Sweetness And Lightning Anime

A great little anime series I just recently wrapped up watching, and thought I'd share.

This 12-episode slice-of-life series came out in 2016.  It's about this young high school teaching assistant Kohei who lost his wife six months before, and has to raise their 5-year-old daughter Tsumugi on his own.  He does his best, but their busy schedule and his cooking lack of skill means the pair often relies on instant foods and take out to get by.  Kohei worries his daughter isn't eating right.

Then one day they meet Kotori, a high school senior in Kohei's class, and through various circumstances she invites them back to her family's small cafe-restaurant.  Kotori's mom is always busy with work, and the family restaurant is mostly closed, which saddens her.  So the three of them strike a deal; Kohei and Tsumugi will come over once in a while to eat with Kotori.  This way, Kohei learns to cook, Tsumugi gets some decent meals, and Kotori can breath some life back into the restaurant that was a big part of her childhood.

That's pretty much what constitutes the 'plot' for the show.  There are some minor dramas, like Tsumugi dealing with a mean girl in kindergarden or the dad struggling with a homemade recipe.  They always end up at the restaurant, where the show shows detailed instructions for cooking a particular dish, and then they have a delicious meal together.  That's it.   And holy crap is it an addictive, feel good kind of show.

I am not a fan of slice of life show, usually.   But this one has such great characters and a deceptively simple but appealing premise that it sucked me right in. The big strength is in the two main characters, the father and daughter, and their relationship.  Kohei is a befuddled, hard working, slightly nerdy dad, but his devotion to his daughter is never in doubt, even when he may have to yell at her and scold her.  Tusmugi, for her part, is a sweet but believable child character.  She's mostly well behaved, but there are time she throws tantrum or misbehaves or does stupid things because hey, she's 5 years old.

Kotori, the high school student, is a bit introverted but very well-meaning and warms up once she gets to know the Kohei and Tsumugi.  In most other shows, they'd play up the potential romance between her and Kohei, and though there are very broad subtle hints that may be where things go eventually, the show isn't concerned with that.  For the anime, she's still very much a student and he a teacher; they never go beyond being friends and if they bond over anything it's in cooking for Tsumugi.  It was a nice change of pace, actually.

The only real downside is that there are only 12 episodes.  The manga it's based on is still ongoing, but it needs to get some more chapters under its belt before it has enough material to adopt into a season 2.  But even if we don't get new episodes, I'm still very satisfied with the show.  It's a great optimistic and warm pick me up kind of series thats eems to be a real hidden treasure.

New WORLDS OF TRANSFORMATION Anthologies In The Works!

A project long on the backburner is finally moving forward.

Back in the late 2000s and early 2010s, I did a bunch of story commissions for Phillip Velasquez, who was also my co-author for books such as DRYAD and SELKIE.  After I began doing ebooks, we talked about publishing those stories in the form of one or more anthologies.  However, Phil ran into some medical problems and contact between us was rather infrequent over the next few years.

However, recently things seemed to have cleared up for Phil, at least to the point that we're in regular communication again.  And we've been working steadily in clearing the way for the anthologies once again.  We are going to put up one stand alone book, AQUARIUM BLUES, then launch into the anthologies.

The stories almost exclusively focus on on of Phil's favorite themes, that of human transformation.  Some are science fiction, some are fantasy, some are horror, but I think they all turned out pretty good and should be interesting for people to read.  And I know some people are wonder:  No, these won't be erotica books, though a few of the stories are definitely 'R'-rated because of adult themes, violence, or explicit imagery.

The good news for me is that the stories are already written, though they will have to be reworked to make them presentable for publication (writing for a single client and writing for a general audience tends to have different demands.)  Also, the cover art is also mostly done, thanks to commission Phil had done, so I also don't have to worry about completing a cover from scratch for each one.  This should speed the process along for each of the books, so you'll likely see these sooner rather than later.   There will be some delays in some other projects, such as THE BUSTY ORC's CURSE, but hopefully not by too much.

Stay tuned!