{"id":174229,"date":"2023-09-04T17:46:43","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T22:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/?p=174229"},"modified":"2023-09-15T20:37:31","modified_gmt":"2023-09-16T01:37:31","slug":"what-the-helck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/what-the-helck\/","title":{"rendered":"What the Helck"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Upon David Breitenbeck’s recommendation<\/a>, I’ve been watching Spy x Family<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. It’s been fun so far, but I wasn’t expecting a Chaim Witz cameo.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Some months back I re-subscribed to Crunchyroll. I may cancel it again. Little during the past few seasons has held my attention, and nothing in the current season looks worth my time.<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> I will grant that the writers of Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon<\/a><\/strong><\/em> deserve credit for concocting an actual story with a vending machine as protagonist, but one episode of that absurd isekai<\/em> was enough. Crunchyroll is useful mainly for watching old favorites, but those are apt to disappear without warning; also, my own library, while not as large as theirs, is better-selected.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The only current show I am following is Helck<\/a><\/b><\/i>, which is not on Crunchyroll. The demon world needs a new lord and holds a tournament to determine who it will be. The dominant competitor is the human Helck, who is both overwhelmingly powerful and one heck of a nice guy. He professes to hate humans, but the demonic authorities don’t trust him and try to sabotage the trials. Things become complicated: angelic-looking entities with wings and armor attack the demons, and cities where humans had lived are mysteriously empty. Meanwhile, Helck and the feistiest female demon are teleported to a pleasant tropical isle far from everyone else with no idea how to return home. The show shifts from comedy to drama to horror to farce in a manner reminiscent of Akitaro Daichi<\/a>. Underneath his friendly good humor, it becomes clear that Helck is dead serious. There is a complicated mystery here, with good and evil seemingly inverted, and I am curious to see how it plays out.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I checked out Helck<\/b><\/i> because Tatsuo Sato is directing it. Sato is responsible for Shingu<\/a><\/b><\/i>, the most-watched show in my library; Mouretsu Pirates<\/a><\/b><\/i>, another favorite; and, Martian Successor Nadesico<\/a><\/b><\/i>. He’s also directed disappointments such as Madan no Ou to Vanadis<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, and the nightmare Cat Soup<\/a><\/b><\/i>. At this point it looks like Helck<\/b><\/i> be near to Nadesico<\/b><\/i> in quality, but it’s too soon to tell if it will end well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
One of my favorite moments from Gate<\/strong>: Rory Mercury expresses her high regard for politicians.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I recently re-watched Gate<\/a><\/b><\/i>, an amalgam of smart and silly. I gather some people complain that the show is jingoistic. That’s one its pleasures, actually. It’s refreshing when a writer is proud of his country, and I don’t mind the slurs against the USA government much. In fact, I would rather have Gate’<\/b><\/i>s unscrupulous but competent American president in the White House than the vegetable currently rotting there.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Is digital piracy really sinful? Perhaps not<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Upon David Breitenbeck’s recommendation, I’ve been watching Spy x Family. It’s been fun so far, but I wasn’t expecting a Chaim Witz cameo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[706],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xam3-Jk9","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174229"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174611,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174229\/revisions\/174611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}