Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Review

Posted on July 27, 2025 by dreager1

Brotherhood is one of those legendary anime that for an extremely long time was considered to be the best of all time. Even now it is still regarded as one of the overall best and a pinnacle of the anime medium. Now I can finally say that I have seen it as well and it definitely is a great title. After completing it I can see why so many people love the title. Now nothing is going to usurp Yugioh GX as the top anime around the block but this one does earn all of the praise that it receives.

The story revolves around two brothers, Edward and Alphonse. When they mother died an early death, they attempted to use human transmutation in order to bring her back to life. This did not work though as it violates the law of equivalent exchange and Alphonse ended up losing his entire body while Edward lost his leg. Edward then sacrificed his arm in order to retrieve Alphonse’s soul which is now held within an iron body. They decided to become professional alchemists in order to find a way to retrieve Alphonse’s body back. While the dead cannot be brought back to life, surely the body of someone who is still alive is attainable right? The adventures will lead them through a lot of trials in the meantime.

The main trial here involves a group of monsters known as Homunculus. They work for a mysterious figure who intends to do something with the entire planet and has implanted minions in many high ranking positions. Some of these monsters are obvious while others appear to be normal humans until they transform. These monsters are fully immortal which may help Ed/Alphonse’s research but stopping them won’t be easy. Additionally, the government is an authoritarian dictatorship led by King Bradley and there exists a government officer named Roy Mustang who intends to supplant him as the leader one day. He has to walk a fine line of staying true to his code of justice while making enough friends to get up there. Additionally, the shadows of his past continue to haunt him. A genocide was conducted against the Ishvalan people and one of their last survivors, Scar has decided to systematically murder all Alchemists. His plans threaten both the heroes as well as the villains which makes him an ultimate wild card.

There are more factions at play as well which is part of why the series is so long. It does a good job of showing us the motivations of all the groups and giving each character a lot of development. The whole thing is made with a high level of quality so it is no surprise that the series has gotten so popular. You’ll definitely be sucked into the series very quickly. The worldbuilding of how alchemy works is also set up in a simple way from the start so you can follow along. Alchemy is all about equivalent exchange so you can turn iron into a different metal and reshape things into weapons but you can’t turn a potato into a rocket launcher for example. Likewise you can’t bring the dead back to life because what would be equivalent to that?

Well, there are a lot of theories on that within the series and the brothers visit a lot of towns to try and get to the answers. There is one answer that sounds obvious from the start which you could come to with a second of thought as well but is it that simple? Also if it is possible, would it be moral to do so? The heroes find out the secret to the philosopher’s stone early on which makes their lives a whole lot more difficult. When you know how something is made, if it’s immortal then you naturally won’t want to use it if you are trying to stick to your moral high ground. Even once the object already exists, some will not want to use it while others will and that’s another big debate in the series.

Still, when you lose someone important to you then people will try their luck and we see that several times in the series. Everyone believes they will be the one to figure it out and end up paying the price. There is one silver lining which is that you see the truth about alchemy and can do it without using seals or equipment. It’s just a hollow silver lining at times if you sacrificed your sight or body in order to learn it.

The series looks great even after all of these years so the animation has really held up. The fight scenes were really focused with a lot of good movement and choreography. The colors are striking and the whole thing feels like true art. Meanwhile the soundtrack has a lot of variety and a great amount of battle songs. The endings are also catchy as well as the openings. Basically the series has no real weak points on a technical level and it just serves to enhance the series more and more.

It already had great writing and story development so this was the icing on the cake. It’s a very complete story with a satisfying beginning, middle, and ending as well. No cliffhangers here for folks who don’t like those. You are able to watch this all the way to the end and get all of the details. It’s cool to see how far all of the characters (who survived hehe) came from the start of the series to the end of it. There will still be a lot of issues that they have to go through but the main threat is passed.

Now lets talk about the characters. First up we have Edward who makes for a good MC even if he does spend a large portion of the series getting knocked around. He’s hardly the most powerful character in the series and even by the end it’s possible that he wouldn’t crack the top 10 although that may be pushing it. It’s different from the average Shonen adventure where you would expect him to keep on getting power up after power up and quickly ascend to being near the top. Ed is more about slowly getting to his goal.

There are even long stretches of time where he doesn’t even get any action sequences. That can happen with an extended cast of course but it’s definitely very noticeable here. Still, it works out well and he does lock in for the climax when it counts. He’s a good character and I liked him a lot more now than when I originally read the manga back in the day. Ed’s definitely got some spunk to him. The scene where he smashes open a cosmic door to reassure Alphonse was an epic moment.

Meanwhile Alphonse doesn’t get as many fiery moments but gets to show off his good character by how he handles the situation. He literally doesn’t have his body and yet he still manages to have a good attitude and doesn’t whine about it. Alphonse also helps Ed during the fights on several occasions. While he does end up being taken hostage more than once and generally can’t fight as well, it’s the thought that counts. Being an empty suit of armor does mean that he has more weaknesses after all and messing with the circle inside of him will even cause his soul to instantly be destroyed.

Trisha gets the smallest role from the family for obvious reasons. She died early on after all and so we just see her in flashbacks. It would have been nice if she could have appeared more but I guess adding too many flashbacks would potentially weaken the pacing. Her husband Hohenheim gets a lot more to do but I wouldn’t say that I ever ended up being a big fan of the guy. I never bought his excuse for just running out on the kids for so long. He absolutely could have communicated himself a whole lot better. Not even better, the guy didn’t communicate at all.

He gets some credit for his role in the climax but it was still disappointing how he wasn’t there for his family when it counted. Not only could he have prevented the tragedy at the beginning of the series but he could have helped out a lot during the life or death situations at the beginning. No matter how you slice it, he failed the kids when it counted.

Then we have the childhood friend Winry who was always there for the brothers and continued to be a quality character throughout the series. She doesn’t allow herself to just be a hostage/piece to be used by the villains and is quick to get with the program. She really is a great mechanic and ends up being super useful at different points in the series. Without her Ed would have absolutely been dead many times over.

Hughes is a character who doesn’t appear for most of the series and yet he keeps up a prominent role in the story. You could say he was the trigger for a lot of things to happen later on. While I wouldn’t say he was ever my favorite character, he was a good one. A character who made tough choices and lived with them instead of making any excuses. I also appreciated the strong bond that he had with his wife. A super loyal character like that is always fun and he was a good friend you can count on.

His partner Roy really ended up being a huge character in the series and definitely a highlight whenever he would appear. He has fire powers and I would say that he is easily the strongest hero and perhaps the strongest character in the series. Fire is incredibly overpowered in a realistic series like this and it can also completely bypass regeneration. Burn anything long enough and even a philosopher’s stone won’t be able to keep up. The series usually has to keep him far away from the battlefield to prevent him from just taking over and in the climax they had to quickly nerf him.

Roy is a character who did end up having to make a lot of compromises to make it into the top brass. Whether he went too far or not will ultimately be up to you. On the record, I do think he went too far along with all of the heroes who were on his side during the big war. They knew that they were working for a villain and yet they went along with it because those were the orders. Everyone who followed these orders and those who simply ran away are all guilty. They should have stood up for the people being massacred and did something. Sure, it’s good that they are trying to make things right now but it is all a bit late for that.

Also in terms of how things went with one of the villains he was fighting, I think Roy should have been allowed to destroy his opponent. I get the argument that he was going too far and dragging it out, but the villains needed to be eliminated or they would end up being a bigger threat later on. It worked out in this case but letting Roy finish the job would have been cathartic considering everything that he had went through.

Armstrong is one of the big alchemists we meet early on. He’s portrayed as a strong fighter and gets a lot done but surprisingly he doesn’t get much of a serious fight until near the end of the series. It makes scaling him rather difficult but we do know that he is very capable. He’s not my favorite character but he’s not bad by any means. He can just be a bit too passive at times which is why I much prefer his sister Olivier.

Olivier is consistently one of the most aggressive characters in the series and I was on her side at all times. Even when the villains basically call the shots and have operatives everywhere you need to be able to just take them down as needed. She bumps off a number of fighters and then her own soldiers are absolutely crucial to winning the day by the end. Without them the alchemists would have been absolutely doomed. Even without any alchemy of her own, Olivier fights very hard. She’s a lot of fun to watch.

Izumi is another strong fighter and in her case she also has alchemy to back herself up. She would absolutely be considered one of the strongest fighters even by the end since she can fight with and without powers. For the most part she isn’t super active in the story but does have her moments every now and again as the mentor. It goes back to the size of the case again where some characters just don’t have as much of a chance to shine.

Hawkeye is one character who gets a lot of great moments though. She is the best support fighter you could ask for and helps Roy out a ton. She gets all of the most dangerous jobs and gets threatened numerous times but always stays strong. Ultimately she is a normal person with a gun and yet she still does a whole lot of damage. She had a very compelling character arc and backstory. Hawkeye was easily one of the best characters in the series without a doubt.

Major Miles and Captain Buccaneer are two good troops who stood out from Olivier’s forces. Miles really accomplished a lot and accomplished a lot in his position. Meanwhile Buccaneer proved to be more than a large man with bravado and ended up being an incredible asset to the team. He managed to get an absolutely critical hit in the climax against one of the villains and was just a lot of fun to have around.

Then we have the forces from the other country like Ling. He starts out as a rather shady prince. I wouldn’t say he’s the most heroic guy in the world but he does know what it means to lead a country and does that rather well. He protects his troops and fights hard against the villains. His ability to fight in the dark is also handy since he can read chi. He was a lot of fun and he slowly rose up the ranks to be one of the best characters by the end.

I also liked both of his subordinates Lan Fan and Fu. They were extremely loyal and really knew how to fight. In particular Lan Fan gets a whole lot of screentime and makes a lot of sacrifices in order to make sure that he wins in the end. I can definitely appreciate that kind of dedication here. Fu also was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice at any time. May is her own faction as she tries to get to the secret of immortality and is another fun fighter. She is deceptively strong thanks to how agile she is. It makes it extremely difficult to actually tag her in a fight since she can easily dodge most strikes. Since she is a kid compared to the rest of the characters, she is also a bit out of her depth at times although she handles herself better than most would.

For the villains, Tucker gets a pretty small role next to the others. He just got infamous because of the crime that he committed. This guy had absolutely no moral compass and was totally crazy. It was definitely good that somebody bumped him off. There’s the suspicious Dr. Marcoh but at least he was trying to do things for the right reasons although he allowed himself to be used for a bunch of crimes as well. He never became one of my favorite characters but he does his best to atone for things.

From the big villains, Lust ends up getting one of the smaller roles since she doesn’t last for a very long time. Her abilities are good and I did enjoy her presence but by default she ends up being one of the weaker villains. It’s just tough to do much when the others are all constantly appearing so they naturally end up going ahead of her. I do prefer her to Gluttony since she is more strategic though. Gluttony is strong and even has his own powered up mode which most characters lack. That said, he just isn’t very bright.

Perhaps that would have made him too dangerous so this was a way to prevent that. Either way he serves his role as a powerful villain even if he isn’t ready to strategize. Sloth is another villain who isn’t very smart but he is so much more dangerous that it barely matters. He barrels through the characters and really lands punishing blows. His fight against the two Armstrongs was really good and it helps to make his character more memorable. He didn’t appear until late in the series but did well.

Kimblee is a villain who appears extremely early but it takes forever until he fights. He did really well in the role though even if he was often outmatched. The guy is extremely smug but the heroes deal with him a bit easier than you would expect. I liked the guy’s swagger though, he was absolutely full of himself but in a really fun way.

Envy is another character who loves gloating but it’s definitely earned since he bumps off so many characters. The guy is already powerful and then has a super form on top of that. Ultimately he could beat most opponents in the series and mainly just had trouble against the top tiers. I liked how sadistic the guy was and he’s a good example of how to write a really twisted villain. They also nailed his voice when in Envy’s true mode. The voice was just perfect and it’s hard to describe just how awesome it is. He goes on a long speech at the end and it’s just awesome.

Pride is a villain who doesn’t appear until near the end but makes his presence known immediately. He is one of the most powerful villains and his shadows are really hard to beat. That’s why it’s impressive how the author thinks of several ways to take him down. If anything Pride only lasts a while because of a big error the heroes make at one point. Ah well these things happen, but I did enjoy Pride a lot. He was an extremely solid villain.

Then we have Greed who ended up being the best of the villains. The guy has a lot of freewill and doesn’t just listen to orders like the other villains. He does what he wants when he wants to do it and that embodies the trait of Greed very well. Why should he just listen to orders like an ordinary character? He just kept getting better and better so you will want to stay really focused for all of his battles.

King Bradley is another top tier villain and I would go as far as to say the most powerful villain by far. Yes, I put him over Father. Bradley has incredible speed and power. He is able to slice tanks apart and can outpace any alchemist attack. It takes an entire army to slow the guy down and he endures a ton of wounds before going down. He’s an example of why it can be tough to defeat a villain with true conviction because he will fight as hard as any hero would. He is completely evil but written really well as to why he believes what he does. He’s basically loyal to a fault and can just express himself really well.

Of course we have Father as well and the guy had good plans but perhaps falls into the trap of waiting too long? He probably should have taken a more aggressive plan to trap all of the candidates that he needed instead of waiting til the end. His hubris was absolutely his downfall but he was a fun villain as well. I didn’t remember his origin at all until watching the series and thought that it set him up really well. I would have liked a longer climax fight but it was still really satisfying.

Finally we have Scar who starts off amazingly well but does sputter near the end. I would say he is best as a complete villain who keeps everyone on edge compared to being more of an anti hero later on. His ability to destroy anything that he touches is incredibly powerful. It’s super hard to prevent someone from even touching you after all which is why he can potentially defeat any opponent. At the same time, it also means that most of the villains are a rough matchup since they can keep on regenerating so trading blows is advantageous to them.

Scar gets a ton of character development and it is a really well written character arc. So don’t think that he’s poorly written or anything, but I guess I just got used to him as a villain. Some characters simply aren’t as interesting as heroes even though he didn’t do anything wrong per say. He’s still one of the higher characters in the series but as a villain he was fighting for the top rank.

With all of these characters and more fighting for their goals, the series feels like a true epic. It’s why my favorite part of the series is when all of the factions converge at Father’s base and finally meet each other at the same time. It was a great moment and it’s why a series always benefits greatly from having more than two factions. You simply can’t recreate that moment without such a factor.

