The Quiet Man Review

Posted on November 4, 2023 by dreager1

You guys know I enjoy a good romance as much as the next but when a film has a really bad romance I have to call it out immediately! This one’s just so bad that it’ll leave your head spinning the whole time. The Quiet Man should have stayed quiet this time because the more he talks the more annoying he gets. The film has a long drawn out fight at the end which can be a little entertaining but as a whole the movie was definitely a miss here.

The film starts off with Sean moving to a small village and getting ready for a peaceful life. He used to be a boxer but retired after a certain incident. He will not fight any longer and it’s hard to blame him because things really didn’t go well. He ends up falling for a local lady named Mary and the two start a romance. A problem arises though when her brother won’t accept the engagement and Mary refuses to marry Sean without the guy’s blessing……..and so the start of their romantic issues begin.

The whole thing’s absolutely crazy, ridiculous, and forced. So because of old traditions Mary won’t marry Sean even though it’s obvious that her brother Will has a huge vendetta against Sean and will never OK the thing? Basically he’s upset because the lady he has a crush on (Tillane) gave the house over to Sean instead of him. The whole thing has nothing to do with Mary and yet he won’t let bygones be bygones. When you marry someone, your significant other should trump all others. That includes family, friends, etc.

The fact that Mary won’t get together with Sean over this is such a massive red flag that he should be walking away at this point. Even the way they met up was pretty awful. Sean found Mary going through his house while he was gone so he forces a kiss and she’s still talking tough the whole time and not wanting to admit that she likes him. After a bunch of tough talk they get together only for Will to step in. The romance didn’t start out as a healthy one and it never developed into one. The film gives us no reason for either character to even love each other.

It makes no sense and I’ve already said that but I’m going to keep on saying it! Finally it looks like things are getting better but then Mary won’t be with Sean until they get a gift from Will. Mary wants him to give her money as per tradition and when the guy makes a big deal about it/refuses to give it to Sean she insists that it is non-negotiable. Seriously? She wants Sean to basically go on his knees and beg for it from a guy who is clearly in the wrong. This is why she’s so annoying, the whole thing is blown way out of proportion. She even runs off to ditch Sean early in the morning and he only barely catches up to her in time and has to literally drag her back home. He then fights Will on behalf of her honor but there’s no point to it.

Now I keep blasting Mary here but you have to understand that 50% of this is Sean’s fault as well. You can’t have a relationship with just one person after all and Sean is still putting up with all of this. He should have walked away the instant Mary started acting up like this. He fell in love with her randomly so it’s not like he’s liked her for years. As soon as these red flags popped up then it was time for him to leave. Staying was only empowering her to keep up these crazy actions over and over again. He just needed to nope out of there. She’s literally getting him into trouble by having him pick fights with people in the town who could be dangerous like Will.

Sean obliges and ultimately has the big fight with Will where he could have been seriously injured. The film gets a bit cheesy in the end as after all of this the fight helps them grow close. You’d think it was a Shonen Jump fight or something by the end of this. My big problem with this is that no lessons were learned as a result. Sean and Mary lived happily ever after even though she showed that she did not respect him in the slightest and put having money above his happiness. Sean showed that he is willing to be walked on like this and doesn’t have his full self respect left.

The film adds insult to injury by pairing Will up with Tillane after all of this. Tillane didn’t even like Will and made that clear the whole film, but then by the end she likes him now? Then this guy who was so petty and willing to ruin his sister’s marriage over a little squabble gets to have a happy relationship of his own? The film didn’t seem to realize just how messed up all of the relationships were here and that’s a shame. The punishments just didn’t match the crimes because there were no punishments.

The tone of the film was off the whole time. This is treated like a wholesome romance when it’s anything but. If it was a full on comedy/parody then you can see how the film would deal with this but it’s actually played very seriously. It’s just a really odd film by every stretch and it didn’t work out well for me. It didn’t click and I can safely say that it’s one of the weaker romances that I’ve seen in a while.

Overall, This is a film to stay far away from. The Quiet Man is about a main character who’s not even super quiet. He cracks after a while rather than dealing with the problem upfront and that ends up being a problem. You’ve probably never even heard of this film since it’s been lost to time and that’s a good thing. You want to stay far away from this one as there are plenty of drama and romance titles that are better than this one.

Overall 3/10

Devil World Review

Posted on November 4, 2023 by dreager1

It’s time to jump into one of the new NES online games that has surfaced. Devil World is interesting because the gameplay is really not what you’d expect when you jump into it. It plays a whole lot like Pac Man to the point where they copied the fruits (switched to desserts) idea as well as the monsters chasing you. I like it but it doesn’t beat the original.

The gameplay is easy to describe, you have to eat all of the pellets in a maze before you get tagged by one of the monsters trying to destroy you. To protect yourself you have to pick up a cross which allows you to shoot blasts of fire at these creatures. You also aren’t able to pick up pellets unless you are holding the cross so keep that in mind. The cross only lasts for a few seconds so then at that point you have to pick up another one or you are really going to be a sitting duck there. So don’t let the opponents get the upper hand or you’re doomed.

Each stage has 2 levels to it. Once you beat the first level then the second has you collecting 4 Bibles to seal up the portal of doom. You basically have to carry the book over to the entrance and you’re good. In some ways this level is a lot easier than the first because it gives you unlimited firepower until you drop it off and then you just repeat that until you’ve done it 4 times in total. Of course the one tricky part is being patient here because if you go to the center too quickly you may find yourself surrounded.

There is one big change compared to Pac Man though which is that the devil is constantly moving the screen. If you get caught being a little too slow then you will be squished and that will be game over. Additionally this mean some pellets will go off screen and you have to wait until the next rotation in order to grab them. It’s actually a pretty interesting gimmick that does help to differentiate this from Pac Man. Granted I really don’t think you needed this gimmick but it’s a good way to really test your skills. I would make the case that it increases the difficulty level right out of the gate compared to Pac Man. In a lot of ways for Pac Man you’ll probably master the first 20 levels or so after playing it enough times while the screen shifting here adds a whole other dimension to it.

The graphics are fun enough for the NES. You can easily tell where everything is and the screen is always clear. The game never lags and the screen never gets too cluttered either. The music isn’t particularly memorable though. Pac Man at least has the fun stage transitions and such which have iconic sounds but this one is a lot less memorable. Fortunately the gameplay itself makes up for that and of course there is pretty much unlimited replay value to be found here. You can be playing the levels over and over again for pretty much forever. I can especially see this being fun to play with friends and trying to get the highest score.

Overall, There’s not a lot more to say about the game beyond that. It’s a very simple game and that’s what makes it fun. You can jump into the adventure at any time and just work on getting as far as possible. It’s easy to just pick up and play and from there it all comes down to your strategy skills. So even if someone has a 1 year head start on you, it’s completely possible that you could just go in and start getting a higher score. I love strategy titles like this. Again that’s why Pac Man is the better game though since without the screen moving it is complete strategy but this is still a fun little rival to play from time to time. I bet it would be a hit at parties since most people don’t even know about it. The best tip I can give is to just be really patient here and wait for the right path to open up.

Overall 6/10

My Happy Marriage Review

Posted on November 3, 2023 by dreager1

It’s time for an anime with possibly the most wholesome title of all time. It’s a slice of life romance series with a lot of drama and it’s pretty solid. At times the main heroine can get a little tricky since part of the show is about her dealing with confidence issues but you feel like by season 2 she will really be hitting her stride. The show even throws in some supernatural/action elements in so there’s a lot going on in this show.

The show starts off by introducing us to Miyo who has had a really tough life so far. She was born into a fairly prestigious family but without any supernatural abilities. As a result her stepmother and step sister constantly bully Miyo and treat her like a slave. Her father is no better as he doesn’t defend her and tends to passively pile on as well. Miyo is in love with one guy, Kouji and this is her one way out of this rotten life. He can marry her and take her away with him. Unfortunately he ends up being promised to Miyo’s step sister Kaya and he is too weak willed to refuse. The family figures this is a good time to dump Miyo so they give her over to the rich Kiyoka who is infamously cold hearted. Can Miyo turn this around?

