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Kaiju Run Review

Posted on May 7, 2024 by dreager1

So with a title like Kaiju Run you are expecting big things right? Well unfortunately this is the bottom of the shovelware barrel. Seriously it’s one of the worst app games I’ve played and I can explain why that is very quickly. The game has full screen, unskippable ads. Yes, they show up when you beat a level, when you lose a level, if you pause for too long, etc. It’s really bad and I think that’s the biggest taboo for an app game. You should never do this. I don’t mind playing ads to get an extra life or some kind of boost where it’s optional, but mandatory video ads? Nahhhh that’s not going to fly.

Obviously you are going to be entering this game with rather measured expectations right out of the gate anyway. It is a game built on deception since it advertises playing as Godzilla, King Kong, Sonic, and Goku but you know that’s not really going to happen. Surprisingly for King Kong they actually use his name and have a character model that looks like him. For Goku he has SSJ3 mode where he looks really out of proportion but hey he’s in the game under a fake name which is interesting. For Godzilla they switched it to Zilla which is sort of clever and Sonic is more like the human fan version, Sanic.

The character roster is fairly impressive which is why it’s a shame that it fell for the video ads trap. It’s not a ton of characters, I mean you can unlock them all in a few hours, but the fact that so many notable ones there is pretty cool. There are different items and such you can get but in general the game doesn’t have much content. The levels are endless but they’re all basically the same for a while. If you really like the gameplay then it wouldn’t matter. I actually think it is rather fun to play. Take away the ads and I would actually have a very good time here. I would be blasting through and everything but alas it wasn’t meant to be.

So the gameplay is your average 3D endless runner. You go through the game catching as many pellets as you can to get huge. Your controls are to move left or right. Then when you get to the boss you fight. If you got enough pellets then you will definitely win and if you didn’t then you will lose and can watch another ad to build your strength up. This gets more and more rigged as you go through the game of course. They really need that ad revenue after all! So the most tragic part of this game is that the gameplay is well done. It’s super basic for sure but the kind of style that can be addicting in a mobile setting. In fact, that is exactly why it does so well. A mobile game should be really simple, that’s the kind of structure that works extremely well for it.

What the game should have done to enhance this would be to stick to a bunch of currency ads like in Miraculous Ladybug. I’ve played a lot of endless runners that were extremely good because they really understood the assignment. We’re here to have fun and if the game is good then the rest will fall into place. The graphics aren’t even bad. They look a little messy but I think that is intentional on the art side. At least that’s what it felt like to me. It’s passable for being a mobile game at least, it’s not like I’m expecting AAA material or anything like that.

There’s not much replay value though or any other modes to keep you busy. So you’re just here in the literal endless levels running through everything. What you see is what you get in that way, this is called Kaiju Run after all so you are expecting to do a lot of running right? If nothing else, I would say that the game is honest with the title. Perhaps not with the graphics and characters compared to the ads but I can give it some props.

Overall, Kaiju Run is disappointing even when I didn’t expect much. It’s a clear cash grab all the way. They’re desperately trying to get your money with all of these ads and its all just way too shameless. Do not download this game folks. I’ve got two more Kaiju type app games coming up so we’ll see if they fare any better but this is the kind of game you’ll play for a bit and then realize that it’s a scam. Full video ads will never be a good idea. They just suck the immersion out and it will feel like the longest 30 seconds of your life each time.

Overall 2/10

Naruto: Sasuke’s Story: Sunrise Review

Posted on May 7, 2024 by dreager1

Whenever you see a book about Sasuke you know that things are going to get good. This one takes place shortly after the main series but before the big timeskips so that’s fun. Sasuke is early on in his journey to rediscover himself and this book has some good action scenes and a tight plot. Yeah you’re never actually worried for Sasuke but they still manage to throw in some good opponents for him to go up against and that’s what counts.

The story starts with Sasuke being asked by Kakashi to look into some disappearances that have been occurring as of late within the Hidden Leaf Village as well as the lightning area. He bumps into two ninja named Chino and Nowaki as well as an old man named Io. They don’t know much about the disappearances but they are busy dealing with a dangerous lightning cult led by a man who worships Sasuke as some kind of a hero. This troubles Sasuke since he is trying to put the villainous days behind him and in a way this whole situation goes back to him. So he will be forced to address this and perhaps it is related to his main mission. Does he still have what it takes to defeat opponents like this?

Obviously the answer is yes so I’m not going to keep you in suspense here. At best you could say that the only difficult part here is trying to defeat the enemies without murdering them and to be 100% fair that is a decent excuse. In fact it’s the only thing that gives Naruto and the others even mild difficulty because the brainwashed shinobi will blow up upon any kind of contact. So for example if Naruto punches one of these guys then he instantly dies. So this is the device used to keep Naruto from immediately saving the day. While I have a little doubt on this actually being a viable option (Since Naruto can create a few thousand shadow clones and still head to every battlefield like in the war) I like the attempt. It’s actually a reasonable situation and you could say Naruto just wants to really focus here.

In general I was glad to see him show up. Sakura and Hinata also get a solid role as they help out and everyone does their part. Seeing the various characters like the Raikage appear as well makes the novel feel more important than your average side story. Of course you would expect no less from Sasuke Uchiha right? The main story is obviously still with him as he is breaking out of his shell a little bit but also being rather difficult for the other characters to deal with. I liked his portrayal and the novel does actually give him a happy ending so that was nice. He’s definitely earned one after everything he went through there.

Sure there might be a few power level items here but in general he was always in control of the situation which is what you would expect. You guys can hype up all of these other eye techniques as much as you want but at the end of the day the Sharingan will always be the #1 technique out there. Nothing else can match it. It was fun to see a little tournament even get squeezed into the plot where Sasuke didn’t even need his Sharingan. At this point that is the level of ability you would expect from him. Sasuke and Naruto had power on the level of the gods relative to normal shinobi.

One theme within the series that would continue from here is about the secret darkness that still plagues the ninja world. What I never like about this is the implication that it all must be hidden from Naruto because he can’t handle it. Just tell him already so he can fix it. Apparently there is a bunch of human trafficking going on, illegal betting tournaments, corrupt people murdering others for sport, etc. I’m glad that Sasuke stepped in to shut it down but why is Orochimaru still on the loose? How can this whole thing still be so well known? I want to see Naruto step in and shut everything down. It’ll never happen and so it’s a very fair criticism of Naruto and friends (Kakashi should get a good chunk of blame too) because you can’t just change parts of the world and not finish the job. The biggest people who must handle the guilt though are guys like Yamato who had a first hand view of the shady elements of the world and could really spill the beans on everything.

That’s a bit of a tangent but it’s crazy how corrupt things still are. As for the new characters, I liked Chino a lot. She’s very casual with Sasuke and a bit too cheerful for his liking but she’s always a lot of fun. Her scenes are great and I thought she really went through a lot. Ultimately she knows how to take care of herself and has a whole lot of conviction. She was way more interesting than I expected. On the other hand, everyone else is rather forgettable. Io was just annoying and wouldn’t listen to reason. Nowaki was okay but more along for the ride.

I did like the villain Karyu though. He was a little simpleminded and not experienced enough to be more of a threat but he was a nice contrast to the more evil days of Sasuke. This was a good way to have Sasuke confront his past yet again although you could say there are no shortages of moments like that in this novel. In a way that’s the whole point of the adventure as he has to keep staring straight into the darkness while hoping to finally get away from it and into the light. It’s about forgiving himself a little rather than spending all of his days atoning.

Overall, these chapter books always go by so quickly. You just blast through them at a crazy fast pace and I’d say a lot of that is due to the plot being interesting and a lot of it is just because it’s short. The text is fairly large and the pages aren’t that big after all. For example the average Maximum Ride book is 400-500 pages while this one is only around 150. Given that, I’d say they managed to cover a lot here. It’s great supplementary material so if you read the manga then I would definitely recommend checking this out. I wish they would do many more books like this for other franchises as well. There’s always tons of side story ideas you can do to flesh things out and expand the universe.

Overall 8/10

First Blood Review

Posted on May 7, 2024 by dreager1

This review is of the TV-14 edited version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative

It’s time to look at where it all started for Rambo. The guy’s definitely had to endure a whole lot over the years. It’s a bit more of a low key film than the sequels since it’s more about survival than nonstop fighting though. It can be a bit mean spirited though and some of the villains get off rather easy. Ultimately you can do a bit better for thriller films.

The film starts with Rambo approaching a small town. He finished a really tough tour in Vietnam and isn’t looking for any trouble as he passes through but unfortunately trouble finds him. Sheriff Will doesn’t take kindly to strangers and immediately gets aggressive. His corrupt deputies take sadistic pleasure in messing with Rambo as well to the point where they’re basically torturing him. Rambo tries to de-escalate things as much as possible but finally reaches his breaking point and tries to get out of there. He is still chased and in self defense fights back, which causes one of them to die. Will now vows to destroy Rambo no matter what and so Rambo will have to use his army training to take them down. The hunted has now become the hunter.

One thing I can say without the shadow of a doubt is that the premise is really good. A bunch of punks have basically picked a fight with someone who is far superior to them in every measurable ability. Rambo has actually been through a bunch of difficult situations and lived to tell about it. He’s had to hone his body and mind to their absolute peak in order to survive while these guys have likely never had to deal with a fraction of what he had to go through. Their attitudes aren’t justified in the slightest and they’re basically villains who have gotten ahold of some power. They’re lucky Rambo was as restrained as he was.

Throughout the movie he continues to take them down using non lethal means. I don’t think most characters would have been able to hold themselves back so much at that point. He does unfortunately take down the police dogs, rats, and other animals throughout the movie. There are enough scenes with animal violence that definitely take their toll on the film. Of course it’s self defense so you don’t blame Rambo himself but the film could have written its way around that too. The dogs are really paying for their corrupt owners.

