Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom Review

Posted on August 10, 2024 by dreager1

It’s been a while since I played the original Ni no Kuni so it was fun to jump into the sequel. I’ve been having a blast jumping through a bunch of hype RPG titles and that streak’s continuing for a bit longer. The game ended up being quite excellent and I dare say that it beats the original. You may be thinking that quite a lot of games lately have been getting elite scores but that’s what happens when you play a lot of long games like this. RPGs always have an inherent advantage over other titles in that you get to really know all of the characters and get absorbed into the narrative. So as long as the gameplay and execution is on point you will have a blast. That’s exactly what happened here.

The story starts with the U.S. President Roland heading to a big meeting. Unfortunately a large missile strike occurs and everything goes up in flames. He was not able to protect his country in the end and lost everything. He is suddenly warped to another world where he is young again and is thrown into the middle of a giant uprising. The current king was assassinated and his son Evan is next. Roland manages to help Evan escape and vows to help him restore the kingdom. Evan wants to unite the world and all of the countries in it so that there will be no more wars. This may be a bit naive but Roland will do what he can to help the kid succeed. Can he establish peace in this world?

The opening really nails the tone of the game right from the start. Seeing Roland pull a gun on these fantasy creatures was intense. He was not playing and the fact that he kept the gun was really coo. Usually the gun would vanish or something like that but not in this game. You actually get to use it in gameplay as well. Everyone else has a bow and arrow for their projectile while this guy just gets to keep his gun and go blasting away at everybody. It’s really like a true isekai adventure all the way.

The gameplay is that of a real 3D action title. You have your standard moves, power moves, magical attacks, and super skills. Your supers have a cooldown based on how often you attack the opponent. Then you also have your projectile weapon. Each of your attacks can be leveled up although I never quite figured out how to do that so my moves stayed at level 1. They are still strong though and most of your attack power is based on the weapon anyway. I made sure to constantly get new weapons to equip. You rarely have to buy them though as the drop rate from enemies is really high. Keep on fighting powerful ones and they will drop exactly what you need before long so there is really no need to spend your money. You will have a lot of money by the end of the game though so no worries if you need to buy something.

You also get battle points although I’m not sure what triggers this. These can be used to enhance gameplay elements like becoming stronger against slime enemies or brute force fighters. The fun strategy part is that you have to decide which type to use this on. You can’t just make yourself strong against all fighters after all. To throw in some more strategy, you also raise these little Pikmin type creatures that follow you and use special attacks of their own. You can raise them at one of the shops in your town and you gain more as you continue the game so you have to decide which 4 to keep equipped. I just maxed out my original 4 and didn’t mess with the others.

Speaking of the town though, this is a key component of the game. You have to raise up your town by building new shops and convincing people to move in. This means completing a ton of side quests. There appear to be at least 200 side quests in the game and you’re going to need to complete over 50 of them minimum to beat the game. I think I did around 70 or so but make sure you are completing them regularly because there will be different points in the game where you will be forced to stop progressing until your town reaches a certain rank.

Fortunately it is really fun to do this. It does take some since money is earned passively using real time minutes. So there will be times where you can just run around as you wait or maybe fight some more monsters. It’s pretty fast but there is a lot to do in the town. This is where more strategy comes up. Each building is tied to different side quests and so you really have to prioritize who to send to which store. You will often have more shops than people and of course a shop won’t produce anything without someone working there.

I could go on, but you get the point. There are so many different gameplay mechanics here and different ways to play. There are dream doors, orbs, and lots of other stuff. You don’t even need to interact with major parts of the game in order to complete the story but it’s really nice how they put so much content in here. I bet I could play for another 30 hours and still not complete everything. The value for your money is quite incredible here and it’s yet another reason why you should pick this game up sooner than later. Trust me, you definitely won’t regret it.

Even with all that aside, the story is really good like I mentioned before. It handles the topic of war well and while it may be an optimistic look at things, it’s a nice change of pace. My only slight issue is with the ending, I would have liked thing to have gone a bit differently. Still, there is room for a sequel should they ever want to go in that route and I did think a certain twist at the end was really solid. I’m surprised they haven’t made more Ni no Kuni games, there’s definitely a lot more you can do with it.

The graphics are naturally super good throughout the game. The cutscenes are super good and the graphics during gameplay are also on point. The soundtrack is fairly solid as well with a number of good songs in there. The whole thing is very smooth and on a technical level there are few games that are better. This has every kind of quality of life feature you can think of from quick travel, to the aerial vehicle that lets you get anywhere quickly. You can save in almost every spot and the way items are stored is very logical. No complaints here.

Overall, Ni No Kuni is a game that keeps on getting better and better as you play it. I had a real blast with it and there is a ton of replay value. The game itself took me close to 30 hours and there is an extensive amount of quests for the post game. Getting the platinum for this game would also take a long while. I would definitely recommend checking this game out for any RPG fan. It really tells a good story even if the ending is really not as satisfying as it could have been. It may not have been perfect but it’s good enough and the whole adventure was definitely a blast.

Overall 9/10

Layton Mystery Detective Agency: Kat’s Puzzle Solving Files Review

Posted on August 8, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a wholesome mystery title in the Layton universe! This mini series is based on the video game and pretty accurately retells the events. It makes for a good read but I do wish they could have done a little more with the concept. It ends up feeling very by the numbers and I think they could have added a bit more emotion into the end product. If you can’t play the video game (Or just aren’t interested in gaming) then this definitely does the job in terms of telling the story. It’s just not really an attention grabber and I imagine that you won’t really recall the series for very long. It will very quickly fade from your memory and then it will be game over.

The story revolves around a girl named Katrielle Layton who is a star detective! Or at least she sees herself as one but some of the characters are not convinced. She gets called out on this by the pet dog but I don’t think it’s warranted since as far as we can see Katrielle is an expert. She constantly succeeds and is always on top so why would she not be an expert? I’m just a little skeptical about all of this personally. Still, she is determined to make the world a better place and in the process hopefully she can get a lead on the mysterious Professor Layton. Where has he gone and why hasn’t he contacted her at all?

Each story is fairly stand alone and so you really just get to learn a lot about Katrielle and how she solves each case. Her catchphrase of: “This Mystery is History!!!” is pretty great I have to admit. She tends to try and keep everyone guessing by intentionally acting very scatterbrained the whole time. When she obtains a clue she will disguise this by talking about snacks or acting like she didn’t notice anything. It’s not a bad technique in order to keep everyone guessing and lower their guards so I can respect that. You could also argue she is just doing her best to troll Ernest which seems to be a hobby for her.

The main cast is rather small here beyond the main heroine. It’s a short series with only 10 chapters so that makes sense as you can’t afford to develop a whole lot of characters after all. Ultimately Katrielle is already developed really well as listed above so that sets things off on a good note. She’s just fun all in all and sets the manga off on the right tone. Her partner is Ernest who does his best but can never really keep up. By no means is he a bad character though. If anything you feel bad for him because he has a massive crush on Katrielle but she is unaware of it.

Or is she? We already know that she loves to play dumb and with how obvious Ernest is about it, you have to assume that she knows or at least suspects that something up. Such a great detective not being aware of this would definitely be very suspicious. I’m not saying that it is impossible…but yeah I’m skeptical. Either way Ernest always does his best to help. He may rarely be useful but it’s the thought that counts and Katrielle never makes fun of him for this or anything. They do make for a good team.

They also have a talking dog but only the two of them can understand him. It’s hard to tell from the manga perspective if this is supposed to be a serious mystery or just a bit of a quirk. Either way it’s not like he does much. Honestly the Professor Layton stuff isn’t touched upon much either and is treated more like a twist than anything else. You’ll definitely be left in the dark about quite a few things after finishing the series and since a sequel seems unlikely that’s definitely tough.

You’ve also got Katrielle’s rival but she is out of her depth from the jump. I think that’s always the problem about introducing a rival in a mini series like this. There just isn’t much time to establish the rival as a main threat and so what happens is you end up not being able to take the character seriously. After all, she was crushed in her very first appearance so what am I supposed to do with that? Her tough talk will just ring hollow from that point on and being scared of ghosts doesn’t really help her case either. The police detectives don’t get to do as much as you expect here. I felt like they had more of a presence in the game than in the manga.

With 10 chapters that means we get to go through 10 standard cases. With each case being around 30 pages long or less that does mean there isn’t time to do a whole lot here. You will get the start of the crime, an obvious suspect, and then Katrielle saves the day. There’s nothing wrong with the format of course but they probably could have shaken this up a bit more. The best story I would say is the final one. Perhaps that is an easy answer but having Katrielle be suspected of murder is definitely intriguing. That would get you to read the chapter very eagerly. Then of course you have the initial meeting where the agency was formed and that was a pretty good prequel chapter.

The rest tend to be about even and there are no bad chapters. That’s important to note here, this is a series that is very consistent. It may not be winning any awards but it is a very easy read. The art is super clear and I have no issues there either. It may not be super detailed but you can always tell exactly what is happening which is important. I could see this style being an intentional pick to help with the younger crowd who may have a more difficult time with an intricate style.

Overall, This is a fun series but I don’t feel like the author took advantage of the manga medium. It merely recounts the events of the game without adding anything to it. I’m sure there are probably some constraints in terms of not deviating from the story but you could hopefully still get around that with really dynamic camera angles or something. I don’t know exactly the best way to go about that but something to help it reach the next level. Either way it was good though and in the end that’s an important thing. It’s a safe manga that I could recommend to anyone looking for a good time. There is nothing objectionable to be found here and so in the end it’s a good time.

Overall 6/10

Universal Soldier Review

Posted on August 8, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a thriller about knowing when to break your programming and defy orders. It’s got some good messages to be told for sure but in the end this film isn’t all that good. The main character is a little too slow every time so the villain always has the edge. It’s pretty crazy stuff not gonna lie and nobody is smart at all here. It just doesn’t seem like a very practical project even by corrupt government standards.

