Category Archives: Reviews

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn Review

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Golden Sun has definitely been a really fun video game series. This is currently the last one so the series has been shelved for now but hopefully it returns. While this doesn’t quite beat the first two titles, it’s nice to see how the characters have actually aged. Isaac is an old pro now and it’s time for the next generation to step into the spotlight. Do they have what it takes to really save the world here?

The game starts off with one of the new characters making the big mistake of trying to fly a glider and he crash lands in the forest. Matthew and his team go to save this guy and then Isaac tells them to find a legendary feather. The rest of the game is basically about trying to find the feather and every time the heroes get close some kind of obstacle gets in their way. You can probably guess that they’re pretty frustrated by the end of it but what can you do right? Naturally this wouldn’t be a full RPG experience without some danger though so then the end of the world approaches due to the dark eclipse.

The gameplay is solid as always with a lot of depth to it. Aside from the usual turn based combat system one of the things that makes Golden Sun stand out is how the Djinn are used. Each character has to equip them and you can decide to activate them which opens up the door to summons or keeping them set which increases all of your base stats. There are over 80 Djinn in the game and you have to have each character carry an equal amount. If you have 17 though one character can have 5 while the others have 4 but if you get 18 for example you can’t have one holding 6. That would just be too unbalanced.

Another thing to consider is based on the types of Djinn you have a character hold, their class will change. There are numerous classes for each character and they all have different abilities and strengths so you want to keep those in mind which can be difficult. As a result I would say the game can be more difficult than it appears. For the most part I didn’t have a problem but that changed in the final boss where I really had to train. Ultimately I wasn’t able to defeat him until I reached level 99 while online I see people beat him as early as 45. It really comes down to the amount of Djinns you have and the summons.

If you don’t have a good setup then you will be absolutely crushed. I played this one more like a standard RPG so my lineup wasn’t exactly amazing. Still, I do think I put up a pretty good fight if I do say so myself. At the end of the day RPGs really give you a lot of ways to build your team and I’d say that’s one of the good parts about them. You also get time to really get used to the characters which is another big advantage. At the end of the day I thought the characters were all pretty solid. The emotions system could probably use a bit of work since it never seemed to matter which emoji you used when talking with the characters but it’s a fun idea.

The villains also have good designs. They may show up a little late into the game but fighting them was fun. The overall length here is pretty good as it took me around 30 hours to complete the title. Throw in a fairly meaty post game and you really have a lot of bang for your buck here. Definitely a lot of replay value here to be sure. Some of the Djinn and summons are missable though so I’d say to keep that in mind when you’re going through the game.

The only real issue I have with the title is a quality of life element. There is no way to quick travel in this game and I feel like the minion spawns are frequent enough where it does get a bit annoying. Particularly when you are in the boat and your movement speed is cut in half. You have to fight a ton of opponents since it takes 2 turns to run away in most cases. Not really the ideal setup when you think about it. I was surprised because this just feels like an RPG staple so I was waiting for that the whole time. I was lucky that the final area was a good grinding spot because otherwise for example it was a super long walk back to get to the item shop. I had to beat the final boss without any potions or things like that. I would have gone back if needed of course but it wasn’t exactly my top option.

The graphics are definitely really good. I’d say a lot of time was put into them and we also get full cinematics at times which was really nice. Especially for the DS it’s always impressive since a lot of games still didn’t have those. The soundtrack is also good even if it isn’t quite as impressive as in the first two games. Basically whenever I compare this to the originals it doesn’t quite hold up but if you just talk about it as its own RPG then of course it’s still great. Ideally in a future game we could have Isaac play more of a central role though.

Overall, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is definitely a great game. While the story may not be as intense as the first two titles, it’s a fun way to end things off. It makes sense in a way that the stakes may not be as high with Isaac’s shadow looming in the distance although I’d say a fix to that would have been having him show up in the climax. In theory he could give the villain a pretty solid fight but you have him lose due to a cheap shot or something. The game opens with quite a few loose ends. I don’t know if they all get resolved in the post game or something like that but if not at least it gives more hope for a sequel. We can’t let the Golden Sun adventures end here!

Overall 8/10

Scooby-Doo! and Krypto, Too! Review

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I always forget just how short these films can be but man do you feel it with this one. It just ends so fast and I think that does take away from what they could have done here. Ultimately it’s a fun enough movie even if I wouldn’t consider it to be one of the strongest ones. Just having the DC heroes/villains here is pretty fun. At the end of the day I also tend to enjoy crossovers quite a bit so that adds a bit of an extra punch to the experience right out of the gate.

The film starts with the Justice League vanishing and the culprit appears to be some kind of fire ghost. Clearly he is a threat to be able to take out someone like the mighty Superman. Lois tries to investigate but the monster is too tricky so for once she gives up on the biggest story of her life and instead brings in the Mystery Gang to solve this. They look scared right out of the jump with their credibility diminishing the longer they are in the room but they vow to solve this case and help save the world. Can this terrified group of youngsters surpass their limits to save the day?

Now you may be thinking, what about Krypto? No worries he randomly shows up in the Hall of Justice and helps out. Aside from Shaggy and Scooby the rest of the gang aren’t impressed since they think that Krypto is just some normal dog. I think this is supposed to be funny because they’re used to Scooby Doo doing all kinds of crazy things but now they’re skeptical. Perhaps they are right to be though because Krypto looks very underwhelming for most of the film. When the heroes are attacked by a group of villains Krypto is the first to run for the door and spends a while trying to open it instead of helping out.

He then gets absolutely crushed in his only one on one fight against another dog. This may be a Krypto crossover film but he looks so bad that you may wonder why he was in the title. His role just isn’t as critical as you would expect it to be for a 50/50 crossover like this. I would say Courage got a lot more to do in his adventure. It’s still nice to see Krypto of course and they show off his powers but when he scratches on a door instead of busting it open you wonder how much of his super strength he actually kept. Not enough if you ask me.

From the DC side the main characters here as Lex Luthor, Mercy, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen. Jimmy looks pretty bad the whole time too as he’s so desperate to be with Daphne that he made up this whole rationale in his head. He looks desperate the whole time but no worries he does vanish for most of the film. Lois looks tough as you’d expect and isn’t afraid to take shots at the cast. That said I do find it a bit out of character that she wouldn’t pursue the story herself. Yeah we get a half hearted excuse about covering other stories since the city is being overrun but that’s not quite good enough.