In a way the film wants to keep from portraying Rambo as being too vindictive here but it’s part of what hurts the ending here. The whole cracking scene and speech at the end is intense but it feels like Rambo got the short end of the stick here. I do think that the sheriff and all of the main deputies needed to die by the end. At least show us some definitive punishment like they’re all locked up. It just seems like they got off easy even if many of them were seriously injured by the end, the death count wasn’t as big as you’d expect it to be.

It also takes away from the premise a little bit. In theory this is like a human predator movie with Rambo being so dangerous that he can take out a whole squad of men equipped with guns. You want to see him utterly dismantle the whole group but as a result there just isn’t a whole lot of time for that. I guess in a way we dodge some extra violence that way although the film is definitely still rather violent. Every quick cutaway to the Vietnam flashbacks is always intense after all and the injuries in the present are no picnic either.

You do feel the tension throughout the movie though as Rambo knows that making one mistake will mean his end. He has to play this absolutely perfect especially since he doesn’t want to murder anyone. He’s a good guy and the film certainly makes that clear. Will and the others are such over the top villains that you’re just rooting for them to lose. The best character in the film has to be Colonel Sam though. He works as Rambo’s hype man and the hype absolutely never stops. In every scene he is talking about how Rambo is on a completely different level and nobody can match him. It’s really quite impressive.

Again, this might be a case of the film not being able to live up to the hype there though as the way he hypes Rambo up, you’d expect him to take out a whole army. He still has a lot of difficulty here thanks to the self imposed restrictions and nearly gets murdered in the tunnel. I dunno, I guess I wanted more absolute domination after all of the speeches. It was always annoying whenever Rambo would lose ground. I did think Sam did not do a good job when he agreed to help Will and the others. He should have absolutely stuck to the “Get yourselves out of this problem” approach when they were being so unreasonable.

Ultimately Sam is good at his job and helps to de-escalate things but he could have just let Rambo go ham on everyone. By the end, the whole town was paying the price so you can see why he stepped in though. Either way this made for a good introduction and you can see how the studio would quickly want to make sequels soon. There’s a whole lot of ways you can progress from this initial plot although they never tackle the hunted theme again. Going forward you’re really going to see Rambo taking the offensive and destroying everything in his way.

Overall, First Blood was a reasonable way to start the series but is bogged down by the violence in general and also the animal violence. The lackluster ending/resolution for the villains also hurts. I get that they were law enforcement here but they were all super corrupt to the point of being gangsters so I don’t see any reason not to have them all bumped off. It’s a bit of a frustrating situation to be sure there. Well, at least it’s not like Rambo died or anything. Now that would have been an absolutely devastating ending.

Overall 4/10

Gintama Review

Posted on May 6, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time to look at one of the most iconic manga titles of all time. Gintama has long had a reputation for being one of the funniest titles of all time while simultaneously being known for its exceptional cast and storylines. I can safely say after completing the series that it really is an elite title and deserves to be treated as such. It’s really an excellent series and I won’t be forgetting it anytime soon. This is a monster to talk about with over 70 volumes but no time like the present right?

The basic plot revolves around Gintoki, Kagura, and Shinpachi as the trio runs a little group that performs errands for people. They will do just about any task whether it be walking a dog or playing matchmaker. They’re in a good town for this because everybody has problems that need solving. Unfortunately Gintoki isn’t always the most efficient at handling these tasks and so he is often behind on the rent and the group has a ton of problems staying out of the red. They have a lot of wacky adventures for the first 500 chapters or so with the occasional action arc and then we transition into the saving the universe kind of stories. Once these come into play then things really end up changing.

One of the most impressive parts of the series is really how seamlessly it changes. The series was so exceptional as a comedy but there isn’t really a disconnect when it goes into the action phase. If anything it’s like the ultimate payoff because you know the characters so well by this point and are eager to see what happens to them. It gives you more reason to root for the characters and hope that they make it out of the situation. It reminds me of Reborn! in a way but to a much higher degree in terms of how long it takes. Don’t get me wrong, there are some action arc fairly early on in the manga as well but it’s only near the end where it makes the complete shift and doesn’t really look back.

Even in the action arcs there is always some comedy to be sure but the stakes stay high and characters can actually die. Gintama certainly wasn’t afraid to change the status quo when needed. The artwork for the series is incredibly good which helps as well since you could always count on really top tier action scenes the whole time in those fighting based arcs. The series can definitely hold its own with just about every title in terms of the artework. Some of the world’s lore is so detailed that I can’t say I always cared about it but it’s clear that the author was definitely passionate about the whole thing. There is a whole lot of lore here without a doubt.

There aren’t all that many series that crossed 70 volumes like this one did which also automatically puts this one at an advantage in terms of how much it could do. There was time to really do a bit of everything because it’s that much longer than the average manga. I would say the title’s reputation as being legendary is definitely deserved. As a comedic manga, naturally not every joke is going to land. It has its rough moments where you’ll be cringing at a joke, in fact that will be lots of them like that. The series still has the sheer length to outnumber those with constant jokes that are actually good. This is a series that definitely throws everything it has at you and is quite bold. I can certainly appreciate that.

There’s a lot of story to get through and a ton of characters so lets start going through them. Prepare for a very long write-up here which goes without saying for a series on this scale. I mostly won’t talk about too many of the comedic chapters/mini arcs in part because there would just be too many of them and also because there are numerous gags that were a blast. You just have to experience them in context, or even without and see how fun they are. As long as you like really creative/zany comedy moments then you’ll have a good time here. Apparently there are around 64 Gintama arcs but I’ll mainly be skipping any that are too short and talking about the biggest ones. I also won’t really be going in order on these in part because I’m not sure of the exact order for some of them and putting them in order would take a little while.

One fun mini arc is when Katsura, AKA the best character in the series infiltrates the Shinsengumi and quickly becomes trusted enough where he turns them against each other. It’s only 4 chapters which is an example of the kind of mini arc that is sort of around for a quick gag and then goes away but manages to be fun. The comedic arcs like this which are mainly just absurd tend to have a lot of great humor. You enjoy seeing Katsura mess with people which he does in most arcs. The fun part is that he’s really awful at it and yet he tends to be successful which is a nice contradiction. Nobody notices how he is stumbling over his words or contradicting his story in many instances. The arc also shows how wearing an afro can really change everyone’s view of you and works a bit like a disguise.

Another example of a really good absurd arc involves the character popularity poll because that is breaking the third wall to a historic degree. Basically some of the characters aren’t too pleased with how they placed so they start attacking and degrading other characters in order to have them drop in the polls. This way one of them can claim the #1 spot. Naturally this causes a battle between the popular and unpopular characters. Also this is Gintama, meaning you can’t trust anybody. People change allegiances and start fighting each other left and right. So if you’re not careful then you will just be the next victim. It’s another really short mini arc but one that really made the most of the concept.

Then we have an arc where Gintoki decides to make a lot of money with an anonymous confessional box. As you can probably guess, a ton of the complaints ended up being about him which wasn’t very fun for the guy and he begin hearing a lot of incriminating things. When this inevitably involves the shogun as well, Gintoki ends up being in a whole lot of trouble. The Shogun and his gags still tend to be some of the weakest parts of the series but I did like the story for this arc. It’s a really fun gag and it was nice see all of the characters show up to share their dark secrets. Gintoki may not have given good advice at any point but hey it’s the thought that counts.

Another quick arc revolves around Shinpachi getting a letter…from a girl! She seems to be opening the door to a long distance relationship but is he reading too much into it? Also, he is famously a big shot in a fanclub for a local celebrity girl so can he betray her like this? Getting into a relationship may not be the right move. He also makes the mistake of asking Gintoki for advice which isn’t always a great move. It’s one of those fun arcs that takes things to an absurd level but is fun because you can definitely picture the stress of answering a letter in the mail like this. You can’t really determine tone or anything from a letter which makes it really easy to overthink things.

Naturally this wouldn’t be a comedic series without at least one love potion arc right? This is another short one but you can imagine all of the gags that come into place when a love potion explodes across the whole town. It’s a fun enough mini arc and a reminder of why that would be such a dangerous ordeal if it were a real thing. Everyone suddenly having to confess their feelings and being put in the spotlight would be rough, especially once the effects wore off and you had to live with the aftermath. Although I’d argue for Gintoki and friends they are embarrassed so often that it shouldn’t be as big a deal compared to others.

Another romance based one involves a dating sim game that has been getting really big. Naturally Shinpachi falls into this game and this causes Gintoki and friends to get involved. Naturally it isn’t recommended to fall for your virtual girlfriend since the whole thing is still a game but for someone like Shinpachi who hasn’t had any luck in the real world it makes sense that this could end up getting tempting. It’s always nice to see Gintoki talk really tough and suddenly get involved as well, it’s part of what makes him a really entertaining main character. He always talks really tough and belittles everyone but when the chips are down you find that he’s quickly just as invested himself.

Then we have the body swapping arc which is another comedic classic. Kyubei has always been rather confused and acts like a guy so her big wish comes true and everyone switches genders. It’s a pretty entertaining arc and I have to say that living in this main town must get really confusing for everyone. Quite a few of the characters really take this in stride though. At the end of the day it’s not like their core personalities have changed after all, but of course they do have to get back to normal after that. It’s a fun arc while it lasts and is a natural climax to all of Kyubei’s inner doubts.

Kagura gets a fun little arc where the series remembers that she can’t handle the sunlight and it is deadly for her people. So she had gotten a bit lazy about this and ends up faking her own death with the sunlight but the problem now is how can she get out of this before they cremate her body? Additionally, some characters know the truth and are using this as an excuse to murder her. It’s going to be a tough situation to get out of and she has to choose between her life and her honor. This is a very short arc but definitely one of those absurd plots that is a lot of fun to read. you gotta be careful what kind of a gag you try to pull on your friends.