The movie starts with showing us the end of a big battle and a village was completely destroyed. Squad leader Andrew completely went off the deep end and turned evil. He ends up executing a hostage for no reason and so Luke is forced to take him down. It’s a mutual defeat though and their bodies are brought back to the government for experimentation. They decide to revive these two as mindless soldiers that can be used to handle any threat. They do not feel emotions or any previous memories. In theory they simply obey all orders without question. So they will be a really good unit for any commander and if the test is successful they can mass produce these kinds of soldiers from dead men.

Unfortunately things go sideways as you could have probably guessed immediately. Andrew is still as crazy as ever and enjoys murdering people a little too much. A local reporter named Veronica does some snooping with her partner and Andrew murders the guy even though it is against the rules. So Luc quickly takes her to safety and the government orders Andrew to pursue. But wait Andrew can’t be trusted because he’s already showing clear signs of a personality and violent tendencies right? Yeah the government barely cares at this point so Luc better run real fast.

Luc is still not his old self though so while he has some memories and such he doesn’t have his personality yet. This means…uh oh he basically has amnesia. One trope I never love is when the main character doesn’t know anything and gets into a bunch of misunderstandings. That happens here as he doesn’t know what money is and why he has to pay for food, he doesn’t know what his body is supposed to look like, etc. I don’t even get why we needed this part of the plot. For the most part I don’t think it would change much about the film if he was totally himself. The main villain basically got his whole personality back after all. Luc deserved better.

So the film’s attempts at humor here really didn’t do that well. Meanwhile I didn’t really care for Veronica all that much. You know the type of character they are going for right away. She’s constantly yelling and panicking and making the wrong decisions the whole time. It’s pretty clear that Luc saved her from getting shot but she still complains for a while and it takes a minute before she really gets on board with the fact that he is the only reason she’s alive. I would have thought that was rather obvious to be honest but it is what it is I suppose.

The film tends to be rather excessive on the violence as well. People are really getting blown up here and the villain collects ears from his prey. It’s definitely a good way to show that the guy is a psycho but I don’t think that was really enough justification. Also, the girl in the intro having to see her boyfriend/husband get blown away right in front of her was absolutely crazy. Then after all that she still doesn’t survive? That’s not really a great way to start the film, I was certainly salted the whole time at the very least.

Also considering who the main actor is, I was expecting way more hand to hand fight scenes. We really don’t get much of that at all though. Aside from the gunfights we get a mild skirmish at the start, a little mixup with the cook later on, and then the final fight. They really didn’t make the most out of his talents which is a shame because I know that the fights would have been really good. Perhaps they would have even elevated the film. Without them, you have more time to really focus on all of the other elements of the film which aren’t nearly as solid.

Now on to the government, the film just makes them look way too inept. They often underestimate the villains and get themselves into trouble but this was a bit much. So by this point in the film they already know how absolutely insane the main villain is. This guy absolutely must be stopped at all costs but they will keep using him since he’s the only one who can stop Luc. Okay fine but then they figure they should reset his memories just in case. So they tell him to go inside the freeze room. Andrew first threatens them a bit but suspiciously complies. So the guy walks in there with the needle before the ice can really do anything and naturally he is violently murdered. That’s just really dumb to be honest.

I don’t get why the government couldn’t do more to stop both Luc and Andrew if they were serious to be honest. It’s not even like you’d have to worry about outlasting them because both characters have a massive weakness where they overheat just by existing. So you just keep fighting until the two of them start melting and then you have the massive advantage. Case closed right? That’s also such a random weakness but I am cool with it because I think it’s only fair that a super soldier would have some kind of downside. It’d be a little convenient if there was none.

Aside from the over the top violence and the lack of hand to hand fight scenes the film could have done with more likable characters. Again you’re looking at a duo of a semi mindless main character and a main heroine who doesn’t seem to understand the danger she’s in for a while there. This doesn’t really let the characters have any banter either so while I generally would say that the writing is pretty good here, it’s really nothing to write home about either. It’s trying to survive in spite of the main characters when they should be the ones trying to prop it up.

Overall, Universal Soldier was a bit of a letdown here. I like the idea of the film but it’s not exactly a fun watch and throughout the film you are waiting for the heroes to do more. The government have no idea what’s going on and it feels like the villain has way too much control here. There’s no way he should be making it nearly as far as he does and so in the end everyone looks real bad. Not really a film I would recommend to anyone looking for their quality action title.

Overall 3/10

They Live By Night Review

Posted on August 8, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a noir title with a lot going on but it does not execute as well as it could have. It’s not super out of the ordinary for the main character to be unlikable in a noir title like this but at the same time you still need to have some kind of redeemable quality to really let the film go through smoothly. Mix that in with the underwhelming romance and this is not really one for the books. It can keep you entertained but the characters tend to get you annoyed more often than not which throws you right back out of the title.

The film starts off with Bowie and two other inmates escaping from jail. Bowie supposedly murdered someone which is a pretty big charge so he needs to lie low. The other two criminals are hardened veterans so they find a safehouse with people they know. The next challenge will be to rob a bank so they can free another criminal but this time doing it legally. Bowie is really just along for the ride but he ends up falling for the girl who lives there. Her name is Keechie and she doesn’t know a whole lot about the world. Bowie’s out of his depth as well so this could really work well as a match. Can Bowie get out of this crime circuit though?

Okay so I don’t really sympathize with Bowie because of how far this goes. At the end of the day it may be peer pressure but he was still doing everything. Robbing a bank is a crime no matter how you slice it after all. I do think he at least made the right call in skipping town with Keechie when the stakes were getting real high but at the same time he played it sloppy once one of the other criminals, Chicamaw caught up to him. You have to take the guy out of the picture. The longer you keep him around the worse things will get.

Yeah, taking someone out isn’t easy but this guy’s a villain through and through so you can’t really feel bad about that. Bowie also has Keechie to think about at this point so that really means he has to go all in. Ultimately things don’t go great for Bowie and you weren’t expecting them to considering what happened throughout the film. Right through to the end he was outplayed and that’s why he was not meant to be in the criminal game. In a way you could say it’s probably a good thing when you aren’t cut out for the competition but of course it’s even better to not even get involved in the first place.

Now why was the romance so bad? Well I think they overplayed the naive angle for Keechie. She just didn’t seem to know much about anything and so she wanted to take things slow but Bowie was the one always getting upset and trying to speed things up. It’s hard to see what she saw in the guy. From her perspective he’s another crook and someone who is trying to move rather fast instead of getting to know her. Yes, you can say she is desperate because no other guys have wanted her and that definitely throws a sad element into this but it doesn’t make the romance itself any better. In fact you could make the case that it makes the whole thing worse.

Keechie isn’t properly developed at the start of the film. I would argue that she gets a little development later on as she stands up for herself more and makes decisions. It’s not as if it’s a bad relationship all the way through but the start is just way too rocky to buy into. At least it was a way to escape the villain base which was really just a powder keg for a while there.

Also Chicamaw isn’t the best main villain. He’s jealous of Bowie for getting all of the credit for the latest crime but that means the cops won’t be looking for him as hard. That’s almost objectively a good thing from his point of view in every way. The fact that he is so petty that he would put all of this in jeopardy for clout is absolutely crazy. The guy also gets drunk quite a lot so I wouldn’t call him the biggest threat. It’s why Bowie needed to take him out a lot sooner. Yeah he can’t win a straight fight but he could absolutely do something from the sides using trickery.

I will say that the writing is solid as always though. The dialogue between each of the characters is on point without a doubt and the pacing isn’t bad. The film moves from plot point to plot point well, the problem is really that the plot itself wasn’t good enough here. You need to really rewrite large sections of it for the film to be better. It just isn’t the most entertaining film and with so many other better titles to check out, this one just ends up fading into the background.

Overall, They Live by Night is not a film that I would recommend as much as the average noir title. It could have used a mystery or something. Just watching the main guy making various mistakes doesn’t really do anything for me. The main part of the film is also about a romance that I just didn’t care much about either so there was no real saving that part of the film. I was just shaking my head by this point. I do think you could make an interesting story here about the heroine changing a villain from his old ways but you’re not really going to find that here. If the film was aiming for the ending to be a solid book-end to the subplot of Bowie not being ready for these stakes then I do think that was really clever tho.

Overall 4/10

My Hero Academia Review

Posted on August 4, 2024 by dreager1

My Hero Academia just finished today and was one of the last of the big Shonen Jump titans. The only titles with over 400 chapters now are Black Clover and One Piece. It’s hard to even say if any others really have a chance but we’ll have to see. My Hero’s definitely a great title and does feel like a fun next generation of Naruto in some ways. The idea of a series about superheroes is always a good idea and you can bet there were a ton of big fight scenes all the way through. Hopefully we get a sequel series at some point.

The story introduces us to Deku who is one of the few humans who is born without any kind of super power. For the most part, everyone gets a special ability called a quirk and then a lot of people go on to become professional heroes to take down the legions of villains. The number 1 hero is a guy called All Might who is known as the Symbol of Peace. His abilities are so good that he almost single handily ended crime on his own. Unfortunately his powers are nearly at their limit and so he passes on his powers to Deku. This is supposed to be impossible but his quirk is an exception. Now Deku can do his best to become a hero but will he really be able to pull this off?

Deku was always a bookworm and so he knew a lot about various abilities and fighters’ tendencies. This would translate pretty well when he got the abilities because now he could fight efficiently. In a way All Might’s power is too good for a while there as Deku’s body isn’t really able to contain that level of power. He has to hold back a lot even during the big fights because otherwise his own body will be torn apart. So as you can see it is an ability that carried with it an incredible amount of risk and destruction. It is not to be used lightly in any situation. As Deku learns and get older he will be able to use 100% without any issue but that assumes that there is still a world to fight for. The League of Villains are doing their best to make sure that this is not the case.

