Why Toonami needs to bring in episode promos for all their new shows

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Toonami is a pretty cool TV block and I dare say that it’s the best block out there. It’s done a really great job of getting its brand out there. When something is on Toonami you know it. The channel has great bumpers, an actual ongoing story with TOM and manages to always have a pretty great lineup. Just having a place for anime to get aired nowadays is really cool since there aren’t many alternatives aside from watching online. At times the channel may make some questionable decisions (Super’s frame rate. There’s a bit of a blame game here with everyone deflecting, but ultimately it seemed to be on the channel not double checking their tapes) (The TV ratings for shows don’t always make sense. I believe channel ratings are up to the discretion of the channel so it could be more of a CN decision, but I imagine Toonami would have some input) but it’s still a top notch block. The channel has been through a lot, but there is one change I’m not too fond of. For a while the block always had 30 second promos for the top shows. Now they’re down to 15 per show and a lot of big titles don’t even get them.

To be fair, Toonami has never made it a practice to give every new show episode promos. I’m assuming this is due to budget concerns and not getting the content quick enough. Even so, I’m here to make the case that all new shows should have consistent episode promos of around 30 seconds. I really don’t think this would have a huge impact on the budget. Editing is no joke, but it’s something that they could certainly have staffers do. One way to get around the time involved would be to make episode promos based on the sub versions. You could just grab the entire thing, but of course this would be more of a last resort. Ideally I’d like to have 30 second dub promos for it the way they used to. For the purposes of this editorial when I say “new” shows I’m talking about anything that is airing on Toonami for the first time. For example something like My Hero Academia which is already available online is still on Toonami for the first time so that should get dub promos. Likewise if Sailor Moon Crystal were to air, I’d want that to get promos as well since it’s on Tooami for the first time. So…why are episode promos important?

1. They are your first glance at a show

Toonami has four kinds of promos. They have the motivational speeches every once in a while, the monthly lineup change promo, episode promos, and new series introduction promos. I’m mainly focusing on the third kind, but the fourth one has some overlap. Every new show does get an intro promo so Toonami does a good job with that. Typically this promo is a minute long and it’s a great way to set up a show for new viewers. To date the best series promo by far was the Sword Art Online Alicization one.
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Despite there not being a whole lot of action in the premiere they used amazing editing and a rock solid music choice to get you hyped. I’ve seen that promo at least 50 times since it first aired. It’s just perfect and it’s an example of a show I could see myself checking out without knowing anything else other than the promo. It’s just that good. Episode promos can have the same effect.

Put it this way, the series premiere promo only shows up for 2-3 weeks. After that it’s gone so if you turn on the TV at a random time odds are that most of the shows airing won’t have any promos. That’s where an episode promo comes in. Lets say you turn on the TV and you get the Samurai Jack episode 3 promo below.

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You have no idea what this show is, but all you care about is when the episode is going to air. You’ll tune in and now there is a chance that you’ll pick up the show. You’re much more likely to take a chance that way after seeing something rather than blindly tuning in at the time and checking it out. A good episode promo goes a long way to letting you see if you’ll like the show or not. Actual footage goes a long way.

2. They get you hyped for the next episode
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An obvious benefit of episode promos is they get you ready for what will come next. Especially as most of the Toonami shows are action ones. A solid promo builds up the hype and anticipation for next week. Lets take this Titan promo for example. We’re finally going to see Eren’s rematch against the titan from episode one. This is an event that viewers looked forward to for several years so just having that scene in the promo really gets you amped up. It’s just not the same with no promo or even with a 15 second one. They’re just way too short for you to do anything with them. We need consistent episode promos and all of the new shows deserve them, not just the top 2-3 each season.

3. A good promo may make you jump on board a show even if the first few episodes didn’t look so good.
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This is similar to the first option, but a little different. Lets say you’ve got a show where the beginning looks boring? Say you turned on Dragon Ball Super and you saw the early Beerus stuff. You figure “I’ve already seen this as a movie” so you turn it off and don’t watch again. About a year later you turn on the TV and the following promo shows up. Now you’re thinking “Wait a minute, this looks hype!” and you scramble to watch the next episode. An episode promo like this shows you what you’re missing and may incentivize you to re-start the show. After all, you’re more inclined to do so if you know there is going to be some big payoff like this rather than watching something you’re not a fan of and hoping it’ll get better. A lot of shows have slow beginnings and for some they may never get better while for others they hit that next gear and never look back. Promos are perfect for this.

