Persona 3 The Movie: #4 Winter of Rebirth Review

Posted on September 20, 2026 by dreager1

It’s time for the end of the Persona journey. It’s definitely been fun to get to experience the story all the way from the beginning. The Persona games are super long so it makes sense that you would need 4 movies to tell the story. There isn’t as much action as you would expect for a while there but they make up for it with the climax which may be the longest action piece out of the 4 films. Hard to say if that’s the case for sure but it felt like it. This one ends the series off on a good note.

The film starts right where the last one ended off with Aegis being defeated by Ryoji. He informs Makoto that humanity is doomed. Ryoji is essentially death incarnate and the herald of Nyx. Makoto can choose to destroy Ryoji which will wipe the memories of everyone on Earth so they don’t have to dread their final 2 months and can live normally. Makoto doesn’t want to do this though and the rest of his team are also hesitant. Although Makoto is explicitly the only one who has the power to do this so he gets the final say. He just spends his final days zoning out until a visitor from another realm shows up. Can she snap him out of it?

I would say the main annoying thing about this plot is how everybody just gives up. They’ve all been through a lot of difficult challenges before so why is this any different? It feels like they all take Ryoji at face value about how invincible Nyx is and just don’t want to fight. I would even say they shouldn’t believe that destroying him would be pointless. I would have liked to see the heroes continue to fight and stay in denial if that’s what it took to keep their spirits up. At the very least they cannot just give up because that is the absolute worst thing that you can do. You have to keep on fighting for every inch for as long as it takes.

The only one who I won’t give any shade to is Aegis. She fought as hard as she could immediately and is written out for part of the film due to being broken. Otherwise she was not just giving up without a fight and if anything was dismayed to find out that the others didn’t share her energy. Aegis was ready to fight to the bitter end and that’s exactly how it should be. It’s just too bad that her sheer firepower isn’t enough to take on these big threats.

Elizabeth is the secret MVP to the film. She shows up and decides to help Makoto out even though it’s not like this was something that she needed to do. She simply decided that it’s something that she wanted to do and that is what really makes her role even more heroic. She helps Makoto see how much fun it is to simply be alive and spurs on the heroes’ final defense. Without her they would have continued to just go through the motions and lose without a fight.

Makoto may be the main character but he was pretty passive up to this point. His character is probably one that works a bit better in the game where you have hours upon hours of him doing the right things and hanging in there. I’d say what hurts him in the films is it feels like he gets depressed in every installment. I thought that film 3 would be the last time it happened until this one came in. Again, there just wasn’t a good enough reason for me on why the heroes would just accept that they couldn’t win this fight. Never trust a monologuing villain.

The animation is pretty solid as always. You could make the case for this being the best looking out of the 4 films. They really went all out with the shading and various camera angles. The final fights all look great and it is definitely a very chaotic fight. The colors are good and it’s also nice to still see the humans fighting alongside their Personas. It just makes the battles feel more personal and it is always satisfying when the humans actually land good hits in.

It was too bad that we didn’t get to see much of a fight against the enemy persona users in the last film so this time they get more of a full fight. They don’t last long against the heroes by this point in the series but I was glad that they weren’t just offscreen or anything like that. Now that would have definitely been a little disappointing. As for the final boss, Nyx is pretty impressive but doesn’t have enough time to have too much of a character. More of a final boss obstacle than a character one. Ryoji has to suffice as far as the character part goes and he looks good.

I would say he just works better as a villain than a hero with how he’s always smirking and looking like he is in control of things. That is exactly how you want your villains to act. For the heroes I have to give most of them a failing grade this time though. The kid and the dog are ironically the only ones really holding it together. Yukari and Junpei probably look the worst out of the group. Yukari goes into complete depression mode where she hides in her room while Junpei starts picking fights. Not very productive things to do when the world is ending.

Mitsuru, Akihiko, and Fuuka are mainly just staying quiet the whole time as they try and process the situation. Even though they also feel rather defeated, at least they aren’t just putting that out there. If you feel like throwing in the towel that’s one thing, but at least you can make sure not to bring anyone down with you. I’d say that’s one of the key differences between this group and the first one.

As always the soundtrack is also really good. I was still waiting for my favorite theme to show up but I suppose it might have clashed with the tone. Either way you have a good amount of action tunes in here and Persona music has a whole lot of range. This film is taking a more somber approach and the music is able to match that. It’s definitely a creative approach to ending a movie series as the final film will usually be a whole lot more lively and action packed. I guess that just didn’t work out here based on how the game was structured as well.

Overall, I’d definitely recommend checking this one out. You’ll be pretty lost if you skipped the first 3 films and of course if you watched those, why would you skip this one right? It’s a solid action title with a lot of introspection. The main characters may not look all that good here but sometimes it is hard to keep up with how high the stakes get. These guys just weren’t ready for all of that this time. As for the ending itself, I tend to interpret it as more of a happy one similar to Saint Seiya. The mission was accomplished, everyone is doing well and now the crew can all have a lot of other adventures going forward. I picture them all moving past this experience but I can see there being a lot of different theories on this. It would absolutely change the tone if the ending was more on the negative side but even on that end then you can pick a sub theory that makes it positive again. I do like when you can really speculate on an ending so that’s another point in the film’s favor.

Overall 7/10

Akane-banashi Review

Posted on September 13, 2026 by dreager1

It’s time for a series about Rakugo. It’s not an art that I was familiar with but essentially it is about telling a story where you play all of the roles. There are not elaborate costumes or any big special effects. You have to pull everything off on your own, including playing any instruments if needed. Having a whole series around this could be tricky since you’re going to need to write a bunch of stories and convincing characters who can pull off all of the roles. I’d say the show does a pretty good job of it. Rakugo is probably not something I’d be very interested in watching in real life, but anime adds that extra pizazz.

The story follows a girl named Akane who is really interested in Rakugo. She grew up idolizing her father’s Rakugo but one day he is suddenly expelled from the profession entirely and his career as a pro died. Akane has spent the last 6 years practicing her craft and aims to prove that her father’s skills were real. She will have to go through many challenges if she wants to be the best, but she is determined to prove herself.

The show definitely amps up the drama with her father to the point where you may even think that he’s dead for a while there. That may have been a little too dark for this one though, the motivation of wanting to prove the critics wrong is good enough. The series is pretty realistic all the way through by also explaining how her father could have joined a different master but just chose not to. It would have been hard to blacklist someone from this career entirely after all but it came down to pride. He didn’t want to succeed in any other way which is completely his decision but honestly to me that just means it wasn’t his life.

Akane feels like someone who would keep on fighting no matter what she had to do. Switching masters is something she would never want, but she wouldn’t just let her career get short changed like that. As someone even brings up, the guy who expelled her father wasn’t even his direct master. I feel like the dad could have pushed back on that. In general I’m just not a really big fan of this guy. I’d also like for him to be way more present in Akane’s life.

The show goes into this and he has his reasons but I didn’t think they were good enough. I’m a much bigger fan of Akane’s mom who is always there to support her. Her role is not huge since there’s not as much she could do here but it’s enough to know that Akane has her in the corner and is someone to talk to.

Akane is fairly young but since she has been training since childhood, it makes sense that she is really good. I was glad that the show really acknowledged this instead of making her a rookie for some reason. There are still plenty of different ways to make challenges for her and the show handles this well. She is absolutely a prodigy but there are other prodigies around as well so the competition will always be fierce.

Akane speaks up for herself and is a very fiery character. While she sometimes does have to play nice because of how formal the environment is, I give her full credit for not just letting the others roll over her. She also doesn’t stay down about anything for too long. All in all, she’s definitely a standout character and one of the best ones in the show. The cast is already getting pretty large with characters being set up for season 2 but so far they’ve mainly been good.

Issho works well as the main villain as well. He certainly does believe in protecting the future of Rakugo and so for him expelling the father wasn’t personal. (Welllllllll future seasons may change that framing a little bit) I don’t think his goals always make sense though. For example he talks about how the art is completely dying and they need to inject new life into it. Then it would make sense to keep as many pros as possible right? Publicly expelling a bunch of trainees and scaring the rest seems like it is absolutely backwards compared to that. Issho’s excuse is that it would water down the sport but that’s just hard to buy into.

Still, the show makes sure not to treat him like some 2 bit criminal. He’s still nice to the press and maintains a solid public figure. The guy even jokes with a reporter that he has to be nice because otherwise who is going to laugh at his stories? Rakugo isn’t always for making the audience laugh but that’s definitely the case in a majority of the stories. So that expelling moment was controversial and a mask off type of instance but it’s not who he usually is. I look forward to his continued rivalry with Akane. Rivalry might be the wrong word but they will certainly be going against each other.

Shiguma is another one of the big Rakugo masters and so he ends up being the one who trains Akane. He’s a bit mixed about this and didn’t want to be taking on any more apprentices but couldn’t really turn her down given the context. He’s a nice guy who doesn’t usually make a bunch of waves but may have to change that now. As the youngest member of his school, Akane is spoiled by all of the characters. If anyone goes after her, it’s not Shiguma’s job to protect her and he made that promise to her mother.

Another character in Akane’s corner is Jumbo. He used to be a bully back when she was growing up but he did mature over the years. Now he does his best to support her dreams and is always there with a kind word. He even talks to her teacher in an effort to help change her mind and let Akane pursue her dreams. He’s a character who doesn’t appear a whole lot but he really does make a difference in these small ways which I appreciated.

