Interiors Review

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It’s time for one of those dreary films where all of the characters are unlikable so there isn’t anyone to really root for. This film was really doomed on arrival as a result because I can’t really see any way that it could have turned out to be good in the longrun. There are definitely ways that it could have been a little better than the end product but not too many ways where it could have landed in the green. You at least need some humor or positive story beats other than the drama. This one didn’t really have any of that and your only chance of enjoying it is either ironically or if you also think that people are super annoying so the film wins back the realism points that it loses very quickly otherwise.

The film introduces us to Arthur and Eve who have had a very rocky marriage for a long time. Eve appears to have gone completely crazy and Arthur seems to want a fresh start. Well, it turns out that they are getting a divorce so now it is time for the three sisters to see how they can handle the situation. I can tell you that it won’t be easy because none of them are really having satisfying lives of their own either. The situation only seems to grow worse and worse so without even the possibility of a happy ending here, what can be done?

First off even though this is about the 3 daughters, the youngest one doesn’t get much of a role. It takes a long while for Flyn to even show up into the main story and nothing goes right for her there as well. She is attacked in her van by Frederick, one of the drunk villains who had a lot of red flags from the start. Aside from this being a needless scene that hurried to keep dragging the film lower and lower, it doesn’t make sense that nothing ever came of this. While the characters are all in toxic situations and seem so worldly that they may let such an attack go, the film ought to have at least addressed it.

Flyn never really gets any wins in the film and ultimately it seems like her decision to be far away from the others was probably for the best. In general if she had not come home, that would have ended up working out way better for her. There’s nothing much more to say about Frederick since being a villain is really his only role. He likes to insult everyone constantly without taking any responsibility for his own actions. He just keeps on getting more and more drunk as the film goes on and you wonder what Renata ever saw in him.

Renata is the oldest of the 3 daughters and constantly fight with her younger sister Joey. There’s always been a one sided competition here as their father only ever wants Joey’s opinion and Renata can never really seem to match her. No matter how much success Renata gets, it is ultimately used against her. Now she is in a toxic marriage of her own and so things are not looking any better. Her way of coping with these constant issues is to essentially encourage her mother in the delusions that the parents may get back together again. Not a good idea but in general no response would be very helpful there.

Joey gets the biggest role out of all the characters but does end up being one of the most annoying characters as a result. She has done her best to get close to her mother over the years but all of the attempts have been futile. She is stabbed in the back every single time so her problem is essentially the flip side of Renata’s. Clearly everybody is just in a tough situation here.

Joey’s problems are largely self inflicted though. She tends to get bored of all her jobs and so she jumps around a whole lot. Joey seems to have a lot of confidence issues and also doesn’t want to start a family with her boyfriend so that starts up a lot of fights as well. Joey just allows her mother to call the shots at all times even when it means wasting a whole lot of money. She then takes her frustrations out on the new step mom. There’s just nothing likable about Joey. You understand her actions during the story and see why she is upset but Joey always manages to handle these situations in the worst possible way.

Mike tries to be the most reasonable one around. He isn’t a pushover like Joey and the others but at the same time he does want their relationship to last so he does his best to make her happy. He just can’t seem to do enough as she always has a bunch of complaints around. I don’t see how they can possibly be happy long term but he’s trying so I have to give him some credit there. It’s definitely not an easy circumstance.

As for Eve, well I’m afraid she loses the sympathy points rather early on. She is going through a lot and that is sad but she just never stops complaining. You can see where Joey gets it from. Eve is never happy and will always find the negative in a situation. She’s the kind of character where if you helped her out 99 times but couldn’t do so once, she would always bring up that one time. She’s the kind of person you would generally try to avoid or at least make sure you weren’t in the same social circles with. So it’s no wonder that Arthur wanted to get away from her, although he is far from blameless. Ultimately Eve makes the wrong decisions all the way to the end.

As for Arthur, well the guy got tired of Eve and decided to split up. That’s always going to be the wrong decision there. I can only defend that if there is serious abuse going on, whether physical or verbal. Then to compound the issue he immediately gets married to his rebound pick and brings her over to show off. It all makes him look quite selfish. If he was going to rebound then at the very least he needs to be more discreet about it. I’m afraid the time to show her off to the family may never come but he has to accept that. For what it’s worth, she seemed fine. A lot of red flags with how Arthur would be her third husband but that’s his business.

It’s not as though the relationship seemed any weaker than the others. All of the romances in the film were quite dreadful. Meanwhile the writing is pretty bad as the characters talk a lot but don’t have a great deal to say. The whole film is just so jaded like this is how you imagine people are talking behind closed doors. There are probably some who are like this but they would be far from the majority. The film was also way too determined to be a sad drama the whole time. I get not wanting to have some humor but just a few jokes could have gone a long way.

For any film the main goal is going to be to entertain the audience. You’re not going to be entertained with this one and the pacing is much too slow. It’s also hard to feel bad for anyone because it’s hard to imagine being friends with any of the characters in this film. They would all be talking behind your back constantly and slipping insults into every sentence. The film’s ending doesn’t help matters either as it is an extremely weak one. The film just fumbled everything from start to finish. One little thing the film could have done at least as a fun little easter egg would be to have mentioned there were 4 sisters but the 4th one decided not to show up. I could have at least written a paragraph about how that was the smartest character in the movie.

Overall, Interiors is a film that I would definitely avoid. It’s much too dreary and the characters are so bad. Usually they’d just be bad in a super unlikable way but then you have Frederick who becomes an actual villain and this is never addressed. He should have been in prison by the end at the very least. There were simply no chances to enjoy the film as every moment that would even hint at being light hearted was immediately slammed down. A movie just can’t survive on those kinds of negative vibes. The characters are all written to be as unlikable as possible and that’s already a hard enough issue to get past without all of the other problems.

Overall 1/10

Ball X Pit Review

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I’m a really big fan of roguelike games at this point. As long as there is some way to get stronger while you are playing then I am definitely game. So by all accounts this one would be up my alley. To an extent that is the case and I had a good time but it does feel like the game made a few key missteps. One of them is adding in a gardening/town building mechanic. Lets keep that stuff in Animal Crossing! As far as this game is concerned, I just wanted to dive into the action.

This is essentially an endless runner in terms of gameplay except there is an ending so that’s not quite right. Basically you start off with your baseball that you shoot at enemies automatically. It will bounce off of the enemy based on the angle and then go back to you. You will want to catch the Baseball and then send it right back at the enemies. This will save you a few seconds per throw. As you progress into the level you will get level ups and new powers. They all reset once you lose or complete the level but you keep some permanent stat boosts through the XP that you got at the very end. Each level is around 10-15 minutes in length.

I got to play this game thanks to the Nintendo Game Trial which is a super cool feature. It’s not something they do super often but it’s always great to see and makes a real difference if you are unsure about a game. Or in my case, if it’s something where you can play the game enough to do a review without having to buy it. This game makes sense for a trial since it is virtually endless but without a story there wasn’t a reason for me to keep going. I made sure to eventually beat level 1 after about 15-16 tries and then I was satisfied.

