Sakamoto Days Review

Posted on February 22, 2026 by dreager1

Sakamoto Days is one of those titles that jumped out at folks immediately. It was poised to bring in a ton of really creative action scenes with an overpowered main character who could win while using any item. Think of it like John Wick but pushed to more of an absurd level while also being part comedy. This show is able to balance the serious and comedic moments really well so it ended up being an absolutely stellar title. You won’t want to miss out on this one.

The premise involves the legendary assassin known as Sakamoto finally deciding to retire from the hitman life. The reason for this? Well, he fell in love and got married. He’s now a full time family man with a wife and daughter. He manages a local 7-11 type food shop and has put on a ton of weight. He intended to live out a normal life but one day someone puts a huge bounty on his head. Now assassins from all around the world are trying to take him down. He’ll need to stop them, defend his family, and find out who put the hit on his head. Until that bounty is taken down, his peaceful days are over.

Now if you are worried that you won’t see the overpowered Sakamoto from the first scene, no worries he is still around. While his skills have greatly diminished, they are still more than enough for almost every character that he will have to fight in season 1. It may not be enough for The Order, but those guys feel more like late stage bosses from how the show goes in season 1. Although I can tell you that every season is going to be filled with amazing moments! Sakamoto also has the ability to go back into his lean state when he is fighting hard enough as his body remembers the shape.

So you’re going to see him fighting with every day appliances and beating people up with his bare hands. Then for the more serious fighters, he will occasionally use items that feel deadly like a classic pen. Throughout the series you are reminded that he is a true threat and worthy of the bounty. His killer instinct also shows up from time to time although it is mainly directed at the telepath, Shin. Sakamoto balances his life really well and so right away you have a great main character here.

His wife and daughter are also pretty solid although they don’t get to do a whole lot here. His wife’s best scene is one where she technically doesn’t even appear. The context will make more sense when you watch the show. They’re both nice and wholesome though so it’s easy to see why Sakamoto enjoys his current days. He’s living the dream as they say.

The first few episodes mainly start to introduce you to the supporting characters and establish the general tone of the show. So you should know right away if you’re going to like the show or not because it does a really good job with the introductions. The first side character is Shin. They hint at a backstory with him and Sakamoto and I have to admit that this happened so early on that I completely forgot about this later on. He has the ability to read minds which is incredibly handy for an assassin. It’s an ability that has a whole lot of limitations and drawbacks but Shin spends the show working to improve it so that he can be a better fighter.

Shin definitely gets the most character development within the show and it works really well. I liked him from the start but by the end he is easily one of the best characters. In fact, I’d say that he is second only to Nagumo. Shin’s just really likable and a fun underdog since he is pretty much always outmatched in a fight. You can expect that this will continue to be the case for quite a while since the earning curve is really steep. He does take after Sakamoto in how he can make use of the environment during his fights. As long as you like the eager type of character then you’ll be a fan of his.

The next member to be added to the group is Lu. She’s from a famous Chinese mafia family and can fight with her drunken fist. She can be a bit of a scatterbrain but does add a lot to the main dynamic. She has a good rivalry with Shin. Rivalry may be the wrong word here since she isn’t a fighter on his level but they constantly bicker with each other. When the chips are down they will team up though and I tend to enjoy their dialogue quite a bit. They know how to poke fun at each other without going too far. When an insult does go too far, they work to remedy it which happened at one point in this season.

As the series goes on Lu starts to appear less so you want to enjoy her screentime while you can. She’s fun to have around and the main cast definitely wouldn’t be the same without her. Heisuke is the last one to join up although he’s technically not far behind the others in terms of debut. He’s a sniper who tends to be down on his luck when it comes to cash. This is partially because he’s a really generous guy and is always looking out for others. He doesn’t have the usual ruthlessness that you would expect from an assassin. So naturally that works out pretty well with the Sakamoto family and their no killing rule. He’s quickly able to make friends with the others.

Thanks to his position as a sniper though, I would argue that he is always going to be at a disadvantage. Any decent character is going to be a casual bullet timer after all and there are only so many things you can do to get around that. Heisuke tries to shoot bullets onto bullets to mess with the angles but even that is going to be a longshot at actually working. Still, he is definitely a likable guy.

I think calling it an arc may be an overstatement but the first main adventure is when Sakamoto takes his family to the amusement park. What he doesn’t realize is that an assassin named Boiled and a few hand picked goons have arrived to try and take him out. It’s a good way to let all of the main characters get a quick fight and Shin really makes himself useful here. Sakamoto also gets a pretty decent fight with Boiled. I wouldn’t say that Boiled every really stood a chance but he at least doesn’t go down in a single hit or anything. That guy is all about being as intense as possible and it shows in his fighting style. I think he’s a fun character although I would like him more if he was more powerful. Shallow? Perhaps, but the hard boiled lifestyle just works better when you’re incredibly powerful.

The first real adventure is the museum battle. The heroes head to a museum which leads to the lab where people experimented on Shin and gave him some powers. You have a couple of crazy assassins running around here while the Order has also infiltrated to take down the mysterious X. There are quite a number of big names here and it’s cool to see them all. A lot of fights are set up here without too many of them going all the way through. The whole saga is meant to be more of a teaser than anything else I’d say. It’s effective though because you can’t help but get hyped here.

Nagumo is of course the best character in the series and it’s not even close. He is extremely confident at all times and always has a trick up his sleeve. He has big scenes at every part of the show and consistently likes to troll everyone. You immediately get the vibe that he’s a pretty good guy because he could easily murder Sakamoto at any time but chooses not to since they used to be friends. He has a good honor code and also acts as a stand-in for Sakamoto’s wife later on to keep her safe. Nagumo embodies the humor of Sakamoto Days at its best as he blends together being the strongest fighter with also being the funniest.

It’s hard for any Order member to really keep up with him but I will say that Shishiba and Osaragi are still really solid in their own right. Shishiba is one of those really jaded guys who just wants to complete the mission and then go back to his life. Unfortunately things rarely work out for him and Osaragi doesn’t really help. Their dynamic is a fun one as he basically spoils her the whole time and never gets all that upset even when he’s the one messed over. It’s clear that the two of them have a really good friendship going.

One of the big villains to appear here is Kashima who has a really interesting deer mask. The guy is strong and has actual weapons within his body. Certainly not someone that you can afford to underestimate. He gets power cliffed really quickly in the series but I like him well enough. He may have lost his hype but Kashima is still the kind of villain you want on your side because of how loyal he is.

Then we also see a bit of X. He will do more later on in the story but he’s your classic villainous mastermind. His skills put him near the top of the verse and his overall motivations are unknown. He wants to destroy the JAA assassin group but why? He’s certainly making enemies out of basically everyone by going through with this. Well the series will unpack that as it goes on but I have no real complaints with him. This is the kind of villain that motivates his group well. He’s a complete character outside of just being a villain. He even jokes around with the team quite a bit but at no point do they forget that he is the leader.

Seba is a character who is introduced early and is difficult to defeat because of his invisibility suit. It can be hard to plan for his attacks as a result and his base stats are pretty good even without those. He has a rough matchup with Shin since telepathy can get beyond that but still puts in a good effort throughout. In fact, one on one he would have defeated Shin. He makes for a pretty good villain and is definitely memorable.

Then we have Horiguchi who by all accounts is a random one shot villain but I actually liked him quite a lot. His speedblitz against Shin was super impressive and his drugs also make it difficult to stop him. Essentially if he does land a hit on you, then he has a good chance of winning. His drugs mess up the signals within your brain so you start moving in the wrong direction and can have other effects. He was really interesting so that’s why I never forgot about him.

After that we have a short interlude where we meet Wutang, who has come to bring Lu back to the mafia. He clearly can’t defeat Sakamoto’s group on his own so he resorts to gambling. It makes for a fun little arc as the characters have to try and use their abilities to win at games like poker. This is exactly the kind of episode that is good at getting you to learn more about the characters and also let them banter off each other. That’s why I had to give this part a shoutout because it was really fun.

There isn’t too much time for that breather though as we jump right into the action in the next arc. X sends his 4 assassins after the Order as well as Sakamoto. Each of the 4 get their chance to fight but for the most part they are really outmatched. Dump gets some good initial hype for example but gets absolutely crushed in her fight. Saw gets a much longer amount of screentime in his fight but had the weakest opponents. To his credit, he essentially won that fight since he survived but ultimately that was barely even a consolation. He didn’t have a chance at actually surviving in the end.

Minimalist seems to be a really strong guy but had to fight an absolute demon so he didn’t stand a chance. Apart definitely has the biggest role out of the 4 since he wisely decides to do his own thing. It ultimately lets him stick around for a bit and observe more than 1 fight. He was an interesting villain and had more character than the other 3. Still, I did think he was ultimately outshined by most of the other villains around.

This leads right to the next main arc with X and Gaku attacking the JAA base directly. It was fun to see Gaku getting some screentime. He’s one of those total prodigies on the villains team. This guy has super strength and great battle instincts. He’s also really young and yet is able to keep up with the strongest fighters around. It’s clear that he could grow up to be one of the biggest threats if he sticks around. I enjoyed him quite a lot and he rose up to the top. He’s rather chill about the whole assassin thing and still takes time to play his video games and everything.

Takamura also gets some hype from the JAA side. The show positions him as being the absolute strongest character in the series. There’s an argument to be made for that although I would still put Nagumo in that slot. Takamuru makes up for his old age by having precise control over his blade. He can strike in an instant and mask his killing intent to the end. Any scene with him tends to go really hard on the animation and he looks like a real beast. If only he were a bit younger, then he’d probably be invincible.

With that we enter the final arc which is basically a big JAA exam in order to get to their school. Sakamoto needs to get there for intel so he and Shin enter this exam. It’s basically like a multi step tournament and the villains are here to recruit up and coming stars to their organization. This means that things go off the rails real quick. It’s a fun arc that is super fast paced and I always love a good tournament. It may not be a traditional bracket system but works to the same end.

One of the new fighters is Mafuyu, a guy who really doesn’t like germs. He is extremely wary of them and that includes blood from his opponents so the whole job irritates him. Why be an assassin at that point? Well he seems to have an important reason for it. I thought that he was pretty decent but the germs thing just feels like a massive weakness. You’re always going to get dirty in a fight to the death.

Akira is the best member of the new characters here. She is really good at killing her opponents silently. All that she’s lacking is a killer instinct so unless someone draws it out of her, she’s not going to be eliminating her opponents too efficiently. Akira will get better at this though and in the meantime she basically has Sakamoto as a mentor. That’s a good position to be in. From the glimpses we get of her true abilities, you already know that she has a good future ahead of her.

Kanaguri is a guy who really loves movies. Anyone who insults them is immediately sentenced to death. The guy is definitely quirky and extremely insane but that’s true for a lot of the stronger fighters. He’s a good wild card and is also portrayed as being really powerful. Sakamoto won’t be able to just cast him to the side like with some other villains. I’d give Kanaguri a passing grade, he’s just fun to watch.

