The Forgotten Review

Posted on June 4, 2014 by dreager1

The Forgotten is a film that I had not heard of before, but the poster is pretty cool. This was in 2004 so it was ever so slightly before the time where I got into films. Because of that, I tend to be unaware of films that came out before 2010 except for big classics. (Ghostbusters, Mario Film, Jaws, Alien, etc) This is a pretty solid film and while there are some twists where I would have chosen a different path as the director…it was better than I had expected.

The plot involves a woman named Telly. She is still in mourning over the passing of her son Sam, who died in a plane crash. Dr. Munce is trying to help her move on from Sam, but he goes too far when he tells her that she should forget about him. Telly won’t have any of that and she heads home. Unfortunately, she discovers that her husband (Jim) has erased her video tapes of Sam and also used photoshop to alter their pictures so that Sam is now Jim or he’s not in the picture at all. Telly questions others about Sam’s existence and none of them remember. It’s as if Sam has been wiped from existence. Telly must now find out what has happened to her son and who could have enough connections to bribe everyone into pretending that he doesn’t exist! (The alternative is that she’s crazy or this is all just a big dream so we can’t take that out of consideration)

Telly is a good lead for the most part and it’s nice to see some determination from her. We rarely get that in our movie protagonists as they conform to the higher ups or just do what they want. Telly is doing everything that she can to find Sam, but it’s a tough battle. The problems that I have with Telly involve an unnecessary scene that I’ll mention later and the fact that she practically starts flirting with Ash at one point even though she is a married woman. It’s not as if it has been years since she was just at home with Jim and there’s no reason for this. Aside from this, she is a decent character and while she never got to grab a gun or a sword to defend herself; she still talks tough until the end. (Letting her guard down as they was playing tag towards the climax was pretty bad though)

Ash is one of the main characters in the film and he showed some moments of brilliance, but many of his scenes were still pretty sad. He definitely doesn’t have as much willpower as Telly and he forgot that he even had a child. That’s pretty…disappointing to say the least. He has a tendency to drink a lot, which likely didn’t help. It’s good that he finally decided to stop drinking later on, but it took him a little too long to make that decision considering how high the stakes were. He had a good fight with two members of National Security and he put his hockey skills to good use. That was definitely his best scene in the film and he did a lot of the physical work for the heroes. Ash definitely got better as the film went on although he never became as cool as Ash Ketchum and I can’t say that I like him as a character.

Jim is Telly’s husband and he was decently likable for a while. He can’t really take a joke and telling the cops that Telly was crazy seemed a little sad. Perhaps she was or perhaps not, but he seemed pretty exasperated at the time. His role is pretty small and he still seems like a decently good guy, but it’s a good thing that Telly managed to escape. He would have impeded her investigation.

Dr. Munce is the psychiatrist who is helping Telly and at first I was surprised that he was actually serious. Typically psychiatrists are always evil or inept in films and Munce seemed to avoid this. Seemed is the key word here. Once the first twist occurs I quickly became suspicious of his motives and hopefully everyone else had that thought. Then he began to get a little pushy in his search to find Telly and I knew that things were about to get dicey. I don’t like him as a character because he lacks the will to stand up against injustice. Lacking bravery is never a great thing and you need to stand up to fight for what’s right when the chips are down.

There is one Detective who appears to be on the heroes’ side. She doesn’t like the National Security members and she believes that Telly may be on the right track. She has a gun, but that may not be not be enough to save the day. After all, is Sam a real person anyway? There is also a strange person that is following the main characters. There is something off putting about him….hopefully the heroes stay out of his way!

The big Unnecessary scene that I really disliked involved…you guessed it..Fanservice! I’m not sure if people use that term for live action, but we may as well since it’s the same thing. At one point, Telly and Ash are at a motel and she decides to strip down so that she could go to sleep. The stakes are already super high and Ash is basically still a stranger at this point. Is now the best time to be worried about how many layers you’re wearing while asleep? It’s not exactly hot out since everyone has jackets so she could have just gone to sleep with all of her clothes on. Ash has the generic moment where he stares at her for a second before tearing himself away, but that whole situation should not have happened. it was forced and I doubt that it attracted any new viewers since nobody would know about such a short scene. (Unless it’s in the trailer, but I skipped it this time) They also flirt a little in the next hotel as they sleep way too close to each other, which was also terrible. It’s what drags Ash and Telly down as characters. How could I like them as much after that?

Once the big twists come in; then the film loses a little bit of the suspense. I agree with the twist on who is behind Sam’s disappearence. The government, Telly’s mind, or something else! What I didn’t care for is the fact that the heroes really don’t stand a chance. It’s always good to keep the heroes in the mix because there’s no danger if they’re too powerful or too weak. (It’s why I cringed when Kid Buu went up against Krillin!) They should have closed the gap in power, but I can’t say much more without spoilers. That’s just my take on the matter.

Typically, this is around the time where I would mention the soundtrack, but there isn’t really one to speak of. I’m sure that it technically has one, but in a film like this you don’t remember any of them. It probably had some generic dramatic themes or a good one for the hero moments but I can’t recall any of them. That’s never a great sign, but it’s to be expected for a live action movie.

Overall, this was a pretty fun mystery film. It’ll definitely have you hooked as the film goes by and the stakes continue to be raised higher and higher. We actually get a gunfight, but I will admit that it was pretty unimpressive. The best part of the film was the fight with Ash and the two National Security members since it was a fight and it also brought the suspense that the film needed. This proved that something needed to be done and things got a lot more interesting. I definitely enjoy films like these and I’d recommend it to mystery/suspense fans. It’s very suspenseful and intense until the interrogation scene comes to an abrupt end. (Well, the actual interrogation scene wasn’t really good because the heroes have to become the villains and that sort of thing. They didn’t really go too far, but Ash may have crossed the line eventually. I just don’t like interrogation scenes unless it’s done in a peaceful way in a peaceful setting) That’s when things got a little out of hand, but you’ve still got a big chunk to look forward too. (Also, there were more scenes at the end that were cool, but that part took away a potential route that would have been more fun) Also, how can you pass up on the film with such a cool title!

Overall 6/10

Pokemon XY The Strongest Mega Evolution Act I Review

Posted on June 4, 2014 by dreager1

Pokemon is a franchise that continues to grow and it has now gotten a new TV special. Instead of Ash and friends helping out the townsfolk; this special deals with Alain as he tries to become the strongest trainer around. It will be tough and the road is hard, but that’s not going to stop him and Charizard! It was a fun special, but I believe it should have been longer. (No matter what kind of special episode, OVA, or mini movie it is; the item in question should always be around an hour)

I’ve already described most of the plot, but it should be noted that a girl named Mairin gets in on the action. After witnessing an epic clash between Alain and another Pokemon trainer; she takes it upon herself to follow him and learn the secret behind Mega Evolution. Alain doesn’t seem to want her around, but he’s not able to ditch her because of other Mega opponents that are around. He won’t stop until he’s defeated every last one of them!

Alain is our lead in this special and he’s a decent character. Alain is definitely no Ash Ketchum when it comes to personality, but he definitely has some skills. (Of course, Charizard Is doing most of the work…) He tries to be mean to Mairin so that she will ditch him, but it doesn’t work. Beyond that, he tends to be a nice guy, but he also gets straight to the point. He wants to defeat his opponents and that’s what he intends to do. You’re not really able to write a whole lot of personality in a character within 20 minutes so that’s good enough for now. As such, Alain is a bit generic at the moment.

Mairin doesn’t fare much better. She trips quite a lot and it can definitely be a little over the top. She’s definitely out of her league at this point and she has a ways to go. Luckily, she just started her Pokemon journey so this is to be expected at this point. She’s much better than all of the other “Marron” characters that I’ve seen. (DBZ character reference) A solid time skip would work out pretty well for her and she has potential to be a tough trainer. It just won’t be realized at the moment.

Naturally, most of the hype around this special was directed at the Mega Evolutions that were going to be witnessed. The special does a good job of showing just how massive the power upgrade is in this form. The first battle ends up taking down most of the forest in collateral damage. Mega Charizard is always fun to see and Garchomp’s Mega form is very impressive as well. One can watch this special just for the fights because they’re that good. Now more people can accept the fact that Pokemon can definitely keep up with the Justice League or the Avengers.

The overall animation for the special is really good as well. I dare say that it’s slightly flashier than the latest episodes (Which are already awesome) and each attack looks great. The ultimate dragon attack from Blastoise was really large and you could practically feel the power. Every part of the special felt polished and animated to perfection. It’s definitely one of the better animations that I’ve seen in a while.

Unfortunately, the special falls a bit with the soundtrack. It’s very sub par compared to the average array of Pokemon themes and especially in consideration of the recent Pokemon Origins special. The tunes were generic at best and they really did not go well with the fights. That always hurts the overall experience because you need solid music to really be able to enjoy the battles to their full potential.

I recommend watching the special until the very end because we get a cliffhanger. It may be extremely generic, but it’s good enough for me. A generic cliffhanger beats no cliffhanger at all! Hopefully part II comes soon because I’m ready for more Mega fights. I may miss Ash and friends, but I can still enjoy this without them.

Overall, I highly recommend checking this special out. It’s a great way to launch yourself into the Pokemon franchise. The special has heart and a lot of action. Ash Ketchum even gets referenced and it’s in a pretty epic way. Alain better hope that their paths never cross! Their’s also a good intro that shows off a lot of the Pokemon so that you get their Mega Forms can be seen. It’s short as well so there’s no reason not to watch it! Pokemon will always be one of the best franchises out there.

Overall 8/10

Chaotic Shadow Warriors Review

Posted on June 1, 2014 by dreager1

Chaotic is a franchise that I never actually got into. It looked pretty interesting, but I just didn’t have time for it. The concept had some similarities to Pokemon and Yugioh and the formula is tried and true. Any toyetic show with monsters is usually a lot of fun so I had to get this game. I’ve owned this game for a long time, but I never really played it until now. I dug up the old game and started playing. It’s a decently fun experience, but there are enough negatives to turn this into a one time play through.

Tom is the main character of the story and he’s isn’t happy when he finds out that something fishy is going on in the Chaotic world. Maxxor is keeping him in the dark, but Tom won’t have that. These Shadow creatures have begun to impersonate the heroes and it would appear that they will stop at nothing short of world domination. Tom’s going to have to get out his old gear and hope that things don’t get Chaotic. (Which is his “epic” catchphrase) The main villain is unknown and it could be anyone, but that won’t stop our Hero as he gets to the bottom of this adventure. He’s going to have to find all 7 of the Mugic pieces in order to save both worlds.

