TL;DR — Anime I never finished, Spring 2024 Part 1

The really good anime for this season are just starting to roll out, so it’s nice that I’m able to get through the chaff early. Plus, as an added bonus, a few of last season’s that I finally gave up on.

Train to the End of the World
Kemono Friends meets Zom 100

Reincarnated as the 7th Prince
I am severely uninterested in high-powered protags in short pants

Studio Apartment…Angel Included
As others have said, Oh, My Goddess did it better, and wasn’t so squeaky.

And finally, a trio of programs I followed almost to the end, but finally gave up to watch re-runs of Log Horizon. I preface this with a comment from Mark Twain, that captures my feelings about them all.
Mark Twain wrote a comedy classic titled “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses.” In it, he lists some requirements for good writing. Adapting one of those rules gives us an idea of why I finally became so bored with the following anime that I dropped them a couple episodes short of the finalel:

 “…the anime Director shall make the viewer feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and in their fate; and that he shall make the viewer love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones. But the viewer of these programs dislikes the good people in them, is indifferent to the others, and wishes they would all get drowned together.”

7th Time Loop
Villainess protagonna forced to repeat her life until she gets it right. Maybe the eighth time around they will make it.

Shangri-La Frontier
Excruciatingly detailed playthrough of an MMORPG by a totally devoted and overwhelmingly enthusiastic gamer.

Solo Leveling
Game within a game within real life. Bonus overpowered protag with a little sister. Double bonus for their mother’s Anime Wasting Disease.

Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic
Oscar nomination for the best portrayal of the shouty life of a combat medic in a non-isekai sekai.

Don’t heed the troll

Cooper’s Trump’s gift in the way of invention was not a rich endowment; but such as it was he liked to work it…. In his little box of stage-properties he kept six or eight cunning devices, tricks, … and he was never so happy as when he was working these innocent things and seeing them go. Mark Twain, Fenimore Cooper’s literary offenses.

 

Trump’s main device is distraction. Be it outrageous tweets, or outrageous policy stances, he uses these things to distract from the real dealings of his administration. He has also, as we all know, re-set the boundary for what is acceptable in the the way of crass, boorish, or illegal actions by a sitting President. This has had a significant impact on how I consider his actions.

In the past I might have been concerned with the moral or fiduciary behavior of other Presidents, but Trump has destroyed any boundaries, any constraints, and he’s concentrated on distracting the populace from other, more important things. So, what’s left? What’s important? Actions.

I see two kinds of policy actions showing up in the news these days. First, are what might be called loss leaders — actions he, or the GOP, want to take but which they know will foment a backlash. Dropping the Individual Mandate on ACA might be one of these. They stick this in the tax bill, and if they get it, fine. If they don’t get it, well, it served to distract the Democrats, to soak up news minutes. If it never becomes law, it still served a purpose.

The other kind of policy actions are things they are serious about. Things that will get them more money from rich donors. Things that will get them more federal judgeships. So the FCC is pressing on with a plan to kill Net Neutrality, to be announced over Thanksgiving. And everyone is supporting Roy Moore because, he may be a pedophile, but he’s our pedophile. And, of course, the big tax give-away.

Note how these can work in tandem. Everyone gets together and opposes dropping the Individual Mandate, and meanwhile the tax bill passes. Everyone gets spun up over some tweet, and meanwhile, rich wallets are opening up.

The point of writing this early on a Thanksgiving morning is to give warning. It’s a device. It’s a distraction. It’s a snare an a trap, designed to burn up news cycles and force you into adrenaline exhaustion.

If your Thanksgiving dinner table discussions center on Trump, instead of government policies, then you’ve already lost. Don’t fall for it.

I hate to normalize Presidential actions that would be considered boorish in a hedge fund manager, but the fact is, all that is just Trump being Trump.

What should you do? Pick your battles. Look at Trump/GOP actions that will seriously harm the country and those who can’t fight back. Immigration, federal agency dismantlement, net neutrality, disaster relief failures, tax-so-called-reform in general (not just ACA mods). Call/write your elected representatives about those, not about golf days or whose what he is grabbing. Yes, those are important. No, I hate to say it, those are not as important right now as some other things.

Don’t fall for it. Don’t heed the troll.