I hate to have to do this, but I'm canceling the Silent InvenTOYry Semi-Short episode that would have gone up at the end of the month. Looking at the next couple months' worth of expenses, I think it's for the best if I hold off purchasing the figure I had in mind, which was really nice but relatively low-priority on my wishlist, and instead save up for one of the Big Ones, something I'm dying to get my hands on. So you will get SISS Episode 5 at some point, it'll just be covering a different item and releasing at a later date.

Speaking of SI, as you can see up there, work is progressing nicely on Episode 09. Filming is about 70% done; there's an outdoor gag I still need to shoot and two more portions of the review to do, but assuming nothing needs to be reshot, I should be in good shape to post the episode within the week. One full day spent editing ought to be enough to get it out the door... I hope.

Looking at the listings for this anime season, I really thought it would be a dry spell after last season's bevy of interesting shows. The first week's worth has proven me wrong yet again, it looks like. First up in my watchlist is Dororo, based on an unfinished manga by the God of Manga himself, Osamu Tezuka. One of his darker works, it takes place in a particularly hellish depiction of the Sengoku era, opening with a power-hungry lord bargaining with forty-eight demons for his own personal glory. The demons take the... well, pretty much everything from his newborn infant son as the cost, leaving the baby with no eyes, no nose, no skin, no arms, and no legs... but somehow still alive. The lord's attempt to quietly get rid of the poor thing doesn't take, and he shows up sixteen years later as a badass demon hunter whose entire body, more or less, is prosthetics and hidden weapons. Killing one demon to save a cocky little thief named Dororo restores his skin... so, one gathers, the plot involves him tracking down the rest of the forty-eight to recover all the body parts he lost. I described the show to rinsweeb as "the weirdest example of Mega Manning ever", and in fact the story was adapted in video game form for the PS2 fifteen years ago... Anyway, as far as great hooks for a series go, that's way up there, I think. The fight animation is gorgeous, and I can't wait to see what hidden gadgets our demon slayer will pull out of his artificial parts next.

The second is The Promised Neverland. All I'm willing to say about it is that it reminds me of Made in Abyss in terms of "seemingly cute and innocuous series has absolutely horrible things happening to small children underneath the surface". Granted, in Neverland's case, the darkness isn't hiding very far under the surface, but the question of "What do we do now?" makes a pretty compelling reason to tune in, I think. So long as you can stomach the very real possibility of adorable kids meeting gruesome ends, I give this one an earnest recommendation.

I also need to give credit to my friend Ninty (go check out The Convergence, his magical girl crossover fanfic, which I'm beta reading! Leave comments and feedback, please!) for talking me into watching Symphogear, a magical girl franchise which I had heard of before but avoided due to some really bad info from the person who recommended it. I was led to believe it was "idol singers with light magical girl elements", when in fact it's the other way around: the show has a pretty impressive fusion of Nanoha and Madoka going in terms of the level of darkness (Madoka) and the magitech that the girls use to fight (Nanoha). And yes, they do sing while they're fighting, and they do sing to activate their powers... but as jarring as that is at first, it fades into the background really quickly. The music is universally great, too, which helps! So you've got a girl named Hibiki (played by Madoka's Aoi Yuuki, giving an awesomely hot-blooded performance) fighting off waves of horrible monsters called Noise by Bruce Lee-ing them to death, while her two (so far) teammates slice them up with swords and lots and lots of dakka... and they're singing all the while. It's a weird premise, but I swear the show makes it work. According to Ninty, the following seasons are even better... I can't wait. No, before you ask, this does not mean that the Symphogears will be showing up in Shattered Skies... but a subtle indirect reference or two might make it in there at some point.

Speaking of Skies: after my brief hiatus, I'm slowly feeling the urge to get back to work on it. I really do need to finish my other projects first, but I have ideas percolating as to where to take the story next. More to come on this later.

- BHS