First off, the graphics are pretty bad. Bad is a strong word since it may technically look better than some games that were created decades ago, but I expect more out of the PS3. Everything feels dated and the characters move around a lot. Tom appears as if he’s having a panic attack half of the time and all of the characters appear impatient. They just can’t stop moving! Tom has a yelling match with one of the monsters and the animation makes it pretty humorous. I suppose that it isn’t too bad since it can make you laugh, but I definitely would have liked for it to look as good as Bakugan.

The gameplay is the main chunk of any game so that’s something that you will want to know about. At it’s core; Chaotic plays out like a Pokemon. Turn based combat and the battles can go up to 5 on 5 at a time. There is some strategy involved as you will want to take out some opponents before others for maximum epicness. Health seems to be the most important factor in this game and I just made a team out of the strongest monsters that I had. You’ll typically be okay without using any health items as they will just prolong the battle.

After that, there are more complicated aspects. Chaotic has the element system like in Pokemon so certain attacks will do more or less damage depending on what’s happening. Unfortunately, it’s not as obvious as Pokemon, but Chaotic fans who watched the show will likely understand who they should aim for right away. If not, just look at the number next to the attack and based on whether it’s lower or higher than usual; you’ll know if it’s good to use or not. Either way, you’ll typically just want to use the strongest attack possible. One feature that helps to make the battle easier are commands that are placed on the screen when your creature attacks. Correctly inputting them will add a bit of damage and help to recover AP points. Likewise, you can hold the R2 button and hit X a lot to block an attack and mitigate the damage that you take from it.

From your 5 monsters on the field, only the three in the front can use their attacks. The two in the back are forced to rely on long range spells and Taunts to keep their turns going. You’ll want to stock up on a lot of mugics through the levels or else you’ll have to listen to the taunts all of the time.

The downside to the gameplay is definitely how long each battle can be. There are a set amount of battles in the game and there are no extra ones to stay and level up. (There is a mild level system where you improve their rank by combining monsters that you’ve scanned, but it’s not the best option) This means that the enemies will typically be weaker than you and you don’t have to worry that much about losing, but they will delay the inevitable. Constant health items will ensure that each battle can take 10+ minutes. That’s a lot of time for a simple battle and eventually you will really get tired of them. I dreaded the battles whenever they came up and that’s never a good sign.

Aside from fighting, there is also a platforming part to the gameplay. You get to play as Tom and explore the world. Look for ruins hidden in the rocks and find all of the mugics while blasting away alien insects. This part was pretty fun and you can’t die so feel free to take a lot of risks. I do wish that Tom could run a little faster and a boss battle in this mode would have been fun, but it was still a fun section. I’m always up for some platforming!

The soundtrack can definitely get annoying pretty quickly. I didn’t care for any of the tunes, but the monster lines during the battle can be tough to watch. They have a very limited vocabulary and they will say the same things over and over again. I do appreciate the fact that nearly all of their lines are puns, but they get old after you’ve heard the same one 20 times over. The monsters will talk when they attack so you can’t go through a battle without hearing the lines about 4-5 times over. Hopefully you are a Huge fan of these lines.

You can’t go through the levels freely once the game is complete so I recommend obtaining all of the collectibles in each level before moving on. This can be toughest before the final boss, but you should be fine as long as you keep an eye on the map. It’s highly rewarding for the trophies and you get the maximum enjoyment for your purchase.

The trophies for the game are decently fair except I don’t care for the online ones. Don’t count on getting the Platinum trophy for this title because getting 50 Ranked wins in such a dead online community will be next to impossible without boosting. I don’t believe in trophy boosting so that was the end of the line for me. I managed to get all of the online trophies except for one that I managed to miss. The trophies aren’t very hard and you’ll do fine as long as you make sure to grab those collectibles!

Overall, Chaotic is a decently fun game. The graphics and soundtrack may be sub par, but the gameplay is decent. If the battles weren’t so long and repetitive; I would likely have given the game a 7. As it stands, the game just doesn’t have enough positives and I do wish that there was a better level up system or a level select. One playthrough is likely all that this game will get for most players, but it’s only 9 dollars so it’s a decent purchase for that price. It took me around two days to complete and that was mainly due to the insanely long battles. That’s a decent length for a game though so the overall length isn’t a negative. If you want a more exciting monster game for PS3, check out Bakugan! (Either game works)

Overall 6/10

James Bond 007 Agent Under Fire Review

Posted on May 30, 2014 by dreager1

Who would have thought that I’d be playing a James Bond game eh? While the films leave much to be desired; the concept is pretty good for a video game. This one is actually a First Person Shooter, which is the first time I’ve played one since Metroid Prime if I recall correctly. It’s not my favorite genre, but as long as it’s better than the Eternal Ring…it should be fine. Let’s see if the game had what it takes!

The plot involves 007…AKA James Bond as he undergoes a mission. See, detailing the plot for anything James Bond related is tough because there are numerous plot twists and changes that occur during the story. You can’t really say who the main villain is without spoiling the character and the history behind it. Either way, it’s not ultimately important because the game doesn’t even have an ending. After you blow up the building (With a big character still inside) the game abruptly ends. I suppose that there is no longer a threat so it can be an “ending” in that sense, but it feels really sudden. The ending just comes out of nowhere and hits you like a flash.

While the plot is forgettable; the cutscenes will stay with you for a while. James Bond continues to make many wisecracks and one liners in these scenes. Some are pretty clever like what he says when one of the villains falls in a vat of acid. Others just remind me why I don’t like James Bond. He can never take his mind off of pleasure. It also leads to his demise more times than not. One of his allies suckers him into going to the base because he put a hologram of a shower with someone inside. Another person hired a lady to jump into a pool and when Bond rushed out to appreciate the view, he got tackled from behind. Bond never seems to learn from these mistakes as he’s back to normal in the next cutscene. The voice acting is pretty good and Bond definitely sounds similar to his voice in the films. There are other characters in the game, but none that are really memorable. This is a James Bond game after all! I could have done without the romance in the story, but it’s James Bond so I was prepared for it.

The FPS gameplay is about what you would expect. It can be a little hard to remember that the C stick moves you horizontally and I fell a few times from it. One can still jump, crouch, and use a lot of gadgets aside from the gun. FPS definitely isn’t my main style, but it could have been worse. Metroid Prime definitely wins with pure gameplay, but Agent Under Fire managed to stay fun through the levels. Aside from the shooting aspects, there are also a pair of levels where you get to drive in a car. Naturally, this was the most fun part of the game. The gameplay was really good for this part and it felt like Need For Speed, but even better. (My problem with Need For Speed is the lack of actual speed) You really got to zoom in these levels and the various weapons on the car made it fun as well.

There are 12 levels in this game. That’s not a whole lot and most of them can be finished in a few minutes. In that sense, it’s definitely a lot shorter than De Blob. (Another short game) It took me two sittings to finish all of the levels, but it was a considerable amount of time because of the later levels. There are rarely check points so if you lose; then you usually have to go back to the beginning. That can be tough after a while because of how long the levels can feel. I definitely could have used more check points in the game. A slight negative would be how vague the game can be at times. It took me a while to figure out that I needed to use my jetpack to get to the final boss and blowing up the ceiling with a rocket launcher that I didn’t even know I owned was another challenge. I randomly got lost a few times as well. Maybe this helps the game to be a more complete experience, but they could have added more details.

Agent Under Fire has a decent amount of replay value. You can keep on playing the levels to get all of the Platinum Medals and unlock a hidden video. I got a bronze and a gold or two, but getting all Platinums sounds pretty difficult. It would be a nice challenge, but one that I don’t really have time for. The game also has a multiplayer mode, which considerably increases its replay value. Nothing like challenging your friends to the FPS that was cool before Call of Duty showed up! I dare say that this one is a lot more fun than Call of Duty. (Haven’t played it, but it’s not my style)

The graphics are a little underwhelming. It has a retro Gamecube feeling, but it’s just too dark. As with the Mummy, you’ll need to increase the brightness settings on your TV if you want to be able to see well. In a game where sharpshooters can be found anywhere; this is pretty critical. I wouldn’t say that the graphics are terrible, but they could be better. I still have fun with them since they’re awkward in a good way. (Like Hotel Mario)

I know that I’ve been giving just about everything a lot of props for the soundtrack lately, but it’s just my good luck that the themes have been so good. James Bond doesn’t disappoint with the fun tracks and we have the classic one from the films, but also a great danger theme. When you run into some minions; the theme will quickly pop up and it’s a very fast theme that’s fitting for battle. It reminds me of some of the themes from the original Spider Man game for Gamecube.

Overall, Agent Under Fire wasn’t a bad game. The car levels were a lot of fun (I wish that there had been more of them!) and the FPS mechanics weren’t bad considering that I’m not usually a big fan of them. The story may not have been memorable, but the cutscenes were pretty fun at times. (Some much more than others. Naturally, I could do without the romance) I definitely recommend this game to all fans of Call of Duty and you should enjoy it if you’re looking forward to a good secret agent story.

Overall 7/10

De Blob Review

Posted on May 29, 2014 by dreager1

De Blob always looked like it would be an intriguing experience. I typically never saw the original game in stores, but the sequel was always around. Luckily, I found this one in Gamestop’s 5 dollar and under bin along with the Casper game. It looked decently fun so I quickly got it and it was worth the 2-3 dollars that I spent. It’s surprisingly fun, but the timer takes away from the experience. It’s time to beautify the world!

The plot involves a corporation known as INKT. They have enslaved the world and taken away all of the color. Everyone must now live in black and white, which is no fun for the city dwellers. What about having fun and getting ready to pwn anyone that tries to get in their way? Unfortunately, that won’t be happening. The heroes are forced to call in the Blob! The Blob has some pretty unique abilities and he’s able to absorb the colors that he touches and then spread them to other objects. It’s up to him to take down the entire army of INKT that has taken over the world. He may be outnumbered over 1000-1, but the Blob has heart as well as allies. Time to rock and roll!

The gameplay is very unique and it’s actually a lot of fun. As the Blob, you just have to roll around and bang into things to paint them. I’d have fun coloring in all of the buildings and freeing the citizens, but you can also hit billboards and small objects. (Trees for example) Along the way, there are also a bunch of missions to get into and some of them are mandatory to complete the level. They are broken down into different kinds of missions. Green missions mean that you have to color in objects with certain paints. They’re the most difficult ones in my opinion and I usually avoided them. After all…I already painted the buildings; why do it in another color? Blue missions require you to run after the flares and get to the goal line. It’s basically a race against time. Orange missions are combat. Just take out the enemies. Finally, grayish/yellow missions mean that you’re going to take down a big enemy strong hold or building. Those require a lot of points so it can be a tough job, but it’s rewarding to see such a big transformation.

