Monthly Archives: January 2021

Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy: Earthrise Review

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All right, we’ve made it to season 2 of the War for Cybertron trilogy. The first season started things on a high note as we had some good debates between Prime and Megatron. Both characters were written really well so you could legitimately choose which side you were on. Both of them made moves that even their own sides questioned. This season adds in a lot of extra elements. Both teams have their own plots for most of the season before converging at the end. It’s really hard to say how things will play out from here but one thing’s for sure, it’s definitely going to be interesting to see how this ends.

The season starts off with Megatron’s plot. Since Prime stole the All Spark, Cybertron is slowly dying. Megatron has been stalling the inevitable by using the sparks of robots to power up his rocket ship. He intends to find Prime once and for all to bring the All Spark back or at least avenge his planet. However, this is one of those times where the end doesn’t justify the means. He’s effectively slaughtering many members of his own people as Elita points out and this causes a lot of friction even among the Decepticons. Can Elita stop him or is Cybertron really doomed?

Meanwhile, Prime and his crew exit stasis but find that they have been taken prisoner by a group of bounty hunters. These hunters are going to sell them off to the Quintessons. The Autobots will have to find a way out of this predicament and soon but the issue is that these villains are actually quite powerful. Both Autobots and Decepticons are at their wits end here which ends up leading into the solid climax. It’s clear from the start of the series that there are more Decepticons than Autobots so they have the edge there but they are consistently a lot weaker so it helps balance things out in the end.

I feel like there was more action here than in season 1 although it’s close. We got to actually see Shockwave get his own fight which was really nice. Additionally, we have a guest star show up from the future or another dimension. That’s easily the most intriguing plot for me right now. When this character jumps out of a portal and starts fighting Megatron it’s just really interesting. It’s also rare to see Megatron be dominated so completely but it makes sense that he wouldn’t be able to defeat this opponent. This fighter is one of the stronger Transformer characters out there and he really lives up to the hype. He leaves as suddenly as he appeared but not before leaving something. Personally I take this to be a warning from a possible future as opposed to the present. It would work out well with all the distortions taking place.

Of course, the ending of the season is pretty open at the moment. You can have a lot of different theories on what just happened here. Personally I’m going to assume time travel once more. That’s pretty much always my default response but I feel like it just makes a whole lot of sense. Then there’s an equal debate on if the characters are going to the future or the past. I would say past personally. Of course we should know pretty soon once season 3 starts. There’s so much going on that it’s almost a bit hard to picture the series already coming to a close. Maybe we’ll get a sequel series or something.

There’s one part of the show where the characters enter another dimension where willpower is how you fight. This was pretty neat and reminds me a bit of Accel World’s Incarnate system or even the one SAO invented later on. Megatron really adapted to it quite well. At the same time I was really underwhelmed by another character who was in this universe for a very long time and claimed to have mastered his mind. Despite this, he was easily dispatched in a single move. You’d think that in a world where mental power is absolute experience would be vital. I guess the difference in their abilities was just that drastic though.

The animation here is definitely solid as expected. The designs are very full and detailed so the robots really feel sturdy. You can feel the power behind all of the blows. We get another solid Prime vs Megatron fight here as well as a whole group battle with Scorponok. If we ever get the mental world again, I’d like to see more of the energy effects there. The colors were pretty striking so it worked out quite well. The soundtrack is a little less memorable but it works well enough for the scenes that are present. I certainly had no complaints at least.

There are quite a few character arcs at play here as well. Naturally for Megatron we’re seeing him go on a darker path. He’s slowly going from more of a misunderstood anti-hero to full villain. The instant he decided to destroy an entire factory worth of Cybertronians you knew there was no turning back for him. He doesn’t yet realize it but Megatron is now a villain simply justifying his every move. He is a very interesting villain though and the character arc’s been handled well. As always he is still quite confident and self assured in his own power.

For Prime, his arc is a little different from what you may expect. He’s had to live with the fact that a lot of Autobots don’t support his decision to remove the All Spark and then to search for it, including Elita. These feelings of guilt seem to have made him even more obsessive now such as when he was beating up on Megatron. Prime was really losing control there to the point of going crazy, even begging Megatron to forgive him before murdering the guy. Prime is done taking prisoners although circumstances ensured he didn’t finish things off yet. I’m assuming in the next season Prime will regain control of himself although if he doesn’t then things are really going to get crazy around here.

Naturally we have a lot of other characters on both sides. Some characters like Bumblebee and Soundwave don’t get a whole lot to do this time. Bumblebee already had a good amount of screen time in season 1 though so that’s fair. He is also around in every episode so it’s not like he goes missing. I would say the Autobot with the biggest role after Prime would have to be Elita. Not only does she get her own big fight scene but with Prime gone she is effectively the Autobot leader on Cybertron. She’s also doing a good job in this role as well. She does her best to be fair to everyone and take the villains down without hurting anyone in the middle. Perhaps she can be too trusting in these times of war, but she is focused on not losing her ideals even if it means her defeat and I can certainly respect that.

