Update Diary: Hell/Dolls (March 19th, 2025)

Hello, everyone!  A quick update on how the development of my story is coming!

Current Chapter: 10 (Truths and Lies)

Pages: 112

Total Word Count: 53,591

We’re so close to releasing the first two chapters, I can almost taste it!  I’m running into some issues with pacing, but we’re slowly working our way to the end of the chapter.

I am still trying to schedule writing time around life events and review material, and I will do my damndest to keep with what I said in my last post; at least two reviews before the end of April.  Spoilers: one’s an Isekai and one’s about AI.  Can you guess what they are?

For now, please look forward to the release of the Prelude and Chapter One of Hell/Dolls!

Anime Review: MASHLE: Magic and Muscles

Hello again, all!

Today’s review tackles a show that I hadn’t had the desire to watch for a while, but took a shot and watched it.  MASHLE: MAGIC AND MUSCLES is definitely a unique show, but it’s got enough of a following that it must be good, right?

Here’s a quick synopsis:

In this world, magic is prevalent, and almost everyone in it can use magic to some degree – except our protagonist, Mash Burnedead, who was born without a mark (basically, has no magic potential).  He instead trains his body to the max, day in and day out, at the behest of his father, who hopes this is enough to protect him from the sinister underbelly of the magic world.  But an event endangering his happy family life forces Mash to enroll in the magic-centric Easton Academy and try to become a Divine Visionary – a person deemed as one of God’s chosen.  Will Mash be able to succeed in his studies and live in peace?

Spoilers start now.

Continue reading

Anime Review: Special Review

WHAT? THIS IS NOT ANIME!

Yes, this review is a little different.  Today, I want to spread a series that some of you know or may have already watched.

Hazbin Hotel.

I’m aware that this show is definitely not for everyone, but I feel like it’s a show that should be discussed for one reason or another.  It has some very specific messages, and some that are not as clear, but overall the show is an interesting experience.

I’ll be using the anime scoring system that I normally use, even though this isn’t anime – because it’s an animated series with musical numbers, a specific art style, and dynamic characters, I think it fits enough criteria that I use to fit this model.

Spoilers ahead.

Continue reading

Anime Review: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Cour 1 and 2)

Hello once again, peeps!  After a long time trying to finish this series, I’ve finally done it!  Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a brilliantly-designed series, and I would like to review it here as best I can.

As always, my rating system for Anime is a little weird, but all of the notes for my style of judgement is on a separate page on the blog.

A short synopsis:  Frieren is an elf mage who, along with the Hero Himmel, the priest Heiter, and the warrior Eisen, defeated the Demon King of their world.  Frieren returns to keep a promise to Himmel after fifty years, and is able to be with her party once more before the Hero passes, where she regrets not spending enough time with her short-lived allies.  The show follows the struggle of Frieren trying to understand humans’ emotions, reasonings, and beliefs, while simultaneously retracing her adventures with a new party of younger people.

From here on, it’s spoiler territory.

Continue reading

A Gentle Update

Good morrow, my fellow readers and watchers!

I just wanted to provide an update on some stuff going on in my life – both to clarify future posts on the blog and to give myself a to-do list.

Firstly, I haven’t forgotten about Kizumonogatari.  I have the review started, but I need to rewatch it while writing, which for a subbed anime with lots (and I mean LOTS) of text notes and Japanese-language jokes, is not easy.  I am taking my time writing this one because I truly love the Monogatari Series, and I want to give unbiased, fair, and clear commentary on these movies.  If I haven’t already said, I’ll be doing separate reviews for each of the three movies to fully hit home what I think of them.

Secondly, the Hell/Dolls story updates.  I do still want to do regular progress updates on this story, but with how infrequently I write, and how varied my writing sessions end up, I realize that every month on the 15th probably won’t work.  I do still want to update y’all every month, but just know that I probably won’t be able to do it at consistent times every month.  It will most likely be on the back end of each month, as I generally maintain better writing schedules in the middle of the month due to work.

Thirdly, random reviews and other anime and game reviews are still planned (I’ve got a few in the pipeline now), and I will still post at least one anime review each month, not including the Monogatari Series ones.  The quick reviews segment I did in the last period I was posting could make a comeback if there’s enough demand, and I happen to have the time to watch a few episodes of a lot of anime, which could definitely happen when things slow down.  Game reviews, unfortunately, will be on the back burner for the foreseeable future, as I generally don’t have the time or money for new games… though I do have an extensive Steam backlog that I could review, given some free time.  We’ll see.

Lastly, I just want to note that I will try my damndest to give my readers updates on anything I can: if there’re more reviews than usual planned, life events that prevent me from uploading, or sudden desires to update my older stories (like Touhou, which is somehow still getting new readers despite not being updated since 2018).  Y’all are my go-to updates over Facebook and Twitter (currently X), and I want you to know that I respect that, since some of you have been with me since high school.

Thanks for listening, I promise a new review will drop soon (probably not Kizumono, but something).

Happy Holidays!

-Marcosias