So, those are 3 reasons why I think Toonami should reconsider their current approach and begin airing 30 second promos for all of their premieres. It would really go a long way towards getting more and more people excited about their current shows. The biggest benefit will be for more casual viewers, but I just love promos even if I’m already watching the shows and am hyped for next week. Promos are just amazing and I’ve always enjoyed watching them a bunch. A good one just goes a really long way and also helps when trying to recommend a show to someone. Well, with or without this change, Toonami has definitely been a great way for us all to experience new titles. Without Toonami I doubt anime would be quite as mainstream as it is today.

Attack on Titan: Lost Girls Review

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It’s time to look at an Attack on Titan manga spinoff. I remember reading the light novel for this a while back so it’s interesting to revisit it in manga format. It seems to be a pretty faithful adaption, at the very least I couldn’t really see anything big that was removed or changed. Each of the girls gets one volume with Annie’s being a pretty big mystery while Mikasa remembers the good ole days. It’s a fun enough story that completely obliterates the actual manga and reminds me that the series is always at its best when there are no actual titans around. Yes, it’s pretty ironic, but it is what it is.

In Annie’s story she is preparing for her big showdown with the Survey corps. In a sense it’s her last day before her whole life is shaken upside down. She was planning on using the day to meditate and dwell on what’s going to happen, but then her roommate asks her for a favor. Well…”asking” may be putting it politely. In the novel it’s downright blackmail while here it’s basically the same thing even if maybe it’s more implied than stated. Since Annie needed someone to cover for her the next day when she was out on her master plan this girl wanted her to cover for her right now. See, this girl was put in charge of finding a lost girl, but decided not to bother with it. It’s been days, but someone’s got to take the mission on and at least give a fake speech to the person who gave out the request that they tried. Annie figures this will be a bother, but decides she may as well do it since it’ll give her something to do in the meantime. This mystery won’t be easy to solve though.

Keep in mind that everyone in Attack on Titan is pretty corrupt, especially the military police. As a result it’s hard for Annie to actually get any info through legitimate means so she has to go to bars and beat people up to get the answers. Everyone’s pretty suspect so you don’t feel bad for the various people she beats up. They all seem like criminals and would destroy her without a second thought. Annie is very capable so eventually she gets through the mystery and figures out what happens. It’s fun to see the series taking a stab at a mystery and it did a good job. It’s not easy to figure out the mystery so you may connect the dots along with Annie rather than jumping ahead.

I also liked that the guy who gave the mission seemed pretty intelligent. Usually these guys seem to be really slow on the uptake, but he did a full psycho analysis of Annie the moment she stepped into the room. That was certainly impressive. Then the actual missing girl also seemed pretty smart which was a nice dynamic. We’ve got enough drunk bar guys as it is so it’s a good change of pace to have some other characters who can think ahead. The only part of the story that may make you wonder a bit is the climax involving a titan shift. The shifts are incredibly loud and bright so I feel like there’s no way you can get away with doing that and not having people ask a lot of questions. It’s the only part that would make this seem to be non-canon as otherwise everything works pretty well. I suppose you could also explain this away by saying that Annie has enough control to lower the glow/intensity which isn’t really all that far fetched.

The other story for Mikasa isn’t quite as exciting. That’s likely because it’s a flashback story. We get to see how she and Eren first met up. Naturally this doesn’t cover the part with her parents getting bumped off since that was already covered in the show. Eren already seems a bit unstable and obsessive here which is an accurate depiction of him. He’s certainly one of the most ambitious shounen leads of all time with how his character arc goes so it’s always fun to see a bit of his early days as well. The issue is that there isn’t much to do. We see them hang out a lot, we get some foreshadowing with the human traffickers running around, and Eren gets beaten up for his political views. The story’s a little more mean spirited than the first one as it’s dark throughout. I don’t know if it’s meant to be dark, but you feel the tension throughout since you know that things aren’t going to end well.