One extremely short arc was about Gintama breaking the clock that controls all of time by mistake. So now time is frozen and nobody can move on. In this world even clocks can spell disaster I suppose. There was also a quick little party where Gintoki and the other 3 members of the original 4 man squad try to remember a 5th person who invited them there but they have a hard time with it. You feel bad for the guy. It has to be rough having nobody remember you even when you were a big member.

There’s an arc that is mainly comedic but with some emotional undertones. One day when Ayame is trying to mess with Gintoki as always and get him to marry her, her glasses end up breaking. So Gintoki gets her some new ones but they don’t actually work for her. She decides to use them anyway since they were a gift but now she is messing up more than ever and a group of assassins are after her. So she has to learn to look out for herself and ditch the glasses even if they were a gift for Gintoki. It’s a good arc with a solid moral about looking out for yourself too. You may like someone a lot but if they give you something that doesn’t work or actively hurts you then you should just not use it. Ayame learns this the hard way.

Idol groups are a big deal apparently, so big that the galaxy’s strongest idol group shows up to take down the one on Gintoki’s planet. This battle has high stakes because the winner will effectively rule the universe after this. So losing is definitely not an ideal option. The main idol group isn’t bad but the galaxy’s strongest have a ton of dirty tricks up their sleeve to watch out for. This isn’t one of my favorite arcs and I’d say it’s because there aren’t too many gags you can use this one. The main gag that you have to keep on repeating is how all of the fans are pervs and nerds which doesn’t last very long as a funny gag.

A better arc involves the body switch between Hiijikata and Gintoki. Again, if there’s a comedy trope that you have heard of, it will appear in Gintama at least once. The seires was ready for anything and this was a really fun one. Naturally they have completely different leadership styles as Gintoki is super laidback and does whatever he wants while Hiijikata is super strict. So both groups have a lot of trouble getting behind this and it makes for a pretty fun story. I was definitely satisfied the whole way through.

There are a bunch of mini arcs that reference other series like Jojo’s, Hunter X Hunter, Bleach, the Saw movies, and more. So you can expect to see those and have some fun with them. Most are pretty short and I didn’t go into as much detail here but you know these are always a blast. Then there is the big scandal arc where Gintoki gets drunk on New Year’s and may have had several affairs. Unfortunately he doesn’t remember what happened and since this is Gintoki, he knows that it’s all possible. So this leads to a ton of misunderstandings and shenanigans as he tries to solve all of this. He will have to hurry or people will lose whatever respect they have left for him. Of course, nobody respects him anyway so that means there aren’t really any stakes here.

The mini arc involving a time skip was definitely some brilliant stuff. While Shinpachi thought the series just went on a 1 week break, 2 years had actually passed within Gintama. So everyone has new designs and even their personalities are a bit different. It’s all rather odd and he has fallen behind now which is really rough. The gags here were all on point and it was a great way to poke fun at the time skips. Gintama is definitely a series that absolutely masters the art of breaking the third wall. It does this extremely effective at all times so I was really impressed the whole time. It’s very short but still very funny.

Dragon Quest is so big that it has tons of references throughout the series but one big one is the Tama Quest mini arc. She gets a virus so the characters have to log in and get rid of it but the whole experience basically turns into a video game. That’s definitely a fun way to adapt how these things go, so I had a pretty good time here. Even the art style looks like an 8 bit video game which shows how much range the artist has. Seriously, it’s one of the best looking manga titles out there.

Now we’re mostly going to be getting into the more serious arcs. First up is an arc that shows us the first meeting between Sakamoto and Mutsu. As always Sakamoto was biting off more than he could chew with a big sales scam to some pirates. Ultimately he manages to turn on the charm and Mutsu likes how determined he is. Sakamoto ends up helping her out and she joins him as a permanent ally. He’s sure lucky to have someone like her who is super powerful by his side. She could easily crush him at any time but they have a solid amount of mutual respect going for them. It was nice to see how they first met and it would have been a shame if we never got to see that. Even without Gintoki getting to do much here, the arc holds up well.

Another serious arc is Okita’s introduction arc. He’s a very serious guy who generally just beats everyone up as he looks for a worthy opponent but he is very mellow when his sister is around. He acts like just a general nice guy and we find out that she’s super sick and her fiancé is evil. The arc is an example of how Gintama isn’t afraid to get really dark. There is no cure for her ailment and she just gets closer and closer to her death while Okita has to do his job and take the fiancé down. It’s a tough road for everyone involved but ultimately at least she got to see that Okita takes his job very seriously. Definitely not an arc that you really expect when reading Gintama but it worked well.

Okita has a big role in another arc where Gintoki had a sword get stuck in his backside. This presents a ton of obvious problems like even the basic action of sitting down but what’s even worse is that the sword works like a symbiote. If Gintoki isn’t careful then he will be taken over. The sword also has a wife and a rival/villain who also get stuck into different characters. Okita and Gintoki will have to fight to the death here but is there any way to get the swords out. This is one of those arcs that is mainly comedic and absurd but also has some serious moments with the sword’s backstory. Good luck taking it seriously though. I thought this was a pretty fun one that shows just how unique the series is.

Then we have one of those arcs that has to be Bleach inspired. A weather girl gets involved with demons and the supernatural so Gintoki and friends step in to help since they love her program. Gintoki makes sure to watch every day after all but can they handle supernatural menaces? Well, of course they can! The series also has soul reaper equivalents so it’s not like this is too crazy to deal with. It was nice to see the weather girl get involved because she is mentioned constantly in the series but rarely gets to take the center stage. So that was pretty fun.

Another short but key arc is when Otae and Shinpachi’s master shows up. The guy should have been dead for years but somehow he has survived and now he has a cool beam sword. Unfortunately Gintoki realizes that the guy is a double agent and has a powerful bomb within him. So he has to destroy the guy even if it means breaking the hearts of his closest friends. It’s a really emotional arc to be sure and also underscores Gintoki’s resolve. He may joke around a whole lot but when it comes to his friends, he will even be the villain if that’s what it takes to keep them safe. It’s a mindset that I can absolutely respect.

Then we get the introduction to Kagura’s father, Umibouzu. The guy is a beast in combat and easily one of the most powerful characters in the whole series. Still, he definitely has his silly side the whole time and I always like the rivalry between him and Gintoki with regard to being Kagura’s true father. It’s true that the biological father is always off planet while Gintoki has been the one actually raising her. I tend to be on his side when things are getting competitive to be honest. Umibouzu is still a good guy of course but Gintoki’s still better. This arc’s a fun way to meet the dad and learn more about Kagura at the same time.

After that we also have an arc with Kyubey showing up to try and win over Otae. Meanwhile Kondo is getting engaged to a gorilla and this won’t be the last time that happens. He likes Otae as well but can he really compete with Kyubey who is an absolute prodigy, good at just about everything and just a lot more impressive than Kondo can ever hope to be? It’s tough but there is a twist about Kyubey and how she’s actually a girl which is extremely lucky for Kondo. Kyubey would go on to be one of the more entertaining characters and this arc was definitely a lot of fun. It’s fairly low key but we get to see Otae a lot which is good since she’s generally more of a side character.

There’s also a fairly small but serious arc with a terrorist named Jiraia shows up to cause a lot of destruction and Gintoki has to take him out. This was a really good arc and has one of the best fights in the series. We really get to see Gintoki going the extra mile and fighting even when he has serious injuries. We would see more and more of this as the series goes on but it was one of the first times we could see exactly what Gintoki could do. It was definitely a masterful storyline.

An arc that is a bit of a cross between humor and action has the characters get taken to a turtle island which quickly becomes a save the world type of mission as they have to stop some cannons and start being transformed as well. It’s definitely a good bit of fun especially with Katsura being a main character. The heroes really have to try and surpass their limits in order to win here. It ended up being really memorable for me as a result even though the arc isn’t very long and is fairly early in the series.

As we approach the last big arc, we get different arcs that connect to the main storyline as every big villain is taken care of. One of these is for taking down Oboro, one of the more powerful fighters. It turns out that his past goes way back. He makes for a pretty good enemy, that’s for sure. Utsuro is really the big boss though and he’s the kind of guy that keeps coming back over and over again. You really have to respect how durable he is and the full nature of his plans. His backup plans have backup plans. One arc has him trigger a war between different planets in the universe, then he ends up attacking the planet, then he turns into a kid which causes a civil war among Gintoki and his allies, etc. The last few arcs are mostly a ton of nonstop fights in the middle of all of this.

The arcs are all really solid but the one part you don’t end up caring about much it eh Shogun plot in space. Unfortunately Katsura is stuck in that plot so you won’t actually get to see him fighting all that much there. It’s too bad since I felt like the series always hinted that he was actually the best fighter but it’s hard to prove without more evidence. The final arcs do a great job of involving just about every character who ever appeared into it. That’s super impressive and it feels like a true Shonen final arc. The final chapters even throw in an extra time skip with new designs and gimmicks as well to give some more closure. There is also an epilogue too that goes on surprisingly long during the arc. Gintama ended as it started, with a lot of troll moves that’s for sure.

Then the Shinsengumi also have quite a few arcs where they get to do a lot. Their arcs don’t tend to be the most interesting in part because Gintoki and friends tend to take a backseat. I know the arcs themselves are rather popular though and I wouldn’t say they’re bad or anything. I probably just have them a bit lower than most. One of these introduces the Mimawarigumi, which is basically a reverse group. They will show up a whole lot and the two groups are constantly battling it out. The group also aren’t a bunch of throwaways or anything like that. They are able to hold their own blow for blow against the main group and have a lot of real members. They even get their own origin stories and such later on so that was definitely impressive.

