with good worldbuilding, I’d recommend Log Horizon. AFAIK it was one of the first “trapped in a game” isekai series, and it goes great lengths to explore how game logic interacts with reality. Such as food only having a taste when made by people with a cooking skill, or where the money from loot comes from, or what it means to “die” in the world, etc.

And if you don’t want isekai, there’s The Ancient Magus’ Bride. Sure, younger than things mentioned in the list (the first season is from 2013), but worldbuilding is top notch.

Could this be a reason why it’s not opening on my windows 10 laptop ??

Sorry, I thought you were talking about Linux. You could make Kolourpaint work in Windows through some WSL, but it’ll be probably too much of a bother.

For Windows I hear a lot of people talking about Paint.NET. It is not open source. You could also try Krita, also from KDE; unlike Kolourpaint it has a native Windows version, but it’s a bit more advanced (usually when people ask for a Paint equivalent they want something simple).

Kolourpaint itself is small; the package is just under 6MB. However it depends on a lot of KDE libraries, so if you don’t have those installed, I’m eyeballing 100MB~200MB.

Kolourpaint. Worth even if you don’t use KDE.

The next episode should clarify most/all of those questions. Just one thing: the contracted spirits have nothing to do with Cecil being the “android prince”, they basically do what their master wants them to.

What a great episode. Even if you know what’s going on, you can’t help but worry about the characters, and cheer for them.

And it shows really well what’s wrong with the heroine and what’s right with the villainess: both are reincarnated and clueless muppets acting as if their new world was still following game logic, while derailing the story with their mere existence; but only Bertia genuinely cares about the others, Heronia only cares about herself.

What a banger. I’m not into musicals, mind you, but I’ve enjoyed every single second of this episode, it was bloody perfect. All that build-up from the other six episodes, the tease with the Misfits “fighting” over Elizabetta, the way they introduced Lilith’s lovers, letting the Misfit’s personalities “leak” into the characters they’re representing, all that anxiety waiting for Purson (mind you I did read the manga, but I was still “Purson when?”)…

And they made the Misfits look physically tired at the end of the episode. Specially Elizabetta. Like you’d expect from someone who has been dancing/singing/acting for minutes in a row, it’s something so subtle but you notice it in real actors.

Plus I love how this arc basically introduced a new character (Purson) without feeling weird or off. Perhaps due to his bloodline ability, sure, but still.

People will still talk about this episode for the years to come, because it is that good.

I think most of those long names are from light novel series, being adapted into manga. (Even then there are some exceptions, like The Apothecary Diaries / Kusuriya no Hitorigoto — short and to the point.)

If the adventurers knew they were bullied by a true dragon and three demon lords, they’d be screaming bloody murder.

Silica scolding Bertia was hilarious. Yeah, Bertia went a bit overboard. (Poor Charles, by the way.)

And the heroine lurking from the shadows…

That’s largely the premise of the series, to show the so-called “barbarians” are way more reasonable than the society insistently trying to invade them, and that fights against nature instead of embracing it.

Aaaand we get introduced to the Admirers of Miss Bertia! Joana looks way craftier and “more evil” than in the manga. But that’s fine, I think; if anything it’s good for contrast with other characters, even Prince Cecil with his silent malice.

In the meantime, Bertia herself is completely clueless. Anyone else would’ve noticed the heroine is also a reincarnator. Bertia, though? Nah.

Prince Cecil is not aware of his own feelings towards Bertia. (It’s basically the one you love sending you away, of course it hurts.)

So far I’ve been really liking this adaptation.

Acc. to my mum (she loves orchids) phalaenopsis orchids roots need to dry a bit before you water them again, so they really don’t like this sort of “always wet” system like semi-hydro. That’s why the bottom roots in your picture are all rotten, but the top ones (that likely get drier) are thriving.

She also said those rotten roots must be clipped out, otherwise the bacteria spread to the healthy ones.

Her suggestion is to simply use the traditional method, with an organic substratum: a mix of pine bark and charcoal, with just a wee bit of sphagnum (so you don’t need to water them constantly; but do wait until it’s dry to water them again). With LECA only at the bottom of the pot, for drainage.