Toramaru is a big Sakamoto fan to a rather violent degree. She’s certainly picked the right path in being an assassin. Her weapon is really large and she specializes in powerful attacks. That tends to have a hard limit in a series like this where you want speed but as one of the top talents in the tournament, she lives up to the rep. She ends up being more fun than the other two special recruits.

Kaji has super hearing and so that’s a good ability but he doesn’t last quite as long as the others. Or a better way of putting it is that he doesn’t leave as much of an impact even though he is always around. Super hearing just isn’t the most interesting ability out there. His physical stats are really good but of course that’s true for the other characters too. He’s also a bit soft spoken and has a hard time jumping into a conversation. As a result, he’s ticking the wrong boxes and doesn’t go much further.

Finally there is Shinaya who is really cool but can’t really talk at all. There are some twists about this which drastically changes the character. So what I’ll say is that his role is really cool but the character himself can be more on the forgetful side. I like him more as an opponent than as a character.

The animation for the series is really great. There are a lot of big fights here and the animation is always smooth. The colors stand out and while I remember there being some controversy about the animation quality, I had no complaints on this end. It all looked really good to me and I was eagerly awaiting each scene. The soundtrack is generally good although I’m not a big fan of Sakamoto’s main theme. That’s maybe a bit ironic since it is meant to be the big theme that really breaks out but it didn’t fit in for me. Definitely not next to some of the epic battle themes that were around.

Overall, Sakamoto Days is a pretty great series. It really reminds you of the classic Shonen days. You’ve got a really crazy premise right away and the series just leans into it. The action is great and the characters are really fun. I’d say this is the kind of series you can plug in and watch at any time. I’ll definitely be ready for seeing just how fun season 2 can be. The end of this season introduces a bunch of characters all at once and basically ends on a cliffhanger as the story was just starting. Hopefully it doesn’t take too long to arrive.

Overall 8/10

Kaiju No. 8 Season 2 Review

Posted on February 22, 2026 by dreager1

It’s time for the return of Kaiju No 8! It feels like they’ve been moving through these seasons pretty quickly if you ask me. Maybe it’s a normal timeline and it just feels that way but it’s still cool to be seeing a bunch of the new villains. The season has got quite a lot of action to it and looks smooth as you would expect. If you like good fight scenes and a bunch of Kaiju then you are definitely going to have a solid time with this one.

The season starts with Kafka and Kikoru being sent to Narumi’s unit for some training. Narumi is a complete prodigy with abilities beyond just about every other human. At this point he may be the strongest hero alive but he is also a slacker and has his own quirks so this won’t be the easiest traineeship. He really takes Kikoru under his wing while Kafkka needs to control his Kaiju form. There isn’t a lot of downtime for Kafka to do this though as Kaiju No. 9 is still seeking him out and seemingly has an endless amount of Kaiju to throw at the cities. Kafka will need to fight hard but are the heroes underestimating this villain?

Kaiju No. 8 is absolutely one of those series where it feels like the heroes never really stand a chance. Yes, they are fighting back but Kaiju No. 9 can seemingly pop out of nowhere and also summon Kaiju at the drop of a hat. There is absolutely nothing to stop him from just summoning them to really populated areas and racking up a huge body count. In fact, he does this to stop a wedding at one point. The heroes always respond as best as they can but they’re always going to be on the defensive.

Then you have the fact that No. 9 is incredibly powerful. Kafka is stronger and Narumi makes it a 50/50 but everyone else is fodder to him at this point. Then he has the ability to create clones? He could easily just destroy everybody like that. The only reason he hasn’t yet is because he’s trying to get Kafka out in the open so he can get the powers of No. 8. 9 is presented as a strategic mastermind but I’m saying that he could go even harder if he really wanted to.

It is nice to have a really good villain like this though. Most of the villains in this series are mindless so whenever one does talk, it is instantly a good thing. There is also a mysterious villain who looks a lot like Kikoru. She hasn’t done much yet but from her few scenes you can tell that she’ll be a winner. Most of the other fighters from the final invasion wave are mindless so they have cool designs but aren’t about to become the next character to really stand out.

As for Kafka, he’s a solid main character as always although it would be nice if he could not be wavering so much here. You get why he would be nervous since the power already overtook him once in season 1. Still, he will be completely doomed without the powers so he just needs to hope for the best. This makes for a good cliffhanger to the season. I would say that as the season ends, Kafka has really come to terms with the fact that his human form is not going to be really helpful in the fights that are to come. He will need to exclusively rely on his monster mode and that’s the best way to go.

Kikoru looks great as you would expect. She consistently shows off her incredible close combat skills and continues to improve. The fact that she has risen to be one of the top 5 strongest heroes in the series without any Kaiju powers is impressive. If you remove the characters who have a Kaiju enhancement then she would be #1. Of course, this is the season where everyone begins to get Kaiju equipment so you can bet that she’ll at least be getting some equipment to be stronger.

I thought this was definitely necessary with how outmatched the humans are like I said before. That being said, I would still give the monsters the edge. Take away the top 3 and the humans are still in rough shape even if they are getting better. The third character I put on the list here is Narumi of course. With his special eyes he can essentially block any attack and has extreme amounts of speed. He immediately dominates in this season and I like his confidence.

Kaiju No. 8 has a really good core cast of main characters. The cast may be rather small since I barely count more minor characters like Iharu, but they do all carry their own weight. Narumi is allowed to slack off because he is simply that skilled and I respect that. When you put in the work and consistently outshine the rest, you should be allowed to get a little special treatment. That just makes sense.

Then we have Hoshina who gets a smaller role in this season. Near the end he finally gets his own Kaiju equipment which makes him relevant again. His speed and knife skills are solid but the first season showed that this definitely had its limits. Now he is in a better position and I also like the banter he gets with his Kaiju partner. Honestly it’d be fun if all of the Kaiju talked for that reason. The dialogue and banter would be really good throughout the season. Hoshina’s fights always tend to be a lot of fun because of his close combat style as well.

Although in general all of the fights look great. The series never disappoints with how fast paced and smooth the animation is. The fights look incredible and there is a lot of variety to them. The soundtrack is also good although I wouldn’t call it excellent. There are at least 1-2 themes that I enjoyed quite a bit in this one. The opening is one that I did not like though. I wasn’t even the biggest fan of the first season’s opening and this one is absolutely a step down.

As for the side characters, well we’ve got Reno who is still doing his best to find a place among the hero forces. It’s really just tough timing for him. Technically speaking Reno is considered a prodigy, but he’s less of one than the other 3 geniuses running around and of course Kafka has his own Kaiju suit. So here Reno is desperate to get more power and finally gets a Kaiju suit. This does give him incredible powers but it goes to his head right away and he has a hard time conquering the suit. Ultimately things go well so he’ll be ready for the next season but in this one he looked pretty bad. The fact that he couldn’t immediately neutralize his opponent Kaiju in a single hit was bad.

His partner Iharu had to help Reno stay in the fight. Iharu isn’t all that interesting and blends together with most of the other side characters who don’t have a Kaiju power. Still, since he saved Reno I guess I’ll give him a slight consolation prize there. It puts him ahead of some of the other characters. The baseline is clear though, you need to get a Kaiju power of your own or you are not going to be able to keep up. That’s basically what this all boils down to.

General Isao looks good as always. We really get to see what he can do here. Ultimately he has to contend with the fact that he’s a lot older than back in the day but Isao still puts up a great fight. The guy has a lot of guts and is not the type to back down from a fight. He was always one of my favorite characters here even if I treat him more like an antagonist. Isao is one of those very strict types who will break a lot of eggs to make an omelet. Without him the army would have been doomed though so you need him around.

Mina is a character who doesn’t get a lot of screentime in this season. She does land a really good sniper shot and is still known as one of the strongest fighters. There just weren’t a lot of opportunities to get her into the action. The season only has 11 episodes after all so it’s not like there is a whole lot of time for everyone. That shouldn’t be a problem in the next season where we’ll pretty much be going into nonstop fight scenes the whole time. You know I’m hyped for that, the more action the better.

This is a series that does thrive quite a lot on the action. I don’t feel like it ever really hit its stride when it comes to the downtime and just having the characters hang out. I like them well enough like I mentioned before but I guess they just don’t have a whole lot of great banter opportunities. I thought Hoshina and his Kaiju partner were immediately more enjoyable and comedic than the main characters. The leads just don’t tend to be all that funny and aren’t charismatic enough to hold their own scenes.

That’s probably slightly what keeps the series from reaching the next level. I think season 3 will bypass this just by having so many crazy awesome fights. Season 2 had a lot of action but was just one step away from the elusive 8. Perhaps that is being harsh on the series but I would say it was pretty good. It’s just not going to stick with you as much as other titles. A lot of anime I will go back and watch various clips and reactions right away but I admittedly have never done that with Kaiju No. 8. Maybe I’ll change that sooner than later.

It does make for a fun thought experiment though because it’s a bit harder for me to put my finger on it compared to some other titles. This is just the best way I can describe it. You almost don’t care about the characters a whole lot outside of the fight scenes. This is perhaps the kind of series that could use some random fillers but I would still like some action. For example we got the special about Hoshina’s day off and it’s not all that entertaining. So more fights with the characters bantering would be the best way to build up their likability further.

Eh that’s a lot of work though. Doubling down on the action is the best way to go. Narumi and Kafka had a very temporary team up fight against No. 9 that was really hype. It was a fairly brief fight scene but we don’t get a whole lot of 2 v 1s in this series so far. That should also change soon and I’m hyped for that since I love a good team up fight. It’ll also solidify No. 9 as a really powerful villain that you can’t simply beat 1 on 1.

Overall, I’m definitely looking forward to checking out the next season for this one. If you like action and giant monsters then you really can’t afford to miss out on this title. It’s the kind of anime that just works really well as a classic action title. It can get a little violent with all of the monsters blowing up and some civilians get caught up in the action but for the most part this one stays very streamlined. The overall vibes of the show tend to be rater happy even with humanity on the brink. Kaiju No. 8 just has that classic Shonen energy where you’re waiting for the heroes to claim victory.

Overall 7/10

Speed Racer Review

Posted on February 21, 2026 by dreager1

Speed Racer is one of those super famous series but it’s just old enough where a lot of people haven’t really seen it before. Well, I got to blast through the whole series and it is a title that really ages well. It shows some age but in all the best ways with the fun facial expressions and everything. Speed makes for a really good main character and Racer X is definitely one of the better rivals that you will come across. I didn’t really have any issues with this one, it’s a very well rounded series.

The series starts by introducing us to Speed, who aims to be a professional racer. Unfortunately his father Pops is against the idea and has pretty good reason to be. His other son Rex disappeared one day after crashing in a race and having a big disagreement with Pops. Pops believes that Rex simply wasn’t ready for that level of competition and doesn’t want Speed to make the same mistake. Speed disobeys Pops and enters a race anyway. His skills quickly become well known across the land and now Speed wants to be the world champion. Can he pull this off and eventually get Pops to see things his way?

Technically speaking that’s really the main plot for the 52 episodes coming up. The series doesn’t have a super deep plot or anything like that. Once in a blue moon you will get a returning character but for the most part these are episodic adventures. Most of them are 2 part adventures but as the series comes to a close we get more one shots. Racer X’s plot is one of the few that continues on throughout the show. As the viewers we learn that Racer X is Speed’s brother early on so you have to see if Speed can ever put the pieces together.