Fighting against the enemies can be a little uneventful. Just shake the wii remote and take them down! This works for every kind of enemy. Some of more defense than others, but it’s always the same formula. So, De Blob revolves around running, jumping, and swinging the Wii Remote around. I’l admit that it really made me miss the Gamecube remote. This game would work so much better with that control scheme. (Luckily, the sequel is on the PS3!) My wrist was hurting by the time I finished the game from all of the jumping. I don’t know how I made it through Barrel Blast. (Although I still plan on purchasing it someday)

While I did enjoy the gameplay; there was one factor that really took away from the experience. The timer that was in each level. This meant that you couldn’t take your time and finish every mission in the area. The worst part is that you have to start from scratch if you complete it. I was expecting to be able to go back into the level to have fun (Because I believe that you can do this in the sequel) but the levels go back to scratch. There is a free roam mode, but there’s nothing to do there since it doesn’t affect your completion% or have any big statistics. That was my big flaw with the gameplay and it means that you may not want to bother going through the levels again. Imagine spending over an hour on one level to get the 100% and then the timer runs out. Game Over!

One of the game’s weak points was definitely the Story Mode. None of the characters are particularly likable and the graphics are pretty underwhelming for the cutscenes. The worst part is that it’s just not interesting. The story is pretty much a parody, but they could have still made the characters fun to root for. I can’t say that I’m confident in the sequel’s chances for a solid cinematic experience.

The graphics for the gameplay are still average at best. They aren’t bad, but they could be much better and I’ve seen Gamecube games that could give it a run for its money. (The better Gamecube games crush this one in graphics of course…) The soundtrack is very good. It’s not monumental, but it fits the tone of the game. The music is typically very refreshing and it works subtly in the background. Aside from a terrible lyrical song that played in one of the moods for Blob, the rest of the pieces that I heard were solid.

There are 10 levels in the game and each one takes around 30 minutes to complete. If you decide to complete all of the missions in the 10 levels, then you can possibly double that time. 10 levels is the bare minimum to what I would call acceptable length so the game does well on that account. For replay value, this game does have a multiplayer mode, but I haven’t tried it yet, which is why I didn’t review that part. This game will last long enough to be considered a good purchase. (Unlike Casper’s 15 minute game)

Overall, this game is fun to try out. Considering that it’s under 3 dollars, I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to give it a shot! Painting objects may sound boring, but it can actually be pretty interesting and you are helping to reclaim the world from the INKT army. The characters are all Sonic rip offs, but they’re not terrible. They just aren’t likable. De Blob could be the game for you and now you can claim that you know which two colors turn into green when mixed!

Overall 7/10

X Men Days of Future Past Review

Posted on May 28, 2014 by dreager1

This was definitely the Xmen film that everyone had been waiting for. It had been a while since First Class so it’s only natural that everyone was excited about this one. It would link up the original trilogy with First Class and finally tie everything together. It was a great move on Fox’s part and I’ve always loved time travel stories. I believe that the very concept makes plot holes jump in all at once, but they’re worth it for the sheer fact that it’s time travel! I wouldn’t go as far as to say that this was the greatest comic book film ever as I’ve heard around the web, but it was a good film.

The film starts out with the heroes in the future as they do battle against the Sentinels. It’s basically a wasteland at this point and there aren’t many mutants that are still alive and ready to continue the fight. The Xmen decide that their only hope is to go back in time and stop this from ever occurring. Professor X wants to go, but Wolverine is the only one that can handle the strain on his mind. They send his consciousness back into his body from the 70’s and Wolverine must assemble what’s left of the Xmen to correct the timeline. The question is…does it need correcting? We’ll talk about the ethics of time travelling later on in the review.

Mystique has decided that she’s going to destroy Trask for the suffering that he has brought to the mutant cause and she’s also freeing other mutants along the way. Professor X doesn’t want anything to do with this and Magneto has plans of his own. It’s going to be tough for Wolverine to bring everything together, but at least he has the Beast with him. He just needs to stop the Government from making the Sentinels…how hard can that be?

Wolverine is a pretty commanding figure as you may have expected from previous films. He still talks big and we get a classic scene where some guys try to shoot Wolverine and he quickly takes them down. The problem is that we are mostly seeing Logan and not Wolverine. Wolverine gets an extremely brief fight against a robot, but that is basically it. The rest of his action scenes are against humans who cant really fight back. He looked pretty intense in his future outfit, but the fight scenes were not meant to be. Unfortunately, his few action scenes were not very kind. Wolverine looks terrible against the robot and I cant say that his final fight was great either. His role was smaller than you may have guessed from the trailers and he’s basically there to be the “old pro.” That’s the vibe that I got from him. He’ll finish the job if the others are unable to do so, but he’s mostly there to watch. Unfortunately…he isn’t much of a last defense.

Mystique is one of the main characters in the film. As she continues in her investigation to take Trask down: Mystique needs to evade the heroes. She does pretty well and manages to make the heroes look bad at several points. She does a really good job of following Trask to his base, but she is outmatched by the heroes. Aside from outsmarting them, she doesn’t stand a great chance in a fight. She plays the part of the hardcore Anti Hero and she does it pretty well. You start to root for her when she saves the first mutants and it helps that her subplot is infinitely more interesting than Wolverine’s. She’s surprisingly good at following Trask’s trail and she’s basically a secret agent. She can definitely hold her own in a hand to hand fight and she ended up looking much more impressive than Wolverine. This is easily her best film appearance.

Magneto gets a bigger role in the past than in the present, but he looks pretty good in both. As an old man; Magneto is definitely still pretty good in a fight and he does inflict some damage. His powers have their limitations, but I thought that his portrayal was accurate considering his age. The past Magneto was pretty nostalgic because it felt like his role in First Class. He got to have his own plot on the side and nobody could really stop him. He’d go wherever he wanted to go and just cause mayhem. He had a clever plan involving metal and a group of Sentinels, which was pretty good. He should definitely be considered as a villain in the film due to his extreme sides, but one could make the case that he’s an Anti Hero. (Anti Hero is typically still a villain, but someone who is committing evil acts for a good cause. Magneto’s actions stretch this a little bit, which is why I just thought of him as the villain) Whether Magneto was a hero or a villain; he’s always been a pretty likable character. His scenes on the Airplane were good and I always enjoy a good veiled threat from one “hero” to another.

Professor X is one of the worst characters in the film. (Past version) I understand that he wants to get away from the whole mutant problem and seeing them go off to fight a losing war in Vietnam was probably sad…but it completely destroyed his personality. (Also, if America has Xmen in the Vietnam War…I’m confident that we would have won. Also, couldn’t Charles have just altered some memories so that the Xmen wouldn’t have to be drafted? It seems simple enough) Charles is now a drunk person who uses injections to keep his powers away. Any scene with him in it was pretty bad. Magneto even has to point out how awful Charles’ actions were as he let their students be destroyed through the years. Xavier definitely should have done a better job of trying to protect them.

It also makes you wonder how he goes back to normal. Without Wolverine entering the timestream…how could Professor Xavier become the man that we saw in the first film? As it stands, it’s really hard to picture him going bald and then deciding to help mutants again. I’ll assume that his shots ran out and it helped him go back to the way that he was, but I can’t say that it seems likely. A bit of a fault with this subplot in the film, but every time travel story has its issues. It’s just one of the unspoken rules about time travel. The current Xavier was pretty good and he’s about what you would expect. Unfortunately, telepathy has never been good against Sentinels.

I definitely was not a fan of the Beast in this film. I don’t like how they basically made him into a Hulk and I don’t like him in either form. The effects for his Beast Mode are surprisingly unrealistic and they over hype him. (I don’t see him doing so well against Wolverine) I definitely would have been glad if he wasn’t in the film and it’s a scary thought to see that he’s the only Xman left at one point. These were definitely dark times for the heroes.

Quicksilver was pretty good in this film and I have to say that it will be tough for Avengers 2 to top his portrayal here. Speedsters should basically be invincible when they appear due to how slow everything is in comparison. In Quicksilver’s scene, we see just how slow everything is compared to him. Bullets are in slow motion and those are already moving at supersonic speeds. I don’t see how he can endure it when characters talk to him because it must take whole minutes for the sound to get to him. It’s one of the phenomenons of super speedsters so I don’t generally think about it that much. Just accepting it is a lot simpler, but I can’t accept a random person landing a hit on a speedster. Luckily, Quicksilver’s speed is accurate and he looks very good during his speed scenes. I definitely can’t wait to see him in the sequel.

The Sentinels in the present are very cool. They’re powerful and the designs give them a very horrifying appearance that is perfect for them. Sentinels should definitely be intimidating and the film captured this. I’m a little skeptical about the humans creating something this hi tech, but I’ll just assume that they got some other worldy help on the project. Naturally, the Sentinels in the past are very unimpressive and downright weak, but they’re more than a match for Wolverine. It would be nice to see the present Sentinels get some more screen time, but their few scenes were very good. They can definitely hold their own against the mutants.

Aside from the main mutants in the past; we also have the team from the future. Storm, Sunspot, Warpath, Shadow Cat, Iceman, Blink, and Bishop. They have a pretty limited amount of screen time, but the cameos are still fun for fans. Storm is able to make a pretty impressive storm that takes care of some of the ships. I would have liked to see some more lightning as well, but we can’t have it all. Shadow Cat doesn’t get to fight since she’s busy with her time travel abilities, but she’s a decent character. Warpath is pretty silent for most of the film and the average moviegoer may wonder how a guy with two daggers is still alive in these tough times. Warpath is outmatched from start to finish, but at least he tries. Iceman and Sunspot use their elemental blasts, but none of them are really that effective against the Sentinels. Good for temporary measures, but that’s about it. Iceman’s idea to wake up Shadow Cat was decent since a tactical retreat could have been in order. With his ice slides, I like to think that he would have made it pretty far. Bishop had a cool design and his powers were epic, but he was pretty inconsequential. He didn’t do a whole lot of damage and he should have focused on releasing his energy quicker as they started to blast him. It was a waste of his abilities in that scene.

Blink did the best against the Sentinels and her powers are formidable. Creating portals wherever she wants too is an excellent ability and it’s one that should be more than enough to buy time against the Sentinels. Unfortunately, she lets her guard down and moves a little too slowly at one point. Something like that was bound to happen at some point, but I wouldn’t have minded if she had escaped. With her abilities, she can basically launch a one person offensive against the Sentinels for a long time.

Trask and Stryker are both extremely unlikable. It’s natural to dislike them since we’re supposed to be rooting for the heroes to win. Still, it is possible to make villains that are likable and these two don’t fit the bill. Since they are basically the only villains for the heroes to face in the past…it doesn’t really help matters. Both of them can’t fight at all so they have to hide behind other people with guns and just hope for the best. Stryker has a gun, but I don’t believe that it will really help him.

