Fate/strange Fake Review

Posted on May 10, 2026 by dreager1

This is a show that really took a long time to come out. Initially there was a pilot episode/movie and then the product vanished. Well, I can safely say that the show did end up being worth the wait. The animation is through the roof and it has ended up being one of the most interesting Fate titles. They are really throwing in figures from all kinds of factions and having the Grail War take place in America this time is pretty hype. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the conclusion to this one.

The series starts by introducing us to a lot of the masters and servants who will be participating in the war. A grail war is a battle where various mages summon heroic legends from the past. These “heroes” are figures of great renown, not necessarily folks who all fight for justice. Each master will then fight along with their summoned servant to destroy all of the others. Typically there are 7 masters and 7 servants in a grail war. The winner will then receive the Holy Grail which allows them to make any wish come true. This grail war feels different from the start though. In a way it’s like some kind of a strange fake. The rules are all in flux and somehow there are 14 masters and 14 servants this time. That’s going to get confusing….who will come out on top?

One thing that’s always been fun about Fate is getting to decide who you want to root for. To an extent I would say Stay/Night is an exception as the first main product. You’re meant to root for Shirou Emiya in that one. For the others like Zero and Apocrypha you get to pick which master you believe to be the most worthy. This anime takes the same approach. While the various masters range from heroic to evil, only one can be the victor. The others will all be doing their best to murder all of the opposition so even the most heroic ones will need to draw blood. There can be no mercy on the battlefield.

I’ll go through each of the masters and servants here. Before that lets just go over the technical elements. Like I mentioned, the graphics are incredible here. The fights all look phenomenal and the fact that people even compare them to the Ufotable battles of previous anime show how impressive they are. The characters all have their own fighting styles and they really show up over the course of battle. While there is occasionally some downtime in the show, you could say that a big portion of it is for the fights and they do not disappoint.

The soundtrack is also top notch with each character getting their own theme. Unfortunately the main Saber has the worst one. It’s not as if this happens often but it is interesting that it’s happened twice now as the main character of Cardfight Overdress had the worst character theme as well. There seems to be this thought that the main character needs to have a super heroic theme. While I agree that it should be heroic to an extent, but you can let the character have a little style to it. Put it this way, Saber’s theme is the only one that I won’t be listening to on Youtube while I play the others quite a lot. In particular I would say that Jester has the best theme.

The writing is also excellent as you would expect. The fate titles are no strangers to a ton of strategic dialogue throughout as every character plans and plans for every eventuality. It’s a big part of what makes the shows to intriguing. There are alliances here and you really can’t trust anyone. Each of the characters would likely betray each other under the right circumstances. It’s important to keep that in mind so that you aren’t manipulated.

One issue the series starts to run into as it goes on is the Sengoku Basara effect. The characters are all in a lot of life and death battles but then somehow they keep finding ways to survive. Fights are interrupted a whole lot to preserve the hype on both sides. This starts to be a bit noticeable when the show is almost over and everyone is still running around. Even by the very ending, 2 of the possible “deaths” aren’t confirmed yet as we don’t see the bodies vaporize into spirit energy. Usually this means that a big comeback is imminent.

It’s not a problem yet as it all depends on the ending but I do think it would have been nice to have taken more fighters out of the picture by this point in the story. You don’t want to be in the final 6 episodes and you’ve still got over 20 participants running around. It’ll make the ending feel a little rushed when it didn’t need to be. I assume we won’t have any guest stars interfering since there wouldn’t be much time for that but it’s still a possibility until the ending with characters like Shiro and Rin being referenced. Personally I feel like Shirou should be able to do some damage here even with how broken these servants are.

Okay so lets get into the characters now. First up we have Ayaka who really does not want to be involved in this war. Unfortunately for her she does not have much of a choice in the matter. The instant Saber showed up to save her, the chances of leaving this place were next to nothing. She has some kin of a cryptic backstory and there are quite a few mysteries surrounding her. As it stands she is one of the least interesting masters though. The reluctant types are usually not my favorite characters. The situation absolutely sucks for her of course but I feel like she needed to just focus after a few episodes. When you have crazy creatures all around you, it’s nice to have a bodyguard.

As for her servant Saber, he’s a really fun character. He’s the kind of guy who likes building others up and always wields his royal authority in a kind way. He takes each character’s personality in stride and tends to have great banter all around the board. Saber is also a man who clings strongly to his ideals and isn’t led astray so easily. At one point another character tries to destroy the faith he has in King Arthur and fails completely. Saber may not have had a solid wish for the grail for most of the series but he was still an easy character to root for. You could argue that he is easily the most heroic servant of the group even though he hints at darker things that have been done in his past.

Then we have Tine who has been preparing for this grail war her whole life. Her whole clan have powered her up for this mission and she summons Gilgamesh, known as the king of heroes. She is surprisingly not as confident as you would expect but she does have to deal with the king who has the biggest ego. In a way, working with him ends up making her more timid in general since it’s just hard to keep up with the guy. I do think she could have done a lot better during the actual battles though as she mainly just watches the whole time. Of course when you have the most powerful servant that is usually a decent option.

As for Gilgamesh himself, well the guy is definitely a beast in combat. I always enjoy just how overconfident he is. Nearly all of his lines are either praising himself or dissing opponents. After all that tough talk you do have to perform though and his biggest weakness seems to be the fact that everyone just no sells his weapons all the time. He has a home run type of weapon that he uses for last ditch efforts but until then he just doesn’t appear to be as dominating as he should. The guy bring a lot of hype moments though and for better or worse he is still my favorite character. The guy just elevates every scene that he’s in.

Then we have a wolf who is one of the masters. That was definitely a surprise but hey that makes him easy to root for. Animals are pure of heart and have no crazy motives. He just wants to live a happy and quiet life. He ends up with one of the most powerful servants in Enkidu as well. This guy is able to hold his own against Gilgamesh and the power set also seems kind of similar. The whole planet is his tool to wield in combat. It would be nice if Enkidu were a more proactive fighter though. It seems like his advantages will slip away if he just sticks to the back and lets the other fighters get stronger. For now there has not been anybody who could really put any pressure on him though. He seems relaxed in all the fights.

After that you have Tsubaki who is a really sickly child. She has had to endure a lot thanks to her psycho parents and now she has a crazy strong servant. Her servant is essentially darkness incarnate and has the ability to create an entire mirror world. Tsubaki’s story has to be the saddest one here though. She’s not old enough to even understand what is happening and was thrown into this war against her will. You just want her to be able to get out of this situation but the grail war makes that difficult. Her servant is also confusing with the different forms that he has. Certainly a strong force but he may not be as evil as he looks because his abilities are really based on emotions. The stronger the emotions, the stronger he gets. I may not have him as high up as the top tier servants but one on one he can handle a lot of them.

Then there is the chief of police, Orlando. He is one of the more heroic masters as he wants to put an end to this grail war and restore peace to the city. We don’t really know what his wish is though. We do know that his sense of justice is quite extreme and he likely has no qualms with the death penalty. His version of saving the world may not work out for everyone but we’ll see how that goes. Unfortunately he got saddled with an extremely weak servant and doesn’t seem to have any real chance of winning the grail war. It’s probably the most unfair part of the event which is that some servants are simply very inferior to others. This isn’t a war where you can hope to win without a good one.

His servant is Shakespeare and his abilities are rather vague. He can write things which come true and can power up other fighters through his language. He seems good at gathering intel and so if you have a lot of foot soldiers then you can power them all up. The problem is that a human with a great weapon is still a human. A lot of them are sent after Jester and they are all wrecked. So for all intents and purposes this is an absolutely useless ability. Casters are usually rather weak if you ask me.

Then there is Jester who is actually a vampire. The guy has great physical specs and is basically invincible against humans due to how the cosmic structure of the universe is set up. He has one of the best fights in the series and is constantly around to stir up trouble. The guy is absolutely crazy and so giving him a wish would put everyone in a tough spot. He also really want Assassin as an obsession that’s rather creepy. He makes for an imposing villain but definitely not one of those guys you can root for.

Assassin may be his servant but she wants nothing more than to murder him. It’ll be very difficult as long as he has command seals though. Her abilities also don’t seem as powerful as other servants. She can launch quick one hit KO moves but if they are evaded or blocked then she doesn’t seem to have much else. I’m sure there is some kind of a trump card that she is hiding though. These servants always seem to have some kind of a wrinkle to them. She does have a full honor code and seems more heroic than other characters though so she is easy to root for.

Then we have Flat who is a child prodigy from the magic organization. Usually he shouldn’t be involved in a war like this just yet so he managed to slip out early just to join in. The guy has a whole lot of talent with his knowledge on magic spells and the like. Unfortunately he also ends up getting a pretty bad servant like the police chief. He’s got Jack the Ripper who is decent when it comes to fighting humans but I was really unimpressed with him here. His true monster form was pretty cool though so I’ll give him that. Flat really meant well but in the end he really didn’t keep his guard up enough. That may have been part of his charm but it really came back to bite him.

As for Jack, well he seemed like a nice guy. If you can get around the fact that he was a big mass murderer back in the day, well he has mellowed out a whole lot. He has a good relationship with Flat, I’d even say they are one of the best master/servant duos in that respect. If we are rating the groups on manners then these two would be near the top. Ultimately it wasn’t quite enough to translate into wins though.

Sigma is one of the weaker humans and he seems to have a weak servant so that’s pretty rough. He grew up as a child soldier and is essentially emotionless but the more he is involved in this grail war, the more he finally has something to fight for. He wants to end this cycle of mindless carnage and at least has a chance to do that now. He’s another character who is easy to root for even if it feels like he’s a longshot to win. At least he does have a solid alliance with other fighters who could help him to swing the odds here.

Bazdilot is one of the more openly antagonistic masters here. The guy seems as shady as it gets and he went out of his way to make sure that his servant was giving in to his dark emotions. This guy is a real fighter and may be one of the strongest masters in terms of overall ability. It’s not like he will be taking any servants on but at least he can take the opposing master out of the running right away. I’d also say that he has one of the most powerful servants without a doubt.

Alcides looks incredibly impressive throughout the show. His bow and arrow combo is much harder to dodge than it looks and each hit really has a ton of power behind it. Going at him the wrong way will definitely lead to certain defeat. He has begun to rack up some serious injuries though so we’ll see if his master has enough mana to sustain him. We did see a whole lab that was built for this though so the preparation is there. Bazdilot has probably done the best preparation work for this out of any fighter except for maybe Faldeus.

