Digimon Data Squad Review

Posted on January 9, 2015 by dreager1

For a while now, I’ve talked about how Cardfight Vanguard is my 2nd favorite show of all time behind Yugioh GX. Well, I’m going to have to back up a little there because I actually overlooked this show for a while. Data Squad is really the title that has earned second place so Cardfight will have to lower itself to the 3rd spot, which is still pretty respectable. This is definitely the best Digimon series and it hit all the right notes. There aren’t really any major negatives here and it could have gotten a 10 if that spot wasn’t already taken.

The series starts off with a main character who is very different from the former protagonists. He’s always looking for a fight and he beats up whole groups of villains with ease. He picks a fight with an Agumon and he manages to get the match to a tie. He learns that a Digimon group wants to take Agumon back to the Digital World…by destroying him. Marcus (The main character) doesn’t like this and he defends Agumon. Eventually, he joins the group…which was an interesting decision, but I’ll get into that later.

The plot really begins when a little kid by the name of Keenan appears. He was raised in the Digital World so he’s a little wild and the humans decide to eliminate some of the higher ups. Things get pretty hectic and there is a traitor around so Marcus and his team find themselves up against a Mega Level Digimon. This arc is mainly about exploring the Digital World and then the big Digital War against a certain scientist. This arc is very long and it takes up the first 30 or so episodes. There are a lot of twists and turns so I definitely didn’t describe the whole arc, but that’s the jist of it. (You can even divide the arc into mini arcs depending on how you look at it. Pre Arc, Digital World/Keenan Arc, and then Kurata War Arc)

That arc was great, but the next one was just as intense, if not better. It’s a lot shorter though, but the Royal Knights have assembled. The Digital King has ordered them to destroy the human world so Marcus and his allies will now have to fight the toughest Digimon in existence. The irony is that they are supposedly knights of justice so the final bosses actually aren’t villains this time. (Although I’ll still call them villains since they have decided to destroy the Earth. That basically makes them villains right?) It’ll be their toughest fight yet! Before I really talk about the show, let’s look at the characters here, since they are a large factor in why the show is so great. (For the most part)

Marcus is the main character of Digimon Data Squad and he is definitely as epic as you may expect. He’s like Ichigo Kurosaki or Yusuke Urameshi. He’s always looking for a fight and his confidence is unwavering. He doesn’t blindly follow the government and he’s a very loyal friend. He protects Agumon from the Data Squad members even though he had only known him for a few minutes. Marcus even manages to get some good hits in on Thomas when the latter decides to attack Marcus. Marcus also isn’t your average Digi tamer since he can fight on his own.

He has a pretty unique ability that lets him gather Digital DNA in his fist when he strikes a Digimon. Later on, he learns how to harness that power on his own, which makes him just about unstoppable in a fight. He can punch through just about anything and his blows even affect Mega level Digimon. It’s pretty awesome and it lets me take him seriously. It’d be tough for the average main character to talk as big as Marcus since he doesn’t have the physical strength to back it up, but Marcus can. That’s a critical point and Marcus never goes downhill. He may make a mistake or two as the series goes on, but he’s typically consistent in his wise choices. He’s easily one of the best main characters of all time. On a side note, Marcus switches his outfit for the final arc of the series and it’s pretty great. I’ll admit that I had been waiting for that one to show up since I find it to be a lot cooler than his original get up. Just another factor to help him out even more.

Thomas is the rival in this series. He is probably the best rival in the franchise so that’s pretty cool for him. Chris (Who looks a lot like Thomas) is a decently close second though. Thomas is rich so he has used his resources to become a very skilled agent. You could say that he is similar to Bruce Wayne in that respect. He has trained in the art of combat and he is skilled enough to take on a champ without all that much effort. To top it off, Thomas is also a genius. You can see where the Bruce Wayne comparisons come into play right? He’s a pretty fun rival although he’s meant to be very annoying at first. He always plays by the books, which means that he’s just a government lackey at first with no real character development. He gets better with that as the series goes on and he’s a very good character by the end. As a rival, he’s perfect for Marcus.

Yoshino is the main heroine of the series and she’s a pretty tough agent. Before Marcus rode into town, she was the squad’s premier agent since Thomas was typically away on official business. She managed pretty well on her own for all those years even though she doesn’t always look very impressive on screen. She’s pretty likable and I would place her over all of the heroines in the first two series and the one in Frontier. I think Nene and Rika are cooler though so she’s basically in the middle. That’s not bad and she’s about as good as I expected her to be. Maybe a little more so, but just barely. She gets the job done and while she tries to stop Marcus from going on his cool adventures, she doesn’t turn traitor like you night fear and rat him out to the big boss.

Agumon is a pretty good partner for Marcus. He’s technically cooler than the original Agumon, but there’s something about the classic one that makes me hesitate before putting this one higher on the totem pole. The other Agumon just had more heart I suppose and it’s hard to forget him. That being said, this Agumon is pretty good and he’s always ready for a fight. He certainly has his arguments for Marcus, but he’s typically a dependable ally to have. He regards Marcus as his leader so he acts as if he’s his minion for the most part. That just doesn’t apply to meal times where he can go all out. I always knew that it would be tough to pass Agumon’s original Digievolution route, but this Agumon actually succeeded in that task. I like all of the Shining Greymon forms and they really look great. The animators did a good job of bringing these forms to life and we even get to see the Burst Mode in all of its glory.

Gaomon is Thomas’ partner and he’s pretty good. He has the same voice as Might Guy, which can be distracting since it makes it hard to take Gaomon seriously. That being said, he’s still a pretty likable Digimon. Gaomon is definitely loyal to Thomas and he’s always ready to fight. He makes for a nice rival to Agumon. Gaomon also knows how to fight on his own even if his trainer is not present, which is a pretty big advantage over the typical opponent. His evolution forms are very good and I like just about all of them…although his champion form isn’t great. His ultimate and mega forms make up this.

Lalamon is Yoshino’s partner and she is definitely the worst partner from the main three. She can’t really fight that really hurts Yoshino’s chances of being a great fighter. Her champion form is no match for a random Digimon with no experience and it she loses in her first big fight. Lalamon gets her moments as the series goes on of course, but she never reaches the heights that the others do. Her strongest forms still aren’t as impressive as Agumon and Gaomon’s. You can argue that the same thing happened to Renamon’s Mega form since it was no Gallantmon, but at least it was still as impressive as Henry’s ultimate form. Lalamon definitely can’t say the same and she’s too much of a pacifist. She definitely could have used some development.

Keenan is definitely one of the worst characters in the series and I definitely wish that he had been cut out. His whole gimmick doesn’t make any sense. He was raised in the Digital World so his English skills are pretty broken. This means that he ends up talking like Tarzan, which is already a pretty annoying cliche if you ask me. “Me am Keenan” is an example of what a typical line from him is like. Why does this not make sense? Well, all of the Digimon can speak perfect English. I’ve never heard them make a mistake and they barely even use slang. So, Keenan shouldn’t have a problem with the language. Moreover, he’s just really annoying. He doesn’t know whether he should choose to side with the humans or the Digimon and this ends up with him not really being loyal to either side for a while. Marcus has to constantly defeat him until he finally sees the light. Once he is a hero, Keenan is still pretty annoying and I never liked him from start to finish.

Falcomon is Keenan’s partner and he’s not much better. He talks tough, but he’s rather weak. The only impressive moment that he has is his very first appearance and that’s just because the writers were trying to give him a lot of hype. It doesn’t really work and it doesn’t make him likable. Falcomon seems to be the intelligent and refined character from the way that he speaks, but he doesn’t have any really cool moments. It also helps that most of his Digi Evolutions aren’t that good either.

Commander Sampson is the leader of the D.A.T.S group and he can definitely be pretty iffy at times. As it is, I’m pretty suspicious of the group’s overall goal and he’s their leader so that doesn’t help his case. He talks tough to be sure, but he’s a part of the system so he has to listen to his higher ups at times. He’s a decent leader, but he’s definitely not my kind of character and I always side with Marcus against him. Kudamon is Sampson’s partner and he’s decent as well, but not always. He’s pretty skeptical of Marcus and he’s usually the voice of doubt. He does get to fight towards the end of both arcs so he is definitely strong. He’s still not my favorite Digimon, but he’s decent to have around. He beats the knights and the shell Digimon.

Homer Yushima is a fisherman who knows more than he lets on. It’s safe to say that he’s one of the most annoying characters in the series. He constantly taunts Marcus, but he is somehow able to avoid the hero’s punches. This guy could get 100 plot twists and I still wouldn’t like him. He’s just too cryptic and you know that he’s probably doing it on purpose. He could have helped out more if he decided to join the action instead of just fishing all the time.

Merukimon was one of the cooler opponents in the series and he was one of the first Mega level Digimon to battle the heroes. He’s rather large, but he’s still humanoid so that gives him points in my book. He has super strength and some good energy blasts at his disposal so he can give any fighter a run for their money. He rules the Digital World, or at least a fraction of it. Merukimon believes in peace and he tries not to go to war with the humans, but his subordinates and evil humans make this rather difficult. I don’t care for how his character arc ended since I just don’t see him losing so easily, but he had a pretty good run. He’s definitely a Digimon that you can respect.

Gotsumon is Merukimon’s right hand man, but he’s a pretty treacherous opponent. He wants a war to start between the Digimon and the humans. He will do just about anything to start this and I mostly just disregarded him as a comic relief character. That changed when he evolved into Meteormon and had some of the best speed feats of the series. It’s no stretch to say that this guy could be a match for Superman and I gained a lot of respect for him. Now, having a lot of power doesn’t mean that you’ll instantly become a likable character, but I can safely say that it did wonders for this guy.

SaberLeomon is an ally to Merukimon although they don’t always get along. His abilities are considerable and he definitely isn’t going to let the humans get away with doing what they please. He launches an attack on the human world and it’s a pretty epic episode. He’s clobbering the heroes and even Commander Sampson is forced to suggest a retreat. Marcus won’t have any of that, but it’s definitely a pretty cool moment. His end isn’t satisfying as with Merukimon’s fate, but he gave us a great battle and he had a cool personality. He’s like your average Shonen Jump rival and that’s always a good thing.

Gizumon is a robot that Kurata built and he’s part Digimon I believe. It brings up the good ole question of whether a human can build something to surpass anything. We saw in DBZ that Androids can be created who are stronger than Super Saiyans and now we have a robotic Digimon that can surpass a Mega. A single blast from this fighter can disintegrate most Digimon. It’s a little too overpowered if you ask me and it’s really hard to swallow this fact. I don’t think that it can beat a true Mega so it’s tough to see it beating up the heroes. Its speed and power are simply off the charts, but it has no true character development. It’s design is also lacking somewhat in coolness. I wasn’t a huge fan of this thing, but it’s definitely tough.

Belphemon is one of the big foes to appear in the series, but only for a very short amount of time. For the most part, it’s sort of Belphemon, but not really. Let’s just say that he’s not in full control of what he’s doing for about half of his screen time and then his time is pretty limited when he does show up. He’s definitely as cool as ever when he does appear though and I’ve always liked him as a villain. His design is basically perfect for an antagonist since he can fight in any style. Whether short range or long range, his attacks are guaranteed to deal some major damage.

Kurata is one of the most annoying villains in the series and he could be one of the worst in the franchise. He’s made to be a very unlikable character since he’s despicable in just about every way. If that was the aim of the writers, then they certainly succeeded. There just isn’t anything likable about this guy and you’re just waiting for him to be crushed the whole time. The only problem is that he lasts for quite a long time. He’s around for over half the series, which is a pretty impressive feat for a villain. The only other villain that I can think of from the top of my head who has achieved this (In a series with at least 26 episodes and two different arcs) is Aizen, but I’m sure that there are others. He is a brilliant scientist and inventor, but those just aren’t good enough reasons to actually end up liking the character.

Nanami is one of the three humans who have the ability to change into a Digimon. It’s a very handy ability to have and these fighters have an incredible theme that plays whenever they transform. Nanami is a genius so her rival from the main characters is naturally Thomas. She’s definitely a great fighter and her speed is really off the charts. Unlike Kurata, Nanami is a villain that you won’t mind rooting for since she is pretty interesting. I can’t bring myself to root for her since I’m a much bigger Thomas fan, but she isn’t an unlikable villain. It’s also cool to see her have a strategic battle with Thomas…even if she should have won that battle.

Kouki is the next member of the trio and he’s easily my favorite one. He’s Marcus’ rival so I suppose that this makes sense. He’s always eager to battle and his personality is similar to your average Shonen Jump Protagonist or eager rival like Grimmjow. He doesn’t really have any bad scenes and it’s nice to see someone else jump in to fight instead of it just being Marcus all the time. Their punch in the Digital Wormhole was a nice way to start off their arc and he grew on me pretty quickly. I’m hesitant to say that he was the best villain in the series, but I’m thinking that there is actually a strong possibility that he is. Kouki is just great!

Unfortunately, every group has its weak point and this one is no exception. Ivan is the third member of the group and he’s easy the worst one. He’s not very smart and he’s always trying to flirt with Yoshino, but failing epicly. He doesn’t really know how to think yet so he just says all of his thoughts out loud. This results in wince worthy scenes were you just have to hope that he’ll be quickly defeated. His super forms also aren’t quite as cool as Nanami’s or Kouki’s. I could definitely do without this guy and Yoshino deserves a better rival.

Craniamon gets the biggest role from all of the Royal Knights. He has the most impressive fight and he is probably the most likable member as well. He fights with a shield and a double edged blade. (Not really a sword though) His shield is said to be unbreakable so getting past him is very tricky. His one on one fight with Marcus and Agumon was one of the better fights in the series. He eventually learns that it is not right to follow a leader without any questions and his character development definitely carries him to new heights. Not only is he one of the strongest Digimon in the franchise, he’s also one of the more likable ones.

Unfortunately, the rest of the Royal Knights don’t get the same treatment. They have a cool moment where they all show up at once, but they don’t get a lot of development after that. In fact, most of them don’t even get to have climatic fights like Craniamon. Gallantmon looks pretty great in his appearances, but maybe a little too great. The heroes don’t really have an answer for him so one character is forced to make the ultimate sacrifice to turn this into a stalemate. Gallantmon doesn’t return until the very end when the fights are over.

Dynasmon is still a pretty cool figure, but all of his feats were in Frontier. The producers didn’t decide to challenge this and he is mostly relegated to the sideline. Likewise with Magnamon, whose role is very small. It’s interesting to see Magnamon since I’ve always considered him to be of a weaker tier than Royal Knights level. Good for him, but he is probably the weak link of the team…maybe. UltraforceVeedramon could be his rival in terms of power, but I have to say that he just looks a lot tougher. He would have had a really good fight I’m sure and his fans were probably disappointed.

Leopardmon got his own fight at least and his portrayal is…interesting. He’s the only Royal Knight that you could probably call pure evil. Might makes right according to him and he seems rather insane. I hope he is kicked off the team by the others and I have to wonder how he made it in the first place. This guy just seems a few graham crackers short of a smore if you know what I mean. He looks decent, but he also looks a lot weaker than the average Royal Knight.

LoadKnightmon is pretty lucky since he got a big role in Digimon Frontier and then he got a major fight against Thomas in Data Squad. I actually do like the design since it’s very robotic and stream lined. LoadKnightmon looks like he can be a real threat and it’s the kind of design that you might expect from something like Eureka Seven. He definitely doesn’t disappoint while in battle. This is why an extra 5-6 episodes for the series would have been good. If all of the Royal Knights had gotten big battles like LoadKnightmon and Craniamon, the ending would have been even more satisfying.

Omnimon is a perfect example of this since he is easily the strongest Royal Knight. (In theory anyway and I think it’s a safe assumption) He really should have gotten to fight since that would have been really cool. Marcus could have had his ultimate mega form battle with Omnimon and it would have been a battle for the ages. That was a missed opportunity, but I suppose that every show misses a chance somewhere along the line. Hopefully we get that fight someday.

King Drasil is the ultimate boss and his power is basically unlimited. It’s good to see that he can physically fight though since it would have been easy to have made him a high above being. His first form is pretty cool and I also liked his final mode. It wasn’t totally humanoid, but it was close enough so that he could still fight in close quarters combat if he had too. This guy got a lot of hype so it was fun to finally see him once and for all. It was a nice way to end the series.

Spencer Damon is Marcus’ father who vanished prior to the start of the series. He was apparently a nice guy and we learn more and more about him as the series progresses. Like Marcus, he can use digital data to amplify his attacks and do some real damage. He seemed to be even stronger than Marcus since his strength may have been on a planetary level. It’s a shame that we never really get to see him fight seriously on screen. The only time where we come close is in a flashback and the match is mostly off screen. This is one guy who could definitely hold his own series and it would have been cool to have seen him a little more before the series finally ended.