The story also makes Mikasa’s parents look pretty bad since they definitely should have left the house after they knew people were lurking around. The mother was sick, but then tell Eren’s father or something. You need to have some kind of backup so you can escape because otherwise they were all doomed. They just really didn’t think ahead here. The scene of Eren getting beaten up by the adults is also pretty intense and not a fun scene. It’s literally full grown adults badly beating up a kid to the point where he was severely injured for a while. At this point we already get how the city is super corrupt, no need to beat it into us. (pun intended) Things don’t end well for them though since karma also tends to hit like a truck in this series. Characters who do bad stuff rarely get a happy ending, the cycle of violence tends to get everyone.

Finally there’s a 2-3 page story with both characters I guess so their stories could link up a bit. Mikasa basically takes issue with Annie’s ring blade since she feels like it could hurt Eren so there are a lot of veiled threats in the conversation. I’d definitely take Mikasa in a human fight between them, but in a no holds barred battle Annie would naturally win. Of course it would completely blow her plan so in a sense Mikasa could at least take a consolation victory there.

The artwork looks pretty good. It’s a little smoother than the main series art. I wouldn’t call it top level or anything, but it certainly holds its own pretty well and makes for a pretty easy read. The fight scenes have a lot of pop behind them with the art which is always a key fundamental to have. It really helps the whole manga rise up an extra notch as well. The writing is also pretty good which is definitely important no matter what kind of manga you are. This one does a good job with that.

Overall, Lost Girls is an interesting spinoff. Annie’s story definitely destroys Mikasa’s though. I don’t think we really need to learn too much more about her origins since the manga already covered that pretty well. It could have worked better if things worked out more for the heroes but with everything already being grim I don’t think this story really added to anything. Both stories are pretty self contained so you could probably enjoy them even without reading the main series. That being said, you’ll naturally get more out of it if you already know the characters. I’d recommend picking this one up, it’s a good enough story to add to the verse.

Overall 6/10

Asdivine Hearts 2 Review

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After a long time since playing the first game it’s finally time to take a look at the sequel for PS4 thanks to Limited Run Games. The first one was super memorable for me thanks to its really impressive UI and menus. The game is just super streamlined and has every feature you could want in an RPG. This one is a great followup even if the plot isn’t quite as good as the first one. Some of the characters can be a bit much, but either way I would definitely still recommend picking up this game.

The game takes place 2 years after the first one. Zack and Stella haven’t seen each other in that span of time, but they are called together once more by the light goddess Felix. She explains that something is wrong in a parrallel world so she wants their help in investigating. The dark goddess Nadia will be accompanying them as well as Uriel from the last game. Celine has to stay back this time to help with preparations for the Star Festival. The heroes enter the portal and find that the other world is freezing over thanks to the powers of a new deity. They will have to stop this guy at all costs, but is there more to this threat than meets the eye?

Naturally the plot expands quite a lot from the general premise as you would expect from any long RPG. This game is quite a bit shorter than the first one and you’ll probably beat it in half of the time. Still, at around 12 hours the campaign is still long enough to get your money’s worth as well as a bunch of twists and turns in the game. Whenever the climax approaches (We get 3-4 different climaxes) the game always draws you into the excitement thanks in part to the music. The soundtrack is pretty limited, but the tunes that we do get are quite terrific. I could hear the enemy theme on loop for hours and the final boss theme is suitably hype as well. The game does a good job of really selling you on the game ending before a twist suddenly throws everything for a loop once more.

The graphics are also very good. The cutscenes are told through image illustrations like a GBA game, but the character portraits definitely look like they are in HD which is good. Everything just looks shiny and modern which I think it a must for any big PS4 game. The gameplay graphics are nice as well even if I don’t look at the effects all that much since I have the game running at high speed mode. The attacks look great, but the animations do tend to take a while so after you’ve seen them all once it makes sense to just skip past them.