Mercy looks solid here as she tries to balance everything out for Lex. Her role is really satisfying all the way through and the film is able to handle the dynamic with her and Lex better than a lot of other titles to be honest. Lex is hamming up the villain angle quite a bit in this film but you would expect that with the Scooby gang in tow. This is where the film shined a bit more than I expected because I was ready for him to just be the comic relief for a while there but his role is actually rather solid. Yeah he has some anti feats in terms of intelligence but based on the ending you could make the case that it was all an act and I would take that case.

The Scooby gang are mainly as you would expect. Scooby and Shaggy are still running from every threat and generally getting taken down with minimal effort. I still think by now they should have improved a little more so I tend to be a little critical of them. Velma does good in getting hints and cracking the case so I have no issues with her. In some ways you could say it’s one of her better appearances because she’s really not getting distracted and just works to solve the case. You can’t say that most of the other characters in this one.

Fred looks pretty bad here as he keeps grilling Daphne about her and Jimmy despite being in the room when she explained that they were never together. He looks really insecure the whole time and then he gets cared easily and everything. His confidence issues are definitely not fitting for his character since he should always be the calm and collected leader who gets the job done. At his core that’s who Fred Jones is after all. A man on a mission but at least he gets some stuff to do during the climax.

Meanwhile Daphne’s not bad. She gets to fight quite a bit as the films have established her as the best fighter for a while now. She’s able to use Batman’s skills with ease and dishes out a lot of damage the whole time. Honestly it might be time for her to leave the mystery gang and become a crimefighter full time to make the best use of her talents. She could be making a real difference in the city by now.

Despite the film’s short overall length it does still manage to deliver a fairly long climax which I found to be impressive. There is a whole lot of action as we get to see all of the heroes and villains mixing it up in the city. We even get a brief battle between Mercy and Daphne which I would have liked to have seen more of since it would have had a lot of good choreography. So the action at the end was really appreciated particularly since it helped to give the DC side of this crossover a little more shine.

The humor can be a little more on the hit or miss side. I think one issue with the series is that sometimes they do tend to do the same gag over and over until it’s run into the ground. Fred trying to find out about Jimmy from Daphne, Scooby and Shaggy never being able to eat their meal in peace, etc. Still at the end of the day it’s nothing so bad that it would hurt the score big time or anything like that. The writing just isn’t nearly as clever as it’s trying to be.

Overall, Scooby Doo delivers with another fun film here. At the end of the day it may not be one of the more intense Scooby Doo titles but the novelty of having the DC characters in here makes up the difference. If you like Krypto then you’ll probably be disappointed but otherwise just enjoy the DC universe and you’ll have a good time here. I look forward to seeing Scooby Doo churn out more titles and hopefully another big crossover soon.

Overall 7/10

The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock Review

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It’s time for a parody of a film that I wasn’t a big fan of. Fortunately this one blows the original out of the water. I’m not going to say that it’s a great film or anything but it’s fun enough and worth a few laughs. Ultimately I would say that it is solid and a film that you don’t want to forget because of how absurd the whole thing is.

The film starts off by introducing us to Rossiter who is running for governor. This guy knows that he is the best man for the job and is eager to do whatever it takes to win. The only real obstacle in his path is the garbage disposal man, Artie. Artie is someone who has resisted Rossiter’s total ownership of the town. This man owns all of the businesses except for Artie’s. The worst part is that his niece Emmy is dating Artie which Rossiter fears will lower his own social reputation. Well Artie manages along just fine until Emmy grows huge one day. Now her appetite is fierce and she desperately needs to consume more and more calories. Can he really handle her at this point or is it game over for Artie?

Artie is one of those guys who isn’t very smart and so he rarely notices when someone’s insulting him. He tends to be getting dominated throughout the film with a variety of insults but at least his spirits never go low because he takes it all in stride. The guy is really carefree in a lot of ways and that’s nice because it really means that he can always make a comeback. Through misunderstandings and absurd events going on he manages to usually get some victories too like Rossiter allowing him to marry Emmy.

Artie’s ultimately not one of the most likable characters though because of this. Not being very smart tends to hurt when it’s to an exaggerated degree. He did somehow create a robot capable of moving through time and space while bending reality though so he does have some skills. It does lead to a fairly interesting climax with a lot going on though. If you thought the first half was crazy, well the second half definitely escalates this quite a bit. Trust me the film was not holding back at all.

Emmy doesn’t look as good here though because she tends to be unreasonable once she’s a giant. Now you could say that a side effect of turning giant is that it’s destroying her reasoning skills and that’s certainly possible but I’m not sure that I’m giving her that out yet. The film doesn’t really go into that and so in the end it can make her look a little petty. She causes a ton of collateral damage when throwing the trees around and ultimately takes her vengeance a little too far. Honestly people could have died after all of the rampaging. Also the town did pretty well to get her the jumbo food and drink considering that this was a situation nobody had seen before.

Finally I did enjoy Rossiter’s character quite a bit. Yeah the guy’s as selfish and uncaring as can be but that’s part of his charm. He’s the guy who would run you over to save 50 cents if he needed too. All he cares about is himself and he’s not afraid to flaunt that. He has a ton of close calls while on camera but always manages to play them off which shows how resourceful he is. I actually think he could do a pretty good job all things considered. Yeah he’s not someone you could ever trust because of how two faced he is, but by all accounts he’s run the town really well.

Throughout the film everyone seems really happy and they all get along. So wouldn’t you say that Rossiter should take most of the credit for that since he owns every business? He also seems to get along with just about everyone aside from the main character which is pretty impressive. This guy has good people skills to be sure and the film establishes him well. Considering the short runtime each character has a very well defined personality right out of the gate.

The writing is really solid and the humor is on point here. Of course you really need to enjoy this humor style. I’d still consider it slapstick even if the main guy isn’t getting knocked around too much because he does get grabbed a few times. You just know he would have been slugged if there weren’t witnesses around. He definitely needs to be careful because Rossiter is not the kind of guy who will give up. You easily could have done sequels to this movie if all of the actors had still been around because there’s a whole lot of potential around the setup.

The best gag was probably when the machine started explaining how the wedding would have to wait and then it went farther to start yelling that there would be no wedding. Of course it was just another glitch but the timing was just perfect for trolling the main two. It’s clear that the robot still has a lot of errors to iron out but at least it come through when it counts. You can’t really ask for much more than that.

Overall, This is a fun film like I said before. I don’t think you’ll find it super memorable so eventually this will fade away but it’s short and never drags on. The characters have some nice back and forth banter the whole time as well which is always good. The writing did a good job here and so mixing that in with the effective humor makes the film a winner as well. It’s probably a rare case of a good film that would have been worse if it was too long because then it would drag on but that doesn’t happen here. A good movie knows when to end and I did enjoy the final scene here as a nice gag to end things off.