Jetfire also has a sizable role here. As a former Decepticon he’s definitely not as quick to offer mercy as Elita. He makes a lot of good strategic points. Technically his methods are correct if you simply wish to win the war. Particularly with how the Autobots are totally outgunned in terms of energon and numbers they do need every advantage they can get. Continuing to hit every base to free Decepticons does truthfully sound like a task that will backfire horribly. He continues to help though and never turns away so this guy is quite good.

Naturally Starscream gets quite the role here as always. You’ll probably think he gets off a bit easy and that’s exactly why Starscream continues to pull these stunts. He knows that nobody is going to mess with him. This confidence is part of what makes him such a solid villain. His abilities know no bounds. Then you have Shockwave in what’s his best appearance in a long time. We get to see him using his tech in the field of battle instead of in the lab for a change. He has to be one of the most fearsome opponents to have to face here because of the fact that he has no emotions. He will do whatever it takes in order to claim victory and doesn’t care what the price is. There is no negotiating with this guy.

Quick shoutout to Scorponok as well for being a very interesting villain. He even got his own origin story where we find out that things didn’t go well for his people and then he goes right on the attack. He’s not the kind of villain to get overly sentimental or anything like that. His sheer defenses are also pretty crazy considering just how many opponents he was taking on at once. Right now you would have to put him as the strongest fighter in the series. The Quintessons get a solid mention for being powerful as well. Although in their case it’s more due to prep time and tech than sheer fighting ability. Don’t underestimate them though. There’s a pretty intense scene involving in-fighting among the group and lets just say we definitely know the hierarchy of the group now.

Naturally with so many spoiler filled events here I had to keep things vague. Still, there’s a ton to unpack here and most importantly, the story is just very engaging. Transformers has a lot of lore and characters within the franchise so it’s nice to see the show taking advantage of this. It’s also cool to have a different kind of story line here as opposed to the usual Autobots vs Decepticons story on Earth. That one’s a classic too of course, but with a space setting you’re free to branch out a whole lot. There are enough villains and plots going on now where it’s hard to say who the next opponent will be. The heroes may need some kind of power up to come out on top though.

At most the only thing I would say against the show is that the Decepticons look a little too weak most of the time. Aside from the named bots like Megatron and pals, the rest are treated quite poorly. A single Autobot will beat half a dozen Decepticons with ease. I don’t see why the gap would be so large. It explains why a group of a dozen or so Autobots who are all almost out of energon are beating 5-7 times that amount of fighters on the Decepticon side but I just don’t think it adds up all that well. Particularly since the Decepticons have more energon which powers up most functions. In a way I think this was the easiest way to keep the Autobots in the fight as otherwise they all should have been taken out a long time ago. The show paints a very drastic picture of just how massive a disadvantage the heroes are at. It’s a fairly minor thing in the grand scheme of things though but I wouldn’t mind seeing the Decepticons make a comeback in the third volume.


Overall, Season 2 of the War for Cybertron trilogy continues to take things in the right direction. I would say it even beats the first season. With the introductions and world setting out of the way, this season was able to jump right into the action. Seeing the Quintessons again was fun and the bounty hunters were also pretty interesting even if they didn’t look great in the end. This is exactly why you must never underestimate your opponent and keep your guard up at all times. Scorponok was given a ton of hype here being able to take on the combined forces of Autobots and Decepticons for so long. Now with the ending we can look forward to more characters being introduced to the action. Again, I’m not sure how everything can be addressed in the next season but I look forward to seeing how it plays out.

Overall 8/10

Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte Review

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Whenever you have a film where the main antagonist turns out to get bullied by another one, you have to handle things delicately or the whole project is liable to fail. Can you really take such a turn of events seriously? Now you can handle this quite well in an action setting but in more of a dramatic fashion like this one? Well, it definitely raises a few eyebrows. This film is fairly good all things considered but I do find parts of it to be rather unbelievable. I have to question the writing at times as well.

The movie starts with a flashback where we have a lot of drama going on. Charlotte’s father finds out that she intends to run off with this whiny guy named John. John is already married and both characters know this but he intends to cheat on his wife anyway. Charlotte is cool with this so keep in mind that from the start we know that she’s not exactly a heroic character. Well, the father forces John to turn Charlotte down but he quickly gets hacked to bits for his trouble. We fast forward a few decades and Charlotte is now an old lady that nobody wants to hang out with. Everyone believes she murdered John and people give her a wide berth. The town has tried to be patient as well but her house is supposed to have been torn down but she refuses to leave it. She even goes as far as to shoot at the workers.

