Good afternoon and welcome back to the touchline on Y25, my name is Maxwell Waseke. We are discussing matters of international football and Ken Andrew is joining us. Ken, good to have you. Have you been a man long time? Ya, I've been okay. It's been fine and thank you for having me once again on your show.  It's lost against Frenjimani Bagsparis and Jamain in their case to qualify for Champions League football and now next week they have to beat against an equalist up on side in the RB Leipzig in order to cement their chances. How possible is that? I think it's very possible if they produce the kind of performance they produced against Leipzig at Old Trafford, they beat them 5-0. And also looking at this man United side, they should have the hunger of qualifying to the next round because they made a whole mess versus PSG. They only needed a draw to make sure they go through but they lost the game. They didn't take their chances. Now they face a huge match in Germany against a Leipzig team which has many young players who can hurt man United and ya, I see United winning because I believe they are a stronger team, slightly stronger but they are also inconsistent. So let's see how it goes and let's hope United wins. And recent statistics have been favouring United. Their away performances has been very superb and like when they are playing at home they lost PSG while playing at Old Trafford. Can that give them momentum to win and even boost their chances of advancing through to the next stage? Ya, I think the way they perform at home they always show the fights and they always, they've come back in the Premier League the last four away games. They've come back to win the games. You look at their performance at Southampton away, the second half they were superb and also today they have an away game against West Ham which if they win I think they'll have enough confidence going into the RB Leipzig game to get a much needed win for United to go into the round of 16. So away man United has been superb but there's only that one blemish and loss against Istanbul which the team could have won but they didn't and now they've put themselves in a tight situation which they have to win to qualify. And away from that of course a lot of fixtures we have marked for this particular afternoon but tomorrow it's super clash, crunch time, pitting, Northland and rivals Arsenal up against Tottenham Hotspur which has been doing very good under Jose Mourinho. Arsenal on the other hand have been shambolic of course lost most of their previous matches against Wampanoag and us recently getting beaten to one. But what are your permutations as far as this weekend fixtures are concerned? I think for Arsenal it will be hard for them to win but you know it's a dubby and they say in dubbies tactics are thrown out the window you just have to get the win because it deals with pride more. But if you look at the strengths of the two teams at the moment Tottenham are way better they have a really experienced manager who knows how to win trophies and you look at the signings they've made this season.  So going into this weekend I think Arsenal really have to fight. I don't see them winning, I don't see Aubamey firing yet and also I don't think Arteita makes the needed changes for Arsenal. Going forward for them to actually win games and also on Aubameyang I think you see with some of these big players Mesutosi, Alexi Sanchez even the hair when they sign those big contracts their performances sort of dwindle. So that may be the case for Aubameyang but let's see how the game goes. And of course both teams, United and Arsenal having been trolled by social media users especially on Twitter for their bad performances recently being coached by managers who are former players. Mikaela Arteita formerly played for Arsenal and Everton as well as Oleguna Sonsha who played for United. What is the future of football club managers who are former football players? Because we've seen Patrick Vera being sucked by French side knees over a string of poor performances from the club. What's the future like? I think we'll see more of them because right now we've seen Lampard. But is there future sparkling? No, I think most of them are working it at young ages compared to other managers who have been in the game for 15 or so years. Guys like Lampard, Arteita, Andrea Pirlo they have just come into this game as young managers they are trying to find their way of playing and everything. So these small performances should be expected because in terms of football management they are still young, they haven't matured. You can't compare them immediately to the likes of Pep and Jose Mourinho who won everything and they are still going on. So in terms of former players becoming managers I think we are going to see more of it. I think there are still going to be some poor performances but with time if they are given time and backed properly by the clubs I think the young managers, the former players, they will be the go-to managers. But the two managers we are speaking about have got vast experience. I've been there before. Mikayla Arteita deputize Pep Guardiola at Manchester City for quite a long period of time and even Ole Gunas Olsha was in charge of an ray and team in Moldova. So which means experience is there but we haven't seen much impressive results from them. So what happened during the clash piting United against Paris Saint-Germain? Fred the Brazilian had been yellow carded but you know even a layman like myself would have removed him from the pitch but Ole Gunas waited for too long until the guy got another second yellow card meaning that now he had to leave the pitch for two consecutive yellow cards in the same game. Don't you think that is tactical cluelessness from a manager of that Khalib? I think that angered a lot of fans and a lot of people watching the game why he didn't take Fred off at halftime. Maybe he thought he'd still have. He likes Fred and Scott because they show fight, they always dive into tackles but with that knowing he dives into tackles he should have taken him off halftime probably for Nemanja Matij but he did it and Fred again got another yellow card and that's when the game totally went out of United. Ten men against PSG and they were leading 2-1 at that time so only on that decision he asked himself to blame because many people believe and many people think the way Fred had lost his head during that game he should have been served off but he wasn't and the game went how it went. Of course we have always heard that you know best football club managers do not necessarily need to have played football like Jose Mourinho he didn't play football but he's won a lot of accolades with various clubs in Europe, Real Madrid, Chelsea and now in charge of Tottenham, Hotspur even recently coached United where he won a Europa League title with them but we've seen an era where there has been an emanation of managers rising to the mantle of being in charge of big elite clubs and having played football before and Rea Pilo right now as we speak in charge of Juventus he played football. Patrice Vieira was being sucked by Nice he was a versatile midfield linchpin played for Arsenal as well as for the national team France we're in Rune right now in charge of Derby County in interim capacity yet to be officially confirmed as the full tactician of course played football with United for quite a long time and Everton as well and Mikaela Teta, Laguna Solcia, Frank Lampard but I think that should form the basis of our discussion going forward on the competence and capabilities of this man being in charge of elite European clubs we're in Rune of course watching him yesterday having discussed at length with former manager Sir Alex Fagas on The Great and even David Moyes just trying to get acquainted with skills on how to go about his new challenge I don't know, do you think that helps? I think for Rune it's too early but honestly I think he should just finish playing first completely then get a proper job at a different club I think because Derby this season I think it would be hard for them to turn around because they've always been contenders for the playoffs but this season they look to be so out of form and everything I think it would be a big ask for Wain Rune but for people who love football for people who've been watching I think that you have to be happy that Wain Rune is going to be a manager at the moment he's one of the best ever he's the best Premier League player in my opinion he was top class number 10 for United and if he can find the form or the way United are playing under Sir Alex and mix it up with Derby or any other team you'll be at I think I'd one day want him to be the manager of United because we love Wain Rune, no doubt I think we read from the same script on that Wain Rune is a fantastic professional an excellent player he was for United and even national team England and I think he's my all time favourite but of course we've heard other players who've done magic with the ball but away from that let's speak about the good news fans now getting an opportunity to come into the stadium starting this particular weekend how does that feel like? I think for United fans we have to wait a bit because Manchester is tier 3 in England they have to wait for a bit so we'll be working to away games with fans and all travel will be quiet but we love away so we'll disappoint the western fans today they will be fans in the stadium I think that's a good sign because football without fans at times can dull the whole atmosphere even if you're not at the stadium and also it's a huge step in this battle against the pandemic which has ravaged the whole year and seeing fans in stadiums at this moment it's a very good thing and we hope by the time next year we'll be able to see stadiums at full capacity because fans make the games just amazing, the experience is always super as someone who is passionate about football having followed European football for a while how was it like watching these games behind closed doors with no fans in the stadium of course due to coronavirus pandemic containment measures being put in place no social gathering is it juicy as it was while watching football when the stadiums are crowded and filled to the rafters I don't think it is because for example we look at Manunated vs. Southampton you just imagine how the away end would have exploded when they got that comeback queen that is taken away from the players you can only celebrate the 11 of you or maybe some guys from the bench but the real experience of the fans showing passion but where it lacked the quality in football is not disappointing because ever since the resumption of sports you watch some of these matches you just go wow these people don't need fans they actually really really great so where there are no fans they compensated it with the great quality especially in La Liga and the Premier League you can watch the game without fans because the players go out and show out where they are the highest paid and the best players in the world just like I indicated to you you can also be part of the program and join the conversation what do you think about what is a mark to happen this particular afternoon and the weekend in general in terms of fixtures lined up of course tell us the team you support and what you look forward in terms of the results of your team my national supporters most of them and United would be shy to join the conversation because they are a little bit skeptical in terms of the results they expect in terms of grass roots tournaments happening in my incoming MC Edward also known as Azad tells me that a quarter cup is ongoing at Munami Primary School and Lubanga FC continues with their good performance after beating their host Tunil and congratulations Tungairu as well for beating Nambali and there are plenty of talents as far as this grass root tournaments is concerned much potential in the grass root that's why I've been urging most of these scouts and coaches to scout for this potential and wonder kids so that they can be integrated in these national systems if our football has to grow and develop and gets to another level so he's telling me that there is a young man called Boki who is extremely talented and they are desperately looking to earn him for trials and he's a top scourer in a quarter cup hopefully