As for the gameplay, it’s your standard turn based combat system. Each character gets to attack and you can use various skills and techniques to speed up your turn or slow the opponent’s down. Each character can learn a ton of attacks including physical skills, magical skills, unity skills, combo skills, etc. By the end of the game your menu will be pretty cluttered with how many different kinds of moves you can activate. In most games this could be overwhelming, but Asdivine Hearts does a good job of never letting it get that far. Part of how it does this is by allowing you to control everything. You can put your guys on automatic for fights, you can skip fights with weaker fighters altogether, text speed, etc. Everything is customizable which is awesome.

I’ve never seen a game that can make grinding so effortless. Then you’ve also got other featured like gardening which increases your physical stats, tickets which gets you rare items, and power jewels which can be traded for great items like doubling your EXP for the rest of the game. I highly recommend buying all 3 copies of that as soon as possible. This is one game where you should never skip a fight because you’ll want to do as many as possible to get those gems. Trading them in gets you the very best rewards. Even with all of this the final boss is pretty difficult though. A lot of their skills will really test your abilities and put your skills as a player to the mettle. They seem to have almost unlimited durability and even with my characters at level 90+ I was having some real difficulty. The final bosses took around 30-40 minutes to conquer which was pretty crazy.

The main character cast is good for the most part. Zack is still a great lead who always does the right thing. He has a lot of confidence and usually comes up with the best plans out of the bunch. Even with his companions being a little crazy he never lets it get to him and always stays ready as the leader. Stella is a good main heroine as well even if her whip gimmick feels a little forced at this point. At least she is a little bolder than in the first game and also doesn’t get quite as jealous as last time. It would be nice to see her use her light powers a little more though.

Then we have Uriel who is the best of the training companions. She’s honest about her feelings the whole time and her subplot about being a little worried since she is a human was pretty emotional as well. Uriel was a good companion to have around. Then we have Felix who isn’t quite as solid as the others. She’s a goddess and yet she is always a few steps behind the other characters in just about everything. How can you be a deity and still not be prepared for what’s going on? That just doesn’t work and it makes her look pretty bad the whole time. Her whole fur gimmick is definitely not great either.

Then we have Nadia whose core personality isn’t bad, but her obsession with Felix gets to be a bit much. The game loves giving everyone a different creepy gimmick like this which can get old very quickly. Lets not even start with the character who wants everyone to stomp on her. (Or him. It’s hard to tell with some of these characters) The problem is that these traits start to take over the characters very quickly so it has to appear in every cutscene more than once. A lot of the cutscenes get pretty iffy as a result.

The villains are good at least. As I mentioned there are quite a few twists with each villain getting a different “All according to plan” moment which is nice. The hype music also really sells these scenes so that the game can get quite epic when it needs to be. As a result I can’t say that the story was bad. Really it is great during serious scenes and then pretty bad when it’s back to slice of life mode. Hopefully it can be a bit more balanced in a potential third game as this is the only thing holding the game back from a full 9 star title.

There is definitely a lot of replay value here. Beating the game will take around 12 hours as mentioned, but if you intend to platinum the game you can expect to double that amount of time. Increasing everyone’s trust levels will take time so I’m thinking the best way to get everyone’s ending would be to save right before the end and give all of your trust items to one person. Then after the trophy pops you reset the game and do the same for each other character. Some of the other trophies will still take some time though. The game’s excellent gameplay mechanics for encounters and such do make it easier to explore and find all of the chests though. It’s a much more manageable Platinum than what you would see in most other games which is definitely appreciated.

Overall, Asdivine Hearts 2 is a really fun game. The gameplay is out of this world and the level of customization that you have at your disposal is quite impressive. It may all feel a little overwhelming at first, but I think the developers did a great job of making it all as straight forward as possible.The actual story is a little on the weaker side though with the characters going a little too overboard on how desperate to be quirky they can be. Still, it’s never too bad I guess and you can always just quickly skip through the dialogue when certain characters show up. You can set the text to instant so you blast through the conversations and you can then prep for the actual cutscenes that are important. I’d definitely be game for a third title in this series but with how overpowered the heroes are at this point it’s hard to see what could possibly be a threat to them at this point. I’m sure the developers can think of something though.