The series doesn’t have many negatives in general. It completely avoids the fanservice trap which is awesome. It’s why this series is very new viewer friendly. There is some animal violence in the series which can be hard to avoid for a really long title. It’s usually nothing crazy but in a shorter series it could have been trickier. The series can get dark at times but does a good job of not going too far with it. It’s more the implications that can get trickier when you think about them like Tucker’s daughter. Scar had a point with how he resolved the issue but it was a tough situation either way.

For the heroes my only issue would be that at times they are ultra passive. I know that it’s hard to defeat a whole government but when the villain is in front of you then you have to act. You need to step up and do something instead of simply biding time. Things went over well but only thanks to characters like Olivier and Roy moving the story along. I fear that Ed and Alphonse would have been unable to do much to move the status quo forward. I’m sure they would want to do something but they just didn’t even know where to start.

Overall, The series may be well over 50 episodes but you will blast through it with ease. The story arcs are a lot of fun and there are so many great characters. It’s an amazing story all the way through and there just isn’t much to dislike. The characters can be a bit too passive in trying to stop the villains at times but I get how it would be difficult to stop such a large amount of them in this kind of setting. Either way, whether you like action or a good well written thriller, this is a series that I can recommend. It’s also a great launching point for folks who have never seen an anime before because it’s a solid story for any medium.

Overall 8/10

The Misfit of Demon King Academy II Review

Posted on July 6, 2025 by dreager1

Anos definitely started season 1 out like a champ as he took everyone down and proved his utmost brilliance. He conquered death itself and took the fight to the gods. I would say season 2 has a hard time topping that but Anos definitely looks as great as you’d expect. He’s still rocking gods and everyone else who gets in his ways. I always like when a main character is this OP and he even makes for a really heroic character. This is truly the character who has everything and while season 2 might not match the pop of season 1, it absolutely holds its own.

The first part of the season is really about dealing with Shin’s past as well as Misa’s true form as Avos. The past events naturally get a little more tension than in the present since the characters can’t interact with the past. That would be impossible right? Well…..this is Anos we’re talking about so lets just say he messes with the past anyway but it was a good attempt. Then with the Avos part, yeah Anos could crush her but he’s not the kind of guy to go all out against a friend so the real tough part is finding a way to defeat Avos without actually destroying Misa. Anos is a guy who always has the answers so we’ll have to see what he comes up with.

By this season the character cast is actually rather big. Like in Reincarnated as a Slime, it’s not enough for Anos to be completely overpowered, he’s also got the most overpowered squad backing him up. We’re talking gods, the strongest swordsman, the hero king reincarnated, etc. Anos and his squad really cannot be beat and to try and counter that, the villains have more gods of their own this time but it doesn’t ultimately make much of a difference. Some of these villains are indeed quite strong but this isn’t the kind of series where you are overly worried about the heroes. Anos will ultimately be around to save them should things go too far. The villains do their best to split the heroes up but it tends to be in vain.

Also like I mentioned before, the rest of the heroes are so powerful they rarely need Anos to bail them out at this point. I would say season 2 is a bit more of an ensemble product compared to season 1 where most of it was Anos humiliating everybody. No worries though, Anos is still an absolutely crucial figure so don’t think he’s getting written out of anything like that. Now that would have been sad.

On a technical level, season 2 doesn’t seem quite as high budget as season 1. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say it is less consistent. In season 1 the episodes were always super good looking while season 2 has its stand out scenes but also has some really average ones. So prepare for a bit of a bumpy ride at times but I will say that the important fight scenes always look really good. Additionally the soundtrack is still really good. I would say that the openings are not nearly as good as in season 1 but they are still catchy. Just not ones that you will listen to as often as the season 1 tunes. Those I ended up listening to quite a few times.

As for the characters, Anos is awesome as always. One thing they added in this season was to make Anos get an alternate identity as a kid which was pretty interesting. He’s still really smug in this form while also being able to offer advice to those who need it. It adds a little extra touch of humanity to the character. He’s always benevolent by nature but as a kid he is certainly more approachable for some characters than he would have been otherwise.

Meanwhile Shin gets a lot to do here. We get to meet his kid and wife. Turns out that the guy is a real softy once family is involved. His skills are still the real deal though as he continues to dominate Lay in combat. I like the rivalry that ends up developing as a result. Additionally, I tend to enjoy the trope of the doting father so seeing him be really strict with Lay is fun. That’s how the show is in general after all, maintaining a fun tone all the way. So this is another fun gag to add to the pile and I also really loved the battle of bonds with Shin and Anos taking on Lay and Misa.

It’s only natural that the love of a leader and subordinate would beat the budding love between boyfriend and girlfriend. Maybe in a few years once their feelings have had time to evolve even more then it could be different but could Anos lose in any competition? Yeah this was definitely a whole lot of fun. Reno also ends up being a really fun character. For most of the season you’re wondering exactly how her story is going to play out since appearing in a flashback is always a worrying sign. She is also fairly tough although in this verse at minimum you need to be top tier or you aren’t going to last very long in a fight. She goes through a lot but ultimately Anos ends up stepping in.

Sasha and Misha had their big character arcs in the first season but no worries they still get a lot to do here. They can now use their fusion form at will and in that mode they are also incredibly powerful. They even get a big fight of their own which was nice to see. Sasha still has her tough personality which always makes her a lot of fun to watch. Misha tends to still be quiet which isn’t as entertaining but she means well. I won’t be too harsh on her, she tends to be better than most of the quiet characters in this archetype at the very least.

Misa is a character who didn’t really stand out a lot in season 1 so this time she gets a massive role in the first half. It turns out that she is actually the true false dark lord and gets a massive power up along with her true form. In her true form she is much more assertive and I know that’s just a side effect of being evil initially but then later on she is able to utilize that personality at will. It’s still basically Misa in both forms and I would say it bumps up the character tremendously. It even makes her romance with Lay a lot more interesting. Season 2 absolutely bumped her up the most from all of the characters.

Meanwhile Lay still looks solid in the fight although his whole having 7+ souls thing becomes less and less impressive as the series goes on. Basically to actually defeat him you basically have to murder the guy a half dozen times right away before all of his souls regenerate. The big villains are able to do this rather quickly now and I would say Lay has had a real hard time keeping up with the other heavyweights in the verse. He is still really strong but the series goes all in on the power creep. It’s fitting for a title like this. Lay’s a good guy throughout the series though so his personality is on point.

One of the big OP villains for example is Nosgalia. The guy is one of those gods who can body hop and is always talking a really big game. From all of the villains I would say he easily shows the most arrogance against Anos. The guy is very powerful so I would say it is earned but of course at the end of the day he has nothing against Anos. While I respect his power, I can’t say that I cared very much for Nosgalia as a character though. Not my kind of villain and he’s definitely not the honorable sort.

Can’t say I was a big fan of Erdomaid either but that guy gets a considerable amount of hype too. Anos really tames him into being a forced servant for a good chunk of the season though. He almost literally cannot oppose Anos now that his powers are shackled but this guy is a real trickster. If anyone can have a second wind it’s him. In a way his goal is to make Anos the best demon lord possible but their sense of morals and what makes a good demon lord are completely incompatible. I would say Anos should just permanently off him but he is the kind of demon lord who tends to be merciful to a lot of characters so it’s not exactly surprising.

Now by this point you probably figure nobody can really do anything against Anos so what’s the next step? Well, what if Anos’ memories were tampered with. What if…he tampered with them? The only one who can possibly stop him would be himself so that makes things interesting. He meets up with the goddess of creation and she seems to know a lot but for now it’s fairly cryptic. Part of the second half is about Anos trying to regain those lost memories and find out why they were removed in the first place.

This actually leads into a tournament! The God Selection where 8 people will compete with their summoned gods in order to obtain true power. Anos doesn’t have a whole lot of interest in this but he is thrown into the mix regardless and at least this could give some clue as to where his true memories are. It’s not the most formalized kind of tournament as the combatants tend to do their own thing and everyone has an agenda but it was still pretty fun. I liked how high stakes it was and naturally this meant Anos would have time to style on everyone a bit more.

Away from all of the big battles, Emilia also gets a subplot to herself. Her character appearing in general was definitely a surprise. She was pretty awful in season 1 but now the true depths of Anos’ plan have finally hit. He is helping her to become a better person and the punishment of having to teach the pesky humans is just part of that. Her class was filled with a bunch of troublemakers and do-gooders but she is ultimately able to reach out to them. Thanks in no part to the corrupt headmaster who is just there to cause trouble. We see how Emilia had to eat lunch all by herself and was shunned by everyone. The scenes aren’t particularly long but do make you feel really bad for her. I was glad that she ended up getting a happy ending.

Eleonore and Zeshia also get to return thanks to the new venue. At this point the power creep has long since surpassed them but they still do well against the monsters that showed up. They’re generally fun characters like most of the cast so I was glad to see them around. Even the Anos fanclub gets to have their moment to shine with the songs so the series really made sure not to leave anybody behind.

Arcana is one of the god summons with the biggest roles here. She even gets a flashback and a pretty nice dynamic with Anos. He’s close friends with a lot of people but now he gets to be a big brother as well. She is certainly very powerful but when her master has her fight with Anos you know how that is going to turn out. Even literal gods have nothing on the Demon Lord of Tyranny. Arcana could have been at risk of being a little too naive and soft spoken but the show doesn’t play this up too hard so she ends up being fun.

Ahide is one of the big bosses of the final arc and he is strong but he also does spend a lot of time whining. He’s at his best when he maintains his cool, calm and collected outlook. It just never lasts for too long with these kinds of characters as Anos is around to shatter his illusion. Get ready for several tactical retreats as Anos always manages to convincingly crush him. Anos goes harder against him than usual as he really breaks the poor guy.

Then you have Ceris who claims to be Anos’ father. That definitely made for an interesting twist and he ends up being a very mysterious character. Finally someone who might be able to give Anos a run for his money right? Well at the very least I would say that it does make him very interesting. I thought he made for a fun wildcard as he seems to know a lot but stays cryptic during most of his appearances.

Diedrich is one of the first combatants to make a move so you already know that he’s doomed. He was quite powerful though and I did appreciate that he was always up for a fight. He also ends up being a lot more honorable than I would have expected so I ended up liking him. I was expecting him to be one of those crazy corrupt kings but I suppose that’s why you can’t judge a book by its cover. He perhaps overrates his abilities in relation to Anos’ just a tad but I won’t fault a character for being confident.

Golroana is another religious fanatic, the Pope himself! I did think it was pretty interesting to lean so hard on the religious angle for season 2. It makes sense though as this season focuses on how powerful legends and reputation can be for a character. This was especially relevant for Rena in the first arc but plays a role here too. Legends give you power and so likewise everyone believing in a religion would give those folks power. It’s the same concept as the Anos fan club giving him extra power when they sing his songs. So it’s not as if this is a new concept, if anything it has just been actively weaponized here a lot more than we had seen previously. It was a solid thematic element.

Yeah this season was definitely really satisfying. Now I won’t say it’s perfect or anything. it does still have the occasional bout of fanservice but on the whole I would say it’s surprisingly tame. It also helps that in general I love a good power fantasy so I don’t get bored of Anos being so overpowered. I could watch another 3 seasons of him just humiliating everyone and I would still be fine with it. They picked the perfect voice for him and it helps that he’s a generally nice guy. The show actually teaches you valuable lessons about friendship and everything.

Overall, Demon Misfit continues to be a great show. It’s another example of how solid writing will always be enough to clear the day. It may not have the absolute budget of other titles but it doesn’t ultimately need them. The show looks great when it counts like I mentioned earlier but it also absolutely nails the humor aspect. The character cast is also really strong so you have all the elements you need for a great show. This is one I could definitely recommend to anyone looking for a fun anime to watch.

Overall 8/10

Rurouni Kenshin Season 2: Kyoto Disturbance Review

Posted on June 29, 2025 by dreager1

It’s time for the return of Rurouni Kenshin. This season begins the build up to the most well known of all the Kenshin sagas. Shishio is here with his elite 10 swords and Kenshin’s sense of justice will be pushed to its limit. Can he manage to defeat them without going back to his killing ways? Winning as a Rurouni will put him at a disadvantage but this is still the way that he wants to win. It will mean potentially getting his friends out of the picture but they won’t let him do that so easily.

The series starts off pretty quickly with Kenshin deciding to head to Kyoto where the action will be. Saito will be there as well to fend off the invaders but first he takes out Kenshin’s friend Sanosuke to prove why Kenshin left him behind. This boxer is going to have to get a whole lot stronger. In general all of Kenshin’s allies have to strengthen themselves in order to be ready for this mission. At the same time, Aoshi has returned and he wants revenge on Kenshin even if it means joining up with the villains. Kenshin’s honor code may be stronger than ever but Aoshi has ditched all of that. At this point all he cares about is getting his revenge. His judgment may be clouded but his abilities are as dangerous as ever so this won’t be easy.

One thing’s clear from the start, Kenshin can’t possibly win this on his own. Naturally he does want to keep everyone out of harm’s way but he’s not really fighting at his best right now and he’s also completely outnumbered. While he could probably defeat any of the 10 swords individually, he wouldn’t stand a chance as a group. It’s also hard to say if he could beat either Shishio or Aoshi one on one. Fortunately Kenshin gets a whole training arc later on which helps him to finally regain his old abilities.

As always, you have to decide if you feel like Kenshin is going too far in his pacifism or if it is admirable that he would sooner die than take a life. Although when hostages are at stake then he is more likely to act. It’s hard for me to directly fault him for that but it can be rough to see him effectively be sandbagging mid fight when people can die at any second. Of course the remedy to this is to get so strong that you can win even while holding back. That is the path that Kenshin must go down.

Meanwhile you have Yahiko who is still trying to be one of the big main characters but just gets in the way the whole time. I know he means well but this is why the kids can be annoying. He knows very well that he shouldn’t be anywhere near the battlefield and yet he still comes to Kyoto with the others. Yahiko is just a kid and even though he has some training under his belt, he’s far too weak to be of any help at this point. It’ll likely be a very long time until that changes either so he really just needs to stay home.