We start off with a light pre arc but it’s interrupted rather quickly for the first invasion saga as Shigaraki and his friends make their big appearance. From the start Shigaraki is a tough fighter to go up against because with a single grab he can destroy you. Any kind of contact is absolutely fatal so you have to deal with him from afar. They also have a Nomu creature which was able to go toe to toe with All Might for a while. Considering that this is just the first attack from the villains, it is really impressive on all angles. This was a good way to setup the villains but also show what the students could do right from the start. Most of them aren’t really ready to fight but there were a few like Bakugo and Todoroki who were ready from the start.

Then you’ve got the Sports Festival with the big tournament among the heroes. It’s sort of like the Chunin Exams in a sense and a big part of this was about Todoroki finally facing his powers and learning to use them all even after his tragic past. He really went through a whole lot but at the end of the day he pulled it off. His fight with Deku was definitely a highlight and it was also nice see Bakugo take a massive W in his match. His ability is suited for combat really well after all so that’s not exactly a surprise. It goes by real quick for sure but definitely squeezed in a whole lot of content. Characters like Endeavor would continue to have a really big role up through to the end of the series.

It also led to the debut of Stain and his big fight with the heroes. It was a really good part in the series both with the stakes and also what happened. Stain goes around murdering heroes who don’t quite fit into his box of what a true hero is. His rationale doesn’t always make sense but he’s a villain so that’s to be expected. This was Ida’s best role in the series. Usually he’s just the mild mannered class president who follows the rules without any kind of complaint. He does what he needs to and that’s the end of that. In this arc, his brother was taken down by Stain so Ida wanted revenge. Unfortunately we never see that same level of vigor from him again but at least he was really fun to see in this arc. You were definitely rooting for him to do well and it made for a good team based fight to end the arc with.

After that we got more character development for the heroes when they had to team up against the professional heroes. Deku and Bakugo are naturally picked to be teammates since they are worst enemies and it goes about how you would expect it to. Bakugo keeps on causing problems and picking fights there. He goes as far as to say he would rather lose than work with Deku which is definitely a very drastic take. All Might definitely went rather hard on them here too so you really get to see him land some devastating blows. It was a pretty fun set of battles and it’s always nice to see these teamwork fights. You may have some doubts about if the students could actually take on some of these pros but remember that this is for practice. It’s not like the pros are going all out necessarily.

The first big high stakes are for a while is in the forest. The students had went over there to get some experience when they were attacked by the league of villains. This time we were talking full stakes with the villains here to murder all of the kids that they could. Dabi really got to show off more of his abilities this time around and the heroes were really on the back foot for a lot of this. Deku also had his own 1 on 1 fight with Muscular which was real intense. To date that is still one of my favorite fights in the series. I thought it was a perfect way to show off how much stronger Deku has gotten. Naturally he still has a ways to go in order to become the strongest in the verse but the fact that he was overpowering this guy who focuses on strength was super impressive. Already by this point in the series I would say that he could easily defeat any of his fellow students.

Things move pretty quickly from there as we immediately turn the corner to Bakugo getting captured so Deku goes on a rescue mission. This leads All For One to show up and we finally get his big rematch fight with All Might. This is definitely some real good stuff and it’s another top fight in the series. It’s the last time we would ever get to see All Might fight at full power after all so you definitely needed to really savor the experience. It’s easy to see why he was the #1 hero for so long. He was definitely not someone to underestimate. The battle was definitely a turning point since the heroes no longer had a reliable shield behind them. I continued to expect one more stand by Al Might later on since we know he can transform for an instant but I suppose the timing was just too tight. Still, imagine how cool it would be to see him throwing a punch as slim might and at the last second he turns buff to land the full weight of the blow. That’d be awesome.

After that it was finally time to get the hero licenses! I will say this is definitely one part where the humans were always extremely unreasonable. Yes, the licenses are important but at the end of the day these are kids who have been saving everyone time and time again. It was always so annoying when the humans would show up to badmouth them and talk about how they can’t be fighting. Like cmon now, I get this for standard humans but even for them when it’s an emergency and you just saved a bunch of people, I think it’s 100% justified to have used the powers. Just tell the kids they did good and call it a day there.

After that is one of the most pivotal arcs in the series. There is a big villain gang around and they are going to team up with the League of Villains. At the head of this group is Overhaul, a guy who can destroy things and put them back together. He’s one of the darkest villains are he continues to inflict terror upon a little girl named Eri. This was a rough moment for Deku though which I never let him live down. He had a chance to end the arc before it even began by saving Eri but ultimately chooses to step aside. Yes, he was encouraged to do so by Mirio but there are times when you just have to attack and this was one of them. There is no room to back down or anything like that. You have to fight and show why you are the top hero. I could really accept nothing less. Still, Deku does his best to make up for this and we get some real intense battles in the arc. Mirio also comes into his own with some really good showings here.

You’d expect we need some time to calm down after that arc so we get a much smaller one with the Gentle Criminal. This was a really solid mini saga, I had a blast with it. He’s surprisingly very powerful and one of those villains that you can’t really underestimate. He was able to hold his own against Deku and is also very agile. Fact of the matter is he could probably crush most of the pros at this point in time. He gets a good talking to and while he does have to go to jail, you figure he will rehabilitate pretty well. He’s more of a lost soul than a hardened criminal after all.

Following that up is really the last chance for the heroes to have some fun. We get the joint training competition with the other class. Each of the characters get to have their moment to shine and we even have Deku start to learn some new powers. They may have been rather controversial but at the end of the day they are pretty neat. Most of Deku’s powers aren’t ones that will be super useful compared to his main super strength/speed abilities but they certainly don’t hurt either. I’d say the rival school deserved to win more rounds though, they had some really good plans and abilities at the ready.

The villains can’t be left out of the fun for too long though and they actually get their own mini arc to deal with a different villain group. This was pretty fun and it’s something I’d like to see more of in different titles. This is one of the only times I can think of where the villains got a whole saga to themselves to fight it out without any hero interventions. It’s not the literal only time but it’s extremely well and it was definitely a really cool story. It helps that the other villains were all really talented as well. It was to the point where the main villains actually needed a power up of their own to try and launch a counter attack. They ended up stronger and more unified as a result so they would be more of a threat in the next arc.

This would of course be the first big war with Shigaraki and his troops. We have all of the heroes jump in to stop them and it’s a really nice united front. This is one of the massive advantages of being a long running series. You can’t really pull this off to the same effect in one of the short titles because we just wouldn’t really know the characters and it wouldn’t have the same impact. With these characters though, we know them and have been with them for a long while. So it definitely hits a lot harder. The fights are all pretty high tier by this point with all of the characters really knowing how to fight. Definitely a lot of fun all around.

After that was the big tipping point with Deku transforming into Dark Deku. He decides to go it alone and take care of the villains. To be honest that’s pretty much the right call though and while that’s not supposed to be the case, I would argue the series accidentally agrees with me here. Deku takes down several formidable opponents on his own and even wins a battle while he has to protect someone. He’s fully capable of doing this on his own and the rest of the students would just hold him back. Yeah it’s emotional to be seeing them show up with their speeches and all but they are too weak to help. They don’t want to admit to this and I get it but Deku was taking care of business without them. I dare say if they had stayed back then he would have continued doing great things on his own. That is his power, that is why he needs to take the lead. The teamwork approach doesn’t work when he is this much stronger than the others and he surpassed them a long time ago. So the ending of the arc is pretty cheesy but it was still a lot of fun overall.

Finally we have the last arc. The big war against the heroes once again with everyone being involved like last time. This time the heroes decide to really make sure that the villains are all split up so they cannot help each others. It’s a pretty good plan and most of the matchups aren’t that bad. Putting Toga with some of the weaker fighters may not have been a good idea though. I would see Deku and Endeavor winning their matchups but for example Dabi’s another one who would have the clear advantage in his fight. It’s hard to see him losing that round but the heroes were doing the best with what they got. At the end of the day it’s up to the heroes to go plus ultra from there and take everyone out.

It’s quite the ride and with the series being as long as it is, it makes sense that there would be so many sagas. All of the characters really got to change with the times and everything. In general I would say I didn’t really like the ending but big manga endings can be a bit hit or miss at times. This one felt a little too harsh even with the final moment at the end. Still, you should never let an ending get in the way of good content. This is still dozens and dozens of great volumes of material all the way through after all.

What the series always did extremely well was focusing on the fact that this is an optimistic story about heroism. It’s a title you could pick up at any time and have fun with. There are tons of big battles and then also lots of interactions between the cast at school. You really got to know most of the characters and what they were thinking really well.

Naturally it goes without saying that the artwork is really good here. The series always gets a lot of praise for this and it is absolutely deserved. The close ups look real intense to the point of being borderline horror at times. The series does well with each of the tones and always shows a good amount of variety throughout. The writing is on point as well and it’s a series with a very clear premise that is easy to jump into. I expect even 20 years from now people will still be talking about the series. It had a real strong hold on top of the charts after all and was mega popular. People will never really forget this one.

Okay time to really dive into the characters. Get ready because there are certainly a lot of them running around here. No, the Vigilante characters never get to show up and save the day so you do have to relegate those to the spinoff series. It is a shame since at least the main guy could have really helped out a ton considering just how powerful he got by the end. He should seriously be one of the strongest heroes on the planet at this point in time. Still we have lots of other big fighters.

First lets go over some of the staff. Nezu is the principal and while he’s not really a fighter, the guy does have a lot of good tech at his disposal. He comes up with some pretty good designs to slow the enemy down with which isn’t easy. Additionally, he does defend the students at times. I had him pegged as the traitor for a while since he always seemed a little suspect to me but in the end I suppose he was a decent guy. He’s not my favorite character or anything but he does his best.