The opening episodes really go far to show just how irredeemable and awful the rest of Miyo’s family are so don’t get it confused and think that these guys could end up being great later on or something. It’s going to take many seasons for them to even come close to having a redemption arc for me. When you bully someone their entire life, effectively enslaving that person then you can’t really bounce back from that. It’s just way too much. This should remind you a lot of Cinderella because that’s pretty much the setup here. Fortunately as you can guess that means Kiyoka is actually a pretty guy. He’s your classic misunderstood character who has a hard time showing his emotions but isn’t a bad guy at all. Basically its the result of rumors being spread around that weren’t true and previous wife candidates not being in the relationship for the right reasons.

Now I do have to note that when Miyo is sent off, the marriage isn’t official yet. Think of it like an engagement setup and after a period of time, Kiyoka can choose to marry her. Until that actually happens officially they aren’t married and that’s an important plot point because just about every character will show up to try and put a stop to this because they’re just so petty in this world. If there’s something they can do to mess things up then you have to believe that they are going to do it!

So first up from the characters we have Miyo and as I mentioned at the start I’m not really a fan of hers which does hurt a bit. You want to be careful about victim blaming here as she is completely outnumbered and social norms are against her. It would just be nice if she could stand up for herself more rather than being crushed at every opportunity. Kaya for example has a strong personality and talks back to several characters. Even without powers I feel like Miyo could have defended herself more and kept things from going quite as overboard as they did.

Even if you accept that there was nothing she could have done in the early episodes, once she was together with Kiyoka that was her time to be strong. She still lets Kaya talk down to her even once Miyo completely outranks her and then Miyo ultimately chokes under pressure when another guy shows up to steal her away from Kiyoka. It just feels like her character development is moving much too slowly. I want to see her embrace the fact that she has her complete freedom back and never has to bow before anyone ever again. This is her new life now and she should stay pleasant and well natured but her timid personality has to go. Before she can protect anyone else she needs to be able to protect herself.

Then we have Kiyoka who does look pretty good here. He really tries to be a good person who is patient with Miyo so that he doesn’t scare her. He may not be too good at showing affection or anything like that but he gives it a good try. He is ready to plan out dates and make this work even while protecting Japan from supernatural monsters. Yes that’s the action part of this series, there are monsters around every corner just waiting to pounce. Kiyoka is known as the strongest fighter in the land and for good reason. He can burn a whole area of the forest down in one blow and his swordplay is exceptional.

So he’s a very complete character through and through. He consistently makes the right calls and gets to cause some mayhem to Miyo’s family which is great. You really want a character like that on your side. The romance would be all good if not for the fact that it is a bit of a rebound from Miyo’s point of view. The man she was in love with was Kouji and ultimately he just wasn’t man enough to defy his father and the social customs of the land. So she ends up going to Kiyoka since Kouji was off the table. They were never actually together or anything but it does make Kiyoka a second pick in a sense. At least there should be no wavering so it’ll be them for the rest of the series. Gradually that should continue to help the romance out.

I do have to say that Kouji is easily one of the worst characters though. He’s the biggest wimp in the series and there’s no way I can ever respect the guy. He knew Miyo was being abused for ages and did absolutely nothing to help her out. All he did was give her the false hope that he would take her out of there someday and then he goes and gets engaged to her step sister? There’s no amount of crying that Kouji could do afterwards to make him go back up for me. The guy had his big chance and he blew it.

The romance that he being set up with him and Kaya is going to be really hard to buy because this guy was obsessed with Miyo and now he’s going to be with the sister? It’s better than trying to be a homewrecker but nah Kouji’s pretty awful from start to finish here. When you break your promise to take the easier road there just isn’t much hope for you at that point.

At least Kaya is shown to be antagonistic the whole time. She isn’t trying to be some sympathetic character who just made a few mistakes. I do think the show is going to try and redeem her at this point but it needs to be done carefully and slowly across a ton of seasons. Otherwise I’m just not buying it. A redemption arc is a great thing of course but there’s a difference between making a mistake and just being evil for an extended period of time. So I just hope they take this really slow.

Meanwhile Shinichi and Kanoko should both be completely doomed in that regard. Shinichi allowing his own daughter to be treated like a servant for so many years is awful. He never really cared about her and no excuse the show tries to give him will hold any water. He’s the father and the head of the household. There were tons of options at his disposal to save her and he didn’t use any of them. He also gets some blame for choosing Kanoko as his rebound wife. She has a bad attitude from the start so the guy completely missed it and then didn’t do anything to fix the matter afterwards. Choosing your partner for life is an extremely important decision and it’s why you have to be careful who you choose. Particularly if you have kids since you won’t be the only one feeling the effects.

You feel bad for Miyo’s original mother Sumi who died early on and wasn’t able to be there to help Miyo. I don’t think Sumi’s plan right before death ended up working out very much at all. You can also argue that it completely backfired but of course we don’t know exactly how it would have gone otherwise so at the end of the day it’s really all a hypothetical.

Kazushi is an interesting character where we have to see where his arc will go. The guy isn’t afraid to defy traditions and basically left the family to do his own thing. Now he’s back and in a position of power so we have to see if it corrupts him and he ends up being a big villain or if he stays good til the end. It would be nice to have a good supporting character who doesn’t turn traitor so I hope he’s a good guy.

One heroic figure who should definitely stay true to the end is Yurie. She’s basically Kiyoka’s main attendant so she cooks, cleans, and does any errands as needed. She really shows Miyo the ropes of how to handle the household and puts her mind at east. Miyo would have had a much tougher time without her so Yurie gets a lot of props there. Hazuki also shows up later and is a pretty fun character. She helps teach Miyo about etiquette and is fairly tough in her own right. I don’t see her getting pushed around much at all by anyone. I’d be glad to see her as more of a supporting character.

Yoshito is one of the few supporting characters on Kiyoka’s side. The guy does his best to break the ice and keep things civil for everyone. At times his jokes go a bit far though like with how he flirts with Miyo. It’s all played for laughs of course and the characters know that he doesn’t mean it but I always thought jokes like that were pretty dangerous. Then there is Iwashimizu who does a great job of grabbing intel for Kiyoka. He helps deliver a whole lot of the lore over to Kiyoka and get the guy up to speed on what’s going on.

Finally we have Arata who is one of the big villains here. There are a decent amount of villains within the show so far outside of the main family characters but none of them are particularly memorable so far outside of Arata. They all just feel a bit generic and are also too weak to do much of anything. Once the Emperor makes a move then things could change a bit but in the meantime the most serious enemy had to be Arata. He can fight really well with his illusions and even took Kiyoka down a peg. The whole fight was annoying though since Kiyoka should have won easily but I guess you can’t win them all.

I really don’t like Arata though. He’s another desperate guy who really likes Miyo and wants to try and steal her away. Where were all of these characters when she could have really used a helping hand? Well snooze you lose so Arata just needs to get over her and stay away. That should happen going forward with any luck so this would just be his low point. He’s someone who could actually have a decent redemption arc coming up.

In terms of animation the show looks pretty good. I wouldn’t say the fights look great or anything, it’s clear that the show is more focused on the romance part than the action. That said, the character designs are always on point and the backgrounds look clear so I really have no complaints. The show’s budget was reasonably solid. The soundtrack is a bit more on the weaker side though. It could do with some more fast paced music or just something more memorable in general. Even during the fights you don’t really have music that’s jumping out at you.

We get our share of super emotional moments of course but the music played during those is a bit more on the generic side. Still the moment itself is usually intense enough where you’re still really engaged. The show goes all out in just how much Miyo had to deal with. At one point the villains even grab a pair of scissors and really put some fear into Miyo. Those are again scenes that make sure Kaya can never rebound from them.