Overall 6/10

Bloodsport Review

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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 for a big tournament epic! Bloodsport is a film I can’t say I was too familiar with even though it’s a whole series. After watching it I can definitely see the appeal though as I always enjoy a big tournament like this. Now the story beats may be overly predictable to a dramatic degree as the film really telegraphs every moment but even with that it’s executed well.

The film starts off by introducing us to Frank. He used to get into a lot of trouble but eventually he was taken in by a nice man and learned the ways of the martial arts although mostly it was second hand as he wasn’t taught directly. The guy’s real son was the one who was meant to be the champion but unfortunately he ended up dying early. Frank figures it is up to him to achieve the dream of winning the ultimate tournament now and so he gets some training in and then heads over there. This tournament is a huge deal so fighters from around the globe will be participating. It’s all done under the books as this tournament isn’t exactly official. Now why would you enter a tournament where you could die? For some it’s a matter of honor and for others it’s the money. Either way it’s the opportunity of a lifetime!

So yeah it’s very much a Mortal Kombat setup right from the start here. There are a ton of battles and that’s one thing I really liked about this film. A lot of times in these martial art titles there can be a lot of deadtime before you get to the tournament. The training is important too of course but I want to see the matches. This has to be one of the longest tournaments that I’ve seen in a long while and trust me when I say that this is a very good thing. We see all kinds of opponents so you are reminded that this isn’t just a small battle with the main character and a bunch of throwaways.

A small detail I appreciated here is that most of the opponents put up a fight. For example in your average film the main villain will sleepwalk his way to the grand finals. Instead Li actually has a tough go of it at least for a little bit against several of these opponent. His victory is never in doubt but I’m glad that they at least landed shots. It feels a little unrealistically when the villain just steamrolls everyone no matter how good he is. These are all professional fighters after all.

Each fighter also has a different fighting style. You really get to see a lot of variety here and all of the fights are really intense. We’re talking kickboxers, sumo style, aggressive hands, jumping around, etc. It works really well as a solid blend to keep each match really interesting. You also get to recognize the characters as they go through the rounds. So yes this tournament was handled excellently with the bracket and actually making every fight feel real.

The pacing is on point as well and Frank makes for a good main character. He is confident in his abilities and really does well in battle. I also appreciate how confident he is, Frank knows that he is a good fighter after all. My only complaint is when he didn’t step in as a guy was harassing a girl on the bus. Feels like most main characters would have stepped in there. It was also a bit of a bizarre intro to Ray’s character as he’s meant to be the likable sidekick after the opening scene.

He brags a ton and the more he brags the more you know his ending is going to be painful. Even so you’re meant to like the guy so the opening scene just doesn’t work. I’ll also say I think the film overdid it with all the bragging in the final round. Cmon I don’t care how overconfident the guy is, he knows exactly who he is fighting. You don’t just turn your back like that for so long. The scene is so exaggerated that it would be funny except you knew that a lot of pain was coming up.

This film definitely does go all in on the finishing blows which is another thing that will feel like Mortal Kombat. The fights with Li always end with a final blow where it feels like a 50/50 on if you’ll die or not. He holds nothing back and the tournament isn’t going to eject him for it so he keeps escalating. He has murdered someone more than once after all. The tournament’s moment of silence definitely didn’t make sense with how callous they were the whole time. It’s also a completely empty gesture considering they aren’t going to disqualify him either way.

Li’s definitely a bad guy through and through however he makes for a great final boss. You do want a powerful opponent like that at the end and the final fight has a lot of good back and forth. Li does have to cheat so it does show right away who’s better but the final fight is really on point the whole time. It’s also a little less exaggerated of a comeback than Kickboxer so you can buy into the eyes closed fighting a bit more. Ultimately it makes for a fun climax.

Now I did still have some issues with the film. First off is the romance subplot with the reporter Janice. She can be pretty annoying the whole time. So at first she wants to get into the tournament and is doing whatever she can to make this plan work. Then once Janice gets in she starts to think that the violence is too much and gets angry at Frank. I never like this kind of plot because everybody told her to stay away but she insisted that she could handle it…and then she couldn’t. Cmon…that’s just bad.

Additionally the romance is really abrupt and comes out of nowhere. Given that it’s not even going to continue, it just feels like a waste where we could have had more fights instead. Frank also needed to give the tournament his full concentration so the fact that he was almost late to a match because of that was rough. The other time was because of the army so I can cut him a little slack there.

Also the government plot could have been cut out. I suppose it helps to explain why Frank is so powerful and well conditioned but you could have easily established that with his origin. The plot just doesn’t add anything to the film except for a slight obstacle that isn’t taken very seriously anyway. The fact that they were ready to knock him out is crazy. It gives us some decent humor scenes but eh the film would have been okay either way.

Overall, Bloodsport is a pretty solid film. It has a nice sense of humor and a pretty good cast of characters. You should be warned that the film can definitely be quite violent, particularly with the finishing blows. In some cases it’s not even the blow itself that is so intense, but the build up to it because you always know what’s about to happen. Still the fight choreography is really on point and for the most part the film is careful not to overdo it the way that Kickboxer did. Yeah this is one I could safely recommend.

Overall 6/10

The Mysterious Murasame Castle Review

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It’s time to look at another pretty fun game for the NES. This one has a real story and everything, not much in the way of cutscenes or anything since it’s so old but you at least feel the progression. The gameplay holds up well and the fact that it has an actual end point before the loop is nice even if there isn’t much of an ending. That would have been nice at least to end things on a high note.

The game starts with your character having to head through 5-6 castles to reach the ultimate demon. You fight two powerful bosses in each castle as you go through to the end. Each castle is a maze consisting of tons of rooms everywhere which are around to block your path. It can be difficult to find the right rooms so you really have to use trial and error. As far as I can tell that are no hints or anything that show you the right room right out of the gate. So that means you really have to be vigilant and continue moving forward until you have conquered all of your enemies.

You have your trusty sword at the ready and you can fire off kunai really quickly. As the game goes on you get power ups that let you fire off the kunai in different ways or even upgrade them into fireballs at times. Those are really helpful as well for when you need to land a lot of damage very quickly. From there you’re just beating up on enemies and trying to get to the end. As far as I can tell they never drop health points so if you get hit 3 times then you’re out.

The game is incredibly difficult. Without the Switch Online enhancements like the rewind feature I don’t see how almost anyone could beat the game. It’s incredibly unforgiving with just how tough the enemies are. You’re going to get hit no matter how careful you are and that is especially true for the bosses. They fire at you so far and in the time it takes to turn around to shoot at them you will have already been hit. That’s how fast these guys are.

