Reading Report: 16 June 2024

オーデュボンの祈り

This week I started watching ∀Gundam, continued Ideon, and read another chapter of オーデュボンの祈り. Mild spoilers for each.

オーデュボンの祈り

This week I read the second major chapter of this book. The plot has developed into a kind of murder mystery where the main character is attempting to navigate some of the weirdest characters while solving the weirdest murder I've ever read. The mystery has developed to the point where they're unsure if the victim can even die. There was also a semi-long detour where the MC and his "friend" visited a bird-obsessed man who taught them all about the book's namesake, オーデュボン, an American ornithologist who documented a tonne of wildlife in America but importantly also documented the mass killing and extinction of the リョコウバト that took place during his life. It's pretty sad but also interesting.

∀ガンダム

The main anime kick of the week. Even though it's not the next Gundam series in terms of release order, it just felt like a good time to start it. The story is a bit weird, and I find some of the political stuff even more obtuse than normal Gundam series, but I really like the personal drama of ロラン、キエル、ソシエ、and ディアナ. Following some of the hyper-formal dialogue of ディアナ (and people who interact with her) has been particularly tricky, and because of the setting a lot of vocabulary I'd otherwise find familiar is obfuscated by characters not really knowing the "proper words" for things. Ultimately I'm really enjoying it though. Particularly ソシエ's general personality and ディアナ's undercover storyline have been really engaging.

伝説巨神イデオン

I just fit another three episodes of this in on an off day. It's probably not the best way to be watching this show but I'm a little bit lacking for options while I'm away. The main drama in the last few episodes have involved the main faction "discovering" the identities of the two space-race ladies when a guy from their team interfered. There was also a little myth retelling explaining why they're so interested in Ideon.

デッドデッドデーモンズデデデデデストラクション

I'm watching this via the Crunchyroll episodic cut. The plot is kind of confusing and I'm not sure if that's the point or a skill issue. Episode "0" was not too impressive, but I like the setting of episodes 1 and 2.