In normal times, things like event cancellations wouldn’t be a common occurrence. However, we live in interesting times. Of course, when it came anticipated concert involving a franchise that involves horse girls, they were hit with a nasty surprise. They weren’t able to get the necessary visas despite applying 6 months before and following the rules. As expected, the outrage came because of the event being cancelled because Cygames could not get visas to make it happen. Some realize that perhaps anime is political after all when bad policies affect hobbies that people enjoy.

Some Background

For those who don’t know what Uma Musume is, it’s a multimedia project that takes the concept of famous Japanese racing horses anthropomorphized into “horse girls.” They run on racing tracks in races they participate in. Those who win in the top three perform at idol concerts. Eventually, the mobile game came out in early 2021, 3 years after the first season of the original anime aired. It eventually

Uma Musume had its first anime aired in 2018, but of course, there are 3 other installments, a movie, and some stage plays as well. Of course, they had live events, but for the 7^th live event, they did a tour, or rather performances outside of Japan. They are planning to tour in Los Angeles, London, and Seoul. The Los Angeles performance was supposed to take place on the 23rd and 24th of the month.

However, on October 20^th, after Cygames applied for performer visas 6 months prior. They announced that they still hadn’t had their visas approved. They state that if they don’t get approved by the end of the day, the concert might be cancelled. Of course, with that announcement, they already indicated that they have little hope of getting those visas. Eventually, Cygames announced they are cancelling the concert as they weren’t able to get the said visas.

So why is this political?

As expected, people got upset, even the people who support the current policies when they affect their hobbies. It’s not too surprising since the current administration’s immigration policies make it harder for overseas performers to perform in the United States. Believe it or not, the visa issues are not a new thing, despite the recent policy choices from the current administration.

While a fellow blogger, omo, covers this more, examining the whole debacle. In short, while you rarely need a visa for tourism and limited business stuff like a business meeting or attending a conference. However, if you want to do something like doing a concert, well, you need an O and P visa, used for entertainment work. You would guess it goes in the same pool with H1B and student visas.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that processes these visas, already had trouble before the current administration took office. While you can pay a fee to expedite the process, it does not always work. Adding the executive orders impacting visas, the fake-agency that is named after a Shiba-Inu cryptocurrency, and a wave of federal workforce reductions and “voluntary buyouts” compounds with the increasing workloads of processing visas. There is no surprise that after the pandemic, they had a huge backlog that came.

LiteralGrill

@literalgrill@sakurajima.moe

Wild seeing people finally being radicalized against the Republican White House because checks notes

They… Aren’t aproving the visas needed for an Uma Musume concert? “I can excuse the racism, but I draw the line at taking away the horse girls I gamble for.”

What a goddamn timeline we live in. Guess I gotta be happy people are being radicalized at all… :neocat_drowsy:

#Politics #UmaMusume

October 19, 2026, 7:07 pm 7 boosts 5 favorites

With that, there is no surprise that a concert of 2.5D female seiyuu live concert would get cancelled. As expected, people became livid about it. After all, it has impacts on future events as event planners might be hesitant to do another event when it can go horribly wrong like this? Will seiyuu and people that work in the anime industry in Japan become reluctant to attend conventions in America over this? It’s probably not as bad as there are workarounds. Nevertheless, there is an impact and should give one a realization that the work of civil servants does (just not the ones named after a Pokémon type that starts with I and melts with heat), like processing visas for a Seiyuu to do a concert in America are important.

Not Just Seiyuu Concerts and Events, but Also Anime Goods Getting More Expensive Because of Tariffs

Of course, it’s not just Seiyuu events like concerts and conventions that are impacted. Of course, there are the anime and manga goods, which are too impacted. Before this administration, tariffs are not necessarily a thing, and the thing called the de minimis rule that anything under $800 would not get hit with tariffs.

However, last year, the current administration went gung-ho on tariffs. They slapped tariffs on numerous countries, especially China, where most of the anime goods like figures, plushies, dolls, etc. are made. The tariffs at one point were as high as 145% before dropping to 30%. Of course, the tax bill that passed the same year eliminated the de minimis rule, meaning you have to pay tariffs on items above $100. This led to services like EMS and airmail being unavailable for US customers. This raised the cost of importing items as one had to use private carriers like FedEx or DHL.

To add on top of that are the “Liberation Day” tariffs in April. Depending on the country, the tariff is as low as 10% to as high as 40%. Of course, it got subsequently lowered until it got struck down by the Supreme Court, and the administration is forced to refund the importers. However, there are reports that only a very few who bought items through Japanese businesses online received refunds from them. Since then, the administration imposed alternatie tariffs that of course getting challenged in court.

As expected, if you go on forums and even MyFigureCollection, people are complaining about tariffs. I think there is a big misunderstanding of how tariffs work. Some people think that the country that ships the item pays for them, but in reality, it’s a tax the importer pays, which is you. Basically, this raises the cost of items and increases inflation. I know because I have to pay them, which makes me reluctant to import items unless it’s really something I want. As a result, I basically cut back completely on the hobby of collecting anime figures and even anime character Azone dolls because of the cost of tariffs. It’s simply not worth it.

Things Can Change with Action

Sure, I can’t sympathize with people who supported these policies blindly and then complain when it affects them. The policies that a certain party in power supports negatively affect everyone’s hobbies. We have seen it with Seiyuus unable to get visas to perform a concert in America. In addition, your anime goods are costing more, video game and computer hardware prices are skyrocketing because of data centers, and so on. This is beside the fact that the cost of living is getting worse.