One boss knocked me out what felt like 100 different times. Every time I was trying to mount a comeback I would get blasted. This just kept happening over and over and over again. The final boss is also really tough although not as intimidating as the second to last one. The game gets major props for actually having completely different designs for all of the boss. No recolors or anything like I’ve seen with other NES titles. No this one kept everything fresh all the way through.

The graphics are definitely solid here. A lot of care was definitely put into them all the way through. Meanwhile the soundtrack is also on point even if it is rather small. On a technical level they did everything they could to support the gameplay which is really what you’re looking for here. There isn’t really any replay value since the game just loops all over once you beat it. That’s to be expected though so no big deal there. The game’s length may not be very long but as long as you have the Switch Online there is no reason not to get it.

A modern day remake of this game would be a lot of fun. I can definitely see this working really well in 3D with a lot of great combos and everything. Throw in a bunch of big budget cutscenes too of course and then you’re really set. Yeah they should definitely start remaking some of these NES titles with modern quality of life updates.

Overall, This is definitely a game that you should check out. The gameplay is on point which is always the most important thing for any game. You will have fun playing it and while the maze elements can get annoying at times, you only have to go down 3-4 fake paths per level. It’s not like they’re completely filling up the map or anything. It’ll help you see just how good your instincts are. Will you fall for every fake path? There’s only one way to find out!

Overall 6/10

Out of the Fog Review

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It’s time for one of those movies where 90% of it wouldn’t happen if the characters would just talk to each other. Unfortunately everyone’s rather tightlipped here which leads to the villain getting away with a whole lot. At least it should serve as a cautionary tale that sometimes you need a little help to deal with a villain and that’s okay.

The movie starts with Olaf and Jonah enjoying their fishing as per usual. It’s their main hobby as a way to take a break from their day jobs and it’s been a long standing position. Well one day a guy named Harold shows up and basically he’s a criminal who blackmails people into giving them money. He says that if the heroes don’t give him money then he’s going to break their boat and beat them up. If they continue to resist then he will ultimately destroy them. Jonah is completely against this while Olaf believes they should just pay the money. meanwhile Harold starts dating Jonah’s daughter and Jonah doesn’t have the heart to tell her what a bad man he is. will they be okay?

There’s a lot of issues here of course but the biggest one is not telling Stella about Harold from the beginning. As soon as Jonah found out he should have told her so she could hopefully break this off and then he could make a move. Instead he stays silent about the whole thing even after Harold comes over one day and beats Jonah up for lying about the money. It’s just a really crummy situation all around. I appreciate Jonah standing up for himself for a bit but he really needed to take that a step further.

Get the cops involved, let Stella know, make this a really big deal as needed. Jonah is well known in the area so he would have a lot of support. Yes Harold is dangerous but the longer you let him dictate the terms of engagement the worse it’s going to be in the end. Olaf is a lot more passive so I don’t agree with him in just paying the toll. The toll is simply going to get more and more expensive which is why in general you’re never supposed to give a blackmailer what they want. It will just never end so while it’s going to be dangerous you have to do something about it.

Olaf and Jonah ultimately come up with a plan to murder Harold which is good but they do fumble a bit when they aren’t able to go through with it. Fortunately luck is on their side and it works out but they easily could have died there. When you make an attempt to murder someone but then stop halfway, that’s usually going to end very poorly. Trust me that’s the worst way to go.

As the main villain Harold is pretty annoying here. He’s your general blackmailer so nothing special there but he just keeps getting wins here due to the heroes not coordinating properly. The fact that he’s persistent with Stella until she agrees to go out with him is awful. Then he’s basically rubbing it in Jonah’s face while the guy doesn’t say anything. Yeah he needed to go down a whole lot sooner.

Stella is unfortunately an awful character as well. So you know how I was upset with Jonah for not telling her the truth about Harold from the jump right? Well later on he finally manages to tell her that he blackmails people and she basically just says that everyone has to make a living somehow. She’s completely fine with this guy being a crook as long as it means she gets to travel and live a rich lifestyle. It’s a really big hit against her character because it shows how she is really lacking a moral compass. She will do whatever she needs to in order to move forward.

Yes this includes betraying George, the guy who’s been with her for a while. Yeah their relationship wasn’t exactly official all the way through. I guess you could say she was keeping him around until she found something better but it’s a pretty rough deal for him. He even tries to fight Harold but unfortunately gets folded immediately. This guy just needs to forget about Stella because she really doesn’t seem worth it.

The worst part is that the fishing hobby will never be quite as relaxing as it once was. Now the two main characters will always be on the lookout a bit wondering if someone else is going to try to appear and pull a fast one on them. Additionally it’s not like the relationship with Jonah and his daughter will ever be the same since she basically chose a random stranger over trusting in his advice. That’s a really tough blow and so the fallout from this film will likely be rather large.

The writing is good though. As you’ve come to expect from these old titles, the script is on point and the pacing is good. The film doesn’t drag on or anything like that even if you may be grimacing at some points. At its core this also feels like a situation that can and probably has happened to people before. So make sure you have your proper takeaways from the film on what not to do and how you could avoid this outcome.

Overall, Out of the Fog is a movie that has some pretty interesting storylines but the whole thing just comes across as annoying. Harold should have been stopped a whole lot sooner than he was if the characters had actually been paying attention here. Just bring in the cops and end this real fast. Instead they have to suffer for quite a while until they finally manage to take this guy down with a little luck. If the characters had acted better it all would have been over a lot quicker. I’d say you could do better in the Noir genre.

Overall 4/10

Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen, Part Two Review

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RWBY has returned!! It’s always good to see more RWBY content and you really have to savor this one while you can because we still don’t know when the next product is coming out. It could be years but hopefully not. Interestingly this film takes place after volume 9 which was a very interesting decision. I was definitely shocked when I first found this out but now at least if we don’t get Volume 10 we have some extra insight into what’s going on. This is a must watch for all RWBY fans as a result.

The movie starts with the Justice League waking up after the simulation in the first film and they’re ready to take care of business now. Unfortunately while they were gone the world has been overtaken by the Grimm. The Justice League may be powerful but they aren’t ready to take on the powerful legions of Grimm. Their only option is to call in Team RWBY once more. Can even the experts take down the Grimm army or is the world too far gone here?

I’d actually say that this film beats part 1 for me. I feel like this movie had more variety in the battles and also the fact that it takes place in the present really ups the tension. It was great seeing what Team RWBY was doing after the V9 events.. Note that there aren’t too many spoilers for volume 9 if you watch this one. I’d say one pretty big spoiler involving a big development in volume 9 if you somehow managed to avoid the social media trends and one other big spoiler just involving where the team is in the present. Both are things you could have guessed though so it’s not a huge thing but either way you should have seen Volume 9 by this point right?