Then you have whose role as a teacher is bigger than a hero for most of the series due to his powers going away. As a teacher he’s only okay though. It’s pretty clear that he’s a hero who could do almost anything back in his prime so it’s harder to teach the skills. He still serves as a good role model for Deku though. Towards the end of the series he seemed to be losing it a bit though and I was sort of expecting a villain type arc. Not that he would join the villains but he would start to get more and more extreme as he got close to the line. Ultimately that wasn’t really the direction they were going for here.

Eraser Head is a pivotal character in the series. The guy tends to be harsh towards Deku all the time to the point where he even takes a shot at him in the very final chapter but he will always defend his students either way. His ability to take away someone’s quirk is extremely helpful all the way through to the end of the series. After all, most fighters are basically helpless without their quirk. Naturally that isn’t the case for the final boss but that’s one exception out of a whole series of fighting. So it’s still a really good deal if you ask me. He’s a fun character to have around.

Present Mic is Eraser’s foil and you could say the dynamic is a bit like Might Guy and Kakashi. Present Mic has way more fun with everything. He doesn’t take things too seriously and he likes being very loud. We actually do deal with a tragic event that affected both of them in the past but surprisingly that is really only in the spinoff series. So you have to read Vigilante to see the whole story. You can pick up enough here to still understand the context though.

Midnight is definitely more of a sketchy character. Yeah her gimmick is for humor but she’s just not the best kind of role model. Her ability has her conveniently stripping to power up which isn’t great. Although the series itself is actually great about not having much fanservice at all. It’s extremely tame so the series gets huge props for that since a lot of titles just can’t resist. That being said, it doesn’t save Midnight so she still ends up being one of the weaker characters.

Then we have Gran Torino who is a solid mentor type figure. His quirk is actually really handy since it’s basically like a mini version of One For All. He gets your classic super strength and super speed which lets him do a good job of training Deku. It was definitely super useful to have the whole time. You just know he would have been a top tier fighter if he was just a bit younger. As it was he still did a really good job in the series. He was definitely real likable.

The author did a good job of giving just about everyone in Class 1A something to do but to be honest not everyone really turned things around. First up is Kota and I’ve got nothing against the guy but he just wasn’t ever very big. His power isn’t the most useful and so he never got a chance to shine. Sero has his tape which isn’t going to do much against most of the villains. He gets a moment or two but that’s about it for him as well.

Jiro has her sound abilities which are considerably more helpful than some of the others. I’ll give her that and she did good in the festival as well as some of the other events. Her personality is also a lot of fun, she’s not afraid to talk smack with the rest of the fighters. If any of the side characters was going to get a bigger role she would be my pick. Sato by contrast is a character who doesn’t get much to do and doesn’t have much potential. He has super strength but to a fairly low level. Not much is going to happen from that.

Shoji surprisingly gets a bigger role by the end of the series. He will try to help end the monster discrimination but until then there isn’t much for him to do. He doesn’t have any powers that would stop the stronger opponents and so he would be caught lacking in the end. Ojiro is in a similar spot where all he has is a tail. It’s a strong tail but…that’s just not going to be much of a game changer when you get down to it. He seems like a nice guy though.

Now we start getting to the bigger characters. First is Hagakure and in a lot of ways the reason she got big was because everyone thought she was the UA traitor. Her invisibility just made this a done deal. Of course when you look at actual screentime she is near the bottom. I enjoyed her character though even if a lot of that is for reasons outside of the series. I’ll never forget the fun debates about her criminal intent.

A character with actual criminal intent is Mineta though and he is a terrible character by every metric. It’s a shame he wasn’t expelled because the guy was crazy. Unfortunately a lot of series still have the obligatory perv character and that was Mineta’s role here. He would always be around to harass someone and his power’s also rather lame. You were definitely rooting against him in every match.

Then we have Tsuyu whose role isn’t huge either but she is consistent. Unfortunately she was consistent in a very bad way. She would usually have the worst takes on things like saying Deku shouldn’t go to save Bakugo and that it would make him a villain. I really needed her to brush up on what it means to be a hero. Ultimately she isn’t bad or anything like that but definitely not a top tier character by any means.

Aoyama is one of those characters you feel bad for because his own power gives him a bad stomach. That’s just such a cruel twist of fate. He can barely muster off one blast before falling to the ground. I would feel so massively scammed by that point. I’m not a big fan of his though, he likes to be flashy but there isn’t much to his character beyond that. He gets his share of development and big moments but they didn’t do much for his character for me.

Ida as I said earlier looked great during the Stain arc. He was ready to land some punishing blows and that was real impressive. Where he really ended up faltering was the fac that after that he learned the wrong message. Ida never wanted to break the rules again even if people were in danger and that was a shame. He really has a lot of potential too. The thing to always remember is that following the rules is the right thing to do but never check your common sense out by the door. You gotta keep it with you and continue to push forward.

Mina is a fun character and she’s always at a bit of a disadvantage because her acidic powers are super lethal. If someone gets hit with that then they’re probably dying and she has to live with that. So part of the dilemma here is that she has to hold back just enough which is difficult. Still, she always tries hard and gets her share of emotional moments. She steps up even when it’s hard and that’s why I have a lot of respect for her.

Next up on the list is Uravity. She is more of a supporting fighter no matter how many times they tell us about her gunhead martial arts. She should have lost most of her fights in the series. She was a reasonable character for the most part but starts to fall off a cliff as the series ends. She just gets way too emotional about taking down a mass murderer. She did everyone a favor but it’s breaking her down inside. I get being upset, but I jut thought this was a little too much. They should have held back somewhat at least. Her goals aren’t bad but it was annoying to see her fall for the propaganda a bit.

Kaminari strikes me more as the kind of guy who would keep things real. For sure he doesn’t want to murder anyone but if he does end up saving the world then he will take it in stride. It’s what he does and his thunder powers are fun. He has a huge drawback like Aoyama which is that he ends up frying his own brain but at least that’s something he can train at as he gets stronger. You definitely want to get to the point where you don’t have any drawbacks to your power.

Kirishima actually got through those issues on his own. He used to not be strong enough so he would chip and start to fall apart as he fought. Now he has made himself hard and strong enough to the point where that is not a problem. He just takes the whole thing in stride. I like his confidence as well and he ends up being one of the better students. He’s also one of the only ones where you could say he and Bakugo are genuinely friends. That’s a feat in itself.

Tokoyami is another really powerful student. His dark energy bird is definitely tough and the fact that he gets even stronger at night is great since you figure most crimes would take place in that period. It makes him extremely well suited to being a hero, even more than a lot of the other characters without a doubt. He is not the guy that you want to leave on the bench.

Momo has cool powers of her own like being able to make anything she understands the mechanics to. That’s definitely a great ability even if she doesn’t have the stamina to keep it up for too long. She also has good tactical skills which makes her very difficult to defeat and helps her be a good supporting fighter as well. Momo always means well and has a likable personality.

Then we get to Todoroki who is one of the biggest characters in the series. After all the Todoroki family in general has a lot to get through. He had a rough upbringing due to Endeavor breaking their family apart and Todoroki had a hard time using his powers because he didn’t want to glorify his father. Eventually Deku helps him out and from there Todoroki becomes a top tier hero. He’s definitely one of the best characters in the series. I thought he handled his subplot extremely well like a professional. He is always fair about everything and you can count on him to have your back.

Bakugo is the big rival in the series and he always keeps Deku in top form. If Deku slips up even a little bit then Bakugo could end up surpassing him. Bakugo is always rather rude to everyone and that’s the way he aims to be a hero. Even through to the end he’s still yelling at everyone and hasn’t changed as much as you might expect. At least he does respect Deku now. He’s come a long way from being a petty bully and telling Deku to jump off a building. You can bet that those things don’t happen anymore. He may be rude but he’s certainly no bully. Bakugo is a real stand out character and the fact that he gets to be so strong with what I would call an average quirk is super impressive. Mini explosions usually don’t make you the equivalent of an S rank fighter.

Of course then we have Deku, the main character himself. He starts out a bit rough with being super timid the whole time. It takes him a little while but eventually he gets full confidence in himself and starts to take initiative. He has his flubs like the Eri moment but in general he is a good main character. The series is actually rather harsh to him I’d say when we go back to the ending but on the whole at least he got to accomplish a lot. Like with Uravity he does fall into a bit of a trap in terms of being a little too sad about how things turned out with the villains. At the end of the day they made their choice and Deku was forced to make his. Deku tried every possible alternative out first so he should have nothing to feel sad about. He gave it his all and I agreed with the call. Deku’s best mode was Dark Deku though, I’d love to see that return at some point.

Hawks is one of the pro heroes who shows up later on and he’s definitely fun enough. With his feathers he can fly at super speeds and he has a lot of power. He’s one of the most powerful all around heroes as a result. He has to put up with a lot by being an agent for both sides. The amount of intel he gets is really good and he had to put himself in a ton of really dangerous situations to get it. So nothing but respect to the guy, he did good.

Monoma is a really fun character. His copy ability really makes him a threat to any opponent and he also has a ton of confidence. The confidence is really what makes him the great character here because that’s what you love to see in a character. He was always ready to stand up for his class and prove that they were just as good as 1-A. Nobody else really had the gusto to pull that off so I’d say it was a rather big deal. It shows that he had a lot of guts at all times and so he was easy to root for.

Hatsume is a mild character from the support agency but she gets props for being super good at what she does. When the heroes need some kind of gear or equipment she is able to whip it out in no time flat. Nobody else could pull that off and that’s why she is the boss. There is nobody even close to her in terms of technical know-how.

Now lets go into more of the heroes. We’ve got Edgeshot who doesn’t have a huge role for most of the series but becomes absolutely pivotal by the end. He can get into any crack and exploit it. The guy is fast and hard to detect. Considering that he’s one of the top 10 heroes you know he is strong but I really do wish we could have gotten him to fight more. You never really get to see exactly what he can do in a true combat scenario for very long.

