Erufailon4

In July 2019, back when I was still very new to anime and was enthusiastically devouring anything interesting-looking I could find, I discovered  Attack on Titan . During the couple of weeks it took me to binge all three seasons out at the time, I was completely enamoured with its story and world, and was left to wait for the fourth season. While waiting for the season that would eventually start over a year later, my familiarity with the series and its opening theme songs also led me to a discovery that quite possibly changed my life.  First it was just Linked Horizon's opening songs, then the ending song, then the other AoT-themed songs that didn't appear in the anime itself, and before long I found myself watching the Shingeki no Kiseki concert on YouTube, completely in love with LH. I wanted more, and I got it in the form of Sound Horizon, a completely new world of musical storytelling that I previously had had no idea even existed. When I had consumed all of SH content av...

When I started reading The House in Fata Morgana  back in January, I didn't know it would become one of my favourite works of fiction ever. There is just so much to love, from its carefully constructed plot and multidimensional characters to its unique artstyle and breathtaking soundtrack, that I could spend an entire blog post just gushing about it. Later I also bought the prequel A Requiem for Innocence  and also enjoyed it. But that was all that was available for PC - the rest of the Fatamoru content that has been translated to English is only included in the console ports. So, once I decided to finally get myself a Nintendo Switch, I also ordered a physical copy of the Switch edition of the VN. Since it's a Limited Run release I could only find it from resellers on eBay, who were charging... some pretty high prices. I went for the cheapest option possible, but even so it was a lot more than I had spent on the PC versions (+ soundtracks and artbook) in total.  Worth it...

My personal website erufailon4.net has now officially opened. It's very much a WIP still, don't get me wrong, and doesn't have much content yet, but I figured it would be best to have something  on it at this point, considering that I've already had the domain for over a year and been paying for the hosting for about half a year. While there aren't a lot of pages yet, I think the home page looks pretty nice even if I do say so myself. (Special thanks to the Bootstrap framework for doing the heavy lifting.)  I'll take this opportunity to also note that I haven't updated this blog since the Ema Full unboxing in June. That's because I've been busy with that massive thing (only got half of the endings at the moment) - once I finish the entire BD, expect some kind of impressions or retrospective or theories. The amount of months remaining of this year is slowly but surely decreasing, and I'm going to have to pick up my pace if I want to do everything...

It's been a long time coming, but over 2 years after it was announced, 7 months after I pre-ordered it, and 3 months after it was originally supposed to be released, Sound Horizon's 7.5th or 8.5th Story BD Ema ni Negai wo! Full Edition  is finally here. I originally wasn't sure if I was even going to buy it, but then decided to support Revo and get it... for as cheap as possible. Luckily Amazon Japan was selling it without any store bonuses for 17000 yen (19164 yen with Finnish VAT) plus 2651 yen shipping, so at the end I only paid a bit less than 150 euros - with the downside that I indeed didn't get those bonuses. Would they have been worth 5000 yen? Maybe... but probably not. Also worth mentioning is that this was my first experience with DHL as a courier and I'd say it was a positive one. I wasn't home on Monday to sign it when it arrived so I authorized them to leave it in the mailbox. The package arrived completely unharmed.  Ema Full's packaging is mi...

It's been a while since I've last updated this blog, so, now that Ema Full is almost around the corner, I thought I'd share what I've been up to recently and what I will/might be up to in Near Future™.  First things first: I graduated high school! (Well, the Finnish equivalent of high school. It's not exactly the same but close enough.) It's nice, getting a fun little hat and a fancy certificate and a shit ton of presents (mostly money) from relatives. Also it means that I'm now free from societal expectations for a while, probably for the last time in my life. I did get accepted into university directly based on my matriculation exam grades, but I'm not planning to start my studies there yet this fall. Why? Well, about that...  Now might be a good time to mention that I'll be doing my military service next year, starting in January. Nothing extraordinary about that for us Finns, but those of you who don't have mandatory military service in your...

So. Revo and Pony Canyon have just  announced  that Ema ni Negai Wo! Full Edition  will be delayed by three months to June 14. Yeah. That, uh, came out of nowhere. Or, I mean, you could say there were signs, since there had been very little marketing of any kind recently despite the original release date quickly approaching. But I was still surprised that it ended up being delayed by that much. It's understandable though, as you can't really add bug fixes to an already released Blu-ray (I mean,  apparently you can  but I've never once heard of that actually happening) so naturally Revo & team would want the disc to be released in a state as polished as possible.  As one would expect, the delay complicates things for me (and likely many other Laurants as well). I pre-ordered Ema Full  in November on Amazon Japan, which charges on release date - meaning that I now have to keep EF in mind when making money decisions for three more months. The currency...

While I did know it was coming thanks to the ever-so-reliable sakuga community hyping it up, I couldn't expect just how great Bocchi the Rock!  would be. There are many aspects that aided its rise to the top of my - and many others' - top 10 list of last year, and one of them was its music. The anime's in-universe Kessoku Band played many memorable songs throughout the series, in addition to the excellent OP & EDs, so when Aniplex released all of them, in addition to a few completely new songs, on a limited-time CD with some extras, I just had to get it. Amazon Japan didn't want to ship it overseas, but luckily CDJapan was there to save the day. They didn't have any store bonus available, not even the general one, so I did miss out on that, but I'm not too bothered by that. I could also use a 500 yen off coupon since it was my first time ordering from them, which essentially got me free tracking&insurance and a little off the base shipping cost too. Japa...