I have the same criticism for Kaoru. She’s not a real fighter and Kenshin left her behind for a reason. Deciding to follow him after that is completely selfish and potentially puts all of their lives in the balance. You just can’t be doing that and of course it puts him in an awkward spot as well. It’s not like he can force her to stay back and he’s generally too polite to be too harsh about the whole thing. But this does mean that he has yet another person that must be protected.

Megumi is probably the smartest member of the side characters. She knows her limits and so she helps with medicinal herbs but isn’t trying to just constantly get Kenshin’s attention like the others. I definitely respect her for that and in general she has the roughest road because you know that for Kenshin she has no chance over Kaoru. He didn’t even give her a personal goodbye like the others and she took it in stride instead of immediately sulking.

Sanosuke is the only guy I can defend when it comes to defying orders. He is still a fighter after all even if he isn’t nearly as strong as Kenshin or Saito. Things work out well for him in that he is able to train and get stronger. So that definitely makes things even easier. Sanosuke has a right to die on the battlefield with the others and at least he will give it his all. So yeah in his case this is just what I would call proper determination. He even gets to contribute at several points in the arc. I look forward to seeing him continue to his best and get stronger still. With all of the sword fighters around, it can be fun to have an old fashioned hand to hand specialist.

Then we have Saito who is easily the best ally to have around. His sword fighting is top tier and he can even match Kenshin. The most impressive moment though was when he crushed Sanosuke in hand to hand combat. When you can defeat a hand to hand specialist in something like this when that’s not even your main weapon of choice, well that is absolutely a flex. He’s a very practical guy and while he is very aggressive, it’s never at the expense of strategy. Saito is even a good judge of character as he knows exactly who to leave the district with later on. Saito can’t be everywhere at once after all and unlike Kenshin, he is tied to the government. So there are limits to how far Saito can go and what he can do. The guy just does his best in maximizing all of it.

We know that he is ultra powerful, but Saito actually doesn’t get a ton of action scenes just yet. So that is something to look forward to. A fight that would be a lot of fun would be him for Aoshi. Both of them are extremely skilled and bloodthirsty after all. Aoshi may be a complete villain at this point but he is certainly an interesting one. I would even say he is more interesting than Shishio at this point in time. You get the feeling that Aoshi could possibly even take him on. We’ll find out the answer to this soon but for now it’s just fun to see how he fears absolutely nobody. Aoshi just does whatever he wants and fights when he pleases. He just lives for revenge now and his skills are sharper than ever.

He even surpasses his clan rather easily. Okina used to be the big leader there and the guy is still strong but I wouldn’t say it was a particularly close fight. Aoshi has reached new limits with his abilities while Okina has gotten old. Age is something that will ultimately defeat the strongest of warriors. The clan was fun to see overall but it’s not like any of them are a big threat to Aoshi. The member with the biggest role is definitely Misao and even then it’s more about her trying to find him and not because she is a deadly fighter. She is still a step up from Yahiko though without a doubt. At least Misao has a ninja background and can absolutely end the various enemies who get in her way. She’s also generally fun so I can overlook her being in the way to an extent. She actually adds some fun banter and humor.

Shishio is the big bad so you know he will be really strong but for now he’s mainly still aura farming. The guy will have to prove himself in the next season but he does enough as the main villain to still be solid. He’s perhaps winging it a little too much with his underlings though as they came pretty close to thinking about turning on him. With his right hand man Sojiro he would still be okay even against the other 9 deadly swords but he really doesn’t have time for any infighting right now. Kenshin and friends would absolutely be glad to have less opponents.

Sojiro has already gotten to prove himself with several really impressive moments. It’s why the guy is already a really fun villain. I tend to like the right hand man villain type who can hold himself at a really high level like this. In another series he could have even ended up being the main villain. So you definitely don’t want to sleep on this guy, even Kenshin was taken by surprise with his high level of skill. Considering how young he is as well, you could say that he is a true prodigy.

Hoji is one of those guys who is loyal to a fault. He’s not a top tier fighter or anything but he would definitely give his life to ensure that Shishio wins. He sees that as his absolute focus in life and will do anything to see it through. Certainly impressive, I can say that much. I ended up liking him more than I expected to by the end. I don’t always love the advisor types but in this case he was convincing enough in the role to get me to take him seriously.

Anji is one of the more honorable villains. At the very least he isn’t going around murdering for fun but it’s always important to keep in mind that he is still fighting on the side of the villains. By allying himself with them, he definitely takes on a large part of the guilt. No amount of grandstanding can change that. He seems like one of the more powerful villain members but we’ll have to see how that shakes out. He definitely seems stronger than Cho for example since that guy was captured pretty quick. He’s also portrayed as more of a rival to Sanosuke while Anji is seen as being above him.

Usui is probably the biggest wildcard among the villains since he is willing to openly go against Shishio and basically dare the guy to make a move. A bold play to be sure and I would even say that Shishio allows too much here. It would be a better look if he had taken Usui down already. I know he wants to conserve strength and all but that would be a way to really ensure that all other villains completely stayed in line. I know right now they do follow his orders without question and all but adding a little more oomph to that is certainly not a bad idea.

The animation is really solid as always. You really feel the various sword clashes between characters and the choreography is on point. The colors really stand out and the sounds do a good job of showing the power behind each blow. meanwhile the soundtrack has a lot of variety and fits the moments well. I wouldn’t say that the opening or ending particularly stands out but it’s not bad either. The show is definitely backed up well on the technical front.

Meanwhile the writing is good as always with the story being very interesting. The arc has a whole lot of fight scenes going on nonstop which is really exciting. This is the kind of story that is always fun even without fights but of course you are always glad to see them appear and take the story to the next level. Yes, definitely no complaints here. I felt like there was a big fight in nearly every episode and even when it was for characters I’m not too engaged with like Misao’s ninjas, it still worked well. The show was trying to get everyone involved including the villagers so I can appreciate the teamwork nature of it all.

Kenshin having to constantly deal with the fallout of his actions is also good. At the end of the day when you live by a strong creed, there will definitely be things that come with that. His mentor was also good at making sure Kenshin stuck by his decisions by even upping the stakes of them. The mentor is the kind of guy who always shows off a really gruff exterior but means well when it counts. I would say he still seems to be considerably stronger than Kenshin at this time so the hero will need more training.

Finally the show still depicts how a fairly simple story can still be super engaging. At its core this is a very simple show. A bunch of terrorists are trying to overthrow the government and Kenshin has to stop them. All of the heroes and villains are known, we’ve already got most of the matchups and the climax is approaching. There isn’t a need for a bunch of twists or mysteries, the show is just very confident in its story and rewards you with the strong banter and matchups. Due to how corrupt the government is, it also allows you to see the villains as more than 2D villains who are just trying to destroy the world. It’s not enough where you’d root for them over Kenshin but it is solid writing all the same.

Overall, Kenshin season 2 was a lot of fun as expected. We still got great fight scenes at every turn and the animation was really solid. I enjoyed the soundtrack quite a lot as well. It’s fair to say that the technical aspects across the whole show are fundamentally really strong. A lot of work goes into every part of it. I’m definitely looking forward to season 3 as it will be adapting the peak of the series. So long as the budget stays high this will be another all star title. It had one of the more satisfying climaxes to an arc in the manga as well.

Overall 8/10

X Men ’97 Review

Posted on June 22, 2025 by dreager1

It’s time for the big sequel to the classic X-Men 90s show. There was definitely a whole lot of hype for this one the whole time so could it live up to that? Well, I’d say it definitely did, they cover a whole lot of ground within the short time frame they had. I’d say there was only one particularly weak episode which is mainly just because I didn’t care at all about Storm’s subplot but beyond that you could expect a lot of action and setup throughout the rest of the season. I’ll be eagerly awaiting season 2 to see what comes next.

The show starts off with the X-Men doing what they do best, saving humanity from the shadows. Storm and Bishop are taken down rather easily during the battle though and the X-Men may not be in their best fighting shape without Professor Xavier. Fortunately, that’s where Magneto steps in. He confirms that Xavier left it in his will for Magneto to take over the team after his death. It’s such a crazy move that the X-Men know in their hearts how true it must be. Only Xavier would think of doing something like this. Magneto must now find a way to get humanity and mutants to exist in harmony. Only problem is, when has humanity existed in harmony with anybody?

This show is allowed to aim a bit older than the original and as a result I would say it inadvertently makes one of the strongest cases for Magneto’s dream over Xavier’s. When I say “inadvertent” I don’t mean that the show had no idea it was pushing the Magneto narrative as it is a major plot of the season but I do think they forgot to give Xavier any compelling points. I usually don’t have a whole lot of patience for the old guy and this show makes it tougher than ever. He really comes off as being completely out of touch with reality and someone who just wants to keep on trying the same old things time and time again. Lets recap the visions.

Xavier believes that mutants and humans can coexist in peace. To that end, he has the X-Men save lives and do their best to get a good image out there. They fight the evil mutants to prevent them from harming this dream but along the way you also have governments secretly funding sentinel programs, plagues that target mutants, and general anti mutant sentiment that has always been rather high. The heroes have been fighting this war for years now and you could argue that the goal is farther away than ever. In this show we see a genocide of mutants as well as yet another sentinel program. Xavier’s response to this? It’s time to give humanity a chance. I think we run into the sunk cost fallacy here.

Yes, Bastion doesn’t work for the government so this sentinel program is a bit different but it doesn’t change the fact that yet again, mutants around the world are being taken down and nobody is ready to stop it. Xavier won’t change his ways or his mind at all though and just continues to go through with the same lines, even deciding to allow a further genocide of the mutants by shutting down Magneto and re-activating all of the sentinels around the world. This is probably his worst idea but I’ll get more into that during the Magneto side. Xavier is criticized for effectively abandoning the planet for love and his critics in the show are not wrong. Yeah things didn’t turn out well for him and he came back, but he is not in a position to just come back and start barking orders. It just doesn’t work that way. He means well, but I do think that he has not kept up with the times. Xavier will have to work hard to be even slightly likable in season 2.

Now lets talk about Magneto. His idea has changed a little more than Xavier’s. The initial plan was for mutants to basically take over the world. He figures that a war between human and mutants is inevitable and so he will have to unite the mutants and destroy all of the humans before they can begin to fight back. Pretty drastic and of course it’s why he is a villain. He then switched it to just separating the mutants and humans but that didn’t work thanks to insider traitors and then the second time they all basically got nuked. So now it’s time to basically cripple the world and give the mutants a chance to survive thanks to their meta abilities. This will also be another genocide though, basically a genocide to prevent another genocide.

Naturally this is a tough call but it’s a lot like Attack on Titan. When you know for a fact that the other side is going to destroy you then perhaps you should be the one to fire first? In most situations you can’t know what the future will hold of course, but in this series you actually get to see the future on more than one occasion. So that’s why I end up leaning towards Magneto’s idea here. It’s just hard to go against him when you know for a fact that his decisions will save a whole lot of mutants. He had to watch thousands and thousands of mutants die right in front of his eyes. Very few characters would have made a different decision at that point. So the big EMP, yeah Magneto was right in that case. The X-Men should have tried negotiating with him rather than just showing up with their bravado and basically aiming to murder him. They acted more leniently towards Bastion which is crazy.

So I definitely enjoyed Magneto’s character a whole lot here. His subplot with Rogue was pretty annoying though and the only blip in his character arc. Even ignoring the age gap, it just happens too fast and he’s been away for too long. It also didn’t make sense for Rogue to entertain this at all. She ended up wavering way too much which caused other problems. The X-Men franchise has always been one to have a lot of dramatic romance plots so it’s not entirely unexpected. The Cyclops drama was just a lot more compelling but we’ll get into that soon.

Cyclops gets a lot of screentime here and really makes the most of it. From the start we see how confident he is and the guy has really mastered his abilities. He has quite a few great fights here and the guy looks more powerful than ever. He is the voice of reason for the team but it’s also clear that things are starting to frustrate him. Certainly having Xavier pick Magneto as leader over him was a big cause for this. Cyclops even has a testy interview in one of the episodes where he calls out the humans. I thought it worked well and in a lot of ways it reminds me of Superman in Justice League Unlimited who was also starting to show a lot of cracks in his cheery disposition.

The biggest drama for Cyclops is the arrival of a second Jean Grey. It turns out that he has been with a clone for a long time now and the only question is for how long has it been the clone? The show is careful to keep this rather ambiguous so it could have been days, weeks, or even years. It’s got to be a very weird situation to be in and Cyclops admittedly doesn’t handle it all that well. The relationship with him and both Jeans gets to be very rocky. It’s not always his fault though as after a while it gets convoluted enough where all 3 of them start to make mistakes. For what it’s worth, Cyclops always does his best but he should have definitely talked straight up with both of them more. His biggest mistake was being real secretive the whole time, like meeting up with one of the Jeans in secret mind melds.

Madelyne (The first Jean) is a solid character as she is the one whose life is really tossed upside down. She is labeled as the clone and overnight all of her friends basically go to the other Jean. It makes sense since it’s not like there is anything debatable about this. The blood test results are quite certain but to Madelyne, her memories all feel real. This basically results in her needing to leave the mansion and from there things really don’t go well for her at all. It does feel like a bit of wasted potential though because we see how immensely powerful she is and then she basically doesn’t get another fight. I do think she could have gotten a bit more to do.

As for Jean, she ends up being on the more timid side for a while since everything is rather awkward to her. She has the memories but doesn’t know which ones are hers so it’s almost like she’s a stranger now. Her whole relationship with Cyclops is certainly strained. By the end of the series she is starting to come into her own again although one moment did not feel particularly earned. The series wrote itself into a bit of a jam with how powerful one of the villains was so Jean had to get a real sudden power up. We’ll see how that ends up developing in the next season.

Wolverine doesn’t get a whole lot to do in this season. He does do well in the fights that he does get and lends a really good hit on Magneto. I would have liked for him to have gotten more to do but at least he didn’t waste a single scene. I do have to dock some points for him on the quick fling with one of the Jeans though. He could have done more to prevent the moment from happening and naturally it was a bad look for that Jean as well. His romance plot was always rather shaky because he is effectively acting like a homewrecker always causing trouble. He really needs to do a better job of sealing his feelings off.