Edward Okot when you get elected the MCF you will work hard to ensure that these talents get spotted and even play at the big stage of course it is something that has been lacking I don't know have you watched most of these grass roots football tournaments? There is a tournament that happens at Olympic Primary in Kibra Is it Chris Darling Cup? No, there is Chris Darling but there is a new one a league they formed called Interbase where boys who sit at the same place they form a team so they form teams and they go to play against each other some people have worked in really invested in the team until these player registrations if you play for this team you can play so it's become really elaborate and it's still continuing they have a lot of fans you'd be shocked to see how many people actually turn up and how much these teams work hard so like for me Interbase at grass roots level the scouts and everyone should actually go to that place Olympic Primary or sometimes colleagues at Woodley the games are always so exciting and I think nowadays it is value for you because you would realize that a KPL game is being staged at Nyaya National Stadium let's say an example whether United is playing against Staves in Leopards people are not showing up in large numbers to watch this game but these grass root football tournament matches people show up in large numbers in groves to watch this game I don't know what entices people to do that is it because of quality of football quality and people also love like being at the game you are going to watch football these people who are playing I have stayed with these people if I don't go to support them and the other guys come at grass roots level you don't have to be playing because the fans can tear you apart so you also need your fans the way they back their players and they always even sponsor the teams it's something which at KPL if it could happen to have the number of fans you always see at grass roots it will be amazing but funny enough for KPL we cannot see that because I think there is Gogo Boys and Kibra Black Stars if I'm not wrong if they go out to play and sometimes Mother United and KCB Gogo and Black Stars can actually get a lot of fans because it's actually a huge dubby in Kibra so what happens in grass roots the fans and how people love the game is how it should translate to KPL and we are not seeing a lot of that definitely and of course talking about football competitions Cup Champions League fixture the preliminary round will be happening this afternoon at Nyae National Stadium Kenyan representatives Gormaya Football Club will be playing host to their on this opponent in APR remember the first leg ended 2-1 in favor of the APR and of course Gore will be hoping that the away gold these codes will be of added advantage to them in their quest to maybe mount a draw or beat the opponents to qualify to the next stage that game will be live and exclusive on KBC channel so sit pretty comfortable on your coach and enjoy the proceedings of course we have to digress a little bit because we are patriotic to our game that's why we are talking about what is happening in machinani because we have to build our game locally now as we continue with overseas talk Patris Vera getting sucked by news over stream of poor performance so what happened to Thierry Andree as well now in charge of Montreal impact a club that are very on victor and I am a place for the national team captain and for my player for Tottenham Hotspur how is it like you know does it feel so embarrassing for someone who was an exceptional player like Patris Vera getting sucked by sort of an average club over poor performance I think it's sort of weird because you look at Patris Vera you know he is a tough guy really you know him and Roy Kinn they have their thing over the years antics they are always on each other's throats but then now you see he has some poor performances and he is getting sucked I think the people who watched him and the people who like him it doesn't really look well for them and it will be hard for recover because getting sucked by news you will be hit you will be hit we saw with Gary Neville when he was sucked in Valencia I don't think he is ever going to manage again that's why he is stuck to pan TV doing analysis a guy like Neville who had a fantastic career at United and then he goes at Valencia and just gets those results you know it hurts the fans and everything so I also think for Vera he should take time off because Niece is not like one of the okay it is up there but it's not a premium club in France you know and it's and he is lucky because when you compare Niece to Monaco where Terry Andrew was fired Monaco is a bit bigger and it was coming from a really great season it was coming from a season where they were semifinalists they had Kilian Barpe they had in their team and everything but he came and sort of ruined everything so it hits the managers badly I think we don't like seeing great players losing like that so they should just stick to panditry if you cannot who are performances of Man United at some point led to club fans invading the territory of Ed Woodward who is the chief executive officer for the team over poor transfer policy he failed to recruit world-class players to help their team restore the lost glory I don't know with him continuing to back the poor performing Oleguna soldier do you think he is in for other attacks from fans for me I think sometimes it's totally not Olegu because some of the player performances also individuals they really let him down for a great time last season the hair was letting him go so that the hair will normally never let in Magwa had a really crazy start to the season Michelle has been missing sitters but in terms of Olegu's tactically inepness I think he really has to improve on that because everything we cannot do anything right now because Woodward has already said he is going to back this guy he is going to get him the players he wants so it's up to Olegu himself to know what players he really wants and how he really wants to plays to get Man United in sort of a run which we had seen during the restart but it sort of disappeared again Man United are back in consistency so with Olegu being back I think he just have to sit back and wait and see how it goes because it's out of our hands right now and considering that you know Mauricio Pochettino was formally in charge of Tottenham Hotspur and is attached right now I have seen a lot of people mounting pressure on United to hire him and replace him with lowly performing Olegu na soul even Elgihumara kwa it's seen at Kipchumba Murukomen on his Twitter with a strong support of United say it come on, where is Pochettino do you think that would be the right tactical move Pochettino is a great manager but he's always stumbled at the last hurdle also we have to remember that he's won no major trophy he's created a Tottenham team which was amazing really superb they're always challenging for the league but they've never got quite there they were in the Champions League final they lost it even though they played well so I think if we get rid of Ole I'm not a big fan of Pochettino coming in to United I think we should get a manager who's proven someone like Max Alegri who's people have totally left out of the conversation I think he'll be a great fit at United because he knows how to win and also Thomas Tukel if he does not get the Champions League with PSG this season or they get eliminated next season he's jobless the owners of PSG and so that will also be a good option for United to take a lot of fixtures happening this particular afternoon Burnley up against Everton at 3.30 p.m. Man City will be playing host against Fulham then Man United will be travelling to West Ham in a late kickoff fix of course coming away at 8.30 then later on Chelsea up against Leeds come on man let's discuss about what Olivia Girou is doing he scored four goals in Champions League football Chelsea again a severe man we think he's completely underrated because he never gets regular playing time at the Stamford Bridge and even we see what he's capable of doing when he's playing for the national team which how can you describe Olivia Girou I love Girou I think he's one of a he's a very clever player he knows when to attack the balls he knows how to move a guy like Eden Hazar like playing with because he doesn't stick with the ball for too long he doesn't back into players and try he just one touch football and keeps it moving I think a lot of people like him and he's a really top player he's seven or eight goals away from being France all-time top scorer despite getting next game time you know that's a really amazing start you know and the fact that he can show up on a Champions League night against Sevilla which is also a serious team and get four goals just shows you the quality and class of the man I think where Lampard doesn't really like him is the speed first of all Tami and Timovana speedsters, absolutes, monsters and Girou lacks there but in terms of positioning in the box playing with teammates moving the ball around Girou is top-top quality I think how he moves for the headers is how Kavanye moves for them because I think Girou and Kavanye are the only ones who could have scored that type of goal Kavanye scored against Southampton because of their brilliance in movement they know how to move around in the box and get the stooping at us What's the future of Tami Abraham the 23-year-old English international at Chelsea at the Stamford Bridge do you think he has got some future considering a lot of options in terms of attacking department the team has in Olivia Girou in Timovana Tami is very underrated 15 goals last season in his first full season as a Chelsea player and also this season he's been coming in clutch and getting goals for Chelsea he's got I think 4 or 5 for them this season and yeah he's young that's what he's got edge on his side right now Girou might not even be at Chelsea next season and Timovana they can play together on the pitch because Timovana can also come in from the side for Tami I feel like he's very underrated by a lot of people he gets a lot of goals and he's a serious player he knows how to head he knows how to shoot he knows how to stay with the ball because he's a big guy and he's also brilliant in terms of movement in the box and he's also got edge on his side so I think he's massively underrated but time shows he will be a great player for England and Chelsea Let's spread the wings a little bit further to other European leagues happening Sevilla up against Real Madrid following that shocking four-nil against Chelsea will bounce back I think Real can be beaten by everyone right now because what's the problem with Real Madrid? it's very hard to know because you look at the players who are winning the three champions leagues those three years and you look at most of them are still there look at Maud Rich, Ruth Sergio Ramos, Varan and they also have a great goalkeeper Karim Benzema and all of a sudden the image was almost untouchable in the Champions League is losing to Shakhtar, Donetsk twice and also in La Liga they have not been getting the great results they beat Barcelona and everyone thought oh they are better than Basa but look again they lost against all of us they look a really weak team and Sevilla they know how to hit you when you are weak and okay they lost against Chelsea but they had already qualified so they could have lost that game they were already in the round of 16 La Liga is still wide open so they will want to win and looking at the way Real are inconsistent and their captain is still out I don't see them winning we don't have a problem with Zinedine Zidane he is one of the best club managers he was a great footballer if fancy him I used to watch him I admire him as a person and even as a coach but you see how comes he never plays Isco I also like Isco playing I also like to see him playing ever since he came back he has not been a fan of Isco because the period before he left Isco featured in all the Champions League five in all Isco was a really he really bloomed into a fantastic world class player under Zizu but all of a sudden he is not playing him these days he prefers the young guys I have seen all they got getting game time Rodrigo and Vinicius but I think getting guys like Isco back into the