iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

This was a crowdfunding reward thing, right

One of the stages in Arcana Heart 3 LOVEMAX SIXSTARS!!!!!! XTEND is "Town of Franklin, MA."

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

This is what peak performance in blobber combat looks like

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

How did a bunch of English editions of Fullmetal Alchemist and Soul Eater end up in Dara-san's shack deep in rural Japan, anyway?

Screenshot from Reiwa no Dara-san. A blond boy points at a shelf full of manga, all photo references of real comics like Black Cat, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Soul Eater. The spines are recognizably the ones from the English editions by Viz and Yen Press, though.

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I gotta answer honestly here in 2026

Survey question: "Please select everything you expect to find in an ATLUS title." There are a ton of options, such as "Interesting/deep stories," "Good character designs," "Challenging difficulty/game balance," "Charismatic characters who are easy to become emotionally invested in," and so on, but the only checkbox I've ticked is "Catchy background music"

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Actual LOL at the opening color pages for this comic

The opening scene in Kanrekihime, where six middle-aged men are all watching Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer in rapt appreciation

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Found some real treasure (ruby text: garbage)

A copy of Nitro Royale: Heroines Duel, the first official Nitro+ fighting game. It’s dreadful

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Did I just pay an unreasonable amount for the scrungliest King Halo plushie I’ve ever seen? Without hesitation.

A very small and very wonky King Halo plushie from some collaboration event with Bandai Namco arcades

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I have some questions about the ad spending at your source for anime

Large LCD screens in the entrance hall at the Otakon convention center advertising Roll Over and Die, a show which wasn’t particularly popular and ended a season or two ago

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Taking care of important business

Spicy chicken ramen. Agnes Digital is safely outside the splash zone

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

You can mark the exact point where Ejima Eri got really into Street Fighter V

Page from "Yuzumori-san." A teenage girl is playing a fighting game, attempting an extremely deep crossup j. MK. The "X-Trigger" and "EX" gauges are clearly visible.

Another page. The high-school girl is trying to open up the defense of her fourth-grader girlfriend, but the criminally younger girl waits for the right moment to deploy an air-to-air counter. The arcade stick she's using is lovingly rendered.

The fourth-grader juggles with a super to take the round. Her criminally older girlfriend compliments her excellent hit-confirm in narration.

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

I can't believe the Steam Machine is $1000 USD

Best Buy listing for a pre-built gaming PC with an AMD Ryzen 5 5500 (AM4 CPU), 8GB of system RAM, a 500GB SSD, and an AMD Radeon RX 9050 GPU with 4GB of video RAM for $890

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Love it when my fighting game mains are turned into model kits

Promo photos for a model kit of Al-Azif from Demonbane, a short girl in a white dress that technically covers her modesty, wielding two cool handguns

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Thinking about one of my favorite official alternate palette sets in KOF 13. Think fast, do you remember what their stances look like?

Robert Garcia, but with his outfit and hair colored like Terry Bogard

Terry Bogard, but his outfit and hair colored like Robert Garcia

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

We're talking about ethical romance stories tonight? Great, here's one I have on the shelf nearby

The cover to the first volume of きたない君がいちばんかわいい ("You're Cutest at Your Filthiest"), a very ethical romance comic about two girls who absolutely have the same ideas about what feelings they're bringing into their dom/sub relationship -- and then Society gets involved.

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Somehow it took me a year to realize that the Monokuma function in Magical Girl Witch Trials (yuri Danganronpa) doesn't just sound like Freiza, they actually got Freiza's voice actor. Gotta commit to the bit and put a Big Name in that slot

The Warden from Magical Girl Witch Trials, an adorable owl-like creature wearing a hood, its head perpetually rotated 90 degrees to the side

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Checking in on GBVS for the first time in a while, thinking "This Ilza character has a pretty restrained outfit for Cygames" right up until the moment I pressed stand jab. My bad for doubting

Ilza Granblue, a cat woman in a military uniform, performs a high kick. The high kick reveals that her shirt is really more of a strip of cloth draped over her chest, with her back and sides completely exposed.

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

The cartoon drama scientists at Bushiroad going, "hmm, everyone loves Nyamu, the self-centered Influencer who blows up the theater kid's bit -- let's put an Actually Evil version of her in the next show"

It would actually be more of a surprise if the girl with narrow eyes and the beauty mark below her lips wasn't cruel and manipulative, but Bang Dream! YUME (infinity sign) MITA is not concerned with subtlety.

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Youtube has found a new evil default: machine translating the English closed captions script back into Japanese for a Japanese-audio video

The Youtube language options on this week's Bang Dream short video, showing that it is set to "English -> Japanese" subtitles. The caption text does not even remotely match the character's spoken Japanese dialog.

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Forgot what I'd set as my PS3's wallpaper

Promotional wallpaper for Dynasty Warriors Next on the Vita, featuring Lu Bu throwing back an ice cold Pepsi Nex Zero, while looking directly at the camera with his usual intense stare.

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Like, have y'all ever read the manual to Wizardry?

Drawing from one of the Wizardry manuals. A cartoon depicting a group of adventurers reading a poster outside of a temple: "SPECIAL OFFER! THIS WEEK ONLY!! THE DEAD RAISED! 50% OFF!"

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Never forget CGA Bang and Pink Bang, gone before their times

Bang from Blazblue CT, a shirtless burly ninja man with white hair, wearing teal pants and a purple scarf.

Bang from Blazblue CS, a shirtless burly ninja man with peach hair, wearing bright pink pants and a pinkish-white scarf.

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Incredible day for Youtube thumbnails

The Ave Mujica girls pose for a promo photo. Sakiko stares ahead with dead eyes, her limp arms held aloft by puppet strings. Her loyal dog Uika grasps her from the side, desperately seeking acknowledgement. Umiri kneels down supporting them both. In front of these three, Mutsumi sits in a chair, gently stroking the cheek of an annoyed but receptive Nyamu.

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Remembering that moment in otaku culture when one of the most popular cartoons of the year was a sitcom about a teenage girl trying to find someone to proselytize to about her collection of moe lolicon eroge

Kirino Oreimo, a 14-year-old girl, stands proudly next to a stack of big box porno PC games that's taller than she is. Several of the games are product placement of real world porno games -- School Days and its sequels stand out.

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Sometimes I think I'm being too harsh about my assessment of what the big first-party console games publishers think about their mass audience. Anyway, here's the splash screen you see before the opening cutscene in Returnal

Returnal is intended to be a challenging experience.

Each new cycle presents new challenges, rewards and changes to the world. Adapt and persevere to progress further.

(In yellow text next to an "infinity" symbol) When you die in Returnal you will always be returned to the crash site, and all non-permanent progression will be lost. You can suspend your progress when using the Suspend / Quit from the Game Menu.

Hold the A button to Begin.

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

The impact of the horse girls is felt in Capcom's user surveys

Capcom's Street Fighter 6 user survey says: "Please select all game genres that you like. (Multiple answers allowed)"

All the usual genre suspects are here -- fighting, shooter, RPG, action-adventure, etc., -- but most importantly "training/raising simulation" has been added to the list.

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

There are some good dolls in NIS's Labyrinth games. Like the agender cat maids (they have dialog expressing confusion about the entire concept), which are separate from the non-binary knights. And of course, Literally A Cat

One of the Gothic portraits from Labyrinth of Galleria, an androgynous cat-person wearing a gothic (lolita) dress and holding a giant hammer.

One of the I forget the class name portraits from Labyrinth of Galleria. The import part is they've got long blonde hair and a cool hat and rapier, a cool swashbuckler look.

Portrait of a housecat wearing a cool mantle. It's just a cat.

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Trying to figure out why I *knew* a random turn of the century pop-punk song the music algorithm fed me, and for once a Fandom wiki was useful

Zebrahead's "Rescue Me" was on the soundtrack for S.L.A.I.: Steel Lancer Arena International, the less-cool PS2 sequel to Phantom Crash on the original Xbox

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Okay, this rolling up in my YouTube recs actually made me feel my age a bit

YouTube thumbnail: Mami Futami (CV: Momoko Saito) performs "Shippuu Xabungle" from "Sentou Mecha Xabungle." Uploaded 18 years ago.

TL note it's one of the Idolmaster Xenoglossia covers so it's not Mami's regular actress

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Digging through 20 years worth of hoarded data on hard drives I never even mount in my desktop, trying to find old fansubs, and I just keep finding junk like an install of famous doujin kusoge Million KNights Vermilion

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Noel 5B is a very funny button because it looks like it should be great for anti-air or picking up after a ground bounce but it's actually pretty bad at both of these things

Noel Melty Blood, a 30-year-old woman dressed like a nun and holding a spear, doing an impressive-looking high kick

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Oh, good, it's not just me being unable to tell if Nikaidou's wearing gloves in her sprites, Good Smile Company *also* can't decide

Photo of a plushie of Nikaidou from Magical Girl Witch Trials, where her hands are the same color as her (extremely pale) face.