Fortunately her cousin Miriam has returned to help smooth things over. Charlotte wants her to convince the town to let her stay in the house but Miriam says this is impossible. Miriam intends to convince Charlotte to leave. The issue is, if Charlotte is still a vicious murderer, is Miriam really safe? Perhaps she should leave quickly. The town is in a tough spot either way since Charlotte has a gun and isn’t afraid to use it. From here on out we get quite a number of twists and turns as the plot goes underway.

And that’s no understatement…there are a ton of twists here. Some which make more sense than others. I’ll go through this while sidestepping any big spoilers and reveals. For starters though, this is the kind of movie that only works with a lead character like Charlotte who is consistently giving everyone a hard time and isn’t very smart. She rarely knows what is going on and panics about everything. There are several times in the film where there is a twist later on that should not have tricked Charlotte the first time but only did so because she handled the whole situation horribly. She badly needed some more will power for certain things.

I also thought she really sunk in terms of personality and toughness by the end. She goes from openly threatening to murder everyone at first and being the toughest character in the room to suddenly being pushed around by everyone. It was hard to watch Charlotte by the end because she was falling for everything. She really needed more of a backbone and it’s just hard to believe because of how tough she was at the start. I admit that the whole thing just didn’t feel particularly earned.

The film’s pretty tame aside from the opening scene. The guy getting axed to bits can be surprisingly intense since the rest of the film is much more of a low key thriller. That said, many of the characters also make similar decisions where they look terrible. You’d think the guy getting hacked to bits would have run off somewhere right? At least reacting a bit more would have made sense. Then you’ve also got Velma who is pretty nosey and tends to find out quite a lot but is very obvious about it. If you’re digging up some dirt about the villains, why would you walk up to them and explain how you’re going to go to the police? It’s just not a smart play by any stretch of the imagination. It’s awfully convenient for the villains though.

Then near the end of the film you have two characters loudly talking about their entire plan in detail for the world to hear. They’re laughing, drinking, and basically having a party. One of them even throws a glass cup away where we hear it loudly shatter and they continue on with their speech. This isn’t in a secret room or anything. No, it’s right in the front yard so that doesn’t make things any better either. It’s a scene that doesn’t make much sense at all, but it is what it is I suppose

So the writing’s not amazing in moments like that. On the whole the film has good enough writing where the plot is interesting. It’s just that when you really zoom in on it, things don’t really seem to add up the way that they should. That or the characters just act very unnaturally in order to get the plot moving. I would argue it starts up right from near the beginning of the film. Still, the movie did have a core focus and a real story unlike other similar titles like “Whatever happened to Baby Jane” which were just awful from start to finish.

I already spoke at length about Charlotte and why she’s a pretty bad character. Miriam no better here. She has her own set of issues and loves doing a lot of different manipulation tactics. Then you have Doctor Drew who seems rather desperate throughout the film. He’s not really someone you can trust all that much to get the job done. Finally there is Velma who is at least more of an interesting character than a lot of the others. Too bad she isn’t very smart though or she could have been a standout character.

The movie’s ending is pretty conclusive though and does end the film on the right note. It’s pretty much an ideal ending in a lot of respects as everything is wrapped up nicely. The film manages to hold onto some points thanks to that. I do think the movie started out better than it ended though. The movie could have gone in a much different direction and I think it would have worked out better that way. Charlotte’s personality shift is still something I can’t really come to terms with.

Overall, This film was really skirting between a 5 and a 6 the whole time. It’s certainly not a bad movie but just how good was it? It was interesting upon first watch although I wouldn’t say there is any replay value to be had here. The writing was rather weak during the film but at least the script was okay. It’s hard to believe almost anything going on in the film so you do need to suspend your disbelief for a bit. As long as you do that then you’re fine. So I’d say that the film ultimately clocks out in the middle. It was close to breaking out but has too many flaws. If you’d like to check out more of an intense mystery you’ll want to look elsewhere.

Overall 5/10

The Gate Review

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Whenever you find a portal to the demon world in your backyard you know that something’s just not right. Well, that’s definitely the case here as the characters tamper with forces well beyond their comprehension. There are some fun ideas in this one but the film is ultimately held way back by the main characters. I’ll give the film some credit for having very unique visuals though.

The movie starts with Glen having some nightmares but at least the tree is finally taken down. Unfortunately there is now a huge hole there which leads to the demon world thanks to Glen’s friend Terry reciting an ancient chant. See, it turns out that some old records/music tapes actually contain real chants and summons for demons. Wouldn’t have expected that eh? Well, turns out that the battle against the demons has been going on for centuries. With the demons at the ready that means Glen and Terry will have to seal the portal but getting near it without dying will be tough. Also, Glen’s parents aren’t home so his older sister Alexandra will have to do.

In a way this film is sort of mixing Poltergeist with Home Alone. The parents leaving early on ensures that the kids are going to have to solve this on their own with no real backup. It makes sense as having parents around would likely have meant there would be a lot less tension the whole time. Most of the demons may have had some trouble there.