Back to the time travel part of the film. The Xmen send Wolverine back in time so that he can change things and help them all out. Naturally, it’s understandable that they would want to change things because of how everything turned out, but…why not use time travel for other cases. They could have used it to go back in time and stop the Phoenix from destroying Cyclops. They could have gone back in time to stop the bullet from taking out Professor X’s legs and so on. Ultimately, if you time travel once…there is no turning back. There will always be other things that they could have done with it. Why not save Abraham Lincoln or Kennedy while they’re at it? Ultimately, the Xmen are doing it to help their position and I’m sure that many others would do the same, but it’s still not the best move considering that the repercussions will be worse for others. Some will be better off and others will lose out thanks to this deal.

Another part of time travel stories that I never buy is the fact that things got so bad so quickly. I don’t believe that the humans could take down the mutant race with a bunch of Sentinels. There are far too many mutants and the government can’t hide something so big. The mutants would quickly find out about the Sentinels and it would be game over. Some of the mutants must have an EMP related ability and naturally we have control over time. Taking over minds or just nuking the planet…either way this wouldn’t work. There’s no way that the human race would band together for the Sentinel program and at least one country would fire the first nuke. World War III would begin and there wouldn’t be any survivors. The few that may live through such an event wouldn’t have time to form a government and launch thousands of sentinels. The whole situation is about as unbelievable as the Age of Ultron…and that was unbelievable! I just don’t tend to believe any scenario where all of the heroes are defeated so easily. (Not to mention the villains. Naturally this means that I will never buy into Spiderman 2099’s continuity. It just doesn’t make sense)

This time I can’t really say that there was much of a soundtrack. There are some light background themes playing, but none of them are really memorable and you may figure that they were free domain music. It’s not the next Winter Soldier or Amazing Spider Man 2 in that regard, but an unmemorable soundtrack is better than a bad one.

While Days of Future Past was good; I ranked Amazing Spiderman 2 and Captain America higher than it. This is mainly due to the following reasons that I will get into. First, the film lacks fight scenes. We get two fight scenes in the future with the Sentinels and that’s about it. In the past, the only opponents are random humans and unfinished robots. Beast has a small scuffle with Magneto, but it’s barely even worth calling it a fight. The past scenes are decently interesting at times, but also a little boring for others. I felt that the film could have used a little cut in the runtime or just focused on the present more. At least give Trask a mutant body guard to that we could have some fights. I was really surprised by how little fighting there was and that was the first big strike.

Next, I didn’t like how weak the mutants look. Wolverine yells in pain when some guys shoot him and then he yells again when someone throws in another bullet. By this point…isn’t he used to getting shot? I get that the regeneration factor doesn’t take away the pain, but his reaction felt very dramatized. The present scenes don’t help the mutants either. While it does make the Sentinels look tough in comparison; I would expect a much better fight from the Xmen. How about using teamwork and letting Warpath get a clean shot at the Sentinel’s head through a portal? Long range fighters like Iceman and Bishop should have fired from afar instead of running right into the Sentinel’s range. The Xmen were humiliated in the fight and we got to see them get completely crushed twice. Storm also let her guard down in a critical moment, which was likely sad for fans. Weakness in the heroes is something that I criticize Transformers 3 for (And likely 4 based off of the trailers) and it can definitely bring a film down if you’re a fan of the character. The Sentinels could have still looked impressive if they had some more resistance from the Xmen. It’s a delicate line to tread for the film, but it is crucial.

Those were my two big complaints with the film. Despite the new Spider Man film not being regarded as a masterpiece, it didn’t make these mistakes. There was constant action throughout and Spider Man looked very impressive during his fights. He never went in unprepared for action. The film never dragged on for me because it was a blast. Winter Soldier may have had a bit of a slow middle, but it made up for this with higher stakes than these two films and really great hand to hand scenes.

Naturally, the film has an after credits scene, which should lead to an epic sequel. I’ll admit that I was underwhelmed by the scene, but that’s because I had high expectations. I basically knew that this character would appear in the scene, but I expected him to look a little more grand. Like the Thanos scene in the MCU franchise. The scenery also wasn’t my favorite and I wanted a little more action, but it’s only a single scene so we can’t expect too much out of it. While this film may not have felt like an Xmen/Superhero film; the sequel could definitely get that vibe. If they adapt this villain correctly; then it’s safe to say that big things should be expected!

Overall, this was a good Xmen film. It lacked action and dragged on for a while, but it was good to finally have another film in the series. (Wolverine films can’t make up for the other Xmen not getting to appear) The stakes were technically very high since the future was dire, but it didn’t feel that way in the present. From the moment that Wolverine went into the past everything seemed safe. Even if he had to go, Professor X and Magneto are now aware of the danger so the Sentinel program would never be allowed to advance into such dangerous territories. The ending was really good and it’s a fun way to end the franchise. (Ignoring the sequel coming up) I’m pretty happy for Wolerine since he usually gets the short end of the stick, but he can finally enjoy himself now. I still recommend this film to superhero fans, but don’t walk in expecting a lot of action and explosions. Think of it as an Ocean’s Eleven tale as Wolverine must gather up some friends to take down the villain’s plans. As a side note, the final scene of the film is probably one of the best ones in the franchise. Wolverine finally gets taken down a peg as someone puts him in his place. The line was epic and it’s the type of moment that will make an audience blow up with rage and excitement. It’s a scene that you don’t want to miss!

Overall 6/10

Casper Scare School Spooky Sports Day Review

Posted on May 27, 2014 by dreager1

I had never heard of this game until I saw it in the 5 and under bin at my local gamestop. I was hooked once I noticed the friendly ghost on the cover, but I checked the back of the cover to make sure that it would be fun. I saw a screenshot of a soccer game and I ignored everything else as I dashed to the cashier! (Along with two other Wii games) Unfortunately, the game is not tremendously fun and it wouldn’t be worth paying 30 bucks for. (Luckily, I got it for under 2 so it wasn’t a bad buy considering the price)

Okay…not tremendously fun is probably an exaggeration. It almost sounds positive that way right? Casper does have some endearing moments in the game, but it’s really not that good. This is due to a lack of replay value and the fact that the game is almost empty. You can beat the game twice in around an hour or less. I ended up beating it twice so that I could have 100% unlocked everything in the game. (You unlock a character for beating the inverted story mode) The booklet claims that there is a plot, but if it’s not in the game…then it’s not going in the review. The actual game has no story mode!

When you boot up the game…it’s empty. There isn’t anything on the screen….until you get past the title screen. Once there, you have the main mode, which has 7 minigames in it. That’s it….there is nothing else. There’s no multiplayer mode or any other place to do something. These are the 7 minigames that will take up all of your time in the game. If you get bored of them…then it’s game over. The game keeps track of your high score so I suppose that you can keep trying to beat them, but the games aren’t quite That fun. After you beat every minigame once, you get to play them again, but in a happier setting. Once you beat those, you now have the final character and you have done everything that there is to do. Ah well….let’s talk about the games!

Frog Lab is my least favorite so we’ll have it start off. You basically have to drop frogs in jars and stop kids from stealing them as your partner takes them to safety. It’s simple enough and you shouldn’t have a problem winning on your first try after leaving the room for a water break. You have so much time that it’s scary! There just wasn’t anything enjoyable about this minigame and it’s incredibly basic.

Skateboarding was all right, but not very fun either. You have to launch with your skateboard and then memorize a pattern of buttons from the Wii remote and quickly tap them in. Don’t worry about remembering the correct buttons because you can just keep on hitting them all until you got the right ones. You get unlimited tries until you hit the ground and that’s plenty of time to get all of the commands until you’re nearing the end. I like memorization and it’s a good game in theory, but also extremely easy and parts of this minigame just feel too slow. You have to watch Casper launch into the air quite a lot by the end.

Goal Creeper isn’t bad and it actually takes some skill. You have to go up to a soccer ball and then follow the line on the screen with your wii remote to hit the goal keeper. Yellow balls are worth 3X the points of regular ones so just ignore the regular ones entirely and you’re guaranteed to win by a landslide. Overall, this was definitely a good minigame, but you’ll probably get bored of it after a few tries since the computer doesn’t provide you with a challenge.

Gymnastics didn’t feel like it worked as it should have. You have to shake the wii remote as soon as a circle is approaching another circle. (Think of Dance Dance Revolution and how you have to step at exactly the right moment) You don’t need the circles to be too close before you shake and they’ll usually give you the points, but the game is tricky about this. Sometimes it will work and other times it won’t. It’s pretty easy and you’ll get the hang of it, but the mechanics felt unfinished. It’s also repetitive as you do a few jumps and head back to the beginning…over and over and over again.

Keepy Uppies involves a soccer ball that Casper kicks into the air. From there it is vertical Flappy Bird, but without the pipes to bang into! Just tap on a bird as you pass him and he’ll launch you up even further. Grab the points from the sky and keep on going. It’s the easiest game in the batch and it’s almost impossible to lose. You must really be trying to lose if you lose this round. Just wave your Wii remote around and keep pressing A everywhere. You’ll never hit the ground and you’ll get all of the points. There isn’t any challenge in this game so it’s not a whole lot of fun.

The Dragon Egg Spoon Race is decently fun. You have to point with your wii remote to make sure that you keep the egg balanced on your spoon as you run to the goal and jump over obstacles. It’s simple, but it can still be hard not to drop the egg since the meter can be a little dicey and the character is very wobbly. Even if you drop the egg, you’ll probably beat the opponents pretty easily so you don’t really need to worry about it.

People Chase is the best minigame from the batch. It’s a track and field match and you have to run for the goal line. There are boosters that amp up your speed and you need to jump over rocks from time to time. Dodging the snails is a must and you have to watch out for other players trying to get in your way. It’s another easy minigame and it’s very short as you can beat it in under a minute, but it was fun. It’s easily my favorite!

What you may have noticed from all of the minigames was that they weren’t challenging. Most of them were actually fun and they would have been more enjoyable if there was a two player option. Battling a real opponent in those games would have been great. At least add a hard mode or something to make things interesting! As it stands, you don’t want to keep on playing those games over and over again because it’s just too easy. You can keep track of your score, but there isn’t much in the way of incentives. You’re not going to unlock anything so you may as well have fun in Mario Party.

I feel obliged to mention the graphics and soundtrack even if we don’t really have much in the way of music. The main theme for the game isn’t bad, but it’s not memorable in the slightest and you’ll forget it very quickly. The graphics are sub par and you can tell that they didn’t put a lot of effort into making sure that everything looked good. Casper actually looks pretty creepy with that grin he’s constantly keeping in place. The rest of the characters are pretty unimaginative. These graphics could be surpassed on the PS1 and feel as if they’re from a free computer game from a long time ago.