Then you have the big farewell arc as well. This one is really long and has both groups fighting a whole lot but most importantly it starts to tie into the final arcs with the cosmic villain showing up with his big shots. It’s one of those climaxes that just keeps going and is really hype. So ironically I like it more for the non Shinsengumi parts but it’s the same arc so it still counts. There are tons of mob fights here too so if that’s your thing then it’s a bonus. We get so many army against army fights that they will probably start to blend together after a while though. I would say that happened to me after a while as well, I tend to always prefer the direct battles. We do get plenty of those in this arc too though.

You’ve also got the Shogun arc which is also about the Shinsengumi a lot. The Shogun is still one of my least favorite characters though, no matter how much the series wanted to try and make him likable. Similar to the last arc, this one gets elevated by Kamui showing up later on as opposed to the Shinsengumi parts. The fights there are some of the best in the series so I was definitely impressed all the way. It’s absolutely an arc to keep your eye on and one of the turning points in the series in terms of going all the way into action.

So I didn’t quite throw in every arc but that was quite a lot of story to get into. There are also tons of one shot chapters that have running gags that keep on appearing so they are like mini arcs that aren’t connected. In particular one excellent one is when Gintoki visits a prison to help an aspiring manga author. That was always a really fun set of stories and it shows how Gintoki would really make time to help people. The gags were always a lot of fun. All right, deep breath now people because it’s time to talk about the characters and man does this series have a lot of them! Naturally I won’t be talking about every single character but I will be talking about a whole lot of them so prepare yourself.

First off we have to start with Gintoki of course and he’s an incredible lead. A top tier Shonen Jump protagonist all the way. He may not be the most heroic or anything like that but he does have a lot of convictions and will always protect his friends. He’s a lot like Kenshin when you think about it. Gintoki is trying to leave his dark past behind him and have a lot of fun but it always ends up catching up to him in time. He’s an extremely layered character who excels in both the comedic and serious stories. He’s one of the best characters in the series and has a ton of iconic moments. Definitely one of those characters you can be inspired by and even learn a few things from.

Shinpachi certainly doesn’t have Gintoki’s confidence and is often lagging behind when it comes time to fight. He just doesn’t have the skills needed to keep up with most of the characters but he tries hard. I tend to like him more in the comedic moments than in the serious situations since he adds a lot to the dynamic in the funny moments. He definitely does earn his spot among the main cast though, the series wouldn’t be the same without him. The straight man role in a joke is something that I’ll probably never really find the humor in but he has enough of his own gags to make up for this. There’s always a lot for him to do.

Kagura is naturally even funnier though and with her superhuman strength she is able to hold her own in the serious arcs too which I appreciate. She gets a lot of backstory which is actually rather tragic but she always keeps up a good spirit. She may give Gintoki a tough time but they have a good father/daughter bond throughout the series. All 3 members are definitely needed in order to make the series reach its full potential each time. Of course there is also the dog Sadaharu. He may not be able to talk but at the same time he has a reasonable role here since he has a lot of personality. He will actively attack Gintoki at times and surprisingly gets an extremely big role near the climax of the series. That really took me by surprise since I was not expecting that at all. We get to really see a lot into how strong the bonds between him and the rest of the characters are.

Tae is Shinpachi’s sister and her role is fairly big even if she isn’t usually important to the story of the arc. She is always around being the mature member while everyone else is messing around. Quite a few characters in the series like her as a result but in particular Kyubey and Kondo fight over her. She usually brushes them off fairly well and definitely has her violent side as well. Nobody better dare mess with her or it’s all over! She’s a fun enough side character for sure and usually understands quicker than the others why Gintoki does what he does when it’s time for a serious choice to be made.

As the landlord, Otose is always giving Gintoki a lot of grief because of how late he is with the payments. I definitely get it since that’s her livelihood and she needs that money in order to survive. That said, at the end of the day she does let him get away with a whole lot and is a very reasonable person. Catherine is a more mild supporting character who doesn’t appear very often towards the end. Her role is usually to get dunked on by everyone else for how ugly she is and how she looks like a cat. Definitely not a very flattering role to be sure but it’s hard to feel bad for her when she starts the fight a lot of the time.

Hiraga is a local inventor who helps out quite a bit. His role is never all that huge but he sticks around since near the beginning of the series so his appearances add up. He’s not amazing or anything but he’s not bad. It’s always good to have a mechanic on hand. He is able to help out Tama a lot who actually is a great character. Tama is a robot who may not know too much about human customs but learns a whole lot during her interactions with Gintoki and the crew. She has a lot of personality and also has some gadgets to fight with when things get serious. She’s always fun.

Now lets talk about the best character in the series. So Katsura is usually one of those gag characters who doesn’t take things too seriously but don’t let that fool you into thinking he is weak or anything like that. I would argue quite strongly that he is stronger than Gintoki and Shinsuke. My reasoning for that is when they were kids Katsura was always shown to be the best. He would consistently win and then in the present I would assume that things stayed the same. The difficult part is that he is often not on the front lines in the same way that the others are. It feels like most of the time he would end up on some kind of side quest that has nothing to do with anything. So that was a little disappointing but I guess it is what it is.

Regardless, he does have a big role in so many stories that I shouldn’t be too greedy. His gags were always a lot of fun. I like the idea of his being a super genius who just keeps himself entertained by messing around the whole time. Then he has his best friend Elizabeth which the series has a lot of fun with. We get a lot of twists about that character and you have to decide how many of them to take seriously. Elizabeth is definitely a really odd character all around but in the end the dynamic works rather well.

Shinsuke is the main villain for a good chunk of the series although he spends a lot of time in the shadows so once he does actually appear, there isn’t quite as much time for him. Still, he’s not the kind of villain that you are likely to forget, that’s for sure! He has a really good backstory that explains why he turned out the way that he did and you get it. It’s a really tragic origin story and he has a lot of people to blame for what happened. A main theme in the series is about growing up and moving on from the past though so he actually has quite a few deep conversations with Gintoki about things. He’s definitely a very layered villain and one who is always a threat.

He has a few subordinates but the biggest one by far has to be Bansai. Bansai has a really good intro and it seems like he can hold his own with the stronger characters but surprisingly his role always ends up staying rather small. He doesn’t get the big feature fights that you would expect to see out of him. I like the design though and I suppose not everyone has to have their big action moments. He’s still around for a bunch of the war scenes and everything.

Then we have the best villain, Kamui. He’s a solid wild card and whenever he shows up you know things are going to get bad for the heroes. His stats are out of this world to the point where Gintoki and the others can’t beat him in a fair fight. It’s safe to say that he is the single strongest character in the series except for the final boss. That guy still has him beat I suppose. So Kamui gets a lot of chances to dominate and he’s generally the kind of character who loves to fight and test his limits. I always love characters like that.

Of course there are several Shinsengumi characters who end up being big so lets go through them. First up is Kondo and for the first chunk of the series I would constantly mix him up with Hasegawa. In my defense, the two of them are way too similar. Seriously their personalities aren’t that far apart either. I can’t say that I ever liked Kondo much. He was always super desperate so he looked bad. He doesn’t stand up for himself and so his persona as being a big shot in the organization doesn’t work.

I actually preferred Hasegawa who at least made himself into a professional homeless person. That’s not easy and he had his own sense of pride the whole time. His parody moments would actually land rather well so I had to give him a lot of props. Not enough to say that he is a very good character or anything like that though. He just beats Kondo which isn’t a high bar. Then we have Yamazaki who can also be rather desperate but at least he knows what he is doing. He’s a good undercover agent who isn’t afraid to play the long game when tailing a target. Now that’s what I call skill and dedication.

Then we have Hiijikata who is a pretty fun character. His mayo gimmick is definitely fun and he actually acts as a foil to Gintoki at times. I never bought him being in the same level of power as the lead to be honest but he was still good to have around. His strict leadership style really isn’t bad at all and he made the group a force to be reckoned with. It wouldn’t be the same without Okita though who is a really good standout character. He’s another guy who likes to fight and never backs down from anything. Not all of his personality traits are great to be honest but he tends to be awesome more times than he is not. So I would give the guy a full thumbs up in the end.

Then we have the reverse group and they had two big members. The first one is Sasaki who does well to command his fighting troops. He’s a serious guy without a doubt and definitely not someone to be underestimated. I can’t say I loved his character but he made for a good villain. His right hand woman Nobume was a lot more intense though. Now she was a blast and a good rival for Okita. Honestly she was too good for that group the whole time and I would look forward to her scenes. It was always nice to get more star fighters.

The series definitely liked its duos though. Next up we have another one. Ayame is a ninja who is completely obsessed with Gintoki. She stalks him and does whatever she can in order to attract his attention. On one hand, her determination itself is admirable but the stalker kind of character is rarely my cup of tea. Her gags tend to be more annoying than funny and I couldn’t take her seriously in the power department. The same is true of her boss Hattori. He may have technically been one of the main 4 with Gintoki and friends in the past but he never seemed nearly as tough. The guy doesn’t have the same level of grit or determination either. Honestly the guy felt rather fraudulent the whole time. I never ended up liking him and he often had some of the weaker chapters although I did like that time Gintoki and friends dressed up as ninja. Wait a sec, half of that was for Sakamoto. Yeah these are two characters I absolutely mixed up all the time. They act the same and their dynamics with their partners are the same as well. Maybe this is the one weakness of the series because having multiple characters this easy to mix up is a little crazy.

One primary character in the main town is Tsukuyo. She’s sort of like a mafia gang member and she seems to like Gintoki but I wouldn’t expect that romance to go anywhere. She’s a tough heroine who can dish out damage with the best of them. It’s always fun to see her even if she rarely gets to step in during the serious arcs. Another good heroine is Kyubei. She may be confused for a while as to what her gender even is but at the end of the day she does have some serious fighting abilities. I was a little surprised that she didn’t show up more in the serious arcs but her gags were always rather fun. Ayumu could be a little more on the annoying side when he would try to look out for her though. He really just had that single gag.

Then we have the big villain, Utsuro. He is an extremely interesting character due in large part to the fact that the storyline really doesn’t go how you think it would. The origin story is extremely unique with more twists than you would expect. Ultimately, I thought the series did an excellent job with him. He felt like a true end game boss, the kind of guy you could never take down. In a lot of ways he really was invincible all the way through to the end which is what you would expect from a character like this. He just kept on coming back over and over again to great success.

The series is no stranger to good villains though. Jiraia is another intense villain who still has one of the most iconic fights in the series. I loved seeing Gintoki have to try and use all of his skills to try and repel the guy’s sheer speed. Definitely not something that just anyone could pull off, I can tell you that! Another reason why Gintoki is one of the all time greats but Jiraia is a villain you just don’t forget.

Another really solid villain is Housen. The guy is a super strong fighter who really gives Gintoki a tough time. You definitely must not underestimate him and while he’s not a recurring villain, he made his presence felt. Umibouzu isn’t a villain per say but he does go up against Gintoki and friends so I figured I’d mention him here. He’s actually fun when he’s being serious although he does goof off a lot. Now there are a bunch of other supporting characters but I’m going to end with one of my least favorite.

The Shogun. This guy is an absolute waste of time. In all of the comedic chapters his only role is to get humiliated over and over again with no end in sight. Really just an annoying character and by the time he is to get his serious moments, it’s just too late. I just can’t take him seriously. It’s rough since he has a lot of screen time and big emotional moments meant to make him go higher but they still didn’t win me over. I suppose at least I can say that his final scene actually was pretty emotional and I won’t forget it.

So that is the world of Gintama! Quite a lot to go through there. It may seem like an intimidating title to jump into but the best advice is to just jump into it straightaway. For the jokes, as long as you have a good sense of humor then you should have a blast here. Just remember that pretty much no joke is out of bounds here. You’ll have some fairly intense ones, suggestive jokes, crude jokes, etc. Every kind of joke is here and while I would say that way more of the jokes land than miss, not every joke will work for everyone. So just see what you think of the tone and work from there. Hopefully you also like the action scenes as well since those end up being super important.

You can also treat the series as educational to an extent. There are tons of themes in the show about bettering yourself as a person and remaining optimistic. Gintoki always saw the bright side of things no matter how bad things got. Yes the series can be really silly but in a way it’s always just a played up version of real things that people feel and experience. A ton of the mini arcs all focus on different trials and the serious ones of course have a lot of motivational moments as well. There is a lot more to the series than meets the eye and it was already elite before that point. Gintoki has more hype cliffhangers and rage modes than almost any other protagonist.

Overall, Gintama is definitely an elite title and one of the very best in Jump. It’s super impressive how long it kept on going for and it has a ton of replay value because of how many great stories were in here. By the time you finish the series you can absolutely go back to the start and enjoy the nostalgia of seeing the characters back in the happy days of the series. It works well as a really good loop. It’s really the kind of series that could have even kept going but that probably sounds a bit greedy after this long runtime. So I’ll just be content with what we got and I highly recommend reading this series. It’s not without its flaws, it probably makes just about every mistake possible at different points in the series. At the end of the day though, it was long enough to override all of those issues and manages to be really top tier. It’s why you can’t give up, even if you come across an underwhelming arc, the series can always rebound so long as it keeps on going. There is always a chance.

Overall 9/10

The Land That Time Forgot Review

Posted on May 6, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a dinosaur film with a group of people having to try and get along. You can probably guess how the latter goes but surprisingly the dinosaurs themselves don’t do much for a majority of the film. If anything it’s more about the cave people who tend to generally be annoying. Unfortunately this film uses time travel in the opposite way of how you would want it to be used. Ideally you always want to go to the future with lots of cool gadgets and awesome concepts. Instead it ended up going to the past which is not the direction you want to go. There just aren’t nearly as many possibilities to be had there.

The movie starts with a ship being destroyed and so only a few of the passengers manage to survive. They are able to use their quick wits to take over an enemy submarine though and after a lot of in-fighting they manage to get the ship landed on a mysterious island. This island is like something out of the prehistoric age. There are dinosaurs around, cave people, and basically no sign of modern civilization. This could spell trouble or the heroes could adapt to the place. They will need some oil in order to get the ship operational again but will they be able to survive long enough to do so? It will all come down to whether this group of adventurers can get along with each other.

Now I am poking fun at the idea of these guys all working together and that’s because there are a lot of reasons to hold grudges with each other. Half of the crew are British and the other half are German and they would quickly murder each other if given the chance. The Germans are the ones who blew up the British ship at the start and then now they were being held hostage. So resentment is quite high and they will only work together for as long as is necessary. If either side shows any sign of weakness then it is absolutely game over. There will be no coming back from that.

That’s why true teamwork just won’t work here. Yes a shared goal may sound like it’s enough but not when you know that the person behind you wants to absolutely destroy you as soon as possible. That just means you have to watch yourself carefully at all times. You don’t actually trust the person standing right next to you. In the film we see constant betrayals and the main group keeps on getting whittled down. Realistically if they were one tight unit then the film would have been over rather quickly. They would have easily been able to defend themselves from the dinosaurs, fight off the cave people, and get their oil. Instead all the bickering and arguing slowed them down a little too much.

The dinosaurs that we do see get to have some action and fights but they didn’t help the film. For one thing, the dinosaurs are not bullet proof at all so they’re getting riddled with bullets the whole time and dying. Their first death scene even takes forever which has one of the characters comment on it. It’s just a little rough to be seeing the dinosaur getting absolutely dominated like that. Typically you would expect them to be the scary antagonists right? Sure they do still scare everyone but you can’t take it quite as seriously as long as the guns are around.

So what you have is some extra animal violence here and that’s not even considering the dinosaur vs dinosaur fights. I would definitely recommend cutting the dinosaurs out of the film entirely since they don’t change much. That or just keep them in the background since the designs themselves weren’t bad. Meanwhile what also hurts the film generally are the cave people. Naturally it is hard to have a conversation with them due to the language barrier and so those scenes tend to drag on. We didn’t need the brief fanservice by showing us how the egg work with the tribe jumping into the pool and generally this is why I don’t care much for the past. It was less sophisticated and doesn’t end up being as entertaining.

Whenever the main characters were getting defeated I would be shaking my head. Yeah these cave people would be tough in close quarters combat but why take so long to ready your gun? Half the time the heroes were using the gun like a baseball bat rather than as a projectile. That’s definitely the way to lose a fight, it’s certainly not going to help you win one. I can guarantee you that! At least one guy remembered to flip the opponent and use his momentum against him. The rest were picked off like novices.

One thing I will give the film is that the writing is still pretty good. I at least liked the attempts at teamwork and there was some good banter here. Yeah you knew that the alliance was doomed but getting to that point was still written very well. It wasn’t like the characters were written out of character or that it was all contrived. I thought it was fairly realistic as to how this could all play out without diminishing the intelligence of any of the characters. So I definitely appreciated that.

Overall, The Land That Time Forgot is a film that’s not very good and large part it is due to the premise. I don’t think there’s a lot you can do about a movie going back to the olden days. It felt like the writers more or less knew what they were doing and they couldn’t save the concept. Even aside from the animal violence and the characters being more on the annoying side, I think the biggest issue was that the film could be rather boring at times. It feels long as you’re going through the movie and it would have been so much better if no such island ever showed up. Have the tension be about the characters needing to survive on a week’s worth of supplies with both sides getting more and more anxious about the situation. If you do that then I would argue that the whole movie would work a lot better. I know it is a completely different movie at that point though so for better or worse, that’s the way I can see to save this film. But hey it could have been a whole lot worse to be honest.

Overall 4/10

Odd Taxi Review

Posted on May 5, 2024 by dreager1

Odd Taxi is one of those shows that I didn’t really know anything about but I remember when it was first announced at some kind of awards show. The teaser was so bad that every reactor I knew was making fun of it. The comments were pretty fun but it seems like a lot of people enjoyed it after the show actually released. Either that or the creators got mad because a lot of the initial reactions were taken down without a trace. Could be that the reactors were covering their tracks though. It’s a pretty unique show that has a fun mystery. I thought it was good, it may not reach the status of very good as I don’t think there is a ton of replay value here but it handles the alternate realistic universe filled with animals concept way better than Beastars ever could.

The show generally follows a walrus named Hiroshi who drives a taxi around town. He picks up various people across the city and lives a generally calm life. He doesn’t get into trouble or take risks and that’s the way that he likes it. Unfortunately, that changes one day when he becomes aware of a missing persons case. A girl has gone missing and unfortunately he is a primary suspect because there are signs pointing to his having driven her right before she vanished. He doesn’t remember….but this is one of those shows where even the main character is a suspect. So we have to determine whether Hiroshi is guilty or not. In the meantime this has gotten the attention of the cops, the yakuza, and even the papparazi. Hiroshi’s quiet life is completely over.

While the mystery is the central focus of the show, this is the kind of title where a lot of plots are balanced at the same time. You can sometimes go whole episodes without the missing persons case being the main focus. For example you’ve also got a failing comedian duo, a girl that Hiroshi has fallen in love with, inter gang battles, one guy’s addiction to mobile games, etc. Another way to look at this could be that the show is more about the city and everyone in it as opposed to just focusing on Hiroshi’s struggles.