We don’t actually know all of the masters yet though. For example True Rider has a master somewhere but we don’t know who that is yet. Her role in this season was also incredibly short as she basically just gets one fight and then vanishes out of there. We’ll see how she does in the next season but her stats didn’t seem super impressive. If anything she appeared to be one of the weaker servants at face value.

Faldeus is fun to watch because he’s basically a government lackey who learned about magic. As a result he has access to the army and can shoot someone down at the drop of a hat. The average master isn’t going to be able to do much against a barrage of bullets and he makes use of this at several moments. He’s still unable to predict every action and is thrown for a loop more than once but is generally in control of things. He has yet to really start fighting in this war and we barely even know who his servant is. Faldeus had better hope that he has a strong one.

Francesca is a fun wild card because she actually went and summoned herself. You’d almost think that can’t be allowed but hey that’s the perk of basically being immortal. She has one of the catchiest tunes as well and just works as a great troll throughout the series. She really enjoys making life harder on everybody else. I don’t see how illusions can win this war though so ultimately she is probably doomed.

Another girl is thrown into this war near the end and her servant is a giant golem. For now they haven’t gotten to do much yet since they were added into the game late. The golem has a super powerful laser but doesn’t seem very mobile so I could see that being a big weakness. The girl isn’t really a fighter but she has a fairy god-mother watching over her so that helps a lot. Ishtar is someone that you want on your side.

Ishtar is someone who isn’t technically a part of the grail war but she’s really not letting that stop her. She was quick to launch her own attacks and take advantage of Gilgamesh’s carelessness. Additionally she mentioned that a temple had been set up so now her powers are growing even more. I have pretty high hopes for her. A powerful wild card like this is just what the grail war needed to get even more chaotic. Also she’s just a lot of fun.

Hansa also makes for a good priest. He may not be the most iconic one in the series but he is a great fighter and even held his own against Hansa for quite a long while. That’s not an easy thing to do at all. That’s even accounting for the fact that Hansa doesn’t take things too seriously. Whenever there is a human who can fight, that gets pretty exciting. I can’t give John the same acclaim since things didn’t go well for him at first. I am curious how his current powered up form will fare in future battles though. He has the right spirit at least. There are a few more characters but this accounts for all of the big ones. I am sure we will meet quit a few new ones in the next season.

While most of this tends to be in combat, I would note that the series can definitely be a bit more on the violent side. These guys are all playing for keeps after all so you’ve got quite a few people getting taken out by bullets and stabs. One character is shot over 100 times as the enemies wanted to make sure that he would stand down. Tsubaki’s origin is pretty grim as well even if it really isn’t on screen all that much. Fate always tends to cut loose a bit although this one isn’t all that crazy compared to some of their previous works. Generally speaking it’s within the realm of what you’d expect for a big action title.

Overall, This was definitely an excellent title. It has strong replay value to each episode to the point where you can rewatch an episode almost immediately after watching it. The visuals are stunning and I dare say this may be the best grail war yet. We’ll see if it can stick the landing though. It is often way easier to set the stage and introduce a bunch of character than it is to actually end the conflict in a satisfying way. As long as there is no cop out and we get an actual winner then I should be fine. Cop outs are the main thing that would just get annoying here because I want to see an actual winner. Hopefully the gap before season 2 isn’t too crazy this time but with Fate you never know.

Overall 8/10

Sword of Vermilion Review

Posted on May 10, 2026 by dreager1

It’s time for another old Genesis title. This is actually the last one that I had yet to play so this feels like a really big milestone. Older games can be really hit or miss and it all comes down to if they had good quality of life features or not. This one doesn’t really have anything like that unfortunately so it ends up being a bit of a chore to get through. I don’t see how you would have had much fun with it back in the day.

The game introduces us to a hero who must stop villains from destroying the world. There are 8-12 rings of power that have been scattered as if they were Fire Emblems. If they are not united quickly, then all hope is lost. This hero is rocked to his core when he finds out that his father isn’t really his dad and everything he knew has been a lie. Still, he emotionlessly processes this and goes on the journey. There will be time to grieve later on.

Okay so there are some different gameplay styles here. The main one is an overhead style like Legend of Zelda where you have to walk through the map and go to the next town or dungeon. Here is the twist though, random encounters will attack you every few steps. This means you are in battles nearly constantly. Yes, you can run away but often times it will be difficult to do this without taking some damage. You will be surrounded on all sides and attacked. Additionally sometimes the enemy will appear right on top of you which causes unavoidable damage. That was super annoying.

Then the overhead map is not visible so you are walking in the darkness. To get around this you need to find a map. You can get this by talking to everyone in the town after a special event has happened. You did that and still didn’t get a map? Then you have to do it again! Sometimes it can take up to 3 times for someone to give you a map. I don’t know how you are supposed to know this initially and so I played the game for close to 2 hours scrambling around in the dark before I had to go online and find out what was going on.

Once you have the formula, then that helps a lot because the game sticks to it. You will be going to all of the towns and getting the maps. Towards the end of the game they will stop giving you maps and then you have to find them randomly outside. That part is rough but fortunately in one of the last towns you get a new item that lets you activate a fake map for all areas. Super awesome but way too late in the game for that. Then you also have the caves which are the same thing but even worse. You are wandering through them in total darkness until you buy a lamp or get a luminous spell. That lets you see your immediate area but the rest of the map is dark until you find the map in there.

I spent a good amount of my time in the game just wandering around the caves. Not a good feeling, trust me! I must have gone around in circles so many times with dead end after dead end. The game took me nearly 20 hours to complete when the actual campaign is much shorter than that. The enemies also deal a whole lot of damage so you’re going to want some time to grind them down in order to build up both EXP and money. If you are lacking in either category then you’re in trouble. You need the money for high powered equipment and you need the exp in order to buff up your stats. Both types of grinding can take a little while and you will need to head back to town often to heal.

The game does get better by the very end because that is when you have all of your quality of life upgrades but man does it take a long while to get up to that point. That’s really the problem if you ask me. You shouldn’t have a game that is this painful to get through. The problems all boil down to the crazy high spawn rate and the lack of a map. The game should definitely provide you with one while exploring the caves and land or at least heavily reduce the spawn rate. Doing both things at once is diabolical.

I’d also say that the boss battles can get a little cheesy. You have to swing at fireballs coming at you while also taking down minions before you can reach the main boss. Then once you’re there, if you touch him you will end up dying. So you have to slash from a safe range and your sword doesn’t go very far. It makes every boss fight a matter of inches instead of just letting you relax and slice away at him. The Switch Online allows you to rewind which is something I had to do a whole lot of here. Without those features I don’t know how I would have gotten past this.

I suppose the realistic answer is I would have had to keep on leveling up and getting stronger but it would really be an annoying process from start to finish. Boss battles are supposed to be fun, not an active chore that you try to avoid. That’s the big error that this game makes, it simply isn’t fun to play. More than once I would beat a boss and go back to base to talk to the king, only to find out that I missed an item in the dungeon and have to go all the way back. The game keeps on hitting you with the most random effects like in another instance hitting me with a super poison that cannot be cured and the only way to stop it is to find a plant deep in a random dungeon.

The graphics aren’t bad, they are pretty standard for the Genesis. The soundtrack also isn’t impressive but again it’s nothing crazy. So I can’t fault the game in those areas. The game simply struggles across all of its gameplay mechanics and not thinking of the player in how they all work. This is really an experience that is more for people who really want to take their time exploring a new world. Even then, I dare say that they will have a much better time with almost any other game. I mean that quite literally as there are very few games to get under a 5 for me.

Overall, You should definitely give this one a skip. It’s not the kind of game that will change your mind on retro experiences in general. This just makes you wish for a return to the 2026 type of titles that just wow your mind with how amazing they are. You want a game that plays very smoothly and has the top of the line graphics and music. Those are the games that really get to you. Go play Kigndom Hearts for PS2 instead of this one.

Overall 3/10

Queen’s Quality Review

Posted on May 10, 2026 by dreager1

It’s always pretty cool to see a manga get a big sequel like this one. QQ Sweeper was a relatively unknown series that didn’t last all that long. Then you have this title show up with over 20 volumes to its name! So that was a really big switch and this one becomes a really serious drama manga with a ton of fight scenes. While you can quickly catch up on what is happening if you start here, I like that this sequel throws you right into the action without stopping to have some kind of super large flashback recap.

The series revolves around Fumi, who is one of the sweepers. Sweepers are those who destroy the dust and bugs that bring nothing but darkness and destruction with them. This is done in a very literal way by cleaning up the dust from all around but also can be done by entering peoples’ minds and destroying monsters. Fumi has amnesia herself and doesn’t remember much although it turns out that she is a “Queen”. Not a member of royalty though. This is a person who can bend anyone’s mind and force them to do whatever she wants to do. This isn’t an ability that she asked for but there’s no way to get rid of it. Several organizations are after her now. Additionally, Fumi has different queen personas within her heart and any of them can take over if she lowers her guard. For now she has this under control and Fumi works with Kyutaro and the other sweepers to keep it this way. As her feelings for Kyutaro get stronger, this balance may be undone.

This is one of those series where you will get annoyed at how passive the main characters can be though. Everyone is always trying to test Fumi by putting her in dangerous situations to see if either of the queens inside of her will awaken. One of them ties her up and threatens to burn a lawn and another one throws her in a lake to be eaten by monsters. Fumi usually ends up turning into the queen and getting out of the jam but that should be enough for the heroes to take these opponents out. Instead they often let bygones be bygones which is way too much for me. That doesn’t make any sense. The amount of times where Fumi gets hit or slashed by the villains and the heroes say to let it go is absolutely crazy. Usually Fumi agrees but that doesn’t make it any better.

Takaya was the illusionist who played these tricks on Fumi. They basically forgive him immediately an then he is having fun with the rest of the group by the next chapter. While he does end up being one of Fumi and Kyutaro’s biggest supporters, I don’t know how you can get out of that initial appearance. He makes it clear on several occasions that he is about defending the safety of the family over Fumi. While that may make sense, it still isn’t a good look for him. He is a good ally to have but I definitely did not end up liking him as a character.

Kyutaro is a decent lead but I feel like a lot of his problems are self inflicted. For example, he constantly torments himself for not being able to confess his feelings to Fumi. The reason that he doesn’t is because he was told that letting her know about the past could awaken her dark impulses. See, he was in love with her under her former name from before the amnesia so he can’t let her know the context. At the same time, she knows about him being in love with someone by that old name so Fumi does her best to keep her distance.

It’s definitely for the best that Fumi was the same person so we avoided the rebound though. Otherwise while they did try to restrain themselves, I dare say that it didn’t last for very long. Before you know it they were messing with each other quite a lot. They were simply too close and so it becomes one of those things were the title could not buy into such a close friendship. I feel like this could have worked but the series is emotionally like that of a Shojo title.