Can this change? Most certainly, but it requires action. The only way to change this is to vote for candidates that don’t support policies that negatively impact what you enjoy. Through posts on social media, people realize the impact. This motivated people to vote for the candidate that will make it easier for performers to perform in America, get rid of those tariffs, and make things more affordable. There are in fact some that came because of the Uma Musume concert being cancelled. It would be funny if a certain party lost big, over Uma Musume’s concert was cancelled.

That said, the people who planned ongoing to the Uma Musume concert that ended up getting cancelled were not totally screwed. Cygames eventually announced a day later that they would refund not only the tickets but also travel expenses. Not only that, there was turnout at the venue where the fans had a meet and alternative activities, which is good to hear. It shows that Cygames took notice and seemed grateful for the amount of fan support they received. Maybe if people finally wake up and do not vote for people who will negatively affect their hobbies and lives. If that can happen, maybe we can enjoy our hobbies and events without them getting cancelled or having to pay even more for goods.

The post Uma Musume and How a Cancelled Concert Make People Realize That Politics Affect Hobbies appeared first on Chikorita157's Anime Blog.

If you like my content, please leave a comment on the said post or follow me on Mastodon/the Fediverse and boost my toots on Mastodon/the Fediverse for my posts to help promote it.

As Kurumi “teaches” Mebuki how to become a successful Forex trader, Akuma Kurumi eggs Kurumi on to go back to trading. As Kurumi wrestles with her consciousness, who will win out in the end?

From last time, Kurumi teaches Mebuki how to do Forex trading. After Mebuki takes her profits from a successful short trade, Akuma Kurumi shames Kurumi. After all, Kurumi could have made a good profit if she got into the short trade. Yep, Kurumi feels the sense of fear of missing out as she resists the urge to get back into FX trading. After all, she got caught last time, which led to a big slap in the face. Now, Mebuki is depending on Kurumi to win all her trades, and of course, this will only cause Kurumi to fight against good and evil within herself.

As Mebuki talked with Mochiko on her phone, it’s obvious that Yasuko and Mebuki are neighbors. As Yasuki spends time with Mebuki at the arcade, she head about Mebuki’s entry in FX trading. She got really upset given that Forex is risky and Mebuki can lose all her money in one full swoop, especially when doing it on margin. Funny how Yasuko said it’s a shitty game until she finds out that Mebuki made money and figures out she is doing it with a large leverage amount. It’s clear that Yasuko is just jealous that Mebuki had better luck than she does.

Meanwhile, Kurumi struggles as she finds out that saving money is a lot harder and takes a lot of time. That is while Mebuki sends her a text about her having dinner with her friend instead of about Forex. Still, Kurumi feels a sense of the fear of missing out as Mebuki rakes in the money. Kurumi continues her struggles as she resists the urge to do Forex trading as she has to stop herself from doing it.

With that, she went to the bookstore to find a new hobby. After buying a bunch of new books on various hobbies she can try out, she was in front of a pachinko parlor. She tried pachinko, but even with 5,000 yen, she didn’t get the same excitement compared to Forex trading. Looking at charts and the quick profits have kind of ruined her dopamine receptors.

When she thought about thinking a quick round of Forex trading to make back the 5000 yen, she had to stop herself from thinking about it. That is when Akuma Kurumi eggs her on to get back into Forex. In her eyes, Kurumi can’t simply give up on Forex especially when she knows about the 2.1 million yen that is still in her account. It’s obvious that Kurumi is trying to escape from the forex trade, and thankfully, Kurumi’s younger self brings her back to reality. We get a flashback of her drawing her room sign from her childhood and the fact that Kurumi wants to become a kindergarten teacher.

Sadly, that didn’t last long as Kurumi give suggestion to Mebuki what way she should go. Eventually, Kurumi couldn’t resist the urge as the pair kept going up, and Akuma Kurumi said that she should get in as the fear of missing out settled in. Kurumi imagines Mebuki taking all the money, and Akuma Kurumi guilts her by saying that Kurumi could have made this kind of money.

As Kurumi gives in to her temptation in getting back into Forex trading, young Kurumi begs her not to go back into it. Sadly, she gets rid of her younger self despite all the crying and begging not to stray from that path. Eventually, Kurumi gave in to Akuma Kurumi. Therefore, she has fallen back to her old ways. I really think Kurumi needs help to get over her gambling addiction rather than teaching Forex. It’s clear Mochiko got Kurumi to teach Mebuki forex to entice Kurumi to get back in. After all, Mochiko’s toxic yuri relationship depends on Kurumi losing all her money for her own benefit.

With that, Yasuko confronts Kurumi after hearing that Mebuki is getting investment advice from her. Interestingly, Kurumi wants to use Mebuki as a guinea pig to get better trades. Eventually, Mebuki and Yasuko met up with Kurumi and Mochiko. Yasuko shows off her art after Mebuki mentions it, which catches Mochiko’s attention. Of course, Mebuki entices Yasuko to get into FX trading with all the money she made. Eventually, Yasuko accepted the challenge Kurumi came up with on how much money they could make in the upcoming forex trade challenge. I fear for Kurumi and Mebuki especially as they are about to lose a lot of money. After all, Kurumi made all her money thanks to luck up until now. Despite nearly losing it all, I feel she hasn’t learned her lesson from making really risky bets.

The post FX Senshi Kurumi-chan – Episode 5 – Kurumi Gives Into Akuma Kurumi and FOMO appeared first on Chikorita157's Anime Blog.

If you like my content, please leave a comment on the said post or follow me on Mastodon/the Fediverse and boost my toots on Mastodon/the Fediverse for my posts to help promote it.

After Misaki found the part-time job that suits her to earn money for her travels, Ushio has a surprise for Kodama for her birthday. You know what this means, right? They are going on a date?!

Kodama seems very down as she looks out the rainy window. Misaki came in as she said it’s raining really hard. That is when Kodama revealed Ushio did something unthinkable as end time came with thunder striking. Yes, it’s because Ushio finished her assignment on time. It’s for a good reason as she puts a ticket on Kodama’s forehead. Kodama is surprised that Ushio got tickets for a trolley railroad, the Watarase Keikoku Railway, and she seems happy. It’s funny to see Ushio blushing as she hasn’t forgotten Kodama’s birthday. It’s funny seeing Kodama messing up Ushio’s hair in happiness.

Of course, Ushio seems worried about the weather as it still looks like it’s going to rain. With that, Ushio puts up a Teru Bouzu to make the rain go away. While it’s dubious if these things actually work, it’s cute how Kodama had the same idea as she was about to hang hers up. It’s cute how the pair of Teru Bouzu is together. As you expect, this is not the only nice Kodama and Ushio moment. This episode is chuck full of them as Kodama tries to wake Ushio up.

As expected, Kodama is excited for the trip that she is willing to help record for Ushio’s “not YouTube” channel. Ushio is surprised at how Kodama is acting unusually nice compared to before. Funny how Kodama wants to cancel the trip over this. The ticket is what they exchange when they get to the trolley train, which they get the actual tickets at Omama Station. Sure, Ushio wants to be the tour guide since it’s Kodama’s birthday, but of course, Kodama can’t contain her excitement over riding the trolley on the Watarase line.

After arriving at Omama Station, they exchanged their tickets. Of course, when Ushio heard about train bentos, she asked about them. However, to get one for sure, she needed to reserve one. That is when she realized she had forgotten as she felt really down as she met up with Kodama. Funny how she is recording her when she felt down. As Kodama knew that this was going to happen given experiences of forgetting during Ushio’s eat train bento until you drop trip, she reserved one for Ushio in advance. While she sulks about her mother saying that her daughter has the brain of a goldfish, Kodama thinks of this as Ushio putting other people first. Also, it’s nice to see some cute moments with Kodama and Ushio as they took photos of trains and some videos. Also, Kodama leaned on Ushio. That is after she becomes the queen because it’s her birthday.

As they boarded the train, Kodama couldn’t contain her excitement as Ushio made a remark about the female train conductor looking like a Takarazuka Revue performer. Kodama thinks she looks like that in that uniform. Of course, they sat at a table as they did their videotaping. That is when a boy asks if Ushio is a “youtuber.” Apparently, she knows the stuff on “not YouTube” as she explains what kind of content she creates. It’s nice how she gives a boy an autograph as he seems happy. Also, her mother is happy for Ushio and Kodama to look after him.

Of course, there are the moments with Kodama and Ushio. There were a lot of pleasant moments as the train conductor came around, trying to sell train merch, asking her to take a picture with her and Kodama. Well, Kodama got her wish as she took a photo with the cool-looking train conductor lady. Kodama was really blushing as she asked Ushio to send the photo over despite being embarrassed at first. That is while Kodama tries to get Ushio as the train is about to leave as she was at the place that makes the train bentos. Of course, they got to see a nice light show with the ceiling illuminating, which looks like stars.

Eventually, they arrived at the end of the line as they took more photos before heading to a place that would make Ushio happy. Kodama really wanted to surprise her, so they went to a restaurant that was in an old train car. Kodama noticed what Ushio was interested in as they ate again. That is when Kodama is excited about the train the restaurant is based on. Obviously, Kodama wants to spend all the time being with Ushio. Funny how Ushio says that it sounds charming when in reality it’s not. Funny how Ushio wants some of that meat on Kodama’s plate. It’s like Ushio wants an indirect kiss.

As expected, Kodama saw that Misaki and Usa went on a trip of their own. Of course, Ushio notices as she tickles her. Either way, it’s such a wonderful date. While Arisa meets with an owner at the café, she notices a nest full of chicks and a mother bird. The café owner doesn’t seem to want to take them down as the birds worked so hard to make them, plus they look cute. It’s obvious that Arisa is trying to get some more ideas. Aside from that, we get to see Misaki’s “date” with Usa next time. It should be fun.

The post Tetsuryou! Meet with Tetsudou Musume – Episode 4 – Kodama’s Tolley Birthday Date With Ushio appeared first on Chikorita157's Anime Blog.

If you like my content, please leave a comment on the said post or follow me on Mastodon/the Fediverse and boost my toots on Mastodon/the Fediverse for my posts to help promote it.

Kurumi decided to “borrow” her father’s life savings for her risky trade made with her toxic friend, Mochiko. Kurumi thought she lost it all. Of course, she got out to take her profits, but it’s only a matter of time before she gets caught red-handed.

From last time, it was a really intense episode as Kurumi is probably just as bad as her mother in terms of her gambling addiction. While Kurumi thought she lost all, she lucked out and made a huge profit. With that, she played it safe by taking the profits and paying the 3 million yen back as she got her paycheck. With that, she decides to play it safe for now and gives up on using an overseas brokerage. She thought she could continue her fray in the Forex trading market. Funny how Kurumi realizes she has to pay taxes on the 2.1 million yen and panics. After all, she can’t escape the tax man.

However, her father was home as Kurumi made her plan to sneak in and put the 3 million yen back in the drawer. Of course, he was hearing a news report about an employee receiving a 3-million-yen payment and confessing to the crime. It was foreshadowing for Kurumi as her dad knocked on her door, calling the police after realizing his savings had gone missing.

When Kurumi tried to put the money back, she dropped it, and her father found out after she grabbed her arm. Thankfully, he didn’t have to call the police, but he wanted to find out the reason. Well, Kurumi confesses to doing Forex trading to earn 20 million yen. Of course, her dad slapped her in the face as he wasn’t happy to hear that his daughter was getting into Forex trading. What is surprising is that the manga have her lose the money and her father find out, but Kurumi really got off easy here. She made a profit and paid back 3 million yen. Still, what she did by borrowing the money without permission is anti-social behavior that borders on being illegal behavior since she is basically stealing money, basically grand theft. Obviously, seeing her daughter get into Forex trading got him reminding his PTSD over losing his wife from failed FX trades.

In the end, Kurumi resigned herself that maybe it’s not worth the risk to do Forex trading. After seeing the light side of herself as a child, maybe she should take the path of finishing her education and become a productive member of society. If she wants to get rich and have enough for retirement, she could just invest responsibly in a stable index fund. However, the evil side of her that reminds me of a cuter version of Akuma Homura encourages her on to continue to get back into Forex trading. After all, that side says Kurumi can’t resist the get rich quick scheme. Then again, why does it have to be Forex? Even Mochiko seems disappointed that Kurumi gave up on Forex after making a big profit. Of course, Kurumi won’t tell Mochiko why she wants to earn 20 million yen.

Aside from Kurumi, it’s clear that Mochiko wants to set another young woman up to lose all her money. Remember the short blonde-haired young lady from last time? Her name is Yamashi Mebuki as she wants to get in on the riches. The first thing Mochiko did was to make an investor account for herself and set the maximum level one could have. Basically, she is setting up her clients to lose a lot of money. Of course, Mebuki got to play with the cat Mochiko kept. The funny thing is she is also interested in Yasuko after reading a blog post she lost a lot of money in AUD/JPY. Of course, that cat mouse got Mochiko interested, although it’s obvious she wants Yasuko as her client, too. Kurumi needs to get away from Mochiko, as the toxic yuri relationship is not worth it. Mochiko really wants Kurumi and wants her to lose a lot of money.

With that, Mochiko wants Kurumi to teach Forex trading to Mebuki. The question is: What is there to teach? Unless you are experienced in day trading, like those private equity, big banks and hedge funds, you are most likely going to lose a lot of money in Forex trading. Not only that, Mebuki is completely clueless as she suggests she short GBP/JPY. Kurumi hoped it would fail, and Mebuki would lose money. In fact, it did the opposite, and the pair dropped, thus Mebuki is making a lot of money. Of course, the devil inside Kurumi keeps pushing her to get back into Forex trading. The question is how much longer she can resist? She really needs to get help to deal with her gambling addiction instead of giving Forex advice.

The post FX Senshi Kurumi-chan – Episode 4 – Kurumi Retires from the Forex Trade, or Did She? appeared first on Chikorita157's Anime Blog.

If you like my content, please leave a comment on the said post or follow me on Mastodon/the Fediverse and boost my toots on Mastodon/the Fediverse for my posts to help promote it.

As Usa suggests going somewhere during a summer break on their way back from their mini trip, Misaki has to raise travel funds for Nagasaki. With that, she thinks about getting a part-time job to get there.

Misaki panics as she doesn’t have enough money for her upcoming trip. Her mother came back from her day of work as Misaki wondered if she should ask for an advance on her allowance. However, after seeing her mother feeling exhausted after work, she decides not to ask.

The next day, Yayoi sat next to Misaki as she wondered what Misaki was up to. Apparently, she is looking into getting a part-time job that works with her schedule to earn some funds for her upcoming trip. Finding one that fits her schedule seems harder than it appears. Yayoi promised that she might have a job at her convenience store as Misaki got excited.

However, when Misaki found out after telling her friends, it was already taken, and only the night shift was left. Misaki was crying, but thankfully her friends got some ideas for day jobs. Ushio had a job at an equipment warehouse. Misaki gets excited, before realizing what she’s got into. It’s surprising that Ushio works at a warehouse and can handle it and can make content from it. After Misaki finished her shift of picking items and rolled a cart with heavy items, she was exhausted. I guess it’s not really the job for her.

With Misaki not suited for warehouse work, well, how about a maid café? Well, Usa works at a train-themed maid café, and of course she looks good in a maid outfit. It’s cute how Usa thinks the maid uniform looks good on her, although Misaki is modest and thinks Usa looks cuter in a maid uniform. Still, I think this was a nice Misaki and Usa moment.

Well, Misaki was struggling. At least she didn’t squirt ketchup everywhere, although she made a pretty bad drawing of a cat on Omurice and took a blurry picture with those Instax mini cameras popular in maid cafes and idol subculture. Of course, as Misaki was making a drink, she shook it so hard that the shaker opened, and the drink spilled onto her.

With two part-time jobs not working out, Komada might have a job that suits Misaki well. It’s for a limited-express train attendant. The job involves checking tickets and seating assignments and collecting payments. Misaki had to interview for the job, and she seemed nervous at first. After sharing her experience that she wanted to be cool like the people who work for the rail lines, they hired her.

Before Misaki can work on her own, she works with a fellow attendant, Kamii Misha. She was helpful and showed how to use the tablet, check tickets, and check seats. After some on-the-job training, Misaki did a perfect job and even noticed the passenger who was supposed to get off but fell asleep. With that, Misha congratulated her. Of course, during one shift, Kodama and Usa rode during Misaki’s shift to check on how she was doing at the job. After seeing Misaki doing well at her job, Usa wondered where Ushio went. Well, she overslept. Also, it was nice to see Misaki sacrifice some of her paycheck to give her mom a sleep mask to make it easier for her to fall asleep. I find it funny how her father asks for a gift, and Misaki completely forgot about him and told him to wait a month.

After the credits, Arisa is struggling as her proposal for a promotion event was rejected. Her manager said food is not enough for people to get excited about. At least her coworker helps her remember there is something more that she can share about the railway. This of course gave her a eureka moment. I wonder what she will come up with. With that comes the actual trip, and of course, they might encounter some weather issues. Hopefully, it will stay sunny.

The post Tetsuryou! Meet with Tetsudou Musume – Episode 3 – Misaki Goes Part Time Job Hunting appeared first on Chikorita157's Anime Blog.

If you like my content, please leave a comment on the said post or follow me on Mastodon/the Fediverse and boost my toots on Mastodon/the Fediverse for my posts to help promote it.

You would think Kurumi would cut her losses as her AUD/JPY, but obviously, not. She has diamond hands as she now puts her father’s savings on the line. She is basically gambling now, right?

From last time, you thought Kurumi wouldn’t fall for the same trap as her mother in Forex trading. Well, you are mistaken. She throws 3 million more into the mix. Well, while it saved her from getting a margin call, she is, really, a gambler.

Sure, she thinks that throwing more money when the price of the AUD/JPY is down. It goes down even further as she falls into despair over the fear of losing everything, even the money her father saved. It was really a roller coaster of emotions as it went up for short periods of time before dropping big, even below 94 and now heading closer to the forced liquidation line. She turned off her monitor screen as she was in despair. The funny thing is that Mochiko is egging her on. She wants to see Kurumi fail and lose all her money. Kurumi, besides having a gambling addiction, has the sunk cost fallacy. She thinks that throwing more money can make it back faster despite it going down even further. Well, it doesn’t go well for her, or did it?

On the other hand, we see the twin tailed with a fang, named Yasuko, which goes by Affi-chan. She really makes the wrong bets but knows how to get out before she loses her money. She thinks that with losing her money in her failed AUD/JPY trade that there is no way she can share such an embarrassing blog post where she messed up a trade. With that, she shorts the AUD/JPY as she thinks it will go down to 92 and as low as 90. Shorting is basically a bet that if the price keeps going down, the trader will make money. However, if the price goes up, they lose money, especially if it goes up by a lot like in a short squeeze like with a meme stock like GameStop. Well, Yasuko finds out the hard way.

The next morning, Mochiko runs into Kurumi as she feels down. When Mochiko wants to see Kurumi’s result, as she sees AUD/JPY going up. Well, when Kurumi opened her app, she was in disbelief that not only had it turned around, but buying at the lowest point had made her about 1.3. million yen. Mochiko really wanted to see Kurumi fail, but she was in disbelief that she didn’t fail yet.

Yep, it’s a really toxic relationship Kurumi has with Mochiko, especially if it becomes a toxic yuri pairing where Mochiko gets satisfaction from Kurumi losing all her money from her poor advice. Still, what perplexes me is that despite Kurumi’s recklessness, she got a get out of jail free card. However, I don’t think this will work out next time. Also, the short-haired blonde girl appears, and most likely, she is into Forex trading.

(Also known as FX Fighter Kurumi-chan)

The post FX Senshi Kurumi-chan – Episode 3 – Kurumi’s Really Risky Bet appeared first on Chikorita157's Anime Blog.

If you like my content, please leave a comment on the said post or follow me on Mastodon/the Fediverse and boost my toots on Mastodon/the Fediverse for my posts to help promote it.

Now that Misaki has joined the “Tetsuryo club,” which makes Kodama, Ushio, and especially Usa happy. She finally learns a few things about the club and goes to an outing to welcome their new member.

From last time, Misaki took a trip on her own, which made her realize that maybe it’s fun going on a trip with others. Now it’s quite obvious that the club doesn’t go on trips every week, but only on special occasions. More on that later. Basically, they spend time in the clubroom talking about railways and exploring the local area. That is not too far from your typical club.

As expected, Ushio mentions she spends time creating videos about food. Obviously, Misaki seems to be a big fan of her videos as she noticed the train cake. It’s not too surprising that Ushio’s dream is to ride trains and make videos about train bento and local specialty foods while partnering up with companies to feature them. Funny how when Misaki asks what Kodama wants to do, she doesn’t know yet.

When she brought up job hunting, Ushio really didn’t want a 9 to 5, as her parents kept bugging her. She really wants their daughter to get an actual job and not be a content creator. Then again, finding a job, even after graduating, is like hell, as everyone is requiring over 3 years of experience. Still, it’s funny to see Ushio’s reaction that she will absolutely refuse to become a corporate slave.

Still, it’s interesting to see Misaki think Kodama would get a job related to railways since she knows a lot about trains. However, she would rather have a job that allows her to go on vacation whenever she likes. She eventually shares her goal of visiting every train station in Japan and even the entire world. The funny thing is, Japan has a lot of trains. That is when Usa came and asked about Ushio’s assignment. Yep, she ran out of the room just like that. Usa hopes Misaki will be an excellent student and not be like Ushio, who has questionable grades. As for Usa, she wants to be like a pet cat. In fact, she imagines herself as being one after eating a taiyaki.

Eventually, they had dinner together to welcome Misaki into the club. Believe it or not, Kodama wants to go somewhere for the first trip together. I find it funny how Kodama asks Misaki out of the blue, as she does not know which place might be the best. Funny how Ushio wants to throw darts at a place and then go there like a certain college-age student did to go on a whim. Of course, Kodama doesn’t want to, and suggests a place from her book of facts about railways, and she finds one. Funny how she doesn’t show Misaki the whole page as it would ruin the surprise.

As for their trip, they took a trip to the easternmost station on the Choshi Electric Railway, Ashikajima. That is near a beach, too. Funny how Kodama planned to do it anyway, so it’s no surprise she wants to go there.

When they got there on the planned day, it’s funny to see Ushio so tired as she had to wave up early. It was interesting to see how they made the trip since the train arrived infrequently. They basically take a zigzag pattern of going back and forth, so they have a fighting chance to see each station.

Still, it’s interesting to see the various stations they visited, with one at the beginning of the line that looked like a Dutch-style windmill, but the wheel part got taken off because of deterioration. Also, the trains they ride are also pretty retro, as Kodama explains the livery. Still, there are some pleasant moments with Kodama and Ushio, with Ushio dragging Kodama when she gets carried away with her explanations about railways. Also, nice to see the girls meet the attendant lady that is pictured behind their train pass, Tokawa Tsukushi. She guides the girls to a place that sells taiyaki. Funny how Ushio has a brown paper bag, meaning she bought more than just one.

With that, they eventually arrived at the end of the line, where they saw the train station from the Taishou era and an old train set on display. Interesting how creative they have to be to raise money as they have to rely on tourism to make the line work. With that, this gives Misaki a newly found appreciation for train stations, as it’s not the case they will be around forever without the support they need. Of course, Ushio really wants to go to the ocean as she runs there, saying the last one to the beach has to buy juice. It’s funny how Kodama chases after her as Misaki tries to get Usa to come, or she will have to buy juice. At least it was an okay beach scene, although no swimsuits obviously since it’s not summer yet.

As they come back, it’s cute to see yet another cute moment with Ushio sleeping on Kodama’s right shoulders. While Usa and Misaki shared their experiences from today’s trip. Misaki had fun with her new club members, as Usa wanted to go somewhere during summer break. Funny how Ushio and Kodama woke up when Usa mentioned it.

When Misaki suggests the place from the poster, it’s the railway that Kodama came from as Misaki mentions being at the same event Kodama went to. Nishiura Arisa is Kodama’s friend, and Misaki looks up to her. With the place they want to go to during summer break settled, Misaki needs to earn some money for her summer vacation. Yes, she gets a part-time job as Kodama calls Arisa about Misaki. From the preview, we get to see Usa in a maid outfit, and Misaki working as an attendant for a railway? We’ll see how it goes next time.

The post Tetsuryou! Meet with Tetsudou Musume – Episode 2 – Misaki’s First Trip with the Tetsuryou Club appeared first on Chikorita157's Anime Blog.

If you like my content, please leave a comment on the said post or follow me on Mastodon/the Fediverse and boost my toots on Mastodon/the Fediverse for my posts to help promote it.

As Kurumi dipped her toes into her first forex trade after her father discouraged her, she got excited by the initial increases. However, it took a turn for the worse as her losses piles up. Is Kurumi doomed?

If you recall from last time, she got excited over her initial trade for the USD/Yen trade pair going up. She thought she was making a lot of money, more than her part-time job at a convince store. However, like when it went up, it went down before she realized it. Kurumi panics as she didn’t close her position while she was up. She got greedy, but when her father came back, she closed out and pretended like nothing happened. When she turned on the computer, the screen went back up as she closed out her position. Thankfully, she didn’t get caught.

Since that time, she gained a profit of 500,000 yen, thus giving her about 800,000 yen in her balance. You would think she would continue to play it safe even if the USD/Yen pair gets boring. Well, she made friends that gave some terrible financial advice. She became friends with Kogane Mochiko, who started trading stocks and now has gotten into foreign exchange trading to earn more money.

Of course, she steers Kurumi to leverage trading, which is borrowing money to invest hoping to gain a profit from a trade without putting up the money to do it. This is where people, especially young adults, got into trouble, using leverage hoping to make big money from a trade. Doing a trade on leverage means you borrow money hoping to magnify the gains as opposed to buying and selling the stock outright. However, it’s risky as if it drops and you realize the loss, it magnifies it. Thus, you lose even more money. Since most people are inexperienced, they end up racking up a lot of debt if a position drops and they get a margin call.

I kind of think of Mochiko like the infamous subreddit “WallStreetBets.” She suggests Kurumi put her position in AUD/JPY as it’s heading up and do it on margin. If that pair sound familiar, it’s the one that Kurumi’s mother traded often that eventually doomed her. She even offered a 3-million-dollar loan, but of course Kurumi doesn’t want to do that as she will end up owing her money. Of course, she bought 50 sets in AUD/JPY, thinking she could get rich quick. Mochiko knew that it’s probably a bad idea to get into that pair, but wanted to use Kurumi as a guinea pig.

At first, Kurumi executed multiple trades of AUD/JPY several times a day. She checked during break at work, and she seemed happy that she gained 154500 yen in profit. However, when she got home, she was really in the red. Kurumi could have just cut her losses and tried something else. Sadly, she has become just as bad as her mother, as she is gambling. Even Mochiko encourages her after seeing Kurumi have a frustrated look on her face. She knew full well Kurumi didn’t know what she was doing and was losing a lot of money. She then wonders if Kurumi gets hit by a forced liquidation. That means she will not only lose her money but also become barred from trading. She gets frustrated until she discovers her father’s 3.2-million-yen savings.

I have a terrible feeling about this. It seems as if Kurumi has learned nothing and fallen in the same trap as her mother to get rich quick, which led her to lose a lot of money and caused her death. What if her father finds out she uses that money?

Either way, she did it to save herself, hoping things would turn around. As predicted in the first episode, I have a feeling that it will not work out, and she will lose more than she bargained for, and her father will find out. Kurumi is really deep into the “diamond hands” thing, hoping that her position in AUD/JPY will go back up and go to the moon. However, it doesn’t look like it. Whatever happens next that leads to that moment, she might have to give up forex trading for good. What Kurumi is doing is obviously what you should not do if you want to invest money to build wealth. She is basically gambling and playing Russian roulette with her money. The question is: How will she deal with the consequences of it all?

(Also known as FX Fighter Kurumi-chan)

The post FX Senshi Kurumi-chan – Episode 2 – Kurumi “Diamond Hands” into a Bad Trade appeared first on Chikorita157's Anime Blog.

If you like my content, please leave a comment on the said post or follow me on Mastodon/the Fediverse and boost my toots on Mastodon/the Fediverse for my posts to help promote it.

As Sata Misaki and Nakano Yayoi prepare for college entrance exams, something catches Misaki’s eye. It involves going to a certain place and a railway. You know where this is heading, right?

We are taken back to before Misaki went to college. She watched a video about a limited-edition train on a train-track cake. When Yayoi said it’s time to get off, Misaki dropped her bag. Thankfully, there is a kind lady who seems shy and is willing to help pick her stuff. There is a poster advertising little Edo that catches Misaki’s eyes as Yayoi fixed her bag. Still, Misaki wants to go places, although she should focus on her studies. Still, she hasn’t figured out what college to go to yet, as Yayoi has to go. Misaki really wanted her reward cake, but she also had to get a study guide.

However, when she got out of the station, she saw a young lady putting up a poster advertising a railway. Misaki seems interested in it after she gave back the poster case. The lady asked Misaki is interested, as she found the image pretty. Apparently, the lady made it and invited Misaki to the event where she shared a presentation about the westernmost line. This gets Misaki excited as she hopes to go there in the future, as she bought some souvenirs. Of course, Misaki met the lady again who presented, as she explained, the mascot of Matsuura Railway that was also on her name tag. After Misaki praised the lady’s presentation, the lady got emotional.

Of course, after Misaki and Yayoi met up, Misaki made it obvious she didn’t buy a study guide nor the special cake, but a notebook hoping to try a little harder. She, of course, writes a wish list when she attends college. The interesting thing is that the young ladies she met during that day are the ones she will meet again.

When Misaki got into college, she attended the same college as Yayoi, which surprised her. The interesting thing is that Yayoi knew what courses to pick out, as Misaki doesn’t know what courses to pick. I find it funny how the lady scolds Ushio, as she doesn’t know what courses to pick. I find her very familiar. Is she the lady showing off the limited-edition train cake in the video Misaki watched? Yes, it’s her.

After lunch, Misaki wants to find a club to join, as Yayoi declines to do so. Funny how all the students from various clubs try to recruit her. Funny to see Misaki get overwhelmed. She went to a certain spot to hide. Eventually, those three ladies, Kodama, Ushio, and Usa, came to find a spot to set up their place to recruit new members. That is when Usa noticed Misaki as she set up a chair next to Misaki. Usa seems to like Misaki, as Kodama explains that her club, the Railway Travel Club or Tetsuryo club for short, focuses on riding trains to places. Ushio says the obvious that it’s a club for train enthusiasts. After all, they are big fans of public transportation, especially trains, the most efficient way to travel when gas prices are over $4 a gallon. Of course, Ushio calls Kodama out as she is the one that scares new members away by being too enthusiastic, overwhelming new members.

Of course, Misaki doesn’t know what Komada is saying, although she says it was awesome. Funny how Komada holds Misaki’s hands all the sudden as she gets excited and calls her a darling girl, before Ushio has to stop her. She gave her a train sign keychain as Ushio and Komada argued with each other about how the club was being run. When they finished arguing, Misaki was gone, as she hadn’t decided on a club to join. That is when Yayoi suggests the wish list as Misaki found the notebook.

Eventually, she read the wishlist, and there was one that stood out. Going on a trip as she goes to Hon-Kawagoe, which is at the end of the line. Basically, she explored a place she hadn’t been to before and had ice cream, and browsed various stores before heading back. When she got back, she dropped the train sign keychain, which reminded her of the three girls from that club and made her wonder what places they usually go to.

At last, Misaki pays a visit to the Tetsuyo club room. She saw the various things in the room, mostly train and train station related. After seeing that poster, Misaki shared her intention of joining the club after she went on a trip on her own by train. She thought it would be more fun to do it with a bunch of people. Kodama, especially Usa, seems happy to see Misaki joining. It definitely has the vibes of Zatsu Tabi, Yuru Camp, and Mono. I guess that has to do, given that my plans for this season didn’t quite work out with a certain magical girl show being streamed on an expensive streaming service that is subpar for $13 with hardly anyone covering it. That said, it’s not the end of the world. Also, I see some potential in Misaki and Usa. After all, she helped pick up the stuff that fell out of Misaki’s bag at the beginning of the episode.

The post Tetsuryou! Meet with Tetsudou Musume – Episode 1 – Misaki Discovers Her Passion of Traveling by Train appeared first on Chikorita157's Anime Blog.

If you like my content, please leave a comment on the said post or follow me on Mastodon/the Fediverse and boost my toots on Mastodon/the Fediverse for my posts to help promote it.

As they say, there is nothing wrong with building wealth through investing and saving money so you can retire or get rich. However, there are risky investments, as Kurumi finds out when she comes back to a messy apartment and her mother getting really upset.

We are taken five years back from the origin story before the 2008 financial crisis happened. When Kurumi came home after a normal day from school, all soaking wet from the rain, the apartment was a mess. When Kurumi opened the door, she saw the bedroom filled with garbage and alcohol cans, as her mother looked at her computer screen in total despair. She lost her life savings of 20 million yen from a failed foreign exchange (forex, for short) trade. She begs Kurumi not to tell her father, who is on a long-term business trip.

So, what is foreign exchange? Foreign exchange is basically trading currencies like the US Dollar, Euro, Japanese Yen, etc. Most people will only see this when you exchange your home currency for a foreign one. You usually do this when you travel overseas or buy something online that is in a different currency. The foreign exchange market trades are usually done between big banks and businesses that do business transactions with other foreign entities.

However, foreign exchange, like with meme stocks (think GameStop and AMC), cryptocurrencies, NFTs (non-fungible tokens, or links to jpegs), and betting, is speculative trades that has high rewards and a very high possibility of losing everything. Basically, one can see this as gambling, more so if you do margin trading, which involves borrowing money to execute trades. Margin trading, common in foreign exchange and speculative trading, is extremely risky. If the value goes down and you receive a margin call, you not only hit with a loss, but get into massive debt. This is not really investing. Investing is like taking a percentage of a paycheck into your 401k every two weeks, or dollar-cost averaging into a stock index like the S&P 500 (a stock index of the 500 biggest companies) or a carefully researched and diversified portfolio of stocks. Investing is good for building up wealth, if done responsibly and not investing more than you are willing to lose.

Well, with Kurumi in a panic over the possibility of her family getting split apart, she wanted to help her mom earn the money back. Of course, her mother discourages Kurumi from doing so, or even getting into Forex, as it’s something a child shouldn’t do. That is when her mother set out to work, and obviously, it’s difficult as she seemed out of it. Kurumi becomes worried that her mother is working herself too hard.

Of course, her friend saw Kurumi reading a forex exchange trading book, and she knew about it. Her friend discourages her, as she heard many people end their lives after losing money. Kurumi thought little of this until the day her father was about to come back. Kurumi got upset with her mother because her mother told her to write what she planned to say to her husband. Of course, when Kurumi came back, nobody was home. She saw an ominous message of apology. When she saw it, she panicked. Her father came to the door. He eventually answered the phone call and found out that his wife had taken her own life.

As expected, the first episode took a dark turn as Kurumi never thought it would happen to her mother. Then again, suicides, especially from losing enormous amounts of money. There was a case when someone took their life after seeing a large negative balance in their Robinhood account. This is the same case here as Kurumi’s father knew his daughter was thinking about possibly getting into foreign exchange trading. He tells her not to get into it, as she can live a happy life without it.

Five years later, Kurumi managed to graduate high school and attend university. She works at a part-time job as she earned enough money for her forex trading adventure. This time, she came prepared as she started her trades and see how it goes. She initially got excited as she earned more money than she got from work. She really hoped that her US Dollar/Yen trade will go to the moon.

However, it took a turn for the worse quite quickly as she panicked and racked up the losses. It seems as if she hasn’t learned the lessons her mother. Then again, she is probably not one of those “paper hands” type of traders who sell when they are ahead. Well, it seems as if she is not the only one as three other young women who are doing forex trades are having the same reactions of horror. Well, I guess this is the same reaction retail traders have when their favorite meme stock or crypto currency crashes as they did the trade on margin. I still wonder, why Kurumi put down all of her funds instead of investing just some of it so she won’t lose everything. I guess we’ll find out the aftermath from the miscalculation she made.

(Also known as FX Fighter Kurumi-chan)

The post FX Senshi Kurumi-chan – Episode 1 – The Harsh and Dark Reality of Foreign Exchange Trading appeared first on Chikorita157's Anime Blog.

If you like my content, please leave a comment on the said post or follow me on Mastodon/the Fediverse and boost my toots on Mastodon/the Fediverse for my posts to help promote it.