Going into the visuals though, the film goes all out with how the demons can appear. If you try to squash them then they can appear as tons of tiny little rodents. They can possess people, shape shift, and do all kinds of things. It’s pretty crazy. While the film is fairly tame for the most part, it can also get rather violent randomly at times. One such appearance is when Terry gets taken in or even when the parents show up in their deformed states.

The movie goes all in on being a true horror during these moments. The kids being fairly isolated also helps to up the danger feeling. Where the film really falters is with the characters. Kids have a hard time holding up their own film and this one is no exception. Glen tends to be fairly annoying a lot of the time. I’m also not sure why he got so emotional from levitating. It didn’t seem so scary and now at least he got to see some supernatural elements at work.

Glen spends a lot of time saying he wants to call his folks. I don’t blame him to an extent since Alexandra was shredding the rules instantly but it doesn’t help their case of not needing a babysitter. Then you have Terry who is always acting rather edgy. He hasn’t gotten over his mother’s death which is understandable but he definitely is not coping very well. Getting into all of this demon lore definitely cannot be good for him. He also has the weakest scene in the film when he throws the dog while being afraid. A very poor scene to be sure.

The film didn’t need any animal deaths for shock value here. I was like c’mon guys..at least it didn’t get murdered by the demons or anything like that. Then you have Alexandra who is supposed to be the reasonable member of the group and yet she was quick to host a party and just be very immature about the whole thing. She was even willing to leave Glen by himself even though her whole job was to watch over him. It’s not like it would have helped her out in the long run either since Glen would be sure to have said something. Ultimately Alexandra made the right decision and didn’t leave but this was not her best appearance. At least she did tell the friends to go away later on.

The friends in this film were pretty annoying the whole time. They definitely weren’t trying to help in the slightest and were just getting in the way. They didn’t really contribute anything to the story. You’d think that since one of the characters here is actually able to move things with her mind that maybe she would show up to really help out here. Well, I’m afraid that isn’t quite the case. In the end she still vanishes with most of the other characters while only 2 friends stay to act as comic relief and panic whenever the demons get close. The writing is decent although not the most engaging I’ve seen. Again, that’s mainly due to the main cast just being the kids. I think it would have worked out a lot better if the parents were there to keep them in line.

While some of the visuals are pretty inventive like the minis running around, others could just get pretty grotesque and violent like the eye appearing in someone’s fist and then having to be slashed away. Definitely pretty intense stuff to be sure. I definitely wouldn’t be able to give that one a thumbs up. In general while the plot is reasonably interesting, I don’t think there is anything that will really keep you tied to the film. Ultimately it still gets beat by many other films. I’d say to make this film better just age up the characters a bunch and cut away the dog from being part of the summoning ritual. While the ending helps to keep the movie from really going down, there are just too many things limiting it.

Overall, The Gate has some interesting ideas here. It’s certainly a title that you won’t be forgetting anytime soon. It also does give you a nice sense of danger here as the demons are quite powerful and can take many different forms. That helps set them apart from your average supernatural villain. The characters just aren’t good enough to really support this premise and some of the horror visuals can be a bit more shock value than needed. It would definitely get quite out there at times. If you want to check out a horror film involving other dimensions then you can do better than this one.

Overall 3/10

The Young Savages Review

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The Young Savages is a film involving gang violence and ultimately trying to decide how this should be handled. When the culprits are minors it can muddy the waters. Do they know what they were doing and should be given the full punishment or should they be let off easy? It’s always a big debate even in modern settings as these kinds of things tend to keep on going. The film certainly doesn’t cop out as it has Hank pick a side, but did he pick the right one?

The movie starts with 3 gang members walking up to a blind kid who was playing his harmonica and stabbing him to death. They run out of there but the cops quickly pick them up. Hank is put in charge as the main prosecutor and aims to go for the death penalty on these guys. He has to make sure he has an airtight case though because two of them are minors and they allege that the blind kid had a knife so they were acting in defense. He’ll have to get to the bottom of this but there are parties on both sides putting pressure on him.

Hank’s boss wants a conviction here to help him when running for mayor. He feels that it will look really good. You have gangs from Irish and Puerto Rican groups who of course both want him to one way or the other. They even send people to his home to intimidate his wife as well as to beat him up. Both sides continue to grow more and more aggressive with their tactics and at the end of the day Hank has to decide what to do.

There are a number of twists here both involving the victim as well as the 3 murderers. This all leads up to the big court case that the film ends off with. I suppose I won’t say which side Hank ultimately helps out but here are the crucial facts. The victim was actually a high ranking member of the opposing gang. He hadn’t tried attacking or anything at this point but this was more about revenge than anything else. For the 3 murderers, one of them was pretty much evil from the jump. Another one isn’t all that intelligent and is easily manipulated by the other one. Then the third is someone who doesn’t like being in a gang and abusing people like this but does it to stay cool with the group. In the end he didn’t actually stab the kid but he didn’t try to stop it either so he was an accessory at bare minimum.