Then you have the Suneater who mostly gets overshadowed by his two teammates in the series. He can eat food in order to metamorphize his body which seems like an extremely useful technique to have. He has his share of contributions at the very end of the series but doesn’t do a ton of things on his own so that’s what keeps him from keeping up with some of the others. Also, he’s a bit too nervous and you know how I tend to take points off for that. I need him to show some more absolute confidence!

Nejire is a fun character. I like her lasers and she tends to stand out a lot. She’s another character where I would have liked to have gotten to see her do more. Her fights tend to mainly stay off screen but on camera she would absolutely dominate. You feel like most villains without regeneration wouldn’t be able to do much against her lasers but maybe it is difficult to limit them enough to not absolutely destroy the humans.

Mirio is a character who had a rough start with not saving Eri but at least after that he made this his primary mission. He would save her no matter what and he did a good job of that. Even at the cost of his powers, he really went all in. Surprisingly in the final war he doesn’t do as much as you would expect. I feel like with his abilities he should be a top tier fighter from start to finish. Maybe it just wasn’t a great matchup for him. Either way he does end up being a real fun hero all the way through and does more than a lot of the pros.

Take Wash for instance, what does he even do here? He makes the washing machine sounds but that’s about it. You forget that he’s around half the time which is too bad. Woods is another high tier hero but he really can’t keep up with anyone and is written out real quick. At least he seems like a good hero though so power isn’t everything. Mr. Lady may not be the most powerful hero on the list but she always rises up when necessary. She gets some pretty solid moments near the end where we see her determination. She gets some good props there.

Jeanist is one of those guys who actually gets a good amount of screentime and is strong. What really holds him back though is the fact that it’s hard to take his powers seriously. He can control denim to make something super tight or loose. It’s a good way to trap people but the strongest villains just aren’t going to be tied up for very long. He has a good amount of confidence though so he’s okay. Ryuku is a hero I expected more from though. She’s one of the top 10 and has absolute killer power. That should be enough to easily crush most fighters but she only gets maybe 2-3 battles and we don’t see her much. Felt like the series left a lot of meat on the bone with her.

Gang Orca has a cool design but doesn’t seem like the strongest hero. He didn’t do much at all when Toga was around after all so he lost points there. I know he was helping against the nameless minions but you have to do more than that. Mirko is the perfect example of a pro hero who came in and really took names. She did have the unfortunate habit of losing limbs in most of her fights but this never discouraged her. She would just come right back into the mix and land more blows. She felt like a grownup version of Bakugo. Definitely a great addition to the series and she was an instant scene stealer.

Fatgum had some moments as well. He’s not my favorite character bus his super durability while in fat mode is definitely real handy. You do not want to mess with Fatgum, that’s for sure. Then back to some of the students, we have Shindo who was really cool. He’s a character that I initially did not notice much in the series but then the anime helped bring him to the forefront. He does his best to stop the villains and nearly had Muscular on the ropes so I have to give him that.

Yoarashi is one of those real petty characters. He apologizes after creating a mess of things but the character motivation was rather weak. I almost would have preferred he just stay antagonistic the whole time but I suppose now he can always be used more freely in the future. Then we have Shinso who has been moving around quite a bit. Currently though he will be back with the main class which is handy. The ability to immediately brainwash/control someone is super useful and with how everyone loves talking, you can bet he will be useful for a very long amount of time. He needs someone to respond to him for the ability to activate but with how villains like monologuing that won’t be a problem.

Nighteye is an assistant but one who can move fast and read the future. This actually allowed him to dodge Deku’s strikes which might be a little bit of a stretch. My think with this is even if Nighteye knows where the hits will be, I don’t see him physically being fast enough to do anything about it. He should still be getting absolutely washed in a fight if you ask me. Either way he was a fun character to have around though.

Then we have Endeavor as one of the top tier fighters. He is a super combatant so I want to say that strength is not something that he is lacking. The guy definitely has true skills but the reason I didn’t like him is because of his backstory. Basically he was abusive to his wife and kids. The series goes to great pains to work on the character redemption saga but ultimately it wasn’t enough for him. He just went way too far by that point so there’s no turning back. I’m glad that he’s on the right side now but yeah I had 0 real sympathy for the guy. He created all of the big problems and now has to live with them for however long he lasts.

Star and Stripes is the final big hero here and she ran into the issue of being too powerful. Her ability basically let her alter reality by making anything she says come true. It’s extremely difficult to stop that, in fact you could say it’s borderline impossible. The best way would be to speedblitz her before she could get any orders out but the problem is that she built her body to be All Might level in terms of speed. She always has one rule up to keep herself that way so that plan won’t work. You’ll be shaking your head at how she goes down but either way she is a great character.

Now onto the villains! I want to give a quick shoutout to the villain from chapter 1. He never gets to do much of anything but was pivotal to the series. Without him making a move in the first episode, everything would have turned out super differently. Low key it also seems like a pretty good power and even All Might had a hard time catching up to him.

Lady Nagant is more of a serious villain though. She is dispatched to take out Deku and the fact that her gun strikes can even come close to the guy is super impressive. By this point in the series Deku’s speed is absolutely insane so keeping up with him in any kind of capacity is certainly a trick. She gets a whole backstory which was handled well and I like how her character ended. she was a good character through and through.

Then we have Stain who is always fun. Again, his idea of who is worthy to be a hero can be a bit vague. You’d figure Ida’s brother would have met the criteria but at his core you have to remember that he is still evil. He gets a good moment near the end and in general his abilities are super useful in a fight. If you get paralyzed even just once then it could be all over. He uses blades after all so unless you are wearing some armor then that’s it.

Next we have Mustard who is a fairly minor villain but the guy has a gun which is absolutely crazy here. Most pro heroes aren’t bullet proof so if you get the attack in then it could be super dangerous. The heroes have to take him out real quick each time since he shouldn’t be underestimated. At the end of the day he is just a normal guy with a gun but that’s why he’s so scary. Because you know that someone else could copy him in the future. Then there’s the Nomu. By the end of the series there are a lot of them. I would say that none of them ever manage to surpass the original one from season 1 but a few of them certainly come close. The high end who fought Endeavor comes to mind. Especially since that one could talk, that was a lot of fun.

Another strong fighter is Gigantomachia even if he can be a little too big at times. If he could scale down somewhat then I dare say he would be the bigger threat. It would be harder to lock onto him and everything. He could then appear out of nowhere and deal devastating damage. Yeah that would have been rough. As for the Doctor, not much to say about him. He’s basically your average scientist villain concocting plans and getting in everyone’s way. He’s not what I would call a massive threat or anything like that.

Then you have the Gentle Criminal and like I said before the guy is a lot of fun. I like his fighting style and his gimmick is also pretty neat. It’s not like he is going around murdering anyone either. He knocks out anyone sent to stop him but that’s about it. Meanwhile he has his partner La Brava who handles the tech and his social media. They really make for a good team all the way through.

There aren’t really any other teams though. After that we have Muscular who has a big grudge against Deku after the first fight. Don’t expect him to be just following orders all the time. I like that kind of rebel character so it’s no surprise that I enjoyed his character quite a bit. He ended up beating Spinner for me as an example. Spinner had his whole subplot with the creatures but I felt like it didn’t go anywhere quick enough. Additionally Spinner just wasn’t the smartest character a he let himself be manipulated so easily. Definitely not a good look there at all. He basically became a mindless monster.

Twice was a nice guy. Also a bit gullible but he would always do his best. Now during this writeup I do want to underscore that he is still a villain. He fell in with the wrong crowd and led a life of crime but at the end of the day he still has to take accountability for that. You don’t get a pass just because you were tricked. After all he still knew exactly what he was doing.

Mr. Compress doesn’t get a ton to do but he was a loyal fighter and a pretty good character all around. His abilities were super handy and we even get a brief backstory which wasn’t half bad. I would have liked seeing more of him. Kurogiri is another character who could have used some more screentime. We know about his backstory but like I said before most of it is in the spinoff anyway and not here. Most of this guy’s scenes are all from the very beginning of the series and then he’s gone for a very long time. Teleporting is always super handy though so I liked him but I wish he wasn’t held captive for so long.

Then you have Toga and you have to remember that she is super sadistic and evil. I feel like the manga tries gaslighting you a bit on this with Toga and the others but this isn’t some random victim. Toga was causing a whole lot of destruction throughout the series and had to be stopped. There’s no real way around it, if you don’t stop Toga then it’s all over. She was going to tip the scales before she was defeated. I think she makes for a decent villain when that is how she’s being presented at least. Her blood copying abilities are definitely hard to stop.

Dabi is the standout villain and the best in the series. He was ditched by Endeavor early on and just kept on training. He’s the only character that All for One could not manipulate which already gives him a ton of hype. Factor in that he has the strongest flames and it’s a wrap. He had a rough backstory so I’d say I sympathize with him more than the other villains. In a way they made him too sympathetic at first so they added some stuff to make him go lower again. That’s fine, he’s not someone you are supposed to look up to anyway. He just so happens to have a really cool design and everything

Now we’re at the two big villains. First up is Shigaraki who gets a whole lot of screentime. I didn’t care for his origin story since it involves some animal violence. Miss me with that but it is easy to see how he turned evil. The environment didn’t do much to help him there but by no means is it the old lady’s fault. Later on we get a scene where some people think she should have acted but I reject the premise out of hand. By no means should she have been expected to go and do something about this. Shigaraki continues to get stronger and stronger throughout the series as his ambitions also grew greater. He is a very interesting and well layered villain. I dare say the series wrote themselves into a bit of a hole with how he can destroy anyone by touching them though. It means that none of the fights can have any contact for the most part so they have to work around that. Since he is as fast as All Might later on though, that starts to feel a bit impossible. There are definitely some power level issues there but all in all I liked Shigaraki. His group also know he has their back. They actually stick together and you love to see because I actually like loyalty among villains.