One thing that is also clear from the start is that racing is very dangerous in this world. It may be legal but there are constant fatalities throughout the series. Over half of the racers appear to die in every single event. Why do they still race? Well, for the pure thrill of it. That seems to be what it all boils down to and it is why Pops does appear to be rather justified here. Speed comes close to death on many adventures. In fact, if he had a normal car then he would be dead.

Naturally everyone knows about his super car, the Mach 5. This car has a ton of different gadgets inside of it like bullet proof glass, a spring to jump, a bird that can fly around, a water mode, buzz saws, etc. Speed uses these to get himself out of a lot of sticky situations. Otherwise he would have been doomed in a lot of events. To be clear, that’s because the enemies tend to cheat a whole lot. In a straight race Speed is second only to Racer X himself. Speed tends to demolish his other opponents.

Speed also takes a whole lot of pride in his abilities. He is very quick to jump into attack mode when someone calls him a chicken or crosses him the wrong way. Speed just isn’t going to let anything like that slide and he is a rather good fighter. On different occasions we see him going up against professional ninja, crime lords, and whole mini armies. Speed takes on all challengers and usually comes out on top. At times he will be defeated, but Speed is only human. He will eventually go down to a cheap shot or sheer numbers.

He’s just a great character and there is a level of genuineness to him that you won’t always see. Speed is incredibly heroic but he’s not a super saint. Speed’s quick temper means that even his allies have to watch out, as Sparky learned the hard way on at least one occasion. Speed is also willing to step out of his comfort zone as a racer like when he worked as an agent against different terrorist groups. Speed is always willing to help the cops out

His friend Sparky is often not able to keep up with Speed. Sparky is a great mechanic and helps to keep the Mach 5 in good condition but his role is lessened a bit by the fact that Speed’s also a top tier mechanic. So Sparky often feels like he doesn’t even need to be around. It’s kind of sad but he doesn’t really add anything to the show. It’s good to see Speed having friends and all but yeah Sparky could be removed and nothing really changes.

Then we have Speed’s girlfriend Trixie. It’s easy to forget that they’re actually together but she does a good job of getting jealous the whole time. Speed tends to attract quite a lot of attention in the races and often times Trixie isn’t allowed to race with him. She tends to have a pretty big role in the show so that’s good. It’s too bad that she’s not a big racer though because that could have really helped her to be an even bigger player. She races at least once but it’s a rare event to be sure.

She does provide aerial support though and arrives to help many times when Speed crashes. A little healthy jealousy can be a good thing as well so ultimately I would say that she gets a pretty good showing throughout the series. Naturally you always need to have at least one troublemaker in the main cast’s dynamic so that’s where Spritle and Chim Chim come into play. Spritle is a little kid who loves getting in on the races and so he follows Speed all the time.

Speed never seems to realize that his little brother is in the trunk until it’s too late. The few times that Speed suspects something is often when Spritle decided to stow away in someone else’s car. Spritle does come in handy sometimes so it’s not like he is always getting into trouble but often times he isn’t really helping too much. If anything he tends to be a hostage which gives Speed one more thing to worry about. As for Chim Chim, well he is helpful less often than Spritle. He pretty much never has a big moment of triumph and has to play second fiddle here. I could have done without him, I need my supporting characters to be able to talk and everything!

As for Pops, well he’s definitely a tough guy who is always being rather defensive but he’s a fun character. Like I mentioned before, he’s got a really good argument for keeping Speed away from the races as well. They’re just far too dangerous. You have people bringing bombs and guns onto the tracks and the refs never seem to notice. There is a constant amount of fighting going on and explosions but no cameras to capture it. Honestly I’m not sure why the spectators would enjoy racing all that much considering that most of the race is completely off screen for them.

You have races that go on for over 30 hours as the characters cross a whole continent. Speed has to fight off multiple opponents before the ending and the spectators only see the last mile or so. You shouldn’t think on it too much but that’s why the sport is rife with corruption here. Villains know that they can get away with anything. Pops is the top mechanic in the world in this series so for that reason there are a lot of people trying to get to him as well. Pops has to always do his best to try and stay safe while this is going on. His wife doesn’t really get much of a role in comparison. It would have been nice to have seen her in a few fights to show that every member of the family was a big fighter.

Then we have Racer X. This guy is not only known as the world’s greatest racer but he is also the top secret operative in a global organization that keeps the peace. For that reason he often travels the world. It also makes sense why he can’t reveal his true identity because then it would put Speed in danger. At the same time he does make sure to save his younger brother on many occasions. Their bond is a really strong one and you can sympathize with everything that Racer X has to go through.

I do wish the series could have given him more races with Speed. In almost all of their encounters, something comes up which prevents a straight race. Racer X does still manage to give Speed a whole lot of advice to help him out like not being as naive or gullible. Speed has a bad habit of believing sob stories and what he is told far too quickly. That’s something that you never want to do because you will be taken advantage of quickly. By the end of the series, Racer X has helped Speed improve a whole lot.

It’s also fun to just see Racer X have his really dangerous subplot while Speed is out there in the races. Racer X knows how to use a machine gun with an amazing level of skill. Where does he have the time for all of this right? When Speed gets close to learning his identity, X is able to deliver a well placed gut punch that completely removes his memory of learning the solution. Now that is talent.

The animation is definitely really good here. This is what I would call a very authentic hand drawn style from the old days. So there will be animation errors and perspective issues but that’s part of the charm. It still looks really good and is a lot smoother than you would expect. The colors are striking and this is the kind of animation that I could keep watching for a long while. The soundtrack isn’t nearly as memorable though. It sounds good and all but none of the themes will have you humming or anything like that.

Fortunately the writing is strong enough where you don’t mind. The show has a lot of good humor, both intentional and unintentional. The script is top notch and the way characters say things nonchalantly just works extremely well. It’s the kind of series you can definitely have fun watching reactions for. If you like a happy racing series with a good amount of banter then this is the title you want to check out.

Speed Racer also embraces the absurdness of the situations that Speed finds himself in. One second he is fighting a global terrorist organization, the next he is fighting giant monsters over in the jungle. Speed battles in Egyptian Tombs and in labyrinths underneath the waves. He doesn’t shrink from any challenge and fights just as well as he races. His opponents also tend to have some pretty strong gimmicks. There are one old guy who hated cars for example and so he would use his Horse to get around and whipped any cars that got too close. That takes a lot of guts. Speed even went up against a legendary gambler who knew the odds about everything and then another guy who built an entire secret city.

It’s the kind of atmosphere that is harder to create in a new title. These storylines work pretty well as long as you don’t overanalyze them. There are probably loads of plot holes and little inconsistencies that such situations create but they are fun to watch which is far more important. Give me a fun scenario like this any day and I’m all set. Where else are you going to see a group of Acrobatic racers who do stunts involving dozens of cars? That was one of the few times where even Speed got nervous.

Overall, Speed Racer is a pretty fun series. It’s definitely one of the older ones that I’ve seen now and I dare say that it was even better than I remembered it. I had seen a flurry of scattered episodes back in the day so it was fun to see the whole thing cover to cover. The series has a lot of humor to it but part of why it works is because the show is still treating these situations with a good amount of seriousness. There is a really tight line to balance here and the show makes it look easy. If you haven’t seen the series yet and worry that it’s too old, stow those fears. This series became a legend for good reason and you should definitely check it out! This is true for basically all shows but especially for Speed Racer I will also advise you to watch it through the English Dub.

Overall 7/10

.hack//Liminality Review

Posted on February 15, 2026 by dreager1

This is a quick OVA series that I started a long time ago. With the final part of the PS2 .Hack series completed, it was time to finally watch all of the episodes. It’s fun to see what was going on in the real world while all of the fighters were in The World trying to stop The Wave. As a result this one is a bit more of a low key adventure but you still have some danger going on here. The most important part is really being able to connect the dots and see the pieces that you were only aware of in the background before now.

The special starts with Mai’s boyfriend being put into a coma after playing “The World”. It is a super popular game and everyone is playing it so people figure that it must have been a coincidence. Mai was playing as well but managed to wake up for some reason. Well, she isn’t satisfied with the situation as it is and wants to find a way to bring him back. She is approached by a man named Tokuoka who used to work for CC Corporation who are the ones behind the World. He tells Mai that the game is responsible but proving it and finding a cure will be difficult. Also, can she really trust him? The longer that the World is able to survive, the more damage the planet takes in the real world.

There is also a tough moral dilemma to deal with here. The mysterious monster within The World will keep on destroying more characters and sending their real life players into a coma for as long as he is active. If the game is deleted, then that will prevent any more victims from popping up but at the same time it will completely doom the ones that are present. Naturally that means the company is going after the first option in order to limit the liability and bury the proof of the glitch but the main characters want to save everyone that they can. It is with the knowledge that they could be creating new victims though which is why I wouldn’t say that this is easy by any means.

For what it’s worth, I would have to say that they made the right decision here. As long as there is a chance, you should not give up on the people who need help. So Mai and the others continue to push on. Each episode mainly focuses on different characters here. The first is about Mai and Tokuoka, the second is about Yuki and Kaoru, the third one is about Kyoko, Bith, and Tokuoka, then the final episode has everyone in. It’s a pretty good way to slowly build things up each time.

From the 4 episodes, I would say the second one definitely has the highest level of danger. The two heroines are trapped in a building that has entered lockdown mode with a lot of fires breaking out. If they don’t escape quickly then it’ll all be over. Naturally most of humanity immediately starts panicking and makes a run for it so you want to avoid those. Yuki and Kaoru do their best to escape the crowd and get away but it’s not easy. They have to use the vents at the ceiling of the floor and I always thought that looked really tough. I don’t consider myself to be super claustrophobic and yet I would have to do a double take there.

My favorite character in this series was Kaoru. She really only appears in the second episode but does a good job of staying calm and getting Yuki out of the building. Perhaps she would have survived on her own or perhaps not, but Kaoru made sure this was a guarantee. She put herself at risk and even got a sprained ankle out of this but did her best throughout. It’s why you always want to have an adult around in a high pressure situation. This is one of the rare titles where the adults actually hold their own with the kids.

As for Yuki, she panics a bit too much for my liking. She doesn’t really think things through and gets herself into trouble as a result. It’s just how these things go but since all of the other characters were really focused the whole time, it made her look a little worse in comparison. She did contribute in the final episode so I’ll give her that but it’s more of a consolation than anything else.

Then we have Bith who really came in handy by the end. He shows up rather mysteriously but has good connections like with the super hacker Helba. Without him, the characters wouldn’t have made it in time to save their cyber companions. He is also good at bluffing and has just enough credentials to hold up against the CC Corporation. I imagine that he probably spent all of his goodwill within this mission but it was worth it.

Kyoko also shows up a bit later into the series than the other characters but is able to help out right away. She is ready for the fighting to take place although you do have to keep your expectations within reason since for the most part everyone here is just a normal civilian. They’re not going to be putting in crazy combos and taking down tons of opponents or anything like that. This isn’t that kind of series.