Now, the soundtrack isn’t really doing the series any favors. It has to succeed in spite of the songs because they are quite uninspired. The opening is hands down one of the worst that I’ve heard in a while. It might seriously be bottom 5 but that’s a bold statement with how many shows I’ve seen. So for now I’ll just say that it is easily one of the weaker ones and you will want to skip it after seeing it once. Then the ending also doesn’t really work either but at least it has some life to it. The themes within the show aren’t bad but it’s just not really my kind of music. It’s a little too subdued the whole time which is likely the intent based on the style of the show but I wanted something with a little more pop.

The animation is also below average. It’s going for a stylized kind of look but for me that just didn’t work as well as the traditional visuals. Give me something with more color and impact any day. Technical elements usually exist to enhance a show to the next level as opposed to holding it back so that does put this one at a bit of a disadvantage. The show is still good but I dare say this contributed to the show staying there instead of becoming very good.

In a way the story arcs revolve around the characters so I’ll be breaking the story down that way as opposed to the traditional story arcs method. So first lets talk about Kabasawa since he’s one of the more annoying characters. Basically he wants to go viral online and become really famous. So the guy is always taking a lot of pictures and getting himself into trouble with the mafia. It takes him a long while to really get the point and in a way he is supposed to represent the irresponsible streamers that you see everywhere. So the show did a good job of really adapting that kind of person but it also means that naturally this character would not be even remotely likable. Even by the end I didn’t like him and so this wasn’t quite my favorite plot of the bunch.

For a more intense plot, we had the constant fighting between Dobu and Yano. They’re both trying to show off for their boss but this does result in some direct fighting at times. We get to see Dobu a lot more often than Yano and he is a tough gangster. The guy can fight well when he’s cornered and always has a plan. He feels a little less evil than Yano in part because of all the screentime so he gets to mellow out a bit. He makes for a good antagonist who really gives Hiroshi and the others a run for their money. He works best as a full on villain and was always entertaining. I never doubted that he would shoot Hiroshi if the need were to arise.

That said, I liked his rival Yano even more. The way he talks with rhythm and thymes the whole time was pretty cool. He actually had a pretty good theme music which would show up and was the best part of the ost. Yano debuts much later than Dobu but still gets a really good amount of screen-time. I tend to like it when villains are going at each other and this provided another opportunity for that. So all good things here and Yano’s scenes were always really hype.

Then we have the Daimon brothers. One of them is a really corrupt cop who is rather open about this while the other one is really timid and super naive. Good Daimon wants to be a good police officer who opposes evil and fights for justice at all times. His plot ties into the main one the most as this is his big chance but if it means going against his brother then it’ll be tough. You’re eagerly waiting for him to summon his bravery and start doing good but it does take a while. So he gets a good finish here but ultimately I still wouldn’t list him as one of my favorite characters or anything because it took a really long time.

As for bad Daimon, he was usually a lot more entertaining. It’s the way he’s so smug about everything, it’s fun to see him just revel in that as he makes things tough on Hiroshi. This guy isn’t afraid to be petty and so he helps the villains out quite a lot. I don’t feel like he ever got a great reason for helping the villains out but that’s actually a good thing. Sometimes people will just go corrupt easily for some money and influence. It doesn’t all have to tie into some grand sob story that explains everything.

Then we have Hiroshi’s doctor Goriki and his assistant Miho. Miho is a nice enough lady that Hiroshi falls for right away but despite that she has her dark secrets like being a bit of a thief. It’s hard for Hiroshi to get involved here since he isn’t the type to meddle and he’s no sure exactly what’s going on. Ultimately I would say that Miho looks rather bad here. She’s one of those characters who doesn’t have much problem with manipulating someone but then this whole thing started because someone manipulated her so it’s really a whole cycle. Her excuses for being manipulated were pretty bad and ultimately I didn’t think she was a great character.
I liked Goriki a lot though. He could have taken a more proactive approach rather than letting Miho do whatever she wanted though. He seemed to think the optimal thing was to take the loss and move on which is the way to go if you absolutely can’t handle confrontations but I would say overall it isn’t the right thing to do. Sometimes confrontations are inevitable or you will be walked on by everyone else. Goriki is also busy worrying about Hiroshi the whole time but the main character can be rather stubborn about things so this can be difficult.

Then you have Hiroshi’s friend Kakihana who is the most desperate character in the series. He desperately wants a girlfriend even if it means lying on dating apps and borrowing money from shady sources. He will do whatever it takes and gets into trouble on many occasions. It’s always hard to feel bad for him as a result and I don’t feel like he ever made the jump to being a good character. He just holds Hiroshi back and gets the lead into dangerous situations. Kakihana needs to be less desperate and be happy with what he already has.

Then you have the singing plot which is also really important in the show. Yamamoto is the manager of a band of 3 cats who are really popular now. The main singer is Rui while her two backup singers always have to wear masks. Yamamoto has them trying to do everything to hustle up more tickets but the guy is rather shady. He’s one of many people who asks Hiroshi for his dash-cam and seems to know more than he is letting on about the missing girl. Show biz is definitely a dark place as always but he does really well in the role of manager. At the very least, even if it means breaking 1000 laws you can bet that he will work to make the group as popular as possible.

On the surface Rui seems like a really nice person but of course you know that this doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Putting on an act is what the trio do for a living after all, but she’s a fun character to have around. In general I liked all of the singers, they all had an edge to them and were quite competitive which makes sense. You don’t get to this high level by being passive after all. In a way Shiho might be the toughest of the group. She does some illegal stuff in order to get rich which involves being bait so that others can get beat up. It’s definitely not something you would be expecting a celebrity to do.

Also even if she doesn’t love the gig, she’s not exactly running away either so I do give her a lot of responsibility here. Ultimately she wants to live a really wealthy life and seems ready to go with any guy who can give her that luxurious life. Definitely not a great reason to start a relationship though, materialistic end goals like that don’t feel like they will lead to a happy outcome. Finally you have Yuki who is the newest member of the group and fighting hard to make sure that she ends up doing well here. She’s got a lot of spirit which I like and definitely has the work ethic to succeed. Her role is quite sizable and of the 3 she is easily the most likable one.

Then we have the comedy duo Shibagaki and baba whose plot has the least to do with the main one but it ultimately does connect. All of the plots converge at some point or another after all. Basically these guys have been a duo for a long time but Baba has gotten more and more distracted as he starts to pursue other goals while Shibagaki still wants to become the best duo in Japan. The fact is that they continue to lose in early rounds of the comedian championship in every year. So Baba thinks they are just on the way down here. I don’t think they worked well as a duo from the start though, they just didn’t have the banter at the ready.

I also don’t think you can possibly succeed if either member of the duo already has their eyes set on another goal. I put most of the blame here on Baba, I think he should either just have gone and quit from the jump or focused entirely for the final competition. His whole one foot in and one foot out made things really tough on the duo. As for Shibageki, he should have looked into a new partner. It seems like he wasn’t doing particularly well in the comedy circuit either but then he needs to work from the ground up and needs a partner who is ready to start from scratch to. Both of these guys were just too stubborn. It was always fun hearing them on the radio though.

We’d have whole segments where Hiroshi is just driving and listening to these guys. It felt a little like a loading screen and it worked well for the slice of life effect. The show did that well in general, a lot was always going on here but at the same time there were a lot of moments for peace like this. A good portion of the show takes place at night since that is Hiroshi’s normal route and so the vibes are rather solid there.

Then you have Tanaka who is the most deranged character in the series. Initially he just starts out as some kid who is super addicted to mobile games but as the show goes on he gets more and more detached from reality. The guy even grabs a gun and starts threatening people. He’s definitely got strong crazy vibes going at all times. While I have no real sympathy for the guy and just think that he’s nuts, the plot is one of the most engaging in the show. Partially because you know he does have a real chance of actually murdering someone since the show’s atmosphere lends itself well to that. It’s also fun when he actually does have a run in with the Yakuza. He’s definitely a very good wild card who keeps all of the characters guessing.

The most normal character in the show has to be Imai. He’s a super big fan of the idol group and so he buys all of their merchandise and attends the concerts that he can. He doesn’t have much money at all but he really wants to support them. Well, one day he win a big lottery so he can finally have a bunch of money but the Yakuza in town might have something to say about this. This guy isn’t the smartest character in the group which gets him into trouble though. You definitely want to be sure that nobody knows you won the lottery but unfortunately he doesn’t think that far ahead. Imai’s more on the naive side so he makes a whole lot of mistakes here. He was okay but I wish he was a bit tougher.

Now we’ve got Hiroshi’s plot but with the added context of all the other plots which keep involving him since he drives them all around. Hiroshi’s not much of a social guy and so he tries to avoid the spotlight but it’s pretty much impossible given his position. I appreciate the effort but yeah he’s definitely a little in over his head on this one. I thought he made for a good main character with how old and jaded he is though. He doesn’t understand any of the newer trends that the younger characters are talking about and he doesn’t want to understand them. Part of him wants to get out there and start dating while another part of him doesn’t want to risk it.

Then with the whole murder case, Hiroshi is rather cryptic. Does he really not remember what happened or is he hiding something? Throughout the show he talks to someone in his closet which is rather suspicious. Well, either way I can say that the resolutions to the plots are definitely interesting. Hiroshi also starts to show some guts later on like during a few tense chase scenes and when he shows up to rescue Kakihana. He may not always be the bravest character but he is someone that you can count on.

The season also ends with a fairly big cliffhanger depending on how you look at it. You can think of it as more of a “bad end” as opposed to a cliffhanger though and assume that things went the villain’s way. I could definitely picture that. On the other hand you can assume that at some point we will get a season 2 that wraps things up. There is certainly enough material for one but either way that was an explosive way to end things and I was not expecting that so it worked out pretty well.