Kyutaro does come a long way as the series goes on. At first he could be threatened by the likes of Ataru as that guy would absolutely bully him in a fight. Before you know it, Kyutaro is one of the strongest fighters in the series and has the offensive advantage. He could really only be matched by one of the Queens and generally they will do whatever he says since they are related to Fumi. It was nice to see Kyutaro feeling so confident and taking charge. He was definitely not going to be getting possessed by his snake towards the end of the series.

Then we have Fumi who is a solid heroine. She is quick to step up to evil and that emotional bravado is also part of why the queens are always trying to take over. Fumi takes a while to really gain full control but always had a strong personality from the start. After all she was quick to stand up against a teacher that was bullying her students and also made sure to protect Kyutaro even without any powers. In another world Fumi would have just been a normal kid trying to survive high school. She was really thrust into a crazy world with snakes and powers but managed to get through it without any big issues. She’s a pretty good character and I would put her above many iconic heroines.

She is able to accept her dark side rather quickly and then moves on to control the rest of her personas. While she does allow things with Kyutaro to progress a bit even while thinking he was in love with someone else, at least it is different than if he was engaged or married. Still not a great look of course but I tend to put more of the blame on him for constantly making things as difficult as possible on her. Fumi also deals with a lot of injuries during battle and still stays strong so that also goes a long way to showing just how strong she is.

There are also a bunch of snakes which all grow more important as the series goes on. The main one is inside of Kyu for most of the series and I can’t say that I liked him at all. He makes several passes at Fumi immediately and gets embarrassed in his first fight. There was no real coming back from that. He is a creature that is all about desires and getting stronger by feeding off of them. It’s really not the kind of motivation that will ever make him a really fierce villain to me. So he easily ends up being one of the worst villains in the series as a result. Yes, he gets the sympathetic backstory and all by the end but it was far too late. enemy snake

The first big villain in this series is Ataru and he doesn’t have nearly as much composure. He looks tough in his very first appearance and then it’s all downhill for him from there. He is scared of bugs and gets beaten up by everybody. It’s not like his personality is all that bad. In his first appearance he makes sure the villains don’t go after an innocent girl. He believes in only opposing those who he deems deserve it. So Ataru does have some standards.

He also has a pretty grim backstory about a girl who was bullied relentlessly until she died. It’s pretty easy to see how he would join the villains at that point. The world of Queen’s Quality does seem to have quite a lot of villains everywhere. From abusive teachers to nearly every student being a bully as well, it just feels like the negative emotions running within humans have gone way too far by this point. Even the Sweepers are not really able to keep up.

Then we have the main villain Yanagi. This guy basically wants to spread as many bugs as possible and destroy all the goodness in the world. As an immortal snake he really has a lot of patience to play the long game and has been around for many years. He always has some kind of a plan up his sleeve and can even fight pretty well thanks to his large array of abilities. Being a snake allows him to do just about whatever he wants. You do wonder what his wife Kaede ever saw in the guy. He just seems obviously evil from the start but I guess we can just jot this down to his being a really crafty fellow. Sometimes there just isn’t a way to figure these things out.

He is memorable for being a big villain but I can’t say he was all that interesting. It also felt like he kept running off during the climaxes just to extend things a bit longer. The heroes should have taken him out during the first big fight. Another villain who gets a big role is Tsubasa, although you could argue he gets more screentime as a hero than a villain. He is introduced rather late in the story but ends up having a big role and a whole origin story as well. It’s definitely a tragic one where he was manipulated into making the wrong choices time and time again. That’s really the general vibe for all of the characters in the flashback.

We get to see Fumi’s mother, Kaede as she worked to destroy all of the snakes. Unfortunately she didn’t realize that she married the main villain and was falling right into his traps. She still did a lot of good in the world but ultimately was unable to escape. I do question how she couldn’t have done a little better with how her powers work. A queen can make anyone do her bidding, I feel like she needed to react a bit quicker and force all of the villains into submission. These powers do fluctuate based on emotion which is probably the excuse that the series would use here.

There are quite a few sweepers on the hero side that I haven’t gotten into although most of them don’t have a huge role. We have Kyu’s brother and then his sister in law. The two of them are reasonably tough and do their best to help out but usually do end up being on the back foot here in the bigger fights. Koichi does get a bit of a backstory involving one of the other Sweeper clans though and at least he advocates for destroying invaders more than the others. Still, there isn’t a whole lot that they are able to do against the villains once the snakes all start appearing. While I may not be a big fan of Takaya, at least he can fight a lot. You also have the old lady who watched over the family and has a lot of experience.

Everyone has their role to play but the group really could have used some more fighters. We get a long flashback arc for Kyu’s parents and now they were true fighters. They were taking down snakes left and right back in their prime while still protecting him. Unfortunately things went sideways and so that’s why they aren’t around in the present but they did put up a good fight. They went up against unlimited odds in a battle with an eternally regenerative snake and still didn’t give up a complete loss.

There are also other factions of sweepers but they tend to either be helpless or downright antagonistic. One faction shows up and immediately captures Fumi. They basically try to drown her until the queen awakens. Fumi would have slaughtered them all but Kyu stops her. That happens quite a lot in the early days as Fumi is always ready to murder everyone in her way until Kyu steps in. Honestly sometimes you wish he wouldn’t step in. Obviously Fumi tends to get pretty drastic but she never starts it. These guys were willing to straight up murder her as well so it’s not like they were good people either.

I actually miss the black queen because of that. She is absorbed by Fumi early on as they merge into one personality but she really got things done. It’s always tough when the personalities become sentient like this because then you do end up missing them. Another faction has Sarara as its main figure. She’s not a big offensive fighter but is good at barriers and does show up as an ally the whole time. So that part works out well since the heroes needed some backup. If she could have been a little stronger then that would have been even better but you can’t win them all.

She also just ends up being a very cheerful character which is nice. A lot of the characters here tend to be very emotional and dramatic so sometimes it is nice to have a change of pace there. There are a lot of slice of life moments and downtime for the characters but Sarara mainly keeps her personality at all times. This is one of those series that tends to be at its best when it is in the middle of action scenes though. Maybe it’s just because I tend to hold grudges against these characters so I’m glaring at the people trying to cozy up to Fumi and Kyu when I know they would change sides at the drop of a hat.

Now this is still a romance title first and foremost so how does that part fare? Well, at first it’s a bit rocky because of Kyu’s first love and all. I would have said this was a rebound but fortunately it turned out that he loved Fumi all along so that worked out. They begin dating by the end of volume 9 so they have over 10 volumes of being together. I would say that it is generally a pretty strong romance. I don’t have many real issues there and it did get a lot of build up. I’d be cool with more flirting and less action within the romance personally but it’s not something that I would strike against it.

As for the artwork, it’s generally strong. At times the characters can be drawn a bit too similarly but to an extent you can blame this on the outfits that they all wear. It naturally makes them all blend in together more than they otherwise would have. The action scenes look sharp. They can sometimes get a bit muddied but then he series always ends up delivering on some really intense looking splash pages. It definitely gets a thumbs up from me.

My biggest problem with the series will ultimately be that it doesn’t always do a good job of balancing the tones. One second it is a light hearted school romance with characters falling on each other and getting all shy about it. The next second you are learning about a genocide that happened in the past with people being burned alive and threats of this happening in the future. To an extent the tone change is intentional because in this world negative emotions are what power up the bugs. So the main characters are taught to always be happy no matter what because that is the only way to keep the villains in a weakened state.

A lot of the battles here tend to be in the psychic realm for that reason. The villains try infiltrating the hearts of the heroes in order to break them or lay traps while the heroes try to go into the hearts of the villains to shut them down for good. Usually it’s the former though as the heroes tend to take a more passive approach here. They usually have their hands full as it is while the villains tend to have a lot more free time. I suppose it is always easier for the villains to launch their own attacks at leisure.

The series does start to fall into the vampire stuff during the second half of the series though. There is a lot of blood sucking as that is how you add someone into your staff as a familiar. The characters go around biting everyone later on and while it is for their own protection, it’s definitely always a rough thing to look at. I’m not a fan of vampires in general so seeing any homages like this doesn’t help things. I gotta say it also looks super painful but I can see why you would go through with this in order to stay safe from the enemy snakes. This is how the characters are able to resist hypnosis and other such abilities. You almost feel like the author wanted to make a story about vampires halfway into the adventure with how frequent it started to occur.

Overall, Queen’s Quality will always impress me with how intense and action packed it is. Initially I was expecting this to be more of a sappy romance with a little action here and there. Instead we actually get long fights that can last for a whole chapter and consistently large-scale climaxes. The series can push the envelope a little bit at times with how much the characters go through though. Several of them get tortured and Fumi in particular goes through a lot in her origin story. You’ve also got all the vampire stuff that makes me shake my head. The title definitely has that real gothic feel to it. If you’re up for a really in depth romance that also ends up being an action packed end of the world story then this is the one for you. It’s not the strongest title out there but I’d say it was good overall.

Overall 6/10

Kaiju No. 8 Review

Posted on May 9, 2026 by dreager1

Kaiju No. 8 is one of those titles that really took the world by storm. It was a manga that promised to bring in a whole lot of action and Kaiju throughout. Well, I can definitely say that the title delivers on that with nonstop action throughout the series. At the same time, I can understand why some fans were a bit disappointed. If you really enjoyed the opening chapters about Kafka being a part of the cleanup crew and learning how to master his powers, then that was a different series. Me personally? I prefer having high octane action shows so this was more up my alley.

The series begins by introducing us to Kafka who has always wanted to join the defense force. He has the drive for it but unfortunately lacks the skill or the energy for it. Kafka flunks out every year and is forced to stick around as one of the monster cleaners. He comes in after the heroes have beaten the Kaiju and just does his best to get the remains off the street. Well, one day a mini Kaiju goes inside of him and Kafka becomes Kaiju No. 8. Kafka passes the exam this time and can finally fight alongside his childhood friend. Can he keep his new status as a Kaiju secret from the rest of the team or is he absolutely doomed?

The idea of an older main character certainly appealed to folks because it does feel like most of the big action series are about kids or teens. Well, it doesn’t really end up being a big factor here since Kafka acts like a teenager anyway. He certainly has a fun time goofing off but when the villains show up, Kafka is able to lock in. I would say that he’s a good main character even if he may not stand out a whole lot. Essentially he is the kind of character who will make the right decisions and get out there for the fights. He wants to protect his friends and will defy orders in order to accomplish that objective.