Overall, I can’t recommend this game with a clear conscience. 7 Minigames can only last so long and there is nothing to do after you play them. This game wouldn’t even be good as a rental since you can beat it in around 20-30 minutes. There’s no Story Mode or any other modes to play so you’re sunk. It’s still hard to believe that a game can be this empty, but I guess that’s how it goes. I definitely don’t regret buying this game since I got it for under 2. Plus it gave me a chance to review the game and try it out. I’m always happy to try out a game unless it’s truly terrible and unplayable. (I hope Balls of Fury isn’t that bad but I had to put it down after one level. I shall review it if I ever get around to beating it) Instead of getting this game, just buy Wii Sports. You’ll be better off and you can spend the two dollars on a bottle of water with a slice of pizza.

Overall 4/10

Sword Art Online Review

Posted on May 25, 2014 by dreager1

Odds are that you’ve heard of Sword Art Online if you have any interest in anime. Before Attack on Titan came along, it was basically the most hyped anime to come out. It went viral instantly and suddenly everyone knew about it and really enjoyed or disliked the anime. It’s only natural that I would see it at some point and the plot sounded like a lot of fun. The show got off to an incredible start, but the ending was incredibly awful. Time to see what happened!

The plot revolves around a kid who goes into an virtual video game by putting on a headset. It’s like the Oculus Rift, but a tad more futuristic. Once he enters the game; Kirito realizes that he cannot get out. The programmer decided to get rid of the log out function and the only way to escape this place it to complete the game. If a player died in the game world, then they will die in the real world as well. Luckily, Kirito played the Beta version, but will that be enough for him to complete the game on his own? Either way, the rest of the players will be trying to head for the goal as well and the minions are not unlimited so they may have to fight for EXP. Let the games begin!

Arc 2 takes a different route as the SAO nightmare is not over. Some of the players never returned and Kirito is forced to head into a dangerous video game in order to tie up loose ends from the first arc. He’s going to do whatever it takes to make things right again and he is helped by his sister. Kirito and Suguha do not know that they are teaming up in the virtual world and just assume that it is a stranger. (Despite Kirito not even bothering to change his real life design from his online one…) No matter, they just need to complete the game!

During these two arcs we still manage to have some time for filler and the pacing can get a little rough. While some episodes may technically not be filler in the first arc, they definitely feel that way. We get a multi parter about a mystery that wasn’t very interesting and we even take time to see Kirito take a day off from saving the world. There’s also a random quest so that Kirito can get a new sword. Some of these plot points come back in a big way and others don’t really need to return. It can also make the story a little harder to follow because the timeline keeps jumping all over the place. Episode 8 may take place after 6 but before 7 and it boggles the mind. It can be complex in a good way, but it can also feel a little out of place. Kirito will be mopping the floor with everyone in one episode and then getting beaten up with ease in another.

Kirito is a pretty good character and his voice actor in the english dub did a terrific job. It’s easy to root for Kirito because he’s such a noble character and he always wants to help. He does have some iffy moments that detract from his coolness such as his ungraceful effort in helping Asuna get away from her bodyguard and the whole romance angle seemed to take him down a few pegs. He’s typically at his most hardcore when he’s alone. He was awesome during the first few episodes and he was pretty likable in Arc 2 as well. He’s pretty unforgettable and he finishes the show looking pretty good. He’s not going to be the greatest protagonist out there, but he’s good enough.

Asuna can be a little disappointing in this show. I’ve heard that she’s a whole lot better in the novels so I guess we’ll see about that, but her role in the anime isn’t great. She gets to fight the final boss of Arc 1 in a sense, but she doesn’t do well. She’s a high ranking member in the army, but she still needed help to get away from one of the underlings and we rarely get to see her fight any of the opponents. She has some good fight scenes, but they’re typically just against minions or she’s just supporting Kirito’s attacks. She needed a bigger role and it doesn’t help that her Arc 2 role is pretty sad. So, Asuna isn’t a bad character, but she’s not as tough as I had guessed.

Sugou is terrible and he’s the main villain of arc 2. His picture that’s shown above really depicts how awful he is. The creator of Sword Art Online technically destroyed many more people and basically committed genocide, but he’s still more likable than Sugou. He still had some dignity and humanity left in him. Sugou crosses all of the lines that he can and I’m just glad that the anime didn’t feature any puppies for him to try and kick. He’s pretty despicable and you can’t even appreciate him as a villain. His reasons are all very petty and he’s a very sad person. He single handily managed to drag Sword Art Online down with him towards the end of Arc 2, which shows how awful he is. He may be the worst final boss that I’ve seen in a long time!

Heathcliff is the big general of the army in Sword Art Online. He can fight, which is a step up from most of the commanders that you may be used to seeing. He is an excellent fighter as it turns out and he is one of the only guys who can give Kirito a challenge. I can’t say that I really liked him, but he wasn’t a terrible character. He doesn’t really have honor when it comes down to a fight though and that’s where he loses major points for me.

Skull Reaper and Gleam Eyes are only two of the epic enemies that appear in Sword Art Online. Arc 1 definitely had some fun opponents and I give the anime props for giving them a horror feeling. The backround music was perfect for when Gleam Eyes appeared and Skull Reaper’s design can give anyone chills. I also liked a Phantom that attacked the heroes in one of the episodes and his stats were off the charts. The heroes really didn’t stand a chance against him. It’s rare that we get to see monsters act as big bosses anymore so it was fun to see them.

Suguha is the main heroine of the second arc and I can’t say that she was terribly likable either. In a sense, she’s similar to Asuna in personality, but she’s not as powerful. This doesn’t bode well for her and she doesn’t really get any big fights in the show. She has magical abilities, but they aren’t good against the stronger enemies. She also has a lot of drama in her human form and I could have gone without that subplot. Just tell Kirito that they will have to be rivals and leave it at that. She can fight pretty well in the human world which is good. If not for her subplot, Suguha was actually a decent character. I’m sure that she’ll bounce back for the sequel.

Yui became a main character once she appeared early on during Arc 1. She’s not a bad character although she doesn’t really add anything to the plot. She does provide Kirito with someone to talk to at times so it is a good way to advance the plot without monologing to one’s self for no real reason. Yui has some pretty impressive abilities that help out the heroes as the show goes by. She jokes around a lot with Kirito and friends, but ends up coming through when it counts.

There are other characters that I could mention like Grimlock and Sigurd, but they don’t really feel major enough to warrant their own sections. Even the red haired guy from episode one vanished for a long time before briefly reappearing. Kirito also joined a squad during one of the earlier episodes but I can’t say that they were super likable. They should have listened to his expert advice! (Still an emotional scene though) There are plenty of characters in SAO, but I can’t say that most of them are likable. The bartender is a nice guy and he’s probably the best from the minor supporting characters.

So, what happened to the show? Sword Art Online’s first episodes were awesome and I was probably going to give it a low end 8 or a very high 7. Unfortunately, that’s when the random mini arcs popped up to give us some romance and a really boring mystery. A lot of the episodes didn’t really feel like they had a point. I only liked it when they’d work towards getting up the tower and Kirito’s epic fight against Heathcliff. That being said, it was definitely still a decently high 7. The arc also ended on an epic note and that’s where the series should have ended.

Then…arc 2 came along to blow the show up. If you thought that Guilty Crown imploded towards the end..then you need to see this show to see how you truly mess up an anime. I actually did not mind the beginning of the second arc…for a few seconds. Once the plot started and we find out what Asuna’s fate is…things quickly went down. The villain gets away with just about everything and Kirito can’t stop him. (Which is the main problem. We get that villains are evil because they’re the villains, but we don’t need to see how evil they are. After a certain point, it just makes the villain completely unlikable. I also prefer when the hero is able to stop the villain before maximum damage can be done. In this case, the villain lasted too long and accomplished too many of his goals) Kirito should have brought a camera and sent proof to the police between matches or just knocked him out and locked him up until he can get proof. (I realize that the second option isn’t feasible, but Kirito needed to do something!) Instead, it’s back to the gaming world.

The actual game is pretty interesting and it’s visually better than the Tower from the first game. Flying is a nice addition and Kirito even got to keep his level ups, which means that he’s still very powerful. Unfortunately, that’s when Suguha’s subplot comes into play and we get some plot twists about how related they are. Making matters worse is Asuna’s subplot, which we keep seeing over and over again. We know that she has absolutely no hope, but the anime keeps on showing this to us until it’s burned into our memory. Kirito’s plot was pretty good, but we can’t ignore the subplots.

Things went to ground zero during the final episodes as the main villain got two octopus assistants that were pretty awful. There was also a very unnecessary plot twist about some of the other players from SAO who weren’t able to get out in time. Time to give the show a dark twist eh? How did the police not notice this? Finally, Kirito meets up with the villain and things don’t go very well. It’s time for Kirito to realize how powerless he is and the scenes are cringe worthy. After that, we get to see Kirito’s super rage moment as he sadistically takes the villain on. Finally, the online game ends!!!! The final episode definitely leaves off on a happier note, but Kirito must be crazy.

After those two traumatic experiences..I’d never go into a virtual world again. I don’t know how they’re still legal after those two huge controversies and unless someone needs his help; Kirito should stay in the real world. In that respect; I definitely didn’t care for the ending. I was just relieved that Arc 2 was over. I really hope that no future SAO arc is that bad. The first one was amazing and the second one was downright awful, which means that they basically cancel out as far as the rating goes. Luckily, this isn’t an unusual thing. Soul Eater, Accel World, Samurai 7, Railgun S, Guilty Crown, Naruto (to an extent. Like 50+ filler episodes in a row…..) and many more have suffered the same fate. Sword Art Online’s just happened to be a little more drastic than the average show, but it can always bounce back. The sequel does show a lot of promise and adding guns to the mix could be nice and exciting.

The animation in Sword Art Online is also impressive and you can tell that they put a lot of effort into the show so that it would look good. The fights are always very flashy and exciting to watch and the show feels new. I have a feeling that it’s one of those shows that will never really look old. It’ll age pretty well and 20 years from now it’ll still be able to match up. Everything from the character designs to the backgrounds look very good.

Again, I have to stress how great the fight scenes were. The one thing that I really did enjoy in the second arc of Sword Art Online was the fight scenes. Kirito’s match against the Red group’s commander was excellent and his final battle against thousands of flying minions that came out was spectacular. Arc 1 also had it’s share of incredible fights. They’re some of the highest budget fights that you’ll see out there and they have the right amount of flashiness to coincide with the swordplay. The music just amps up the epicness for these scenes and Kirito is a solid protagonist to root for. All of these factors result in really great action scenes.