There was a really good rage moment late in the series when Kiyoka finally found out some of the details and went into the estate to clean up shop. It was really nice to see him burning buildings and causing a lot of chaos. If anything I wouldn’t have minded if he went a tad further with that. We certainly know that those characters would deserve every bit of it after all. Now the only thing I’d be worried about going forward is if Kiyoka ends up bowing down to the law. What I mean by that is Kiyoka is still technically in service of the government and the emperor, both of whom we know are on the villains’ side. So it’ll be annoying if they arrest him or something and he doesn’t resist because he doesn’t want to follow the law and then Miyo gets kidnapped. I’m really hoping that doesn’t happen because it’s always such a pain when a character chooses duty over love.

Miyo needs to be above all others for Kiyoka at this point. His main duty is keeping her happy after all and everything else is secondary. I wonder if Miyo can end up contributing more on the battlefield soon too. I think there are a lot of good ways you could pull that off, maybe something like QQ Sweeper. We’ll have to see. Season 2 could also afford to be a little lighter. Throw in a bit of comedy and let the characters have some fun. After all this one had to be darker due to the origin story for Miyo which was definitely a tragic one but with that out of the way she should be allowed to have some time to smile without a catch at the end.

Overall, My Happy Marriage is a good show. There are some annoying elements which keeps it from being higher like how polite the heroes always have to be while the villains just run around getting things done. I feel as though you owe nothing to any villains so just show up and take them down without going through all of the formalities. I’m really hoping that Miyo should be completely solid going forward and now have any more doubts in her ability. As long as that doesn’t happen we should be in a great spot for the second season.

Overall 6/10

Earthbound Review

Posted on November 2, 2023 by dreager1

It’s time to review one of the most iconic Nintendo RPGs of all time. Everyone has heard of this title and for good reason. They really pushed the envelope on this game with the amount of crazy visuals and just having a generally weird world around the main characters. Games like Undertale would end up continuing in this same light. Without Earthbound you can argue that many games would not exist. It really has aged quite well.

The story starts with a meteor crashing in Ness’ home town Onett. He goes out to check it along with another boy named Porky. Porky ends up succumbing to the dark side and serving the dark lord Giygas while Ness is tasked with saving the world. He will need several allies including a genius, a martial artist, and a psychic expert. Can these kids really stop the end of the world though? Giygas is a being that exists across dimensions and all of time with seemingly unlimited amounts of power. That’s not an easy opponent to overcome but Ness won’t give up!

This is a game where you really need to cling to everything that you are told because it always ends up being a lot more important than you would have guessed. Sometimes you have to talk to a character multiple times and other times you have to go back to an old town to grab an item you may have missed. The game is quite vast and I’m sure I didn’t talk to a bunch of people/witness bonus content. The dialogue is all a lot of fun here. It has that absurd comedy type angle where crazy things are happening and people don’t have much of a reaction to it which is a type of comedy in itself.

The writing is quite excellent. I like how your father will call in from time to time to check on you and give you some money to get items with. It has a very “Are you winning son?” vibe to it and it’s great to have supportive parents here. Your Mom is always around to give you a fresh pizza and recover your HP as well. Your sister even contributes by giving you items and a place to store extra ones. These are little elements that just help make the world feel a lot more fleshed out.

There’s also a lot of room for fun theories about different characters and what’s going on. You could really make a whole franchise out of this which is why it’s a shame that Nintendo hasn’t kept up with making a bunch of Earthbound games. There is so much potential to them and I’m sure with modern graphics and everything they could really make this massive. This game took me close to 30 hours as it is. In general a nice advantage of RPGs is that the long story really lets you connect to the characters.

One of the playable characters doesn’t show up until you’re over 20 hours in for example which is really impressive. I had actually forgotten about him for a while even though in the intro you get to name all of the characters so in a way you know that they’re coming. It’s just a long wait and you’re busy doing a lot of other things in the meanwhile to really keep track. The final boss is super iconic of course and then you’ve got a lot of other creative enemies and even full concerts in game. Yes this is an ambitious title.

At times it can be easy to get lost or not know what to do next. Fortunately their are hint shacks around. The NPCs aren’t generally very helpful so otherwise you would have been in a pretty tough spot. Also some areas are very well hidden so even when you’re following a path, try to keep note of which path you didn’t check in case you have to use it later on. As you progress through the game you unlock some quality of life features like teleportation which is definitely worth the wait.

If I have any issues here, I would say one gameplay mechanic doesn’t age too well. This one uses the old Final Fantasy 2 type of mechanic where if your character dies they won’t come back to life even at an inn. You have to specifically go to the hospital to revive the character and that’s a lot of work since those are rarer to come up against. Again this is a quality of life feature that comes in later on once your character learns how to revive someone. That’s near the very end of the game though so it takes a while.

Also your storage is very small per character so you will run out a lot. This means you will have to constantly toss items out to make room for new ones or pay the storage fee to put in some extra back at home. I think they could have been more generous on that front. It’s only a mild annoyance to have to go in and toss stuff since you can only do this one at a time but still it’s something where a sequel can improve a bit.

The soundtrack is definitely excellent, there are a lot of really good tunes you will hear as you go through the adventure. The graphics are also really solid for its era. Like I mentioned earlier the game is very creative here both in the enemy designs and the effects. It gets a bit trippy with Giygas and the game is just so far ahead of its time that I’m sure the reactions to that boss must have been crazy.

In terms of replay value, there is a lot in terms of talking to people and such but there isn’t really a post game. Regardless the main campaign is long enough where that isn’t a problem. Additionally the game can be rather difficult at times so you will have to stop and train at different points. Don’t think that you will just be coasting by and the whole thing is a breeze because you will be in for quite the surprise!

Meanwhile the ending of the game is really intense. I don’t know if Mother 3 actually follows up on this or not but it’s really a high note. Yet another reason why Nintendo needs to license that game already. It would be so much fun to play through! The music gets rather tense and for a split second you’re wondering if the game is actually going to just keep on going. To date Nexamon is probably the only game I can think of that keeps on going after the long credits play and is the most realistic fake stop. I’d like to see more games do that and it only works in an RPG type game like this because you can have it trigger after 20-25 hours which would be realistic to end with.

Overall, Earthbound is a great game all the way through. It excels in every area and makes for a really fun experience. The gameplay is really smooth and the world is just so large. It feels like they crammed in a toooooon of content here especially relative to the average SNES game. It’s extremely impressive and the fact that it still holds up to this day is also something to be proud of. I would highly recommend jumping into this game as soon as possible. You will be having a lot of fun all the way through.

Overall 8/10

Practical Magic Review

Posted on November 2, 2023 by dreager1

It’s time for a film about magic and how a curse can really last for a very long amount of time. The film has its moments but the whole main romance is really just a big rebound so that does take some points without a doubt. Ultimately the movie goes by rather quickly and it’s an entertaining ride even if it won’t end up being one of the top titles.

The film starts off with a witch creating a curse that bad things will befall any guy who tries to get together with her descendants. The marriage will not be able to last and that has carried through to the present. Sally is our main character and she’s not going to let a curse stop her. She marries a guy named Michael and they had some kids but one day he is hit by a truck and she finally realizes that there is no way to beat the curse. She will not allow herself to love ever again but her sister isn’t ready to quit yet and has a ton of affairs. Unfortunately she has gone in with the wrong crowd now by getting together with a crazy guy named Jimmy. Sally will have to help her out before it’s too late but in the meantime what if she falls in love with one of the local authorities named Gary?

Of course that’s exactly what happens and so there is no way to get around this romance. Sally basically lost her husband to a curse and now she’s going to move on just like that? She probably should have just brought him back to life. Yes, the whole movie is a cautionary tale against doing such a thing but I think you can make it work. In a world where magic is real and it is actually possible to revive someone (albeit with some side effects) then you just have to spend your life perfecting the spell to make it work. I guarantee that it’s at least a possibility considering that we know the magic exits.