Overall 8/10

Top Spin 4 Review

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It’s definitely been a little while since I played my last Tennis games. I really love playing this sport in video game format due to it being one of the few ones where you can just play 1 v 1 in almost all the modes. Win or lose, it all comes down to your skill and there are no RNG factors to take into account. It’s a little weaker than Virtua Tennis, but by the end of my playthrough I did start to really get used to how this one works. The timing mechanics may not have been my thing, but at least they were implemented well unlike the latest Mario Tennis game. It was tempting to stick around and keep playing this title, but at least for now I’ve just got to put it down. One of these days I’ll certainly be back for it.

There are a bunch of modes to play here like King of the Hill, Exhibition, Training Academy, or the full career mode. I dabbled around in all of them in order to get some trophies but the bulk of your time will definitely be spent on the career. The training mode lets you play through around 26 levels which gives you a good understanding of the game. I highly recommend playing this one before you go into the other modes. Most of the time I skip the tutorials, but in general I feel like they are extremely handy for sport games. You want to have a deep understanding of the fundamentals if you are going to succeed. Once you have cleared them all you also get a shiny trophy.

King of the Hill is a good mode when you’re playing with friends. It’s effectively a mode where you try for 3 points and it keeps switching everyone out round robin style. Whoever gets a certain amount of wins first will end up being the king. Then there’s Exhibition mode where you can just play a lot of matches for fun with friends of the A.I. With that taken care of, lets take a look at the career. Career mode is very expansive as it takes you through a list of activities month by month. At first you won’t be a high enough rank to enter the big tournaments so you can enter the small ones or train your skills at charitable events. As you win tournaments or do these events your rank, level, and fanbase will increase. All of those are important for different things. You’ve also got criteria that you need to clear in order to hit the next status. For example “Win 3 tournaments” and you’ll go from beginner to novice.

I cleared 2-3 ranks before I eventually put the game down. It’s really fun because you can feel your character improving and the difficulty of the A.I. as you go through the game. If you win a tournament without being defeated you’ll typically move up 7 spots and you start out at around 100. So you’ll be #1 before long provided that you go undefeated. I would expect you will probably lose to someone before you reach the end, but if your fundamentals are good then maybe you’ll be okay. I lost in the semi’s during my first 3 tournaments, but then I aced my last 5.

You also get EXP which you can use to level up your stats and I highly recommend doing this. Increasing your level also allows you to hire new coaches which gives you little bonuses during matches as well as extra EXP. It’s never anything major, but little by little all of these bonuses begin to add up and before you know it you’ll be a true threat in the court. That’s your end goal and it’s definitely something you’ll want to keep in mind as you go through the game and try to be the best.

It’s a bit late in the review, but lets look at the gameplay for this title. Naturally the rules follow the real game of tennis so the goal is to hit the ball past the other player. You move your player to where the ball is and you can return the shot through a variety of different methods. A drop shot which is a low ball, a lob shot, or just a power move up the middle. I always went with power shots as the A.I. is great at blocking the rest, but there’s a time and a place for each one of course. You can also use control strikes to hit the ball where you want it to go.

The main difference here compared to other tennis games is in the timing. Hitting the ball early or late will increase the chance of you hitting it out of bounds. It’s a mechanic that can be pretty annoying until you get the timing down. Sometimes you’ll hit the ball and you feel like you did a good job, but it’ll sail out of bounds anyway. This is mainly if the opponent hits the ball really hard which is why I always opt for that approach as well. I’d be cool with this mechanic not being around, but it doesn’t hurt too much.

My big gameplay tip is to always go for the advanced serve. It’s almost impossible for the computer to return it without being knocked off balance so you can easily win the point on the next shot. Beyond that, just stay close to the baseline and only rush up when you see a volley that needs to be slammed. The gameplay is just a lot of fun and it’s my second favorite sport next to Football for playing at least. I could play tennis matches for hours and hours.