Unfortunately, SAO does have some fanservice. It’s mainstream so it’s probably expected that they would add some, but it’s still sad. It’s not a whole lot, but the small scenes to add up. They typically involve Kirito and Asuna or just Asuna. The scenes typically come out of nowhere and some are practically there just so that they can have the stereotypical scene where the main heroine gets jealous. The scenes will likely make you wince, but that’s the effect that they always have so it’s not surprising!

Sword Art Online’s soundtrack is very good. It has some very nice theatrical sounding themes in it. The fight against Glimmer Eyes started with a great theme and even Kirito’s quick assault against the guy with the shield had a good fight theme. There are mainly 2-3 action themes that I liked in the first arc and another 2-3 in the second. The show definitely excelled in this area and the soundtrack deserves 5 stars.

It’s time to finish up the comparisons to Accel World. Now that I’ve finished both, I can safely say that Sword Art Online feels higher quality. They definitely put more budget into it and the soundtrack/animation really show this. That being said; Accel World rules the school when it comes to fight scenes. Nothing can stop Silver Crow’s big fights. They’re fast, epic, and awesome. They’re some of the best fights in anime history and you won’t be forgetting them anytime soon. Combat Animation goes to Accel World. Overall animation goes to Sword Art Online. Soundtrack goes to Accel World. It’s tough, but Accel World takes the slight edge here. Both of them die out in Arc 2, but Accel World’s wasn’t nearly as drastic. So, it wins in Arc 2 and Sword Art Online wins Arc 1. Overall, Accel World wins. Still, Sword Art Online had the better main character, which helps to even the odds. Accel World ended up being the better show for me, but they both do a good job of showing how tough it can be to have games with such high stakes. (Accel World deserves a sequel!)

Overall, Sword Art Online is a tragic tale of an anime that ascended to great heights and then lost itself in the blink of an eye. The soundtrack and animation are terrific and I really enjoyed Kirito as a main character. His english voice actor is currently my favorite as he even passed Ichigo’s. I highly recommend watching the first arc and by then it’s hard to stop without finishing. Just be prepared for disappointment as you start the second arc. No matter how bad and unrelated to the title of the show you may think it is…it’s worse! Getting rid of the second final episode of the series would have bumped the show up to a 6 and just getting rid of the Asuna subplot in Arc 2 would have jumped it to a 7. Ah well, these things happen and I have much higher hopes for the sequel. (Guns vs Swords…the ultimate question!) On that bright note….I’m off!

Overall 5/10

Update. This is the kind of series that gets worse and worse as you remember it. It’s been a little over a year since I reviewed the title and would give it more of a 1-2 thanks to just how bad the ending is. Seriously, this is one show that you Do not want to watch!

A Certain Scientific Railgun S Review

Posted on May 23, 2014 by dreager1

The first Railgun show was pretty fun and one would likely expect the sequel to be even better. Luckily, this is the case with Railgun S and it amps up the stakes in every way. That can be a good thing for some and it may be too different for others. All I can say is that action fans will definitely approve! Time to see why Railgun S is so great!

The first Railgun show was very lighthearted and I’d call it a slice of life with some action. Railgun S has two arcs and the first one is complete action with some drama and emotional moments. It’s a lot darker than anything we saw in the first show and the violence is also heightened. The best part about this is the fact that most of the fanservice has been eliminated from the show, which is terrific! The second arc goes back to Railgun’s roots and the show becomes a lot happier once again. After the amazing first arc this may be a disappointment, but it’s still fun.

Before the first arc begins, we get a quick stand alone episode where Misaka gets to show off her abilities and she takes down some villains. After that, the arc quickly starts and it takes up most of the series. When Misaka was a little girl, some researchers took some of her DNA and they decided to illegally clone her. They want to create a Level 6 fighter that can surpass all others. They approach the world’s strongest Esper, Accelerator, who accepts their terms since he wants this power. He has to destroy 20000 clones of Misaka to unlock level 6. Accelerator isn’t fazed by this and the massacre begins. The clones are to fight him in one on one battles and they don’t mind the fact that they will be destroyed since it’s just what they do.

The real Misaka finds out about this and decides to stop Accelerator, but she has no chance in a physical fight. She will have to destroy all of the facilities in the city so that the researchers cannot continue their experiment. The problem is that these researchers have hired a group of powerful Espers to take Misaka down…and one of them is another Level 5! Misaka has never faced such a large scale fight before and (since her friends won’t help at all) she may need the help of Academy City’s strongest Level 0….Touma! This arc was awesome and I’ll continue to talk about it in the later parts of the review.

Arc 2 lowers the stakes so it’s more of a happy mystery, but things still get tense at times. Febri is a mysterious girl that the heroes find in the park one day. There’s something off about this occurrence and meanwhile, some scientists want to defeat the Espers. They’re mad because they are some of the smartest students around, but nobody wants to recognize their true greatness. To get back at them, these students are going to use their mecha army to wreck havok on the city and destroy everyone. Looks like a job for Misaka and pals!

It’s a little hard to try and make Arc 2 exciting because it really wasn’t. A lot of it didn’t make a whole lot of sense and it was hard to take the villains seriously after seeing someone as powerful as Accelerator. Arc 2 also didn’t contain as many fights as Arc 1 and none of them were quite as epic. Ah well…that’s why we have Arc 1!

For example, my favorite part of the series was the gauntlet against ITEM. It even surpasses the Accelerator climax because it’s 2-4 episodes of nonstop action and battling. (Technically Accelerator vs Touma is just one fight after all) The ITEM group really gave Misaka a challenge and it was awesome. It helps that I love the new villain group trope and I had been wanting to see another Level 5 do battle. We got to see Misaka’s determination in that battle as she fought well past her energy limit and she had to think of inventive ways to use her abilities so that she could walk out of there alive.

Misaka is just as likable as in the first show, but we get to see more of her abilities in this show. As I mentioned in my previous review, there wasn’t really anyone that could be a challenge for Misaka. Her electric abilities were too much for her opponents and until we saw the only two Espers in the world who could defeat her; that didn’t seem like it was going to change. Luckily, we got some great fights in Arc 1 so we got to see what Misaka could really do. She’s easily one of the strongest Electric users out there and she’s proven that she can hold her own show as well as Touma…maybe even better.

Touma continues to prove that he’s the perfect side character. As a protagonist he ranged from cool to downright awful. As a side character in Misaka’s show, he’s always awesome. I didn’t really think that he could look better in this show than in the last one, but I quickly changed this view. Touma got a pretty cool cliffhanger where he clenches his fist for no real reason, but things get epic once he joins the fray. He’s decided that he’s going to take down Accelerator so that he can save the clones (One of which became his friend) as well as Misaka. To do this, Touma is going to have to enter the ultimate fight. The Strongest Level 5 vs the Weakest guy in the world. If all characters were as cool as Touma, then the world of media would be much different.

Railgun S continues to have great characters as Accelerator is introduced. Misaka is a perfect main character; Touma is the perfect side character, and Accelerator is the perfect villain. It’s impossible to sympathize with him and you really can’t wait until he’s defeated. I actually became a pretty huge fan of him in Index and he’s my favorite character in the franchise, but for now we’ll have to settle for liking him as a villain. If I were just counting this show, he would be under Touma and Misaka. He’s an incredible villain, but you really can’t root for him while he’s destroying everybody. Accelerator succeeds as a villain because his abilities are very hard to overcome and he’s also very confident. Unlike other villains, Accelerator can back up his tough talk.

Frenda is one of the members of ITEM and she’s the first one to challenge Misaka. She’s actually pretty good at hand to hand fighting, but she specializes in medium to long distance attacks. She can plant her dolls at key areas and then set them to explode once the opponent gets near and triggers the trap. She’s essentially like Batman in the fact that prep time greatly helps her fighting capabilities. She’s one of the better members of the group even if her abilities can’t really stack up in a one on one fight.

Mugino is basically the leader of ITEM when they’re in the field. She is a level 5 and her ability allows her to shoot powerful lasers that can go right through steel walls. She can also use them defensively to protect her from all incoming attacks like Gaara’s Ultimate Defense. She’s definitely a powerful opponent although I’m sure that Misaka would be more than a match for her if they fought on equal terms. Mugino is a decent character, but her abilities are great so I’m glad to have her on the show. Hopefully she gets another fight at some point.

Kinuhata (Super strength) and Riko (Telepathy) don’t get to do a whole lot in the show so it’s harder to talk about them. Riko can sense where an opponent is by their AIM fields so she’s good to have in a group. Unfortunately, that also means that she wouldn’t do very well in a one on one fight. She’s a decent character, but her natural abilities just aren’t that great and she has to augment them artificially. I have a feeling that this won’t help her in the long run. Kinuhata is the most interesting member and she could present a challenge to some of the heroes. Her ability seems to make her body impervious to injury to the point where she can block bullets. It’s not absolute, but a stone wall defense like that is pretty great in a fight and she’s also very fast.

Shinobu is a researcher who was involved in the cloning operation that was taking place in Academy City. She didn’t mind them at first because she thought of the clones as inorganic. They weren’t really alive and they didn’t have emotions because they were linked through a network. Eventually, she realized that they were just as real as normal people and she made it her life’s goal to save them. Unfortunately, she is only a mere mortal and that’s not good in this show. She looks very bad in Arc 2 and her plans don’t really help in Arc 1 either. She has good intentions, but her methods are pretty ineffective and I really didn’t care for her. She just wasn’t that likable.

Kuroko doesn’t get a particularly large role in this show. She’s as unlikable as ever, but the show also gives her a subplot where she decides that she won’t try to find out what Misaka is up too. (Misaka is going around blowing up government facilities to stop the experiments) The show plays it off as a good thing and Kuroko gets to show Misaka that she trusts her judgment and everything. Misaka even indirectly asks Kuroko if she would try to stop her if Misaka did something to wreck the city. Kuroko said that she would and Misaka had to leave her out of her plans. (Although she already had been)

The problem is that Kuroko should have tried to find out what Misaka was up too. Misaka definitely could have used some backup in her fight against ITEM and having Kuroko along would have helped a lot. A true friend would have made sure that Misaka was okay. Especially after Misaka kept coming home with injuries and fatigue. This is just one of the many reasons as to why I don’t like Kuroko and it’ll be hard for her to bounce back from these moments.

Kongou gets a slightly larger role in this show than the last one. She still doesn’t get along with Kuroko that much, but she does get along with Misaka. Along the way, Kongou has pretty much joined the main characters as one of the mainstays for the battles. In Arc 2, she’s around for most of it and she joins in the help Febri. She also finally gets to use her abilities a lot and we see that she can make things launch. (If she hits a truck, then it will zoom forward with rocket power) She’s a decently likable character, but she would never become one of my favorites due to her personality. She’s a nice person, but she can’t show it since it would wreck her image. Ah well, at least she tries to help out.

Saten, Uiharu, Banri, and Harrue don’t really get to do much in this series. They’re around as supporting characters of course, but you likely won’t miss them as the episodes go by. If you liked them in the previous show, then you likely still will. If you didn’t like them before; I don’t see why you would change your mind here. Saten can still be inconsiderate of Uiharu and I can’t take her seriously. That’s part of why the climax in the second arc felt forced and there were a lot of moments that were cheesy. Things shouldn’t have turned out so well for the heroes once these 4 got involved. I’m not going to mention the villains from Arc 2 because they are barely characters. They’re just generic scientists who don’t realize that they are outclassed and they want to make other people as sad as them. (They also get an extremely cheesy moment in the last minutes of the final episode, which was pretty laughable)

While I did mention that Railgun S is a lot more violent than the original Railgun, it’s mainly due to a few select scenes. They all take place in the first arc and the second one really has little to no violence. Accelerator is able to blow people up by making contact with them and he does this to one person, but a security camera shields the viewer from seeing this. Someone’s leg is also taken in another scene and those are really the two big violent moments. The leg yank is easily the most disturbing scene since it’s pretty unexpected. This isn’t anything to turn you off from the show though because aside from those two episodes, the violence is minimal. The whole first arc is dark, but not necessarily violent. There is a lot of action so the heroes/villains get injured, but nothing really graphic aside from those moments.

Luckily, this also meant that there was no time for fanservice. The anime still manages to sneak some in once in a while, but it’s a dramatic step down from the first series. I’m glad that they did this and it makes the rest of the anime easier to appreciate. Fanservice sucks the life out of all anime and it forces you to drop some of the all stars like Gurren Lagann and Bleach down a few pegs. Hopefully the next show in the Railgun franchise can continue with this.

The soundtrack in Railgun S is excellent! I liked Railgun’s soundtrack, but Railgun S takes it to a whole new level. The ending theme when Misaka goes off to fight Accelerator in their first round was incredible and it felt like something that you would hear at the theater. The battle music was also a lot more intense and the overall soundtrack was phenomenal. The two openings were pretty fun, but opening 1 was definitely the best since it had a lot of action to go alongside the fun music. We even got some fake foreshadowing to trick the fans and I always like that because it gives us hypothetical battles. Railgun S definitely hit it out of the park with the music and the final episode gets some guest star music from the first show. That episode was filled with music that kept on playing right after that others.

Not to be outdone, the animation is also a few steps up from Railgun. I can now say that the animation looks pretty incredible. The character designs are effectively the same, but they’re more streamlined, which helps for the fights. Touma’s fight against Accelerator stands out as well as Misaka’s gauntlet against ITEM. Even scenes with less stakes like Misaka’s Railgun against the villains in the first episode looks really good with this animation. Great animation can definitely make a fun show even better.

One of the big questions that may be brought up is whether Railgun did better with the dark toned part of the franchise or if it should have stayed happy and chipper. I’ve never been a fan of everything being grim and that’s one of the enjoyable factors of the first Railgun. Every episode was pretty happy and there was really no dark moments in the show. We had some sad moments, but things tended to work out by the end. Still, that couldn’t last since part of the plot for this series was how Misaka would have to combat the darkness of Academy City. The first arc of Railgun S is dark, but it’s done in a pretty decent way. It’s not gritty for the sake of being gritty and there is still some hope for the heroes. (Although Misaka’s friends don’t help in this) This arc was the best in the franchise so Railgun S definitely succeeded with this huge tone shift. Now, if the whole show had been dark like that, it could have gotten a little dicey. It’s a lot harder to keep a show interesting and good with a dark tone. It’s easy to slip up at some point and just make things too dark with excessive violence or unnecessary sob stories as the series gets longer and longer. That’s why it’s best to just have an arc for it and then it can be a masterpiece like this one.

That’s why I’m glad that Railgun’s light moments stick around. Unfortunately, this also means that they try to play up the friendship angle and it doesn’t work in this case. Aside from Kuroko, Misaka’s main friends are all very weak and they shouldn’t be able to help out. Arc 2 tries to show how helpful they can be, but it was very cheesy. They decide to hold off thousands of robots along with the rest of the students, but they should have been mowed down. The robots were way too powerful for them and realistically there should have been heavy casualties. In that case, it was definitely all right for Misaka to proceed on her own. Every time she has to clue the rest of the characters in; Misaka has to slow down in her investigation. I’m not opposed to telling the other characters and I believe that Misaka should have told Kuroko back in arc 1. Of course, Kuroko may have told the police and that would have wrecked things so it was a gamble either way.

So far, it probably sounds like Arc 2 was downright awful, but it was still all right. There weren’t a whole lot of stakes, but that’s because it had a more personal feel. Mainly, one girl’s life was at stake, but that’s still enough to get Misaka and the gang involved. Eventually, the scope of the threat got larger, but the heroes were already set. I do like the concept of every Esper in the city joining forces to stop the villain, but it could have been executed in a cooler way. All of the insert songs give the scenes a sense of epicness, which helps to overshadow the inaccurate moments. I just don’t think that things would go so smoothly for the heroes. I also wasn’t a fan of the fact that Misaka needed some help against the army of robots since they didn’t seem so impressive.

The first Railgun show rekindled my interest in the franchise and this one rose it to new heights. Railgun S managed to surpass the two series from the main branch of Index and that’s pretty rare. Usually, spinoffs don’t end up beating the main thing. It’s a pretty good feat for Railgun S and it shows that spinoffs always have a shot. (Unlike the Rock Lee show) Railgun S defeats most of the anime that I’ve seen recently including Sword Art Online, Guilty Crown, Gurren Lagann, and Accel World among others, but it does get defeated by another anime that I’m currently watching. What is that anime? Well, you’re going to have to wait to find out. All I can say is that it’s one of the best anime of all time!

Overall, Railgun S is an incredible show. I’d easily say that it’s one of the better anime that I’ve seen. (I would have said one of the best, but that’s stretching it just a little bit since it loses to DBZ, multiple Digimon shows, Naruto (multiple shows), etc) The animation is top notch as well as the soundtrack and we have some really great characters to root for and against. I still can’t get over how epic and awesome Touma was in the climax of Arc 1 and Misaka is a character that everyone can look up too. She had to make the tough call to fight the whole city and she did everything that she could to save the clones. With characters as heroic as this, it’s hard to go back and watch something like Avengers Assemble! The show also expands the universe a little more while throwing in some more plot points for the future. (Academy City is still evil and another one of the Level 5s seems to have some beef with Misaka) I highly recommend this anime to all readers because it appeals to many different crowds. If you want a dark tale revolving around conspiracies and a lone hero against all odds; it’s time for Arc 1. If you want heartwarming tale about friendship, and second chances with some fun action scenes; then it’s time for Arc 2. Either way, it’s a win/win situation! I definitely can’t wait for the sequel to come.

Overall 8/10

A Certain Scientific Railgun Review

Posted on May 22, 2014 by dreager1

After seeing the Index series, I suppose that it was only a matter of time until the spinoff would come up. Without Touma leading the charge and the whole magic side of the equation, could the show still manage to be exciting? Misaka may have been a good character in the main series, but some characters just don’t do well when it comes to their own series. (Rock Lee) I halfheartedly wondered about these things as the show began. Time to see if the series could hold its own!

Misaka Mikoto is the main character of this series and she’s completely different from Touma. Touma barely got by and he had to scramble to get enough money to buy his daily groceries. He’s also a little in the dark as far as the plots go and he just punches whoever gets in his way. Misaka is pretty wealthy and she lives at the most prestigious school in the city. Guards can be found just about everywhere and she experiences the light part of the city. (In this series anyway) Misaka was a cool supporting character in the original series, but I can safely say that she’s become a much better character through this one. Similar to how I became a big Hunter X Hunter fan after watching the anime for the first time as opposed to reading the manga; I dare say that watching this series has helped me gain respect for the Index franchise as a whole. In some ways it’s more fun than the main series, but we also get a lot of filler, which is never an amazing sign.

For those of you who haven’t watched the main series, I’ll just give some background. A Certain Scientific Railgun takes place in Academy City, where they believe that science can solve just about anything. Many of the students are Espers and they are ranked from Level 1 to Level 5. (There are only 5 Level 5s) They go to school and work at using their powers and it’s really fun to live in the city…so long as you have powers. There is also a magical side, but they are not allowed to enter the city and if they did…trouble would ensue. All right, time for the plot. (not that many episodes really contribute to the main plots)

Before the main plot starts, we get some stand alone episodes to introduce us to the characters and also to buy time. (AKA filler) Misaka and her “sister” Kuroko (Not related and are just friends, but Kuroko refers to Misaka as her sister) take down some bad guys and we realize that Misaka is a nice person. We also get introduced to Saten and Uiharu, who stay as main characters for the series. That’s basically episode 1 and then episode 2 is just about cleaning. The plot begins in the next episode (albeit, only in the final seconds) and there is a device that has been mass produced. It is known as the Level Upper and it can increase a person’s natural abilities, but to a dangerous extent. A level 1 can become a level 2, but after a few minutes or a few hours; the person is liable to go into an a coma and possibly not wake up again. Making things worse is the fact that one of Misaka’s friends, Saten, becomes tempted by this device. She’s a Level 0 so this device could finally help her out. The devices start popping up all around the city so it appears that there may be a coordinated group behind these actions. Misaka will have to go against Kuroko’s orders and join this case…but will she be able to win?

The first arc was mostly a lot of stand alone episodes that were joined together by the Level Upper device. It felt less like a full arc and more like episodes that were vaguely related. The plot thickened once the villain appeared and Saten got involved, but the beginning was pretty slow. The climax is pretty good because Misaka finally gets a big fight against Harumi. Harumi obtained many abilities so it was nice to see Misaka get a challenge. The actual final fight involved a giant monster like being so it wasn’t nearly as exciting. Misaka is a long range fighter so giant creatures that can barely move aren’t a great match for her.

The second arc starts after some filler episodes. We get a two episode mini arc that involves a gang. Those episodes actually weren’t that bad, but the plot hax was immense. We saw the debut of a power dampener device that allowed Misaka to be on the verge of losing to ordinary humans. I had to wince at this because there’s no way that this device could pull off such a feat. Kurozuma was one of the gang fighters and he was pretty cool. In some ways, he was like Yusuke, but not quite that cool. It was nice to see some hand to hand action for once.

The second arc really begins during the final episodes of the series. There have been poltergeist reports and it causes damage to large areas. Kuroko suspects that Uiharu’s new friend Haruue may be behind this, which causes a rift to form between them. Meanwhile, Misaka finds Harumi and realizes that a group of kids are still in a coma from experiments that were done a long time ago. That’s when a new character by the name of Therestina shows up in command of a large squadron of men and robots. They seem to be pretty sketchy. Could they have something to do with these poltergeist attacks? Misaka realizes this and it’s time to take Therestina down once and for all. Looks like it’s fighting time!

This arc wasn’t nearly as interesting as the first and everyone felt a lot weaker. It’s to be expected since the second half of an anime is usually not as good as the first half. The Capacity Down device was a big plot device since it could make Misaka powerless as any given time. Also, the city looked evil as per usual and Misaka should have done something about it. (She’ll get more involved in the next season) Uiharu got way too upset as Kuroko for suspecting her new friend and that was disappointing. It’s Kuroko’s job so it’s not like the suspicion was personal. The final episode still had some flashy fights and a good insert song to make the show end on a decently high note.

As stated earlier, Misaka is a great main character. Some may argue that she’s a little too good since she’s a great person who always wants to help out and she also happens to be the third strongest Level 5 in the city,(As well as the world) but that’s part of the reason why she’s so cool. It’s tough for the villains to give her a challenge because her abilities are seemingly invincible. That’s likely why the writers of the show created the Capacity down. Misaka gets her share of fights in this arc and she’s basically untouchable. Even in the final fights of the first arc, where Misaka is fighting something with the energies of hundreds of Espers and then takes on a woman with dozens of abilities; Misaka doesn’t really break a sweat. The monster doesn’t really get any hits and while Harumi does deal some damage, we find out that Misaka was holding back. Naturally, I expect the sequel to bring in some tougher enemies because Misaka definitely needs a challenge. I want an excuse to see her go all out and bring us some DBZ fight scenes! As it stands, her super attacks are fun to watch and they’re definitely powerful.

Touma is drastically improved from the main Index series and he is easily one of the best characters of the series. We get to see his heroics early on as he attempts a rescue even though there was a high risk of serious injury. The attempted rescue did not go as planned since he was dealing with the legendary Railgun, who did not need his help. Touma has several battles against Misaka and his abilities are definitely impressive. He always seems to have the upper hand despite being a Level 0. They never let the viewer know what his ability is, but you will understand part of it by the end. Could Touma be the strongest fighter in Academy City!? It is certainly possible when judging from this portion of the franchise. Its just hard not to root for Touma. He gets all of the best lines and he realizes that buying groceries can be a priority. Touma is also a nice guy and he doesn’t mind throwing a fight if it will make everyone happy. He always knows just when to appear and he even got a ticket to a very prestigious event at the end of the series. Touma is just an awesome character and he gets even cooler during the sequel show!

Kuroko is a character that never fails to disappoint me. She is one of the few level 4 fighters around and her teleportation ability is very lethal. Instead of becoming an awesome ally to root for, she ignores this and allows her obsession with Misaka to ruin her. Kuroko is a part of Judgment and her job is to keep the peace. Its a noble job in theory, but she rarely does anything of importance. She takes down some fighters, but she nearly messes up during her first big fight. If she would tone down her obsession with Misaka a few notches then maybe she could become cool. Unfortunately, that is likely never going to happen so I won’t be becoming a fan anytime soon.

Uiharu is one of Kuroko’s coworkers and she appears a lot. She is a decent character for the most part, but she lets her emotions cloud her judgment at times. When Haruue is introduced and the heroes begin to suspect her involvement in a string of incidents; Uiharu refuses to accept the idea and gets mad at them. That part of the series is really what wrecked her. Uiharu gets a lot of screen time and is really a part of the plot in the second half of the series. That being said, any development that may have been attained is quickly lost thanks to the way that her plotline goes. I cant say that I was ever a real fan of her character since she always let Saten tease and humiliate her, but it didn’t help her case when Uiharu chose her new friend over the old ones. I also don’t care for her personality shift that occurs when she is at Tokiwadai High as she becomes fierce and downright rude/mean in her excitement.

Saten is one of the main characters of the series and she is introduced to the rest of the gang by Uiharu. Saten is a level 0 esper and she is pretty sensitive about this fact. Unlike Touma, Saten never improves her fighting ability and we rarely see her trying to get better. That’s what makes it a little hard to sympathize with her plight. She also has a habit of embarrassing Uiharu from time to time. Despite Uiharu’s complaints, Saten continues to humiliate her in public and even in front of their friends. They are still best friends, but Saten should show some more consideration. Saten also lacks strength of character as she gets tempted by the Level Downer. The Level Downer isn’t half bad and I wouldn’t have minded if she used it to defend herself, but not if she’s just going to use it for fun even if it means going into a coma. It would appear that the supporting cast for this show is very weak aside from Touma.

Haruue joins the main cast towards the end of the show. The writers really try to make her fun and enjoyable, but it doesn’t work. This is what happens to many characters in anime and other forms of media. When a character like this is introduced at the end, the writers will try to make her as likable as they can so she is forced into just about every scene. She just doesn’t seem to have much of a point in this show. She is a large part of Arc 2, but it could have been everyone. It doesn’t help that she is the one who makes tension arise among the heroes.

Banri gets a pretty small role in the show because she’s out of it for the most part. She’ll get to appear more in the sequel show, but I was never a fan. She’s a nice kid and things just didn’t go well for her. I just don’t care for her because we hardly needed another character. She’s almost a clone of Haruue in terms of personality and she can’t really fight. Telepathy is good, but hers isn’t at a very high level.

Harumi is the main villain of the first arc and she’s the first tough opponent for Misaka in the show show. Before that, Misaka fought some other Espers and even some that had their powers increased by the Level Upper, but they couldn’t really do anything against her. Well, Harumi has abilities from dozens of espers so it makes sense that she would be tough. Their fight was one of the best in the series and the stakes were definitely a lot higher than usual. Harumi is a decently likable villain and at least she has some sympathetic reasons behind what she’s doing. She can actually back up her tough talk, which is always a plus.

Therestina is a big character from Arc 2 and she has her own mecha. She can fight in it, but she’s really not a match for any of the decent fighters so she makes sure to have a capacity down with her at all times. She’s really not likable because her motives don’t make a lot of sense and she seems petty. She has the generic “hardcore” scene where she steps on the only piece of data that could have helped some people. Therestina liked to hide behind her minions and she can’t really back up her tough talk. At least she gave us a decently fun fight towards the end of the series.

Jufuku is a pretty bad character. She feels bad about her eye brows so she knocks people out and then gives them ugly eyebrows that don’t come off for weeks. Her ability allows her to pass by unnoticed by others as long as you are not directly looking at her. It’s actually a decent ability, but it’s not great in a fight. Jufuku’s goal just seemed way too petty and I was just waiting for her to leave. In her future appearences, she’s still unlikable even though she underwent a big personality change. there’s just no winning for some characters.

Kongou is Kuroko’s rival and she’s also a Level 4. Her powers aren’t really explained in this show, but she has a fan so it should be easy to deduce what element her power revolves around. She doesn’t really get to do anything in this show so it’s really impossible to become a big fan. That being said, she’s an amusing character and I don’t mind her. She gets some good lines and she’s always very confident about her abilities. Her role in the sequel is much bigger so it’ll be easier to tell if you like her or not in that one.

Kurozuma is a man of mystery who disappeared for years along with his gang. The gang popped back up with a new man pretending to be Kurozuma and that made the real one come back. Kurozuma definitely knows his brand of milk and he’s always ready to beat up the villains. He’s great in hand to hand combat and he’s almost a likable character. What stops him from being one is the fact that he’s very rude to Misaka and Kuroko. The lines that he tells them are so awful that it immediately threw away any respect that I had for the guy. Once again, like Kuroko, Kurozuma could have been cool and then he wasted his potential. Naturally there are other side characters, but their roles are so small that they barely even need to be mentioned. (Even if some get a whole filler episode to themselves)

Railgun’s animation is very good. I admit that the sequel looks much better, which makes this one a little tougher to gauge after seeing. That being said, this one holds up very well and the Railgun blasts are always fun to watch. The fight scenes are also really good because the show can handle movement pretty well. When the characters are jumping around and using flashy attacks, it all flows together pretty well. The best fight in the series is probably the battle against Touma, but the fight against Harumi would definitely be close. I also liked the battle against the ground user and we had some other fun fights that were scattered around. I wouldn’t say that the animation is exceptional and it’s not quite as high budget as the regular Index show, but it’s good enough. It can hold its own against other shows from around this time and that’s what counts. As long as the animation doesn’t hurt the overall experience by looking like FLCL, it’s still a good thing and Railgun is definitely above average.

Railgun is a lot of fun and it seems like it would get a really high rating right? Unfortunately, fanservice brings down the overall score. Surprisingly, the fanservice seems to be very toned down from the regular Index series, but there’s still too much of it. I’m glad that it’s lowering (and the sequel has even less) but they’re got to pick up the pace. We get numerous hot spring scenes and other moments that are just there for no real reason. Almost every episode is liable to have something and we have a whole episode about swimsuits. Someone’s skirt is always being lifted as a practical joke, but that makes the scene even more unnecessary. All I wanted was a show with no fanservice, but this one couldn’t make it. It’s a good thing that the rest of the show is so good or things could have been dire. That being said, it makes it very hard to actually recommend this show to anyone.

The soundtrack for Railgun is pretty good. It’s not incredible, but the battle theme is fun and both of the openings were pretty well done. I would have liked some more rock music, but I suppose that there wasn’t much time for it since this series didn’t have a whole lot of action scenes. The theme song made for a good backdrop during the big fights anyway. At the very least, the battle theme is memorable and you won’t be forgetting the tunes anytime soon. (The cricket sound is practically a part of the soundtrack since it starts off every episode that takes place on a hot day!)

Overall, Railgun was a fun spin off to Index. It’s really just lighthearted fun and I wouldn’t really have any problems with it if not for the fanservice. Aside from those scenes, the series is just fun to watch and you’ll always walk away feeling lighthearted. It’s one of the reasons why I like to watch such series because it’s basically a slice of life with some action and intrigue. If you liked Index, then maybe you’ll like this show a lot because it certainly helped me become a fan of the franchise again. That being said, just wait for the sequel. Railgun S is much better and it’s one of the best all around shows out there. (For the first arc anyway) If you can get around the fanservice, then a Scientific Railgun is a very enjoyable watch and fans of almost any genre can get into it. (We even have mysteries and horror/ghost stories!)

Overall 5/10

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