Ron322

I hated the false start that the Steel Ball Run anime had earlier this year. Even if the debut episode was equivalent to 2 1/2 episodes in length, that’s something David Productions should’ve had Netflix avoid. If you weren’t ready to have a full 1st season to premiere weekly, do not tease the audience, let alone the dedicated fanbase that had been yearning. Thankfully, they premiered the new episodes 3 weeks ago and it’s definitely an improvement. I do wish they had used an Americana styled pop/country song for the outro but alas here we are. I’m finally understanding why SBR is considered peak. I have yet to sit down and thoroughly read the manga but just with what I’ve seen, I see why it’s comfortably at #2 rated manga of all time with Berserk forever at #1.

Learning to give grace is something that has been a lifelong activity for me. This isn’t a skill one can truly master, given that as you walk through this life, you learn that everything and everyone around you aren’t always a clear black and white. Some folks are muddled in patches of grey. Some have a lot of white streaks while others, in a strange twist, have blotches of black and hues of grey to them. My younger self would’ve ignorantly boiled it down to “people finding excuses to get a pass for their crap” but as I’ve learned, that conclusion is very shortsighted. Granted, some people are that opportunistic but with others it’s more of explaining to understand instead of excusing. There have been plenty that have had a terrible hand in life and somehow, through pure determination, worked their way out of the mud. Some stay where they are and some, unfortunately, end up drowning. There are also people whom experience all three in one lifetime. That alone has taught me that life isn’t clearly black and white and that one’s lifetime isn’t linear.

Drafts, I think, is on the road to being a better story to build to Emmanuel Lucifer’s story than I thought. We’re not even at the end of October and as of now, this month’s chapter does look more detailed and has more to say than multiple chapters I wrote these past 12 months. One thing is certain — I believe the whole “1 chapter a month, regardless of length” will be the way to go as far as writing approach. It could be my ‘tism talking but having a strict guideline like this has, oddly enough, made the literary juice flow better than when I was writing “at my own pace”. Now I understand why the whole “work your own hours” framework of “being your own boss” just never clicked with me — I simply require that routine and consistency.