Sadly getting the Platinum in this game will probably be impossible since there are a bunch of online trophies. I assume the servers are down, but if they’re up perhaps you could coordinate with other trophy seekers to get them all. Even so I did try to get as many trophies as possible. There’s a ton of replay value here since the actual gameplay is so much fun and of course you can just keep doing more and more matches forever and ever. The game never really needs to stop so it’s a great bargain since you won’t need to pay a whole lot to get this game.

Overall, I highly recommend checking this game out. At first the gameplay may seem a little too intricate but as you play the game you’ll get addicted. The best way to start the game out on the right foot is to play through the tutorial. It does a really good job of explaining the various mechanics so that they make sense and seem pretty fair. After doing that you’ll be able to cruise through the first part of the career mode without issue. It’s all just so much more enjoyable once you know what to do. As long as you like the game of tennis you’ll definitely love this game. I’m definitely looking forward to whatever tennis game I end up getting next.

Overall 8/10

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Volume 12 Review

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It’s time for another My Little Pony comic adventure. Slowly but surely I’m getting close to reading all of the volumes. This one actually has a few stories that span several issues which is cool. I always like when the series goes for complete story arcs rather than one shot issues. With the extra page space there is just so much more you can do to flesh out the adventures and make sure everyone gets a role. It means there are less chances for other characters to get a chance to shine, but it is worth it.

First up we’ve got a long story arc with Discord. Things haven’t been going well for him as of late because he just can’t help but act rather rudely to everyone around him. Fluttershy puts up with it, but the rest of the Mane 6 do not. He decides to seal himself away and transforms into a being known as Accord. He just wants to bring stability to the rest of the world. At first this seems pretty good, but he starts to get a little too drastic when he begins mind controlling innocent ponies. The Mane 6 realize that they are going to have to stop him, but what if that means Discord will return? This’ll be one of their toughest cases yet and they may need to ask for help from the superstar Starlight Glimmer!

It’s been so long since Starlight Glimmer got to have a starring role so you can bet that I was super thrilled to see her return. As always she ended up being the power hitter here and the only one who was resistant to the mind controlling abilities of Accord. She’s often overlooked during the series, but when a crisis is at hand there is nobody more dependable than her. I think her presence is part of what legitimizes this as a real threat. We also get to see almost the entire rest of the main cast from the series which is pretty neat. It always makes for a good premise when you have someone slowly corrupting everyone in the town through magic. It’s like the Phalanx arc in X-Men.

By this point I can see why everyone would be tired of Discord in Ponyville. He seems to make a whole lot of mistakes which come back to bite everyone, but at least this time it wasn’t intentional. He doesn’t seem to have any control over Accord although it is basically him so I won’t cut the guy too much slack. It was also interesting to see the Elements of Harmony actually fail this time. Those objects usually work so it was a pretty startling moment. Accord was one of the most serious threats that Equestria ever faced and I hope everyone gave Starlight a proper thanks at the end. The whole volume would be worth checking out even if this was the only story in it, it’s just really epic!

A one shot comic after this has Discord at the helm once more. It is Celestia’s birthday and he is unsure what kind of gift to get her. As the princess she already has pretty much anything money can buy. That’s when Discord realizes what he should do. He transforms her into a normal pony so she can hang out in Ponyville and enjoy things without everyone being on guard. At first Celestia is reluctant, but gradually she realizes that this is a lot of fun. It’s not a big end of the world plot like the last arc, but it’s a pretty cool one shot. There does seem to be a possible plot hole here though as she acts like she had never gone to Ponyville before, but in another issue we find out that she goes into Ponyville undercover once a year for this exact reason. So…..that doesn’t hold up when you think about it. I guess you could assume that she just doesn’t want Discord to know this so she is overacting which is reasonable and it’s not like this is a big plot hole either way. It’s just a nice wholesome comic and it always does sound fun to pretend to be someone else for a day.

Then the rest of the stories here involves another story arc. One night Twilight and Spike are heading back home when they notice that the door is open. A villain is inside stealing some books and while Twilight attempts to stop him, the masked thief is too powerful. He knocks them aside and escapes. Twilight calls the rest of the team in and we discover that the villain has been going around Equestria and stealing a bunch of books only to erase the information within. The heroes have to catch him before he does the same to the rest of the realm, but how can they hope to defeat a mage who is this powerful? It’s definitely going to take everyone on this mission.