I wish we could have spent more time in the RWBY world here though because the fight there is the best one in the film by far. Seeing Ruby take on two of the giant Grimm snakes with ease using her master level speed and athletics was great. It’s definitely clear that she is the most powerful member of Team RWBY at this point and her confidence is at an all time high. She’s really taking care of business here and is completely self assured as the leader. There’s a subplot here about her possibly being too confident…and naturally I disagreed with that. I thought her level of confidence was great and inspiring. Plus she has the power to back it up so it’s not like its empty bravado.

If there’s just one thing I’m not crazy about with this taking place after volume 9 is I’m not sure that the status quo makes any sense. I feel like there would be a much greater sense of urgency going on. In theory Salem should be dashing over any minute now with her forces to end the world right? How about finding Mercury and friends? Now this could take place midway through volume 9 after the initial fights and there are a lot of ways that you could explain this so it’s not a negative per say but I’m a little skeptical is all. Particularly with the team just jumping over to DC world when their allies are in such danger.

The film addresses the time difference which makes this even worse. So last time the film took place during volume 7 and for the Justice League this happens minutes later. So how did we jump to Volume 9? Well Flash points out that time moves differently here so a few days in Justice League time is a few weeks in RWBY time. So when team RWBY jumps over to help the League for around 2 days (Because they did have to rest for one night before the climax) around 2 weeks would have passed in RWBY world at which point the rest of the resistance may have fallen. It’s also a little funny how the League asks RWBY if they need any help and they’re just like “nah”. I guess they either figure the Justice League will hold them back in the fight against Salem or they just figure they can win regardless. Either way it’s not the biggest vote of confidence for them.

Okay these are all things around the movie but lets talk about the story itself. It’s a pretty fun story that is part mystery as the characters wonder who is the mastermind from the RWBY side. It was fun to see the main villain of the video game Grimm Eclipse get references and even get a whole new illustration. That guy always did seem like an interesting character in the mythos but since a lot of people never played the game I’m guessing the character was probably a big question mark for a lot of viewers. The answer of who the main villain is was pretty satisfying.

The film uses some voice filters for the two main villains for a while and admittedly they were a bit annoying since it was super hard to understand them. Fortunately that ended up being fixed as the film went on which was good. Hearing those voices the whole film would have really been rough. Unfortunately we don’t get a proper fight against the mastermind but Killgore shows up and we get some satisfying fights with him.

In general I feel like the fights were better around the board here than in part 1. It felt more like the classic RWBY fights with the high speed takedowns. I also think the animators got to flex a lot more with the classic designs so maybe there was some trouble getting into the new ones. The fights are noticeably better when Team RWBY are in their classic designs as opposed to their re-designs in Justice League world. I do tend to prefer all of the classic designs as well but Ruby and Weiss look good in their superhero modes. I wasn’t big on Yang or Blake there.

Naturally the Justice League all look a lot better here since I didn’t really like any of their designs in the RWBY world. Also Batman is much more improved here as he actually feels like a detective mastermind this time around. That’s the kind of character development you love to see. He still does end up going down rather quickly which hurts the prep time part but at least the villains acknowledge that he was the greatest threat from the heroes so he had to be taken down.

Superman mainly gets clowned on the whole film as every single Grimm seems to have Kryptonite at the ready. It’s the rough part about having such an easily accessible weakness. Once you’re up against villains with it then this is game over. The Flash is mostly getting wrecked by his confidence issues in this film so don’t expect him to be doing a whole lot here either. It’s a really bad appearance for him here. Cyborg mostly gets styled on the whole time as he’s outhacked but at least by the end he gets his moment.

Wonder Woman, Vixen, and Black Canary are mainly consistent as they go about their business and take care of Grimm although the most satisfying moment was when Wonder Woman throws a punch but Yang catches it and physically overpowers her. Yang is absolutely crushing Wonder Woman in a 1 v 1 and the film seemed to get the drift here. I’d argue the Justice League don’t look very impressive at all here and mainly had to get saved by Team RWBY a whole lot. Works for me of course since those heroines are great.

This also has to be one of Ruby’s best portrayals which is great since of course she hit a rough patch in Volume 9. Here we see her making plans, using quick attack combos, and she was the first to figure out her powers in this new world. All Ruby fans should be particularly pleased at her top level performance here.

The soundtrack doesn’t have any of those iconic vocal songs from the RWBY series. I guess since it’s a crossover they kept the music more generic and non memorable for the Justice League side of things but it would have been cool to have had a big theme for the climax. It’s always a bit odd how the movies just don’t seem to be able to keep up in terms of action or visuals with the RWBY TV show but if you had to allocate more budget one way or the other of course it’s worth it to throw that at volume 9.

Either way this film is a blast and I was really satisfied with what we got. If needed we can always end the franchise with a movie rather than volume 10 so we at least wrap things up. I definitely think you could pull it off. Sure it would be rushed because of how many plots there are but I definitely don’t think that it would be impossible. Just have Salem show up, we get a bunch of nonstop fights and when the gods are summoned they get solo’d by Ruby. Then that’s the ultimate game over and the conclusion to the greatest series of all time.

Overall, This is definitely a film that you want to check out as soon as possible. The whole first part is quickly recapped here so you don’t even need to watch that one and can jump right into this part without any issue. That said, I would recommend watching both of course to get those extra RWBY sales and speed up the production of volume 10. We need that in order to keep on moving forward. And if you somehow haven’t watched RWBY yet and are coming in from the Justice League side, get ready for the greatest show to binge of all time!

Overall 8/10

Burn The Witch Review

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It’s time to take a look at the Burn The Witch movie. The way this series came out was pretty interesting with the movie jumping you right in the middle of the setting. More than most titles I would say this one could have you scratching your head a bit if you’re not familiar with the series although I always appreciate the boldness there. With context clues you’ll be okay even if the whole thing just feels a bit random. Unfortunately the character cast is still rather weak like in the manga.

The film starts with Ninny upset about something and giving the reporters the perfect soundbite to cause more controversies. She loses them with a solar flare camera and dives into the world of monsters. See in this world there is London and then there is Reverse London which basically exists in a parallel dimension. In Reverse London there are witches everywhere and there are also dragons. So it’s generally a pretty fun place to be although its more dangerous. She works alongside her partner Noel in defeating monsters and getting points. The more points you get the more career opportunities and money you can earn. Due to events in the past they have to babysit a human named Balgo who ended up getting a pet dragon of his own and is not supposed to be going to the real world too often anymore. (He ignores that of course and ends up spreading the contamination)

The main dilemma in this film is Ninny’s old possessive teammate Macy shows up to cause some trouble. She has been raising a dragon of her own known as Elly who is one of the most powerful dragons in existence. Additionally the government has decided to murder Balgo basically because they can so the girls have to protect him while they save the world. Can they pull this off? Additionally if they succeed then there goes their paychecks since the government is certainly not going to want to pay people who have just betrayed them.

So there is a whole lot going on and the film is barely an hour. Because of that the pacing is lightning quick to be sure but at times the film can feel a little unfocused. Like it’s not really sure which plot to go with next. You’re also left with a whole lot of questions. Balgo is a normal human who is often by himself, why not pick one of the endless chances to grab him alone and murder him then? Why is he allowed to go to the human world at all when he’s on a watchlist? How weak are Bruno and the other gov execs that they have trouble against two rookie level fighters? How are they allowed to actually let a human raise a dangerous dragon in reverse London without anyone picking it up on the sensors?

I don’t feel like very much thought was put into the film’s story at all. It feels like the world building is incredibly shaky at best. Even more so once we get a certain plot twist of where the film takes place. It’s pretty much an open secret at this point since everyone knows about it but just in case I won’t say anything. The main point is that I do think the film could have tried harder to make this plot be logical. Instead it just feels like you’re supposed to watch this film half asleep.

What really hurts are the characters though because they’re generally very weak. Lets start with Balgo who is easily the worst character. He’s completely obsessed with Noel to the point where he is constantly flirting over and over again. He’s cool with her insulting him as needed and just overlooks that. Suddenly by the end it’s hinted that she actually does like him? I get the whole tsundere thing but the problem is that there is no actual reason to like Balgo. He’s always being perverted, is generally useless in a fight, and has displayed no positive qualities. How she would fall for him is a complete mystery at this point. The ending to the film is definitely brutal.

As for Noel, I suppose she’s okay but even then I wouldn’t call her a very good character. Part of the problem is that she’s your classic tough character who tends to be sarcastic and emotionless as she does her duty. To pull off that character type you need a ton of witty dialogue which she doesn’t have. Additionally she doesn’t have the raw power needed to back up her quiet confidence.

Then you have Ninny who is at least a step up. She’s very aggressive and always looking for a fight so she can get a promotion. The problem? Once again she is fairly weak and actually has to get saved by Noel a few times. I don’t know how she thinks she will be hired as one of the top fighters when she is having trouble with random monsters. That just doesn’t look like a great sales pitch on paper. At least she is a celebrity in the real world so she will always be doing fine with money but it’s hard to see her keeping up both acts. She will eventually need to choose one side most likely.

The best character by far is Billy. He’s got a lot of skill but is officially out of the game at this point so he tries to hide it. The main heroines give him a tough time but he keeps his cool and still does his best to help out. He’s a solid character through and through. His role is small but very memorable. Then you have Bruno (Is it just me or all of the guys start with the letter B? Bruno, Balgo, Billy, etc.) who is solid but a bit weaker than he should be. He’s one of the members of this big secret council and he talks an incredibly big game. Yet when the going gets tough he isn’t really able to win a single fight. Sure we know he’s stronger than Ninny and Noel but they lose him rather easily and by the time he catches up he gets wrecked by Elly.

The guy panics as if he has never been in a fight before. I’d just expect a whole lot more from him and his 180 on what to do with Balgo felt a bit cheesy. This guy doesn’t seem as determined or focused as he should be given his position. Then there’s Macy who is pretty insane. She’s cool with blowing up buildings and such to get to Ninny but she’s also completely insane since she figures this somehow won’t turn her away. Is she serious about this? It seems to me that Macy and Ninny would get along just fine if Macy wasn’t doing crazy things like this. Unfortunately these possessive type characters all seem to have a few screws loose so I wouldn’t expect her to change any time soon.

Finally there’s the dragon Elly and you actually feel bad for her here. At first she was just protecting Macy and this gradually kept on escalating since Macy would always thank Elly for the help. So to Elly there was nothing wrong with blowing everyone up. She temporarily loses control later on and the heroes all try to destroy Elly. Macy halfheartedly tries to defend her but gives up after one shot. Even once Balgo activates his bankai type ability and calms Elly down it seems like the dragon is fine but gets hit with a sneak attack. The whole thing just made Macy look worse for not being more broken up about the whole thing and the rest of the heroes don’t seem too reasonable with how they just finished it off like that.

Who knows maybe that will be a plot point for the future, we’ll have to see. The animation’s fairly decent. Not even close to some of the more high budget products but it’s okay. It definitely doesn’t feel like the true movie budget went behind this one and considering how short the film is you’d think it would be easier to make it all look great. The soundtrack is also more on the okay side. The tunes don’t really pop out at you.

Overall, Burn The Witch is an interesting film but one that needed to stay on the drawing board for a longer period of time. The characters simply aren’t that interesting and that ends up extending to the film as a whole. It’s not a bad film by any means but the fact that it’s so unfocused and messy just doesn’t help matters. There isn’t a whole lot of reason to watch this one when you can just go back to Bleach instead or watch Little Witch Academia if you want to see something higher quality on the subject. I’d say this is maybe a bit better than the Burn the Witch manga but it’s still not saying much for now. Hopefully the franchise is able to bounce back.

Overall 5/10

Stagecoach Review

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It’s time for a film about a bunch of people all stuck together on a stagecoach. It makes for a pretty interesting film even if some of the characters sure can be annoying. It’s intentional though and you get to see everyone’s true colors this way. I wouldn’t say there is a ton of action but we do get an exciting climax with some gun slinging action. Ultimately I don’t see this one being too memorable next to other titles but it’s good enough.

The movie starts with a few people getting onto a stage coach and they pick up some extra passengers along the way. One of them is a very infamous shooter named Ringo who is a wanted man. Some of the passengers don’t feel safe with him here but now they’re all heading the same way. They temporarily stop at a hut to get supplies and regroup but they lose time when one of the passengers begins to give birth. Indians and Bandits are quickly approaching and the army base isn’t nearby. Can these strangers find a way to unite and fight against these odds or are they completely doomed?

There’s definitely a lot of pettyness going on among the crew which makes it hard for them to unite. First up we have Dallas who is treated poorly by some of the other characters (Hatfield in particular) as she is a lady of the night and it’s not a profession that the characters hold in high regard. The only one who mainly defends her is Ringo who doesn’t really know or care about her past. He’s an outlaw and his values are also a bit different but he also knows it’s just plain silly to be making such a big fuss about this.