All 3 of these kids are old enough where they are completely responsible for what they are doing. You can give a pass to the third kid for not being mentally sane enough to be responsible. Sending him for treatment and rehabilitation is fine. The other two are certainly guilty though. One of them wanting to fit in with the crowd to this extent but not wanting to do it is immaterial. If you are going along with a gang and doing all of this then you absolutely have to be held accountable for that.

There should be major jail time for that. It also doesn’t matter that the victim was a gang member because then you’re just being a complete vigilante at that point. You can’t allow people to just go around murdering others like that whether the revenge is believed to be justified or not. I don’t believe there should be a true defense for either of those two.

The court scene to close things off is naturally pretty fun. The characters may not be going all out in this case so it turns into a pretty unique proceeding but I always like courtroom environments. They just make for very engaging scenes and set things off for a solid climax. In general the writing here was pretty solid. There are a whole lot of characters and motivations to go through but the movie never drags on with this. At most the ending may just be annoying depending on whose side you’re on. A big takeaway here is definitely that the area was super dangerous at this point in time. The police basically have to look the other way with the gangs because they are so extensive and have a lot of power.

Hank is a solid main character. You have to give him a lot of credit for always trying his best to find out the answers. Both sides accuse him a lot of just being someone who wants to see his version of the story but you don’t get that impression. Hank is doing his best to check every avenue out but it doesn’t help that the whole town is playing hardball. Nobody ever gives him a straight answer and then you have both gangs trying intimidation tactics on him. If anything it’s impressive that Hank made it so far particularly since he had 0 support. He did well in the Subway fight as well.

Meanwhile his wife Karin was doing her best to ridicule him and embarrass them at public parties. It was definitely not a great look. It took a while for her to start acting reasonably. For most of the film she’s just a little too exaggerated. It’s reasonable to take the other position that no matter what since the kids are minor they shouldn’t be seriously punished for murdering people or doing any kind of crime but you need to be prepared to have some real conversations about it rather than just making fun the whole time.

Overall, The Young Savages is a solid film. I’d say whether or not you agree with Hank’s decision and actions at the end of the film, he did do a good job of gathering a lot of intel. He also took a lot of serious risks such as visiting the turf of both gangs without any true backup. He came close to dying a few times as well. He says he grew up in the neighborhood and you believe it since the guy is plenty tough. In the background of the film you also get the impression that none of the characters here have had an easy time of things. They’ve been through a lot and will continue to do so while the gangs control the area instead of the police.

Overall 6/10

A Silent Voice Review

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I remember reading the manga for this one a long time ago and definitely destroyed it. It was extremely mean spirited the whole time and even by the end a lot of characters got away with a whole bunch. Well, turning an entire series into a single film means there are going to need to be significant cuts around the board so maybe this adaption would be better. It does seem like in particular they cut out a lot of the pre time skip content to get to the modern day quicker. I would say its better than the manga.

The movie starts with a transfer student named Shoko entering Shoya’s class. She has difficulty hearing and as a result isn’t able to speak very well either. Shoya and the boys quickly decide to start bullying her and eventually the whole class gets in on this. They keep on breaking her hearing aids and talking behind her back. Eventually she transfers out of the class and everyone pins the blame on Shoya. He was the ringleader but everyone was in on it. We cut to a few years later where Shoya has decided to destroy himself but ultimately decides not to. He runs into Shoko again and decides that he needs to make things right and become her friend. Can he really do it though or is he too far gone?

Right away you can kind of tell how much you will like the film based on how much you can buy into Shoya’s arc. As mentioned, the film does a pretty good job of really cutting out a lot of the opening moments and kind of breezing through things. It’s appreciated but I definitely still didn’t like Shoya. He started out mild but very quickly began to escalate well past the point of no return. He is effectively a different character pre and post time skip, but even with that it was hard to like him.

He could have defended himself a lot better with the rest of the friends later on. When Miki was spreading rumors once again he should have quickly come clean and told his side of the story. Instead he retreated once more but not before taking shots at every character to make himself appear to be the bad guy again.

All in all, Shoya does his best to atone for his earlier mistakes. So you have to give him some props but it doesn’t mean you have to like the guy either. He would still be one of the weaker characters in the film. Unfortunately the best character from the manga (Satoshi) has a smaller role here. He still looks very good in his appearances though as he pressures Miki to do the right thing and just seems like a stand up guy. He feels like the most heroic member of the group to be sure. He’s just a lot of fun and I’d have liked to see more of him.