Once you beat a level, you cannot move to the next one until you beat it with a second character which means a lot of rinse and repeat there. Based on the icons for the next levels this would grow each time. So soon you would have to beat the level with 4 characters for example. It’s an interesting mechanic that forces you to try everyone out. It’s the first time I’ve seen such a mechanic be mandatory though.

Let me not make it sound like I’ve played a ton of these though. I’ve played Vampire Survivor and a Justice League mobile game which had the same concept. Both of those were vastly superior to this game though. The movesets were more fun and the games had a lot more variety. It feels like the budget was a bit lower on this one and so the repetition becomes more obvious. It still takes a lot of strategy and memorization though so this game isn’t for the faint of heart.

Yes, you have permanent power ups so eventually you will win without a doubt. That’s the appeal of the genre but how quickly you progress is really up to you and your talents within the game. You’ll gradually see which power ups are worth obtaining and which ones aren’t. There are a lot of different weapon and ability combinations as well and I imagine those you will have to learn through classic trial and error.

So why don’t I like the building aspect? Well for starters it is throwing another grind on top of the main game’s which is already considerable. You have to find logs and stones in order to make houses which allow you to unlock new characters. You then have to play a pinball minigame to break the houses and can only play it once per run. It all just feels like a distraction from the main game. For this genre the most enjoyable part is just getting into the action. The building parts feel a whole lot clunkier.

If you’re going to do it, there shouldn’t be a pinball game. Just let me make the houses and watch them grow over time. That would be so much more satisfying and would just make for a better form of side content in the long run. The main gameplay is pretty fun as it is and the title could stand up with that alone. I would remove the need to beat every stage with every character though. I feel like the game should just put some good rewards to make you want to do that without forcing you into it. Then down the road I would do it and the game wouldn’t feel as repetitive.

The graphics are fairly decent. Nothing as good as the cover art/promotional images for the game which are incredible. Still good though, you won’t lose yourself in all of the explosions or anything like that. The developers clearly have a flair for the dramatic which works well for this kind of title. The soundtrack is more on the forgettable side though, nothing like Hades. I feel like more Indie games should invest in having a great soundtrack or some customizable music options. It would really help to support the gameplay quite well.

Of course you can’t knock this one for a lack of replay value. The stages being at 10-15 minutes long in length is great for replaying. You will be going through them a lot after all so having the levels be 20+ minutes or anything like that would have been a mistake. This feels like the right amount of time and it’s also clear that the game has hundreds of hours of content in it. If you want to beat everything then it is going to take you an extremely long time to get there. This game gives you a lot of bang for your buck.

Overall, I feel like this game is entering a heated market right now with the genre being so popular. It is unfortunately not going to be up to the task of conquering its rivals but I do think this is a fun game. It is a title that I would play a lot more if it was free. If it had a real story, I dare say that I would have purchased it on the spot. Alas that wasn’t meant to be. I would definitely recommend picking it up if you are looking for a fun game to play on the side though. It is the perfect palette cleanser.

Overall 6/10

Dragonite and the Special Delivery Review

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It’s time for a fun little Pokemon short. They’ve made a decent amount of these so it’s always fun to see another one come out. Dragonite was always a well known Pokemon for being one of the first ever pseudo legendaries. I would even say that in the present day he still lives up to the hype. This special doesn’t have him fighting or anything but is a fun enough adventure.

The short begins by introducing us to a mail system where Dragonite delivers mail around the world. He can deliver throughout any kind of weather situations and at great speeds so he is the perfect Pokemon for the job. A girl named Hana would like to be out there making deliveries along with him but she was hired as a cadet and has to go through some training first. She finds this training to be absolutely boring but can’t convince her supervisor to make an exception and let her get out there early. It’s all quite depressing but when a letter gets rejected for not having an address listed, Hana realizes that she has a chance to stand out. This is her moment and nobody will be able to keep this from her!

So we see Hana searching the town for a while and eventually she does stumble upon the sender and his sad story. Ultimately Hana realizes that she doesn’t have the power to save the day on her own and needs Dragonite. So it makes for a pretty wholesome story that doesn’t need a bunch of twists and turns. Hana does what she needs to do and we get the happy ending. I do feel like the dilemma was a little forced in a Pokemon world though.

Basically there is a kid who wanted to send a card to his father but didn’t tell his mother ahead of time and so he messed up. That whole thing could have been avoided with a proper address. Additionally though, how come the father can’t travel over there? We have many Pokemon who can learn teleport, others which have hypersonic speeds, etc. This guy also seems to be a big shot in the world of science so it’s not like he would be without the resources to do so. It may be a bit beyond the scope of what the special was all about but I had to think about these things during the adventure. Either way the adventure is fun though.

Hana isn’t the most likable protagonist with how impatient she is but you can tell that she is a nice kid overall. Hana learned a whole lot during this adventure so I don’t think she will take the mail duties for granted anymore. Now she knows that all of the duties are quite important. Meanwhile Dragonite was awesome as always.

On the technical elements, the special holds up. The animation is solid and the pacing is good on the whole. I wouldn’t say that there is a memorable soundtrack but this is a very short adventure so there is only so much you can do on that front. There are pros and cons to having such a short adventure. One pro is that the adventure isn’t likely to drag itself out or make many mistakes but a con is that there isn’t much of a chance to show off either. So this adventure isn’t one that will end up being very memorable but I can easily recommend it to anyone.

Overall, It’s always good to see more Pokemon adventures. Small scale stories like this one also help to flesh out the world and environment as a whole. You can see how day to day tasks like delivering the mail gets handled. A capable writer could easily take this concept and make a nice ongoing series about it. So I’d say to watch this with the mindset of it being a pilot episode and that adds a little fun to it. Regardless I would say to check this out whenever you’ve got about 10 minutes to spare. It’s also a good reminder for any kids watching to make sure your mail has an address on it because the mail office isn’t psychic.

Overall 6/10

Love Through a Prism Review

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It’s time for a classic Netflix romance anime. Romance is one of those genres that is incredibly difficult to master because there are so many ways it can go wrong. Did you make sure there were no rebounds? Did the characters get a lot of time to develop the relationship or did it rush straight to the end point? There are a lot of things to consider and ultimately this one wasn’t quite up to the job. The slice of life parts are entertaining enough so I can say this is a good show but the romances are all rather poor.

The show follows a girl named Lili who has always really loved painting. Her parents run a kimono shop though and she is expected to inherit this in due time. It’s not her passion though and so Lili gets her parents to allow her to travel to an art school in London. There is a catch though, Lili must become the number 1 painter within 6 months or she must return and take up the family business. Lili is rather talented so this usually shouldn’t be a problem, except she must surpass Kit who just so happens to be the greatest painter in the world. Why must this happen to her???