Then we have Morph who is probably the worst at using his abilities. He is not only able to transform into other people but he gets their abilities as well. He can seemingly pick any mutant as we se him pick powerful ones like the Juggernaut at times. So why would you ever pick someone as weak as Deathstrike or some of the other street level fighters? Keep on picking the Hulk and Quicksilver. It’s a fun way to make a lot of guest stars appear but you do have to stretch your disbelief when he gets tagged while being the Quicksilver for example. I assume his copies do have some severe limits but super speed is super speed. If he ever learns how to fight then Morph will really be a fighter to be reckoned with. Compared to the rest of the X-Men he doesn’t seem to have had his big character arc yet so I’ll be expecting that to show up in season 2.

Same with Bishop who appears early on to lose against some thugs and then returns at the very end to aura farm a bit. Bishop’s powers are really handy with hos he can absorb energy and fire it back. He should easily be one of the heavy hitters here so I am expecting big things from him. Generally he’s not quite as fun as Cable but this is his chance to outshine the other guy. Cable looks good as always. He really does his best to keep on changing the past so it’s always tough when the future remains bleak. After a point you have to assume that the future is just doomed to be a dark one no matter what happens. It’s almost as if the Marvel Universe is always doomed to destruction. Still, he never gives up.

Then we have two characters in Jubilee and Roberto who get a fairly big role. Roberto is the newest member to the group and he tries to keep his mutant identity a secret. I feel like the reasons should be fairly obvious but this doesn’t stop Jubilee from putting a whole mountain of pressure on the guy. After a while you really feel bad for him because I would want to keep it a secret as well. Mutants are constantly being hunted and the ki is rich so now it will be a double target. Sure enough, things do not go very well once he does reveal his identity. I didn’t think that Jubilee was particularly patient on this and later on when they end up fighting, Roberto has to try and be the voice of reason while Jubilee is out for blood. Jubilee may have gotten older but she still feels immature. I will give her props for battling well in the Modok level though. It was easily her best appearance as she used a whole lot of strategy to come out on top there. Things could have easily gone sideways otherwise. She is still a fun character but the romance didn’t make her look particularly good. In general the pairing just didn’t seem to work very well with how easy it was to pull apart.

Then we have Storm and Forge which takes the cake as the most boring plot. Like I said in the intro, it’s the only part that I just didn’t care about. So Storm loses her powers and Forge helps her out but naturally there is some drama and then he also begins to like her. The romance is rather fast and Storm is a bit too emotional the whole time. I think she heavily overreacted when finding out the kind of technology that he was working on. The random demon that showed up was pretty interesting but then ended up being taken away too soon. I think the idea of this plot could have been interesting but it just dragged on a bit too much. It also could have helped if Storm had looked more impressive in the opening instead of being taken out by some random humans.

The Beast has his own romantic subplot where he is a jerk to a reporter right away. Yet another superficial romance plot where one misstep causes a lot of friction. I blamed Beast on most of this because he didn’t really give her a chance. Beast generally didn’t have much to do in this season which isn’t really his fault though. I’m guessing he will be doing a whole lot more in the next season. Nightcrawler didn’t appear until later on in the season and yet his role was felt a whole lot quicker. He does well in the fights and the teleporting is always really cool. It’s the kind of ability that you really want to have on your side because of how versatile it is. That can always be handy in a fight.

Time for Rogue and Gambit which is naturally a whole magnet for drama. They were always flirting back in the old days but would let the status quo stay the same. Well, now Gambit waited too long and Rogue is drifting around which ends up causing a lot of regrets for both of them. To Gambit’s side, he can only blame himself for not trying to make things more official sooner. By waiting he really did not put himself in a great spot. He does get some pretty cool fight scenes though and generally did a good job in the series.

I’m afraid Rogue comes across as way too indecisive the whole time. She’s rather petty with Captain America and then can’t stop herself from crossing the line later on. While I have no issues with her big decision near the end of the series, it would have probably worked better if not for a lot of the baggage from earlier on in the series. So you could say that things really did not go her way. Her powers look impressive as always though, she is easily one of the strongest X-Men.

There are a solid array of villains running around here. I enjoyed both Gyrich and Trask as always. They have been meddling in the X-Men’s way for a very long time and are up to their old trick. Up to a point you almost have to respect their endless determination here. They will continue doing everything they can in order to destroy the humans until they are stopped. Everyone knows it and yet they are hard to stop. The show deals with this theme as well but a whole lot of humans openly support them. It’s why even in Jail they are able to get big updates on what is going on in the outside world as well as tools on what to do next.

Master Mold even gets a little bit to do here. The first iteration doesn’t look all that impressive but the second one is on point. You’d think sentinels are old hat by this point but the show finds a way to make them still look impressive. I suppose at the end of the day with enough of them they will always be fairly powerful. Sinister also gets to show up and does pretty well in his fights. The guy has always been a fairly strong combatant who just ends up picking fights with opponents who are stronger than him each time. Not a good recipe for success of course and he definitely finds that out the hard way each time. I do think they’ve done about as much as they can with him though so I don’t think the guy needs to appear much more in the future.

Bastion gets a big role near the end but I can’t say that I bought into his backstory all that much. Yeah he had a rough past but that’s true for so many characters in this series. He didn’t have to fully go evil or anything like that. So he’s fully responsible for what’s going on and should have made better life choices if he didn’t want it to go like this. His design and abilities are pretty cool though. Definitely makes for some pretty fun fights.

There are also a ton of guest stars throughout the series with more minor X-Men characters showing up as well as people completely unrelated like Avengers and other figures. I definitely appreciated this because it makes the universe feel that much bigger. Yes, you can end up questioning where the heroes are during other event and that’s valid but showing them on occasion is better than nothing. I also have high hopes that in the next season we will see a bit more of an active role from some. It’s best not to get your hopes too high of course. This is still an X-Men series but I can actually picture an Avengers vs X-Men series now which would definitely be really cool. There is a lot of build up for it after all. The trick will be in not making the Avengers appear to be complete government lackeys but since the X-Men are always infighting it’s possible that the X-Men will even end up being the villains here. In the comics it would usually depend on the writer for the tie-in/event.

There are probably over 100 different guest stars across the series and so keeping that balance throughout the seasons will definitely be the key part. Still, if any series can do it, this one can. As the first big revival season, it’ll be difficult to defeat this one but still season 2 could have a shot. In the meantime the series certainly succeeded on a technical level as well. I enjoyed the opening remix as well as the general tunes during the show. The animation may not be as good as the original show but they did a good job of emulating the look and I would say that it worked out pretty well. There were some real crisp cuts in the fights for several episodes.

One thing that the show continues to do really well is challenge you with moral debates as well. The X-Men go through a whole lot of difficult ordeals, both physically and mentally. This season is no different as the heroes have to fight against their own extinction and there are several ways to go about it. So the debates with Magneto vs Xavier, Madelyne vs Jean, and others are all very interesting. The fights don’t tend to be one sided as you can make good cases both ways but it’s good practice as a thought experiment for you to think about it and pick a side. As for the romance drama, well that’s gonna be more of a miss generally but I suppose even that is usually handled with some tact. Although most of the romances still end up getting a thumbs down.

The show ends off with some pretty big cliffhangers for season 2. I would say it was about 50/50 for me in terms of excitement. I really liked the stinger in the present timeline as this villain is always really exciting. That should make for some great entertainment. The plot in the past? Eh, I don’t really care so much about that one. It’s an origin that’s fairly straight forward unless they throw in some curveballs. The future should be fun as that always tends to be the best era. So a lot to look forward to in season 2, we’ll have to see how it stacks up against season 1. I would say the only worrisome element will be if we don’t spend a lot of time in the present since the guest stars were really starting to exert their presence and this will feel like they’re stalling for season 3 to be the big Marvel crossover event season.

Overall, X Men 97 was definitely a great series. It really goes by quickly and every episode was really exciting. The animation does a good job of emulating the original series and of course the ost is solid as well. This is a show that has nailed all of the fundamentals and so it is not a surprise that the product ends up being great. I can really recommend it to anyone and while watching the original series will give you the greatest level of enjoyment, you can jump into this one and still have a real blast. Episode 1 gives you all that you need to know about who the X-Men are and what they stand for.

Overall 8/10

Tower of God Season 2 Review

Posted on January 26, 2025 by dreager1

We had to wait a long time for Tower of God to make its big return so everyone was eager to see just how good it would look. Well, unfortunately the series isn’t one of the more big budget ones to put it mildly. The story is a 10/10 though so the series was always going to be great unless they changed something about the plot. Fortunately the cuts weren’t all that bad here. Some stuff is missing to be sure but all in all I thought they did an impressive job with it. It’s no season 1 but this show was definitely a lot of fun.

The story takes place a long time after season 1. Our new main character is Wangnan who is trying to climb up the tower but he has been having a hard time so far. He owes a lot of money to the local Yakuza so this is his last chance. There are a scary batch of recruits this time around too including the mysterious Viole who is the latest Slayer candidate. Since he is sponsored directly by FUG, getting on his bad side would not be a good idea. As luck would have it, they are placed on the same team along with a variety of other colorful characters. Will they be able to succeed or are they all doomed to die? In the meantime, the old characters like Khun are still making their moves to climb the tower and get justice for Baam.

There is a lot going on here as you would expect since this was always a very dialogue heavy series with a lot of storylines going on. This one adds a whole lot of characters to the existing roster which was already quite sizable. There is definitely a lot to keep up with here and the story has to move fast so don’t expect to have too many moments to relax and digest what just happened. Naturally I tend to enjoy fast pacing so that was pretty fun. I’d say it is still enough where you can understand what is going on even without reading the original manhua. It makes things easier for sure though.

So the story is super compelling as always and that’s why I say the series was destined for greatness. As for the animation, it’s not bad. It went for a more traditional look than the first season and while I think that can be good to show off the higher power levels, it really isn’t taken to the fullest. This animation style feels very familiar after all but it doesn’t have the same budget that bigger titles have. So as a result the fights aren’t super fluid or tend to have a lot of movement. At the very end of the season we get some quick cuts but that’s about it. The big punch with Viole and Urek is still a lot of fun even if the animation isn’t super high tier or anything though. I guess it’s another moment where I would give the story itself the most credit.

Fortunately the soundtrack is still really good like in season 1. There are a lot of reused tracks but they still age well. The cliffhanger theme when Urek is fighting Viole is definitely the best one. The openings/endings aren’t as catchy as season 1’s were but they are still good. I’ve listened to them a whole lot and at this point I’m used to them but I still couldn’t say that they are elite or really stand out. They do work better when you ignore the images though. The first opening’s is still criminally low budget. There were some artistic ideas there but they failed.

The decision to make this season 2 cours was definitely a really good one because of how much content there was to adapt. They will probably need 4 cours in order to adapt the Hell Train arc properly but we’ll see how that goes. Hopefully the wait isn’t super long for the next season because it’s rough to have to wait for so long each time. The next arc is my personal favorite of the series after all so I need it right away!

Wangnan makes for a pretty fun main character and I would say he’s a lot more fun than Baam from the first season. That kid was nice enough but Wangnan has more of a personality. He has dreams and aspirations and works hard to make them come true. He may not be the most powerful fighter in the tower but he doesn’t need to be. He just needs good allies and gets some decent feats as the season goes on. He’s more of a comedic lead but that doesn’t stop him from getting serious moments as well. He does what he needs to in order to go higher in the tower.

Miseng is one of the main party members but she can’t really fight much which puts her in a tough spot. The tower is a cruel place and trying to climb it without being able to fight is a really terrible idea. I feel bad for her of course but cmon now. This is just not going to work. She just ends up holding the team back the whole time and since she knows it, this causes Miseng to make some pretty bad moves the whole time. The whole thing is really just a wash for her and she should probably have gotten kicked out of the exams earlier. It only gets rougher the more you climb up after all.

Then there is Goseng who is in a similar boat as she can’t fight. What’s with all of these civilians trying to climb the tower? It’s just such a bad idea and the series sets up a little romance for her but you can’t imagine it ending in anything other than a tragic way. It’s just not possible to climb while constantly having to protect others. She doesn’t seem to be working on her abilities either so for now she isn’t rising up for me.

Akraptor is the tough guy who seems unhinged at first but has a soft side. Still, this is finally someone who can really fight so I am on board with having him around. He is able to keep his cool and keep the others in line when needed. He also tries to put up a fight against Viole although going for cheap shots against Horyang wasn’t smart with how high the stakes were. The guy adds a little spice to the team dynamic by being someone who can’t 100% be trusted so I appreciated that.

Horyang is another pretty powerful fighter and he’s got a sinister past. Definitely someone to keep an eye on and he gets a big role in the arc as other figures from his past turn up. I think he can be a bit too soft spoken but once his mini arc starts, he did get more serious and pro active. So I would say I hesitantly like him. I would like him to do more in the future though instead of just being dragged around a whole lot. He also needs to not make such a reckless move in leaving the heroes again since that just puts them all in danger.

Yeon is a pretty high ranking individual among the family hierarchy so when she shows up you expect a whole lot out of her. Unfortunately she can’t control her flames which is a classic way to nerf her. She’s not bad but considering how much hype the flames themselves get, it can be annoying to see people blocking them or straight up tanking the blasts. She absolutely needs to improve her abilities and do it quickly. Fortunately for her, Tower of God is one of those titles that doesn’t put a ton of stock on speed so she will still be able to tag speedsters even if it doesn’t make sense. Still, you need more than flames to win in this world because being a one trick pony is a recipe for disaster.

Viole is the power hitter that the team needed so it’s always good to have him around. He also doesn’t live up to the hype as much as you would want in the show version. As the slayer candidate his abilities are supposed to be absolutely legendary and on a whole different level yet he doesn’t look quite as overwhelmingly powerful as you would expect. If anything it just seems like his aura is slightly greater than the others which isn’t the all powerful buff that you would think it is. I would have liked to have seen more out of him.

Even so, it’s clear that he is stronger than the rest of the guys on his team so that’s good. Additionally just the fact that he stood up to Urek even for a moment was impressive since everybody else was chickening out immediately. When you are trying to climb the tower, you sometimes have to have a defining moment where you stand against the strong and this was it. It’s a lesson that the other characters could definitely learn from.

Take Prince for example. He may have looked tough at first as one of the villains but the instant he joined the heroes, the guy lost all his hype. It’s not like we needed another kid type character on the crew either. He doesn’t really contribute much at all except to hold the heroes back so I can’t say that I was a big fan of his either. On the whole you can see why I preferred the team from the season 1 group. I tended to enjoy everybody there while here the team can be hit or miss.