From all of the characters Miki is probably low key the most malicious one of the group. At least a character like Naoka is pretty upfront about how much she dislikes Shoko. Miki is always trying to play the victim card while constantly bringing up things from Shoya’s past. It’s impossible to ever sympathize with her and by the end you feel like she gets away with everything. That’s why she’s my least favorite character.

Lets talk about Naoka though. She used to be good friends with Shoya and his posse until Shoko entered the mix. Initially she did act friendly towards the girl but eventually it was just too challenging for her so she gave up and became a bully. A lot of things happened and after the time skip she is no longer friends with Shoya but she blames this on Shoko. It gets to the point where she even beats up on Shoko near the end of the film.

Naoka’s personality makes her a pretty fun character but it can’t disguise the fact that she is easily one of the meanest ones around. Her ability of cutting through all the passive aggressive comments of the others and saying it like it is really helps her character stand out. Definitely no excuse for physically attacking Shoko at the end though. It’s good Shoko’s Mom was there to fight back or things would have really gotten out of hand.

From the main characters Miyoko is easily one of the more minor ones. She was someone who at least tried to be Shoko’s friend but ultimately had to leave schools. I don’t believe it was her choice though so while she blames herself a bit later on, I don’t think she deserves any blame for that. She did the best she could while in school and at least gave Shoko some fond memories.

Then we have Tomohiro who ends up being Shoyo’s first friend after the timeskip. He’s a pretty nice guy and definitely gave a lot of solid emotional support when it was needed most. He’s just a stand up guy and is someone who actively sticks up for himself as well. I was also glad that he didn’t just turn on Shoyo after the main character’s last outburst and knew that he was just not having a good moment.

Yuzuru is Shoko’s younger sister and definitely a fun character as well. She certainly doesn’t mind trolling the other characters and next to Shoko/Shoya she probably has the biggest role here. Yuzuru gets a lot of quality character development throughout but started as a great character from the onset. She wanted to make sure that nobody was going to mess with Shoko again and went to great lengths to ensure that was the case. She made a lot of sacrifices to help out.

Finally we have Shoko as the main heroine. She’s definitely a very nice character but almost nice to a fault in some instances. She really makes sure to turn the other cheek when people are being mean to her and continues to try being friends with everyone to the point where she can be a bit oblivious. It’s the main aspect of her that Naoka has a problem with. Shoko always puts on a brave face even if it’s not 100% genuine.

I don’t think you can fault someone for wanting to look at things through a positive lens though. She could have been more self aware but at the same time she was still just a kid and one with far less social experience than the rest due to her hearing issues. It’s part of why the first act is a tough watch because she is doing her best while the entire classroom is just being tough on her.

You’d think at least the teacher would have stepped in but he didn’t do much here. In the manga he’s a lot more antagonistic though so at least they toned him down to just being someone who never actually acts. So Shoko’s definitely a very good character and one of the best ones. The film does a great job of having you sympathize with her situation. Her mother also looks very good. She may have a much smaller role but she is doing her best to help out like contacting the school and jumping into fights. She also went to great lengths to find Shoko when she went missing and in general just did all of the right things.

The animation is naturally solid here. It’s all pretty smooth. You’re not going to see a lot of striking colors for the most part as this takes place in a town where there aren’t a ton of electronics or things of that nature so it’s more about the character designs and such. The writing is also on point.

Ultimately what holds the film back from being one that I would solidly recommend is just how many aspects of the film are un-relentlessly tragic all the time. Just when you think Shoko is finally safe the bullying starts up again in the second half. As bad as Shoya was in picking on her early on, then you see him getting bullied extensively after that and of course he takes it out on her. We have a grandmother dying later on in the film just to heap onto the plate. There’s also the fact that both Shoya and Shoko are suicidal at different points in the film.

It has its happy moments but most of the film is fairly dreary with this. At least the ending is on a high note since a sad ending would have really been rough. As it stands, at least you do know that things are going to get better for the main characters and they are through the worst of it.

Overall, A Silent Voice makes for a better movie than manga. In this case cutting out some things just helped to at least dial back the mean spirited nature of the story. If you’re up for an emotional story of a bully turning over a new leaf and coming to terms with himself then this is probably about as good a story as you’ll find here. Alternately if you want a redemption story that is a little more upbeat, check out Final Fantasy VII Advent Children.

Overall 5/10

Silver Swan vs Wonder Woman

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This is a tribute to Wonder Woman Bloodlines. Wonder Woman looked pretty good and was taking down all challengers. Silver Swan has some skills but in a straight fight there is no way she is going to beat Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman outranks her in power, speed, and pretty much every stat that matters. Silver Swan won’t last very long in a direct battle here and even if she tries to use her agility to stay one step ahead of the battle, it won’t be enough. Wonder Woman wins.