Then we have the teacher, Machiko. She has a small but important role here as well. It makes sense to be skeptical about Akane’s decision not to continue with school and to become a Rakugo player instead. There are so many ways that could go badly and Akane is young to be making such a permanent life decision. Still, Machiko keeps an open mind and ends up helping quite a lot.

From Akane’s teammates, Koguma is my least favorite. I do want to underscore that this doesn’t make him a bad character inherently but he’s just less interesting than the others. His gimmick is that he’s usually timid but gets really bold when he’s on stage. He also likes to tell stories by thinking about the lore behind them. So nothing bad there but I feel like Akane has probably already surpassed him.

Hikaru is one of Akane’s rivals and she does have a leg up in being a voice actress. She is used to throwing her voice around and doing all kinds of impressions. That’s an incredibly useful talent to have at her disposal. Some of the others try to use it as a diss but they’re just coping. Akane has the edge in experience so that makes for a pretty good contrast between the two of them. I definitely look forward to her appearing more.

Karashi is Akane’s other big rival and he likes telling a more modern twist on the classic Rakugo stories. It’s an incredibly good idea because telling the same stories over and over is really not a good idea. It’s got to be one of the reasons that Rakugo is dying. Particularly since the stories are all ancient and the characters don’t talk like normal people. It just doesn’t end up making for a particularly engaging product. Karashi is rather full of himself but that’s how a rival should be, so he’s definitely a compelling character.

Kaisei is one of those future rivals. Right now he is so far ahead of Akane that you can’t call it a true rivalry but down the road you can see how they would be fighting it out. He is a bit of an overbearing character who really gets up in your face and he gets away with that because of his talent. We only get to see him perform in a vague way so it’s a bit hard to say just how good he is but based on how he’s presented, he’s the best of the younger performers.

Maikeru hasn’t done much yet but he’s the more senior member of Akane’s teammates. So he clearly has a lot of ability and will be someone that Akane is not able to surpass so easily. Kyouji is another senior member but he gets a much bigger role than the others. He essentially takes on the role of being Akane’s hands on mentor. He walks her through the basics that she wouldn’t have encountered in practice and encourages her to keep up her grades as well. He doesn’t want her to sacrifice things needlessly which is important.

Kyouji is a well balanced character although he doesn’t strike me as being super talented. Naturally that’s not the case but his Rakugo just feels ordinary. Likewise we have Guriko who also helps to tutor Akane but he doesn’t seem to be immensely talented. This is actually building up to a plot point though so that works out. It is rough to be surpassed by someone who just joined the clan so I can get why that would be annoying. That’s the power of a prodigy.

Now as the show went on there are two questions that will come to mind. The first is, how will the show manage to show how skilled each Rakugo master is? The title intentionally avoids showing Issho or the others giving their full performances while we are still watching the trainees going through the motions. That said, it’s just a bit hard to picture how different you can really show the art of Rakugo. The series will have to get real creative there.

The second question is, how come the characters are all stuck to using the same stories over and over? I guess it’s answered to an extent with how Issho really loves tradition but then of course the art is dying out. Imagine if you really love watching a cooking show but they always make the same 10 items? It’s why I really liked Karashi because he had the right idea. Throwing a modern twist into these stories is a great way to get to the audience. It’s something that I’d like to see other characters doing. Maybe not making it modern per say, but switching up some details.

The animation is pretty solid throughout the show. It’s not like you’re going to be able to show off a whole lot here since there aren’t fight scenes but the colors are on point. The character designs work well and you can tell that a lot of attention was put into it. The soundtrack is a little less impressive. Not bad but the opening really didn’t click for me. The themes during the show are good though. So I wouldn’t call this one super memorable but it’s not bad by any means.

This show also shows how important writing is in getting you invested. I’m personally not all that into Rakugo even after watching the series. I tend to prefer the moments around the actual performances because I just enjoy competition. Give me all the tournaments and the trash talking around them. The Rakugo itself just seems a little too basic. I would really need the other actors around because one person trying to play them all would just start to feel a bit cheesy to me. Like I would be cracking a grin even when I’m not supposed to be. The stories aren’t painful or anything, they’re just not super engaging so far.

Overall, I definitely look forward to seeing where the next season goes here. There are going to be a lot of tournaments as Akane tries to move up the ranks and that always means more rivals to overcome. The show has a very pleasant vibe to it and so the episodes go by quickly. It’s definitely going to run into some challenges on how to make the fights stay interesting/how to increase the power levels and so I want to see how that’s handled. You don’t need to be a big fan of Rakugo in order to enjoy this one so that’s a solid credit to the show.

Overall 7/10

Persona 3 The Movie: No. 3, Falling Down Review

Posted on September 12, 2026 by dreager1

This third Persona 3 film definitely feels like the craziest one in some ways while also being the most slice of life. Sounds like a contradiction eh? Well we really start right away with the heroes having their final confrontation with the villains that appeared in the last film and all of the shadows were taken down essentially off screen. The threat is over and our heroes have made it to a new era of peace. That’s essentially how this film starts off so most of it is the after party. Makoto is wondering what to do next and starts drifting away from the rest of the team while a mysterious transfer student shows up and decides to be his new friend. What is going on?

I’m betting that the film just had to skip a lot of the mid parts of the game in order to get to the next events or at least that’s what it felt like to me. Not a bad thing by any means but the cutting felt more apparent. I would have liked to have seen more of the intro fight though because it was looking real interesting. I’d say there is a bit less action here than in the last film but it may have just felt like that. The movie is also a bit shorter than the last one so it may be a by default kind of thing.

The opening fight was probably the best out of the 3 films so far and it was nice seeing the whole gang get in on the action. The group is really big by this point but they still all get to have their moments. Throw in a mini climax right after that with a big betrayal and it’s like the film started out with its climax. After that there is a lull until the end so how much you like this film will depend on how much you enjoy the shenanigans in the middle.

I will say that the middle could be a bit choppy at times. I feel like Makoto going through a depression arc again was a bit repetitive. It was already foreshadowed last time with him wondering what would happen when the shadows were gone so I figured he had gotten past that. I suppose instead he had secretly been dreading it the whole time. This time the arc is seemingly over for real so that’s a good thing. Makoto was really holding them back but at least this time the others were holding their own.

Each film tends to pick 2 of the friends to get their big moments and this time I would say it was Junpei and Kirijo. You could make a case for Aigis as well though. The kid and dog from the last film definitely get the shaft though. For Junpei his big character arc is about how he is in love with one of the villains, Chidori. So he doesn’t want the team to be too harsh on her even when she was actively trying to murder them. I’m always up for a good romance but I think it was a bit much to be stopping his allies when she was absolutely evil. You could say that she was manipulated a bit and her mind isn’t quite right but those do come down to being excuses.

Junpei was captured and then severely injured during the film. It was really not his best appearance and he was also unsure of how to help Makoto when the guy was going through a lot. You need a better friend than Junpei. Kirijo spends a lot of the film being depressed because of events that happened near the beginning. I give her credit for trying to handle this internally and not making a big deal out of it. It’s certainly not the healthiest approach but she is trying to move forward in the best way that she knows. I can definitely respect that and she doesn’t hesitate when it comes time to fight. That’s something the others can really learn from.

Aigis has to deal with the fact that her mission is seemingly over and she handles it better than Makoto. She is determined to keep moving forward and stays by Makoto’s side. This makes for some pretty effective comedic scenes and she has really earned her spot among the group. As a robot her one weakness is being controlled by others so hopefully she can get more security soon. Aigis is a determined fighter though and even at the end of the film she is the first one to act. If only the others had taken her warnings more seriously.

So how about this new mysterious kid named Ryoji? Depending on what you’re expecting from the character I’d say that the film tipped its hand a little too quickly. I mean it all just feels very obvious on where they were taking his character but I guess I have watched a lot of anime before. He seems like a nice enough guy but the nonstop flirting can be really obnoxious. Definitely the kind of character that you wouldn’t want to take too seriously or he’ll just be upsetting the whole time. He should be playing a big role in the next film though and I expect he will look a lot better there.

The soundtrack is great as always. Persona always has really good tunes and this one doesn’t disappoint. They are forced to use action themes even for comedic moments like being stuck at the hot springs since a lot of the film isn’t in a tense situation. It works pretty well though and the film largely avoided having too much fanservice there. There was definitely still some though which is why you never want to follow up a beach adventure with a trip to the hot springs. That’s really just asking for trouble if you ask me.

I already talked about this before but to enjoy this film you are really going to need to like the characters. A lot of the film is about them going on a field trip, working part time jobs, etc. It’s not going to work for you if you just want the climax to happen right away so just don’t go in with that mindset. I’d probably have trimmed down the side quest stuff a little bit but it doesn’t seriously drag on. You’ll just feel some second hand embarrassment from the stoic Makoto doing all of these little tasks while presumably his friends are watching and wondering what’s going on. It would be odd for a friend to stop talking to you and then you see him hanging out with someone new and having a bunch of goofy adventures.

Overall, This was a pretty fun film. It’s really not what I was expecting with this next part. I suppose in the game it would be the calm before the storm but I wonder if this was really expanded or they cut out a lot of bosses in the middle. In theory even the calm parts would have had some night sections right? It may not have been as action packed as I may have hoped but I’m invested in the characters enough where the slice of life was still good. If anything it’s almost a bit foreboding where you are waiting for something to happen. There were a good amount of twists and turns here as well as a real body count so it’s not like the stakes got lower. These characters got to have a little more fun than most main character groups though so that’s a W in their corner. As long as you enjoy a good slice of life with some action then I’d definitely recommend this one.

Overall 7/10

Persona 3 The Movie: #2 Midsummer Knight’s Dream Review

Posted on September 6, 2026 by dreager1

It’s time for the next Persona installment! This one covers a whole lot of ground as we get more characters added to the main crew and some villains even show up. There’s also a good amount of lore here so it’s safe to say that we’re totally done with the prologue. If you enjoyed the first film then you’ll definitely like this one as it takes things to the next level.

The film starts off with the heroes taking care of a particularly devious boss that was trying to use its charm ability on the heroes. The heroes are finally able to hold their own at least a little bit without Makoto. While he was out getting charmed they were actually landing blows and dealing damage. I also wonder how long he and Yukari were under the mind control. In theory it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes or the rest of the team would have been crushed but the enemy certainly wasn’t rushing them.

Still, things have been looking up for Makoto. He has been showing more emotion lately and is really getting along with the rest of the team. That seems like a good thing at first but then some doubts begin to creep in. What will he do once the monsters are all gone? The heroes are ultimately fighting to save the world and remove this demonic hour but will Makoto go back to being a loner with no friends? That’s something that he is really going to have to contend with.

So it’s not all sunshine and flowers for Makoto this time. I admit that I do miss his more emotionless self to a degree but his character was always going to go this way in the long run. Persona isn’t the kind of title that even considers having static characters. It would go against the entire concept of the series. Likewise this movie isn’t quite as mysterious as the first film now that we’re actually getting answers to different questions like what is the 25th hour, who created the demons, etc. We even have main villains to take care of now.

So in the place of mystery we have more action and character development this time around. It’s a pretty fair trade off. The stakes are higher here as we’ve got an actual body count. The heroes are always fighting around death with how powerful the demons get but at least there are a lot of them so they can back each other up. It still feels like the others can’t fight near the level of Makoto but at least they are doing something compared to film 1 where they were borderline hostages the whole time.

I also have to give Yukari a lot of credit in particular here. She has gotten over her doubts and is a proud fighter with the rest of the team now. She no longer has any hesitations about combat and is right there on the front lines. Now her main threat is Aigis, one of the newer members of the group who is always hanging around Makoto. That’s naturally going to be a point of tension throughout.

Aigis quickly becomes one of the best characters though and as far as this film goes she was my favorite. It’s great to have someone who can effectively fight the demons even without her Persona. She is 100% focused on the mission and has a very emotionless style to her like Makoto. Aigis is helpful right from the start and doesn’t need any time to adjust to what is going on. Of course in a sense that’s because she is essentially a weapon. So in a way you could say she was literally built for this kind of job.

This movie also introduces a dog who gets to be part of the main group. I gotta admit, I’m not a big fan of including any animals with the group. This is naturally way too dangerous for any pup like this. The dog does a good job of quickly learning how to summon a Persona and everything but I still think that’s a bit much. No way to ensure his safety while protecting everyone else.

Then you have a little kid named Ken who also joins up. Even this is stretching things because he’s so young. It also turns out that he has a chip on his shoulder and some very personal reasons for wanting to help out. This leads to a pretty intense confrontation later on. I have to give Ken some props for actually wanting to take care of things on his own. It certainly wasn’t the heroic thing to do but yeah he was really taking care of business.

Finally we also have Shinjiro also joins up. He was briefly in the first film but did not want to get involved with the team. Well, they’re closing in on the goal now and convince him to help out. The guy doesn’t have a whole lot of time left though as he has a hard time controlling his abilities. There is a kind of medication that he can take in order to stave off the effects but it’s definitely more of a short term fix and not something that he can rely on forever.

He absolutely has the most tragic plot from all of the characters. It would just be hard for anyone to move on from what he did in the past and it’s easy to see why he doesn’t know how to atone. Saving the world from the demons would be a good start of course but if he messes up then he could easily just end up making things worse for everyone which would defeat the entire point. Still, I ended up liking the guy quite a bit. He was dealt a rough hand in life but played it as well as he could.

The older members get a little less to do this time. Fuuko, Kirijo, and Junpei are around the whole time but don’t have particularly big plots here. Fuuko and Junpei got their big plots in the first movie and I feel like Kirijo will get more of a focus later on. Of course we will also have to make time for the 3 new villains. These characters haven’t gotten a whole lot to do yet but they have made their goals clear. They want the dark hour to continue forever and so they aim to stop the heroes from destroying the final demons. I believe the heroes have beaten 7/12 of the dark captains needed to end the demons once and for all. So they are pretty close at this point.

The villains definitely have a lot of potential. In a title like this it’s always fun to have a dark mirror where the villains use the same kind of power sets but for their own purposes. There are only 3 of them though so for now it feels like the heroes should be able to crush them rather easily. We’ll see if they just have busted units though. In the quick skirmish their main monster seemed tough but it was too quick to call this a proper fight.

The animation was definitely solid as you would expect. The character designs are on point and the film also had a lot of great music. Persona is definitely really good at that and the movie doesn’t disappoint. There is a bit of fanservice this time around between the beach and the opening scene. Nothing too crazy but Persona had been pretty good about avoiding this before now so hopefully it can stay rather light the whole time. I’m here for the action!

In general though I’d say the movies have been good about not being too extreme. The topics are serious and the characters can take some big injuries but it never gets to the point where it feels like the film is being too try hard about the violence. It’s more like a standard shonen I’d say. At least up to this part and again, we still have the serious themes and tragic backstories so it’s not like this one’s all fun and games. I’d say that it is probably happier than the first film overall but that might be debatable.

Overall, I look forward to seeing where the next film goes. In theory Makoto should be past the biggest doubts now so I don’t expect any more backsliding from him. Additionally the other characters should all be pulling their weight without a doubt. The team is just so big by this point so they should be rolling past a lot of fighters. Naturally the last bosses will be the strongest ones but the team is up for the task. As long as you like a good supernatural action film then you will enjoy this film as well. It’s just very strong all around.

Overall 7/10

Persona 3 The Movie: No. 1, Spring of Birth Review

Posted on August 30, 2026 by dreager1

It’s time to delve back into the world of Persona! I really didn’t know much about Persona 3 except for the song “It’s Going Down Now” which is absolutely generational. Unfortunately that song isn’t in this film but it still has a lot of fun tunes throughout. The movie is really fast paced so you have to keep up with it but this makes for a good watch from start to finish. It also ends off in a way where you know that the adventure is just starting.

The story starts off by introducing us to Makoto who is one of the most emotionless characters you’ll ever see. He’s walking through town when people start turning into coffins. He doesn’t have time to care about that though as he’s on the way to his dorm. When he gets there, a girl points a gun at him and Makoto just shakes his head as he gets to his room. Unfortunately giant monsters are trying to tear the place down so the ladies ask him to help out. This involves shooting himself with a gun that allows him to summon demonic entities known as Persona to help him fight. Makoto is now on a team known as SEES which fights back against these demons. Makoto will help out…because why not?

Now obviously there is a reason for his lack of emotion and the film gives us a few quick flashbacks to his past. Nothing substantive yet though, we’ll likely be getting that in the sequels. This one is really about having Makoto slowly open up to the characters around him. A part of me is going to miss how emotionless he was though. The fact that he was taking everything in stride was just really funny and I wish more characters were like that. There is a time for panicking after all but most characters abuse it.

I also like to think that the lack of emotion is part of why he is so strong. The other characters tend to get knocked around real quickly and don’t re-summon their monsters too quickly. Makoto just spam summons the Personas over and over again. This drains your soul/willpower so it’s risky but he wasn’t worried about that. Without Makoto the rest of the characters could have been crushed more than once. Which….is a knock against the others.

I’m no stranger to the concept of “The Chosen One” but it’s a bit of a stretch on just how weak the others are. It’s hard to see how they have survived at all without Makoto. They are unable to beat even a single boss without him. It seems like they never had to deal with bosses before Makoto showed up with how surprised they were though. So maybe in a way this loops around to all being Makoto’s fault. This may just be a pacing issue and with more time they could have shown off the other fighters a bit more.

The most unintentionally funny one is when the final member (for now) joins the group. Fuuko is a really shy girl who got picked on a lot and by the end of the film finally gets to fight. The problem is that she loses her first fight and seemingly her Persona’s only ability is to make a barrier which can delay the inevitable. Usually you’d expect the new character to do well in a TV show but I guess those rules don’t apply to a movie. So Makoto still had to save her even if she did help out in a support role.

I also want to see Fuuko standing up for herself more. In this case the bully saw the light and stopped picking on her but we haven’t gotten to see Fuuko confront anyone yet. It’s good that she is a really nice person but it definitely should not come at the expense of defending herself. You always have to continue to fight back and hold some kind of boundaries. Takeba is another character who is rather timid but in a very different way. She is tough around other characters but it’s more of a mask that drops when she is up against the monsters.

Takeba tends to annoy me more than Fuuko because she should be a pro by now. I do get how it would be hard to shoot yourself even if you know that it’s not a real gun though. The others are probably a bit weirder for accepting it so easily. At least Takeba is past all of that now so she should be looking better and better as the films go on. Panicking and nearly shooting Makoto was just not a good look for her.

Kirijo is one of the more disappointing ones when it comes to combat. It’s a bit of a clash in expectations because when she’s first introduced you get the feeling that this character is a bigshot. It turns out that she is another support type fighter so you don’t really see her on the frontlines. I think that was a mistake, we don’t need more support fighters. So she doesn’t really fight at all and loses off screen to her first big opponent. Just not a great showing at all. Yes at this point Makoto is really carrying the team. The others are still fun characters but in a fight they aren’t pulling their weight.

Junpei is at least another fighter on the group although he doesn’t have a ton of experience yet. In fact he is brand new to the game and immediately gets jealous of Makoto for outshining him in all areas. I was worried this would be a big plotline but it seems like the guy has calmed down for now. The stakes are too high for any infighting right now. Junpei’s the classic overconfident kind of guy so until he is able to back up the tough talk, he will be in hot water.

Akihiko is the final main member of the strike force. At least he actually seems to be powerful. The opponent was just a really bad matchup for him with how he could become immune to the elements. Without that then this would have been a very different fight. The electricity looked really sharp and he was also able to re-summon his Persona a lot. Hopefully he’ll continue to be on the front lines for future fights.

The animation is pretty sharp all the way through. I like the way they would do the colors for the characters’ hair and the fights were solid. I wouldn’t call this a high-end production or anything like that but it flows well. The songs are also really good like I mentioned before. They may not have brought out the A tier songs yet but you know that they are around. This film had a lot to cover with the character intros and nonstop action so the next one will hopefully be able to match that. In theory we need the nonstop fighting to continue in order to see more fun battle tracks.

That said, it’ll be hard for the sequel to capture the same intrigue and mystery that this one had. The film hasn’t really been addressing any questions yet so Makoto is just as lost as anyone else. Of course he’s not the kind of guy to ask about the details anyway. All you need to know is that monsters come out during an extra hour of the day that only specific people can see. It’s an interesting premise and that’s really all you need some times. With that I’ve got a good basis for the fights and there are always the classic mystery characters who appear in visions and meanwhiles. The film even had some post credit scenes which was cool.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this film. Whether you are familiar with Persona or not, it makes for a good action title. There is a lot of suspense here and the writing is good. The film’s also not very long so it really breezes right by you. It may not feel like a complete adventure but that’s normal for a part 1. It just means that you have to stick around so this will be an investment. You’ll be able to truly see just how solid it is once you have finished all of the films.

Overall 7/10

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Review

Posted on August 2, 2026 by dreager1

Demon Slayer continues to dominate the box office every time it appears. People have really been enjoying the action here and I look forward to the next two films seeing similar success. Ultimately this one lives up to the hype of essentially being 2+ hours of nonstop action as the only breaks are with the various sob stories. While I wouldn’t put it above Mugen Train and its masterful climax, this one is very close.

The movie starts off with all of the slayers falling into Mugen’s trap. His infinity castle comes with an infinite amount of demons in addition to the last of the upper ranks. The heroes must try and destroy the immortal Muzan while he is still weakened from the various poisons. The most difficult part will be in tracking him down though. The guy could be anywhere in this labyrinth and the heroes have to keep their guards up at all times. A single misstep and it will mean their end.

As this is just the first part of a 3 part saga, you should expect a lot of characters to get the shaft. Most of the various Hashira appear but only two of them actually get big fights in this one. Fortunately for Tanjiro he gets to step into one of the fights so the main character will not be absent from the proceedings. If you tend to be a plot first kind of guy then the film might end up lacking for you but know that the true story of any title is hidden within each blade clash.

There are 3 main plots in the film. First up is Shinobu against Doma. Doma is the 2nd strongest of the Upper Rank demons and generally you would need two Hashira ranking fighters from the heroes to go up against one of these. Shinobu has never been known for her raw power either as she strikes with poisons. Unfortunately upper ranks are pretty resistant to such tactics. This battle is all about Shinobu trying to find a way to stop Doma and to avenge her elder sister who fell prey to him in the past.

Each fight in the film tends to follow the same pattern of fight, then origin story before the climax. Doma’s is certainly not about making him look sympathetic at all but showing just how desperate the humans around him can be. They were desperate to find easy answers instead of just realizing that the real world doesn’t work like that. Meanwhile Shinobu got a brief backstory but just to explain why the fight was so personal. Doma is one of the creepier villains with how sadistic he is so that’s a lot or Shinobu to have to deal with.

The fight is super solid although it does feel like Doma is toying with her for most of it. If he got serious, she would seemingly not be much of a threat to him. The movie definitely establishes why Doma is such a big threat but Shinobu does good the whole time and never gives up. She really did justice to her title as a Hashira. The rest of the characters would have been proud.

Then in the second fight we have Zenitsu going up against Upper Rank 6, Kaigaku. On the surface this should be a stomp in the demon’s favor because Zenitsu is several ranks below a Hashira. He is hoping that Kaigaku’s lack of skill will be the difference here. Naturally this also involves a backstory and a lot of personal feelings all the way. Kaigaku is another guy who isn’t really meant to be sympathetic and you can appreciate that for a villain. That being said, it wasn’t surprising that he didn’t care when Zenitsu tries telling him about their old mentor.

The guy’s a demon, I bet he stopped caring many years ago. I did like his design though and the fight was definitely real intense. Zenitsu is also someone who may seem out of character to people who watched the anime. Usually he is the comic relief character who is always panicking but this fight is an exception. He looks tough from the start and really does great. I like the idea of someone being able to lock in for the most important fight of his life. If not then, when would you ever be able to gather up the courage right? This was a good way to cap off Zenitsu’s combat career but hopefully he’ll show up more soon.

This film’s really about the finial fight though and that’s where the hype was coming from. Akaza shows up once more as Upper 3 to take down Giyu and Tanjiro. It’s clear from the start that only Giyu has a chance and yet it’s tough to defeat someone who has infinite stamina. The longer a fight drags out, the more a demon gets the advantage. No sunlight will be making it into the castle either so that makes things even more difficult. The fight is the longest out of the bunch and really has a top tier animation budget behind it.

We get to see different power ups from the heroes as well as Akaza while the fight is underway. It was nice to see Tanjiro improve as he was mostly just a liability for the start of the fight. He means well though and I would say that Tanjiro is definitely a quality main character all the way. Even in this film which is more about showing each member of the cast, you can tell that Tanjiro is the main character. He has the big emotional flashback near the end and gets the big power up after all.

Akaza is the only villain with a sad backstory. It does a good job of not absolving Akaza’s crimes in it though. A lot of what happened to him is directly the guy’s fault after all. He made some really big mistakes and paid quite heavily for them. Ultimately he was probably the most dangerous of the villains, I dare say I would put him above Upper 1 and Upper 2. Fans may disagree on that based on the ranking system itself but nobody had Akaza’s sheer adaptation.

As for Giyu, he continues to be one of the best characters in the series. He’s certainly not big on showing emotions but doesn’t let it dull his blade. He does get annoyed when Tanjiro ruins the element of surprise but I get it. Tanjiro could have gotten a clean kill there instead of showing off. Sometimes when the stakes are so high you need to go for the sneak shot. It may not seem super honorable and all but this is a fight to the death with demons.

I was surprised that the film didn’t end with more of a cliffhanger though. I would have had a quick ending with Inosuke joining a fight or something like that. I guess the one catch to a part 1 fight like this is that some characters really didn’t get to do anything. It’s probably why we had almost 20 minutes at the start of the film to show everyone fighting off a bunch of demons. That was definitely an intense opener and I’ll take those crumbs until we get the next two films.

The animation is top tier as you would expect. The colors are incredible and the choreography is great. Ufotable is still one of the best animation companies of our generation and they do not hold back with all of these battles. This title does get pretty violent at times so I would say to keep this in mind if you’re not too good with violence. There is a high body count particularly thanks to the backstories and the humans tend to meet rather painful ends. There is also a random scene of a bear getting murdered that could have been cut. We already knew understood the concept of hiding aura so that could have been done a different way.

I would say that generally the film doesn’t linger on any one kill for too long. It’s probably a bit borderline though, the kind of title where just a bit more would probably have started to affect the score somewhat. You never want to go full Attack on Titan after all but at least we didn’t have people begging for their lives while being eaten or anything like that. This one is still more of a battle Shonen first and foremost. The soundtrack is also pretty good with a solid amount of variety and a good Akaza remix. I was listening to some of the tunes while writing this review and will continue to check some of the others out as I go forward.

Overall, I would definitely recommend checking this film out. As long as you enjoy good fight scenes then you’ll have a real blast here. The only context you need is given during the battles and honestly it’s always clear who the hero and villains are. This isn’t one of those titles like Netflix’s DMC series where they’re trying to make the demons sympathetic. The demons are self explanatorily evil and the humans have to wipe them out so nobody else gets hurt. From there you can just enjoy the excellent choreography and maybe it’ll inspire you to go back and check out the previous seasons of the anime.

Overall 8/10

Gachiakuta Review

Posted on July 26, 2026 by dreager1

It’s time for the latest dark Shonen that has hit the stage. It is still building up to the classic powers of friendship and saving the day but is definitely not holding back with some of the backstories. Well, I should say one in particular since the rest aren’t as crazy. I wouldn’t say it is quite on the level of your classic Jump titles yet but does clobber the last generation dark shonen known as Attack on Titan.

The series starts by introducing us to Rudo who lives in the slums. In this dystopian world there is a clear class divide between those who have means and those who don’t. Rudo at least takes solace in the fact that he has a kind mentor and one good friend. Unfortunately his mentor is murdered and Rudo is framed for it. His supposed friend also betrays him and calls for his death. So Rudo is sentenced to hell which means he is tossed out with the trash. I should mention that this country exists high up in the sky.

It turns out that there is a whole land underneath them though, the land of the trash. It’s a desolate wasteland with monsters everywhere and death is nearly guaranteed. Rudo is saved by a group known as the Cleaners right before some human traffickers could get him. They explain that their goal is about destroying the monsters and keeping things as safe as possible. Rudo joins them for now under the condition that they will help him get back to the surface world where he intends to destroy everyone. Perhaps over time he can lose these feelings of rage but it’ll be difficult.

I can’t say that I blame the little girl too much though. Yes, it would have been nice for her to have taken Rudo’s side or to at least not have said anything but she is still a kid. I wouldn’t expect her to have really been able to stand up for him at this point. The rest of the town is crazy though. The fact that they have a whole process for throwing people out to their doom is nuts and of course the whole setup of the world shows that all of this is normal. The world needs a reset but obviously Rudo’s plan to destroy them all is a bit drastic. I expect that Rudo will change his mind by then but maybe he’ll pull an Eren.

The trash world on the bottom is also particularly rough so I can see why the death rate is so high. The heroes celebrate with snacks every now and then so you see just how rare they are. Mix that in with an active terrorist group running around and every other person being a human trafficker….not a good place to live in. Rudo is really lucky to be with the cleaners because there are no other safe zones around. The show gets a whole lot of worldbuilding done right away. Throughout the show you get to learn more about the state of things but that tends to just leave more questions for future seasons. The main parts are all established right away.

The animation for the series is pretty good. In particular I really liked the effects used to show that one of the characters is using their vital instrument. Their eyes tend to glow and an aura appears to envelop the character as well. It’s something that I guess would usually be seen as a small thing but it really works to add emphasis to the moment. The battles generally look really solid as well. The series isn’t always super action packed but each fight really goes all out.

The soundtrack is also pretty solid. There’s a battle theme that comes out of nowhere for Riyo’s fight against Noerde and it was awesome! The openings are definitely heavy rock but they didn’t really work for me. They’re almost too loud if that make sense. Listening to these tunes can be more distracting than exhilarating. The music within the show still ages really well though and has a lot of great variety.

As this is a modern shonen, Gachiakuta is really good about not falling into any fanservice traps. I’d also say that it’s generally not too violent. There is a dak tone throughout the series but it usually doesn’t fall quite into grim-dark territory. That said, I did think they went too far with Amo’s backstory. The series uses a lot of visual tricks to make sure you don’t actually see anything but you still understand exactly what’s going on. It you actually saw more then this would ultimately bump the series down into the red. At it stands, it’s rough enough to push the series more to the break even point but I wouldn’t use it as a full stop to say that this is a bad show. Titles will try to push the envelope in different ways at times and this one pushed right to the breaking point without going past it.

Now lets talk about the characters. First off we have Rudo who has the ability to turn anything into a sacred object. That means he can use any kind of weapon which is really handy and he can even use multiple ones at once. Rudo has a massive chip on his shoulder and didn’t grow up in a normal environment so he has to really be learning everything from square 1. He’s very earnest about this though and has made a lot of progress.

He’s got a good character arc here and is definitely my kind of main character. There are different ways his character can go so we’ll see how it plays out but I’m confident that he will continue to be a strong figure. His sensei here is Enjin who plays the classic teacher role. The show manages to go through its whole run without letting him get much of a real fight yet. So we’re not sure how strong he is but the rules of anime suggest that the longer you don’t fight, the more powerful you will be. In the meantime he still gets a big role in helping Rudo get used to this new environment.

Zanka is in the opposite boat as he gets to fight right away and as a result solidifies his role as the jobber. He goes down pretty hard in the fights that matter but I give him props for always getting up. Zanka is a good rival for Rudo and always talks a good game. So even if he doesn’t end up being one of the stronger characters he is still a good one to have around. I would like him to get a powerup at some point though. His fighting style just feels too ordinary right now.

Another member of the group is Riyo and she has the ability to make a giant pair of scissors. Now that is a fun ability to have! Additionally she is able to fight in hand to hand combat at a high level. She’s my favorite character in the series and ends her big climax fight in a really hype way. Lets just say it remains the most iconic moment in the entire franchise for good reason. She’s another good friend for Rudo to have and is also a bit messed up in her own way so they are both really learning how to act more normal.

The rest of the Cleaners don’t get a huge role quite yet even though they are around. Tamsy is a fairly quiet member who has a really strong ability in the cloths that he can use to tie people up. Even divine weapons have a hard time cutting through them. There just hasn’t been a chance to really learn much about him yet. Same with Delmon who is also quiet. He has pretty strong powers involving water and nearly ends up crushing the heroes when he was mind controlled early on. We get hintings of his sad origin story but the show hasn’t gone into that yet.

Bro and Dear work well as a tag team. Dear tends to act too much like a kid. His super strength is good but I don’t see him winning very many fights. Bro is really the one who makes sure that Dear is in the right place at the right time. I tend to give him all of the credit for how well they do in the season. Even then they only get to share 1 fight so far. Guita also only gets one moment for now but being able to turn into a Kaiju is cool. I assume that eventually everyone will get their own arc so this is really a waiting game until then.

There is also the leader of the group, Arkha. For now you can just tell that this guy has a lot of power but he is content to stay in the background. More solid lore for the future. His secretary Semiu is also very on the ball. She can fight and then has some pretty good appraisal abilities. While some may say these are too many characters for season 1, it’s nice to have an early intro for when they eventually become bigger characters. There are also a number of supporting members who don’t have powers and will probably get a role soon. It’ll make later scenes hit harder.

Amo shows up as one of the first big villains but she’s certainly not in league with the terrorist group. She went through a lot and ultimately didn’t learn any good lessons. So this put her on the wrong path right from the start. Actually you can say we’re seeing a common pattern here where everyone s messed up in some way or another. Unfortunately things do not end up going well for her even after the main arc as she is immediately taken down by another villain. Hopefully things will look up in season 2.

The big villain of the season is Zodyl although this was mostly just an introduction to his character. He wants to find a way to get to the upper lands where Rudo once lived. To this end he is working on getting some sacred items and then the upper world will be doomed. It’s unclear if he wants to destroy them all or just conquer the group but either way things will not go very well for the surface dwellers. He seems really strong although he clearly hasn’t used all of his powers yet. I’ll need to see more of him before putting the guy too high but right now he’s off to a good start. The guy’s insane while still staying focused on his plans.

Then we have Jabber who is the type of villain who loves a good fight. He’s probably the craziest of all and he has a very high pain tolerance. This allows him to keep getting up even after taking a ton of damaging hits. You definitely have to give him a lot of credit in the fights. He doesn’t take any direct losses in the show as it took some cheap shots to bring him down. I expect a lot more out of him in the next arcs.

Cthoni hasn’t done much but the teleportation is always handy. It’s a super good way to split up their forces while also keeping the heroes off guard. The villains also have a coward on board who hasn’t done much yet but will be a big figure in season 2. For season 1 there were just two other villains who got a lot to do. The first was Noerde who is a warrior that has aligned herself with the terrorist group. She has really solid thunder abilities that let her go toe to toe with everyone. It’s fortunate for the Cleaners that Riyo was the one fighting her. I dare say that she would have made short work out of any of the other heroes. Her electricity is just hard to stop and of course she also happens to have top notch speed and hand to hand on top of that. She was a really fun villain.

Finally we have Bundus who is another tough threat. He has metal arms like Doc Ock from Marvel and a lot of experience. He seems to be hiding a lot of secrets so I would treat him as a wild card right now. Definitely an antagonist but the other villains also have to keep him at arm’s length. I don’t think he is super dangerous in a fight but is so strategic that he can outsmart someone who isn’t fighting very carefully. I look forward to seeing more out of him as well.

Now as for where the series goes from here, there are a lot of different paths. The plots I care about the most are getting back to the surface world and seeing what the villains want to do there. I am a lot less interested in learning about the symbols connecting the two worlds since that part of the lore doesn’t seem like it should change the goals for the leads. Still, I’m ready to strap in and see how this plays out. The series is already heavily implying that we’ll be learning some more origins soon as well but I feel like we can already glean all of the important information from the quick scenes that we do get. For example I don’t want to see Riyo’s backstory because it’s much more fun to just rely on the headcanon there.

Overall, There is really a lot going on here. Gachiakuta has done a good job of setting up the stakes and introducing a bunch of characters. It may not have constant fights but makes for an interesting series. It definitely did establish that anything can happen though so it may not be the safest watch if you’re looking for consistency. This is a series that will be taking massive swings in each season and you’ll just have to see if the title connects or misses. Either way you can be sure that it will be around for a long time. There are a ton of plots and storylines that need to be concluded after all.

Overall 5/10

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Season 2 Review

Posted on July 5, 2026 by dreager1

The Vigilantes spinoff continues with this season and now we’re getting closer to the meat of the series. The big villains are showing up now and the plot is gradually escalating. All Might also gets to have a big action scene which was really cool to see. The series continues to have great production values all the way through with no real weaknesses and I can safely say that it has risen above the first season.

Koichi is a much more experienced vigilante compared to his season 1 days. Knuckleduster has been off the grid for a while so Koichi and Pop have to take care of crime on their own. They’ve done a good job of this though and have made a good amount of friends in the city. They even have time for their day jobs like Pop working as a real idol and Koichi supporting her from the side. Well things are about to get dangerous again as an evil speedster is on the loose. It won’t be easy to stop this guy.

Speedsters are always going to be the hardest characters to write around. Either the character isn’t fast enough to make a difference or they basically end the verse. There are almost limitless uses for a good speedster after all and ultimately this one leans more towards the latter. There are virtually no fighters who can really hope to beat him. There are some pretty creative approaches on how to deal with this but even those do end up using quite a bit of plot armor. Realistically this guy would be wiping just about everyone out until All Might notices and stops him.

The speedster is the best character in the season though. He is smug and dangerous, a really top tier combo. He knows that the heroes don’t have a chance and basically rubs this in their faces. It’s not like speed is all that he’s got either, he’s also a mastermind. He always manages to stay one step ahead which isn’t easy. As the show goes on he is only getting stronger too. I liked the wasp villain from season 1 so this title has really had great villains for 2 seasons in a row now.

The first few episodes are mainly about showing how well Koichi can look after himself and showing how the instant villains are popping up everywhere. For now the cops have no way of predicting where or when they will show up so the pro heroes aren’t able to react very quickly. Koichi continues to develop his powers so that he is ready for them though. We also do get the occasional guest star like Fatgum who helps out during the warehouse battle. It’s always fun to see the pro heroes appear even if this story is mainly for the Vigilantes.

Koichi is also more confident in his own abilities so he makes for a good main character. He’s definitely the oblivious type but always intends to be responsible and helps his community. He is a well balanced main character with no real downsides. Pop is also solid but definitely leans into being a tsundere a lot so she isn’t often honest with her feelings. That can always be a bit of a challenge for Koichi and she can look a little annoying as a result. I think what I was most surprised by when this first came out was how she never got a real power up. She isn’t really able to contribute in the fights at all which is unfortunate. There’s just not a whole lot you can do to make her more important like that. It’s probably why she has the idol career but that feels like a subplot at best.

We take a break from the main plot to get a few episodes about Eraser Head and his old friend Oboro. We learn about how Oboro would go on to become the shadowy villain, Kurogiri in the main series. It’s definitely a very important story arc to be in a spinoff to that was interesting to see. Admittedly I was much more interested in the main plot by this time but the episodes were handled well. It is interesting to see Eraser Head back when he was slightly less jaded. He also wasn’t quite the expert fighter that he would become later on.

As far as flashbacks go it was pretty decent. Midnight and Present Mic also seemed like dependable friends who really helped him on this journey. Without them he would have been even more isolated. Naturally Oboro was also good. He is a lot like Obito from the Naruto series. A kid who is really energetic and ready to help out everyone who he can. He has all the markings of a true hero and it’s a shame that he couldn’t last longer.

We then get to the climax of the season with the Captain Celebrity arc. He is trying to rehab his image which was sorely needed but he will have to do it while protecting a whole tower filled with people from explosives. Naturally if he succeeds then this will be a giant W but the stakes are high. Celebrity had a rough start but he looks good here. How much you enjoy his character will really all depend on how much you think he has really changed as a character. I would say it’s fairly night and day here where he is treated much more as a naive guy who just got on the wrong path before. I like him in the superhero context the whole time but as a person he will need to continue to prove himself more and more. Unfortunately I don’t expect that he will be getting very many scenes in the future to show this.

His powerset is really fun though. He has the All Might type of powers but to a much weaker degree. In addition to that he has an energy barrier that protects him from most attacks. It takes a whole lot to actually pierce it and usually Celebrity would be able to dodge most attacks. This was just an exception because he had to deal with the whole hostage situation. It’s safe to say that he is one of the strongest characters in the series.

This time the subplot actually ended up winning out though. While the main plot had the best animated scene with All Might, the subplot had Knuckleduster return to fight the speedster. It was a really fun fight with great music and tactics. Yes there was some plot armor but the fight is still really satisfying. Knuckleduster showed why he is such a versatile fighter and we got to learn more about his past. I did miss having him be part of the main cast so it was really good to see him return. It’ll never stop being impressive to see just how strong he is for a guy who has absolutely no powers.

The animation is really great as you’d expect. The colors are striking and the action scenes are really fast paced. The explosions are all over the place in a good way and none of the episodes feel like they really got the shaft. Meanwhile the soundtrack is also really good. There are a lot of great themes throughout. The main theme song may not be my favorite but the rest of the ost on the whole is pretty good which is what really counts.

The episodes go by quickly so there is a lot of replay value. There is also a lot of room left for a season 3. Naturally you need that for the big battle with the speedster but we can also look forward to more appearances by the pro heroes. Ultimately I will always think that the heroes are a little too by the book here though. Their hard stance against the vigilantes really just opens the door up for the villains. It’s a constant theme that never actually ends in this series but it’s always worth referencing. It puts Koichi in a tougher spot than he should be.

In one episode we also see Tsukauchi make an argument for why he thinks that All Might shouldn’t save him. He believes that it is just too selfish and All Might belongs to the world at large. I heavily disagreed with this because at the end of the day All Might is a symbol of peace for all. Saving Tsukauchi is just another example of stopping a villain and All Might will drop anything to save him. He would do the same for anyone else that he knows. It may be special treatment but it is not at the expense of anyone else.

If Tsukauchi had just called in All Might during the first battle with the speedster then the whole series could have ended there. As fast as the guy he, he’s nowhere near as fast as All Might. Tsukauchi’s pride prevented him from making the call and that’s the wrong decision to make. I sympathize with the plight a bit since at least I do understand it. I just disagree while All might more or less convinces Tsukauchi to call him in large scale emergencies; you can tell that the guy is still going to be reserved to an extent.

This does work as a great foil to All Might though who looks as great as ever. Since we see him from Koichi’s point of view, we can really appreciate how All Might was the ultimate symbol of peace. He shows up with the big grin and ends the whole stressful situation in an instant. He doesn’t struggle or hesitate. Then when the villain tries to get a second wind, All Might transforms and defeats him in the same instant. This kind of overwhelming power is exactly what scared the villains in the first place and the show reflected that super well. His scenes were crazy impressive here. I’d love to watch a whole series about All Might back around his prime or even the slightly weakened days lke here.

Overall, I definitely recommend checking this one out. It’s not every day that a main series can get a spinoff with multiple seasons like this. It reminds me of a Certain Magical Index and its spinoffs. This show does well in keeping up with the main series and just has a cozy atmosphere. If you missed the older seasons of MHA that were very light toned, then this is always a good change of pace for you. The next season for Vigilantes may start to get more serious as well but there are a lot of happy moments coming up as well. The series is really balancing all of the action/fighting while also being a slice of life/rom-com for Koichi and Pop. It’s doing a whole lot of things and keeps that street level kind of vibe for the series. I’ll definitely be ready for the next season.

Overall 8/10

Trigun Stargaze Review

Posted on June 21, 2026 by dreager1

It’s time for a really crazy finale to the Trigun adventure. In a way it’s fun to see how things went because you really couldn’t predict what was going to happen next but at the same time it did feel like the show was just running through without a big plan at times. Vash also looks consistently terrible throughout so ultimately the negatives did prevail. This is probably the weakest Trigun season all around even if it does end up having some really excellent fights during the adventure.

A lot of time has passed since the last season and Vash is currently knocked out. (which will be his status for most of the season) Meryl and Millie are driving around doing their reporter jobs when they find out that another colony of humans is approaching the planet. They will help evacuate humanity from this crazy plant world and maybe this will finally end all of the craziness. Unfortunately it won’t be easy as Knives is close to achieving his final form and his minions need more plants to power him up. That means they will be shredding a lot of humans in the process. Vash cannot be depended on so Wolfwood will have to fight them off but each fight accelerates the last of his lifespan so this will not be easy.

It is a bold move to sideline the main character from the final season of his own adventure so I have to give the show some props there. What I can’t give it any credit for is Vash’s absolutely terrible showing throughout though. Vash’s pacifism has consistently been a negative throughout the reboot and he just continues to double down on it here. Forget destroying the mass murderers, Vash won’t even hit them with a flesh wound half the time because it’s too risky and might end up costing their lives. Vash is content to just hesitate in every fight and constantly gets himself captured.

One thing you need to understand here is that these villains are going to be very difficult to take in alive. One of them can use telekinesis to move people and crush their very bones. He is shown to be able to impact an entire tank as well as a large group of people so this power operates at a very high level. No prison can hurt him. Another one is a nearly invulnerable superweapon like Wolfwood, we have Knives who is nearly unstoppable, a music fighter whose audio can destroy you from the inside out, etc.

These guys aren’t bluffing either in case you were hoping that could be a slight cope. Throughout the series they have murdered hundreds of humans. Humanity was already nearly extinct when the series started and that number has been severely reduced. Wolfwood wisely tells Vash that every time he spares these guys, he is causing countless other deaths and is proven right over and over again. Despite that, the show forces Wolfwood to have to try and emulate Vash’s lifestyle by the end which doesn’t make any sense. I much prefer Wolfwood as a full contrast to Vash who is ready to do what needs to be done.

The No Kill rule is a good one for heroes to aspire to but there have to be exceptions depending on the circumstances. The biggest problem with Vash is that he doesn’t believe in having any exceptions at all. He just continues to spare every villain no matter how many lives it causes. The worst part is that he is often the last line of defense for a whole group of powerless humans so letting himself get captured directly causes them all to be doomed. There’s just nothing heroic about Vash and I dare say that he is one of the worst anime protags I’ve seen in quite a while. As the show goes on he just gets worse and worse and worse so maybe it’s for the best that he’s unconscious for most of the season.

Wolfwood is the MVP here because he is the one constantly having to fight for humanity. This often means injecting himself with more juice to keep fighting even though it is destroying his future. Unfortunately he is simply not powerful enough to stop someone like Knives and has a tough time with most of the executives. After a point there is only so much you can do with battle experience when you don’t have the raw stats to get over the hump. His weapon is as cool as ever though.

Ignoring the part where he actually tries to say that Vash has a point, Wolfwood operates as the realist that the series needed. He is there to take care of the villains and protect people as much as he can. It’s often not enough and that’s part of the tragedy for his character but at least he is trying. Without him the show would definitely have lost a whole lot of steam.

Meryl and Milly consistently have a decent role in this one complete with action scenes. They are completely out of their depth in terms of power levels though so they mostly have to rely on the villains going absolutely crazy. Meryl’s a fun character with how proactive she is. Every duo needs at least one tough member and that’s her role. Milly is definitely the contrast here and well I wouldn’t say she’s all that good. Not really my kind of character. For a second there, I thought they show did a twist where she was one of the sentient bugs which would have been really cool but it was just an oddly phrased sentence that was clarified right away.

The Puppetmaster is one of the first villains to make a big move. He’s technically pretty tough but only when all of the conditions are right. If you get past his puppets then the guy is doomed. He mainly lasts in the Vash fight since the hero refuses to hurt anybody. He’s definitely the weakest out of the main villains and I wouldn’t trust him around the base. I dunno it just seems like he was flipped way too easily.

Midvalley is another guy who flips quickly. Sure he was working for Knives out of fear but it doesn’t change the fact that he did go along with the villains. He really tried to destroy Wolfwood during their fight as well. The villains tend to get off way too easily in the show. He did make for a really good fight scene though so I have to give him some props there. I always did think that sound makes for an incredibly deadly weapon since it is so hard to dodge.

Then we have Elendira who spends most of the show in the background. It’s a little too late by the time she is ready to act. Decent powerset but it’s obvious that she is not on the level of the other executives. Vash or Wormwood could take her down with ease but for the most part everyone ignores her so she gets to land a lot of cheap shots. I feel like she mainly exists so that the crazy professor has somebody to talk to back at the base.

Then we have Knives’ most loyal follower: Legato. This guy is completely broken because his telekinesis appears to work at any range and he is also an exceptional close quarters fighter. He seems to be the most powerful fighter in the series because his abilities even work on Vash so they would probably work on Knives as well. It would just be hard for him to land the killing blow so it would be a long drawn out fight. I appreciate that Legato is just super evil. He’s not misunderstood or anything like that.

Legato just really thinks that humanity should be destroyed and every action is towards that goal. The guy is straight forward and sometimes you need a character like that instead of just throwing more ambiguity everywhere. If anything Knives is lucky that Legato was so loyal that he was never thinking straight. Legato just couldn’t believe that Knives had any imperfections and so he wasn’t expecting a cheap shot. Although he didn’t exactly seem broken up about it in the end….

Razlo sort of comes out of nowhere near the end but he does actually have a full character arc and all. He makes for a good opponent and is a solid counterpart to Wolfwood. It all goes a bit fast but on the whole I thought he was a good character. The heroes needed one more fighter with how badly they were outnumbered and he was really useful. It would have been nice if his powerset was a bit more different than Wolfwood’s just so he could stand out more but I was glad at least something good happened for the guy. Most of the show is rather brutal for Wolfwood.

As for Knives, well you could say that he’s the biggest double standard in the show. He wants to destroy humanity for what they are doing to the plants, yet he has to murder tons of plants in order to stay alive. During the first half of the show he doesn’t know this is happening so I can give him a pass on that but then by the end of the show he doesn’t care anymore. He considers this an “ends justify the means” kind of situation and so he keeps on absorbing them in order to get great power. It just makes his whole message hollow.

If you have to destroy all of the planets in order to save them from the humans then your goal doesn’t make sense. The show also has the audacity to try and make him sympathetic by the end which is crazy. Maybe I could take it seriously if he wasn’t having his group torture Vash for months on end and just generally murdering everybody. You have to have some kind of a standard here and this guy was evil through and through. I would have just focused on how crazy he was.

The show has a very interesting concept with the plants being sentient. Imagine if all of a sudden every vegetable was sentient but only 2-5 people in the whole world could hear their voices? Most people probably would just call them crazy and keep on eating vegetables. So for the 5 people I can understand why they would want to amass an army to stop the plants. That’s about where my sympathies with Knives ends. Once Knives begins to “eat” the plants to gain strength then it completely undercuts his arguments.

It also makes Vash look bad as well since he still tries to reason with Knives up through the very end. I can’t help it, the whole show is about bashing Vash so he seems to come up constantly. Vash had multiple chances to end this or at least to put massive holes into Knives’ plan and refuses to do so. Vash is just suicidally empathic the whole time and that’s not a good trait for a character to have. You can understand that the situation absolutely sucks for all parties while still making a move. I forget which character calls Vash a coward to his face about this (Probably Wormwood) but that character was right. It is cowardly to sit back and do nothing because you just don’t know what to do. Particularly in a situation where people are actively being hunted and killed the whole time.

Also while it can be funny in an ironic kind of way, I do think the show has Vash being kidnapped way too often. It just kills the pacing of the series when this same story beat is trotted out over and over. Keep in mind that Knives is unconscious for a lot of the story too so the show just has nowhere to go at times. If you’re going to do that then you need to have a super interesting debate going on and that’s often not the case. I don’t really care about the researchers or the villains talking about the plants all that much. The show just didn’t add enough interesting hooks during the slow moments which also hurt it in the longrun.

The animation is pretty good for a CG title. It does use a whole lot of bright colors so the fights stand out and there is a ton of movement. Trigun definitely pushes the medium pretty hard and so I can definitely recommend those fights quite a lot. The soundtrack isn’t quite as impressive. The opening’s all over the place although I wouldn’t call it bad and the in-show ost is good enough. The animation definitely stands out more than the soundtrack in this case but it works well enough during the battles.

The show can definitely be pretty violent so you’ll want to watch out if you’re expecting a lighter adventure. The scene of Legato throwing a bunch of people into the equivalent of a human blender was particularly disturbing. It’s not like the show is regularly violent but it just has those occasional scenes that really stand out. Vash getting tortured for example isn’t particularly violent so it doesn’t hit as hard even if you can tell that it’s all super painful though.

I will end on a solid note for the season which is that it does have some pretty interesting debates within it. At what point should you be allowed to take a life? Not in self defense, but proactively taking a life in order to help others out. I think it’s really an interesting topic and I like those discussions but Vash basically refuses to consider any argument other than “Never!”. That’s always the worst kind of response to this situation and gives me Attack on Titan flashbacks. At least try and discuss the topic. The villains also make it super easy by giving the ultimate layup situations in front of Vash like actively murdering people right in front of him and Vash is still hesitating the whole time.

There’s one episode near the end where he finally relents and attempts to shoot a villain. It just took the villain ages of choking a character to death and burning countless others before Vash makes a move. So I was glad that Vash made a decision but it should not have taken quite that long. He’s got to be one of the most stubborn characters I’ve ever seen. The show’s apocalyptic atmosphere is also pretty interesting. At times it doesn’t feel like the characters are taking the extinction of the human race for the dire threat that it is, but it makes for a tense backdrop. The heroes are also on the backfoot in this adventure throughout. It’s just not always able to capitalize on this. I also would have liked to have seen the insects do a little more but I get that they didn’t really care who won. Insects will continue to thrive no matter what but they could have been a great wildcard.

Overall, This show was really annoying throughout. The pacing could be really slow at times too. Maybe uneven is the better way to put it. You would go a whole episode of Vash acting crazy while the others walk around, then an episode of nonstop fighting, rinse and repeat. I think there was enough time to cover everything evenly but the episodes had weird priorities at times. I’d say the show has virtually 0 replay value as well. It’s the kind of show where I would definitely Youtube the fights but I wouldn’t want to go through all of the melodrama again. The ending is also deeply unsatisfying. If you’ve made it this far in the Trigun mythos then you should finish it up but don’t expect a great ending here.

Overall 5/10

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 3 Review

Posted on June 7, 2026 by dreager1

Season 2 was really a huge one as the heroes were invaded within their own country and casualties were high. Rimuru was nearly destroyed by Hinata and had to make a tough choice. He became the demon lord of legend and was able to power everyone up to all new heights. That was a turning point in a lot of ways, one of which is that there are no longer many threats to Rimuru. While season 3 has its share of fights, there is never a moment where you think that Rimuru is in danger. He’s likely top 5 in his own verse at this point and at least 2 of those other fighters are in his army. Not much to worry about at that point.

The season has 2 main arcs here. The first one wraps up the rivalry with the holy church. Hinata decides to go and call for a true with Rimuru but after receiving a threatening notice from him, realizes that it might come down to a fight. She aims to give it her best but knows that this will likely be futile. Her friends are manipulated into following her and picking a fight with Tempest though. Fights are unavoidable now and they are basically fighting an army of unstoppable demons. That’s not going to go over very well for them.

Then in the second half you have Rimuru throwing a giant festival. Since when is he not throwing one right? Well, it’s an even bigger deal this time as kingdoms from around the world will be attending and they have even set up a big arena for people to fight and have a good time. Among them is a new character named Masayuki. He is known as a legendary hero who is basically unbeatable. While it initially seems to be in a toon force type of way, that is literally his power. He can use plot armor as he pleases and that’s a fun power to have. The guy isn’t evil or anything though o dealing with him won’t be too hard.

Right away it is important to set your expectations here. Rimuru is so strong that there is no danger anymore. Like I said in the intro, that kind of plot stopped with season 2. You still have top budget fights and a great atmosphere, but the series won’t have you on the edge of your seat anymore. So how you feel about that will determine how much you enjoy the season. Fortunately I am totally fine with this. The Slime series has really been more about politics and world building for a while now. It is a power fantasy but one that focuses on teamwork and building ties among comrades. It’s a fairly unique spin on the whole thing.

Put it this way, Rimuru is friends with Vendora, known as one of the strongest forces in the universe. He is functionally immortal and everyone thinks twice before messing with him. Rimuru is best friends with Milim, the most physically powerful of the demon lords. He has the respect of all the others except for 2 who seem like crazy antagonists. Rimuru has earned the allegiance of Diablo, a demon so powerful that he evolved past the ranks of what was deemed possile. Rimuru is friends with all of the tree spirits, he has 3 evolved Oni fighters on his team as well as a master swordsman demon and an entire army of other creatures. Rimuru’s whole country is also boosted by his demonic energy so they can all regenerate from any nonlethal attack. It’s also worth mentioning that Rimuru has all the best scientists working for him so the country is also far more advanced than any others. It’s absolutely not fair…but that’s the fun of it.

There’s an ongoing joke about how the franchise is some kind of underground tax scandal conspiracy because nobody is actually trying to watch 5-6 episodes in a row of nonstop meetings. Well, while the joke is funny, I actually do enjoy the meetings. They feel realistic while never being bring and the characters are likable enough for the interactions to all be interesting. So when Rimuru finishes one meeting, only to start another one immediately afterwards with different characters, you don’t feel bad about it.

It all comes down to the writing which is extremely good. Then you also have meetings about the villains as they all talk tough and threaten each other. The show still has a veil of danger about it after all so you are supposed to be thinking that these villains could be a problem. Perhaps there will be a point where the meetings get boring but so far that has not happened at all. The show is also on the right trajectory here where, ever since it began to take things seriously in season 2, we saw a sharp drop in fanservice. That was the biggest credit to the series because that was quite obnoxious in season 1. Nowadays it is extremely rare and almost never happens.

The technical elements are also extremely good as always. The animation is top tier with some great cuts like when Rimuru has his rematch against Hinata. Diablo getting to show his stuff against the other characters is also very satisfying as always. You don’t necessarily need there to be a big threat to get some really fun battles established after all. Especially since the heroes like to hold back and sandbag a lot so the fight still appears to be competitive for a while there.

Then we have the soundtrack which is really good. There are a whole lot of tunes to the point where it can be difficult to find one that you are looking for on Youtube. You have to be willing to go through a whole lot of different songs. The opening may not be my favorite from the seasons but you still have the classic battle themes as well as new ones. It is very well rounded so I have no issues there.

Okay so lets talk about the characters. First up we have Rimuru who is a pretty fun character. He has improved a whole lot from when he was first introduced after all. Initially he was constantly horny like your average protag but after being a slime for a while he has mostly gotten past that. I won’t say that he is permanently past that but it’s not really a big factor anymore. He has learned what it means to be a king and is even starting to know how to use people. He has even begun to notice the various characters like Yuuki and Raphael being really shady.

Raphael is an interesting character as a result though because they are hinting more and more that she may have some secret plans at the ready. There is nothing definite but at times she seems to give Rimuru the wrong advice or will just hide part of the answer from him. It’s all a bit suspicious but so far there are no hints as to what’s going on. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a real character who has been pretending to be the A.I. all this time. That would be an interesting twist. After all we do see that all of the otherworlders hear this voice like Hinata when she first got transported to this world. Maybe it’s all connected.

One thing about the Slime series is that the cast of characters is absolutely humongous. As a result not everyone gets to have a big role in each season. There would just be no way to pull that off. So Veldora and Milim don’t get to do much here for example. They are immensely powerful and could end the fights in an instant so they have to get written out. Veldora always wants to help out but Rimuru tells him to cut it out. Likewise he doesn’t trust Milim since she sucks at holding back. These are the kinds of difficulties you run into when your army is too powerful.

Even Gobta and the Oni don’t do a whole lot here. Gobta gets one fight where he does well thanks to hos OP regeneration is in combat. Benimaru and Souei win their fights pretty easily so they don’t get a whole lot to do. Hakuro and Shuna are also around but there isn’t much time for them. They all got big fights in season 2 so that makes sense. Shion is the only one with a really big role in this season. Her new powers after evolution are absolutely intense.

She went from having a tough time (Albeit there were some specific circumstances there) in season 2 against one of the other outworlders to taking on multiple holy knights at once here. She is incredibly powerful now and is nearly invulnerable. Raphael even mentions that her rule breaker sword could even hurt Rimuru at this point. Shion’s loyalty is completely unmatched so that’s not a worry for him but shows how powerful she is. Shion is the kind of character that is super easy to root for throughout. I love characters who show that kind of loyalty and she has only continued to go up as the seasons go on. I may have her in my top 5 characters at this point. Off the top at least it would be Diablo > Milim > Hinata > Shion > Luminous

That’s why I really enjoy Diablo as well. He has enough power to really do whatever he wants but the guy is completely loyal to Rimuru. He intends to follow that guy forever and does his best to accomplish each goal. His role is that of a butler so Diablo has to find ways to win without murdering his opponents. That’s not always easy and goes against his nature but he makes it work. Diablo is very earnest and has good instincts. He has quickly become my favorite character in the series and that’s not easy with how many great characters are in this series.

On the villain side, Luminous gets more of a role here although you could say that she is a total good guy now. We learn a bit more about how her group operates and it turns out that she has been using kid gloves the whole time. She was never downright evil like the other demon lords and so that makes you re-evaluate the character. She’s certainly not blameless or anything like how she let this cult of the Seven Luminaries get away with so much. Still, she has no intentions of going against Rimuru so that’s handy.

I do have to give the Seven Luminaries a shoutout for talking such a grand game though. They all go out like chumps but still made for some good cliffhangers. They made great speeches and are technically very powerful. They just happened to pick a fight with opponents who really cannot be defeated. None of them come remotely close to winning a fight and the entire group is defeated in this season. So much for those guys eh?

At least we had a big villain though. Otherwise Hinata would be the biggest antagonist here even though she is a good guy as well. We finally see the rest of her origin story here and how she would ultimately be manipulated by the holy church. In all fairness, those guys aren’t evil either, there are just a lot of bad actors to filter through. She has made a lot of great friends along the way and will be a valuable ally going forward. Rimuru may not have needed more powerful fighters but you may as well keep stacking the deck against the villains.

By the time the season ends there are really just 3 villain groups left. First you have the merchants, then you have the old man who seemed to control the Seven Luminaries, finally you have Yuuki. We know that Yuuki is powerful from his one spar with Rimuru a while back but you have to wonder how he can possibly be a match nowadays. None of these villain groups seem like serious threats but they could surprise me. In particular Yuuki seems like the most interesting figure, I want to see what his overall goals are. For now his being evil just feels random with how much time he spends being a nice guy and helping out. If it’s something as petty as being jealous of Rimuru then that will be a bad look for him.

There’s plenty of time to introduce more characters and keep the fights going though. Last season we saw the council of demon lords and in theory each of the other 6-7 could give Rimuru a good fight. So things could change soon but as it stands, most of them would be allies anyway. So whether we throw more festivals or get more fights in, I’m looking forward to what’s next. Slime absolutely knows how to manufacture a fun atmosphere and develop a ton of interesting characters. When your fundamentals are that good, it becomes very easy to have a successful season in any genre. While I hope we continue the fights in each season, a season of slice of life episodes would also end up working very well.

Overall, This is the best example of a comfort show that I can think of. You can pull up any episode and have a good time knowing that the heroes are too strong for anyone to really challenge them. It is nice to just see everyone getting along and imagining yourself being one of the residents of the country. This is one of the only series where you can feel really safe and not expect a random villain to just blow up the town or something like that. It’s a fresh change of pace and I definitely expect big things from season 3 as well.

Overall 8/10

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