Then of course we have Khun’s team led by the man himself. Khun is solid as always here as he thinks 3 steps ahead and always has a plan. This is around the time he became a full time strategist. In season 1 he was also rather dominant physically but I suppose by this time the opponents are getting stronger. I would like to see him fight more though because I have to assume he’s still stronger than a lot of people. He doesn’t see into every possible contingency nor does he win every battle but on the whole he looks good. Khun is great at adapting to the circumstance and always keeping a confident demeanor up no matter what.

Dan is the new recruit Khun finds who has super speed. Uh oh, we all know how super speed can get kinda dicey when it comes to power levels right? Well, naturally it’s not all that good for Dan and he doesn’t get to show it off as much as I would like. The show does a good job of making him immediately likable though. I thought he was a really well developed character though and somebody who was just fun to root for.

Most of Khun’s other members aren’t all that memorable but there were two others who left an impact. First up is Novik who is one of those strong guys who is always overshadowed by having someone more powerful than him on the team. That has to be rough to know that you are pretty powerful but will never get that elusive #1 spot. Doesn’t feel all that fair right? Well he doesn’t let it get him down. It’s a bit hard to gauge Novik’s strength as well because he’s often either much stronger than his opponent or much weaker. There’s not really much of an in between here.

Then you have Ran who is a lot of fun. The guy is super confident and powerful. He reminds me a lot of Killua from Hunter X Hunter. His smugness is definitely deserved with how easily he dispatches his opponents. I like his fighting style so you could say that everything about the character is great from start to finish. He’s really fun to root for and gets a good amount of screentime. Khun definitely did really well to recruit this guy.

Shibisu has his own team as well which is a mix of new characters and old ones. The guy has really come a long way from being more of a loudmouth to a strategist who is treated a lot like Khun. The first season set up the seeds for this and the payoff was really good. He’s still not really a fighter though so tactics are really how he shines in the battles. If you take that away from him then he will really be in a tough spot here.

One of his new recruits is Vespa who is a strong fighter. Vespa brags a lot about having an awakened form and being the fastest but ends up fighting people who are either faster or who have hax which is unfortunate. I still like the character though. I don’t like Verdi as much because she seems borderline evil. She likes to collect people as puppets and brainwash them. That’s not exactly hero behavior so I don’t know what she is doing with these guys. I guess it was one of those strategic partnerships to look the other way but that isn’t a huge consolation to me. You have to reign that “Anything goes” attitude a little bit or you will become the villains.

Endorsi is also part of the group but she really does whatever she wants. It’s fun to see her absolute freedom though and continues to be one of the more powerful fighters. She gets a lot of hype on this one and also on an intellectual level as she quickly figures out that something is a little off about Viole. I definitely look forward to her continuing to have a pretty big role.

Anaak also gets her own solid fight so her fans should be pleased. Her durability gets a lot of respect and she is a high end fighter as well. For the most part you would expect her to be able to defeat most of the other fighters in each group. She is quick to want to get revenge for Baam which I appreciate. That’s how a real friend does it. Unfortunately I would say Hatz looks far less impressive. I really liked him in season 1 but it’s clear that he has lost to the power creep. Gone are the days where he could fight on par with Anaak. Hatz gets his own sub plot ad everything but he just doesn’t have the edge that he used to which is a shame.

Then on the FUG team we have Refejo at the helm. He’s a rather mysterious guy who seems loyal but is always having a backup plan at the ready. In fairness to the guy, trusting anyone in the Tower of God is a really bad move so I don’t blame him. His suspicions turn out to be correct more often than not. He ends up making for a really good villain and is one of the standout antagonists here. The guy can back up his tough talk really well.

Varagav may be stronger but the guy has less character. We get to see him fight Endorsi but that’s about it. I do like the foreshadowing with Baylord Yama being mentioned though. Beta was a more impressive villain as he really gave Viole a tough fight. The guy was pretty whiny so I won’t say he’s as likable as some of the other villains but the guy made his presence known. He really gave all of the characters a really tough fight throughout.

Another villain is Quaetro but he stops being a threat early on. His fight with Wangnan was a lot of fun though. For the most part the fights in the series tend to be serious so having a little comedic moment once in a while isn’t bad. His partner Chang gets even less to do but does seem to be stronger. Maybe one day we will really get to see him cut loose although it feels like the power creep has already passed him. The series really moves fast when it comes to powers.

That’s not even counting characters who appear but haven’t fought yet. Karaka gets a few appearances to gloat and look tough. He’s a solid villain so I look forward to him getting a role. Then of course we have his master Jinsung who gets even more hype. The kind of guy who doesn’t mind walking into a villain’s base all on his own just to talk smack. Now that’s a good level of confidence that I like to see.

Of course Urek towers above all of those as one of the strongest characters in the whole franchise. The guy loves a good fight and really shows off his power. Definitely someone you will want to see more of and he really steals the show even with a very limited amount of screentime. It will be a while before he does anything again so you better savor the moment while you can. His appearance was like a glimpse into the end game.

Then we have Xia Xia who isn’t the strongest villain but she still finds ways to shake everybody up so I can appreciate that. She is crazy in a very dangerous way with no tactic being out of bounds. I thought she did a good job of playing everybody and while her role isn’t large, it was impactful. She’s almost like the reverse Hwaryun who also trolls everybody constantly. Hwaryun gets more hype though since as a guide her foresight is pretty much unstoppable. She will always be on the path that she needs to be. Granted, it doesn’t stop her from being knocked out but you always assume that she got knocked out at a good time for her or something like that.

Emily is a mysterious figure and most of her scenes had to get cut out for the anime. Not that it changes much since she keeps the mysterious aura either way. I wasn’t crazy about the subplot in regards to her true identity but I did like the idea of a texting app that everybody was using in order to stay ahead. That added a fun wrinkle to the Workshop battle arc and kept all of the characters guessing. The more mind games in Tower of God the better!

Still, any scene with the Traveler would usually be pretty uneventful and dare I say a bit boring. I just didn’t care about the guy and not even the anime adaption would end up fixing that. He doesn’t appear a ton fortunately so that worked out. As one more miscellaneous hero, Rak shows up for the second half and even gets some fights. I would say he is an unfortunate victim of the power creep so don’t expect him to look too overpowering but he gets his share of fun moments. He’s not exactly my favorite character but the guy is super loyal so I really appreciate that.

Somebody like Cassano can learn from that. Cassano is a solid villain but you wonder how far he has thought ahead in his plans. he makes a whole lot of enemies out of pretty much every faction which can’t be a good idea for his long term health. He’s a solid fighter but not one of the top tiers. I guess relative to the average fighter he would be considered near the top though. I think he works as an interesting wild card and just needs at least one more power up.

Then of course we have Rachel who is still a standout character. She’s just an absolute blast and always shakes up the tower. It’s clear to see why she is considered one of the destined ones by the tower itself. She also has the most brutal moments in the series. She doesn’t appear much in the second half but of course you can look forward to seeing a whole lot more out of her down the road.

Overall, Season 2 was definitely a blast. It’s a great show even if it’s not downright elite the way that season 1 was. There is a lot going on here and a lot of plot developments set up for the next saga. Regardless of how the animation ends up looking, the next part should be super elite. Although of course I will be hoping for better animation as well because why not have the full package right? A series like Tower of God absolutely deserves every bit of effort it can get. I definitely recommend this title.

Overall 8/10

Wistoria: Wand and Sword Review

Posted on November 9, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time to look at a magic anime that got pretty big real fast. Wistoria is one of those shows that took the world by storm to the point where one person even said you could toss all other anime in the trash. That’s how good Wistoria was. I can say that it lived up to the hype and I would consider it to be a great anime. I’m definitely looking forward to the next seasons and in the meantime I encourage everyone to check it out. It really got the right amount of action and story.

In this world, most people have some level of magical ability. The best of the best rise through the ranks quickly and if you don’t have magic then you are in trouble. At all times there is a cabal of 5-6 master sorcerers who hold up the sky with their magic as it would crash otherwise and bring about the end of everything. Will’s best friend Colette was one of these super geniuses and so they are never able to see each other anymore. Will figures the only way to solve this issue will be if he can improve his skills and ascend to the top of the wizard tower. There’s just one problem, Will has absolutely no magical talents!

Now you might be thinking, where have I heard this before? Mashle, Black Clover, etc. Well that’s not a problem since both of those shows were excellent and this one really keeps up the streak. The high end production values really serve as a great backdrop but at its core the series is succeeding because of the strong cast of characters and story. I would say that it sucks you in right from the first episode. Will’s goal to be able to hang out with his best friend is a solid one and makes things sympathetic right from the start.

Additionally, Will still has a lot of physical talent so it’s not like he’s been slacking off or anything. He has a sword and is able to handle most dungeons on his own. He has the abilities to take on most of the highest ranking students in the school. The only reason his grades lag behind a lot is because the whole school is set up on the basis of magic. So the tests are focused on this in ways where his strength can’t compensate. So Will has to really take down as many monsters as possible in order to prove himself.

Naturally the series has a ton of discrimination which is a staple of any fantasy setting. People can’t stand Will because of the fact that he has no magical powers. They say he shouldn’t be here and the usual stuff. The main teacher tries to crush Will in one of the first episodes and with a few exceptions, all of the students enjoy messing with him as well. Will doesn’t really pay them any mind though and it takes a whole lot of insults and threats of violence to really get him moving. Of course once that point comes up, then he is ready to go to town on them.

I’d say we have 2 main arcs here, the opening tournament and then the dungeon crawl. The tournament comes rather early here so in a way you could say this is how we are really introduced to the characters. Guys like Julius and Sion had already appeared but this is where we got to the heart of their character development. It’s definitely a really fun tournament even if it is short and I like that Will is shown to be very competent and strong from the start. He doesn’t have to find his own way of fighting or anything like that. He just puts all of his skills to the test and goes in swords blazing. The amount of time he is an underdog in the series is extremely short so we get to skip the intro phase in a way and get right to the meat of things.

The peak of the series is in the dungeon crawl though as we get to see Will join the elite team. It’s the best of the best as everyone goes all out to prove themselves. Again, it’s an arc that you would expect to see much later in the series as Will has to reluctantly team up with all of the big rivals and new characters right from the jump. The fast pacing is just a lot of fun because it’s like you are speed running the whole series. You wouldn’t see this from many titles and it’s part of how Wistoria stands out. No worries though, the power ceiling for the series is quite high as there are many other characters to be introduced who are even stronger than the elites.

Like I mentioned before, the animation is really good here. There are a ton of great fight scenes and cuts throughout the series. The different magic spells all look really good and you can feel the power behind each swing. The colors are very vibrant and so this is definitely an anime you can point to when talking about high budget titles. Meanwhile the soundtrack is also good. The theme song is catchy and there are a number of solid tracks. It may not be an absolute home run hit that you talk about for hours and hours but it definitely pulls off its job pretty well.

Now lets get into the characters. First up is Will and he’s a pretty solid main character. The guy is trying hard to achieve his dreams and that’s always good. It’s more of a voice direction thing but I will just say that his voice can be annoying though. It always sounds like he’s close to laughing which ends up feeling condescending to an extent. It’s something I’ve never seen happen to a character before so hopefully it’s cleaned up a little bit for season 2. It’s not technically his personality or anything though so I wouldn’t dock his character any points for that or anything like that. I was surprised that he wasn’t going to initially enter the tournament though. It feels like he underestimates his own abilities quite a bit.

Considering that he doesn’t exactly have unlimited time to reach his best friend, you’d think that he would do every single event in order to climb up. It was the one moment that felt almost out of character for him. Still, the guy stands up to bullies and is always beating up on the villains so how could you not like the guy right?

Then we have the main heroine Colette who is pretty fun. She’s easy to feel bad for because she often tries to get close to Will but trolls stop her from really making it. She’s a strong fighter in her own right as well even if she doesn’t always run to the battlefield. If we ever get more of an arc that is focused on her then I think we’ll see more of that. She was able to beat a Julius clone and did it rather easily after all. I like that she always defends Will and is a sand up character so she is one of the better heroines.

The first rival is Sion and I’d say he is another character that the show did a really good job with. He has fire abilities which is always a must for a rival and the guy has a big ego. He is always running in to cause chaos and deal out a bunch of damage. The guy starts out as a petty bully but we quickly get a whole lot of development for him. I would say that it is all handled really well too. The guy speaks his mind and isn’t afraid to lose a fight if it means getting what he wants. I’d say he has more depth than your average bully and I already see him becoming one of the best characters in the series.

Julius is the first serious villain. He’s rather insane and while he quickly starts to become a better person, you can’t forget that he nearly did try to skewer Will. It’ll take a little longer to take him seriously as a good guy but the guy’s strength is definitely the real deal. He is one of the strongest in the school among the students so even with the others beginning to catch up, I imagine he will stay relevant for a long while.

He will always be in the shadow of Elfaria when it comes to ice users though. She is so far ahead of him that it’s scary. Apparently her skills as a toddler were enough to really be on his level which has to feel like crazy disrespect. She seems like someone who is rather aloof and doesn’t care about much. Still, she is supportive of Will and that’s the only time she shows her more emotional side. I would say that she is already more fun than Colette as a heroine despite how good the other character is. I look forward to finally seeing Elfaria fight at some point.

Wignall is another one of the geniuses in the school but his stocks definitely plummet as the series goes on. The guy is still tough to be sure but I would say he has way more weaknesses than the others. His illusion skills just never feel like they will be as handy as the more classic elements like fire and ice. Those can be used in basically every scenario after all while illusions always have so many rules and limitations. It’s really not a fair competition when you look at it like that. I think he could start to rebound for the next season but for now I’m not all that impressed.

Lihanna is one of the elites who actually lives up to her rep and looks really good. Her lightning fast combat skill is a fun one to watch and so most monsters will get absolutely shredded as soon as the fight starts. If anything, I just wish we could have seen her fight more. For the most part her final action scenes were off screen but we know that she did put in a good fight and lasted for a while. She trusts her gut instincts which is always important and of course she had enough skills to get a top rank in the first place. I look forward to seeing more of her soon.