Kaido vs Big Mom

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It’s time for a clash of 2 Yonkou. While they are typically all considered to be around the same level, we all know that there are no ties. I would easily take Kaido to defeat her in a straight fight. His feats are just a lot more impressive and he hasn’t been getting defeated by everyone. Big Mom has solid power and stamina but she just doesn’t have the sheer strength that Kaido possesses. He won’t need his dragon form here. Kaido wins.

Wonder Woman Bloodlines Review

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It’s been a little while since I saw one of the DC animated films so it’s nice to jump back in. Wonder Woman gives us a partial origin story here along with a new adventure. It’s a pretty fun film with a solid amount of action and good characters. Ultimately it doesn’t beat the original Wonder Woman film but we do get to throw in a lot of Wonder Woman’s big opponents from back in the day. Her rogues gallery has never gotten to appear quite as much as most of the other big DC characters so it’s always fun to see them. What she needs one day is a full TV show and then we’ll be able to see more of them.

The movie starts off with the origin story as Steve was fighting a Parademon (Feels like these guys cause a lot of trouble in this continuity!) and then crashed onto Wonder Woman’s island. Naturally the queen decides he has to be captured so Wonder Woman knocks out the guard, fights with the queen, and then escapes with Steve. The catch of course is that she is now banished from the island forever. Steve takes Wonder Woman to an old historian to learn about culture in the outside world. The lady also has a daughter named Vanessa who isn’t having a super fun time at home.

We then cut to the present where Vanessa is a complete rebel now and has gotten involved in shady dealings. Wonder Woman and Steve go to stop her but during the fighting Vanessa’s mom is destroyed. Vanessa now decides she wants revenge on Wonder Woman and intends to murder her as the Silver Swan. Meanwhile Dr. Poison and her mysterious leader have more plans up their sleeve. Will Wonder Woman be able to stop them and save the Silver Swan or is this all going to end in complete disaster?

The origin story here is fairly basic. The addition of the Parademon was a nice way to give it some higher stakes. I still do feel like the idea that you can just crash onto the island or see it so easily means that it’s not a great defensive barrier though. I always question how more people don’t see it to be honest. There needs to be some other magical element at play to defend them if you ask me. From there we definitely have a more aggressive Wonder Woman who quickly solves things with her fists here but given how unreasonable the Amazons usually are I can see why this would be the fastest way out. I suppose it’s a nice intro into the film. It may be something we’ve seen before but it was executed well.

With the main story you’re going to need to deal with Vanessa. To me the opening of the film’s main story is the slowest part. Vanessa’s a fairly annoying character from square one. Julia may not be the nicest mother to her at times but it’s not like she was comically mean or anything exaggerated. Vanessa also didn’t exactly do a whole lot to stand out. I think she could have pressed the issue with Julia a bit and it would have worked since Wonder Woman was always around. Instead Vanessa went to the dark side and was pretty unreasonable the whole time. She had a fun suit of armor and abilities of course but as a character I would give her a thumbs down here. She just went down complaining a whole lot throughout the movie.

The other villains are better even if some of them aren’t great. Doctor Poison for example is a fun enough street level bad guy even if she never feels like a threat to Wonder Woman. Doctor Cyber is a lot more disappointing mainly because she was the mastermind here. Not only did she completely not think her plan through but because of this she barely even got to fight in the end. Not a good look for her. We also got a few other WW villains here like Giganta and Cheetah. It was fun to see them. I liked Giganta’s new costume here as it’s a lot more streamlined compared to the usual one and Cheetah looked really good with her speed. I’m always up for bringing along the classic villains.

Another big villain here is Medusa who looks great. She gives us one of the highlight fights in the film. I think you could make a case for Cheetah vs Wonder Woman still being the best fight but it’s really close. What helps the final fight shine a lot is it highlights Wonder Woman’s endurance. When you think about it that will always be one of her greatest assets because as an Amazon she won’t tire as quickly as most fighters. In the comics I recall it was even mentioned that her stamina is even greater than Superman’s so in a way it evens out with his power/speed being higher.

Medusa feels more like a mastermind here. Yes, I would have been cool with her not growing and turning huge here, but she showed pretty solid speed so the fight never grew dull. There was still a lot of high speed movement here as well as strategy. Wonder Woman using the acid was fairly brutal but a necessary step based on how powerful Medusa’s influence was. There wasn’t really another way around it. Based on all the abilities Medusa has, you can easily see her being one of the most deadly Wonder Woman villains. Honestly I figured her gaze would not affect a true Amazon but I suppose if it didn’t then she wouldn’t make for an imposing threat so that’s fair.

As for Wonder Woman, she’s a solid lead as always. I’m not a huge fan of her portrayal here relative to other versions but is still good in her own right. For example I thought she had a little less self confidence than in other versions like stammering in her first scene meeting Vanessa or still being haunted by her actions in the past with the Amazons. She’s certainly going for more of a pacifist route for most of the film such as continually trying to save Silver Swan and not even calling the Justice League in because she feared they wouldn’t be too understanding of the predicament. That was some major shade to the League I have to say, I guess they aren’t as close as you would think. Wonder Woman does fight her way through every challenge though.