There are a lot of revelations in general near the end. The biggest twist was also pretty well foreshadowed since in hindsight you can connect a few of the dots that way. They are hidden well enough where I wouldn’t expect just about anyone to guess it right away but it doesn’t feel unfair either since the seeds were there. The twist makes you wonder a bit on how a season 2 would go. It would definitely be interesting to see. In a way I hope it would keep things the way they look after the twist because it makes the most sense but I would totally understand it if the show did not want to do that.

I think one of the cleverest things the show did was introducing the girl’s disappearance right away. It’s treated like a murder the whole time but that’s not confirmed. Still, what it does is give the series a fairly serious vibe right away. This is a show with gangs running around and a lot of tension so you want to make sure that the audience knows bad things can happen to the characters. If there was no danger then the show would not have as much intensity as it does now. Even by the end they don’t cop out on the whole thing. It’s a legitimate plot that keeps on going and isn’t just there for shock value.

In general the story is more focused on a strong plot than shock value which is why I put it on a much higher level than something like Beastars. There can be some violence but it isn’t all that excessive and the show isn’t generally dealing with any super dark themes. It’s just a solid mystery with a lot of things going on. The slow pacing can sometimes approach the point of being a little boring every now and again but you do get sucked in when the mystery is a big focus again. The story itself was strong enough to carry the rest of the show.

Overall, Odd Taxi is a fun show. There is a lot of mystery involved with the plot and the characters can be interesting. The show does have a very low key vibe to it although I wish the animation/soundtrack was better. It’s a show that can keep you engaged on the first run but I don’t think it would hold up well on the rewatch. The pacing could stand to be a little faster since some parts can be a bit more dull especially if you don’t care about the character. Kakihana in particular was just annoying the whole time. There aren’t a ton of mystery anime out there compared to other genre though so if you’re in the mood for a title like that then I would recommend this show. The Taxi is definitely a fun vehicle to revolve the show around.

Overall 6/10

Pokemon Go Update

Posted on May 5, 2024 by dreager1

I didn’t think I’d be doing another update this quickly but the latest event happened to have two of the Pokemon I was missing so that worked out really well. I finally caught my first Diancie and as a result got Mega Diancie. I also rounded up the last Zangoose I needed and my first Mega Alakazam so now I got the Gold Mega Evolution badge! One more step to ranking up all of the badges, but I’ve still got a whiles to go on that.

The Unsuspected Review

Posted on May 4, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for an old school mystery thriller. This one definitely has a lot of characters running around which helps to enhance the mystery angle and I would say that it ends up working out really well. There are enough characters here where you can really start making your own guesses on what happened and who the true culprit is. There are a solid number of twists and turns here so it will be tough to really guess it all correctly but trying to come close is definitely the main objective here.

So the movie starts with a lady getting murdered. She was actually on the phone with someone but completely panicked and so while she was being murdered she didn’t yell out the person’s name, description, or anything like that. In fact she dropped the phone so only a scream was heard which didn’t seem to bother the other person on the line nearly as much as you would have expected it to. We then get to the main house where there is a big party for Victor ongoing. Just about everyone is here and it should be all good except a mysterious guy shows up. His name is Steven and he claims to be the husband of Matilda, the lady who died out at sea.

Nobody has been aware of her being married before and as it happens, she was quite rich. So naturally her family were expecting to get everything and now this guy has shown up? Is he just here for the money and is this some kind of a scam? They’ll need to figure it out quickly and does this have anything to do with the murder of the other lady? More and more characters enter the plot as the film goes on and the main thing I would say is that this is one of those films where you really can’t rust anyone. They’ve all got an angle that they are working on.

Each character appears to have some kind of motive and most of them just don’t get along at all. You have Althea who stole Matilda’s boyfriend from her right before they were to be married so there would definitely still be some resentment there. Unfortunately he fell off quickly so now Althea isn’t even happy. Steven’s motivations are obvious of course, if he is faking the marriage then he is here for money and if not, then he may be out for some revenge. He appears to be digging into the recent “suicide” as well which raises more questions. I should mention now that unfortunately the opening murder was ruled a suicide since there was no evidence of a struggle or anything. It’s a shame because the whole movie wouldn’t have happened in the same way if the victim had just yelled anything specific before getting bumped off.

Meanwhile Victor is naturally a suspect for generally being shady and also not reacting much to any of the news. He reads a lot of murder mysteries and different thrillers over the radio so he has experience in these kinds of scenarios. The film tends to open up more questions as it goes on as well when the various characters begin interacting with each other. There are so many secret conversations, layered threats, blackmail, etc. Everything is happening here. That is where the film shines though. The pacing is very fast and they manage to squeeze in many different plots before the film is over.

Naturally the writing is also really good although that should come as no surprise. These old films always tend to have a great script and was crafted with a lot of care. Most of the characters are written to be rather unlikable but it is done in a careful way where they aren’t obnoxious or anything like that. You are rooting for things not to go tooo well for them but they’re not actively hurting the film in the process. For example Althea’s husband spends the whole film being really drunk so he’s annoying and someone to root against but the film doesn’t overplay its hand by having him show up dozens and dozens of times over to beat you over the head with how annoying he is. You get the basis of his character right away. Likewise you see how Althea is always chasing different men and can’t really be trusted.

The flaws that the characters have are rather obvious without being overbearing and that’s absolutely the right away to do it. So in short, the film didn’t really have any negatives for me. Yeah I still think it’s a real stretch how in the first murder the girl didn’t do anything even while she was already on the phone. That whole thing felt more than a little sloppy to me and the film should have written the scene in a different way. Just don’t have her be on the phone you know? I feel like in part it was there to be a red herring as well and the problem is that it’s a little too good as a red herring to the point where it almost becomes a plot hole of sorts. Plot hole is too strong since you can explain it away but all I’m saying is that the first scene doesn’t work all that well despite the rest of the film being really strong.

Also there’s a major plot point/whole storyline that I didn’t mention because the actual plot would be a spoiler in itself. All I’ll say there is that you always have to trust your own recollection or lack thereof rather than someone else’s story. Even if it might work out sometimes, you see so many characters being gaslit because they didn’t trust their own instincts. That is always a problem. Just trust in your instincts and generally everything will work out.

Overall, This is the kind of film where I try not to give too much away because all of the twists and turns as a primary factor in how much you enjoy the film. It’s why a repeat viewing will never hit quite the same way as the initial watch. Still, it is done well enough where you would still have a good time either way. I definitely recommend watching this movie and extra credit to you if you guess who the main culprit is.

Overall 7/10

Rambo Review

Posted on May 4, 2024 by dreager1

This review is of the TV-14 edited version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version of the movie would be more negative.

Lets look at the 4th Rambo which just so happens to be the weakest one in the series so far. It’s definitely going for a dark angle right from the jump and that aspect of the film is quite unrelenting. It takes a long while until Rambo himself gets involved to fight back and it’s one of those films where even once the heroes win, there are a ton of casualties and you know there are other villains running around. There’s nothing particularly light hearted/happy about this movie which is rough.

The movie starts with a quick introduction to remind us just how evil the villains are. No worries they’re going to do this a whole lot as the film goes over but it’s definitely an awful way to kick the movie off in general. Instead of building up hype or getting you excited it is giving you reasons to want to avoid the film. Like why would I want to be seeing any of this? Well, we eventually cut to Rambo himself who now works by capturing snakes and putting them in the cages to get ready for animal cruelty fights. He is approached by a group of missionaries who want to head deep into enemy territory to spread the good word.

It’s a noble goal but unfortunately these characters are incredibly naive. The main pastor even believes that you cannot take a life even in self defense so when they are attacked by pirates he doesn’t do anything about it. He even threatens to get Rambo in trouble if he can. Needless to say, after Rambo drops them off at their designated location they are captured almost immediately. So much for that eh? Of course you feel bad for them, they’re just written to be such unlikable characters the whole time that it’s crazy. So the Church hires some vigilantes to go save them and Rambo decides to come along and do what he can. Are the missionaries even still alive by this point?

Well, only the power of plot armor is able to help them here because by all accounts they really should have been long dead. I’m not sure why the villains spared them for so long. They’re stuck in cages but mostly everyone else had already been murdered. I suppose they had the luck of the draw on that one. Not much of a consolation because their living conditions still sucked but at least they were able to last. Nobody else is so lucky so even while the heroes are heading over there to free them, we see countless people getting tortured and murdered. The film is going for maximum shock value the whole time so if you can picture a dark plot element then you are going to find it in the film.

Naturally all of the vigilantes tend to be rather crass and not very heroic at all. They are here for the paycheck and are happy to murder anybody but they don’t have any real kind of honor code. Rambo has to actively threaten the main one in order to keep him going or the guy would have left almost immediately. Rambo himself looks good at least. He does smash up a ton of the villains and shows why he is still one of the strongest agents around. He hasn’t forgotten his skills at all, that’s for sure. He’s on a completely different level even from the trained mercenaries.

The action scenes can be good when they aren’t being too try hard on the violence. When they do that is when they really start to lose the plot. Lets just say this is a regular occurrence in this film as well. The film is plenty violent the whole time even with the TV edits. So again the film is just trying too hard instead of letting the narrative talk for it. The problem there is that the actual plot isn’t very good either. Of course I have a lot of respect for people who go into these active war areas to spread the gospel and try to help out. It does feel like they’re creating more chances to become a hostage or get into trouble but if they can save anyone then it’s a win.

It doesn’t make for a great movie though. Even if you think of this like a power fantasy, the problem is that the first half is all about the villains dominating and having their way with the heroes. In no way is this a particularly captivating story and you want a film that’s fairly uplifting. Seeing Rambo beat up on the villains is the goal so you need to do that sooner. Focus more on the heroic comeback than on the villain slaughter to start things off. As a starting point you at least need to get rid of the opening montage showing off all of the villainous exploits.