Mai is still the central focus here and her character is interesting. She seems rather emotionless for a while and I thought that was going to be a full plot point but it mainly went away. I suppose that’s just how she is. For example she didn’t seem to care a whole lot that her boy friend went into a coma but maybe that was meant to just show that she was trying to cope with things. The guy was moving a bit fast in the flashback but it seemed like the event still ended positively with them. So I’ll assume all is well.

It does make her a good lead because it’s hard to know what is really going through her mind. She’s a bit of a wild card in that respect. I also think she had good reason not to trust someone like Tokuoka for a while there. If anything I would have been more wary of him like her friend Masaya. He did not trust Tokuoka at all and did his best to warn Mai about him. Ultimately she just wasn’t really interested in heeding those words. Masaya is a bit helpless but I appreciate him at least trying to protect her.

As for Tokuoka, well he is a good guy. He’s just as shady as it gets and I suppose that is bound to happen when you are fighting a multi billion dollar company. The series starts and ends with him getting beaten up. The poor guy definitely takes a whole lot of punishment but in the end is a critical piece to stopping The World so he can hang his hat on that.

This is a side piece to the games so the terms might get a little tricky for you. If you’re just watching this title you may miss some of the context but you can still enjoy it as a good conspiracy story. It is obvious that big business is hiding something and the heroes have to stop them. It’s a compelling piece either way. In order to get to the next level I think we would have just needed to have had some more suspense.

Ultimately there is only so much you can do with 4 episodes after all but I thought it was still a good adventure. The animation is also solid although there aren’t a ton of action scenes to really test it. It did help back up the eerie atmosphere of the series. It just feels like everyone is always very isolated and with glitches affecting the real world, you aren’t safe anywhere. This is not a horror by any means but I thought the atmosphere was crafted pretty well.

The soundtrack is really good as you will hear a lot of the classic .Hack songs. I liked each of the intros and it was cool to see the video game scenes from the accompanying volume at the same time. It helps to really tie the adventures together. Even with that you may lose track of some of the characters but you’re only meant to really focus on the ones in the real world here. One character even surpasses the speed of light with her reaction times.

Overall, .Hack/Liminality is a good example of an anime that may get a little confusing if you were to start with this as your first experience with the franchise. I think you’ll still have a good time but it might be worth playing the games first. Either way I would recommend this series. It’s so rare to see what people are doing in the real world while the superheroes are fighting so it’s just a fun angle. The CC Corporation is also shown to be as evil as they can be so this isn’t one of those situations where you will be on the fence. It’s clear that The World really needs to be stopped even if 99% of the player base doesn’t even know what is going on. One more episode to focus on the fall out and what the government does would be fun but you can probably imagine that for yourself.

Overall 6/10

Future Boy Conan Review

Posted on February 8, 2026 by dreager1

This is one of those legendary anime titles that everyone has heard of, but has everyone watched it? I think it’s just old enough where people tend to miss out on it and even for me I feel like I may know the name by association but didn’t really know the show. Well, now I finally got to check it out and it’s a fun title. Conan makes for a good lead and the show looks really good for its age. Some of that is due to the high quality of the release but it also shows that the animation techniques were really timeless here.

The show starts by introducing us to Conan and his grandpa. They are some of the last humans alive after a terrible war shook up the whole planet. The humans had gotten too violent with their massive means of destruction and so this launched the world back into the stone age. One day a girl named Lana washes ashore and it turns out that she is the grand daughter of the world’s greatest scientist, Lao. Unfortunately this means that the army led by Lepka want to kidnap her. This faction believes that the world needs the weapons of mass destruction once more and of course Lepka will be the one to lead the world. Conan must now protect Lana from the forces of evil and is really on his own after his grandpa dies during the attack. Can Conan adapt to the rest of the world?

Now even with something like 95-99% of humanity wiped out, you’ve still got enough people for about 2 cities and 2 villages. That makes sense as humanity will gradually grow again as long as they aren’t 100% eliminated. If anything it underscores how brutal the war was because this happened during the lifetime of guys like Lao, so to see humanity immediately reduced like this was crazy. It actually wasn’t nukes, but a kind of magnetic weapon that caused the problem within the planet.

One of the things that I appreciated about the show is how Conan quickly adapts to things. He naturally knows nothing about the outside world, technology, or any of that. Yet instead of acting clueless or confused he just works on understanding it. This is why I never like the fish out of water trope because often times it feels like the characters don’t even bother using context clues. If there’s something that you don’t know, then you just work to understand it by using tools that you are familiar with. That’s all there is to this in the end.

So Conan does well there and is quite mature for his age. I’m not always sold on the kids being main characters kind of dynamic but Conan isn’t your average kid. The show also gives him a good amount of super strength to the point where he can lift boulders, hold his breath for a long time, run across a moving plane, etc. It’s not to the point where he can become Superman and just save everyone but enough to where he is always really helpful in a bunch of different situations. Conan has a good moral compass about him so he’s always trying to help out his friends.

He’s not some crazy pacifist though and knows when the villains have to be taken down. As the series goes on, he gets a best friend in the form of Jimsy. Jimsy never really grew on me though. He’s another kid who grew up in the wilderness so he has to adapt to society as well. I’d say he just doesn’t do as good a job in that and while he is strong, I would definitely take Conan in a fight. Jimsy is always going to be held to second place in that regard. Jimsy just had more weak moments like ditching Conan at one point.

He eventually becomes a reliable friend but it sure takes him a while. Any adventure is easier with a friend so his presence itself helped Conan but the character could have gotten off to a quicker start. Then we have the main heroine Lana who gets a massive role here. Of course she gets along with Conan really well so you can expect a real romance once they are older. She has the ability to use telepathy to a small extent like communicating with animals or with her grandfather. She is being hunted throughout the whole series and does a good job of keeping her wits about her. That can’t be easy at such a young age.

Lana doesn’t have the physical abilities that Conan has so she often has to stay back during dangerous situations. It’s definitely something that annoys her and she always tries to get in on the adventures. At times she does get used as a hostage so that does put Conan in a tough position. It’s hard to blame her too much since she is a kid but I would have liked an episode with Conan teaching her how to throw a spear or something like that. I think that would have worked out really well.

The other big character for the heroes here has to be Captain Dyce. Now, calling him a hero may be a bit of a stretch. He starts out as a villain and even after that he starts to waver back and forth at times so you’re never really sure if you can trust him. He has a big betrayal at one point as well. Despite that, he is definitely the most entertaining character though. He may meddle in the heroes’ affairs a lot and get into trouble but there is a certain confidence about him. It also may help that he’s an adult so he is able to fight in a different way than the others.

It’s always nice seeing an adult who can actually do something in this kind of adventure. He is tasked with the role of being comic relief a lot of the time but also has his serious moments. This balance works extremely well and he adds a lot to the show. It definitely would not be the same without him and his leadership. I also liked his robot suit. It may not appear as much later on but that gizmo was super handy.

Another one of the villains is Orlo. This guy is a lot pettier than Dyce but also makes for an entertaining villain. You may think that he looks bad since he spends a lot of time trying to intimidate a kid but that’s just how he rolls. I would have liked him to have ended out his screentime still being the leader of his group though. He ends up bowing to Monsley and her crew almost immediately. It’s true that he would have lost any kind of fight there but you at least have some respect for a villain who doesn’t bow the knee in the end. From the way he ended up succumbing to the others, it showed that he was not the main guy in any capacity.

His little sister Tera had even less moments to look threatening here. She is good at talking tough to people who can’t fight back but immediately falters afterwards. She is only a little kid of course but that made her look even worse. You shouldn’t be a villain at such a young age and have to be able to know that you’re on the wrong side of things. Orlo at least had some convictions, she was just following the path that was laid out for her.

Then we have Monsley who is essentially the second in command among the villains. She commands a ton of respect from everyone and has earned her spot at the top. Anytime she shows up, the village where Conan is at tends to take a lot of damage. She captures him a ton of times so we also see how capable she is. In some ways Monsley has to be the most impressive character here. Ultimately by the end of the story she has to ask herself some tough questions about what she is even doing here anymore. She gets a whole lot of character development and it is all handled really well.

Finally there is the main villain Lepka. This guy does one of my favorite villain tropes which is where he will feel a laugh coming and tries to stop it. The attempts are futile though so he ends up laughing as loud as possible and just going along with it. It’s just great when that happens. Beyond that, he just works really well within the role. You always want at least one villain who is just evil and the heroes have to stop him. He has no delusions of being a good guy or anything like that. He just wants to crush everyone and rule the world.

Right up through the end he is still fighting for this. He will shoot random people and murders as many as he can. He tries to punch Conan into the exploding ship at the end which would have murdered him. This guy is absolutely shameless but he did raise up an empire and nearly took over the world. Lepka was a very serious villain and definitely not someone to mess around with. It’ll be hard to top him as a main villain.

We also had Dr. Lao of course but he spends most of his time either captured, knocked out, or missing. He’s not a bad character or anything but I do feel like he could have made things a whole lot better on Lana. I’m unclear on the extent of his powers so maybe he was really just out of range for a large chunk of the adventure of something. I just think he should have helped more. In the end his presence is felt throughout the series but it almost felt like he had given up until Conan and Lana showed up. His disguise was great for staying out of trouble but not for helping the world stop the encroaching threat. I suppose he figured that without him, Lepka would ultimately not get very far. It’s not like this is a terrible plan but it’s far too passive for me.

The animation is pretty clear like I mentioned before. I also think that all of the environments really stand out here, whether it be the highly technological city or the small villages. There is a lot of movement in the fights which balance the visual humor well with the actual blows being felt. There are a few times where Conan is beaten quite thoroughly and the show doesn’t shy away from it. It doesn’t end up being super violent or anything but it’s clear that he’s taken a lot of damage.

The cartoony style ends up being beneficial for characters like Dyce as otherwise it would be harder to forgive him. Conan is super forgiving of everyone but the viewers won’t be as kind. The soundtrack is decent but it can be repetitive. It doesn’t seem like the show had a ton of budget allocated to it so the selection is small. The opening is decent, but I would say it looks better than it sounds.

If there was ever a show where I would say that it’s all about vibes, it would be this one. I think the show’s greatest strength is just that it has a fun atmosphere. It’s nice to see Conan just travelling the world to save Lana. The whole show feels very calming. Yes there are the big climaxes and danger moments but most of the time you’re just seeing what it would be like to live in a world without a lot of people. As far as post-apocalyptic worlds go, this one just seems rather nice. It’s good to have a more optimistic look at one for a change.

Overall, Future Boy Conan is a pretty good series. It has a very low key feel to it even with the end of the world stakes. Treat this as a slice of life adventure type story and you should be satisfied. The story wraps up nicely here so it’s definitely going to be interesting to see how the sequel fares. Could be a while before I check that one out though. There isn’t anything to really dislike about this show. It’s a pretty safe option that you can really recommend to anybody. As long as they enjoy a good adventure then this one will be a winner.

Overall 6/10

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit Review

Posted on February 8, 2026 by dreager1

Moribito is an anime where I knew the name of it for a long time but never really knew what the show was about. For the longest time I actually thought it was something vampire related. Well, it’s a pretty fun adventure show with some solid action in there. The old time setting doesn’t always work for me but I would say this show did a good job with it. The pacing is solid and so in the end I didn’t have any big issues with it.

The series starts by introducing us to Balsa who is one of the world’s greatest spear fighters. For a while there she had been a fighter who would not hold back and clear any mission. As a result she ended up taking 8 lives and so she has decided to save 8 lives in return. Balsa was able to help out 7 people easily enough but the she stumbles upon a royal conspiracy. The prince Chagum is expected to be assassinated and so his mother asks Balsa for help. This is not usually a mission that Balsa would undertake but it is the final life that she needs to save for atonement. So she takes Chagum and escapes the kingdom but now everyone is after her. Can Balsa keep him safe?

The other difficult part of this task is the timeframe. Typically you would expect to get someone out of danger and then you can leave. With this task, Balsa is expected to look out for Chagum for the rest of his life as the kingdom will never stop looking for him. This means that her life is essentially over as she will be a bodyguard forever. This concerns her friends and Chagum also isn’t thrilled about this. He doesn’t wish to be a burden to anyone and has his pride as a prince. This is something that causes quite a few disagreements during the series.

So why does the kingdom want to murder Chagum? Well, he has a legendary beast within him, one that is said to bring destruction along with it. To that end, murdering him is the only way to save the world. His father, the Mikado is the one who has to do the deed. So he’s not exactly happy about this, but that’s what the guy does. Unfortunately it does mean that The Mikado is hardly one of my favorite characters. Listening to a prophecy over trying to help your own kid is just a terrible decision. He may as well be a total villain if this is the kind of decision that he’s making.

Several characters act as antagonists throughout the story but ultimately the monsters that wish to eat Chagum serve as the final boss types. They are hard to defeat with conventional weaponry as you have to wait for them to materialize. There are also a lot of them which results in a pretty big climax. About 90% of the series is a really realistic feudal setting with the monsters spicing things up for the final act. That was pretty fun although I will admit that the fight scenes against them are not nearly as entertaining as the human ones.

The animation throughout the show is pretty good. the fights have solid choreography and while the animation colors may be a little washed out, there is a lot of movement. The series peaks rather early on with the fights though. The best battle in the series is when Balsa takes on the 5 legendary hunters at the same time. It’s really an impressive fight and shows why her skills are in a league of their own. The soldiers all get really upset about this but in a 1 on 1 fight she would be able to defeat any of them.

She does take injuries in the fight which affects her for a long time after that but at peak strength she is clearly number 1. We do get some fights here and there after this like a flash back with her mentor but surprisingly the show does prioritize adventure over action. There actually aren’t a ton of fights in the series. Instead Balsa shows Chagum that fighting isn’t always the way as they meet many people and journey throughout the world.

The soundtrack is a bit more on the forgettable side though. It’s not bad or anything but you won’t find a whole lot of tunes that are going to make your playlist. Likewise with the opening. It’s all a bit quieter than it needs to be. Some may say that rock music would go completely against the show’s vibes but ehhh I think it would work pretty well personally.

Balsa does really well in the main character slot. She is quietly powerful. You won’t hear a whole lot of bragging from her but she does take all opponents down as needed. She also does well in dealing with Chagum who isn’t accustomed to this life so she has to set things up carefully. Balsa is put through a whole lot of hardship here but never backs down. Her experience really shines through.

As for Chagum, well longtime readers of this site can probably expect that I wouldn’t be much of a fan. It takes him way too long to actually get with the program. He does his best to try and help Balsa but tends to make a lot of mistakes. Going to the festival to wrestle a bully was the wrong decision when he was already on the run. It also gets annoying when he keeps on trying to get to the capital. He vastly underestimates the danger that he is in at times. Then this isn’t totally Chagum’s fault but near the end the monster within him starts to take more control so Chagum is often rather lifeless and quiet.

He really needed to trust Balsa more and understand why she would have to keep some things from him. Then we have Tanda who likes Balsa a lot and is always worried about her. He’s not a fighter so he stays back at base and makes herbs to heal her. He has never really been able to confess his feelings but is trying to gather strength for that. Tanda never ended up becoming one of my favorite characters. He should have been learning how to fight if he really wanted to help Balsa.

Additionally, his powers of walking through dreams and reality is good in concept but it seems like he never trained that either so he has a ton of limitations. The guy needed to be bolder and protect his craft. If he had done that then this would have been a very different story. Balsa’s mentor Juguro was a whole lot more interesting. It’s a shame the way that he went out but this guy was a true fighter all the way. His skills may have even been better than Balsa’s although I like to think that she caught up to him in the end. I would have liked to have seen more adventures of Juguro since we don’t actually see him all that much. He has a constant presence within the show through references though.

Then we have Torogai who is essentially the oldest character in the series. She is part of a tribe which uses natural remedies and talks to the spirits. They are direct rivals to the kingdom’s own faction of spellcrafters. I’d say she is far more impressive than they are. Even in her old age she is able to take down several master hunters and is always one step ahead of the others. If she was just a bit younger she probably could have taken on an active action role as well. Either way she is very helpful to the main characters and they would have been doomed without her. She ended up being a bit better than I would have guessed.

There are also two kids who help Balsa throughout the series. Toya and Saya, who grew up poor but have always been very resourceful. They don’t get down about the situation and just keep on doing their best. They’ve made a whole lot of friends in the process and know their way around the town. They are generally able to stay out of danger this way and help Balsa at the same time like when they lit up the cabin on fire to warn her that enemies were around. These two characters certainly had a lot of guts.

Then there are the star readers. First there is Shuga who starts out as a bit of a yes man but gradually starts to realize that not all is well within the kingdom walls. It takes him a little while to really get a spine but by the end he is firmly within the hero’s camp. I would have liked his star reading to have been a little more helpful though. He ends up needing the help of the main characters for noticing signs of the upcoming draught and then he has to rely on others to read the ancient scriptures on what to do.

It is true that Shuga is the one who pushes these things into motion but I would have liked some more direct skill out of him. He was better than his master Hibi though. Hibi was a complete antagonist for a while there as he was quick to try and murder Chagum. He tries to explain later on that he has to follow the prophecies and he will adapt along with them but to me that was never a good excuse for how he was in the first half of the series. The guy was absolutely brutal and out for blood. While the Star Readers need to take definitive action during a crisis, this guy was ready to justify anything within those confines.

I don’t think any character should trust him after that. The guy had an imposing presence though so I appreciated him as a villain. I was less sold on him being more of a decent guy. At least he did more than Sagum though who probably ends up being the most underwhelming character. He takes over for Chagum during the series but then randomly passes from his illness. It was foreshadowed to a degree but I thought he would be able to do something first. You could cut him out of the show and absolutely nothing changes. It just made him feel like a very random character.

As for the 5 legendary warriors, two of them really get main plots of their own. Jin was a good friend to Chagum and the king so he has made it his mission to murder Chagum himself. He wants to do this to spare the Mikado the trauma of the act. The problem of course is that he is no match for Balsa. I would even say he may be the weakest of the main 5 because of how headstrong he is. The guy is chastised for this on multiple occasions but never really changes.

While he is another character who is primed for the redemption arc, I wasn’t feeling it here either. At the end of the day he is moving to murder a child after all. No matter how you square that way, that is absolutely big villain territory. I don’t know how you can really get past that. A real friend would fight against the prophecy rather than letting it dictate his life. It was a misstep right from the very beginning.

Then there is Mon who is the leader of the group. He is the most well balanced and the guy who can listen to reason. As an enemy he is as dangerous as they come but it is also easy to see why he is so trusted by the empire. He is able to match wits with Balsa much better than the other characters. Additionally he has a whole lot of power. Balsa is still more powerful to be sure but he is a worthy rival all the way.

There are other characters running around but these are most of the main ones. There is a bounty hunter who goes after Balsa for a long while until she eventually takes him on. That guy was definitely a nice wild card to introduce to the series. It makes sense that Balsa would have made some serious enemies over the years after all. The episodes were also a great way to show her stamina as Balsa was basically not allowed to go to sleep for several nights while under constant attack and still pulled through. A lot of characters would have broken down at that point. Balsa also comes close to going back to her murdering ways but is able to pull back.

During this part of the adventure I do think it would have been worth not having the plot twist. Instead of the opponent surviving, he should have died and then Balsa would have to reconcile with that fact. By having him survive, it does take a little bit away from her decision. There are times when murder is necessary in a self defense situation like this and having the characters explain that to her would have been more powerful if you ask me. Even if it means she has to save one more life at the end of the series since she would have a body count of 9 now.

Overall, Moribito is a pretty fun show. With the ending you can tell that there are many more adventures to come but this was a great way to introduce all of the characters. The ending isn’t perfect with Chagum basically becoming royalty but not being powerful enough to let Balsa go where she pleases. I never understand why the Prince/King at this point have to succumb to classic traditions. When you rule the nation you should be able to bend the rules and help your friends out. Otherwise what’s the point of even having a King? If you like a good adventure show then you should definitely check this one out.

Overall 7/10

Cardfight!! Vanguard Divinez DELUXE Finals Arc Review

Posted on February 7, 2026 by dreager1

Cardfight Vanguard has had so many seasons at this point and yet I still remain impressed every time. There are very few franchises that can pull off this kind of high level consistency time and time again. This whole season is for the final rounds of the tournament so you can be sure that there will be a lot of action in just about every episode. This is an elite climax to this phase of the tournament so I can safely say that Cardfight fans are eating well here.

When it comes to the storyline…well there’s not much to say. The top 8 Cardfighters in the world are competing in order to win the championship. Each of them have their own motivations for winning the tournament. They range from just wanting to win, to defeat an old rival, to become a pro, etc. There can only be one winner though and there are no cop outs here. So you have to strap in and see how it goes.

Another thing I really enjoy about Cardfight is that it’s one of the only shows that can pull off an upset. In 99.9% of fiction you immediately know who will win a big fight based on the narrative. You can have a good time watching a fight like Gojo vs Sukuna, Goku vs Jiren, and Godzilla vs the military but at the end of the day you’re generally going to know who is going to win because of the situation. If it’s near the end of a series/movie, well the hero has to win. Not 100% of the time but you’re generally going to be able to guess. Well, Cardfight has uprooted that notion in the past and this season does that as well as my bracket of predictions was essentially tossed out the window.

It was really cool to see and also made the tournament feel a bit more realistic in that regard. Anyone can win a given Cardfight. That’s part of the appeal of the sport, it all comes down to your strategy with the cards that you are dealt. From that point on, anything is possible. Now if you want the end of the world stakes, you’ll have to wait for the next season. The very ending does give you a glimmer of what’s to come and it looks hype. Cardfight is able to nail the sports genre and the end of the world genre so it’s all good by my book.

By this point you should be pretty well acquainted with the animation. If you liked it in the previous seasons then you will like it here as well. I thought it looked pretty sharp and smooth the whole time. It’s not necessarily improved from last season but continues to hold its own. Then we have the soundtrack which is solid as always. Every character has their own tune and there is quite a lot of variety here. I tend to like all of the themes to a degree with some of course being at a higher tier than others.

Now there are a ton of guest star characters from previous seasons. You’ve got old main characters from tons of past seasons in attendance for the tournament. Mainly I’ll be focusing on the people actually involved in the tournament or someone who gets a big duel like Yu-Yu. Yu-Yu has been retired for a long while now as he became a fashion designer but it was still fun to see him duel. It would be nice to see a prior protagonist take a more active role someday though. I always felt that even Aichi wasn’t done full justice when he returned in G. Likewise, I would like to see Yu-Yu fighting to save the world at some point. He is still a skilled duelist though.

The first big battle is between Kagetsu and Ruka. Kagetsu was introduced in the last season as one of the most powerful duelists in history. His skills are incredible and so it was interesting to see him set up against Ruka, a character with the same levels of hype. In fact, Ruka actually defeated him in the past and then she vanished for a while. She gets a lot of backstory in this one and we really find out more about her motivations. She just doesn’t like to be tied down and considers dueling to be something that is always done for fun.

I can appreciate her easy going personality and she’s a fun character to root for. I was rooting for her over Kagetsu but it was close either way. I liked Kagetsu as well but miss his more fiery self from the flashbacks. He has really gone into full on adult mode by this point so he doesn’t typically how as much emotion as he used to. Of course only one character could move on from here and neither of them had very large ambitions outside of the matchup.

Then the next fight was Michiru vs Mirei. It was surprising to see Mirei make it this far into the bracket. She was always known as a powerful fighter but not usually someone you would expect to be in the top 8. Mirei is essentially playing with house money at this point so every extra win will feel good. Meanwhile Michiru is still trying to find fun people to duel against. His goal is simple but always a good one. I was never able to buy into the hype though. He as strong but there are so many characters who were set up to be the strongest that he just folded next to them. It didn’t help that he lost one of his first important duels in the series.

After that we have Suo vs Erika. Erika quickly became one of my favorite characters in the series when she debuted. Her goals of trying to save the future were definitely good ones and she took the necessary actions. Her story is still rather tragic as she had to give up on living with her family so as to avoid any time inconsistencies. I don’t really think that would have been a problem to be honest but in the end she changed her name and aims to become a pro. Winning this tournament will really help her reach that goal.

Meanwhile Suo aims to win to continue polishing his skills. He likes a good duel after all and his powers of darkness as potent as ever. He is not someone who will be going down easily. He doesn’t have much of a story arc going on right now but he’s not a bad character. I always thought he made for a more interesting antagonist than hero though. It is fun to see a hero command the powers of darkness but the cast is so large that he doesn’t really stand out.

Finally we have Akina vs Megumi. Akina is the main character of the series after all so you would expect him to be getting a lot of action. He certainly has a high degree of skill as you would expect. He’s still one of the heaviest hitters on the block. He aims to be a pro so that’s why he has to win this tournament. He can’t afford to lose and fall behind on his dreams. Akina has been a well balanced main character who steps up when needed. He really wants to enjoy his duels and fight at full power throughout but knows to turn it up when the stakes are high.

As for Megumi, she is one of the last fighters of the old era. She has long tried to become one of the world’s strongest but there were always obstacles in her way. Danji is not in this tournament so this is really her best chance to win it all. Will she really be able to pull it off? Well it won’t be an easy task. Megumi is a fun character and at times she does show some fire but I wish she would show this off more often. That would really make her stand out as a fighter.

Then when the first rounds are completed, the semi finals start and then the finals. There are a few intermission episodes in between there but for the most part every episode is about a big battle like this. Since the season already starts off with the top 8 beginning, the show does not have to hold off on the epic nature of the battles from the start. Episode 1 is already dialing things up on a high level. You really can’t go wrong with tournaments.

Between the upset victory and all of the characters being likable, there is really no reason not to love this show. As long as you enjoy the game of Cardfight, then I’d say you will have a really good time here. I’d say to make it even more fun, try and pick someone to root for in every matchup. It makes the duels more exciting when you have a dog in the race. You may expect the main character Akina to win all of his matches but aside from his, you can still have fun betting on the other matches. Everyone has some kind of motivation on why they want to win their fight after all. The motivation you identify with the most can help you make your choice.

There are definitely several moments of foreshadowing for the next season as well. You have a brand new character who seems to be quite powerful and she makes some cryptic statements here. Then at the very end you see the brand new villain. So this helps build the hype even more in addition to the tournament itself. This might end up being the final tournament we get but I wouldn’t mind one more. Something really huge with all of the key characters across each season participating. You’d probably need 24 episodes for that at the least and will have to skip through some fights but I want to see Tohya get back into the picture.

If there is an issue with the series, it would just be that the cast is so large that some of your favorites won’t have time to do anything. At this point it is completely impossible to balance them all in 12 episodes. So each season has to choose some core characters and then ditch the rest. Fortunately there are enough good characters where you should still have a bunch to root for. At least that’s the way I see it. I really enjoyed seeing Erika here but it’s likely that she won’t be doing much at all in the next season. Getting two seasons in a row would be a bit greedy of me to expect.

Each season always adds some new characters as well so I’ll be looking forward to seeing what the new villains are like. Hopefully we should be getting some really serious power creep in here. Akina is definitely ready for action, we’ll have to see if the other characters can follow suit. With the pro leagues close by, it does feel like this saga is coming to a close though. I hope they have a new installment ready to follow it up right away though.

Overall, This was another top tier season and I would definitely recommend checking it out. I’m eager to also get back to the end of the world stakes as well though. Cardfight really excels at both sides of the coin here. If you aren’t watching Cardfight yet then you really need to change that. It’s really amazing how far the series has come. I may bring this up in every season review but the first season in the latest timeline was so rough that I had doubts on the series recovering. Well, it certainly did that in spades. I can essentially expect every season to be a 9 star experience which is really insane.

Overall 9/10

Horimiya Review

Posted on February 1, 2026 by dreager1

Horimiya is one of those titles where I was always a bit skeptical of the main romance. When I read it through the manga, I was really not convinced. Hori could also be a bit weird with what she was into which didn’t help matters either. That doesn’t really factor in here until the end of the series. Ultimately it’s a fun title but more for the humor and the banter. The romance itself is going to have to be a little more on the weak side. I suppose it does work better than the manga though.

The series starts off by introducing us to Hori who is a really popular girl at school. She has plenty of friends and a lot of the guys all have crushes on her. What they do not know is that she has to take care of her little brother all the time and basically transforms into mom mode while she is at home. One day she ends up running into the shyest kid in school, Miyamura while she is taking care of the kid. Miyamura and Souta (little kid) get along really well and so he starts to come over. He’s also quite different outside of school as he has to hide all his piercings and such while there. A romance begins to blossom, but can they really hide it from their classmates? Should they even bother hiding this?

The contrast from the most popular to least popular students meeting up is certainly a classic one and that’s really what the series is going for here. Thanks to Hori, Miyamura is eventually able to make a lot of friends of his own here. They both have their friend groups with a lot of overlap between the two and so their school days become a lot more fun. The show has to move pretty fast with setting up the romances and development so the pacing here is really fast.

So lets talk about the good parts first. The animation is definitely solid. The colors are sharp and there is always a lot of movement. It all really stands out and gets a lot of credit there. The soundtrack is more on the bland side. It’s not bad or anything but you won’t be humming any of the songs later on. They are good but definitely not game changers. The openings also don’t sound as fast paced and intense as you might have expected.

Horimiya is a pretty fun series where the humor really stands out. I definitely tend to enjoy any scene where her father Kyousuke shows up. Some titles may go a bit too far with the slapstick but I would say this one has a good balance. Hori may throw him around a lot but is still happy to have him around. On the serious note, you do feel like he could have done a better job of being in her life. So there is a lot of resentment in the background as well but at the end of the day his scenes tend to be really funny. He’s able to play a lot of roles depending on when he needs to be serious or not.

Good humor will always get you far in a show like that. Hori’s mom gets far less to do this time around but it’s clear that she has been really supportive and helped get Hori this far. Without her it would have been much more difficult in the early years. Each of the characters contribute to the fun banter and humor of the show though. I’m not saying every joke is going to land but more often than not you can bop along with the jokes.

The weakest plot is Hori wanting Miyamura to be more assertive. This goes back to why I was not the biggest fan of their relationship. Basically she wants him to get upset at her more and even hit her. She’s into some really trippy stuff and he does his best to accommodate her but naturally this is a bit out of his wheelhouse. It felt like a less persistent plot than in the manga but you will be wincing a bit at that. Their dynamic is a whole lot better when that isn’t a factor.

Aside from that plot, Hori is definitely a good main character here. I find it rare to have the main heroine be such a popular person in these romance shows. Usually if anything you would see that from the guy right? It helps allow for more fresh dynamics and she never wavers either. Miyamura is the guy she likes and she doesn’t show real interest in the others. This allows her to have lots of friends without things getting awkward or anything like that.

I definitely appreciated this. Additionally, looking after Souta every day shows how responsible she is. Hori never complains about any of that and managed to still have a really good social life. Now that is impressive I gotta say. As for Miyamura, well he is more of a mixed bag. On one hand, you can definitely see how he had a tough time of things. The guy used to be bullied and then hanging out by himself only served to double down on the issue and everyone left him alone. Thanks to Hori he makes a lot of friends and he’s generally a good person.

In general the only tricky thing for him is how he treats his old best friend: Shindo. Now like I mentioned with Kyousuke, you have to walk a tight line between the humor being funny or just a bit mean spirited. I feel like the dynamic with Sanada always went a little too far. He was Miyamura’s only friend from back in the day and I feel like that should mean a lot. Sanada would look out for him and Miyamura’s past would have been a lot tougher without him. Sanada is just a good dude and while he makes a whole lot of mistakes, it would have been nice to have had a few genuine scenes where Miyamura acknowledged his friendship.

Ah well, Sanada is doomed to be a pure comedy character. Either way I liked him quite a bit and he’s one of the highlights here. Ultimately Miyamura is still a good character too. Even if I have that issue with him, it doesn’t take away from the fact that he is generally there for his friends. While his romance with Hori can get a little odd, there are still no rebounds or anything like that. It is still a romance that I can actually get behind as a result.

The main couple aren’t the only characters with more than one face though. We also have Iura who plays the class clown at school but is then the responsible older brother at home. In a way that’s similar to Hori although she isn’t the comic relief like that. I definitely empathize with Iura’s character the most because these are roles he has to play for a long stretch of time. It’s just easier to play the clown as you can stay relaxed at school and then save the energy for later on. He does a good job of always defending his sister and making sure that she’s okay.

He gets one main episode/segment to himself when helping his sister study and it was a really good episode. Iura is technically around all the time but we rarely get to see a whole lot of him so that was handled well. Then we have Tooru who initially liked Hori but never really stood a chance with Miyamura around. Perhaps he should have made his feelings plain earlier although it wouldn’t have ended up making a difference. He ends up being rather popular anyway with two different characters liking him.

You could even say that his plot is a whole lot more dramatic than the actual main romance. Ultimately he needed to be more confident and stop taking a backseat at every turn. He’s a good guy and takes the loss well so I can respect that. He ends up moving past his initial feelings to be a good friend. That’s not always easy but he pulled it off. Then you have Yuki who is Hori’s best friends and has confidence issues of her own. Mainly she just overthinks things too much. She spends a lot of time helping others out but not really taking into account that she should be looking out for herself as well.

Yuki makes for a good friend although I would have preferred if the show didn’t throw her into the romance drama. It feels like Chika from Kaguya Sama is the only sidekick character to escape all of that. I’d rather Yuki have just been one of the gang rather than jumping into the whole mess. Ultimately she gets a whole lot to do in the series and has to confront her own feelings on more than one occasion. It was not an easy journey but she made it and I would say that she is probably the best out of the heroines.

Then you have Sengoku who grew up with Hori and really got terrorized by her for a very long time. He’s a fun character but you feel bad for him after a while. Hori definitely gave him a bit of a complex and the poor guy can never move forward without being reminded of the past. It makes sense why he would gravitate towards Remi who is basically the opposite of Hori. Remi s way more traditionally girly and gives Sengoku a chance to act a bit more manly. Remi doesn’t always think things through and gets people in trouble like in the opening episode. That first instance made her and Sengoku both look a little rough with how aggressive they were being but they managed to rebound after that. Their romance plot isn’t bad but when neither character is particularly aggressive, you have to be ready for more of a slow burn.

Sakura is a classic case of a character who is too timid and waits until her only possible result in love is defeat. I actually think she had a real shot at landing her guy if she had been direct. Ultimately she beat around the bush too much and it cost her big time. She’s not my kind of character as I would prefer her to have been a lot more outgoing but baking the cookies and such was still a bold move. Then we have Yanagi who is probably the most pointless character in the show. His eyesight’s not that great and removing him from the show wouldn’t change much.

In a way he’s just a stepping stone to get Yuki’s plot to move around. Otherwise he doesn’t have a ton of agency of his own although maybe that’ll change in the next season. I don’t remember too well if he had other stories. Tanihara is a former bully who gets a big redemption arc so he was a lot more important. Ultimately it took time but he was able to get a good connection with Miyamura. A plot like that shouldn’t move too fast so I thought they did a good job on the balance there.

Finally there is Sawada who is a fun character. She gets a good fake out early on and from there continues to be one of the more endearing characters. Sawada is an example of a fun character who gets a lot of good humor but also does have a very serious plot of her own going on in the background. She doesn’t appear as much as you would expect but always manages to be a fun wild card in the dynamic. She can get some good banter with any of the characters even though she initially has to get past some fears.

The cast of characters is wide and varied with a lot of fun ones in there. That’s a key part for any comedy like this. A slice of life show will only be as good as its characters. The show also stays classy and mainly avoids any issues with fanservice and the like. Horimiya has confidence in its character writing to get the job done and so that works out. As for the romance, it can be a bit touch and go depending on the plots. I would say this isn’t the strongest romantic show but it is far better than others. So that’s why it stays fully in the green as a show.

Overall, Horimiya is a pretty fun show. It’s impressive how much they covered in a single season. Yes, the pacing will feel fast but Hori and Miyamura basically get together early on and then they still have time to hang out. The show balances 3-4 different romance plots along with backstories and everything. So it’s all crammed in and you will feel like you saw about 20 episodes. The character developments are important and so this is a show with good production values that I can recommend to anyone. Hori is a great driving force throughout the series as a proactive heroine who knows what she wants and has better communication skills than most of the classic anime characters you will see. The show fully delivers on its share of funny and emotional moments.

Overall 7/10

Lonely Castle in the Mirror Review

Posted on January 31, 2026 by dreager1

It’s time for my next adventure into the lonely castle! The manga was pretty fun when I read through it and the movie is a pretty faithful adaption. Naturally they do have to cut out a number of things but that’s normal for basically any movie adaption. They got to the main points and while I would say it is decidedly less intense than the manga version, we still do get a body count in the end.

The movie introduces us to Kokoro who for some reason does not want to go to school. It is apparent that something bad happened to her but we don’t know what. Well, one day a mirror appears in her room and transports her to a castle along with 6 other kids. They are told that this castle will be open for the whole school year but afterwards it will close. However, they have a chance to find a key which will grant one wish based on whoever gets it. Kokoro absolutely has a wish but these kids likely have ambitions of their own. Will they all be able to get along in such an environment? The castle just has one rule, you must not stay past 5 or you will be eaten by a wolf along with everyone else who entered the castle that day.

Pretty high stakes but technically most of the film is fairly upbeat. Kokoro finally gets to interact with kids who aren’t absolutely crazy and this allows her to gather the courage to fight the problems that exist for her back home. She can finally confide in her mother and begin the recovery process. There are some mysteries still going on like how this castle works and where could the key be, but they play second fiddle to Kokoro’s journey. Likewise the other kids don’t have a whole lot of time to their plots as well although they are crammed in at the end.

Technically even in the manga we didn’t see many of their struggles until the end but through their conversations we could get some inklings early on. This one has to go at a very fast pace in order to cover as much as possible. The way it’s ordered can also make the tone clashing a bit tricky at times. The one scene that was most jarring in this way was after the big climax where everyone sits down to talk and they’re all super happy and chipper. It doesn’t feel like there was enough time to be this calm yet.

Now, I assume that the queen of the wolves took certain things into account in order to prevent bad outcomes for any of the kids who participated in this journey but the film doesn’t actually go into detail. For example, Aki by far has the hardest struggle. It’s quite literally more severe than the other kids by several magnitudes and you’re left wondering what options she has for when she gets back to the real world. Since the film doesn’t go into it, I choose to believe that either the villain was devoured by the wolves or she was warped to a place where she was able to avoid the situation and get him locked up or something.

Aki’s plot was definitely a lot darker than anything else in the film though so it really feels unexpected. The film also used a unique animation effect to make those scenes even creepier. Personally I could have done without this plot but at least the film made sure that the worst of it didn’t actually happen and Aki was able to escape. The castle would have looked bad if anything was allowed to happen at the time.

I would say that Kokoro probably had the second hardest journey because of how isolated she was. Having a group of people coming over to your house to presumably beat you up in the best case scenario is already a tough thing to endure. Then mix that with how young she is and it is easy to see how this would be traumatic. The film definitely does a good job of hitting the emotional beats. You’ll be feeling the somber vibes the whole time.

It is also a good explanation for why Kokoro is so timid. I think anyone would be considering the circumstances there. As the film goes on she is able gain more confidence. The rest of the characters don’t really have a lot to do but are mostly reasonable. The most unlikable one is Ureshino. He just tries too hard and spends too much time flirting. While he does end up getting bullied and has a sad story like the rest, he handled it the worst. He eventually gets better but I never really came around on him.

Rion would easily be the best character as he did his best to make Kokoro feel comfortable and would also de-escalate each situation. He essentially played the role of the leader and without him that would have been a much harder journey for everyone else. Subaru probably has the most scenes cut out or at least it feels that way. You get some context clues for what he’s going on but it’s possible that you will mainly recognize this if you read the manga. Same for Rion with how he was essentially pushed to boarding school. You might only have suspicions just based on the movie.

Fuka also doesn’t get a ton to do here but the story of trying to live up to being a prodigy is definitely a classic one. Masamune and his lies getting him into trouble is another abbreviated one that still makes enough sense in the end. The Wolf Queen plot has to move pretty quickly as well. I think one way the film could have improved here would have been to show Rino being suspicious about her much earlier in the film so you can drop little hints here and there. Finally Ms. Kitajima is a big factor throughout the movie and so I’d say the movie paced her appearances really well.

As for the animation, it does have the usual nerf that films get where it doesn’t look as good as a standard anime. That said, it’s still a good product. I did like how the burning wolf really stood out. The flames looked hot and the colors were very striking. It may not be the most fluid project out there but I’d give it a passing grade. The soundtrack is definitely more on the forgettable side. I can’t say that it was particularly solid but it wasn’t bad or anything like that. So the technical areas were all about average here and the film succeeds more on the story beats.

Overall, The Lonely castle is a good film but I do think it was pushing the envelope a little hard with Aki’s plot. Throwing in a scene to see him get taken down would have helped but the film is more about recovery for each character rather than revenge or knocking anyone down. I’d argue that closure is a good part of recovery but ultimately things worked out. It’s the same thing where Kokoro’s bullies don’t get taken down a peg. In a way Kokoro is just given the tools for how to handle situations like that going forward. She also has a bright future coming up now because in the new timeline she’s going to have an ally at the ready right from the start. If you’re up for a really emotional film then you should check this one out. I’d say the movie also makes a good argument for how beneficial it can be to have friends or someone to talk to in order to not have to carry so much baggage on your own. Kokoro would have not had to deal with nearly as much grief as she did if her first friend hadn’t succumbed to peer pressure.

Overall 6/10

To Be Hero X Review

Posted on January 18, 2026 by dreager1

This show really took the world by storm with how big it got. Right away you could see that the animation was really top notch here. It was also going to take the interesting approach of airing backwards. Each story arc would take place before the one that just happened. Each of the top 10 heroes got their own animated short early on to introduce them and then you’d get to see them within the story. Each character got something to do and there was also live voting for the top 10 heroes which would possibly determine seeding in the tournament. The whole thing was really bold and I dare say that it was a complete success.

In this world, heroes gain their power directly from their fans. If the fans believe something then it will happen. As a result the hero industry has become huge in the entertainment field with companies sponsoring heroes and also manufacturing different crisis events for them to solve. As long as a hero has supporters, he will continue to be powerful. However, this also means that the hero will lose their freedom right away. If the fans don’t want you to get together with someone or to move way then you physically can’t. In a way it’s a very scary thing but you won’t find out about it until you become a hero. We follow different heroes as they encounter this reality and have to decide how to move forward.

This is a show that is really all about setting up season 2 so hopefully they are able to make it that far. If not, well it was still a real blast to see how this one played out. To say it is elite is not an overstatement. This is a show with a ton of replay value and I’ve seen lots of the fights several times. It’s crazy how much budget went into it and it’s one of the few shows that could pull off 3D and 2D. It was also fun to really be involved in the predictions and theories online like the in universe reason for the 3D.

This show being marketed as a multi media franchise with things happening in universe and out of it was rather brilliant. Also the soundtrack is top tier. A lot of the heroes have their own themes and they really work out well. Ther is a lot of variety here and the themes all have a lot of power to them. The lyrics make sense and they just make you more excited for what’s going to happen. The opening and ending were both really good as well. I could go on, the point is that everything about this show is really top notch. Season 2 will have a hard time matching up to this but with a tournament coming up, that is already a promising start.

The first episodes are about Lin Ling. Lin was just an average citizen who would write about the top heroes when he witnesses one of the most popular heroes jump off the building to his death. The PR agency grabs Lin and tells him that he must act as Nice. By tricking the fans into thinking that he is the real deal, Lin will gradually be changed into Nice. He slowly starts to gain abilities and even his appearance but what are the limits to this? Will Lin in effect become Nice mentally as well? Will he still be his own person? Lin isn’t sure about this but for now he will play ball with the group. Things get dangerous with Nice’s girlfriend Moon is kidnapped. Saving her won’t be easy.

This story arc sets up a lot of the subtle elements of the show like how the fans having this level of power may not purely be a good thing. It sounds really good on paper of course but if they have total control of your life, then things can get really dangerous. One example is when they prevent Lin from going to save Moon because they fear that it is the wrong move. Lin’s only possible escape there is to separate from his identity as Nice. It’s easier said than done to do this though.

Lin is a great main character and this was a good story arc to begin the series with. Even by the end it may be the best one of the bunch. It’s not necessarily the flashiest or anything like that but it’s a clear character arc for the lead and the fights are great. It is also the source of all the intrigue here since almost every other episode after this is a flashback. That really changes how you look at the first arc afterwards from all the other angles.

Moon is also a solid heroine and she had a tough draw so you do feel bad for her. Having to play the role of girlfriend for a while to a jerk is tough. Also because of the fan influence it’s not easy to get away from him which is why she needs to fake her own death. Her ability is more of a support one as well so she’s not going to be getting in there and landing a lot of powerful blows either. In this world, being doomed to be a supporting character is a tough fate as well.

Wreck is a character who hasn’t appeared much yet but he was solid. He’s a great fighter and was a friend to the original Nice. So you figure that’ll come into play more in future episodes. He will probably be a powerful ally that Lin can rely on. I liked his design and he was a good contrast. We also can’t forget about Enlighter who is a crazy good investigator. Lin may end up making him look crazy for a while there but the guy was absolutely right on his hunches. Ultimately he succumbed to the dark powers too quickly as a shortcut and that was his biggest problem. He was still a lot of fun to have around though.

We also meet Firm-Man who really suffers due to the fans. They believe him to always be up-right and firm to the point where he physically cannot bend down. It is his ultimate curse. Now by this point you’re wondering why he doesn’t just tell people about this in a speech. Let them know that justice can bend or something. Perhaps he isn’t fully aware of it being the public’s fault but it’s implied that he knows about it. Maybe there would be a severe punishment for this? Either way I would have liked a more concrete answer because changing public perception should just be the way to go in situations like this.

Then we have the E-Soul arc. In this one, a kid named Yang starts out as an actor who portrays E-Soul in a play. He gradually gets close to a girl he has a crush with. After stopping some thugs, people even start to believe in him. His fake E-Soul suit becomes the real deal and his power really starts to grow. The thing is, there should only be one of each hero. His power is directly draining from the actual E-Soul’s. Finally a match is set up to determine who will continue the legacy of that hero. Yang doesn’t intend to lose here but is he perhaps a little too desperate for power?

Yang is a good main character here but right away you can tell that the show is letting him be a bit more sinister than Lin. This guy is determined to be the strongest no matter what and has a huge chip on his shoulder. The end of Lin Ling’s arc also means that you’re going to be on edge as well. So you don’t trust him for a lot of reasons but I do like the E-Soul design and his powers are certainly really cool. Super speed and electricity is a deadly combination.

The old E-Soul doesn’t get a whole lot to do in comparison. He doesn’t really want to change his ways or even acknowledge a lot of what’s happening. I’d argue that he looks really complacent at best and that comes back to haunt him here. He’s not a bad guy but you aren’t really given much to root for with his character.

Then we have Lucky Cyan’s arc. She started out as a survivor from a big airplane crash. She was the soul survivor and now lives at an orphanage. The orphanage is a bit strange though and she has dreamed of leaving to become an idol. In the meantime people have started to treat her as a prophet of sorts. Her luck has made the news and people feel like she can spread it around to them. Perhaps she can…but perhaps it is simply the will of the people that is doing this. However the power worked, she is incredibly powerful now even though she has never fought a battle before.

Lucky knows that this isn’t healthy and that she has to go but it won’t be easy. She’ll have to fight her way out and may have a rift with her best friend over this. That’s because another train of thought suggests that she gets this good luck by stealing it from others. If so, that puts a much darker spin on things. Lucky can’t control this, all she can do is try to be the best hero that she can be. So she continues to move forward and doesn’t let these events get her down. Ultimately I would say that it’s a much happier arc than the first two in tone. It’s fitting for a girl who is known as being lucky. The arc also sets up several supporting characters who will grow to have bigger and bigger roles as the series goes on.

After that we focus on Queen who is one of the highest ranking heroes in the world. She was really close to claiming 1st but got destroyed by X, the number 1 hero. This messes with her confidence but she keeps on fighting. Unfortunately, a former champ known as Bowa does not take this well at all and latches onto fear in order to gain more power. Trust is the term for the power that ignites the heroes and fear is what the dark power that fuels villains is called. the contrast makes a lot of sense.

Bowa is super petty the whole time but makes for a good villain. The fight itself was definitely real intense. Meanwhile Queen is a really good heroine. She is actually trying to change the whole system and is trying to grow in her political movement. Of course to make a real difference she will need to become the #1 hero and that’s going to be incredibly difficult to manage. Right now X appears to be completely invincible. How you even begin to fight such a guy seems impossible to think about.

Then we have the story arc about Loli. She wants to fight crime and use her robot suit but everyone sees her as a cute little girl which prevents her from building up a ton of muscle. Gradually at least she gets people to respect her abilities while in the suit even if her father is rather over protective the whole time. That’s at least something that she can really deal with here. She looks out for her friend and makes for a solid character. I do think she tends to get overshadowed by most of the other top heroes though. She is really good, but just doesn’t stand out. Additionally you feel like a robot suit is not enough for her to hold her own against most of the top heroes.

We also get to see another former #1 hero in DJ. DJ continues to show us why the previous top heroes were not all that impressive. This guy has fallen off into tough times and easily lets himself get taken into the dark side. The musical attacks are pretty interesting and I do see a lot of potential there. I think he could have been a more powerful villain if he was given more time to really get set up. Having a tough time with Loli doesn’t really help his case.

Ghostblade also shows up here briefly but gets his own arc afterwards. We see that he has a hard time communicating with others. He actually still managed to get married and have a daughter but things quickly become tense and he is written out of their lives. From that point forward he is even more isolated but watches over his daughter in secret. As a contract killer it’s not like he is a good person though. This even puts him in a tough position since he murders the father of a current top 10 hero.

He’s an interesting character though because it was nice to see a top hero who isn’t actually a “hero” all the way. That’s something that you figure would be happening from time to time with how the system works. People don’t always look up to the nicest of folk after all. He also gets to crush DJ in this battle. That guy can’t catch a break but Ghostblade also does seem to be one of the more powerful heroes.

Then we have Little Johnny. Right now he has to be one of the blandest characters but part of it may be by design. He is trying to figure out who murdered his father. As the viewer you know that it is Ghostblade but he doesn’t know that. He tries to always keep a positive mindset about things but you can feel the rage behind that. So what I’m banking on is that this will be what makes him a more compelling character. For now though, he’s essentially a kid who is out of his league right now. His pet monster is certainly powerful but Johnny himself isn’t very impressive.

In his arc we also meet Vortex who is another former #1. This guy actually seems really powerful so you can get why he was a full on legend. Power over the weather is always a good ability and it didn’t seem like he got really corrupted the way that a lot of the others were. So he gets props on having a strong will as well which is something that a lot of ex heroes were missing.

As we approach the end, Dragon Boy gets the next slot. We’ve got another villainous figure this time. He was raised by one of the corporate sponsors to be the next big villain so it was going to be tough for him to get on the right road from the start. His ability is about tanking damage long enough for him to copy his aggressor’s abilities. It’s a cool ability so long as you can stay in the fight that long. It’s a big if though and that’s where things get pretty tricky. He does well against both Smile and Nice so right now his abilities have a high limit to them.

I’m a bit skeptical if this will continue to be the case but for now he has to be a contender as one of the strongest fighters. He makes for a good villain so I’m excited about that. Then we have Smile who feels like a Superman type of figure. How much he has to force himself to smile is an interesting topic. Is it the fans or Smile himself trying to keep up an image? I tend to think it’s more the latter which makes this another scary curse. Imagine having to constantly be smiling no matter what’s going on? That’s not a fun fate for anyone to have. Things really got rough for Smile here and I’d have liked to have seen more of him.

Nice also gets a big role here and I should talk about him separate from Lin Ling. Nice is a much pettier character and he doesn’t have the mental fortitude that Lin Ling has. Nice constantly lets the pressure get to him and doesn’t stand up for himself. Even when he makes the right decision it’s not until he has hesitated for quite a while. I can’t say that I ever liked him here. He doesn’t even work as a cool villain because he’s too whiny. Unless we get some twists about the first episode, he ultimately wasn’t able to stay strong in the end either.

After that we wind down with quick episodes for the last heroes. The first is Ahu who is a dog but gained the ability to talk and everything as he became a legend. It shows that the power of the fans can even affect animals. It’s a pretty interesting effect. I can’t say that I can take him too seriously though. He doesn’t seem nearly as powerful as the other heroes. He also seems to be easily manipulated like when he went after X at the end. A nice enough pup but I don’t see him winning a single match against a named opponent in season 2.

Finally we have X, the ultimate hero. He has reality warping abilities where he can switch the world from 2D to 3D by snapping his fingers. Which world is the real one? Well we don’t even know. In addition to this he has very quick reflexes and basically never gets hit. He can end most matches in an instant and is virtually unbeatable. It’ll be curious to see how someone gets the jump on him eventually but for now it’s hard to picture that happening without some serious plot convenience. This guy is just too broken and powerful. There is a reason why he is known as being unbeatable after all.

This guy is also super likable so that’s another added bonus. He’s easy to root for Generally I like the overpowered characters so I’m not too surprised. X has unbelievable confidence and just says it like it is. He clearly has some kind of a plan as the season ends so it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out. There are so many ways that the next season can play out. Almost half of the heroes are evil at this point and everyone has an agenda. Some range from being dangerous to flat out world ending threats.

The final episode has a new ending which also shows a bunch of new villains. So there might be some kind of outer space invasion that forces everyone to team up. That would be an interesting angle to pursue but I admit I’ll be a little sad if we just completely skip the tournament. I would not want to do that! At least let me have a few small fights to rank the heroes. I also really need Lin Ling to confront E-Soul. I don’t even know how E-Soul is still alive right now. Lin should have put him 6 feet under as soon as they met so the show is going to need to give me some really good explanations for this. It’s going to be a hard plot to write around.

Overall, To Be Hero X is a really intense series. It took a lot of bold approaches like airing all of the arcs backwards and the shifting animation styles. Even releasing the exact order of the arcs and who the leads would be before the series even started airing. It spoke to the confidence of the show and I hope it was well founded so we get the second season soon. If you haven’t watched the show yet then you should definitely check this one out. It’s an elite action show and has the daunting task of trying to create a whole universe about heroes like Marvel and DC. It is definitely on the right track though. It also set the bar extremely high for animation so season 2 has an insane amount of pressure on it.

Overall 9/10

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