BanchoLeomon is a mysterious Mega Digimon who helps the heroes from time to time, but I definitely didn’t care for him. He’s pretty skilled and he’s a pure hand to hand fighter, but he’s just not my kind of character. An example of this is when he locks the main characters in a hut to train and then he refuses to let them out until they complete their training. You expect a strict instructor in these shows, but he goes too far. See, the Digimon partners of the main characters were getting blown away by some villains at the time and the heroes knew that they couldn’t last much longer. Knowing that, BanchoLeomon still refused to let them out and he didn’t mind letting their lives be snuffed out. Marcus quickly did something about that, but I never let BanchoLeomon off the hook. As far as I am concerned, he’s evil and someone who needs to be stopped.

Now, is D.A.T.S. is evil or just severely misguided? They decide that they have to destroy Digimon as quickly as they appear in the human world so that they don’t cause panic in the streets. Destroying a Digimon merely reverts them back to their baby form though so they aren’t really dead. That being said, you still wonder about this since they’re basically shooting first and asking questions later. The show tries to help them out by explaining that all Digimon go crazy when they go into the real world by mistake so they can’t be reasoned with. That being said, Mega Level Digimon seem to be an exception and likewise with the partners of the main humans. D.A.T.S. was quick to attack Agumon so it makes you wonder how many other heroic Digimon were taken down. They naturally mellowed out since Marcus joined (Since he makes sure to keep them on the side of justice) but it makes you wonder just how good they are. Governments and military groups never seem to be trust worthy in TV shows and this is no exception.

I think that Kurata probably gets away with a little too much during arc 1. He takes down a whole lot of Digimon and he basically forces them to retaliate. You really can’t blame the Digimon for wanting to destroy the Earth since the humans are constantly trying to harm them. Unfortunately, the heroes are ready to stop them so it’s a dicey predicament. The Digimon are in a no win situation since they can decide not to strike back and watch as their allies are defeated or they can attack and get bested by Marcus. So, you can definitely sympathize with these guys and it’s one of the only reasons why you can accept the Royal Knights deciding to destroy Earth. That being said, they are supposed to be completely just heroes so you expect more out of them. Also, where were they when Kurata was attacking the other Digimon? With their extreme speed, they should be able to help out a lot. I’ll assume that they were in statis or something.

Data Squad’s animation is definitely sound. It has a Shonen Jump feel to it that the other series just didn’t have. The previous installments looked good of course, but this one is just that much better. Tamers also had some good animation so it can hold its own, but I’d go as far as to say that Data Squad easily surpasses every other Digimon show in terms of animation. It helps that the fights are really intense here so the animators can take advantage of that of course. I’ll talk about the battles in a short while. Needless to say, the animation really shines throughout the series and especially during the final arc.

Another factor that was in the show’s favor is definitely the soundtrack. Digimon is a franchise that is very well know for its great soundtracks or at least in the English dub of each series. Data Squad takes it up another notch as at least 90% of its themes are fight related. Only 1 other show has managed to pull that off in the past and that was Yugioh GX. You can already tell that Data Squad is in some pretty good company here. From the cliff hanger music to the tense themes, Data Squad just nails them all. Even the “previously on Digimon” scenes become epic as the show plays a great battle theme. There’s never a dull moment in the series and the soundtrack really solidifies that fact.

The action scenes are another thing that separates this show from most anime. The battles are pretty reminiscent of DBZ and they’re very high tier. Digimon Frontier actually started this off since their fights felt like classic DBZ scuffles, but this show just takes it to the next level. The strongest fighters in this series are easily stronger than Frontier’s. (Don’t get the wrong idea, Frontier’s strongest fighters are still immensely powerful, but they would not be able to win this fight) The action scenes are intense regardless of how high tier they are though as the first fights with Marcus against rookies and champions are still exciting. This is thanks to the soundtrack mixed in with the animation. The hand to hand certainly helps since those fights are always excited. Brawling action is great to mix in with beam fights since it makes the battles that much more dynamic. We even get a classic scene where someone catches Marcus’ punch, which is an impressive feat in itself. As far as the power levels go, the top fighters from this series could take out many fighters in Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, and maybe even some DBZ fighters. Don’t underestimate these Digimon!

I already mentioned that this is my 2nd favorite show of all time so it probably goes without saying that it beats the other Digimon shows. That being said, they put up an admirable fight. As of this post, the Digimon rankings go: Digimon Data Squad–Digimon Tamers–Digimon Adventure–Digimon Frontier–Digimon Adventure 02–Digimon Fusion. The last two spots do tend to shift around sometimes though as it’s really close. Digimon Adventure 02 had the better writing, but the songs were terrible so it’s a tough call. Data Squad wins in characters, fight scenes, soundtrack, and animation so it’s basically got all of the areas covered. Like I said, it’s just about perfect.

If I had to mention a negative aside from Keenan, it would be that the ending is a little rushed. All of the Royal Knights should have gotten a chance to have a real fight. The series really could have used the extra 4 episodes to reach 52 so that they could fight. 4 episodes would certainly be enough or at least it would be enough to satisfy me. There’s a lot of action that you can fit in those 2 hours. It wasn’t to be though and when a little pacing problem is the show’s biggest concern, you know that you’re doing pretty well. The show gets by without resorting to fanservice tactics, which is another check on its overall score.

Every show has a moment where things get real. That moment where the show jumps from good to great or from mediocre to good depending on the title. The moment where the show peaks and that happens towards the end of arc 1 in this title. When the 3 humans who can biomerge into Digimon appear, that’s when Data Squad went from great to elite. It’s an intense scene and you won’t be able to tear yourself away from the screen when that happens. On a bright note, even the filler episodes are pretty entertaining. The boxer episode comes to mind and there were no big stakes, but it was still a pretty great episode. That’s because the writing for this show is pretty consistent.

Speaking of which, the ending leaves a lot of room for possible sequels. It would be great to see a certain character who’s returned join in on some action and Marcus is only just beginning to unlock his full powers. I would have liked a sequel to this show since the possibilities are really endless. Adventure is finally getting a sequel though so maybe there is still a chance for this show. As far as endings go, Data Squad’s is pretty great and it certainly beats most other titles in that regard. (Naruto)

Overall, Digimon Data Squad is just about perfect. It’s a show that has a lot of replay value and nearly everything went its way. The pacing is pretty good and the animation is sure to help you enjoy the fights a lot. The soundtrack is easily 5 star material and Marcus makes for a great lead. Keenan may not be a good character, but you can definitely overlook him on this epic experience. The show is ironically a few episodes shorter than the other seasons, but that’s okay. Over 40 episodes is still enough time for you to get used to the characters. I definitely recommend this show to any anime fan and especially if you are looking for a title with a lot of fights. It’ll be tough for any show to pass this one and that’s why my top 3 shows of all time are virtually set in stone at this point. 1. Yugioh GX. 2. Digimon Data Squad. 3. Cardfight Vanguard. Everything else can fight for the remaining spots on my top 10. Check this show out and tell me what you think! I’ll have to wait a while before I see Marcus in action again, but that should be pretty epic!

Overall 9/10

Soul Eater Review

Posted on January 7, 2015 by dreager1

Soul Eater is one of those titles that you have definitely heard of, but may not have seen. It’s simply around and every anime fan gets around to watching it at some point. It’ll either live up to the hype or it won’t. I’d say that it ended up being a very good show. It had a bit of a rocky beginning and a rocky middle, but most of the series is simply very good. It has certainly earned its solid reputation as a great action show.

The kids study at Death Academy on how to be great meisters/weapons. There are two types of people in this world. Those who are born as sentient weapons and those who are the normal humans who control them. We have 7 main characters, three humans and four weapons. They just want to be the very best and a weapon’s ultimate dream is to consume 100 souls so that they can become a Death Weapon. So, they go around vanquishing evil spirits, which takes up most of the pre arc. The first real arc involves the witch known as Medusa. She has assembled a team of super villains (Naturally, one of them is a Werewolf) to infiltrate Death Academy and awaken the ultimate evil of legend….The Kishin. Death can’t have this so he sends the kids after her. Let’s see if they can do this!

The second arc is much more complex as we have a lot of plots lying around. Medusa is still up to her evil tricks, but she is no longer the main target of the heroes. That honor goes to her sister, Arachne. She wants the Kishin’s madness to consume the entire Earth and she has a very large organization that will do her bidding. Each of the heroes is currently facing his/her demons so they’re rather preoccupied at the moment. Trust has been broken and many old villains are showing up as well. With one of their comrades going off the deep end, Death City’s inhabitants may be stretched too thin to really do anything about this predicament.

First off, let’s look as the music in this show. Soul Eater’s soundtrack is definitely great and I’d give it a 4/5. Both of its openings are catchy and rank up there with the best openings. The second one in particular is a pretty fast paced rock song that transitions pretty well from fast to slow and vice versa. A pretty good battle theme is also used a few times throughout the series. One scene that comes to mind on this is Maka’s battle against Jack The Ripper. I instantly loved the song and that was only the start of the epic array of themes to come. Black Star’s theme is a very good inspirational piece and Death The Kid’s works well for fights. It actually does feature rapping, but you are too focused on the battle to hear what is being said. So, I can’t totally vouch for it but it works in the moment.

Soul Eater’s animation is definitely very good. It isn’t as flashy as you would expect for a modern battle anime, but it makes up for this with how smoothly the scenes transition from one moment to the next. No shortcuts are taken with the animation here so you can look forward to some great fights. You definitely feel the blows as if this was one of the great shows from the 90’s. The character designs are top notch as well and I don’t recall any bad animation here.

Speaking of the fights in the series, Soul Eater has a pretty diverse selection going for it. The three main characters have different fighting styles that help to make fights against the same person feel different. A good example of this is Krona. He battles Maka and Death The Kid, a short range and a long range fighter. Needless to say, it is a pretty fun contrast. (Even if Kid was using a lot of hand to hand in that battle…) There are a lot of characters in the series so there is never a long period without action. The longest period that I can think of would be the start of Arc 2 and that was one of the lowest moments for the show. The battles against Crona and Mifune are typically the highlights of the series, but we can’t forget about Medusa or the Kishin either!

Unfortunately the show does fall into the fanservice trap. This is particularly present in the first few episodes and then it starts to die down. The author probably just wanted some quick ratings so he choose to take this route, but it is never the right call. We have the generic hot springs scene, and many chest gags that can be pretty sad to watch. I think it is safe to say that my hopes for the series were pretty dimmed after the first 3 episodes. There is still some of this in the series as it goes on, but it rarely happens so I’m glad that the show managed to nearly eliminate this negative by the end.

The overall atmosphere of the show is pretty similar to Blue Exorcist or early Naruto for the most part. The series is pretty light with a lot of serious fights. This changes in arc 2 of the show. It tries to be a lot more solemn and dark, which doesn’t totally work. We get a whole episode about Stein turning crazy and another episode about Medusa wrecking lives as she shape shifts. Those are 2 of the episodes that I remember disliking and there may have been a few more before the show hits its stride again. I remember watching the show stay in its slump for what felt like forever, but I had been watching it weekly so it probably wasn’t all that bad. A few episodes was all that it was before the show went back to what it did best, solid fight scenes! The tone shift does work at some points though like with the brilliant endings, but other episodes are simply wasted. This show may have the record for the most episodes in a row with a great cliffhanger. The climax is full of them and it is great. Once again, I have to mention the end theme for the episodes. It’s easily the best end theme of all time and I doubt that it’ll lose that title anytime soon.

Maka is basically the main character here and she is definitely a good character. She has her flaws to be sure and I ultimately prefer Black Star, but she does beat Kid. She likes to study and she is determined to become a great Meister while the other main characters typically do not care or worry about such things. She becomes obsessed with stopping Medusa as the series comes to a close and it definitely upgrades her as a character. Unfortunately, her rage moments typically do not help her claim victory. She has to battle a lot in her soul to keep from getting infected with the madness and the fear abilities that the villains use and it is definitely a weakness for her. She ends the series on a high note and that’s always a good thing.

One of the reasons why she is a good character is that she is very well rounded. She has her issues to be sure, but none of them involve her going too far or doing something that would make me lose respect for her. She still strives to be a hero and she gets a lot of great moments during her fights. I’d compare her to Misaka from Railgun. I’m still more of a Misaka fan, but Maka’s pros and cons are pretty similar to the thunder lead. A lesser main character could have hurt the series since characters are very important here so the author did a good job of choosing her as the main member from the three groups.

Soul is her partner and he always likes to be cool. He can turn any part pf himself into a blade, which definitely comes in handy during a fight. He has even more trouble with the dark side than Maka and it overpowers him more than once. He still does manage to get through it in the end and he is a pretty loyal friend. He is definitely another solid character. It would have been cool to have seen him fight on his own some more, but he is used to being a team player. He actually has a backstory, but the show never really goes into it. It just pops up once in a while.

Black Star is the best character in the show and it isn’t even close. I have to say that his voice definitely clashed with his personality at first. One can make the case that it still clashes and that I have just gotten used to it. It is hard to say for certain if that is the case, but I still do like the voice now. (I can definitely admit that Kirito’s voice would have been a lot more appropriate) He is a lot like the Naruto from the old days. He prefers to fight someone than to think of strategic ways to win and he is always brimming with confidence. Unlike Naruto, you can safely say that Black Star is an all star right from the get go. One can make the case that he is definitely the strongest from the main three pairs and I would agree. He doesn’t hesitate to abandon protocol to avenge his friends like when he attacked the enemy base on his own. He has all of the traits that you would want to see in a great character and any appearance by him is typically awesome.

Kid is a pretty good character for the most part. You really just have to ignore his first appearance and then he’s a pretty solid hero. His fighting style is pretty unique and I actually don’t mind his symmetry gimmick. I do think that it can be very overdone at some points since he’s more interested in that then fighting, but that goes away during his serious fights of course. One frustrating thing with this character is that he is said to be very powerful, but we rarely get to see him exhibit this. Either he’s holding back or there’s not a tough character for him to fight against. His final smash during one of the final episodes isn’t all that impressive considering how long it takes him to charge up the move. He’s pretty good, but he’s definitely more suited to being one of the supporting character than the main character. He wouldn’t be able to hold his own series the way that Maka or Black Star could.

His father may be Death/Shinigami, but he’s not as cool as you may expect. We learn that he was a pretty fierce fighter back in the day, but he didn’t want to scare the kids so he decided to start being more of a comic relief character. That doesn’t really change so that’s how he acts for the whole series. He does get a pretty good fight against the Kishin though so he does add to the story. He’s also pretty shady in the second arc and you start to consider that he may actually be an antagonist. He’s not bad compared to most comic relief characters, but he would have been more fun in his true form. It’s a shame that we only get to see it in flashbacks.

Professor Stein is the teacher for the main characters so his role is similar to Kakashi’s. He’s meant to be a pretty experienced and level headed fighter who bails the kids out of a tough spot once in a while. The problem is that he’s just not as likable as Kakashi. One of the reasons why I could never be a fan of him is the fact that his gimmick is a little too evil. He likes to dissect things and people and it’s something that he never gets over. It’s typically used in comic relief of course, but then he gets a subplot in arc 2 about the madness consuming him. Let’s just say that his willpower is not enough to help him out and he keeps on reverting to his old ways. He definitely looks good when he fights, but he hinders the heroes a whole lot more than he actually helps them. I’d take Captain Bravo from Buso Renkin over Stein any day…and Bravo made a huge error of his own at the end of the series.

Sid is an assassin on the side of the heroes and he’s not bad, but he’s not great either. He’s your average “government lackey” character who just follows orders without asking questions. He’ll do anything that the Shinigami asks him to do without hesitation. He definitely doesn’t mind destroying his foes and that’s why he’ll never be a true hero. He’s just a hit man who happens to side with justice..for as long as the Shinigami does anyway. I also probably dislike the fact that he gets a little too much hype sometimes. There’s no way I can believe him taking on Mifune in an even fight. That’s just not going to happen and he actually holds his own for a while…the very definition of plot hax!

Crona is definitely one of the more interesting characters in the show. His first fight with Maka is pretty great and then he gets a few other battles as the series goes on. He looks pretty bad in the final fight, but we were already in filler land and the writers wanted him out of the way. As far as his personality goes, Crona isn’t all that likable. He’s pretty easy to manipulate and he’s not the kind of guy who will charge at the enemy with unwavering confidence. The madness consumes him pretty easily and he makes quite a few bad decisions throughout the series. I definitely don’t like him as a character, but he makes for a great villain. He’s one of the strongest in the series and you always get excited when you see him challenge one of the heroes. The show teased at a Black Star vs Crona battle, but it was not to be. I have to say that the battle could have had the potential to have been the best in the series, but the battle that we did get was still pretty good so I guess it was worth it. (Black Star got the short end of the stick though since he fought a pretty weak opponent)

Tsubaki is Black Star’s partner and she gets more development than the others. She’s always very polite, which helps her put up with Black Star’s big talk about becoming the greatest someday. Naturally, this means that she has a tragic history and she gets her own episode about it. We get to see how she can do battle without a meister and she’s definitely a tough weapon. She’s definitely more likable than Kid’s partners although I think Soul is still better. Tsubaki’s a weapon that you definitely want to have on your side.

