April Update 2026

Bull City Big Cubes NC 2026

That’s kind of a long name for a comp now that I’m writing it out.

I’m going up to Durham this weekend to compete and I’m not prepared like at all for it. I’ve been meaning to grind 6x6 all month, but it’s really only been about the past week that I’ve done any meaningful practice. I want to be able to qualify for NAC in 6x6 and 7x7 and I figure with 7x7 there’s at least a larger chance that I’ll luck into a sub 3:20 mean because I have a sub 3:20 single, so I know I could do it if I got lucky. But with 6x6 I’ve never gotten close to a sub-2 single. I’ve practiced a little bit of 3x3, but everything else I’m kinda winging it. Hopefully 6x6 and 3x3 practice extends to other stuff.

I’m hoping for at least 1 PB to keep my streak going, but if I don’t get it then that’s my fault. Maybe I can squeeze out a slightly faster 3x3 single or average. I broke my main 3x3 about a month ago and haven’t gotten totally used to my new main. I was using a Dayan Guhong Pro, but now I’m using a Pro+ I think? It’s got some minor upgrades and more magnets, but I didn’t mean to buy it originally. I meant to get 2 of the same cube I had so that way I could immediately fix my old one and have a backup in case. I dropped and broke the core one night. Hopefully I do well.

New Animes

Last month I talked about finishing up Attack On Titan (amazing story).

This month I started 2 new animes with my friend Hunter. We started watching Daemons of the Shadow Realm and Akane-Banashi.

DOTSR is cool because it’s by the same author of Full Metal Alchemist which I loved. It’s a little tropey right now, but not too bad. I haven’t watched the latest 2 or 3 episodes, but the first 2 did have me interested enough to want to keep watching. Spoilers for the first episode: These twins are born and they’re super important to fulfill the prophecy or whatever, and they grow up in this small village in what seems like hundreds of years ago. But then they’re attacked one day and we come to find out that the girl twin isn’t actually in the village and she’s been off in the modern world (they’re actually in modern times, but the village has ways of hiding from the rest of the world). Then the boy twin is given these 2 demons who protect the village and he’s got to figure out what’s going on. That’s kind of a bad explanation, but it’s decent, go give it a watch.

Akane-Banashi is super interesting, and not something I would’ve thought they’d make an anime about. It’s about this girl whose father is a Rakugo artist (similar to a stand up comic in America). Spoilers for the first episode: She loves watching his shows, and he’s been working hard to become a master in it. He does really well at this one show which is basically his exam, and everyone loves it, but the head of the school/training program he’s attending expels him and the rest of his class for mostly no reason (he mentioned how bad he thought the show was, but everyone in the audience seemed to love it). His daughter (the main character) then decides to become a Rakugo artist and “avenge” her father. Apparently the manga for it is like 300 chapters long, which is kinda crazy. If it had ended with him becoming a master Rakugo artist, I think it could’ve been a standalone movie. We’ll see how it is as it keeps going.

One Piece

Spoilers For Up To Chapter 1181

Elbaf keeps getting crazier and crazier. The Imu reveal was so insane to read live. I know there have been other signs of the series coming to an end, but this is like for real a huge sign that we are absolutely in the final saga, and I don’t think it’s gonna slow down at all.

I’m not gonna say we won’t make a detour or anything, because we could go back to Impel Down or we go to Whitebeard’s hometown of Sphynx (fingers crossed). But realistically, the number of places we could go is dwindling. It all depends on how we leave Elbaf. People are saying this seems like a Sabaody 2.0, which I kind of agree with. We haven’t seen Luffy go fully against Imu yet, so maybe there’s something specific to his fruit that would work way better against him than, but if not then I think we do “lose” Elbaf. I just really hope Usopp doesn’t die. I don’t want anyone in the crew to die, but I worry for him the most and Sanji 2nd most.

I feel like a full Joy Boy reveal might not be too far off. Whether or not that’s in a Void Century flashback I’m not sure. Absolutely wonderful time to be reading this great story.

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!