Look, it’s definitely a bad job to have but Dallas may have been forced into that business or there could be all kinds of explanations. The characters shouldn’t be so quick to condemn her and also it’s not really the time or place for this. Their being petty isn’t helping anyone. Dallas tries her best anyway like staying up the whole time the baby is being born to help as much as she can. In general she doesn’t complain or anything and is one of the most polite passengers.

As for Ringo, he may be a crook but he seems like the nicest guy on the coach. It’s definitely ironic when something like that happens. He’s an easy character to root for as a result especially compared to the others. It’s also helpful to have someone on your side who actually knows how to fight since the characters know that a fight is coming up and they won’t be able to avoid it. Without him they would all definitely be doomed.

Then we have Hatfield who is likely the worst character here. He crosses the line from being a nice guy into a “nice guy”. He constantly puts Dallas down while trying to show his complete servitude to Mrs. Mallory. The guy just never felt genuine in the slightest and naturally his idea when the going got tough was to shoot her as a “mercy” before the villains finished them off. That’s not the kind of mercy most of us are looking for and this guy just gets on your nerves the whole time.

Doc Boone is another annoying character because of how he’s always getting drunk. As the local doctor he really needs to stay sober at all times for emergencies like when Mrs. Mallory was giving birth. In the end he’s able to handle the situation just barely but it ended up being a lot closer than it needed to be and that’s entirely on him. Afterwards his first thought is to go right back to drinking too so it’s not like he learned anything. Getting addicted to alcohol like that is always such a tragic thing because you see how the character is completely overwhelmed by it.

Mrs. Mallory seemed okay enough. She wasn’t quite as rude as Hatfield but she wasn’t particularly nice to Dallas either until Dallas helped with the baby. Before that I’d call her knowingly oblivious at best. She would just stay out of the way for the most part. Then there’s Samuel who mainly serves as the resident coward of the group. He’s a bit afraid to voice his own decisions here and in general just isn’t a commanding figure. Hey, I’ll take that over being super annoying or an antagonist so that’s a start.

The writing here has that retro feel to it that I always enjoy. The script is pretty good. Even if I may not enjoy some of the characters, I can still appreciate the back and forth banter the whole time. The pacing of the film is pretty solid and the fight we get is good. This is certainly not an action film so don’t watch it for that but it’s still an added bonus. In the end this is a film you shouldn’t really have any big issues with. It’s a fairly safe ride to the end.

The cast is also fairly big so the movie does a good job of throwing so many figures at you. They all have different personalities and don’t really overlap. I didn’t even go into all of them here. The film is another reminder of why I wouldn’t have wanted to be around during the wild west era though. It feels like you are always one broken stagecoach away from serious trouble. If a wheel slips out you’re basically dead because you’ll be caught before you walk to the next army base. Even if it’s working bandits could show up at any time and if you don’t have a lot of guns then you would be doomed.

If you think about it, things go sideways for the characters here because they got delayed and before they could leave the enemies popped up. It’s not even like they made a bunch of bad decisions like horror protagonists. It’s not like you could stop the baby from being born at that moment either so the heroes were just in a rather sticky position the whole time. They’re lucky that the enemy group wasn’t bigger or things would have really gotten dicey.

Overall, Stagecoach is a good movie albeit one that is not the most memorable. It’s not particularly exceptional in any way, it just goes about its business and executes the story at a good level. Without the big gunfights or super memorable characters to write about it isn’t able to compete with the top members of the genre but it still beats the weaker ones. That’s why I’d say it’s a good movie. It’s not breaking any records but it handles itself well enough.

Overall 6/10

Tista Review

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Tista is a manga that’s not super well known but due to the success of Spy X Family you should be seeing it around a little more often now. It’s very short at only 2 volumes and you get the feeling that it ended up getting axed be cause there’s a lot of directions it could have gone. It’s definitely an intense story and one with a whole lot of tragedy mixed in. I’d say it works well although I could have used a bit of a stronger ending.

The manga starts by introducing us to Tista who is a legendary assassin. She is so skilled at sniping that none of her targets have ever even seen her. She can hit someone from multiple buildings away and basically pulls off impossible shots like it’s nothing. The reason for this is because her eyes are natural trigger lens as if from a gun. She can auto lock onto anything which makes her the perfect sniper. As people keep on dying, is there anyone who can stop her? Additionally the more Tista murders people, the more she wonders about the meaning of life in general.

See Tista works for the Church. While most people know the church to be a loving environment that takes in orphans and makes the world a better place, what they don’t realize is they have been training these kids into child soldiers whose only aim is to destroy all evil in the world. Now their reasoning for it is basically that the legal system is limited and there are often a lot of villains who escape unscathed because blackmail and corruption run rampant in this town. The villains have gotten so much influence around here that they basically operate out in the open. Of course this is an argument that most anti heroes/villains make so it doesn’t tend to hold water.

I will grant that it’s always a very interesting villain rationale though and it does tend to make a lot of high quality villains like Light Yagami. In this case Tista was groomed into this role ever since she was a small child so it’s not like she ever had much of a choice. It’s basically like brainwashing and that’s a main theme of the whole series. If you grew up in an environment where you were taught to murder from a young age and your eyes grew into aiming signs from the jump…did you ever really have a choice? Once you’re an adult maybe you can snap out of it but Tista’s still a teenager here.

That’s where some of the darker elements of the series come into play. The town is also such a rough place that you either murder the villains or watch them murder someone else. The cops are unfortunately not going to be very helpful here. We do see some good ones but as always there isn’t much point if the higher ups are involved in shady dealings as well. To their credit, the series doesn’t really go too hard on that area so we can presume most of the cop are good here and they’re just really ineffective in stopping crime. Additionally the country is a huge place so it’s not like you can stop every criminal. There will always be crime no matter how many people you stop. That’s true even with Tista bumping everyone off.

Tista does meet a guy named Arty who she starts to become friends with and that puts her in a rough spot. It actually creates vulnerabilities in her that the villains can exploit since he’s the first one to get her to doubt her mission. As I mentioned at the start one of her big advantages is that she can fire from super long distances so she’s never in any danger. Later on she likes murdering people at point blank range to see their expressions and naturally that puts her at a much greater risk. If there are any survivors then she will be remembered and of course all it takes is a lucky shot and she could die.

She basically becomes super blood thirsty by the end which was an interesting character development choice. It’s pretty easy to see how she was messed up after we see her origin story though. There’s domestic abuse and a close friend attempts to commit suicide. In both cases the culprit got to walk off free so Tista took care of that. That’s really set her on the path to being an executioner because if she can destroy all of the evil people then she can give the victims some peace.