Patricia and Elizabeth are the partners of Kid and they’re easily the worst ones. I don’t actually like either one of them. One of them plays the role of the happy fighter who is usually very sweet, but can turn serious at any moment and the other one is afraid of ghosts. They just don’t add anything to the show. They have a backstory, but it’s only briefly looked at so it barely counts. I think the author was probably just running out of main character ideas so they were just thrown in at the end. Still, not all of the weapons can be great right?

Marie joins the series towards the end and she’s one of the legendary Death Scythes so she’s definitely powerful. She uses a hammer to fight although we don’t see that until we’re nearly at the final episode since she rarely does fights. She’s definitely not my favorite character in the series. She does a pretty bad job of watching over Professor Stein and then her attitude towards Crona isn’t great since she was practically begging to be betrayed. I definitely didn’t care for her from start to finish.

Justin is another Death Scythe and he has a rivalry with Giriko. They get to fight around 5 times and just about each round is a stalemate. You’d think that Giriko would quickly win since the matchup just doesn’t seem even, but I guess Justin is just tougher than he looks. His attacks are all pretty fancy and he’s always listening to music. It’s a pretty fun gimmick and he definitely loves to mess with Giriko. He’s probably a little too devoted to helping the Shinigami out since he treats him like a god, but he’s still a pretty good character.

Spirit is definitely a bad character and he also doesn’t add anything to the story. He’s the Shinigami’s partner so he makes for a good weapon, but his personality is annoying. He’s like James Bond and Captain Kirk in that he’s always into physical desires without worrying about nobility. There’s a reason why his daughter isn’t a big fan of his. It’s heavily implied that his playing around is why he ended up getting divorced. He tries to have some cool moments, but I definitely didn’t like him.

Excalibur is an intriguing character who pops up once in a while. He gets two episodes devoted to himself so he’s probably a fan favorite. He likes to talk a lot, but anyone who can get past this will gain a whole lot of power. It’s never been used in a serious situation, but that’s just because nobody can deal with him. Excalibur seems to like annoying people so he may even be doing it on purpose. Unfortunately, this means that he’s basically a filler character. He’s decent, but he just doesn’t add anything to the show.

Time for the 3 big villains of the show. Asura, also known as the Kishin, gets a pretty big role in the climax of both arcs. He’s a powerful fighter and his fighting style is similar to the average DBZ villain’s. He shoots a lot of energy blasts and he’s also good at hand to hand combat. Unfortunately, he turns into a huge being at one point so his fight scenes take a slight dip, but they are typically pretty great. He’s a solid fighter, but he’s a pretty bad villain. He’s afraid of just about everything and the way that he loses is pretty bad. Ah well, I guess I’ll still take the fights!

Arachne is the mastermind behind the second arc, but she mostly hides behind her minions. When push comes to shove, Asura and Medusa are great fighters. Arachne seems like she is a tough fighter based on her first appearance where her nail is able to block a blade, but it seems like that was just fake hype. She never looks impressive like that in the show after her initial appearance. It’s definitely disappointing for her fans since she had started out on such a high note. Everything went crashing down for her from there. She’s definitely not my kind of villain either.

Luckily, Medusa is much better than the other two villains. She convincingly plays all of the heroes for potatoes as she infiltrates the school as a nurse. Her vector plates make for a very lethal ability since she can combine it with her striking power. A single cut can do a lot of damage and it’s tough to dodge her attacks when you have to watch your step as well. She’s definitely pure evil and she’s always thinking of a way to make life miserable for someone. Medusa always talks tough and she’s basically how you would picture an enemy leader. She always has a backup plan in case things go sour and it’s really hard to take her down for good. As long as one piece of her remains, you can bet that she’ll survive. The one thing that hurts her character is really that she forces us to watch an animal violence scene. It’s the only one that I can remember although there may be more. It’s still pretty sad either way since it was rather unnecessary. Beyond that, she’s a pretty good villain.

Giriko is pretty tough and I definitely liked him as a villain. He’s very skilled and he typically overwhelms the heroes with his razor sharp attacks. He can move at high speeds without any difficulty and he can keep on fighting for long periods of time. He is also not afraid to talk back to the higher ups and he’s constantly antagonizing Mosquito. He’s the rival type of villain that you always look forward to in a show. (Like Grimmjow) It’s a tough call, but I’d say that he’s the best villain in the show.

Mifune is Black Star’s rival and they get to fight several times. That’s one of the perks about a show being 51 episodes, there’s plenty of time for rematches. Their fights are all pretty great although I’ll always consider Black Star to be the better fighter. I can safely say that he doesn’t win all of the fights so that can be a little hard to take. The third fight also heads into dicey territory as Black Star starts to lose it, but luckily we get a shonen moment to diffuse that. Mifune is pretty noble and he’s only on the side of evil to protect a little kid. She’s definitely a liability for him and the villains take advantage of it. So, I guess he’ll still be in the villain category for now, but he’s very likable and it would be nice to see him team up with the heroes someday.

Mosquito is one of Arachne’s minions and he’s decently tough. He has a rivalry with Giriko so it’s nice to see that he’s not just all talk. He can transform his body to past states, which can be very useful since he was an excellent fighter back in the day. The anime doesn’t get to show off all of his forms since it diverged, but he still looks good. It’s hard to buy the fact that he is holding off all three of the main characters, but I guess that’s some good hype for him. He’s a pretty good villain.

Eruka mostly gets spends her time getting bullied by Medusa the whole time. Her fate is pretty sad in the series and especially when you consider the fact that there really isn’t a way out for her. She got into this witch business and now she’s paying the price. She’s not a good fighter so she mostly just executes the peaceful parts of the plan. Like blackmailing other villains and infiltrating hideouts. She’s definitely not my kind of villain though.

Free is a werewolf who is pretty skilled. He can regenerate, which comes in handy and he has a pretty unique cube ability. He can’t really control it though so he can be a risky ally to have in a fight. He’s also the kind of guy who typically loses. It’s just hard to have confidence in him even though he’s technically powerful. His strength and speed are considerable and he was able to take on Maka and Black Star at once. We know that he’s pretty evil from his back story, but on screen he actually seems like a pretty likable character. He’s definitely one of the more fun villains.

Blair is a witch who appears in the first episode of the show and she’s not a great character. She is mainly used for fanservice and she rarely ever gets to fight. When she does, it’s typically against a weak villain so she’s not really contributing all that much. She’s technically a strong fighter, but she just doesn’t show off her abilities very often. The show would be better off without her.

Soul Eater diverges from the manga during arc 2, which was definitely a risky move. It paid off in a few ways like Maka’s new super form and the array of epic cliffhangers, but there were many ways were it failed. One of them was the fact that Arachne was basically thrown to the wayside and the ending of the series is also very anti climatic. I’ve never seen an anime end with plot hax that was out in the open like this one. Usually, there is some subtlety in how it’s handled, but not here. Let’s just say that the power of friendship wrapped in a punch will always be able to save the day. It’s fun for the main characters, but it’s definitely not a great way to end the series. I haven’t finished the manga yet, but it’s safe to say that the manga route is better thus far. The show probably would have had a better time if it had stayed true to the manga since it would have avoided some of the episodes during the slump, but I still did love a lot of the cliffhangers and epic moments at the end. There are pros and cons to it naturally so you can look through this paragraph and see if the pros outweigh the cons or not. We definitely missed out on a lot of new villains with the filler ending, but at least the Kishin finally got to fight.

Overall, Soul Eater is a very good show. We get several glimpses of greatness from it and it would have been an easy 8 if not for a slump that lasted for a few episodes and the excessive fan service in the earlier episodes. Those do take it down a few notches to the point where it was a tough decision. It is safe to say that Soul Eater can defeat most of the other 7 star shows and that it would lose to the average 8. I think it can squeak by to the higher rating and I just advise you to be wary of the first three episodes….or just skip them altogether. I definitely recommend this title if you can get past the early fanservice and don’t mind the dark tone that comes in for a few episodes. Beyond that, it is basically nonstop action with a very interesting cast of characters. The great soundtrack and animation also help the show to stand out in a crowd. Afterwards, we will see how you think it compares to Naruto.

Overall 8/10

Beelzebub Review

Posted on January 1, 2015 by dreager1

Beelzebub was a Shonen Jump series that never reached the level of fame and popularity that Naruto and Bleach received, but it still ran for quite a while and provided us with a lot of action. Like Reborn, Beelzebub starts off as more of a comedy and then quickly turns into the action manga that we had all been waiting for. It has some flaws thanks to the actual plot, but it manages to get past that and actually turns into a pretty great series. At least some of the credit should go to the main character.

The series starts out with some one shot stories before the first big arc arrives. The school is ruled by 4 strong classmates from the shadows. They are the 4 Emperors (Not the title that is used, but close enough) of the school and they each have their own minions/groups who follow them. Oga has been forced to baby sit Beelzebub, the future king of Hell and possibly destroyer of Earth. Oga isn’t thrilled about this since carrying a baby along with hurt his image. So, he decides that he’ll need to find someone who can be Beel’s (The baby) owner instead of him. Beel is attracted to negative energy so he just needs to find someone who’s even meaner than him. (A tougher feat than he imagines) That being said, peaceful negotiations tend to break down so then it’s fight time!

After that, the heroes are barely given a breather before they are taken to another school. Oga has basically accepted his fate of sticking with Beel by now. Unfortunately, his friends are being picked off one by one by the student council of the new school. These guys are apparently great fighters and one of the members is pretty familiar with Oga. Oga had wanted to make it through this new school peacefully until he could go back to his normal place, but he won’t have this. The arc results in a 5 on 5 fight that is pretty awesome! (I love group fights.)

The most popular arc of the series comes around as the demons finally invade Earth. They make their own school and challenge Oga and his friends. They will destroy Earth anyway so the heroes may as well put up a fight. Oga decides that things are getting a little too dangerous so he heads into the enemy base alone. Things also got personal since they kidnapped Hilda, one of Oga’s allies. He’s coming with a vengeance and this arc is where he finally gets his first super form. You can say that this is the arc where the series finished its transition into the ultimate Shonen Jump battle title that we knew it could be.

The final arc is sort of two arcs in one. The heroes return to their school and find out that a lot of new gangs have popped up. Among them, 6 leaders stand out and each one of them seems to be about as strong as Oga. They all want to defeat him to claim their spot as the strongest and they don’t mind targeting his friends to get him to act. (The friends also target the 6 so it evens out. Even if the allies should know that they’re doomed from the start….) This arc is interrupted as Oga decides to go to America to find Beel’s parents and then he eventually goes back home to continue the arc in more of a horror setting.

The series mainly takes place in various schools or in the city, which is definitely fine with me. There aren’t many big manga series that use such a setting for long. Bleach is one of the few that does this, but then we had to go off to Hueco Mundo for a few years, which wasted that opportunity. Beelzebub takes advantage of this local and it’s a fun setting for the fights. We don’t really get much of a city fight until the end of the series, but fighting inside of a building is the next best thing.

From the one shot stories and mini arcs, Beelzebub actually had a few interesting ones. The main one that comes to mind is when Furuichi got powers. He decided that he would challenge all of the characters in the series and it was pretty intense. A certain punching bag gets to fight Furuichi so the comic relief sidekick finally gets some hype of his own. It was good to see Furuichi finally get some props. He may not be a great character, but you never want to see a character be on the losing side for the whole series right? That’d be 20+ volumes of Furuichi getting kicked around. This mini arc managed to give him some wins, which was probably happy for his fanbase. We also had school plays and even a trip into the demon world. All of the stories were typically entertaining unless they were about Beel.

Naturally, Beelzebub is mainly an action series so the tone is pretty light, but it can be rather sad for the side characters. Again, Beelzebub is like Reborn! in the sense that the character power levels are heavily skewed. Oga is the only real powerhouse on the hero side for a while. Kuneida, Tojo, and Hilda are never far behind, but what about their numerous school friends? They never get any real powers ups until the climax of the series so it can be frustrating for them. They get knocked around so many times that you feel bad for them. They used to be the strongest thugs in the city and now they can’t beat the weakest minion from the villains. They try so hard and even go on the verge of tears. It’s great for Oga rage moments, but it does add an emotional touch to the series that it possibly should have avoided.

Back to the rage moments, Beelzebub does do a great job with those. One can argue that it happens a little too often, but I love those scenes so I’m okay with it. You probably know the type since it happens in most anime at this point. Where the main character suddenly get serious and says something that sounds intense as he begins to fight. That happens to Oga constantly as well as to his friends. Rage moments happen in almost every fight alongside a big double spread so that we can see just how intense they are. It gives you the chills while you’re reading it and it’s one of the main reasons why I like Bleach so much. So, this is going to be a mixed bag for many people, but I say “Go for it!”

One of the negatives for the series would have to be the crude humor. This is an issue that is actually rare for manga, or at least Shonen Jump titles. The problem is that the series technically revolves around Beel’s plight as Oga is raising him and that means that a lot of comedy situations will have to happen. Everything is exaggerated with Beel so when he has to relieve himself, he ends up nearly flooding a city. You can imagine how other baby scenarios can go from there. It’s a little too gross for me and I never really like seeing Beel on screen. He’s a character that I couldn’t adapt too and he certainly didn’t help the series. It mostly goes away during action scenes of course, but it’s one of the few negatives of the pre arc. Now it’s time to talk about the characters and there are quite a few in this series.

Oga Tatsumi is a pretty great main character. At first, I wasn’t a huge fan of him since the author tried a little too hard to make him a mean character. Yusuke and Ichigo are rebels, but what makes them cool is really the fact that they aren’t afraid to stand up to any villain. They also fight at the first opportunity. Oga is a pretty likable rebel for most of the series, but at the beginning it acts a little too much like a villain at times. Him messing with Furuichi is supposed to be comic relief of course, but he goes a little too far at times. Especially considering that Furuichi just wants to live a peaceful life, but is always forced into dangerous situations because of Oga. So, once Oga learns the values of friendship and mellows out a little more, he quickly becomes one of the best main characters out there.

One of the qualities that I respect the most in a main character is when he/she is willing to help out a friend even if it means breaking the rules. Oga definitely does that and he’ll always come to the rescue when his friends are in danger. (Which is rather often) His super form may not be the most imaginative one out there, but his fights are always fun. His fighting style of using magical seals is very unique and mixing in his extremely heightened physical abilities gives you a very powerful fighter at the ready. It would be hard to make Oga much cooler than he currently is since he’s just so good at this point.

Furuichi is the most recurring character in the series beyond Oga. He is always around no matter how dangerous the situation is. It’s rather sad for him since he is very weak and he never gets much stronger. He gets some magical tissues at one point that let him become a stronger fighter, but then he just gets beaten up by a new villain for shock value. He never wanted any part of this battle life that Oga has centered his life around, but he can’t desert his friend either. There is simply no winning for Furuichi so his tale is typically sad. He also has a sad origin story as well.

It would be easy to feel bad for Furuichi…until he does something bad and then you don’t feel bad for him anymore. He’s the kind of character who is way too into romance so you stop feeling bad for him since he isn’t a good character. It’s too bad since he has many likable moments and he gets quite a few intense moments like Oga. They’re just spoiled because you know that it’s going to go to his head and he’ll revert back to the character that you didn’t want to see. He has his good moments to be sure, but I definitely wouldn’t call him a good character. There is simply too much material to use against him.

Natsume is one of the only friends that I’m mentioning here, but I had too because he is a very odd character. The author never knew what to do with him so he gets a lot of hype at one point and then he basically vanishes for the whole series. He’s supposed to be very tough, but we never get any confirmation of that since he’ll just go and lose to a random figure when he feels like it. He is still a human so we can’t expect too much out of him, but his power level is never that consistent. He doesn’t take most of his fights seriously so it’s also hard to gauge just how good he is. He’s an interesting character, but you’ll probably dislike him by the end since he is just one big missed opportunity.

From the 4 big fighters of the school, Kuneida probably gets the biggest role. You can argue that she is the main heroine or you can make the case that Hilda deserves that title. Either way, Kuneida steadily improves throughout the series and she gets more training scenes than Hilda. She’s a much better character as well, but I suppose that this shouldn’t really sway you on who deserves the title of main heroine. They both get a lot of screen time I suppose. There aren’t any real negatives with Kuneida’s character and I was thrilled to see a sword fighter appear at last. It is sad that she is partnered up with Koma though since Koma is such an awful character. Luckily, she doesn’t have to actually work with him for most of her fights and she learns how to use some abilities while on her own. By the end of the series, she’s probably in the top 5 strongest heroes so that’s pretty impressive considering that she was just a human tier fighter at the beginning of the series.

Tojo is also a great supporting character, but the situation just isn’t in his favor for the most part. The problem is that he’s like Vegeta or any of your average Shonen Jump rivals. He looks great at first and he’s basically an unstoppable antagonist. Then he turns good and the author realizes that the audience will be shocked if he loses to a new villain. So it happens…and it happens…and it happens over and over again. If a new villain is introduced you may as well start counting the chapters until he crushes Tojo. Tojo always enters the fight with a lot of confidence and tough talk, but you know that he’ll end up on the ground. For extra shock value, he is sometimes taken out off screen or without any effort. He is the ultimate punching bag in the series. That being said, I do like him as a character. He temporarily passed Oga at one point in the series and it stayed that way for a brief while until Oga passed him again. He’s a likable character and he’s nice to animals, which is a huge plus. Unlike most of the other heroes, Tojo was always a good guy. He likes to get into fights, but it’s within reason and he’s a pretty upstanding citizen otherwise.

Himekawa is easily my least favorite member of the opening 4 bosses and he is just hard to like. I was almost warming up to him at one point. Not that he would ever become one of the most likable characters in the series, but I didn’t mind him as an ally. It all fell apart when he pulled a Rossiu on us and decided to wreck everything. We got a twist about that of course, but Oga had to take a lot of extra damage thanks to Himekawa’s rash actions. I couldn’t just let that slide and Himekawa had one of the biggest drops imaginable for an anime character. He was decent and now I consider him to be a downright terrible character. I couldn’t wait for him to get written out of the series.

Kanzaki is the first boss from the series and he must have been pretty popular since he gets to appear a whole lot after that. He’s your average bully who is actually a nice guy deep down and he loves to pamper his little sister. He’s not a bad character per say, but he is pretty generic and he rarely gets to win a battle. He just doesn’t add anything to the story, but his final form was pretty cool for his fans. Things definitely may have gotten dicey for him otherwise. He’s a loyal ally and a good friend to have, but he could have used some more character development or maybe just an epic fight. Seeing him jump into the school with a baseball bat was cool, but we knew how it would all end up. (It was a very frustrating scene though) That was the fate of his character.

It’s time to look at one of the characters who got hit the hardest by Beelzebub’s sudden ending. That would be Ichikawa. He was one of the 4 big characters from one of the final arcs and he got a lot of hype. He was going to be one of the strongest characters out there in theory, but then he went and got pummeled off screen. So much for his tough talk right? It’s too bad since he was a very interesting character and I wanted to see him get a few fights. He was likable in his few pages, but he just got the short end of the stick. We ended the series without really knowing much about him.

The same can be said about Akahoshi, but to a smaller extent. Thanks to a few filler chapters, we definitely know a lot more about him than Ichikawa. He was also a pretty fun character and I would go as far as to say that Akahoshi is probably one of the best characters in the series. He is main character material and it’s probably no coincidence that he looks very similar to Oga. It’s still a mystery as to why he’s so powerful since I didn’t totally buy the explanation, but he doesn’t get to finish his character arc. He came closer than Ichikawa though so I’m glad about that. He’s a lot nicer than Oga, but he’s still the leader of a gang so you should not underestimate this guy.

Hojo is probably the worst member of the 6 big fighters in that arc, but that also meant that she got to totally have her arc completed. She’s the weakest member of the group and you don’t really need any demonic abilities to take her down. She’s not completely weak though as she still gave Kuneida a decent fight, but she doesn’t strike fear into you the same way that the others could. She just felt out of her depths here and her goals of stopping Kuneida and the Red Tails just felt a lot more petty. If not for Beel pulling his tricks, her arc would have been a whole lot shorter.

Nasu is pretty crazy and he gives Oga a pretty good fight when they meet. He’s not one of the big 6 so his powers still aren’t extreme, but that just makes his battles that much more impressive. He beats up on the side characters for a while before getting to Oga, but he’s seriously bad news for most of the heroes. I don’t care for him personally, but his fights are pretty fun to watch. There aren’t many people who fight with their head smashed through a wall for the entire battle. (Hard to describe, but picture someone being rammed through a door and taking the door with them. Then imagine that person continuing to fight while the door is around their neck. It’s pretty surreal)

Takamiya may not be the final boss of the series, but he is certainly the most impressive fighter since he gets a lot of screen time. He really beats up on Oga and his allies even if there are some special circumstances at one point. He may be one of the strongest figures out there, but I definitely do not like him as a character. It helps that I didn’t care to see him beat up on Furuichi for so long since the hero couldn’t fight back. Takamiya is pretty sadistic and that’s why I didn’t care for how his character ending went. I know that Shonen Jump is about forgiving and forgetting, but it shouldn’t happen to instantly. I would have liked to see Takamiya go to jail for a few years to cool off. He definitely deserved that after everything that he did. His character design reminds me of Mukuro’s and it’s interesting since it’s not what you would expect from a street brawler. Likable or not, Takamiya definitely provides us with some great fights.

Fuji is the final boss of the series and he certainly lives up to the hype. His abilities are possibly a little too exaggerated since he’s been lounging around at home for the last few years instead of training. Having a demon to partner up with definitely gives you some added abilities, but the boost was way too big if you ask me. Well, ignoring that, he’s still a pretty good character. He’s pretty insane and he’s evil as opposed to most of the other guys who are simply “misunderstood.” Seeing him take on the entire cast is also a pretty great feat and he’s fun to fight. He has almost no development though so he’s just an opponent to face, but I suppose that this is fitting for the final boss. His abilities are no joke and he probably has the coolest super form from all of the villains. He’s probably my favorite villain now that I think about it.

Izuma is another hype character who appeared in the school challenge arc and you have to wonder what happened to him. There was a time where it seemed like he might have gotten a role in the current arc to help against the demons along with Tojo, but then he just took a backseat and decided to watch. He still got a decent role in the school battles of course, but stalemating Tojo isn’t the feat that it used to be. Since Oga already had a rival, this guy was basically not given the chance to prove himself. He’s definitely a decent villain though, but he seems unaware of just how badly he has been corrupted. He is sticking up for bullies after all so he should consider who the real villains are since he claims to be a hero. Still, he is interesting, which is good enough.

Miki is Oga’s rival and he knew the main character from their early days. Things happened and they grew apart, which made Miki decide that he wanted to beat up/destroy Oga. I can’t say that I agreed with Miki’s reasoning since it was pretty obvious why Oga did what he did during their origin. Even if Oga had been sincere, destroying him is going way too far. I can sympathize with Miki wanting to defeat him in combat. I’m totally all right with that, but he’s constantly going for the permanent solution so I can’t see him as anything other than a villain. It is impressive to see just how strong he got through his training though. It’s just too bad that he becomes irrelevant as soon as the real villains show up. He had a good roll until then though.

Saotome is a mysterious teacher who shows up at one point to help Oga train and he’s very powerful. You just wonder how he got to be so good and his backstory is never fleshed out. It’s cool to have a mentor figure of course, but he just pops up out of the blue and then he vanishes once things get serious. He does have a few good smirmishes with the villains though, but I would have liked to have seen him fight seriously at least once. That being said, he is significantly better than other mentors like Jiraiya and Master Roshi. At least you can take this guy seriously.

Beel appears about as much as Oga so it’s too bad that he’s completely unlikable. Just like how I don’t care for kids being main characters in live action films, I don’t care for babies being protagonists in manga. Beel is really just here for crude humor, which is too bad. He also puts Oga in a lot of tricky and/or embarrassing spots thanks to his actions. Beel gets a lot of hype for being immensely powerful, but we never get to see that since he is always just powering up his partner. That’s one way to show off a character’s strength I suppose, but it’s simply not a great way to do it. I don’t think that Beel had a single cool scene in the entire series and it would have been better off without him. He’s certainly one of the worst characters in the series. It’s definitely rare for a series with a pretty bad concept to actually become a legendary title, but Beelzebub pulled it off so Beel couldn’t really hold it back for long.

En is related to Beel and he’s just as annoying. He’s a little older so he’s more of a kid than a baby, but he’s very spoiled and his mini arcs are never that much fun. He’s not very good at video games and he’s just mean to everyone. He doesn’t mind blowing up the Earth so I think it’s fair to say that he’s a villain. There’s not a whole lot to say about him because he never gets to fight in the series, but he’s simply not my kind of villain. He’s certainly not loyal to his allies so he’s not even a respectable villain.

We can’t forget about Beel’s parents. They get a surprisingly small role in the series, but they are still around nonetheless. The Demon Lord is said to be extremely powerful, but he never gets to fight. He’s actually used for comic relief as he has a terrible memory and he’s always playing video games. He also seems to have the mentality of a little child as he sulks a lot and holds grudges when he feels like it. It’s easy to see why other demons keep planning to overthrow him since he does a lousy job of upholding law and order. I think it’s safe to say that the villains would have easily succeeded in their plans if not for Oga. The Demon Lord is just too oblivious to everything.

I can’t say that Iris is much better. She seems to be a lot more reasonable of course and things are pretty sad for her since she can’t walk. That being said, she is basically being played for her entire on screen appearance. She doesn’t even realize what is happening even though it is only thinly veiled. She also did leave Beel for basically the whole series so I really can’t sympathize with her actions. It doesn’t help that this was during the rushed part of the series. Maybe she could have been a better character with more time…maybe.

Athrun is a character who never got to appear much and the author may have forgotten about him. He is pretty powerful and he was much stronger than Oga at one point. It’s safe to say that Oga has surpassed him by now, but it would have been cool to have seen them fight. He’s the cool and calm collected character that you expect to see in a series at some point. He’s a swordsman, which makes him even cooler for me. He should have gotten more screen time! Johan is another intriguing character that I would have liked to have seen more of from the final part of the series. He’s pretty intense and he’s definitely a good agent since he can ride a motorcycle with ease while shooting at Oga. He may be a body guard, but he can hold his own with the best fighters out there. He is also pretty smart and he was one of the guys who tricked Iris for so long.

Alaindelon gives Beel some competition as one of the most annoying characters in the series. He’s always trying to be friends with Furuichi and most of his lines are purposefully suggestive. He acts gay throughout the series and it’s meant to be funny, but is just isn’t. He doesn’t contribute to the series at all even though he is always around and I don’t know how he ever got picked to be one of Beel’s bodyguards. He simply doesn’t help the heroes when it’s crunch time and it’s too bad that he was in the series at all.

Hilda is one of the main characters and she’s pretty decent. Unfortunately, she talks tough for all of her appearances, but she doesn’t get many fighters where she can really show off her skills. She is very tough since she was picked to guard Beel, but her power level is not very consistent. She’s definitely a very likable character though. She gets two personalities as she is usually in her normal one and she acts differently when she temporarily loses her memory. Both forms are pretty good although her normal personality is definitely the best one. She never backs down from a fight and she’s determined to protect Beel at any cost. She should have struggled a little more to stop herself from being kidnapped, but that’s a minor gripe. Through and through, Hilda is a very good character.

Yolda is Hilda’s rival and she’s a character who also could have used some more development. She seems like a nice character deep down even if she typically acts like an antagonist. She’s usually comic relief aside from her first appearances and while she is a decent fighter, Yolda is quickly surpassed by just about everyone after her initial fight or two. I think her character did have a lot of potential though and she is pretty likable. Certainly one of the better villains even if her boss is pretty cheap.

Lamia is the nurse from the demon world and she is good at her job, but she’s not a great character. She becomes friends with Furuichi, which is cool for him since he doesn’t have many friends. That being said, she can’t fight, which really limits her potential in this kind of series. She can heal their wounds, but that’s not the best role to have. She is also used a lot of comedy situations with Furuichi, which is not the greatest fate either.

Behemoth is an old demon who apparently was one of the strongest fighters back in the day. Unfortunately, we never get to see this so he’s a character who literally has to live off of hype. He’s still pretty strong of course, but it’s apparently only a glimpse into how he looked back in the day. He’s decent for an old fighter, but I just can’t take him seriously. I have nothing against the hype…but he needs to prove himself a little more. He just goes along with the villains and he doesn’t even get a say. Not exactly leader material!

Jabberwock is the big villain from the demon arc and he’s definitely intense. I’d say that he’s one of the better villains even if he’s not all that interesting. The series never gave him a whole lot of character development so he fell by the wayside. His abilities are good though. He’s pretty stuck up, but that makes it all the more satisfying when Oga takes him down. His design is pretty fitting for his character and he was a good villain. Jabberwock is honorable, which is more than I can say for a lot of the other villains.

The art is pretty good for the series and I definitely have no qualms there. The author uses a little too much ink with the demon attacks at times, but it also helps to show us just how powerful the attacks are. Most of the characters have pretty unique character designs, which help the characters to stay memorable. Naturally, this also helps the fight scenes since a good action moment needs great art if it wants to survive. The series also manages to pull off a pair of horror themed chapters towards the end where Oga enters the ghost town that used to be his home. It’s pretty intense since the tone shift was so dramatic, yet the art was able to keep up.

Whether a fight is occurring or not, Beelzebub is always fun to read. I’d compare it to Medaka Box in the sense that it is a fun ride from start to finish. There are no boring volumes and very few chapters that won’t entertain you either. Even the filler moments like Furuichi gaining magical powers are pretty fun as well. There are some serious moments thrown in for good measure, but the series never loses sight of what it is. An upbeat fighting manga that will always leave you feeling content with it.

One angle that I didn’t really discuss was the fanservice part. It’s not there a whole lot, but it is present thanks to Koma and Furuichi. Just about every scene in question that is in the series has something to do with them. Koma is the stereotypical pervert of the series while Furuichi falls into that category as well, but he typically tries to be more subtle. It’s still too bad since this is just a cheap trick that most series use at some point or another for quick views. It could have been worse, but what we did get still shouldn’t have been there. I’m still waiting for more series to take a look at Prince of Tennis so they can see how you do a series without any fanservice whatsoever. That series is still a shining example for all to see.

It should be noted that the series does end rather abruptly and it’s not very subtle either. The author handled it with as much pizzazz as he could, but there are still quite a few plot lines that are not wrapped up. An arc starts and then it quickly shifts to another arc before anything had really gotten to happen. When we go back to the previous arc to end the series, we find out that most of the battles already happened off screen. Naturally, this means that we also get a quick power up with a worse explanation than Ichigo’s big showdown at the end of the X Cution Arc. The situation is rather similar as it involves a rooftop battle and a lot of flashy abilities. I do love Oga’s final form so don’t get me wrong, but it definitely came out of nowhere. It did give us some great DBZ references though so I’ll let it slide. The series almost deserves an extra star for the way that it wrapped things up. The final fight was definitely DBZ level and it’s safe to say that Fuji and Oga could definitely hold their own against any fighter. They won’t be beating Goku of course, but their abilities could give most arc 1 guys a run for their money like Frieza or SSJ1 Goku. If you thought that Gintama was the only main character who could steal abilities…just wait. If a series being cancelled means that the author can go all out with super forms and powers, I wonder what Kubo would do for Ichigo in that case. The possibilities are endless!

How do the characters rank tier wise? Well, they’re nowhere near DBZ level (Except for the final fight) and I don’t see these guys taking down Tsuna, but then things get interesting from there. As I mentioned, there are some really powerful fighters, but the majority of the characters would lose to Naruto’s team from part one of the series. I think that Oga and the generals could probably hold their own against most One Piece/Naruto characters, but they would start to hit some trouble over in Bleach. I would consider the series as a whole to be A rank. I think that they could give Bleach a very good fight and they may have been able to win if not for the serious disadvantage in numbers. Beelzebub against Reborn! would be an incredible fight and I think Beelzebub may have the edge. Tsuna is certainly stronger than Oga, but his supporting cast is even weaker than Oga’s. It’s definitely a tough call, but reaching A-S rank is a pretty great feat!

Overall, Beelzebub is a pretty great Shonen Jump series. It has a lot of action and cool characters so that’s really all that you could want in such a series. Naturally, there is some mild fanservice to be found here once in a while, but it’s very rare and this series has less of it than Bleach and possibly even Naruto. The main thing that would have helped the series would have been if Beel had not been in it. I think it’s safe to say that the series could have easily reached a 9 with that. Even if the series kept Beel, then maybe getting rid of all the crude humor would have had the same effect. This series rivals Bleach in the number of “epic zoom in” scenes, which is very impressive. I highly recommend this to all manga readers and try not to enjoy the humor filled beginning toooooo much since the series jumps onto the action train pretty quickly.

Overall 8/10

Scan 2 Go Review

Posted on December 20, 2014 by dreager1

Scan 2 Go is a show that I started a little over 2 years ago. It was a pretty solid series, but then it was pulled from TV…never to be shown again. Now, it has finally made it to Youtube so I got to blast through the final 7-8 episodes. Let’s just say that this is a great show that really manages to hit it out of the park in several areas. On the surface it’s just another awesome toyetic show, but it decides to go all Gurren Lagann on us in the final 2. This title is pretty obscure so let’s go over the plot first.

There’s a plot? Of course! Kaz Gordan is from Earth and he has three friends. Together, they form Team Jet and they are training to become the best racers in the universe. Scan 2 Go is a futuristic game that lets you mentally synchronize with your (tiny) toy car as you travel across dangerous tracks. The game never really hit it off on Earth, but every other planet is playing it. Kaz convinces his teacher to let Team Jet travel across the universe after he crushes him in a toy car fight. The heroes win tournament after tournament as they meet strange allies and tricky villains. There are many tournaments and training sessions throughout the show, but it’s difficult to call them actual arcs. One of the big story arcs was when the team went to Gurao to train since that’s where they got to bond with their allies. Finally, the team went back to Earth for the universal tournament. The final Grand Prix to decide who the fastest racer in the universe is. Unfortunately….an old enemy has decided to show up as well. There will be much more about that in a moment.

Scan 2 Go’s animation is actually pretty good. To an extent, I expected this, but it really shines during the space battles or really any scene with Ryu. The energy attacks are great and I’m convinced that this show could have pulled off a hand to hand battle scene. How does it stack up against other toyetic shows? I think that the animation is behind Cardfight and Buddyfight, but it beats Tenkai Knights and the original Yugioh series. Animation isn’t typically a gamechanger for a show, but it sure makes the racing scenes more exciting. I can’t say that any episodes had bad animation and that’s always a good thing.

The soundtrack for the show is one of its biggest strengths. There are technically not a whole lot of themes in the show since the old ones just play again and again and again. That’s all right though since they’re so good. From the starting theme, “Scan 1….” so Ryu’s theme, Scan 2 Go’s music selections are intense. The Ryu one is definitely intense and it makes for a very good villain theme. It’s in sharp contrast to the racing theme that typically plays since that one is very fast, but hopeful. Unfortunately, the opening isn’t very good, but this is the kind of show that can get by that thanks to all of its other strengths.

Let’s talk about Ryu. He changed the entire series, which is very impressive. Until he showed up, Kaz just had fun outracing everyone and showing them why his Falgor was the best car in the biz. That all changed when Ryu introduced the notion of racing to destroy the other competitors. His car is the fastest and the strongest in the series so none of the other racers can hope to beat him in a fair race. Luckily, that’s not what he wants anyway. He just wants to destroy the universe! As you can imagine, that was pretty shocking to see in this show. Until then, one could argue that the strongest fighters weren’t even planet busters…so how did we upgrade to universe busting?

Well, Ryu is a living embodiment of a black hole and the power gem that is on his forehead gives him additional power. His car has the ability to instantly regenerate injuries although it may just be Ryu’s ability that transfers to the car since they are fully synchronized. Ryu is so great that he actually pulls off a feat that people have been waiting for DBZ to show. He destroys a moon just by having his car ram into someone else’s. It’s a great scene and it’s pretty tragic since you’re not used to seeing other people get injured in this show. That being said, Ryu goes even farther than that.

Only one character is destroyed in the entire series and you can probably guess who did that. Ryu has a climatic battle with the greatest racer in the universe..or at least, the man who was the greatest racer in the universe. It was a very fun, high budget battle in space and we got to see both of them really put everything on the line. That was easily the darkest episode and the moment where the series had changed forever. It’s hard not to quickly begin to love Ryu as a villain. He toys with all of the heroes and he is the only one who seems to realize that their cars can be used as weapons. After all, they can shoot thunder, make tsunamis, black holes, etc. Why should they only be used in races?

Another reason why the final episodes were so great was because we finall got to see the mysterious council make their move. It really felt like a moment out of Shonen Jump when we got to see Ryu fight these new characters. They all had unique powers and they talked a good game so it was pretty great. I don’t think anyone ever questioned who would win the fight, but it was just fun to see. Ryu’s car also gets to smash through an entire army and it can move so quickly that it turns into a giant meteor.

It doesn’t stop there though as its gravity powers (Or Ryu’s) are enough to push the Moon out of orbit and send it crashing to Earth. Ryu’s universe destroying plan is also rather simple. His car just needs to win one more big race to have enough power to make a black hole big enough to suck everything in. (He absorbs the powers of those he has defeated after all) Naturally, Kaz and friends are here to stop him so it ends up being a 8-12 vs 1 matchup in the final battle. It’s pretty great to see, but the heroes sure look weak and completely out of their league compared to such a fighter.

The heroes are able to let their cars reach FTL speeds as well, although I found Ryu’s feat more impressive since he was doing it on his own. That being said, it’s intense to see them just cruising past planets on their way to victory. I also have to give the show some props since the easy way would have been to just have had Ryu die when they pushed him into the sun. Let’s just say that it’s not enough to stop him. I think that he should have been able to have just left and regrouped somewhere else, but it was pretty much impossible to stop him so they had to end everything somehow. At least the heroes got to try their luck at pushing a moon. It’s a good strength feat since we need to keep in mind that Wonder Woman, Superman, and Martian Manhunter teaming up couldn’t move the moon while the heroes from Gurao were able to move it. (Even more impressive is that the Moon was already crashing so it’s different from pushing a Moon that’s in orbit.) Other heroes come to help after that, but the heroes already got the main job done.

Now, all of this does bring to mind one big concern with the sport and why you have wonder about how safe it is. The show is rather inconsistent in showing just how synchronized you are with the car, but it seems to suggest that you feel the virtual damage that you car does. It’s why the humans will wince or groan with pain after a big attack or end up getting knocked down. They also seem to abandon the real world completely, but is this physical or just mental? At the very least, your conciousness leaves like in Sword Art Online, but other times we see the fighters just appear where the cars are. (Even if it’s thousands of miles away from the arena) So, it’s possible that their physical bodies are able to instantly warp to their cars or they are spirited away during the match. However, they stay at the racetrack at other times to trade insults with the others.

Ultimately, I don’t think that the show could really make up its mind on this. I’ll just think of it as throwing your conciousness into the car, which is why you feel the damage and wind up wherever the car is. After all, we can’t really look at Zero’s battle with Ryu any other way. How else could he breathe in space and follow Ryu there? (Ryu can breathe in space, but he’s not even human so it’s all right) I’ll just add that you can quickly go back to the real world as well or stay there the whole time depending how synched you are with your car. Naturally, this means that mind games work very well in this series.

I still haven’t mentioned what the risk of racing is have I? Well, if you feel the virtual damage, then you are put at great risk. One fighter ended up synching with his car while in space so when the car was blown up, the guy was either blown up with it or he ended up suffocating. Luckily, it seems to be the former. Another guy is obliterated by an energy blast because his car was. There’s no way that you can find this hobby safe and it makes you wonder about all of the one shot characters who got crushed throughout the series. It seems like the virtual damage doesn’t affect you if you don’t have a high synch rate so the throwaway characters might be safe, but it’s still hard to see how this sport is condoned. Maybe that’s why Earth isn’t exactly head over heels for it. Well, that’s enough about how awesome the series is for now, let’s look at the rest of the characters. (Since I basically already talked about Ryu a lot. He’s my favorite character in the series while I have to boot Kaz down to number 2)

Before Ryu took the spot, Kaz had been my favorite character in the series from the very first episode. He’s just awesome and a shining example of how I want my main characters to look. Kaz doesn’t pull any punches whether he’s racing against little kids or old men. In the very first episode he ends up beating his mentor so that he could escape Earth and race in the big leagues. It was pretty cool since the future is luckily safe enough that 10 year old kids can fly around the cosmos unchaperoned. (Unless you count their little robot friend.) Kaz always has a lot of determination and he constantly mentions how he wants to be the Fastest in the Universe. It’s a noble goal to be sure and one to be proud of. He makes quite a few rivals along the way, but he’s never outmatched for very long. His car’s special ability is that it can fly, which actually isn’t one of the better abilities, but it hasn’t failed him yet. While Ryu wields the power of darkness, Kaz holds the power of light and there are only two to three other characters who have wielded a similar power in the past. Zero and one of Kaz’s masters come to mind. Unfortunately, he only uses it a few times throughout the series and surprisingly not in the final fight. That’s a missed opportunity, but it doesn’t stop Kaz from being one of the best main characters out there. I agree with just about all of his decisions and he doesn’t make any huge mistakes throughout the series. No, Kaz is all about the win and then the team..in that order. His Galaxy Falgor is also cooler than almost every other car in the series.

Shiro is the main rival of the series, which guarantees him a spot in the top 5 of the series. He has ice abilities so he can freeze an entire battlefield and stop everyone in their tracks with minimal effort. Unfortunately, he can’t totally control this power and he ends up turning into a wolf sometimes. He seems to be part of a wolf changing species, but he looks pretty human while in..human mode. His car is pretty great since aside from ice abilities, he can also teleport. That is very handy to have in a race and it’s hard to see Shiro ever losing once he gets that power. To an extent..you’d be right, but it’s also partially because his role is lessened a whole lot by that point. By the end, he’s barely in the show anymore aside to just be in the background. No matter, he’s still a pretty great character. The only part of the show where he got to be a little annoying was when he was having a lot of internal drama and he let Ryu play him like a puppet. That was pretty sad, but luckily it was also very brief. Shiro is one of the only racers who can actually give Kaz a fight so he needs to stay in the game!

Zero is known as the greatest racer in the universe and Kaz has always wanted to surpass him. It’s a little sad that they never get to have a proper race since that would have been pretty great. Zero is essentially perfect, which irritates his rivals, but shows why he has so many fans. He doesn’t use any gimmicks or cheap tricks to win as he just races from start to finish. That being said, his decision to fight Ryu may not have been his greatest one. It was an awesome moment since Zero had gotten a whole lot of hype while Ryu was the mysterious son of the black hole. Zero put up a good fight since his car could shoot lasers and he held his own while in space. It was an admirable fight and it was a great way to wrap up his character arc. Let’s just say that I wasn’t going to forget him after that. I’d actually say that he is one of the coolest characters in the show and I’d probably place him at third behind Ryu and Kaz. That final fight certainly did a lot to help me gain respect for him.

Fiona is the main heroine in the series and she has a long lasting rival in Hebina. Her car’s ability is that it can navigate through a race track by using its gliders to look at the stage layout, but the writers probably realized that this wasn’t much of an ability so she gains thunder powers as the series goes on. Those are very useful to be sure so I was glad that she got those new powers. She likes to think that she’s just as good as Kaz in a race, although all of his allies seem to illogically believe that to an extent. Even if Kaz proves them wrong over and over again…their honor is at stake here! She’s definitely better than Myron and Diego, but Shiro would take the number 2 spot on Team Jet…if we decide to count him. She’s definite a pretty likable ally and at least her skills are considerable. She may be top 3 as far as toyetic heroines are concerned, which is a feat in itself.

Diego is the Dex/Bud/Bronx of the show. He’s always eating except when he’s too nervous or upset to do so. His car is pretty slow, but strong. The problem is that there are several other cars that are simply stronger than his, which takes away his only gimmick. How can he hope to win a true race with such a car? Typically, his will power is just that much better than his opponents so he is able to get an extra boost to win the day. I can’t say that I believed many of his wins though and he’s not one of the better allies. He gets a subplot where he feels like he is the weakest member on the team and the sad part is that it’s probably true. Kaz puts a lot of effort into training, but we never see Diego proactively decide to do this. He’s too interested in eating so why should he expect to be strong? It was emotional and all, but he really doesn’t add anything to the show. I still wouldn’t go as far as to say that he’s a bad character though. He’s just not that good.

Myron is one member of Team Jet that I definitely didn’t care for. He’s the smart member of the group, but that doesn’t stop him from still wanting to be one of the fastest racers in the universe. He’s asking for too much if you ask me. His Storm Slazer actually has a pretty good design and it’s gimmick is that it can drive well over ice, sand, and water. It can also drill under the track to hide if necessary. The problem is that Myron is always quick to turn against Kaz since nothing can ever be his fault. He’s worse than Diego and some of the allies from Gurao, which is pretty sad for him. He was definitely a little worse than I could have expected.

Dradd was Kaz’s first rival and he stayed with him until the very end. He has a rivalry with Ryu going on, but he has to get in line since Kaz and Taiga also have beef with the guy. His car’s special ability is that it can hit the ground hard enough to make it jump forward. It’s pretty nifty, but not that practical compared to the other cars. Power is his thing like with Diego and Ryu, but he’s probably second in that category. He talks tough and he is older than Kaz, but he had to start his training from scratch since he had stopped improving. He’s the best member from Gurao. That may not be saying a lot, but his races are fun to watch and I definitely wouldn’t call him a bad character. He’s outmatched against Kaz, but that’s just his bad luck right?

Taiga is Kaz’s second rival and I guess that makes him rivals with Dradd as well to an extent. He races so that he can become better than Zero and then a big rivalry starts with Ryu. He is a good racer, but his will power isn’t so great and he can be manipulated rather easily. He’s not bad, but he tries to act a little too cool at different points and it just doesn’t work. He’s a decent rival, but I’d say that Kaz is clearly superior in a race. I could probably take Taiga a little more seriously if he could have convincingly defeated Diego in the race, but it was a little too close for comfort. He talks really tough the whole series, but he’s usually on the losing end of a race. At least he learned the values of friendship by the end…

I’m starting to realize that the sad characters were not great in this show. I liked Shiro, Zero, Kaz, Fiona, Dradd, and Ryu. That sounds like a lot, but considering how many characters are in the show…that’s a pretty small number. I just ended up not really feeling like the other characters were that good. Kraken is no exception as he is a King who enjoys the game, but it rather overconfident about it. His voice doesn’t help matters at all, but the worst part is that he just doesn’t seem to be that good. His car can shoot large waves of water, which is a pretty great technique, but his car isn’t great on the ground…and that’s where almost all of the races take place. He bonds with the heroes at one point, which gets them all on his side, but he didn’t get me on his side.

Hebina might be the worst member from the Gurao team since she is clearly a villain who just happens to race. Her abilities are not great so she constantly cheats to ensure that she claims victory in her battles. None of the other characters call her out on this half the time and she certainly didn’t earn her spot with the best in the Final Grand Prix. Her theme is also awful and the only piece of music that I didn’t like. It’s not an exaggeration to say that she may be the worst character in the show. Her gimmick is that her car can make illusions so that it looks like her car has multiplied. It’s not very original though since a shadow council member could do that with his car and likewise with Kaz’s original teacher. She’s going to have to do better than that if she wants to be an expert racer and hopefully she becomes likable someday…but the sequel series would really need to change her character to make that possible.

Jack is a cop who also happens to be a racer and he’s definitely not likable. He’s probably the weakest racer from Gurao and it’s hard to even remember what his gimmick is. He definitely has something since his character needs a gimmick, but it probably wasn’t that great. He has a hero moment towards the end of the series where he destroys a meteor, but it just doesn’t make up for a whole series. He needs to just stick to one field and master it instead of dabbling in both. He constantly goes after Hebina, which would be okay if it was just to arrest her, but he doesn’t take his job seriously enough for that. He just likes to give her a hard time. He must have been lucky to have made it to the final grand prix.

Ray is Kaz’s teacher from Earth and he’s pretty cool. His attitude is similar to Kakashi’s in that he is always very confident and mysterious. It’s a little hard to take him seriously since he was defeated in the very first episode of the series and then disappeared until around episode 49, but he quickly made up for this in the final race. His skills are apparently up there with some of the world’s best and that’s pretty cool to see. From Kaz’s three teachers he was definitely the best. Master Hippopo is arguably the strongest master since he’s the leader of the super council and he fought Ryu, but he was certainly not very likable. The only good scene with Hippopo aside from his fight against Ryu was probably his “death” in one of the earlier episodes since Kaz got to have a rage moment as he dueled against Hebina. Now that was intense!

Antares was one of the less interesting members of the main guys. He is a publicity guy first and foremost. He like to always be in the spotlight and he acts as if his races are just shows for his adoring fans. That ultimate comes back to bite him in the final episode. His car’s gimmick is that it can use its tail to do a flip on the track so that it can dodge attacks. It’s pretty useful, but definitely not the greatest bonus for when it comes down to a contest of speed. I just don’t really find him to be that likable and I also doubt his skills.

I have to say that the ending wasn’t great though. I Loved the huge climax and how out there is got, but some parts were still a little disappointing. One part that I was underwhelmed by was Kaz’s big charge against Ryu. He decided that winning on his friends sacrifices wouldn’t be worth it so he attacked Ryu in a rage moment. Unfortunately, he is just thrown to the side and he couldn’t deal any damage. He didn’t even last 5 seconds so that was pretty sad. I also think that they should have just said that Kaz was the winner at the end instead of just saying that all fans of the series were winners. That’s a bit of a cop out right?

Overall, Scan 2 Go is a great show and it’s certainly not one that you’ll want to miss out on. The series mostly doesn’t have a whole lot of stakes in it since it’s just about seeing the heroes race as they get through their challenges, but that definitely changes once Ryu enters the show. Before Ryu’s appearance the show still would have gotten a 7 easily, but his battles gave it the push that it needed to reach the elusive 8. It’s a great experience from start to finish and the visuals as well as the soundtrack only help to enhance that. Kaz is a likable main character and Ryu’s a great villain so you don’t need to worry about the characters dragging it down. Some subplots like Shiro’s origin don’t really go anywhere and we could have done without it, but maybe it’ll be in a sequel at some point. Regardless, the show just wins on all accounts so you definitely want to see it as soon as possible!

Overall 8/10

Dragon Ball Z Cooler’s Revenge Review

Posted on December 4, 2014 by dreager1

It’s been a while since I went back to watch one of the old DBZ films. What better time than Christmas season right? This has always been one of my favorite DBZ films and it’s certainly the best one that didn’t feature Vegeta. It’s pretty short, but it makes for a pretty great film to check out.

The plot takes place after the battle against Frieza. Goku and friends decide to go on a camping trip to have some fun. It’s a chance to get away from it all and relax. After all, they may not get a chance with the Androids coming along to fight soon right? Things are going smoothly until Cooler and his minions arrive. The Z fighters are going to have to fight extra hard if they want to win this round!

This film is under 50 minutes so things have to happen very quickly. Cooler and his minions attack within the first 15 minutes and the fights really start heating up once Cooler joins the fray to fight Goku. Let’s face it…we’re all here to watch these two titans face off. It’s like watching a Justice League film. It’s great to see the other fighters get involved, but you can’t beat a scene with Superman fighting the powerhouse of the month. Titanic clashes like those are not easily forgotten.

The fight does not disappoint as Goku and Cooler wreck the area pretty badly during their fight. Cooler ends up punching Goku so hard that the water all leaves the ocean for a few minutes. That’s certainly impressive and it’s the type of physical feat that reminds me why DBZ is a cut above the comic franchises. They also get to display their speed during this endeavor and then we are treated to a classic beam fight at the end. The fight really had everything that we could have wanted from DBZ as it even included the “This isn’t even my final form” routine.

The animation is pretty solid since Toei always knew what they were doing with DBZ. It naturally won’t look as polished as some of the latter films, (The first Broly film is the only one that was at a total theatrical level compared to the rest) but the animation is certainly above average. You can really feel the blows and the energy attacks look great. I still miss this classic animation from the 90’s. It was solid in just about every aspect of the word.

The soundtrack isn’t so great, but it’s tough to count it as a negative for the film per say since it changes depending on where you saw it. I recently saw it in the DVD (Movie Pack) version and the music is mostly uninspired. We don’t get the techno/rock themes that you’ve probably heard on Youtube and it just can’t keep up with the fights. They’re the kind of themes that make you think you were watching a silent film afterwards. They aren’t bad, but they just aren’t memorable. Of course, it could be that I’ve just heard them so many times while watching DBZ that they fail to register sometimes. Upon closer inspection, they do work sometimes…just not for the fights.

Cooler makes for a pretty great villain. He’s definitely likable and it’s hard to say whether he is…cooler than Frieza or not. They’re both pretty similar in various aspects although Cooler definitely has the better design thanks to his final form. Cooler’s ambitions are clear and he does want to beat Goku in a fair fight instead of just destroying the planet from space. His power is considerable and he wants to bring honor back to his family’s name. As far as the film villains go, he could be second or third. (Broly is naturally number 1)

Cooler’s minions are not very memorable. They strike a lot of poses like the Ginyu Squad, but they simply aren’t very charismatic. They’re seriously outmatched against Goku and even Piccolo can easily subdue them. I do like the concept of a Ki sword, but that’s definitely not enough to turn them into serious threats.

Piccolo is the only ally of Goku who makes himself useful here. Gohan unfortunately tends to get in the way and Krillin doesn’t even try to fight back. Piccolo definitely earns his keep though as he takes out several of the villains. This clears the way for Goku to deal with Cooler. Piccolo definitely looked good here and his fans would be proud.

Goku also looks even better than usual here. This was back during the Arc 1 days so he’s still a super nice guy who cares about the animals. I don’t think we ever see him get worried about the animals safety after this, but I suppose that it simply isn’t brought up. The movie did a swell job of punching the average film in the face by having an anti animal violence scene. That’s just one of the many things that makes this film a pretty big cut above the rest. You don’t really see that kind of thing typically. A bird gets injured and Goku quickly heals him before going off to fight against Cooler. Now that’s what a call a hero! He even gives Cooler a chance to back off before things got serious.

The one thing that is a bit of a stretch is the fact that everyone mistook Cooler for Frieza. They seriously do not look that similar at all. I can understand Goku mistaking him to an extent….or I can at least conceive the idea. I do not believe that Piccolo would ever make that mistake though. I guess they really wanted to cement how similar the two villains were, but that was just too hard to swallow.

Overall, Cooler’s Revenge is still one of the elite DBZ films. It’s only real negative is in how short it is, but that means that the film is mostly just one large action scene. We actually don’t have any annoying Roshi scenes to bog the film down either. This is basically a perfect film and it’s a model for how films should strive to be today. Goku’s Super Saiyan form never ceases to impress me and he looks virtually unstoppable while he is in it. After seeing his strength and speed I don’t see how anyone could say that Superman can defeat him. It’s hard not to bring that topic up whenever I talk about Goku. Either way, I definitely recommend checking this film out since it’s so great. It’s an easy 9 star film and it’s not even the best DBZ film! Stay tuned because I’ll be reviewing another DBZ title in the near future.

Overall 9/10

Blue Exorcist Review

Posted on December 4, 2014 by dreager1

Blue Exorcist is a pretty short show and I can’t say that it ever became supremely popular, but it’s definitely a title that I was aware of for some time. The publicity that it did get was pretty good and the posters always looked fun. What can beat a fire swordsman as you main character? The premise itself definitely had a lot of potential and I love this kind of action show. Blue Exorcist isn’t an all star title and it can’t really claim to be the best at anything, but it’s a pretty fun ride from start to finish.

The plot involved a kid by the name of Rin Okumura. He is the son of Satan, but his life’s mission is to destroy all of the demons since Satan murdered his foster Dad and a lot of the monks. To do this, Rin must become a high ranked Exorcist so it’s time to get down on his studies. Meanwhile, he meets up with a bunch of other people who want to become Exorcists in one form or another. Their teacher is very shady though as he is a high ranking demon himself and nobody really seems to mind. It’s not as if the humans can really do anything about it, but it is rather odd. Will Rin be able to accomplish his goal or is he doomed? Well, if you’re familiar with Shonen titles like Naruto, (I wanna be Hokage) One Piece, (I want to be the Pirate King) or the other Journey manga, you’ll realize that the odds of this happening in 26 episodes are slim. Still, we gotta hope that Rin can make it to the end or at least get Satan to repent of his evil ways.

It’s easy to compare Rin to Kirito in many ways. They both use a blue color scheme during their battles (Animation wise anyway) and they’re both sword fighters. They actually managed to snag Kirito’s voice actor for Rin (Or vice versa) which was pretty cool. (He’s still the best voice actor in the business and it was a great time for viewers since Blue Exorcist, Sword Art Online, and Attack on Titan were airing at the same time) Kirito is typically a lot more humble and quiet while Rin certainly does not fall into those traits, but they still feel pretty similar personality wise. In a fight, I think Kirito would probably have the significant edge, but it’s possible that Rin ends up surpassing him in the manga. I would almost say that it’s likely, but the pacing for power ups can be slow.

Back on topic, Rin is a very good main character. He’s certainly a lot better than you may expect from the posters. He’s not afraid to get into a fight to stick up for his brother, Yukio, and he doesn’t back down from a fight. He just says what’s on his mind instead of thinking about it and his intentions are always good. He’s probably the most reasonable character in the whole series even if he’s quick to leap into any situation. Rin’s basically the kind of guy that you would want to be friends with. He’ll always stick up for you and help with any tricky situation. He’s just a good guy through and through.

Yukio is one of the main characters in the show and he had the potential to be a very good character. Unfortunately, his character development goes in a circle instead of occurring on a straight path. A running theme is that he is jealous of Rin’s personality and abilities. Other times, Yukio just admires those traits. While Rin can use his demonic abilities to fight, Yukio is stuck using bullets so it can be tough for him. You can certainly sympathize with Yukio’s plight at times, but he makes it difficult at other points. I think he crossed the line when he attacked Rin in one of the last episodes and then tried to destroy his demon cat. Yukio basically betrayed everyone at the end and I definitely didn’t agree with his reasoning. Part of the problem is also that Yukio is very gullible. It should be noted that many of Yukio’s worst moments occur in filler. So, he can be a good character at times, but he is usually too antagonistic to be likable.

Ryuji is the rival, but he is just too weak to be taken seriously. It doesn’t help that Rin is already hardcore enough to be the main character and the rival. Ryuji turns against Rin so many times that it’s scary. He sticks up for him at some points, but he is pretty unfair to Rin at several points. I was glad to see Rin show him up when Ryuji made his debut. Ryuji has his verses that he recites against the demons, but it is usually ineffective. I have to say that he isn’t a good character, but he beats some of the other supporting characters, which is pretty scary.

Shiemi is the main heroine. Unfortunately, she can’t really fight. She has a grass familiar with her who makes grass and vines appear to block other opponents. It is pretty useful, but this means that Shiemi is completely defenseless without it. She always wants to help out, but she ultimately ends up getting in the way a lot. She has company since the other characters besides Rin are pretty weak as well. Ultimately, she just isn’t as interesting as she could be. Her character was just not very developed and she was a little too desperate to make friends right til the very end.

Izumo is probably the toughest character from Rin’s main friends. She isn’t much of a fighter on her own, but she can summon a pair of cats/dogs who help her out in the tough times that she gets involved in. Naturally, they are helpless against all of the decent villIns, but at least she won’t have to ne afraid of the minions. She got a decent amount of character development and she managed not to betray Rin unlike some pf his other friends. I liked her more than the other supporting characters, which may not be saying much, but it’s a start.

Konekomaru is easily the worst friend of Rin’s. He was the first in line to betray Rin and he tries to turn everyone against him. Rin is the son of Satan after all and Satan destroyed a lot of people close to Konekomaru. It is pretty tragic and he should keep his beef against Satan, but Rin had been helping out for the whole series. I just can’t consider this guy to be a true friend and it was pretty tough to bounce back from that. Evidently, too tough for Konekomaru.

Shura joins the squad during the latter part of the anime. Technically, this may be slightly before the halfway mark, but she certainly feels like she was introduced late since everyone else was already established. Her introduction involves an intriguing plot twist and she looks good since she goes up against a powerful foe in the form of Amaimon. This is a Gamechanger. I already mentioned that none of the supporting characters could really do anything against the stronger demons. Well, that was until Shura came along. She is debatably stronger than Rin or at least a match for him. I would likely choose Rin in a no holds barred fight, but it would be a close fight. Shura works for the government, but she is still a pretty good character. She is openly rebellious to the corrupt figures although it can be frustrating to see her just accept their decisions. She talks tough, but she will rarely oppose the government openly. She is also used for fanservice at times, which isn’t cool. She is still a step up from the others though.

There is also a quiet kid with sock puppets and you have to wonder what was going on with him. He never really talks and he makes sure to disappear when the fighting starts. Maybe he is just a random classmate? That could be the case, but the anime gives him a lot of foreshadowing. He gets some ominous lines at the end and you get the feeling that he knows more than he is letting on. It is just one of the plot lines that goes nowhere. I don’t mind all that much since I dislike the character so far, but I’m sure that his true personality would have been a little more interesting.

Shiro is the man who raised Rin and Yukio. He was a very powerful Exorcist and he seemed like he had a bright future. It was literally bright since he was engulfed in blue flames, but that is not what he had in mind. He was a pretty good character. Shiro certainly wasn’t great, but he was fairly likable. He protected the heroes for quite a long time and he made the heroic choices when necessary. If only more of the old Shonen mentors could be like him instead if Jiraiya.

The Paladin is one of the characters who never got to really get any closure on his development. We don’t really know much about him other than the fact that he’s a very strong warrior. He took Rin down without a whole lot of effort and he basically just does whatever the government wants. He has a cool design and I actually like his character for the most part. He didn’t look good in the filler though so overall he would only be about average. He’s still someone to keep an eye out for since he is one of the few humans to be very powerful.

Mephisto Pheles is a character who is hard to understand. If this is intentional, then the anime did a good job. On the considerable chance that it was accidental, then it is not very impressive. Mephisto switches from hero to villain several times as the show goes on. We learn that he helped to save Rin a while back yet he repeatedly tries to destroy him. (I suppose that we can say that he knew Rin wouldn’t die, but this would be dicey to say the least) Does Mephisto want to destroy the human world or Hell? He doesn’t even attempt to stop one of the villains from his plan to destroy Hell so I guess he doesn’t feel any loyalty to his fellow demons. On the other hand, he keeps causing trouble for the human world so maybe he wants to rule it. His goals are not very clear cut so it is entirely possible that he just likes to cause chaos so that he can see what happens next. All villains should have some kind of understood goal by the end in my opinion. (There are probably some exceptions) He also has a good time operating as a hero though so maybe Mephisto flips a coin to decide how he will act on that day. It is heavily implied that he is much stronger than any of the heroes so he could probably end any resistance made by the Exorcists in an instant.

Amaimon doesn’t appear a whole lot, but he makes each appearance count. He gets a cliffhanger for his first appearance and his big three episodes each revolve around big fights with Rin. He is one of the strongest Demons since he is one of the 4(?) Kings. He is a hand to hand fighter, which works out great for us since those fights always tend to be fun. He seems like he just wants to enjoy the human world’s unique features (Like the food) as he finds some solid fights. There aren’t many fighters who really get him intrigued, but he likes to mess with Rin so that keeps him entertained for a while. While Amaimon adds a lot to the show thanks to his fight scenes, I don’t really care for his personality. He doesn’t have a lot of development as a villain and the voice probably prevents me from taking him seriously.

Igor is one of the characters who shows up and he also shifts from being a villain to a hero to a villain as the series goes on. He works for Mephisto Pheles so that makes sense. I definitely consider him to be a villain since he did attempt to murder Rin, but I would also call Mephisto Pheles a villain as well. I don’t trust guys who keep changing sides all of the time. Igor has a rather emotional subplot towards the end of the series, but he mostly tries to stay pretty detached. He has a grudge against demons due to a certain incident, which definitely changed how he acted. He’s a very interesting character and it’s always enjoyable to see him on screen.

The animation is pretty sharp. It doesn’t use any fancy animation techniques and there aren’t many scenes that will get a lot of buzz for this area, but you can instantly tell that this is a relatively new anime. I was sold on the animation right from the first episode and it really does the blue flames justice. This is the kind of show that could have been hurt by bad or average animation so it’s good that it was able to pull through. The fight scenes can look really great when they occur. They are fairly rare, but we get two big fights with Amaimon and a short sparring match with Shura. Rin and Yukio have a bit of a tussle, but I can’t really call it a fight. Anytime Rin enters his demon mode, you can be sure that something cool will happen. One fight that didn’t involve Rin, but was still cool was when Yukio fought Igor early on in the series. That was definitely pretty fun and the normal danger scenes can still be very entertaining. You’ll never find yourself bored in any of the canon episodes so I can safely say that the director did a great job with the pacing.

The openings are pretty good although the first one is significantly better than the second. I like the main theme a lot and there’s another one that’s pretty good for the battles. My favorite theme may actually be the one that seems to be inspired from the 90’s Xmen show. It’s hard to describe it, but it occasionally plays for a fight scene or for an emotional moment. One time where I remember it popping up is when Rin first meets the giant cat. On the whole, the soundtrack is pretty average, but having 2-3 really good songs is enough to give the whole soundtrack a much needed boost. It certainly won’t wreck any scenes like One Piece. (The big offender that always comes to mind when I think of battle music that takes away from a fight) If you think about it, having 2 terrific themes can make any soundtrack good since they will be popping up quite a lot as the show goes on.

The show didn’t have a whole lot of room for filler so I guess the writers felt that they needed to really remind us how dangerous it can be. The episode sees our heroes head to the beach to fight a Kraken type of opponent and it is a pretty terrible episode. It features a filler character who can’t fight, but he wants to avenge his Dad. His Dad was seemingly destroyed by the beast. Along the way we have a lot of not funny situations that will just make you dislike the kid even more. The ending is clever in a way, but the episode was already sunk by that point. The episode itself would definitely be counted as a negative for me. One bad episode (Within reason) may not affect a show like Naruto (Which can afford about 20-40 bad episodes) but for a 26 episode like Blue Exorcist, you’re probably not going to forget it anytime soon.

The show started to fall off the rails in the final episodes (Enough so that it’s noticeable, but the episodes weren’t downright cringeworthy so that it would really hurt the score) so I shall quickly talk about why it didn’t work. The set up is that a guy who claims to be Rin and Yukio’s uncle appears and he tells Yukio about how he can turn Rin into a normal human. (This is already impossible since he was born from a demon…but let’s keep going!) The casualties will only number a few trillion as he wants to destroy every demon in existence. (Will Rin really be spared?…..) Yukio quickly agrees, even if it means destroying Rin’s friend and hurting the familiars who have been helping the heroes the entire series. Yukio even turns against Rin during one critical juncture. Alas, Rin also gets kidnapped in a pretty sad moment where he couldn’t land a single hit on the Paladin. Then, the Paladin admits that he’s just a pawn of the government and he watches as they start to drain the power away from Rin. Rin has a healing factor, but it’s being exploited to gather the power needed to open the portal enough for the bomb to go through. I’ll stop there so you can watch to see how it goes, but the whole thing is pretty sad.

One character gets a power up out of this, but it’s hardly a good one. This also means that we don’t have a real final fight since the filler writers couldn’t think of a good one. One of the subplots in this arc was also not very good. The writers try to make Satan a sympathetic hero who is simply misunderstood. Remember all of the people that he murdered? He didn’t mean too…he was just trying to find the right vessel to allow him to stay in the human world. ~~He did taunt them as he burned them to death, but maybe we misheard him.~~ He gets like an episode or two just to show how much of a hero he is. He only wants peace and he believes in love at first sight. The problem is that most Earthly bodies begin to catch fire once he goes into them. Luckily, this is where Rin comes along! Any development that Satan has is quickly thrown out the window as he reverts to his villainous ways in the final seconds. Let’s face it, making Satan a likable hero is just not possible. Nobody can take that seriously and the only believable way to make a demon like that good is to help one from birth. (Like in Beelzebub) The writers were really grasping at straws here. As bad as that was, the whole Yukio subplot is what really drove this arc into the ground.

One reason why there is not a lot of hope for the heroes in the series is because the humans are simply outmatched by the demons. Rin, (Who is a demon anyway) Shura, Yukio, and the Paladin are the only capable fighters for the good side. Mephisto Pheles can potentially defeat all of them and he also has Amaimon and many other powerful demons to help him. Not to mention that most of the strong fighters in the demon world haven’t even bothered to appear yet. The heroes have a barrier to stop high level demons from appearing in the human world, but Mephisto likes to invite them for the lolz. (Villain move or simply a test for the heroes?) Normal demons can take down most of the humans and a simple cat was able to take on the Police squads. It seems like the demons are toying with the humans or they just don’t care about invading the human world. The filler episodes strongly point to the latter being the case. Most of the demons just want to either live in peace or just stay on their planet. The vocal minority are the ones who try to destroy the humans. Once again, it just makes the humans look bad since they tend to start a lot of the conflicts. It reminds me of how D.A.T.S. ran things for a little while.

Overall, Blue Exorcist is just a really fun show. Some episodes can be a little lighter on the action than we are used to, but the characters quickly become interesting enough to hold their own episodes without that element. The show does have some moments of fanservice here and there and the final episodes really cripple Yukio’s character development. Quite a few plot lines go unanswered as the show ends and you’re left waiting for a sequel. We also do get cheated out of the final boss fight, which wasn’t cool. I basically just threw in all of the negatives at the beginning of the paragraph so it may sound pretty negative, but they are still overpowered by the positives. The solid action and the great characters coupled with its fast moving plot still make Blue Exorcist a winner. It’s a very interesting series where you just enjoy seeing their day to day missions. ~~After all, they’ll never actually destroy Satan right?~~ I definitely recommend this title if you just want to watch something action packed and easy to get into. At 26 episodes, you’ll be finished with this title in a breeze and then you can compare it to Sword Art Online like me! Also, you should prepare yourself because the series ends with a cliffhanger that will likely never be resolved.

Overall 7/10

Sword Art Online Review

Posted on November 28, 2014 by dreager1

Sword Art Online is one of those Mega titles that we shall never forget. For better or worse, it’s basically ingrained in society at this point. I started the franchise out with the anime before checking out the novels and then the manga. This actually doesn’t bode well for the manga since the designs are pretty different and I consider the anime to have the true ones. That being said, I like to think that I wouldn’t have been crazy about the art either way. It’s a decent take on the show, but I think it could have been better.

In case you are not familiar with the plot, I shall quickly explain it. Sword Art Online takes place in the future and virtual games are all the rage now. One in particular is called Sword Art Online and it is the first big MMORPG. Everyone is hyped and resident computer whiz Kirito decides to buy it. Suddenly, the players become trapped in the game and they can’t get out unless they complete the title. 2 years later, the story begins as Kirito must try to become the best. Can he really do it as a solo player or will he end up joining Asuna’s (Main heroine) group? Only time will tell!

The actual plot always sounds great no matter how many times I write or hear about it. You simply can’t beat a good sci-fi plot like this or not very easily. Being stuck inside of a video game is a concept that appeals to me in part because it sounds like it would be a fun experience in real life. (To an extent of course) I think that it might be a missed opportunity for the series that they quickly skipped the first two years, but we still get a lot of cool moments so it still works.

The main problem with the series is that the art isn’t very good. The characters just don’t look like themselves and it’s like they’re half chibi. If you’re going to make the characters tiny you’ve got to go all the way or leave them in their normal size. It can also be hard to follow some of the fight scenes although the art gets better as the series progresses in that respect. It’s still pretty below average though. It’s hard to say if I would have liked it more if I had read the manga before the anime or not, but it’ll just be one of life’s mysteries. Either way, I doubt that I would have called it anything above average.

The characters are pretty in character since a lot of the dialogue is almost word for word from the novels/anime. Kirito is still as hardcore and intense as ever. Aside from his unnecessary and disheartening one night stand, Kirito has proven that he has what it takes to be the main character. He doesn’t back down from a challenge and he’s pretty confident in his abilities. That’s why the art always gets me. He just does not look tough! He looks like a kid and his serious scenes just don’t come off as cool as they should this way. It’s not the character’s fault, but the art.

Asuna also makes for a good heroine. She’s probably in the top 3 highest leveled players in the game and her speed is certainly good. She is lacking in attack power as seen in the boss fight, but she always gives it 110%. The one night stand also hurts her character development, but luckily that’s pretty much the last that we’ll see of that. Klein is one of Kirito’s old pals (AKA, they met in the game for like 5 minutes) and he’s actually pretty decent. He’s a nice guy and he actually doesn’t hold it against Kirito that Kirito left to be a solo player. Klein ended up reaching a decently high level himself so it makes you wonder how things would have been if Kirito had stayed with the party. He’d probably be a little lower leveled, but Klein’s group would be higher leveled than they were. Ultimately, Kirito made the right decision, but who doesn’t like hypothetical situations.

The main villain naturally gets to appear since he locks them in the game, but don’t worry…he has plans for them! He’s a pretty good fighter even if he cheats sometimes, but he does fight with just his talent in the end so we know that he’s for real. He’s decently cool and easy to root for. They try to play him off as a sympathetic villain by the end, but it still doesn’t work considering how high the casualties were. You can’t really forget that, but he is still a pretty neat villain. His plan was also intriguing, but I think that the final boss would probably be too much for the heroes.

The speed at which this manga goes is very quick, which can be a good or bad thing. You really breeze through the arc since there are only two volumes and they have a whole lot to adapt. Some scenes are simply breezed over while others are long enough to essentially match their alternate (Novel/Anime) versions. The pacing works for this series although I wouldn’t have minded stretching it out to 3 volumes and extending some of the fights. You can never go wrong with longer fights since they just add to the overall epicness of the series.

In the end, there are to real negatives to this story aside from the one night stand. There’s also a dicey moment that doesn’t make a lot of sense where Asuna falls out of a portal and Kirito essentially panics. That was pretty sad, but at least it’s an extremely brief scene thanks to the pacing. Those two faults are there, but that’s not a whole lot so you may wonder why it didn’t crack the classic 7 rating. Well, the art keeps it from that. Art is more important in comics/manga than in any other medium except for maybe TV shows. (It’s just not typically an issue there) Bad art can overpower good writing just like bad gameplay can override graphics in a video game. That being said, it’s still a good manga, it just could have been even better.

Overall, it’s ironic that this version gets a higher score than the anime even though the anime does a much better job with arc 1. Ah well, it is still a pretty fun premise to play around with and the art may have taken away some of the enjoyment that I could have gotten from it, but there was still enough to go around. Kirito makes for a good main character and there are several fight scenes here. Since this is basically two volumes merged into one, it’s also a pretty nicely sized volume that should last you long enough to really be worth the value. I recommend it to anyone that wants to see a classic fantasy RPG or for anyone who wants to see a cool main character.

Overall 6/10

Charlie’s Angels Review

Posted on November 28, 2014 by dreager1

Well, it’s been a little over 2 years since I last saw this film, which brings it up to 2-3 times that I’ve seen it so far. It’s a pretty neat concept and I’ve heard that the show was pretty good, but the film has a lot of flaws that are barely hidden beneath the surface. It had a lot of potential thanks to some of the techniques that they used, which will remind you of the good ole films, but it’s simply not enough.

Charlie’s Angels is actually one of those films that can make you really worried for a Wonder Woman or Ms. Marvel film. Let’s just say that if one of those films was like this one, it would make audiences around the world shudder. A 30% on Rotten Tomatoes would likely shock me as it could be even lower. This one is spared that because of when it came out. I can guarantee that if this film came out now it would make waves…and not the good kind!

The plot involved a multi billionare (Probably) named Charlie. He hires three women to work for him as they stop crimes that no ordinary police force ever could. Their missions are dangerous, but these women are even deadlier! Natalie, Dylan, and Alex are the three main characters and they’re all pretty different, but are about equal in overall fighting technique. (Very, Very arguable) Well, they finish another mission when they find out that a computer whiz has been kidnapped. He has created a tech that can figure out a person’s voice print pretty quickly. It’s like tapping a phone, but it works on the actual voice. The Angels must find him and stop this from getting into the wrong hands.

Now, I just have to point something out about the premise that is pretty interesting. The climax involves Charlie making a phone call and the villain stalling him to try and figure out his location through the voice prints. It’s like a GPS and using some satellites he can track him down. That’s cool….until you remember that we can actually tap phones nowadays and you can track a person’s real location without inventing some made up technology about the voice prints. So, why is the voice print even necessary? Your guess is as good as mine…….the only way out of this logic hole would be if phone tracers had not been invented yet, but I’m pretty sure that they have been.

Okay, let’s quickly digress into some of the positives for the film. It has a very Dragon Ball Evoloution feel to it, which works pretty well. We get a lot of slow motion, interesting action shots, and facial expressions that would make film creators proud. It’s hard to describe how it feels like “That” kind of film, but watch any classic video game or manga inspired film like the one I just mentioned or the original Street Fighter and you’ll get my jist.

The soundtrack is also very intense. I can’t confirm that the lyrics for all of the songs are okay since some of the songs can be sketchy, but others were great. We got some really fast paced rock/battle themes that were all over the place and it made the scenes a whole lot more fun. It’s the kind of soundtrack that would never win you an Oscar, but that’s actually a good thing in this case. Oscar films can actually have some good tunes as well, but never anything quite like this. For every good song, there is still a bad song as well to highlight the fact that this film still uses a lot of not very subtle fanservice in between (and during) fight scenes. Ah well, I’ll take what I can get I suppose!

Dylan is my least favorite member of the Angels so I’ll start with her. She’s a decent fighter like the others, but she comes off as more of a tom boy. That doesn’t stop her from using her charm to seduce the characters that she can, but it ultimately results in a pretty embarrassing moment for her. Let’s just say that you should never start hanging out with a suspect so casually unless you want to get burned. Even without that scene she was likely my least favorite, but it certainly didn’t help her case.

Natalie is more laid back, but she still needs romance in her life so she quickly brings in a bar tender that she met and they instantly made it past the bounds of friendship. That was quick and then she went off to continue fighting and saving the world. Again, I find it hard to like her at all since she needs to have more hobbies aside from romance. She danced for a while, but it was pretty bad and again..it didn’t help her case.

Alex is the final member and she already has a stable romance going so she’s already set from the get go. Again, it’s hard to like the Angels because they don’t seem to have much of a personality beyond the romance. It’s quite sad. They are also willing to do just about anything to complete their mission so you almost start to feel bad for their boyfriends. (Almost! They’re not exactly innocent either) She can fight as well, which is good since you would be doomed otherwise against the villains.

Bosley is another one of the main characters and he looks pretty bad. One of his first scenes has him give the girls a long speech about love and how they can make it stronger while they’re basically mocking him and then he proceeds to get tricked by one of the main villains. (Naturally, the villain was female) He has enough strength of mind to tell her that he was going to keep it professional, but he still looked really terrible by letting her in the house from the start. You don’t do that when you have a billion dollar program inside and the person outside the door is a suspect.

There’s not much to say about Charlie. He’s rich and he’s old, but he barely gets to appear. At least he reminds the Angels that he’s watching over them before sending them on extremely dangerous missions. One of the main villains is known as the Thin Man and he’s pretty awesome…at first. We find out that he has something for hair and he gets a little too emotionally involved in that aspect. You just knew that the film would find some way to wreck his character. He started out as a really serious villain as he took on the three main characters. By the end, he was reduced to getting clobbered in a one on one fight and basically running for the hills. No worries…he’ll be back!

It may not sound that bad from all of that, but there is one ultimate reason why it was doomed right from the get go. The fanservice! This could probably hold its own against just about anything else in this area. You’ll get a scene that fits this description in almost every scene in the film. Whether the heroes are seducing someone to distract him or just striking unnecessary poses, it’s just sad. Every male character is presented to be someone who’s heads over heels for them. The guys just care about their outer appearance and none of them are morally ethical. It’s pretty sad to see guys depicted like this. It’s actually common place to an extent, but certainly not to this level. Even in James Bon….well, it’s basically at the same level. It’s just more fanservice than actually going further while it’s the opposite in James Bond.

An example of this is the traditional planning scene where the heroes explain what the security is like. The camera quickly zooms in on their mouth so we can have some really awkward visuals to distract us from what they’re actually saying. It’s pretty cringe worthy. It’s what drives this film down to Sucker Punch levels. Of course, Sucker Punch didn’t suffer from fanservice, but that’s another story. It’s a sad coincidence that those two films are down at the 1’s because they both could have been very good. What happened? The film just needed a different director and writer and then maybe it could have stood a chance.

After all, the fight scenes are pretty good when they happen. At one point, the three Angels team up to fight someone and he actually holds his own against the three of them for a while. It’s fun to watch, but it definitely doesn’t make the main characters look impressive. How can the three of them be having such a tough time when it’s so early in the film? Obviously, the writers forgot that you’re supposed to make the characters very likable and strong before you give them a villain that they can’t defeat.

The two main villains are pretty bad as well. One of them has a gun, but she’s still strong enough to give one of the Angels a tough time in hand to hand combat. If someone who seems like she doesn’t have that much time to train can give them a good fight….just how tough are the Angels? It definitely makes you wonder. The guy is very weak, but he knows that the main characters are always using their charms so he just uses that to his advantage. A surprisingly cunning strategy, but it never would have worked on a halfway decent character. Never!

Overall, Charlie’s Angels isn’t any better than I remember it. The film still puts too much emphasis on the heroes’ bodies and not enough on their character. Every other scene will have you looking away or wincing because you know that the film is just getting started. The soundtrack is pretty good and the actual plot is so retro that it still works despite the logical errors. It’s simply not enough to overlook this and it won’t help the feminist position. Let’s face it, we’d never have a film where three guys are constantly being used for fanservice throughout the film. It wouldn’t happen. Instead of checking out this film, watch the original Mortal Kombat to see how the film could have/should have/would have gone if the writers had realized sooner what they had done. There was simply tooooooo much fanservice here and I can’t stress enough just how sad it was. I highly recommend skipping it, no matter what type of film you’re looking for.