It’s a pretty solid group of issues. I’m always up for a new villain and the fact that he has powers is pretty cool. That being said I do think that he gets off rather lightly here. The guy damaged a bunch of irreparable books and they basically just told him to stop doing that. I know at the end of the day the heroes are rarely going to beat up on bad guys here since friendship is what solves issues, but this guy was a total crook. His origin story for why he was doing this was pretty shaky and at the end of the day it was really just an excuse to go wild on the town.

I also think the Mane 6 didn’t treat this too seriously for a while. Twilight should have put up a much better fight against the guy at the beginning and when she called in the Mane 6 they should have been investigating rather than turning the whole thing into a slumber party. I dare say that Applejack and Rainbow Dash took this situation the most seriously compared to the others at least. It was nice to see the group split up into pairs to dig up some dirt on the villain. It felt like how things would have played out in a two part episode. So while the ponies should have cracked down on this guy sooner, it was still a really solid adventure to end off with. Hopefully the villain will return someday and we did get an interesting cliffhanger of sorts so I wonder if that plot will be resumed.

The art tends to shift from arc to arc, but it’s definitely pretty solid. The only iffy one is the Celestia issue as that artist always draws everyone like little kids. Celestia should not look to be the same height as Twilight and pals. It has a nice cartoony look to it though so the colors are still on point. The series has always been very expressive and easy to read which the issue still captures. You’ll have no problem reading through these issues and just having a good ole time.

Overall, Friendship is Magic continues to be a solid series volume after volume. There’s really nothing bad to be said about it and the pacing is on point. This volume in particular has two different arcs making it one of the strongest volumes that I’ve read. In particular you’ll definitely want to read the story with Accord as it is played pretty seriously. I still think it would be a good idea for the show to come back and adapt these stories at some point. There are just so many good ones to choose from!

Overall 7/10

Gentleman Ghost vs Rukia

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Suggested by iKnowledge The Gentleman Ghost is a powerful because it is very hard to hit him. He can become intangible at will and then appear in time to land a hit. Fortunately for Rukia her speed will make countering his attacks easy. She can match his hits as soon as he appears. I also think her ice abilities may be cold enough to affect him even when he is intangible although I am not 100% confident of that. Regardless he has no real way to damage her so eventually he will go down for the count. Rukia wins.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus Review

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Time to look at a drama film that takes place on Christmas. It’s based on an editorial from a while back, but since basically the whole film is fictionalized I figured I’d still give it a review. It’s a pretty nice film that reminds you how even if everyone around you can be mean spirited you shouldn’t stoop to their level. The main character gets jaded at times, but ultimately stays strong.

There are a few plots going on in this movie. One of them is with James who loses his job after defending himself from a few brutes. As it usually tends to be, they’re the ones who get away with it while he and his friend get booted out. Unfortunately there aren’t a lot of jobs at the moment so James is working hard to try and find anything that could work out for him. He’s starting to think that doing things the right way may be more of a hindrance than it’s worth. Meanwhile his daughter Virginia gets teased for believing in Santa Claus. James advises her to write to the paper about it.

This leads us to the second plot. You’ve got the writer Francis who is currently dealing with depression. He’s been one of the best newspaper reporters in the business but it has cost him a lot of time away from his family. Now he finds himself all alone and blames himself for not being there for his wife. His boss gives him the assignment on Santa Claus hoping that it will give the writer something to live for again and to hopefully get him back into his groove.

There are other plots along the way like the aspiring writer in the newspaper, a sick mother, and a corporate news guy trying to get a story. So we’ve got a lot of story here and the film is relatively short at around an hour and a half so everything has to move pretty quickly. The writing is good so it’s able to hold up and the character cast is solid. I don’t expect you will have any real qualms with the film. At most some plots just don’t feel as interesting as others. I was more invested in the James plot than any of the others ones after all.

He was definitely in the right with defending himself from the attackers in the opening scene. I know they sometimes tell you to look the other way but if someone’s literally attacking you and hampering your abilities on the job you have to do something. It wouldn’t be reasonable to expect James to do anything else. That’s personally how I see it at any rate. Likewise I was glad he jumped in to help his friend in the bar even if it put his job at risk. You have to help your friend in these situations. Part of why James is my favorite character here is that he always made the right choices even when it was dangerous for his career. He’s the kind of friend who has got your back. He definitely starts to doubt himself at the end, but it was a trying day for sure.

It’s not to say that Francis’ plot wasn’t good. It’s just not quite as interesting. I thought the boss was actually the standout character here. He really thought things through and made sure he was there for his reporter. The scene of him putting out his cigarette in the ash tray was also very important because if the gas had been on with the windows closed then Francis would have died too. He was betting everything on the fact that Francis hadn’t totally given up yet. The interesting thing is that Francis had seemingly been about to do just that, but opened the window just in time. The boss showing up ended up saving his life.

Meanwhile we have the assignment and I’d say that Francis’ answer was good. He didn’t totally lie about Santa being real, but kept the response vague enough so that a kid could interpret it that way. It’s always a debate on if you tell your kid that Santa is real or not. Nowadays a lot of parents say they just tell their kid right away so there’s no disappointment later on. Personally I would also establish early on that the parents are getting the gifts and there is no Santa. Even if it’s pretty harmless, telling a kid that Santa is real is a lie. There are ways you could imply it without actually lying, but it’s just so much easier to not mislead the kid here. Also it helps to start informing kids about the true meaning of Christmas and the birth of Jesus Christ rather than letting them grow up thinking it’s about gifts and Santa Claus.

The film definitely tackles some pretty serious themes here with suicide and struggling to find work. It handles these themes well without making the film overly depressing. The movie still has enough happy scenes to keep things going well and so you can have a good time by the end. I think the only character who got a raw deal here was the corporate reporter who was trying to get the aspiring writer from the Sun. Now, maybe I’m missing something here, but was the guy that bad? He recognized that the lady was the one writing some of the articles lately and was prepared to offer her a real salary as a writer. I get that the girl didn’t want to ruin Francis by going away but she could have tried her luck without throwing him under the bus. I guess his approach was pretty over the top and maybe I’m missing a moment of him acting more sinister, but on the surface it didn’t seem like a bad deal.

Overall, This is a good film. The character cast here is well rounded and it’s impressive how they based a whole film around a pretty quick editorial. The kids did a good job of looking after their parents and supporting them through this tough time. Virginia go the magazine which was pretty inspiring at the end and the other kid helped her sick mother by getting the soup ready and generally helping out around the house. We don’t get to see her all that much, but it’s made apparent that she is being very responsible. Aside from the bullies running around a lot of the characters just seem like good people. If you haven’t seen this film yet I’d recommend changing that.

Overall 7/10

Asdivine Hearts 2 Stats and Records

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Stats time!

Play Time 11h 27m
PS4 Trophies 24/35
Money 1,611,702
Guild Coins 973
Gems 600
Total Steps 135016
Enemies Defeated 1153
Skills Used 969
Magic used 1471
Trust Charges Used 32
Max Damage dealt 297919
Max hit count 306
Overkill Count 43
Gold Spent 769950
Guild Coins Exchanged 70
Max Weapon synthesis level 124
Weapons Dropped by enemies 63
Buddies released 18
Unison Types used 1
Harvested Fruit 258
Buddies dispatched 12
Story Quests cleared 88
Subquests cleared 1
Treasure chests opened 132

Character Levels

Uriel 90
Stella 91
Zack 92
Nadia 90
Felix 92
Pugsly 6
Celine Doll 40
Slime 11
Slug 11
Lykaon 1
Poison Shroom 1
Shark 6
Fairy 16
Wolf 11
Wyvern 1
Love Slime 1
White Lykaon 1
Seaslug 1
Ruddy Chick 16
Shining Lizard 1
Killer Shark 1
Petite Fairy 1
Phantom Wolf 6