The post credits scene is also pretty intense. Wonder Woman connects the dots and goes to confront someone. It’s a solid way to end the film regardless of if the plot will come back. That being said, you do feel like she could have done something more like capture the villain. Proof or not, Wonder Woman has diplomatic immunity as the Amazon representative and I’m sure with enough digging she could find the proof later on. This does work as a great introduction for a new villain though and if we had more films I’d love to see her try a few new plans.

One thing I have to mention here though is the hostage situation. At one point very early on in the film a guy holds a lady at gunpoint and basically does the whole “don’t move” thing on Wonder Woman. She basically ignores him and throws her lasso which knocks him away and then she gloats that she had another option. It’s a nice scene but when you think about it, she was basically calling his bluff. If he intended to shoot then the hostage would be dead. Often times in these things you either see a hero be completely paralyzed by the hostage situation or like Wonder Woman they just run at the villain anyway and hope for the best. It’s always an interesting scenario because if it went wrong it would haunt the hero forever. I just always find it interesting how differently a hostage situation can be handled from film to film. All’s well that ends well though.

Steve and Etta have a subplot where they face their own dangers the whole time. It’s decent enough I suppose. I’m not a big fan of Etta in general. Her 60’s incarnation may be the best one but I think it’s time to finally make her more of a true fighter. Steve…is Steve. As always he’s a fairly tough fighter who backs Wonder Woman up but he’s so weak in comparison all he can do is crack jokes a lot of time to lift the tension. Don’t get me wrong, he saves her a number of times in the film and is pretty proficient with his gun skills but even with that it can be hard to take him seriously in the fights. He’s also basically the rebound guy with Wonder Woman now that Superman’s in the picture so the romance angle isn’t quite so developed.

The only part of the Steve plot where you have to raise an eyebrow is when he and Etta have to take on a Minotaur. The Minotaur is slow enough where they can keep on dodging it while letting it crash into the walls and it’s weak enough where it literally faints from doing so at different points. The Minotaur disrespect was real here. Aside from that the film gave Steve pretty realistic moments where he could help out without nerfing any of the other big villains.

As always the amazons look pretty weak which is to be expected. They are supposedly a group always ready for war but they clearly aren’t. They have such high tech equipment like the purple ray and yet for battle they use bows and arrows along with swords. The Amazons desperately need to open up their borders or something because as they are now they are completely defenseless against any real threats. It makes it hard to take them seriously so Wonder Woman is probably lucky that she got booted out of there. They reap what they sow and all that.

As always the animation here is very smooth. DC always has done a great job with this. The fight scenes are on point and the costumes work really well too. Wonder Woman’s design’s a little different here as the film seems to be modeling her more like a true amazon. As a result she’s quite a bit taller and more warrior-like which makes sense. In this style I actually preferred the film’s new design for her rather than the classic one but that’s more a credit to how solid the new one looks. The battle scenes are pretty dynamic and really get across how powerful the heroine is.

Quick shoutout to the random thug early on in the film. After her reconstruction, Silver Swan decides to go and murder some people. Usually the mobsters will just die instantly but this guy got slashed but still had the wits to take a step back and fire a shot. Naturally it’s not like he ended up coming out on top here either way but I have to give him credit for trying. It was an unwinnable battle, but he did his best.

Overall, Wonder Woman Bloodlines is a pretty solid film. You get a good amount of fight scenes, character interactions, and solid animation. It goes by pretty quick as the movie isn’t super long or anything. Doctor Cyber may have been rather underwhelming but it was fun seeing the rest of the villains show up. Vanessa’s plot could be a bit on the dull side for the opening scenes and overly dramatic at other times but through it all it was always fun seeing Wonder Woman use her wits to take down all of her opponents. I’d definitely recommend checking this film out and adding it to your DC roster.

Overall 7/10

Edens Zero

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As with Fairy Tail, Mashima continues to deliver high energy products. Edens Zero has a pretty nice setting and the art is top tier as expected. there’s definitely going to be a lot of fun adventures here, however the series is holding itself back with fanservice right out of the jump. Hopefully it can get a little more focused as the series goes on and that will help a lot. I’ll have a review up once the series finishes.

Overall 4/10

Warriors Orochi 2 Stats and Records

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Stats time!

Character Levels

Sun Quan Level 56
Ginchiyo Level 11
Motochika Level 6

Stage Records

Level 1 13m 4s 432 KOs
Level 2 9m 42s 430 KOs
Level 3 15m 43s 465 KOs
Level 4 12m 47s 507 KOs
Level 5 3m 54s 95 KOs
Level 6 13m 33s 248 KOs
Level 7 9m 34s 223 KOs
Level 8 9m 41s 281 KOs