team you get again Isco back to playing at his best that's a really good thing for Madrid because those guys we should never forget that they won three Champions League on a spin and they can do it again getting those guys back on target back on form will be the key to unlocking another title for Zizu Vinicius up again is Serbi Leipzig that looks like as far as German Bundesliga Leipzig did very well last two seasons but it was a huge setback for them losing some of the influential players in Timo Vana who left for Chelsea football club who else left Patrick Sheik who was on run on Roma left I remember and at some point they are reliable defender was being sought after by several European clubs I don't know what you think about that game are bands still unstoppable? Band are very unstoppable because you look at the team they gave at Letico to play against at Letico it wasn't there but the second string got the draw against at Letico to keep the unbeaten run on going but Leipzig are a very strong young team they are dynamic they will go at you you come at us we go at you that's a thing that a lot of people don't do but attacking Bayern because Bayern might hurt you but Leipzig will go and play against Bayern how they play against any other team and that is one thing that will boost them but Bayern anyone going to play against Bayern will just have to be very skeptical and have to be sharp defensively so it will be a very exciting game and I just see Bayern winning because they are Bayern unique and come on man did you watch Cristiano Ronaldo play in Champions League football midweek what a remarkable player in the Portuguese international he's been phenomenal simplating performance from him remember he contracted coronavirus pandemic and he was positive just a few weeks ago but immediately after his recovery process he's been coming on this guy I think that shows you how great of a player he is because he's ever since he's come the game he's not played in is the only game he have not won he didn't play against Benevento and they didn't win you look at the other game at Champions League right now he's got 750 games have 750 goals amazing he's behind Pele who's got 767 despite and Pele was playing in Brazil and his goals people don't agree that most of them are official goals but the thing with Cristiano is that he's 35 people tend to forget that he should be an older he has retired 33-34 but he's still going at 35 and he'll still be going on at 36 because he's just you have no words for him he's just Cristiano Ronaldo amazing not from this world and elsewhere of course in the same breadth Lionel Messi the man who has always been compared to Cristiano Ronaldo not doing very well since the predicaments at Barcelona started Kamin is also a former player he won the Champions League title with Barcelona in 1992 and he's not been very convincing at the Camp Nou I think first of all for Messi Messi doesn't want to be there his heart is not there he's a baza fan he wanted to leave Baza the way he treated his friends Suarez that really hurt him these days you look at clips Messi he should be pressing he's just watching guys they just getting the ball he just wants the ball to be passed to his feet he's never doing that extra work but also he's not been that bad we saw last week he had a great performance he's got an amazing goal he's not that bad but I think the kid really having Messi top is for him to leave Baza right now because it's not a proper working condition for him he doesn't want to be there he even had a rant when he came from international duty at the airport the tax guys are waiting for him he doesn't want to be a baza player even though he's loved and worshipped as the guy who has a lot of backing from all the baza fans but Baza should just let him go either in January or in the summer and I am sure Messi gets another proper coach maybe Pep that's one people really want to see him with he gets another coach he gets another club he'll be back to his brilliant best I think you and I we can feel Messi and I think he's justified in his concerns as he seeks to push his move away from Kampnup because as a best player you want to be surrounded by equally great players which is what happened the likes of Luis Suarez leaving for Letico Madrid there was sort of the name exodus of great players from Barcelona and whatever that remained there haven't been sort of complimenting Messi very well because even we've heard from Pandit saying that Messi doesn't perform very well he can't replicate the same club performance when during international football with Argentina because he lacks the same quality around him I don't know does Barcelona need that depth going forward to get back into the fold? they do because when you look at Basas Bench most of the time you would find Dembele and the other guys are young young guys really young even you go and if they are to play a team like Man City Liverpool you look at the people coming from their benches because they are going to compete against each other in the Champions League you never know who is going to hurt you because their benches are also really strong for Basas Bench and also some of the players in there with Messi I don't think they are top-top quality give Messi proper players you look at 2015 Champions League how they were just booming against everyone he had Neymar, Suarez Andresi Niesta, Shavi those kinds of players around him and he'll be amazing but right now he doesn't want to be there because how the club is run the players around him and also wants a new adventure we could say so here so the fixtures for this particular weekend English Premier League football and the kickoff 330 Burnley up against Everton Kankala Angelotti defiolo odds and beats Burnley which as recorded mixed results in their last I don't know how many games they have only managed a single win and a team like Burnley which has been fighting for the top 7 the past ever since they came in to the Premier League it's kind of shocking I think for Everton going there and they are also out of form themselves despite having this amazing start to the season going away to Burnley at Taf Mo if they show up and they decide they are playing their regular direct football it's always hard to beat them because defensively they are usually well set up by Sean Dykes and Everton right now having aren't really in their stride they've kind of lost their form the form they had so I think Burnley should win this game because they need it more because they should create some separation from the Sheffield and the other guys down there so they should win it but Everton if they come out firing easy win for them because they have the quality they have the quality indeed another game would see Western playing host to United this evening at 8.30 David Moyes in charge of Western he was previous manager for United is he up for revenge? Ya I think there is that edge where Moyes really wants to prove these guys if you could have given me the kind of money that you are giving Ole and stuff I could have brought you a lot of good things so there is that edge in the game and also Western are on a brilliant run they have fantastic they made fantastic signings and Kufal they have been absolutely fantastic Angelo Okbona and also Atama Swaku have been really amazing for this club and Man United they are inconsistent even though we have this amazing away run in the Premier League going on Man United are still very inconsistent we don't know what to expect from them we don't know how they will show up and defend and also Man United will be playing in a London stadium with fans so it will be a scary game for them but United with the quality they have with the people they have they should get a win from that or a draw at least because Western and United even though Western are on a good run United has more quality so I see it as United being but it will be probably the game of the weekend a lot of goals I expect to see that and also a lot of emotion you know what I want to see Scott Parker is a player I also admired during his heydays with West Ham now in charge of Fulham I think he also played for Fulham so he is an old boy for the club he manages today I wish him to stay in English Premier League but unfortunately you see no much resources as far as funding and investment of Fulham is concerned a lot of players who are promoted with the team but the one participating in top tier meaning that they didn't sign they didn't go to the transfer market to bolster their current squad but he is up against this evening against Manchester City they thrashed barely 5 nil in their previous game without even Sajokuni Aguero but you also see how they performed against portraits because nil nil you can say Fulham if they can show up they can pull an upset they can pull an upset but if City decides today's the day they are going to have a lot of goals to take out from the back of the net but you know Scott Parker was a great manager he is a great manager because he just brought them back up into the Premier League in his first full season and also the fact that Scott Parker is using players from the championship to still play in the Premier League people should also give a lot of praise to Chris Wilder for Sheffield United last season because the majority of his squad last season was still players from the championship and look at how amazing they were because it is very hard to come up from the championship with those kind of players and get the kind of results that Sheffield United have got last season this season it seems like reality and everything has struck and they are performing poorly but great jobs both of them great managers Scott Parker and Chris Wilder so as we wind up the show of course there is a live event happening in the outskirts of Nairobi where Y-254 will be covering live and exclusive so in terms of your last submissions what should we look forward to this particular weekend I think this particular weekend and this whole week for United fans first of all it's a monumental week because we have to get a Champions League win and we also don't want to be left too behind in the table so we have to beat Western but apart from that we have the North London Derby we have Juventus v Barcelona Messi v Ronaldo once again so it's a great week for football and it's going to be like this for six more weeks because international football is done so enjoy your football this week next week and enjoy your festive season definitely look of course coming away every Saturday 1, 2, 3 but today of course there is a live event happening in the outskirts of Nairobi where Y-254 has been pitching camp since morning and they will be bringing you the proceedings of what is happening of course it's a youth platform so we giving youth all they need in terms of entertainment matters fashion lifestyle and sports so you can always get good on this particular platform every Saturday 1, 2, 3 as we keep you posted with what is happening especially this festive season a lot of grass root tournament happening and you can also keep us an update with the results of what is happening in your neighborhood and of course as usual as our nom in your neighbor


And all free papers will be also invited for publication at the Journal of Cryptology. So the first paper, which got the best paper award, is tightly CCA secure encryption without pairings by Roman Guet, Denise O'Fines, Ike Kils, and Hotech V. And Roman will give the presentation. Thank you for the introduction. First, I will recall the definition of CCA security. I suppose Alice wants to send the message to Bob through an insecure channel. And suppose that Alice and Bob do not share any secret key. So they use public encryption, where Bob generates a secret key and that he keeps for himself and a public key that he gives to everyone, thanks to which Alice can encrypt the message. And the basic security notion that we want is that if an adversary is dropped on a ciphertext, it should not learn any information about the plain text. And formally, this is captured by chosen plain text that attacks your security game, where the adversary gets a public key, then chooses a pair of message M0M1, and gets back the encryption of one of these two messages picked at random. And finally, the adversary has to guess which message was encrypted. So if the ciphertext doesn't reveal anything about the plain text, in particular, it doesn't reveal any information about the BD. And the adversary has a small advantage of winning this game. So this is for if-dropping attack, passive attacks. If you want to capture also active attacks, such as the Blasian-Bacher attack on TLS, we also had a decryption oracle that the adversary can query before and after the challenge ciphertext, adaptively and many times. The only thing the adversary cannot do is ask the decryption of the challenge ciphertext. So we usually only consider one challenge ciphertext, and this is without loss of generality, because it implies many challenge ciphertext via a hybrid argument. But for the purpose of this talk, I want to make explicit the fact that the adversary can actually get many challenge ciphertext. So it can send many pairs of M0M1 and get back the corresponding encryption of MB. And in fact, I'm going to count the number of such challenge ciphertext and decryption oracle queries. This is a de facto security notion for encryption. Now how do we prove a scheme is CCA secure? We do a reduction. So suppose we have an adversary that can win the security game with an advantage epsilon. Then we use it to build an algorithm, an efficient algorithm that has roughly the same running time as the adversary and that can break hard problems such as ZDH. With a smaller advantage, and the ratio between these two advantages is called the security loss. And most schemes use a hybrid argument to get security for many challenge ciphertext. And therefore, the security loss is proportional to the number of challenge ciphertext here. This is what we call a non-tight security reduction. And this can be a problem if you want to use the reduction as a tool to choose concrete parameters for your scheme, because then you will have to take into account this loss. For example, if you want 128-bit of security and that your loss, because of this hybrid argument, is exactly the number of challenge ciphertext, which can be as large as 2 to the 30 in a large, widely deployed system, then we have to pick a group where DDH is unbreakable with advantage more than 2 to the minus 158.  To avoid that, we would like to build the reductions with a tight security, which means that the security loss L is small. And by small, I mean, in particular, it's independent of the number of challenge ciphertext. And it's typically a small constant times the security parameter lambda. Think of lambda as 128, which is much smaller than the number of challenge ciphertext. So finding tight security reduction in the context of encryption and signatures has been extensively studied before. So now let's look at a prior CCA encryption scheme. First, we have very efficient schemes starting with Chroma and Shoop encryption scheme, whereas the ciphertext overhead is three group elements. Improved by Kurozawa Desmet to two group elements, they are based on DDH, which is good. But because they use this hybrid argument to get security for many challenge ciphertext, the security loss is large. It's non-tight. Then there is a series of tight construction starting with Ophine's Jagger crypto 2012. But as you can see, looking at this column, these schemes have larger ciphertext overhead. The number of group elements is larger. Even though in the latest work last year, the efficiency has been significantly improved. But more importantly, all these construction use a qualitatively stronger assumption. They use bearings, which is not the case of non-tight schemes. So a natural question to ask is, does tightness intrinsically require the bearing? And the answer is no. We build a efficient CCA secure encryption scheme, which tightly reduce to DDH, no bearing. So this is a quantitative improvement upon prior tight construction because the ciphertext overhead of our scheme is shorter. It's three group elements, which is one group element more than the most efficient CCA secure encryption scheme, which is Kurosawa Desmet. But it's also a qualitative improvement because we use a weaker assumption. We use DDH. So prior tight construction, they use two different techniques. There is a group of constructions that use signatures and non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs, which are primitives that admit public verification. And for which, we don't know any efficient construction without pairing. So we cannot use this technique. Then there is a group of works that build identity-based encryption, or IBE for short, that is stronger than CCA encryption. And to build them, they use a methodology which is called dual system encryption introduced by Watters, which require computational assumption both on the ciphertext and the secret key space. And therefore, it also crucially need a pairing. It's inherent to the construction. So also, we cannot use this technique. Instead, to overcome these barriers, we consider the designated verifier on ISIC setting, which is like an ISIC, except the verification is not public. It requires a secret key, as in Kramanship. I won't formally define what a divine ISIC is. Instead, I'm going to describe the technique in the context of Kramanship encryption. So this is our starting point. Also, we encounter new techniques that I'll talk to later, new technical difficulties. So this is our result. Now, the overview of the construction. To build a CCA secure encryption scheme, we build a much simpler primitive, which is called a tag-based encryption. I'll define in more details what it is later. But this tag-based encryption is simpler than the CCA in two ways. First, using tags simplifies the proof. And these tags are easy to instantiate using standard technique, such as one-time signature. In our case, we use collision-resistant hash function for efficiency. The second thing is that this tag-based encryption scheme is not actually CCA secure. It satisfies the weaker notion of security. For those who know, it's called plaintext checkable attack security. And this is easier to prove, again. So this makes this thing simpler to design. And again, using standard framework, you can upgrade this weaker than CCA primitive to full CCA security using authenticated symmetric encryption. So roughly, we instantiate a standard framework with a new tag-based encryption. So this is our contribution, build this tag-based encryption. We also do non-trivial optimization when we combine these three pieces together. But I'm not going to talk about this in this talk. I'm only going to focus on the tag-based encryption because it's a core component, and it captures most technical novelties. So what is a tag-based encryption? It's encryption where the encryption algorithm takes an additional input tau here, which is called the tag. And the decryption also takes an additional input tau. And it decrypts a ciphertext for tau star when tau is equal to tau star. So this is correctness for tag-based encryption. Now the security is similar to the previous CCA security for tag-free encryption. The difference is that now we require the adversary queries decryption or a call with a tag-tau that must be different from the tag-tau star used in the challenge ciphertext here. As I said, we can enforce this using, for instance, collision resistant hash function. And the security proof crucially rely on this property here. So I will give the construction in three steps. First, our starting point is a simple CPA secure encryption scheme known as Damgard-Elgamal. Then I'll show how to modify it slightly to get a simplified version of Cramentship encryption scheme, which is non-tight. And finally, I will show how to modify it again to get our construction, which is tight. So this will be the outline of the rest of the talk. So first, this simple Damgard-Elgamal encryption. We use a primary group. And the secret key is simply a random vector of exponent of dimension 2k here. So through all this talk, I'm going to use white boxes to denote vectors of exponent over zp and blue boxes and later red boxes to denote vectors of group elements. This will be the convention. So secret key is a vector of exponent of dimension 2. And the public key contains a random vector of group elements of dimension 2. And the inner product of this vector k with the vector a, where the inner product is done in the exponent, just like so. So this is a group element. This is a public key. And the cipher text to encrypt a message, one picks a random exponent r and compute this a times r here, and the corresponding k times ar, which serves as an encapsulation key for the message m, which is a group element. To decrypt, one uses the secret key here, k, which we multiply with this part of the cipher text to get the encapsulation key and get back the message. So it's very simple. Correctness. And for security, we will need two properties. The first property says that this vector a times r is computationally indistinguishable from a uniformly random vector of group elements, u here. And this is true even when the vector a is given. And this is implied by DDH. So we can switch this a times r to uniformly random vector here and here. This is the first property. Second property says that this value k times a, this group element, is random independent of this group element k times u, statistically independent. This is because a and u are independent random vector. So most of the time, they will be linearly independent. And therefore, these values are also independent. So finally, we can argue that this value here is a uniformly random group element that completely masks the message m. So this concludes the proof. So this is our starting point. It's a simple encryption, but it's not CCA secure, in particular because it's multiplicatively homomorphic. But we can modify it slightly to get a simplified version of Kram and Schup encryption scheme, just like so. Instead of using a secret key k, we'll use two random vector k0 and k1. And we want to build a tag-based encryption where tags are in zp. And they are mapped to a vector k tau defined by k0 plus tau times k1. This is what Kram and Schup did. And this map is a power-wise independent hash function, which means a k tau is independent of k tau star when tau is different from tau star. And the security proof crucially relies on this property. I'll show you later. So this is what we obtain when we replace k by k0 and k1. So this is a simplified version of Kram and Schup, as I said, which is actually not CCA secure. I'm a bit simplifying here. So this is our Kram and Schup encryption. And to compute a ciphertext for tau, you compute this encapsulation key, as I described. Now let me show you where the power-wise independence property comes up in the proof in a simplified setting where the adversary only gets one challenge ciphertext for tau star and one decryption or a call query for tau, which must be different from tau star by definition of the security game. So this is a simplified setting. Now, by power-wise independence, we can argue that this tau, k tau, is independent from k tau star because tau is different from tau star. And therefore the decryption or a call query doesn't leak any information, in fact, about this encapsulation key. So we can just ignore it and do the same proof as for the CPA secure encryption scheme, okay. That's the idea. And finally, to get many challenge ciphertext for many different type tau, as is the case in the security proof. So this is the adversary view. And many decryption or a call queries for many different tau also. We do a Kram and Schup did a hybrid argument. And if you do it in a clever way, you can prove that the advantage of the adversary breaking the scheme is less than this quantity here, which corresponds to the computational argument, which we use once per challenge ciphertext, plus this quantity here, which corresponds to the statistical argument, which is used once per challenge ciphertext decryption query pair. So because of this hybrid argument, this is not tight. Okay, a security loss is proportional to the number of challenge ciphertext. So our idea was to avoid this hybrid argument by using stronger properties than the pairwise independence, because the pairwise independence forces you to enumerate over all the possible challenge ciphertext and decryption query pairs. To avoid this hybrid argument, we use a stronger property that can talk about all the challenge ciphertext at the same time. So instead of pairwise, we would like number of ciphertext wise, basically. Again, to avoid this hybrid argument and get tight proof. So we would like to design this k tau, which behaves as a number of ciphertext wise, but the number of ciphertext is unbounded. So number of ciphertext wise is actually a random function on tau. But we cannot set k tau to be a random function because that would be too large. So public key and the secret key would be too large. So what we do is use a k tau that behaves as a random function computationally in the ciphertext space. So it's sort of a randomized PRF, if you want. Basically, it means that in all ciphertexts can argue that this k tau times this AR is computationally indistinguishable from a random function on tau. And this PRF randomized PRF has to be tight. This is what we want to build. Now let's see how we implement this ID. We do so by modifying the simplified version of Kramer and Schupen encryption scheme by replacing k 0 and k 1 with a set of two lambda vectors, k i b, for index for i from one to lambda and b a b 0 or one. Okay, so the secret key is going to be huge in our setting. And we map the pairwise independent hash function to, we replace it with a map that takes tags which are now lambda bit strings and map them to the vector here, some of lambda vectors. So this is used in the Chenoui identity-based encryption, tightly secure identity-based encryption. And it's also reminiscent from narrow-angle PRF, also quite different. So this is our ID. And finally, for our technical reason, we also have to increase the size of all the vectors. So instead of having dimension two vectors, we'll increase the size and have dimension three vectors. This is a bit technical. So finally, this is the construction we get. So as I said, the secret key and public keys are large. And the proof sketch, I already give the intuition. So we basically, so if this is the adversary view with many Chinese hypertexts and many decryption queries, or we have to prove simultaneously in all Chinese hypertexts that this part here behaves as a random function, as I said, using this randomized PRF paradigm. And the main technical challenge is to carry on the Chenoui proof in a pairing-free setting. Because Chenoui used dual-system encryption which used pairing. In our case, we replace a computational argument by a statistical argument in the secret key space to get rid of the pairing. That is the main technical difficulty we solve. And finally, we get, we show that the adversary cannot break the scheme with advantage more than this quantity here. So you see that the security reduction is much smaller. To sum up, we build an efficient scheme that tightly reduces to DDH. And the only drawback of our scheme is the very large public key, which is also the case for most tight construction, but which is not the case for non-tight construction. So a natural open problem would be, can we reduce the size of this public key to a constant number of group elements? Some partial progress has been made by Denys Salfides, who build a tightly secure signature with constant size verification key. But it crucially relies on pairing. And more broadly, can we build a tightly secure CPA encryption from minimal assumption, or such as a hardness of factoring or CDH? So this concludes my talk. Thank you very much. Are there any questions? A small inoptimality in your scheme is that you increase the number of group elements from two to three, but I assume that it was in one of the last few slides where the vector size increased from a two-dimensional to three-dimensional. And then you say that you have to do it for technical reason. Can you elaborate a little bit more? Why is it necessary to increase from two? What's wrong with two? Okay, thank you for the question. So we need to increase the size from dimension two to dimension three. And so the reason is in the proof. If we use the Chen We IBE proof, we require, there is a condition that must be satisfied, which says that, so there will be many hybrids. And at one hybrid, at one given hybrid, all the tag in the challenge ciphertext should have the same value for the, okay, the ith bit of the tag should have the same value. It should be all zero, all one, which is not realistic. So to get around this condition, we need basically to give two copies of the scheme, more or less, one which will be used for the bit zero and one which will be used for the bit one. Okay, in fact, this is, right, this is, we have this technique which is also used in this paper, which we have to adapt. And so these two copies means you have to increase the size of the vector a. Basically one dimension, so you have three dimension, one dimension is for correctness and the two other dimension are for the proof. Instead of one extra dimension, you need two basically. Any other question? So yes, in practice, if you have like a non-tight scheme, like Kramer-Schup or like Kurosawa-Desmond, I guess you have this factor q, right loss. So q is like, I don't know, what is it in practice? Maybe like two to the 30, two to the 40.  But in your case, even ignoring the secret is a ciphertext and now like three elements versus two. So did you make any like realistic parameter computation?  Yes, that's a good question. So tightness becomes more important than saving one group elements. When for say 128 bit of security, we computed it and it's when the number of Chinese ciphertext is larger than two to the 74. So it's quite large number of ciphertext for lambda equal 128, using elliptic curves. This is when you take into account the security loss. So. Okay, any other question? No questions, so let's find the speaker again. Thank you.


Welcome traders to another two mil chart here with me Patrick Munley wants to revisit the Kiwi dollar on a four hour time frame. We're still carving out this big corrected pattern versus this X high here at 73.18. We've got an approach objective and the Y target down at 68. In the immediate time I'm looking at key level test here at the 71 handle. We've got weekly range resistance, daily range resistance just above and the R3 there and these price support zones. So I'm watching for bearish about some patterns in this area to set short positions. It could be that the correction is over and we trade straight down into the target zone but certainly I want the trade to be risk-free as we trade into this 70 handle as there is a chance we do double correction before heading lower. So as always traders plan the trade, trade the plan and most importantly manage your risk. Until next time, thanks very much.


20 different anime made the summer season quite the unorthodox experience. Let's talk about it. Welcome back to the channel, everybody. Today we're going to go over the anime summer season 2023. The first one we're going to talk about is level one demon lord and one room hero. The story in a nutshell tells the story of max the hero and his companions. They defeated the evil demon lord and now 10 years later peace has arrived and unexpectedly the demon lord has awoken earlier than anticipated but now he's in the body of a small child and he is seeking the former hero for revenge, a rematch of his encounter, but what he finds is very surprising. Max is sort of a shut in slob. He has some troubled history with the general public and the media after falling out because of certain actions that he took with some ladies out there and that tarnished his reputation and sort of left him as a shut in. So an unlikely friendship forms between the demon lord who is now this cute tiny kid and max the hero and it was really wholesome. And if I had to pick one of the best couples for 2023 is definitely max and the demon lord. They have a really nice chemistry and at first max is unsure of how it's gonna go because you know this is his former enemy nemesis if you will but as the story moves along with more comedic beats and all that stuff they actually get along pretty well and form a friendship and the demon lord is trying to help max get back into shape and become that hero that everybody knew. So that is one of the main schticks of this series and if it stayed like that I feel like it wouldn't make an impression. Fortunately the series goes into pretty interesting political subplots as you see a neighboring territory that one of the former heroes has claimed for himself and is building a country out of it and the main piece of land the main continent is upset about this because they feel that land belongs to them so there is political agendas and arguments and fights and all that stuff and that is sort of going to force our hero to pick a side or pick nobody's side and I thought that was really good overall level one demon lord it's funny I liked it I think it replicates the art style of the original manga pretty well it's a nicely done adaptation and because the manga is still ongoing the story isn't too far along so the anime had to improvise certain scenes add a little bit of filler here and there towards the end but it was actually really well done if I could pick one negative aspect about it would be the actual animation for it I don't think it's up to par when you compare it to tofu's art in the manga which I do think is superior in every way but overall it's a fun anime to check out. Sin duality noir this story takes place in the not so distant future of the year 2222 or 2222 however you pronounce it it's been years since the tears of the new moon a mysterious rain poured and wiped out almost the entire human race the poisonous rain gave birth to deformed creatures devouring humans and humanity has fled from the danger as a means for survival the humans then build an underground haven in this newly built dystopian city in pursuit of maintaining their existence they run into artificial intelligence named magus not knowing how things will work between them this is the story of how humans and ai coincide and work together towards finding the truth I first learned about it because of the game that's coming out called sin duality echo of eta this was announced a while ago as of the recording of this video it's a third person shooter action rpg developed by game studio and it is going to be published by bandai namco entertainment sin duality itself is a mixed media project that means you're getting anime manga light novels video games i'm sure figures and all that cool stuff i'm pretty sure they're going to do a cell phone game i don't know i thought the anime had some really nice ideas i like the whole mecca roller skating units to fight these weird monsters that's cool to defend what's left of humanity and all that stuff fantastic i like the idea of the ai magus and how they are incorporated into the machine and with their pilot and all that stuff that's pretty cool now where sin duality noir loses me is that out of the 12 episodes that aired you really don't get a whole lot of plot development and what little you do is left for the back burner in favor of standalone episodes comedic scenarios drama between the characters that ultimately doesn't amount to much when it comes to the main plot of the story and we know it's not going to go that route because it is mixed media it is part of a larger world building exercise i'm pretty sure that when we play the game it's going to fill in some gaps and when you read the manga or when you read the light novel etc etc it's going to fill in gaps for the overall mythos of this franchise so in that regard i was not loving sin duality noir i think the animation studio that worked on it which is eight bit studios i think they did a really good job everything looked nice because it's bandai i like the little nods to arcade gaming but like i said it's the hollow bits and pieces from a missing plot that really hurts noir from being something more it was fine and by the end of it you do get some type of explanation to whatever the heck's going on but we really don't know we get characters that can feel stereotypical and we get a lead pilot that is unsure of himself and goes through the whole motions of self-doubt and gaining that self-esteem back and becoming a better person and a better pilot fighter if you will and the mystery of the magus that he finds noir who doesn't know anything about herself or itself and she's now trying to recover her memories where she came from who made her that sort of stick which we've seen before in other shows so overall i just thought it was okay nothing too great but nothing bad either it was serviceable we finally had the second half of ayakashi triangle this is insane this show started in january of 2023 it aired for i think it was four episodes just one month then because of cobit it got hit with massive delays they had to shut down production and i think like four or five months later it came back or four months i should say for one episode and then a recap and then they restarted broadcast from the beginning and then by august i think it was the show came back to finish its run of 12 episodes and overall i mean god bless you if you like ayakashi triangle i wanted to like this because of the yokai aspect i think that is its strongest point unfortunately it's hindered by the abundant egregious usage of fan service and i'm not like the most puritanical person out there i don't get me wrong i if you enjoy that stuff more power to you but this was i found cheaply made it's just so comically oriented towards the fan service that it deterred from me taking any emotional aspect out of the story i really did not care what was happening because at the end of the day i knew it's just a scene was setting up another scene to lead into fan service stuff even at its most dire you still get that stuff which kind of ruined the excitement for me i do like the fact that they're using the ayakashi stuff and shirogane the cat i think he's wonderful he's my favorite part of the show or i guess the manga so uh that was fun but i i don't know this felt like a very early odds uh fan servicey anime that somehow snuck into 2023 and i'm so sorry for the people that love it i'm hating on it but you do you that's awesome i also enjoy some things that people don't like so it's a trade-off i guess the girl i like forgot her glasses essentially this is a rom-com adapting the manga of the same name the studio that worked on it is gohans which has a reputation which i'll get to in a minute the story is about these two kids who are friends at school and the boy is in love with the girl but the girl is kind of a dits and she keeps forgetting her glasses which leads to comical things happening in the story now the bigger twist here if i can even call it that is that she's always forgetting her glasses which is pretty silly because in real life you would fix that right away but for the purposes of this show it's gonna continue happening i think the biggest thing here is the fact that the two lead characters are cute wholesome and you want to root for them now the art on the other hand i thought it was great gohans did a phenomenal job it got some heat when it first started because of their usage of 3d motion and the way everything was zooming in and out like a freaking fisheye lens or an early 2000s music video and the fact that mie's hair was as i've heard online kind of symbiotic in nature it took a life of its own in a regular scene she would move her head and the hair would keep on moving but as you went along with the series that died down significantly unfortunately with rom coms especially with the high school romance sub genre if you will it's always the same format of these episodic adventures at school and what little progress is made is saved towards the end and when the finale comes there's a big twist or improvement in said relationship which makes you hopeful for another season and then it's sort of a rinse repeat scenario so in that aspect i was a little bit disappointed then again i'm so used to it by now i've seen so many of these shows so yeah if it does come back that's great but i don't think this is a show that i'll come back to but it was cute nonetheless helk made by satellite and it is based on the manga of the same name from nanaki now and this is an alternate world at first i thought it was earth but it's not this is a country in the demon world and they are holding a tournament to select the new demon king there are the imperial four heavenly kings they are in charge of the tournament and one of the individuals participating is a human the hero called helk who is supposed to be their enemy after receiving news of the fall of the castle of urum before the finals of the tournament the main imperial lieutenant vermilio sets out to retake the castle with helk and other finalists now the twist here being that helk is in favor of destroying the humans so you're thinking well how can that be the demons don't really get it either but they become so enamored with helk because he is such a a bolder larger than life personality who's so wholesome and nice and they just accept him right away so that leads into the story of helk there's a lot of stuff that happens in this which i'm not gonna reveal i didn't think i was gonna love it at first i thought it was going to be sort of middle of the road for me but as i started watching it had that quirky combination of it being action packed it doesn't take itself too seriously but it has dramatic moments i like vermilio i think she is the best aspect of the show i like how she's so upset that helk this human is participating in this tournament it's sacrilegious but everybody around her doesn't seem to mind the contestant all and the audience all seem to love helk and they're going in applauding his every move and you're thinking is helk really here to become part of this realm isn't he like a spy doesn't like is there a hidden agenda isn't he supposed to hate demons because he's a human vermilio of course figuring out that maybe i can trust this guy and setting aside their differences or her prejudice to allow helk to help her retake the castle and all that stuff so yeah that in a huge nutshell i'm all over the place but bear with me every episode ends on a great cliffhanger not everybody can do that properly it takes finesse to end your episodes on huge cliffhangers and aggravating your audience but at the same time they're excited for the next episode and that's how i felt watching helk so i do wholeheartedly recommend it i thought it was great i like the art sometimes it was okay uh art wise but the overall look of it i really enjoy it my happy marriage this came as a surprise i didn't know about it and the fact that this was done by uh kinema citrus was interesting but it had me concerned because they made made an abyss which artistically speaking is fantastic regardless of what you may think about the plot but the visuals on the show and the movie are phenomenal they also made rising of the shield a hero season one was great but season two was horrendous in my opinion so 50 50 here i was a little bit nervous going in and i am happy to say that i absolutely love this and it was the highlight of the season for me and i'm telling you right now easily one of the best shows of 2023 and one of the best shows of the season so we follow the character of mio who lost her birth mother at a young age and ended up growing up being abused by her stepmother step sister and father unfortunately despite her being born into a noble family now this is an alternate japan where the supernatural stuff exists and they use it willingly and you have these families with supernatural users to combat i guess supernatural threads i didn't really pay too much attention to it i was more invested into the drama of these characters and honestly i'm a fan of folklore and japanese supernatural stuff and yokai if you've watched my channel you know of this but for my happy marriage i didn't really need that i was happily invested in the drama happening with the characters so as the story develops mio finds out that she is going to be married off and the soon to be husband has a reputation of being cruel and heartless in fact he's had numerous previous fiancés who have all fled his household none lasting even a mere three days resigned to the fact that her family had abandoned her mio knocks on the gate of the kudo household to find herself greeted by a beautiful man with pale skin despite the poor treatment she receives from her husband to be during their first meeting mio is unable to return to her old home and spends her time cooking and doing chores however as the days pass mio and kyouka begin to slowly open their hearts to each other so i cheated a little bit and read you the official description but i think it does a good job of letting you know what this series is about i think it was wonderful i love mio and her relationship with kyouka i was extremely pissed off at the treatment that she received from her stepmother step sister and father that was hard to watch at times and i was really annoyed but it felt like watching a good soap opera i was so emotionally invested and i just wanted nothing but the best for this young girl i enjoyed the art from kinema citrus like i said they knocked it out of the park i think it's one of their best works so far and you really did feel like you were part of that world it really transported you to that era in my opinion the relationship between mio and kyouka and the marriage uh takes the full season to fully develop and resolve itself somewhat but the main aspect that surprised me was the fact that when they find out that she's going to this house uh the step sister is a little bit jealous and they're blotting things to ruin that marriage and all that stuff i was surprised that that was cut short and it resolves itself halfway to the season i thought it was going to be a full subplot to it but no overall fantastic characters a well-written show i've heard from fans of this franchise that the anime speeds things up and changes a few things the pacing and all that stuff and omits stuff from the original light novels which i suspected you know that not everything's going to be adapted 100% but as a non light novel reader i got everything i loved it and it made me excited to watch more so i'm looking forward to the second part of this story to air which is going to be next year reborn as a vending machine i now wonder the dungeon i was really excited it's so quirky and dumb the fact that it's an isekai series and the main character he is a huge nerd and after a traffic accident he dies and is reborn into another world as a vending machine sure why not we're gonna go with that let's do it and he can't talk but there's a computer ai thing maybe it's another worldly thing i don't know that's talking to him in his head and there's a rpg point like system embedded into his consciousness as a vending machine god this sounds so dumb but it helps him navigate through the series he can't talk but as a vending machine there's a little speaker griller i guess and he's able to say a couple lines like have a good day or not this or good luck next time so he's gonna use those voice commands to sort of teach people into like yes or no questions and answers you know and that's all you need to know it's it's a wacky series that it has a blast doing its thing it may not be the best one but it's comedic enough where you can just switch off your brain and enjoy reborn as a vending machine eventually our main protagonist he becomes friends with this girl who is quickly enamored by this vending machine and finds a friendship there as strange as that sounds and they go off on adventures like guild adventures and they go after like huge monsters and there's a couple like subplots with other characters that want to take advantage of the vending machine because they find that he has all these magical items that can feed everybody and the food is so different than what they're used to so of course they want to get in on that action and steal that power you know regular things that happen in isekai about somebody being reborn as a vending machine so now they're wandering dungeons typically normal stuff right uh studio gokumi did the art here with axes and for the most part it it's okay there's a lot of misfires for this anime certain scenes just don't look that great and look pretty ugly in my opinion actually the key visuals i thought it was going to be like that all around and i was a little bit naive because it doesn't look like that half the time i just thought it was a very middle of the road series with a quirk enough premise that it carries everything along and you don't mind the show's faults if that makes sense saint cecilia and pastor laurence cecilia is beloved by the townspeople not only is she elegant and composed she benevolently shares her wisdom with all who seek it that is until the last person has left at which point she becomes totally helpless only pastor laurence is keeping the saint put together enough to do her duties and though she may test him it's all in a day's work i'll be honest with you guys i decided to watch this because i had 19 shows and thought hey let's just round it out to 20 because that's cooler but i ended up kind of liking saint cecilia you see this is sort of a weird mashup by hasano kazutake the original mangaka of many judeo-christian things bundled up together in one nonsensical rom-com of a show i mean technically it's not supposed to go the route of a rom-com but it kind of is you heard the premise here you follow these characters in this church and the spotlight here the shining beacon of recommendations for saint cecilia and pastor laurence is saint cecilia herself really well done character she is extremely adorable clumsy wholesome and well acted they really did a good job at this and that is the best compliment i can give this series typically i am a fan of anything doga kobo does as a studio i love most of their shows and this was all right it's very middle of the road nothing really happens you just sort of see the dynamic between the saint and the pastor and you sort of learn the tragic history of the saint that came before and how the populace handled that and now they don't want to go that route so that was pretty interesting the relationship stuff kind of weirded me out a little bit but whatever it's an anime i'm not gonna question things here just know that it's pretty chill and wholesome if you just want to have a fun time and not have to think too much about what's going on with the plot and just enjoy the cute interactions then yeah check out saint cecilia and pastor laurence we also had the finale for sacrificial princess and the king of beast i thought this was phenomenal and if you would have told me that in 2023 i was gonna get two shows where they tackle the subject of discrimination and racism in the backdrop of an anthropomorphic kingdom of animals i would have said you were lying but sacrificial princess goes for it and i think it's a pretty cool success i liked the series all throughout its 24 episode run i think it had a nice ending i would have wanted more stories i'm but they adapted the whole manga so that's great we rarely see that these days jc staff is notorious some people dislike their art style and their adaptations but i happen to enjoy what they did here there are a couple instances of bad animation sprinkled throughout but it was nothing too wild that i felt like oh this is unwatchable it was pretty watchable and you had some fantastic characters especially with sci-fi she is the heart and soul of the series and how she's able to rise up from being a sacrifice to being the queen of this kingdom falling in love with the beast king and as a result the whole society kind of starts changing by the fact that she's there it takes a while and obviously there are some prejudices there from the rest of the animal populace but that sort of imitates life and as they get to know her they all come around to the notion that hey maybe humans aren't that bad and likewise she tries to tell the other humans that hey not all the beasts are bad let's just get along i thought that was a really nice message and i dug it i think it was a solid adaptation all throughout undead murder farce from lapid and track i hope i pronounced that correctly this is adapting the manga of the same name and in the 19th century a world inhabited by vampires werewolves and other paranormal creatures there is an immortal beauty who happens to be a disembodied head she is aya rindo now she is traveling alongside the half human half demon demon killer sugaru shinichi and her loyal maid shizuko hase as they travel through europe as the supernatural detective the cage user solving supernatural mysteries while she searches for her lost body this ended up being one of my favorite shows of the season and at the end of this year i will be adding it to my list of favorite shows of 2023 i thought this was super unique i didn't know about the original source material so this was a brand new experience here i think they knocked it out of the park i love the artwork the character designs and the fact that it's mixing all the right elements for me the supernatural stuff i'm a huge fan of creature horror when it comes to like you know vampires zombies werewolves etc thanks to the demon killer character of sugaru you get the japanese yokai so yeah we get more of the european side of things when it comes to creatures and all that but it's good you have aya she is an immortal she is searching for her lost body and that is one of the first starting mysteries to find out who has done this when you find out it's pretty cool because it features a lot of characters that you know from european fiction and mystery novels and all that stuff unfortunately the first case that they're solving i thought it lasted way too long for such a simple case it really does pick up and gets really good i highly recommend it regardless of that opening act even though you might not understand where the story is headed or where the clues are to solve the case you still have a lot of fun with the characters and the dialogue and banter that happens between the three main characters of aya shizuku and sugaru that is one of the highlights for me for undead murder farce i really wasn't going to watch jujutsu kaisen season two i have to be frank with you guys i don't understand yet why i don't like it as a lot of you do i think it's well made i enjoy the reading the manga even though i'm not up to date with it i like what mappa's doing with the anime but for some reason it just doesn't really click with me which is weird i don't mind shows like this but here we have season two which i think is a lot better than season one from a technical standpoint i can't really form a huge opinion on it but the first part does deal with gojo and geto younger versions of them obviously as they are escorting a young riko amanai to master tengen that six episode arc i thought was great that could have been a movie and it would have been amazing seriously mappa was just flexing hard with the animation at work with uh with those six episodes then the shibuya incident arc begins and we're going through that at the moment it has wonderful animation but again i don't know i think some of the plot elements are just not exciting to me but still if you loved season one if you like the mug of course you're gonna enjoy season two of jujutsu kaisen so i'm not gonna be a roadblock in your decision to either watch it or not you know rent a girlfriend season three this uh anime is a guilty pleasure for a lot of people at this point i need to inform you that i do read the manga physically and i and i like it you know it's nothing too grand uh the main protagonist can be a hassle can be quite annoying for some people and i totally get that but i think i like it initially i liked it because of the college setting i'm not necessarily a fan of the high school roman stuff i'm not intrigued or interested in that all too much but setting it with quote-unquote older characters was interesting obviously i don't agree with the whole girlfriend renting system i think that's dumb but whatever what are you gonna do that's that's a plot of series but in this third season we finally get the conclusion of the production movie production arc for uh chizuru and kazuya and that has a very well done dramatic ending to it that uh will i mean if you're invested i think it'll tear you up and i enjoyed it and yet some of that stuff in the resolution i think brings down the series a whole ton and made me not like it as much it's yeah it's a guilty pleasure but i i like some of the characters in here and the solution to some of the problems that are presented especially for kazuya i think are really dumb and the way that he goes about it just frustrated me even more and made me like the series less and less and me it's suddenly asking like why haven't we ended this series already like it's going on for too long and it is going on for too long because i think it's what like 30 volumes of this and this season covers up to like volume 18 oh we're gonna be at this for a while folks so strap in if you're a fan of rent a girlfriend we're probably gonna get like five more seasons out of it oh my god sugar apple fairy tale had its second season i did thoroughly enjoy season one i like the whole idea of the sugar masters and the fairies and all that and basically being a food competition show at the first arc or so but for this second season after winning the title of sugar master and helford faces uh shouts sudden departure so she begins her next journey as she is determined to have him back by her side again that leads into revelations of other fairies that are connected to the lore and history of this world she arrives at this mansion where she is going to bake make these confections for i believe this was the local church and then some shenanigans happened some adversities so lots of drama and goodness and romance happened in this uh season really well done by jaycee staff i think this is one of their finest efforts so far i really enjoyed it and it's a lot beefier the the material here is a lot better than in season one there's a lot more at stake the drama is intensified and the payoff i thought was well worth it so if you enjoyed season one do give season two a shot i think you'll like it even more also one of my favorite anime this season the masterful cat is depressed again today we're following the character of saku she took in a stray black cat and she is a funny wholesome girl a hard worker and she did not expect in a lifetime that her cat would grow literally in size and essentially be the housekeeper of their apartment yukichi the black cat he is think of it like either a mix of yokai and clifford the big red dog that's sort of dynamic don't ask questions why this cat is enormous and he's able to understand human speech and do things like cook and clean and and all that stuff just go with it and enjoy this fantasy comedy series i say fantasy because of that element it's not really a fantasy show but you catch my drift this was done by gohans again and i think this is even better than the girl who forgot her glasses this was really well done and the usage of their fisheye 3d movement lens thing was really well done brilliantly placed here with the cat's movements and all that stuff i really enjoyed watching this this was my friday's stress reliever i loved the interactions between saku and yukichi i it was super cute and wholesome and very heartwarming when you find out the story of how she ended up taking this black cat and how he grew up with her and how now that he's had a home he views her or humans differently it's very heartwarming if you're a pet owner if you like pets it's gonna tug at your heartstrings will also make you laugh at the absurdity and yes absolutely if i had a cat that could do that and was big enough to cook and and help around the house and all that stuff that would be amazing so wish fulfillment anime i don't mind i welcome it so definitely check out the masterful cat is depressed again today i think it's solid yukichi's reactions to everything that saku does is hilarious and he's definitely the backbone heart of this series the gene of ai the future is here and a new species lives among people humanoids similar to man these robotic beings are highly sentient and suffer from unique ailments thankfully dr hikaru sudo can help he vows to treat the humanoids even by illegal means causing him to lead a double life but when a strange disease emerge as a result of his coexistence ethical lines become blurred story wise i do think this is one of the best shows i genuinely had a good time watching this it's not going to win any awards and it's sort of the huge dark horse of the year and an underdog for the anime season but yeah i i enjoyed it i thought this was very unique i love that it's a fictional work in the near future i think that's what it was labeled where you have every episode different cases and it's sort of played out like many episodic stage plays of the ailments that these humanoids suffer so you get like 15 minutes per story or in this case two stories per episode i should add where you have cases of humanoids becoming erratic or behaving in abnormal ways around the people that care for them or they might have a life together with humans stuff like that and hikaru's process to treating them and finding a cure it doesn't necessarily always works so it leaves you on a sour note or a cliffhanger that doesn't need a resolution it's more about the experience and what you thought of it and not necessarily bringing us a definitive ending point for that plot so i liked that aspect of gene of AI i thought this was a greatly written show wonderful dialogue and it doesn't balk you down with the specifics of the world building with the technology and how the humanoids are supposed to work you don't really need to fully grasp that you can enjoy the series for what it is presenting very human problems in the near future and trying to find some solution and understanding life when all these new elements are present so if that piques your interest i think you're gonna have a fun time with the gene of AI definitely check that out i don't think it's gonna get the love it deserves so if this video can help it out in some shape or form i'm more than happy to continue recommending this series bleach thousand year blood war the separation this is the second part of the thousand year blood war adaptation the last part of the bleach manga and i gotta say i liked the first part i thought it was great having everybody back studio pero obviously evolved immensely the art is amazing but in this second part out of the 12 episodes or 13 i think i don't know it was mostly i would say 90 percent fights of the week with the different characters and the soul reaper captains and lieutenants against the quincy's so every episode was a different captain taking on a different quincy you see their abilities the soul reaper has an amazing technique that we've never seen before he fights off the quincy the quincy reveals that he has a secret technique that we've never seen before the trade blows back and forth and there's a winner and a loser by the end of it and then the next episode we do that with another set of characters so that's 90 of this season which is great if you're a fan of these characters but i kind of wanted more also the biggest part are the final three or four episodes when the bad guys take the fight to the royal palace with squad zero that's definitely the highlight of the entire set of episodes and by the end of it it's a very underwhelming season finale obviously we're gearing up for the next batch of episodes and the final confrontations and all that epic stuff that happens towards the end but this middle portion here was just all right nothing too crazy in my opinion it was cool to see the characters back but it was just okay for some strange reason i decided to watch one other isekai and that was am i actually the strongest after being a shut-in haruto is reincarnated as a baby and amazingly the baby is a prince however he's abandoned in a forest on the day he's born because of his low magical level what will be the fate of haruto who has inadvertently given 1000 times the normal amount of magic by the goddess of reincarnation without anyone noticing that sounds like a fun little weird premise and it's all right i do like the fact that he starts out as a baby and he has spared spoilers and one of the locals picks him up and raises him and you see his development as a young kid but it doesn't go the mushiko tensei route which we're gonna talk about later this is a much more wholesome meets ecchi tropes if you will so as haruto grows older he is protecting his family but then he finds out that the royals uh don't necessarily know that he survived but if they did find out it could spell doom and disaster for his family so he's going to protect them uh the queen is a little bit cuckoo so he's wary of that and he makes up this uh code geos uh lelouch type persona to act sort of like a vigilante to fight across the kingdom it's it's all right it's very middle of the road for me i was not thoroughly enjoying it but again i don't know i'm a masochist i guess and i wanted to keep going so that i could keep that 20 anime mark for the season i thought it was all right it got sillier as it went on and i was less interested than i was at the beginning if that's an indication for my excitement of the series we also had the second season of eden zero the conclusion all i believe it was 25 episodes or 26 episodes the first one dealt with drachen and then the second one you saw some really major developments with ziggy who is now back and meaner and hates all humans and wants to do a revolt and uh bring about robot supremacy across the cosmos obviously shiki is upset because that's his grandpa and it goes into some interesting plot elements of discrimination and classism which i was not expecting from a hitomashima creation but that's really cool i really enjoy the characters i'm still a fan of rebecca i love the fact that she is essentially a futuristic youtuber and she doesn't have a lot of views but she's trying which i can relate so i will forever like that character for that specific reason but yeah overall better than the first season if you enjoyed the first set of episodes you're gonna love this and the plot developments toward the end hint at the next stuff which looks amazing and i don't want to spoil myself i'm i'm gonna wait for season three or i'm gonna pick up the manga and continue reading from here but i'm really excited to see what's happening because yeah stuff is about to go down with the aoi cosmic war so yeah mushiko tense jobless reincarnation is finally back for the second season i did not know where the story was headed i haven't read the light novels i've not checked out the manga i am strictly experiencing this story through the anime i made that choice when i watched season one which i really enjoyed uh rudius is a flawed character so i was very surprised to see people shocked at some of the content and decisions that he made when that's kind of the whole point of the series right of his second journey and fixing some of those flaws and and facing some of those issues and mental issues and all that stuff so i i mean yeah it's some of the content is a little deplorable but it's within reason of his character and the world that he's around right does that make sense i thought it was okay i liked the season as it went along and ended up really enjoying the finale rudius has a problem downstairs so essentially the whole season is trying to cure some ed that he's suffering because of the heartache that happened at the end of season one which i won't spoil just in case but it made for some interesting interactions with characters we finally have a reunion from rudius and one of his childhood friends from the first season in that being the elf sylphie which i was really excited for because i like the character of sylphie a lot and the path that they go on is interesting i hope it's six please don't spoil it for me in the comment section but i'm excited for the possibilities and can't wait for uh the second part i guess uh season two which should be in spring of next year that's gonna be a long wait and obviously the art i have to speak about it for a bit because studio bind they were created for the sole purpose of adapting all of bushiko tense obviously they're gonna work on other shows right because it's a brand new studio they are doing amazing things the art on bushiko tense is clean beautiful to look at everything's just top notch and this is a studio to look out for whenever they do other uh anime so definitely give it a watch i do think you'll like it just be mindful that the story goes places it's not black and white there is a very grayish middle line that the characters cross and it makes for some interesting discussions just be wary of that next up is dark gathering after a devastating encounter where the rest of spirit ghost-fearing psychic keitaro becomes a shut-in to avoid additional spectral catastrophes but no man is a haunted island and keitaro eventually reintegrates with society by getting a part-time job as a tutor to the child prodigy yaoi hozuki yaoi isn't just an academic genius though she's a talented psychic medium hellbent on finding the malevolent spirit behind her mother's disappearance and she's gravely determined to drag keitaro into her terrifying world of grotesque supernatural phenomenon i was really excited for dark gathering i think this is a solid looking show i like the manga and i think olm did a commendable job of bringing it to life i love the voice acting on this one and the supernatural stuff is really freaky and eerie even though it looks cartoonish it does tug at your spine and some of the images on that show they're pretty frightening i gotta say sometimes i even i felt a little bit spooked when i finished an episode of course i was watching it the middle of the night but you know that's how you gotta watch a horror themed anime right i thought the relationship that forms between keitaro and yaoi is great super nice cute and wholesome the fact that keitaro even though he's scared of what he's doing he knows that at the end of the day he has to step up because he is taking care as a tutor for this young girl and they push forward and they're capturing these spirits so that she can eventually find the bigger one that took her mom so that's pretty exciting and gives us an end goal for the plot so yeah really excited to keep checking out dark gathering the second part of the season is currently airing so yeah i'm excited hopefully it ends on a high note season one now before we go into the final show that i watched for the summer season unfortunately we've come to the part of the video where we have to celebrate the shows that i personally canceled and dropped so rest in peace anime you were not that great but you tried the final anime that we're going to talk about is zom 100 bucket list of the dead i really like the premise for this it's unconventional you are deconstructing the zombie genre by adding a new flavor a new twist to it instead of just a straight up survival story in a zombie apocalypse it's more about fulfilling your desires crossing those bucket list items and finding a life worth living and not being bogged down by all the negativity and all the bad stuff that has happened in your life and not letting that define who you are as a person that is the core theme here for zom 100 it just so happens to take place in the middle of a freaking zombie apocalypse so yeah i love me some zombies i am a huge fan of that genre uh one of my favorites when it comes to horror and i think zom 100 is very cool and inventive when it does its thing with the zombies uh this is done by bug films a brand new studio adapting the manga i think they've done a phenomenal job the first couple of episodes are near movie quality as far as i'm concerned unfortunately this new studio is having a bit of a hassle uh some technical issues and as of me making this video the show the first season did not end we still have three more episodes to go and we don't have actual release dates for those episodes so i don't know when it's gonna end it could be tomorrow could be a week from now who knows we'll see but i do think they do a good job of bringing the manga to life it's pretty spot on to the original pages i do prefer the original art but overall just a nice adaptation of a cool zombie apocalypse manga definitely check out zom 100 if you're in the mood for something a little bit different and you don't mind the grotesque images when it comes to the creature horror stuff so yeah definitely give zom 100 a shot so that's it another summer season down what's next fall oh that should be fine oh lord have mercy well looks like i got my work cut out for me gonna be an intense three months so we'll be back for that whenever we do the fall season 2023 look forward to that soon on the channel what did you think of the summer anime season if you watched any of these shows let me know in the comment section down below thank you once again for liking subscribing and being a part of the manga geek dem here on youtube truly do appreciate it god bless stay safe out there i will catch all of you on our next episode