In a way his not standing out matches the series a bit where some would say that this one is just a generic battle Shonen by the end. I would say to a large degree that’s true but the execution is really good so that makes up for it. There’s nothing wrong with being generic as long as you’re fun and that’s the approach that Kaiju No. 8 is going for. The art is also really good for this series and that makes a difference. You can feel each hit and there are a ton of memorable shots here. The series is absolutely at its best during the action scenes but the artwork stays consistently good throughout.

Partially because of all the nonstop fighting, the character cast is rather small for a 16 volume series. There are a bunch of side characters running around as part of the Kaiju company of course but in terms of characters who get a real role, well that never expands too much. Perhaps it’s a good thing, this gave us more time for battles after all. Additionally, there are only so many times you can give someone a new Kaiju weapon without it feeling excessive. Anyone without a Kaiju ability was rendered powerless by the end so they would have gotten power creeped out of there anyway.

Reno is a prodigy for example but the limits of the human body are far too low to really give a Kaiju a tough fight. I should differentiate between numbered Kaiju and standard ones though. Standard monsters can absolutely be defeated as they usually are by the company. It just so happens as this series starts that a big villain known as Kaiju No. 9 has been amping them all up to new heights. If not for that then things would be different. We went from having one super Kaiju in 10 years to suddenly having over 7 in one shot.

So Reno is one of the fighters who ends up having to use an experimental Kaiju weapon. While it is not as impressive as Hoshina’s, I would say that it’s pretty good. Reno’s is ice based so he is able to freeze his opponents and keep on fighting. He never quite caught up to Kafka but at least this way he isn’t a liability on the battlefield or anything like that. Reno is able to hold his own and he’s a nice guy in general. His character archetype in these titles doesn’t always get to contribute a lot so this was nice to see.

Kikoru is the main heroine here. Some would argue that Mina takes the role but Kikoru absolutely gets more screentime. At first she has fun mocking Kafka and his efforts but gradually begins to respect him as a father figure. She is the greatest rookie to ever join the defense force and we find out that her parents were both influential figures. In a way she was born for this role and certainly has no problems living up to the hype. Even before she gets a super weapon, Kikoru was dominating fighters left and right. By the time she does get a power up, Kikoru is easily one of the strongest fighters in the series.

She ends up fighting one of the best villains as well so that worked out. In general she has a fun personality. I always like the fiery characters who can banter with the villains. She’s not here to make friends or negotiate with the villains. Kikoru definitely did her mother proud. Her mom only appears in flashbacks but we see how she was also a living legend in her days. With virtually no backup she was able to deal quite a blow to the opposing Kaijus.

Kikoru’s father Isao also gets a decent role although it was a bit smaller than I would have expected. He is a really gruff guy and believes that justice has to be tough sometimes. He pushes this to such an extent that I considered him to be more of a villain throughout the series. Easily the lesser of two evils compared to the Kaiju but anyone who would so quickly sentence his allies to death is definitely not a hero. He has the power to back up his sharp rules though and could have taken out nearly anyone in the series. It’s really impressive how well he did against No. 9 even while he was so much older. If Isao had been in his prime, then he probably would have won.

Gen is yet another prodigy on the hero side. You already see how many prodigies we have right? This is why you couldn’t expand the cast too much farther because the word would probably lose its meaning after a while. Well, Gen can use his eyes to read opponent weak spots as well as almost predict what their next action will be. He has a lazy persona which is the only thing that keeps him from rising up the government ranks. It’s not really something that Gen is interested in anyway though. He just wants to destroy Kaiju and being a platoon leader allows him to really do that without having to hold anything back.

This guy ended up being one of my favorite characters in the series. It may seem at odds with how I typically enjoy characters who are super gung-ho and ready to fight but I do enjoy the lazy ones as well when they are justified with it. If Gen was weak then he would likely end up being a bad character. So he is walking a fine line but that’s just something that will always come with the territory of being this kind of character.

He is rivals with Hoshina who is….another prodigy! Usually it is unheard of to try and fight a Kaiju without a gun but that is exactly what Hoshina does. He relies on his short blades and just tears into them. This requires him to have a great amount of speed and piercing power. A few good hits could take him out of commission permanently. It’s a high stress kind of fighting style and there are probably very few fighters who would have the sheer talent needed to support this kind of style. He does his best to train Kafka and is a good right hand man to Mina.

Hoshina tends to be very serious so the series did a good thing by pairing him up with a very talkative Kaiju. This leads to a whole lot of banter from both sides and it ends up being a fun dynamic. It’s not a dynamic that we get to have around for very long since the series is already starting to wrap up by then but it was still nice to see. Hoshina was one of the first big fighters to appear in the series and he actually remains relevant throughout the whole run.

His boss is Mina who also serves as the goal post for Kafka. She fights using a powerful sniper rifle. Her sheer amount of power means that she can effectively take out a Kaiju from any distance. It does feel like this limits her a bit in battle though because there are only so many ways you can draw her shooting at an opponent. It isn’t like a handgun where she can fire on the go. This one has her stay in one place to ready the giant gun and fire it. For this reason the final arc lets her fight without the gun briefly to remind us that she is a well rounded fighter too. Until that point though, she ends up feeling a bit one note.

While we are told continuously that she is stronger than Hoshina and most of the other characters, you just have a hard time buying into that because of how she doesn’t get to show off her physical abilities more. Either way she is a good character. She makes sure to give Kafka a hard time so that he continues to improve more and more while also always being ready to fight. She will surpass her limits in order to suppress casualties so it’s clear why she is a platoon captain.

There are some other fighters on the hero side but they don’t have fancy Kaiju weapons so they get left in the dust. For example we have Iharu who thinks of himself as Reno’s rival. It’s a nice thought but at the same time the gap between them is simply too vast. He would lose in an instant against Reno because he doesn’t have the speed to compete or even the firepower to put him down. This quickly becomes the case for all of the non Kaiju enhanced fighters. There really needed to be some way to have reduced the gap here.

On the villains side, Kaiju No. 9 may have set the bar too high. He shows up early on and remains as a big villain throughout the series. His whole existence implied a higher form of Kaiju would always be able to talk and strategize. Unfortunately that is dropped after the first 2-3 and then most of them end up being completely mindless. Yes, they have pretty cool designs and awesome powers but they aren’t actually talking. It was too bad because there was a lot of potential there. This also feels like something that the author walked back on because initially it definitely seemed to have been part of the plan. This is a series that needed to keep going to 20+ volumes.

No. 9 is cool but the kind of villain who overcomplicates things. The heroes only have around 5 fighters who can give him a real fight and of those, probably just 2 who have a chance at beating him. He should have attacked straight up with a bunch of his monsters. Alternately he could have picked them off. No. 9 has the ability to shapeshift and tends to appear out of nowhere. The heroes are rarely ever fully mobilized so all he has to do is gradually take them out. There would usually be something to prevent that from happening but no such concept exists here.

The heroes are the underdogs by a wide margin and the author put them in too much of a hole here. There are countless ways to put the heroes out of their misery and instead No. 9 decides to have them all mobilized and then splits up his own forces to get picked off. Definitely a terrible general when you really think about it. I suppose he still came close to winning but it wasn’t exactly due to his own abilities.

No. 10 was another fun villain. This guy liked a good fight and he is the one who ends up partnering with Hoshina. He has a lot of pride and basically acts like one of the humans. This is exactly what I was hoping for. A Kaiju who could hold his own and wasn’t just roaring all the time. He was also really powerful as Kafka had to go all out here. No. 10 does have the misfortune of being one of the first Kaiju to show up so you could make the case that he is technically weaker than most of the numbers. I dunno, he still felt stronger than most to me but it’s hard to scale since he had to fight Kafka directly.

Then we have No. 15 who ends up fighting Kikoru. She really stands out because now we had a Kaiju who not only had character and dialogue but one who was even being manipulated. No. 9 is constantly dangling the lure of parental respect in front of her and shifts the goal posts so that she is always having to keep on fighting. He doesn’t actually care about her and that’s obvious to the reader but No. 15 still hopes that this can somehow happen.

No. 15 then tries using mind games in Kikoru as well. The only other one we see doing that kind of thing is No. 9 himself. So 15 feels like she is really a higher ranked Kaiju and she is incredibly memorable thanks to the design as well. She is like a dark Kikoru. While the other Kaiju could not live up to that, it was at least good to have one more complex villain like this.

These are the scenes that just made you feel like the series had more meat left on the bone. We also have the whole mystery of the Kaiju that gave Kafka his powers and the ghost samurai. It is explained by the end but it’s a bit more on the lackluster side. I just feel like it was shoved into the ending instead of being a cool subplot. Additionally the ending immediately reverses on itself which almost defeats the purpose of the storyline they decided to go with for the samurai in general. The final chapters have quite a few twists to hit you fast and hard with lore so maybe one day we will get a full sequel series.

At the end of the day you shouldn’t think too hard about missed opportunities though. There are no “ifs ands or buts” when you finish a story. It’s all about what was actually on the page and I was still more than satisfied with what we got. This was a great story with solid action throughout and a lot of battles. The fundamentals were all sound. The series may not have the strongest cast or excel in the peace between action segments but that’s exactly why it focused on action so much. You should always play to your strengths.

Overall, Kaiju No. 8 is definitely a great title. While it may have ended rather quickly where you felt like there was a lot of met left on the table, it did still give us a ton of battles. The series also lasted a bit longer than you would have expected and the final fight in particular was really satisfying. Both fighters really would not relent and just kept on getting up over and over. I also liked the ending which could have easily gone sideways. Maybe one day we will get some kind of a sequel series here.

Overall 8/10

The Elusive Samurai Review

Posted on May 7, 2026 by dreager1

It’s time for one of those series that takes place in the really old days of constant warfare and strife. It does still have that Shonen boost though so you can expect a whole lot of big fight scenes all the way through. In theory his could have been really good but the author goes too far into trying to get some hyper realism here while at the same time also bringing in weird supernatural elements. Basically if the series could fall into some kind of hole, it did. This title hits every snag possible and definitely ends up being a title that I would not recommend.

The series begins with Tokiyuki’s family being murdered by Takauji. He runs the whole clan out of the village and assumes a position of political power. Tokiyuki aims to get revenge and restore his clan’s honor but it won’t be easy. Takauji isn’t just the most powerful man on the planet, he is also possessed by a literal demon. This demon allows him to break the minds of his opponents and perform a lot of miracles that are not humanly possible. Tokiyuki will need to take a slow burn approach on this, one that will take many years. Even if it takes his whole life, Tokiyuki will never give up!

