Lurker > voltch

What a finish by Hocker!
The favs imploded there

What a super hyped 1500m race.
Norway and GB the heavy favourites

Netherlands retain in the men's team sprint with a world record.

I love how fast this event goes.

Poor Oka.

He's won 3 Golds and a Bronze in a single Olympics and p much no one outside of Japan gives a single fuck.

Even the great Uchimura didn't do this in one Olympic.

Though to create that image we had to see Romania's gymnast get utterly crushed by removing her medal after the score correction.

Not overly keen on Josh Kerr, kinda want Norway to win that one.
Will back Keely.

Pole Vault today, Duplantis is astonishing there.

GB just devastating at the velodrome.

GB does have a pretty good history in the middle distances.
Not sure why that distance in particular, but hoping Keely gets gold.

Velodrome time
GB can deliver

Battle Moon Wars after

Even though it's non-canon

Anime wins the 100m!

Oh no Diary Aussie lady seems to be a complete nutter.
Whew, good thing Ukraine won

Dear Diary Aussie woman has been doing well in the high jump
Good contest with the Ukrainian entrant.

I don't follow handball to know when performance drops off.
But some of their guys seem really old.

Yeah get cracking onwards to LB6.
Still think the FGO highs are the Fate series' peak.

Denmark and France past few years look p good in handball.

How much for 7200 SQ again?

Maybe it's cos we have better cameras now, but I didn't realise competitive swimming just made you go purple.

BBC said the LA pool will hold 40k so the atmosphere will be rocking there.

When the 50km was on it would look like one of the most gruelling competitions as entrants would often collapse from cramp or vomit.
The camera shots and slow mo made it look compelling too.

Get rid of 20km racewalking
But bring back 50km racewalking

It's just not the same when it's not 50km

Whew Leon Marchand has had quite the Olympics

I watch swimming only during the Olympics.
I am shocked the USA isn't dominating more events in the pool.

Japan did really well to catch up but China had a considerable cushion.
The format is so ruthless but makes for great viewing when its close.

Love these sports where the athletes aren't just competing against each other, but powering through and enduring tough conditions.
The heat during the mountain biking was obvious and made it look all the more gruelling.

Happy with how FRA/JP have done so far.
I like the skateboarding.

Also neat to see when a local hope delivers in such emphatic fashion the way Leon Marchand did in the pool.

Team GB at the Velodrome in 2012 felt similar.

Pity on Koyanskaya, Oberon and Ruler Skadi.
Without pity I would have quit this game by now.

NP1 Ibuki secured won't go further.
Now guaranteed to get Ruler Skadi.

So it's p much time to hoard for next year as Kukulkan/Tiamat/Draco is gonna exhaust my resources

Congrats!

Now welcome to shell hell

Oh no, Argentina what are you doing.

Glad to see the public callouts from Chelsea players against a high profile teammate.
Even though he's a great player and losing him would weaken Chelsea, Enzo needs to at minimum get a heavier punishment than what Cavani got for his incident.

Oh yeah, you're doomed if we get Fate/Strange Fake servants that aren't already released.

After all the drama in the group stage and he's in back to back Euro finals.

Sir Southgate

Grumble grumble grumble Zidane

Not a fan of Melanchon at all, but seeing Bardella humiliated to this degree is nice.
No real satisfying choice among the candidates opposite the the far right, so seeing them fail this badly was p much the best outcome.

For ST I'll always say Musashi.
loved what she's done for me over the years.

Ooh so one of Koeman or Southgate will make a final.
Think both will have to be kept on for the world cup cycle unless they step down.

Casually scored a goal of the tournament candidate when Southgate was getting doubted

France have generated the chances to score.
Some of it is their finishing hasn't been clinical and some kinda just boils down to luck. I'd say it should revert to the mean but you keep facing stronger competition as you progress through the rounds so Spain might not let them generate those opportunities.

I know England and France are being compare to each other lately.

But would England have fared better up against Belgium and Portugal?

Must be hell seeing you're going to be facing Kante, Camavinga and Tchouameni and if you get through that there's still a backline that includes Kounde and Saliba.

I sure hope this Kendry Paez kid turns good when he joins the premier league.

Good day of football today.
Even if the games don't deliver there's a lot of talent on the pitch to make something happen out of nowhere.

Like her design
Like her kit
Like her character

Wouldn't mind getting her at NP3 if I whiff on Ryoma or Romulus.