So the romance ends up being annoying as a result. Granted Gary’s not even a bad guy. He’s a good person trying to do the right thing and help out. It’s just that I’m not buying the romance. Particularly since Michael was also a good guy before he bought the farm early. The most annoying character has to be Gillian though because she’s the one dragging Sally into a whole lot of trouble. From what we’ve seen of Jimmy he wasn’t exactly a class act from the start so how did this relationship even start?

Regardless he ends up causing a lot of trouble for the duration of the film. Naturally he takes the bulk of the blame since he’s the one going around breaking the law and basically trying to murder the heroines. It would just be nice if Gillian was more responsible since it doesn’t feel like she actually learns any lessons during the film. The aunts are also not without blame as they just run out midway through the film and vanish during the climax. It sure would have been nice to have had some adult supervision to back Sally up when she was in a tight spot.

The film feels pretty short and it’s entertaining enough. There are definitely some jokes that work well like the heroes murdering Jimmy multiple times. The plot is serious to an extent but there are always a lot of lighthearted moments thrown in to keep everything balanced. It also wasn’t too easy to snap the curse so the original witch’s power was definitely impressive. You’d think the main characters or at least the aunts could have worked a bit harder to blow up the curse but granted it seems like the aunts agreed with it to an extent. So they had no real reason to snap it.

The cast here is fairly small which isn’t a bad idea so you can focus on the characters but it’s just a problem that none of them are super likable. There aren’t any standouts here and as a result the film isn’t quite as lively or exciting as it could have been. You’ll never feel bored while watching it or anything like that but there also isn’t a ton of replay value here either. So it’s not bad but it’s not that good either and just winds up being in the middle. I will give the ending props for using the power of friendship though. Sally had been neglecting the other moms at school who were just trying to help and so by the end they all help each other out. It may be a bit cheesy but it was still a decent climax.

One thing the film could have done maybe was to lean into the curse a bit more. Have Sally actually try meeting tons of guys and each time something goes wrong. The main weakness of this strategy is it could make Sally look completely desperate so it should be played completely for laughs with lots of slapstick. Then you never do a serious romance and the plot of the film is more actively about ending the curse. I will say that the curse is slick to not activate until the descendant has had kids so this way the lineage will continue to grow.

Overall, Practical Magic is a decent movie but I feel like there’s so much more you could do with magic. I tend to feel this way for most slice of life/romance type movies that involve magic. Magic is one of the ultimate fantasies for any person to have. There are so many ways you can immediately enhance your life with it or even just show off for others. I’d like to see a main character just go wild with it for once. In this movie the power levels are a bit lower so it might have been harder but the magic feels like it’s only something on the side to keep the film fresh but it’s not as overpowering an element as you might expect. If the comedic/romance plot sounds good to you then you should check it out but the fact that it’s all a rebound hurts it just enough for me to not bump this to the next level.

Overall 5/10

FLCL: Grunge Review

Posted on November 2, 2023 by dreager1

I feel like FLCL is one of those series that likes to keep on reusing its ideas over and over and over again. It just never really improves or adapts. This one also decided to stack the deck against itself by going with a really low quality CGI approach and then reusing a ton of animation. I’m sure they saved a lot of money that way but with only 3 episodes it just feels like we don’t really accomplish a whole lot. This is a pretty bad title through and through so you’ll want to give it a hearty skip.

There are 3 main characters here and each one gets an episode. Now you may be thinking, that doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for a climax right? Well…yeah you’d definitely be right about that. Each episode tends to end in roughly the same way and the third one just expands a little extra onto that. That’s where all the recycled animation I mentioned earlier comes up. It’s a neat excuse to keep on showing the same scenes over and over again and I don’t think this was a good approach at all. I get the idea of showing different perspectives to introduce the characters but you can do that without reusing the animations. The latter just makes it look lazy.

The first episode is about Shinpachi. He’s basically your average kid and he helps his father out at the sushi restaurant. It’s not the most fulfilling work but he gives it his all and even commissioned a new blade from one of his friends. The blade doesn’t come out very well but it’s the thought that counts. One day the mayor walks in with a girl named Haruko who is basically going around causing a bunch of trouble for no real reason. That’s sort of what she does though so it’s not super surprising. She puts a virus in a nearby robot and has started to speed up the end of the world. Can Shinpachi figure out what’s going on and save everyone?

The plot is intentionally weird so if it sounds a bit odd, that’s just how it goes. Haruko is in theory a protagonist always trying to stop corporate but her methods are a bit extreme. Also you cut her less slack than some other main characters because it feels like she never ultimately accomplishes anything. Even in this show she gets a fight scene but beyond that the villains escaped once again so now she has to find another planet. Her adventure always feels like a very futile one and maybe she’s just messing around way too much.

Haruko tends to spend the majority of time flirting with any guy she comes into contact with and basically has no standards there. If she can make someone squeamish then she is all set. Definitely a sad character all the way through. Poor Shinpachi doesn’t really have much experience with girls so it is easy for her to mess with him. In FLCL you unlock your abilities after being flustered and stuff so then he gets the weird bump that turns into a robot. Again it’s all pretty odd stuff but not in an interesting way which is the massive problem.

Shinpachi ultimately is a decent main character at best. At least he tries to resist Haruko and keep going about his business. His business is important after all and he wants to help. His father is oddly quiet all the time though and for a minute there I thought he was a robot or something. So Shinpachi isn’t able to have as much of a conversation as he would like and has to figure things out on his own.

The second episode is about Shonari and he’s an alien made of rocks. His older brother and the rest of his society are heavily involved in gang warfare and criminal conduct so it’s been a tough environment for him to grow up in. He’s tried to keep his head down though and just be a nice guy. For the most part he’s pulled it off but then Haruko shows up to take over the gang and things get pretty hectic. Ultimately Shonari learns what it means to pick up a blade and destroy someone. He’s a nice enough guy but the episode doesn’t do much to really make the character interesting. Then the ending is basically a redo of the first episode so the actual episode isn’t massively interesting or anything like that.

Finally the third episode is about Orinoko and her quest to find some sharp materials to make the ultimate blade. She’s rather embarrassed at the quality of work she puts out due to not having good equipment. Even when Shinpachi asked for a blade she had to give him a cheap one. Well now it’s time to find the ultimate metal and the bonds she has forged will help her with that. Then we get to the end of the episode where the plots all converge and we get a rather weak climax. It all goes back to a rocket launch and how not everyone can leave the place. There is only 1 ticket and 3 main characters who need to get off the planet.

At least the ending does have a good friendship moment, that’s probably the only real complement I’ll give this title. It’s a wholesome ending with characters keeping a brave face even as they make a sacrifice. I’m always here for stuff like that because it’s just such a good moment. When you make a sacrifice you need to keep a brave face on because otherwise you’re basically guilt tripping the other character which doesn’t help anybody.

The soundtrack is definitely on the forgettable side. I can’t say that I really remember any of the tunes. It goes without saying that the visuals aren’t very good either. It’s some of the weakest CG I’ve seen in a while and I say that as someone who isn’t really a big fan of CG in the first place. The show needs to have a higher budget here. Granted it won’t matter much if the writing doesn’t step up either.

What FLCL needs to do is have more of a purpose. Right now it tends to be weird and eccentric just to show that it can. You can be weird in a cool way you just have to try for it and have the whole plot still be interesting. Focus less on Haruko hooking up with every character in the series and really dive into the fight against the government. Metallica seems like an interesting villain in theory but the show never really bothers to explain the plot much. Even here the plot is clearly just a backdrop to the character stories and those aren’t interesting so it doesn’t work out.

I dare say you could skip the first two episodes and you wouldn’t miss much since they all go to the same place anyway. Each episode gives you a little extra context into what’s going on but not a whole lot. So they’re nickel and diming you at every turn and you don’t have much of a payoff to show for it. At its core that is the real problem here. I’m even struggling with what else to talk about for this one so this is going to be a fairly short anime review. I suppose that makes sense with only 3 episodes and not having a ton of plot here. What we really need is a future season with a super confident main character who will resist Haruko’s advances and just take charge the whole time.