Her broken psyche is represented by a chibi-monster version of her that appears to offer its own twisted input. It makes for a pretty interesting inner voice since Tista herself doesn’t talk much. At the end of the day naturally Tista takes some blame for this since she’s committing the murders but it’s not like she has much of a choice here. If she stops then she will end up being erased by the orphanage. If she turns herself into the cops she will be dead on the spot. If she just runs off and gets a new identity then every time she turns on the news and sees another crime she will feel responsible if the person has any priors since she would have been tasked with eliminating that person.

So there’s a whole lot of interesting themes here but of course the series is only 2 volumes long so it really ends just as it is still beginning. It’s the kind of series that could have been a bit risky if it kept on going though as with the dark themes I could easily see the series taking a step too far. Certain things are heavily implied here but the series mainly avoids being exploitative. Bad things happen and we know about them but the series doesn’t go out of its way to show them or drag them out which I appreciate.

In the end Tista is a very depressing series where characters are put into bad situations. The school side of things with Arty is fairly light hearted and in a way it shows just how alone Tista is. Most people live a fairly carefree life unaware of how twisted the rest of the city is. In a lot of ways Tista helps to preserve the peace so she can take a little solace there. It’s just that after you’ve murdered enough people it makes sense that you’re not really going to see the sunlight anymore.

As the main guy, Arty is a pretty solid character. He can be a little off like with the way that he drew a picture of Tista but for the most part he’s just your average guy trying to live life. He gets a lot of points for never selling Tista out or getting her into trouble. She saved his life after all and it’s always really annoying when the characters falters anyway. Owing your life to someone is a huge deal after all so there’s no room for mistakes like that. It would have been nice if he could have learned how to fight or something though. I think if this series had become a long running one he would have gotten something to do later on but as it is his role is a lot smaller than you’d expect.

On the cops side we have Snow who is one of the higher up agents looking into the Tista case. She is good at role playing and getting the suspects to lower their guards but ultimately she isn’t able to find a lot out. Arty gets a lot of credit there and of course the orphanage for having a lot of connections. They know how to shut down a story right away and with their brainwashing it is really hard to touch them. It’s another interesting dynamic of basically working for the villains. Usually you see villain orgs burying evidence and using legal loopholes to get away from the heroes and for once this is what’s protecting Tista.

Proko is one of the big members of the Church and he’s a rather twisted individual. We see how quickly he’s able to entertain the thought of just destroying Tista when she starts to doubt the mission. He really believes in destroying evil at any cost but that also means becoming evil himself. While you could say that the series tries to keep the Church in the grey for the most part, this guy teeters over the line into being flat out evil. The instant you are discussing murdering a child when there is no reason to do so, there isn’t any way to defend you.

It’s already murky enough training child soldiers but murdering them is another step entirely. I’m sure this guy has quite the dark origin story that led to him being so radical but many people have sob stories. It doesn’t give you the excuse to go over the edge and start doing things like this. Down the road I’m guessing Tista would have had to end up fighting the church and assisting the cops. As well intentioned as the group may be, we’ve seen this story many times where the vigilantes end up becoming full fledged heroes. The justifications just naturally continue to escalate which is why in general heroes try not to take a life. It gets a little too easy to keep on taking them afterwards which is why you have to stop that right at the jump.

The artwork for the series is really good. In some ways I’d say it even looks better than Spy X Family but maybe that’s just because this one has a lot of action. We get a lot of impressive double spreads and the background details are really on point. The visuals really pop out at you and go a long way in backing up the story. It’s all got a lot of weight behind it and it shows what Spy X Family could look like if the author ever really embraces the action element more.

Tista not being afraid to tackle some religious themes here also adds some extra depth to the series. After all, the Church is supposed to offer up a chance for redemption and the idea that you always have another chance. So doesn’t murdering these guys go against that? Well, Proko’s feeling here is basically that these guys have no shot of redemption on their own and so you’re removing them from the planet to spare others who actually could be redeemed. It’s also mentioned that this is a mercy in a way although I don’t think any of them actually believe this. The Church isn’t fully united in this mission either as some have second thoughts about this which would probably be a subplot the longer that the series went on. I fully expect a twist that the Church murdered Tista’s father as well since it’s implied so hard that it may as well be confirmed.

I can totally get it if some people are turned off from the series on the premise of the Church potentially being evil here but I just think it’s such an interesting view on the usual anti-hero argument. How bad is it to murder someone who is obviously evil? What’s the difference between doing so in normal peace times vs during a war? The latter is generally accepted by all while the former is frowned upon. Typically there are three reasons for this: 1. Reasonable doubt that the person is actually guilty which is why you need the judicial system and due process of law. 2. The punishment doesn’t fit the crime. For example murdering a murderer may be fine but murdering someone for jaywalking would obviously not be okay. 3. Inspiring other vigilantes who may not have as strong of a moral compass or will murder innocent people by mistake.

All are very logical reasons and why you couldn’t do this widespread. Now if we take this specific example into play, in Tista so far the Church only punished people with such crimes that are worthy of death and of people who we know 100% did commit the crimes. That does solve the first two issues and nobody can really copy their approach because of the special eyes that the Church developed. (We don’t actually know exactly how that works which is something a longer series would delve into. Tista seemed to steal the eyes power right before her friend could unlock them in order to spare her the pain but the whole process is wrapped in mystery) The only weakness is of course if the Church gives Tista a false target she would never know which opens up a can of worms.

So are they doing more harm than good or vice versa? In this case the city is shown to be so evil and corrupt it’s hard to make an argument against them. They’ve destroyed so many murderers and gang members who would have gone free to terrorize people. I think this could be a good editorial for the future about anti-heroes but again that’s why this series is so interesting. Long story short, I don’t disagree with the Church’s actions. I don’t trust them but so far from what we’ve seen they are only making the world a better place and until they actually cross the line of murdering any innocents, whether they be one of the kids or a reporter who is getting close to the truth, I’d be rooting for them.

Overall, Tista is a solid series. It does a good job of showing the amount of psychological damage any sane person would get after murdering enough people. Even if you believe you are doing it for the greater good, murder is murder and will place a heavy burden on you. Additionally that means you are constantly being exposed to the darkness of the world and too much of that is tough as well. I wish the series could have really had time to explore more of the world and the characters even if it could have been a little tricky but ultimately a lot gets done within the two volumes. As long as you’re prepared for the adventure to get a little dark, this is a solid title to check out. There’s really a lot to ponder and discuss considering how short the series is which is impressive.

Overall 6/10