England v France final would be nice to see.

GSSR life only here too.

Tho the game on occasion tosses more than 2 a year at us.

Based off the first round of matches only Germany and Spain have impressed among the traditional powerhouses.

The Adidas Hey Jude ads paying for themselves.

Don't think Ten Hag is a bad coach.
Utd just have a bad setup, but with more involvement with Ratcliff pushing for it and less decision making on player transactions, he could do well again.

In hindsight it seems like Ajax's strong run was with Ten Hag and Overmars focusing on their respective duties, with both gone things got rough in a hurry.

I just hope to get NP1 Arc in under 300 SQ....but recent luck suggests that ain't happening.

Would like some pocket SQ as insurance against the summer banners.

Chrono Trigger
FF
FFVII
DQV

Final Results:

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End - 214
Kaguya-sama: Love Is War - 76

Congratulations to Frieren for winning in its first attempt.
The series is coming off as a bit of an instant classic, topping the MAL charts and finally dethroning Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Incidentally, that one was our inaugural champion.
We've come a long since in the world of anime. I kinda feel that 10 years ago, anime in the west was still something of a niche, it was starting to make inroads but still hadn't quite exploded.
These days its noticeable when even in a UK Waterstones, the section for manga is huge compared to the past.
Bit of a boom period/golden age.

Frieren ticked many boxed, a good fantasy story that ditched the Isekai crutch. It gave you both comfy slow paced episodes that endeared you to the characters.
But it also delivered some great action sequences when it needed to.
You had the absolute hottest act in all of Jpop perform the OP and while some think it didn't fit, it didn't hurt to have their association with the show.

But although it lost big a big margin I do want to give Kaguya its props, its now a longtime entrant that has always done well in these contests because it is a good show.
The TV anime ended on a high with season 3 covering some of the manga's best content. While the manga's last few arcs left wuite a few unsatisfied, the anime we got was brilliant and consistently good.
The author's follow up was also another smash hit, looking forward to the live action Amazon movie.

Now where do we go from here?

I think if DBZ had made the finals it would have had a solid shot at winning, but we'll never know.
In the past we started to build a bunch of series that did well but were kinda just waiting their turn to win like Steins;Gate, Monster, Death Note, A Place Further than the Universe, Haruhi.
We've now sort of built a new class of such shows in Kaguya, Haikyuu!, Madoka and yes even Monogatari (though if it doesn't do well after the upcoming seasons then it has nothing left to produce).

We might see the next winner from such a class, or it could be from a new season like Frieren managed.
But do we even have such a hyped show on the horizon? While I'm excited for Blue Box and Sakamoto Days I don't think they'll get quite the same treatment
Dandadan could start hot, if we go the Madhouse route again then Trillion Game is a very exciting proposition, what's been translated of the manga is great.
Story from the Dr Stone/Eyeshield author and art from the Crying Freeman/Sanctuary illustrator.

Of course its possible we'll just see a repeat winner. I've liked all prior winners so far and while its not my preference it has been a while.
So what did you guys think of this edition on the whole and which new shows will you be checking out afterwards?

I've got on my docket at least 7th Time Loop and The Dangers in my Heart

Final Standings:

01. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
02. Kaguya-sama: Love Is War
03. Dragon Ball Z
04. Puella Magi Madoka Magica
05. Monogatari
06. Baccano!
07. Haikyuu!!
08. Beastars
09. 7th Time Loop
10. Mushishi
11. BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!!
12. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
13. Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom
14. Detective Conan
15. Steins;Gate
16. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
17. The Apothecary Diaries
18. Legend of the Galactic Heroes
19. Monster
20. Kaiji
21. The Dangers in my Heart
22. Odd Taxi
23. Tokyo Pig
24. Yu Yu Hakusho
25. Dragon Ball
26. Dark Gathering
27. A Place Further Than the Universe
28. A Certain Scientific Railgun
29. Xenosaga: The Animation
30. Dennou Coil
31. Mob Psycho 100
32. Aggretsuko
33. Sonic X
34. Cowboy Bebop
35. Yona of the Dawn
36. Dr. Stone
37. Oshi no Ko
38. Spy x Family
39. Delicious in Dungeon
40. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
41. Bocchi the Rock
42. Fate/Zero
43. Psycho-Pass
44. Zombie Land Saga
45. Slayers
46. Made in Abyss
47. Lupin III
48. Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
49. Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead
50. One Piece