Honestly the film has so may issues that it would still have gotten a fairly low score though. The Rambo series is just cooked at this point and it will be hard for it to make a true comeback. We unfortunately didn’t have the usual hype man for Rambo either. There are reasons for that but they should have invented a new character to take up the role. It may be a little cheesy but I always thought it was pretty fun and it made the films more memorable. Perhaps that aided in making this the worst Rambo title. There is still another one I haven’t watched so perhaps that will be even lower but we will have to see.

Overall, Rambo is a pretty awful film. It’s definitely over the top violent the whole time with a ton of dark themes and the film doesn’t allow itself to really have any fun moments. It’s a slog to get through and you can see why Rambo didn’t even want to get involved at this point. The amount of casualties and criminals appear to be endless so why even get involved in all of that if you don’t have to right? You absolutely get what he is feeling in all of this. So you should just skip this movie as well. It’s rather unnecessary and doesn’t really add anything to the series.

Overall 1/10

Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song Review

Posted on May 4, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a music focused anime which is always fun. You can bet that there are some solid tunes here and the anime has a bunch of fun time travel in it too. So you’ve got a good story going with fun characters and better than expected fight scenes. All in all, this made for a winning combination. I remember seeing this one around quite a bit back when it was airing so it’s cool to have been able to check it out.

In the future, AI are evolving at a rapid rate. There are still barriers keeping them from going into every industry but they can at least sing and perform concerts as well as do basic security. The show revolves around an AI named Vivy. Every AI has a mission, a purpose for which they exist. Vivy’s purpose as you may guess is to sing her songs and reach the hearts of the masses. She must continue to hone her skills until she has gotten everyone to hear her music. Unfortunately this is difficult because her music may seem perfect objectively but it has no heart. How can an AI put heart into her music? Less and less people are bothering to listen to her anymore. Well, one day her life is turned upside down when an AI named Matsumoto shows up. He confirms that he is here to save the future.

See, in the future AI continues to evolve but it gets to a point where the world is destroyed. The AI go absolutely crazy and murder everyone. Based on readings from the future, they will be able to avoid this future if Vivy can protect someone from being assassinated. She is reluctant because this isn’t related to her mission but if everyone dies then she can’t clear her mission by default right? So she thinks this through and decides to help. Now she will have to quickly download some combat moves and save the day but can she really trust this Matsumoto? Also, will these missions help her establish some heart within her music?

That’s sort of the basic plot but there’s so much going on here that it’s hard to compress this. Another way to think of it is that Matsumoto goes back to the future after each episode to see if things have changed. Every time the future hasn’t gone any better so he goes back to Vivy with different missions to keep trying until the day is saved. You can only pull this off so many times before running out of energy though so it won’t be easy. Meanwhile Vivy tends to be reluctant most of the time but for good reason. She tends to get the short end of the stick here.

In a lot of media involving time travel, a common theme is that certain tragedies are completely inevitable. I never bought into this, but the show definitely takes the approach that it is extremely difficult to stop the dark future. Every time Vivy saves the day, a new trigger appears to keep on making things rough. Also she goes through so many different traumas in the show. It felt like just about every episode Vivy would have to watch someone close to her get destroyed and there’s no way for her to go back in time.

Matsumoto gets to head off for years and even decades at a time while she has to continue living life. It’s definitely a rough deal, one of these moments in particular really shook her to the core. So Vivy gets a ton of credit for continuing to fight despite all of these struggles. At one point she basically has to create a second personality entirely to deal with the trauma which feels like a very logical thing for an AI to do. I suppose if you are scared of AI taking over in the real world you may have a bit of a tough time with the show as well.

Like I mentioned earlier, the animation is really sharp here. There is the occasional CG that slips in, but for the most part we’re talking high quality levels of hand drawn here. The fights move at an incredibly fast pace and have some really great hand to hand combat featured within. I wouldn’t say this is an action show first and foremost so you shouldn’t expect a big action scene in every episode but they definitely show up often enough to keep this moving at a high level. We get some cool aerial fights, grounded fights, etc. The non action moments look great as well and so the series really spared no expense here. This is well above average with the animation.

As for the soundtrack I wouldn’t say that it particularly stands out but the opening is pretty solid and there are a few other lyrical songs that pop up. When the show is going into full concert mode then it works really well. The rest of the tunes will just end up blending into the scene so they’re not bad but won’t really kick things into the next level. I suspect a lot of the budget went into the opening and the different song variations though so that makes sense.

As a main character Vivy is very solid. She may be hesitant to help out most of the time but again, I’d say that it’s pretty reasonable considering everything that she goes through. At the end of the day she does help out which is the important thing. That said, I actually preferred her alter ego Diva. As Diva she is incredibly confident the first one to run onto the scene when anything is happening. I have to give her a ton of credit all the way through. If she was the main character from the start I dare say that the heroes would have won a lot quicker. Now granted, it’s easy for Diva to talk tough when she didn’t experience the tragedies directly. It’s totally possible that she would have ultimately had the same issues as Vivy otherwise. It’s only a guess though so I choose to guess that she would have stayed strong.

Matsumoto may be more logic focused but he definitely gets some emotions as the series goes on too. He’s a solid sidekick and the banter between the two characters is a large part as to why the show is very fun. Matsumoto will get sarcastic quite often and since he is far more advanced than any AI of Vivy’s era, he is able to slip past any and all barriers. Definitely not someone you would want as your enemy. He proved himself more than enough times so I was glad to have him around.

Then we had Estella and Elizabeth who showed up during a space arc. They were both solid characters and it was nice to have a mini mystery on who the big villain was who planned to destroy the space station. While Matsumoto is from the future and knows the general events of what will happen, he knows the original records of them which may not be fully accurate. Since these two are sisters it is possible that the wrong one could be picked. Especially with the local terrorist group being around to help out as always.

It makes for a pretty interesting dynamic since the terrorist group are effectively right for the wrong reasons. The AI actually will go on to murder the humans like they fear but the group is ultimately still evil. So Vivy in a way is fighting for the same cause but it’s not like they’ll team up. If anything they are still trying to destroy her for being an AI. Their main leader in particular is really petty and keeps trying to destroy her even after she has saved him on multiple occasions. He just can’t stand the idea of being saved by an AI but it is what it is.

After that, the next arc involves taking down the big machine island that was set up. This is yet another tragic event that Vivy has to go through because this is supposed to be a bright day for AI. They are trying hard to learn how to take care of humans and make them feel comfortable while also having their own spot. This should be a day for celebration, not something to be destroyed. Unfortunately thanks to the future we learn that things won’t go very well. There is a twist about the true identity of the island’s AI too which makes things even rougher. Vivy is constantly put in a position where someone has to die in order to save everyone else and that’s not an easy spot to be in. It still made for an intense arc with a very solid climax though.

In dealing with the dark future, the show wasn’t afraid to get rather dark at times too. At some points, this did mean that the show would get rather violent with the different character deaths. I’d say the most shocking was definitely the little girl in the second episode. That was a pretty rough one, I was fully expecting there to be some kind of a twist the whole time. Then you have another character who couldn’t live with the tragedy of what happened and he ends up destroying himself right in front of Vivy. It’s pretty hard to to deal with all of the deaths but of course you never want to check out early like that.

In general I wouldn’t say that the show is all that violent though. Those were the two most shocking moments because it just didn’t seem like they were going to die though. The show really made the most of the opportunity though like using that for another time skip and introducing the new personality. That was petty interesting and a good way to move on rather than dwelling on the moment or the fall out. This show never had time for that as it kept on moving forward.

So the show overall had a light tone with a good amount of banter but it would sure get very serious at different points. In general you have a little less time for humor and everything in the second half. Although calling it a whole half may be a stretch. There were still a good deal of happy moments when Diva took control for episode 9 so a better way of putting it might be that there are fewer scenes with no baggage. Even when the characters are having fun later, it’s over the piles of corpses at that point. The next arc was to prevent the songstress Ophelia from destroying herself but due to how the time travel works and everything that wasn’t quite the scenario going on anyway. We actually have Antonio doing some body swaps and being rather desperate to complete his own AI mission but it felt like he was just being a contradiction at that point. If he left Ophelia to her devices then she may have at least had a chance.

The climax here was definitely really solid though, another great fight all around. After that we cut to the final arc which is a fitting climax. It definitely does suck for the humans who are really getting murdered and run over left and right. It can maybe get a little excessive at one point but for the most part the violence vanishes again after that. I did think the climax had a few stretches of disbelief for me though. The biggest was another time jump that didn’t really seem to make sense. I don’t see how it would have been possible here. The explanation was a bit iffy because to me then you could almost create a loop and do this forever.

The action and everything was good though, my main issue is the actual ending. Both Vivy and Diva get rather bad endings here. Diva’s is probably worse because of how sad it is but I’d argue Vivy also got cheated in the end. She should have gotten a much better ending and while the show may not paint it as being overtly negative, I would consider it as a “bad” ending. Similar to when you’re reading a book that has a good, neutral, and bad ending. I would expect to find this in the final category. It’s not like it’s bad enough to lower the score or anything but it’s just a harsh climax.

Overall, Vivy is a pretty fun show. It uses the time travel well and I like the idea of these constant time skips of many years between episodes. It’s something you can really only do with the main heroine being an eternal robot like this. The ending does fumble a bit though. You still have a lot of good replay value here but I would have really preferred a more satisfying ending. After all of the trials and everything that went on, you want a really good ending. Still, I would recommend this series if you are looking for a fun time and want some good songs. There is a lot to enjoy here and the show definitely goes by quickly.

Overall 7/10

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About dreager1

Kaiju Run Review

Naruto: Sasuke’s Story: Sunrise Review

First Blood Review

Gintama Review

The Land That Time Forgot Review

Odd Taxi Review

Pokemon Go Update

The Unsuspected Review

Rambo Review

Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song Review

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