Poor Lili definitely had some real bad luck here. I do think that her parents were a bit harsh though. Specifically her mother since she is the one who is really calling all of the shots here though. I get that painting can often be a dead end career so you don’t want to see anyone get stuck there but at the same time 6 months is way too tight. Maybe they were thinking that she would totally bomb out and lose interest in this hobby.

Lili tries to keep an upbeat attitude at all times and is a fun main character. She also likes to talk about how athletic she is but unfortunately tends to crash at all physical activities. I couldn’t figure out if the show was having some fun with this by showing that she wasn’t as athletic as she thought or maybe riding a bike and climbing a castle are just too difficult for anyone. Lili’s biggest weakness though is in how much importance she puts in social obligations.

This gets to become a problem with the romance as the show goes on. It becomes clear that Lili is not going to be the one to make the decisive move and keeps on waiting for Kit to do something. Then later on she moves to the 2nd choice in Shin and is basically allowing herself to be pulled along into a situation that doesn’t excite her. Romance is not an area where you should ever be settling and yet it feels like that is what Lili does here. She’s not the only character to do this either and it tends to especially be an issue in titles that take place in the past like this one. You have to follow your heart, not some unwritten rules.

As for the painting, at least Lili is consistently able to perform near the top of her class there. It would be nice if she could stand up to the bullies more though. Naturally this wouldn’t be a school based show without a few of those and they do a number on Lili. She does not seem to really have a way to stop them and has to get saved each time. Lili had a hard time standing up for herself throughout the show and unfortunately never really grew out of that. She put up with way too much and that kept her from being a better character than what she was.

One of these bullies is a lady named Catherine who ironically became the better character. Catherine was Kit’s fiancé and so she was quite upset when he started taking a fancy to Lili. Catherine figured she could scare the lead off by being as mean as possible and in a way she was succeeding but only in half the battle. Kit didn’t actually like her and there was no real way to fix that. Over time Catherine stopped her petty attacks on Lili and they actually became friends. By the end Catherine was a fun character to have around and part of the reason for that is because she did have a backbone. She wasn’t the type to get bullied or anything like that.

It’s also tough to be in an arranged marriage where the partner wants nothing to do with you romantically. So Catherine was able to get out of that situation even though the social impact was fairly big. It’s what helps keep her as a really solid character. Lili could have definitely learned a few things from her in that area.

Lili’s other friend Dorothy is also more of the strong-willed kind of character. She is more willing to confront the bullies straight up and is always looking out for Lili. Dorothy does tend to falter in matters of the heart though like when she decides not to go after Joffrey because she feels like their social classes are too different. That’s not a very brave approach to have and settling for another guy is never the answer. By all accounts she still had a happy life and family but I can’t abide by the decision to go with a rebound. That’s never a good idea.

Then we have Peter who is probably the pettiest member of the main cast. He wants to be the best but doesn’t have the natural talent that Kit possesses. This causes him to have a whole episode where he blows up at the cast and blames them for everything instead of taking any accountability. That is definitely not the way to go. He does apologize by the end but never quite goes back to the level where he was at before. In the end not just anyone can handle the stress of fighting for the top spot in a competitive art school all the time. Peter was just another casualty there.

Joffrey tends to try and cut the tension by goofing off the whole time. He’s pretty talented but never tends to sniff the top spot either. He handles this in a healthy way though. Joffrey still studies hard and keeps on practicing but knows that it’s not the end of the world if he loses. He will just enjoy the adventures as they come and was one of the most well rounded characters in the series. He was always a lot of fun to watch even if he may have had a bit of a sadder ending than the other characters.

Then we have Shin who seemed to like Lili early on but seemed to realize that he had no chance as long as Kit was around. So Shin played the role of the good friend for a while until he saw an opening to get married. Unfortunately that is what hurts the character in my eyes. I never liked that kind of character. To me it makes the friendship feel fake because one party is taking advantage of the other. Lili enjoys hanging out with Shin and they have common roots over in Japan but she doesn’t realize that he is in love with her the whole time.

Shin is a nice character by all accounts so it’s not like he’s secretly a creep or a jerk though. He plans to be a great husband and also looks after his younger sister who lost the ability to speak for a while. He does all the right things but shouldn’t be satisfied as the #2 option. He should have been able to move on and then been content as her best friend. That would have been a considerably more satisfying climax to his character arc. Instead I’d argue that the whole climax just forces him to have to run around in a circle and fall back to 2nd once again.

Kit is the main guy of the show and so a big part of the adventure really rides on this guy. Romance aside, I’d say he is a decent character. That said, the romance scenes do hurt him a bit because the guy comes off as being incredibly selfish. He dashes off on his own more than once and almost never gives the characters a heads up. It feels like he only thinks of himself during a lot of these big moments. He may be the best artist out there but that hasn’t really helped his people skills.

He’s never really portrayed as being antagonistic but other people just don’t show up in his thinking process. He is concerned with being the best artist and that’s it. At least until he starts to get close with Lili but even then he tends to ditch her with no warning. It’s another reason why I couldn’t root for the romance. He does his best to watch her back but that’s not quite good enough to redeem him. I liked Kit better than Peter but he’s not one of my favorite characters in the show.

There were also a few side characters who were always around for a good scene or two. I liked the principal of the school, he did a good job of appraising all of the artwork. Art is certainly not my subject so I wouldn’t really be able to do that. After a while it all looks the same to me. He also runs a tight ship and it takes a whole lot to convince him to change his views on something once he has made a decision. Then we have Kit’s older brother Richard. Richard takes life very seriously and does his best to run the company after his father no longer can.

This leads to a lot of conflict with Kit who tends to be more absent minded and doesn’t like responsibility all that much. I was on Richard’s side for some things. He was obviously wrong about the arranged marriage part though. It was good that Catherine stood up to him on that one. Once Kit was ready to start taking the business seriously, then Richard did let up quite a lot. He just wanted to make sure that the company was in a good place which makes sense.

The soundtrack for the show is fairly light to keep in with the show’s tone. None of the themes are going to be all that memorable for you. Meanwhile the animation is decent but nothing special. I would say that the technical elements in general are passable but none of them are going to go down as strengths. The opening song is also okay but also not anything that is particularly strong.

The writing is stronger though since it is trying to mimic the old days with everyone talking very politely. I’m always a real sucker for that kind of thing. It holds up really well and is stuffy in the right ways without being annoying like Shakespeare. The show is also more of a drama than a comedy I’d say. It’s not a particularly funny show even though it does try to throw in some jokes and facial expressions every now and then. You’re not going to be laughing out loud or anything like that. The slice of life stuff and painting scenes are definitely stronger.

Although it does feel like the painting becomes less and less important as the show goes on. Later on in the show we find out about a big war that is about to happen which is part of what causes a lot of trouble for Kit and his family. It just feels so sudden that you feel like the show wasn’t really prepared for this. It was a good way to add more drama but I’d have preferred to end the story with a painting tournament or something. The way the painting plot ends just feels very abrupt. This is probably by design because nobody chooses when a war will take place but it felt like there was a lot of meat left on the bone there. The final episodes have multiple time skips as it is so things were really moving at a breakneck pace.

Ignoring those last episodes though, this one is really what you’d call a calming show. While there are bullies and such, there are no truly evil characters here. Nobody is getting seriously sick or injured either so the show is more about following Lili’s adventures and having fun along the way. You get to imagine what it would be like to live in London as you paint all of the fun sceneries. The show may not be a home run hit but it’s also why this title was never going to be downright bad. It’s a safe title that you could watch at any time and is just short enough at 20 episodes where it isn’t a big investment to watch it all.

Overall, Love Through a Prism is a good show. It’s definitely one of those very quiet ones though. Unless you are really interested in the characters it will run the risk of being a tad bit boring. So that’s one thing to keep in mind here but on the whole it avoids that. The characters are fun and while the romance doesn’t really land, the slice of life parts are good enough. There isn’t a ton of replay value here but the show delivers on what you are expecting in this adventure.

Overall 6/10

Rayearth Review

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It’s time for another journey into the world of Rayearth! It’s a really chaotic adventure this time as they have to squeeze in a whole lot through only 3 episodes. The episodes are around double length but that’s still a tall order. While it’s certainly not as good as the full length TV shows, I thought this was pretty fun. It’s a very different take on the series and one that really isn’t bad. Sort of like watching an abridged version with everything compressed as much as possible. I’d like to have more alternate universe adventures like this.

Rayearth starts with a mysterious fairy appearing on Earth. It heralds the beginning of the end as a bunch of space invaders show up. They want to destroy everyone on Earth in some crazy attempt to save their home world of Cephiro. Only three girls can stop them, Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu. They have the qualifications to become defenders of humanity by enacting a pact with 3 legendary deities. This will be very risky though as they are still outnumbered and have no real way to practice for this fight. They will have to learn on the job and their only ally is Master Mage Clef, a man of unbelievable power in theory but never in reality.

Right away you can tell that the vibe is a whole lot different than the TV show. It’s less fantastical and more dread filled. You never know when the next casualty is going to arrive and quite a few people are wiped out. I know by the end of the OVA they make sure to mention that there were surprisingly few casualties but it doesn’t feel like that in the intro. Additionally there was a lot of destruction across the whole city so repairing it all will take a while. The members of Cephiro may not all be evil but they are definitely willing to wipe out all of the humans so you’re not going to be coexisting with them.

There is also much less time for Hikaru and her friends to try talking of peace with them. The only option is to go on the offensive right away. Hikaru is really the leader of the group like always and does well. She is the first hero to enter the fight and while she ultimately isn’t able to take too many Ws before being taken down, the bravery is what counts here. She wasn’t going to back down without a fight and her confidence never wavers.

There isn’t a whole lot of time to delve into her character but that was always going to be the case with how short this title is. Hikaru’s a very direct person so you get what the series is going for here. Meanwhile her friend Umi does really well. She won her fight with the greatest amount of ease not counting some resurrection shenanigans. While she was not brave enough to help Hikaru in the past, she made up for it in the present. She even had time to save Fuu from her opponent so Umi made the most of her screentime.

Fuu looked like the weakest as always but to balance that, the OVA made her the strongest of heart. She’s not the most outgoing kind of person but still got up the courage to reach out to Hikaru back when she was ostracized at school. She also still fights to the end like the other two. Ultimately all of the characters were pretty solid there. The most annoying hero would probably be Master Mage Clef because the guy just seems a little too helpless. I would have liked him to have actually fought back at least one of the villains. He spends most of his time giving up or telling the girls to run.

The villains tend to suffer a bit more from how fast paced everything is though. Initially you have some of the villains talking about how they love tormenting weaker opponents and all that but later on it seems like a bunch of this is dumped as just being due to their queen’s dark influence. I’m definitely more than a little skeptical of this. I just wouldn’t have done the redemption arc for Fario here, let him stay on the side of the villains.

Eagle was a really big villain here even if Lantis could have taken him out at any point. Letting him hang around definitely backfired with how close he came to destroying everything. It was fun to see him as a true threat though. As a hero he was a really difficult mastermind to deal with so it makes sense that as a villain he would be just as dangerous. Then Lantis works well as a guardian type figure who is ready to help. You do feel like he probably could and should have helped out sooner though. Aside from not taking out Eale, he had the speed and teleportation needed to take down any of the other villains.

I think he probably just couldn’t force himself to hurt these former friends but you have to take big steps when they are this far gone. Lantis still gets the MVP throughout the OVA for being the reason that the heroes won though. Without him, the heroines would not have had a chance. His sword was critical and he was the only one able to fight off the evil spirits. The deck was really stacked on the side of the villains before and Lantis was the only one who was able to start balancing those scales.

Emeraude ends up looking rather mindless for most of this series though. She can’t stop singing but is also trapped within her own mind. She was not able to handle the present situation and so that’s why she retreated. It’s all a really bad look for her. By the very end of this saga she has finally woken up but man did it take her a long while. I don’t think it would be possible to forgive her by that point. Of course there is no tie to go into the pillar system in this version but it would definitely be another strike against it.

The animation is definitely pretty good here. I wouldn’t say that it is flat out better than the main TV series per say but it does have a very theatrical feeling to it. I like the way that the colors look and of course taking place in a big city is a big win. It gives the fights more weight to them and that sense of danger is always all the way up. The colors and attacks are all striking while still giving you that ominous feeling that the villains could be around any corner. The soundtrack is less memorable though as it is a big step below the show. It can sound rather dramatic but a lot of the music tends to sound more like public domain themes than anything really striking. Still, it’s enough to keep you on the edge of your seat here.

The way the deity fusions work feels like it was changed to add in a bit of fanservice for no real reason. It’s nothing crazy though and only stands out because of how different the transformed forms are. In terms of violence, there definitely tends to be a bit more blood with how the magical girls feel every injury from their deity form. Alcyone also ends up getting the worst end from the characters but none of it is all that bad. It’s just enough to keep up the serious atmosphere of the heroes being in trouble without going too far in any direction.

A final complement I have to give to the OVA is how it throws you into the action without overly explaining a lot of things. You’re really left to your own devices to figure out what’s going on and that’s a good thing. They don’t make a whole lot of these nowadays. The quick story beats you get within the episode just have to be enough and I’d say that they are. You can reason out the rest and then just follow the adventure. It feels a little more like a mystery box this way.

Think of it like you’re one of the main characters. You don’t really need to know the whole story, just enough so that you can fight off the invaders. The primary concern here is about protecting Earth and so it would be nice if Master Mage Clef would at least be able to share some weaknesses with you. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen but I suppose in this case the villains maybe didn’t have many real weaknesses. Mix that in with having the strongest Deities around and it’s no surprise that they have had so much success up to this point.


Overall, This was a fun watch. It’s nothing that’ll change your life but I would recommend giving it a whirl. I’d even think of it more like a quick anime movie than a full on OVA since the 3 episodes combined would roughly get you to that point in terms of length. Everything moves very quickly here so you don’t need a whole lot of context here. There will be a lot of unanswered questions but that can be left for a sequel someday…maybe. This works as a stand alone and the heroines could essentially be called Magic Knights with how they mix spells and physical abilities. The ending is a bit rushed but it’s a worthy price for having a lot of nonstop action scenes.

Overall 7/10

Mosaic Review

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It’s time for another old school superhero film. Although in a way it may be more apt to call this one a mystery thriller that would have led into a superhero sequel. There isn’t quite as much action as in the Condor but you do have a whole lot of characters running around and setting up plots for the future. There is a good amount of world building in here and it would have been nice to see what kind of expanded universe we might have had. I guess that’ll have to be something that you can only dream about for now though.

The film starts by introducing us to Maggie who is finally achieving her dream of being a big actress. Her father is skeptical of the career though and wants her to keep studying in school so she can get a real job. Unfortunately his career as an interpol agent is quite dangerous and he is defeated by a mysterious shapeshifting alien. Maggie is also inadvertently blasted with the powers of the chameleon during a thunderstorm so now she can turn invisible and shapeshift.

A crisis rarely comes when you expect it and so now she will have to do her best to master these powers and stop the alien threat. She meets a guy named Mosaic who will help her out but he has the same powers and may not be trustworthy. Maggie will end up learning the truth behind these “aliens” and these truths threaten to change the course of human history itself.

Like I said, there’s a lot of world building here. We learn a whole lot about these chameleon creatures and all of the events that lead up to the present. We also get a quick reference to the Condor and other heroes running around. It’s a big world that just got a whole lot bigger but there isn’t a whole lot of time to get into that.

The main adventure is really about Maggie getting used to her powers and making sure that these villains can’t target her father again. Her abilities are really handy all around. Who wouldn’t want to be able to shape shift or turn invisible right? This gives her a big advantage over the average crook even if it doesn’t help as much in this one since everybody has the same abilities. Hers are slightly heightened in that she can tell when someone else is a shapeshifter as well though.

Maggie is a nice character and an easy main character to root for. She knows when it is time to take action into her hands and throw caution to the winds. Sometimes you have to do that in order to save the day and plunge ahead. The government actually seems to mean well in this story so far but it would take way too long to explain everything to them so I completely understand why Maggie had to plunge on ahead without worrying about any of that. Getting out of the Interpol chief’s car and making a break for it was the right move. The film also explained how she went out of her way to learn a lot of fighting styles so it makes sense why she is able to get into the action so easily.

Meanwhile her best friend Stephan is secretly in love with her. The problem is that the poor guy can’t bring himself to tell her this and so he always lags behind and allows himself to be in the friend zone. He either needs to say something or just be honored to be her friend. The secret crush always ends up making one party look bad because it’s sort of spoiling all of the friendship moments. Maggie really thinks that Stephan is her friend and so she is able to share her excitement at being cast in the shows and all without any reservations. If Stephan confesses and she doesn’t like him like that, well it’s going to get awkward.

I’d also argue that the film goes out of its way to show that she considers him as just a friend with how she acts around Mosaic. Mosaic is one of those very suave characters who seems to have a way with the ladies and is also an excellent agent on the side. That said, he is a lot weaker than you’d expect. You could say that most of his fight scenes weren’t really fair but honestly I could only give him so many excuses before I had to shake my head. He is just not star material.

There’s one scene where he gets effortlessly knocked down, then he gets up only to be combo’d back to the ground. Mosaic then gets up for a third time before they just hold him down. I appreciate the resilience but you have to have some kind of a plan. Not just getting up to be knocked down once again. I wasn’t super impressed with Mosaic as you can guess but they did have to move fast to get him out of the way. If the film was longer then he would have definitely had more hype scenes.

Meanwhile Maniken worked well as the main villain. He’s definitely got a real intimidating design all the way through. He is also strong and has a very specific plan so it’s not like he’s just trying to destroy the world. I was satisfied with having him as the big boss at least. Maggie’s father actually put up a decent struggle against him at first. He just made the classic mistake of forgetting that being invisible doesn’t mean you’re intangible in most cases. I feel like you should just start firing all around or throwing punches. Instead characters always freeze up while the invisible menace just walks over and finishes the job.

That’s why I’m giving a special shoutout to the cop at the very beginning of the film who actually kept his calm and fired the gun at Maniken. He was even able to get the magic gem away from him as a result. Usually the cops in these films miss every shot and never even get close so this was a real nice change of pace. The Interpol chief also looked good and was trying to be supportive. Down the road I could see her helping Maggie out but there will probably always be some tension since you never know when the gov will turn you in for testing.

The animation was solid enough. The character designs are good and the action is on point. I liked the invisibility effect and all in all the animation was very streamlined. There weren’t big chunks where you were wondering what happened to the budget or anything like that. The soundtrack is a bit more on the forgettable side. Nothing to write home about anyway.

Overall, This was a good film. I don’t think it will go down as being super memorable though. I didn’t have any specific issues but it is a little slow paced so on the rewatch that may hurt to an extent. The characters are always looking around because of how many people are actually alien shapeshifters. I enjoy that kind of tension but naturally it won’t hit as hard the second time around. The sequels would have been in a great place now that Maggie is confident in her powers though, maybe they will at least do a comic sequel to it someday. In the meanwhile I would recommend this one, it’s a fun watch.

Overall 6/10

Mercy Review

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Mercy is one of those films that has an amazing concept right out of the gate. People finally had enough of the crazy crime rates and so an A.I. was created to serve as judge, jury, and executioner. All criminals are presumed guilty unless proven of innocence. This is a film that feels like it could have been a Twilight Zone episode. I’ve also been playing a lot of Ace Attorney lately so this was really timely. Generally I tend to be on the side of the prosecution and this film is really no different. Can the main character actually prove his innocence?

The film starts off with Chris being strapped into his seat at the A.I. Mercy courtroom. He is accused of murdering his wife a few hours ago. The trial would have been even sooner but they had to wait for his alcohol levels to drop off. Things are not looking good for Chris, footage at the scene of the crime shows him having a fight with his wife and being the last one to leave her place. Their marriage was not in a good place and Chris was known to have severe anger issues. He was also an alcoholic. Judge Maddox seems to have an ironclad case against him. Can Chris stop panicking long enough to prove his innocence or is it curtains for him?

One thing I have to say right away is that Chris is super annoying the whole time. You really have a hard time rooting for him. The first 5-10 minutes are basically him trying to break out of the chair and yelling a lot. This just isn’t the time to panic like that and it gets worse when you find out that he is one of the main guys who pushed for the Mercy system. He even helped capture the first person to be put to death by the system. That means Chris should understand more about what’s going on than the average person and so I would also expect a certain amount of composure.

You don’t really get any of that here though. Then as we learn more about the case, we see that he really wasn’t a good guy. Now it is always important to separate the person from the crime. Just because you’re not a good person, that doesn’t mean that you are guilty. I think it is also why I tend to be more on the prosecution’s side though. They are always fighting for the guilty plea and the evidence is going to be on their side. The defense has to try and save their client even when they know that they are guilty. That’s always been much tougher for me to square in my head.

Neither side is ever always on the side of justice but I’d say that the prosecutors have a higher batting average. Additionally, Judge Maddox just does a terrific job. She calmly analyzes the facts and constantly makes sure that things are going the way that they should be. It’s a giant contrast to what is going on with Chris as he just panics and panics. He throws a whole lot of personal attacks her way while she doesn’t stoop to his level.

I will say that the film does go in a bit of a cheesy direction with her character though. I would have liked for her to have stayed far more decisive and calculating than how it actually went down. I don’t understand her getting so emotional within such a small time frame. I would have liked for her to have stayed fully neutral. Still helpful depending on the circumstances but never giving you the vibe that she was on someone’s side. she was still the best character in the film though.

As for Chris, well you’ll just have to see if he is guilty or not. One thing we can say for sure though is that he messes up a lot. We find out how he was trying to drink in secret without his wife knowing and then he went totally crazy when she found out. He tried fighting off a whole group of police officers which was a terrible look for him. At one point he even pretended to give up, only to grab a chair and start swinging at them. That’s a really underhanded move even in the best of times but for here it’s another demerit against him.

You are meant to feel sympathetic for Chris by the end but I can’t say that I ever really got to that point. The film just went a little too far in making him as unlikable as possible. Of course this still doesn’t excuse the subplot where his wife is fooling around with someone else. You get a divorce first and then you can hit the market again. Doing that while married is just as bad and so the supporting characters quickly get annoying here. The rebound guy is real smug and likes to hear himself talk but you don’t want to really hear what he has to say either. He’s not a good guy either.

The film did already explain that there was a huge crime wave so in some ways it does make sense why everyone is so unlikable. It doesn’t make them any better but the film did lay some groundwork there. I do think the film had to stretch its own logic a bit for the final plot twist though. Given how much power Maddox has with A.I. and all, I don’t see how she would have missed some of the evidence here. I guess you could say that she just won’t look into things as much unless the accused is fighting back but that doesn’t totally track for me. So the final twist felt a bit forced and could have used more of an explanation. In general I’d say that’s true even for the main case to an extent but a lot more time was spent on that one so there aren’t any true plot holes there. Still some parts I’d be skeptical of but nothing absolutely insane.

The general action climax tends to run into some of these issues because it feels like this shouldn’t be so easy in the future. Shoot out the wheels for the truck at least right? Felt like there wasn’t enough security and then all of the officers kept crashing their cars into the truck. Not saying it should be super easy or anything like that but that was absolutely a skeptical moment for me. The villain’s plan seemed to rely on way too many things going right in too many different directions. Realistically I feel like his plan should have been doomed way before he got to the point he was in during the climax. Maybe I’m overestimating the surveillance I guess.

Overall, I thought this movie would be pretty good as soon as I saw the trailers for it and this one did not disappoint. Generally I always tend to enjoy court room films. This one may have a different setup than usual but still follows the main beats. There is a good amount of suspense here and you will definitely be eagerly awaiting each and every twist. The pacing is good and the concept is also a really good one that just makes you think. Would you be able to use the A.I. tools to prove your own innocence in such a situation? Chris had to get real creative here in order to find an angle and that’s really how it always is for using these tools. Some plot developments may get a bit weaker as you watch them but that’s the nature of a thriller. I would definitely watch a sequel if that ever came out and I’d recommend this film.

Overall 7/10

Tron: Ares Review

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Tron has returned for a new adventure! It’s definitely good to see the franchise make a comeback because it’s been way too long since the last film. While this one isn’t quite able to match that legend, this is a very good movie with a good amount of action. We finally get to see the cyber world enter the real one and for once the army actually looks rather decent. I was glad that they didn’t just go down immediately. I’d like to see more films after this one but unfortunately it sounds like another long gap is going to appear instead.

The film starts off by explaining that ENCOM no longer owns the monopoly on the digital world. Dillinger Systems is closing in fast and now both of them are competing to take the decisive advantage. The only way to do this is to find a way to finally allow the cyber world to enter the real one. Both of them are able to pull this off for 30 minutes, but they need the permanence code to pull this off. Julian Dillinger creates a master program named Ares who aims to use to find the code or to break into ENCOM and steal it from them. His hunch was correct as the head of ENCOM, Eve, has found this code. She must try to escape from Ares long enough to pull it off but does she have the strength to stay alive?

In a way the first part is a bit like Terminator here as you have the powerful cyber fighters trying to assassinate this one human. At first they need her alive in order to get the code but that’s not always the gameplan. Additionally since they can stay in the real world for 30 minutes and can be respawned as many times as needed, the humans are at a disadvantage. Eve may know how to keep these digital people in the real world indefinitely but it’s a very small comfort when she has no fighters on her side.

The film doesn’t go in this direction but it would have been nice to have seen her summon Tron or something like that. He would have been a powerful asset for the hero side. Eve means well though and does want to make the world a better place. She just doesn’t want this breakthrough to be used for evil. After all if you can create infinite guns, bombs, and robotic soldiers then this will be desired by all kinds of bad actors. The good effects are that you can now have infinite food to solve world hunger, ways to revolutionize medicine, etc.

So the effects of this film will greatly change the world no matter who wins. The film doesn’t really focus on the ramifications of this though. There’s just not really enough time and that would be more for a sequel. Eve is a solid heroine though. She may have taken a little time to really take Julian’s ambitions seriously, but she was able to outsmart Eve during their first fight and did well to keep on staying alive.

As for Julian, well he’s your classic corporate villain. The guy is super cocky and arrogant when he is in control but really starts to panic once the shoe is on the other foot. The guy wants to win at any cost and so he will break as many rules as he feels is necessary to make things go his way. This ends up being rather easy for him in general since Ares gives him a huge leg up over all of the other programs. He never ends up being all that interesting though and the computer villains are definitely more fun. Julian’s also the kind of villain who is creating his own problems since Ares would have absolutely been more loyal if Julian wasn’t transparently antagonizing him throughout the whole film.

Ares is a fun character who takes decisive action right away. He realizes that Julian sees him as expendable and decides to do something about it. He was introduced as being a really strong fighter and he proves that quite a few times during the film. I would have liked for there to have been more of a focus on fight scenes as opposed to general action ones but in either case Ares is always at the top of the class.

I’d say his character arc ends up going a little fast. I would have liked for him to have kept a bit of an edge but at the end of the day I suppose he was just more heroic than Julian would have predicted. I also think the way the film ends leaves a lot of room for his character to go in any direction. You can’t really stop technological progress though and so I fully expect him to have a big role in the next film. If there aren’t a bunch of other programs in the real world by that point then something went wrong.

Eve is really the main villain here. She always had dreams of grandeur and was certainly not going to settle for being 2nd best for long. Her confidence tends to outweigh her skill though. The only times she is winning is when the heroes are at a huge disadvantage. She had the right idea in summoning everyone for the climax though. At that point there isn’t really anything to lose. I also think it would be a really interesting to have an army of extremely powerful fighters who can only exist for 30 minutes going up against the armies of the world. They are strong enough to make a dent but the time limit and constant respawning is a big weakness.

The old characters get a cameo here and there but you shouldn’t expect anything more than that. It would have been really cool to see the characters from the second film show up but I do get how they would probably end up stealing the whole film. The guy from the first film is around but I feel like those scenes don’t have as much of an impact at this point. Maybe it was just the timing though, I wanted to go back to the real world instead of hearing a quick music debate.

The soundtrack for the film is really good as you would expect. A lot of really solid electronic themes going on and they absolutely fit the atmosphere that the film is going for. The end themes actually sounded like something out of Stranger Things but for the midway point and action scenes it would be the Tron that you’ve come to expect. This is a soundtrack that is very loud and unique so I appreciate that. It’s very memorable and that’s part of the Tron experience.

The special effects in general are really good. There is always a lot going on and I love the way that the digital world looks. We also get the classic Lightcycle battle which is a staple for the series. It does make you wish there was more of it though. I think that will always be the hard balance trying to have some human scenes while also giving more time to the Grid. Legacy was more about the Grid so this one’s more about the human parts.

Overall, Tron: Ares is at its best when it is showing off all of the cool digital effects. I always like seeing the battles there and the concepts are also interesting. In this case the members of the Grid are clearly able to feel and emote so they even mourn their fallen allies. If they all start to be sentient, then that’s definitely going to lead to problems in the real world. You may not be as engaged in the company vs company stuff but the film has really quick pacing so there are no points where any of this is dragging on. The whole adventure really ends before you know it with constant danger around every corner. Even if you haven’t seen a Tron film before you should be able to get into this one without any issues. I’d say that it’s very new viewer friendly.

Overall 7/10

Magic Knight Rayearth Season 2 Review

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Season 2 is now upon us as the magic knights get to return for another big journey. In some ways this one is a little unrelenting with action as there is more downtime for talking and world building. That said, when we do get the action it tends to be higher tier with more people fighting at once. All in all this was a really good season and holds its own with season 1. I go back and forth on which one wins but on the record, I’m going to say that season 2 wins ever so slightly. The villains are a huge upgrade here thanks to Nova and I thought Hikaru’s crisis of confidence was a strong subplot.

The show starts with Hikaru, Fu, and Umi still getting over the fact that they teleported into a whole other planet and are now back on Earth. Fuu and Umi are taking it pretty well but Hikaru has a lot of regrets. She feels like they may have actually harmed the planet by destroying its ruler and eliminating the pillar system. Her fears are well founded when the three of them are warped back and the whole planet is on the brink of destruction. Without a pillar to hold it all together, the planet is simply running out of energy. Everyone will die unless a new pillar is chosen but then the world will go back to the problems of season 1. Additionally there are 3 kingdoms which are all attempting to invade. Can the Magic Knights stop them?

The biggest dilemma here is that the problem isn’t so straight forward. Yes, the Magic Knights can likely destroy all of the aggressors but they use destruction as an absolute last resort. It’s not something that they just run to as their first option. Then there is also the fact that beating these armies will not do anything to save the world. The only apparent options are to let the world be destroyed or to sacrifice someone as the pillar.

The pillar system basically works by imprisoning someone within the main kingdom. That person must constantly pray and think about the people of the land while not being able to have any personal wishes or desires. It is essentially an eternal prison and that’s why Zagato wanted to free Emeraude from this in the first series. Now I will say that the pillar system is riddled with assumptions about how it must work but the series doesn’t go into that so for the purposes of this review we will take this system at face value.

You also can’t pick just anybody to become the pillar. It must be someone who is worthy of the system and anyone who isn’t worthy will die if they attempt to go inside the forbidden room. Now it does seem like it takes a really long time for the kingdom to actually fall and it doesn’t help that all of these villains are attacking. Personally I feel like you could have someone become the pillar for a few days, take a break, go back in, etc. It might not be possible to game the system that way though.

The animation is pretty strong like the last season and I would even say that it has slightly improved on this end. The mech fights are really solid and the animation definitely stands out with the human fights as well. There is a lot of action here and the show always delivers. The soundtrack is mainly unchanged from the first season and is still a good one. There is one battle theme in particular that is really solid.

While the romances can be a little on the weaker side, I give the series props letting them try to be slow burns. One of them actually has very mature ending as well. The guy realizes that the girl he likes will never be able to reciprocate. Instead of getting mad about it or rebounding, he decides to just live with this. The memory of loving her would be enough to satisfy him and it’s the kind of plot that doesn’t happen all that often. So big props there, while I would say the main romance with Hikaru takes the wrong approach as she indulges in a confession without even knowing if she will ever see Lantis again. That’s the exact time when you do not want to submit a confession because it can’t really go anywhere.

Like I mentioned before, Hikaru is going through a lot for the whole season. She really doesn’t know how to proceed and none of the enemies want to talk. She tries to de-escalate the situation with each invading army but it never seems to work. Then the villainous Nova looks just like Hikaru and makes things even more complicated. Hikaru may have constantly been ready to fight in season 1 and was real gung-ho but there is none of that this time. The weight on her shoulders has simply grown to be too much and lasts for the entirety of the season.

I don’t really dock any points from Hikaru though because she was trying to handle this well. There are a few times where she would try to talk things out for too long but never took it to any absurd levels. A lesser show would have fumbled here but this one stood strong. Hikaru also continues to look a whole lot stronger than the other two magic knights. She is the powerhouse of the team and is the most fun to watch.

Each magic knight gets their own plot and so Fuu has her own kingdom to fight. She ends up engaging in some friendly competition with the young ruler of the first invading land. Fuu can still be a bit too much of a pacifist at times but is able to get her point across without having to fight the whole time. She also does learn a new spell in this season which is even able to damage the final bosses so that was impressive. Like in season 1 I do think she could have done more to really stand out in the battles but this was a start. She’s not a bad character even if she can be a bit quiet.

Then we have Umi who gets to fight the two dancers. This fight is a lot more intense since it is a potential life or death match. Additionally Umi gets to use her fencing abilities again which was pretty cool. My only complaint with Umi is that she allows the genie summons to shake her resolve way too easily. I get that they are a bit weird but I thought that she was way too dramatic about the whole thing. In context she is responsible for protecting a whole kingdom and so that means she has to always be ready to fight. There is no time to be distracted.

In some ways Master Mage Clef may be the most disappointing character but that’s only if you were assuming that he would do anything. Let be real, the guy never does anything so that was always going to be a lost cause. I do really like his name and the grand title associated with it though. Whenever someone is called a master, it means that you’re going to want to sit down and listen there. This guy spends most of the season injured and then he is stuck trying to prop the castle up.

Lantis is the one who has to get out there and do some fighting. His loyalty is questionable though as he left for another kingdom a while back and now those guys are attacking. Lantis did tell them all about the pillar system as well since he was not expecting this invasion. That ended up being a poor decision on his part. He ultimately does fight his former friend Eagle when push comes to shove but I would be mad at him if I were the other heroes. He ultimately took way too many risks with private information and no amount of hindsight can make that a good decision. Lantis also has great abilities at his disposal but still finds ways to get outsmarted and overpowered. Not a good look for him.

I ultimately preferred his brother Zagato but Lantis still did well. He was just a little too indecisive on everything that mattered. His fairy friend Primera could have been cut out though. She gets a little subplot where Mokona is always picking on her but it never actually gets to be all that important. I guess in a way it’s the comedic subplot but eh it was more of a miss. The show is too dramatic to really need any kind of animal mascot here.

Ferio also doesn’t get to do a whole lot here. He’s more of a standard warrior now which isn’t bad, but it does mean that he just has way less personality now. He only gets one standout scene early on when he gets to save Fuu. Otherwise he is mostly stuck in the background here. I suppose the character cast was large enough where the show started having issues balancing everyone out.

Ascot takes the award for most improved character since season 1. He was easily one of the weakest characters there but then in this season he actually ends up being a really good character. Gone are the days when he was really timid and now he has become a brave warrior. His monster summons are considerably more powerful than they used to be. He is also able to handle rejection well. I was really impressed with this guy, he is definitely a character that will really stand out in each scene.

On the other hand, Alcyone takes the award for the character with the biggest drop. She wasn’t the strongest villain in the first season but she did have a certain level of grace. In this season she goes completely crazy. This is partially due to Debonair’s influence but then spends the final episodes in a super nervous state where she is unable to do anything. It was really rough to see and the final scene at the end was too little too late to save her. It’s too bad because she started the season off with some potential but could not see it through.

As for Debonair, she just doesn’t get enough time to do much. She spends most of the season telling Nova not to keep on fighting. She wants Nova to hang back and yet in quite a few of these situations Nova would have claimed victory. This would only work if Debonair had some kind of a master plan but this never seemed to really be the case. Her abilities are technically really good but it’s always hard to convey that with such limited screentime. So she ends up feeling rather unimpressive overall.

As for Nova, well she is a villain who really stands out. I’d say that the very ending of the show seems to retcon her character a bit though. She went from being a completely evil figure to someone who was presented as being a bit misunderstood. I didn’t buy that at all and she works best as being a full on psycho. She could be a bit too extreme in her devotion to Hikaru though which leads to some weird scenes. Nova is crazy but that’s what makes her so dangerous. She should have went out in a different way but the show wrote itself into a bit of a corner with the knowledge that any attacks against her would directly hurt Hikaru’s own heart. So in a way there was no way to truly defeat her physically,

Again that is what makes her so dangerous though. She was a really fun villain and also had incredible stats. One on one there are few characters who could really stand any kind of a chance against her. She also has the best looking mech in the series. With it she could have dominated even more but none of the characters use the mechs as much as they should have. I would note that being able to teleport anywhere inside of the kingdom should also make Nova functionally unbeatable so the heroes have a lot of plot armor here at all times.

Now lets talk about the kingdoms. First we have Lady Aska who basically wants to be the pillar for the most superficial reasons. She basically just wants to be the ruler because of the unlimited power the role brings. Aska is basically a kid though so it makes sense and she is the easiest to set back on the right path compared to the other two. I would also say that she appears to be the weakest of the three factions. Her voice really stands out but that’s the best part of the character. She’s okay but there was no point where you were actually rooting for her.

Tarta and Tatra represent the second kingdom and are much more sympathetic. Their kingdom is quite small and so they want to use the wishing power to extend the kingdom. This way their people can live in peace on actual land. It makes a lot of sense and so they are doing their best there. I do think that they could have been more open to discussion though because there were a lot of possibilities before all out war. Tarta is the more fun member of the duo because she is way more headstrong and ready for a fight. That is always the kind of trait I like to see in a character but her sister is definitely the stronger one.

They’re better than the first kingdom but are still pretty limited in what they can do. The final kingdom easily has the biggest role and is also the most powerful force. This is the faction led by Eagle with the strong second in command, Geo; as well as the mechanic Zazu. Eagle needs to become the pillar to save his people from a dying planet and has planned everything out. His kingdom relies on the power of science rather than magic in order to fight.

This science is really at a high level because his mech is able to hold its own against the Rune Gods. While I would always take Hikaru in a fight, I do think he could beat the other two fighters. Eagle is also a very cunning character who always has a lot of plans at the ready. He always has a secret weapon at the ready and even in a near death state was able to fight with Nova. I gained a lot of respect for Eagle from his first appearance through to the ending.

You could even say that the guy is a bit like Batman. He’s certainly got the determination down as well as all of the gadgets. He also had a good dynamic with Hikaru and Lantis. It felt like the show was going to lean into making this a triangle subplot but it finished strong. I’d say it went for more of a solid friendship plot with Eagle realizing early on not to even wish for any more than that. Next to Hikaru’s self doubt plot, Eagle definitely had the strongest emotional storyline.

It’s pretty impressive how different both seasons felt from each other. The first one is definitely going for a classic RPG vibe while season 2 is definitely more Star Wars. Maybe even throw in a bit of horror/thriller for the Nova scenes. Bringing Hikaru into her world of darkness was definitely intense and same goes for when she put Lantis in there. Knowing that no backup can reach you is definitely intense. You are either able to handle that kind of pressure or you can’t.

There is also the fact that the world itself is ending in the background because of there not being a pillar to take in the energy. The writing is good though and so you will be glued to your seat the whole time. Your enjoyment may depend a little bit on how much you enjoy hearing about the pillar system every 5 minutes though. The characters really go over it a whole lot but I never found it to be boring. I just felt like the characters could have really talked things out a whole lot sooner.

If anything they took so long that by the end point you will feel like there should be too many hard feelings to have a constructive conversation. A whole lot of people could have died during the invasions, including all of the kids who were taking shelter in the castle. You have to really hope that Lantis found all of them in time too since Master Mage Clef seemingly has no spell to find the lost souls across the planet.

Overall, Magic Knight Rayearth had another good season here. The ending definitely does come off as being really rushed though. I really didn’t think there was any way the final episode was going to be the end because of the fight still going on by the commercial break. At least I can definitely say that the end result was for the series to be keeping action at the forefront all the way to the end. I’d definitely be up for more sequels. It’ll be interesting to see if the remake will be able to defeat this one. There was certainly a lot of drama but this was a strong ride all the way to the end.

Overall 7/10