Overall, This is FLCL so I wasn’t expecting much but either way it was still no good. You desperately need better characters for a title like this to work out. There also can’t be so many animation shortcuts especially when CG is already starting you behind the 8 ball. There aren’t really many positives here but the worst part is really just that it’ll end up being rather boring by the end. It’s lucky that it was only 3 episodes long as it would probably be even more apparent if it was longer. Hopefully FLCL can rebound at some point because we’re 4 seasons in now and things are still being rough for it.

Overall 2/10

Pluto Review

Posted on November 1, 2023 by dreager1

It’s time to look at the Netflix adaption for one of the most legendary manga of all time. At the very least it’s a title that everyone has heard of over the years and for good reason. It’s the return of Astro Boy! Now granted I’m pretty sure this is a completely different continuity than the rest of the Astro Boy stuff although maybe it just takes place in the future. For now I’m guessing it’s the former, but it’s still a lot of fun to see him running around. This is basically a full on mystery thriller and it works really well.

So the plot starts by introducing us to the setting. It’s the future and robots have been continuing to evolve to the point where they are basically comparable to humans now. It’s actually very difficult to tell them apart at first glance because that’s how identical they are in the present state. There is one law of robotics which keeps humanity safe though and that is that they cannot murder a human. Seriously it is completely impossible…or so it would seem.

People are in a panic now because a human and a robot have both just been destroyed. In each case a pair of horns was stabbed onto the corpse and the way in which the murders happened seem to have only been possible by a robot. That would mean that a robot has actually murdered a human. If someone has found a way to make this possible…then nobody is safe. Panic will take over the streets and people are going to die. The government puts officer Gesicht of the FBI in charge of the case. He needs to find the culprit and put an end to this but is it already too late? Have the gears been put into motion to end the peace between humans and robots once and for all? The villain appears to be going after the 7 most powerful robots in the world, the final mechs of mass destruction and also the top researchers involved in a specific project.

So right off the bat it’s important to mention that this is a very dialogue heavy series. The mystery is absolutely at the forefront here with Gesicht trying to narrow down the search but there is also a lot of character moments for everyone. So sometimes you may take 30-40 minutes off from the mystery itself to explore other plots. In terms of action, there isn’t really much until the final episode so it’s important to keep in mind. One of my only negatives is in regard to that but we’ll get into that later on. This is still a great show all around and most importantly, it’s one that has a considerable amount of replay value.

You could easily watch this show again a little while after finishing it and see how much more you’re able to piece together the next time around. Granted the mystery tends to evolve as it goes on so your experience should not change too much. It’s also just fun to listen to the various debates regarding the robots and how things are currently going. When robots are this close to humans, do they basically get all of the rights a human gets or not? A lot of the show is pretty much a metaphor for that as robots keep being destroyed and the characters have to wonder if that’s equivalent to human lives or not. If it is, then a lot of them feel like they can never really atone for their sins.

A war happened many years before the series takes place but the effects loom rather large. Just about every character was affected by what happened there whether due to what they did or what they didn’t do. The war itself looks like it was an easy win for the heroes based on what we saw but of course that does nothing to reduce the amount of casualties dealt to the losing side the whole time. It was also a cautionary tale about why you don’t want robots of mass destruction running around.

Now the one weakness I mentioned earlier in regard to their not being a lot of action is that sometimes you will have incredible build up for a fight only for it to virtually be off screen’d. You’ll see maybe one blow but the fight will be over in a minute. That’s not good payoff even if you’re trying to show how powerful the villain is. I think you could definitely have worked around that with some fun action segments while still hiding the villain. Instead it has the opposite effect of making the hero look a bit too weak.

For example episode 1 did this the right way with North No. 2. The episode hypes this guy up to oblivion so when he finally fights there is a nice spectacle and while the fight isn’t long, it’s long enough to both add some hype to the villain while matching up with the build up to him. That was episode 1 so it’s not like the build up was crazy. Then we have the build up to Astro Boy. Wellllll…that build up ends up backfiring quite a lot. The ultimate confrontation ends up being extremely underwhelming to the point where you’re wondering if a scene or two got left on the chopping block. No way it should have been over quite that fast. It should have been a much longer fight and I’d argue the verdict also should have been different. But hey I can accept the outcome…with a longer fight and definitely a lot more damage involved. So in this case more action would have been a good thing.

Particularly since the animation is pretty decent. It’s not really at the level of any of the current shows or your average mainstream anime. Older titles like Naruto or One Piece for example will look a lot better but the colors still pop out and when we do get a brief action scene it looks impressive. I think they would have definitely been up to the task for a full on fight. Meanwhile the soundtrack is fairly low key for the most part. There are one or two battle themes that are really good though and they debut in the final episodes of the season. I’m going to need to find those on Youtube at some point.

The writing is really good here which is important since you can’t have a good mystery without good writing. There are a ton of solid twists all around here and the dialogue is always very engaging. It’s certainly the strength of the series and it goes without saying that the cast of characters is very solid. So without further adieu lets go ahead and start talking about them. First up is Gesicht since he is the main character after all. Gesicht is a good lead who always looks at things objectively and is very good at his job. He may not be as emotionless as he tries to appear but he really does always try to see the mission through.

Ultimately as the series goes on you can make the case that he gets a little less effective as the emotions come out but he comes out on top time and time again. Ultimately I’d say he had a pretty good run. The ending is even a little unexpected because I was fully prepared for the series to reverse on the final move. Pluto stays the course on all of its decisions though and this was just another one of them. Gesicht really moves the plot along and in just about every case where there is a disagreement I tended to be on his side.

Then we have Mont Blanc who unfortunately gets the shaft as far as the big 7 goes. He really doesn’t get to do much at all so there’s not much to say about him. He seemed like a nice guy. North No. 2 got a lot to do though and really had a good character arc going. It’s a shame we couldn’t see more of him in combat but the guy was very determined and once he set his sights on something he never let go. While his segment in the first episode may have gone on a bit long, you did always feel a sense of foreboding the whole time.

In terms of danger and suspense it has to be one of the highlights of the series when he goes off into battle. The beginnings of a mystery are always really intense for that reason because you still don’t know exactly what to expect. Next was Brando who was also a pretty solid robot. I think he should have been a little more straight with his family about the danger he was walking into though. I know it’s a hard conversation to have but they should be prepared for him to not walk out of this one alive. Otherwise it’s like they have a lot of hope with no idea of how it could backfire and that’s a lot more cruel.

Hercules is another really great robot and one of my favorites. He’s the kind of guy who is really honest and upfront with whoever he is talking too. He just says it like it is and the guy was really built for combat. He doesn’t shy away from any fights and never holds anything back. With that said, I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s the strongest of the 7 or anything because they were all built for combat. Apparently he’s roughly tied with Brando. I’d put both of them above Mont Blanc but under Epsilon, Atom, and North No. 2.

Then there is Epsilon who seems to be the most powerful by a wide margin. His photon abilities are really impressive both in how sharp they hit but also in terms of range. He’s basically able to level an entire city when he cuts loose and has impressive energy reserves. Even Pluto wouldn’t really stand a chance when Epsilon is going all out. It’s likely why they had to make him a pacifist because otherwise he’d really be cleaning up town. Ultimately Epsilon did a lot of good for the world like looking over the children and I don’t fault him for skipping out on the war. Ultimately it sounds like that was a good move.

We never get a ton of context for the war in general though. From what we do know it is definitely important that some people fought at least since it was a war that needed to be won. The weapons of mass destruction may not have been there but the perfect A.I. could have destroyed everyone. Of course that nearly happens anyway but the whole thing still made sense. Finally we have Atom. Yeah I keep calling him Astro Boy but technically in this show they only use the term Atom. He’s an impressive character who really talks things through and has a good amount of power.