Photo of the Nikaidou Nendoroid, where she's wearing white gloves of a different shade from her (still very pale) face.

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

The holidays are here again -- it's GW in Japan. That's right: it's Golgo Week

Advertisement banner on Book Walker's site, declaring that GW (golden week) is now Golgo Week, celebrating everyone's favorite hitman

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Curses for the modern era: "may that character you like from a cult 90s fighting game re-appear in a tie-in videogame for yet another completely indistinguishable LitRPG anime"

Screenshot of the Steam store page for (deep breath) "GAME The Strongest Job Is Apparently Not a Hero or a Sage, but an Appraiser (Provisional)! ~Dungeon and Mystery Girl~", published by Sunsoft, featuring a character who looks almost exactly like Tesse the robot maid from Waku Waku 7 (published by Sunsoft)

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Player's impression 30G at the start: ah, the Reliable Senpai squad Player's impression of 30G after the camera is pointed at them for five seconds:

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Book Walker promo banners provide a valuable window into all of the ways publishers are trying to capitalize on current trends, like a "technically, it's not porno" comic about a girl getting isekai'd into a low-budget doujin porno RPG. Sasuga Young Champion

「Ｄ■ｓｉｔｅやＦＡ■ＺＡの紳士用ＲＰＧの世界だったのです」

For your convenience, I have obscured the portion of this comic panel inappropriate for some audiences.

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

In honor of today's news, have a look at my favorite official Evangelion illustration

Yes, that's a promotional image for a collaboration between Evangelion and Schick razors. Gendo is smiling wide, holding a razor, shaving foam still on parts of his now baby-smooth chin. Kaji is also demonstrating the product, as Rei, Asuka, and Anno's wife make really disturbing faces of longing for the men.

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

I think it's really sweet of Cygames to keep Special Week in the splash screen that comes up while the game loads, even though she hasn't been relevant for years. John Umamusume isn't just the app icon

The new splash screen art for Umamusume the game's 5th anniversary. A really alarming number of horse girls are bunched together on the race track, charging toward the camera. It's mostly all characters introduced in the last year or two of the game, but you can see a few familiar faces, like original main character Special Week, in the very back corner of the pack.

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Tezuka Saki demonstrates the difference between カリスマ ( beauty, celebrity) and rizz

TEZUKA, smiling: "You are a graceful flower blossoming amidst the savagery of the commander's office. Like the late Hatsune Miku."

NANASE, bug-eyed: "'The late?' She's deceased?! Wait, when exactly was she ALIVE?!"

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Scrolling through a reputable videogames web site and the next auto-loaded news post is this. The world has changed

A Eurogamer article about the Unity CEO trying to hype up investors by promising that advancements in AI tooling will kill off all of Unity's developer customers who aren't giants, followed by: "Up next: If you've always wanted Forever Young in Umamusume: Pretty Derby, you won't have to wait furlong"

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

The 20-year nostalgia cycle strikes a critical blow on the AmiAmi new listing page today

Nendoroid 2.0 re-releases of Haruhi Haruhisuzumiya, Konata Luckystar, and Louise Familiarofzero. These cartoons are all old enough to vote.

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

We had four good years together but I guess it's time to say goodbye to all my lesbian alien-fighting daughters

Heaven Burns Red is doing a collab event with Persona 5

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Checking in on the dead stock section at the anime store

A variety of Kaguya Luna UFO catcher plushies hang in a corner

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

They're just fucking with me now, huh

A second food cart, named "Pizza FatBoy," with a giant hot dog on top as well as a cartoon drawing of a sandwich wrap. No pizza is visible on the menu

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Getting mixed messages from this cart

Code Vein 2 screenshot. An abandoned food cart at an amusement park has signs reading "HAPPY KEBABU" and "We are Ordinally" with a picture of a hamburger

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

The power of Unreal Engine 5 is you get all these fancy weather effects and the framerate is about this low even when not intentionally capped by cutscenes

A screenshot from Code Vein 2. The player character is staring directly at a woman with large, mostly exposed breasts, watching as the rain hits then.

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botoggle @botoggle.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

I've never seen the Steam screenshots for a game turn out like this. Is this the power of Unreal Engine 5?

A screenshot from Code Vein 2, except all the colors are wildly inaccurate. Everything is coated in strange rainbows, making it impossible to make out more than the vague shapes of characters and objects in the environment.

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