Rosti is Will’s roommate and he likes messing with Colette. Well, not sure if I should say “messing with” to be honest since he does seem to actually be really possessive. Still, I felt bad for Colette the whole time so I’m waiting for her to take the gloves off and beat him up. For now Rosti is more of a supportive fighter and so I wouldn’t expect any fight scenes. That really does limit his potential a whole lot as well. He is unlikely to become one of the better characters without some massive changes.

Workner is a character I can’t take seriously just yet. He is on Will’s side and defends the kid but at the end of the day he isn’t actually defending him from any of the villains or those who would beat him up. So he’s not much of a friend in the end now is he? I want to see him actually fight and stand up for Will more. Right now it’s just not enough and if anything he doesn’t even believe in Will enough. Sometimes he trusts him to win and sometimes he just doesn’t. I prefer Edward as a character because at least that guy is actually very direct. He just wants Will out of the school no matter what and will do whatever he can in order to achieve this.

Edward is a total villain, there’s no way around that. He’s just a fun villain though so it’s easy to root against him. I’m sure he’ll come around eventually though. For now we haven’t seen many of the actual villains but two do appear in the climax. They already look quite powerful as they decimated a bunch of the teachers so I look forward to how that plays out. They have great designs and superb abilities so I have really high hopes. The monster fights are cool and all but I am definitely ready to be fighting some fellow humanoids here. It’s just a completely different game at that point.

We also briefly see the top tier heroes who were out on the expedition. For now it’s hard to say much about them until the next season occurs. I already like the kid though, he seems like another non magic user which is always a really good sign. You now the guy is going to be ultra powerful. He reminds me of Meliodas from Seven Deadly Sins but without any of the obvious downsides. We also have to see how Elfaria’s teammates fare since they all are naturally getting a ton of hype. There was definitely a whole lot that got set up here so this could end up being a really long running series.

Overall, Wistoria is a great title and I would definitely recommend checking it out. Hopefully the next season comes out sooner than later. Whether you are here for the big action scenes or the strong character interactions, you should be in for a good time. It’s a title that is easy to get into and you can never have too many titles like this. The commoner rising above the status quo and showing that magic isn’t completely necessary is great. Even in video games I always prefer to be a fast swordsman than more of a slow fighter who relies on magic.

Overall 8/10

Rising Impact Review

Posted on September 29, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a show that I was not familiar with at all before checking it out. I can safely say that it is one of those diamonds in the rough. It’s an incredible series with top tier music and a great cast of characters. The fact that the show is able to incorporate in 5 different rivals at various points in the series and execute them all well is impressive. This is a series that will keep you at the edge of your seat for all of the big matches and shows that you really can make Golf exciting as needed.

The series follows a kid named Gawain who wants to be the longest hitter in the world. He got into Baseball because he thought that would let him achieve his dream but then it turns out that you hit the ball farther in Golf. So he gets into that sport and turns out to be a super prodigy. So he heads off to Camelot academy to really test his skills. Here he will have to face off with the best of the best. Can he rise up to prove that he is the world’s greatest talent or is he about to be destroyed? Only time will tell.

The first half is mainly to set things up and introduce all of the characters. We get to meet various aspiring golfers of all skill levels and learn the backstories of the important ones. We also get the big pre tournament and qualifiers to set up who will be representing Japan in the Camelot Cup to take on the American and Britain representatives. The second half is mainly about the big tournament between the 3 groups and we get to really see how heated things get. Naturally this is the peak of the series.

What separates Rising Impact from other big titles though is that it’s exciting long before we get to the actual tournaments. We have supernatural abilities coming into play but none of them are game breaking. I’m talking about subtle skills that help to enhance a character’s individual talents in one specific way as opposed to them being good at everything. Of course that will likely come eventually but for now the power system is pretty good. You train at everything but at max only get one super ability. Gawain has his super drive, Lancelot has his putting, and Tristan has the approach shots. It makes for a good balance.

The animation is also pretty good when it wants to be. It uses a lot of special effects for the different hits so you can really feel the power in the blows. Everyone also gets different colors at times for their big moments and it’s all very dramatic in the best way possible. It’s a show that will definitely not let you miss a shot. You’ll see the colors coming from a mile away.

Where the show really stands out is the soundtrack though. It’s a complete shame that none of the osts are on Youtube yet. I need to see if the title is different in Japanese and hopefully find it that way. There are several really intense tunes that all have very epic feels to them. It really helps to underscore the trash talking and intensity that all of the players bring to the table. Without the soundtrack the show would still be good, but this is one of the elements that helps elevate the show to being great. Because of this, Rising Impact succeeds in all areas from story to characters to technical elements. It’s exactly what you need in order to be a complete show.

The character cast for the show is really quite impressive. It manages to balance out quite a number of different rivals for Gawain to go up against as he improves. A lot of them remain skilled even to the end of the series. Of course you also have a number of random bullies and NPCs who are quickly dispatched so there is variety here. Naturally there is a true pecking order of skill and we see more of this in the final tournament but it can be hard to guess exactly where everyone will end up. It’s nice, it feels like a real sports tournament where people can place higher or lower depending on the day and their form. A win is not something that you can just take for granted as a given.

In part this is just due to how Golf works. Your score is determined by how many shots above PAR you are at by the end. That means even just one bad hole can sink you for the whole tournament. You might mis time the wind or something like that and then the ball sails away. Even the best golfer will have trouble sometimes as nobody is fully invincible. The player who is the most consistent will be the one to walk away with the gold.

Ironically the main character Gawain is the one who can hold the show back a bit. Generally speaking this is a pretty intense show. Everyone is really focused on their goals and becoming the best. Then you have Gawain who is basically just a kid. He’s got serious striking power but is a newbie at everything else which is fine but it also means he doesn’t take things as seriously. He gives us the occasional crude humor joke and turns chibi a lot. He has most of the worst scenes in the show.

We temporarily get a break from this when Gawain hits his head and that’s one of the best stretches of time in the whole show. He becomes a completely different person and it’s just a lot of fun. That serious Gawain is the one that I want to keep for the whole show. The fact that we only see him sometimes is a real shame. It’s not like Gawain is awful or anything but his silliness really stands out next to the other characters. If we get a time skip in a future season then I think he really will improve quite a bit.

For the most part the original side characters are ditched rather early but Kiria sticks around for a bit. She’s a pro player who taught Gawain all that he knows. She’s a solid person and definitely did a good deed by him there. I feel like the author maybe set her power a little too low though as she has a hard time hitting anywhere close to 300 yards and by the mid point of the series that is casual for a bunch of these players. So it seems to me like most of them would defeat her at golf rather easily which doesn’t make the most amount of sense considering that she is a professional golfer. That should really mean something right?

Then we have the prodigy Lancelot who is the best character by far. The scene where he shows up at the hero’s base and tells everyone how much better he is than them was brilliant. It’s an incredible scene and you need to have that kind of confidence. Some may call him a jerk but I’d say that’s just being realistic. He’s one of the best golfers in the world and he’s not going to pretend that he is anything lower than that. He is the guy who can hit a Put from any distance. Lancelot can literally see the line to the hole thanks to his special ability.

It’s definitely a really handy one to have, that’s for sure. He doesn’t get a challenge for most of the series until we near the end, then things get intense for him. I imagine he will only continue to get better and so I would be interested to see where his journey goes next. Either way he is a big scene stealer so you will want to keep your eye on him. His polite yet direct way of speaking is also a lot of fun since he just insults people to their face even while he is trying to act nice about it.

Of course we have the big final boss type figure of the series. Tristan is a guy who can hit an approach shot from anywhere and so of course his abilities are really intense. He’s a super well rounded player and considered the best in the world. Well, at least at this level. I’m sure we would eventually see the pros and how absolutely crazy they are. I’m expecting casual holes in one from anywhere or something crazy like that. Tristan has one of the most intense backstories in the series as well so it’s easy to root for him. Quite a few origins have some really tragic backstories going on like that guy and even Gawain although he doesn’t really know much about his past. We just know from context that things didn’t go well.

Yumiko is one of the golfers from early on who got power creeped out of the running right away. By all accounts she seems like a pretty decent golfer but just isn’t ready for these absolute monsters. It’s hard for your talent to sky rocket to such a big degree so I think it’ll be a while before she’s in there. She is a nice character though. Likewise we have Gawain’s first rival Riser who is fun but is so many leagues above the other heroes at this point. I don’t think he’ll ever be relevant again at this rate. It is pretty sad to think about but that is the destiny for most golfers. Most players of any sport really. Only the chosen few will rise to the top.

Then you have the mysterious Arthur. He’s Quester’s father and is building up his own school of all stars. They would have made for great antagonists in the sequel. We don’t learn a whole lot about him here but he seems to know something about Gawain’s parents and clearly has big ideas. Having an actual mastermind for the heroes to go up against would have been sweet. Still, he was good in his appearances here. Generally speaking all of the coaches were pretty good. Aria is the coach for the main team and she always had some good advice. If anything maybe the show could have made the heroes fail a bit more so she could have actively been helping the characters a bit more. Instead, they rare ever need to ask her any questions.

Todoin is another early rival who gets a lot of hype but quickly starts to be surpassed. It’s just how it goes but Rising Impact doesn’t totally write him out. I appreciate the fact that he became rivals with Liebel and Quester which kept him relevant for a while longer. Sure he may not be the best but he’s no slouch and definitely better than any of his old teammates. He really took the game seriously and never gave up to the end. He also has a little bit of edge to him which is good since you want the characters to be able to talk tough.

It’s my main issue with Liebel. He’s a really good golfer and one of the best on the court but the guy is just too nice. He doesn’t really stand up for himself and his gag of always being desperate for Aria’s attention gets old fast. I’d like him to lock in more and his backstory was kinda sad but still blown out of proportion. He really abandoned everyone when it counted and the fact that he then held back for years is crazy. He could have actually helped Camelot Academy’s reputation if he had been playing serious from the start.

Quester is the top player on the American side and he definitely shows why that makes sense. His shots have a ton of power and he’s the only character we’ve seen so far to have the same ability as someone else. Mika sort of has a variation of Lancelot’s power but I wouldn’t say it’s the same thing quite yet. For Quester, it really is the same power and so that opens up a lot of doors. He does get down on himself later on which does hurt the character quite a bit though. He really needed to lock in considering that this was a big tournament. If he had done that the whole way through then he would rank even higher for me.

His partner Bilford had to really hold the ship on his own for a while there. To his credit, the guy did a great job with it. He never gave up and just kept on going. Now that is some true talent right there. He may not be the flashiest player but he does get the job done. I liked Bilford more than I expected to even if I was glad Lancelot called him out at one point. Bilford tried blaming Gawain for quester feeling bad while Lancelot pointed out that you should never blame someone for being good. It’s not Gawain’s fault that Quester couldn’t take the pressure.

Quick shoutout to Charles who had the unfortunate luck of being on Gawain’s team near the end. This guy could not catch up at all and kept being called all kinds of mean nicknames. In fairness, Charles would always start it so at that point you just gotta be able to take it. The series has no shortage of bullies but Charles really stood out there. For the most part all of the bullies tend to be annoying and can’t really fight though. The characters with actual skill didn’t have time to be running around picking on the weaker players.

Then we have Wanglian who really surprised me with how good he looked. He seemed reasonably strong when he first appeared but not one of the big hitters. When the tournament started though, he showed that he could keep up with anyone. His ability to read the wind was second to none. It’s a pretty unique way to playing so I would have been really intrigued to have seen more of him. His sister also shows up out of the blue later on and is an exceptional player. The series was really setting up some fun fights.

From the old cast, Mike is probably the closest to having the skills needed to move forward. I wouldn’t be surprised if she would have made it to the next trip. I get the feeling that the series wasn’t quite done with her just yet. Finally there is Platalissa who had a minor subplot about wanting to be in the Camelot cup and we ultimately find out that it is to face off against her sister. I think the main disappointing thing for her fans will be the fact that she didn’t really learn anything.

Her sister told her for a while that she would need to stop being a copycat in order to win. Instead, Platalissa continues to try and copy her all the way until the end. It felt like she should have gotten the lesson a bit earlier. I know she means well but yeah copying someone is not the best way to win. How can you beat the original after all? Platalissa’s sister was definitely a lot meaner than necessary though. I think she could have been the bigger person and tried just talking things out a bit.

Ultimately there are definitely more characters running around but these are most of the main ones. The fact that the series can get you intrigued in so many golfers is really quite something. This is just a super well written and directed show. While some of the attempts at humor don’t really land like I mentioned before, the show generally doesn’t worry about that anyway. It’s all about the golfing plays and even if you are not familiar with the sport before watching the show, they explain it rather well. The explanations are concise and clear so you don’t get lost either.

One sad thing about the series ending so fast is I was really curious to see how the power levels would keep on escalating. By the end of this series we already got to the point where a hole in one was a very achievable thing. Gawain could do it at will once he settled into his new mode. So presumably the pros would have to do that too but then each game would be over in an instant. Only thing I can think of is making the maps a lot longer so they’re hitting 500-600 yard shots before going in the hole. That would buy some time but yeah it’s an interesting problem to tackle. Generally the series avoided going too supernatural with the special abilities but maybe that would change and you’d have someone who could control the weather or something like that. It could go full on Prince of Tennis with how crazy that title got.

Overall, Rising Impact is absolutely great and you should definitely be checking it out. It’s already become the definitive Golf title for me and it’ll be hard to be dethroned. I’m not saying that it’s impossible or anything like that but it will definitely be tough. This one really had everything and also has the first mover advantage for being the first big Golf title that I got to watch. So definitely don’t let this title stay undiscovered, you need to check it out right away!

Overall 8/10

Super Dragon Ball Heroes Review

Posted on September 7, 2024 by dreager1

Dragon Ball Heroes is one of those titles that was really around for a long while. I admired how long it lasted because initially it seemed like this would just be a quick mini series and then it kept on going for years. Heroes became a big part of the Dragon Ball franchise as well. It was all super impressive. The animation may not have always been top tier but I can say that the concepts were always as good as it got. This is a title that will definitely be missed.

The series has several arcs so lets jump into them. One thing you should know is that each episode was generally shorter than half of a standard episode. This means that even though there are 56 episode, the actual length is considerably less than that. It does mean that you can easily watch the whole series in a short amount of time though. It’s very easily bingeable which is always nice to hear. Definitely a title that knew when to go hard even if it had to switch the animation style in the end.

The first arc starts off with a bang as tons of powerful fighters are trapped on Prison Planet. They must all duke it out for the dragon balls and Fu is the mastermind behind all of this. He has to be defeated but his skills are considerable so this will take some real work. The big selling point of this arc was really about Goku from Super finally fighting his GT counterpart. Technically speaking this is Xeno Goku and not GT but fans tend to use the terms interchangeably since in most ways Xeno Goku is unchanged from GT. He just tends to be a bit more powerful. We also get to meet the legendary Cumber in this arc. A Super Saiyan of legend whose power even surpasses that of Broly’s. Can the heroes defeat him?

Oh yeah these early episodes were super intense. While the animation budget wasn’t always the strongest, it was just great to be getting some more Dragon Ball action at long last. I’ve long considered Super Saiyan 4 to be stronger than Super Saiyan god mode but it should be a good fight with Blue. Now that Super Goku has Ultra Instinct, I do think that would go above Saiyan 4 though. The fight is very fast but considering we’ll probably never get this fight in one of the main shows I have to really take what I can get here.

Cumber actually gets a solid amount of screentime for the first arc as he fights it out with everyone. I should say right now that the power scaling in the series is absolutely crazy. You should not expect any kind of consistency or anything like that. So just enjoy the battles and the story. That’s really the main point of this series either way since the plot itself is rarely going for anything all that deep. It’s just fun to see all of the characters mixing it up. Cumber is definitely one of the best new characters to show up in this series and he has immediately become a new staple in the Dragon Ball universe. Hopefully he will get his time to appear in something else soon.

So Prison Planet made for a great first arc without a doubt. This was good stuff. After that we have the longest arc in the series with Hearts taking center stage. He wants to destroy Zeno and all of the gods and to that end he is powering something up and attacking the strongest warriors of every universe. He has allied himself with powerful allies like Cumber and Zamasu. Goku is forced to step back into the ring when even Jiren and Hit are having some trouble but is he ready to take on such formidable fighters?

Hearts is another all star villain right here. The guy has really cool abilities with his cubes and the fact that he can fight so well against Goku and friends is impressive. Most other fighters would have been obliterated just by being in Goku’s presence but that’s not the case for Hearts. No, Hearts is ready for all the action and he has a very cool demeanor. When you mix a great personality and move set into one then that is always going to be an absolutely awesome character.

I also really liked his teammate Lagss. She was able to take down Ultra Instinct Goku in one hit which is crazy. Yes, power levels don’t really matter here but that was still pretty fun. I also liked the grand scale of this arc. You get used to seeing the Xeno characters everywhere but fighters like Jiren and Hit still feel like guest stars. The animation also got a massive boost during the Hearts vs Goku fight. I remember being shocked at just how good it looked. Yeah that was super impressive without a doubt.

By the end of the arc it’s still a bit unclear on exactly how Hearts figured he would beat Zeno with all of this but personally I think Hearts could win already. I don’t stack Zeno all that high, neither do I rank the gods as being out of his league either. While the show itself would likely disagree with me, Goku and friends have long since surpassed the gods. The days of their being the strongest at the top of the food chain are long over.

After that we have a random one episode special where the heroes fight off the demon army. It’s pretty good stuff and I was glad the show got to at least cover this big battle. It may not be the same as covering the whole arc but hey it’s a start. In general the show has to cut out a ton of details and even fights due to the short length time but that makes sense. It’s already tough as it is to adapt the biggest moments after all so just consider this to fully be promotional material. If you want all the details then you will have to read the manga which goes into a lot more depth.

In the next arc Fu finally makes his big move. He has a group of fighters including the mysterious Dr W who are here to destroy Goku and friends. They’re gonna need to pull out all of the stops in order to defeat these guys. It’s a pretty solid arc right from the jump. Dr W is someone you will probably be able to guess right away because there aren’t too many characters with that letter but either way he is a lot of fun. This villain is an absolute menace and his new design is awesome. His fight with the Xeno fighters is pretty good. Meanwhile Fu getting to fight is also a lot of fun and Cumber also returns.

Fu is the big villain you think of when talking about Dragon Ball Heroes because of how much time he spends in the background of every arc talking tough. You know that he will be a top tier fighter and yet you don’t know just how strong. It’s all a mystery until he actually takes center stage and the wait is absolutely worth it. He gets a whole lot of props here and it takes the strongest in the verse to really go after him.

There’s a lot of nonstop action throughout so you really can’t go wrong here. The fights just keep on going as they get grander and grander. The arc is actually interrupted by another special midway about a kid playing the actual arcade game. That was a pretty fun special but you were definitely ready to go back to the arc after that. This is absolutely the kind of Dragon Ball adventures you are always looking forward to. They put in the best of what makes Dragon Ball so exciting.

After that, the next arc kicks things off on a mysterious set of circumstances. Goku wakes up in a strange area where everyone is fighting and Hearts decides to team up with him. Goku has to try and figure out what’s happening and in the meantime he is still injured from the previous arc so he has to fight in a very careful way. There is good strategy here and the backgrounds are great. I liked the locations and everything. Also, Fu ends up making his grand return here so we get a lot of big battles at the end as well. This is what I always love about Dragon Ball Heroes. just wait an episode or two and you are guaranteed to be witnessing big things.

Next up we have the next big tournament arc with the evil time goddess Aeos. Her time abilities are definitely more offensive oriented to the point where she is even able to go up against Ultra Instinct Goku. That made for a super awesome fight and we got one animated scene where Goku was pulling off some Sonic the Hedgehog moves. That was definitely not something I had been expecting. Aeos also generally looks super hype the whole time. She’s another standout villain to be sure.

Most of the kais tend to look rather awful and get defeated by everybody so it was about time that we had a real powerhouse here even if the catch was that she was super evil. That’s just how it goes sometimes after all and it was a valid reason for why she had been training so hard. Villains always have to stay at the top of their game in order to beat the heroes when the chips are down. It was also fun seeing dark Bardock in action during the arc. The guy definitely got a real significant power boost here considering who he was going up against. Those Dragon Ball Heroes zenkai boosts really hit hard. The arc had fun involving a lot of fighters and more of the supporting cast than usual so that was definitely cool. Of course at the end of the day I’m here for the big fighters so it’s not like I need the supporting cast or anything like that.

Finally we reach the last arc of the series. Ozotto has shown up and he intends on absorbing everyone in the universe. His powers are absolutely incredible and even Goku/Vegeta may not be able to win. They’re forced to call in the whole gang. The arc is shorter than most of the others but still hits hard. The tragic thing here is that the animation changed to CG just when the soundtrack went to the highest that it’s ever been. The graphics are basically like the arcade game cutscenes as opposed to the traditional style that was always a lot of fun. If you have to go CG then this is a pretty good style to go with since it looks just like the video games but I really prefer traditional animation.

The setup and everything was so good otherwise too. Ah well, even with the limitations this is till a lot of fun. You feel the hype as Ozotto slowly begins to take everyone down. Not only can he absorb people but he can make clones that retain their own abilities. It’s a real broken kind of power the more that you think of it. One wrong move and it’s all over. He’s probably not the final boss I would have chosen but the fact that he is so out there can also work well enough on its own. He’s fairly unassuming in that way. I’m not a big fan of the guy but he’s okay. It would just be nice if he had cooler moments to really show off.

And that really wraps up the Dragon Ball Heroes experience. Let me tell you, it was really a sweet ride all the way through. As long as you really enjoy the DBZ characters and setting then you’ll really get a kick out of this. Dragon Ball is such a massive franchise that you would expect more stories like this constantly but it often feels like you have to wait a long time for the next adventure. Hopefully this inspires them to keep on churning out more top tier products in the future. If they can pull that off then we will really be in business here. It probably won’t be as crazy as Heroes was in terms of being such a big crossover of characters but those are rare anyway. Heroes is like a celebration of the franchise as a whole so now it’ll take a break for smaller adventures and then one day hopefully we should be able to get another big one like this.

Overall, Super Dragon Ball Heroes is a great show. This is what DBZ sounds like to anyone who doesn’t watch the show. It’s basically all action with minimal plot and everyone is always getting beat up. The power levels are impossible to decipher and instead you are operating on pure hype. Let me tell you, there is never anything wrong with pure hype. It’s the foundational basis for what makes anime cool after all. Now that the series is done, you can binge it as a quick movie trilogy or something like that. It’s definitely worth the watch and it’s a shame that this has not been dubbed yet. It would absolutely sell a whole lot so it feels like the company is allergic to money. Dragon Ball Daima is almost here so hopefully that title is able to keep up with this one’s legacy.

Overall 8/10

Megaton-kyuu Musashi Season 2 Review

Posted on July 27, 2024 by dreager1

It’s definitely been a while since I checked this one out so lets dive into season 2. I really enjoyed season 1 with the awesome music and fights around every corner. In a lot of ways season 2 does keep up although I would give 1 the slight edge. I thought it had a better climax and wrapped things up a little better. This one gets a bit too ambitious towards the end so some things have to be rushed like the two cosmic beings and one of the main characters looks horrible here. Still, we do get the big fight scenes which is always a plus and the soundtrack is still great which is what counts.

After the events of the first season, Arshem and Yamato are split off into two different plots. Arshem is helping a resistance group get their bearings as she still works to become leader of the aliens. If she can do this, then she will really be in a good position to stop the war once and for all. The main problem is that their commander right now is Grieffas who is not about to listen to her and wants to conquer the remaining humans. She will inevitably have to fight with him at some point about this.

In the human plot, Yamato is still blasting away at the aliens but his heart isn’t quite as into it anymore. He used to want to wipe them all out, but now that he knows a lot of them are just ordinary people, it’s not something he can put all of his heart into in quite the same way. It’s not like he is a mass murderer after all. He just wants to defend his right to live. He also sees more of the shady dealings that his own government is doing, this will not be easy.

Yamato is a great character as always. He still has a lot of fire within him and is always ready for a fight. He hasn’t lost that enthusiasm. He may have less time to show off his punk side but near the beginning of the season he does get to fight the new transfer student which was fun. Yamato is definitely not someone who will go down without a fight and you can always appreciate that. I was a little surprised when the first season threw in a bit of a romance for him and season 2 doesn’t shy away from it either. His romance with Arshem is treated as a legitimate plot point that actually comes up and get focus on numerous occasions. It can definitely be really dramatic at times to be sure but it’s definitely handled way better than the average one. It helps that they are both quality characters.

This is one of those romances that I can actually point to as a great example on how to do this. Both characters liked each other without any rebounds or other people getting in the way. We get a lot of time so it’s not like they fell for each other immediately, etc. There were just a whole lot of positives to be had here. The series tries out some other romances which don’t work quite as well since they weren’t the focus but when you manage to do the main one right, the rest all comes into play.

Arshem is also a great character here with good ideals. At times she may feel a bit naive with her hopes for world peace though. The fact of the matter is that there can be no chance for peace until there is a cure allowing the aliens to live peacefully on Earth. Without that, they will have to keep relying on the injections over and over again which isn’t a long term strategy. If anything it is just something that will make the forces uneven which will breed more resentment. So finding the cure is really the first step…or just gaining absolute power and that’s really the route that she went. So her goals were good but I do think she was missing the big picture.

On the human side we also have Ryugo as one of the original main characters but I wouldn’t say he gets a ton to do after a while. His abilities are fairly low compared to the rest of the pilots. He pulls his own weight and everything but it always feels like he is lagging behind the other characters when it counts. He works well enough for the banter but it would have been great if he could have gotten some kind of a power up at some point.

Teru is the brainy type of character and he was solid in the first season but he really falls off a cliff here. The character doesn’t have enough strength of will to make the right decisions effortlessly. Instead he has to actually wonder what the right call is even when it’s obvious. He had a kid and isn’t sure if the kid should be alive? That’s rather crazy and he doesn’t do much about the experimenting for a while.

Then at one point he attacks a cleaning maid because it looked like the girl he was in love with. Teru’s absolutely deranged and he ended up being one of the most annoying characters. I was sort of rooting for his downfall for a while there. It’s just crazy how you can fall so hard after being a rather sensible character.

Reiji is still a solid character with his super abilities. It would have been nice if he could have used them more though. It felt like there was a lot more to that plot point that never really got addressed. Later on Yamato seemed to be able to use similar abilities so it’s maybe something that humans just have innately as opposed to it needing to be artificial but I dunno, it wasn’t given quite as much focus as you’d expect. Reiji does have one critical battle near the end where he holds off a top tier though.

Jun is always a super fun character. She enters a bit of a slump later on when she suffers some PTSD but the whole plot is actually handled rather well. It’s not rushed and we are given a lot of time to see her fighting through this and trying to get her old confidence back. Once Jun pushes past this, she goes back to her fun moments of banter and messing with everyone. It can be hard to get a read on when she’s joking vs being serious but that’s part of her charm.

The Queen gets a rather big role here and she is another character who was handled super well. She had to make the really hard calls as the leader and accepted the role as villain. She still is a villain to be clear and there’s no real way to explain her wanting to murder Arshem. So she ended up being too far gone and no amount of damage control could fix that. That being said, while I will continue to criticize her for that, taking down the Earth seems like a reasonable strategy from her perspective. There’s no way any planet will willingly give up to another and additionally, if they wanted to accept the aliens, that wouldn’t be possible either since the planet isn’t big enough for the two of them.

She decided that with all of this in mind, she may as well launch the first strike and knock them all out immediately. There was only one flaw with her plan which is that she couldn’t destroy all of them without finding the method for being able to breath in Earth’s atmosphere. If not for that, she could have finished the job and that would have been that. I do think you could make the case that they should have captured more people then and there are different ways you could play this. At the end of the day, the humans pulled through anyway.

Grieffas is a more extreme villain. He believes in the first place that the aliens should not have run away when they were being annihilated by Adam and Eve. So under his leadership the whole race would have been wiped out before this series even began. That would have certainly been one way to go. I definitely sympathize with not wanting to run away but it’s clear that the gap in power between the two races was extensive. There’s nothing that could have been done. Then he gets obsessed with being together with Arshem and is madly jealous of Yamato the whole time.

He goes way down in this second half for basically being a creep and spending all of his time on the throne. In season 1 he was fighting and at least getting stuff done. In this second part his main priority was Arshem at the cost of his own plans and ultimately he went down like a chump. Definitely not the way you want to lose when the stakes are this high. The other villains in the show all ended up being a lot more fun. First off you have Zaskar who actually doesn’t get a whole lot to do. He is introduced as one of the top fighters on the villain’s side but he shows up super late into the game. He would have gotten more to do in the end but the show didn’t quite get to that part. Still, I always enjoy the elite villains like this and the guy has a very serious attitude that is appropriate for a fighter of his station.

Then we have Yugra who starts out as a villain that just follows orders so that he can prove himself. From there he ends up being a really solid villain overall who questions his orders and follows his heart. His character arc has to go through rather quickly but it was a good one and he ended up being likable. The same goes for his partner Miysis although it takes longer for her to really join the heroes side. You sort of feel like she just came along for the ride for a while there but in the end as long as you join the heroes I suppose the reason itself isn’t quite as important.

Veloa is another villain who starts out as being evil and then sees the light. When you think about it, quite a few of the aliens were ready to turn good and I think it helps to support the overall premise of both groups not wanting to be evil. At the end of the day they committed the murders under the Queen’s orders but before that they were never a villain group like this. So going back to their old ways will end up being normal. There are still a lot of grudges that will never go away but that is to be expected. So this guy gets to prove his worth of why he is a good bodyguard even if he does lose his main fight.

Then we have Dixenberg who is a reasonable villain. He’s basically an old guy who can’t really fight so you do have to keep that into consideration. What I like about him is he represents the corrupt humans who will always show up from time to time. He plans to take advantage of the chaos that arose when 99% of each race’s population was wiped out. Now he can be king and rule over it all! It’s truly an ambitious plot and so I get that. Ultimately it’s not like you ever think he would stand a chance against anyone but he is still fun enough.

Kojiro is more of an intense villain because he gets a big backstory and a lot to do in the present. He has trouble with a second personality that takes over and makes him murder people all of the time. It’s definitely tough to make friends that way and he really starts to crack by the end. I thought that he was a reasonable rival but the low willpower definitely did hurt him in the end. He sort of holds the heroes back for most of the series and only gets it in gear by the very final part of the climax. Better late than never though.

We also have the other human resistance group led by Victor. He’s a solid character who has a big backstory. I give him massive amounts of hype for being able to survive in the wilderness while the entire planet is covered in poison. That’s a really difficult thing to have to put up with and yet he took it like a champ. So definitely kudos there. He could have introduced himself to his daughter a lot sooner though. He really took his time there.

Then there is Masamune who gives us one of the most enjoyable fights at the start of the season. I like the idea of a pro agent being thrown into the mix. He may not be a street fighter like Yamato but his skills still translate themselves into the battles very well. He gets his own romance plot which is rather rushed I have to admit but all in all he’s good. Near the end of the series he lets his guard down and gets stabbed which is a really cheesy scene. There’s no way the villain should have been able to land a hit on him there. That whole thing felt rather forced.

Shizuka gets the least to do by far. She’s good at covert ops and infiltration but we don’t really get to see her fight. She’s a solid member of the team either way and pulls her own weight but the first two undoubtedly get a lot more to do. It feels like Shizuka needed a friend or family member of her own so that she would have a relevant plot going instead of just waiting around on the sidelines.

Finally we have Adam and Eve who are rather huge as you would expect. These two are villains with cosmic abilities that are vastly above what you may expect from anyone in this series. They usually don’t get to actually show these abilities off though and that’s in part because they don’t do anything until the very end. Just one of their mechs gives the whole crew a tough fight and they can create millions of them. Only a very specific kind of ability is able to negate this and they happen to fight her. Still, I really enjoyed Adam and Eve. They make for a good team and the only shame is that they didn’t appear more. There is absolutely still a whole lot you can do with them. Considering that they wiped out the aliens so easily who wiped out the humans with the same lack of difficulty, the power creep was intense.

The show perhaps bit off a little more than it could chew there. I don’t think it is always able to handle the power level concerns that come up when the characters start introducing stronger and stronger mechs. That being said, the show is still very interesting all the way through. There is never a shortage of action so you will have those scenes in every episode but at the same time there are much deeper plot threads going on the whole time. The series really dives into topics like the cycle of violence and why wars need to be stopped.

The animation is definitely really solid. I would say it’s very consistent between the episodes and I always really enjoy the hand to hand fight scenes. The robot fights are a lot of fun too of course and there are more of those but that’s why the human fights stand out. They happen so rarely that you really feel the impact. Then for the soundtrack, we have a number of lyrical songs that pop up and the usual battle themes which are really good. They all balance out really well and so there is a lot of variety here. You won’t be feeling that the osts are too overused or anything like that. This is a show that will keep you guessing.

There are some themes that the show does gloss over a bit that I would like to see addressed in a sequel though. One of these is of course the fact that the “heroes” are brainwashing all of their civilians so they don’t panic. That still doesn’t justify the whole time. If people are going to panic then your job is to minimize that, but mind controlling them is just taking away all of their agency. This was never really addressed and we see that the humans really got desperate when they were almost wiped out. Ultimately they had a lot of flaws that just weren’t really acknowledged so that’s something I would like to see more beyond all of the extra fighting that I would want to see as well.

Overall, Megaton is a great show all the way around. It may be a little under season 1 but I still had a really good time here. There are a ton of characters to root for and a lot of action scenes to keep your pulse racing. The animation and soundtrack are good and there is a whole lot of ground that is covered here. I can definitely recommend it to any mecha fan or anyone who even just likes a good romance plot. There is a whole lot of screentime for both things and the show does a great job of juggling all of the plots. A story of two people from warring factions falling for each other is always a classic after all.

Overall 8/10

Rurouni Kenshin (2023) Review

Posted on June 22, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for another great anime. The Kenshin manga was always top tier so it makes sense that the anime would follow suit. I thought everything about it was real solid. The fight scenes looked good, the sound track is on point, and of course the core story is really good. At the end of the day when you have all of that in your favor then you’re really in for a good time. There’s just nothing to hold it back.

The show starts by introducing us to Kenshin who used to be a powerful warrior that terrorized the land. There was a huge war back in the day with both sides fighting for their own justice. Kenshin’s side won and now they are the government but Kenshin has distanced himself from the group. He chooses to be a Rurouni instead now and no longer fights unless it is to protect someone. He wanders into a nice town where he meets Kaoru. She has a dojo and he decides to relax there and help her out for a while. Unfortunately, his days of being a pacifist are about to run into some turbulence. A bunch of villains are running around who all want to test their might against the legendary fighter. If Kenshin doesn’t fight back, they will end up hurting his new friends. What can he do?

At its core the series is really about Kenshin trying to hold onto his ideals through thick and thin. It’s a good message and the show handles it well. At times Kenshin may hold back a little too much and some villains make a good point that his morals are all well and good but if he lets his friends get hurt because of them then that’s not a worthy tradeoff. Kenshin does have to work on balancing these things which will likely continue to be a theme in the next season.

Right now Kenshin is still a top tier main character though. He’s easy to root for and he has a lot of serious skills. So he’s definitely one of those guys who is able to back up his own tough words far better than most of the others would be able to. When the going gets tough, Kenshin does revert into his violent mode which definitely tends to do the trick in situations like this. I like his overall confidence and good natured spirit. He’s always been one of the higher tier Jump protagonists.

Kaoru is a fairly good heroine although she doesn’t always get a lot to do. Relative to other heroines I would even say that her role is super small. She will usually be around to try and help get Kenshin back into his senses but that’s about it. She is otherwise not really able to fight with any of the big characters so she stays to watch but all in all she’s a nice person. Then there is Yahiko who actually does get some fights to himself. He’s only a kid so it’s not like he can fight all that well but I’ll give him some points for effort. He really does try hard. At times he can be on the annoying side though, especially when he tries to do something without telling Kenshin and then puts himself in a dangerous position for no reason.

As the first rival Sanosuke is a fun character. He very quickly gets power creeped by other characters who show up later but definitely works well as the opening boss. His punches can really land a lot of damage and he has some good battle instincts as well. I generally like him as a character. I feel like he does need a weapon though and not that super heavy one he used in the introduction arc. That thing’s just way too slow to be usable in real life situations. At least to me that seems to be the case. He helps to provide some balance to the team though because he’s much more aggressive and in your face compared to Kenshin.

I want to give a shoutout to Kenshin’s first real opponent. No, not the fake Battosai but Jin-E, a legendary assassin. What I like about this guy is that he was legitimately very skilled. He actually gave Kenshin a good fight and his ability to choke his opponents was really intense. That’s a super good ability to have in combat since your opponent could lose focus for a second and then you win. If not, you at least disrupt his movements which is also a really big deal This guy is mainly forgotten nowadays but to me he will always be the point where the series found its stride and became great.

Then we have Aoshi’s group which was a lot of fun. They all had a lot of loyalty and fairly good backgrounds. What makes them sympathetic is you can easily see how someone would turn out like that. When you’re trained to murder in combat and never learned any other skills then it makes sense that integrating back into society would not be so easy. In particular from the minions I would say Han’nya stood out the most. He really gave Kenshin a tough fight for a while there and even won in their first clash. Yes, it was a quick clash and he had a gimmick but I still remember thinking that was super impressive. Definitely a really solid way to kick off the arc as well.

Of course Aoshi was the main star here and he’s still one of my favorite characters in the series. His sword skills are second to none and he has a solid honor code. He has his objectives and completes them but always does things his way. He’s always willing to talk back to any other villain who is trying to boss him around. Nobody is going to try and exert influence over him. That’s just not how Aoshi operates and I definitely find that to be really admirable. He’s the kind of guy that you really want to be on your team.

Megumi joins the group after this arc as a main supporting character and she fits in really well. I dare say that she adds more to the dynamic than the main heroine at this point. She is always ready for banter and being a healer is really helpful since nobody else has those skills at the moment. It means that she is really irreplaceable within the team. She definitely has a rough background and wasn’t always a hero but considering the circumstances, it’s easy to trust her as a reliable hero now.

Finally as the show began to close we were introduced to Saito who is another all star character. This guy’s abilities are really solid to the point where he really had Kenshin backpedaling. He’s another villain with a good honor code who is willing to do whatever he needs to in order to keep his honor on good ground. I like this kind of character without a doubt. His fight is one of the best ones in the series as well so you aren’t likely to forget him. I’m definitely looking forward to him getting more fights in the upcoming seasons.

There are several other villains and supporting characters at the ready but these were the main ones. The show really covers a lot of ground in these 24 episodes. It always feels good to crack 20 right off the gate so even if you didn’t get a formal season 2, it feels like you had both. That being said, the next season is already confirmed so there are no worries there. In the manga the next segment was the best part of the series so most likely that will be the case here as well but we’ll see.

One thing I really like about the show is how most of the characters actually sound like they’re from the olden days. It reminds me of the old Hollywood kind of dialogue but the Japanese version. There are a lot of terms thrown around and everything relating back to the Bakumatsu period and then you also have all of the characters generally being polite to each other. Even if they naturally don’t mean it, it’s pretty nice to hear. It adds a very refined flavor to the show and it makes the whole experience feel that much more authentic.

Meanwhile the animation is really solid like I said. The fights are really flashy with a good amount of choreography in them. The fighters move fast and each battle feels very epic. I definitely have no complaints here so far and that’s a good thing since it’s a pretty action packed show. If the fights were not up to snuff then that would be a problem. I also give major thumbs up to the soundtrack. There are a number of really good battle themes spread throughout the anime. I had quite a few that I liked and again they fit the very dramatic style of the duels.

In Kenshin, there is a lot of explaining what each attack does in between the techniques which I like as it adds to the analytical part of the show. Both fighters are working on countering each attack as soon as they see it. The cat and mouse mind games are a ton of fun all around. Naturally the season ends with a big cliffhanger as well so you have a lot to look forward to for the next season. There are definitely going to be plenty of battles there and Kenshin will really have to steel his resolve.

Way I see it, since the show takes place in the days of a lot of rampant corruption, you do need to finish off your opponents sometimes. Kenshin has a tendency to spare his foes and hope they go over a new leaf but what’s more likely is they will wait until he is not around and then go take out his friends. That is the big issue for me. For example if Saito didn’t axe off his partners afterwards, they definitely might have tried getting some retaliation and since Kenshin would be out of town, things would have gotten very bad very quickly. In a nutshell, that tends to be my main problem here. Kenshin’s mentality only works when he’s alone but once he chose to make friends and hang out, that starts to put them all in lethal danger.

One last thing I’d add is I do appreciate the quick mini arcs about weak villains because these are chances for Kenshin to show just how crazy strong he is. Like the arc with Sanosuke’s friend who wanted to bomb the capital. We get to see Kenshin from the point of view of the average fighter and naturally he’s a monster. Kenshin doesn’t need to do much in order to stop that guy. I think it’s important to have these minibosses because since Kenshin tends to only fight the strongest warriors around, you can possibly forget just how far above most fighters he is. So seeing him dominate these guys is a good idea. When he takes too long or sandbags, then it also helps make the point of guys like Saito who say that Kenshin is being too soft. One of these mini arcs had a character effectively lose the use of his wrist, possibly for good because Kenshin didn’t go all out. I thought that was a very good callback that the show made use of later on. So you end up feeling like each episode is really important.

Overall, Rurouni Kenshin is a great story that has withstood the test of time. Each episode is a lot of fun and the quality of the episodes is always at a high level. I had a lot of fun going through the show and I’m definitely hyped for the next season. There are already a ton of great villains running around and that number is about to rise even further as we are introduced to the new group. So I’m definitely ready for all that. If you enjoy a good action title then I definitely recommend watching this one. It’s really got all of the fights and quality writing you could ask for.

Overall 8/10

	Princess Ichigo Brad… on Ichigo Momomiya vs Sailor…
	dreager1 on Braveheart
	Anonymous on Braveheart
	Anonymous on Tokyo Mew Mew Review
	dreager1 on Goku vs Beyonder
	Anonymous on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (…

DReager1.com

The Ultimate Fighting/Review Site

Category Archives: 8 Star TV Shows

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Review

The Misfit of Demon King Academy II Review

Rurouni Kenshin Season 2: Kyoto Disturbance Review

X Men ’97 Review

Tower of God Season 2 Review

Wistoria: Wand and Sword Review

Rising Impact Review

Super Dragon Ball Heroes Review

Megaton-kyuu Musashi Season 2 Review

Rurouni Kenshin (2023) Review

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: