Anime Review: Bofuri, I'll Max my Defense!

Bofuri is about a girl who isn't very practiced in video games becoming remarkably powerful almost by accident.  She and her skilled PvPer girlfriend play as much as they can, start a guild, and have lots of fun shenanigans.  Their little guild becomes full of surprisingly powerful players, in unexpected ways, and they end up competing in some large scale guild events.

Unlike reality, in this anime, everyone is friendly and a good sport, so this is s pleasant anime to watch.  Also, the relationship between MC and her PvPer girlfriend is a little vague, but I ship them, so whatevs.  It's a good, cozy anime to watch.

Anime Review: Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid is an older anime at this point, but I still like it.  It's got 2 seasons, and some shorts.

A single officeworker with a penchant for drinking, makes friends with an incredibly powerful, but homeless dragon, who swears to repay her kindness by being her maid.  The dragons other dragon friends show up, and shenanigans.  Some of the characters have incredibly large breasts, but it's too comical to be sexy, and I kinda appreciate that somehow.

Anime Review: Recovery of an MMO Junkie

Recovery of an MMO Junkie is an MMO themed anime that's near and dear to my heart.  Overworked and stressed, the main character quits her job and hides in a video game to try to cope.  She joins a friendly guild, and another player becomes special to her.

There's a lot of video game references I get very well, some gender confusion mishaps, and a lot of sweetness overall.  I really like this anime, and have watched it a few times. 

Anime Review: My Next Life as a Villainess

I admit, I've only watched season 1 of this show, and it has 2 seasons so far, but I think season 1 is worth reviewing.  This is another otome game isekai.  The main character is reborn as the antagonist of her favorite otome game from her past life.  Because of this, she fears an early demise, and will stop at nothing to get a longer, fuller life.

This otome game isekai is also incredibly funny, in a very sweet and wholesome way, and it's really cute.  The MC does her best to befriend everyone so no one will try to kill her, and she tries to hard that everyone loves her instead.  Even the female characters fall for her, which makes my bisexual heart happy too.  I haven't watched season 2 yet, because season 1 ended so perfectly, it felt weird to, but I'm sure it's more of the same.

Anime Review: Trapped in a Dating Sim

Trapped in a Dating Sim is one of my favorite anime.  It has one 12 episode season, came out in 2022, and the dub is so good, I got the MC voice actor's autograph.  This is the only dating sim isekai I was able to get my husband to watch with me.  It's special.

Why is it special?  Well, it's because the main character is an anti-hero, and a hilarious one at that.  His obnoxious attitude, even as he's doing the right thing, is priceless.  Also, otome games make me mad, so I really enjoyed him ripping on all the old otome tropes.

I've read some of the manga after watching the anime, and it's not as good.  It doesn't wield the sword of humor quite as well as the anime does.  The premise isn't that great if it takes itself too seriously.  It's the parody and sarcastic edge that makes this anime a gem worth watching.

Eden Eternal

Another very old anime MMO has made a recent comeback.  Eden Eternal was created by X-Legend and was originally hosted for the Western hemisphere by Aeria Games starting in 2011.  Aeria Games got bought by Gamigo Games, and they eventually shut down Eden Eternal in 2021.

X-Legend got their game back and launched their own server last year, in 2023.  This is the version I'm playing now.  Because of the gap in service, accounts from Aeria Games were not transferable like Aura Kingdoms, but they offered a good amount of new account rewards to help players start over.

Revisiting Aura Kingdom

It's been about 3 years since I reviewed Aura Kingdom, and since then, it has changed hands in ownership from Aeria Games, to Gamigo Games, back to X-Legend, the original developers.  For a while I was unhappy with Gamigo, so I played Aura Kingdom on a private server, then I went back to the official server, then quit for a year because I had technical difficulty transferring my account to X-Legend.  Recently, I was able to overcome my technical difficulties and play again.  Much to my surprise, X-Legend has made several improvements since getting their game back.

For starters, auto-pathing had been improved.  You used to run through water and get dismounted.  Now the paths navigate the maps much more safely.  Also, apparently they've streamlined the leveling process to 99, because the game used to really drop off at 80.  Most specifically in my personal interest, they've rebalanced the classes, and Wizards are a lot more successful than they used to be.  Where I used to hit a wall and be unable to continue, now my current gear and stats are sufficient to complete story content.  And as an added bonus, they've increased the drop rates of gold and rewards in dungeons, so making money is easier too.