If I take away the fact that I’m already a fan of the character then it’s true that he doesn’t look quite as impressive here. Ultimately he doesn’t have a ton of screentime for action but the final episode helps to make up for that. He gets a good amount of action there and gets to really start showing off his stuff. It would have been cool if they could have given him his iconic arm cannon though. Now that would have been awesome but I guess he’d be too overpowered. Ultimately he has to fight against the cycle of violence and make some really tough calls but he always comes out on top. Atom is the kind of guy that you can really trust through it all.

His sister Uran doesn’t get as much of a role but she still has her influential moments. She is able to detect sadness across a large distance which is a really helpful ability to have. It’d be cool if she could have fought as well though. Another supporting character is Helena who is Gesicht’s wife. She gets a lot of credit for never getting annoyed at how often he has to go to work or guilt tripping him over it. She’s extremely patient and it’s nice to see a character who is super supportive like that.

One character stood above the rest as my favorite by the end though and his name is Brau. This guy has an interesting backstory (Pluto in general as so much context from the past that I think you could make an awesome prequel out of it) and is extremely intelligent. The guy is fairly modest but to me he seems like the most advanced robot in the series. I don’t even know how they would have caught him back in the day. This guy’s dialogue is always fantastic in every scene and he really steals the show. You always get the feeling he’s 10 steps ahead and it’s why the heroes should feel very lucky that he’s not evil. If he was then they would all be doomed.

We have a few scientists who get a big role here. One of them is Dr. Hoffman who is a nice guy in general but he loses some major points for keeping secrets from Gesicht. The decisions may have been out of his hands but he still owed the guy the truth. He should have told him everything he knew as soon as possible. Most of the scientists tend to be more on the shady side though. You also have Tenma who is a super genius, maybe the smartest human in the series. Even he keeps a lot of secrets though and his experimental methods of treatment may work but they always have a heavy cost.

The guy always seems like he’s trying to do his best though. He’s just more willing to get his hands dirty to complete the job rather than freezing like the others. Ochanomizu is more of an idealistic character so he’s always trying to do the right thing but at times it does limit him. He basically has to ask Tenma for help when the going gets tough as a result.

Then we have the genius Abullah who also gets a pretty big role here. The guy makes for a very interesting character and he is probably the only one who’s actually keeping up with Tenma for the most part. Tenma still has the edge but this guy’s close. We can’t forget about Roosevelt, but his role really isn’t all that huge. He gets some good lines to be sure but I do think what hurts him here is that he doesn’t feel as smart as he thinks he is. Roosevelt clearly thinks he is number 1 but I’d say it’s clear that Brau is smarter. Also a weakness of having very little screentime is that we don’t get to see him winning for very long. He’s got a solid design but there’s not too much to say for him.

Adolf on the other hand gets a pretty big role. This guy may panic a lot and doesn’t always make the right calls but you do feel his presence. I thought he made for a good antagonist even if his motives are pretty bad. He keeps talking about how his brother was completely butchered and didn’t deserve to die the way that he did….as if it was a long torture before death or something. Nah it was a big energy blast which I’d argue is one of the best ways to go out since it would be pretty painless. Also we see just how deranged and psychotic the brother was so of course he was going to be taken out. You just never at any point come close to sympathizing with Adolf. I don’t think the series was necessarily trying for that though so it works out.

As I mentioned earlier with robots being this close to humans the debate is in how this works with the law and such. I would say it’s equivalent so when you see this guy going around murdering a bunch of robotic kids, well he’s a psychotic mass murderer so when he gets shot down I wasn’t exactly sad about it. I also think the show was heavily leaning into this as you can see from how serious the characters treated it. I would say that’s 100% correct. The instant robots can have feelings and genuine sentience like that, they absolutely get all the rights as humans.

Finally we have Pluto and he does make for a really impressive antagonist although as a character I wasn’t a huge fan. There’s a lot of twists about him so I can’t go too into detail on that but he’s not really my kind of villain in a lot of ways. I love the design, it’s really intimidating all the way through and you don’t want to have to fight the guy. When he’s not battling he isn’t nearly as impressive though. So keep him in battle mode the whole time and then you’re really set. I was also glad that by the end we actually got to see the full design since he’s hidden away for most of the series.

In general the series has a fairly melancholy vibe to it. The characters have all been through so much by this point that even the thought of possibly dying doesn’t scare them or anything like that. In another series where everyone might be yelling a ton as more and more bodies pile up, everyone here uses logic and calmly tries to get to the bottom of this. For the most part the only yelling is in the final episode with the big fight and that makes a lot of sense. It really was a great fight so while the show may not have had a ton of action, they saved up the budget to go all out here.

Overall, Pluto is a pretty great show. There’s a lot of depth here and great emotional moments. While the show does start to lose some steam towards the end, that’s normal for a mystery title. After all most of the fun is in solving the mystery so once that’s done then it’s like you’ve finished the main part of a quest. That said, the final episode does have a great fight and ultimately this felt like an excellent adventure. Making every episode around an hour was a great way to jam a ton of content in here. It may have “only” been 8 episodes but it felt like much more as a result. I definitely recommend checking this one out.

Overall 8/10

Mieruko-chan Review

Posted on November 1, 2023 by dreager1

It’s time to take a look at a horror anime! I haven’t seen very many of those so this would be fun. Granted I’d say it’s also part comedy so not a full on horror but the visuals can get intense. The anime never quite manages to match up to the manga version in that area as the manga really feels like a true “Holding nothing back” horror all the way. The anime unfortunately has a big fanservice issue that the manga mainly avoids and that does end up being a crushing blow. Still there’s some fun stuff here as well so lets dive into the world of the supernatural.

The series starts by introducing us to Miko. She was living an ordinary life when she begins to see supernatural spirits. They are all incredibly scary and she has to try and keep a straight face or else they will realize that she can see them. This means Miko has to often just sit there and endure whatever visions she sees. Her best friend Hana is completely oblivious though so Miko also has to make sure to manipulate her so that she doesn’t crash into any ghosts. It really is a full time job but one that she is absolutely ready for…because she has no choice in the matter. So begins a new chapter in her life. Will anyone be able to help save her from this predicament??

This show’s fairly quick at only 12 episodes and most of those are stand alones. We only just start to touch on the more serious plot based episodes by the end so for the most part it’s really just a lot of episodes of Miko getting scared the whole time and trying to keep it together. The opening definitely reflects this well as it’s the most I’ve heard the word “Stop” in an opening ever. That’s basically all the lines in the beginning and the ending. Unfortunately the opening isn’t very good. The music isn’t great and the animation is pretty lazy. It’s a shame because it has a good opening beat but it quickly fades from there. In general the soundtrack is more on the mild side. Nothing you’ll really remember all that much. At most I guess you’ll remember the monster yell that plays at the beginning of the ending for each episode. That’s a good jump scare.

Lets get into the biggest negative right out of the gate though which is of course the fanservice. It’s very relentless and hits you hard in every single episode. You never get a break from this as the show always chooses the absolute worst camera angles. The characters could be talking about lunch and the camera is really low for no reason. We have several shower type scenes here and bottom line, the series isn’t confident enough in its plot and premise so it has to resort to large amounts of fanservice at every corner. It definitely hurts the show quite a lot because of how frequent it is. You never get a break from this at any point and that also makes it hard to recommend.

Now my only other main issue with the show is that you don’t understand why Miko is so afraid. Let me explain here, she sees a whole lot of crazy stuff in regard to the spirits. I get how they look really scary since a lot of them are quite deformed and all. So that makes perfect sense but what really doesn’t make sense is why she is so determined that they don’t know she can see them. She acts as if they could actually hurt her but we already know this isn’t the case.

She’s already seen how tons of humans are getting stabbed by these creatures and the blows go through them. The creatures are completely intangible so none of their blows actually have any weight behind them. Given that we know this to be true, she is in absolutely 0 danger throughout the series. In theory no matter how strong a creature may be, it should not be able to be on the same level as her. It should immediately be crushed and then that would be the end of it. Doesn’t that make the most amount of sense here?

The show could prove me wrong down the road but that wouldn’t help because I need a reason for why Miko is afraid right now. From how the show begins this is something that just started happening to her so you can’t say that something happened to her as a kid with a ghost attacking her and we’d know in the present if this was the case. This was nagging at me throughout every episode because it is such a core part of the plot and yet it feels like the show didn’t think of it.

Now you may just figure that Miko is special so their attacks would land. Except we’ve seen Miko walk right through a spirit and another time she actually got stabbed by one in the train and both times nothing happened. That’s because nothing can happen, Miko is completely immune. So this just feels like a plot hole pretty much at least until we get a real reason for why she is freaking out so much. It doesn’t make sense.

Now beyond that, while the soundtrack isn’t anything special the animation can be decent at times. Still nothing too high budget or anything like that but I do like the energy effects which work well for the occasional energy blast. The character designs are good as well and so for the most part everything is fairly smooth. I think the budget was decent for the show.

If you can get past the whole premise of the show not working, the small cast is fairly effective here. Miko is a good heroine who is doing her best to survive through this crazy situation and makes sure to look after Hana as well. At times Miko can be really dismissive of Hana’s attempts to help her but it’s more that she is trying to keep Hana safe and other times she’s too lost in thought. Miko isn’t perfect or anything but she’s a very good character all around and someone that you want on your side.

Then you have Hana who is the best character. I like how cheerful and upbeat she is all the time. Hana is very quick to defend Miko from all kinds of dangers and also always wants to be there for her. Hana may not know about any monsters or special abilities but it doesn’t stop her from doing her best and getting in there to stop the creatures as needed. She rescues a dog and in general will tell off anyone who makes Miko sad. That’s the hallmark of a true friend all the way through.

One more member added to the main cast is Yuria but she doesn’t really make it until the second half. They do introduce her early on through cameos and such but it takes a while to really get going. You feel bad for her the whole time because she can see spirits and has always longed to have someone else around who could see them but Miko won’t admit it. I actually think Miko really should have told Yuria sooner. Yuria won’t be in any extra danger since she can already see the spirits so I don’t see a downside. I can absolutely sympathize with how frustrated Yuria is the whole time because to her this just doesn’t make any kind of sense. By the end of the season they finally have a formal agreement that they know about each other but I expect that the misunderstandings will continue for some time.

It’s also easy to see why since Miko did literally choke Yuria to the point of unconsciousness right. Those were desperate times based on Miko’s misconception about how dangerous the spirits were but it’s not something you ever forget if you’re the one who was getting knocked out. The Godmother shows up briefly here but she looks very bad. She’s clearly past her prime and isn’t able to deal with any of the monsters so you can only hope that she’ll do better in a future season.

The season does have a bit of a cliffhanger for a sequel but it’s not as direct as I would have liked. Trust me, I’d have gone all in with the cliffhanger and just had a field day there. I feel like you have to go bold to try and pressure a second season. The ending here still works well enough but it’s more of a wholesome ending with a few nuggets to be explored as opposed to a glaring cliffhanger.

The show’s climax does end up being the best part as we get the shrine yokai who actively fight other yokai but the whole thing is a bit of a mystery. Why did they protect Miko 3 times and why are they super upset now? That’s all to be explored in a second season if we ever get there. They’re some of the scarier monsters as well because of how well they fight although once again I would make the case that they aren’t too scary yet since we figure they can’t actually touch Miko. Until proven otherwise or a character mentions that spirits can hurt humans I just don’t see why I would believe that.

One more character I should quickly talk about is Zen. He’s a good example of how to write a solid anti-hero/vigilante. The guy has a very mysterious aura when he shows up and plays a big part in the last episodes. He even gets an emotional backstory which is probably the most emotional out of all the characters. He had to put up with a whole lot and so he’s doing things in the present as well. He doesn’t take prisoners and it’s highly implied that he straight up murders someone. Within the context it makes sense though.

There was someone going around murdering cats in the neighborhood and he couldn’t let that stand. Fortunately the show doesn’t actually show any of the murders but based on the amount of ghosts around we can tell that it was a lot. There wasn’t much point in a trial at that point since he was guilty so that was it. I look forward to seeing more of Zen even if his role probably will only get smaller from here. He was a bit rude to his neighbor for no reason but due to a plot twist involving the neighbor we can definitely let it slide.

So yeah the show has a good blend of characters. The cast is solid which is always the proper foundation for a show. The stories range from comedic to scary to serious and the all flow together pretty well. If the show could show a bit more restraint in some areas then you could definitely see how this would just be a fun show to pop in and laugh with from time to time. The world building is on point so even with only a few episodes you feel like you know the score pretty well.

There’s also a lot of ways the show can go from here. If they really do pursue the idea that most of these ghosts just have unresolved issues then Mieruko could become some kind of spirit detective who helps them move on. It could also get more action packed if she gets a spirit summon of her own to deal with them. It’s always a risk changing genres but there’s just so much room for it that you feel like the show should go for it. You can absolutely still keep in the comedy and slice of life stuff while also having the big plot episodes. It could also make for some more solid plot twists like with the father and Zen, both of which are handled pretty well if you didn’t know about them previously.

Overall, Mieruko-Chan has a lot of entertaining moments within it. If they were to ever ditch the fanservice for season 2 then there would be a lot of potential here. The story itself feels like it’s going to end up being a wholesome one as not all of the ghosts are bad. In time Miko should be able to master her ability and then we’ll really be set. In the meantime though I wouldn’t be able to recommend this one. If you can get past the fanservice then sure you should go for it but that’s a big if.

Overall 4/10

Black Sabbath Review

Posted on November 1, 2023 by dreager1

It’s time for another horror anthology film. You know what that usually means, lots of sadness as the anthology format ends up limiting everything. Well this time I can at least say that the anthology is pretty reasonable. It’s still nothing great but the format is used well enough. For example the first special is fairly solid but if it had been dragged out you get the feeling that it would not have been nearly as good. None of the shorts are super bad either although the second one is certainly the weakest by far. This one’s actually not in English so I got to really experience the subtitled experience here. I’ve seen my share of subbed films of course but it’s always an interesting change of pace.

The first story starts off with a lady named Rosy receiving a distressing phone call. A guy named Frank is showing up. This guy should be in prison but he recently escaped and Rosy’s testimony is what sealed the deal. Now he’s saying that he is going to destroy her and the worst part is that he can seemingly see her at every turn. How can he when she isn’t even by the windows? Her only hope is to call in her ex-friend Mary. The two have not been on speaking terms for some time now but Rosy can’t win this on her own. Will her old friend prove to be dependable?

So it’s a pretty tense story from the jump and it really does make a world of difference to have even just one more ally with you at such a time. Mary ends up stealing the show here as an interesting character. She loves her dark humor and while Rosy doesn’t really appreciate that side of her, at least Mary isn’t scared. Mary even has a large knife at the ready and is generally very sure of herself. We never find out exactly what the issue was that came up between them but hey Mary showed up. Ultimately I would have liked her to have done a little better during the short but that’s how it goes. Naturally there are some twists that show up during this short. One of them I have a little bit of a hard time buying into though. The film drops us a half hearted explanation that resorts to incredibly accurate guessing…but that’s not really satisfying. I’m not sure what you could have done without making this supernatural though.

The opening short does have some random fanservice so I wouldn’t call it super high brow entertainment though. There’s a lot to like here so I could still recommend it but the ending is a bit weak compared to the rest of the setup. I can say though that it is considerably better than most films about a scary phone call though so it does have that going for it. Check this film out even if just to see how this plot should really be handled rather than those over the top slasher films.

Then we have the second story where Vladimir stops by a house real quick after seeing a dead body. Basically it turns out that there are zombie type creatures running around known as Wurdulaks and they are incredibly dangerous. They can still move, run, and talk like normal humans but they can no longer eat and are driven by only one desire, to murder the one they love the most. It’s really a rough curse when you think about it because it’s actually using your own friendship against you. Vladimir doesn’t know how to end this curse but he ends up falling in love with one of the women there so he offers to at least take her with him and get out of there. Unfortunately she feels like she needs to stay with the rest of the family. They’re all worried that the father has been turned into one of these monsters because he’s been gone for a few days. Well he returns one day and seems a bit shady….should they destroy him or wait to see what happens?

Part of what hurts this short is how everyone makes the worst decisions possible. So it’s painfully obvious that the father has already been turned into a monster so just take him out! Now if there’s any doubt that’s fine, do some tests. Have him try to eat some food or at least put him in restraints. Instead they all just kind of stand there. The father goes to pick up the baby and they whine about it but let him take the kid. They all then go to bed as if everything was fine…..sure they have one guy as a night watchman but what were they thinking? Obviously these creatures have super strength so you’re not going to be doing much with just one guard. The whole story is really annoying because you just don’t see how this could have possibly happened. It really makes no sense the whole time. So inevitably when the body count starts rising you just know that all of the characters are to blame.

They open the door when monsters show up, constantly panic and split up, etc. Even Vladimir doesn’t look very good as he tries to leave initially but splits up of course. Then when he goes back to save the girl he doesn’t suspect that she might be turned and goes for the full body hug? Noooooo, this guy was asking for trouble. Horror characters are famous for making the wrong calls at every turn but this really has to be up there in the running for one of the worst films in that regard. The sheer frequency of all these bad decisions is completely mind boggling. Trust me you’re going to be shaking your head left and right. Throw in that the story is a bit darker as well with a dog getting shot and a kid being murdered…well this isn’t going to be winning any awards I can tell you that much.

Finally we have the last story which is a classic cautionary tale against greed. Basically it starts with an older lady named Helen being called in because an even older lady has died and so they have to get everything sorted out for the burial. Helen notices that the old lady has a really nice looking ring though and decides to take it for herself. Finders keepers and all that right? Well she puts it on and all seems fine for about 2 seconds but then she starts to hear some water tapping on the surface. No matter how many faucets she turns off it keeps up. This can be annoying but perhaps not a dealbreaker right? Well that changes once the dead lady starts appearing to reclaim her ring. If Helen isn’t careful then it will be all over for her. Can she relinquish the ring and make things all right or will she continue to double down over and over for as long as it takes?

So Helen definitely dug her own grave here. Sometimes it’s really as simple as just not stealing something. Whenever there is a film where the villain is attacking because the hero did something bad then it’s harder to have sympathy. Helen stealing from a dead person is just completely uncalled for and makes her look so bad. You simply can’t do that at any point. No amount of money is worth doing the wrong thing like that. The short definitely has a lot of fun playing with the colors here and it’s definitely a reminder that those old houses with lots of shadows are a bad matchup against a vengeful ghost trying to sneak up on you. You’re just giving it way too many hiding spots to try and get you at that point. The ending of the film is pretty satisfying with how the cycle keeps on going. Also the cops finally get involved there so you if we got a sequel it would be interesting to see how much they could deduce here. In a supernatural case it can be hard to really get any clues since they don’t really know enough from the jump but it would still be a fun premise.

Overall, This was a pretty decent horror special. Certainly wayyy better than the average horror anthology at least. There’s a good amount of intrigue here and some fun stories. The middle story definitely holds this combo back the most though and it isn’t quite up to the level of the other two. I can’t really picture re watching this one at any point but still it wasn’t bad. I would put it right in the middle. If you’re looking for some horror titles to watch then this could definitely work. At the same time, it’s not going to be the top horror title to check out or anything like that.

Overall 5/10

Runaway Jury Review

Posted on November 1, 2023 by dreager1

It’s time to look at a solid courtroom drama. You know how I always love those films and this one is no exception. There’s a lot of tension and drama going on here the whole time with a few twists for good measure. The idea of two people trying to fight over the jury makes for a really entertaining plot and it’s a satisfying watch all the way through.

The film starts off with a big shooting in a work office and a lot of people end up dead. The gun manufacturer ended up being sued for this so the court case becomes a big deal. After all it would set a huge precident if the company was on the hook for the murder that happened using one of its guns. As a result they hire a man named Rankin to take care of this. He’s a jury consultant meaning he helps make sure that the jurors who are selected are ones that will give a not guilty verdict. Technically only the two attorneys are allowed to be in the room when selecting the jurors so this guy patches in through a wiretap and some cameras. It’s a whole conspiracy but the gun company wants to make sure they are taking absolutely no chances here. They are going for the win one way or another but a hiccup occurs when it turns out that one of the jurors is planning to destroy the gun company from the inside. Can Rankin find out who this is and take the juror out or will he have to watch as the company goes under?

So this is really a high stakes cat and mouse game with both sides making a lot of moves. The poor jurors are basically completely unaware of what is going on but hey that keeps them impartial. The man at the helm trying to make sure the gun company is found guilty is a man named Nick. Nick and his girlfriend Marlee have a personal vendetta here and the film goes into this and some plot twists at the very end. They are very well prepared for this case, in a lot of ways you could say they’ve been waiting their whole lives for this moment. Not that they ever wanted a shooting to occur but if it were to happen, they would be ready.

One twist I’m glad didn’t happen is that they set up the shooting. For a minute there I thought it was a possibility, like they had to make a shooting happen so this lawsuit could happen and then they would bury the gun company. It would be a really poor case of “The end justifies the means” which 90% of the time isn’t just in any kind of way. So that doesn’t happen and you can rest assured that while these two are breaking all kinds of laws they didn’t start it. They’re just here to end it.

Both of them are also very solid characters here and have a lot of confidence. Nick is fine being sarcastic, wholesome, and switching personalities on the fly in order to get his objectives. At times it does mean that he will appear to be insincere and one of the jurors calls him out on it but generally he’s a nice guy. It’s just when someone is too nice and always has the perfect answer he will naturally appear to be a little suspicious.

Meanwhile Marlee also stays strong under pressure. Even when she is physically attacked she is able to gather her bearings and keep the blackmail game going. She gives Rankin a whole lot of trouble and is contributing pretty heavily to the plan the whole time. Nick and Marlee really have a very solid 50/50 partnership going and both are completely crucial to succeeding here.

While he is the big villain, I actually liked Rankin quite a lot. It would be fair to say that he is the best character here. He’s manipulating quite a few characters and has had a lot of success for many years. He very nearly could have won here but his helpers aren’t quite up to his level and they cost him at times. He handles his end of the phone calls well and fights to the end. Ultimately you can’t win every fight and this guy handles the situation rather gracefully. I’d be down with seeing him in more films although I imagine the average juror situation isn’t quite as entertaining. If there was no opponent then he would have won rather easily which is probably how most of the previous cases go. So it wouldn’t be enough to hold a movie without some kind of threat.

If there is any weakness in the film it’s that the actual case doesn’t get a ton of screentime as a result. Even when we are in the courtroom, you’re focused more on the tricks everyone is pulling on each other rather than what the prosecutor and defense are actually saying. The focus here is clearly on the tactics both sides are using to sway the jurors. I’d have also been interested to see more in depth the logic being used to attack the gun manufacturer over the crazy guy running in and shooting everyone.

Still, this is a courtroom film through and through. Whether the focus is on the stage or on the jurors, it does scratch that court drama itch I’ve got. The writing is solid throughout and the characters are really solid. One of the twists may hurt the romance a bit but I remember even while watching the film I couldn’t totally tell to what extent the twist happened. Basically if the main pairing is a rebound then that’s no good, if not and they just have a shared goal then this works well enough. I believe it was the latter although either way it’s not the kind of thing that would really impact the score.

Overall, This is a pretty fun film to watch. The intro really starts the film off fast because I was not expecting the scene to play out the way that it did. In hindsight I suppose it had to in order for the story to get started but I remember I was pretty startled. The film never loses its momentum all the way through. There is always a sense of danger even amidst the tension here and I love these mental battles between both sides. They have to keep their “official” and “unofficial” stories separate while debating each other since anything you say can and definitely will be used against you. A true thriller all the way through.

Overall 7/10

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