The Professional Gamer - October 23, 2017

Hello everyone, and welcome to another week of The Professional Gamer. This week I've mostly been away from home, but I have had an opportunity to keep up with the Fall seasonal anime that I've found interesting so far. Let's talk a bit about that and the little bit of video gaming that I have done this week as well.

Left to right: Elias Ainsworth (The Magus), Chise Hatori, and Silver from the manga Volume 1 cover.

First, at Crystal's behest, I'm watching The Ancient Magus' Bride with her. She has a bit of head start on me with this series since you has purchased and read every volume of the manga that has been released to the US market so far. Nonetheless, I'm having a lot of fun watching the anime with her. The story promises to be interesting, though there are a few weird moments that occur. The titular magus, Elias, purchases a teenage girl, Chise, who has put herself up for auction. Not everything has been explained at this point in the anime, but it seems that Chise's life prior to the start of the show was somewhat desperate. She also has a strange property about her that makes her very attractive to fey creatures. Elias has purchased her, but his primary motive seems to have been to find an apprentice to teach. However, he does also state that he plans to make Chise his bride (as the title would suggest). All of this together does seem a bit odd, but I am currently entranced by the world building that is taking place in the series. Based on Crystal's impression of the manga, I expect to have a very good series to watch here. If you haven't had a look at it, episode 3 is out this weekend, so you still have plenty of time to catch up.

Next, Recovery of an MMO Junkie is the mature romance series that we have been waiting for. Moriko quits her corporate job in order to live a life full of fun. She intends to continue playing an MMORPG that she had previously loved. Unfortunately, that game has ended and all of the servers have been shut down. Instead, she ends up starting a new game, playing as the handsome character Hayashi. As Hayashi, she meets a cute character named Lily, who is willing to teach a new player more about the game world. As the anime has progressed, Hayashi and Lily have become close, playing together in the same girl, and sharing a lot about their real-life concerns and feelings. At the same time, Moriko has a strange encounter with a business worker named Yuta Sakurai. Moriko is sick at the time and Yuta accidentally runs into her on the street. He takes her to a clinic to make sure that she is alright, then leaves his business card in case Moriko needs any other help.

I am very excited to have both an anime series about MMO playing again (something that I have done in the past) and to have it star character a little closer to my age. I'm a bit tired of all of the high school anime. I'm not sure that it was always like this. During the late 1990's and 2000's, I remember a lot of anime that had actually adult characters in it. Lately, however, most anime characters are high school age or younger, and I find that really frustrating. There has been a long period of "safe" anime. Watching through the last few years of seasonal anime, I'm really hopeful that this trend is going to end. Or at least be somewhat reduced. 

On the other hand, I've been telling myself that for that for several years. Maybe I'm a bit too much of a Pollyanna on the subject.

Seriously, why would I want to challenge that shit. Let's go check out some more stars instead.

Last, with my computer working again, I'm back into the exploration business in Elite: Dangerous. There's not a lot to report on that front. I'm playing it safe currently, and only jumping to stars that can provide me with fuel. Therefore, most of the systems that I visit are similar: red, yellow, or white star, sometimes some icy planets, once in a while some more complex gas giant systems. And I'm a bit of a completionist, and need to scan every object in each system. I'm gradually working my way towards the Colonia sector, just because it seems like a fun place to go. I'm completely ignoring the recent introduction of Thargoids, and the drama that it has brought.

That's all I've got for this week. See you next time, and game on!