Overall 1/10

Digimon All Star Rumble Review

Posted on November 20, 2014 by dreager1

After all these years, Digimon has finally gotten itself another fighting game. I had a lot of fun back in the day playing Rumble Arena 2 and I just barely missed out on the original one. This is essentially the Rumble Arena 3 that we’ve been waiting for all these years and it’s definitely worth it. The game didn’t get a whole lot of publicity before it came out so hopefully the sales are still strong since this could be the start of a new series!

The game actually has a small plot. It’s not much of a story, but it certainly beats not having one. Essentially, a tournament is starting and a lot of Digimon want to enter it to win. They don’t know exactly why they want to enter…it’s almost like it’s destiny! They follow their primal instincts and quickly get ready for the fight of their life, but is there something more to this tournament? Then you pick the fighter that you want to play as and you’re set. I naturally played the game with Agumon the first time around, but I’ll beat it with everyone at some point for that shiny Platinum trophy!

The roster is pretty small considering that it’s a PS3 game. I think they definitely could have doubled or tripled the character selection, but with a limited budget I suppose that it would have been difficult. What would have helped is if they let some of the Mega Level Digimon be playable from the Get Go. I have unlocked all of the characters except for 3 starters and I do not have access to nearly any of the alternate Mega Digimon. Those will likely pop up along the way in the Story Mode paths. Counting all of those figures, the roster looks a lot better.

The gameplay is like Rumble Arena, but it’s in 3D. I suppose that you can picture Naruto Ninja Storm as an example. It’s a 3D playing field and you have your standard attacks, power attacks, and your projectiles. You can mix and match to make various combos and the goal is typically to defeat your opponent. (Although other modes feature games like capturing the flag so vary up the action) Once your meter is charged you can transform into an immensely powerful Mega Digimon. Once you’re in that form, you’re basically ready to rock and roll!

There are also items of course and they can really change the course of a battle. One of the items makes a twister form around the player. Another one lets you turn the opponent into a ball of living slime and the best item in the game allows you to instantly Digivolve. You cannot begin to compare that to any of the other items because it is so great. A thunderbolt is probably the second best item as it does some serious damage and it also stuns the opponent. It’s like a double effect for the price of one!

Surprisingly, the game actually goes up to 4 players. I don’t know many people who actually have 4 remotes, but it’s great that we are actually given the option. It’s certainly something to consider and I do have 3 remotes over here so at least I can go almost all the way. Every fighting game gets more and more fun as you increase the amount of players. It’s just common video game logic! Things get more chaotic and it will definitely test your mastery over the game.

The computer A.I. is decent, but it’s not great. You should be able to crush the hard difficulty level with ease after a handful of battles. Ah well, that’s not so bad since we have multiplayer mode and the computer is not downright easy either. I’m sure that a case can be made for it being just right.

The graphics are very bright and it works pretty well for the game. It may not be the most stylish game, but you would never mistake it for a last gen title. All of the character models are sharp and they really stand out no matter which stage you are on. I’m satisfied with the amount of stages as well as there are around 10-12 of them. Some of them even have gimmicks like a fog that will damage your fighter if you go near it.

The soundtrack is pretty nonexistent. I suppose that it would have been pretty tough to have had a pretty memorable one alongside everything else, but it certainly would not have hurt. There aren’t any real battle themes either, which is odd considering that it is a fighting game. How awesome would it have been to have had the Digimon theme song for the first few seasons included during the battles? That would have definitely been a lot of fun!

Surprisingly, there is no online capabilities in this game. I’m fine with that since it’s not the kind of game where I would play online a whole lot, (Madden and Smash Bros are really where I have fun online. Other than that, I typically stay local) but it’s still pretty surprising. Maybe they just didn’t think that enough people would be playing it right away to warrant a purchase of a few servers to run it on.

Some of the trophies are a bit of a grind, but none of them are really that hard. Waiting for the 50 hours to show up on your PS3 may be the toughest part or collecting the Digi cards, but it’s only a matter of time. The toughest trophy to get skill wise is probably beating the game with every character, but I’m sure that you’re up to the task. I only need 13 trophies left so that should be a breeze.

Overall, Digimon All Star Rumble is a solid addition to the Digimon franchise. The campaign mode is very short, but the multiplayer mode makes up for it. This gives it infinite replay value and that’s more than enough for you to be content. While the character roster may be pretty limited we do get fan favorites like Agumon and Guilmon. Old timers may be disappointed that some of the Season 1 stars were cut out, but maybe they’ll make the sequel. I’m sure that they would since a sequel would likely fill out the rest of the spots for the main characters from season 1 and season 3. No guarantees on season 2 of course, but those guys likely wouldn’t be missed quite as much. This is definitely a title worth obtaining if you want some solid action!

Overall 8/10

Law of Ueki Review

Posted on October 24, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time for one of the manga elites! The Law of Ueki is pretty underrated in the manga community and you’ve likely never heard of it. That’s too bad since it can definitely hold its own against big titles like Naruto and One Piece. For some reason, it just never really hit it big and it’ll forever be more of an obscure title. Why is the Law of Ueki so good? Well, it has a perfect blend of action and hype. The ending is pretty rushed, but it almost fits the pace of this title.

The plot follows a kid who’s named…..waiiiiiit for it…..Ueki! He has a talent..he can turn garbage into trees. The running joke is that this ability never becomes useful and it’s probably one of the worst abilities ever. Luckily for him..this can all change. There is a tournament being held with 100 fighters. Each fighter represents a candidate to be the next King. The fighter’s prize is that they may learn a new “talent.” They can write down whatever ability they want on the paper and it shall be theirs. Each student starts out with around 10 talents if I recall correctly. Injuring a non combatant will result in the character losing a talent. Lose all of them…and let’s just say that your life will effectively be ruined. Ueki just needs to win the tournament to get the best super power ever, but he’s really just doing it for the guy he’s representing. He’s also going to need to make sure to do his best since the villains can be ruthless.

Much like MAR, The Law of Ueki is really just one really long tournament. The action is nonstop and that’s what I like to see from any title. This series pulls off most of the Shonen tropes that you would expect and does a nice job with them. One mild weakness for the series is that you could call some parts a little generic. Ueki is what you would expect from the lead and we even have the change in villains twist that you may have expected. I wouldn’t say that this is a big weakness though since everything is repetitive to an extent. As long as the scenes are enjoyable, then the Law of Ueki is still winning.

The art in the series may not be spectacular, but it’s definitely very good. The style reminds me of One Piece and it really captures the battle scenes. It’s always easy to follow what’s happening and many different series have trouble with that. There are a bunch of fight scenes to be found so that is a pretty big positive for the series. I’d say that the artwork is above average and it helps the manga feel even more exciting than it would have without it.

Tier wise, this series is likely a lot stronger than you may have expected. The top fighters can easily hold their own against fighters from Naruto and One Piece. I’m still going to say that it would be a stretch for them to go up against Bleach or Reborn! fighters, but that’s not bad. Ueki vs Beet is a good comparison to make here. It is like Sailor Moon though in the sense that the top tiers are drastically stronger than the average fighter. Ueki and the two big villains are really in a league of their own. They have super speed, flight, super strength, and much more. Fighting those guys will tire most other fighters out. Another reason why I love having strong fighters appear is that we are treated to some great fight scenes!

Ueki is our lead and he’s a pretty good main character. One can definitely see why he’d be called generic though. He’s very similar to Luffy and I think the author must be familiar with the series. I got a One Piece vibe several times while reading the series. I like Ueki, but I wouldn’t call him an amazing character like Train Heartnet or Ichigo. He’s a hero and I tend to agree with all of his calls. He believes in the power of friendship and he always sticks by his team. Beyond that, he doesn’t get any memorable lines and he doesn’t really stick out. You’ll mostly enjoy him for his fight scenes. He does get all of the best ones after all.

Mori is the main heroine and she makes sure to get involved in the tournament. Unfortunately, she has one of the worst powers of all time. She can make her opponents fall in love with glasses. That’s pretty terrible when you think about it and her fight was really just one big parody. I think that the author could have given her something that was a little more decent since that hurt her appearances in the series. She never really gets to help out in the fights, which can be sad for her fans. She’s a decent character, but she just doesn’t stand out.

Ueki’s main group of friends doesn’t really get any better with Kobayashi. Technically, he’s Ueki’s mentor, but he’d still be considered as one of the main characters. He doesn’t get a whole lot of screen time though since he is banished from the planet for breaking one of the rules. The only way to get him back is to win the tournament, which gives Ueki some motivation. I suppose that he’s not a bad character, but I don’t find him to be very likable. He’s meant to make the reader laugh and I didn’t find him to be very funny so that plan didn’t work. He’s basically just a side plot for most of the series.

Sano is easily the best friend that Ueki has, but it’s still not saying a whole lot. He can turn towels into iron/steel, which isn’t bad. It’s not the greatest ability out there, but that means that he’ll always have a solid weapon to hit people with. He’s the strategist of the group and he’s typically the first person to figure out what an enemy’s ability is. He comes in handy quite a few times, but he can’t help all that much against the big opponents since he physically cannot keep up with them. He’s no Sanosuke, but Sano is always ready to help out.

Rinko joins the team pretty early on after a brief stunt as one of the villains. She can throw explosive beads at her opponents. It’s not a great power, but when you look at her allies…you start to appreciate it. Her slap is pretty iconic by the end since the artist makes her hand look huge and it’s almost always a one hit KO attack. At least she’s getting a lot of action! I wasn’t a big fan of her either though and she didn’t really add a whole lot to the group. She just pretty unmemorable as well, which adds to the amount of characters that were fairly generic.

Hideyoshi is largely inspired by Usopp, but I really don’t like him. He can make sounds come from other directions with his drawings, but man…that’s a pretty awful power. He cannot fight at all and he’s mostly used for comic relief. It’s hard to really root for this kind of character because he can only win with severe plot hax. I think the series could have been even better if Hideyoshi had not been introduced. I still like most of the villains in the Law of Ueki, but I have to say that most of the heroes can use some work. Ueki mostly has to carry the team on his own and he’s already not the greatest main character. (Although the others make him look like the next Vegeta!) (In terms of epicness of course)

Tenko is the Celestial Beast who helps Ueki develop his abilities. His training is highly risky though and if Ueki were to fail…he would die. Tenko is still a nice guy though so he lets Ueki train when needed. I guess I didn’t mind Tenko by the end. As a whole, I find Tenko to be a little unnecessary and he should have gone in to help Ueki instead of “trusting” him at one point. I disagreed with his decision and it was hard to forget about that. He is better than most animal mascots though and I dare say that I like him more than Mokona and Cerberus. It’s a close call of course.

Hanon is the final villain of the series and he’s very powerful. He can absorb other fighters to gain their abilities, which comes in handy. Initially, he was tough, but he was probably not a huge threat. That changed once he met up with the previous main villain. Suddenly, Hanon become a big contender and his powers almost have no limits. His speed and power are off the charts and he can fly as well. Hanon makes for a great villain as his abilities are perfect. The fight scenes with him are naturally great and they feel very climatic. It’s rare that I like all (2) of the big villains in the manga series, but Law of Ueki managed to pull it off. Most impressive!

Robert is the main villain for a good chunk of the series. He’s pretty great and it was our first glimpse of DBZ action. He starts out as a pretty sinister villain, but he starts to warm up to the others as the series goes on. I quickly became a fan of his, but my timing was a little off since he quickly stopped appearing due to a tragic meal. I was rooting for him there, but it was a good way to hype up the next villain. I would have preferred a climatic fight first with a clear resolution, but The Law of Ueki just moves too quickly for that. Robert is not someone that you will forget and he had the privilege of staying in the top tier from start to finish.

“God” is the host of the tournament and he doesn’t do anything until we reach the end of the series. He seems like a pretty nice guy and he’s really relaxed about the whole situation. He does have to step in when his rules start to be abused by the competitors, but what if he has grown rusty over the years? His fight is pretty intense although a lot of it is off screen. It’s implied that he actually could have won against most of the villains, but Hanon is very debatable. “God” was having a very tough time when he went up against Hanon’s right hand man although he was holding back so that he wouldn’t hurt him. At full power, he could possibly give Hanon a good fight although I’m confident that he would lose. He’s a pretty good character, but he suffers from a severe lack of screen time.

Li Ho was actually one of my favorite characters in the series. Unfortunately, he got the shaft towards the end since it was fairly rushed. He never got to have the ultimate fight with Ueki that I had been waiting for. He’s an immense threat without the use of his abilities and that’s a big part of why he’s likable. He has super powers, but he chooses not to use them so that he can perfect his martial art skills. This makes him strong enough to take on the main villain and he did fight Ueki on more than one occasion. He does take his honor a little too far though as he should have activated his powers by the end. I mean, imagine if Goku decided not to turn into a Super Saiyan 3 and the series ended without him transforming. All of the foreshadowing ends up going to waste. Ah well, Li Ho is definitely a solid character and I dare say that he’s even better than Rock Lee. (Both of them are hand to hand fighters in a supernatural world, but Li Ho looks a little more impressive)

Barrow is another big opponent in the series. As expected, he has a really formidable ability up his sleeve. He has the normal celestial weapons like the Pick and the Cannonball attack, but his secret ability is what really makes them deadly. He can bring back past images of himself to fight as well. So, if he attacked you from a certain part of the field 15 minutes ago, he can bring that “him” back to launch the attack. He’s not changing the past, but merely bringing it back once again. The only drawback is that the past him is still real so then he can become a target. He can spam his time manipulation to launch some devastating combos. It’s very tough to overcome this kind of opponent and it definitely depends on what the location is. Again, I definitely enjoyed this villain. He didn’t have much of a personality beyond wanting to win, but he was pretty reasonable and I never found myself rooting against him. He did help to activate Ueki’s rage mode though.

We have another big villain in the form of Marilyn. I’ll admit that her power was a little too good since I don’t really see how she could have lost her battle. We can make the same case for some of the other villains, but Marilyn really stood out in this regard. She can make 1 second stretch out into 10 seconds for her. This means that she is moving 10X faster than everyone else and that’s a massive advantage. There are so many ways to win that way and only a few opportunities to stop such a strategy. I was highly skeptical of Ueki’s win against her because it didn’t make a lot of sense. It’s one of the risks of making your villains so powerful without giving the hero a power up. If you are physically superior to Marilyn already, then you should be fine, but nobody in the series (At the time anyway) was good enough to pull this off. Even someone like Goku would have a tough time if he wasn’t expecting the hit. Marilyn’s backstory can come off as a little cheesy, but she was a solid villain overall.

Since this is a tournament title, there are naturally many more fighters involved. I just managed to grab most of the main characters and the iconic villains. There is a small part of the series that happens before the tournament and we get some breaks, but it’s mostly all about the tournament. The series also kicks into overdrive towards the end in terms of pacing. It goes a little too quickly as we get rushed results with Li Ho, Robert, and arguably Hanon. Hanon’s right hand man also starts to get some development that ends up going to waste and the host of the event’s fight had to end a little quicker than it might have been. That being said, the series doesn’t drag on because of this and I can’t say that it had any bad volumes. Just about every installment gave us an exciting fight and advanced us through the tournament.

The climax in the Law of Ueki can hold its own against any climax. Whether it be from Bleach or DBZ, the Law of Ueki’s still manages to shine through. It may not beat their arcs, (Nothing will beat the end of the Aizen Invasion) but it’s enjoyable enough that you won’t miss them while reading it. The end fights hit all of the right notes and it basically sums up why the series was fun in the first place. It has a lot of great fights and exciting villains. Some parts may be generic, but the action and art keep it real. I also like when a series decides to go all out for the ending. Let’s just say that the power levels skyrocket in the final volume and Ueki/Hanon get to shoot through a few tiers in their big fight.

The Law of Ueki also manages to take the high road as it avoids fanservice. I don’t recall any of that being in it and if there was any, it was extremely brief. There is also virtually no romance in this title so it’s really a complete action story. There are basically no negatives that I have with it. Some of the characters may not be great, but I can’t remember any truly awful ones (Like Roshi or Oolong) either so that’s a pretty big win.

Overall, The Law of Ueki is an incredible manga that I highly recommend. It’s fairly short compared to the average Jump (Or Shonen in general) series, but it contains a ton of fights within. The series got a sequel series a while back, which I’ll be checking out soon so you can expect a review for that title at some point. I can only imagine the plot hax that will be involved to make the fights even considering how skilled Ueki is. I doubt they can stop Hanon, but they can try. Between Hanon, Robert, and the others, it’s very tough to match the Law of Ueki’s high caliber villains. You should definitely enjoy this title if you are into action. Think of it was a grounded DBZ in terms of tone and finesse. Now we just need Ueki to get popular enough for people to compare him to Luffy some more!

Overall 9/10

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