This title made it all the way to 25 volumes which is really impressive. I should also mention that there are a ton of time skips within the series but the artist goes out of his way to make sure that none of the character designs change. So when you’re binging this visually, you don’t have to worry about the characters constantly changing even if it does mean that it can be easy to forget just how old they are.

I’ve got more negatives than positives for this series so lets go into the good things first. The artwork is pretty good. While it is often used for really explicit visuals that get crazy, the actual quality is really high up. You’re not going to see a whole lot of titles that can keep up with this one in the long term.

I’d also say that the fight scenes can be really solid. Usually they tend to get ruined by going way too far but the initial clashes are always great. There is also a lot of strategy in the battles and the army fights are done well. It may not be on the level of something like Bleach or Kenshin when it comes to the sword fights but on the whole the fights can be good.

Now on the issues, well of course first we have the ultra violence. This series just tries to push the envelope as far as possible to the point of just being super excessive. People die in all kinds of imaginative ways and in this kind of series you’re really hoping that the first blow destroys you. If you live then things are going to get many times worse for you. The constant bloodshed may remind you why the villains have to be stopped but it doesn’t help that Tokiyuki’s group has a lot of crazies as well.

I feel like there is some kind of narrative hidden within the series about how psychos will take advantage of war to legally murder people. It’s the kind of grim plot that would be right up this title’s alley. There are some good characters here but the cast as a whole is definitely one of the weaker ones. Then of course we also have a considerable amount of animal violence. It just keeps on coming and a ton of horses die throughout. It’s part of why I usually shy away from the old war titles because often times the horses are going to be casualties. Definitely ends up being a real downer.

Another issue is the crude visuals here. It’s sort of like crude humor but not really because these scenes are in no way meant to be funny. Instead it just shows you how far Takauji has fallen. His spit has mind control properties within it and this is used several times. There are so many scenes that will just have you gagging here. Yes, we do have the fart bombs from one of the ninja so there is full on crude humor here as well. Mix it all together and this is a title you won’t be forgetting but certainly not for good reasons. You won’t be able to go a volume without something messed up happening.

There’s an audience for this of course like with good ole Chainsawman which always sounds crazy in the worst ways but generally this is definitely going to be a flop for me. Your strengths as a series would have to be absolutely incredible to overcome all of this. Since the setting isn’t really my thing and the title is too down to earth for crazy DBZ style fights, the situation was not exactly in its favor. That said, the series is so messed up that it is hard to picture any change in situation really working to its favor.

Tokiyuki is definitely a weird main character with how much he loves to be chased. The guy gets all excited about it and especially enjoys when the stakes are life and death. I guess you gotta follow your passions and all. By the end of the series he is known as a really good commander and got a lot of big wins. I dare say the ending will end up being disappointing with how it all plays out but the author was more or less trying to follow the plot of the real events. I’d say he just did it with broad strokes.

Tokiyuki also showed some indecision in the series with how he could not pick one heroine. Whenever that happens it definitely makes you shake your head. I know things were different back then but it’s not the biggest consolation that you can have. Even by the end of the series Tokiyuki isn’t the strongest fighter but his speed really comes in handy. He is able to really hold his own just thanks to that attribute. It’s why I always say that speed is so important. I never ended up becoming a big fan of this guy but at least he did have some solid moments in the series.

As for the final boss Takauji, he has a large presence throughout the series. His crazy gimmick is that he likes to pretend to panic and act like a coward when he is secretly at the top of the foodchain. This guy has plans without plans and so the heroes always have to try and keep their guards up. The series gives him a bit of a cop out by the end although there is a qualifier to it so I appreciated that. I certainly didn’t like Takauji even as a villain because he was too all over the place but I can definitely say that I respected his power. You could throw the whole main cast at him and 9 times out of 10 he would defeat them.

They were all normal humans going up against someone who could take on whole armies with his willpower alone. The series wrote itself into a bit of a hole with how strong they made him. Even by the end a lot of plot armor was needed but the series did try here. None of the other villains ever get close to this guy’s level but that’s always how it was going to be. The series really revolves around Tokiyuki and Takauji, with all the side characters doing their best to help out.

Yorishige serves as the mentor role for the lead. He has the ability to see the future and even has vague cosmic powers. This guy really ends up bailing Tokiyuki out of trouble on more than one occasion. Without him, things would have certainly been darker. While he technically misses out on a good chunk of the series, he remained as one of the more memorable characters. Naturally the series couldn’t resist making him a bit weird as well and the jokes there tend to get old quick. This isn’t really a series that is going to leave you laughing the whole time.

Shizuku takes over as the cosmic fighter for the second half of the series. She is in a tough spot though because she is supposed to try and remain emotionless and ready for any challenge. At the same time she fell in love with Tokiyuki so that makes it difficult for her to live up to this. It would have been good if she could have been more honest about her feelings at an earlier point but better late than never. She is one of the supporting characters who actually ended up being fun all the way through.

Nezu is also a solid character and the main muscle of the army. He is a total prodigy who has been able to fight at a high level ever since he was a child. He is fairly young for a good portion of the first arcs after all and only gets stronger from there. His weakness is in his physical strength which makes sense. He has biological limits no matter how skilled his actual swordplay was. This guy just has no real asterisks, no annoying gimmicks that hurt him or anything like that. So that really helped put a feather in his cap.

Ayako is a strong heroine and I mean that quite literally as the series shows her raw power to be downright inhuman. She can be a bit more awkward than some of the other characters but always tries her best. She is another character who likes Tokiyuki which is something she has to deal with while still entering the front lines every time. I thought she was a pretty solid character in the end. Out of the 3 main heroines she would technically be in last but at least it’s fairly relative.

Genba is a thief who helps Tokiyuki quite a lot throughout the series. He always likes to hide his true expertise under a mask of jokes and comedy. A fairly effective strategy if you ask me. That being said, he could get a bit old at times. Usually it feels like he is just buying time for the main characters to get ready. He’s super useful in a war and someone that you want on your team but as a character he is far from being one of the more entertaining ones.

Fubuki has to be one of the more tragic characters. He goes through a whole lot of strife and turmoil at every corner. The poor guy had to be experimented on and basically had his mind broken. Sure he gets to finally be himself at the very end but you wouldn’t want to have to go through that for any price. The villains who messed with even try to have a mini redemption arc. Not to turn good but basically saying “No hard feelings right?”. The whole thing is swept under the rug way too quickly. I did think that he was a really fun character though. The heroes had desperately needed another fighter in the group as well.

Natsu is Genba’s partner in the story. Initially she was a spy for the villain side but finally came around and became one of the better ninja in the group. By the time she joins it is fairly deep into the series though so I wouldn’t be expecting her to be getting a huge role or anything like that. Still, no complaints on this end. I’d say she was one of the stronger supporting characters.

Shina had a really tough time of things as she took on some fierce injuries. Eventually she was able to fight again with the help of some sword legs. It’s hard to imagine just how difficult it would be to walk around like that but she actually managed to pull it off. Her role isn’t super large but she does end up being a fun character as well. Finally we have Mima who join in as one of the main heroines. The fact that she can actually fight is a big W although she naturally gets weaker the instant that she becomes a good guy. It just seems to be something that happens inevitably to characters when they switch sides. She is also forced to share Tokiyuki which is not exactly a great honor. Either you are the only special one or you’re just another one of the allies.

Tadayoshi is Takuji’s brother and ends up being one of the biggest villains. He may not have a demon power at his disposal or a great amount of physical strength in general but makes up for it with intelligence and strategy. He is always doing his best to stay two steps ahead and is the one guy that Takuji actually listens to. Deep down Tadayoshi knows that he could be betrayed at any moment though. His loyalty runs deep in spite of this.

Sadamune is a villain with incredible archery abilities. His eyes also let him see a great deal in an instant. The villains all seem to have super abilities like this but this is probably the most tame one. Yes, being able to see well is really useful but it’s not on the same level as super strength or anything like that. This guy actually had a real large amount of respect for the main character. They may have been enemies but sometimes you just like to find a strong rival.

Interestingly the heroes also had an expert archer in Kitabatake. This guy could definitely hold his own and was a real inspirational figure on the hero side. I can’t say that I abided his methods though. He essentially believed that might makes right. As long as his men were taking their opponents down, it was not a problem that they were all so murderous the whole time. I fundamentally tend to disagree with this even in the context of war. In particular there was one berserker on his team who was always itching to murder people as violently as possible.

You always want to be careful that you aren’t becoming as bad as the villains. Granted, in this series that would be really difficult. You have a horse monster who is super crazy and then Nagao who was basically an emotionless killing machine. The villains had lots of crazies among their roster although surprisingly they didn’t tend to kill each other off too often. Their underlings though? Yeah they tend to dry in droves throughout this series! It is definitely not the kind of position you want to have here because odds are that you won’t survive it. One villain even starts throwing his own minions at the heroes like rockets.

There are more characters but this handles most of the main ones. The series does involve a lot of nonstop battles amidst the war so you’d think that would make it an instant winner. Instead it reminds you why a series still needs to succeed in the fundamentals. If you abandon those then you really don’t have a chance. I will always give the series credit for lasting so long but ultimately it is going to be near the bottom of the Shonen Jump barrel.

Overall, The Elusive Samurai was not the next Kenshin. If you want a good sword series in the modern day then I hear that Kagurabachi is really good. Otherwise you just need to wait until the next Bleach sequel comes out. The anime could elevate this series by toning things down. It seemed like season 1 was content to go hard but some of the stuff in the manga is so intense that you assume it has to be toned down somewhat. I suppose we’ll find out one way or the other as things move forward.

Overall 2/10

Crusader of Centy Review

Posted on May 5, 2026 by dreager1

It’s time for one of the last Genesis games that I hadn’t gotten around to yet. A long time ago I started it but never finished the title. This time would be different, this time I would finally get to go on the full journey. Unfortunately I would not say that it fares much better than the first time. If I’m being honest, the game just isn’t all that good. Not every game is going to be the next big thing so I get it. This is also a much older title so they didn’t have a lot of the modern quality of life features by this point.

The game starts by introducing us to a kid who has just become of age and must now leave home with his sword to fight off the monsters. It is a tradition in the village and so the boy looks forward to dealing as much damage as possible. His pet dog will accompany him on the journey. As the hero goes forth into the unknown he meets up with a lot of other animals who join his party. The monsters are powerful but they can’t stop the lead. The plot takes a turn when time travel is introduced and the monsters decide to start a dialogue. Is the kid really on the right side?

I think the biggest tragedy in this game is how ambitious the story is. This is absolutely not a story that was ready to be told by this rpg. One character even mentions how humans are the real monsters and the story is getting really emotional but doesn’t really have the time to delve into this. We see how the monsters have been getting genocided by the humans for dozens of years and there was nothing that could be done. Through time travel the hero is able to right some of these wrongs but it’s not so much a happy ending as it is one about dodging the problem entirely. Sometimes that is the only way to get past an issue I guess.

Where the game falls flat is with the puzzles. Often times they are way too vague with no real indicator of what to do. One of them revolves around scouring the beach for a single spot where you steps don’t appear on the ground. This means you have to jump on that spot in order to proceed. Another puzzle has a similar gimmick but it takes a while to get to every step and you have enemies trying to hit you at all times. If not for the powers of constant rewind thanks to the Nintendo Switch Online, I’d have died so many times. It is hard to get your health back in this game too because there are no potions or healing spells.

If you want to get health back then you have to keep on slashing some grass and hope to find an apple. It’s a much more tedious process compared to what it should be since the apple spawn rates are incredibly low. The main gameplay style here is that of an overhead platformer. You have to jump and slash away at obstacles and solve puzzles by moving things together. You get about 12-16 animals and each one has a different power that lets you solve more puzzles. These include fire breath, super speed, boomerang sword throws, swimming, etc.

Every time you get an animal you can bet that there will be some new puzzles involving that creature. Then when it comes to the boss battles, they tend to have weaknesses to different combinations so you need to switch up your animal combinations until you get to the right one. At least in this area I can say that the boss fights were creative in a fun way. One of them was a Pac-Man homage as you have to eat all of the fruits before moving on to the next level. If the game focused more on the boss fights than the platforming we would have had a good game here.

The pacing just died every time you have to solve another puzzle or go through the same world for the 3rd time to see what changed. You can boil this all down to the game just making things tedious instead of fun which is often one of the critical issues that an older game can make. As long as you can get past that, then you’ll be in a better spot. Newer games tend to at least give you some hints on the puzzles if you are stuck long enough.

Either make the puzzles clearer or give more ways to solve them. I think the animal gimmick is actually decent if handled right. I always like unlocking more skills as I get through a game. It almost has that Metroidvania feel to it and the best ones in that genre do allow you to get stronger. Throw in a level up system and a way to get through each world quicker whenever you have to revisit one. If you follow those two tenets then typically you can survive some level of puzzles. It is a tight balance though.

The soundtrack’s okay but not exactly something to write home about. As far as the graphics go, I thought they were decent. Certainly not bad or anything so I wouldn’t dock any points there. It is clear that the game had a vision and that’s important. There isn’t going to be much replay value here as the game just ends. It does have a bit of a cliffhanger for a sequel so that was bold of the game. The runtime is fairly decent, I’d say this will last you around 5-6 hours in total and probably more based on the puzzles.

Overall, Crusader of Centy is one of those games that just hasn’t aged well. I’ve always said that if I grew up in the old days of consoles, I may not have ended up being a big gamer. I feel like there were just too many games like this one which simply weren’t a whole lot of fun. You would have your high moments but the low ones overshadow it. At the very least maybe I’d just focus on Nintendo games for a while there. Still, if you have the Switch Online then you may as well try out this game since it’s free. No real reason not to right?

Overall 4/10

Saint Seiya: Rerise of Poseidon Review

Posted on May 3, 2026 by dreager1

This is one of those mini series that feels random but still manages to be hype all the way. The fact that it takes place after the Hades arc is excellent as opposed to it being one of those flashback arcs. This is a chance to finally see some events right after the main series and for that reason it makes sense that Poseidon and his crew are main characters here since Seiya and the gang are not available at the moment. The series ended with 20 chapters which is a nice round number and that works well for a mini series.

The series starts with Hades waking Poseidon up from his slumber and declaring that the god will need to protect Earth for a little while. The goddess Nemesis has decided that she wants to destroy Earth and she has already started creating natural disasters around the planet. Poseidon calls in his faithful Mariners to take her down but she has a group of fighters on her side as well. This is going to be a true battle of gods but time is not on Poseidon’s side. Can he hope to keep up against Nemesis while most of his power is still being sealed by Athena?

One thing I will say about this series that isn’t really a complement is that it’s very formulaic. This feels like the classic Seiya where everybody splits up and fights their opponent. Most of the fights follow the same structure where the hero gets absolutely dominated for a while, then we see the villain’s origin story. After that, we get the hero’s origin story and they get a big power up before winning the fight. There is some variety in the other of the origin stories but that’s about it. So while it’s still hype to see the actual battles, you always tend to know what’s about to happen.

In that respect, things get more interesting once they make it to Nemesis herself. Then the series can have fun messing with the natural order of things and all of the characters begin some fresh battles. Of course by then the series is just about over so that’s the one drawback. I do think the series managed to cover a lot of ground in just 20 chapters though. The chapters tend to be fairly long and filled with action. The series managed to cover a whole lot of origins in that time while also introducing a lot of characters. That takes a good amount of skill. While the writer does have a bit of a bad habit of making a ton of characters all talk and act similar, the origins help to diffuse this a bit. At least they are all put in really different circumstances.

Sorrento was never my favorite Mariner and I feel like the flute really put him at a disadvantage. It’s just not nearly as impressive a weapon as the fighters who use their fists to put everyone into submission. Yes, Sorrento’s flute seems to work on most of the fighters but when it fails, it goes really badly for him. I give him props for deciding to fight even when his opponent was a girl because some of the other fighters were not so practical.

His opponent Musicaterpsich has a really complicated name. Her illusions were fun like with how she summoned Andromeda. Of course I would say this was another lucky break for Sorrento. A physical type of adversary would have crushed him pretty thoroughly. At least illusions are something that you are able to successfully fight with music. She was a solid fighter even if she probably won’t be remembered a whole lot.

Poseidon looks pretty good here. He’s a reasonable guy and does save his fighters more than once. He takes a more active role than Athena. For example one of the villains sends his opponents to a parallel universe where they are living a normal life. Poseidon ends up having to step in personally to save them and I thought that was a really nice touch. He wasn’t going to just let them figure it out. Then he does get his own fight by the end. It all helps him to feel more like a real character and not some figurehead. He’s still not as cool as Hades but the series helped him.

Cadmos is a real beast because he had to take on two of the Mariners at once. He’s hardly the last to do it but he was the first to go on a 2 v 1. It’s also impressive since Kanon is easily the most powerful one. I like this guy’s design and he’s a really powerful fighter. He also has a very tragic backstory like the rest of the enemies. Ultimately there weren’t many ways out for the guy and as strong as he is, I don’t think anyone thought he could ultimately take Kanon down.

Kanon is having a tough time of it throughout the series because he still blames himself for what happened in the Poseidon arc. His lust for power is confusing him and the villains make sure to try and use this against him with visions of Gemini Saga. Kanon even gets beat up by his teammates but this does lead to a full character arc and by the end they have really recognized him as a true teammate. Kanon is a lot of fun to watch and so this was pretty satisfying.

Caca is still the last impressive member of the team. This series tries to rehabilitate the character a little bit but it feels rather half hearted. This is still not the guy that you want watching your back at all. He’s just not going to fight as well and no amount of power ups can help to change that. At least he helped Kanon but that’s all I can say for him.

Krishna is a pretty strong guy who has a legendary defense. As with the rest of the Mariners he is on the back foot for a good chunk of the fight until he gets his power up. He’s definitely a fun character and while you could say that a lot of the characters are written very similarly, it doesn’t take away from him being solid. Perhaps now he could actually give Virgo Shaka a solid fight. It was nice to see his origin here as well as most of the other Mariners.

His opponent Alis was a lot of fun because in a way he was like Pegasus Seiya. This guy was the original Pegasus Knight from legend and has the stats to back it up. I did like the gimmick that the villains were the actual heroes from legends as opposed to being reincarnations or anything like that. It adds a bit of an extra spark to the fights as a whole and keeps things fresh. Alis ended up being my favorite from the big villains.

Baian gets the shaft here a bit compared to the other Mariners. He has to share his opening fight which doesn’t go very well and after that he’s around with the rest of the team for their big wins. He does still have a proper fight but doesn’t stand out as much. I guess he just didn’t have a big character arc unlike most of the others. He’s still solid but feels more like the muscle of the group despite not being the strongest.

In comparison Isaak gets some more memories of his time with Hyoga and Camus. The guy has the most rage against Kanon for his betrayal and just oozes personality in all of his scenes. This guy is pretty central to the plot and it does make him cooler as a result. I just like when you have a character who gets to really show out like this. His design is also really awesome with how they handled the eye scar. Reminds me of Cable from X-Men.

Their opponent Aeneas is also one of the most impressive fighters. Not only does he instantly defeat his two opponents to the point where Poseidon had to bail them out but throughout the fight he had the advantage here. He just kept on getting stronger and stronger until he eventually fell. Ultimately it’s hard to keep up with Saints and Mariners forever since their strength levels are infinite but this guy really put up a great fight.

Then we get the final main challenger in Pollux. This guy is easily one of the strongest fighters in the series. He was able to handle several Mariners and just kept on getting up no matter how many attacks were thrown his way. He was the son of Zeus so it makes sense that his abilities would be high. Just when you think he’s down, he gets back up again. The guy has nonstop confidence and the power to back it up. I was definitely a pretty big fan by the end.

As for Nemesis, well she is a solid villain. We get her origin story about how her best friend Iustitia ended up sympathizing with the Pegasus knight of her time and this caused a lot of chaos. Nemesis had to take a big punishment from Zeus and even then it wasn’t enough to keep their friendship. Iustitia lost everything and Nemesis vowed revenge on the saints. It took her a long while but now in the present she is finally ready. I will say that the Pegasus from the past was really cool. He was able to complete many trials that seemed absolutely impossible to get through and yet nothing would stop him. He was a really good first generation of Pegasus saint before Seiya would show up.

Nemesis does go pretty crazy by the end though. You understand why after the flashback but it’s still not a great look for her. If she had only kept her composure and actually helped her fighters then they probably would have beaten the Mariners. Of course, most main villains don’t actually help so it’s not like she is the first to ditch her fighters. That’s just how it goes most of the time so the heroes have time to get their power ups in.

The artwork is definitely really good and looks just like the original series. The fights are intense and the power ups are all very dramatic. The series can randomly get pretty violent at times like when Pollux was ripped apart. That was an absolutely crazy scene. In some ways because it’s less detailed, it doesn’t feel as bad as other modern titles but it really comes out of nowhere. Needless to say, this is the kind of series that may startle you here and there.

Overall, This was a really fun spinoff. I liked how it actually kept the story going and wasn’t some random side story that won’t matter. This one can in theory be mentioned in the future and have some ramifications. I may be getting my hopes up too high there but at least there is a chance. It also shows how fleshed out the world is where you don’t even need Seiya and pals in order for this to be a big success. If you haven’t checked it out yet, then I definitely recommend changing that. There’s basically nonstop action the whole time and these are basically DBZ characters with their crazy amounts of power.

Overall 8/10

Spy x Family Season 3 Review

Posted on May 3, 2026 by dreager1

Spy x Family has been going on for quite a while now. It definitely looks like this isa title that will be sticking around even if it is at the cost of a fairly slow amount of plot progression. At this point the idea is mainly to enjoy the status quo which works well enough. The main characters are good and we do get some action scenes here. The season is solid as a whole and is a good comfort watch.

There are a few mini arcs in this season but for the most part we have a lot of stand alone adventures. The season kicks off with a disgruntled construction worker deciding to claim some lives and this forces Loid to step in. It’s a fun premiere to set up all of the characters and their personalities. I also like the idea of a random threat just popping up like this so that was well done.

We get a much smaller scale story after that where Fiona and Franky have to team up. Franky is consistently one of the most annoying characters so I definitely felt bad for Fiona here. She really had to put up with his endless flirting and everything. Franky needs to just stay on mission instead of doing too much all the time. Everything works out in the end but mainly I’d give all the credit to Fiona here.

This is probably Fiona’s best season in general because she gets a big fight near the end of the season. Without her, Loid would be dead and the heroes would have suffered a big blow. She really needs to give up on Loid romantically since he is married but otherwise she has developed herself into one of the strongest fighters around. She is really dedicated to clearing the mission and certainly has a high pain tolerance. She’s easily the second best agent only losing out to Loid on his side. Yes, Handler is strong too but I don’t think she’s on the same level.

As for Franky, I don’t really think there is any hope left for him. He is really stuck in the comic relief slot at this point. He may have some big moments here and there but at the same time I don’t really see him making the jump to being one of the top characters. It’s just not happening and his segments really always need another character in order to succeed. They are only marginally better than Bond’s. Anya segments can be hit or miss but at least she has a strong supporting cast to back her up.

She gets a short about a legendary teacher showing up to cause chaos. She is well known for throwing around Tonitrus bolts in order to penalize the various students. If you remember part of the main plot here, enough of those bolts will expel you. They are the opposite of Stella Stars, where getting a certain amount of them will allow you to graduate. So that’s really something to keep in mind and be worried about. One wrong turn and that’s going to be a big problem.

The old lady ends up being decent. Yes, she definitely is super unreasonable and not someone you would want to have on the faculty but at least she will be making sure that everyone stays sharp. I trust that Becky won’t make any mistakes but the other students better watch out. As the main student in the series, Anya can be a true wild card. Sometimes she is wise beyond her years but most of the time she will be falling into every possible trap. If she didn’t have the ability to read minds then she would really be doomed.

She does get one of the mini arcs though as Anya’s school bus is hijacked by terrorists. They are trying to spring some of their comrades but the military police have a 0 tolerance policy for negotiations. These guys appear to be serious about murdering everyone so Anya has to find a way out of this. Loid and Yuri also get involved briefly but for once they can’t claim a lot of credit here. Anya ends up being the definitive factor here even if it wasn’t all intentional. This was a fun mini arc though because there was a clear sense of danger here. Anya got some solid moments and I also was glad that the police didn’t just get completely paralyzed. They were ready to handle things by the book even if it meant some casualties would happen. It’s grim but sort of the way you have to handle things lie this or it would only get worse.

Then we have Loid’s origin story which is another big event. The show makes sure to hide his true name so I assume that will become relevant at some point. I’m curious what the implications would be. No way he’s actually a Desmond but I’m guessing Loid is related to some established character that we know about. Since Loid was a child at the time, it makes his origin even darker. He had to grow up really fast in a war torn environment even when he was just a child. That’s not easy for anybody.

It’s also a real contrast from the expert agent that he is in the present. While Loid sometimes gets overwhelmed, he always solves the case in the present. Loid continues to be one of the best characters in the series although I would have to give Yuri the top spot. The two of them get an actual battle in this season which was intense. Yuri appears to be stronger physically but Loid’s skills are far superior. It’s not even close when the two of them end up having a fight. We’ll see if Yuri can adapt or if that might have been their only fight.

It happens during the final arc of the season where both sides are trying to get to a secret agent. The secrets that he holds are simply too dangerous for anybody to have a hold of them. SSS and WISE both get some hype here as they uncover moles within each other’s organizations and continue to appear to be on par with each other. Neither side is significantly more powerful than the other. It’s still a bit unclear who the real good guys are here. Both organizations seem to be a bit on the shady side. In general I tend to side more with the SSS as the local authorities in the mix but it’s definitely not an easy call.

The new secret agent, Wheeler, was also a fun character. Definitely the best villain and it would be nice to see him again. I get the feeling that this was probably it for him though. Still, he got to show off a lot of great abilities like how he kept the main characters at bay the whole time. That’s not the easiest thing to do considering how outnumbered he was.

There are a few other oneshot stories like Loid having to deal with a jealous co-worker. That one just made me feel like the villain got off way too easily though. He was actively lying and trying to get Loid arrested. If Loid had not been a super spy, he would have been in real trouble. It’s why just scaring this guy doesn’t seem like enough. I know they have to keep a low profile so that does hurt your available options but there surely must have been something that they could have done.

You may be wondering what Yor is doing throughout this season. Well, unfortunately she doesn’t have a whole lot to do here. She has a segment where she gets drunk and tries to pick a fight with Loid but it isn’t her best appearance. Her larger role is when she gets to meet Damian’s mother and even joins a club with her in it. So now Yor is deeper into the main plot even if she doesn’t realize it. I think this should lead to some pretty interesting plots. I would like for Yor to be a little more alert on what’s going n but I suppose that simply isn’t her character.

Yor is still fun but man did she get the shaft in this one. I want some action scenes for her. Both Yor and Loid should get one big action scene in every season if you ask me. So by and large those were most of the adventures. I didn’t include literally each one but there was a lot of variety here. As always the technical elements were pretty good here. The animation is solid and the soundtrack works out well too. The opening isn’t my favorite though. It’s not the kind of intro that you will be playing on repeat or anything like that.

The writing is pretty solid and the pacing is good. I would say that the show has strong fundamentals all around. It just lacks ambition so this is the kind of show you watch passively but you won’t be on the edge of your seat quite yet. The show may prove me wrong with future seasons but I expect it will stay more or less like this for a while. So then it all comes down to the character dynamics and usually they cancel out to this one being a pretty good title. Loid and Yuri segments tend to be great. Bond and Franky segments are weak. Yor and Anya segments can really go either way. There is quite a lot of balance in this kind of setup.

Right now the 2 most interesting subplots are going to revolve around the group that gave Anya and Bond powers as well as who the “good guys” are between WISE and SSS. I expect at some point the series will choose one as the lesser of two evils. In theory the shady group giving people powers will be the final boss that both sides have to unite against. It will be fun once Loid and Yor find out about Anya’s secret but I expect that won’t happen until the very end of the series. Once they find out, there is no returning to the old status quo after all. While the series does have a body count, I would say that it is fairly light toned overall. This is an easy action title you can check out at any time.

Even if we do stay with episodic adventures for a while, I would just like to have a more even distribution of missions. We should always have at least one Yor assassination case and one secret agent case for Loid per season. If you go a whole season without that happening then it feels like something went wrong. Someone is getting too much focus and messing up the balance. If we have to stop having Franky segments, well then so be it. It is worth getting more action from Yor. The whole point of the show is about this family dynamic where everyone has a secret after all so the show needs to focus on that a bit more. Beyond that, it can just continue going on as it has been since each season has resulted in a good time from start to finish.

Overall, Spy x Family continues to churn out more and more episodes. It is impressive how far it has come with 3 seasons and a movie. Not just any title could hope to pull that off. I feel like there is already enough material for a season 4. If you have enjoyed the first two seasons then you should have fun with this one. The 13 episodes go by quickly but they still did manage to get 3 story arcs in there which is pretty impressive. I’ll definitely be around for season 4 when it comes out.

Overall 7/10

Knuckles Review

Posted on May 3, 2026 by dreager1

It’s time to look at the Knuckles spinoff show that came out a while back. This one definitely got pretty infamous online for a bunch of reasons. After watching it, I can say that the show was pretty fun. It’s definitely very comedic with a lot of slapstick and silly moments so you definitely need to keep this in mind. It’s absolutely not a big action thriller series or anything like that. How much you enjoy the series will probably depend on what you’re looking for in this title.

The story starts with Wade losing to a little girl in bowling so Wade’s best friend fires him from the bowling team. Their friendship is effectively over now and Wade has hit rock bottom. His father ditched him at a TJ Maxx a long time ago too and Wade never really got over this. The trauma has been too much and so Wade has begun to believe the people who call him a loser. Fortunately Knuckles shows up and declares that he will help Wade win the world championship of bowling. This will help Wade get his self esteem back as well as giving him a chance to defeat his father. Will Wade be able to pull this off?

If you’re wondering why Wade showed up, he was given this mission by the elder Echidna. Knuckles had been on house arrest but this mission takes priority. It won’t be easy though because Wade really does have serious confidence issues. Technically his bowling abilities are already elite but he just needs to find a way to not choke under pressure. It’s a tougher predicament than you would expect. Also there are some villains running around who want to get Knuckles’ power. Without Sonic to bail him out, Knuckles will need Wade to step up.

So like I said, none of this is played seriously. You’ll have a serious moment sandwiched in between 10 comedic moments. How seriously you take these brief moments is really up to you since the show doesn’t seem to really be all that concerned. I would say this is the definition of an irony show. For example Knuckles will say something heartfelt, then 3 characters jump in with jokes and witty banter. Then Wade will say something heartfelt and the music swells up….only for him to throw a joke in and then everyone groans in the show.

In that way you can say that even the serious moments are a form of comedy so that just makes the show funnier. You can absolutely pick up some good messages and moments in here but they are buried several layers deep beneath the humor. Sonic has a good speech in episode 1 for example as he sits Knuckles down and gives him a good talk. I definitely did miss Sonic after that since he was gone for the rest of the show. I would have liked to have had him at least show up near the end. The show finishes pretty abruptly without any screentime and guest star appearances from the side characters.