Finally you have All for One from the main villain group. The guy was always so mysterious and doing things from behind the scenes but man did he fall down hard near the end. He was panicking left and right as everyone barreled into him. There was a time near the end where he spends maybe 10-15 chapters getting crushed by everyone. He makes so many mistakes and looks so bad. I still like the villain of course and most crack by the end but this was definitely real drastic. You just couldn’t help but laugh at him a bit as well as he lost all of his charisma. He definitely needed to get out of his old body and that would have helped out a lot. Instead it was time for him to get humbled big time. So fun villain, but Shigaraki is definitely higher.

Then we have the alternate villain group led by Re-Destro. Re-Destro is one of those villains who was amazing at first and then from there he really ended up going down big time. He had a lot of aura and leadership potential but then he squandered it all and became more of a loyal lapdop. No, that was not my Re-Destro! It was a shame to see him lose everything that made him a cool villain. So by the end of the series I can’t say that I was much of a fan. He still had a really awesome intro though.

Curious was one of his big fighters and she was cool. Her fight with Toga was really solid and in a lot of ways you could say she should have won that battle. She played the matchup to near perfection and had counters ready for every tactic. That’s the kind of fighter you absolutely do not want to underestimate or it’s all over. She is one of those villain psychos who has a gimmick and stands by it which I appreciate. Of course the best member of the group is Geten. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see more of him. His ice is so powerful that he was able to hold his own against Dabi for a while which is absolute insanity. I would say that automatically puts Geten near the top of the verse and that’s probably why they couldn’t show him too much. He would be absolutely dominating everyone who made the mistake of getting in his way.

Rappa is a fairly minor villain in the grand scheme of things but I liked him. He always enjoys a good fight and didn’t want any cheap tricks to get in the way. He was extremely strong but also had an honor code. So you actually didn’t mind when he was winning. He’s still a villain without a doubt but at least he has a purpose/focus. I think it could have been pretty cool to see him go up against Deku at some point.

All of the One for All previous user get to show up in the vestige world and everything so that’s pretty neat. I wouldn’t say we get to know too much about them but we know what we need to. The theory about Backugo from the future may not have panned out but that was fun while it lasted. Imagine having 6 people living rent free in your head though. That could have been a little funny subplot to keep going in the background if the series had just wanted to keep that up.

Finally we have the last two characters who supported Deku a lot. His mom gets several appearances in the series. I wouldn’t say she ever gets to look good here but unfortunately her role didn’t permit much time for that. She’s mainly here to get emotional a whole lot of times. It would have been nice to ser her step into the action like she found a way to improve her quirk or something. Meanwhile Eri is also around as a wild card. I would say she is a true wild card because the whole time you’re waiting to see her use her youth powers again. The way they write around this can be a bit annoying but she still gets to help out as needed. She’s put up with a whole lot as a kid so you can bet that I’m not going to be all that harsh at all.

The series does have a lot of power level issues mainly due to Deku himself. He has the strongest quirk around and continues to grow during the series. He should be crushing most of his competition with ease like All Might used to. There are times like when Toga grabs him that you just have a hard time believing it. Likewise when Shigaraki is fighting and doesn’t manage to grab anyone even with his super speed. The issue is that Deku and Shigaraki are both just way too strong for anyone else and that leaves to some unbalanced environments. Every series has power scaling issues of course but this one tended to appear more drastic because of skilled these two were.

Overall, My Hero Academia is definitely a great series and what Shonen Jump is all about. You’ve got a large cast of fun fighters and a whole lot of battle scenes within it. You’ll be blasting through the series real quickly as you eagerly await what happens next. The pro heroes could never keep up for the most part but at least this paves the way for the kids to become the next wave of heroes. They will do what the grownups could not and really make the world a utopia. It’s a bold goal but they are ready for it. This was definitely quite the writeup and I can assure you that I still left out a bunch of characters and events. If you want the full experience then it’s time to binge the series. Get ready for a real good time!

Overall 8/10

Cardfight!! Vanguard Divinez Review

Posted on August 4, 2024 by dreager1

Cardfight Vanguard is definitely one of the most impressive franchises out there. The fact that it has managed to create an all star franchise 3 times with classic, G, and then the Dress series is crazy. If you count the reboot and Divinez as separate then they’ve pulled this off 5 times. The fact of the matter is it can absolutely hold its own with Yugioh right now which would have been seen as nearly impossible back in the day. This is definitely a whole new era of hype and I don’t see it going down any time soon. This season is definitely a lot of fun.

The series starts off by introducing us to Akina. His little sister Hikari has been sickly for a long time so he works a job while in school to have the money for her bills. She occasionally gets better but always relapses. One day a cosmic being known as Gabwelius shows up and declares that the fated clash is about to begin. Several fighters have been selected for this and the winner will get their wish granted. Akina knows this is his chance to save Hikari and so he quickly enters. How hard can this Cardfight game be right? Of course everyone has their own reasons for entering and with wishes being what’s at stake, nobody is going to back down. Also why is Gabwelius hosting this tournament in the first place? There is a mysterious masked fighter who is trying to sabotage the tournament as well for some reason. A lot of mysteries need to be unmasked here.

I would say the series covers a whole lot of ground in 13 episodes. We get to see everyone’s motivations here and so the characters are really fleshed out. It reminds me a bit of Fate/Zero with how almost everyone feels like a main character and gets focus. The only decision I didn’t agree with here is how it’s not a standard bracket. So you just fight if your name is called and that means the same person can fight a whole lot. This is used to get Akina to fight multiple times in a row and I get that he’s the main character but seeing everyone get the standard amount of fights would have been better I’d say. It’s a minor thing though, I definitely enjoyed all of the fights either way.

As far as the characters go, I would say Akina is already better than the last one. Perhaps not in terms of skill level as that will take some time but he’s more confident which is always good. His wish is also a good one and the fact that he grinded out the training sessions enough to become world class in such a short amount of time speaks to his dedication. He really checks off all the right boxes of being a good lead so I really didn’t have any problems with him. He’s a good kid who who does the right thing and at the end of the day that’s what counts.

Hikari is more of a surprise standout character. Her determination is even greater than Akina’s and I would say that she easily has the best fight in the season. It’s an extremely personal duel with multiple insert songs and strong convictions on both sides. I’ll go more into this in the spoiler portion near the end of the review but yeah it’s good stuff all around. I really didn’t expect her character to go the direction that it did so definitely big props to her. This is another example of the show’s writing just being absolutely epic in every way.

Nao is the main heroine I would say. You would have some debates on this but ultimately her role is consistently large and she is also extremely important to Akina’s character development. She shows him how to really play and is always around to encourage him. He does the same to her and it’s really the ideal kind of bond between coworkers. She’s funny and talented which is a great combination and by the end of the series we see that she will only continue to improve from here. I’m definitely looking forward to her returning in a future story.

Suo is the main villain of the season and he’s okay but I don’t think he holds up compared to a lot of the previous villains. My main issue with him is a part of his character arc and that is that he barely feels anything. He is a very emotionless kind of character and he is just in this tournament because he was selected by destiny. He has one of the best themes in the season and a super strong deck though. His skills are the real deal but as a villain he wasn’t super interesting.

Then we have Mikoto who is rather famous and always has to keep up a nice attitude as a model. So by night she enjoys trash talking in Cardfight Vanguard while playing it online. It’s nice to see the online version of the game after so long because it makes sense that this would be really big too. In theory in a world that is absolutely filled with people playing the game, there would be a ton of people playing the online game too. So that works out pretty well. I think they could have done a bit more with her character and this is one of the only times where it felt like the 13 episode count was a little restrictive. She was all set up to be like a main character and she was definitely strong but doesn’t get to do a whole lot.

Still, Mikoto’s another character to bolster the cast with so in a future season I would expect her to still be doing a lot. She definitely has the skills and the fun personality to make this work out. Then we actually have some old characters who show up as main characters. You have cameo characters like Raika and Megumi but they don’t actually do anything here. I’m guessing they will eventually cross paths though and that will be super hype. In the meantime Taizo and Masanori get to have the lead roles.

Masanori enjoys trolling everyone as always and talking a real big game. I still wouldn’t say that he’s one of the better villains or anything like that but at this point he’s lasted for so long that I have to respect the hustle a bit. No matter what scheme is going on, he wants a part of it. He’s been on so many villain groups by now that it’s crazy. He also puts up a pretty good fight here so yeah the guy never gives up.

Then we have Taizo who is a fun character. He’s always been one of the strongest fighters on the planet but the problem is that he still manages to lose. This season sort of continues the trend so I do tend to feel bad for him. It’s got to be rough always being so close to the top but never actually getting to hold the gold trophy. Making it that far is super impressive of course but it’s probably not a huge consolation at the end of the day when you taste defeat.

Okay the next four paragraphs including this one are going to be spoiler based so skip them if you haven’t seen the show yet. It’s time to talk about their ideals. Specifically I’m talking about Akina and Hikari. So Hikari shows up from the future because Akina ended up losing the duel and so Suo’s wish ended up murdering everyone in the area. In an instant Hikari lost everything and she spent years on her own looking for Akina. Hoping that somehow he survived but this was not the case. So finally she entered the fated clash of her own and after winning, went back in time to save Akina. She tried a lot of different things to mess with the tournament but nothing worked. On this point I do have to say that I feel like she could have tried more things though. When it comes to time travel I’m always ready to backseat drive.

Why not snatch the card out of Suo’s hand so he can’t participate in the tournament? You could also do the same thing to Akina. There are a ton of ways you could sabotage everything as well. So I’m a bit skeptical here as I usually am with these things. Well, either way Hikari eventually decides to final option is to defeat Akina in a duel and get him to give up. Akina of course figures that he still needs to try and beat Suo so that he can cure Hikari and save the world. They have their duel which as I said earlier is the best in the season.

Both characters lay out their arguments but I thought Hikari’s absolutely destroyed his every step of the way. Keep in mind that she had to actually live out her entire future. So when Akina shouts that he won’t leave her, her comeback of “You already did!” is absolutely on point. Throughout the duel Akina keeps acting as if this is a hypothetical future which is why he says he won’t let it happen but it doesn’t sound very effective because he has no reasons for why it won’t happen this time. In theory it’s the same situation and he will get wrecked.

I don’t blame him for not believing in Fate because you can always change things but he should have based his arguments around that instead of just insisting that he would win. Hikari’s points were all a lot more valid and you have to consider the fact that she is still alive in the future. So at least the illness doesn’t seem fatal yet. Perhaps Akina shouldn’t be risking everyone’s lives for this wish when he already knows how it’s all going to end. Or at least how it can end. At the end of the day that’s why it is a clash of ideals though. Neither character is wrong and both should keep trying to do what they can. I just think Hikari’s positions were a lot stronger and she won that debate.

As always the animation is really solid here. I like all of the effects and backdrops. The character designs are really solid too so I definitely have no problems with them either. The soundtrack is excellent with quite a few good songs here. Unfortunately it is difficult to find them online for now except for videos with a ton of background noise. Either way you can be assured that these help to enhance the show and make the duels that much more epic. They were not holding back at all on the production elements here.

At the end of the day, the key to becoming an elite anime is to make sure that every episode forces you to watch it. Every episode needs to be important and powerful which this one pulls off. It may only be 13 episodes but each one meant a whole lot. It’s why a series like this can have more hype moments than a series with 20+ episodes. It’s not a pace that is easy for just any series to pull off but Cardfight is built for this. Mix in the fact that there is usually a new gimmick in every season and you’re never bored. I wonder if the user effects will return or not. Guess we’ll find out soon.

Overall, Cardfight continues to excel in every season. This new cast is already extremely strong and they are definitely ready to hold their own part of the franchise. I look forward to seeing Akina and the gang return again sooner than later. It’ll be difficult to pass this season but there’s always a chance. It sounds as though next season will be having an even bigger tournament. Throw in some heavy hitters like Tohya and this one could definitely make a lot of noise. I do always love to see some crossover aspects after all so that would do the trick but even without that, tournaments are always a lot of fun.

Overall 9/10

Castlevania Anniversary Collection Review

Posted on August 4, 2024 by dreager1

Castlevania is one of those franchises where I actually hadn’t gotten too involved with yet. There are tons and tons of games but I’ve only played a handful up to now. Well, with this collection I get to jump into 8 games right off the bat which is a huge increase. They’re definitely fun titles and only one of them actually deals with a lot of puzzles and mysteries so I appreciate that. The rest are all direct platformers which is of course the best way to go about things. The games are rather difficult so the access points really come in clutch.

First we have the original Castlevania which is of course very dated in terms of graphics. This is how the saga all started of course so it definitely did well for itself. It’s a very direct game about having to stop Dracula so you fight bosses on each level and then make it to the end. You really have to be perfect in your jumps and attacks in order to really stand a chance though. A single slip up and you are really going to be absolutely doomed here. It’s one of the harder games in the collection to be sure but I had a good time with it. Sometimes you don’t need all the extra frills and such. Just give me some good core gameplay and I am set!

The second game is the worst one so at least we get it over with quickly. This one decides to go the full Metroidvania experience as you have to find items scattered throughout the world. Different items will unlock new pathways so you will continue to travel across each level multiple times. It’s definitely not easy to put it mildly and the game doesn’t do a great job of directing you. The NPCs are definitely not helpful and some of the objectives are so vague that I can’t imagine how you would have ever figured the hint out on your own. Seems to be like it would have been an absolutely futile effort. Mix in the day and night system where you just have to wait the nights out in order to proceed and that’s a mechanic that didn’t work so well. Why should I have to wait? I want to just get in there and progress. I’ve yet to see a game where a day/night system really enhanced it.

The third game goes back to its roots. We have a clean platformer here where you have to destroy all of the monsters. It’s very similar to the first game but you do notice the improvements. They have improved the graphics and the gameplay. You have a bit more freedom here and the game isn’t quite as punishing as the last one where you were absolutely doomed the whole time. So I can definitely appreciate that and of course it’s always fun to take on Dracula again. He really never stands a chance against the power of the Belmonts!

Continuing on, we have the 4th game which has really gotten the style down to an art by this point. You have to go through all of the levels and beat every boss until you get over to Dracula. It may be a story that you’ve seen before but the games all have their little changes. I really like how you get to read the long plot synopsis before entering the game. That way even if you don’t see much of a plot within the story itself, you still know it’s there. That’s a really good design decision if you ask me.

After that we do have one of the weaker ones though. It’s not the game’s fault by any means but we go to the Game Boy so the graphics take a rather large dip. The gameplay speed is also exceptionally slow so you really have a hard time landing hits on the enemies. It just doesn’t feel as lively or energetic and of course it makes the levels feel longer than they actually are. Even with that it ends up being the shortest game though as there are only 4 real levels here. Certainly not enough to keep you here for the long haul or anything like that.

Then we actually have the second game boy game. I’ll give the title credit for fixing some of my biggest issues like the slow speed. In the sequel you can actually move at a reasonable speed which is really good. You also regain some of the more standard abilities from the mainline games like sub weapons. So it’s definitely improving but doesn’t really get up to the level of the main core games.

After that is easily the most impressive game in the collection, Bloodlines. This one looks really modern and has a dramatic improvement in graphics and gameplay. It’s clearly on a completely different level. You have two different characters to choose from so I went with the guy who has a lance to try out this new gameplay style. It’s definitely a lot of fun. His weapon has such a good reach too so you really have the advantage here. I’m not sure what, if any downsides this weapon has vs the whip but the fact that it’s a different/unique option makes the whole thing worth it. I like to shake things up and this character gave me a way to do it. This is definitely going to be the turning point for the series.

The final game shakes things up a bit by bringing in Kid Dracula. You get the feeling that they wanted to end off on a fun note. It’s a chibi style game that plays more like Mega Man as you blast away at every enemy in your way. It’s actually rather fun and the game is not afraid to get really crazy as you go through it. You fight enemies like the Statue of Liberty before you’re all done. That was a pretty fun boss battle. If I had a complaint it’s that you don’t see the boss health meters anymore and there isn’t always a visual indicator to show that they’re taking damage. So for the final boss for example, you’re just not sure if you’re playing the fight in the right way for a while there.

The games all generally have pretty solid soundtracks to go along with the gameplay. The older ones are a bit more limited but the tune that they choose isn’t bad. The gameplay is generally smooth and of course the graphics get better as you go through the title. In general you could tell that they put a good amount of budget behind these games and were really trying for them to be successful. Clearly it worked out since the franchise is a household name right now.

Overall, It was fun to really start getting used to the Castlevania titles. For now I would even say it is better than I expected since I was dreading the more labyrinth style games where you have to run around and find things. This one managed to avoid all of that for the most part. Perhaps that’s just something the latter games have or maybe it’s actually not that frequent and the series just became known for it somehow. I can’t say I really know how this is going to play out but regardless I can definitely recommend this collection. In general collections always give you such great bang for your buck.

Overall 7/10

Sonic the Hedgehog Volume 7: All or Nothing

Posted on August 3, 2024 by dreager1

It’s finally time for the next big Sonic adventure and this one just barely ends the metal virus saga. That one really lasted quite a while so I gotta say I was pretty impressed there. Definitely a comic arc that I’ll remember and this one has a lot of solid fights all throughout. You will definitely get your fill here as the comic does not leave you empty handed. You’re getting a lot of bang for your buck.

Sonic is pretty much on his last legs by this point and the Deadly Six are running the show now so he is forced to work together with Eggman to put a stop to these guys. It’s the team up that everyone has been waiting for so you can bet that things are really getting intense now. Since Sonic is really unable to fight though, it’s an excuse to have everyone else showing off a little bit. Pretty much every character gets a turn in the spotlight which is really nice to see.

The Deadly Six aren’t the most powerful villains out there as Sonic can easily beat the whole group but you have to keep in mind that Sonic’s supporting cast is considerably weaker than he is. So it’s actually fairly reasonable for them to be struggling a bit more here. That may sound a bit harsh but hey that’s just how it goes. The matchups were pretty interesting here. I think Amy and Tails should have had an easier time on their end though. Their opponent’s super slow and they at least have reasonable speed right? I’m thinking maybe they just aren’t as powerful in this series but it also could be that I’m underestimating the villain a bit.

I would say Espio and Silver had the massive advantage on their sides. Both of their villains wouldn’t really be doing much there. Gmerl also should have had an easy time except for the fact that his opponent can freely control machinery which was rough. He also had to be on the lookout for Cream who decided to help without having much of a plan. I’m afraid the comic was not a good look for her as she was still unable to get all that serious when it counted. I would have liked her to have gone all in on attacking the villain considering the stakes here. There’s just no more time for posturing or anything like that. You have to go in and take the win, it’s the only option left.

Sonic also has a great portrayal here all the way through. By now he’s been running for hours and hours to the point where it is turning into days. He can’t stop or he will be transformed so that’s why it’s so impressive. It’s one of his best stamina feats, I definitely have to give him that. He may not get to fight too much this time as a result but he’s already had a whole lot of action so it’s not bad to have a little break. Naturally he does get some action for the climax so you don’t have to worry about that at all.

Eggman’s still not the best at planning things out right now though. I dare say his intellect might be on fraud watch at the moment as he really isn’t thinking things out. He is making too many rookie mistakes so you could say that he’s finally over the hill or he’s just getting too complacent at this point. Either way it’s not a good look for him. I was glad to see him take out the sidekick though as that self proclaimed genius was more on the annoying side so far.

If you’re not a big fan of the Deadly Six then I don’t see that changing here. They look reasonable and all but they just don’t have the same level of stage presence. Evil Shadow was more threatening and he only appears for a few pages. In general the metal zombies are still really big threats and it was nice seeing them get so much respect here. The fact that they are invincible and have the huge numbers advantage is enough to make them tough to stop. After all, unless you find a cure you can never truly beat them. You’re just delaying the inevitable.

Shoutout to Team Babylon though, they look pretty great here. Especially Jet who really took charge and showed why he is still one of the heavy hitters. He may not appear a whole lot in Sonic media but you have to love the confidence and skills that he displays. He’s a clear cut above most of the other characters and doesn’t back down to anyone. I would definitely read a full series about this guy. I know he could hold his own. The supporting cast for Sonic is huge which this arc does a good job of displaying so it makes sense that he won’t always be around but adding him into any story is an immediate buff.

As expected the art is great here. Definitely a lot of real powerful shots and the art is always consistent. The fights look really good and they spared no expense on the strong colors. Meanwhile the writing is also really solid. We get a good amount of banter and humor as well as the serious stuff. The continuity feels really strong here and we still get references to the first arc of the series. I like that these things aren’t just forgotten and it helps the world feel a lot more real. Now we just need Infinite to show up.

Overall, Sonic has had a really good run so far and this volume definitely continues it. As always with an arc of this scale it’s going to be tough to top for a while so I can definitely see them going with some smaller stories in the meantime. This one pretty much had every named character in it after all and you probably don’t want to do those kinds of stories too often. The comic really had no weaknesses as every aspect of it was great. Definitely a must read for all fans of the blue blur! It really goes by quickly with how much fun you’re having.

Overall 8/10

Time Without Pity Review

Posted on August 2, 2024 by dreager1

Time Without Pity is definitely a very interesting movie. It’s one of those stories about trying to stay within the realm of the law for as long as possible and only really moving to vigilantism once the options have dried up. It’s a suspenseful mystery and definitely one that has good replay value. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes this kind of murder mystery.

The film starts with a girl getting murdered and so David flies over because his son is the primary suspect. Unfortunately it took a very long time to find David because he was off being drunk. There is a lot of tension here because David was never really around when it counted. Even now, he has only arrived when there are 24 hours left before Alec is to be executed. The reason David didn’t find out sooner is because he was stuck in a treatment facility after being super drunk again. David may have failed Alec in the past but he swears to do right by him this time. He will find the actual killer and save Alec.

The interesting thing about this film is that we see Robert as the murderer in the very first scene. So we know the whole time who the killer is and we’re just waiting for David to put the pieces together. The film allows Robert to look real crazy the whole time since there’s no pretense for trying to make him look even remotely likable. That might sound like maybe David should suspect something but honestly I don’t think that would be enough. The fact that the guy is crazy and abusive doesn’t automatically make him the murderer or anything. Lots of jerks out there after all but they’re not going around sticking it to people.

You are definitely rooting for his downfall the whole time though. This is definitely the kind of film where nobody is perfect though. While we know that Alec didn’t murder the girl, it doesn’t help matters that he didn’t have the best reputation. He also likes Robert’s wife Honor which isn’t good. Keep in mind that his girlfriend his dead but he is still excited to see Honor and have a moment while in jail. I don’t think that should be a priority when you only have a few hours left to live. Or if he’s thinking it doesn’t matter since he’s so close to death that’s arguably just as bad. Alec panics a lot and everything too but I suppose since he’s about to die I’ll cut him some slack there.

As for David, well he’s trying hard to get to the truth of the matter which is great. Full points there of course but then you also have to consider the fact that David being drunk all the time didn’t help matters. He drinks several times during the movie as well and breaks down in a few instances. He was still able to come up with a good plan though which helps. Ultimately he ends on a high note which makes up for a lot of his issues early on. How you finish the race is a big part of how likable a character is after all.

His friend the attorney was also really good. The guy really did everything he could and postponed the execution multiple times. Without him, David would have absolutely been too late so he definitely owes him a whole lot of credit. There are also a few other suspects in the film from David’s point of view like the secretary Vickie or Alec’s best friend Brian. Brian in particular always appears to be hiding a whole lot and playing both sides of the field. It’s why us knowing who the murderer is makes things interesting as you are forced to watch David bark up the wrong tree at times.

There technically isn’t a whole lot of action in this film which makes sense because why would the murderer want to take any chances right? It’s mainly a battle of words with Robert being the only one who is panicking the whole time. David knows deep down that the odds are stacked against him because without any fingerprints or witnesses at the scene of the crime, his only real chance is a complete confession from the murderer. Why would the murderer do that though? There would be no benefit to him, particularly when he knows that the case can’t be solved.

So the film actually addresses this and does it better than I anticipated. I thought we’d have a lazy moment where the villain admits to the crime in front of a bunch of people or something like that, but this doesn’t happen. The villain is caught without confessing to the crime and the way the movie does this is really creative. It goes back to the vigilantism part I referenced earlier. The plan is certainly not legal and actually relies on a lot of deception. It’s a plan that involves a heavy price so most wouldn’t do this even if they thought of it. So the plan worked well here in showing just how far David would go to save his son and it’s also a plan that is realistic enough to work. The villain didn’t really have an out by this point and was completely outplayed.

Overall, Time Without Pity is a really fun film. It’s also a super clever one that tackles what would otherwise be a standard plot in a new way. The first of course is the fact that we know who the murderer is. It’s not the first film to do that of course but the vast majority do not so it’s still a fresh take. Additionally you have the fact that the main character has to solve this case in under 24 hours or Alec will be executed even if he is innocent. So you’ve got the time factor there to make things even more urgent. It’s a really solid set of parameters to fit the film into and it works out really well. The ending is very satisfying and so in the end I would definitely recommend watching this film. It has aged extremely well.

Overall 7/10

Sabotage Review

Posted on August 2, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a very old film but one that definitely executes well and ends up being a fun picture. It’s a fairly short movie so it definitely ends quickly but still gets the full story across. Needless to say, there will always be traitors around trying to cause trouble and if you don’t find them first then it’ll get rough. I definitely can’t say I felt any real sympathy for the villain here.

The film starts with another terrorist attack as the power grid is knocked out. There have been many such events lately and it seems like they are possibly building up to something massive. The cops are having detective Ted look into a lead. They think that Karl Verloc may be one of the traitors helping the villains out but there is no proof. So Ted looks into it but along the way he starts to fall for Karl’s wife. (I had actually thought she was the daughter but at least according to Wikipedia they were married which makes Ted’s romance plot a lot more dicey) Can Ted stay focused on the mission?

The romance plot is pretty bad either way but for sure it gets worse depending on the heroine’s status. Either way Ted shouldn’t be messing around here. He’s got a mission to complete right? He spends a whole lot of time flirting but it’s not like the girl even likes him all that much. In the opening scene he is even trying to defend her when a bunch of people want refunds and she tells him to get lost/threatens him with arrest. Not very charitable right? I dunno if I was him I would have been rather discouraged after that. Ted is a good agent despite this but there’s just not a whole lot for him to do.

Throughout the movie he is still trying to dig up evidence and back in those days this could be really difficult. The ending isn’t exactly happy for him either due to how things play out. Meanwhile the heroine was nice enough. I would usually say she was oblivious in not noticing what Karl was doing but not this time. I don’t see any way that she could have found out the truth so as far as I’m concerned she is innocent there. So the whole thing is just a really rough experience for her.

As for Karl, yeah there’s not much positive to say about him. At the end of the day he sold his soul for a few bucks. You’ll always have an extremely hard time convincing me that there could be any possible way to redeem him after that. It’s just not happening, he knew the risks and made his choice. By the end he does the classic move of trying to say he didn’t know this would happen but that’s really a lie. He knew this was going to happen, he just didn’t know about the specific victims. So yeah no sympathy from me here.

The masterminds don’t actually appear much but that’s by design. Early on the police chief admits that there’s no way the heroes are going to find the top brass. Their job is to find the local traitors working with them but beyond that it gets more to the FBI level. It’s why this is such a hard job because you don’t even know how many villains are out there. A lot of them to be sure but an exact count? You’re just not going to have that kind of information on hand, nor as you likely to get that at any point in the future. It can feel like an endless journey but one that you have to keep going through anyway.

Part of what works well in the film is keeping the whole thing very confined. We have a very small cast of characters and most of the film takes place around 1 block. You know bad things are happening around the world but the only focus is on what’s happening locally. Most people aren’t scared about the local terrorism going on but the fact that it has yet to be stopped is certainly lingering in the backs of their minds somewhere.

The film also doesn’t have the jolly ending that you might expect. Sometimes the heroes just aren’t fast enough and it’s by no fault of their own. You just can’t prevent every possible tragedy from occurring no matter how hard you try. That’s just not possible, nor has it ever been possible. So the film really tries to push that message through and it makes sense. At the same time, the movie never gets super depressing or focuses on this for too long which is why it hits the right balance. I feel like a modern remake would not have the same level of restraint and subtlety.

Overall, Sabotage is a pretty good movie. It’s short and to the point. For that reason there isn’t a ton of things to say here but not every movie needs to be very long. The writing was good and the pacing was always fast. I enjoyed all of the dialogue here even from the villains. The romance may be on the weak side but at least since it’s a very old fashioned one, it’s not like much is happening. It’s really just a lot of flirting the whole time, rather unsuccessful flirting at that. The movie itself is rather timeless as there will always be traitors out there. People desperate enough for some money that they would betray their fellow friends and colleagues. It’s a shame but at the end of the day it’s human nature and so you have to do your best to just stop them all and keep things moving as smoothly as possible. I would definitely recommend checking this title out and again, it’s fairly short so it won’t take long.

Overall 7/10

	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

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom Review

Layton Mystery Detective Agency: Kat’s Puzzle Solving Files Review

Universal Soldier Review

They Live By Night Review

My Hero Academia Review

Cardfight!! Vanguard Divinez Review

Castlevania Anniversary Collection Review

Sonic the Hedgehog Volume 7: All or Nothing

Time Without Pity Review

Sabotage Review

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: