Gintama Review

Posted on May 6, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time to look at one of the most iconic manga titles of all time. Gintama has long had a reputation for being one of the funniest titles of all time while simultaneously being known for its exceptional cast and storylines. I can safely say after completing the series that it really is an elite title and deserves to be treated as such. It’s really an excellent series and I won’t be forgetting it anytime soon. This is a monster to talk about with over 70 volumes but no time like the present right?

The basic plot revolves around Gintoki, Kagura, and Shinpachi as the trio runs a little group that performs errands for people. They will do just about any task whether it be walking a dog or playing matchmaker. They’re in a good town for this because everybody has problems that need solving. Unfortunately Gintoki isn’t always the most efficient at handling these tasks and so he is often behind on the rent and the group has a ton of problems staying out of the red. They have a lot of wacky adventures for the first 500 chapters or so with the occasional action arc and then we transition into the saving the universe kind of stories. Once these come into play then things really end up changing.

One of the most impressive parts of the series is really how seamlessly it changes. The series was so exceptional as a comedy but there isn’t really a disconnect when it goes into the action phase. If anything it’s like the ultimate payoff because you know the characters so well by this point and are eager to see what happens to them. It gives you more reason to root for the characters and hope that they make it out of the situation. It reminds me of Reborn! in a way but to a much higher degree in terms of how long it takes. Don’t get me wrong, there are some action arc fairly early on in the manga as well but it’s only near the end where it makes the complete shift and doesn’t really look back.

Even in the action arcs there is always some comedy to be sure but the stakes stay high and characters can actually die. Gintama certainly wasn’t afraid to change the status quo when needed. The artwork for the series is incredibly good which helps as well since you could always count on really top tier action scenes the whole time in those fighting based arcs. The series can definitely hold its own with just about every title in terms of the artework. Some of the world’s lore is so detailed that I can’t say I always cared about it but it’s clear that the author was definitely passionate about the whole thing. There is a whole lot of lore here without a doubt.

There aren’t all that many series that crossed 70 volumes like this one did which also automatically puts this one at an advantage in terms of how much it could do. There was time to really do a bit of everything because it’s that much longer than the average manga. I would say the title’s reputation as being legendary is definitely deserved. As a comedic manga, naturally not every joke is going to land. It has its rough moments where you’ll be cringing at a joke, in fact that will be lots of them like that. The series still has the sheer length to outnumber those with constant jokes that are actually good. This is a series that definitely throws everything it has at you and is quite bold. I can certainly appreciate that.

There’s a lot of story to get through and a ton of characters so lets start going through them. Prepare for a very long write-up here which goes without saying for a series on this scale. I mostly won’t talk about too many of the comedic chapters/mini arcs in part because there would just be too many of them and also because there are numerous gags that were a blast. You just have to experience them in context, or even without and see how fun they are. As long as you like really creative/zany comedy moments then you’ll have a good time here. Apparently there are around 64 Gintama arcs but I’ll mainly be skipping any that are too short and talking about the biggest ones. I also won’t really be going in order on these in part because I’m not sure of the exact order for some of them and putting them in order would take a little while.

One fun mini arc is when Katsura, AKA the best character in the series infiltrates the Shinsengumi and quickly becomes trusted enough where he turns them against each other. It’s only 4 chapters which is an example of the kind of mini arc that is sort of around for a quick gag and then goes away but manages to be fun. The comedic arcs like this which are mainly just absurd tend to have a lot of great humor. You enjoy seeing Katsura mess with people which he does in most arcs. The fun part is that he’s really awful at it and yet he tends to be successful which is a nice contradiction. Nobody notices how he is stumbling over his words or contradicting his story in many instances. The arc also shows how wearing an afro can really change everyone’s view of you and works a bit like a disguise.

Another example of a really good absurd arc involves the character popularity poll because that is breaking the third wall to a historic degree. Basically some of the characters aren’t too pleased with how they placed so they start attacking and degrading other characters in order to have them drop in the polls. This way one of them can claim the #1 spot. Naturally this causes a battle between the popular and unpopular characters. Also this is Gintama, meaning you can’t trust anybody. People change allegiances and start fighting each other left and right. So if you’re not careful then you will just be the next victim. It’s another really short mini arc but one that really made the most of the concept.

Then we have an arc where Gintoki decides to make a lot of money with an anonymous confessional box. As you can probably guess, a ton of the complaints ended up being about him which wasn’t very fun for the guy and he begin hearing a lot of incriminating things. When this inevitably involves the shogun as well, Gintoki ends up being in a whole lot of trouble. The Shogun and his gags still tend to be some of the weakest parts of the series but I did like the story for this arc. It’s a really fun gag and it was nice see all of the characters show up to share their dark secrets. Gintoki may not have given good advice at any point but hey it’s the thought that counts.

Another quick arc revolves around Shinpachi getting a letter…from a girl! She seems to be opening the door to a long distance relationship but is he reading too much into it? Also, he is famously a big shot in a fanclub for a local celebrity girl so can he betray her like this? Getting into a relationship may not be the right move. He also makes the mistake of asking Gintoki for advice which isn’t always a great move. It’s one of those fun arcs that takes things to an absurd level but is fun because you can definitely picture the stress of answering a letter in the mail like this. You can’t really determine tone or anything from a letter which makes it really easy to overthink things.

Naturally this wouldn’t be a comedic series without at least one love potion arc right? This is another short one but you can imagine all of the gags that come into place when a love potion explodes across the whole town. It’s a fun enough mini arc and a reminder of why that would be such a dangerous ordeal if it were a real thing. Everyone suddenly having to confess their feelings and being put in the spotlight would be rough, especially once the effects wore off and you had to live with the aftermath. Although I’d argue for Gintoki and friends they are embarrassed so often that it shouldn’t be as big a deal compared to others.

Another romance based one involves a dating sim game that has been getting really big. Naturally Shinpachi falls into this game and this causes Gintoki and friends to get involved. Naturally it isn’t recommended to fall for your virtual girlfriend since the whole thing is still a game but for someone like Shinpachi who hasn’t had any luck in the real world it makes sense that this could end up getting tempting. It’s always nice to see Gintoki talk really tough and suddenly get involved as well, it’s part of what makes him a really entertaining main character. He always talks really tough and belittles everyone but when the chips are down you find that he’s quickly just as invested himself.

Then we have the body swapping arc which is another comedic classic. Kyubei has always been rather confused and acts like a guy so her big wish comes true and everyone switches genders. It’s a pretty entertaining arc and I have to say that living in this main town must get really confusing for everyone. Quite a few of the characters really take this in stride though. At the end of the day it’s not like their core personalities have changed after all, but of course they do have to get back to normal after that. It’s a fun arc while it lasts and is a natural climax to all of Kyubei’s inner doubts.

Kagura gets a fun little arc where the series remembers that she can’t handle the sunlight and it is deadly for her people. So she had gotten a bit lazy about this and ends up faking her own death with the sunlight but the problem now is how can she get out of this before they cremate her body? Additionally, some characters know the truth and are using this as an excuse to murder her. It’s going to be a tough situation to get out of and she has to choose between her life and her honor. This is a very short arc but definitely one of those absurd plots that is a lot of fun to read. you gotta be careful what kind of a gag you try to pull on your friends.

One extremely short arc was about Gintama breaking the clock that controls all of time by mistake. So now time is frozen and nobody can move on. In this world even clocks can spell disaster I suppose. There was also a quick little party where Gintoki and the other 3 members of the original 4 man squad try to remember a 5th person who invited them there but they have a hard time with it. You feel bad for the guy. It has to be rough having nobody remember you even when you were a big member.

There’s an arc that is mainly comedic but with some emotional undertones. One day when Ayame is trying to mess with Gintoki as always and get him to marry her, her glasses end up breaking. So Gintoki gets her some new ones but they don’t actually work for her. She decides to use them anyway since they were a gift but now she is messing up more than ever and a group of assassins are after her. So she has to learn to look out for herself and ditch the glasses even if they were a gift for Gintoki. It’s a good arc with a solid moral about looking out for yourself too. You may like someone a lot but if they give you something that doesn’t work or actively hurts you then you should just not use it. Ayame learns this the hard way.

Idol groups are a big deal apparently, so big that the galaxy’s strongest idol group shows up to take down the one on Gintoki’s planet. This battle has high stakes because the winner will effectively rule the universe after this. So losing is definitely not an ideal option. The main idol group isn’t bad but the galaxy’s strongest have a ton of dirty tricks up their sleeve to watch out for. This isn’t one of my favorite arcs and I’d say it’s because there aren’t too many gags you can use this one. The main gag that you have to keep on repeating is how all of the fans are pervs and nerds which doesn’t last very long as a funny gag.

A better arc involves the body switch between Hiijikata and Gintoki. Again, if there’s a comedy trope that you have heard of, it will appear in Gintama at least once. The seires was ready for anything and this was a really fun one. Naturally they have completely different leadership styles as Gintoki is super laidback and does whatever he wants while Hiijikata is super strict. So both groups have a lot of trouble getting behind this and it makes for a pretty fun story. I was definitely satisfied the whole way through.

There are a bunch of mini arcs that reference other series like Jojo’s, Hunter X Hunter, Bleach, the Saw movies, and more. So you can expect to see those and have some fun with them. Most are pretty short and I didn’t go into as much detail here but you know these are always a blast. Then there is the big scandal arc where Gintoki gets drunk on New Year’s and may have had several affairs. Unfortunately he doesn’t remember what happened and since this is Gintoki, he knows that it’s all possible. So this leads to a ton of misunderstandings and shenanigans as he tries to solve all of this. He will have to hurry or people will lose whatever respect they have left for him. Of course, nobody respects him anyway so that means there aren’t really any stakes here.

The mini arc involving a time skip was definitely some brilliant stuff. While Shinpachi thought the series just went on a 1 week break, 2 years had actually passed within Gintama. So everyone has new designs and even their personalities are a bit different. It’s all rather odd and he has fallen behind now which is really rough. The gags here were all on point and it was a great way to poke fun at the time skips. Gintama is definitely a series that absolutely masters the art of breaking the third wall. It does this extremely effective at all times so I was really impressed the whole time. It’s very short but still very funny.

Dragon Quest is so big that it has tons of references throughout the series but one big one is the Tama Quest mini arc. She gets a virus so the characters have to log in and get rid of it but the whole experience basically turns into a video game. That’s definitely a fun way to adapt how these things go, so I had a pretty good time here. Even the art style looks like an 8 bit video game which shows how much range the artist has. Seriously, it’s one of the best looking manga titles out there.

Now we’re mostly going to be getting into the more serious arcs. First up is an arc that shows us the first meeting between Sakamoto and Mutsu. As always Sakamoto was biting off more than he could chew with a big sales scam to some pirates. Ultimately he manages to turn on the charm and Mutsu likes how determined he is. Sakamoto ends up helping her out and she joins him as a permanent ally. He’s sure lucky to have someone like her who is super powerful by his side. She could easily crush him at any time but they have a solid amount of mutual respect going for them. It was nice to see how they first met and it would have been a shame if we never got to see that. Even without Gintoki getting to do much here, the arc holds up well.

Another serious arc is Okita’s introduction arc. He’s a very serious guy who generally just beats everyone up as he looks for a worthy opponent but he is very mellow when his sister is around. He acts like just a general nice guy and we find out that she’s super sick and her fiancé is evil. The arc is an example of how Gintama isn’t afraid to get really dark. There is no cure for her ailment and she just gets closer and closer to her death while Okita has to do his job and take the fiancé down. It’s a tough road for everyone involved but ultimately at least she got to see that Okita takes his job very seriously. Definitely not an arc that you really expect when reading Gintama but it worked well.

Okita has a big role in another arc where Gintoki had a sword get stuck in his backside. This presents a ton of obvious problems like even the basic action of sitting down but what’s even worse is that the sword works like a symbiote. If Gintoki isn’t careful then he will be taken over. The sword also has a wife and a rival/villain who also get stuck into different characters. Okita and Gintoki will have to fight to the death here but is there any way to get the swords out. This is one of those arcs that is mainly comedic and absurd but also has some serious moments with the sword’s backstory. Good luck taking it seriously though. I thought this was a pretty fun one that shows just how unique the series is.

Then we have one of those arcs that has to be Bleach inspired. A weather girl gets involved with demons and the supernatural so Gintoki and friends step in to help since they love her program. Gintoki makes sure to watch every day after all but can they handle supernatural menaces? Well, of course they can! The series also has soul reaper equivalents so it’s not like this is too crazy to deal with. It was nice to see the weather girl get involved because she is mentioned constantly in the series but rarely gets to take the center stage. So that was pretty fun.

Another short but key arc is when Otae and Shinpachi’s master shows up. The guy should have been dead for years but somehow he has survived and now he has a cool beam sword. Unfortunately Gintoki realizes that the guy is a double agent and has a powerful bomb within him. So he has to destroy the guy even if it means breaking the hearts of his closest friends. It’s a really emotional arc to be sure and also underscores Gintoki’s resolve. He may joke around a whole lot but when it comes to his friends, he will even be the villain if that’s what it takes to keep them safe. It’s a mindset that I can absolutely respect.

Then we get the introduction to Kagura’s father, Umibouzu. The guy is a beast in combat and easily one of the most powerful characters in the whole series. Still, he definitely has his silly side the whole time and I always like the rivalry between him and Gintoki with regard to being Kagura’s true father. It’s true that the biological father is always off planet while Gintoki has been the one actually raising her. I tend to be on his side when things are getting competitive to be honest. Umibouzu is still a good guy of course but Gintoki’s still better. This arc’s a fun way to meet the dad and learn more about Kagura at the same time.

After that we also have an arc with Kyubey showing up to try and win over Otae. Meanwhile Kondo is getting engaged to a gorilla and this won’t be the last time that happens. He likes Otae as well but can he really compete with Kyubey who is an absolute prodigy, good at just about everything and just a lot more impressive than Kondo can ever hope to be? It’s tough but there is a twist about Kyubey and how she’s actually a girl which is extremely lucky for Kondo. Kyubey would go on to be one of the more entertaining characters and this arc was definitely a lot of fun. It’s fairly low key but we get to see Otae a lot which is good since she’s generally more of a side character.

There’s also a fairly small but serious arc with a terrorist named Jiraia shows up to cause a lot of destruction and Gintoki has to take him out. This was a really good arc and has one of the best fights in the series. We really get to see Gintoki going the extra mile and fighting even when he has serious injuries. We would see more and more of this as the series goes on but it was one of the first times we could see exactly what Gintoki could do. It was definitely a masterful storyline.

An arc that is a bit of a cross between humor and action has the characters get taken to a turtle island which quickly becomes a save the world type of mission as they have to stop some cannons and start being transformed as well. It’s definitely a good bit of fun especially with Katsura being a main character. The heroes really have to try and surpass their limits in order to win here. It ended up being really memorable for me as a result even though the arc isn’t very long and is fairly early in the series.

As we approach the last big arc, we get different arcs that connect to the main storyline as every big villain is taken care of. One of these is for taking down Oboro, one of the more powerful fighters. It turns out that his past goes way back. He makes for a pretty good enemy, that’s for sure. Utsuro is really the big boss though and he’s the kind of guy that keeps coming back over and over again. You really have to respect how durable he is and the full nature of his plans. His backup plans have backup plans. One arc has him trigger a war between different planets in the universe, then he ends up attacking the planet, then he turns into a kid which causes a civil war among Gintoki and his allies, etc. The last few arcs are mostly a ton of nonstop fights in the middle of all of this.

The arcs are all really solid but the one part you don’t end up caring about much it eh Shogun plot in space. Unfortunately Katsura is stuck in that plot so you won’t actually get to see him fighting all that much there. It’s too bad since I felt like the series always hinted that he was actually the best fighter but it’s hard to prove without more evidence. The final arcs do a great job of involving just about every character who ever appeared into it. That’s super impressive and it feels like a true Shonen final arc. The final chapters even throw in an extra time skip with new designs and gimmicks as well to give some more closure. There is also an epilogue too that goes on surprisingly long during the arc. Gintama ended as it started, with a lot of troll moves that’s for sure.

Then the Shinsengumi also have quite a few arcs where they get to do a lot. Their arcs don’t tend to be the most interesting in part because Gintoki and friends tend to take a backseat. I know the arcs themselves are rather popular though and I wouldn’t say they’re bad or anything. I probably just have them a bit lower than most. One of these introduces the Mimawarigumi, which is basically a reverse group. They will show up a whole lot and the two groups are constantly battling it out. The group also aren’t a bunch of throwaways or anything like that. They are able to hold their own blow for blow against the main group and have a lot of real members. They even get their own origin stories and such later on so that was definitely impressive.

Then you have the big farewell arc as well. This one is really long and has both groups fighting a whole lot but most importantly it starts to tie into the final arcs with the cosmic villain showing up with his big shots. It’s one of those climaxes that just keeps going and is really hype. So ironically I like it more for the non Shinsengumi parts but it’s the same arc so it still counts. There are tons of mob fights here too so if that’s your thing then it’s a bonus. We get so many army against army fights that they will probably start to blend together after a while though. I would say that happened to me after a while as well, I tend to always prefer the direct battles. We do get plenty of those in this arc too though.

You’ve also got the Shogun arc which is also about the Shinsengumi a lot. The Shogun is still one of my least favorite characters though, no matter how much the series wanted to try and make him likable. Similar to the last arc, this one gets elevated by Kamui showing up later on as opposed to the Shinsengumi parts. The fights there are some of the best in the series so I was definitely impressed all the way. It’s absolutely an arc to keep your eye on and one of the turning points in the series in terms of going all the way into action.

So I didn’t quite throw in every arc but that was quite a lot of story to get into. There are also tons of one shot chapters that have running gags that keep on appearing so they are like mini arcs that aren’t connected. In particular one excellent one is when Gintoki visits a prison to help an aspiring manga author. That was always a really fun set of stories and it shows how Gintoki would really make time to help people. The gags were always a lot of fun. All right, deep breath now people because it’s time to talk about the characters and man does this series have a lot of them! Naturally I won’t be talking about every single character but I will be talking about a whole lot of them so prepare yourself.

First off we have to start with Gintoki of course and he’s an incredible lead. A top tier Shonen Jump protagonist all the way. He may not be the most heroic or anything like that but he does have a lot of convictions and will always protect his friends. He’s a lot like Kenshin when you think about it. Gintoki is trying to leave his dark past behind him and have a lot of fun but it always ends up catching up to him in time. He’s an extremely layered character who excels in both the comedic and serious stories. He’s one of the best characters in the series and has a ton of iconic moments. Definitely one of those characters you can be inspired by and even learn a few things from.

Shinpachi certainly doesn’t have Gintoki’s confidence and is often lagging behind when it comes time to fight. He just doesn’t have the skills needed to keep up with most of the characters but he tries hard. I tend to like him more in the comedic moments than in the serious situations since he adds a lot to the dynamic in the funny moments. He definitely does earn his spot among the main cast though, the series wouldn’t be the same without him. The straight man role in a joke is something that I’ll probably never really find the humor in but he has enough of his own gags to make up for this. There’s always a lot for him to do.

Kagura is naturally even funnier though and with her superhuman strength she is able to hold her own in the serious arcs too which I appreciate. She gets a lot of backstory which is actually rather tragic but she always keeps up a good spirit. She may give Gintoki a tough time but they have a good father/daughter bond throughout the series. All 3 members are definitely needed in order to make the series reach its full potential each time. Of course there is also the dog Sadaharu. He may not be able to talk but at the same time he has a reasonable role here since he has a lot of personality. He will actively attack Gintoki at times and surprisingly gets an extremely big role near the climax of the series. That really took me by surprise since I was not expecting that at all. We get to really see a lot into how strong the bonds between him and the rest of the characters are.

Tae is Shinpachi’s sister and her role is fairly big even if she isn’t usually important to the story of the arc. She is always around being the mature member while everyone else is messing around. Quite a few characters in the series like her as a result but in particular Kyubey and Kondo fight over her. She usually brushes them off fairly well and definitely has her violent side as well. Nobody better dare mess with her or it’s all over! She’s a fun enough side character for sure and usually understands quicker than the others why Gintoki does what he does when it’s time for a serious choice to be made.

As the landlord, Otose is always giving Gintoki a lot of grief because of how late he is with the payments. I definitely get it since that’s her livelihood and she needs that money in order to survive. That said, at the end of the day she does let him get away with a whole lot and is a very reasonable person. Catherine is a more mild supporting character who doesn’t appear very often towards the end. Her role is usually to get dunked on by everyone else for how ugly she is and how she looks like a cat. Definitely not a very flattering role to be sure but it’s hard to feel bad for her when she starts the fight a lot of the time.

Hiraga is a local inventor who helps out quite a bit. His role is never all that huge but he sticks around since near the beginning of the series so his appearances add up. He’s not amazing or anything but he’s not bad. It’s always good to have a mechanic on hand. He is able to help out Tama a lot who actually is a great character. Tama is a robot who may not know too much about human customs but learns a whole lot during her interactions with Gintoki and the crew. She has a lot of personality and also has some gadgets to fight with when things get serious. She’s always fun.

Now lets talk about the best character in the series. So Katsura is usually one of those gag characters who doesn’t take things too seriously but don’t let that fool you into thinking he is weak or anything like that. I would argue quite strongly that he is stronger than Gintoki and Shinsuke. My reasoning for that is when they were kids Katsura was always shown to be the best. He would consistently win and then in the present I would assume that things stayed the same. The difficult part is that he is often not on the front lines in the same way that the others are. It feels like most of the time he would end up on some kind of side quest that has nothing to do with anything. So that was a little disappointing but I guess it is what it is.

Regardless, he does have a big role in so many stories that I shouldn’t be too greedy. His gags were always a lot of fun. I like the idea of his being a super genius who just keeps himself entertained by messing around the whole time. Then he has his best friend Elizabeth which the series has a lot of fun with. We get a lot of twists about that character and you have to decide how many of them to take seriously. Elizabeth is definitely a really odd character all around but in the end the dynamic works rather well.

Shinsuke is the main villain for a good chunk of the series although he spends a lot of time in the shadows so once he does actually appear, there isn’t quite as much time for him. Still, he’s not the kind of villain that you are likely to forget, that’s for sure! He has a really good backstory that explains why he turned out the way that he did and you get it. It’s a really tragic origin story and he has a lot of people to blame for what happened. A main theme in the series is about growing up and moving on from the past though so he actually has quite a few deep conversations with Gintoki about things. He’s definitely a very layered villain and one who is always a threat.

He has a few subordinates but the biggest one by far has to be Bansai. Bansai has a really good intro and it seems like he can hold his own with the stronger characters but surprisingly his role always ends up staying rather small. He doesn’t get the big feature fights that you would expect to see out of him. I like the design though and I suppose not everyone has to have their big action moments. He’s still around for a bunch of the war scenes and everything.

Then we have the best villain, Kamui. He’s a solid wild card and whenever he shows up you know things are going to get bad for the heroes. His stats are out of this world to the point where Gintoki and the others can’t beat him in a fair fight. It’s safe to say that he is the single strongest character in the series except for the final boss. That guy still has him beat I suppose. So Kamui gets a lot of chances to dominate and he’s generally the kind of character who loves to fight and test his limits. I always love characters like that.

Of course there are several Shinsengumi characters who end up being big so lets go through them. First up is Kondo and for the first chunk of the series I would constantly mix him up with Hasegawa. In my defense, the two of them are way too similar. Seriously their personalities aren’t that far apart either. I can’t say that I ever liked Kondo much. He was always super desperate so he looked bad. He doesn’t stand up for himself and so his persona as being a big shot in the organization doesn’t work.

I actually preferred Hasegawa who at least made himself into a professional homeless person. That’s not easy and he had his own sense of pride the whole time. His parody moments would actually land rather well so I had to give him a lot of props. Not enough to say that he is a very good character or anything like that though. He just beats Kondo which isn’t a high bar. Then we have Yamazaki who can also be rather desperate but at least he knows what he is doing. He’s a good undercover agent who isn’t afraid to play the long game when tailing a target. Now that’s what I call skill and dedication.

Then we have Hiijikata who is a pretty fun character. His mayo gimmick is definitely fun and he actually acts as a foil to Gintoki at times. I never bought him being in the same level of power as the lead to be honest but he was still good to have around. His strict leadership style really isn’t bad at all and he made the group a force to be reckoned with. It wouldn’t be the same without Okita though who is a really good standout character. He’s another guy who likes to fight and never backs down from anything. Not all of his personality traits are great to be honest but he tends to be awesome more times than he is not. So I would give the guy a full thumbs up in the end.

Then we have the reverse group and they had two big members. The first one is Sasaki who does well to command his fighting troops. He’s a serious guy without a doubt and definitely not someone to be underestimated. I can’t say I loved his character but he made for a good villain. His right hand woman Nobume was a lot more intense though. Now she was a blast and a good rival for Okita. Honestly she was too good for that group the whole time and I would look forward to her scenes. It was always nice to get more star fighters.

The series definitely liked its duos though. Next up we have another one. Ayame is a ninja who is completely obsessed with Gintoki. She stalks him and does whatever she can in order to attract his attention. On one hand, her determination itself is admirable but the stalker kind of character is rarely my cup of tea. Her gags tend to be more annoying than funny and I couldn’t take her seriously in the power department. The same is true of her boss Hattori. He may have technically been one of the main 4 with Gintoki and friends in the past but he never seemed nearly as tough. The guy doesn’t have the same level of grit or determination either. Honestly the guy felt rather fraudulent the whole time. I never ended up liking him and he often had some of the weaker chapters although I did like that time Gintoki and friends dressed up as ninja. Wait a sec, half of that was for Sakamoto. Yeah these are two characters I absolutely mixed up all the time. They act the same and their dynamics with their partners are the same as well. Maybe this is the one weakness of the series because having multiple characters this easy to mix up is a little crazy.

One primary character in the main town is Tsukuyo. She’s sort of like a mafia gang member and she seems to like Gintoki but I wouldn’t expect that romance to go anywhere. She’s a tough heroine who can dish out damage with the best of them. It’s always fun to see her even if she rarely gets to step in during the serious arcs. Another good heroine is Kyubei. She may be confused for a while as to what her gender even is but at the end of the day she does have some serious fighting abilities. I was a little surprised that she didn’t show up more in the serious arcs but her gags were always rather fun. Ayumu could be a little more on the annoying side when he would try to look out for her though. He really just had that single gag.

Then we have the big villain, Utsuro. He is an extremely interesting character due in large part to the fact that the storyline really doesn’t go how you think it would. The origin story is extremely unique with more twists than you would expect. Ultimately, I thought the series did an excellent job with him. He felt like a true end game boss, the kind of guy you could never take down. In a lot of ways he really was invincible all the way through to the end which is what you would expect from a character like this. He just kept on coming back over and over again to great success.

The series is no stranger to good villains though. Jiraia is another intense villain who still has one of the most iconic fights in the series. I loved seeing Gintoki have to try and use all of his skills to try and repel the guy’s sheer speed. Definitely not something that just anyone could pull off, I can tell you that! Another reason why Gintoki is one of the all time greats but Jiraia is a villain you just don’t forget.

Another really solid villain is Housen. The guy is a super strong fighter who really gives Gintoki a tough time. You definitely must not underestimate him and while he’s not a recurring villain, he made his presence felt. Umibouzu isn’t a villain per say but he does go up against Gintoki and friends so I figured I’d mention him here. He’s actually fun when he’s being serious although he does goof off a lot. Now there are a bunch of other supporting characters but I’m going to end with one of my least favorite.

The Shogun. This guy is an absolute waste of time. In all of the comedic chapters his only role is to get humiliated over and over again with no end in sight. Really just an annoying character and by the time he is to get his serious moments, it’s just too late. I just can’t take him seriously. It’s rough since he has a lot of screen time and big emotional moments meant to make him go higher but they still didn’t win me over. I suppose at least I can say that his final scene actually was pretty emotional and I won’t forget it.

So that is the world of Gintama! Quite a lot to go through there. It may seem like an intimidating title to jump into but the best advice is to just jump into it straightaway. For the jokes, as long as you have a good sense of humor then you should have a blast here. Just remember that pretty much no joke is out of bounds here. You’ll have some fairly intense ones, suggestive jokes, crude jokes, etc. Every kind of joke is here and while I would say that way more of the jokes land than miss, not every joke will work for everyone. So just see what you think of the tone and work from there. Hopefully you also like the action scenes as well since those end up being super important.

You can also treat the series as educational to an extent. There are tons of themes in the show about bettering yourself as a person and remaining optimistic. Gintoki always saw the bright side of things no matter how bad things got. Yes the series can be really silly but in a way it’s always just a played up version of real things that people feel and experience. A ton of the mini arcs all focus on different trials and the serious ones of course have a lot of motivational moments as well. There is a lot more to the series than meets the eye and it was already elite before that point. Gintoki has more hype cliffhangers and rage modes than almost any other protagonist.

Overall, Gintama is definitely an elite title and one of the very best in Jump. It’s super impressive how long it kept on going for and it has a ton of replay value because of how many great stories were in here. By the time you finish the series you can absolutely go back to the start and enjoy the nostalgia of seeing the characters back in the happy days of the series. It works well as a really good loop. It’s really the kind of series that could have even kept going but that probably sounds a bit greedy after this long runtime. So I’ll just be content with what we got and I highly recommend reading this series. It’s not without its flaws, it probably makes just about every mistake possible at different points in the series. At the end of the day though, it was long enough to override all of those issues and manages to be really top tier. It’s why you can’t give up, even if you come across an underwhelming arc, the series can always rebound so long as it keeps on going. There is always a chance.

Overall 9/10

The Goodbye Girl Review

Posted on April 28, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a rom-com that’s definitely got a good amount of drama in it. One of the main messages here I would say is to be careful who you decide to date because things can easily move sideways. Ultimately the film is entertaining and you’ll have a good time but you can’t really buy into the romance considering how much both characters hated each other for a while there. Well, mainly it was on Paula’s side towards Elliot but he didn’t really help matters.

The film starts by introducing us to Paula who has had a rough time of things. She and her husband divorced so now she takes care of her daughter Lucy by herself. She meets a guy named Tony who seems all right except for the fact that he is already married but Paula makes the terrible decision of getting with him too. Inevitably he ditches her shortly after. Additionally, he ends up renting out Paula’s apartment over to his friend Elliot. Paula has to vacate the place immediately and well she’s not happy about that. So when Elliot moves in, Paula decides not to move out. Can these two manage to get along?

Now both characters are jerks to each other for a while there but I will say I am a bit more sympathetic for Elliot here. The guy actually did pay for the apartment for several months in advance so yeah he does own the apartment. legally. The whole time Paula is giving him a ton of attitude but he’s actually being very tolerant since he really could have her kicked out. At the end of the day he is a good guy who doesn’t actually want to kick her out mainly because of the kid. I do think he’s restrained a whole lot so as not to make things tough for Lucy.

Yeah during the movie he retaliates a whole lot but I can’t blame him for that. Additionally he was expecting to have the place to himself so he could do whatever he wanted and now he basically has roommates. Paula starts giving him a ton of different house rules right out of the gate. Elliot quickly comes up with his own rules, some of which are a bit much I’ll admit. The morning yoga with burning incense comes to the top of my mind. Playing the guitar during the night isn’t a big deal if you ask me though.

Basically he’s trying for a reaction at times and Paula makes it really easy since she has a big reaction to everything. As for Paula, she’s been through a lot so you feel bad for her. You’d expect her to be a little less aggressive to be honest since she doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on here though. If she ever gets Elliot really upset he could really just kick her out since their whole temporary agreement isn’t legally binding in any way. She’s certainly been jaded by the men in her life but it has also removed her tactical experience. Every time Elliot messes with her she reacts in the wrong way, it’s almost funny how badly she is losing the battle initially.

Lucy is used as a contrast here where we see how she isn’t bothered by anything that he does. Elliot playing guitar through the night? Lucy doesn’t notice. Elliot starts chanting in the morning? Lucy notices but doesn’t care. Every single time Paula looks to Lucy to have a comrade in arms who is really upset but Lucy has already fallen asleep again or doesn’t really care. So Lucy does well I would say. She’s also very reluctant about having another man in the house and I don’t blame her since the last ones have all struck out. In that way I’d actually say she is being more sensible as well. The whole roommates to lovers thing just seems like a weak foundation for a romance if you ask me. Both of them are just charmed in the short run to have someone nice to talk to but that’s about it. It’s probably why Paula has been running through relationships.

Now I should say for a romance like this where both people are fighting, there are ways to make this work. Basically you can’t have either character go too far with how much they dislike each other. You establish that part of it is a defense mechanism and for the most part there should not be any prior baggage. Part of why this one doesn’t work is because for Paula at minimum this is the third guy. The squabbling romance works better when it’s an initial romance. Additionally it just doesn’t feel like there is any reason for each character to fall for each other because of all the bitterness here. I would say Elliot does put in most of the work here though. While Paula is still being rather rude and petty at times, Paula does his best like helping out with expenses and not intentionally messing with her. Aside from his early trolling with the yoga, he typically doesn’t start any of the fights. It still doesn’t make the romance work any smoother but I can at least say it’s not quite as fast as some other movies where it happens immediately.

As for each character’s individual plot, Paula is trying to become a dancer again but the problem is that she has been out of the game for too long. She’s gotten a bit too old and dancing is really a young person’s game. Ultimately she tries and it doesn’t work out which does make sense. It’s hard to compete with other dancers who have been doing this their whole life. When that doesn’t work she tries other jobs like being a car salesman but things don’t go too well. She is trying so you have to give her some credit there, it’s just tough to really get into a job sometimes with no prior experience at the ready.

Meanwhile Elliot’s definitely got a tough road here as well. He is an aspiring actor about to finally get his big role but the problem is that the director’s kind of a hack. He wants to butcher a production of Richard III by completely changing his character and personality. All of Elliot’s previous training and rehearsing has completely gone down the drain now. I’d be upset if I was him as well. Unfortunately the director does have way more power than the actor in this case. He tries to make the best of it and ultimately does get a few concessions from the director.

Overall, The Goodbye Girl is a film that’s fun enough. It tend to land more on the comedy than the romance though so the first half ends up beating the latter. It’s actually a decently long movie so at least there is plenty of time for the fun comedy before things get serious. With films like this it is always inevitable that the main two are going to get together no matter how improbable it is. You’ll be rolling your eyes a bit at all of that but the banter before then is handled well. I’d say the writing is on point as well and so this is a movie that I can recommend.

Overall 6/10

Toradora! Review

Posted on April 20, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time to jump into one of those big romance-comedy titles from a while back. This one definitely goes all in on the comedy right from the jump as the first episode launches quickly with the main heroine punching the guy’s lights out and then breaking into his house. That really set the show up on a good pace and it’s definitely a really fun title. Usually the weakest part of any romantic comedy tends to be the ending as the comedy part eventually has to give way for the serious romance and this one is no exception. The ending is a bit of a trainwreck at times but that’s less than 10% of the whole show so either way I am able to solidly recommend this title to anyone regardless.

The show starts off by introducing us to Ryuji who is your average teen except for the fact that he was born with a really scary face. So everybody thinks he’s a big delinquent and that makes it tough for him to approach the love of his life, Minori. Well, this school term is his chance to get past that but unfortunately he is in the same class as the Palm-Top Tiger. A legendary delinquent whose short stature doesn’t stop her from beating everyone up. Sure enough, she knocks him out early on and it turns out that she lives right across the street from him. There is one thing that connects them though, Taiga is in love with Ryuji’s best friend Yusaku and Taiga’s best friend is Minori. So they decide that they will help each other obtain true love but what if they end up falling for each other somewhere in the process?

Now I have to admit that if they didn’t fall for each other in the end I may even bump this up to an 8 because that would be completely unheard of for this kind of show. You want to talk about plot twists? This would be the biggest plot twist in the anime industry. Regardless, for a show like this the process is more important than the outcome. After all in a grand sense you know how most stories will end. It’s just all about the execution on just how good the story will be and the execution here is pretty fun.

Right off the bat you see that this show isn’t afraid to have some slapstick in the mix. When Taiga’s not slapping Ryuji, she’s punching, headbutting, or just pushing him around. She’s definitely a really tough character and the show can be super expressive. There’s always some comedic violence going on and the gags work very well. I do tend to enjoy Tsundere type characters in just about all anime but of course it also depends on how the writing goes. This was a very well written character and the rest of them are very different from Taiga so it’s also not like this will get repetitive. She’s actually the only openly violent character.

I would also say that another strength to the show is that each character gets a whole lot of depth. Rather than expanding the cast with the show getting over 20 episodes, it mainly sticks to the main cast from the first part so they all get their own character arcs. Yeah there are a few side characters who don’t do much but they didn’t have a ton of potential anyway. The show’s at its best when Ryuji and Taiga are trying to come up with a lot of plans and just failing miserably the whole time. After the final episode there is a bonus episode involving school bento lunches that takes place early on and it easily clobbered most of the final episodes because of this.

It’s a series where you get so invested into the comedy that you don’t even want the plot to return. Of course, the fact that the plot exists is why the comedy can be good so you can’t really go without it. It’s like a mystery series, you have to allow for an ending even if you feel bad because you wanted more of the intrigue. The ending/reveal is a necessary weak point for these kinds of genres so you just have to get ready and accept it. In the meantime though you get to really enjoy the comedic moments as they come in.

Fortunately the animation is also very high end and is able to complement the humor well. We even get a fight scene that actually looks rather good in one of the classrooms. We’re talking about some real physical blows being thrown around and a lot of movement. There’s also a brief slapping fight later on during a trip and a nice attention to detail was that the stronger fighter got a much more powerful sound effect for each slap. The show was always ready to pay attention to each detail which was good.

As for the soundtrack, this is one area where the show definitely went above expectations. There are a number of really catchy tunes in the show. The first opening is also really solid. I’m not as on board with the second one but it’s okay. Unfortunately my favorite theme in the show seems to be hard to find on Youtube so I suspect it’s a small part of a track so I need to listen to it more carefully to find this one. It’s got some nice randomness to it that fits the moments.

So yeah the writing is really solid and that helps the series be a lot of fun. The main cast is generally really solid as well. As for the romance….well yeah get ready for a lot of rebounds. Naturally the romance will usually be the weak link here. I did smirk a bit as the romance went on because at first the show is at least trying to make you think that this won’t turn into one of those titles where everyone likes the main character but at the end that is also something that’s difficult for the genre to dodge. So I can’t say I was behind the end game pairing here. I wasn’t particularly rooting for any of them but naturally the best girl does lose since that’s always how it goes with these things.

The reason the climax fails a bit for me though isn’t even directly related to the romance. I felt like a few of the story beats weren’t developed enough so you were almost rooting against the main characters. For example towards the end Ryuji gets upset with his Mom for trying too hard to make everything work out without relying on him. So he then decides to run off which doesn’t solve any of the issues and really just makes him look super ungrateful. I wasn’t on board with him at all here. It’s at least a little understandable for Taiga but even then it feels too drastic. You never got the feeling that things were as dire as the main two made it out to be.

Then the final episode plays out a bit too melodramatic in some ways. There was no reason for Taiga’s final decision which just put a lot of heat on Ryuji for no reason. I guess the ending throws you a bone but it just felt unnecessary. So the final 2-3 episodes started to feel a bit off and the plot developments feel random at best but like I said, the rest of the journey was on point so that’s really what counts. There’s also a big difference between an underwhelming ending and a downright bad one. Like it’s not enough to lower the score or anything like that. Now lets talk about the characters.

First up is Ryuji who is super addicted to cleaning. He actually gets excited when he sees that a place is messy since it means that he can get in there and make the place look perfect. This gag doesn’t appear very often but I’d say that it’s a good character gimmick. Meanwhile he’s a nice guy who does his best to look out for everyone and make things work out. He doesn’t always make the right calls and makes a few mistakes particularly when the parental figures are involved but at least he means well.

He has enough courage to try asking out Minori several times which is more than a lot of other main characters. Things tend to not go his way which are usually due to stuff he can’t control. He also does his best to look out for Taiga even when they were just neighbors. I’d say this shines through a lot more on his side than Taiga’s to be honest. For most of the series he is helping her out without much in return for himself and he seems to genuinely care. He is the kind of guy who will really help anyone out.

Then you have his best friend Yusaku who can be a little more on the annoying side. His main character flaw seems to be trying to ignore what is happening in order to avoid conflict. That means acting oblivious whenever it suits him. He looks really bad in his mini arc as well when he starts to act out. I would definitely say that was his worst moment by far and it was hard to recover from that. From the main cast he was definitely the weakest. Still not a bad character I’d say but yeah he mostly worked as an obstacle/antagonist rather than amping up the main cast.

Then on the heroine side we have Taiga as the main heroine and she definitely brings in a lot of the heart for the show. She’s a little out of her depth on how the whole romance thing goes and so Ryuji has to help her a whole lot. Half the time it feels like he set things up pretty well for her but she wouldn’t have the nerve to go along with it and would mess things up for him. So again, you have to give Ryuji a whole lot of points for effort here. Taiga’s toughness is part of what makes her so much fun though. At one point she isn’t sure how she can help emotionally so she takes out her sword and just starts beating someone up.

As the show goes on she gradually learns more though and stars to become more aware of how to act on her emotions. In a way it helps her move on when she sees that she’s not the first choice. Of course that doesn’t work with the rebound that comes in later on but she definitely changes a lot from the start to finish. She tries to go down the noble route of just letting the guy she likes go so that she doesn’t wreck another relationship. Ultimately after a lot of pressure she isn’t able to hang on but it was a good attempt.

Her constant banter with Ryuji is always a lot of fun and she’s an entertaining character. Taiga is very much a bold kind of character who goes and tries her best at everything she tries. Then you have her friend Minori who is also a great character. Minori always believes in trying really hard at everything in life. She joins tons of different clubs and jobs and pushes herself to her very limits. She also believes in always having a great attitude and never gets down about things.

Minori even faces her fears right away in the first episodes without backing down. So she’s really fun and is another selfless character who is willing to throw away her desires to help someone else out. This can sometimes turn into a bit of a Martyr case where these things just start to build up but I can still admire this part of her. Eventually when her buttons are pushed enough she will cut loose but it takes a whole lot to get to that point. It’s never that she’s fake either but she tries to just tune things out that would cause her to lose her focus.

So she’s another really solid heroine here and of course the more solid characters you have, the more tragic the ending is going to inevitably be. The most tragic would have to be Ami though who is also the most mature character. Everyone expects her to be super mature too which is the tough part since she has an image to maintain. If she lets it slip at any point then it starts to turn into trouble. At first she’s a jerk but gradually gets nicer as the series goes on.

I give her the most credit here because she successfully keeps in her feelings at all times. Even by the end it’s not clear if Ryuji ever got what was going on. Ami made some fair attempts but when they didn’t work, she never tried to get in the way of the other relationships or cause trouble. In her own way she even helped out her rivals a whole lot. It’s the tragic kind of romance that is one sided but that’s what makes it fun to root for if you had to pick a pairing to go for. Can she get ahead of the other characters? It’s not always easy though and if someone’s not into you then that’s really where that ends. There’s not much that you can do about that.

So Ami’s a character that was doomed from the jump and you feel bad for her the whole time. She really stuck the landing though and never took things the wrong way. She ended up being the best character in the show easy and that’s saying a lot since the cast is generally pretty good. Then we have a few minor classmates but they tend to be weaker or just don’t get much to do. First is Koji who is just annoying the whole time. I felt like he had no real purpose in the story other than to be annoying. Seriously he doesn’t add anything to the story at all and he’s just not that funny. I guess he serves the role as the hopeless flirt who is out of his league.

Then there is Hisamisu who gets a sudden romance plot with Maya at the end but it comes in way too late. It’s also crazy how late he is to the party as he tries to ship Taiga and Yusaku well after that plot had already ended. Meanwhile Maya was trying to get Ryuji and Taiga together so she could be with Yusaku but nothing really came out of this either. Maya was at least a fun character though and if she had appeared more I think she would have been able to add to the dynamic.

Then we have Ryuji’s mom Yasuko who has a medium sized role here. While the show is mainly good about not having too much fanservice, it does feel like that is her role for the most part. There are other moments for other characters here and there but the camera usually gets dicey when Yasuko is around. I feel like this even fools the writers into forgetting just how tragic of a character she is. Yasuko has to raise Ryuji all by herself and works nights and picks up as many part time jobs as possible to support him. She is really working hard and doing her best at all times yet the show kind of turns against her in the end. I didn’t think anything about the ending was justified against her. They call her immature and everything but that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

She sacrificed a whole lot to help Ryuji and it makes sense that she wanted him to focus on his studies. So this was one plot where I definitely disagreed with the direction that the show went in. We understood why Taiga’s dad was a big villain as he kept on breaking her heart over and over again. The Mom didn’t get enough to do so that’s a bit harder to tell but at least we could reasonably say she wasn’t being very helpful. This just wasn’t the case for Yasuko.

I’m not really sure what their pet bird Inko added to the show though. I think it went a bit too far in trying to make his character design look really ugly though. They could have made him look a little cooler. Then you have the teacher Yuri who is okay. You feel a little bad for her too though since her high school life definitely left her wanting for more and now she feels like she’s too old to really do anything. That’s got to be rough. She is absolutely too harsh on herself though.

Finally there is the student council present Sumire who doesn’t appear for long but she has a pivotal role in one arc. She was a solid character who handled the situation pretty well. I guess making a joke out of the guy’s confession towards her was not very nice but the setting for being asked out was pretty bad. Never ask someone out in front of a huge crowd and put them on the spot like that. Ultimately I can also see why she was a bit disillusioned since Yusaku took the news of her leaving so badly. I think she could have even been a good addition to the main cast as another strong member who could handle anything if she had stuck around.

Overall, Toradora is a pretty fun series. You’ll definitely get a solid amount of laughs out of it and the pacing is on point. The characters all get a ton of development to them and you really feel the progression from each of them. None of them are really the same as they initially started which is the sign of a solid show there. The status quo was definitely changed quite a few times and the show is long enough where it gets to take its time in each one and we can see the characters just interact. You really feel like you know all of the characters very well by the end. A sequel could definitely be fun at some point although the ending is fairly definitive. I also think it’s hard to match the school setting since in College they will all be split up but I suppose then it’s up to the writers to come up with a bunch of fun new characters.

Overall 7/10

Lycoris Recoil Review

Posted on April 20, 2024 by dreager1

I remember this anime being massively popular when it first came out. There were clips of it everywhere and it looked like a pretty fun show all around. Well, I have now gotten to dive into it and it is a fun experience. I’d say the dynamic between the main two heroines is definitely one of the stronger ones and is a big reason as to why the show is fun to watch. It’s also the only time I can think of where you have one character who is a prodigy and then the other is a super prodigy to the point where the first one even looks super weak. The power scaling here gets pretty intense.

In this world, there are a group of girls who fight to protect Japan from behind the scenes. They are the Lycoris. They operate in complete secrecy so nobody even knows that they exist. Because of this, the world believes that Japan is basically crime free because their citizens are just that good. They’re literally built different and it gives people a lot of security. You feel safe while in Japan. The main heroine is Takina and she is the best agent in the group. She completes all missions with ease and while this has stunted her emotional growth, she is effective. Unfortunately on one mission her partner gets captured so Takina rescues her by going in guns blazing but she had to defy orders in the process.

Takina is demoted from the main task force and sent to a little Lycoris cafe in the middle of nowhere. Since Takina has trained all her life to be the best, this is a huge blow for her and she wants to get back into the elite squad at all costs. It won’t be easy though as she will have to work together with Chisato, the problem child of the group. What Takina doesn’t realize is that Chisato is the greatest Lycoris agent to ever live. She has uncanny reflexes that allow her to dodge any attack and she does all this while keeping up a no murder policy. It’s going to be tough getting back to the main squad when working with a troublemaker like this. Takina may be at odds with Chisato for now but will she slowly learn how to just be a normal civilian?

I’d say in a lot of ways that’s the main plot here. Takina put her whole life into being a ruthless killing machine but now she gets to do some normal stuff. Operating a cafe for example may be low key but it does force her to learn some actual conversational skills. Chisato helps her learn how to dress fashionably and take life less seriously as well. It takes a while for Takina to really start dropping her defenses but that’s what makes the dynamic work. I think it wouldn’t have worked nearly as well if Chisato wasn’t so unbelievably strong so it’s good that she was the top fighter.

The concept of the Lycoris group is also pretty interesting. I feel like it probably doesn’t hold up if you think about it too hard though. Like when they’re murdering all of these villains and hiding the evidence, what happens to the families? They’re told some kind of accident happened and they aren’t allowed to see the body? No matter what tricks you go with here, it feels like they wouldn’t be able to work indefinitely. The more that things keep being weird and having unexplainable circumstances, the more that it’s going to raise some flags. There’s also a second secret assassin group made up of the guys but they’re a lot weaker and not much of a threat so you can ignore them.

The animation here is very solid as you would expect. It’s all very smooth and the action scenes always bring out the best in the series. There are a lot of quick movements and the opening is also high budget. Basically any time Chisato is fighting, the series dials things up quite a bit. It helps that this is the best way to show her bullet timing abilities so she gets to dodge a lot of hits all the time. The gun fights and also just the general movement around town tend to be good as well. The colors are striking and so I have no real negatives here.

Meanwhile the soundtrack is good as well although it’s a lot more subdued. The opening for example is great but from the ost within the show, you will likely be forgetting about it fairly quick. None of the tunes there were super memorable but at least they would fit the scene so I still wouldn’t say that the themes are bad or anything like that. Then we get to the characters. The cast isn’t all that large but considering that the show is only 13 episodes that makes sense. First up is Takina who is of course a great main character.

It does feel like her confidence doesn’t always line up with her skill level though. She may have been the best among the active Lycoris but when the going gets tough she does not do well against the main villain Majima and several times seems to be holding Chisato back. Still I like her personality and I tend to enjoy characters with high levels of confidence. Takina is always talking tough to anyone in her way and she does try really hard to learn every lesson that Chisato gives out. So you have to give her a lot of credit there. Like I said before, she is one of the big reasons why the show is good.

Then you have Chisato who definitely steals the show here. She has a lot of confidence and is always upbeat. She’s not the kind of character who will do much bragging but her confidence shines though in subtle ways. If there is a big fight where everyone is sweating and stressing, she’s just casually dominating the fight. She is quick to defend Takina as well and is also the most heroic member of the group. Unlike everyone else who are content to murder as many villains as possible, Chisato takes them all alive. She even loads her gun with pepper spray instead of bullets to further make sure that she doesn’t go too far by mistake.

Chisato definitely has a serious plot ongoing here involving a mystery that she has to solve but where other characters might falter and get frustrated, she just plunges forward. There aren’t many characters that are as mentally strong as she is, that’s for sure. Her character’s ending is satisfying here.

Then we have Kurumi who is really good at hacking. So while she may not be able to fight, that’s fine. Having two expert fighters on the group seems like it should be enough for any circumstance right? Kurumi’s hacking comes in handy many times as it is. I don’t think she adds a ton to the dynamic as far as the characters go but she’s not bad. She’s still a fun character to have around. Finally you have Mizuki who probably has the smallest role from the main group. She helps out as needed but is really here as comic relief so don’t expect her to really contribute in the plot.

Now lets talk about the higher ups in the Lyrocis project who tend to be the worst characters. First you have Mika who owns the bar and is trying to do better but I have to say that he comes across pretty badly by the time all of the twists are accounted for. He takes way too long to come clean about a lot of things and the secrets are actively hurting everybody. He really needed to do better and comes across as wishy washy during a lot of points. There was no real saving him because at the end of the day inaction is almost always a negative action.

Even worse though is Kusonoki. She leads the Lycoris project although she still has to answer to the board of directors and everything. The problem is that she loses fight of the point of the project early on into the show. Benching Takina for a small problem and then ignoring her the whole time is just unprofessional. Even worse is the fact that Takina finds out new clues and evidence that helps them press the case forward on several accounts. It’s clear that they need Takina but a misplaced sense of justice causes Kusonoki to still make the wrong move. Then here is a moment where the government tells her to stand down so they can murder all of the girls, she doesn’t do much about it. Yeah she has her big resistance moment but now that we know this kind of order can happen she should be taking steps to destroy the other groups. Kusonoki ultimately feels like the kind of character who will follow orders and keep the status quo even if everyone ends up dying as a result.

Then we have the other members of Lycoris who are mainly here to help remind us why the group is absolutely doomed without Takina and Chisato. Those two hard carry the group. Fuki is one of the squad leaders and she can’t do much of anything. She talks a big game but can’t back it up. Then you have Sakura who replaced Takina and gets embarrassed at every opportunity. She comes across more annoying than anything else. Like I said I typically enjoy the confident characters but it can’t be 100% empty air. At that point I just can’t take you seriously.

There’s also a detective character running around but I feel like the show wasn’t really sure what to do with him. He just gets written out midway and gets a final scene at the end. I was expecting his plot to continue and maybe we would get something big in season 2. Granted, like I said the whole Lycoris secret project doesn’t always feel very well thought out so him solving it could have been interesting but the whole thing felt a little weak.

Okay now lets talk about the villains here. First up is Shinji who is definitely on the weak/annoying side. So this guy basically has a death wish for a while there and his plans don’t really excite me. I feel like he isn’t even getting closer to his goals with the way he handled things. Chisato looks up to him a whole lot so a direct approach might have at least had a slim shot of succeeding. Instead he’s playing all of these games and being sneaky while talking about his message in the worst way possible. There was no way he was going to win over Chisato the way that he planned it out. It just doesn’t make sense. So yeah this guy was pretty awful the whole time.

Then you have Robota as the evil hacker and he was okay but my main problem was just that he was really weak. You couldn’t take him too seriously because the heroic hacker was so much better than him at all times. So this guy has a lot of confidence issues as a result and that doesn’t really work for a villain. Fortunately the main villain Majima helped to balance things out because he is actually a really good character. Basically he wants to expose the Lycoris group by letting everyone know the truth about them. He goes pretty far in this goal like spreading a ton of weapons among the civilians and making a lot of connections.

Naturally he goes full villain with how he is actually murdering people but otherwise the message makes sense. This fake sense of security by hiding all crimes does feel like it’s not the right thing to do. They’re just hiding things at that point and playing judge, jury, and executioner. They are explicitly acting outside of the law here. That said, the characters still treat him way too kindly to the point where it doesn’t make sense. The biggest example of this is the climax with him fighting Chisato.

At times it feels like Chisato doesn’t care that this guy was ramming other Lycoris agents with cars and generally causing a lot of people to die. She was arguing with him like he was some random dude. Yeah it’s great that she never takes things too hard or gets down in the dumps for long but this was different. This is a fight where she needed to knock him out right away to neutralize the threat. The climax just felt out of character and a bit bizarre. It only would have worked alongside the twist that he never actually ended up hurting anybody. It’s why the whole fireworks scene doesn’t really work.

But hey, getting let off easy by the heroes isn’t a negative for Majima. He’s just responsible for his own actions and on those he did good. Considering how outgunned he was against Chisato, he also did a great job of planning for the fight and using the only way possible to even the playing field. Even with that Chisato was definitely primed for the win but I give the show big props for actually coming up with a way to make it dangerous for her. For a while it seemed like there were not going to be any real threats to Chisato in the series. Nothing wrong with that of course but I do always love when a character can go all out because it’s really close.

The show mainly keeps things high brow the whole time too which is nice. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that there wasn’t much fanservice. The show even mainly avoids having any rushed romance plots thrown into the mix. So this way we’re able to just have the main characters enjoy life and have fun. The episodes usually would spend half of the runtime having fun and then half with some kind of action scene and the balance works really well. I’d say the show’s biggest strength is that it’s just fun to watch. Each episode is entertaining and so the show manages to be consistent the whole way through. The foundation is strong enough where the show could fully transition into being a slice of life title and it would still be in good shape. Although of course I’m glad we get to keep the action in. One plot that I think we could take a bit further is Chisato’s killer mode. We don’t get to see much of that even in the final battle and it feels like there is some good potential there because she’s still holding it back in a sense. The longer she holds it back, the more credit I give her strength of will though.

Overall, Lycoris Recoil is a pretty fun show. It’s the kind of title with a lot of potential for sequels. You could really keep sending the heroines on more and more missions as needed and the end only has to happen once the writers run out of ideas. If you like the idea of secret agents protecting Japan then this lives up to the premise. It’s bound to keep your attention all the way through and a lot of care was definitely put into this one. I’d be hyped for a season 2.

Overall 7/10

The Bad News Bears Review

Posted on April 13, 2024 by dreager1

Whenever you think of the Bad News Bears you figure you’re in for one of the toughest teams on the block. What you don’t realize is that they aren’t delivering bad news…they are the bad news! Now there’s a twist if I’ve ever heard of one right? It’s a comedy film that can be pretty fun at times but ultimately doesn’t quite do enough to get much higher than that. It will keep you entertained but won’t be a film that you’re clamoring to watch again. One playthrough is really enough for this one.

The film starts with Morris being paid to coach a kid’s baseball team. He’s not really interested at all but the money’s good and that’s what counts. He intends to give this the minimum amount of effort so he keeps on drinking all day and generally not being very helpful. What makes him even less interested is that nobody on the team even knows how to play. They are all scrubs and they even lose the first game by over 20 points. Still, the disrespect is just too much and so Morris decides that he’s going to turn this team into a bunch of winners. Is he really doing this for them though…or for himself? That’s the tough question here.

So most of the comedy here is in how bad the team is of course and how over the top Morris is in terms of being a completely inappropriate coach. It tends to work most of the time which is what keeps the film in the green. Morris has a lot of fun facial expressions the whole time and the subtle bits of character humor also work really well. Then when his competitive spirit gets going, you still have fun because of course he doesn’t know how to handle success well. I would say the film tends to ride or die based on how much you enjoy his character.

I’d say a weakness of the film tends to be the ending and any moment where it tries to take itself too seriously. The movie can’t quite handle these moments. For example, at one point Morris and Amanda have a big fight. She wants to hang out with him and at least develop a small bond but he shoots her down. Mainly the problem here is that he’s way too rude and goes too far. From that point on there is no way you can root for him to win or do well as a coach. It’s understandable that he doesn’t want to create any bonds right now but she is a child and he could have handled that a million times better. I just had no respect for him after that scene, he was just awful.

If I was Amanda I probably would have ditched the team after that tbh. Good luck winning without a pitcher! She has all of the leverage in this dynamic and ultimately she still does get injured with how hard she was playing. She’s easily one of the most likable characters here and I felt like things didn’t go great for her. Then you have the rival Kelly who is a delinquent but knows how to play so they let him on the team. He is actually very good and along with Amanda is a huge reason on why they go far. So what do the rest of the teammates do about this? They get upset at him and basically cause a bunch of trouble for no reason.

I don’t think they were justified in any way and come across as a bunch of jerks. I’ve never liked when a bunch of characters turn on someone without even giving the character a chance. At least talk to him and explain why you are upset instead of becoming all passive aggressive and sulking the whole time. That doesn’t help anyone. It’s just blowing a bunch of hot air at that point. Yeah that’s not a good thing to do. So everywhere I look, there are reasons to root against the team.

Then the kicker is the climax as we get the teamwork message. It is worth sacrificing your chance at winning the championship if you can get everyone having fun. The main problem with this kind of message is that most people don’t have any fun when they lose. In fact, if you lose the championship and you are the reason why your team lost, then you’re going to feel absolutely lousy. Morris should have had the weaker kids start early in the first inning so they could play before benching them. I just disagree with the theory on its face.

It’s selfish to sacrifice everything when the championship is something that is so hard to obtain in the first place. Again, the kids weren’t very grateful or anything so maybe it works out anyway but it was still annoying to watch. The whole second half of the film is kind of annoying come to think of it. Even the opponent coach hits a kid and gets off without any real consequences. He’s back to laughing and feeling good about himself by the end because he’s winning and there’s nothing the heroes can do about it. Sure you could say the family leaving are some consequences but I’d rather he have gotten punched or something.

So maybe the most direct way to put this is that the film had a bit of a mean streak to it. It was funny during the early comedic moments of everyone messing up and looking terrible but once the film got serious, it would just go too far. The film needed to have a little more restraint the whole time and personally I would change the ending. Not necessarily to a big win or anything like that but I wouldn’t have made the team effectively throw the match.

Overall, The Bad News Bears brings bad tidings to its viewers by the end. It’s entertaining enough where I could still say that it is a good movie, but certainly not a very good one. I wouldn’t be in a rush to rewatch this film and I have to hope that the sequels stick the landing a bit better. Just lean a bit more into the comedy and I’m sure you could do a lot with a Baseball title like this. I do have a good time with sport films after all and Baseball is the kind of sport that should translate well into a movie with so many characters running around.

Overall 6/10

One Touch of Venus Review

Posted on April 8, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a romance musical film. The latter doesn’t really become an element for a while but you can be sure that the romance is here from the jump. It’s a pretty interesting scenario since it’s sort of like the classic wish fulfillment scenario but with the main character trying his best to get out of it. He looks rather awful in this movie to be honest but there are some decent laughs to be had here. Is it a good movie though?…wellllllllllll I’d probably have to say no on that.

The movie starts off with Savory being really excited to show the world the giant Venus statue that he got. He ordered it a long time ago and put a fortune into obtaining it. Unfortunately the curtain on the display isn’t working so he sends one of his employees over to fix it before the unveiling. This employee’s name is Hatch and he’s not very talented, smart, or reasonable. He also gets drunk extremely easily. So Hatch does some drinking on the job and decides to kiss the statue before fixing the curtain. What he doesn’t realize is that he has just awakened the goddess of love, Venus up from her slumber. Venus is now ready to enjoy life and has fallen in love with Hatch. The problem is that Hatch is super afraid of her and now the boss believes that he has stolen the statue.

Hatch is an annoying character from the jump. First off, he has a girlfriend in Gloria already but the guy keeps her distant because he doesn’t want to get married. If you just started dating then sure it’s probably good to get to know each other for a while before you’re married. Date for a few months or something and then you’re all good. The problem here is that it feels more like Hatch is just scared of commitment and instead of having an honest conversation with Gloria about it, his first instinct is to just run. Not a very responsible or mature thing to do right?

He does the same thing with Venus. He literally faints the first time and then after that he spends most of the film panicking and running around. If he was at least 100% dedicated to Gloria and was just trying to reject Venus then that would be one thing but he still weakens in several instances which just makes him look really bad. Yes, Venus does passively increase the desire of love within everyone she is around but you need to be able to resist those abilities with your willpower. I don’t accept any excuses in this kind of thing. You either stay strong or you don’t, I’m afraid there is no middle ground here.

Savory may be one of the antagonists here but he has a lot more flair than Hatch. When he meets Venus he does his best to impress her to the point of appearing desperate. He is quick to help others out and yeah he’s not exactly a superhero but he seems like a reasonable guy. I know with the Molly subplot he could be a bit oblivious but she wasn’t super direct either so I’d put that on both of them 50/50. You even feel bad for him a bit when Venus is obviously using him by the end. She didn’t need to do all that but of course at the end of the day it’s on him for falling for that.

Molly gets a fairly happy ending though. I was glad that at the end she wasn’t going to throw Hatch under the bus during the big misunderstanding. At the end of the day she is a good person with her own standards. She may have been a bit too cold and cryptic to the point of sabotaging herself for a while there but she was fun to root for. She always had a few cold one liners at the ready to toss around.

Venus is possibly a big antagonist depending on how much control you think she has over her love abilities. If she is pro actively trying to get Gloria and Joe together so she has Hatch then of course that is antagonist behavior. If it’s more passive then that’s not as bad. The film hints to the former though, particularly since she can use her other abilities at will. She is quite powerful in this film as she can really do anything that her heart desires. Quite a fun ability, I think anyone would really agree to that.

She is willing to charm her way to victory and use people though which is always a trait that I dislike in any character. Her overall confidence is fun enough but the manipulation isn’t cool. So yeah I wasn’t rooting for her here since the whole romance wasn’t build upon great circumstances from the start and she could have used her powers for a lot of better purposes. I wasn’t a big fan of Gloria either though since she rebounded with Joe so quickly. Yeah they’re both possibly being influenced and all but you have to fight it.

Gloria has a boyfriend and Joe’s the guy’s friend. These are both massive taboos so you can’t just ignore that when you feel like it. No sirrrrrr, that was not a good move. That whole subplot is pretty sad whenever it shows up on screen so the romance as a whole is lacking like I mentioned. The film is at its best when it’s embracing the craziness of the whole situation. Every time Hatch would break past the cops I was having a of fun there. It’s silly and over the top but it’s charming with no strings attached.

It made for some decent chase scenes. I also generally enjoyed Venus and Hatch running around and having to hide from everyone. Yeah it’s a bit cheesy but again this is what the film should have been like the whole time. It takes itself so seriously despite the outlandish plot and this being a musical. Also, the songs aren’t all that good. None of them stand out at all and that’s my main problem with a lot of old school music like this. They tend to sound the same and aren’t fast paced or action enough to really take the movie to the next level. There aren’t a ton of songs compared to other musicals though so even if you don’t like musicals then you should be okay as long as you enjoy the story.

Overall, One Touch of Venus is an interesting film. It can be a little funny to see Hatch just panicking and fumbling the bag in every instance. He always finds a way to get himself into bigger and bigger trouble by making himself sound crazy. At the same time, it does mean that he can also be a really annoying main character. It’s hard to root for someone who is his own worst enemy. The film doesn’t drag on though and for the most part it is fun. So I’m leaving it at the midway point here. It’s good enough where you won’t be bored or anything while watching it but at the same time it’s not like you can really root for any of the romances and the characters are all mainly annoying.

Overall 5/10

The Time Travelers Review

Posted on April 8, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a movie that’s definitely more on the disappointing side. It’s not like I had massive hopes for it or anything like that but a film about time travel should always be exciting. Instead this one was just more of a let down. A lot of the time there was nothing going on in the movie and it felt like the story was constantly stalling for time. That is absolutely not the right way to make a good impression and so even the ending doesn’t land as well as it should have.

The film starts with a bunch of scientists working on their time device. They want to be able to peer into different time periods but they are using up a lot of energy and have no results. Danny is sent in there to tell them to cut it out but they try one more test. This time it works, only better than they expected. The “window” doesn’t just let them view other times, it actually lets them jump in as well. Now they are all trapped in the future with no way to get home. This is already bad but it turns out that the world is about to end. They will have to rely on the help of other scientists from the future who are rather suspicious.

The story sounds a lot more interesting than it actually is. You’ve got a whole race of brutes running across the planet and then you have “Deviants” who are part brute, part human. Stuff happened along with the mass bombing of the planet that caused people to not develop so much and this really split humanity. There’s a story somewhere in here about rebelling against this tyranny but there’s just no time. We already missed the collapse of modern civilization and these are the last scientists on the planet either way.

The brutes are also surprisingly weak. Guess how the main characters get them to go away…..they throw rocks at them. Yeah this is enough to make them retreat. It really makes no sense no matter how the film tries to spin it. I couldn’t believe how the whole crowd backed off from the main fighters because of this. There are some action scenes once in a while during the movie but never for long. You don’t need this for a time travel movie but at the same time it means that I couldn’t really take the villains all that seriously.

Then we also have some random fanservice near the middle of the movie. The scene has absolutely no point being in here and you could say that about quite a few other scenes. The film takes us through the long process of building and fixing androids. I imagine they will have been doing this for a very long time because these androids are super flimsy. I’d trust Flippy the modern burger A.I. over some of these things. The brutes destroy them with ease. Couldn’t the scientists have taught the robots to throw rocks or something?

Now in part this is a problem with the film being so old but the so called high tech civilization don’t really feel that advanced. They’re also not very reasonable but that’s just human nature so I could roll with that. The only thing I will defend them on is not wanting to alter the plan to leave the planet. They already spent years getting the perfect window set up and it’s reasonable to assume that they would be obliterated by the villains if they stay for much longer. So it sucks for the main scientists but they can’t exactly wait for them.

This could all be very fascinating if you didn’t have to sit through 20 minutes of comedy music while the heroes walk around the base doing nothing. It felt like the script for this film was only around 30 minutes so they really had to stretch this for as long as possible. Not a good idea by any stretch of the imagination. Again, the story itself is very interesting but it was executed in the worst way possible. The film’s biggest error is really that it can just get rather boring at times. That shouldn’t be possible for a time travel film. It should be extremely engaging and fascinating the whole time.

The pacing is just so bad. The film’s not even very long but it sure feels like a lengthy epic as a result of the decisions made here. I was shaking my head the whole time. Lets quickly list the cool concepts the movie had that weren’t explored much at all. 1. The warring factions with the brutes, 2. The poor guy in the middle of this who is shunned by humans and monsters. How did he even break into the ship? 3. The guy who was trigger happy from the future scientists. I felt like he was going to get a much bigger role, etc. There was a ton of meat left on the table for this movie.

The only part of the film that I will give some decent credit for being original is the ending. Sure, it’s something you may have seen before in some way or another but it’s not an option that tends to be picked. So actually seeing this ending was pretty fun and makes a whole lot of sense. It all depends on the rules for time travel that the verse picks but this is one that’s always interesting and works to prevent any kind of a paradox. The ending alone isn’t worth watching the film of course but if you are intrigued, this could help enhance the movie just a little bit.

Overall, The Time Travelers is not a very good film. It spends way too much time on filler moments and not actually advancing the plot. Every time the heroes would take a break to just marvel at the future I would get annoyed. Particularly since none of the stuff was all that impressive either. None of the characters really stand out either and the film’s weak attempt at a romance here falls flat. Yeah you’re really not missing much by skipping this film. It will ultimately stay forgotten.

Overall 4/10

My Blue Heaven Review

Posted on April 8, 2024 by dreager1

All right it’s time for another retro film as we go way back to 1950 on this one. It’s an old school musical with a whole lot of songs so you don’t have to worry about running out of those. Unfortunately the main character loses a lot of points by the end and the characters definitely don’t always make the right moves.

The movie starts with Kitty and Jack having a big celebration because they are finally having a kid. Everything is looking really good until they are in a car crash and Kitty loses the baby. Now her only option is adoption but the orphanage doesn’t think people in the TV business like Kitty and Jack would make for good parents. They need to find some way to get a kid though but what can they do. What even are their options at this point? One thing’s for sure, if they get too desperate they may end up getting into trouble.

I can see why it would be a bit of a tougher sell for the orphanage on a couple like Kitty and Jack who both work. Especially back in 1950 when this was far less common. It would mean they would need to hire a baby sitter and as we saw later in the film, that’s not always a good option. So the orphanage may have been onto something at least to a small percent although of course the main couple actually was responsible. They just didn’t leave a great first impression.

Where they got a bit too desperate was when they decided to do this behind the books. They went to some shady people at the back of a restaurant and ignored a ton of red flags in order to take the baby. Jack in particular messed up on this one since they had been leaving when his willpower weakened. The film mainly tries to dodge this plot for later on with an easy resolution when that could have really gone sideways.

Jack’s biggest mistake was cheating on Kitty with a younger actress known as Gloria. That whole scene was crazy and completely dooms his character. The fact that he wasn’t even fighting by the end and seemed eager for more before Kitty walked in was just sad. Yeah he got his excuses lined up and we can assume it’s all happily ever after but it’s just unfortunate how he proved all of the friends and neighbors right. They figured he couldn’t be trusted by himself and well, he couldn’t. The guy was practically encouraging Gloria by the end.

So yeah he looks pretty bad throughout. Kitty fares better in the film but has her own share of issues like when she allows the hired help to boss her around. Kitty brought in a nurse for when she has to go to work but she lets this person boss her around during the day to the point where she isn’t allowed to hold her own baby? That makes absolutely no sense, it’s just completely backwards. Yeah that’s not very smart and at least eventually she fired that person.

The main cast is rather small but there are a few supporting characters. The main two important ones would be the other couple who are always around to cause some trouble. Whether it’s by finding shady deals for more babies or throwing a party which doomed the odds for the first try, something is always going on here. They don’t always have a lot of tact and the party going on for so long is part of why the main duo crashes in the first place. Technically this influence ended up being a net negative for the main characters.

One thing that doesn’t really help the film is that none of the music is all that good. It’s a big contrast to the writing where I tend to enjoy older films for how the writing style was but I tend to dislike or be generally indifferent to older style music. Give me concert type films over musicals any day as those tend to have a lot more life to them. At the end of the day this one really could not keep up. I won’t really remember any of the tunes by the next day.

The baby scenes don’t really do anything for me in terms of helping the film or being funny so the film has to try and have a blast around those moments. The dog was nice though and always good to see. Whenever a pet appears in a film without an action context or anything then I can generally be assured that it’s going to enhance the movie. There should be no risk of anything negative happening to the pup after all. I also appreciated the maid who was a fun character. Honestly she got the roughest bit of things because the characters were never really being all that nice to her or embracing he positive energy that she was throwing out. That’s definitely something that they need to work on.

If I could do something differently here, it’s that I would have focused more on the main characters’ radio career. I think those shows have a lot of potential to them, far more than the TV versions. On the radio it’s all audio so no reason to be running around with all these big productions. Instead it’s more about telling a good story and being dramatic. The opening segment about the IRS for example was better than any of the shows that came before it. Don’t introduce Gloria a a character and I think you’ve got a whole lot going on here to be a big success.

Overall, My Blue Heaven is a film that definitely throws a lot at the main characters. Some of the problems are self inflicted while others are really outside of their control. As with most musicals the songs themselves aren’t all that good but the film does have a chipper feel to it the whole time. Jack ultimately cracking and giving in to the dark side keeps this film from going above breaking even, particularly with how easy he was let off. Still, if you want to check out an old school musical then this could be the one that is up your alley. Just don’t expect great characters or anything like that.

Overall 4/10

The Kid From Left Field Review

Posted on April 8, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a retro Baseball title. This one as a kid as one of the main characters so I was wondering if he could really keep the film together but it ultimately works out. My main issue is with some of the adults who really don’t do anything to help him out at all. At the end of the day if you want to improve at anything, whether it be Baseball or video games you’re going to have to be ready to put the work in!

The film starts by introducing us to Coop who works as a peanut salesman within the Baseball stadium. He used to fancy himself as a good player but unfortunately he was never all that great. The folks around the stadium are nice enough to keep the act up so he can look good in front of his son though. I thought that was a really nice thing to do. Unfortunately the local team has been dreadful for a long while now and Coop knows what is wrong with them. The problem is that he has no credibility. When his son Christie passes on an off-hand remark to Pete, one of the players, the team begins to do better. This gives Coop and Christie an idea, they can help the entire team and Coop will have Christie be the go between. Now they can finally win the World Series!

Of course this plan would not work if Christie had no Baseball knowledge so it works out that he is experienced in the game as well. In fact he was managing his own team in the kids division. Even in the pros, while Christie mainly uses Coop’s ideas, he quickly begins to have ideas of his own that work out well. The team goes from being the laughing stock of the sport to suddenly being a top rated contender. There is really just one problem though which is that eventually someone is bound to figure out what is going on. Can Christie keep on being manager until they’ve won it all or is he doomed?

I think the only main problem I have with the film is that the conflict if a little forced. The team is winning ballgames now which is really the only thing the owner and coaches should care about. Why worry about who is giving the orders when the results are this good? I disagreed with Coop’s concerns throughout the whole experience but even worse is that the film gives him some ammo here with how the coach threw out the kid.

Midway through the film, the coach finally figures out without a shadow of a doubt that Christie is the brains behind the operation so he yells at the kid and fires him. You’d think that the players would say something the very instant they saw the kid wasn’t around or go to the owner right? Instead it takes a few losses before they storm the base and bring him back. It also makes no sense why the coach would do that since without Christie, he would be taking losses again and proving himself to be a bad coach. So what was the point of all of that? I didn’t feel like the film made a whole lot of sense in these moments and just made everyone look rather bad.

Christie did his part and the team should have had his back from the jump. Meanwhile Coop needed to be braver. It was nice to see him get all excited about working with Christie and being a secret hero of sorts but it took too long for him to finally get involved on the front end. Even right to the climax he was prepared to ditch the team which would have been rough. When the chips are down you have to deliver.

During the adventure there is a subplot with Pete who of course was in a huge slump before Christie showed up. His relationship with Marian is getting rocky as we come to the time tested dilemma of choosing his job or her. Marian wants him to leave the game because she figures he’s washed up and she might be right. Pete doesn’t want to just ditch his team in the middle of the season though and especially not when he’s suddenly had a big comeback. This time I felt Marian was not being very reasonable. Pete didn’t exactly have a lot of options here and he has people who are counting on him. I think Christie could have helped to train him up further and get the guy a few more accolades first.

So when the film gets dramatic is mainly when I had my doubts here but otherwise it is a fun Baseball film with a lot of action. This time you do get to see a whole lot of plays and any Baseball fan should be satisfied here. The turnaround is also believable since often times the difference between a big play and an error can really just be a single bad habit. These players were terrible because they had no coaching and didn’t really know where to start. So it makes sense that having actual coaches help out and show them the ropes would make for a huge difference.

If you want to get a bit technical again though, it is odd that no player ever complained about how bad their coach was. By all accounts he never even tried to teach them anything so isn’t that a good thing to mention to the owner? They should want to win too since it increases their salary so now I have to give them at least part of the blame. Look it’s not like I want to do this but it makes the most sense logically. The fake coach should never have lasted for even a fraction of how long he did.

Ultimately the film probably should have gone on for at least a few more minutes to really show us the ending but you can guess what would have happened next. So I was pretty satisfied all the way through and can confirm without a shadow of a doubt that this is a movie which puts Baseball first. The writing is good enough where you don’t mind the kid being one of the main characters. If you look at the film too deeply then some parts of the story don’t hold up quite so well but either way you’ll have a good time.

Overall, The Kid from Left Field is a good movie and definitely one to check out when you have the time. It’s a fairly short film so it’s not like it’ll take a ton of time and at the end of the day there’s not much to dislike here. While you will have to stretch your disbelief, you will be having fun the whole time which is what counts. I also am glad to see that snacks have come a long way since back in the day. Roasted Peanuts never sounded all that interesting, give me potato chips or something like that instead if I’m watching a game live.

Overall 7/10

Ghostbusters (2016) Review

Posted on April 7, 2024 by dreager1

This film was definitely quite infamous when it came out. Trust me it’s definitely deserved although the film is at least a little more fun when you watch it as a complete parody. That’s how it should have been marketed to be honest because this film is not serious in the slightest. I’d argue that it is practically a parody to be honest even though I know how crazy that might sound. Every few minutes there is some kind of gag to undercut the whole thing which is exactly what a parody would do right? At least that’s the way it seemed to me. In a way this could have actually been an interesting angle if you treated it like an SNL skit to really be authentic but it doesn’t quite work.

The film starts off with Erin doing her best to deliver quality lectures and be a respected teacher. Unfortunately a ghost of her past has appeared. See, when she was younger she co-wrote a book with Abby about the supernatural and now it is something she is embarrassed by. Also, they had agreed to never publish the book and why isn’t Erin getting any of the royalties? She confronts Abby and begs her to take the book down but instead she is repeatedly bullied and humiliated by Abby. Erin loses her job as a result and now her only shot at success is to team up with Abby and her partner Holtz in finding some actual ghosts. She will be….a Ghostbuster!!

This is one of those films that peaks early which is a problem for it. About 80% of the best gags and moments are all in the first 30 minutes of the film. I really enjoyed the dynamic with Erin and Abby and how much they hated each other. They were so bitter about everything and Erin would constantly be professional only for Abby to stab her in the back. This happens over and over which was just great. Then you had another good gag with a fake-out involving a dead guy and his grand son. Good stuff…lets not forget the intro stinger either. It felt like the movie was really going places. It was also interesting to have one of the supporting characters be that really annoying Gabe character from the final seasons of the Office. Never thought I’d see him anywhere else again.

So how does the film falter? Well, once Erin and Abby agree to bury the hatchet, the film tries to play things a little closer to the vest. It acts as a normal action comedy film with the characters fighting Ghosts but it doesn’t have the script needed to pull this off. The jokes get more and more cringeworthy as the movie goes on. It starts to rely on the same jokes over and over again like Kevin being super dumb and this just doesn’t work. It’s a little too overblown and again…repetition is the enemy of a good gag. If you rely on the same joke too often then it is inevitable that it will fail. I guarantee you 100% that it’s not going to be a good idea. Even the best joke won’t work if you run it into the ground.

For Kevin…every 2 minutes he is on screen a gag like this is going to show up. So those really hurt and he’s also not remotely a likable character. There’s no point for him to be here except to be the butt of the jokes and hey that’s the comic relief character’s role but in this case it’s really not worth it. Cutting him out would have been better for the whole film. The other supporting character Patty is a lot better and even she’s not great.

At least she is an actual character though and can keep up the banter with the others. If only the banter was good though. Holtz is the third member of the trio with Abby and Erin but there isn’t a ton for her to do. She’s the “tough” character of the 3 but they’re all so inept that it isn’t really saying anything. Abby is the worst of the 3 and is completely awful at everything she tries. So yeah she embraces the comedy role as well but as one of the main characters this doesn’t work too well. Erin was the best by far at first but then she has the character gag of drooling over Kevin the whole time which loses her massive points.

If you were hoping that the villains would save the day then think again. Rowan is the main villain here and he’s super whiny the whole time. He wants to help the ghosts make a comeback and all but you can’t take him seriously at all. Then you have the Marshmallow Man in his big comeback appearance where he is treated pretty awfully. He falls on the first two characters and then the third one just oneshots him from being with a little pinprick thing. Definitely a disrespectful way to go out here. Of course it’s all played as a comedic kind of thing but that’s probably something to save for a sequel when you’re earned the cache to pull that off.

The cameos for previous Ghostbusters as different characters was much better. Now that’s a fun easter egg for fans. I also liked the new take on the Mayor and his flunkies as they get in the Ghostbusters way. Having them be fully aware of what’s going on and having to put up an act the whole time is great. That’s what I would expect them to do in this situation and so it matches up.

The fact that the film doesn’t pull up the classic Ghostbusters theme is a shame though. I was really waiting for that. So I think what hurts this film is that it’s not exactly sure of what it’s doing. You have 3 real options as a big reboot like this. (I’d say it’s definitely not in continuity so I’m treating it as a reboot).

1. You play it straight as a new take on the series. Keep any easter eggs to a minimum and try to win fans over with your fresh direction. You need to have full confidence to pull this off.

2. You go for outrage and do your best to mock the fans of the originals. Something like the Velma series or Teen Titans Go where you go out of your way to slap fans across the face. If you take it far enough it can double back around into being endearing.

3. You go for nostalgia. Plug the film full of easter eggs, references, and wink wink moments. Do this if you’re not really confident in your abilities as a writer and you need to borrow from the old material to get fans into the door.

I feel like this film is mixing all 3 of them. It certainly does a good amount of 2 and 3 so in that case you could have just made it in continuity and been direct about that but the film is also trying to set up the next generation with these all new ghostbusters which doesn’t work. It’s rare to make a successful new branch of the series over the bodies of the old ones. You have to be careful how you do it or you’re always gonna get a bunch of issues.

Overall, In the end I didn’t think this film was very confident in itself. Yeah the original Ghostbusters were comedies as well but they still had their serious moments and they had a tendency to keep the balance very well. This is more like one of those modern films that feels like it can’t stand to be serious for more than 3-4 minutes at a time without cracking a big joke. The tension must always be cut as soon as possible and that’s always going to put you in a tough spot. You can always get a free out of jail card if the jokes are actually funny of course. That’s an exception to virtually every rule but the jokes here by and large were no funny. I still did really like the first part of the movie but it all started to go downhill from there with no way up. Something tells me that this film isn’t really going to be making a comeback with guest star appearances or anything in the new films. But hey I could be off base there. For now I would say to skip this one and focus on other Ghostbuster titles.

Overall 4/10

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