The fight scenes aren’t bad. They aren’t played super serious either but we get a fun fight between Knuckles and Mason. Mason’s gauntlets allow him to fight on par with Knuckles in terms of physical abilities which is really pretty impressive. Now there are a lot of power level issues with the series as a whole so you will want to keep that in mind. The speed rarely ever makes any sense because somehow these guys are tagging Knuckles consistently when by all accounts he should be much faster than them. It doesn’t make sense and in a way it’s not really supposed to. All you need to know is that Knuckles has the combat speed of an average human and while his strength is pretty good, it’s nothing crazy. As long as you keep that in mind then the fights make a lot more sense all around.

While Knuckles talks a great game throughout the show, he does take his share of losses. Even by the end of the series he is soundly defeated instead of coming out on top. As strong as he is, Knuckles tends to be overconfident a lot of the time. Fortunately he has Wade there to help him out. Knuckles may not always be quick on the uptake but he’s a fun character to have around.

As for Wade, he’s essentially an Adam Sandler kind of character. He’s not very good at most things and gets pushed around a whole lot but eventually he gets up and makes everyone take notice of him. His sister constantly makes fun of him and beats the poor guy up to which Wade has no real answer. He just goes off to cry sometimes and that’s not the best way to handle that situation at all. He has delusions of grandeur and at times displays a confidence that isn’t earned but those moments tend to be fleeting.

You sort of root for Wade to at least win in bowling but even then I would put some asterisks. For example he is quick to turn on his mom just to impress his father without taking any time to think about it. He was not making the right calls there at all. It’s fine for Wade to be gullible because that’s actually rather expected to a large degree but then you can’t also have him be rude or mean in general. That’s a combination that is just not going to work.

So he’s a fun character for the messing around scenes but definitely isn’t the guy you want to have for the serious moments. As for his sister Wanda, well she makes for a fun antagonist. She really puts him through the wringer at all times. She just constantly has to make a fool out of Wade which isn’t all that hard but even goes as far as to physically attack him at times. Wade has no real answer for this and so she tends to dominate him in all of their interactions. Her personality can be a bit one note so the screentime may be a bit much after a while. This is the kind of show that is not afraid to run a joke into the ground.

Then we have Wendy who tends to be a bit oblivious. She seems nice enough but doesn’t notice when Wanda is picking on Knuckles and likes to both sides every issue. That’s not the right way to handle these kinds of issues. If anything, you could say that is definitely the wrong way to do it since that is often going to mean letting the instigator off easy. She talks tough and actually backs it up during the kitchen fight so I give her some credit there.

Now the real standout character here was Mason. He is one of the main two villains who is after Knuckles the whole time. He is super cocky and loves to make one liners/throw out insults the whole time. You want a villain like that to keep Knuckles honest. This guy is also clearly having a lot of fun with the whole situation and isn’t taking things too seriously. Another good sign if you ask me. Mason is just on a different level from the others and really did come close to beating Knuckles.

His partner Willoughby is the more serious one of the group. She’s always trying to ruin his one liners and telling him to focus. She isn’t as lethal in a fight since she uses an energy instead of gauntlets but is good at throwing the ring portals to trap her opponents. That is a huge help for any big fight because you can ring out your opponent which is what she did to Knuckles. She’s also rather ruthless like how she murdered a Gun agent near the beginning of the show.

Then we have Jack who is a bounty hunter and turns against Wade when the chips are down. He has a lot of aura to be sure but doesn’t get the most dignified finish. By the time the show is over, he has traded in a whole lot of dignity and you can tell that he won’t be getting it back. I did like his confidence though, you always want to have that at least. A part of him just figured that he would never lose to Wade in a million years and in most cases he would be right. He just let his guard down.

The final boss is a guy who doesn’t even get a name. He has a good robot that actually takes Knuckles down but that’s about all that you can say for him. The guy doesn’t have any real super powers or anything and the lack of screen time hurts him. He works as a final boss but I would have much preferred Mason just show up. There is only so much you can do with a fight against a giant robot and so naturally the climax was pretty short.

Of course for the human final boss we have Wade’s father Pete. I like how antagonistic Pete is here. He’s not some guy who feels remorseful about what he has done. No, he is someone who really wants to keep on winning at bowling no matter what. His only loyalty is to himself but he has done a good job of crafting his public persona so that everybody loves him. That takes a good amount of dedication to his craft. He is also just very skilled with how many strikes he gets in a row. This guy was definitely more of a true final boss.

While the series may be fairly standalone, it was fun to still see some slice of life Sonic adventures. We learned Knuckles’ origin through song and the show also had a large variety of popular songs. Even the classic Hero song got to appear which was definitely nice. That song will always be a true classic. So the soundtrack gets a thumbs up along with the special effects here. On a technical level, the Knuckles show absolutely succeeds.

Ultimately as long as you like comedies then you should like this one. If you don’t like comedies then it’ll be a hard pass so that should make the decision easy for you. If we ever did get a second season, well I’d definitely be checking it out. At the end of the day a show like this is easy to watch and makes for an enjoyable binge. That’s the #1 goal of any show.

Overall, Knuckles is a pretty good show. I had a lot of fun with it and you can bet that you’ll crack a smile here and there. While not all of the jokes will land, most of the ones that miss will end up being funny because of how much of a miss they were. Wade’s whole gimmick is essentially that he’s not funny so every time he tries to do something, that is what makes it humorous. He tries to get Knuckles to enjoy a lot of his songs after all and they all fall flat. In a way that takes some skill because you’d think that you would land at least a few songs. This just wasn’t Wade’s moment. Hopefully he gets a bigger role in the next Sonic movie so he can actually use his vague super powers.

Overall 7/10

Explorers Review

Posted on May 3, 2026 by dreager1

It’s time for a film about a few kids who decide to explore the unknown and have some wacky adventures. Generally this kind of film isn’t really my style. The kids usually aren’t the greatest main characters and you’re just waiting for the grownups to step in. Additionally this time the plot seems a little unfocused with subplots not really going anywhere. The real world plot was also a lot more interesting than space which is something that should really never happen. That’s when you know that the film made some strategic errors.

The film starts with a kid named Ben having some dreams that look like what you would see in a Tron film. All kinds of sci-fi computer chips and such. Fortunately he is good at drawing what he sees and so his super genius friend Wolfgang is able to make an invention out of this. It’s a sort of bubble that can travel across large distances. So naturally they build a spaceship during the night. Now they are ready to space but is this safe? There may even be some aliens out there.

One thing I’ll give the film credit for is not making the main 3 kids jerks or anything like that. For all intents and purposes they are good kids. Perhaps a bit too eager to grow up like with drinking beer and Ben having a huge crush but they aren’t juvenile delinquents or anything like that. They just have a ton of free time so they may as well get to inventing. The film is a good portrayal of how you can have fun doing anything when you’ve got some friends at the ready.

I will also say that the effects are pretty solid. Again, that Tron type world in the dreams looks really good. The flying around may be less impressive but all in all you can tell that some real effort went into this production. The soundtrack is also very lively. Perhaps not something that you will be jamming to but at least you can’t say that the music is invisible. I will always prefer a loud soundtrack to a movie where you don’t remember what any of the tunes were at all.

Now on the weaker parts, well like I said the characters aren’t the greatest. Ben is basically your average kid but he has a huge crush on a girl at school and basically isn’t able to talk to her at all without stuttering. The romance is really not developed well at all and doesn’t make any sense. Lori and Ben have almost no time for any interactions during the movie so the ending just feels really obligatory.

Lori is okay I suppose but of course she doesn’t really have much character either. By all accounts she’s a nice person within the school but that’s about it. Then you have Darren who seems to have grown up in a rather rough environment. He was pretty hesitant about going back home for example. This doesn’t really go anywhere though so we just have to hope that things got better for him later on. At school he was quick to defend Ben from the bullies so that was good.

From the 3 main kids he would definitely be my favorite. After that we have Wolfgang who is the genius who builds everything. He’s certainly very smart and is a good sport about things but also tends to panic a lot. He worries about every possibility and doesn’t live in the moment as much as the other two. You want him on your team to build everything but he needs to lighten up a bit.

Now the film does have a pretty interesting concept that is introduced about a shared dream world that can be accessed through an alien gizmo. While you are dreaming is when you go to this kind of Tron world. This is how the kids have the blue print for the ship and so it served as a map of sorts. Alien tech is always pretty interesting even if there aren’t a lot of explanations going around. Why is this even a thing and what causes other people to be pulled into it? The main kids all share this world after a while and eventually even Lori gets in there.

The space act is just rather boring like I mentioned before. You have a weird alien who flirts with one of the kids and everyone else starts talking using pop culture references and such. It kind of makes sense that aliens would only know humanity through TV if the signals are all that they could grab. Although at the same time I feel like it means their intelligence is pretty low. Every film still has some kind of a plot, even commercials so shouldn’t they be able to talk normally instead of just using memes and big sound bites?

I mean the aliens are clearly intelligent because they were able to invent all of this technology. It reminds me of when in a show some animals will speak perfect English and then raise a kid who speaks broken English. Like why would that even happen? It just doesn’t make sense once you actually think about it. The film thinks the aliens are absolutely hilarious though so their scenes feel like they go on for quite a long while but get repetitive real fast. The aliens also just seem like creeps so it was probably good to ditch them.

As a result of spending so much time on the alien world we had to abruptly end the plot about two rangers finding out about the UFO and one of them being particularly obsessed with it. He basically just pulls a Spiderverse “Not bad kid” as they dash off in the UFO. Pretty convenient outcome for the kids since he won’t be telling anybody about the ship or doing anything about it. That felt really abrupt and it’s a shame because we could have had a fun government angle.

Overall, This film feels like it’s a bit all over the place. I actually think it could have been a fairly decent school story although it’s not like it would have been amazing or anything like that. Instead going to space was a total mistake and this film is a reminder to me on why you want some adult main characters. The kids are not able to hold their own at all here. It’s a pretty harmless film, no big issues but it’s not really going to be holding your interest either. I’d say to watch Back to the Future instead if you want some slice of life shenanigans.

Overall 5/10

	Anonymous on Invisible Woman vs Molecule…
	jhg195 on Batman vs Zatanna
	dreager1 on The Man in the Moon Revie…
	Anonymous on Sonic Dream Team Review
	Anonymous on The Man in the Moon Revie…
	Anonymous on The Alain vs Leon fight should…

DReager1.com

The Ultimate Fighting/Review Site

Fate/strange Fake Review

Sword of Vermilion Review

Queen’s Quality Review

Kaiju No. 8 Review

The Elusive Samurai Review

Crusader of Centy Review

Saint Seiya: Rerise of Poseidon Review

Spy x Family Season 3 Review

Knuckles Review

Explorers Review

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: